CaptainBacon's page

Hi all! I'm looking for someone who would be interested in making a character duo for PbP. Let me explain.

I used to be a pretty active PbPer here until about a year ago, when life kinda forced me to take a break (Happy to see a few familiar faces still!). I'd like to get back into PbP, and I had the idea of creating a character with another player to act as a kind of duo, whose relationship could grow over time. I think this could be pretty awesome for roleplaying!

So basically the idea would be to create characters together, and then apply on the same scenarios. I'm open as to the type of relationship (friends, partners, romantic, rivals, siblings, etc.) and I don't have any specific concept in mind yet, so if you're interested send me a PM and we'll chat!

Hi!

Doubt my players would be here, but just in case: if you are in a game where you are searching for the guild that is pursuing your friend, have recently acquired a ship and have hired a troubadour, major spoilers ahead!

***

My players have recently hired a troubadour to serve on their ship. For plot related reasons, I am going to reveal in a few sessions that he actually is a Lion Blade, and that the street performer part is just a front.

I'd like to build this character as he probably will be of some importance to the plot, but I'm having trouble striking balance between flavour and effectiveness. I have already introduced the character as being a juggler before even starting to think about the build, so I would like to make him a Juggler Bard / Lion Blade multiclass that throws knifes (or other weapons) in combat.

Thing is, I'm having trouble making the build work. Lion Blade has a lot of prerequisites which would require making a Bard/Rogue (for Bardic Performance and 2d6 Sneak Attack) and getting three additional feats (Improved Initiative, Deceitful and Skill Focus), but the knife thrower aspect will not be viable unless I go the PBS-->Rapid Shot route (probably grabbing Desna's fighting style too), which in itself requires I sink a few feats in it. Overall I'd really appreciate if anyone had tips that could make this work. I absolutely do not mind if the character is not min-maxed, I just want him to be somewhat viable!

The party is level 3 as of now, but I plan on making this character quite a bit stronger, probably level 6 or so. He won't be involved in a lot of major fights, so he's just there to help them out a bit and remind them that there are some powerful people around them!

Thanks!

Now that I think of it that way, it could be interesting playing a friendly and outgoing Vesk priest challenging the classic Vesk stereotypes. Venomthought Con penalty is a bummer, but oh well...

Yeah, flavor wise I'm a bit torn. Although I'm going with a Mystic, not an Envoy ;) I'm not aiming to minmax, so I think 16 WIS / 14 or 12 DEX ought to be alright, and as you pointed out Starfinder math is pretty forgiving.

As far as Vesk goes I was thinking going Venom thought with the alternate racial trait that lets you make enemies reroll saves vs spells, which looks quite nice. I'm not a big fan of the Vesk flavor, but then again I haven't played it a lot so it might be a chance to change my mind ^^

It is coming along nicely! Still unsure which race I'm picking between Vesk, Lashunta and Human, but the rest is pretty good. Any thoughts for the race? I should be able to show you my alias tonight.

But yeah, I concur that in some ways it goes both ways. We trust in the physical realities to hold true(at least while no vacuum decay or similar event breaks reality as we know it), but if you are confronted with real proof of the existance of magic and the power granted by divine entities, then it is hard to ignore them. For Sci-Fic Divinity, it seems sensible that there is some overlap between concepts and personification, magic and divinity, the collective psychic power of a faiths followers or individual capability to bend physical laws by the power of ones mind. As in, the exact nature of it may even be subject of scientific research, but the power faith presents is real and not questioned.

Interesting thought. I think it may be worth to think about the implications of the size of the ship's scientific community and ongoing research; perhaps the scientific community is too small to conduct large-scale experiments, have sufficient databases, have non-biased peer review boards... you get the idea. It is bound to become a kind of echo chamber, and given enough time perhaps that some theories that have been approved of and developed will now have drifted into some kind of hybrid between faith and science because of the lack of external of validation and bias among the ship's crew. In such a context the lines between faith and science would probably be blurred, as you mentioned.

I like your idea of the patchwork pantheon and living gods, and I do not think it would contradict other beliefs about a cosmological based mythology. If we pursue the analogy with the Greeks, they also did have mythical heroes (regardless of if they were real or not) while having a pantheon of gods.

