Chi Sien's page

Sien has Crafting, but not Magical Crafting, and we don't have a day - but if we can cheat at transferring runes, he'll take one of the greater resilient runes. He'll take the eyepiece, since nobody else is trained in Crafting.

The raiment is actually probably better on someone else - Sien's Stealth DC is higher than the raiment's.

And he'll take the greater fire resistance rune if nobody else wants it, just because he has space on his armor.

So the last place to go is the monastery

Do you mean hospital?

◆ Shield

◆ Sawtooth Saber, non-lethal: 1d20 + 28 - 2 ⇒ (7) + 28 - 2 = 33 vs flanking
Nonlethal: 3d6 + 10 ⇒ (1, 4, 1) + 10 = 16 plus Rune: 1d6 ⇒ 4 plus Arcane Cascade
Not sure if the rune (cold) and arcane cascade (2 force) can be made non-lethal.

◆ Sawtooth Saber, non-lethal, MAP: 1d20 + 28 - 2 - 5 ⇒ (2) + 28 - 2 - 5 = 23 vs flanking
Nonlethal: 3d6 + 10 ⇒ (4, 2, 3) + 10 = 19 plus Rune: 1d6 ⇒ 2 plus Arcane Cascade

Since his brother took mid-200s damage, I'm going to make another lethal Spellstrike in the expectation that it won't drop him. Apologies if this ends up critting and dropping him.

◆ Recharge Spellstrike
◆◆ Spellstrike: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (5) + 28 = 33 vs flanking
Slashing: 3d6 + 10 ⇒ (3, 6, 1) + 10 = 20 plus Cold: 1d6 ⇒ 4 plus 2 force plus Gouging Claw: 9d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 4, 6, 1, 5, 2, 1, 1) = 30

The spell portion of Sien's Spellstrike cannot be made nonlethal, but he can make regular Strikes. Sien can also try athletic manouvers.

I forgot to roll for persistent last round.

3 bleed, then
Recovery: 1d20 ⇒ 20 vs DC 15

Aww, what a waste of a nat 20. This round ...

Sien moves behind them, striking with magic again.

◆ Stride
◆◆ Spellstrike: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (17) + 28 = 45
Slashing: 3d6 + 10 ⇒ (4, 5, 4) + 10 = 23 plus Cold: 1d6 ⇒ 4 plus 2 force plus Gouging Claw: 9d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 2, 4, 5, 4, 3, 6, 3) = 36

Sien smiles. "Okay, then."

◆◆ Spellstrike: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (18) + 28 = 46 vs flanking
Slashing: 3d6 + 10 ⇒ (5, 2, 6) + 10 = 23 plus Cold: 1d6 ⇒ 5 plus 2 force plus Gouging Claw: 9d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 5, 1, 1, 4, 3, 3, 2) = 31

◆ Recharge Spellstrike

Sien will play along, if allowed to.

Aid Deception, Follow the Expert: 1d20 + 2 + 1 + 15 ⇒ (16) + 2 + 1 + 15 = 34 vs DC 15

Moved Sien's token on the map. He has 35' movement, so if there's difficult terrain, he'll Stride twice.

Google Slides is not working for me right now. I don't know if Ann took the flanking spot and whether the tables are difficult terrain, but Sien will ◆ Recharge Spellstrike, ◆ Stride, and either ◆ Stride again or make a non-Spellstrike strike.

Sawtooth Saber: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (16) + 28 = 44
Slashing: 3d6 + 10 ⇒ (3, 4, 5) + 10 = 22 plus Cold: 1d6 ⇒ 3 plus 2 force

Sien moves across from Ann, and brings his saber down in a magical slash.

◆ Stride
◆◆ Spellstrike: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (15) + 28 = 43
Slashing: 3d6 + 10 ⇒ (3, 5, 1) + 10 = 19 plus Frost: 1d6 ⇒ 4 plus 2 force plus Gouging Claw: 9d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 6, 6, 1, 4, 1, 6, 3) = 36

There's a weird half-square on the map, I'm going to assume that Moonlight is 35' from Sien and too far for haste, and that the closest foe is 35' away as well.

Sien quickly Shields ◆ himself before casting Sky Laughs at Waves ◆, sailing over the tables and landing next to the closest foe and Striking.

