Flash's Fire Starters

Game Master AFlashInTime

At long last, greetings everybody, and welcome! I'll have a post or two up here in a little bit going over basics of what I want to accomplish and starting to touch on background for the campaign.

First and foremost, thank you all for clicking on the link in your private message to find your way here! I know for some of us this has been sort of an in-work thing for a while now, but I think we're ready to start getting ready to get this campaign going.

Pre-Session 0 stuff

So why are we here?

I am (and I hope we all are) here to complete the first book in the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path: Fire Starters. I forget which of the guides to PbPing says it this way, but it states that when you start a PbP your goal isn't to start a PbP, it's to finish a PbP. Completing a normal PbP for a normal SFS (and I assume PFS) scenario takes several weeks, so this is probably going to be at least an undertaking of at least a few (and potentially several) months. My aspiration is to be able to see this through for the entire AP, but I want to clearly state for everybody going in that my goal is to get everybody who sticks with this a completed chronicle sheet for Fire Starters at a minimum and see where it goes from there.

So who are you?

My real life name is Dan! I've been playing and running Starfinder (currently a 3-nova GM) since it came out exclusively in Starfinder Society Organized Play and the APs. At one point was a Venture Agent in Honolulu, HI, but I've since moved to St. Louis and am awaiting a transfer of that VA status to here. I discovered PbP about six months ago and have played in a few, and ran/am running two SFS scenarios on PbP. A majority, if not all, of you probably have more PbP experience than I do.

...do I have to share my life story to play in this, too?

Nah, just letting you know what you're getting into.

So what are the rules?

Let's discuss that! See my next post for Session 0 stuff.

Session 0 stuff

I'd like to separate the session 0 stuff into two main sections: PbP Session 0 stuff and Campaign session 0 stuff. So...

PbP Session 0 stuff

In no particular order, and I probably forgot something

What're the expectations for posting rate?

As a GM I will try to post at least once per day/24 hours every Monday through Friday and then as possible on the weekends (this is the first of several things I'd like your input on). I would ask that you commit, as much as possible, to doing the same thing. Even a sentence or two that "Grog (the half-orc soldier) fiddles with his laser rifle and sighs as the elf keeps talking" lets me know you're still around and ready to engage once the elf stops yapping.

How do we make decisions as a party (aka "I didn't want to do that")?

Almost inevitably there will come a time when there's an important (or not so important) decision to be made by the party, and either I'll have an opportunity to post before everybody has responded for whatever reason. My preference to keep things moving along in these instances would be that if one course of action is suggested (I think we should go left), and then is seconded by at least one person (Yeah, left sounds good), then that's what the party is doing. Waiting for everybody to chime in that, yes, their character is also going to the left slows things down probably more so than necessary. Chime in on this if you'd rather do party decisions another way.

I think this PbP would be better if we/if you...

In terms of setting things up, displaying slides/maps, and other stuff like that, there's still a lot that I'm learning on the PbP GMing side of things. If I'm doing something that you think would clearly be done better if I did X, please feel free to let me know. I probably just haven't heard of doing it that way.

Since this is already getting to be a long-ish post, I'll do campaign session 0 stuff my next one.

Campaign Session 0 stuff

I get credit for this, right?

Yes, we'll be running this in campaign mode for Starfinder Society credit. My understanding of campaign mode is also that it doesn't/shouldn't "freeze" the character you'll be getting credit for it on, and that we can actually decide that at the end of the book. Likewise, unlike in the Matrix, if you die in the AP your character does not die in SFS - you'll get credit based on the amount of the AP book you play through and complete regardless of what happens to your character, so feel free to go out in a blaze of glory if you feel that's appropriate (but maybe wait until the end of book 6).

Character creation rules?