His powers come from his faith in a god, whether or not he was ordained to a priesthood or not.

I usually downplay the gods when running science fiction. Although in my Orcs vs. Elves Pathfinder game, I tell my players that the orcs are animistic while the elves are deistic. In Science Fiction however, there isn't a lot of faith except in Science. So again, I run the gods as if they are aloof in a science fiction setting. With some exceptions. Like if a mystic (or solarian) declares that he represents the "Overseer" of his particular batch of people (see Human Reality, chapter 8). That usually does not happen in hard SF or even soft SF. There is an exception, however. Someone did write a science fiction series with a Mythology in mind. I don't remember the name of the series, however.

Mhmm, I quite agree with the interpretation. Although from my point of view one's faith in a celestial entity does not necessarily contradict faith in science, in particular in science fiction settings; hard to argue against science when you're on a ship floating through space containing a massive library of scientific knowledge. But 'believing' in science does not prohibit one from believing some superior entity exists, or even that it is the source of such science (same goes for the scientist; hard to argue gods don't exist when you have priests shooting magic missiles out of sheer faith)

That's probably the angle I'm gonna go with: faith in a celestial entity, but obviously still a firm believer in science

I like it. A mystic would be a fine addition.

Great, I'll start working on that! Though one last question to write a convincing backstory:

So, little update. As per our discussion I had considered building some kind of archivist or scholar, but I saw that M has a pretty similar backstory, and I really don't want to step on her toes, so I've been looking for further inspiration.

I was inspired by this post as well as Foundation's tech-priest, as mentioned earlier. With your permission, of course, I thought I could try to build a concept around some kind of space mythology; perhaps the ship's mythology, after all these generations, would have developed into some kind of religion involving supernatural space entities, and beliefs of cosmic phenomena with god-like powers. Mechanically speaking, the character would probably be a Star Shaman Mystic.

Let me know what you all think!

I like the Library idea. I do think that C'tikt-6 assumes all of the knowlege is in within the ship itself. The technology holds more experience and power than the records. Something about an object having history and having power flow through it gives it power.. But that is Technomancerness for you.

Me as a player is interested though :)

That could make for some interesting character interaction. With C'tikt searching for knowledge within his environment, and other people looking for knowledge by searching the past and the records. I'll see if I can come up with something interesting in that regard.

Indeed, the repository sounds interesting. Do they have any people working there full-time? Like archivists and whatnot? Is the library fully accessible to the general public, or are some areas/particular texts prohibited (as far as the public is aware, anyway)?

Great, I'll think of something. What type of mythology/culture developed on the ship? I'm juggling with a few concepts, including some kind of priest (ala Foundation's tech-priests), or perhaps even a scholar of whatever kind of culture there is, but it would be helpful to know a bit more about it.

Just stumbled upon this by sheer chance and damn this looks like a game I'd enjoy. Really a huge fan of the reference material you've noted. So my question is, do you still need another player? If so, I'll read the thread in more detail and I might submit something ^^

Slides are updated with the chronicle info! Wasn't sure who I'd give it to.

Thanks a lot for running this Kludde, it was a fun game. Good work Sethran, Lysle and Sedoriku, I look forward to playing with you again!

So, any thoughts about the Nanocyte?

Thanks for running this Shifty, happy to be in one of your games again!

Chris, Ilmakis, caps, nice to play with you again, and Xynen happy to meet you!

With how our party looks I guess we'd be better off with a biohacker than an additional vanguard. Thoughts?

I'm interested in signing up for 3-00 but I haven't played much of Datch's arc yet and I fear I'll be missing out if I play it right away; what main S2 scenarios involving Datch should I play beforehand?

I'm trying out a Warblood Vesk Str-Based with heavy armor, though I'm not set between Regeneration and Obliteration yet. I do like the fact that the class seems to have a lot of potential builds.

Quick question before I finalize my build: are we building level 1 or 4?

If memory serves the playtest post did specify CRB + Legacy + Izalguun

Dotted in for Acts of Nano-Association! Thanks for running this for us Kludde, really excited to try the nanocyte out!

caps and Sethran, good to be playing with you again! Sedoriku and Lysle, I do believe this will be our first game together, so nice to meet you both!

