So. I got us an event number over the weekend. I gave them Firday as a start date, but I don't see any harm in starting early if we're all squared away.
In order to play, I'll need the following information:
1) Player name:
2) Character name:
3) SFS#-Character#:
4) Faction:
5) Day Job (if any):
6) Have you played/GM'd this scenario before?
And if you want me to fully complete your chronicle sheets, I'll need all of this:
Chronicle: What chronicle number will this be for your character?
Player name: Your name, as you want it to appear on the chronicle
Character name: The name of your character
Organized play #-#: Your society play and character numbers
Faction: Characters Faction slotted
XP: Your starting XP
Fame: Your starting fame
Credits: opening credits before purchases
Day job: Your day job skill and roll.
Reputation: Which factions you have reputations with (and how much) before participating in this scenario.
Boons: Any boons you have slotted. (you may change these after the briefing)
Purchases: Any purchases you wish to make from your initial funds, before the start of the game (you may make purchases after the briefing)
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Player: JamesMartin
Character: Steev'Irwin
SFS # 1904-705
Faction: Wayfinder
Day Job:
I have GM'd and played this one. I'll keep my meta-knowledge to myself!
Chronicle # 3
Player name: James Martin
Starting XP: 2
Fame 4
Credits: 32
Reputation: Wayfinders 4
Boons Slotted:
Ally:
Faction:
Personal:
Promotional:
Social:
Starship: Hero of the Stars
Slotless: Starfinder Insignia
Purchases: none
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1) Player name: Farol
2) Character name: Hellih
3) SFS#-Character#: 2359780-701
4) Faction: Second Seekers (Jadnura)
5) Day Job (if any): NA
6) Have you played/GM'd this scenario before? No
And if you want me to fully complete your chronicle sheets, I'll need all of this:
Chronicle: What chronicle number will this be for your character? 2
Player name: Your name, as you want it to appear on the chronicle: Farol
Character name: The name of your character: Hellih
Organized play #-#: Your society play and character numbers: 2359780-701
Faction: Characters Faction slotted: Second Seekers(Jadnura) Champion
XP: Your starting XP: 1
Fame: Your starting fame: 2
Credits: opening credits before purchases: 822
Day job: Your day job skill and roll. NA
Reputation: Which factions you have reputations with (and how much) before participating in this scenario:
Acquisitives: 1
Second Seekers (LE): 1
Second Seekers (Jadnura): 2
Boons: Any boons you have slotted. Second Seekers(Jadnura) Champion
Purchases: Any purchases you wish to make from your initial funds, before the start of the game (you may make purchases after the briefing). None for now
Other bric a brac.
I'm on US east coast time. I will try to get posts up morning, afternoonish, and evening, work and real life permitting. If I suspect that I won't be able to post for a day, I'll try to let you know.
I haven't DM'd in a few years and I'm new to Starfinder. Per SFS policy I am obliged to try to run everything RAW. I expect we'll talk about rules at least once. And hopefully I won't be too defensive.
As mentioned previously, the scenario includes starship combat, and has an Exo-Guardian faction tag. Also, hopefully without spoilering too much, I'd advise you to be prepared for all ill effects that combat might impose on your character, not just HP and SP damage.
Right now the player roster looks like
John Woodford, Steev'Irwin, Bigrin, phillipjcormier, Farol, and Nick Wasko.
Wow! You guys on are on. I'm off to work.
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1) Player name: philipjcormier
2) Character name: Alzandre Dufau
3) SFS#-Character#: 55792-701
4) Faction: Wayfinders
5) Day Job (if any):
6) Have you played/GM'd this scenario before? no/no
And if you want me to fully complete your chronicle sheets, I'll need all of this:
Chronicle: What chronicle number will this be for your character?: 5
Player name: philipjcormier
Character name: Alzandre Dufau
Organized play #-#: 55792-701
Faction: Wayfinders
XP: 4
Fame: 8
Credits: 1605
Day job: (see above)
Reputation: Wayfinders: 4
Boons: Wayfinder's Champion; Welcome to Starfinder (Society Boon: spellgem cashe (1/3 used; comprehend languages and life bubble only)); Faction's Friend(Social Boon; limited use(0/3)); Marked Field Agent(Slotless boon); Hero of the Stars(starship bonus)
Purchases: None at this time.
