Arevashti's page

I'd rule that they're customarily kept in a little tube like an eyeglass repair kit, or in a little box like an emergency sewing kit, and dispense like Tic-Tacs or Pez; different manufacturers may have different ways of packaging them, but those are likely the most common. My guess would also be that they're fairly durable; I imagine them being rubbery (like a firm eraser) until "directed" to be either more or less rigid.

I'm working on a planetcrawl based on some antiauthoritarian postapocalyptic '80s YA s-f books, and an exploration/first-contact scenario involving an alien (from the perspective of the whole galaxy) space ark.

Flip the script: The characters must seek out a dormant nova spawn to relight the dying sun that an inhabited but freezing planet orbits around.

The vlaka would like a word with you about that. An encouraging one, most likely.

I'm going to second "gunner."

Why is the word "ikons" spelled that way?

It's a valid alternate spelling, and actually closer to the original Greek. Besides: "icon" is already a Starfinder background.

Skittermanders, obviously. Also: alkainans, anassanoi, brenneri, dirindi and sazarons, gathols, hadrogaans, ixtangi, kaa-leki, ramiyels, seprevoi, tromlins, tryziarkas, and varratanas (it was only partly deliberate that they're mostly in alphabetical order). And I'd really like to see some proper info on the inhabitants of Taru Seco, even if they're kind of viewed as a lost cause.

Said it before, and I'll say it again: they should have Apostae be inhabited by either (in order of my personal preference) lashunta-based or elf-based nephilim (the new term for what were formerly tieflings and aasimar, but I specifically mean tieflings here). Keep the ties to Castrovel; give them a reason (i.e. fiends had been working them over for generations) to be culturally a bunch of manipulative finks.

My suggestions would be: lashunta nephilim (what planar scions, or at least tieflings and aasimar, are getting renamed as; I specifically mean tieflings here). Some variant lashunta subgroup who are mostly blue/gray/purple with pale hair due to genetic mutation or magic exposure, overwhelmingly damaya due to social pressure, and likely to be antagonistic due to intracultural competitiveness having first become normalized, then gone haywire to the point that backstabbing and undermining rivals became the order of the day. Elven nephilim (see previous explanation). In that order.

You see: making them lashunta would maintain the tie to Castrovel while distinguishing them further from drow. Giving them all some degree of fiendish ancestry/alteration would be evidence that the fiends have been working on them since the Gap (as per Embroi)...or they could have just become a bunch of plutocratic cutthroats all on their own.

The main thing I'd change in Starfinder is to streamline starship combat, to be honest. Making it more like PF2e (aside from making them more compatible, mixing up ability benefits, and so on) doesn't particularly interest me.

Taru Seco—for all that it's only been briefly touched on and is considered something of a lost cause in-universe—has me kind of intrigued. I also want to know more about the Arkanen folk (dirindi and sazarons) and the kaa-leki.

Coffee shops have a separate line for Shirren, be a use they are (a) obviously caffeine fans, and (b) their coffee orders take five minutes each to recite.

It's a running joke that if a new shirren customer walks in, their first order will become an overly complicated fancy special named after them.

Kasathe are in hot demand as baristas and mixologists at places frequented by shirren, for their ability to mix multiple drinks at once.

Same would go for skittermanders, I'd wager.

I mean, there was literally an authoritarian regime called "the Organization" in charge of dystopian future Earth in a book series I'm using as game inspiration. That said: said regime's role, in my actual game, will be played by the Azlanti Star Empire.

More class options. More across-the-board cultural notes (and for less-explored species like damai and ixtangis and the inhabitants of Arkanen—to name-drop a few at random—in particular). More planetcrawls.

"Hello. Yes I'd like to order a pizza, what options do you have for the crust, Oh, that many options that's great let me think... " A few minutes later Jek gets to the topping options. "Could you repeat all the topping options, I may have to get a few more pizzas to fit all my choices so many options.... What planets do you have mushrooms from? 7 types of Veskarium cheese you say, I'd like a Veggie lover's pizza with all the odd options, and a meat lover's pizza with all the even-numbered options from your menu but no meat from Eox, and a combo with" Jek pauses to think "can you repeat all the options again..."

7 types of just Veskarium cheese? Are the rumors that Oromeras Kazren has taken to milking her defrex true? Do pahtra run megafauna dairies? Or is it just true that you can tell what breed of monoux, what she was grazing on, and where?

For my latest character I joined a group and introduced my character as a really tall human Cook riding around on a hover chair. Fed my group and the settlement my signature Chili for a few days (DM was in on it). First combat rolls around and I tear off my arm to use as a weapon and surprise he's a Brakim.

After the fight I quickly clean off my arm and start preparing it for more meat for the chili. It took the group a second to realize what was happening.