Sawtooth Saber: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (16) + 28 = 44
Slashing: 3d6 + 10 ⇒ (2, 6, 4) + 10 = 22 plus Cold: 1d6 ⇒ 6

He reserves some of his energy and enters Arcane Cascade ◆.

Sien stands and starts clapping with Shirota, trying to start a slow-clap.

When that doesn't work, he just draws a sawtooth saber.

Alright, I ran out of time today, but I'll get to this tonight or early tomorrow.

I thought I had given a heads up about this earlier, but I went to quote my post and I can't find anything. I apologize for not making this clearer earlier:

I'm going to be traveling from December 20 to January 4, and I'm not sure what my posting situation is going to be. I'll be in a country with Internet, but I'm not sure whether I'll have time to post, or it might be irregular.

Sien can use his arcane powers to read a scroll, and then has Society +25.

Recalling the stone-stacking games he played as a child, Sien tries to rig a pile of bricks to collapse on any cat that might be following him.

Crafting: 1d20 + 27 ⇒ (19) + 27 = 46 vs DC 34

That will teach those cats to follow me around.

No actual cats were harmed in the making of this post.

Athletics: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (9) + 22 = 31 vs DC 34

Sien's not great at being chased, but he gives it his best shot.

Society (E): 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (19) + 25 = 44 vs DC 36

"I heard they're obsessed with Calistria's pleasures of the flesh and found some swanky AirB&B to celebrate in."

Thievery: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (3) + 23 = 26 vs DC 34

Sien snatches a live tarantula from a cage and sets it loose, but it nearly bites him.

Stealth (L): 1d20 + 29 ⇒ (10) + 29 = 39 vs DC 33

Sien was hoping to be fancy and afford an additional diversion to help others, but he ends up just disappearing himself and not able to aid the team.

Sien will drop a rock into the water to make a distracting splash, just as Moonlight is about to steal it.

Sien will let this play out, but he'll Sneak forward to be within range of snatching the ledger.

Stealth (L) +29, Thievery (T) +23

Sien will use his armor's invisibility rune to approach the dockmaster.

Stealth: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (8) + 28 = 36

Before he can get there, he witnesses Ketsu-kiba being made, and he pauses as the crowd clears.

Going to let Ketsu-kiba react, but I'm happy to be uninvisible and start talking, or try to steal that ledger while they're distracted.

Sien prefers to work alone.

Not me, I'm glad you guys are there.

Seconded! Sien will volunteer to sneak around, unless he's needed for Diplomacy.

SHOULDER HYDRODILATION ◆ Feat 8
Prerequisites Risky Surgery
Trigger You are about to attempt Risky Surgery.

You inject 20 cc of saline into an ally's shoulder. Make an Athletics check to Crank It. If successful, you gain all the benefits of Risky Surgery without taking damage.

+1

:D

I'll roll Diplomacy if forced to, but at DC 34, Sien needs a nat 16 to Succeed, and Crit Fails on a nat 1-6, which is negative EV.

Sien will instead appeal to the societal structure of the organization, explaining how the Mantis organization still relies on honor and trust, and that we were lied to about our mission, necessitating that we go underground.

Society: 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (3) + 25 = 28 vs DC 34

It's too conspiratorial.

Oh, geez, my bad. For whatever reason ("out of U and ME" topping the list), I assumed Ketsu-kiba was trained+ in Diplomacy and that she just preferred lying. Sien, I guess, is the party high in Diplomacy and I'll roleplay him as such in the future. He'll probably still defer to Ketsu-kiba to lie whenever possible, and Aid Deception with a +1.

Sien will explain that they were betrayed, not the betrayers, and will gloss over the fact that Moonlight is lurking about. But he'll keep his comments short in anticipation that Ketsu-kiba will jump in.

Spoilering an Aid Diplomacy roll in case that's needed.

Sien will advocate just walking there openly. The jig is up.

Sien sniffs around.

"Who tooted? NO TOOTING WHILE SNEAKING!"

Stealth: 1d20 + 29 ⇒ (5) + 29 = 34 vs DC 30

Note that Sien is Legendary in Stealth, so y'all can Follow the Expert at +4+Level+DEX.

RL has been okay. The weekends in October are really wild, though. All the kids' activities have stuff going on.

Do we want to keep splitting up? If we are ...

Sien will go back to the hospital and poke around - he'll sneak in rather than use a disguise.

If we're staying together ...

