6-01 Trial by Machine


GM Discussion

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5/5 *

Quick question going over this one.

For the final encounter, the 4-player adjustment asks to reduce the AC of a monster in BOTH subtiers to 15. This is a -2 adjustment in the low subtier, but a -6 adjustment in high tier (due to it having an Advanced Template already)... Is this as intended? I figured editing missed the big discrepancy with the advanced template, so wanted to check.

Or should we say AC should be 2 lower instead of flat 15?

5/5 *

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Also, templated stat blocks, etc... have been uploaded to pfsprep.com

Dark Archive 5/5 5/5

Carlos Robledo wrote:
Also, templated stat blocks, etc... have been uploaded to pfsprep.com

Thank you!

2/5

Also, wouldn't the machine captain in the final encounter have 50 hp (42 hp of the base model on page 9 plus 2 hp per HD as per the Advanced Creature template)?

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ***

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Hawkins wrote:
Also, wouldn't the machine captain in the final encounter have 50 hp (42 hp of the base model on page 9 plus 2 hp per HD as per the Advanced Creature template)?

Constructs don't have a constitution score - they instead get a certain number of bonus hit points based off of their size. Increasing a construct's CON score doesn't help their hit points because they don't have a CON score.

2/5

James McTeague wrote:
Hawkins wrote:
Also, wouldn't the machine captain in the final encounter have 50 hp (42 hp of the base model on page 9 plus 2 hp per HD as per the Advanced Creature template)?
Constructs don't have a constitution score - they instead get a certain number of bonus hit points based off of their size. Increasing a construct's CON score doesn't help their hit points because they don't have a CON score.

Thank you for pointing that out to me. =) Reading your response made me want to palm myself in the forehead for forgetting that.

Shadow Lodge 3/5

7 people marked this as a favorite.

So a little off topic, but if you don't play some elevator music after cramming an entire party into a 2x2 room I think you've missed out on a golden opportunity.

1/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gabriel Smith-Dalrymple wrote:
So a little off topic, but if you don't play some elevator music after cramming an entire party into a 2x2 room I think you've missed out on a golden opportunity.

The entire party AND two NPCs. That's crammed.

Sczarni 2/5 RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Gabriel Smith-Dalrymple wrote:
So a little off topic, but if you don't play some elevator music after cramming an entire party into a 2x2 room I think you've missed out on a golden opportunity.

Ah, I had considered that an intentional choice so that the whole party doesn't walk in on vacuum. They're almost forced to send a scout ahead...

But I am going to have to download some elevator music now! Great idea.

4/5 *

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Society Subscriber

So the plasma skeletons, "1d6 electricity and fire" - is that 1d6 electricity and 1d6 fire? Or 1d6 of some wacky electricity/fire blend? How does that interact with electricity or fire resistance?

Dark Archive 5/5 *

Matt Haddix wrote:
So the plasma skeletons, "1d6 electricity and fire" - is that 1d6 electricity and 1d6 fire? Or 1d6 of some wacky electricity/fire blend? How does that interact with electricity or fire resistance?

you need both resistances. If you dont have both you take full dam. You dont blocjk half with just one resistance, etc..

2/5

When can we expect this (and the other two season 6 scenarios) to be available for reporting on the PFS event creation page?

Dark Archive 4/5 **

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Gabriel Smith-Dalrymple wrote:
So a little off topic, but if you don't play some elevator music after cramming an entire party into a 2x2 room I think you've missed out on a golden opportunity.

The Group on Sunday did "Girl From Ipanema"

4/5

joe kirner wrote:
Matt Haddix wrote:
So the plasma skeletons, "1d6 electricity and fire" - is that 1d6 electricity and 1d6 fire? Or 1d6 of some wacky electricity/fire blend? How does that interact with electricity or fire resistance?
you need both resistances. If you dont have both you take full dam. You dont blocjk half with just one resistance, etc..

It's 1d6 damage, half of the damage is fire, half is electricity. This is actually mentioned before the stat block in the creature section of the room. It works like Flame Strike basically.