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1) Player name: Nick Wasko
2) Character name: Hermena
3) SFS#-Character#: 142160-702
4) Faction: Acquisitives
5) Day Job (if any):
6) Have you played/GM'd this scenario before? No
Chronicle: Character Chronicle #2
Player name: Nick Wasko
Character name: Hermena
Organized play #-#: 142160-702
Faction: Acquisitives
XP: 3
Fame: 5
Credits: 727
Day job: See above
Reputation: Acquisitives 5
Boons (pre-briefing):
Ally:
Faction: Acquisitives Champion
Personal: Sarcesian Admittance (Chronicle #5 from SFS# 142160-701)
Promotional:
Starship: Aeon Caster Launcher Upgrade (may not use, but if we have a gunner with higher Mysticism ranks and Wisdom than Piloting/BAB it could be useful)
Social:
Slotless: Rebuilding Nakondis
Purchases (pre-briefing): None yet
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Kai Mixti here, data slicer extraordinaire! There's no computer that has yet withstood the wily caresses of my datajack.
1) Player name: bigrin42
2) Character name: Kai Mixti
3) SFS#-Character#: 552459-701
4) Faction: Dataphiles
5) Day Job (if any): none
6) Have you played/GM'd this scenario before? nope
Chronicle: What chronicle number will this be for your character?: 3
Player name: bigrin42
Character name: Kai Mixti
Organized play #-#: 52459-701
Faction: Dataphiles
XP: 2
Fame: 4
Credits: 1605
Day job: none
Reputation: dataphiles: 4
Boons:
Ally -
Faction - DAT
Personal -
Promotional - Starfinder t-shirt
Social -
Starship - emergency resupply
Slotless - elixir of renewal, marked field agent, star sugar heartlove
Purchases: None at this time.
The party so far :
Kai Mixti -- lashunta operative 1
Hermena -- sarcesian soldier 2
Alazandre Dufau -- human technomancer 2
Hellih/HK -- Android Mechanic 1
Steev'Irwin -- vesk soldier 1
John's character -- L2.0 human ace pilot hit-and-run soldier, or a human L1.2 outlaw exocortex mechanic.
That will put us squarely in the 1-2 tier.
James, since you've played and run this scenario, do you have some cool GM boon or something to get credit, or are you in this for the joy of the game? (And I do trust you to keep meta-knowledge under your cap.)
Nick, what's the deal on this boon? I am intrigued. (You might want to spoiler your reply.)
Oooo. Do any of your PCs have a relationship with Zigvigix? Have any of your PCs played in 1-01 The Commencement?
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1) Player name: John Woodford
2) Character name: Patterson LXII
3) SFS#-Character#: 67750-701
4) Faction: Acquisitives
5) Day Job (if any): Foregoing; applying to True Savior of Tasch
6) Have you played/GM'd this scenario before? No
7) Chronicle #4
8) Faction slotted: Acquisitives
9) XP: 3
10) Reputation: Acquisitives - 6
Wayfinders - 1
11) Fame: 6
Boons: True Savior of Tasch, Marked Field Agent
I've played Commencement.
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Hermena has not played The Commencement.
Nick, what's the deal on this boon? I am intrigued. (You might want to spoiler your reply.)
Sure thing - Hermena played through Against the Aeon Throne in campaign mode. She's not high enough level to get the benefits of her chronicle sheet for AP #8 ("Escape from the Prison Moon"), but her AP #7 ("The Reach of Empire") chronicle sheet offers two boons:
Mystical starship weapon property - When attempting a gunnery check with a mystical weapon, which is a hybrid device, a gunner can use ranks in Mysticism in place of her base attack bonus or ranks in Piloting, and her Wisdom modifier in place of her Dexterity modifier.
Once the first four boxes on this boon are marked, you've dedicated substantial time to rebuilding Madelon's Landing. During this time, you've picked up some skills from the colonists you've worked beside and corresponded with. You can always attempt a Life Science check untrained to identify average creatures. If you already have Life Science trained, you instead gain a +1 bonus on all such checks to identify creatures.
Once all eight boxes are checked, Madelon's Landing is completely repaired. Thanks to your efforts, between adventures you can visit the colony and purchase any piece of equipment from the Starfinder Core Rulebook up to item level 4 from Madelon's Landing with a 10% discount.
