[SFS] 1-12: Ashes of Discovery - Elinnea (Inactive)

Game Master Elinnea

Player Name/Alias: Hmm
Character Name: Bat Elf
SFS Character Number: 14900-3
Race, Class, Level: Elf, Operative, 1
Day job: Profession Crime Fighter 10+12 = 22

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Boons Slotted this Adventure
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Ally: Basic Hireling Set 4
Faction: Exo-Guardians Champion
Personal: Pathfinder Legacy Elf Boon
Promotional: T-Shirt for Nova Reroll
Social: Faction’s Friend
Starship: Hero of the Stars
Slotless:
Starfinder Insignia
Marked Field Agent
Star Sugar Heartlove!!!

★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★

By the way, I'm starting to love this silly character!

★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★

Does everyone else have Batting Botting Spoilers on their characters? Remember that these are time savers for the players themselves as well as the GM! If you format them in advance, you can copy & paste on busy days!

♫ Na nana na nana Bat Elf! ♫

Player Name/Alias: Redelia
Character Name: Faria Sunburst
SFS Character Number: 184425-703
Race, Class, Level: Human Solarion 1 (divine champion, priest)
Day job: none
Starting reputation: Second Seekers (L.E.) 2

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Boons Slotted this Adventure
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Faction: Second Seekers
Social: Faction’s Friend
Slotless:
Marked Field Agent
Star Sugar Heartlove!!!

So for the purchase of the healing serum, I just updated my character sheet. Is this the correct procedure? Or do I need to wait for specific gameplay to occur?

To buy stuff during the adventure, you usually would say something in gameplay explaining what you're doing. For example, "Faria stops at the shop before the party leaves and purchases extra ammunition for her ***."

Now I just need the slotted boons for Zac (luckily, with a relatively inexperienced character you don't have many options, so this part's easy!) and the initiative and perception bonuses from Faria and Balthazar.

There's also a white-furred token on the marching order slide that I'm not sure who it belongs to. Is there a stowaway on board? Or could Faria secretly be a ysoki in disguise?

Any good captain should know when it is better to follow orders than to give them. Bot me instructions in profile under spoiler.

Updated Perception and Initiative for Balthazar as well.

In terms of marching order, Faria is built exclusively for melee, so we probably want her close to the front. I don't want to move others, so thought we might talk about this here.

The only boon I have is the welcome boon "Elixir of Renewal".

You also for free get a faction boon.

The white furred token is my attempt to create a token for Zac. I switched the avatar image to that one, but for some reason it has switched back. And I can't seem to switch it again.

As for marching order, Zac is much better with range than melee, so he would prefer not to be in the front, unless it's an interesting puzzle!

Yes, every new character gets one faction champion boon for free, so if you're championing the Wayfinders faction you have the "Wayfinders Champion" boon in the faction slot, which is what lets you gain reputation with that faction. You can later choose to purchase other faction champion boons if you want, but after the first one they cost 2 Fame. If you have more than one champion boon, you can then choose which one to slot for any given scenario. (This is one major way that SFS is different from PFS.)

To be clear, do you want to use the white-furred ysoki or the somewhat-upset-looking ratfolk for your token? Either one is fine, I just don't want to delete the wrong one.

So... who wants to step back from the front line?

Me!

I, Bat Elf will take rear guard!

These are our current assignments.

Captain: Balthazar
Engineer: Zac
Gunners: Faria, Sharmain
Pilot: Ratatat
Science Officer: Bat Elf

However, unless I misunderstood the character sheets, both our gunners are at +1 from their BAB/piloting rank with no DEX bonus. I'd suggest having at least one gunner with a bit more of a bonus to their gunnery, so perhaps adjusting the assignments to the following...

Captain: Faria
Engineer: Zac
Gunners: Sharmain, Ratatat (+5)/Bat Elf (+4)
Pilot: Ratatat (+9)/Bat Elf (+8)
Science Officer: Balthazar

For Ratatat and Bat Elf, one can pilot and the other can gun. I'm okay either way.

The major bummer with these assignments, however, is that Balthazar is at +1 for computers when he really is better suited for Captain...

Oh and of course we can keep the original assignments and see how it goes, then rearrange later as needed.

Let’s go with the original assignment for the first round so that Balthazar can lead off with a taunt and Bat Elf has a chance of getting decent scans. I also suggest that in Round One that Zac also attempt to get good scans, serving as a second ship officer, because there won’t be much in the way of ship’s damage yet, and good scans provide the needed intel to work.

