[SF] Fly Free or Die AP - GM Ewok

Game Master EwokBanshee

Wait a tick, Tech Revolution comes out next month. I didn't do the Playtest, but wasn't there a Powered Armor class in there?

Hi Remnar! Been a while! Nice to see you.

No one scooped up the pilot position yet, eh? Interesting! I'll aim to be the pilot then. No idea where else I'm going with my character yet, but I'm digging in now.

I have a random urge to make someone chipper and good aligned, and I'm oddly intrigued with the Kalistocrat childhood thing so I might work with that. We'll see. I'll probably have it narrowed down by tonight.

Good to see you too meloriel, missed you on the last campaign :)

Wait a tick, Tech Revolution comes out next month. I didn't do the Playtest, but wasn't there a Powered Armor class in there?

I think that book only has the nanocyte as a new class, and I don't remember that having a powered armor bent to it during the playtest.

Also hey there Remnar!

Considering that Strek is aiming for the big experimental weapon build (the same general concept I was considering for my mechanic), I think I'll err on the side of either a mystic or vanguard.

The one thing I'm sure of though is that I'll be going with the Golden Parachute background! Just seems like such an awesome bit of character history that goes great with both characters I'm thinking of right now.
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@Ewok Another two questions for you:

Thanks! Ironically, the Dead Suns campaign I was in died not long after I was invited to join yours. Lol. Missed my chance!

So I've decided I'd like to be a witchwarper. Haven't decided race yet, but I'd be going Witchwarper, Ace Pilot, Kalistocrat Childhood. Alternatively, if we already have a mystic and a technomancer in the party, I'll go ranged solarian. Were you going mystic or vanguard, Cellion?

Sweet, I haven't done much starfinder other than the dead suns and I had been interested in both witchwarper and vanguard, so seeing them played is just as good as playing them to me.

Were you going mystic or vanguard, Cellion?

Truthfully not sure yet. I've got good character-personality ideas for both classes! And as far as class abilities go: On one hand all the mystic mind-shenanigans feel like they're going to be really fun in this kind of adventure. On the other hand, so does romping around with huge reach and moving enemies around.

Do you feel strongly about witchwarper? That may push me one way or the other.

I love the energy! Speaking of Tech Revolution, I forgot another of my policies: In between AP books, I'm happy to accommodate any reasonable character rebuild to incorporate new content that has been released. It's a long campaign, I don't want to lock folks out of a fun new option because it didn't exist a year prior when they should have taken the prerequisite feat.

Bigboom, I love the link! I love that Starfinder lends itself to pop culture references/jokes so well.

@Cellion: Yeah, I think Mystical is a must-have rule for any game involving a Mystic. Your ship and your crew is a big part of this AP, I'm fine with every gun on your home starship having the Mystical property. It's a straight up buff to Mystics, but from what I've seen it only benefits Starship combat and doesn't make them overpowered. Official ruling: each time the party's ship levels up, the guns it has gain the Mystical rule. (If you switch ships mid book, the new one might not have the rule until you level up again. Thems the breaks for a prole.)

@Cellion, ask me this question again in like two weeks. I need to think about it and read through the AP a bit closer first. I'll definitely consider it, but most of my gameplay has been in Society (which I haven't had a problem with spell slots) and the Dead Suns AP where our Technomancer didn't have a high posting rate. I'm thinking this AP will have shorter adventuring days than average because you'll be a lot more mobile (hopping through the drift) than other adventures.

What I'm seeing:
Players: Nefreet / PaleDim / BigBoom / Remnar / Meloriel / Cellion
Backgrounds: Terraformer / / Old Hand / Union Busted / Kalistocrat Childhood / Golden Parachute
Classes: Mechanic (Exocortex? Experimental Weapon?) / Soldier / Operative / Technomancer / Witchwarper or Solarian / Mystic or Vanguard
Starship Roles: Engineer / Gunner / Captain (or anything?) / Science Officer (or gunner?) / Pilot

Also, two of you picked the Backgrounds I was most excited about, good job. ;)

Exocortex. Experimental looks neat but you give up so much it doesn't seem like an even trade.

Can you tell us what languages would be good for our respective Backgrounds?

Can you tell us what languages would be good for our respective Backgrounds?

Oh I'd be interested to know as well! Being an "Old Hand" and using disguises at EJ offices, are there particular races/languages that are more prevalent than others amongst EJ office staff? Especially small sized races?

