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Hey everyone, welcome back. I am so exctied to see most of you back for another game. I think you're an awesome group and i look forward to this scenario.\
We will wait untill everyone has signed in on here and gameplay page. Don't need to re-introduce yourselves, but feel free to interact. I will most likely be starting this up on the 13th of May.
Please post character info as well as SFS number, day job, faction and boons when you post your sign-up.
Player name:
Character name:
SFS#-Character#:
Faction:
Day Job (if any):
Have you played/GM'd this scenario before?
Thank you for your time.
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Hi again GM :)
Valkyr13 is back, however she's had a quick refresh to reset her skills and i've done some other tweaks (changing fighting style and theme).
Player name: Virtual Tao
Character name: Valkyr13
SFS#-Character#: 2362068-702
Faction: Exo-Guardians
Day Job (if any):
Have you played/GM'd this scenario before? Nope
Quick question... having completed Red Planet, does that mean Valkyr13 now has enough fame to slot the Exo-Guardian faction boon to earn rep with them?
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Kallus is in..
Player:Shadow Bloodmoon
Character: Kallus Harridan
SFS: 119796-701
Faction Slot: Wayfinders
Starting XP: 6
Starting Fame: 12
Starting Credits: 2275
Day Job: I'll be using True Savior of Tasch
Reputation:
Wayfinders: 10
Acquisitives: 1
Second Seekers (LE): 2
Boons:
Ally: High Society Influence (Ykris, Iteration-177, Naiaj, Royo, Zo!)
Faction: Wayfinders Champion, Second Seekers (LE) Champion
Personal: Dwarven Admittance,Halfling Allowance
Promotional: None
Social: Factions Friend (x3),Budding Media Celebrity, Honorary Spider, AbadarCorp Augementations (x3), AbadarCorp Acquaintence
Starship: Hero of the Stars (x1)
Slotless: Starfinder Insignia, Marked Field Agent, Salvation’s Delver (x1), True Savior of Tasch (0/5)
Unidentified: Journey to Scoured Stars Segment 1
Note: Slotted ones are not struckthrough.
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Apologies, GM Tealk. I've been doing a lot of humming and hawing about this character (not to mention a busy weekend). I think the best thing for me to do is tough it out and see how the character develops. If anyone has suggestions for gear, though, that would be greatly appreciated. :)
Player name: Blaydsong
Character name: M'linda Songshine
SFS#-Character#: 261876-701
Faction: Exo-Guardians
Day Job (if any): [dice=Profession (dancer)]1d20+6[/dice=
Have you played/GM'd this scenario before? No.
I'll get boons added when I get home from work. :p
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Suggestion (once you get the cash), Jump Jets (so you can move 30' easily over terrain), and a Least Tauon crystal for your solarian weapon (1 extra damage, and you can set it to stun now).
Besides that, just what I suggested in Fugitive. But that is about all. Once you get your first solarian stellar revelation (lvl 2), choose Stellar rush. That allows you to use a move action to get into a charge lane, then stellar rush as the standard to charge without penalties (move up to 30' and still get an attack and/or do a free bull rush).
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I figure we can discuss on who does what roles in discussion, so not to make a mess of the gameplay thread.
Rayburn can be somewhat diplomatic (+6), but doesn't intimidate. Captain role usually wants a high diplomacy skill, or skill equal to what they are trying to help with (DC 15 Diplo, or a Aid other action (DC10)).
Engineering needs obviously engineering. I have a +8 in that. Not too bad
Science officer needs Computers, I have a +7 in that.
Gunner needs either a BAB + Dex modifier, or Piloting RANKS + Dex Modifier. Either calculation for me is +3.
Honestly, Rayburn might be best as the Captain, as I could easily aid other with Computers, Engineering and Piloting (need a 4 or higher on most of those). Diplo will probably be used if I have to help the gunners.
But I could easily fit the Science Officer or Engineer.
Kallus, M'linda you are the two probably hardest to fit from my experience. Kallus for being a Mystic, and M'linda for being a Solarian--both with basically the same reason--not enough skill points. I have played both in ship combat in other games, and both feel like it isn't designed for those classes unless they are built especially for a role.
Note: We haven't slotted boons yet. I DO have a non-assigned boon that allows A weapon to be 'augmented' to be a magically controlled system (I don't have the boon at work, but I can get it when I get home and give the full name). Basically it allows 1 weapon to be converted so that a magical person can use it easily. It would allow their Mysticism RANKS + Wisdom Modifier (if I remember right) to be their attack bonus with that weapon. It might work for Kallus (And Kallus, if you think this is something that you would like, we can talk about me signing it over to you and sending you the boon IRL, I don't generally play mystics). If the GM is okay with it, he could allow us to slot that boon (me if you don't want the boon permanently, you if I am sending it to you).
