The Goat Lord's page

I came across a new RPG site, www.rolegate.com, that supports Starfinder Play by Post, anytime, anywhere, from your cell phone, tablet, PC, etc. I created a new mini-module I'm playing with friends as a prequel to AtAT. My game is full, but if you're interested in supporting and growing the Starfinder community check it out, and maybe create your own Starfinder game with friends or a pick up group.

The site is a text based PBP with dice rolls, character sheets, and assorted role-play and GM tools. Since it's new it's still being developed, but I wanted to let everyone here know about it to get an early jump on spreading the greatness that is Starfinder.

I was waiting for the miniatures before I began to play Starfinder. I believe the kickstarter mentioned a May 2018 delivery. So I still have not yet played the game. Now with this failure I really feel like I have lost my taste to play it. Combined with 2E and I feel like I am just at the end of my relationship with Paizo which is a shame as I really enjoyed them for years. It makes me feel sad.

Sorry to hear that. Fortunately, there are plenty of other options for minis. There are pawns, and check out Reaper's Chronoscope line of minis. Don't let ND ruin the fun.

How fast did highest-level combats go? There was a bit of puffy-sumo feeling in the last book of Dead Suns, but that could just be that our group had less rockets to play tag with than others. My own homebrewed game is smoothly plugging along at 7, but I eyeball the math ahead and worry a bit.

I do enjoy the Unchained monster building tables, much as my heart will always first love the original 3e "monsters and heroes are built alike". It's gotten to the point where if the players fiddle with something and I need an encounter I can smoothly just run it on the fly, building the monster in Notepad in the initiative-and-scene-setting minute.

That's a good question, and as someone that GMed high-level Pathfinder I understand your concern. I'm happy to say that high level battles in Starfinder did not turn into a slog. You do have to take into account table variance, but the last battle of our campaign consisted of a CR 23 Cyber Red Dragon, two CR 15 red dragons, and three PCs. The entire combat lasted seven rounds. This battle was an optional encounter just for fun.

The real climax was a starship combat between the PCs and Dispater's wife, Erecura, who had become an ocean sized cluster of nanobots. That encounter lasted, if I remember correctly, about five rounds. That was the PCs' Tier 20 starship against a Tier 20 enemy starship (a nanocluster ship) and several Tier 12s. The PCs pretty much mopped the floor with their enemies.

Before that battle, the PCs faced Erecura as a CR 23 boss battle. Erecura was CR 23, her minion was CR 19, and the four PCs at that battle were all level 20. This battle lasted for about 6 or 7 rounds, if I recall correctly. It took place on the outside hull of the PCs' ship, lodged into the side of Dispater's fortress, the Iron Scepter, on the second layer of Hell, Dis.

Each of the PCs in all of the above battles averaged around 80 points of damage or more per round. The mechanic's drone was right there with them putting up comparable numbers. Crits almost always went over 100 points of damage. Also, if you take into account certain spells, there are ways to eliminate enemies without raw damage.

In summary, if felt good, but your mileage may vary.

Question for the show: What kinds of accommodations are available for dragons when it comes to starships? How do they travel by starship?

Great write up. And sounds like a great campaign. Thanks for the report!

Totally! Hopefully more folks will write up a campaign report.

What are some ways I can get my players to be a little more creative with starship builds? They have found out that you only really need three things; Big power core, Big shields and a big gun(s) on a turret. If you maximize those three, the pregen enemy ships get plowed through. It removes the tactical facings completely when you have a turret that doesn't need facing, which is one of the biggest parts of starship combat. It makes the combat very bland and just going through the motions. My knee-jerk thought is eliminate turrets on PCs and enemies. Wondering other folks thoughts on this.

I experienced a bit of this myself. One solution I often used was adding more enemy ships to the starship encounters. You can try adding a squadron of weak, tiny fighters. I added support craft like this, as it creates situations where the PCs have more targets to consider, and positioning becomes more important. I was careful to give them only enough hull points to survive a hit or two, although, they were occasionally destroyed on the first hit.

Additionally, I utilized hazards and obstacles, such as clouds of radiation, clouds of leaking engine coolant, asteroids, a black hole, etc.

One of my favorite encounters was a double encounter featuring a starship combat, and a character based tactical combat aboard the PCs' starship, which limited what the PCs could do in the starship portion of the encounter. That was loads of fun.