Just to reiterate, since we've got 3 soldiers in the party, I'm not married to using Hermena if the group feels a level 3 healer mystic would be more useful.
You guys might want to hash out your starship roles and which frame you'll take, Pegasus or Drake.
Also settle Nick's character, please. The mystic won't change you out of tier 1-2.
Since everyone's checked in , and assuming you settle roles and Nick, I'm guessing you won't mind if I kick us off later tonight.
Nick, thanks for the low down on the boons. How'd you like Aeon Throne?
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You guys might want to hash out your starship roles and which frame you'll take, Pegasus or Drake.
Also settle Nick's character, please. The mystic won't change you out of tier 1-2.
If the party doesn't care, I'll default to using Hermena; if at least 2 people say they'd prefer to have a healer before we kick off, I'll change to my mystic.
I'd like to know what the briefing looks like before fully committing to a starship, but since we have 2 Hero of the Stars boons and Hermena's Aeon Caster upgrade I'm leaning towards a Pegasus. It will give us more versatility, and we can use our boons to offset some of the weapon/armor deficiencies.
Hermena has +8 Piloting and is best equipped to serve as a pilot or gunner. My mystic isn't well suited to starship combat, but he has +9 Diplomacy and can serve as a Captain if needed.
Nick, thanks for the low down on the boons. How'd you like Aeon Throne?
The adventures were a blast. My one complaint was that it could have gone longer/further. There are a lot of caveats built into the plot to allow level 1-6 characters to interfere with Azlanti interests without provoking the entire empire. I know it's necessary to maintain the Empire as a major antagonist moving forward, but it did have a bit of a "status quo is God" vibe to it which made us feel like we didn't really impact the Aeon Throne all that much.
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So it looks like the best layout would be:
Captain: Alzandre (most overlapping skills for using the "aid another" encourage action)
Engineer: Hellih (+12 Engineering)
Science Officer: Kai (+12 Computers)
Pilot: Patterson LXII (+10 Piloting)
Gunner 1: Hermena
Gunner 2: Steev'Irwin
How does that sound? And do I have a second on the Pegasus (barring a briefing that emphasizes combat)?
Hey, I put a link to the campaign handouts on the campaign description page and attached to my icon's info line. Seems to work for me when I test it, but I thought the other links worked as well. Can one of you please give it a try nd let me know? Thanks.
Yes, the crew list is the kasathans.
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Hermena, had a question for you about _Aeon Throne_. A while back, I'd brought this up elsewhere on the boards:
That reminds me of another question. From the same page:
While Near Space worlds tend to be closer to the galactic center (and, incidentally, to the Pact Worlds) and the systems of the Vast tend to be farther out, the true difference between the regions lies in the density of so-called “Drift beacons.” These mysterious objects, sometimes spontaneously generated and sometimes placed by priests of Triune, help navigation systems orient ships in the Drift. While placing a single Drift beacon on a world isn’t enough to convert a Vast world to Near Space status, placing many in that general region of space can cause the shift, and thus it’s possible to find pockets of Near Space worlds all the way out to the galactic rim, as well as uncharted zones considered part of the Vast near the galaxy’s core.That implies that a Drift beacon is a Drift beacon is a Drift beacon, regardless of who placed it or how it came to be. So if it's only beacon density that determines whether a world is in Near Space or the Vast, how is it that the Azlanti Star Empire is in the Vast? Do all of their worlds lack the critical density of Drift beacons? And does that mean that it takes them 5d6 days to go between their own worlds?
Was this addressed?
Hermena, had a question for you about _Aeon Throne_. A while back, I'd brought this up elsewhere on the boards:
Was this addressed?That reminds me of another question. From the same page:
While Near Space worlds tend to be closer to the galactic center (and, incidentally, to the Pact Worlds) and the systems of the Vast tend to be farther out, the true difference between the regions lies in the density of so-called “Drift beacons.” These mysterious objects, sometimes spontaneously generated and sometimes placed by priests of Triune, help navigation systems orient ships in the Drift. While placing a single Drift beacon on a world isn’t enough to convert a Vast world to Near Space status, placing many in that general region of space can cause the shift, and thus it’s possible to find pockets of Near Space worlds all the way out to the galactic rim, as well as uncharted zones considered part of the Vast near the galaxy’s core.That implies that a Drift beacon is a Drift beacon is a Drift beacon, regardless of who placed it or how it came to be. So if it's only beacon density that determines whether a world is in Near Space or the Vast, how is it that the Azlanti Star Empire is in the Vast? Do all of their worlds lack the critical density of Drift beacons? And does that mean that it takes them 5d6 days to go between their own worlds?