As such Resistance apply to the half they are appropriate to. So if you roll a 4 and some one has resit: electricity 5 they will take 2 damage from the fire half.

Liberty's Edge 3/5

I notice there are instructions on using the A B C D boxes for this scenario. Is that an oversite or intention?

2/5

Jeffrey Fox wrote:
joe kirner wrote:
Matt Haddix wrote:
So the plasma skeletons, "1d6 electricity and fire" - is that 1d6 electricity and 1d6 fire? Or 1d6 of some wacky electricity/fire blend? How does that interact with electricity or fire resistance?
you need both resistances. If you dont have both you take full dam. You dont blocjk half with just one resistance, etc..

It's 1d6 damage, half of the damage is fire, half is electricity. This is actually mentioned before the stat block in the creature section of the room. It works like Flame Strike basically.

As such Resistance apply to the half they are appropriate to. So if you roll a 4 and some one has resit: electricity 5 they will take 2 damage from the fire half.

This is how I ruled it as well. So the aasimar in the party did not take the electrical damage unless I rolled a 6 on the electrical die, but he was taking fire damage along with everyone else.

4/5

Hawkins wrote:
Jeffrey Fox wrote:


It's 1d6 damage, half of the damage is fire, half is electricity. This is actually mentioned before the stat block in the creature section of the room. It works like Flame Strike basically.

As such Resistance apply to the half they are appropriate to. So if you roll a 4 and some one has resit: electricity 5 they will take 2 damage from the fire half.

This is how I ruled it as well. So the aasimar in the party did not take the electrical damage unless I rolled a 6 on the electrical die, but he was taking fire damage along with everyone else.

I don't think the two of you are saying the same thing. Fox's description provides at most 3 points of electricity damage.

Grand Lodge

Hawkins wrote:
When can we expect this (and the other two season 6 scenarios) to be available for reporting on the PFS event creation page?

I came up with the same issue, I cannot create the correct scenario to report, because none of the Season 6 scenarios are listed.

Any idea when this will be available?

Grand Lodge

Themes86 wrote:
I notice there are instructions on using the A B C D boxes for this scenario. Is that an oversite or intention?

That's puzzling, as I didn't see any instructions for them, unless I missed something. I gather it must be an oversight.

Scarab Sages 4/5 5/55/5 *

Gabriel Smith-Dalrymple wrote:
So a little off topic, but if you don't play some elevator music after cramming an entire party into a 2x2 room I think you've missed out on a golden opportunity.

As I was setting up this scene I sang "Love in an Elevator" because one of my players thought the two NPCs were lovers. Another of my players figured out the truth about the dude.

"Going doooooooooooooooown!"

2/5 5/5

Prepping this for DragonCon and just downloaded some appropriate Muzak. Thanks for the great idea!

2/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

My players also asked what kind of muzak was playing when they took the lift. :-P

3/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm running this in a couple of weeks - now I'll be obsessed with finding the perfect Muzak.

That, or ambient music from the Vault in Fallout.

Or something like Brian Eno's Alternative 3 for that spooky, retro-tech vibe.

Decisions!

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ***

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I always described the dungeon as Portal 2 with your monitor tinted red. Perhaps the portal music would be apporpriate? You can get it for free online.

Sovereign Court 5/5 RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Here's the text on Plasma from When the Sky Falls

While I don't see the 3.x suppliment listed in section 15, I don't see any other rules listed either.

Plasma, Page 12, When the Sky Falls:

Spoiler:
Plasma, for the purposes of When The Sky Falls, is a superheated gas composed of vaporized, ionized metal. However, plasma is not divorced from the d20 System recognized energy types: Plasma is a combination of the fire and electricity energy types. If a creature is susceptible to at least one of these standard energy types, it is subject to all the plasma damage directed its way (that is, fire and electricity damage are not separated out). In order to gain protection, a creature or character must have protection from, resistance to, or immunity to both fire and electricity. A creature with protection from or resistance to both fire and electricity that is hit by plasma applies only one of those resistances to the attack; whichever protection or resistance type that provides the least protection in a single round is the most protection that one can applies against the plasma damage.

