tt's The Elsebo Way

Game Master therealthom

Yes. And welcome back in this thread too.

Yes. And welcome back in this thread too.

Hehe... thank you! It's good to be playing again.

When Zephyr gained 20 feet in altitude, did the weird hand things stay with him?

Yes.

Going to visit my parents this weekend. I've dubbed their house the great internet desert.

Enjoy the trip. I hope you have a great time.

FYI -- I'm traveling Sunday 3/9 through Thursday 3/13, so my posts will most likely appear late in the day EDT time.

@GM -- Happy anniversary!! Celebrating with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band has the makings of an amazing evening. I haven't heard them play in years.

Thank you, J. It was a very good evening.

When I was a teen, my parents took me to hear them at Clowes Hall in Indy.

It's a gorgeous venue on the Butler University campus
with a main floor and three balconies.

Near the end of the show, the mobile members of the band stood up and walked down the outside aisle of the hall, across the back, and up the opposite side, right back onto the stage. The more *cough* energetic audience members trailed along behind them.

For once in my young life, I did the crazy thing and joined them. (My typical MO at the time was to play it safe, then regret the missed opportunities. I was cool, said no one ever about me.)

But there I was, positioned almost center stage behind the band, laughing and clapping with the other crazy people who followed them onto the stage. It was awesome.

I still have the LP I bought that night, signed by all the members who played.

Almost the best concert ever -- topped only by an outdoor Manhattan Transfer concert about 10 years later. :D

That's awesome, Janosian. Thanks so much for sharing the story and the privilege of your memories.

Awesome! No audience parade at our show. The Shalin Liu isn't really built for it. Although I love the hall and acoustics are great. That is indeed a large window backing the stage. The cove is lovely when the drapes are open.

Woooooowww... that's gorgeous.

Ugh. Janosian, if that stunned critical lands, it could make some difference.

Weapon Special Property and Critical Hit DCs
Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 181
Some weapons that explode or cause critical hit effects (see page 182) allow the target to attempt a saving throw. The DC of such a saving throw is typically equal to 10 + half the weapon’s item level + one of your ability modifiers. Unless stated otherwise, the ability modifier corresponds to the ability score you’d normally use to make an attack with that weapon (Dexterity for a ranged weapon, and Strength for a melee or thrown weapon). Any penalty you would normally take to your weapon attack roll also applies to this DC, including penalties from the weapon’s range increment.

Plasma Blast: You condense your body’s qi into a beam of superheated plasma, allowing you to make a special ranged unarmed strike that targets KAC, requires one hand, is not archaic, has a range increment of 30 feet, deals lethal electricity and fire damage, and has the stunned critical hit effect. For the duration of this ability, you gain a special version of the Weapon Specialization feat that adds 1-1/2 times your level to the damage of this unarmed strike (rather than adding your level).

Stunned (weapon special effect)
Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 182
The target is stunned (see page 277) for 1 round.

Stunned (condition)
Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 277
You drop everything you are holding, you can’t take actions, and you are flat-footed.

Weapon Special Property and Critical Hit DCs states "Some weapons ... allow ... a saving throw. " After an hour of searching and reading and pondering and changing my mind, nothing in the plasma blast text, nor stunned entries, makes me think a save is allowed.

Kind of sucks for me because that was Flag's next big trick. It just won't have the same effect when he trots it out next round.

After this is over remind me to tell you about my side of the fight.

Wow. That's very generous, Thom. Thanks for the time you spent on it.

Sorry that my error killed that big moment for you/Flags. It was a pretty devastating attack.

Not generous, just my reading of the rules.

No worries about Flags' big moment. We want to get things right most of the time.

Successful conclusion to the mission congratulations. The one thing I wanted to say about the fight, and I think Cellion will appreciate the irony, was I had planned to drop a third explosive blast on you guys, but Flags only had two batteries on him.

There are two boons from this scenario. The first unlocks jinsul as a learnable language when you take a skill rank in culture. The second allows you to have a little octopoid as a pet if you wish.

Now I've got to dig up my notes about what scenario to play next.

Core Arc scenarios:
1-29 Honorbound Emissaries (Levels 7-10)
1-31 Treading History's Folly (3-6) (protégées)
1-34 Heart of the Foe (3-6) (protégées)
1-39 The Herald's War (7-10)
2-00 Special 2.

Optional:
1-30 Survivor's Salvation (protégées intro ? )
By Cellion's suggestion 1-38 Many Minds of Historia.

If I remember we were going to roll with the protégées plan. If we jump into Survivor's Salvation, that will give me a little time to double check chronology for the other scenarios.

What do you all think?

Nice ending on this one!

Protege arc sounds good to me for our next adventure. I'll have to think back to whether I had specific plans for the protege. Was the plan to start them at 3 or higher? Since it looks like our other two protege scenarios are 3-6 ones.

That was crazy -- great work, everyone!

You'll have to remind me about the 'proteges plan'... it's the end of the semester, and my brain is focused on grading, grading, and more grading.

You're sitting at level 8, but in the story arc, the scenario level range dips down to 3-6 for a couple adventures. Instead of me trying to scale them up, someone suggested running a second party that got tagged with he name protegees through those scenarios. Survivor's Salvation relates some of the fallout from theScoured Stars rescue mission and makes a nice intro for them.

Let's start the protoge's at level 2 for Survivor's. We can advance to 4, then 6 for the two story arc scenarios.

