Dead Suns AP by GM Cellion (Inactive)

Game Master GM Cellion

Sydney is currently using Second Skin (level 1 armor) and has 1 battery so I might need to buy her additional batteries (which won't be a problem.)

Does a suit need a battery to work (24 hours) or does a suit last for 24 hours by itself and can be extended for another 24 for each 20 charge battery?

Cookie bake we really fun though! I tried my hand at making Nutella Stuffed Double Chocolate Chip cookies *this is the recipe* but they turned out looking like little turds :( We all had a good laugh about it and everyone said they tasted okay even though they didn't look very visually appealing. I also made Chocolate Crinkle Cookies *here* and they came out looking exactly like the pictures.

Seems like a lot of snow so early in the season down there! Here the schools would probably be out for one day at most if there was a foot of snow. :>

Also, nice baking! I've been working on bread myself recently, graduating from barely edible rock-loafs to real bread.

As for your questions Sydney, Armor environmental protections last for 24 hours/item level on their own. My "use up a 20 charge battery, get 48 hours of air conditioning" rule is totally a house rule so you guys don't have to buy a bunch of suits of armor and cycle through them, which would be silly.

I'm in on getting the advanced med kit and other stuff. A bit expensive, but we'll definitely need it.

Let me know what I need to pay for my share.

Also, if we sell gear (an old weapon, for example), do we get 50% for it?

If, after I pay my share, I may upgrade my weapon. So I may have done one additional purchase (I just can't make it until I know what I owe).

Make sure there is some electrical tape in the med kit! ;P

In Starfinder you sell items for 10% of their purchase price.

On one hand, that means upgrading your gear doesn't let you recoup much of the previous cost. On the other hand, it means that you can find lots of valuable gear without it bringing you well above wealth-by-level. The 10% rule makes using what you find way more important.

Gotcha...I hadn't have a chance to sell anything yet. Sounds like I may need to wait to find a better weapon.

I'm not sure if we should pool our money for an Advanced Medkit or not. It'd require all of us to commit our money to it (2,700 creds), but it could come in handy. We'd have 300 credits left afterwards that we could spend on a navigator's kit (20 credits) and a Xhinti Holdings survivalist's kit (200 credits). That'd give us bonuses if we're hurt or sick, avoiding getting lost and living off the land.

What do you folks think?

That's fine with me.

Ok, let's all subtract off 488 credits, which gives us all 3 of those things Arc suggests. Isu can take the advanced med kit, who is our survival skill person and wants to take the other stuff?

@Sydney, why don't you take the 4th level armor? Your level 1 armor is... pretty sucky. You'll need longer environmental protections than what level 1 gives you.

In Starfinder you sell items for 10% of their purchase price.

On one hand, that means upgrading your gear doesn't let you recoup much of the previous cost. On the other hand, it means that you can find lots of valuable gear without it bringing you well above wealth-by-level. The 10% rule makes using what you find way more important.

I just worry that we'll run into this problem at some point. The commentary really encapsulates it:

"Whether you’re the adventuring Christmas tree of 3.X D&D, strung with every conceivable belt, ring, and magical ornament, or an Exalted 2e solar exalt with one really big daiklave, there’s a lot of pressure to select the perfect item for your build. It’s easy to get into a mindset where you absolutely, positively must have that +2 rapier of rapid sneezing. You wind up approaching your GM like a junkie in need of a fix, shaking and nervously thumbing through your inventory: Look man, if I can’t buy one or find one, my whole sneezomancer build is basically useless. You’ve got to help me!"

@Sydney, why don't you take the 4th level armor? Your level 1 armor is... pretty sucky. You'll need longer environmental protections than what level 1 gives you.

I was under the impression that we were supposed to save it for Dr. Solstarni. I imagine Dr. Muhali would probably take offense to one of us wearing that armor and expecting Dr. Solstarni to make do with our hand-me-downs.

I hope we don't need more than level 1 arms and armor for this...I'm still equipped with those, too.

I'll take 488 off my credits.

I think she should wear it. She'll probably die from exposure without it. Yeah Spectre might be in trouble too. This is metagaming, but maybe that is okay in discussion, but if Cellion gave us a heads up on the time limits of armor, that means something.

I think Sydney should wear it and we give it back to Dr. Solstarni when we find her. And let's be honest, she's probably dead.

Well, having used my funds for the group purchase, I’m out of luck for upgrades. I’ll have to deal with it.