For character creation:
Make a 1st level character, with standard wealth (1000 credits)
All CRB Classes OK.
Most races OK. If its not from the CRB, ask. Most will be approved.
Other character options and equipment can be from CRB, Armory (if SFS legal - if not, run it by me), and Pact Worlds (ditto if SFS illegal). Once we get started, options from Dawn of Flame will also be allowed. Ask if there's something from another AP book and we can see on a case-by-case basis.
I'm initially hesitant to allow evil characters because I'd prefer to run for (and I think the AP assumes) at least morally neutral characters. If you've got a really cool character concept but you really need to be LE for whatever reason, feel free to ask, but I'd put my starting attitude toward it as "unfriendly".

Character creation suggestions?

This campaign starts with the PCs already working together as the crew of their own (rickety) starship. How the crew ended up together is up to you all (traders, mercenary members, Starfinder Society agents interested in learning more about the Sun, etc.), but make sure you're not bringing a lone wolf character who doesn't play nice with others, or someone who wouldn't be willing to work (at least in the beginning) for/with a group of scientists. Find an in-character reason to have a relationship with everybody else at our virtual table.

And, while there isn't a player's guide to DoF, there are a few major thematic elements that you can use to either make a character better match the story at hand, or make a character whose background and/or personality plays off those thematics somehow. See the following spoiler for a brief summary.

Dawn of Flame Motifs/Themes:

Did you think that all up yourself?

Maybe. Don't look around on the forums for it. Spoilers abound! But seriously it's largely borrowed from... copied from... Cellion's Recruitment thread for his DoF AP PbP, if it looks familiar.

Starships?

Of course you get one! Once everybody has characters, the party will have to put together a tier 1 starship to fly around in.

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This is all probably enough for one night's posting, but it occurs to me I forgot to mention something in the very beginning. I've really enjoyed my PbP experiences so far, to the point that I'm wanting to sign up to run a months-long AP book using the medium, because of all of the extra insight/character development you can do in it compared to "normal" organized play or even in-person home campaigns. PbPing moves at a slower pace, sure, but it allows you to express yourself/your character's inner motivations, go into as much detail as you want on appearance, emotions, concerns, and so on that would take all day to spell out in a real-life setting. All of this is to say I strongly encourage roleplaying and being as creative and expressive as you want through in this medium.

Once again, thanks for signing up! We can do introductions over the next day or three. We can also discuss a start date and (you all) can get started on getting characters made. On the one hand I'm certainly not in a rush (I don't anticipate starting the actual game for at least a week), but if there's no reason to wait then let's get started.

Hi everyone! My name is Dennis Muldoon. I've heard really good things about this AP, and I'm looking forward to it. I really like PbP, and have been doing a lot of it over the last few years--mostly Society play (those of you active in the Flaxseed/Castimir/Cottonseed lodges have probably seen me), but also an AP and several 3rd party games as well.

I'm looking forward to gaming with you all and seeing what everyone comes up with!

Dan, can I request that you create the Gameplay thread, so that we can dot into it? That way this page gets added to our Campaigns page.

Hey! My name is Michael I live and post from Europe, with regards to posting I keep to 1 per day. For Weekends it is irregular (mostly I post but I don't feel the pressure ;)).

With regard to the timeline in the middle of January, I will be off for 3 weeks. I will be backpacking and I don't want to think about posting ;) So I would like to know if that would be ok if you bot me for that duration as I don't think we will be done before then.

With regards to what I am looking for is a good team play. There are 2 things that I hate in PBP: people that sign up to a game and post 2 times a week, and people that don't interact with other players. I love when PCs are talking with each other and I love role-playing.

My only experience in Starfinder and Pathfinder is via PBP, I was playing other systems way-way-way back in highschool ;) So I don't have almost any experience with AP's, so I would welcome any ideas how do we coordinate character creation.

Ohh and one more thing, I am not a native English speaker. So when I spoke

There are 2 things that I hate in PBP...

What I mean is that such situations lower my overall satisfaction from playing that given game. Certain subtleties of written language might be lost on me ;)

Now there's a gameplay thread. Feel free to post and then delete over there to add this post to your active campaigns.