What roles are people planning to fill? I was thinking of doing a healer-type. I haven’t played one of those yet.

Not sure, but I'm leaning towards finally trying a bull rush based martial. That's been percolating in the background for me for a while. So something like a solarian maybe.

You're sitting at level 8, but in the story arc, the scenario level range dips down to 3-6 for a couple adventures. Instead of me trying to scale them up, someone suggested running a second party that got tagged with he name protegees through those scenarios. Survivor's Salvation relates some of the fallout from theScoured Stars rescue mission and makes a nice intro for them.

Let's start the protoge's at level 2 for Survivor's. We can advance to 4, then 6 for the two story arc scenarios.

Ahhh.... that makes perfect sense. I'll think about it tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

That was a cool mission! Nice discovery of the remote, too.

Sounds good. I'll have a think on what I'd like to play as well.

You guys killed it.

2000 credits for second level characters.

When we first discussed the idea of the proteges, my thoughts were to play a PC I'd made previously for an ill-fated PbP AP. He is a (coincidentally pahtra) ranged solarian, leaning more into revelations (particularly graviton) than martial prowess. I think this should still be different enough from Cellion's concept to not step on one another's toes.

Otherwise, I would like to take an enhanced witchwarper out for a spin.

I'm doodling around with a melee evolutionist, but I might flip over to a mechanic depending on the party's needs.

It's never a good idea to go on a mission without a nerd. :)

I have been working on a med-bot who used to work as a drone for a mechanic until his owner died. Something happened and he became a sapient SRO, now delivering aid and comfort to his allies as a bio hacker.

That sounds fun Zephyr!

@Super: I think even double melee solarian would be fine. The issue is probably skill coverage more than anything else, but I've never seen an SFS mission that can't be completed with four soldiers.

I'll give it some more thought on Saturday. I want to do something fun and different, but I also want the party to be solid.

Harlan's potential next character here. What I'll say is if we have at least one more melee person, the benefit of bull rush goes up, since it'll give other melee openings to attack of opportunity as well.

That does sound fun, B_G!

I say go with fun, Janosian - where there's a will, there's a way. We'll get through. Besides, it sounds like the melee evolutionist would work just fine.

Cellion, a good point about skills. If I go with the ranged solarian, I re-spec him a little, since he was geared to fill the captain role for starship combat in the AP (CHA is his highest stat).

A small disclaimer - my characters are rarely optimised.

8-10-U8 says hi! Check out his story in the profile!

@Super -- I hear you on the lack of pure optimization. I like giving them a quirk or weakness... it makes the roleplaying more interesting and the characters more 'real' to me.

Okay, next stop is a melee evolutionist. More news to come!

I'm happy to introduce Kyzin Gaz, shobad evolutionist.

There's more to fill into his profile, but at least this is a start.

Very nice work Cellion, B_G and Janosian.

Meet Reynar, pahtra solarian. Profile is a WIP.

I've made a few changes to his original iteration, including taking Stellar Sage alternate class option for more skill points and an extra revelation or two at the levels the proteges are likely to reach. He'll only be 3/4 BAB now, but we have the other two maulers to help cover that side of things.

Characters look good. I'm still pulling the scenario together.

And I've changed my mind. Let's play this at 3rd level.

Characters look good. I'm still pulling the scenario together.

And I've changed my mind. Let's play this at 3rd level.

Cool…Cool…How many credits for level 3?

Cool, indeed! The 3rd level gives a nice little boost.

Excited for the next adventure to begin!

I'm guessing 4000 credits for 3rd level? Picking up weapon specialization is quite the power spike for this level... time to reassess items too.

4000 credits.

And we're going to third, not just for your benefit. It's also so that I have better monsters. Just saying.

Sounds fun! Looking forward to seeing what you have in store for us.

Very good -- level 3 it is!

Do you have a start date in mind?

Alright, I think I'm mostly set for 3rd level.

Let's say first Monday in May.

For this scenario, it might be interesting if you have some idea what your character did during the whole Scoured Stars fiasco and rescue mission.

Are you a raw recruit drawn by the Starfinder's resurgence after the rescue?

Are you a slightly older recruit who signed on when the Society would hire any warm body to fill the ranks after most of the Agents were trapped in the Scoured Stars. And did you participate in the rescue or were you assigned elsewhere?

Are you a veteran Starfinder? Were you trapped, rescued, or assigned elsewhere?

How does that inform your view of the rescuees and Starfinder upper ranks?

Hmm, all good questions. My previous idea for Mercy was someone more connected to Harlan than to the Society. I can definitely reassess though. As a relatively low level adventurer, she probably isn't some veteran Starfinder, but she certainly could have had some role during the Scoured Stars.

Will have to think about it.

8-10-U8 has a bit of this in his backstory. Hearing the tale of Zephyr (Z-4), Attenuate's mechanic master Z-2 was recruited to help in the rescue of the trapped Scoured Star Starfinders. Z-2 gave his life during one of the rescues, and 8-10-U8 gained sentience as his master passed.

Kyzin knew about the Starfinders, but never interacted with them until they investigated the biological mutations erupting on Akiton during the Drift Crisis (SFS 5-07).

He was in Great Gwaz when the mutations began affecting the populace, and was impressed by the Starfinders he saw and interacted with.

Because of the inspiration his new mutation gave him, he left Akiton to join the Starfinder Society.