[SFS - PbP Outpost V] 3-99 Perils of the Past - GM bigboom (Inactive)

Game Master bigboom

Welcome everybody! Thank you for joining my table. This game starts March 6. More instructions coming soon!!!

Looking forward to this insanity!

Welcome! Welcome! A couple more weeks and it all begins!

;-)

Heya everyone!!! The slides are ready - links are up top and in my name header!

We're about a week and a half away from starting so when you are ready, please go ahead and:

Staar is a heavy hitter, but can't tank at all.

She'll usually be second place in a line, standing right by a vanguard or melee soldier.

Hef will go 3 or 4. He is melee support (soaks a couple hits the front liners would take) and a healer.

Cavaler, is a pretty squishy jack of all trades. He's got the usual envoy abilities, but he can also cast spells from spell gems, throw grenades, and inject poison so he's versatile.

Cav's tagline is up to date, but his profile on the Paizo site is not. His up to date character sheet is linked in his tagline.

Terminatrix usually is on frontline taking hits and hitting heavily. Gunner or pilot in starship combat.

I have played this on lower tier.

Hef bows to each Starfinder, "Ah good, little talk to distract us from the mission. This group should do well."

Haha! Nice!

Hef Sadir wrote:

Hef bows to each Starfinder, "Ah good, little talk to distract us from the mission. This group should do well."

Haha! Nice!

:D

It looks like we at least have a solid frontliner, some support and some dps, that is excellent.

If we get our whole party mustered can we kick this one off before the official Outpost start date?

Unfortunately no. The whole special gets kicked off with a single announcement from the House GM to all the tables. As the table GM, I can't kick things off early and have to adhere to the overall special's time line.

But I appreciate the enthusiasm!!

Senko primarily uses pistols, but he is definitely able to get into melee to provide a flank when needed. Staar expressed a desire to be in the second rank, so Senko can be up front with Terminatrix, or he can guard the rear. Whichever we need.

For starship roles, he can be a pilot, gunner, magic officer, engineer, or science officer.

Also, bigboom, how do you handle creature identification checks in combat? Senko will always make such checks against anything we're fighting (including humanoids) at the start of his first turn, so that knowledge can inform which actions he takes (and because he gets a bonus to trick attack against identified creatures).

For expedience, would it be useful for you to roll the checks for me and tell me the result? For creature identification, Senko has +14 Engineering, +14 Life Science (and -5 to the Life Science DC for rare creatures), and +15 Mysticism. Do you handle creature identification with the GM choosing which information the player gets, or with the player asking questions?

I would like to bring my lvl 5 Technomancer (not leveled up yet). He is a longarm guy, and shooting his rifle is the main thing he does, but he has some utility and damage spells as well. He's also a pretty good pilot (+13) which is what I prefer him to do, but he is decent in other roles as well.

Welcome Delta-5!

Senko, for identification, I generally respond after a player states they are attempting to identify a creature. I don't mind rolling ahead of time for you but I'll caveat that with I might not remember to do so. Usually, I go with players asking questions but if preferred, I can give out the additional information.

Unfortunately, I just realized that Delta-5, doesn't get his Dead Suns chronicle until he hits level 5 (which explains how I had not leveled him up yet).

I will bring Kai Starchaser unless slow track is an option and we want another martial type, in which case I can bring Hadir.

Kai is also a very good pilot, and that is the role I prefer in starship combat.

GM, can you remove Delta-5 from the campaign? I already dotted in with him.

Sure, I'll take Delta-5 out. And unless I've missed it somewhere, there is no slow track for SFS.

Senko, for identification, I generally respond after a player states they are attempting to identify a creature. I don't mind rolling ahead of time for you but I'll caveat that with I might not remember to do so. Usually, I go with players asking questions but if preferred, I can give out the additional information.

Alright, sounds good. I'll roll my skill check and ask a list of questions in the same post to speed things along.

Though even with a list of questions, there are instances where it makes sense to deviate from it. Like, if I learn that a creature's breath weapon is recharged when hit by damage it's immune to, my next question would absolutely be about immunities, regardless of the order of my initial list. I'll trust your judgement for when you think there's an important piece of info that should go to the top of the list.

... trying to take the back & forth question & answer of creature identification and condensing it into one post of questions and one reply of answers seems hard. Do any of you more experienced than me in PbP know of a good solution?

I only have one knowledge check expert. She simply has a list of information priorities and sticks to that every time (resistances, vulnerabilities, special attacks, etc...).

PbP lacks a bit in some areas to F2F, while benefiting greatly in other areas. It is very difficult to complete a quick back and forth with the GM over anything. Which is definitely the biggest downside.

But a major upside is having the ability to add flavor and RP and flesh out your character beyond just a double sided character sheet of dice modifiers. Plus the whole 'post when I can during the day' vs. needing to set aside 5-6 hours to run a scenario with a group.

TLDR: It isn't easy to do that in PbP in my experience.

