Castamir's Flaxseed Station

Game Master Chris Marsh

My flash story, Making Waves, just got published in "Tales from the Drift!"

Yay! Congratulations. :)

The following rules take effect immediately and will be included in future iterations of the Guide to Organized Play for each campaign.

For tables at levels that have pregens available. GMs can now run up to two pregenerated characters to fill a table up to the four-person minimum. The GM can control these pregens themselves or designate one or more players to control the additional character(s), so long as the player agrees to do so. This should help our smaller lodges and Society home groups participate in our program and continue firing and reporting games.

Blog (Link)

In the blog there are also rules for a hardmode for level 7+ for PFS2e and SFS.

Starfinder Society Guide v3 is now available for download!

You may have to click the "trouble with this download" button first.

New available races:

The choices offered in Chapter 3 of the Starfinder Core Rulebook are always available, as are the Legacy races in Chapter 13. Additionally, the following races from are always available provided you own a copy of the appropriate source book: draelik, formian, ikeshti, kalo, maraquoi, nuar, rhyphorian, verthani, witchwyrd from Starfinder Alien Archive, as well as izalguun from Starfinder Alien Archive 3

The new Second Seekers faction boons are pretty good. Seekers of Knowledge continues with this new faction, and there is a starship boon that is bonkers-good.

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What races are y'all looking forward to making characters to the most? I'm happiest to see Nuar and Ryphorian up there.

Izalguun and formian always seem fun :)

I have a Formian that I made with a boon. Does this allow me to free up my personal boon slot now?

I have a Formian that I made with a boon. Does this allow me to free up my personal boon slot now?

That conversation is currently taking place HERE :)

The Bot Behind the Screen wrote:

I have a Formian that I made with a boon. Does this allow me to free up my personal boon slot now?

That conversation is currently taking place HERE :)

Come to think of it... you sent me said boon! She's currently level 5 and going strong.

Clarification: Any character of a race that is now “always available” in Guide v3 can utilize the stat boost described in the “Legacy Race Clarification” section of this blog post.

OMG, I can finally make my Nuar Technomancer! Hype!

I know! Any further Starfinder Society Characters I make will be Nuar. I'm so excited.

CanisDirus wrote:

The Bot Behind the Screen wrote:

I have a Formian that I made with a boon. Does this allow me to free up my personal boon slot now?

That conversation is currently taking place HERE :)

Come to think of it... you sent me said boon! She's currently level 5 and going strong.

Glad to hear it! :)

Alex Speidel wrote:

Clarification: Any character of a race that is now “always available” in Guide v3 can utilize the stat boost described in the “Legacy Race Clarification” section of this blog post.

Is it definitely for any race?

I have a Formian admittance boon that has the "existing formian" verbiage on it, but my understanding is that "Legacy Race" only applies to the ones out of the back of the Core Rulebook.

I guess it doesn't matter that much...I haven't even finished the character yet, but I'll take a +2 stat bonus wherever I can get it.

If you look a few posts down from there, Alex confirms it applies to the newer ones as well:

oops silly me (I clearly have not looked at my Kalo megaregion boon in ages)

will get it clarified but yeah they can get the +2

I know! Any further Starfinder Society Characters I make will be Nuar. I'm so excited.

I enthusiastically welcome all my future nuar comrades-in-arms. It's about time we had more of you in the Society to join us!

Indeed!

I'm looking forward to making a Nuar biohacker!

Announcement

Have a hard time getting those specials in for your 5th Nova? Now certain high-level scenarios will count towards those qualifications (to a maximum of 3 times each).

Nova Qualification Update (Link)

Excellent .. I was about to set up 1-39 for a pbp run - still working on my fourth Nova though so .. am I doing it too soon?

Never too soon!

I'm a sneeze off Nova 4, but just kicked off three new PbP Tables.

If people are super keen on one of those scenarios though I can find the bandwidth as I am on the grind :)

@Shifty, interested in playing 2-24 The Cornered Rat if you are up to GM'ing that one.

Happy to run 2-24 if we can get a table together :)

Let's do it!

Happy to run 2-24 if we can get a table together :)

I wanted to run 2-24 during gameday, unfortunately I don't know if there is enough 9-12 tier characters that can. I will play it though.

That's two, we just need two more. I'll put out some feelers and try to drum up interest.

We are up to 4 PC's now. I'm probably going to bring my level 9 mechanic. The other three are another level 9, a level 11 mystic, and whatever DoubleGold decides to play. Actually, I just noticed this scenario has the starship tag so unless one of the other PC's is a good pilot I can bring my level 10 operative who is the best starship pilot in the Pact Worlds.

Relatively new here and no where close to the top level, but was curious if SFS has the equivalent of an EotT Seeker Arc once you hit 12th level (if any have already)

There's no EotT arc for SFS (and haven't heard any rumours of one coming).

We do have season arcs though, and there is a nice bonus to completing the first season one.

My understanding is that Starfinder Society will go all the way to level 20, just like PFS2e.

That is my understanding as well. Though, writing for higher levels is more difficult if only because skill DCs are tougher to establish.

As an example, this character has a computers bonus of around 33 (fluctuations depending on the situation). Whereas another character with full ranks at the same level is looking at a bonus of about 16 + int.