Hi everyone. My name's Stephen and I reside in Sydney, Australia. I can commit to the min 1 post/day. Please note that my posting hours may be a little out of sync on occasion due to time zone differences.

Over the past 6 years or so, I've done a little GMing of Pathfinder and Starfinder for student groups where I work. I have only ever personally played in PbP games. I've only played/GMed quest packs and Society scenarios to date. This will be my first AP.

I'm really excited to be jumping in to this one with you all. Looking forward to the ride!

Thanks for the detailed info, Dan.

Michael, I have no suggestions in regard to coordinating character creation - maybe someone else with more experience can help us out?

Does anyone have a class/character idea in mind already?

Checking in. Glad to be onboard.

I should be able to do at least one post per day (it might just be a single line to keep the game going if I have to use my phone to post, but other wise I'll try to do my best to write something descriptive). If I expect that for some reason I can't I'll try to let you guys know before hand.

I'm from Europe and most of my posts will either be at the end of my day or possibly when I have a spare minute at work earlier in the day.

I started running pbp games as a GM during Gameday II ( I wanted to sign up for the first one, but hesitated to long because I was unsure on how pbp gm-ing worked at the time and missed the sign-up window) and only started to play in a game a bit before then mostly as a way to have played a scenario before I'd run it real life. Since then real life games have dwindled down and pbp is how I play most of my games now.

On characters..does anyone have an idea on what they want to play? Do we want to go for a group theme? Since this isn't a standard SFS game we could do something we'd otherwise wouldn't get the chance to do

Some of the most fun I've had in a group game was waaaay back and a group of friends decided that everyone had to play a dwarf and needed to get an animal companion (boar) which would be big enough to ride by lvl 4(?) somehow..and we we're not allowed to take any social skills other then intimidate. Which made for some hilarious situation. For example a stealth mission at some point in a store basically us barging in there, belching and intimidation every customer inside the shop out - They can't watch what you are doing if there's nobody around to see it ;). We basically were a rude biker gang riding our Hogs

So if anyone wants to try something ..."odd". Let me know, as long as everyone (including the GM) is on board with it I think it could be fun.

We could all get a hoverbike and be a biker gang. I have no clue how much use vehicles could be. Or go for powerarmors and be a Gundam squad..but that's long term thinking.
We could all play the same race - goblins? skittermanders? those wierd earth worms who have no arms but because of how the rules work can still wield blasters and somehow (tip of their tail on the trigger as they are circled around it with their bodies to aim it?) can still fire blasters) dwarves? drow (with one matriarch and the rest lowly males?) halflings? Ysoki? Vesk?
With all dwarfs I'd also allow 1 human female envoy ..or mystic who can talk to animals, but then the dwarves would have to be miners and have nicknames like sleepy, grumpy , etc ;)
We could all play the same class and see how far we get? (Soldiers and be a ultra-marine squad? Operatives and be Delta-6? 2006? and actually try to use stealth as a party once in a while and avoid combat?)
A traveling gladiator troupe (including support staff/team managers?) a traveling circus (with a stage magician and those new feats that give you an animal companion?) a traveling music (rock?) band?

Just throwing out some ideas, if somebody doesn't want to try anything like this no problem..but as I said when everyone is onboard I think it could be awesome.

I'm just glad to be able to play this Adventure Path. If we don't go for a theme I'd like to play one of the race normally not allowed in Society play.

I would be up for some sort of group oddity.

I was looking through the Alien Archives today, and what jumped out at me the most is a space goblin exocortex mechanic (and worshipper of Triune, as many space goblins are). The scientists bring him along because he's quite good at getting broken equipment patched up and functional quickly, even if it's a bit janky. The exocortex helps him to rein in some of the more...impulsive goblin behaviors. I'm really enjoying the rehabilitated goblins in PF2, and would be sure to play him in a way that is helpful to the party (as I have in PF2), rather than an agent of chaos. That said, I know some people have strong feelings about goblins, and I can figure out something else if someone (player or GM) is not comfortable with a goblin in the party.