The Goat Lord wrote:

My group recently concluded our first ongoing Starfinder campaign and I’d like to share my thoughts.

That's all really encouraging to hear, and I thank you for taking the time to write that up.

Was there anything in Starfinder you'd like to see more of, or had problems with during your 20-level campaign?

You're welcome, and thank you. It's my pleasure to support such a great game. It'll be easy for me to say what I'd like to see more of, but hard to speak on any problems/issues, but I'll try. ;)

What I'd Like to See More Of
As a GM, I'm always looking for plot hooks. The products that excite me the most are those rife with lore, setting info, and most of all adventure seeds.

Example: The articles at the back of the Against the Aeon Throne adventure "The Reach of Empire" has excellent extended content that I can't wait to explore, specifically, the adventure seeds relating to other locations beyond where the majority of the module takes place. I look at that content and think, "They didn't have to do that, but I'm glad they did because I can't wait to see what stories we can make out of it." The flavor of Starfinder is absolutely superb.

Problems
Admittedly, I'm not the most proficient at the crunchier side of the game, so I lack the vocabulary and mechanical proficiency to explain if there is anything wrong with the underlying math of the game, but here are some thoughts:

1) My group really appreciated and want more class path options. What I mean by "class paths" are choices like, choosing between drone and exocortex for mechanic, connections for the mystic, specializations for the operative, weapon or armor for solarion, etc. We all feel like those types of meaningful choices is something all classes could benefit from more of. Additionally, it's the opinion of our table that the Technomancer and Envoy need a little more love to make them more attractive.

2) We feel like the Ghost Operative may be a tad strong at skills, maybe the entire class is a little too good at skills. I can count on two or less hands the number of skill checks the operative failed over the length of the campaign. Trick Attack failed even less. The operative was the primary roller on most checks, and usually succeeded. For reference, I used the formula listed in the book for determining custom skill DCs: 15 + 1.5 x the CR (+5 for harder, -5 for easier). For Trick Attack we used the DC listed in the book.

3) Starship combat is a joy and one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game, but it may be trickier than ground based tactical encounters to manage for some. It was our experience that having more ships involved in the encounter added more life and excitement to the combat. Additionally, it may be a little too easy to restore shields, which can cause the battle to become a little long and grindy. We all would love more added to every aspect of starship combat, weapons, tricks, etc.

Starfinder is very solid, very functional, and most all, very fun. Thank you for taking the time to review my thoughts, Owen.

Now I have a slightly better motivation to get that Titanfall inspired mini campaign started. Just need to figure out how to make semi intelligent murder mechs not be overwhelming.

Our campaign featured a mech battle. I took the easy path and created stat blocks that were essentially just monster stat blocks for each mech. Same movement rules, same action economy, basically. I allowed the PCs to each take on a different role in the piloting and operation of the mech, such as movement, gunnery, and engineering, applying their bonuses in a similar manner as starship combat.

I'm no crunch expert, so I'm sure plenty of folks could punch holes in my approach, house rules, and design, but my players had no complaints and had big smiles on their faces after the session, and that's all that matters.

The three central themes in AtAt to me are that of friendship, the harshness of life in the Vast, and what happens when the frontier meets industrialization. We have Cedona, a walking, talking McGuffin with feelings and a flat-affect. The people and places of the fringe, be it colony or outpost. Finally, we have the opposite of the fringe with the ASE, and the lengths one must go to when opposing them.

For a quick snapshot of the overall feel, look no further than the map of Madelon's Landing with the ASE garrison at it's center. Later this symbolism is reversed when the PCs venture into ASE territory. How could such a force be contested? As the story unfolds, much can be attributed to hubris, a great equalizer.

I, too, love the lore episodes, but my favorite show to date featured Amanda discussing the planet Daimalko. We need an adventure set there, please!

Thank you, Paizo, for making hump day even better.

Thank you! I was compelled to share my group's experience as a way of showing support for this great game. Completing a year long campaign is such a joy; we're still reeling from all the fun and excitement. Paizo truly created a brilliant system and sandbox with which to craft memorable stories. I can't say enough about it.

I highly recommend the Paizo Twitch, specifically Starfinder Wednesday. It's not too long, not too short, and always has good stuff for us. My favorite episodes are the ones that discuss and go into detail about the lore.