Can you tell us what languages would be good for our respective Backgrounds?

Great question!! Here's some languages that the named characters in your Backgrounds speak, which you may have picked up from them.

Terraformer: Brenneri, Vesk
Old Hand: Brenneri, Vesk
Union Busted: Brenneri, Vesk
Kalistocrat Childhood: Vesk, Dwarven
Golden Parachute : Drow, Akitonian

Strek Armstrom wrote:

Can you tell us what languages would be good for our respective Backgrounds?

Oh I'd be interested to know as well! Being an "Old Hand" and using disguises at EJ offices, are there particular races/languages that are more prevalent than others amongst EJ office staff? Especially small sized races?

EJ is VERY corporate. It's Common all the way for them, as far as I can tell.

meloriel wrote:

Were you going mystic or vanguard, Cellion?

Truthfully not sure yet. I've got good character-personality ideas for both classes! And as far as class abilities go: On one hand all the mystic mind-shenanigans feel like they're going to be really fun in this kind of adventure. On the other hand, so does romping around with huge reach and moving enemies around.

Do you feel strongly about witchwarper? That may push me one way or the other.

Truth be told my character background (story) isn't strictly tied to one class either. If we get the vanguard I may rethink it a little.

Looking at the backgrounds though, I think the (remaining) one that fits the character's story best is New Hire.

I'm making a sarcesian (although I strongly considered a halfling) who was adopted and raised by Kalistocrats. She was taught that money was what mattered most and to obtain that you had to follow the Prophecies of Kalistade. She tried to be a good Kalistocrat, but there were so many rules and regulations she found it stifling. Her only relief was piloting the high-end racers and speedsters her parents owned—for status, of course; her parents weren't much into racing. Flying gave her a sense of freedom and let her escape—if only for a while. Also loves to stare at the stars.

One day, while flying further from her family's home than usual, she received an odd signal over the comms—a show on the infosphere she'd never seen before. Her parents blocked all "inappropriate" signals and shows to prevent religious corruption, and this show was definitely on the block list. It was a baking show and they were eating all kinds of delicious looking foods made from ingredients her religion deemed "unclean." It was marvellous.

Over the next year, she flew further and further to see shows and hear music she'd never been exposed to. She saw colourful clothes, love and heroism, passion and bravery, displays of emotion that involved physical contact, and of course, food. Was money really what mattered most, when being a Kalistocrat meant she was missing out on all of this? Was a hug so horrible? A cupcake? Wearing blue?

Hard to know unless she experienced it herself...

If she's a witchwarper:
One day, while tossing and turning at night, she dreamt of baking. When she woke up, a cake was sitting there on her dresser. Hard to resist when it was there, looking so good and smelling so sweet. And what was the harm in trying it anyway?

She ate it.

And it changed her life forever. She began to have visions of other worlds and other places, and when she focused on them she could pull objects from her visions into reality. She pulled over food and colourful clothes and all the things she never had a chance to experience.

Her parents found out, of course. How could they not notice their daughter's sudden isolation within her quarters, and the contraband stuffed in every nook and cranny. They disowned her. Drained her bank account. Cut her off from their inheritance. They let her pack a single bag, hop in one of the speedsters, and fly away. Didn't even let her say goodbye to her siblings.

Out in the real world, she learned the importance of money quick. She had to sell the fancy little starship for food and shelter, and the money lasted her for a time. She took odd jobs, and turned down others. But no matter how bad it got, she smiled. She was free to make her own choices and she wouldn't trade it for all the credits in all the galaxy.

The only thing she misses from her old life is the fancy starships she used to fly.

And if she's a solarian
Pretty much the same, but instead of pulling in contraband from other worlds, she probably pays one of the delivery servants to smuggle some in.

Anyway, she's going to be a kindhearted foodie that's always chipper and happy regardless of the shit-show we're in. CG. Loves learning about new places (and their local cuisine). Considers er crew her found family. Never mentioned to her crew she used to be a wealthy Kalistocrat. Always saying things like, "Happiness starts with a smile!" and "There are things more important than credits, you know." Probably offers people hugs when they're angry or upset (cause hugs are like magic to her!).

Being a witchwarper would be fun because I could theme her infinite worlds effects to food and stuff and just be goofy. Her difficult terrain could be a melted sticky caramel flood or something. But I'd also enjoy going solar flare solarian.