Brakims: Sustainable, Fresh, Free Range meat.

I've had two similar ideas for a while, but they didn't involve brakims. One was that there would be a scandal involving cultured dromada muscle tissue being sold as food; another was that a ghoran chef would be known for "peeling" their own arm for "spice."

Even before I saw this, I'd been thinking of house-ruling something with ancestries and ability adjustments like "pick between one of two stat bonuses, get a freebie of your choice." (Note that my explanation of stat penalties, or at least mental ones, had typically been "cultural de-emphasis of associated skills" in the past. For example, to use some of my own homebrew ancestries: ki'vali tend to be gruff because they're a Proud Warrior Culture with militaristic leanings, while feiyin in their likeliest homeland are often conditioned to be weak-willed to keep them submissive.) Liking this, though.

Vlaka can either be blind, deaf, or both. Valodet is deaf with blindsight scent. So used scent to personalize the meal for her. There's not a lot written about species-specific food, so I used every clue I could find. When other info was lacking, planetary maps were useful to give foods local names.

I'm familiar with vlaka, and know about their sense variations. That's why my initial guess was that she was blind, and that plating it by aroma was a nod to that; as it is, she can still appreciate the visual aspect (although I suppose all vlaka could appreciate a dish plated by aroma, seeing as they have the scent ability).

Vesk likely have skittermanders handle the side dishes. More choices that way, one in each hand.

That makes sense.

And I'm sure flesh-eating undead can eat carpaccio.

I just finished GMing Starfinder Society Scenario #1-32: Acts of Association. Let me dig up what was for lunch.

Chef Rovua Kakevysh performs a psychic reading on everyone except Triage. After the reading, he starts preparing the food at the table in a show that mixes culinary skill and performance art. Polished knives dance in a rhythmic chopping motion reflecting the lighting in the room, and ingredients are tossed in the air and caught at nearly imposable angles.

Grognard receives a plate of Fairly traditional-looking haggis. The sheep's lungs have been replaced with minced lungs of Verciten sandworms, giving it a slightly earthy flavor and gritty texture.

Naitier is presented with a plate of mixed seafood casserole, a combination of Mysis and brine Shrimp, in an algae sauce topped with a few small Tabridian fish for flavor and decoration.

Valodet's plate is specially arranged to highlight the aroma of the food. A mix of hydroponically grown meats flavored with a variety of rare valai berries from Lajok's lake regions.

Ikmanji and Triage both get a seafood plate with a mix of uncooked Trafodi sea bass and boiled crustacean legs from the coast of Amiz, sprinkled with Viljoian sea salt.

I-apvii's Dish is a Dykonian crystalline layer cake, which resembles highly contrasting sedimentary rock topped with tiny crystalline flakes. Each layer presents a different flavor.

Ambassador Kokaksa receives a bowl of mixed seeds, nuts, and fruit from throughout the vast suspended in a thick Neeroonian tree sap.

As the GM for this game, I had lots of fun putting that together. Every meal was researched, getting more uses of my rule books than any other scene in the adventure. Besides species descriptions, maps were really useful for this.

Grognard: Dwarf
I-apvii: Urog
Ikmanji: Ijtikri
Naitier: copaxi
Triage: Elf (ordered what Ikmanji had)
Valodet: Vlaka
Ambassador: Espraksa

I take it Valodet is blind, and can thus best appreciate the plating of their meal if everything is arranged by scent? I love how that was taken into account here.

Also: we know that vesk turn out the best pitmasters (although you might want to have someone else handle the side dishes).

Neat - a Shriek-infused plant pahtra (...plahntra?) evolutionist! The real question is: how do you pronounce Kyyduh? K-you-duh? Kai-duh? Kee-duh? Kyu-oo-duh? Something else?

My guess was "Kee-də." (Which kind of sounds like "kitteh," but I'm sure that's coincidental.)

Deep Cuts makes a set of two skittermander minis (looks like Eshki in a suit, and a nufriend in a military uniform) that aren't too horrible-looking.

Lashunta seem to be inspired by Ralph Milne Farley's Cupians; they're telepathic, look like attractive humans with antennae, and originated on fantasy Venus. Based on that, the antennae being connected to telepathy (and possibly balance, although I don't recall that being explored) would seem likely.

That said: Cupians were also deaf (in fact, they were completely earless). Lashunta appear to have both hearing and ears. Therefore: the antennae might serve a different purpose.

A bit late to the game; oh, well. So...what you're telling us is that skittermanders low-key are heavyworlders, and not even vesk like the Veskarium very much?

Good news, we've got fetchlings. They're just called kayal now.

That's always been an alternate name for the race. I was not, however, aware that they had officially made it into Starfinder yet; still not entirely caught up.