Sien will advocate looking for the leshy druid. Presumably, there will be fewer people around to note the four of them traveling together.

Society (E): 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (14) + 25 = 39 vs DC 34

Sien rattles off a list of the Worst of the Worst - a list of criminals so vile that even other criminals abhor them.

"We've been looking for four rogue assassins for reasons that may or may not be related. We heard that someone in the Red Mantis had put a price on their heads as well," Sien says.

"We're not here to take away anyone's bounty," he quickly adds, because that's what everyone is thinking. "But we'd like to make our own little side deals with the overseer of this operation. That's all. Everyone gets paid in the end."

Neigishi backs away deferentially when chastised by Sonogashira. He acts like he's just there in case they need to ... "take care of things themselves".

"Since it doesn't seem to have been communicated properly, let me be clear: we are here for your benefit. We could easily take this to any one of your competitors. Sure, we wouldn't get paid as well, but that's the only reason we're here first."

Sien always starts of negotiations antagonistically.

Aid Deception: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (18) + 18 = 36

Sien would have attempted to Aid Deception with Follow the Expert. +2+1+15 = +18. I'm not sure whether one can use FtE to Aid a roll, but even if he couldn't have, +1 vs DC 15 is good enough. This is all moot because of the nat 20, but Sien would have attempted it anyway.

"Yes," Sien emphasizes. "We all get paid."

"Pay gold? Pay gold?? We're here to get paid."

Sien turns to Ketsu-Kiba. "What do you say, Sonogashira? Shall we wait the three days, or should we find someone else in this town who might appreciate this information a little more?"

Sien winks at Ketsu-kiba, asking her to jump in.

Aid Diplomacy: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (20) + 18 = 38 vs DC 25

"I'm here to see the Gnasher. I'm here to ... sell information."

Sien will visit Nasha.

I'll trust the GM to work it out fairly.

The promise of Sien's lead (Nasha) is that we could get more leads. Also, to be blunt, since they presumably know that we work as a team, us showing up in force isn't any worse than any one of us showing up individually.

I will vote either 2x2 (Sien would like to visit Nasha, and another pair can visit the docks), or all 4 of us pay Nasha a visit.

PCs, are we proceeding as a group or individually? They're looking for 4, but I see no reason to go 1 by 1. Maybe 2 and 2?

Sien could ask around, but he prefers to sneak around and try to Read Lips for information.

1d20 ⇒ 10
+18 Diplomacy (Gather Information), +29 Stealth (if allowed), +19 Perception (if that seems more appropriate)

I'm not sure Sien has a say, if we're separated, but if he does, I suggest we stay within the city walls, especially if we need to be sneaking around at night, it would be much better not to have to make those Stealth checks to get into the city repeatedly.

Calistria

Category Gods of the Inner Sea
Edicts pursue your personal freedom, seek hedonistic thrills, take revenge
Anathema become too consumed by love or a need for revenge, let a slight go unanswered
Areas of Concern lust, revenge, trickery, and sketchy AirBNB rentals

Mechanically, are Moonlight and Ketsu looking for a place for all of us to sleep, or just themselves?

Sien will find another outhouse by a guard tower to play Brawl Stars while pooping cast clairvoyance and spy on a new password. He'll also stick to the rooftops, so he could walk near someone but not obviously near them.

Heh2 Shan4 Bao3

"Granny" Hu2 Ban3 niang2
Ha1 Hai3 er2
Yong3 Wu2 Xiu4
Zheng4 Peng2
Hua1 De2 Ge1
Luo4 Xi1 Yang2 (Luo4 Xi3 Yang2 is also possible)
Huo3 Tian1 Zhe1

Ou1 Ba1 Ming4
Yu4 li3

Some possible ways to write those in characters, for those who are interested. (These are ones I had gathered for my own curiosity from various sources and/or ones I made up based on spellings I considered possible. I'll only list the ones where the tones match Sen H.H.S.'s guide.)