Starship combat is also difficult to replicate well in PbP while keeping up the pace. So in the end, some compromises or made or nuance is lost with respect to the mechanics. However, as Hef said, there are benefits to be had in return.

Ultimately, if we miss something mechanically due to the asynchronous nature of PvP, there is also opportunity to retroactively correct it. For example, Senko rolls an attack and misses. But it is pointed out a post later that Senko actually would've hit because he actually would've identified the target at that time. In this case, I can retoractively apply the hit in my next post. That's no problem and when it comes to PbP limitations causing these types of situations, I'll generally lean towards an outcome that is in the players' favor.

No worries!!

Alright, thanks for the insight.

I've never done a starship combat in an asynchronous game, but that does not sound great. This adventure doesn't have the Starship tag, right?

Nope, this one doesn't have a starship tag. For those of you who have played other specials, there's also no aid tokens so that's a couple less mechanics to deal with!

;-)

I have noticed that in discord pbp it is a little easier or more common to be able to have a back and forth with the GM or other players in realtime. Of course, there are still plenty of times you're not on discord at the same time and there's a delay. But the delays are shorter on average as well.

Notifications in discord are a great advantage. Paizo should've come up with a PbP app years ago, based on the amount of traffic their forum has.

Someone made a pretty decent pbp app for Android a while back, but they stopped supporting it a few years ago and it doesn't work anymore.

I had been planning to make a cross-platform app with notifications and stuff, but now that I mostly play on discord it doesn't seem to be worth the trouble anymore.

Kai is leveled and should be ready to go. He has an ally boon slotted that gives him +1 to fort saves and all dexterity and strength skill checks.

bigboom, what is the process for making a character token on the slides?

Staar, do you have any preference for which of us is in the front with Terminatrix ? Or, Kai, would you like to be in the front?

Senko, I've gone ahead and put yours as well as Kai's tokens up on the slides.

Everyone, feel free to arrange your marching order!

Cavaler is good in the middle of the formation.

Terminatrix-42 and Kai Starchaser, can you both fill out your character's details on slide 3 please?

Thank you!

Terminatrix-42 and Kai Starchaser, can you both fill out your character's details on slide 3 please?

Thank you!

Done on slides 3 *and* 4!

I have not played SFS in a while, so I have no idea who Ixthia is. Unless necessary for the adventure, I'd like to not have spoilers for whatever happened to Zigvigix.

Though, knowing what adventures to play to learn their fate would not be bad!

I haven't been keeping up with the SFS plot line as well. So I also have no idea who Ixthia is. I think the chances of spoiling Ziggy's fate are pretty low in this special, at least from what I can tell of this special's content.

Okay, cool.

Also, I mistyped my Perception check for Fitch as an Engineering check (but I used my Perception modifier, at least).

Season 4 metaplot, definitely.

Noooo, surely not season 4 metaplot. I haven't played any of that season yet. The only reason I signed up for this one was because I understood this was the start of specials that don't relate to the metaplot anymore.

EDIT: The scenario does *not* have the metaplot tag.

Zigvigix fate is part of season 4 metaplot.

Did the Pathfinder people get conditions from our successes as well?

Frozen Refractions 1+3+4+2+1 = 11
The Singing Pillars 2+4+3+5+5 = 19
Memory of Water 3+2+2+1+2 = 10
Rimerunning 4+1+1+3+4 = 13
The Emissary 5+5+5+4+3 = 22

Current order of missions:

Just a quick note in case expectations weren't previously set.

Because this is a special, the pace has to be kept relatively quick. As a result, depending on the situation, I may continue to progress the scenario forward even though not everyone has yet posted.

In combat, if someone has not posted after 24 hours has passed or if everyone except one has taken their turn, then I may proceed with botting in order to move us into the next combat round. If anyone would like your character to be botted in a particular manner, please include botting instructions on your profile / character sheet.

Apologies if, at times, portions of the special feels rushed!

And one more note. If I DO progress the scenario and you didn't have a chance to post something or take an action, please always feel free to do that retroactively and we'll retcon it in as needed. Don't hold back!!

Cavaler, doesn't a resolve point boosted Improved Get 'Em give a bonus to damage as well, not just attack?

Nice catch, you are exactly right. Everyone's damage roll should get a +2 bonus to it also.

The art for the ice elementals is outstanding!

I agree, they look pretty kickass!

Starfinder art is stellar. I’ve also noticed pfs2 art is really nice too.

Sorry for my absence everyone. I've had a lot of things come up at with this week and so I have been working late a lot this week. I'll try to keep up better going forward, but continue to bot me as needed,

--

I put my boons in the slides (no change from the default allocation on my character sheet).

I know it's a bit late but my preferred order for the encounters is:

1. Rimerunning
2. The Singing Pillars
3. The Emissary
4. Memory of Water
5. Frozen Refractions

No worries Kai. Will continue to bot you as needed. Thanks for the heads up!

Per slides 2 and 3, there are currently three missions open and the current chase mission will soon be wrapping up. What mission is everyone interested in next?

1. Halls of Eternity
2. A Fading Trail
3. The Emissary