A few thoughts.

I'm fine with you all doing something odd or a theme group (examples: everybody's an uplifted bear? everybody is a worshipper of *insert diety* -Sarenrae would actually be interesting- and tries to behave according to their diety's wishes?), but keep in mind we're going to be working on this, even if it's just the first book, for a while. Starfinder doesn't have the same need for a well-planned party composition like earlier DnD-esque games did (in my opinion), but I don't know that I'd take it quite to the level of a bunch of dwarves all riding boars with only one social skill. Hopefully this isn't spoiling too much fun, but I'd like the objective setting out to be able to finish the AP in a meaningful way instead of "see how far we get with X crazy party comp".

For a little more on likely character backgrounds, the AP basically begins when a ship (your ship) makes a delivery of supplies to Far Portal Station, a small research station monitoring - you guessed it - an object called the "Far Portal". The Far Portal is an ancient and mysterious structure orbiting at the edge of the sun's corona containing a magic portal to an uninhabited region of the Plane of Fire large enough for entire starships to come through. The AP kicks off once you arrive there, and it's basically assumed the party has no where else that they really need to be as the events of the AP unfold.

Which, of course, leads us to the question of why you would be on a ship delivering supplies to a relatively far-flung research outpost. You could own the ship and all be working together as a sort of... delivery service. Some of you could own the ship, while others are working effectively as mercenaries or hired guards (or friends doing a favor) to make sure nothing happens to the ship or its supplies. You could be a want-to-be scientist who booked passage on the supply ship (not much else docks at the Far Portal Station) to meet up with an old colleague or to try to interview for a position working on the station. Maybe you're a Starfinder or member of another organization that has an interest in checking in with scientists from time to time, or got one of those rare Starfinder missions that actually doesn't result in an SFS scenario being written for it because everything (at least up until the delivery is made) goes according to plan. Maybe your a Sarenrae worshipper or pilgram that jumped at a chance to hitch a ride on a ship going almost to the very edge of the sun. Lots of possibilities!

Hopefully all of that helps spur creativity.

Regarding individual character ideas so far, a mostly well behaved space goblin, especially with an AI in his brain as the little angel on his shoulder, should be fine.

Hello! I'm Kate. I actually wrote a couple of the backmatter pieces for this AP, so I'm looking forward to playing in the AP! I'm in the Western US on Pacific time. I do a fair bit of PBP so I'm in the habit of posting once a day.

I play a lot of front-liners, but I also like to try out different character types, so I'm pretty much up to play anything!

Revvy! Awesome to play with you again!

Kate, Stephen and Dennis great to meet you, I am almost certain that I haven't played with you. But I am so thrilled to do so!

With regards to team theme yeah I like that idea. I think we should try to make it somehow related to the theme of the AP. I would prefer someone to be intrigued by the portal rather than someone who does not give a crap and want to deliver the things and leave this place alone.

Saying that an alternative would be to build a team around Archetype: Like Star Knights, or Stewards? It gives us more flexibility in terms of classes and even races if that is desired.

An alternative would be to play a group of veterans that fought together, in which case it allows us to incorporate some psychotic episodes if someone is into that kind of RP.

Hi there Farol, Revvy and Kate! Nice to be part of the team.

I don't have any particular objections if everyone wants to do a themed party, as long as everyone is happy with the theme. Overall, I like fun and humour in a game, but generally prefer more of a straight line approach rather than anything too zany.

That said...

You could own the ship and all be working together as a sort of... delivery service.

"Good news, everyone!" ><

Dennis, I really like the sound of your goblin character and have no problem should you play it. I think the concept is great!

Now, for a budding idea:

I'd been thinking of trying a class I hadn't played in PFS yet - envoy or solarian (not interested in mechanic at this point). I have played Navasi as a pregen during a scenario and had a blast doing it, so was leaning toward trying an envoy.