I would love to have some map tiles. I've been enjoying the recent tile sets for Pathfinder. Some Starfinder appropriate tiles would be nice, too. Set dressing tiles, pawns, and even figures would be marvelous as well.

I would like more variation on sci-fi environments, as I don't want all corridors, starship decks, and other establishments to all look the same.

Thanks for sharing your experiences! It sounds like it was a blast.

I don't get why you guys chose to go homebrew in the beginning though, at least not for the reasons given.

If I were to run a hombrew game, it would take at least two weeks to prep. If we were to settle on an adventure path though, I could have it ready to go in a day. I can't even begin to understand how you and your group would be the opposite. Could you enlighten me in some way?

Yeah, I gotcha. I'm one of those GMs that hand draws all my maps on wet erase battlematts and I like reading APs cover to cover before starting. I'm not comfortable running an AP two hours after purchasing it. Additionally, I get more creative satisfaction out of homebrewing. Typically, for every AP I run we play through two or three honebrews. That's just the way we roll.

After the players made their characters, I knew the session would only last two or three hours tops, so I proposed the bounty hunter angle. The first session consisted of fighting holographic enemies in a holotsuite, and then chasing down a wanted space goblin. The week leading to session two gave me time to further flesh out more details and broaden the scope of the campaign. It also allowed time for the players to construct backstories for me to weave into the campaign.

I'm running Against the Aeon Throne next. It just so happens to fit with the ongoing continuity of my game world, as the bounty hunters of the previous game had a fleeting brush with the ASE.

Thanks for sharing, that sounds like an awesome time :>

One of the things I've definitely noticed about Starfinder is how it supports an incredible variety of story types and topics. Where Pathfinder had some inherent 'classic fantasy' expectations (along with a desire for a basic level of realism), all that goes out the window in Starfinder. From minute #1 of the first session you can slap your PCs in a starship and go do anything from liberating the Shevroth Hivemind from Dominion control to providing security for a group of sugar-pop superstars, and none of it seems out of place.

Exactly! I totally agree. I love both Pathfinder and Starfinder, but Starfinder is very refreshing.

Also, I managed to work Strawberry Machine Cake into my homebrew. :)

My group recently concluded our first ongoing Starfinder campaign and I’d like to share my thoughts. We began the day Starfinder officially launched and ended on 10/15/18. We went homebrew because the players didn’t want me, the GM, to spend two weeks prepping before starting play. Therefore, our first session was born improvisation style on day one.

The Campaign
To make the first session easier, I proposed that the PCs work for a bounty hunting organization. The players liked the idea and built accordingly. Over time, the monster-of-the-week episodes evolved, taking the players from planet to planet in the Pact Worlds, to near space, to the Vast, and Hell thrice. Overall, the campaign lacked a single overarching thread like those common in APs, but the end of the campaign tied back into events that took place in the first few sessions, bringing the PCs full circle.

The Feel of Starfinder
I’ve mostly run games in published settings, my favorite being Planescape from D&D 2e. I loved that no matter how weird and out there the setting, situation, plot, etc. the players were along for the ride, as that fit the feel of Planescape. The Starfinder setting reminds of that feeling due to the marriage of science and fantasy. I find it liberating and very accommodating to the types of stories I want to tell.

Car chases through tube shaped freeways. Starfinder.
Space pirates led by a popular android synth musician who lives in a flying hover-coach. Starfinder.
Mech battles in the streets of the Spike. Starfinder.
A planet made of worms. Starfinder.
A hurricane of super-concentrated dish soap unleashed on Castrovel. Starfinder.
An artificial moon inhabited by people made of soul imbued nanobots overlaid with holograms. Starfinder.

On and on. The more weird and out there the more we loved it.

An Awesome Hook
The first time I called for a Drift Mishap roll, the players rolled a 001. To determine which Outer Plane the PCs encountered, I rolled a die, which resulted in the Lower Planes, and then rolled another die, which resulted in Hell. This created a cascading series of unplanned, organically evolving events, that reverberated through the entire year long campaign. Awesome.

Low Level to High Level
We had occasional guest stars, but the core group of PCs consisted of a ysoki ghost operative, an android drone mechanic, a contemplative technomancer, and a grey star shaman mystic. The mystic joined after the technomancer was killed in combat.

