Away this weekend, Bank Holiday in the UK, don't know if I'll be able to post, bot as required, not in the front line!!
Hey guys. I'm going to update the gameplay thread now, but wanted to mention two things.
First, I've been swamped with work now and have slowly come to the conclusion that this workload is going to be my new normal. I started a this and another AP while I had a lot of downtime, but now that things have picked up, I feel like I've just been treading water, which isn't fair to you. Which is to say, I'm sorry for my slow posting rate.
Second, I'm talking with someone you all know who may be willing to take over GMing this AP for me. In the meantime, I am going to continue posting and trying to keep things moving. More updates as we have them. :-)
Hi Boys and Girls, Definitely-Not-Grix here! In interest in keeping the game running and running strong, I'll be taking over GM-ing Dead Suns for Snow and taking us through the rest of this first book (after which we'll see if Snow's workload settles back down and he can pick this up).
Two comments:
1) My PbP GMing style (developed over GMing some Starfinder Society stuff and playing in a bunch of PbP) involves a non-trivial amount of pushing the action forwards in order to keep the pace going. This means I may bot or skip people in combat after 24 hours have elapsed without a post and without any warning from them. If you want to be botted, make sure you have defined botting info either in the discussion thread or in your profile (botting macros are appreciated). Ideally I hope to see everyone keeping up at least one post per day so I never have to bot anyone.
2) I won't be playing Grix after I take over GMing. This leaves the party without a dedicated HP bandaid dispenser. I don't think we need to recruit anyone new (the party is pretty big already) and its possible to cover healing needs with consumables. OTOH, if you all feel like you need the extra healing, I would not be opposed to someone rebuilding as a mystic.
Hopefully I can do the game justice as the party moves on to investigating the mysterious "DRIFT ROKH" :>
Thanks for stepping in, don't know if anyone else has the problem that the whole campaign has kind of disappeared????
Yikes!!!!
Thanks for stepping in, don't know if anyone else has the problem that the whole campaign has kind of disappeared????
Yikes!!!!
OK, worked it out now ... the Campaign's name has changed ....
Noooo Grix you are so hilarious tho! D:
I think maybe the game's name change made it go invisible but I see it on my list again.
Sad... but happy!
I had Cellion as a GM in Commencement and it was a great adventure.
I agree that Grix was pretty hilarious... He'll be missed.
I take no credit for that. That particular group of players were just a bundle of energy and laughs.
The way we're rolling dice to hit in this combat we might not need to loose GM Snow. We're doing a pretty good impression of ending it all now anyway.
Thanks GM Snow, I have really enjoyed your GMing and the game. I look forward to the next phase...
@Isu: Yep, I think sticking with Soldier until 3rd is by far the better choice. Mystic as a dip in general is pretty weak, especially since their spells and powers won't scale as you gain more levels. I mentioned mystic in case the party felt it needed the dedicated heals/support and someone wanted to do a full rebuild of their character to fill that gap.
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@Everyone: So while we're waiting on Arc and Sid to pop in with their combat actions this round, I've been going through and getting familiarized with the remainder of the 1st book of Dead Suns. Looks pretty interesting, though there's always room to make things even more engaging.
To that end, I'd like to do a bit of an informal poll. What would you say has been the most interesting part of the story so far? This can be one item or several, and it'd help me if you could explain why you liked that part. Based on people's answers, I can consider tweaking upcoming content.
Second, I think the base character background conceit of this AP (Each character wants to join the Starfinder Society) is totally on the weak side, especially with how minor of a role the Society has played so far in the story. I'm currently working on brainstorming if there's a better way to tie the party together.
Solaria is still feeling her way into the group, so to speak, and so I don't really have a favourite part of the story so far, relationships etc are still developing and this is what interests me most at the moment. I have enjoyed the banter between her and Syd and find the others quite interesting, especially how it's gonna work out between her and the more bounty hunter type members of the party.
As one of the main premises for Solaria's character was to join the Starfinder Society and see the universe .... I remember when the recruiting went ... ''join the Navy and see the world'' .. :-) I'm sort of a bit luke warm to removing it from the story or weakening it's links to the party. I guess it depends on how the 2nd & 3rd books pan out. Certainly the society does provide a background base of operations and 'home' for the party.
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I'm probably not one to answer either, being a new comer!
All I've really seen is character interaction, which has been great. Stressful but great.
Isu has no real connection to the Starfinder Society, or to anyone or anything really, since his banishment. I think he is looking for a family or something to belong to. Is this group that? Now that Arc and Isu have some differences worked out, we are getting closer.
Oh, I agree that character interaction stuff has been good so far. My question was more on which of the mechanical elements of the story (ie. the stuff written in the AP) was most engaging so far. For me, for example, it was the really unexpected eoxian in the shipping crate. It really got my speculation engine firing! Something else would be, for example, the investigation into the two litigative parties (Astral Extractions and Hardscrabble).
Do you guys (including the people who joined midway) have some stuff so far you liked in particular?
My impression as a player has been that the Starfinder Society isn't playing much of a role in the story beyond getting the party started. I haven't read ahead yet to see if it stays pretty unintegrated to the story of the party, but it certainly seems to be setting up that way. I'm not planning on weakening or removing any existing ties to the Society, though if people are inclined to pursue a stronger link to the Society, I can add more stuff in that direction.