The idea of playing something atypical interested me. So given the general CHA and social skill focus for an envoy, the idea of an android envoy appealed to me. I like the potential for misinterpretation of motives, turns of phrase, taking everything literally, etc.

Instead of the rallying speech, the inspirational words, etc, the improvisations and talents are the result of tactical insights, logic and probability (hopefully not limited by my own abilities - or lack there of).

I have some further details floating around in my mind, but will wrap it up here for now.

AFlashInTime wrote:

You could own the ship and all be working together as a sort of... delivery service.

"Good news, everyone!" ><

I also had Planet Expres hallucinations at that sentence ;)

Nice to meet you too, Farol. Other than Kate (who I game with all the time), I'm fairly certain the only person on here I've played with before is Revvy, who I GMed for in Race for the Runecarved Key a year or two ago.

We have quite the time spread, going from Hawaii at one end to Australia at the other. This will be interesting.

Great introductions from everyone! If there's no particular group theme do people just want to post character ideas or finalized characters over the next week or two? Or was there still a group idea in there that you wanted to try out.

I'll be around if I can be of assistance or answer questions going forward.

There are also three new classes coming out in two weeks, if folks are stuck for ideas.

There are also three new classes coming out in two weeks, if folks are stuck for ideas.

It felt like we've been waiting so long that it was still months away... The time has gone quickly and I hadn't realised it was that close now.

It will be interesting to see what C.O.M has to offer in terms of options for the core classes, too.

It's only 2 weeks till the operations manual book is released? I also thought that was months away from happening. I kind of want to try a witchwarper then.

The injection guys sounded fun during the playtest..but didn't work for me.
The shield guy sounded useful, but not something I think I'd enjoy playing.
I have no idea how good the witchwarper ended up being, but I like(d) the flavor on that one (as well as the write-up from the iconic guy in the paizo blog)

The Paizo site shows the PDF will be available Nov 13. Not sure about pre-orders or subscriptions, as I don't have either of them.

The classes do sound interesting - the witchwarper does have a nice flavour to it. The vanguard also sounds intriguing.

I don't think I'll not be choosing one this time around, though.

So a little less than a month until that book is available for me. I guess I'll start with another class and multiclass then if the new classes are fun enough to switch. Or maybe retrain..I think that's allowed under Core rules if you use a Mnemonic Editor. I just need to be able to buy one of those during the adventure.

Since I'm allowed to ask for additional races not in the CRB I'm going to exercise my ability to do so ;)

Would any of the following races be allowed?:
Astrazoans (shapeshifting race which I though would fit nicely with the witchwarper - In another dimension I'm actually an orc/human/gnome/lashunta/etc)
Brakin (malleable limbs - In another dimension my arms could reach that far)
Gray (phase - I think that I'll select the outcome in which that laser bolt might miss)

Barathu (early stage adaption I'll shift my body into something a bit more <insert option>)

Spathinae - not a whole lot to do with the witchwarper although it does have a shapeable body. I've just always liked the idea of playing a intelligent swarm ever since I saw the "worm that walks" and the spiderman villan swarm

Weird. The site says preorders of the hard copy are expected October 28th (which is where I got the 2 weeks from). I hadn't even noticed the PDF has a different date.

I still haven't played all the Core species yet, and I'm kind of feeling a lashunta.

Ok. I am lacking any ideas for a PC for this AP. Sorry, but I read through the classes and I played most of them and I have nothing.

I am leaning towards a technomancer. I never played this class and would like to try it. I feel like even with Revvy playing a caster this should work in our comp. My second bet is Half-Orc soldier.

Wow Revvy, that's some exotic species options there!

Like Kate, I'm slowly making my way through the CRB species.

Farol - you should definitely go for the technomancer if that's the one you'll enjoy playing the most. I have no real hang ups on party composition or character optimisation.

Weird. The site says preorders of the hard copy are expected October 28th (which is where I got the 2 weeks from). I hadn't even noticed the PDF has a different date.

I took a quick look at pre-order on Book Depository and the expected date is still ~40 days to go!