Okay, Syd will take the level 4 armor if nobody minds

Looks like you guys have purchases sorted out, great! We're now in no-purchase territory. But I guarantee that there's plenty of gear upgrades out there on the horizon :>

----

As a big heads up for the group:

I will be traveling on vacation to Indonesia from the 16th of December through the 6th of January.

Normally, I'd try to keep some degree of updates rolling through a vacation (after all, I consider PbP posting a leisure activity). But we'll be out in some areas with very dodgy internet for a significant portion of the trip. I may update a few times during the trip, but if you don't hear from me, don't worry, we'll be back to normal schedule once I return.

And yes, the coincidence of the GM leaving to go to the jungle exactly when the party is going into the jungle is not lost on me. :D

Happy holidays! :D

Sorry for not being around, feeling under the weather and not thinking straight for games at the moment. Will be back in a few days hopefully.

A big trip! I hope you bring an armor greater than level 1! Be safe.

Sounds like a fun time! Be safe!

To clarify, is it 488 or 500 credits each?

500 each is the amount we recieved to spend.

488 is approximately the minimum amount we'd each need to contribute to the purchase of the advanced medkit, navigator's kit and survivalist's kit, if everyone agrees to their purchase.

Who here has the survival skill?

edit: Oh! I do. Though only 1 rank (total of 5). Who is better?

from Cellion: The equipment that Dr. al-Nuaf has available to you includes the following: lashunta ringwear II, carbon steel curve blade, stickybomb grenade x2, Tier 1 Antitoxin x6, Sprayflesh x6. Furthermore, Turhalu Point has charging stations for batteries available free of charge.

Spectre can you wear that armor?

Isu will take the antitoxin and sprayflesh as the combat medic.

That leaves the carbon steel curve blade and stickybomb grenades. Who wants?

Dibs on the curve blade! :P

Hmmm...that armor would certainly make me quite a battle droid. The only issue is losing two of my Dex to AC.

Current:

EAC 15 KAC 16 (+1 EAC +2 KAC from armor, +4 Dex)

With Lashunta armor:

EAC 20 KAC 22 (+8 EAC +10 KAC from armor, +2 Dex)

That's a pretty massive upgrade, but at the same time, if any of the front-liners would like dibs on it, I'll defer since I'm ranged.

Don't forget that lashunta ringwear is a heavy armor, and if you don't have proficiency you'd be taking a -4 penalty to EAC and KAC by wearing it. So, still an upgrade, but not as huge of one (I don't think you have heavy armor proficiency as a mechanic).

I actually can use it...I have Exocortex! :)

EXOCORTEX
Your exocortex grants you all of the following abilities as you advance in level.

Combat Tracking (Ex) 1st Level
Your exocortex provides you with enhanced combat ability, granting you proficiency with heavy armor and longarms.

Nice! I've made almost exclusively drone mechanics so far, so I totally forgot it did that!

Wow, I didn't realize that armor was a level 5.

Isu would take the lashunta ringwear and let spectre have his just purchased level 3 squad defiance series, but it is worse on Dexterity, with a max dex bonus of +1.

squad defiance heavy armor:
+5 eac, +8 kac, +1 max dex.

Your choice, Spec.

If you just purchased it before we came, maybe you can run back through the gateway and get a refund!

You take the good armor.

I did it in Absalom Station though!

Thanks mate, you take the defiance series. It looks really cool. If you have the core rule book, look it up. Perfect for Spectre.

Awesome...deal!

EDIT: Arc, do you want the squad armor? Is that an upgrade for you? Or do you have some fancy Solarian armor?

squad defiance heavy armor:
+5 eac, +8 kac, +1 max dex.

I'm an armor solarian, so I have to stick to light armor.

Sounds good...I think I'm the only one that can take Isu's old armor, then. Updated!

Isu was so proud of that armor, cost half of his credits after book 1. And then bam! New armor without even fighting a single battle in the one he bought.

Something about that just seems off to me. It's like Starfinder punishes people for spending their money. But what if we didn't get these two armors out of the blue and I didn't buy the new one? The tank would have been getting pummeled with a level 1 armor. A lose-lose scenario. I'm not happy about the way they did this. (Not Cellion. It seems like a game design issue).

We can figure out how to balance that next distribution. I'm happy to buy it off you for more than the 10%, which does seem very low.

I don't happen to have the funds now, though.

I'll gladly pay you next Tuesday for your armor today.

Isu was so proud of that armor, cost half of his credits after book 1. And then bam! New armor without even fighting a single battle in the one he bought.

Something about that just seems off to me. It's like Starfinder punishes people for spending their money. But what if we didn't get these two armors out of the blue and I didn't buy the new one? The tank would have been getting pummeled with a level 1 armor. A lose-lose scenario. I'm not happy about the way they did this. (Not Cellion. It seems like a game design issue).