In the beginning the operative was stealing the show skill-wise and combat-wise, but over time the drone mechanic caught up to and surpassed the operative’s damage output, I’d say around level 13. Although the technomancer was very effective until it died, the grey mystic was quite a force to reckon with, especially when he could see the stars. I asked the players in the end how they felt about high level play in Starfinder versus Pathfinder, and they all agreed that the game system feels much tighter, and enemies remained threatening even at level 20. The final battle was a nail biter CR 24 encounter in the caldera of a volcano against a colossal red cyber-dragon and two of its minions. Epic.

From My Side of the Screen
I feel like the PCs made most of their skill checks in the skills they chose to focus on. In the end they were easily hitting 50+ on their checks. This did make certain checks all but a formality, but I was able to create situations that still held tension with each roll. Additionally, I feel like my monsters/aliens/NPCs made their saving throws more than half the time. Less so in the beginning, more so near the end, but the PCs were usually able to work around it.

Starship combat is awesome, we love it, but I think it has to be used carefully. It can become sluggish in certain matchups. I feel starship encounters play best when there are time limits, unique locations, space hazards, several ships involved, and other unique factors that add to the tension. We had maybe twelve starship encounters, and that felt right. I'd love this aspect of the game to receive more expansion in the future.

Alien Archive
I stopped using creatures from the Alien Archive when the PCs were around level 8. After that, all the enemies were my creation, using the NPC creation rules in Alien Archive. It's such a breeze. Thanks to sfrpgtools.com for making home creations even easier and quicker to build!

In Conclusion
Our adventures in Starfinder have been memorable and among our most beloved as a group. I've been a GM for over 20 years, and this game and setting ranks up there with my all-time favorites. Without question, this campaign has been my favorite science fantasy campaign and favorite science-fantasy game system. Thank you, Paizo! Keep it coming!

What's Next?
Against the Aeon Throne.

If anyone has any questions, or if you want more details, let me know.

So far, I'm loving AtAt. Great work!

The Stamina system in Starfinder greatly contributed to my table's ability to run with only three PCs and push on for several combats without a full rest. I worry that Pathfinder will be more challenging to run with only three players. I can make anything work, but Starfinder's Stamina system has been very accommodating to my table's needs.

I attended a local con over the weekend, and the number of Starfinder Society games was equal to or greater than the combined number of PFS and 5E games. To say the least, Starfinder seems to be very healthy in my area. A member of the Paizo staff was in attendance, and I was lucky enough to be in a game he ran.

Additionally, I've spoken with local brick and mortar shops as well, and they all have mentioned SF selling well. In fact, I have to pre-order with my flgs to ensure I get copies of the latest products.

If you check YouTube and Twitch, there are many SF live plays, and there are twice that many podcasts. Also, there are a number of smaller boards, Reddits, Facebooks, etc. that have healthy communities. This board is mellow, but I wouldn't use it to represent the entire product. I think the world may be slowly moving away from message boards and gravitating more towards comment formats.

The Starfinder AP panel at Gen Con has me even more excited to run this adventure now. I recommend that the GMs here check it out, but players beware, there are spoilers.

My thoughts on some of the other points:

On the distribution of XP: I reward experience equally between all PCs, resulting in the PCs having the same total earned. When a player role-plays well, creates an awesome story, promotes teamwork, employs a clever tactic, or does something else that I feel should be encouraged and rewarded, I reward everyone at the table. In my experience this practice helps foster a spirit of camaraderie. When my friends and I played as kids, we awarded individually which led to competition and petty rivalries, the exact opposite of what I'm looking for now as an adult.

On PC death and penalties: I agree that a player starting over with a level one PC after losing a character is not the way to go. Different strokes for different folks, but losing a PC is bad enough, why add to a player's grief by starting over at level one? As a GM, I feel such a practice would negatively impact my encounter design and stories. What's more, sometimes dramatically introducing a new character that can stand toe to toe with the established PCs can lead to a memorable "wow moment." I played back in that bygone era when starting over at level one was common practice, but I'm glad it's a thing of the past. To each their own.

The Goat Lord wrote:

Claxon wrote:

It sounds like you set things up to intentionally allow them to bypass encounters.

You can either set them up to bypass, or set them up so they can't easily do so, but you can't do both.

And I wasn't trying to be rude, sorry if it came off that way. But you seemed to be saying the issue of null space bags + operative was a problem that you only had the blunt tool solution of turning "dungeons" into single room adventures with only one unavoidable combat.