Hmm, was pretty set on a basic caster technomancer, but after some reading a Soldier/Techno Spell Sergeant sounds pretty fun too if Cellion goes Mystic.

I do so enjoy Gish characters

Nice one meloriel - that's awesome!! Yep, confirmed! You're a writer alright! ;-)

The witchwarper sounds very cool!

Does that make 3 Good characters??

*clutches his pearls*

GM, how scarce are resources going to be in this AP?

Which direction I go might have some bearing on how likely it'll be to afford things like power armor.

"Ah p'fer payment'n UPBs."

Resources will be about as plentiful as other AP's, like Dead Suns. Power Armor has the same problem as other niche weapons/armors in that they aren't as common as treasure either.

And I'm more than happy to give UPBs instead of credits as rewards.

Thanks, the more I play with some stuff, the more I like a caster anyway

GM Ewok, I believe I've got my space goblin character mostly figured out. His name is Guess?. When you have a chance (no rush), please take a look at the details below and let me know if you foresee anything that needs alteration.

Some points to note:

NAME: Guess? (the ‘?’ is in the name only because the name ‘Guess’ is already taken in the forums but ‘Guess?’ is available... hehe)
RACE: Space Goblin (because they're adorable little critters!)
CLASS: Operative w/ "Free Trader" archetype (spy specialization, stunt and strike)
THEME: Corporate Agent
BACKGROUND: Old Hand
PROFESSION: Smuggler
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral (sometimes following the rules works, but most times it won't, so a bit of rule bending/breaking will always be needed to get you and your crew ahead)
STARSHIP ROLE: Captain or possibly chief mate/gunner/pilot (have one skill point that can be moved away from piloting to somewhere else, depending upon party needs)
CATCHPHRASE: "Guess who?!?"
CHARACTER SHEET: LINK
TOKEN: LINK

Guess? developed a legitimate-appearing ysoki alter-ego named “Haath Chaar”

Huh. If I had to guess, I would have assumed that was a Kasathan name =P

EDIT: waxing nostalgic, I just skimmed over Hi-C's last 50 posts and man, the comedy in that Campaign was golden. Hopefully we can get something like that going in this game ^_^

I both love and hate that there is a freaking question mark in Guess?'s name. Hilarious.

Yepp, Guess? can start with a branded EJ spacesuit. It has a bunch of duct tape covering the old leaks, but it'll do.

Guess?'s backstory with Tarika works great. Tarika is the current company dispatcher for the group, so the whole group will be at least mildly familiar with her. Tarika, a brenneri (Starfinder Alien Archive 3 8) employee of EJ Corp, works as a dispatcher, sending starship crews on pickup and delivery jobs. She looks out for you as best she can, finding you contracts and often giving the crew extra information that might be helpful on jobs. Despite her current position as a dispatcher, Tarika has never given up her love of fixing things. She most often appears in an olive-green flight suit and, like most brenneri, keeps a favored object to calm her emotions and help her focus; Tarika’s favored object is an old wrench.

Guess? would know her full backstory.

I'm so surprised the Paragon Symbiend is SFS legal! It's pretty sweet. The description says it can communicate with you, feel free to use italics to have some internal dialogue with it as much or as little as you want. I'll definitely keep an eye out for opportunities to speak through it as well. My vote is you name it. :)

Huh. If I had to guess, I would have assumed that was a Kasathan name =P

I guess Guess? likes to keep you guessing!

hehe... but yah, this was my little homage to Haath Chaar. I was considering naming the symbiend Haath Chaar but I wasn't sure if I really wanted Haath Chaar bouncing around in Guess?'s head! ;-)

EDIT: waxing nostalgic, I just skimmed over Hi-C's last 50 posts and man, the comedy in that Campaign was golden. Hopefully we can get something like that going in this game ^_^

With this group, I'm positive we'll see lots of funny and awesome!! Looking forward to our official kickoff next month! =)

I both love and hate that there is a freaking question mark in Guess?'s name. Hilarious.

Haha! I'm both Zo! very sorry and Zo! very not sorry! (my elementary school English teachers would kill me for this!!)

My vote is you name it. :)

Hmmmm.... perhaps I will! Gonna have a think about this one!

Paizo needs more goblin pics. I'm going to keep confusing this for my PF2 Goblin Sorcerer, Arfsnarf Ah'sneeze :P

Cellion wrote:

PaleDim, are you thinking a melee soldier or a ranged one?

