Castamir's Flaxseed Station

Game Master Chris Marsh

I've got his confirmation table picked up.

Roger that.

See what he wants to do with the other.

Thanks, Shifty and MBtC. Let me know if any issues come up or you guys need anything.

So this is sad, painful, embarrassing,.. a lot of things but real life/work has been unexpectedly insane this fall and I'm looking to see if anyone is interested in stepping in to be a GM hero for two weeks.

I have two PBP Gameday games of great players. They've been awesome and patient. Stayed with it the whole slow way through. This stuff just isn't letting up and I think the players deserve a better end than the table running out of time.

PM me if you interested, there's a Claim to Salvation game and a Commencement game. Both halfway or a little more through.

Bugman, don’t feel bad. I did the same thing just this week with my delightful game of Incident at Absalom Station. As a new VC, and having a few job and family matters to deal with at the same time, I realized that I needed to step down as a GM, so asked another GM to take over for me.

We all have real life come up from time to time. I am hoping that all GMs reading this know that they can ask for help. There’s no shame in handing off your game to another GM if you need to do so. It’s better to do that than to continue to struggle.

When the time is right, you’ll come back rested and restored when the next game comes up!

Hugs,
Hmm

I was wondering; does anyone know if there is (will be?) an expanded narrative boon for SFS?

Hi guys.

Stepping in as Obozaya.

Anything I should know?

GM Bugman wrote:

Bugman, don’t feel bad. I did the same thing just this week with my delightful game of Incident at Absalom Station. As a new VC, and having a few job and family matters to deal with at the same time, I realized that I needed to step down as a GM, so asked another GM to take over for me.

We all have real life come up from time to time. I am hoping that all GMs reading this know that they can ask for help. There’s no shame in handing off your game to another GM if you need to do so. It’s better to do that than to continue to struggle.

When the time is right, you’ll come back rested and restored when the next game comes up!

Hugs,
Hmm

Thanks Hmm, to everyone who PM'd me, and to Shifty and Debug for being willing to swoop in for the saves. I've had my share of games fizzle and vanish so I know what it's like being a player left with the unanswerable questions and knew that I wanted these players to have a fair chance to continue on. This kind of thing is what makes us a strong community in my eyes and I'm looking forward to paying it forward down the road!

Hey there, does anybody know if Sfounder's Yesteryear's Truth table is still recruiting? The sheet lists it as blank, but I haven't seen an announcement for it. The scenario I'm playing in is wrapping up and the GM is reporting, so I'm looking for a new one to hop onto.

And, wow, an aside: if people keep the pace up it's amazing how quickly scenarios fly by o_O

Hey there, does anybody know if Sfounder's Yesteryear's Truth table is still recruiting? The sheet lists it as blank, but I haven't seen an announcement for it. The scenario I'm playing in is wrapping up and the GM is reporting, so I'm looking for a new one to hop onto.

And, wow, an aside: if people keep the pace up it's amazing how quickly scenarios fly by o_O

I haven't announced it yet. I'll run it eventually, but likely not for a little while. I'm trying to keep a solid limit on the number of games I'm in. :-)

Question from one of my players:

If someone is playing a Pregen in a game, and have said, "This credit will go to my 701 character", can they play that 701 character in another game at the same time?

Or, must they hold their 701 in a time capsule until the Pregen's game is done?

They cannot play that character until the pregen's game is done. The only exception is GM credit.

OK, now I can sit down and give a better explanation to your question, Ewok.

The rule is that a character can only be in one game at a time. Playing a game with a pregen when the credit will go to a character is considered to be playing that character for this rule. GM credit is an exception to this rule. Mustering is not considered to be playing that character, so it's OK to list your character's details for a new game while an old game finishes up, as long as it is done before the new game starts.

Redelia, thank you for the response! That makes a lot of sense. I will pass that on to my player.

Oh, that makes sense with the new rule about specifying the character that credit will go to in advance.

