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Welcome to my PbP game for SFS 1-05 The First Mandate, as part of Outpost II. Hope you would have a blast!
Before we start, I would to share some of my ground rules. (In spoiler tags to not take up space.)
PbP Matters
1. This discussion thread is open for all OOC matters, so no ooc tag needed. For OOC matters in the gameplay thread, please use the [ ooc ] tag.
2. Please post at least once a weekday, and once on weekends. If you would be away, please let me know in advance where possible, and we can work something out. Otherwise, if you go missing, where necessary, I will bot your characters for the sake of the rest of everyone else. Thus, it is a good idea is to leave botting instructions for normal combat (with dice rolls), space combat and non-combat in your profile page beforehand.
3. If you have any disagreements over some of my GM calls or interpretation of the scenario, please take it to the discussion thread or, even better, pm me.
4. If you have played and/or GMed this scenario before, please do not metagame or spoil the plot. And please let me know.
5. I would have thought this would go without mentioning until I encountered this, so… It is the responsibility of the player to keep track of the game, including referencing the map on google slides. I understand that there are times where it is inconvenient to do so. In that case, please be as specific as you can as to where you wish your character to move, what actions to take, etc. If you regularly have issues with accessing the google slides, you might want to reconsider playing via PbP PFS/SFS, as there is always combat, and thus map dependent.
Normal Combat
6. Once surprise (if any) and initiative is determined, for the group of characters who can take actions, I would resolve actions in posting order, NOT initiative order. I used to do the latter but it doesn’t work that well in PbP, so am going with the former instead.
Space Combat
7. (There’s no space combat for this scenario but leaving this here for your reference in case you play with me again elsewhere.) I run space combat somewhat differently from the RAW to facilitate posting rate. I’ll roll the initiative at the start for all ships based on the respective piloting checks. Then, once it reaches your ship’s turn, everyone will post (except possibly gunnery phase; see below) but I will resolve the actions in the Engineering – Helm – Gunnery phase order. As such, while you can declare your actions in the open, please have your dice rolls in spoilers. The one exception are the gunners. Gunnery phase might need to wait for all the ship movements to finalise to determine which weapons are available for firing. So Gunners might want to hold your posting until then or set up a series of contingency actions depending on the final facing and positioning.
Character Choice
8. (Again, the following not really an issue here since no space combat.) In PFS, I’ve pretty much left the players to sort out what characters to play because only in very rare scenarios do an unoptimized party spread have a significantly adverse effect. And players do generally sort it out among themselves. However, due to the nature of space combat, it is beneficial that there are characters who can cover each of the following: (1) charisma-skills, (2) piloting, (3) engineering, (4) computer, and (5) BAB/piloting rank + dex. Of course, it is not detrimental to be lacking in one or other, but if there are 6 mystics, then we might have a problem.
Rolls and Skill Checks
9. I would do your initiative rolls, as well as perception rolls for the purpose of determining surprise (if any).
10. On knowledge checks for general information, I would usually put them in spoilers with the necessary DCs. Just go ahead to roll, and I'll trust that you would resist reading them if the roll fails (or least not to metagame). (Don’t forget that you can make knowledge checks untrained for DC10.) There might be exceptions for plot-critical information though, where I would explicitly ask for checks and only reveal based on what was rolled. As for knowledge checks to identify creatures, I would put the most basic information in spoilers as well, i.e. identity and creature type, as well as one piece of useful information. If your roll would reveal more, I’ll provide in the next post. If you wish, you can ask for what information you want.
11. On skill checks where there could be team effort involved, e.g. finding a hidden trail with survival, influencing attitude of NPCs with diplomacy, please be explicit when making the rolls whether you are attempting the check on your own, or whether you are aiding. (And take note of the pros and cons of either.) There might be situations where only one character is allowed to attempt the check (and the rest to aid) – I’ll state so explicitly if that’s the case.
12. On skill checks in general, if I feel you have roleplayed well, e.g. gave a good description of what your character does to search for a trail, came up with creative ways to befriend a hostile NPC, gave a very rousing speech, I would give bonuses, or even waive the DC altogether. :)
Roleplaying Matters
13. The maps and handouts link (at the top of the page) would display all the maps, handouts, pictures, etc as the scenario progresses. The most current page would be right on top, while previous ones would be left there for your reference. (Incidentally, Android and IOS has the Google Slides app in case you work off mobile devices.)
14. Please have your full character information up on your character's profile page for my vetting. Also, please have your stat block updated with the key information. I’m most inclined towards this particular template.
15. Finally, playing by pbp provides many advantages compared to face-to-face games, the chief one being having the time and space to flesh out your thoughts and actions. So please make use of this and have posts that are more than simply dice rolls. :)
Getting Started
Ok with that out of the way, a few tasks before we kick off.