Just off the top?

Fetchlings.
Ganzi.
Amurrun. (I'd like to see the mutual annoyance from both them and the pahtra at getting constantly mistaken for one another. Seriously: that's like calling a human "some sort of warm-hued damai.")
Kitsune and rougarou. (See above, but replace "pahtra" with "vlaka.")
Skinwalkers.
Gathlains.
Vishkanyas.
And, of course, kobolds (and wyvarans).

Hymothoas are not adorable, and are in fact rather despicable. Nonetheless: I think I need stats for them, yesterday.

160) Goblins overcame their fear of the written word. Of course, from there, it was only a matter of time before they discovered numbers; and, from there, it was only a matter of time until someone divided by zero.

Quelvai is the result of proteans—likely of surpassing power—dragging small fragments of the Plane of Water and the Boneyard into the Material Plane, playing with them for a few millennia...and then, as the fickle proteans will, abruptly getting bored and abandoning their toy.

Still further millennia later, an Ilee exploration ship crash-landed. The survivors, in an attempt to adapt and preserve resources, shaped themselves into malleable semiaquatic forms the approximate size of house cats. Their descendants have never either directly confirmed nor denied that they were "nudged" in that direction by the glowing kelp-like seaweeds among which they make their homes. One way or another: it's known that the seaweeds resist any attempt to study them too deeply unless "permission" is asked—be that directly, or via the kelp-dwellers.

The origin of the other sapient inhabitants of Quelvai is more of a mystery. When a ship landed a hemisphere away from the kelp-dwellers, reports given of multilegged swimming creatures—human-sized or larger—were originally dismissed until a group of them approached a research platform.

They clambered out of the ocean on four pairs of webbed claws, rising onto the hindmost set to heights of over seven feet, their sleek, mottled blue pelts shedding water. The word "strovion!" is said to have been muttered by a vesk security officer as she reached for her sidearm.

Upon seeing this, the foremost of the newcomers raised his hands—all six wrists decorated with seashell bracers—in a conciliatory gesture, and addressed the researchers in heavily-accented Vesk:

"Greetings, nufriends! How can we help you?"

The strangely-altered skittermanders seemed to be unwilling or unable to explain how, exactly, it was that their forebears had gotten there. A few cryptic statements regarding how Quelvai must have somehow needed them were all that was forthcoming.

On a darker note: both groups of sapients have warned off-worlders that people who die with unfinished business "tend not to stay dead" unless the proper rituals have been performed. This has since proven to be more than mere superstition, and is attributed to the shattered and warped shards of the Boneyard which still rest at the core of the world.

CorvusMask wrote:

Opsylum wrote:

Also (I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this yet)! ** spoiler omitted **

Nooo D: Please don't tell me they have lips

My favorite our of context quote yet for people dodging spoiler tags. ** spoiler omitted **

I don't know...

That's the route I'd go for with her. Then again: in the setting I've been working on-and-off on for years, I imply that a marilith became LG and ascended to divinity. So...that's exactly the sort of weird idea that appeals to me.

Regarding the starship critters?

I haven't read the description of Vesk in a while, but don't they normally tell the difference by color? Aka, women being brighter, more vibrant hues, while the men are somewhat muted in comparison? Also, I think the women are on average slightly bigger.

Boys are green; girls might be mostly green (although they'll probably have blue stripes overlaying it or something), but can also be other colors. There is, however, explicitly a serum for that. (More than one, in fact: If your vesk wants to be androgynous, they can molt—I'm guessing that vesk molt, anyway; they're scaly—to two-tone bright green and keep people guessing; and if your vesk is trans and binary, they can do more than just molt.)

A couple of responses:

Currently playing a skittermander envoy (unless the game collapses, because Junk Happens). Deliberately hacked her name together out of a kasatha name and a vesk name, with the implication being that she named herself after the two earliest people she remembers having an influence on her life.

Ashcroffte wrote:

Any of the Arkanen races detailed out?

A quick search shows no mention of the word "Arkanen".

I'm guessing Ashcroffte was hoping for dirindi (three-eyed electrokinetic humanoids) and sazarons (reptilian centauroids), both of which are native to the moons of Arkanen. So was I (just the vague descriptions alone got my mind all busy); and to their absence, I say: dammit!

Whats it's name?

Wish I knew yet (someone who's got the archive would; that's not me), but it looks like there's one on the cover.

The Drunken Dragon wrote:

Are these uplifted bears bipedal humanoid aliens (a la how rats are to ysoki) or are these more just literally genetically modified super-intelligent bears

They’re bears what have smarts!

"I'm a courier. If a mountain gets in the way of my route, I growl at it and it clears a path for me."

