GM Dennis - SFS #4-10 The Way In - Table 2 (Inactive)

Game Master Dennis Muldoon

If you were selected for this table, please post the following here:

PC Name:
PFS#-Char#:
Faction:
Level:
Perception Mod:
Anything weird I should know about your character:

PC Name: Blinky Bluegum
PFS#-Char#: 826-705
Faction: Exo-G
Level: 5
Perception Mod: +10 (+Trap spotter)
Anything weird I should know about your character: Nothing weird about an 11' killer koala.

That avatar is going to catch my attention every time I see it :P

Note - my area's local (online this year) convention, Gobloween, starts today (plus something else has come up recently that has been a major distraction but not in a bad way) so I will probably not be able to get my sheet on here before the 1st. I have every intention on being ready to play later that evening or by the 2nd at the latest, however. Very sorry about that!

However, for now:

PC Name: Usyl Hayet Esmar of Clan Tolar, House Zye, 9th Warden in the line of Tuek (Hellknight Signifer, Order of the Scourge)
PFS#-Char#: 801-715
Faction: Exo-Guardians
Level: Level 5
Perception Mod: +13 (Broad-Spectrum Scanning Kit: +4 circumstance bonus on Perception checks to search)
Anything weird I should know about your character: Oh boy.
Mystic Epiphanies: Empowered Healing, Overbearing Stare.
Battle Leader Archetype: Victory Cry reactions: "Regroup!" and "Keep Moving!"
Improved demoralize + Grim Trophies armor upgrade.
Active radiation badge.

No worries. I'm GMing at SkalCon this weekend, so I'm fine if we have a bit of a slow start on Monday.

When you have your character settled and ready to go, please fill in your info and add a token to the Slide deck.

Convention kicked the crap out of us, but Ivis and I are planning on getting our stuff ready in the next 24 hours. Sorry for the delay on our part!

Added

PC Name: Persephone Briarus - "Pheobe"
PFS#-Char#: 809-707
Faction: Acquisitives
Level: 6
Perception Mod: 13
Anything weird I should know about your character:
Sorry for the list
Screedreep, Thief Operative, Uncanny Shooter (Ex), Debilitating Trick, Slip Through (Street Rat 6th Level), Evasion, Feign Death (Ex), Marked for Death (Ex), Trap Spotter (Ex), Holographic Distraction (Ex), Trick Attack +3d8, Quick Movement +10Ft., Unfriendly Fire, Startled Scream

Don't forget to introduce yourself in character in the Gameplay tab when you're ready to go, and to fill out the macros and add a token on the slide deck if you haven't done so yet!

I'm hoping we can get going in the next day or two here. As part of that, the starship combat is right at the beginning of this one. Please fill in your character on the Starship roles matrix on slide 3 (as well as your token and other info on slide2), so we can be ready to go.

Alright, I think that's everyone introduced in the Gameplay tab, so I'm going to get us going. We still need Conrad, Ishkitik, and Lucius to place themselves in marching order and select their starship rolls (slide 3), however.

PC Name: Ishkitik
PFS#-Char#: 215650-708
Faction: Acquisitives
Level: 7
Perception Mod: 12
Anything weird I should know about your character: You know it all already!

One thing I forgot - Usyl has a Voice Amplifier turned on during most missions. This boosts his intimidation but also gives a -5 on Perception DCs to detect him. If we're being stealthy he'll turn it off, but during a mission, it is otherwise usually active.

I have proposed a roster for starship roles!

Captain: Conrad +18+d6
Pilot: Phoebe +16
Science Officer: Lucius +19
Engineer: Blinky +11
Mystic Officer: Usyl +15
Gunner: Ishkitik +12

This would be the flying-around assignments, but it might be better during combat for Blinky to jump on a second gun and Lucius to switch over to Engineer. We have a Mystic Officer who can scan systems, so it's not that critical to have a Science Officer in place.

PC Name: "Space" Lucius
PFS#-Char#: 788-702
Faction: Wayfinders
Level: 6
Perception Mod: +12
Anything weird I should know about your character: Operative. Plus i have nukes we could load on our ship.

+15 piloting, +17 computers, +19 engineering. I’d honestly rather be at engineering, especially with the difference of 8 between Blinky and me. Either that, or put me at gunner, since that’s really the most important part?

