Comfortably Dumb's page

For roll20 anyway, you're not just looking at the cross section of roll20 users that play starfinder, but the cross section of roll20 users that play starfinder AND use stuff on the roll20 store. That may take you below profitability on anything but your biggest items. Most DMs i've seen in society use the simple sheet and don't buy compendiums or the few pre made adventures. It's too easy to slap together your own.

Yeah, the disaster that the R20 sheet is has been a handicap.

But R20 never brought out any AP but the Aeon Throne one, and even that's sort of hacked together. No one wants to use an inferior sheet with little support that they'll have to rework or ignore.

It seems like a bizarre thing to be pushing. Why spend your valuable life speculating on the failure of something on the fan forums of that thing?

I spent a weekend rationalizing the economy of the Starfinder universe once. Time has not been an issue during COVID, let alone the 2 minutes to crank out a reply.

Heck, there are still forums out there for 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which stopped being released in the early 1980s

If it ain't THAC0, it ain't D&D. 2E all the way.

It's obvious Starfinder has been Paizo's red-headed stepchild for some time. You don't get rid of a co-creator right after a successful initial release of a game if you expected it to succeed. It has always seemed like SF was just intended to test a few new mechanics and sustain a little interest until 2E came out. It has always seemed like Paizo - especially one or two higher-ups - were not only surprised by its initial success, but didn't believe it was sustainable.

Third party support via Roll20, FG, HeroLab, etc. has been lagging for some time, which seemed like a canary in the coal mine. Is that because of a lack of player interest or a lack of Paizo support? Dunno. Maybe both.

Were APs dropped to bimonthly because of a lack of purchasing or a lack of faith? Did COVID play into this, causing support to go to the less risky 2E? Dunno.

I'd like for SF to be more central to Paizo's future, but it seems to me from the outside it's intended to be on the level of the PF card game, followed by eventual de facto cancelation.

I'd love to be wrong.

Deleted per the below. Apologies.

Who do we talk to if we're missing a GM and can't find anyone with the listed name on Discord?

This deserves a separate thread in the main forum if you disagree.

I honestly fail to care enough to compare interpretations for a home campaign and a race that will never see SFS play.

Feel free to get an official ruling if you feel it deserves one.

Did you houserule the raxalite LFAN to provide more than one hand or misread it? Normally they can only wield a single one handed weapon.

That's one plausible interpretation with the wording of LFAN Symbiosis (and a very basic knowledge of physics and biology). LFAN itself, however, doesn't make that requirement.

Either way, though, it's a pretty loose home campaign... and another reason why we'll never see raxalite in SFS.

Cool, that was a lot of work to update and I appreciate it. I was happy to see most of the racial options make it in fact.

I don't care but I always wonder why things like below get banned:

Unveil Reality [Witchwarper Paradigm Shift]
Multi-Weapon Versatility [Feat Boost]
Quick Trick [Alternate Class Feature]

Stack Multi-Weapon Versatility with Multi-Weapon Fighting and Finesse Striker. Later add Twinned Threat. Can get sort of nasty.

Currently abusing this with a raxalite samurai in a home campaign. Fun to have the 16" tall plant be the tank of the party.

Chronicle question:

Holy crud. I actually voted for someone who won something?

Wait. Does this mean I'm partially responsible when he turns out to be written doing things as ineptly as Jadnura or Luwazi?

I look forward to the unfolding of the library world mystery.

Nothing about being musician relates to being hippies, thats more of xenowarden thing ._.;

Psychadelic walrus. Lennon glasses. Guitar.

Seemed the pretty obvious roleplaying hook to me. "I Am The Walrus"? Pity I can't do a decent Lennon voice imitation.

… so you just looked at his picture and didn't read his platform.

Should probably cast Detect Thoughts and wait until round 3 to try to read my mind.

I don't consider doing what the Society is going to do anyway to be a real platform. YMMV.

Ehu - Possibly the most boring character ("I'd like one stereotypical kasatha to go, please"), but with by far the most interesting direction. He got my vote.

Tara - Probably a better fit as First Seeker this season (or even last). Wound up my second choice mostly by default.

Avor - His candidacy was doomed the second he was introduced with basically, "Oh, by the way, if he's elected, the Dataphiles and Wayfinders go to the back of the bus." Seriously, Paizo? He seems like he'd be the one of the group who'd be the best leader in a story, but an NPC leading from the front in an RPG (a) isn't easy to do well and (b) usually will result in an unsatisfactory experience.