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Kallus, M'linda you are the two probably hardest to fit from my experience. Kallus for being a Mystic, and M'linda for being a Solarian--both with basically the same reason--not enough skill points. I have played both in ship combat in other games, and both feel like it isn't designed for those classes unless they are built especially for a role.
I was pretty set on being a gunner, as I'm fairly certain it just requires a BAB. ;)
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GM, I will slot that boon. Do you need a physical confirmation of the said boon? It is called Mystical Guidance System Upgrade.
We pick one weapon, that gains the mystical weapon special property on gun in the ship. When calculating gunnery bonus, a gunner using a mystical weapon 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.
I think that would give Kallus a +5, at least my best guess (looking at stats it is probably 3 Ranks + 2 Wisdom).
With that...here are the boons I am slotting:
Ally: None (Still have none that might help)
Faction: Second Seeker (Jadnura) Champion
Personal: None
Promotional: Shirt Reroll
Social: Scoured Stars Veteran (from SFS players guide)
Starship: Mystica Guidance System Upgrade
Slotless:[/b] Marked Field Agent, Star Sugar Heartlove, Jinsul Linguist (from -701), Savior of Tasch
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Max, you *do* have a slightly higher piloting than Val, but she recalled you let her pilot in the last mission and she loves flying so made a convenient assumption! If you'd rather pilot then no worries, she'll slide in to the engineer role without too much pouting ;)
*
Boon-wise, Val doesn't have much, is she best off pending her 2 fame on 'Exo-Guardian champion' so she can start earning rep with a faction?
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Val, you get 1 free faction. It is in the SFS guide. Page 22, in the 10. Faction.
"At character creation, your character can join for one of five
factions. Your character can champion multiple factions during the
course of her career, but she must select a single faction to start
with. You gain the champion boon (listed in Appendix 2: Factions)
associated with that faction"
So, you have one faction already :-)
I hate that it is buried in the character creation...it should have also been mentioned I think in the intro about Boons, and maybe even the faction section.
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Just a heads up.
My computer hdd I think went out. Which means I need to get my backup computer up and running. It might be working by tomorrow early. But I can usually post at work, and I can also attempt to post via phone and/or tablet.
Just means that until I get a home computer up and running any posting there will be a bit briefer.
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Well...a computer is back and running. It needs a lot of work. It was the hdd (it was having problems with bad secotrs...in the booting section of Windows. Go figure). The 'new' computer is working, though I need to install a bunch of stuff, which I am doing ATM. So, not in the right head space to post
So I can start posting as of tomorrow.
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Mainly for the maps and pawn movement. We do the IRL stuff like rolling dice and talking, but use roll20 for the combats. Especially for the super large maps,which Book 3 + for WftC seems to have a lot--though not as bad as Giantslayers (shudder...book 6...shudder).
This also allows things like dynamic lighting to happen. I have my laptop with the GM controls, and one player has his logged in as a player into my game on roll20. We then chromecast it to the huge 56" TV so that all can see. The one player just controls the player pawns.
All in all it works well. I would love to lay down the 56" TV on the table and have real mini's on there, but we don't want to hurt the TV ;-)
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Cool, yeah I've seen pictures of tables with the tv built in.
Also, this is my first Starfinder character, so I welcome any help/suggestions.
That said, I'm a little confused on our shields. It looks like we have basic shields which give 10 for each quadrant but it's currently listed as 15 in each. Is this just an oversight or do we have some bonus I'm missing?
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We can move our shields around a little. Basically you can have the Science officer distribute the shields (the Balance command) to effectively be the 'shield' the gunners 'sword'. Think of Star Trek and 'all power to forward shields' and somesuch they used to say.
You can move one quadrant of the shields (Front/Port/Starbord or Aft) to another, leaving a minimal amount (I think 1, or maybe it is a percentage). I think they also allowed you to redistribute them to all others. Since the Vesk ship is not supposed to attack our rear, we moved the points to other sections. But we can not go above 40 in total. With 3 sectors having 15, I think there is something up.
Zybrie being absent has hurt a little (since she is Science officer), but she did attempt to do it for the first round (16/10/10/4). We got hit on the Port I think (so should be 16/5/10/4).
2nd round, Max repaired for 7 (only 5 goes in) back to (16/10/10/4). Then we got slightly grazed on the Port again (i think), so 16/0/10/4) with 2 damage.
Now it is round 3
GM....is this correct, or am I missing something??