Should we discuss about our builds to make sure there's not too much overlap, or do we just roll with whatever we build?

Anyone looking to try out the nanocyte playtest class under playtest rules provided here(link)? I’m happy to set something up - all-nanocyte evergreen, anyone?

Would love to have a go at it!

Farol, just to clarify, Vecro is not one of Relij's identities, right? The character I plan to play this with has played 1-99 with Vecro, but I've only met Spider with another character. Just want to be sure before I mix up your characters ^^

Also, happy 4th of July!

Alright, sounds good. For us in Canada the national holiday actually is today ^^. Happy holiday to everyone who is celebrating!

I know Sunny had trouble setting up her SFS character, so I'll help her out with that and she should dot in.

Without a lot of firsthand experience, this is of course based to what I've witnessed in games:

- I think a good GM has to know when to push forward, and when to hold, particularly in a format like PbP where keeping proper momentum is key. You don't want to push the action bit by bit, because that will slow down the game and players will not be as compelled to participate, but you also don't want to rush forwards when the PCs are interested in roleplaying in a particular situation as that will discourage them from engaging with the world you are creating. In my experience, I've had the most fun with GMs who know both when to keep the game moving at a brisk pace and when to hold back to let the players interact.

- Speaking about interaction, I think that being able to create an environment for it to grow naturally is important, be it interaction between the players or between the players and the world. In the recent years, I've had a PF campaign with a friend of mine who was the GM, and I had a blast because the world felt very much alive around our characters. Because this world felt so dynamic, we, as players, wanted to interact with it, to experience the differences between the inhabitants of cities, to meddle in local politics, to roleplay parts of life that would be seen as less "exciting". And in turn, that drew out parts of our characters that made us roleplay with each other a lot more. So for me, a good GM will tell a good story, and a great GM will insert that story in a dynamic world to nurture interaction. Perhaps this is harder to achieve in short scenarios compared to long-running campaigns, but I've had PFS/SFS GMs who really made it seem like the world was still revolving even though the PCs were on an adventure.

- I believe a good GM has to admit their faults. No GM will ever know every rule perfectly, nor be able to handle every situation to every player's liking, and that's alright. The best you can do is own it and try to get better.

Jim, Farol, Mike, nice to see you all. Thanks for the invitation!

I've been wanting to play this scenario for a while with one of my characters that's originally from Akiton as it is very important to his backstory. Unfortunately as I have discussed with Mike he's currently finishing a run of 1-01, though it hopefully should not be too long until he finishes. I'll let you know how it goes this week, otherwise I'll just play another character, no big deal :)

Thank you very much Redelia for the invitation!

Hi everyone! I am Jordan, from Quebec, Canada. Been playing TTRPGs for some time, starting with D&D4 and moving to PF1 and then Starfinder when it came out. I've been hooked from the moment I sat at my first table and became an avid roleplayer; one of my biggest hobbies is LARPing, both as a player and as an NPC.

I've joined PbP about a year ago, and it really became my medium of choice for TTRPGs because of the narrative opportunities it provides. I really look forward to learning the ropes so I can give back to the community!

Also, good to see you here azj!

I'd really like to get my feet wet and try to GM for PbP; however I've never even GMed any kind of game (bar a few D&D4 sessions when I started tabletops, heh), so I feel like I would need some pointers. I seem to recall reading about a "DM School" over on the PF2 lodge; are there any plans to offer it for SF as well?

Thanks for the invite Wolffauer!

I'd like to play Keskodai if that's ok with everyone?

Captainbacon, what level is Edward? Can't see a character in the aliases named Edward to check so I guess 1?

Ah sorry, I forgot to put up the statblock, he is level 2. So I assume we are going to be playing up?

I'm tantalizingly close; 1 GM credit away. But alas, no GM replay for me. Enjoy the scenario everyone.

Shoot, that's a shame. Do you happen to run games on VTT? Maybe we could form a table to help you get that last GM credit?

Sorry for the delay and thanks for waiting, my character is now free from PaizoCon!