Scarab Sages 1/5

I'm going to dm this scenario the next week. Any suggestions?

Grand Lodge 5/5

Nicola Degobbis wrote:
I'm going to dm this scenario the next week. Any suggestions?

A lot of information seemed to be misplaced (as in where you dont expect it to be). I'd read it several times.

I have run it twice now. The second time, I was fully aware of the technologist rule and the ruling by John and the players were made aware. I would be sure to inform the players of that rule beforehand.

I just ran it last night and the group had a bard (which bypasses the untrained issue although I'm still not clear on whether they lose their ranks in knowledge(engineering) or not). They also had a crypt breaker alchemist that does d8s against constructs. Annihilated the constructs. finished in 2 and a half hours. Your mileage may vary (tm).

Scarab Sages 1/5

2 and a half hours O.o?? It's super fast!
I'm going to read it this evening.
I found this technologist rule in an other post:

Technologist
Benefit: You are considered to be trained in any skill used against a technology based subject. If the skill in question requires training to use even against non-technological subjects, you must still have ranks in the that skill in order to gain the benefit of Technologist.
Normal: You treat all skill checks against technology as if they were untrained skill checks. This may mean that you cannot attempt certain skill checks, even if you possess ranks in the skill in question.

Is this the rule you were talking about?

Grand Lodge 5/5

Every time I've run this, Muzak gets added to the lift box text. That our the description of a Mass Effect 1 elevator sequence.

Grand Lodge 5/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Nicola Degobbis wrote:

2 and a half hours O.o?? It's super fast!

I'm going to read it this evening.
I found this technologist rule in an other post:

Technologist
Benefit: You are considered to be trained in any skill used against a technology based subject. If the skill in question requires training to use even against non-technological subjects, you must still have ranks in the that skill in order to gain the benefit of Technologist.
Normal: You treat all skill checks against technology as if they were untrained skill checks. This may mean that you cannot attempt certain skill checks, even if you possess ranks in the skill in question.

Is this the rule you were talking about?

Yes. That is the rule. John Compton has said that it should be applied for PFS games.

3/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.

One wonders if robots must take the Primitivist feat to make skill checks outside of Numeria.

"Ew, what is that!"

"*searching...searching*... "I don't know. How can these beings live in such filth and squalor?"

"Ugh. Let's go back to Numeria."

The Exchange 3/5

This sure has a lot of things written in Goblin. How do they even have a written language... what with their fear of the written language and all.

Scarab Sages 4/5 5/55/5 *

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Ahz wrote:
This sure has a lot of things written in Goblin. How do they even have a written language... what with their fear of the written language and all.

The written language was probably developed by the hobgoblins, who seem like the most likely goblinoid species to realise the value of having a standard system for storing information.

Silver Crusade 2/5

Goblin tribes banish people for writing things down, so it does have a written form and as has been mentioned it is a hobgoblin ruin.

Scarab Sages 1/5

CireJack wrote:
Nicola Degobbis wrote:

2 and a half hours O.o?? It's super fast!

I'm going to read it this evening.
I found this technologist rule in an other post:

Technologist
Benefit: You are considered to be trained in any skill used against a technology based subject. If the skill in question requires training to use even against non-technological subjects, you must still have ranks in the that skill in order to gain the benefit of Technologist.
Normal: You treat all skill checks against technology as if they were untrained skill checks. This may mean that you cannot attempt certain skill checks, even if you possess ranks in the skill in question.

Is this the rule you were talking about?

Yes. That is the rule. John Compton has said that it should be applied for PFS games.

Thank you Cire!!!

4/5

I made this handout for the elevator and the box. It isn't really necessary but my table liked it and got it pretty much instantly.

PFS Prep

1/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
David_Bross wrote:

I made this handout for the elevator and the box. It isn't really necessary but my table liked it and got it pretty much instantly.

PFS Prep

Yes. I just played in the scenario run by David and this visual aid was very useful. Many times being able to see something is far more effective than trying to piece the situation together from a verbal description. I'm not sure if we would have been able to figure that out without the visual.