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I see that the Science officer can Balance the shields differently (10% minimum). I think the 15s in all quadrants was a typo.
As far as me repairing the shields, is that the Divert action again? As I read it, I can boost the shields by 5% of the power core which for us is 150*5%=7.5 rounded down to 7. The book states that it has to be divided evenly but I now see that was changed and can be allocated as I want so that clears things up. I also see the DC for actions were changed which explains the DC13 the GM stated.
Thanks for the help.
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Yeah, it was quickly figured out that any tier 5+ fight the PC's would need to roll almost 16+ to even have a chance of success (even an optimum build would be well over 12+) for almost all the DC's that were like 15+ 2xtier of ship. One of the things that quickly got fixed.
And yeah, we have to keep like 10% in a quadrant, but you don't have to allocate evenly anymore. Made no sense, also it meant that you HAD to have both a Science officer and Engineer, or else you lost points. I think I ran my first space combat in Deadsuns like 2 weeks after I got it at Gencon, and it was the most frustrating thing (6 players not really optimized, and failing almost 80% of their rolls to start).
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GM, if this was your first space combat in total, congrats, it went leaps and bounds better than my first one ever did. If it was just your first one online, it still beat my first GM session ever in starship combat (Yeah, I was one of those that attempted to do this back before ANYBODY knew anything about it...it went over about as well as a lead balloon). All in all it went very well.
If you want to see how one of the best GM's I know (both IRL and pbp) does his pbp starship combat, please look at this discussion thread for how he asks his players to post. Also, might want to look into his other scenarios he has ran starship combat for. This can give you tips on how to run upcoming starship combat.
https://paizo.com/campaigns/v5748p75ivk78/discussion&page=1
For everybody else, well done. Starship combat can feel repetitive, and unfortunately it seems that way. But think if it was a real ship-to-ship combat, it would be repetitive in the position you are in. At level 1 it hurts that all we have are the very basic things. The pilot actually has the most versatility (what they can do), with the captain maybe being the second most. Gunners are just dice chucking to hit, and with our bonuses hitting is less than 50% of the time is very typical. Science and Engineering will likely do the same thing every turn, Science will rebalance shield, and Engineering will divert power back into shields.
At level 6 things change a little. With spending resolve (and having 6 ranks in a skill (Engineering, Computers and Piloting being the three I can think of)) you can make your turn a bit more exciting.
My suggestion is pick the role you want to always do, and excel in it. Then pick 1-2 more that you should be decent at (if you get a random table where everybody wants to be the Captain, you will need to go somewhere else liekly).
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Didnt' want to just put this in the gameplay, but since we know that what we might be dealing with is possibly incorporeal the only weapons that are useless are the kinetic weapons (those that do bludgeoning, piercing or slashing) that do not have any weapon fusions on them. It is mainly for the new players...especially if they are coming from Pathrfinder or D&D.
Energy weapons (i.e. Lasers and such) do 1/2 damage. Weapons that have fusions on them do 1/2 damage. Force weapons (there are a couple of spells (magic missile for example), and a weapon or two (the idarni force baton)) that can do full damage. A good suggestion is eventually (once you have gotten your second/better weapon) is to slap a trailblaser weapon fusion on your laser pistol or something similar. That way it is magical, and keep it around for the rare incorporeal. Also a suggestion is to get a level 2 fusion of merciful and find a good level 2 weapon you want to stick it on (or have a backup non-lethal or stun weapon).
Just a few pieces of information, especially from those of us who hit this system coming from Pathfinder. When I ran Dead Suns...I almost did a party wipe as I figured that energy weapons couldn't hurt them (incorporeal creatures). Coming for Pathfinder, you know that weapons can only do 1/2 damage if they were magical...
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Thanks for that perfect explanation, Ray. Incorporeal are definitely scary in any game, but you guys are resourceful nonetheless.
Just for anyone wondering why I haven't recorded things on Paizo yet, its because I've been lazy to do so. Both games will be recorded by the end of the week. I apologise for the delay.
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M'linda, heads up on solarian. As of the current round you could have supernova'ed. Since you always become tuned before you actually start the round , as soon as you hit your 3rd round actions you could have exploded.
It is more damage, and can be useful to guarantee damage. Usually in a home game, the player who is a solarian always says on the end of 2nd round "you all know what next round is!" Which meant get the BLEEP away from the solarin, because....well...home game....he had NO problems hurting other characters with his supernova.
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Thanks for playing everyone! I had a blast, and I learned a lot, from everyone. Special thanks to Ray for teaching me some new tricks, and giving me a better idea of how to run starship combat.
Links to your chronicles can be found here!