GM Tyranius Dead Suns AP (Starfinder) (Inactive)

Game Master Tyranius

Discuss space exploration here as we know little to nothing at this point.

Some known details.

Archetypes

So Starfinder is using archetypes as sets of class features that represent a concept that isn't tied to any one class, but shouldn't be available to every character simply by taking a set of feats. Unlike Pathfinder archetypes, which must be designed for a single specific character class it can be added to, Starfinder archetypes are designed to be applicable to any character class. Each class has specific class features it gives up at set levels (2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th, 12th, and 18th) if the archetype provides an alternative class feature at that level (though not every archetype will need to have alternate class features at all those levels). An archetype thus becomes part of the class you attach it to, and that class loses a pre-determined ability at the levels the archetype grants you an alternative. For example, the Starfinder Core Rulebook has two archetypes—the phrenic adept and the Starfinder forerunner. The phrenic adept has alternate class features at every level it can—2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th, 12th, and 18th—while the Starfinder forerunner only provides alternate class features at 2nd, 4th, and 6th.

5 Differences between Starfinder and Pathfinder

1. Hit Points, Stamina Points, and Resolve Points. In Starfinder, Hit Points measure the health and robustness of a character, while Stamina Points measure a character's readiness and energy (and can be replenished far more easily). Whenever you take damage, your Stamina Points are depleted before your Hit Points. In other words, you can soak up some hits without too much trouble, but once you start taking damage to your Hit Points, you're taking physical wounds that are much harder to heal quickly.

Starfinder characters also get a third pool of points called Resolve Points, which represent grit and luck. You can spend Resolve Points to power (or enhance) some class features, or to help you stay in a fight longer. Resolve Points also determine whether or not you die if both your Stamina Points and Hit Points are reduced to zero.

You can recover all of your Stamina Points by resting for 10 minutes and spending 1 Resolve Point; Resolve Points and some Hit Points are replenished after an 8-hour rest.

2. Armor Classes. Characters in Starfinder have two Armor Classes: Energy Armor Class (EAC) and Kinetic Armor Class (KAC). Attacks that deal energy damage (like the fire damage from your trusty red star plasma pistol) target EAC; attacks that deal kinetic damage (like the bludgeoning damage from a gravity well hammer) target KAC. Starfinder has no flat-footed or touch AC.

3. No Iterative Attacks. Starfinder characters normally get a single attack every round, and this holds true from level 1 to level 20—a character's number of attacks does not increase as their base attack bonus goes up. Instead, any character (even at first level!) can use a full action to make two attacks in a round, each at a -4 penalty.

4. Attacks of Opportunity. In Starfinder, only three things provoke attacks of opportunity: moving out of a threatened square, making a ranged attack, and casting a spell. That's it. No other actions provoke attacks of opportunity.

5. Magic is Magic. There is no distinction between types of magic in Starfinder, whether arcane, divine, psychic, or something else. Spellcasting classes like the mystic and technomancer have different spell lists, but are both harnessing the same latent magical energy that permeates the universe. In addition, spells in Starfinder have no components; all you need is the ability to cast a spell and concentration.

Website with compiled info

And of course the Starfinder Blog

This has a lot of faction, boon and Class information until it becomes available.

**crack**
**rip**
*tear*

A slithering unholy presense tears a hole from the aether of creation and into the discussion thread. The black ooze, a formless jumble of nonense and wonder, seeps inside the thread to puddle upon its floor.

It thumps, words echoing throughout the thread. The ooze's back straightens as a unmorphed head rises to speak.

"I am here. I know not what form I will take nor the manner of my existence. I will lie plotting plots and dreaming dreams of what might be in the stars. When it is time to be called, I will come. I will find form. I will find purpose."

With that, the ooze returns to a shapeless, black puddle. And it waits.

This tag of Starfinder Blogs might be useful as well, as it is just Starfinder and not exclusively Starfinder Society.

To echo what pain said, if less theatrically and eloquently, I am interested but also unsure of a concept yet. Highly likely that it be Vesk or Shirren though.

Pathfinder in spaaaaaace!

I'd like to find something suitable for an ascetic cosmic philosopher.

I'm thinking kasatha, or maybe human. Maybe Technomancer, but probably Solarion.

