GM Cellion's Dawn of Flame AP

Game Master Cellion

So, Flint will do something similar.

Ordyt, thanks for the maths. Is the Freebooter II armor and Deflective Reinforcement included in your loot list to sell? Flint had been using both of those as well as a resonant dirge pistol.

My plan is to put the Freebooter II armor and the resonant dirge pistol back in the party funds if they aren’t already there, then keep the Deflective Reinforcement, the jump jets, and the haste circuit. I will then pull together what funding we get to buy Lashunta Ringwear IIi as well. Maybe we can get a quantity discount?

Flint’s Culture check is +6, with a lower DC if Religion applies.

The Deflective Reinforcement is not, since Flint is using it. The Freebooter II armor also isn't since it's in his inventory currently. Feel free to sell whatever items you want and just add it to your share :)

Ordyt sold the Aufries Hammer, Graviton Pistol :'(, and Ringwear II armor to buy the Ringwear III. KAC26, woo!

Ordyt's Culture skill is +4, I'll roll to aid in the gameplay thread.

Any other thoughts on the ship upgrades?

My Culture modifier is +15, So I can make the roll, she probably knows a few chief-executive-matriarchs who'd pay good money for them,, though she'll voice her own personal preference that they go to a museum rather than a private collection

So, suggestion for the ship upgrade to Tier 7 (25 build points to play with):

Given the thrashing we got last time, I suggest we either upgrade shields or weapons.

25 points is enough to get us another particle beam in the front arc, but not enough to link it (that would take 30 points). We are also close to our power budget, given that the siccatite matrix takes 200 power units from the secondary power core when we crank it up. If the Front Arc Particle Beam isn't linked, we would either need 3 gunners to work at full capacity or have someone spending resolve points to make it happen.

So, here is what I am thinking. We upgrade the main power core to Nova Ultra, which gives us 300 power points instead of 200 for an incremental cost of 10 build points. We crank up the shields to eleven, or in this case Heavy 480, which costs us 10 incremental build points.

With our upgraded power core, we can have 60 in each arc inside the sun, then double that outside the sun. That leaves 5 of our 25 build points on the table, but I suggest that we do not use them now. Assuming we make it to tier 8, we will get 25 more build points and have 30 to use--then we can get another particle beam in the front heavy weapon mount and link it. That would use all 30 build points, but allow the forward gunner to shoot both with one action.

This seems good to me, setting ourselves up for a linked particle cannon weapon is a good call, and more shields are a very good idea. I'd also like to upgrade our thrusters sooner than later, with a long-range weapon like a Particle Beam we'll want as much speed as possible to keep our distance.

Flint, re: the ship: your plan looks good, no notes.

Ordyt, does that total include the 12k from DCI that we're splitting?

Shopping for gear is always hard for me in these games...

So with the bigger power plant, more powerful thrusters are easy to add, taking us to speed 12 for only 1 build point and 10 power points. Our shields would drop to 105 per arc if we wanted to save 5 build points for the next tier (so we could get linked particle beams).

The faster speed gives us a -1 on piloting checks, though, and takes our shields down from 120 per arc to 105 per arc. I could go either way, although the -1 to piloting hurts.

True, though our crew has two pretty good pilots.

Also, while you're considering your purchases, whoever wants to lead the culture check can pop that check into gameplay.

Let me know once you guys are ready to continue.

@Mari, yes that cash bonus includes the DCI bonus.

Shopping!

Selling my freebooter armor ii for 472 credits, taking me to 8,687
Upgrading my +2 synaptic accelerator (intelligence) to +4 for 5100 credits, taking me to 3,587
Adding the called and anarchic fusions to my breaching gun for 1560 credits, taking me to 2027
Building myself another +2 synaptic accelerator (dexterity this time) for 1400, taking me to 627
Buying leapers for another 200, then putting those and my jetpack into a ysoki refractor suit. I end up with 422.2 credits.

Edit: I transposed a couple digits and screwed up all my math

Hmmm...suggestions please: I have enough room in my armor for one more upgrade. Do I spring for a deflective reinforcement of my own or a jetpack?

I'd take the deflective reinforcement, if I were you. You take a lot of hits and you can take flight as a spell known (which would also give you a bonus to your Acrobatics checks that a jetpack won't).

Good point...though at the same time I think I really should upgrade my Resistant Hide...

Okay, so here are the stats for the Breath of Embers Mark III with an upgraded power unit, upgraded thrusters, and upgraded shields. I have also saved it on Flint's profile for easy reference.

Deflective reinforcement is SO good, especially since the similar feat got nerfed.

With the updated Breath and purchases mostly completed, I'm planning to get us started with the second part of Book 4 tomorrow!

The ship stats look good, Flint! They'll look even better next tier when we can link those particle beams--16d6, wow!

I do have a question about damage types. Are particle beams considered a laser weapon? Since we're fighting in the sun & against fire-themed enemies generally, I'm concerned that laser and plasma weapons might not be as useful due to energy resistance. Physical shots will burn up, of course, but we could look into something like Gravity Cannons as a workaround.

Yep, particle beam isn't a laser/plasma/gravity weapon. See gameplay for the void seed

I'm going to chill here for a bit while you guys finish up loot distribution/selling, purchases and ship design. Then we'll dive into Book 3 Pt 2.

I think we are clear on the Particle beams not being affected inside the sun based on Cellion's ruling from when we were first building up the ship...

As far as the type of damage they do, I am not 100% sure, but I am hoping fire resistance/immunity would not block it.