I'd never seen it as an issue before, and don't think it has been make clear to people. Not that I generally play pregens, aside from scenarios that demand them.

Just FYI I ran Incident at Absalom Station today at our Gameday in one 11 hour session (counting from when it really started).
It probably would have been better with 30 mins' or 1 hour more, but was not rushed.
(just putting this here since I was not sure how long it would take)

I just finished Book 1 here (a day or so ago) on these boards as a PbP. Started August 21st as we took a few days to look over the rules and build characters. Sent out Chronicle on Nov 15th. So roughly 2 months from start to finish.

Kludde casts wall of text

Okay, let's talk space combat. I've ran a few, and I've just experienced my first one (which went rather smooth after everybody got the hang of it). They can get pretty chaotic, and compared to melee fights (especially low-level ones), they can take a much higher number of rounds.

I'm slowly settling into a fixed format for space combat. For every round, I print a status block that shows player ship status (who else is going to keep track?), enemy ship status (helps me keep track of crits, damage and shields), and a list of players. The players that still have an action I list in bold.

My update block typically looks like this (with three player still having to act):

---
Round 11
---
Shields up BPSA (20/7/6/7) For Bow/Port/Starboard/Aft, showing remaining shield points
Power core damaged 'Damaged' for glitching, severely damaged and destroyed
Minor hull damage (6) HP damage with some flavor text
---
Tiger's Claw (37 Damage, shields 13/5/0/5 damage) Showing damage, not amount remaining
Aft gunnery position damaged.
Power core damaged
Engines damaged
---
Zoey Strawberry
Kaaaaaahn - Guns That just means this player already posted an action firing a shot, just waiting for all player's actions before I resolve
Arnold 'Ace' Rimmer - Piloting
Fluffo
Narkotik Niklas
---

I like to resolve the whole turn at once. I do this by making a pilot check at the start, and stating how the enemy will move in case it loses the check. The player pilot can then make the check, and immediately move the token on the map (win or lose). All other players can post their actions (in spoiler if need be), and I can resolve the turn all at once. In principle that mean that every player only has to post once per turn, so no unnecessary waiting time while a player and the gm go back-and-forth.

You could even chop the round up (I prefer not to, but tastes differ):

---
Start of combat: dm posts
---
Round 1: Engineering phase
---
DM resolves Engineering phase and makes a pilot check (as described above)
---
Round 1: Pilot phase
Round 1: Gunnery phase
Round 2: Engineering phase
---
DM resolves all phases and makes a pilot check (as described above)
---
etc
---

The first variant (round at once) can make engineering and science actions feel a bit hollow (or meta-gamey), the second can make it unclear what actions are needed in the engineering phase (because the engineer may not know the damage yet)

Given that we're taking down enemies with north of 60 hp with 2d4 guns, I also have no qualms whatsoever with calling the combat before the big-bad-ship explodes when the outcome is clear.

Any tricks you are using?

Kludde!! Glad to see you on these boards!

Zinou begins a performance.

*dances*

Space Combat (Link)

Here is what I did for Dead Suns Incident at Absalom Station.

The link contains spoilers obviously so don't click on it if looking to play Dead Suns.

You can scroll down a couple of posts to see how the Space combat plays out.

My though was once the PC has done two more Crit Thresholds than they have received to call the combat. At that point they have the upper hand and it is just a matter of "lather-rinse-repeat" until dead. If there is a plot point that needs to trigger, then I will just jump to that trigger.

I am also allowing someone who isn't the pilot to do the movement on the map. But that would be agreed before combat.

But I was going to go with everyone roll at beginning. The I will just have the gunnery rolls use the best guns available.

In Pathfinder I believe they clarified that you can apply character creation boons after you have played the character for a bit but before playing them at 2nd level. Have they done the same for Starfinder?

In addition to my main I have 3 characters who have gone through The Commencement. If my main reaches the point where he can get the Rising Star boon will I have to just ignore all of those 1 xp characters and start yet another one? Or am I retroactively applying the boon?