Part of the problem is that the initial 3rd of Book 2 is one long investigation + social segment that we've now wrapped up. The writers wanted to include some gear to go with the XP you gain from all the social and skill encounters. So you end up with loot appropriate for the level without having had a chance to use your earlier equipment. Definitely some feel-bad there.

The other half of the problem is really a psychological one: Since gear only sells for 10% of the purchase price, credits feel scarce and precious. But since gear only sells for 10% of the purchase price, adventures can provide way more loot (and higher value loot) without shooting the party's wealth through the roof. Its a system that is very looting-focused rather than purchasing focused (in many ways opposite to Pathfinder, or even Starfinder Society). As a result your hard earned purchases will quickly and often be overshadowed by what you find.

On the flip side, you're picking up lots of high value loot! Things you find are often going to be relevant to you, either as upgrades or optional tools. This is very different than Pathfinder where you sold the majority of found loot in order to secure regular upgrades. In that sense its really fun.

I spent a lot of time around Starfinder's release working through my thoughts on how the economy is balanced and came to terms with it.

Here's the problem with that though!

The players have no idea what kind of loot is coming next.

I very well could have been sitting on a level 1 armor, hoping for a good loot drop, which never showed up, and then gotten demolished. I really felt forced to spend that 1300 credits on armor that I didn't use.

How can I ever spend money again on that stuff? It burned me bad.

(Spectre, you DON'T have to pay me anything. The redeeming factor here is that that at least I can help my team).

Hence why I linked that page from "Handbook of Heroes" earlier: Given that particular way of the PCs mostly collect their gear from the stuff they kill, if you have a particular aesthetic in mind or want a particular gun, you basically end up begging the GM to insert specific items into the loot for you to find, which naturally is a huge immersion-breaker. It'd be like if we were playing Pathfinder and Arcalinte was a paladin, and I eventually begged Cellion to insert a holy avenger into a random dragon's hoard for me.

I don't get why that is applicable to this, Arc.

I'm not begging for a particular type of loot.

I just spent half of my credits on an item the value of which has made mostly worthless by the very first loot given to the party.

Maybe the argument I should be making is that credits and buying things is worthless.

It's more that I'm thinking of the kind of begging I may end up doing later, just in case a devastation blade doesn't show up in the loot...

I'm all for loot sharing. I think selling loot is a huge waste in Starfinder

Separated from my rp

I know there is a rule about needing to get armor fitted so Sydney will have that done to the lashunta tempweave on their way to the planet. She also picks up two extra batteries. I assume battery 24/hour corresponds with level of armor it fits into?

Suit: 24 hours/level. 24x4=96 hours or 4 days.
Battery: 10 charges for 24 hours x4th-level armor = another 4 days(?)

Separated from my rp

I know there is a rule about needing to get armor fitted so Sydney will have that done to the lashunta tempweave on their way to the planet. She also picks up two extra batteries. I assume battery 24/hour corresponds with level of armor it fits into?

Suit: 24 hours/level. 24x4=96 hours or 4 days.
Battery: 10 charges for 24 hours x4th-level armor = another 4 days(?)

The "batteries for air conditioning" rule is 10 charges from a battery = 24 hours of air conditioning, independent of the armor's own environmental protections. It isn't multiplied by the armor's item level.

Is Isu the only person here with survival? Can I get an aid? I only have a +5 in it! I hope someone else is better or we are going to get really lost!

I don't have it, regrettably. Arc may be an enthusiastic adventurer, but he's still a bit of a city-mouse.

Sydney will only run the air conditioning when the sun is up (12 hours/day?) So she'll use 1 battery every 2 days and gain charge from the charging pack every 10 hours of movement (or 1.25 days.) She has three batteries in total. Ugh, I've never been strong at math so I'm not sure what that comes out to. Buuuut, if it's 10 charges for every 24 hours, and Sydney is only running A/C for 12, then walking the 8 hours should charge back the 5 charges lost, right?

Sydney has a +7 to Survival. Maybe we should have the player with the highest Survival bonus main roll and everyone else Aid roll? Or can we all roll and GM takes highest? Hehehe

Sydney, I think that is a good plan for you to normally roll the primary survival. But on this day 1, Isu kind of lept into action and didn't wait for the others. (And the fact that my roll was so much better also might play into this just a little :D )

Ok sounds good

I'm 4'11" and I find it difficult to paint my house. To the point I get frustrated at myself. That's all. I just needed to vent.