The other thing we could do is underspend by 11 build points instead of 6, then at the next tier we could upgrade the turret light mount to a heavy mount (6 bp), put in a Particle Beam in the Turret (20 BP), and link it to the other turret Particle Beam (10 BP). This would knock our shields down by a lot in the interim, though.

Eventually we will want both -- 30 BP for the linked Particle Beam forward arc, 36 BP for the linked Particle Beam Turret, then 2 gunners can pour 4 Particle Beam's worth of power into the front arc at need.

No, I think I much prefer the more muscular shields personally.

And according to Wikipedia a particle beam is a theoretical weapon composed of a stream of "charged or neutral particles" which seems fuzzily indistinct from a laser to my mind, but I'm a-ok with it being treated as not-a-laser.

A laser weapon works by applying a burst of high intensity photons to burn through something, while a particle beam accelerates tiny particles to almost the speed of light. There's definitely thermal energy released when those particles hit something, but it's like a tiny bullet fired a million times faster.

So, if I was going to give a particle beam a damage type, I'd use piercing.

Character sheet is updated, I put my new skill ranks into Physical Science (2), Piloting (1), and Stealth (4).

Cellion: Does increasing my intelligence get me bonus languages? I noticed I didn't add one for my first upgrade, and then noticed I can't find anything about it in the rules.

So the deflective reinforcement will wipe out most of my share of the payout. Any suggestions on what to do with the remaining 518 apart from restocking our serum supplies?

@Ordyt: Particle beams aren't laser weapons since they don't have laser in their name :) (Starfinder's ship weapons don't otherwise have classifications so its pretty fuzzy) But they definitely work inside the sun.

@Mari: Rules are pretty silent on it. I'd say go for the bonus language.

@Bel Saving up is always a valid answer, but another serum or three wouldn't go amiss. Those little bottles do a lot of work for us!

One last question: would it be more efficient to buy one MK II serum or a bunch of MK I's?

Flint went the second route, having 10 Mark 1 serums to be able to keep NPC's or friends from dying, but not that useful for restoring enough hit points to really help a lot in battle.

That was my instinct. I did spend all my serums in the last fight, right?

Don’t forget we have a +4 on computer checks for sensors with the Advanced Long-Range Sensors and +2 available from the ship’s AI for any 2 checks per round…

I think Mari’s skill is +19, so at a minimum it should be 4 higher whenever you use the sensors.

The Mark 4 defensive countermeasures on the Breath of Embers should also add to Belmarniss’ jamming roll, but it may not matter with the roll of 2 on the d20…

Thanks, Guinness, I definitely did forget. Sorry

Thanks, Guinness, I definitely did forget. Sorry

Eh, no problem. We don’t have space combats enough for all the rules to be easily recallable.

I am concerned that we are missing a science officer if we have Belmarniss as Pilot and Mari as Engineer. Sammad, are you going to step into that role or be a secondary gunner with Ordyt?

Question, GM: doesn't the winner of the Piloting check move second in starship combat? PBP makes waiting take up a lot of IRL time, I just want to make sure I'm not misremembering the rule.

Sammad, are you going secondary gunner or science officer? It will make a difference in Flint’s requests…

I'll go second gunner.

Question, GM: doesn't the winner of the Piloting check move second in starship combat? PBP makes waiting take up a lot of IRL time, I just want to make sure I'm not misremembering the rule.

Oh yep, you're right. I'll move them again after you move.

I'm a terrible pilot, both in terms of my understanding of the rules and in terms of luck.

Did I do it right this time?

Sure…but it is really hard with them moving after we do. Perhaps assuming they might go forward, we may want to rotate another hex face clockwise…Up to you. I haven’t gotten to Flint’s orders yet…give me a bit more time, but he was hoping to keep a bit more distance…did you attempt to do any special maneuvers or stunts (like evasive maneuvers)? If not, you didn’t even have to roll, I think…

I did attempt the Evade Maneuver again, and I think I passed this time.

I did attempt the Evade Maneuver again, and I think I passed this time.

Right, sorry I missed that. Nice job!

Thanks!

Belmarniss, Flint asked for a "back off" maneuver that would have let the enemy overshoot us and kept it in our forward arc so everyone could shoot. Did you mean to do something else instead, or was it a miscommunication?

The latter, I think. I didn't realize you were asking for that specific maneuver.

The latter, I think. I didn't realize you were asking for that specific maneuver.

Understood.

Hey y'all, I'm not gone! I just didn't realize how long I've gone without posting.

Work has just been taking a lot out of me this last month or two. I'll try to be better going forward.

Has the other ship moved on the map yet?

Thank you for being charitable with that interpretation, Cellion. I f'ed up there.

Oops, I forgot to move them Flint! I went ahead and adjusted their position in a way that's favorable to you guys (since you won initiative, that's only fair).

What's the best way to move starboard on these hexes? If we go in a straight line in one direction, I worry it'll take us back within range of the enemy.

It's really hard when the other ship moves second, so you have to make a guess and do your best. Think about our ships' relative positions and facing and what their goal is likely versus ours.

There are probably 100 different ways to do it, and part of the fun of being the pilot is figuring it out. Our goal is to somewhat keep our distance and keep them in our forward arc, while their goal is probably to face right up against us and unload with their short range power.

With our speed of 12 and maneuverability of 2, we can move 2 hexes and turn, then move, etc., or we can do some special maneuvers. With the foe aimed in the 10 o'clock orientation, they will probably move in that direction and come about to face us. If we were to back up again 6 hexes, we would probably keep it in our forward arc for Sammad and Ordyt's shots.

Alternately, you could wheel about if you wanted to go straight...2 forward, turn starboard, etc, but we would probably end up in almost the same location if we wanted to end up facing the foe.