Revvy, great creativity with those character races! Let's see here... ;)

Astrazoans - The only thing that gives me pause here (and probably the entire point of the race) is shapeshifting ability as a standard action. I'll table this one - come back to it if nothing else will do and I'll think it over some more.

Brakin - sure. It will be interesting to see what your particular Brakin is doing running around the Pact Worlds

Gray - "unnerving abductions, nightmarish paralysis," unknown origins or motivation... I think in-universe Grays would be a little too out there for this AP, so I'm going to say "no".

Early Stage Barathu - sure

Spathinae - These guys are weird. Probably too weird. Sorry, but going to say no. *EDIT* ...maybe

So I realize I said most races would be allowed and I've given you two yeses, two *EDIT* one nos, and a ask-me-later-if-you-have-to *EDIT* and a maybe, but you did a really good job picking some out there choices. Let me know if you have other ideas!

Technomancer it is then. After some consideration, I will go Kasatha. His stats are not really aligned with a classic technomancer, but I like playing them. I have some good idea for the character so I will create him probably on monday.

From tuesday till saturday I will be away so if you plan to kick things off during that time I might not be able to post.

So we have a technomancer and an envoy spoken for? I can do a melee character of some kind, if we still need that.

We also have a space goblin mechanic and a witchwarper wannabe ;)

Ah-ha! I will definitely do a front-liner of some kind, then.

That's looking to be a pretty diverse group!

I've pretty much sorted my android envoy (still working on a name, though). I'll just wait to see how we're looking across the spectrum of the party before I finalise skills and expertise/talents.

Although we're not going to be having an overarching theme for our pc's we still have the concept behind our little delivery service to nut out.

Or is it just as simple as that? A crew that contracts their services for shipping goods across the Pact worlds? Maybe as a cover for smuggling more lucrative goods?

Or a merc/bounty hunter outfit a little down on their luck and having to swallow their pride and make ends meet with some side jobs in inter-planetary logistics?

And from there, I guess there'll be tying it in with how we all came together in the first place. Have we been running together for some time? An entirely new crew on their first job together? Or some mix of both - an established core pair/trio, with a newbie or two (or even a paying passenger)? Ala The Enterprise, Firefly, the Expanse, the crew of Millennium Falcon Ep IV, Killjoys or Planet Express?

Ooh, good questions! I don't have a firm backstory in mind yet, so I can work with either.

I'd say we'd be at least mostly running together for some time. That way we'd have at least some reason stick together. Unless the adventure provides a reason along the reason of a portal opening and we having all lost any sort of communications on the other side I always find it difficult on why a paying customer aboard a transport vessel would stick around instead of just phoning home and arranging a taxi to go where they'd wanted to go to from the start ;)

Enterprise seems a bit above our pay-grade
Firefly I could see working
Expanse could work ..if we find a fancy ship and have to keep running away from everything
Millenium Falcon could work
Killjoys ...I'll have to google that one
Planet Express I can see working
There's also Farscape
or Dark Matter..but I think playing a bunch of amnesiacs is going to cause a bit of an issue ;)

So we're going for a bunch of thrown together (misfits?) who've known each other for some time?

On a sidenote. I have a question for the GM. Would it be alright if I start with the witchwarper rules from the playtest and adjust them once we have the official rules? Other then the spells I'll have I don't think there's going to be a huge difference at level one.

And is your giving pauze to the Astrazoans the unlimited use the shapeshifting? Because I'm more then happy to have it a limited times. Say once until spending a Resolve after a 10 minute break to get Stamina back, equal to con(?) mod (min of 1) or even a flat 3(?) times per day. It's the one I liked the most, but I'll pick the next one down the list if you think it could cause issues down the line of the adventure

Revvy, starting with witchwarper is fine. As an aside, your starting ship is definitely not fancy, but you never know...

