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I've found that book 1 one was pretty well balanced. Book 2 was fun because of the team's past (they went through "Against the Aeon Throne" and half of "Threefold Conspiracy"), so they knew the Pact Board of Directors. A lot of "combat" in book 2 should be bypassed with skills and negociations. The only adaptations i've made in book 2 are a change in one director to fit with tTC ending, i've added mixed AP spoilers: , and the space combat went full narative because the PCs took every steps to ensure the maximum of fleets for it. The high-level roleplay IS worthwhile in this book!
an uplifted Irestomae Ulivestra from AtAT with the Azlanti spies Book 3, well, chapter 1 is the definition of a railroad, so I did have to rewrite it depending on the player performance. For the final chapter, well, they used their capacities to deal with the thing differently, and that is okay. It was a pretty epic ending and the players were satisfied. ![]()
In SF1, since the environnement protection is built inside the armor, I went with "if it is activated, you don't have the problem for breathing", Including from smelly thing, poisonous gaz, dangerous pheromones, etc. SF1 has the Life Bubble 1st-level spell was also pretty thorough for the protection, so if a player has invested in this spell, then you must take it into account. For SF2, I don't see the equivalent of the life bubble at low level. Air Bubble is a reaction that gives you 1 minute to handle the breathing problem. Then you have the 3rd-level spell Life Seal, that gives you 6-hours as a 4th-level spell. The armor environnement protection should be an upgrade that compares to the spell at some level... I think of the automated air mask in Star Trek Discovery, present with a specific exploration suit (aka armor) but not on every uniform, it is deployed as a reaction or with detection of a dangerous compound. I don't see why for a playability reason we want it to be easy to deal with vacuum but not low density atmosphere or toxic gaz. Except if you are of the Aspis Consortium and want to make adventurers pay for the "low-atmosphere licence", the "poisonous licence", etc. And then every adventurers would hack their armor licences... ![]()
Yakman wrote:
Cambrisa sketches the wards directly on the stone spikes. It could be an ofuda on paper tied to the spike, since it is directly tied to kami. See here : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofuda My players went directly to Iwalewa, and kept him occupied while the others positionned themselves. One repositionned after to include the other kami. But eitherway it is a problem for your player to handle. ![]()
I've run Against the Aeon Throne as first AP for new players. It is a good one, but written just after Dead Suns, so not ready for many new things. The best one I think for introcing people to the world and the system would be Threefold Conspiracy. It is well balanced, you get a good feeling of the world, and character backgrounds are not an issue. Skittershot,skittercrash, skitterhome and Skitterwarp can also make a good introduction. The worst in my opinion is "Fly free or die", simply because the team is doom to fail for at least the two first books. ![]()
Something between the Arcanamirium Sage and the Magic Academy Student. Since currently the two spellcasters have a spell repertoire, we need something to add versatility to the spellcasters, without getting a classic multiclass archetype. Being able to use the knowledge of the Acadamy and being able to contribute to it with discoveries from the galaxy. ![]()
The Mechanic could be a subclass of an eventual "Specialist" class. The Mechanic in SF1 is the specialist in robotics, engineering, computer. But then you add Biotech, where does it put the Mechanic? People wanted also to have "a non magical healer"... That fell kinda in the range of the Biohacker, but here again it could become another subclass of the Specialist. A chemistry specialist never pop out either... Speeding up the Craft skill for them seems mandatory... Since all of those can fall in technology, we could ask ourself if this kind of impact is reflected in the Technomancer... will we have a Biomancer? ![]()
Just to add my voice here... I had some ideas, and when i first the announcement made for PFI and SFI a while ago, I was telling myself "wow, they could let me do all that". Writing up my ideas that I propose in my games, I found this news and was shocked. For PF1, my feeling is that you can go easily outside Golarion and be OGL Pathfinder Compatible, dwarves and elves and wizards are usable everywhere. It is not that clear for me if you can do the same thing for the classes and the ancestries of SF1. What I've seen of Starfinder compatible stuffs made limited use of the classes from the core rulebook if any. I'm all familiar with risk analysis, and I understand the underlying problems and strategies pushing for a change. But prior discussions went to say that Starfinder was "safe", and SFI would allow to continue to allow to enjoy SF1... But that announcement is a terrible timing for Starfinder. With all the energies put on making SF2, now would have been the time where many creators would have published fascinating stories for SFI that could be inserted in current games or allowed new ones, ensuring a great player base for now that would probably hop in numbers to SF2 when ready. Now we will enter the desert on September 1st... So I do hope Paizo will have some better news for us soon. ![]()
