Starfinder: Dead Suns

Game Master GM-Gathrix

Hello all

Hello! :)

Greetings

Greetings all, this book is amazing.

It really is, they did a great job. I've been reading the equipment section for 90 minutes now just to get in my head all the cool stuff that's available.

I'm going to make a Technomancer, because that is the only thing that no one mentioned so far as far as maybe looking at. ... If someone decides to switch to it later, no problem, but that looked like a hole to fill, so I'm going to go for it.

... It also looks like it goes along with Zetara trying to hackety hack everything. :)

Chiming, in. Looks like Mark Seifter really out did himself on the operative. From the forum it looks like the Dex operative doesn't get the +4 extra trick attack but I am planning on making Ehron a spy with more social side than pure sneakiness. But with effectively 11 skill points per level he will have good coverage.

I'm not setting stuff in stone as per request although. :)

boop.

Also, the book is super glossy.

And they made a bunch of design decisions I really like, like how stats progress, making archetypes class-agnostic, and having no half bab, 2 skill point, or d6 HD classes.

I'm hoping that they add a bunch of starfinder character avatars, so I can stop looking like a Triceratops.

I have a tentative build for Kov'i, but I am waiting to see character creation guidelines before throwing it out there.

Ok everyone I think I got a good enough handle on things to put out some guidelines for character generation. You already have your race so here goes the rest...

Themes Hopefully your bit of RP in the previous game gave you insight into a theme, I do not want any Themeless characters in this game.

Classes All classes are fine, but no archetypes for now. There is enough new stuff to know without adding that layer.

Ability Scores We will use the standard 10 point buy suggested in the book. Remember that 18 is the highest you can get, however you will all be receiving a random +1 to an ability score from your experimentations at the secret prison you escaped from. I will provide those below.

Alignment No evil alignments to start. There maybe opportunities to adjust alignment in the AP that might lead someone down a dark path later.

Retraining I will allow retraining every level since this is still new to us. After every level I will do an after action review and if you want to retrain that is the time to let me know.

Equipment You start with the standard 1000 credits worth of gear. You basically found a storage of items on the ship you stole.

Random Ability Bonus from Experiments
Zetara: 1d6 ⇒ 6 +1Cha
Duanimon: 1d6 ⇒ 2+1Dex
Lakoon'ta: 1d6 ⇒ 6+1Cha
Garland: 1d6 ⇒ 1+1Str
Ehron: 1d6 ⇒ 2 +1Dex
Kov'i: 1d6 ⇒ 1 +1Str
Scera: 1d6 ⇒ 5 +1Wis

There is no players guide for the AP. I will create one soon and put it in the Game Info tab soon.

Ok I put a mini players guide up without spoiling too much. The game will be up in 24hours.

Okay, I made adjustments to my tentative build based on the above.

Quick question above Vesk: Their Armor Savant ability gives them a +1 Racial bonus to AC. Does this apply to both ACs or just KAC? I can't find an answer either way, so I figured I would post it and let you decide.

If we are playing 7 players are we going to make one from each class? While Ehron is a spacefarer theme, I could move him to a unclaimed class if we want to do that (mystic or soldier)?

Scera said she might want to do Mystic, but no idea what she has decided. I was going back through yesterday and seeing what people said they were thinking about, trying to decide what to do myself. This is what I came up with:

Ehron--Operative (but of course now mystic/soldier)
Scera--Mystic/Envoy
Garland--Envoy/Soldier
Kov'i--Solarian
Lakoon'ta--Operative
Duanimon--Mechanic
Zetara--Technomancer

I definitely don't think that you *have* to choose something no one else chooses, but if you want to, might want to talk to Scera and see which way she is going. I haven't seen her post in here yet... she might not realize we moved?

... Oh, and thanks for the random ability boost, GM. Nice. :)

I decided to move toward Envoy. It just fit better with my concept. I was going to have everything up in my profile today but I left the character sheet I was drafting everything on at home. So we'll see how busy it is at work today and if I can get it all worked out again. I'll at least have it up by midday tomorrow.