• 和善保 Hé Shànbǎo
  
• 鄭鵬 Zhèng Péng
  
• 德歌 (Hua1) Dégē
  
• 駱熙暘 Luò Xīyáng
  

And for some non-Chinese names:

• 有香 = あるか Aruka
  
• 朝比奈信三 Asahina Shinzo
  
• 최춘후 (崔春厚) Choe Chung-hu
  
• 豪華＝ごうか Goka
  
• 日出あかり Hinode Akari
  
• 호균 (胡筠) Ho Gyun
  
• 虎正熙 (호 정휘) Ho Jeong-hui
  
• 井川十兵衛 Igawa Jubei
  
• 硫黄ヶ香＝いおうがか Iogaka
  
• 大野和馬 Kazuma Oono
  
• 금명성 (琴明誠) Kum Meng-sung
  
• 금순청 (琴順淸) Kum Soon-chong
  
• 伊智須佐瑠【いちすさる】 (Lady) Ichi Susarru
  
• 羅冠 Lo Kuon (from Meixian Hakka pronunciation Lo11 Kuon44, rather than from Mandarin)
  
• 孫楷＝まごかい Mago Kai
  
• 옥 진주 (玉 眞珠/珍珠) Ok Jinju
  
• 鈴 (りん) Rin
  
• 菫花【すみか】 Sumika
  
• 闇 = やみ Yami
  
• 柳 素珍 (유 소진) You So-Jin (I called her Yu So-Jin as her name looks Korean to me)
  
• 윤몽운 (尹夢雲) Yun Mong-un
  
• 유니 (柔妮) & 예리 (藝俐) Yuni & Yeri
  

Not definitive by any means!

I am happy that adventure 7-10 will be for levels 7–10 :D

Pregens are under "More Resources" on the playtest page

Level 1 pregens download: https://downloads.paizo.com/240801_SF2E_PreGens_Lvl1.zip

Level 5 pregens download: https://downloads.paizo.com/240801_SF2E_PreGens_Lvl5.zip

For those who come here later: that link has moved to

https://lorespire.paizo.com/tiki-index.php?page=sfsguide._.Starships

Wait a sec, whats numbering of this AP? Did they stop numbering aps after #200?

The serial number is 15201, so I assume this is #201 :)

Hearing long-time GMs ask about rules question while running their own game and hearing other long-time GMs who were playing give an answer (or sometimes: discuss among themselves!) was helpful – to see that not every GM has to have every rule memorised.

GMing with long-time GMs (at least the first few times) is helpful because they're usually more patient and also because they can answer rules questions if you have them. (See point one.)

So a good easy start is to GM for people you have already seen GMing. (Maybe you can't have all 6 players be experiences GMs, but even just two or three helps a lot when you're starting out.)

When playing face-to-face, the map expense is real. I bought literally dozens of flip-mats and a couple of boxes of flip-tiles during the time I GMed face-to-face. Now that I'm 99% virtual, just being able to snip something out of a PDF and put it onto a VTT is a lot easier. Even if I do often buy the flip-mat as a PDF to get a higher resolution than what's in the scenario PDF.

Knowing that you don't have to have minis that are perfect, or even minis at all -- when I started out as a player, some GMs used minis but several just used dice or other simple tokens. The big red d20 was a kobold; why not?

If you have a regular group of players, then being able to rotate the GM (so that you don't have one or three forever GMs and none of the others take turns) is good so that you get to play as well.

Failing that, I know that some GMs will sometimes have game sessions that are only open to other GMs.

A higher-level Repeatable adventure! Huzzah!

Boats, Estates, Titles.

What else was possible under the earlier systems?

My favourite vanity was the one that allowed my cleric to use Medicine to Earn Income.

The encounter scaling instructions for encounter B (khyyrent guards) are identical to those in encounter A8 (skeletal khyyrents) and reference skeletal khyyrents pulling themselves up out of the rubble.

Is the effect ("staggered for the first round") intended to be the same for the khyyrent guards as for the skeletal ones, or something different?

I noticed the Cairn Wight is a variant of the Beastiary Wight - the change is these guys have a sword. The sword attack gives "plus Drain Life", but the Drain Life attribute only seems to apply to the claws. Was this an oversight or an attempt to add the trait?

Have a look at the "Wight" entry in the Bestiary (p. 332) and read the extra text at the top left:

OTHER WIGHTS

In addition to the wight presented here, many other varieties exist. For example, the covetous cairn wight—ritually created to eternally guard its own wealth or that of its master—haunts barrows, ossuaries, and mausoleums. Unlike other wights, cairn wights can channel their life-draining touch through their melee weapons.

We'll have the typical grace period where if you've already played this before the sanctioning docs hit the site, your GM will still be able to issue Chronicle sheets for you.

How long has "the typical grace period" typically been in the past? A week, a month, half a year?