It does make for a particular type of character. You have a connexion and as a mystic you act on it on a feeling, or the thing that made you a witchwarper is pretty recent and you don't understand how the magic works... You have a talent, but developped it by watching how another caster has done it (maybe by watching DIY tutorials), but without taking the theory behind it. It allows for particular training where "you should be bright/wise enough to let someone else tells you what to do" or go along until you fetch formal training. You could build a SpellGym near the Arcanamirium... ![]()
Vampbyday wrote: Prismeni: I love the flavor of them being able to jump into the drift, but I see it causing a LOT of problems VERY fast. First of all . . . do they need to be in control of the ship to jump it? Can that little ratfolk in the artwork jump THE IDARI into the drift? Against the wishes of the captain? Also, several SF1 scenarios were predicated around needing to get a drift drive, or that your drift drive was broken, and one of these guys just breaks that. Oh no, in an escape pod and have to make emergency landing on a planet? Nope, just jump the escape pod into the drift, and you are back at Absolom station in a day. Scenario over because of one character that you don't have to even roll for. I do love the Primeni, they are a nice touch, they are evolution to allow the usage of the drift... Their capacity implies that they are piloting the starship, and with the Piloting skill description i figure they must be the primary pilot. That means they are at least for a minute siting in the pilot chair, or cajoling the Oma... And yes maybe against the captain whishes, you don't need a captain to fly a starship. As for the escape pod, well, usually they have limited lifetime, so do you really pilot an escape pod? And if so, will you get somewhre before it stops fonctionning? Same thing if the starship is damaged and have limited manoeuvring ability. I do see opportunity in piracy though, and ways to hook the Prismeni to force him to use is ability. Much cheaper than a drif drive... Great hoo there, the AAF could have some new missions for you. Would a Kayal (or a Velstrak) be able to do the same for the Shadowplane? ![]()
Mystic is a nice class, the Vitaity Network is a nice thing, but I do have some problems... The Mystic Bond limits a lot the capacity of a Mystic to be useful. Imagine a work group at the job, and a mystic comes and say "let's bond together and i'll know where you'll be anytime on this plane". Hardly welcomed beside the most bonded group... So if you do not accept the unknown mystic bond, well forget the usage of the vitality network, except for self healing. Normally that affects the value of the mystic in the group at the beginning of a campaign. Still, having played many healers, the Mystic has a nice ring to it, though i would never touch the "Healing Connection". First, the Infusion Focus Spell is a weaker version of Heal, by necessiting a bonded target, by making the target immune for the next 10 minutes, and by giving d6 (or d6+6) rather than d8. With not any bonuses to compensate to that triple gating. You cannot even use it as an attack against undead. That makes the focus spell not the first choice for healing (it would rather be a Heal signature spell), and for me is contraty to the point of the focus spell. The only advantage would be to use it out of combat, by refocusing and recasting. I suppose that it is still better than the focus spell from the Healing Domain (which is a dud), but still... At the very least, Infusion should be quicker than Heal (maybe a reaction touched, 1 action ray and 2 action burst). I'd remove the "10 minutes immunity to the spell", since you are limited by focus point, it is not a cantrip. Also, the other focus spells necessitate a transfer from the vitality network, so to be able to use them just in case, you have to refrain from healing with the vitality network at some point. Again, conterproductive for a healer. Rather than the Healing Connection, i'd take another connexion, with a Signature Heal spell and Battle Medicine and Sprayflesh... That's sad, as per Galactic Magic, healing should be the domain where magic is better than technology. The healing equipment available is now very good. I also agree that the pseudo cleric or druid feat should be available at 1st level in some way. ![]()