Note: with my level of engineering I can use resolve to divert to 3 systems, such as shields, weapons, and engines, if we really need it.

I also have a boon with some nuclear weapons. That being said, I'd like to be the one to use them if we do mount them. I have to dig out my folder (most of my gaming stuff is in the garage after our basement got flooded).

I think I actually might have a hard copy of a "Mystic Weapon System" starship boon here...it would let Usyl use Wisdom + Mysticism for gunnery. I'll take a look!

For the mystic weapons, if you don't, I have one you can have if you want it.

Quick question for Dennis - I just realized I had made an error in calculating my credits, and have ~10,000 more than I thought I did. Would you be ok with me grabbing the MK2 personal upgrade and adjusting stats to match?

I think the default is that we will maximise gunners and only worry about Engineering/Science when rebalancing shields etc as required.

Scanning can be done as a minor crew action if we don't have someone in the Science Officer chair

Apparently I do have one. So we could apply my boon to one of our weapons and then Usyl would be doing Gunnery at +10, but just with that one.

I put Ishkitik in as gunner since I think she has the highest bonus by virtue of being a 7th level character playing down, but she can also do Science or Engineer (Computers +18, Engineering +17).

I proposed a roster just to keep us moving, but if someone has an alternate roster, that's cool!

I'm good with that setup here.

For the mystic weapons, if you don't, I have one you can have if you want it.

Quick question for Dennis - I just realized I had made an error in calculating my credits, and have ~10,000 more than I thought I did. Would you be ok with me grabbing the MK2 personal upgrade and adjusting stats to match?

Sure, we haven't really gotten going yet. Feel free to make that purchase.

Thank you! Should have the updated character stuff up later tonight (and adjusted the piloting on the sheet).

Here's a tool (developed by thistledown) that may be helpful in choosing rolls, since we seem to be having trouble.

I've filled in the numbers for you, but you should check them to make sure I didn't get things wrong.

That's a neat tool!

Does show, as a reminder, that a good pilot is also a good gunner!

So, just to recap.

Best at Gunnery
- Ishkatik (12)
- Phoebe (12)

Best Pilots
- Phoebe (17)
- Lucius (15)
- Binky (13)

Best Engineers
- Lucius (19)
- Ishkatik (17)

Best Science Officers
- Ishkatik (18)
- Lucius (17)

Best Captain
- Conrad (no contest at all)

As I am still pretty unfamiliar with the chief mate, and magic officer (whatever its name), I will not speak to them.

But I would suggest the following:
Captain: Conrad
Pilot: Binky
Engineer: Lucius
Science Officer:
Mystic Officer: Usyl
Gunners: Ishkatik, Phoebe
Chief Mate: unassigned

Lucius or Ishkatik can start at science, just to get intial scans as needed, and then can move to their normal positions. Could alkso have Conrad manning a gun if Ishkatik starts at science.

Does that all make sense?

Looking at the ships, I think the Drake is the best choice, but that is mostly because the Pegasus is undergunned. The Gorgon looks cool with its massive shields, but I fully believe that in starship combat a good offense is the best defense. Hit 'em hard, and get out of there.

Usyl is definitely weak at starship combat, but Magic Officer is something he can do, as well as Open Crew Actions.

As a reminder, he can be a backup gunner at +10 if we pick a weapon for the Mystical Guidance Systems Upgrade.

You have acquired the technical blueprints to modify one of the weapons onboard your ship to act as a hybrid device that can be interacted with by trained in the arts of mysticism. Benefit: When this boon is slotted, select one weapon onboard your starship. This weapon gains the mystical weapon special property if it does not already possess this property. When calculating her 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 modifier. This boon can be used to improve weapons gained as a result of other Starship boons.

Note that the weapon can still be fired normally in addition to Wisdom + Mysticism ranks, so it won't make that system worse for other gunners.

I'm still good with what our pilot wants, but would have no complaints with the Drake either. If somebody has the boon for the Gorgon...that would be pretty amazing:

Tier 6 Ship Stats

Attack (Forward) maser (6d10), twin laser (5d8)

Attack (Port) high explosive missile launcher (4d8)
Attack (Starboard) high explosive missile launcher (4d8)
Attack (Turret) tactical nuclear missile launcher (5d8)

The tier 6 Azata is interesting and has point-defense weapons on both sides, but limited range on almost every weapons system (plus the EMP cannon only works if the enemy's shields are down).