Calder - He's a hippie walrus. That's literally his entire platform. And it's probably enough to win, but I'm not hopping on that train. Last place for me, and its not especially close.

Like real life, I've probably given this vote more thought that either is healthy or than most people. Also like real life, I expect the actual results to be the exact opposite of my order of preference.

Uchuujin wrote:

This being a 1-4 scenario is really, really weird to me. Brand new Starfinders get a vote, but veteran characters don't?

I mean, yes, realistically you can vote for any of them depending on any of your characters, but from a story and RP perspective it's only the rookies choosing... This seems completely the opposite of what I would expect.

Your level 1-4 characters do get to interact with the candidates, but the votes are one per player, representing a consensus of all your characters.

Wait... now I've got to go and poll *all* my characters?

Iomedae's warts, do you people know what maniacs those people all are? Going to be one heck of a migraine...

Will take me a while to work my way through this, but here goes.

Question #1 - Why would conquering Mataras bring Malikah closer to becoming a god? Why would this be beneficial? The adventure background and AP summary is silent.

Pure speculation, but my guess is that either (a) he was given this task by a god to complete in order to be worthy of ascension or (b) he was going to use it as a staging point for an assault on Absalom Station. Two of the more common paths to godhood in Starfinder are being raised by another god and working your way up, or passing the Test of the Starstone (which is now in the Station).

Question #2 - What does conquering the sun entail? It doesn't seem like the sun is controllable in any real sense. Even the efreeti are mentioned as only conquering individual bubble cities. Is this a threat to the Pact Worlds? It sure doesn't seem like it.

See above. Having it play into a future assault on Absalom Station strikes me as a good hook

Question #3 - So the Pact Worlds folks have sent ships through the Far Portal, and some have returned. They know it connects to the Plane of Fire. The Plane of Fire is not some mysterious place. The Plane Shift spell still exists after all! So why are ships going to-and-fro through the Far Portal unusual?

Because it's darn expensive to have an entire ship that can survive that as opposed to plane shifting and magicking up a handful or adventurers? And those few early expeditions likely found little of profit on the other side to justify the higher expense.

Question #4 - Why is a starship native to the Plane of Fire vulnerable to the Fire Whale's fire attacks?

...

I got nothing on this one.

Question #5 - (see pg 10) Since when does a Starship need a Drift Drive to protect it during interplanar travel?

Have we ever seen a starship undertaking interplanar travel before this?

Some early thoughts as I prep the adventure:

The opening is the weakest part, by far. The PCs just happen to be there, they happen to get drafted into combat by someone they don't know, and then they're hired by someone else they don't know to take them somewhere else. This is beyond railroading.

Modifying this so that the PCs "acquire" a piece of technology that a researcher on Far Portal Station is paying for. May start it in the middle of a 3 way shootout as they're recovering it, maybe in a small Diaspora facility that's on the verge of destruction because the other parties (Brass Dragons, etc. to foreshadow) have some serious firepower. The PCs will be trying to race back to their ship and get away.

This takes them to Far Portal to get paid. Can meet the station master. I'll probably seed a doomsday prophet character here, to foreshadow some events and especially the psychic characters being strongly affected by the sun. I'm thinking Starfinder, Lashunta, sent to Far Portal by a Liavaran Dreamer, something about the proximity to the portal particularly afflicting them.

The buyer is Laeress. The McGuffin starts getting readings during the transaction and then the ship and whale burst through. Continue similarly from there.

I'm reworking the Laeress/Nib relationship to be student/mentor. Laeress was disavowed by the DCI for her theories too crackpot even for the DCI. Adds some reason for the PCs to mistrust Laeress when they find out. I'm not really into role-playing both sides of a domestic dispute while the PCs look at their phones, waiting for it to be over.

Nikkost and Lux will be a less violent encounter, more comedic. I'd like to bring back Nikkost as more of a Harry Mudd character in later chapters as they progress. We'll see.

I really like the unrest episodes. May expand a bit here.

The happy Nazi skittermander should be a lot of fun.

The Sunrise Collective dungeon crawl looks pretty solid on its own. Not sure a party of four L2s is going to make it through without some balancing, though.

Seems weird that we hear so much about General Kam but never meet him in this adventure. If he's not in the early part of book 2, may have to work him into the book somehow. The post-climax part, certainly.

Definitely plan to give lots of atmosphere on both locations in the book. The sun is one of the coolest places in the Pact Worlds.

Thoughts?