After Round 1, we can flip out to the revised assignments with either Bat Elf or Ratatat taking pilot and the other one taking lead gun on the Pegasus turret.

Does this make sense?

For whomever is Captain, here are my suggestions of where to assign the bonus from the Pegasus nodes:

First Round:
1) Pilot
2) Scans

Get those good scans in early! And winning the pilot initiative is very useful indeed.

Subsequent Rounds;
1) Pilot
2) Lead Gunner

I prefer the white furred Ysoki rather then the angry Ratfolk token.

I'm still trying to figure out how it let me use the white furred Ysoki as my avatar image, and why it reverted the next day.

So what is the "Wayfinders Champion" boon, and where do I find a description of it? i.e. What does it do?

So what is the "Wayfinders Champion" boon, and where do I find a description of it? i.e. What does it do?

This Faction boon allows the character to gain Reputation with the Wayfinders faction. A character with this boon slotted at the end of a successfully completed scenario gains Reputation as detailed in the primary and secondary success conditions of that scenario. A character gains no Reputation unless they have a Faction boon slotted.

Check the factions section of the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide. It should be in there.

As to marching order, I am fine with where I currently am but happy to move to the back if preferred. I am definitely not a front liner.

both our gunners are at +1 from their BAB/piloting rank with no DEX bonus

Yes, I was looking at that the other day and really do not understand why I did not put anything into Dex. It makes little sense. Sigh.

Numbat — I suggest that you make that 17 into a 16 and move that 1 anywhere else. It’s more efficient with 5th level leveling to have only 16s or 18s in the high stat.

Zac — Is that white-furred ysoki an actual avatar choice now on Paizo’s site? Did they finally add Starfinder avatars? If they haven’t, you could go for one of the mouse avatars. There’s a lovely white mouse in the animals section of the avatars.

As for naming the ship, it’s a Pegasus class, but I’m calling it the Batmobile. The rest of you can of course give it some other name — Bat Elf won’t stop you — but that is what she will be calling it!

Numbat — I suggest that you make that 17 into a 16 and move that 1 anywhere else.

If I understand correctly that will need to wait until this game is over and I can rebuild? I haven't really looked ahead to how such things work. Wouldn't having the 17 allow for my first stat increase to reach an 18? Is it different in Starfinder?

I was messing around with the avatar image when I clicked something and it asked for a file. So I found a nice picture of a ysoki on line (it was somewhere on the Paizo site) and uploaded it. And that image replaced the angry rat on my past posts, and on new ones. I then used the image to create the token. The next day, the image had reverted to the old angry rat, and I can't find the upload link anymore. Odd.

If you apply a stat increase to a 16 or a 17, you get 18 in either case.

I go to my family dinner night last night and log on to find 18 posts since yesterday. I love this table already, Also I agree with BatElf with her recommended First rounds of Combat. I can help out with the Guns +3 or Captain positions as I have no ranks in Engineering or Computers. I also would be a lousy choice for Pilot +2 at this time too.

Sounds like we have a heading!

@Zac: Are you using the Paizo Campaign Tools extension? It has an option for uploading custom avatars, but it only displays it for you; it doesn't actually change the avatar that anybody else sees. It also wouldn't appear if you then use a different browser without the extension. Maybe that's what happened the next day?

If that's not it, I dunno, heh.

@Sharmain: Yeah, the ability score increase is different in Starfinder. Every five levels you pick four ability scores to increase, and they each go up by 2 if they're less than 17, or by 1 if they're 17 or higher. So whether you start with a 16 or a 17, the first time you get to increase it it'll go up to 18 regardless. The rules are on page 26 of the core rulebook.

But yes, you can rebuild for free until you play at 2nd level, and technically that should happen between games. 1 point shouldn't make a big difference right now.

@Everyone: You may have noticed that my posting slows down over the weekend. I generally have a lot going on so I can't be available as frequently on Saturdays and Sundays. Just FYI. But I'm glad to see we have a healthy discussion going on here! I should be able to get your next update by this evening.

Paizo Campaign Tools? Ah, that must be what happened. Sigh... What's the point if only you can see the avatar image?

OK, I decided I really didn't like angry ratman, so I picked a different avatar image. Technically it's a weasel not a rat, but I like it better. I'll keep the old white-ysoki token for now unless people think it will be confusing?

That one will be fine!

And yeah, it would be nice if we got real Starfinder avatars. All of my Starfinder characters on the forums are of the "squint-and-it-kinda-looks-right" variety.

Well, I had tremendous difficulty figuring out how to represent Bat Elf, a good looking elven woman in mask — and then I saw the bat avatar and realized that was all that I needed.