Duanimon has been updated in accordance with the character creation guidelines and is now complete.

Alright, I have everything up in the profile. I'm interested to see what the dark path later in the AP entails... Sounds very ominous.

I'm glad that we seem to have several competent party face characters already. I'm afraid Duanimon won't be able to help much on that front. :)

Also, does the AP give the party a ship at some point, or do we design one ourselves?

Update on Scera: I PMed her to make sure she knew where we were, and she responded. She's at Gen Con, which is a timesuck, but will pop in when she can. Gen Con is over Sunday, so I don't think it will cause any undue delay.

I'm totally not even close to finished with Zetara, but I will work on her tonight.

I'm like 70% done with Lakoon'ta. Need to do gear and pick a feat mostly.

I have a soldier version mostly worked out. Double checking that seems to be the path we are going? Also might be good to give Kov'i some front line companionship.

I will be addressing questions posted when I have time. I work graveyards so my schedule is very different than most people. After that the game should be posted.

Okay, I made adjustments to my tentative build based on the above.

Quick question above Vesk: Their Armor Savant ability gives them a +1 Racial bonus to AC. Does this apply to both ACs or just KAC? I can't find an answer either way, so I figured I would post it and let you decide.

Your bonus applies to both. The answer is found on page 240 last sentence of the first paragraph regarding Armor Class "Any reference to Armor Class, including bonuses and penalties, applies to both EAC and KAC unless otherwise specified."

Also, does the AP give the party a ship at some point, or do we design one ourselves

You will have a ship by the end of this first chapter if not before. I haven't dug into the specifics yet.

The game is up. Once your character is finished post in gameplay and if there is an issue with your character I will address it in discussion.

I think it would be a good idea to start determining starship roles. Duanimon would make a good engineer or science officer, and it looks like the same is true for Zetara. Ehron seems to have the highest Piloting bonus, Garland has good social skills, and Kov'i has a full BAB, so perhaps:
Captain: Garland
Pilot: Ehron
Gunner: Kov'i
Engineer: Zetara
Science Officer: Duanimon
(I can easily switch with Zetara if that would be preferred)

What does everyone think of this crew setup? I believe you can have multiple people in a single role, so Lakoon'ta and Scera can do whatever their characters are most built for when they enter the game.

Also, Ehron, I think your AC is too low. Based on your armor and Dex modifier, it seems that you should have EAC 14, KAC 15. Am I missing something?

I think Captain and Pilot can only have 1 person at a time, but all the other roles can have multiple characters doing them.

I'm fine with gunner. I don't know that I fit in any other role, besides maybe Captain, and I know that there are some people in the part *CoughSceraCough* who are afraid of Vesk.

I'm good with that set-up, as long as I don't have to wear a red shirt. :)

Question:

In the description of the Datajack (brain augmentation), it says that handheld computers can just be plugged into it, but for larger computers you need an adapter cable. But... there is no adapter cable available in the equipment section. There is "cable line" but that looks like a rope substitute... so, can I just say that I have some adapter cables for different computers, or assume they are in my hacking kit (which you have to buy to use the Computers skill anyway)?

Should be all set. Just listed my most important skills. I think i did them right. I wasn't sure if operative's specialization gave a true ranks in the associated skills or not(i.e grants you the +3 from class skill). If not ill need to remove 2 ranks.

I'm good with that set-up, as long as I don't have to wear a red shirt. :)

Question:

In the description of the Datajack (brain augmentation), it says that handheld computers can just be plugged into it, but for larger computers you need an adapter cable. But... there is no adapter cable available in the equipment section. There is "cable line" but that looks like a rope substitute... so, can I just say that I have some adapter cables for different computers, or assume they are in my hacking kit (which you have to buy to use the Computers skill anyway)?

I think that is more of an aesthetic description rather than mechanics. For this game I will rule that such a cable is part of the data jack itself.