Bigguy,

When you select this boon, it does not apply to your current character. Instead, select one of your Starfinder Society characters with 0 XP.

You need to select a character that at the moment of purchase has 0 XP, so you indeed can not apply it to one of those 1 xp characters.

I have not heard of any change in these requirements.

Hnnnngh why is finding a table for the Commencement so hard?

Starfinder is still relatively new and only has a handful of scenarios, I imagine a whole lot of the people interested in SFS have already played the commencement once if not more, so it might take a little while before another one is set up.

They have released a few rather important FAQs about starship combat. I wanted to make sure everyone is aware of them. They can be found here

Yes, the changes in DCs are quite significant changes.

“What an excellent change!” Charli passes out big carafes of Brethedan Bubble Tea to celebrate the new Starship FAQs. “Would you like some, Kuey and Redelia?”

Meanwhile, GM Hmm looks at all her handouts and cheat sheets for Starship Combat. Yep, I am going to have to re-do all of them. Still welcoming the changes, though!

Many of us use the 01-00 crib sheets, anyone know if they are going to reissue that scenario with the corrected DCs? That would be very helpful.

Some very good fixes in there!

"Did I hear 'bubble tea'?!?", Adele exclaims.

"I tend to the Akiton Red. Granted, nothing really grows there but drinking reminds me of my second home."

This is what I use instead of the crib sheets. You are more than welcome to steal and use them. They are current as of the last FAQ.

Starship Combat Cheatsheet (Link)

Nice.

This is what I use instead of the crib sheets. You are more than welcome to steal and use them. They are current as of the last FAQ.

Starship Combat Cheatsheet (Link)

Those are FANTASTIC!

Hmm

Cross-Posted from Flaxseed!

★ - CHRONICLE SHEETS — ATTENTION ALL GMS - ★

Hey Gang —

I’ve recently gotten some complaints about sloppy and incomplete chronicle sheets, or cases where a single chronicle sheet (with no identifying top matter) was issued to all players. This makes me a cranky-pants VC. Let’s not do this.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

ALL chronicle sheets issued through this lodge should include:

• The personal information of each player character on the top — player name, character name, organized play number, faction.

• All grey parts filled out. Please... We need experience, prestige and money filled out. Day jobs too. If they have no day job, cross a line and still initial the box.

• Event numbers, event names, GM signature, GM number.

They also need to be LEGIBLE and if sent as a PDF, they need to be flattened so that they are INEDITABLE.

BONUS POINTS! If you want to earn our RVC Jesse’s seal of Approval, you’ll fill out all the other parts too just like in the Roleplaying Guild Guide.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

You may be wondering... Whom does this hurt if chronicle sheets are sloppy? The answer is that can cause all sorts of confusion, mistakes and issues down the road. Sometimes people have errors that compound themselves. Sometimes there’s a character audit, or a Convention when people print out their chronicles to use in Face-to-Face play.

Also... The folks who get stuck doing most of the chronicle repair are your venture crew.

Please... Help me change out of my cranky-pants! Fill out your Chronicle Sheets correctly!

Thank you!

Hmm

Thanks! (I just have need to restore my motivation to be a gm pbp.)

Perhaps this can be your motivation.

Good news for the online front (Link)

This is wonderful news! Is there an online convention on Paizo.com coming up? Or are all of the winter online conventions on other sites?

(I got to get that Woioko boon! So cool!)

Edit: I guess it might be early to ask that question?

For physical regions, if you GM at a convention, you will have access to the boons distributed to that Mega-Region. This is consistent with the PFS GM Boon distribution model.

For online, the Online VO team and the Org Play team are looking at which of the online events will qualify as conventions and receive gift certificate and boon support, which will qualify for the Regional Support program and get boons, and which will be classed as independent events. For example, AetherCon may be classed a Convention, PbP Multi-table special as RSP, and TerraCon as an independent event. This is to enable us to keep event support and boon dissemination roughly equvilant to the physical regions.