blashimov wrote:
The Reptoid prisonner is Kibotu in Terrapin Station For my part, i tend to use the planned descriptive as a default (if it makes sense) before taking account what my players will do. The thing is to deprive the player of a starship; when things begin going weird, it is a good thing for the reptoid to sabotage the Peryton, but with planning the players can come up with a plan to prepare the Peryton for liftoff. The "Voidcrier shoots on an unshielded Peryton becomes railroading if the player made sure the ship would be ready to depart. My team saved some of the Peryton's crew and ship. The Peryton made a distraction against Terrapin detection systems, allowing the players to invade. Kibotu found that a mercenary group turned reptoid hunters is a safe a place as any to begin a new career, so he joined the Peryton's crew. Orvir Pyke was my Tyrkalis reptoid, and since he was identified as fishy with Danika and her team, he had not the momentum to kill the team. I did not plan this, but he was the obvious choice afterward. It is not important that the Peryton's crew perish. The more efficient the attack on Tyrkalis is, the more disturbing the videos of the reptoid on Terapin publishes are disturbing. Two teams are then hunted by the Stewards. As an epilogue, the Peryton made their own attempt to clear their names, and can be contacted by some true Stewards after the next module. They made appearances on the news, and killed gray clones of the players after an attack against Aspis Consortium holdings (red herrings by the buckets). The much later on, the Peryton were present with the Absalom Fleet to defend the station against the Devastation Ark... but that is another story. ![]()
Xenobiologist wrote:
Thanks Xenobiologist! That book came out on June 1st. I'm really satisfied with it! ![]()
For my part, a real galactic exploration manual. The one we have in SF1 is more a "planetary exploration manual"... I still use the first chapter of "Babylon 5 - Galactic Guide" for solar and planetary system creation. Still, science has evolved since that printing (namely, an explosion in detection of exoplanets, including around binary star systems) and could use an update, and expands on the impact of those choices, coupled with more "magical bodies" like the end oh the Galactic Magic book. I would agree that a planar book would be real nice! A vilain worldbook (or plotbook?) could be fun. Like what was done for the Swarm, the Azlanti and the Jinsul... What can we expect from the Gideron Authority? Is there trouble coming from the Shadari Condeferacy? Where are the Mi-Go? Tech Revolution and Galactic Magic are two great lore books, but if you remove the class specific content a majority of those two books would be readily usable in SF2. ![]()
I have yet to really use dragons in my games for other thing as an encounter, such as in adventure path: I have also Zenniledie as a patron of a charter, not the one of my players. It is pretty limited.
Pazzoedioth in the Starstone Blockade (Devastation Ark part 2/3). I agree with Metaphysician, dragons are people in social structures. In the Drakeland of Triaxus, when the highest autority are great wyrm living more than a thousands years, every boss figure are younger dragons trying to impress their own boss. Younger dragons don't have a lot of capacity to make itself its own place in a world. It is not as easy for them to hitchhike into another world either, but young Triaxus dragons could bargain for a transport offworld. Other than that, there is a difference in the thinking process of the dragon depending on its age. Dragons younger than the Gap will act as a normal creature (or normal boss with a bad attitude). Dragons a bit older will have an attitude similar to elves from Castrovel, not remembering their past but having the impression to have been cheated somewhere. The older ones will say that the Gap did not affect them as much as the lesser races; part of this comes from them being very powerfull creature, so their place is "obvious", and they have the power to invent the truth they want. ![]()
I would not use that too soon. With no basic Drift you could loose the general feel you are trying to make with the Charter Patron; everyone of them will have better things to do than checkup on their lost charter in the Vast. Colonists would come from refugies, and that's the look and feel of Atuity. It could also make something like one of the "Worlds of Aldebaran" by Leo, where at least 3 are affected by a loss of FTL travel for a reason or another... The sooner I feel it could make sense is by module 3, it would make doubly sense to have that call for help from Plaustov. By module 4, Project Sharpwing could be adapted to include Drift analysis in its goal. If the crisis last from one to two years, it could be a footnote in the history of New Harmony depending on how fast you play your game. I'm still wrestling with the idea. My game is still in the first module, so i've got time to see... ![]()