My real find was Alfred’s avatar. Incidentally, I only picked up Alfred so that I could have someone filming Bat Elf’s adventures for her fans, but it looks like the skill choice for that ally is a good choice if he can back up and assist Sharmain!

I may not be able to check back later today so I am going to post my action out of order and use the spoiler tag.
I look forward to seeing how our first round of starship combat transpires.

That's fine as well. The main difficulty with gunnery is that you don't know how far away you will be, so you might be out of the first range increment. But I'll adjust that if need be.

(Luckily, on the Pegasus all the light laser cannons have the same damage, so as long as you get to be in one of those firing arcs, the roll would be the same. And the turret can fire in any arc. It's really convenient for pbp, hehe.)

That's fine as well. The main difficulty with gunnery is that you don't know how far away you will be, so you might be out of the first range increment. But I'll adjust that if need be.

(Luckily, on the Pegasus all the light laser cannons have the same damage, so as long as you get to be in one of those firing arcs, the roll would be the same. And the turret can fire in any arc. It's really convenient for pbp, hehe.)

I had not thought of the range increment. Sigh.

I did note that all the single arc weapons were the same which saved me having to type up multiple options. I was quite happy about that.

Unless this has changed, I was shocked to learn that by a strict reading, the captain's bonus can't apply to the piloting initiative check. That initiative check is not technically a 'crew action.'

Do we have enough scans? If so, Bat Elf and Balthazar should switch to guns, and let either Faria or Sharmain go Captain in the next round.

It looks like Faria has the better skill set for Captain. Sharmain can stand by for now and contemplate the additional training she needs before her next mission.

Dice! The online dice app seems to be doing as good a job as I often do only more consistently. Sigh.

This could be a very long space battle, but at least it has more flavour than most of the ones I've experienced at the table. Thank you team, I am enjoying this new (for me) mode of play.

Sharmain’s laser blasts harmlessly out into space. (Note, the light laser cannon is only short range, so its range is 5 hexes and I’m giving you a -2 to attack for every increment beyond that. The coilgun is long range, so no problems there.)

I understand the range issue and that basically I am hoping for a 20 (rather than a 4). I currently believe that the number of shots taken is not a concern, or do I need to be worried about power use?

Also, is there a way for us to catch this thing alive? I don't think we have any nets or tractor beam or anything useful and really nowhere to put it once we had it held. I like the idea though, so if we can find a creative way to capture it, I am all for that solution.

Yup, you're not doing anything wrong. I was more trying to make sure the entire crew understood. There's no problem with taking shots even if they're rather unlikely to hit.

P.S. That was an excellent use of a reroll by Balthazar! It only increased by 2 but that was enough.

As for taking it alive I don't see a way to do it. That thing is basically as big as our ship, and as Sharmain pointed out, we have no real way of capturing it, nor of transporting it if we could.

I think capturing one would be an expedition in itself. It would require a large ship for transportation, custom gear (ship sized tranq guns?), maybe a second ship to do the capture. Actually, that would probably make a fun adventure (Hatari! in Space).

I am curious where our players (and GM) are based. I am in the Greater Seattle area of Washington state.

I'm in the Eastern timezone of the US. I'm a stay-at-home mom, so I'm able to check in quickly throughout the day.

West Coast Northern California. Same time zone as Numbat

Thailand and/or Hong Kong but currently back in the states visiting family and friends in San Francisco.

Silicon Valley (San Jose) California.

So many west coast folks! I live in Wisconsin.

Minneapolis for me. I’m in the Central timezone. So right now we’re all in the Northern US — as far as PBP is concerned, we’re pretty much all in the same timezone. My vision of PBP timezones is pretty broad. There’s basically four main ones: 1) the Americas (N&S), 2) Africa / Europe / Middle East, 3) Asia, and 4) Australia / New Zealand.

I would love to bring the Whelp back alive and if Charli were here, she’d devote all her time and energy to that. Bat Elf is not unsympathetic to that cause, but she’s more worried about the greater mission. Bat Elf’s thought: disable it, and then get word to the Starfinder Society of its coordinates. Perhaps notify the Xenowardens as a favor and see what they can do.

Hmm

Thank you all for appeasing my curiosity, which really was more where than when. I find it interesting that NCal is so heavily represented.

I love PBP. It’s such a great medium for developing a character’s backstory, even when you’re an NPC ally. Alfred now has a backstory in his profile.

I'm getting ready for Origins, which starts tomorrow. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to post, or even if I'll have the energy to post, so please bot me if I'm holding things up. I will return on Sunday if I don't post before then.