When I played in Against the Aeon Throne we were doing a speed run, trying to get the whole AP done in 3 days. Because were moving at breakneck speed we didn't stop to consider that point, and our GM didn't go into the details. I remember it did take quite a few days to travel between the planets in Azlanti space, and one of the plot points was that the main villain was investigating alternative faster-than-light travel mechanisms that would allow the Azlanti to cover vast distances without using the Drift. It doesn't close the plot hole of why a galactic military as strong as the Azlanti hasn't invaded the more "fertile ground" of the pact worlds (it should be easier for the Azlanti to approach and attack the Pact Worlds than for the Pact to launch an effective counterattack), but it's something.
Regarding the Azlanti -- being xenophobic perhaps they actively work to limit drift beacons in their space, thus exchanging inconvenient travel for isolation.
Agreed Absalom Station should be a giant target. One consideration against massive attack is the random nature of drift travel. It would be hard to coordinate a fleet attack. The units would arrive piecemeal rather than simultaneously.
Steev'Irwin hasn't checked in the game thread. I sent him a PM.
I'm likely to be slow posting this weekend anyway. Easter, family, spring cleaning.
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Regarding the Azlanti -- being xenophobic perhaps they actively work to limit drift beacons in their space, thus exchanging inconvenient travel for isolation.
Agreed Absalom Station should be a giant target. One consideration against massive attack is the random nature of drift travel. It would be hard to coordinate a fleet attack. The units would arrive piecemeal rather than simultaneously.
From p. 151 of Pact Worlds:
All of this is useful for individual ships but adds complications for fleets or caravans attempting to arrive at the same time, let alone in the same formation. In these situations, multiple vessels can “slave” their Drift engines to one another, effectively becoming a single entity for purposes of travel time and arrival position. The downside to this “mass Drifting” is that it forces all of the component ships to use the lowest Drift engine rating of the group. Only a few militaries have developed specific master control vessels capable of circumventing this restriction and moving entire armadas quickly and coherently.
I missed that in Pact Worlds. I guess there's no reason that Absalom Station shouldn't be host to the invader of the month club.
Farol, nice twist with HK.
Steev, glad you're still with us.
Work will be a bear for a few days. May be Friday before consistent posting resumes, but I will post as I am able.
In game, you've got days in the Drift. Plenty of time to RP without the DM getting in the way if you so desire.
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JW, Nick, I'm not ignoring the faction or VC question. This scenario is short on details about the kalos, but indicates that they'll show up in a future adventure.
So, I'm not going to guess about the VC or factions of the kalos, for fear of breaking future canon.
If I was running a home-brew I would totally run with all of your questions to create leads for future story lines.
So it looks like we may be headed for spaceship combat. If you aren't familiar with ship combat, this link will take you to some nifty notecards on the different ship combat roles.
Each round is broken into 3 pieces.
1. Engineering.
2. Pilot and Sci Officer
3. Gunnery
Captains can jump in at any time, but only one action per round.
Last posted list of ship roles:
Captain: Alzandre (most overlapping skills for using the "aid another" encourage action)
Engineer: Hellih (+12 Engineering)
Science Officer: Kai (+12 Computers)
Pilot: Patterson LXII (+10 Piloting)
Gunner 1: Hermena
Gunner 2: Steev'Irwin
You can of course swap roles at the beginning of each round.
To move things along I'll roll the initiative for both ships, otherwise the pilot phase takes twice as long. Occasionally I'll be rolling during the engineering phase.
There's a battle map here. I've placed the ship counters adjacent to the PC and H positions.
Patterson, the map is fragile in that it is very easy to accidentally move the background instead of your ship. Please be careful.
If anyone can tell me how to lock the background down, I'd be grateful. Ooo. New idea to try.
Just to clarify, the beacon is just a first step. It will have the (encrypted) coordinates of the Struggle's Scholar.
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btw. Sorry for not posting during the last 2 days. I was under the impression that we have someone to be the face of a team :P So I waited for someone to respond to the Vesk ship.
It is a good thing that we are heading to an empty ship in the space;) As diplomacy is not something that we excel at :P