Going back to Pathfinder and previous games dungeon design, I like providing secret passages, shortcuts, and other alternate paths. I like rooms with multiple exits, hallways, chutes, vents, portals, etc.. For each scenario my goal is to create at least three ways to explore and problem solve. The beauty of Starfinder, and perhaps other sci-fi games, is that it provides abilities/technology not typically found in fantasy rpgs that allow for creative ways to overcome challenges. It rarely happens, but if my players want to bypass everything, then so be it. Whatever makes them feel good and come back for more is fine in my book.

Like with other powerful combos in the game, we should take into consideration the options that become available to a ysoki ghost operative with high stealth and a null space chamber loaded with mechanics and mystics, or, in other words, specific combos like this can lead to a higher probability of players choosing a path of least resistance. It's not a problem, but it's something to take into account when designing our dungeons.

Funnily enough, my groups soldier would probably storm off kick down the door of the first room and start shooting things while the clever person is 1/10th of the way through explaining their plan to sneak people past in a null-space chamber.

Sometimes that's the best way to do it. ;)

I thought of another book I want, vehicles. We've had enormous amounts of fun with the vehicle chase rules and vehicles in general, from high speed pursuits, to light cycle contests ala Tron, to fighting atop a bank vault that was being dragged through the streets of Absalom Station by a cargo loader. I would love more vehicles of every make, model, and level, please.

I would love to see Starfinder's version of the Advanced Player's Guide, Monster Codex, and Ultimate Campaign. Additionally, I would love a starship book with expanded rules and options, as well as mass starship combat rules, and how to go up against things like orbital weapons platforms or space stations the size of moons.

For the setting, I want a book on the Veskarium, the Azlanti Star Empire, and The Swarm. I think a book filled with two page spreads on interesting planets like those in the back of AP volumes would be awesome.

I imagine the dev team shares our same feelings and want the same things, but it probably comes down to a matter of what would be best to produce next and when is it appropriate to release.

I'm not much of an optimizer, so I typically throw skills all over the place. From what I've experienced with those that do strive to optimize, they usually max out fewer skills instead of spreading them. Because of starship combat I think the role you want to play should be considered during skill assignment, which means the classes with fewer skill points will have more to think about when assigning their precious few ranks.

Great stuff. Thank you, Paizo, for another excellent book.

Icy,

There are so many factors at play here that it's hard for me to accept that it's the system's fault. There's table variance, there's die rolls, there's role play, etc., but, for example, when you say you're getting cornered or swarmed by 13 enemies, I'm wondering about your teammates' ability to protect your character and I'm wondering about your GM's ability to properly run encounters. Why are teammates leaving you in situations where you're alone, and why is the GM throwing 13 enemies at you? That's a couple red flags right there.

Regarding your build, Envoy is a support class, and maybe going with your chosen archetype wasn't the best choice for combat. You'll never shine like a Soldier, Solarion, or Operative at combat. Never. Like playing a Bard in Pathfinder, an Envoy's contribution during combat can be difficult to see at first, but, for example, if you buff an ally and they only hit an enemy due to your buff, then all the damage they cause is YOUR damage, and if that damage leads to a kill, that's YOUR kill. Improvisations are so great, I would never trade them out. Additionally, Envoys can replenish Stamina, which is huge, especially in Starfinder Society.

I suggest talking with your GM and sharing your concerns. If you were at my table I would let you rebuild your current character or try a new one altogether. If you stick with Envoy, accept the fact that you will not be a combat master, and perhaps give the buffing/support build a try. Your teammates will love it. Also, tell your GM that The Goat Lord says that 13 flying monkeys is too many, bub.

I've been running Starfinder as a GM weekly since release, and I've played in several society games. In my experience, Envoys have been a great boon for parties. I wish your experience was the same, and I wish you could grab a seat at my table and join us in having fun with this great system.

The Goat Lord wrote:

On the other hand, it feels like Starfinder characters nail every skill check. By level 15 the Operative at my table can theoretically trick attack CR 30+ enemies which means she is almost always adding +8d8 to each successful attack, the Pilot and Engineer can get into the upper 40s on their checks, and the Mystic PC in my game has a +30 to Perception. So the skill checks feel on par or better than Pathfinder.