Regarding Astrazoans it's not even really the unlimited use of shapeshifting, it's the text that reads "an astrazoan can physically alter their form to look like any Medium creature, as long as they have seen a similar creature before. They can attempt to mimic a specific creature or look like a general creature of the chosen type." (emphasis mine)

So hypothetically you meet some weird alien/outsider/elemental, and within maybe a day you can roll disguise to appear as a general member of the species or a specific individual. And, while the astrazoans' DC goes up for trying to become something other than an aberration or humanoid (most intelligent aliens are one or the other if not a mosterous humanoid), my read of their change form ability is that they get a racial +10 to disguise regardless (maybe it doesn't apply when imitating specific individuals; I'd have to double check). While being able to take other forms and live in them indefinitely is effectively the entire racial identity of the species, I think it provides some solutions to problems that you might encounter in this specific AP that weren't really thought of by the authors as being within the PCs' default repertoire. Not trying to spoil your fun with unusual races, but I'm hesitant to introduce that ability into the AP regardless of # of times per day/until you take a 10 minute rest and burn an RP, etc.

Would you be okay going with a witchwarper of your second choice race? (Which is? I'm curious. Is it the spathinae? It is, isn't it? :P )

Spathinae are so cool!

I like the planetary express/firefly idea, i.e. we are hired to deliver scientists and/or equipment somewhere, and to help them get set up (or something like that).

Few ideas on my own, as I don't know the majority of the movies:

- We work for a company doing new world exploration, archeology, collecting artifacts and such. The company goes bankrupt and we buy the space ship for the lowered price willing to continue what we were doing but on our own account. We find a gig of bringing some equipment to a science outpost and we hope to find some work on or around that site. Either we sell found items on the black market or to anyone else, we could have some contacts from our previous employment.

- We worked together and came up with an idea and we are building a start-up ;) Either: 'upgrading Drift technology with a short-range solar radiation', 'building better biotech augmentation using particles gathered from sun anomalies', 'micro black holes working as a vacuum cleaner', 'stable micro-stars as a night lamp'. We get an investor and for the money, we are able to buy a ship. Given that our business requires us to do some research around the star we find a gig of transporting science equipment to a place that is of interest to us.

- Variation of the above where we buy a ship from a bankrupting company. The ship comes with an unfulfilled contract that we are obliged to resolve.

So with regards to PC I created two drafts. Basically the feel is the same Kasatha scientist, but either it is:
a. Melee Technomancer (as I like the feel of Jolting Surge) that wears Heavy Armor. Given high Intelligence he can do Engineering, Computers among Life Science, Medicine and other science things. In space combat he could play the role of science officer. Potentially Engineer as well but I assume that the mechanic will be doing that.
b. Range biohacker (assuming playtest classes are open) using Wisdom as his main score. He still has high Life Science, Medicine, Physical science skills but is low on Engineering and Computers => he can't really be a science officer. And in order to be a melee character, he would have to use injection glove (which requires advanced melee weapons) which would limit his option for distributing his 'potions' to allies and means that he can't go Heavy Armor => his AC would be super low. With 14 Dex, he could be a 2nd gunner during space combat.

I like both variations actually. As I feel like RP'wise it would be similar. If you have any preference for the above feel free to speak up. Otherwise, I will digest that a bit.

If we find ourselves heavy on Engineering/Computers, a dex-heavy mechanic makes a decent gunner if you give them ranks in piloting. I can build that way if we're going to have more need for a gunner than another engineer in starship combat. I think engineer makes more sense RP-wise, but I can make gunner work too.

Yeah when I think about it, I don't think we will be suffering from to many Engineers ;)

Currently, we have
Envoy (CHA)
Witchwarper (CHA)
Mechanic (INT)
Kates frontline (non INT based)
Technomancer(INT)/Biohacker(WIS)

The most PC's that I've seen invested as a 2nd stat in DEX or STR => we can assume that we will not have to many Engineers/Computer geeks.