Happy to have missed the ooze. Wipes his boots of the residue.

Greetings, I am a blank slate, but am looking forward to this. I've enjoyed other future-based space games, but there was always a dearth of players so I spent more time reading the rules than playing.

I have no idea, as yet, what to play, or even how to play, but they say it'll be close to Pathfinder so I'm sure I can muddle through.

I look forward to playing with you all!

Alright. Looks like we have 5 solid players! :). I subscribed to core rulebook so we will see if I get it early enough to push some stuff out.

Still no core rulebook as of now.

I have an idea for Society play for a character though havn't decided a class as of yet.

Going for an Android named Y2k that his software is stuck in the 90's. He plays music from the long forgotten bards of old and anytime he tries to hack into a computer he is overwhelmed by an oppressing amount of pop-ups that he has to fight past.

Trying to think of some more horrible 90's stuff to fit into his role-playing scheme.

Character and Ship Sheets are up for download. (Link)

An editable version of the Character Sheet popped up on reddit recently: here (link), not so for the ship sheet however.

Awesome. I am confident Herolab will have something ready soon after release but good to have those until that time.

Pregens are up. Giving us a slight look at the classes and some abilities. I have to say they all look extremely interesting.

Looking at the pregens, I'm not too impressed with Solarion or Technomancer... I hope the book has a few other options.

Mechanic actually looks more interesting then I expected.

Yeah, I've got a character concept that might work well with a mechanic, so I've focused on those pregens over the others. Looks like a fun class to play.

Struggling a little with the concept though as I don't have a world to anchor him into. I don't know where he's from, what sort of background he may have, anything. It's tough... Like breathing through a damp paper towel.

Looks like a number of us are/were checking mechanic out haha, I was pretty intrigued by the class too.

Envoy and operative look interesting as well though and I'm sure once I get a look at the book something else will jump out at me.

Core Rulebook is released. Though prepare for a lengthy download as everyone is downloading it at once.

Per the Adventure Path.

The Dead Suns Adventure Path starts on Absalom Station, the gigantic space station that occupies the former orbit of the sun’s now-vanished third planet, Golarion. Absalom Station is the administrative and cultural center of the Pact Worlds, and now serves as the system’s primary home of humanity. The player characters should have some sort of connection with the Starfinder Society, either as new members or as prospective applicants (at the very least, the PCs should have a good reason to ally themselves with the Society), and have come to Absalom Station to find work.

Character Creation
-All races, themes and classes are open for play on CRB Page 15.
-Starting Credits are 1000 credits.
-Lets go with buying ability scores method per CRB Page 18. Keep in mind that is 10 points to spend on a one for one basis. No starting score above 18.

-You may keep your builds hidden from the others if you so desire though I will need a copy to go off of for sanity sake. Hehe.

Also for at least the beginning be extremely detailed on letting me know if using a certain ability or such to help with confusion on a new system until we all get a bit more familiar with it. It can be in a spoiler if keeping your characters build hidden.

I've been trying to download all day without success... I have a background ready to go, but it needs flesh and blood to pin it too - and of course I have yet to build the character. I hope to do that this weekend.

I'll try and be ready quickly, but I imagine there's going to be a learning curve. Can we tweak our characters a bit past first level given the rush to get started and the whole new ruleset? I am a big fan of 'decisions matter', but don't want to slow down the start of the campaign deliberating. :)

It took me 2 hours to download the Starfinder Core Rulebook. I haven't had a chance to even open it yet, but I've started to form an idea for a character.

If he were a fine dinner I'm thinking he would be a main course of Rick from Rick and Morty tossed with a reduction of Fraa Jad from Anathem dashed with Einstein, with a side dish of Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, followed by creme brûlée of the Blues Brothers.

Think I'm almost done with a character concept too, just need to decide a few more background elements. Looking forward to seeing what everyone creates.

No need to rush too much. It is a new system that seems like it definitely has a lot but overall the meat and potatoes are a bit re-skinned.

@Euan- yea we can tweak a little bit past first level as it is a new system. Mistakes are definitely going to be made all around.

Man, the point buying method for ability scores in Starfinder is rough. Base 10, but there is no trade-off for handicapping a stat below 10. I'm missing the standard point buy method from Pathfinder.