This is our experience too. We have a couple of people who comb through books looking for ways to stack every possible bonus and choose every synergistic class feature/feat/item, but even without doing that we find ourselves often in the range where PCs are either "near certainty" or "don't bother trying".

We're playing at level nine now and don't find it daunting to attempt DCs in the 25-30 range. For things like perception or knowledge checks and so on that multiple people can try it's leading to some pretty serious DC escalation (and the occasional moment of "Oh, I accidentally made that impossible, I thought one of you was good at that?").

Instead of inflating the DCs, the best trick I've been able to pull to keep the tension during critical skill checks is to create situations where a task can't be overcome in one round with one check. For example, there was a situation in my homebrew where the PCs were riding on the outside of a stealth bomber, trying to disable it before it dropped what they thought would be a nuclear payload on a city in Castrovel (turns out it was only dishsoap). The Mechanic wanted to hack the on board computer system to disable the bomber. I knew the chance for success was nearly 100%, so I asked for a d4 roll to determine how many rounds it would take to hack. Meanwhile, the pilot of the bomber tried to shake the PCs loose with aerial maneuvers, requiring the PCs to cling for dear life with Athletics checks while also continuing to hack.

There have been other situations I've constructed where the PCs needed several consecutive successful skill checks over the course of several rounds. It helps maintain the tension and keeps them on the edge of their seat in dramatic moments. And it's always fun when the computer they're trying to hack transforms into an Ahav and literally hacks them back.

Sometimes I ask for checks with DCs so low they can't be failed, which is good for those checks that would help the PCs learn something or recall a bit of knowledge that keeps the plot moving. The players didn't know when they picked up the dice that they were rolling an auto success, so they feel good in the end and that's all that matters.

Skills, they're something to think about.

The Goat Lord wrote:

My son's contemplative technomancer was killed, so now he plays a level 11 grey mystic that has been absolutely crushing all foes. Even the yoki operative is in awe.

Ooh details please! How is he doing it? I want to crush my foes too, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women.

He's a gray star shaman mystic. I don't have his sheet with me, but not much stands up long to enervation + bestow curse + mind thrust. Up close he often uses the gray's phase racial ability to great effect, along with clever use of starlight form to waste enemy actions. The walk the void ability is great when boarding/blowing airlocks. My wife's ysoki ghost operative is all about trick attacking things in the face to death, but my son's mystic has been tactically disruptive to crowds and surgically effective against single targets. Fun for all.

I'm looking forward to having players at my table play goblins, as my players have already expressed their joy over the inclusion of goblins as a core race. Goblins won't change our stories for the worse, break our immersion, or otherwise ruin our experience. As GM, I realize I'm in control of my world and have final say on what's in and what's out, and goblins don't pose any threat to my sovereignty. Thankfully, my group isn't opposed to more options. If and when we come across aspects of the game that we don't like, we simply ignore it or replace it, as we've always done.

I've always appreciated how Pathfinder provides me the options and tools to tell the kind of story I want to tell. If you include other RPGs, I've lived through more than a dozen edition changes, and never has my table suffered for it. Thank you, Paizo, for providing my table with more shiny toys with which to tell stories.

I successfully GM'd this campaign through all 6 books, but not as written. We used the Mythic Solutions 3rd party release to help tone down mythic, and we used the buffed version of the stat blocks floating around in the WotR forums. In hindsight, I would also stop progressing tiers at 5 and keep the PCs about 1 level behind the book recommended level starting with book 4.

OP, none of the issues you encountered are insurmountable. Try being transparent and find a solution as a group.

I recommend keeping it urban, so Absalom Station, the Idari, or other big cities throughout the setting.

Story Elements and Set Dressing: rain, steam rising from sewers, slices of moonlight coming in through the window blinds, a femme fatale, fedoras, trench coats, jazz clubs, cigarette smoke, organized crime, crooked authority figures, immoral aristocrats, inescapable fate, impulse over logic, taboo, a MacGuffin, an unexpected visitor holding a gun enters the room, a base of operations, snappy dialogue.

Easy to Adapt Recommendations: Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049, Dark City, The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past, The Big Sleep, The Big Lebowski.

A murder mystery on Eox would be hilarious.

What I want is endless possibilities, a system supported by a wide array of various supplemental material that allows me to craft any kind of story or character I want, similar to Pathfinder. What I don't want is the opposite of that.