Do you go with the standard DCs of 31, 36, 41? Do you go with the computer tier calculation of 41? Or lower so that those who didn't hyper specialize aren't punished? If you go lower, those who put more into it will trivialize some things which may go against the story being told.

You can also consider the same things for combat.

The reality is that, again, it is tough to write for higher levels and, if we really want such Society material, we are going to need to be patient with the writers and encouraging with our feedback. If we play something that seems a bit off, be constructive. "This DC seemed a bit high. Our team comp was...the highest skill bonus was...(etc..)." I do not wish for writers to dread writing higher level material because of a fear that the community will be mean.

You raise an excellent and significant point about the challenge ratings.

Possibly the way around it is by having skillchecks that are based on more than one operator simultaneously, that way the specialist might blow through a DC, but the other couple of people working may not so it can balance out.

The hassle seems to be things that require just one success for super common skills - like computers.

One would also think (by now) that security advisers would know there seem to be unending numbers of people who can bypass computer defences and locking systems in under 3 seconds, so they'd come up with ways to deal with that.

I think this is also part of the problem, the time needed to defeat these systems is so miniscule.

Question about PBP vs IP rules: If a character is in the middle of a PBP game, can they play in other scenarios? If so, what happens if they level up (but not out of tier for the PBP)?

Nope.

The character can only be in one scenario at a time. Once they are in PbP they are locked in it until the end.

My experience is that most folk have several characters that they can run in different games at the same time.

When John Compton was still an Organized Play Developer, he wrote this post:

Applying GM credit to a character in a PBP

The rules he lays out are specific to applying GM credit to a character that's in the middle of a PBP game. I refer to them for a refresher on the basic rules, and also in case people haven't seen them in a while. Note too that he states: "... no character should spontaneously level up in the middle of an adventure."

Thanks! Guess I'm running a pregen this weekend and applying the credit to someone who doesn't exist yet. (I do have multiple characters but all my 1-4s are busy.)

Can I please get a quick rules check?. 2nd level mystic casts wisp ally, max range 35 feet. Can the caster then direct the wisp to travel farther away , to a square 70 feet from the caster? Ordinat I'll ly I'd have said OK. But I randomly checked the rules , and now think it shouldn't be allowed.

Thanks in advance..

I see no problem. 25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels would be the range in which the wisp ally first shows up, then it can travel further away, the limitation being the caster has to see where he's directing it to.

If it couldn't move further, it should have a text similar to Dancing Lights: "A light winks out if the distance between you and it exceeds the spell’s range."

But I think Wisp ally is more similar to Summon Creature instead.

Ragi has it correct. That is just the initial range limitation of which it can appear once you summon it. After that you can certainly move the wisp further away.

OK. That's in line with my traditional thought process. But just for argument, here's what threw me (Core Rulebook p. 271)

RANGE
An effect’s range indicates how far from you it can reach. An effect’s range is the maximum distance from you that the effect can occur, as well as the maximum distance at which you can designate the effect’s point of origin. If any portion of the effect’s area would extend beyond this range, that area is wasted. If a range is based on level, this means caster level for spells, class level for class features, and item level for weapons and equipment. Standard ranges include the following....

OK. That's in line with my traditional thought process. But just for argument, here's what threw me (Core Rulebook p. 271)

RANGE
An effect’s range indicates how far from you it can reach. An effect’s range is the maximum distance from you that the effect can occur, as well as the maximum distance at which you can designate the effect’s point of origin. If any portion of the effect’s area would extend beyond this range, that area is wasted. If a range is based on level, this means caster level for spells, class level for class features, and item level for weapons and equipment. Standard ranges include the following....

Found it =>

Conjuration
Conjuration spells bring creatures, objects, or energy (potentially including healing energy) into being or transport them to new locations. A conjured creature or object must arrive in an open location on a medium capable of supporting it. It can’t appear inside another creature or object. The conjured creature or object must appear within the spell’s range, but once conjured it does not have to remain within the range.

So because Wisp Ally is a conjuration, the traditional interpretation holds. But an area effect evocation or illusion would end at the range boundary even if the 'center' of the effect was at maximum range.

Thank you both so much.

Has anyone else been experiencing massive burnout lately?

Has anyone else been experiencing massive burnout lately?

In general or just with gaming or...?

It has been a pretty wild year, I think most people are fatigued in a few ways.

There is definitely burnout among all with the amount of online games and conventions all going on.

Please take care of yourselves, especially during these holiday and stressful times. Keep the game fun and hunt the good things.

Just a few tips and I am sure many more folks will have more. :) We love gaming with all of you guys, no need to push yourselves to far while we have this extra time at home.

Outpost IV: Roll Dem Bones has just been officially announced here.

I have a question about the tiered Repeatables.

I get that you can only play once in each tier but can you also GM once in each tier?

E.g., I played in tier 5-8 so can I also GM in tier 5-8 and play in tier 1-4 and apply those three credits to 3 different characters?

I asked about this earlier, and was told (can't find details sorry) that is was the same, you got to GM once in each tier for credit. Although presumably it will count towards your special count if you do more.

Assuming you mean the multi-table specials: Yes.

Once per tier for credit (and a chronicle).

You can get up to three special counts per scenario.

Although 03-00 only has two tiers, so max four chronicles without using a replay.