We need to make a decision and get moving. Personally, my ranking:

Gorgon > Drake/Pegasus > Azata
(I'm 50/50 on Drake/Pegasus so I'll go with the majority, or with our Pilot's choice if it's a close vote)

I'm going to give this a little while today for folks to comment on Lucius' proposal, then move us on using that setup if there are no objections.

I disagree on the drake, because it's faster and with the nukes that Lucius has, I think that could work in our favor.

As far as positions, you may sadly be right. The bonus +4 to hit is probably more important than having it in the pilot seat.

I'm good with that roster. I prefer the Drake but will defer to the pilot.

Looks like I’ll fly and we have two gunners.

Let’s go the Drake. I’ll keep one of the +2’s to bolster piloting checks.
If the Captain can also give an encourage in the opening round that would be good to help ensure we get into a good firing position early.

So, I have the following for nukes:

I can replace 1 light weapon with a tactical nuclear missile launcher, and I have 20 rounds. This deals 5d8, is speed 10, 5 round magazine. This takes a -1 on the gunnery skill due to the jury rigging.

Alternatively, we can replace a heavy weapon with a Heavy Nuclear Missile Launcher. I have 10 rounds for this. It will deal 10d8, speed 10, 5 round magazine. It also takes a -1 on the gunnery skill.

I'd suggest taking the heavy, and replacing the heavy plasma torpedo launcher, as it does 10d8 instead of 5d10 (average of 45 instead of 26.5)

In fact, the Drake 6 does not appear to have any light weapons!

And, I defer to the better gunners to shoot these, though we should use the computer and captain when firing, if possible.

If it matters, I could instead use a broad arc boon, but I think the nukes are better.

If we're going to be firing a lot of missiles we also need to identify if the enemy has any point weapons (that do a great job of destroying missiles) so a good quality scan would be good.

I want to borrow the Captain for the first round so we can optimise our position if possible, then when we fire away I'm hoping we can have the enemy in a good arc.

Sounds like Drake. The choice of nuke replacement I leave totally up to the gunners.

GM - Usyl will shelve his mystical upgrade and instead slot Expert Gunnery

Benefit: During a starship combat encounter, when your ship scores critical damage against an opponent, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to reroll the critical damage effect. You must use the second result.

Enemy Ship looks like the fighters from Babylon 5!

Probably should look like a Cylon Raider.

I was worried they might have a point weapon in a turret, or even in the front or rear, but who puts one on just one side?

I'm sort of glad though, as it was critical we worked that out quickly as we have put so much emphasis on our missiles.

It's possible they have another one on the other side, too, and I just didn't roll high enough.

You got all facings (except possibly aft).

So there COULD be something at the rear, you can attempt a check next round too and confirm :)

You got all facings (except possibly aft).

You only got turret, forward, and starboard, so you don't know what, if anything, is in the port or aft arc.

I was worried they might have a point weapon in a turret, or even in the front or rear, but who puts one on just one side?

I thought about putting it in the turret, I really did. That really hampers it, though, because if it doesn't have a decent weapon in the turret then it's really dependent on winning initiative.

Lucius - which gun do we each want to be using for this?

It is a decent gamble though, as Starfinders seem to love the Drake and all the missiles - being able to negate them for the five rounds it takes to bleed them out of ammo can really turn the tide.

The nukes went in the turret

I’d think first volley should be the heavies. Two gunners, one firing the particle beam, one firing the nuke.

Save the coil guns for when we run out of missiles (or cannot track the particle beam)

The nukes went in the turret

I’d think first volley should be the heavies. Two gunners, one firing the particle beam, one firing the nuke.

Save the coil guns for when we run out of missiles (or cannot track the particle beam)

I think Phoebe was trying to ask Ishkatik who is firing which weapon this round, Lucius.

Well, those nukes certainly paid off!

Certainly worked well loading our best shots into gunnery!

I a, glad they were of use, and we have only used 2 so far!

Unfortunate epiphany...all of my mind-affecting and poison spells/effects are going to be completely useless on this ship, aren't they? :P