For a space-minotaur, I feel like it ought to be melee.

But on reflection I am giving a ranged/grenade soldier consideration.

Paizo needs more goblin pics. I'm going to keep confusing this for my PF2 Goblin Sorcerer, Arfsnarf Ah'sneeze :P

Yes! Agreed! Options are very limited (and sometimes difficult to locate).

That's a great goblin name by the way!!! :D

In my head, Strek sounds like a cross between Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy, but I realize that sort of rural American accent might be harder to laugh at (or even understand) depending on how international this group is. As an example, if he says:

"A'ight GUMBI less getter dun!"

It means he's initiating Combat Tracking:

"Alright GUMBI, let's get this job done."

("GUMBI", of course, stands for "General User-Managed Binary Interface", which is the software that makes up Strek's Exocortex)

Is everyone comfortable with that level of "slang"? I can tone it back if it's too much.

I'm fine with the accent and understand it. But you make a good point - depending upon individual experience, some may not comprehend it.

Either way, I marvel at your ability to write the accent out. I'd have a hard time keeping it up with my own characters!
(which is why Guess?'s dialogue won't have a goblin accent)

I'd appreciate a little less on the accent. I usually have time to post while cooking or some other multitasking and I'll definitely misunderstand something on occasion if you lean into it that hard. I think the only problem would be the words spelt out like another real world. So I got everything but 'less' made me have to reread since it turns out it was not 'less.' I'm sure I'd usually get it, but I'm also sure I'll miss it sometimes.

Thanks for asking.

No worries ^_^

BACKSTORY:

Life was hard on Bortan II, the Brakim homeworld. A planetwide war sometime during the Gap reduced their numbers and left their world an irradiated wasteland. Worse yet, the planet was forcefully added to the Azlanti Star Empire, leaving little opportunity for the Brakim people to ever fully recover from their self-inflicted destruction.

But that was long before Strek was born, and he saw things differently.

Strek was quick to pick up the Azlanti language by tapping into and studying their digital communications. He became so adept with his own accent at points that he gained the confidence to interject a few communique of his own occasionally, and through that, he learned of opportunities.

When he eventually landed his first off-world job he impressed his superiors with his knowledge of Azlanti, their protocols and even their humor. He'd interject self deprecating jokes into Azlanti conversations, usually by saying things like he'd "stick his neck out" for them or how he'd "bend over backwards" to get the job done.

The Azlanti liked those sorts of jokes.

And truth be told, Strek still uses them to this day. But he escaped from an Azlanti job site years ago, so now his humor is more of a reminder of where he came from, and how no matter how bad things may seem, at least he doesn't wake up homeless and starving in a desert encampment.

His last big job before joining the crew of BD514 was terraforming the waterworld of Entha. Strek could swim well, but that wasn't enough to excel and get noticed. So he starved for a week to save up for a gill sheath augmentation to stay underwater long after his oxygen had run up. He even multitasked by using those long hours to practice Aquan, just in case a future supervisor might be impressed with it.

But that job got sour when company profits tanked, and so now he finds himself as a Starship mechanic, wondering what language he should pick up next.

(typed up while waiting in a very long line listening to people of multiple nationalities speaking in just as many languages)

Love the backstory, Strek! That's fantastic, works great. Gumbi as an exocortex name is fabulous.

I've got my guys backstory and crunch roughed out.

Would have probably had more but my level 8 paladin in another campaign heroically sacrificed himself and properly died.

So now I'm focusing on building a new character for that game, since it like looks like the group is gonna make it through fine.

Basic outline of my background is that he grew up the child of major stakeholders in a minor mine on Akiton and enjoyed relative luxury and education until his early adulthood when the mine went belly up and they lost everything. Still, educated and quick to learn he bounced around doing any odd jobs he could scrounge until he got a sweet gig at Abadarcorp.

Of course that's when he got snarled up in an attempt to unionize. What, you ask? Laborers? Miners? Fabricators? Programmers!!? Nah, accountants! Yeah, the money guys tried to push their weight with Abadarcorp, THAT didn't work.

So he bounced around some more, doing things legal and less so till he caught on with this crew. Handy with a computer and a spreadsheet (also a gun or spells) is always useful on a merchant vessel.

Sounds great, Remnar!! I love the accountant detail!