Thank you!

I haven't tested the Lost Soul, Summoner, Cacodemon, Revenant, or Arch-Vile yet. The monsters below CR 1 were all defeated rather quickly, but it felt okay. Mancubi were fun on my side of the screen, as is blasting a PC with the Cyberdemon's Mephistophelean Discharge. *evil grin*

Starfinder and DOOM go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Presented for your enjoyment are many of the demons of the DOOM video games statted up for Starfinder.

Starfinder DOOM

I’m no developer, and I’ve never shared my home creations before, so please take it easy on me.

Design notes:
I love DOOM and wanted to see how easy to use the Alien Archive’s NPC/monster creation tools are. These stats are not 1:1 translations of the video game demons, and to help it feel like Starfinder I added abilities such as spell-like abilities, fast healing, and more. I went for a wide array of CRs to support more levels of play. There are a few quirky bits mixed in for fun.

From playtest my favorites are the Spider Mastermind, Mancubus/Cyber-Mancubus, and of course, the Cyberdemon. Not all have been tested, and I’m sure there are a load of errors and formatting issues, so let me know what you think. Also, in effort to keep in in-universe with Starfinder, I changed the names of some demons to reflect that the native denizens of Hell are devils.

Thank you

Sounds like I need to check this show out.

I'm the GM, so I can only speak from my side of the screen, but we've not run into any difficulties with BP system so far. Our campaign is a homebrew, where the PCs are bounty hunters working for the Syndicsguild. When a bump in BP comes, it usually goes like so: the PCs' advocate informs them that resources have been allocated to them to upgrade their ship in preparation for an upcoming assignment that has been forecasted to be a challenge, or, for rescuing such-and-such the XYZ Company has donated X amount of BPs as a token of their appreciation, or, so-and-so is offering payment in the form of BPs for the apprehension of evil-bad-guy, etc. It is my opinion that it takes a bit of cooperation between the GM and players to make it feel organic, like the rest of the game, I suppose.

Just ask yourself, "Do I want to have fun?" If so, get the game, dude. The game is awesome. If you are the RPG equivalent of the princess and the pea, then no game system will ever satisfy you. Do yourself and your group a favor and get it. I've run/played a dozen sessions or more and at no point did any of the supposed "system flaws" arise, solarion, starship DCs, or otherwise. Don't let internet bellyachers get in the way of a good game and a good time with good friends.

Rip Metal

Rip Metal is a well-known, yet often misunderstood genre of harsh electronic music characterized by fast tempos, seismic percussion, heavily distorted guitars, and controversial lyrics. The genre's primary audience consists of people that prefer wearing dark clothes and black leather, skulls, spikes, and practice body modification. Enthusiasts often congregate in the industrial districts, where clubs and venues that support the music don't have to worry about the city's noise ordinance. Rip Metal is renowned for being the kind of music parents don't want their kids to listen to, but is great accompaniment during high-speed vehicle pursuits through turbo-highways or while flying jetbikes through downtown cityscapes. A former Primex of Absalom Station once called Rip Metal "the cancer of modern civilization" but this only led to increased interest in the music and a sales spike in the popular rhythm video game "Rip Metal Masters."

Swingin' Dretha

A retro-themed resort located on an asteroid in the Diaspora. Mostly run by orcs, the clientele and staff are known for wearing dapper suits, fedoras, sequined dresses, and dancing to big band music (think The Great Gatsby on an asteroid).

The resort is multi-level and semicircular in shape, protruding from the side of a large, slow orbiting asteroid, and covered in spikes, flashing strobes, spotlights, and flickering neon. A force bubble contains an artificial atmosphere that envelops not just the resort, but a kilometer of the terrain surrounding it, where hot springs, methane ponds, and gas forests can be explored. The perpetually night skybox twinkles with golden flakes thinner than paper, that drift through the artificial jetstream like snowflakes within a snowglobe. Goblins live in the carefully disguised garbage shutes that deliver trash and debris out through the atmosphere bubble.

Swingin' Dretha is a popular place to hold weddings, is a year-round host to traveling musical acts, has several prestigious gambling halls, and is all-around the kind of place where one can say "what happens at Swingin' Dretha stays at Swingin' Dretha."

Beneath the glitz and glamor are many illegal and illicit activities, however, as the resort is also home to criminal organizations. The hangar, for example, is a place where one better keep to themselves and maintain eye contact with the concrete floors.