A. Go to the Gameplay page and ninja dot, i.e. submit a post then delete it.
B. Go to the maps and handouts page and fill out the table there. (Don’t worry about the 3 boxes below the table, i.e. token, initiative and perception. I’ll take care of that.) For those coming from the previous game, I’ve ported some of your data over. Please update the rest.
C. In this Discussion thread, do your day job rolls (if any), and share whatever OOC information you would like the rest of the party to know about your character e.g. class, level, special abilities. If you have not decided what class to play, you can discuss that here as well. We’ll leave character descriptions and introductions to the gameplay thread later when we are about to start.
We’re scheduled to start on 11 Mar. See you then!
Fantastic!
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Threshe is a level 1 Soldier. I'm kind of the opposite of Kai, I think I'm solid in combat but trash outside of it.
That said I intend to try my 1d20+0 rolls on social interaction with the enthusiasm of a Eoxian raised Vesk pirate.
Kuey since I still have a re-roll after this session, and there isn't any ship combat per you I'll address the ship combat points you are making in the future. That's a good point and I should probably pick up piloting or engineering.
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Kuey since I still have a re-roll after this session, and there isn't any ship combat per you I'll address the ship combat points you are making in the future. That's a good point and I should probably pick up piloting or engineering.
With a gunnery of +3, I think Theshe would actually be fine as a secondary gunner in starship combats, especially with the computer and captain bonuses.
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Stewart is a Damaya Lashunta Operative. Should be level 2 when 11-Mar rolls around, I'm participating in a VTT con this weekend. I'll update my paizo profile page with the desired format once I get the chronicle sheets from that. I'll save the day job check until then too, though I always take 10 on that. Party role is jack of all trades.
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Well, I'm Twisted Nicknick and I will be your lawyer. We always need a goodlawyer, isn't it?
Oh, by the way, I don't have any weapon on me, of course. It's the fact of my clients. Well, I'm using some other tricks, you know, magical ones. But I don't leave any traces.
Day job: lawyer:
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Azara is a Korasha Lashunta Solarian Warrior Poet. You may have read his latest work "Scouring the Stars."
He likes to spout poet philosophy that is largely nonsense. He's good in close combat but only carries a laser pistol for range.
His usual rhythm is Stellar Rush to get into combat, a round of attacking with his Stellar Weapon then going Supernova, so if everyone can stay back at least 10' every 3 rounds that would be optimal.
He's also quite diplomatic.
No XP from either of those scenarios.
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Ally:
Faction: Dataphiles
Personal:
Promotional:
Social: Faction's Friend
Slotless: Starfinder Society Care Package(Elixir of Renewal), Marked Field Agent, Star Sugar Heartlove, True Savior of Tasch, Starfinder Insignia, Digital Presence
As this is a recall knowledge check, can we take 20 by using the Absalom Station infospere or Lorespire information network and 2 minutes of research as per the rules on recall knowledge?
https://www.aonsrd.com/Rules.aspx?Name=Recall%20Knowledge&Category=Skil ls
Hellih, I'm going to read that in HK's voice.
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You probably want to at least slot a faction boon to gain rep with a faction, Threshe.
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Boons Slotted this Adventure
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Ally: Honorbound Allies
Faction: Wayfinder's Champion
Personal:
Promotional:
Social: Faction's Friend
Starship: N/A
Slotless: Marked Field Agent, Worldwide Explorer, Starfinder Insignia, Society Contract, Claimant To Salvation
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Just for clarification...on Zo! it shows Profession (???) for Icons only...since I am an Icon, does that mean that my Profession skill does have a chance and I just got a bad role or that there are particular Profession skills he's looking for?
I'd much rather be known as a poet than a ninja warrior but don't want to waste any more time trying something that won't work.
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kuey I allowed myself to add next to the professions number of times that we succeeded with given skill - in squared brackets. So [1] means that we had 1 success. That might make it easier to calculate the cumulative penalty. Feel free to remove it if you don't see value in it.
Actually, I've already done that at the top under Successes. :)
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Sorry boss, didn't mean to get ahead of ya.
Poor Azara, the dice gods are not pleased with you.
Yeah...just out of curiosity after rolling that 1, I went back and looked at my rolls. 5 is the highest I've gotten at the party.
Off to sacrifice some gold plated dice to the mighty and capricious Dai Shrolla.
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I think my mobile browser's data saving mode has been a little over aggressive today, either that or paizo boards are slow to update. I checked Stewart's Campaign tab a couple times today expecting to see (new) if there were updates but it wasn't until I checked at my desk that I saw what I'd missed all day. I guess I'll have to get into the habit of checking the actual game posts.