I'm also seeing one big gripe with 1st level characters. You may get some minor skill options from your Theme, but there seem to be very few options within most classes until you get to 2nd level. Archtypes aren't even available until 2nd either.

Yea. I am hoping it makes the system a bit more even but hard to tell until it is played.

That and the stat point bump from leveling is delayed until every fifth level but it got a massive buff.

Every fifth level instead of increasing one stat by one point you get to increase 4 of your stats. If the stat is 17 or higher is raises by one. If it is 16 or lower it raises by 2.

That change in stat increases does make a big difference. Initial reservations aside, I'm going to defer judgement until I see how this plays out.

Character loading...

This is Euan's character so far...

I have a question about Drone mods I want the drone to be able to independently do Engineering tasks. It has the skill but I'm not sure what mod is the most appropriate.

These are the two options.

Manipulator Arms (Ex)
Your drone is equipped with two robotic arms with simple hands. They can perform most functions that your arms can perform (such as opening doors, typing on a keypad, wielding a weapon, or attempting skill checks that require manual dexterity), but attacks made with them take a –4 penalty.

Tool Arm (Ex)
Select one technological item from Chapter 7: Equipment of no more than light bulk and an item level no higher than your mechanic level. Your drone is equipped with a robotic arm with that item attached and the proper programming to use the item, although it cannot use a tool that requires skill checks unless it also has ranks in the relevant skill (or you have ranks in the relevant skill and the drone is under your direct control).

So it seems like having manipulator arms is more flexible because it can open doors and the like, fetch tools for me, etc. - but can the drone perform Engineering tasks with the right tool kit and manipulator arms? Or am I required to obtain the more limiting (but cheaper) tool arm? I'm fine either way, just trying to do the right thing by the rules.

Also, I get bonus languages from having a high int. Can I save one and not pick it? Not sure what I want, and am awash with options from the book. I'd like to slot something in that makes sense, but don't yet know what that is. OK if I hold off on that for the moment?

Finally, do you want me to help with my treasure tracking sheet (link)? I’m happy to track loot and keep us wealthy!

Though I am not the GM, I would think that Manipulator Arms are the way to go. It seems like they can do everything a Tool Arm could do plus more because it is not limited to one built-in tool. And it can wield a weapon!

I'm a big fan of Treasure Tracking sheets. I vote yes!

On a side note: I'm sort of ambivalent when it comes to sharing character info, but I'm glad you are. With this new system I'm curious about the decisions others make in building characters. After looking hard at Solarions, and reading a bit about them on the boards, I abandoned them as not really feeling like what I was aiming for. I almost went mechanic after that, but decided technomage was a better fit. Anyway, I'm excited to see what you do with the mechanic.

If anyone else wants to share, or brainstorm ideas, I'm happy to oblige. If you want these in spoilers, let me know that too.

Yeah, I think so too (on the arms option) but I'm not sure. I doubt I'll have a weapon in hand though -4 to attack, ouch.

Happy to share my theory crafting, but don't assume it's a good build. I build from the background up and so not all my choices will be good ones. And of course I have no system mastery here. :)

But yeah, if anyone wants to chat offline (so as to not clog up the discussion thread) feel free to PM me and I'll share my Google Chat email. I'm a big fan of OOC communication.

Sweet, I went mystic, (Xynen here) so it looks like we'll have both spell casting classes represented. I'm interested to see how they differ.

Re: drone Arms seems the way to go in my opinion as well, and I'm am all for your tracking sheet.

Thanks for the tracking sheet! Have it posted at the top.

After reading through the section it seems that the Manipulator arms would be more appropriate. Under the skill unit for the drone it even has a small blurb about manipulator arms and engineering to disable devices.

That is fine to hold off a slot for a language. The first book doesn't even mention what might be good, though after reading a few synopsis Eoxian might not be a bad choice for one of them.

You guys are more than welcome to share sheets and builds to help if you want. I just know some like to hide that bit. I love to look at builds as it gives me a few ideas.

If you guys have spare credits an extra battery or two is always a good choice as they are interchangeable with all weapons, armors and a few other things. 20 charges will go quick I think once exploring the vastness of space.