From the starship perspective we are looking at the following:
1 Pilot
1 Captain
1 Engineer
1 Science Officer
1 Gunner
Or
1 Pilot
1 Engineer/Science Officer (swapping when needed)
1 Captain
2 Gunners

The more I think of it, the more I want to go Biohacker with higher Dex and a level in Piloting. Sorry for all the ramble but it help me think ;)

Feel free to use playtest rules on new classes until we get the book

I got a big project submitted today, so I can actually get to work on my build!

The Spathinae would be my first choice, but it's a bit (well, a lot) on the weird side of things ;)

I think it might be better to just stick to something that's mostly humanoid to avoid most things that scenario writers don't take into account for some reason. The Brakim sounds like it would be fun..but the mental image of holding things in my feet or running around on all fours for extra speed doesn't sit well with my image of an heroic adventurer.

Would Tiefling be acceptable? I'm envisioning a lashunta with horns instead of antenna right now due to the warped energies contained inside his body (and an odd eye color for some reason..maybe with special light effects when he uses his powers. A vortex of light instead of pupils sounds sort of cool).
In a cloak with a hood so he can hide that his "antenna" are inflexible, shunned by his family/race and now traveling the starlanes hoping to find acceptance and trying to fit in.

I'm a bit sad out the racial -2 to cha, but the fiendish gloom sounds like drawing darkness from another dimension and fits with the rest of the witchwarpers powers to effect small areas with various effects (well..at a bit higher levels anyways).

And to comment on Farol's assesment of starship roles. From what I've seen so far..the more gunners the better. Witchwarper doesn't seem to be that useful in starship combats unless the operation manual gives new options on things to do, but I can fire weapons with the worst of them ;)

Something else (just in case Farol takes a level in technomancer)..There's a mechanic ability that let's an attack deal more damage right? and a technomancer spell (super charge weapon) that boosts the next attack..and while going through the witchwarper list they have another spell that boosts a touched weapon

...this came to my mind

We just need to stand together in a nice cluster and let our powers combine (and then hope the one attack we'll make that round will actually hit) and we'll have one pretty powerful attack

I've seen that supercharge (technomancer)/overcharge (mechanic) combination used to pretty great effect in SFS.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. The thinking aloud is a great way to get the creativity flowing and bounce ideas that might help others, too!

It seems like a lot of us are intrigued by the idea (or some variation) of a crew running deliveries. The degree of legitimacy of the cargo is yet to be determined ;).

If it helps anyone's planning, I thought I'd give a little summary of the way things are looking for my envoy.

Based on backstory ideas, I'm not going for an optimised build, so wasn't planning on maxing any stats. I'm looking at 14 DEX, INT and CHA, with the others at 10. I do not intend to boost INT any further, will be CHA, DEX and STR/CON going forward. Scholar (Phys Sci) as theme.

I will be working with 10 skills - I was looking at the social, physical, senses and tech skills. Based on current backstory idea would be looking Acr, Ath, Bluff, Comp, Culture, Dipl, Intim, Percep, Phys Sci, SM.

Will have proficiency in long arms.

Likely Captain (depending on Witchwarper), or computers or back up gunner for Starship combat.

As I mentioned previously, the PC's flavour will be on deploying strategy and logic, so improvisations and talents will focus around use of tactics. Currently leaning toward starting with Expertise in bluff and Get 'Em for Improvisation (eventually taking the Clever Feint/Attack improvs).

I'm not entirely sure of the Talent I will take yet - will wait to see how the party composition ends up (Convincing Liar seems like a no-brainer for the feint, but not sure if it makes sense character-wise. Will see how it pans out).

Sorry about the lengthy post.

Tiefling is great!

Likely Captain (depending on Witchwarper), or computers or back up gunner for Starship combat.

Just to let everyone know..I could sit in the captains chair if needed, but from a rp perspective not what I'm going for. Sp if someone wants to sit on it, go for it

I'm thinking an armor storm soldier since I haven't done that yet and it seems fun. Are there any skills gaps that we see coming? I like my soldiers to have some out-of-combat utility, and skill synergy and theme choices make it pretty easy to pick one or two things to be good at.