I just want to make sure that the motivations ring clear and feel compelling (something that, as a player, I didn't feel the AP did well so far. Especially in comparison to some of the Pathfinder APs).
Whoops! I didn't realize you were waiting on me, sorry!
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Spaceship combat probably isn't as fun in PBP as it would be in a live game, but I wouldn't want to pass on it either. Certainly as a soldier I enjoy combat, because I'm not much good at anything else. I think the thing I like in rpg's games generally is the dungeon crawl, which this ship has kind of been, though it seems like it is taking us a really long time!
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Finally done with that nonsense at the hotel (Mark Wahlberg and his family were there to open their new Wahlburgers restaurant in the Mall of America)!
As for what I've enjoyed most about the game, I have to add my voice to the chorus that our interactions with each other have been the most fun. I also got a kick out of our little detour to the Cosmonastery of the Empty Orbit, where I got a chance to dig into Arcalinte's motivations a little more. Part of me feels like we need some more moments like that for the others, to sort of get in their heads. I do agree that the Society's had a pretty light touch, and I personally would like to see some stronger ties. Arcalinte's motivation IS to use the Society's knowledge and resources to make the galaxy a better place, so I'd welcome opportunities to sort of "social-climb" in it.
And I really, REALLY liked Arc and Isu's "apology" bit. I think we're well on our way to becoming Bash Brothers! :D
:>
So, yes on more Society stuff, meh on Space Combat. There's plenty of dungeon crawling to be had ahead too. Anyone else want to chime in?
@Snow: I think I've read all I need to, so I can take over whenever you're ready.
Who are we waiting on? D:
Also, can you change the owner of a Roll20 game?
Don't know to both questions...
Not sure if Snow wants to finish off the current encounter or if I should take over now. But either way I think we're just waiting on Snow.
I have edit control now in the Roll20 game, so no worries there.
!0 minute break for Arc is OK with Solaria.
Wow! Even while sickened and fatigued I actually managed to hit! Meditation works, guys! :D
It only worked because you are a solarian and you can moved the dice with you powers ... ;-}
Might I suggest that if there are no Bot instructions, that the botted tries to provide covering fire .. as it seems a reasonably 'safe' option that at least can aid the party... either covering fire or harry fire.
Just a thought .....
To Bot Solaria, her first option is to talk, her second is to use Clever Feint to aid her allies from range.
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As a GM myself, I can tell you it is an extreme pain to bot a PC. You have to look up their weapon, figure out their bab, look at their attributes. Spells are worse cause then you have to figure out DCs. It is time consuming and waste of time and the GM's job is already really time consuming. I think Cellion does it right, if someone doesn't attack, it is their fault and they are delayed or skipped. If everyone put a single line in the character's headers (like Isu if you need an example) it would make Cellion's job much easier.
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Does anyone have a good online resource for Starfinder? I need to figure out what sickened and fatigued are before I take my next turn.
In pathfinder it is super easy to look online.
For Starfinder I am struggling to find it. I don't want to have to carry my core rulebook around with me at all times. :)
Try this Isu
My thoughts about botting are basically: If someone knows they'll be away and not able to post for an extended period, I am happy to bot them if they give me some instructions. Otherwise though, I use botting only as a last resort. If someone just isn't posting, I'd rather not use their characters resources or put their character in danger unless its absolutely critical to the party's survival.
I would absolutely prefer not to bot anyone. It can make for disagreements and "thats not what my character would have done" situations, its pretty time consuming as Isu points out, but most importantly PbP is WAY more fun if everyone is engaged and posting every day. If I'm botting people half the time, that's not fun for me and less fun for everyone else too.
That said, if you absolutely need to have fallback botting procedures (if you have some reason you can't maintain one post per 24 hours due to being too busy for example), let me know and put a macro somewhere in your profile page describing what you do and giving me some dice roll actions to copy.
@Isu: I use www.starjammersrd.com or starfinder.dragonlash.com
Neither of them are organized quite like I'd like, but they have the info available.
Whoa. I think you and I posted at exactly the same time Solaria. Each time I refresh discussion our posts switch in order. Hope that doesn't keep happening!
Whoa. I think you and I posted at exactly the same time Solaria. Each time I refresh discussion our posts switch in order. Hope that doesn't keep happening!
:-)
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Sickened and fatigued at the same time give a -3 to hit and damage. There are other things too but that is most relevant.
Cellion, are you sure that failing a single savings throws put someone at the weakened state already? Unless the disease specifically says it skips the latent step, the normal thing would be for the recently acquired disease to be latent and not bloom into the weakened state until 24 hour passes and the PC fails the next savings throw.
Indeed it skips the latent state! Its pretty brutal!
Cellion, I got an email from Paizo staff the other day that said you should have GM permissions now for this campaign. Wanted to let you know in case you hadn't seen it.
Awesome, thanks Snow. I was just thinking about whether I needed to request that.
Just so you're all aware, I had a chance to talk to Sydney and she'll be pausing her involvement in this campaign for a while: she's pretty overloaded with other games and real-life stuff. Since the campaign is balanced around a 4-man party, we can continue on with 5. This leaves Sydney an opening to return when her schedule clears up a bit.
As a bit of a heads up, with one party member down (not to mention Grix, who is probably taking a nice long nap on the shuttle right now :>), this next part might be a bit more challenging than stuff thus far. So be aware and be careful!
(Psst. Isu and Arc are still sickened and fatigued!)