I like the idea that 2 million is the number of registered citizens or otherwise accounted for persons. I haven't read too much supplemental material on the station yet, but perhaps with all the travelers coming and going, as well as undocumented individuals, we can add virtually another million or so to that number.

Best thing: First evening, first battle, first attack of a goblin: natural 1 - engineer check fails - 2 rnds till BOOOM.

Vesk soldier killed the goblin in melee (opening volley ftw.) and then stood their while shooting at another goblin.

"You hear some strange noise from the dead goblins weapon"
"Oh sh...."
BOOOOM (he survived but the players face was awesome^^)

I had a goblin go boom in my first session, too. Fortunately for the players, they were outside the blast radius by the time it exploded, but they enjoyed watching goblin bits fill a zero gravity chamber.

The Goat Lord wrote:

To keep things simple while we are learning the game/classes, I am running a Space Bounty Hunters campaign. It has been great fun so far. Each session is a small bounty hunting assignment where the PCs are tasked with tracking down and killing/apprehending a fugitive/criminal. Think Sunset Riders meets Cowboy Beebop.

I try to create situations that lead the PCs to exotic locations and incorporate new rules (low or zero gravity, space combat, computer hacking, etc.). It has been a treat watching long time Pathfinder players shift their paradigms to think in sci-fantasy terms.

Do they all have the Bounty Hunter theme, or are there a few different themes in the party?

Only one has the Bounty Hunter theme, if I recall correctly. A couple are outlaws that are paying off their debt to society through bounty hunting, and one is scholar. We've played a few sessions so far and it has been a great way to learn the game as we go. We are keeping it simple and taking it one episode (session) at a time.

I'd love to play in a Firefly type of setting. Pretty much like the bounty hunter one above. Each session starts and finishes on the night, with the occasional "to be continued episode".

Meta plot dev lops through time and player action.

However, since I want to have an extended break from DM ing and actually play this system, I suspect my campaign experi nice will be Starfinder society.

As it happens, my players have drawn a lot of inspiration from Firefly, as have I. I'm thinking the Cult of the Devourer is an excellent stand-in for Reavers.

I feel like it may be a good way to get rid of several smaller, weaker foes on your way to the big bad. Reloading in between, of course.

Looking forward to more episodes!

To keep things simple while we are learning the game/classes, I am running a Space Bounty Hunters campaign. It has been great fun so far. Each session is a small bounty hunting assignment where the PCs are tasked with tracking down and killing/apprehending a fugitive/criminal. Think Sunset Riders meets Cowboy Beebop.

I try to create situations that lead the PCs to exotic locations and incorporate new rules (low or zero gravity, space combat, computer hacking, etc.). It has been a treat watching long time Pathfinder players shift their paradigms to think in sci-fantasy terms.

It's not about the destination; it's about the journey. Don't worry about solving the mystery, just think about all the fun adventures you'll have along the way. What's more, it's a big galaxy, and as long as you have a strong imagination it will hold endless adventure for you. There are other things to do and explore besides only chasing the Gap.

The plot to the Doom video games would work perfectly as a Starfinder adventure.

Hello,

A time portal opens at the office and Shakespeare, Lovecraft, Wells, Stoker, and Mary Shelley emerge ready to play Pathfinder. They already know how to play. They invite you to join them. Please tell us who is GM, and which class each player plays.

Thank you

I wrote and ran a year long prequel campaign to WotR I titled "The Bringers of Concordant Opposition," in which, through branching paths of player decisions, Cheliax and Andoran almost went to war; a prophet of Druma was exposed as a criminal kingpin; King Borogrim of Five Kings Mountains and Lord Livondar (sp?) of Daggermark died in a sinkhole; cultists in office nearly brought ruin to Vigil, Lastwall; Trunau was saved from an army of orcs; and a wardstone on Ustalav's border was destroyed, all in an attempt by the villain to cause disorder across the Inner Sea region before the opening events of WotR.

The campaign ended with the players joining the Golarion cosmology to the Great Wheel from the D&D multiverse (long story). The PCs' last scene involved folding a gate town in the Outlands into the Abyss. Now they are stranded in a foreign multiverse, and all new characters will face WotR. After WotR, the old characters will be called upon to face the consequences of the two cosmologies being joined.