Pathfinder and Starfinder used to be huge at the local cons. When they put out the 'remastered' stuff.. Well, it's hard to find a face to fame game of it at all. I don't even know if I'm going to invest the money for PDF's for the upgraded Starfinder.
have been thinking about finding a PFS game here. I see the online con is starting late this month or early next..
I will be away from home for the weekend, so 'bot me if needed. I have access to hotel WiFi but I've tended to have trouble logging into the Paizo site to try to post with a tablet or phone.
Really loving SF2E; it's really brought the best of PF2 into Starfinder. So many smart choices in there. Can't wait for more material.
Good luck with the hotel wifi. I often have to clear cache in browsers before it'll let me connect. And sometimes it still refuses..
I actually was able to post a few things this time. I played an interesting playtest of a Steampunk role playing system call Tephra, with one of the designers and the GM. It was fun. Because Steampunk is big into clockwork mechanisms, they designed the system to use only a d12 for all rolls. They also used the exploding dice idea.
Brook - even if you were hiding, she would at least know there's a psychic on board, and if she were so inclined to curry favor with the Alliance (or was actively working with them), she could just tell them that and let them sort it out. It's *very* risky letting any strangers know you're psychic in any way...
That sounds fun! I enjoy trying new RPG's at cons. Now if I only had the budget and bandwidth to go to more. :)
Brook - even if you were hiding, she would at least know there's a psychic on board, and if she were so inclined to curry favor with the Alliance (or was actively working with them), she could just tell them that and let them sort it out. It's *very* risky letting any strangers know you're psychic in any way...
Brook - even if you were hiding, she would at least know there's a psychic on board, and if she were so inclined to curry favor with the Alliance (or was actively working with them), she could just tell them that and let them sort it out. It's *very* risky letting any strangers know you're psychic in any way...
With love, it's starting, well, past starting, to feel like an utter and complete no win / no play scenario with the psychic thing. Like I've actually watched the material, and I get that there was a guy who was pretty obsessed with catching River, but all of these people are pretty fringey. So sure, yeah, maybe, the lady with the garbage reputation could say something, sure ... but we can also look at real life here. The "let's not get involved" mentality eclipses a LOTfor people, and it's a little hard for me to see this crappy no-account hacker suddenly standing up straight, acting like a real person, showing up at a police station as if, taking her deep breath and saying "I present myself to report that whilst in the course of negotiating an extremely inappropriate and dubious business activity, a PSYCHIC scanned my mind and violated my psyche!"
So I get it, I really do.
Brook doesn't need to be in the scene.
I'll go watch Serenity again ...
In the TV show (and maybe the movie? - I can't remember), River was so messed up personality-wise that she couldn't make intelligent choices to use her powers. She really only shined during combat, when she became a killing machine. And I don't think any non-Alliance people that came in contact with her realized she was psychic.
Ummm...I just went to your profile to see what Powers you have, so I could suggest situations where you could use them safely, but the profile is a complete blank. Please let me know what Powers you have, so we can talk about it...
And, your argument about a law-breaking hacker even talking to the Alliance about anything makes sense. So go ahead and try reading her mind if you wish.
In the TV show (and maybe the movie? - I can't remember), River was so messed up personality-wise that she couldn't make intelligent choices to use her powers. She really only shined during combat, when she became a killing machine. And I don't think any non-Alliance people that came in contact with her realized she was psychic.
Ummm...I just went to your profile to see what Powers you have, so I could suggest situations where you could use them safely, but the profile is a complete blank. Please let me know what Powers you have, so we can talk about it...
And, your argument about a law-breaking hacker even talking to the Alliance about anything makes sense. So go ahead and try reading her mind if you wish.
Def not where my head is at in any way. Feel like I should peel back the layers that don't work and make Brook useful and conforming so that he's playable. We can retain fixing the thermostat ... and move forward from there. Having $1900 is useless, there's nothing to buy. Having powers is useless, there's no way to use them.
I'll figure something out.
We can chat about it and then I'll build a profile again.
ALL - regarding things to buy, you can get any modern-tech or slightly-above-modern tech stuff in SWADE Core, and I'd even consider some of the "lower-tech" stuff in the Sci-Fi Companion. Just run it by me first...
Considering that i dont have the sci fi companion, i will make do with the basic stuff and will ask about other stuff.
There are currently FIVE
Given that there's nothing else to spend money on, Brook could certainly just pay the hacker. What are we buying for a thousand dollars? He's going to hack a data file for us? That we have no idea what the contents are?
Well...yes. The group decided they wanted to know what was on the drive. You're paying 1000 PP (now 900) for the hacker's skill, no matter what is on the drive.