(That's a paraphrase; nonetheless, it's what still springs to mind.)

Anyhow: along with my previously-stated hopes for this book (Arkanen races, Veskarium beasties, and so on): I'd like to know about the neon-hued electric theropod with all of the limbs, eyes, and teeth that's featured on the cover of the Pact Worlds book.

A big part of it is that the game is still relatively new, and I wouldn't be surprised if I were to get a bunch of first-time players. And don't get me wrong; it'd be more like "I'll consider letting you play a barathu or urog if your first character dies and you reroll" than "no, you can't play a kalo; stop asking about it."

Hell, my husband is thinking of running something in the near future; and I may have to talk him into allowing anything even as outré as maraquoi or skittermanders. (Although the good news is that quite a few of our potential players have seen the characters from Skitter Shot and seemed taken with the adorabadassery.) And I am definitely looking forward to the dirindi, sazarons, and some of the other races that have been mentioned but not statted out yet.

On the one hand: I really, really hate limiting races and classes in my games. But on the other? I'd be tempted to limit what was allowed (at least, in terms of starter characters) on the grounds that some of the Alien Archive races are too big, too inconvenient (different atmospheric requirements and so on), or too spoileriffic (draelik, grays, reptoids, and witchwyrds spring to mind).

Uplifted Bears? From like Golarion? I honestly don't care I've been wanting to play a bear like race for forever now.

Like Dickson's Dilbians. Let's hope they're on the upper end of Medium (if not actually Large) and have kind of a boisterous bruiser vibe.

And, seriously: I'm looking forward to the dirindi, sazarons, and various Veskarium and Azlanti Star Empire subject species to the same degree that I was looking forward to the maraquoi. Or, to switch away from playables: more Castrovel critters and everything outside of the Pact system.

I approve of everything here except the absence of Xomar, his red beard, and his wink at the fourth wall.

Arevashti wrote:

My all-time favorite has already been confirmed as off the table, unfortunately.

Who's/what's that?

The coeurl.

My all-time favorite has already been confirmed as off the table, unfortunately.

Along with the previously mentioned maraquoi, hypothetical wolf people, and hypothetical insect/arthropod people? I'd like to see something along the lines of siarrans from Dragonstar, personally.

And the human inhabitants of Akiton were confirmed to be just that—more an ethnicity than anything else—in Distant Worlds. They might get listed as a separate culture called "Akitonian," but that's about it.

Wasn't originally going to go there, but I'm going to:

Anyone 'ship her with the mystic theurge? But only if he's shorter than her?

♣♠Magic♦♥ is banned for bunnies and/or foo-foos.

Her familiar looks much bigger than "tiny". Looks like it could bite a chunk out of ya, unlike this little guy. Is this thing some sort of improved familiar?

A cat is size Tiny; as a lizard familiar is also size Tiny, I'm guessing that we'd be talking "red tegu" (or at least "bearded dragon" like the one at the link) rather than "fence swift."

Kolo doesn't look any bigger, to me, than a cat or a red tegu. Especially considering that Shardra—being a dwarf—is likely a small, compact lady.

I usually prefer cider and red wine. But aside from obscure seasonal brews: Young's Chocolate Stout and New Belgium 1554 Black Lager.

Espy Lacopa wrote:

Gentleman Alligator wrote:

I'd love to see how she'd interact with someone like Valeros or Alain (especially since they're both Taldan nobility).

Wait wait wait. Since when was Valeros nobility?! I thought he was a farmboy who left for adventure to dodge marriage!

That'd be Alain, but now that you mention Valeros being a farm boy...

the post wrote:

The organizers paired her up with a brawny farm boy whose jaw jutted out as far as his forehead sloped back. He hit hard, but he didn't know a thing about technique.

hmm...

Nah, Valeros is an expertise guy.

In regards to Kess's outfit: I'm just going to say that I'm inclined to agree with Green Smashomancer, and leave it at that.

This time around, we've got some nice, kid-friendly introductory games. It's also the first Bundle of Holding that can be given as a gift. (A Christmas present, perhaps?)

A percentage of the profits from this bundle will be donated to Save the Children and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

And to ice this cake, if you break the threshold price, you'll get three extra products. Including this. (Yes, I have a vested interest in promoting it. Why do you ask?)

Still waiting on the dweomercat. I think that would about wrap up my wish list.

On an off note: hubby is writing up the original Team Avatar for Atomic Sock Monkey's PDQ system. (And I told him that if he leaves Suki out, I will be disappointed.)

Mainly dotting this.

Also, being a fangirl and pointing out that even if you exclude everything with the air descriptor that also has the electricity descriptor (since that's a fire thing in the Avatarverse), that still leaves you with quite a bit to play with (flight and so on).