Once we have a list of online events receiving support, we will post it in the blog, so that our community knows what level of rewards are available from particular events.

Hi, I'm just curious how players are supposed to handle a GM not progressing their SFS scenario. Despite promises that it would progress soon, we haven't had word from the GM in the discussion thread since the 29th of November, or in the Gameplay thread since the 24th of November. It's been slow since before then, with the last actual gameplay update being on the 14th of November. At least some of the players have expressed a desire to get some of their characters out if it's not moving on, but still no response.

Just curious as to the protocol and how to proceed.

Thanks!

Hi, I'm just curious how players are supposed to handle a GM not progressing their SFS scenario. Despite promises that it would progress soon, we haven't had word from the GM in the discussion thread since the 29th of November, or in the Gameplay thread since the 24th of November. It's been slow since before then, with the last actual gameplay update being on the 14th of November. At least some of the players have expressed a desire to get some of their characters out if it's not moving on, but still no response.

Just curious as to the protocol and how to proceed.

Thanks!

Per the lodge rules, lack of a post for 1 week is considered an abandoned game. For an abandoned game you can seek out another GM to take it over. What scenario are you in the middle of?

Hi, I'm just curious how players are supposed to handle a GM not progressing their SFS scenario. Despite promises that it would progress soon, we haven't had word from the GM in the discussion thread since the 29th of November, or in the Gameplay thread since the 24th of November. It's been slow since before then, with the last actual gameplay update being on the 14th of November. At least some of the players have expressed a desire to get some of their characters out if it's not moving on, but still no response.

Just curious as to the protocol and how to proceed.

Thanks!

You've done just what is needed. If a Society GM in PbP goes missing for longer than a week you let the VC's know. Which you just did. May I ask which scenario? A link would be awesome. I may be able to take of over the Gming for you.

Meloriel, a game is considered abandoned after one week of no GM posting (if a GM announces an absence, that week starts at the end of their announced absence). If you want a replacement GM, please let everyone know what scenario it is.

Here is the document prepared for how to take over an orphaned Pathfinder Society play by post game in our lodge. Almost everything there still applies to Starfinder Society.

edit: Wow, ninja'ed by several wonderful Flaxseed/Castamir people. You guys are great!

The scenario in question is 1-01 Commencement, with gameplay thread here.

meloriel wrote:

Hi, I'm just curious how players are supposed to handle a GM not progressing their SFS scenario. Despite promises that it would progress soon, we haven't had word from the GM in the discussion thread since the 29th of November, or in the Gameplay thread since the 24th of November. It's been slow since before then, with the last actual gameplay update being on the 14th of November. At least some of the players have expressed a desire to get some of their characters out if it's not moving on, but still no response.

Just curious as to the protocol and how to proceed.

Thanks!

You've done just what is needed. If a Society GM in PbP goes missing for longer than a week you let the VC's know. Which you just did. May I ask which scenario? A link would be awesome. I may be able to take of over the Gming for you.

Looks like Commencement.

I can take it over, though I would need the weekend to parse though everything and get the last of my Commencement Maps ready.

Thanks!

Looks like Commencement.

I can take it over, though I would need the weekend to parse though everything and get the last of my Commencement Maps ready.

I don't have the maps ready for that one so I'll let you take it GM Gustavef.

Thanks, guys! That was fast!

All the best!

I can take it over, though I would need the weekend to parse though everything and get the last of my Commencement Maps ready.

GM Gustavef if it can help here is my slide deck at the link here.

just curious on this, how is the alien archive chronicle handled on-line?

it requires each GM to initial it when you play a scenario.

Hey guys, it was announced yesterday that the chronicle for 1-01 is incorrect. We are aware of the problem, and will get you more information as to how we will fix this soon. This does impact already issued chronicles for this adventure.