We knew you were looking for a way to spend all your money so we came up with this. :)
Honestly I thought Brook would have spent it all on tequila by now... :)
We knew you were looking for a way to spend all your money so we came up with this. :)
Honestly I thought Brook would have spent it all on tequila by now... :)
He keeps tip toeing because you are all so prudent and/or afraid to let loose ;)
Wren is definitely NOT prudish or afraid to cut loose! Just gotta ask her nice is all, and maybe buy the drinks!
Wren is definitely NOT prudish or afraid to cut loose! Just gotta ask her nice is all, and maybe buy the drinks!
If Brook is in for a grand at this point, it might be time for someone to actually buy him a drink ...
Sorry, i have not been on. I will be at work come the 15th of sept, and should be able to post more at that time.
FYI: I'll be beach bound this Sunday and returning Thursday. The place promises good wifi so I will be checking in. If i'm too slow, feel free to bot me.
So, I *hate* major coincidences in story plots. I was once reading a book where the main characters got on a plane, flew to another country, wandered into a house, and went down into the basement just in time to overhear one person telling another that he had just killed someone (who was a close friend of one of the main characters). I wanted to throw the book up against a wall!
That being said, I'm about to pull a major coincidence in the story here. It's either that or "ho hum, nothing to see here, keep on wandering until you find a clue...".
Pull away. As long as it presents an interesting challenge.
What I find annoying in terms of plot elements is when a group plans a heist or some other intricate sequence of events to achieve something and when it unfolds, success depends on something that is not a sure thing and which could easily have gone differently and foiling the whole plot. Like a heavy object is left to swing down and collide with someone who is pursuing the characters and timing the release so the object meets the pursuer is not something that could be done with precision. Or maybe something changes the pace of the participants and then people are not in the right place when something else is designed to happen automatically. I can't think of an example at the moment, but I've seen it plenty of times.
Please feel free to just ignore this if it makes your eyes cross because it’s so long…
With the Counterstrike Edge, on a failed attack roll by an opponent, the character gets a Free attack (usable by both PCs and NPCs). I think that like Wounds, the character could make their attack roll any time in the game from immediately after the opponent’s attempt until the character’s next Turn; the impact on the game dynamics would probably be minimal. However, it *is* possible that the Counterstrike could Wound or Incapacitate the bad guy, which also provides motivation for the player to post their rolls as soon as possible.
Regarding being on Hold, I have a house rule that whoever’s on Hold acts first, no opposed Agility rolls required. Now, coming off Hold does interrupt the action, but whoever's coming off Hold just immediately rolls their dice right after declaring they're coming off Hold, the results happen (or don't), and then the action continues. That can all happen in a single post, and doesn't "pause" the game.
If someone takes an Initiative Edge, I take care of it before I make the "new Round" post. I have a real deck at home, and if the card is 5 or less, I'll redraw and take the better one (Quick Edge). If the PC gets two cards, I'll draw two and take the better one (Level Headed Edge). Yes, that removes the player's choice, but I'd bet that most of the time people are going to want to act sooner than later.
But, if a character is Incapacitated by damage, they will at some point need to make a Vigor roll, which can result in them being unconscious, Bleeding Out, or dead. The other players need to know if an ally is Bleeding Out so they can decide if they’re going to act to stabilize them; if not, they may die in later Rounds. Since this is more severe than just taking Wounds, the game should probably pause as soon as the PC becomes Incapacitated for them to make their initial Vigor roll as soon as possible.
Other unavoidable pauses :
- Any opposed rolls by PCs : Grappling, Push, Tests.
- Evasion against area effects on the PCs.
- First Strike Edge : when an opponent moves within Reach, the character gets a Free attack before the opponent can act (useable by both PCs and NPCs). This must be resolved before the opponent can make their attack roll, because the character may inflict Wounds or even Incapacitation.
Can anyone think of any other game system situations that require interrupting the action to await a player who has an option to decide on before anyone else can go?
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So I am taking a road trip to Colorado and AZ on Saturday, and will be gone through October 7th, roughly two and a half weeks or so. I'll have a laptop and internet access now and then, so I'll try to post when I can, but feel free to bot me whenever necessary. Thanks all!
Sounds like one hell of a road trip! Hope it's a fun one!
One last thing regarding delayed rolls to speed up the game : ret-cons. I'm going to say that the longer a player waits to roll, the less likely I'll ret-con something that has a major "domino" effect on events.
Like, suppose the PC has a Counterstrike roll to make, and waits thru the rest of the Round the event happened in, and doesn't make the roll until their Turn in the next Round. If their Counterstrike attack kills an NPC that in the previous Round had Wounded a PC (after the Counterstrike option had kicked in), I'm not going to ret-con all that.
So, again, there's *motivation* to post those kinds of rolls as soon as possible.
Sounds good, but now with my schedule accessing my computer only monday to thursday, I hope some lee-way can be extended.
Sure.