Okay, cool. Thanks. :)

The Operative basically gets 10 skill points per level base from what I can tell since the bonus two in specialty says it counts towards maximum.

One thing to watch that isn't obvious although is that there are lots of insight bonuses, the operatives get +1 insight to all skills, but the Skill Focuses are also a +3 insight and thus don't stack.

Thanks Ehron, you pointed out two things I missed on the Operative (the skills for your specialization getting one rank/level and skill focus granting insight bonuses). I had noticed that Skill focus no longer has an improved benefit for having 10 ranks, though.

Lakoon'ta: I think you still need to pick a theme and an operative specialization. Also, how did you get such high skill bonuses? You seem to have substantially higher Engineering than me, and I'm the mechanic. :)

@Ehron Right so 8 + the 2 free, +2 from int = 12. So i think im good, just looks weird on my interactive google doc.

@duanimon You are right, my google doc added in my +2 race bonus twice, and by that I mean I didn't realize it was adding it in so I did as well -_-'. should only be a +9 engineering(literally operatives edge giving me an edge), just checked all my skills i put ranks into to be sure nothing else funky was happening.
Forgot to list specialization and theme in my quick on site crunch(outlaw and ghost).

I'll be home from gencon this evening and will try to polish off Scera. I already did a build for her so the adjustments will be minor to get her playable.

I'll definitely be going Mystic, not sure on theme yet as there are a few that might work out.

Starfinder was a lot of fun from what I played of it this weekend, this is going to be a fun camalign I think.

Lakoon'ta, I looked at your sheet since Duanimon mentioned it, and I noticed that your BAB is listed as 2.

Back from Gencon, going to try and finish updating everything tonight but I got back later than intended and it might not get done.

Welcome back. :)

There, that should have the build done. I doubt I'll get a post up in game tonight though, too tired.

I will wait until Scera can catch up, I need some time also have had a busy weekend.

I'm okay with going for the ship or the station, but we should probably run. That bluff roll was pure luck.

Questions:
--if we go for the ship, could we then pull in and dock somewhere else on the station that isn't quite as deadly?
--if we go for the station, are we risking our ship?
--how do we find Chiskisk (or whatever his name is) that the dying guy told Duanimon to find? (I hope we can save him by the way... I don't want him to become dead guy.)

Ideas?

I vote for retreating into the ship, as I would assume yes to questions 1 and 2. As for 3, we could use whatever the Starfinder equivalent of a Google search is. I doubt "Chiskisk" is a common name.

In starfinder personal scale weapons basically can't hurt ships. I was thinking of undocking and redocking somewhere else a bit safer, then we can resume the mission rather than being chased. Maybe there is even the equivalent of an Emergency Intake at the station for incoming ambulance ships, we could take him straight there.

Sounds good to me. Let's get the retreat started. And... oh yeah. I keep forgetting we have commpads or whatever they are called. It's hard to adjust to space. ;)

I forgot about those too. If everyone's good for retreating on the ship, I am on board.

-Posted with Wayfinder

I am about to go on a camping trip until midday on the 27th on which I may not have an Internet connection. Feel free to bot me if I don't post.

Enjoy. :)

Let this be the last thing your character [b]"would have done" I think I gave ample time prior to the adventure for things like this.

Definitely not trying to "cheat" ... we did buy personal comms before the adventure, but I had no idea as a player we were going to be asked for papers or what any of this would be like, so that was the first time I thought of it. If you think I am trying to get away with something next time, please just disallow it. I would way rather have my character sit in a jail cell than you thinking I am trying to cover for my lack of preparation.

GM and storyline rule all. I am *completely* fine if you just say no to something I am trying to do. That said... sure. I'll try not to have my character retcon anything anymore. Also fine if you want to take the ship away... don't change it for my sake.

As long as we understand each other. This wouldn't be the first time a player tried to do that with me so want to address it right away before it gets out of hand.