Grand Lodge 4/5 ** Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver

Should the Final encounter thing have hardness? I didn't see it listed in stat block.

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

roll4initiative wrote:
Should the Final encounter thing have hardness? I didn't see it listed in stat block.

It has Hardness 10 for tier 4-5. But nothing I could find for lvl 1-2

4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Regional Venture-Coordinator, Central Europe

roll4initiative wrote:
Should the Final encounter thing have hardness? I didn't see it listed in stat block.

The prototype itself has no hardness neither in its own stats nor in the stats of the creature it is based on (scarecrow - bestiary 2). But in the high tier encounter there is also an additional machine captain (an advanced machine soldier similiar to the ones from encounter A5) which has hardness 10.

Grand Lodge 4/5 ** Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver

Nils Janson wrote:
roll4initiative wrote:
Should the Final encounter thing have hardness? I didn't see it listed in stat block.
The prototype itself has no hardness neither in its own stats nor in the stats of the creature it is based on (scarecrow - bestiary 2). But in the high tier encounter there is also an additional machine captain (an advanced machine soldier similiar to the ones from encounter A5) which has hardness 10.

Ok, thanks. Running it in 20 mins for tier 1-2.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

We played this last saturday and had a good time. At some point we were like "well, I think we have everything now, we could go back. But what about we take a look over there first?", so that part wasn't such a problem. If a handful of PCs is actually just curious, that works.

We didn't have any problems with the fights, but then we had quite a few well-built heavy hitter 2H types. My alchemist had a good time lobbing various things over their heads, and we got through without much trouble.

The other party ran it yesterday and they had a really hard time, apparently due to poor tactics and less suitable builds. They used lots of little pinpricks of damage, which didn't work so well against the robots.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

What really also helped us was understanding the Fascinate condition. When a few people got hit with it, we quickly slapped them out of it again, so the whole party stayed in the fight.

My alchemist did have a "aww... can I take it hooooooooommmeeee?" moment :P

The Exchange 3/5

Hmmmmm... There are now two "6-01 Trial by Machine" threads in the GM Discussion section. Is there anything we can do to merge them?

The Exchange 3/5

Quick question for those that have run this...

Minor Spoiler:

How are you guys presenting Meleren, with him being an android and all? I realized this the second time I ran it and just said he was emotionless and waited for further questions/investigation from the group but none came. How are you guys doing this?

Thanks

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

Our GM said something about there being weird lines on his skin, not exactly like tattoos, and that there was something off about them, not entirely human. As a player, that told me all I needed to know. IC, I mostly put them on the list of "don't know what that is, but I'm not staying in a room alone with it".

Scarab Sages 4/5 5/55/5 *

Ahz wrote:
Hmmmmm... There are now two "6-01 Trial by Machine" threads in the GM Discussion section. Is there anything we can do to merge them?

The other one is Trail by Machine. We're on trial. They're following a trail.

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

Ahz wrote:

Quick question for those that have run this...

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks

I described him as having a slightly grayish tinge to his skin and what looked like very straight tattoo lines.

The thiefling (who was gray) thought he had a buddy. The tattooed barbarian thought she had a buddy. Things went off without a hitch.

We also had a half orc bloodrager that decided to steal one of the snowthingies because it was pretty. (Half orc steals TV...)

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I almost felt bad one-shotting the final boss in the low subtier with my 3rd level Inquisitor. But after those plasma skeletons it seemed a welcome reprieve. Need to get my copy of this and review it, but over all I enjoyed it.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

Woran wrote:
Ahz wrote:

Quick question for those that have run this...

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks

I described him as having a slightly grayish tinge to his skin and what looked like very straight tattoo lines.

The thiefling (who was gray) thought he had a buddy. The tattooed barbarian thought she had a buddy. Things went off without a hitch.

We also had a half orc bloodrager that decided to steal one of the snowthingies because it was pretty. (Half orc steals TV...)

Yeah, that was nice :)

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