Rim Planets/Sun
1 Athens/Georgia
2 Beylix/Penglai-Kalidasa
3 Ezra/Georgia
4 Greenleaf/Motherlode (Red sun)
5 Haven (moon of Deadwood)/Blue sun
6 Higgen's Moon (moon of Harvest)/Motherlode
7 Jiangyin/Motherlode (Red sun)
8 Lilac (moon of New Canaan)/Blue sun
9 Miranda/Burnham-Blue Sun
10 Regina/Georgia
11 Triumph/Heinlein-Motherlode (Red sun)
12 St. Albans/Motherlode (Red sun)
The rim planet destination was not named in the gameplay thread. Here are some possibilities as described in the Serenity RPG Sourcebook.
Choose or use the random result:
system’s garbage dump (make that “reclamation and recycling center”).
The scrap yards and refuse centers are managed by United Reclamation, which owns property all over Beylix. Soon after the company began to dump trash here, its agents reported that scavengers were coming to pick over the remains, since there was little to no security. It turned out that what was trash to people on the Core was treasure to the folk out on the Rim.
United responded by licensing junk dealers. Some entrepreneurs began selling rebuilt ships—everything from old Starfinders to out-of-service Fireflies. Others devised creative uses for scrap, either jury-rigging old technology into something useful or turning it into art and selling it back to the Core where it decorates office lobbies.
Beylix is a place to start a new life, as you can often find some old ship and the parts to get her flyin’. Beylix is also a good place to drop off smuggled goods. It’s not as if the Alliance or the corporations want to pay any attention to this gorram heap of feh wu [junk].
Networking
Charismatic Reroll
+2 from Shepherd edge -4 looking for cargo or passengers to a
So that's no success for going to Beylix, but success for something else: Result of 7 without the -4.
1=Core, 2=Border, 3=Rim
Then roll a d4, adding 1 for each Raise on the Networking roll to determine the kind of job :
- 1 : Steerage passengers expect to camp in the cargo hold and generally provide their own food. They pay 15p per week. You can find 2d8 of them.
- 2 : Second class passengers expect to live as the crew lives; they pay 30p per week. You can find 2d6 of them.
- 3 : Salvage : someone wants you to go to the wreck of some spaceship in space, and recover something from it.
- 4+ : Freight (the items are being sold by one person to another person – you are just delivering them) : a lot takes 10*d10 tons of cargo space. Freight pays 8p per ton per week (you can Haggle over this, see below).
So using Zenfox's table: Salvage Job on a Rim planet.
Athens in the Georgia System (could be considered Border)
Haggling: Persuasion roll
Charismatic Reroll
+2 from Shepherd edge
Best Result = 7 + 2 = 9
Alternative
Cargo & Passengers
Animals, Livestock
Barter for Ship Parts
No special requirements
Importer/Exporter/Merchant
Deserted Rural area
A residence
Dangerous Drop-off: Drop-off location is unusually dangerous due to circumstances (natural disaster, dangerous animals, war zone, violent extremists, etc.)
Pests: Infesting the cargo or at least coming along for the ride are pests: wasps, bugs, ants, roaches, spiders, etc.
Subject of a Trade War: The cargo in question is part of a trade war between rival guilds, merchants, or manufacturers. Ship will be confronted by the rival faction upon landing or when loading the cargo in the first place. Confrontations can be annoying, physical, or deadly.
Unusual
Robot Engineer
Hard Currency
The actual reason for the passenger to travel to the destination is irrelevant. They must be seen to travel by some third party: the government, rivals, etc.
A family member
Another Ship
Spaceport
Passenger brings along a monkey-like pet which gets into everything in a comedic way.
Psychotic [Whether it is a cold, reptilian, serial-killer kind of attitude or a manic, energetic and chaotic personality, this passenger is going to be trouble. They can disturb or even freak out the other passengers and crew. Or they could just be the very quiet person who always eats in his cabin.]
Awkward
This one is personal [Some aspect of the job triggers a crew member’s personal challenges or private goals. If someone on the crew is a recovering addict, transporting addict passengers will be challenging. Completing a cargo delivery through very dangerous circumstances will have extra resonance if it benefits people one or more of the crew care about.]
Hmmm...you need to get to a particular planet, so if you want to take cargo there, you need to find a job that goes there, hence the penalty.
I could let Arabella roll once per day, and she will eventually succeed, but the delay *could* cause you to miss the meeting.
Or, you all can choose to just fly there empty. Two consequences, one definite and one only possible. The definite one is that the 20% that comes out of your shipping payment that goes towards ship upkeep will be missing, so it will take 40% out of the next shipment you take. The possible one is that it might (or might not) look odd that you're flying to a planet without cargo. The question is, would anyone notice? If they noticed, would they care?
Please debate these issues in-character back in Gameplay, thanks!