Name: Jordan C.
Character Name: Edward Ainsworth
SFS ID and character number: 347661-706
Your email: Will PM
Faction: Dataphiles
Day job Roll: Profession, Lab Technician: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

Yep I totally agree with the reasoning behind this and I also think RAW there's no requirement for the second target to be within 30ft of the first target.
But unfortunately some DMs probably, as you've pointed out, stick to the way Chain Lightning works and don't allow the second target. Just wanted to know if there was an official ruling/errata that I could link when this happens but seems like there's not. Thanks for the help though!

Hi!

I understand there has been much discussion regarding Electric Arc's range. My understanding is that, RAW, the only requirement is for both targets to be within 30 ft. of the caster, and that's what most discussions seems to suggest.

But sometimes the rules are debated in-game, and I've had a GM outright rule out the second target within 30ft. due to the flavor text. I hate to drag a game down, so I'm more than happy to let it slide, but it would be nice if there was some official word on the ruling so we could link it when the discussion inevitably comes up. Was there any official word on it that I've missed?

Thanks!

I am very interested in playing this scenario, though I won't be able to play until after PaizoCon. If you don't mind waiting until then I'll happily get on board, if not no worries :)

There's still a PaizoCon?

Yeah, they announced this week that there would be an online PaizoCon!

Quick question: I know this might be hard to plan, but do you expect the game to finish before PaizoCon? (May 26th)

Gotcha. There's a character I've been wanting to play this with that's currently wrapping up an Outpost scenario (in the next few days or so I believe), so when it finishes I'll sign up if you still have place!

Hmmmm I might bite. When do you plan on beginning?

Yes, you can ES with a pike. Also, there are absolutely 1 handed weapons with reach.

Yes, you can ES with a thrown weapon. Note that the operative property only affects melee attacks, so you will use STR to hit.

I stand corrected. Thank you very much for the clarification!

Quite confused as to the exact rules surrounding the Vanguard's entropic strike. Think I've got it (mostly) figured out, but just to make sure:

I find the wording "you can apply any weapon special property to your entropic strike as long as the effect can be applied to a one-handed advanced melee weapon that deals acid or bludgeoning damage " a bit confusing. For instance, could I use a Pike and apply reach to the Entropic Strike? No one-handed weapon has reach (as far as I know), but RAW there's nothing that explicitely says you couldn't apply reach to a one-handed weapon, circumstances permitting.

Which brings me to my second question: can you apply your entropic strike to a thrown weapon, say a Starknife? They are considered melee weapons, after all (going off THIS LINK, but that was for the playtest). Likewise, could you apply the returning weapon fusion to said Starknife and use Entropic Strike with it?

Thanks!

Ok, I'll bite too! I'm in the same boat as Quirk, I'll roll up a new character for this!

Oh, I'd really love that, thanks for offering it! If you want to contact me on Discord, I've joined your channel under the name CaptainBacon!

Awesome, thanks for the invite! I'll definitely drop by tomorrow!

Ohh, those Roll20 games sound interesting! I've been dying to try Roll20 because of the current situation and my lack of IRL Roleplaying, but I've been hesitating since I've never played Starfinder in person and because english isn't my mother tongue :P

Awesome, thanks a bunch!

Thank you so much for running this, I really had a blast! Apologies again for my prolonged absence, but we still managed to finish it so yay!

Same goes for me, I really enjoyed playing with you all and hope we will meet in another game!

Mike, last request of mine, could you please check a box on my Skitter Shot chronicle sheet? :)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b-TfUzf78N1VwYbF0jjzyrod_xf8gvlC/view?usp= sharing

Thanks!

Yep, no problem at all, life happens! (Couldn't be the one chewing you out, could I :P)

Is there still place in this game? Really enjoyed my last game with you and would like to board if there's some place left :)

EDIT: Seems to be some place in the signup sheet, but more people seem to have posted here so I'll await your call before signing up

Sorry to have disappeared again. Midterms, the Covid situation and personal issues made it hard to keep posting.

I'm ready to get back on board, but I see you've advanced quite a bit without me, and I'd feel bad about just hopping on for the last miles and taking credit for the game. What do you think, Dire?

Apologies for disappearing (again), midterms have really been draining. Will try to be back soon.

I'm still running 7 too. Tried a few Win10 PCs but I don't have a strong opinion on it. Is it any good compared to 7?