Kcectic, I say we play it out, but for my part, don't worry about me taking your pilots chair. :)

Thanks Tyranius, I'll stick with the arms and kit. Unfortunately, I have one spare battery for my weapon, and no more cash, so I'm hoping 40 shots nets us some cash for goods. Hopefully...

Regarding piloting. Piloting is also used for ship weapons and other ship-related situations. There may be times when we need to pilot more than one vehicle at time. And it might be fun to be competitive over who gets the keys to the car. ;)

I was considering a pilot, but since we have so many already, I might look at envoy or operative.

I am still reading through all the rules, though!

Trying to work on a Cheatsheet for the starship combat actions as they are numerous.

Just keep in mind that there are 5 roles.

Captain (1 only) (Ranks in Diplomacy)
Engineers (Ranks in Engineering)
Gunners (1 per Mount)(Ranks in Piloting)
Pilot (1 only)(Ranks in Piloting)
Science Officers (Ranks in Computers)

It will be a small bit before the starship combat comes into play. I just wanted to let you all know of the roles and what skills are associated with them during your builds.

Looks like you have to be careful with dying as well (Not that that should have to be said.)

Instead of bleeding out to Con total for death you instead lose resolve points. If out of resolve points you die. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense for that switch but we will see how it plays out.

I missed that. Playing a technomage I was a bit lazy reading the combat rules.

Also, I noticed Combat Maneuvers are different, and in some ways, more difficult.

Separate topic: do we have anyone with diplomacy? Cause that ain't Dash.

You do not need to fill all roles on the ship as well. Those are just recommendations as to what the seats are.

After speaking with a few people I plan on being as open during this first book as possible as we are all learning this new system. I will link or post a CRB Page number until a PRD is posted for any special abilities and feats so we can all check over each other and know what is going on.

I would hope you would do the same as well. There isn't such a thing as too much information during this beginning. Over explain special abilities. We had decades to learn 3.5 and under a week to learn this one.

Most of you are keeping your builds in the open as well which is good.

My build will be transferred over once I finish with my background.

Re: Diplomacy - I have a +5 so not awful, but we could probably get better.

So many choices... and so many small, but important, changes to feats, skills and rules!

I finally settled on something, though, that should help round out the crew. I present Soryn Varuca!

I still need to choose a few things (armor vs weapon for solarian, equipment, etc), but I think the basic character is done. Confident and friendly, but brash and sometimes hot-tempered. But with a +9 Diplomacy, should help us negotiate.

The unholy black ooze, a formless jumble of nonsense and wonder, stirs to life. It pulsates and burps, stretching itself from form to form. First it is a little ratling, then a large lizard warrior, then a pathetic and weak human, then rattles through 4 more strange and alien forms.

It shifts through them again, each time, each alien's face and dress is different. The black ooze becomes a shimmer of different identities and wants.

It moves more and more rapidly through the shapes, through the identities, finding meaning in each. And then it slows down, the faces becoming more and defined as the blob continues to sort and shape and craft each identity.

Then, as soon as some shapes near completion, the black ooze implodes them within himself, crushing their existence from his existence. And then there are fewer shapes in the carousel of madness.

The blob continues to work.

I'm getting closer to a final design (or two). So much closer.

Welcome Captain Varuca!

Though I passed on the solarion I'm excited to see someone is giving one a try!

I am kind of excited for the Solarian myself. The class seems really interesting.

I made a Solarion for SFS, he's a Vesk that uses the Solarian armor and the Vesk Unarmed Strikes to pummel people into submission, at least that's how I hope it works out.

The blob, the unholy mass of inky death, finally stops flashing from form to form, coalescing into a ysoki form. He smiles at the assemblage in the room and bows.

"Hail and well met. Let us do daring deeds and engage in adventure. I will not let you down for this is my form. Let us find savage mirth in our doings."

Looks like we are sitting with a pretty rounded out crew with

Solarion (armor / darkness)
Mechanic (Drone)
Technomancer
Star Shaman Mystic x2.

If anyone has any immediate questions or just wants to chat about the campaigns my google hangout is:

dereklarsen1965@gmail.com

Slight correction - Soryn went with weapon instead of armor.

I'm available on hangouts as well if anyone wants to chat or grump at me for doing something dumb. :)