What I'm seeing:
Players: Nefreet / PaleDim / BigBoom / Remnar / Meloriel / Cellion
Backgrounds: Terraformer / New Hire / Old Hand / Union Busted / Kalistocrat Childhood / Golden Parachute
Classes: Mechanic (Exocortex) / Soldier / Operative / Technomancer / Witchwarper or Solarian / Mystic or Vanguard
Starship Roles: Engineer / Gunner / Captain (or anything?) / Science Officer (or gunner?) / Pilot /

I'm still in a state of indecision around which character to play. Maybe its time to flip a coin.

I think I've finished everything for Strek. Skills converted into dice rolls. Feats and Tricks planned through 9th Level. Equipment purchased. I spent every credit, rounding out his list with a week's worth of Oceanworld brand saltwater taffy (aka Field Rations), a twelve pack case of caffeinated pop (aka Intoxicant, Minor), and a Basic Vidgame — Settlers of Nakondis — which was popular back during his days in the Azlanti Star Empire.

I was pilot, btw. Unless someone else wants to be it, then I can easily switch to Science Officer and change my background. (For the record, I'm actually not partial to being a pilot, but I worked it into her background since no one had taken pilot and we needed one).

Thanks for the clarification, Meloriel! You're the pilot, Remnar will be the Science Officer or 2nd Gunner (depending on what Cellion ends up with).

Cellion, you've got two good choices there! It's a nice problem to have :)

Been thinking over the Nuar, and my options for him are:

1. Ho-hum Melee again (which, on top of not being too excited about I think will be covered elsewhere in the party)
2. Dex-based soldier with mediocre stats
3. Str-based solider but grenade specialist
4. Going off-the-wall as a biohacker.
5. Consider switching races to something more amenable to the Dex-based soldier, which I'm pretty sure would still work for his backstory (I'm thinking about Strix to keep it funky-fresh).

Just thinking out loud as I mostly focus on the end of the current campaign :)

Just throwing out random thoughts in response to your thinking out loud while I procrastinate from doing work.

1. If option #1 isn't exciting for you, then I say definitely don't go down that route!
2. I wouldn't worry about mediocre stats if the character is fun to play! Space-minotaur who loves performing backflips but fails 25% of the time?? OMG, my character will be endlessly amused by that...
3. I can see it now. Your big, muscular nuar pulls out a small little grenade and someone says, "You're a minotaur, where's your great axe?!?" Your character responds, "That's bull!! (keke) I'm not that type of minotaur!"
4. I'm honestly not familiar with the biohacker class but I assume this means your character can better take advantage of augments? In other words, your character becomes a mechanical bull?
5. I don't recall encountering many Strix before. I looked it up just now and they certainly look impressive!

I rolled my character up as a witch warper, FYI. I still need to do gear and name and such before she's posted.

If we are low on melee I could try that spell sergeant technomancer instead.

Just throwing out random thoughts in response to your thinking out loud while I procrastinate from doing work.

1. If option #1 isn't exciting for you, then I say definitely don't go down that route!
2. I wouldn't worry about mediocre stats if the character is fun to play! Space-minotaur who loves performing backflips but fails 25% of the time?? OMG, my character will be endlessly amused by that...
3. I can see it now. Your big, muscular nuar pulls out a small little grenade and someone says, "You're a minotaur, where's your great axe?!?" Your character responds, "That's bull!! (keke) I'm not that type of minotaur!"
4. I'm honestly not familiar with the biohacker class but I assume this means your character can better take advantage of augments? In other words, your character becomes a mechanical bull?
5. I don't recall encountering many Strix before. I looked it up just now and they certainly look impressive!

Thank you, I knew it would be worth it posting stream-of-consciousness :)

Strek is definitely starting off with mediocre stats. Need Strength for Heavy Weapon Proficiency, Need Dexterity to hit with them, Race boosts Con, Few points remaining for Int, Theme boosts Wisdom, tank Charisma.

But that just means Levels 5 and 10 will be more meaningful ^_^

Oh, definitely go with whatever most excites you PaleDim! Even if it's not "good." I always go for fun over optimization.

I love to see the discussion! A word on folks not being fully optimized: AP's are built for four players, so I'll be making up my own 6 player adjustments on the fly. So if the whole party is min-maxed to the hilt or not optimized at all, I'll just adjust differently.

My only request is that we have somebody covering each of the knowledge check skills. (Looking at you, Mysticism...)