Lenswyn wrote: The first thing that caught me was the limit to level 4 items available to the shops on New Harmony. It makes sense for story purposes, as they have to "live off the land". Since they still have interstellar communication and the AP mentions that ships will swing by to deliver supplies and colonists, I wanted to give them option to "go shopping" in a way that felt appropriate to the story. For myself I'm considering that their own shopping center (when it will be constructed) will be able to provide anything within the level of their smaller charter trait score. Also, Celestene goes real quick with the installation of its "Riverside Market" which is only a transport away. Lenswyn wrote:
I consider that they "Earn a living" as per the Profession skill ability while they are adminstrating the charter (or their Organisation chapter, since I'm also using the Organisation's rules in Galaxy Exploration Manual), and get paid by their patron in credits for it. I'm considering profession skills and another applicable skill (with a basic explanation) applicable for making their money. Survival is very applicable at the beginning of the game! I find your "payment per hex explored" idea interesting, though I will raise up the paiement. If you are pulling a drift crisis early on, you could make credits "unofficial" unless you are AbadarCorps or have a Bank. UPBs should not be easily available since you need basic level of technical component. They can exchange credit for UPBs with passing starships, or harvest other tech, but until you have all the required components (e.g. ressources nodes and a factory) you could limit this. ![]()
I'm about to start my own campaign soon... Is there a planetary map that exists for New Harmony? I'm looking for a planisphere view... The only 2 things i saw is the global map beside the description of Waydana-4 and the art view at the beginning of the Adventure Toolbox, which are pretty limited, and the texts for the other charters that explains where they are placed, which except for Plaustov, must be really far away. The Player's guide indicate that "Much of the planet was divided into regions known as charters [...]". The player's charter is the dimension of a small state, which leave a lot of space... I see much implications here :
To complete the feel for the exploration adventure, two astronomical questions :
Any thoughts? Thanks! ![]()
Threefold Conspiracy is a great module for begining or casual players. They wont have all the history to make a complicated background, so the punch line won't be too hard. If you have one or two player who are more background savvy, you can still keep the clones of the other players, and make them still be there in society but replaced by a clone or a reptoid. Or they are more successfull clones with copied memories. Also, the gray experiment on the player character could be something else entirely. ![]()
Personnaly I would not go with a slow corruption skeme like SoS. Dycepskian make a point of being a fast and agressive infection. You have a "Death by Dycepskian" chapter describing the horror in the eyes of a recent victim which has lost control of everything. The Hive mind is kind of young too, so deploying a slow corruption attitude would be counter intuitive. But hey, it could be a great spin of for a module 7, just infect a gray in module 5. It learns from its host, so a new covert approach would be evermore dangerous. ![]()
Yakman wrote: Starting Act III next session... my party stompadonked everything in Book 6 so far. Any ideas about how to make the final encounter challenging? Or is it tough enough? Zaxo alone will not be a great challenge if your party stomped everything in the module. Alone he will not survive the action economy for more than 2 rounds. Your players do have time to prepare for that encounter... I made an encounter including about everything that is in the ship, even though it did not happen in the ship, but rather in an encounter similar to the reoptoids. I included some stunned stewards hostages to spice things up a bit. It made an enteresting but not so deadly encounter. Be warned! ![]()
Thanks for that one, I've missed it! Though the question stays, and what known should be more than what is unknown, because it known that it is not unknown (argh!)... Which is which? The image of the Anassanoi seem to show something similar to the upper left symbol, but not the same, would that be that one? Which one is from the Lashunta, Kasatha and Ijtikri? ![]()
Chris Marsh wrote:
Normally you can normally take "Snap shot" minor action (one gun at -2 penalty) if no other action has been taken in gunnery phase, per standard rules... That should allow allow them to pilot and shoot once. ![]()
I know that this subject has been touched here and there, but I never found the answers. I see descriptions of where the runes of Eloritu has been found, but never whitch is whitch... The only reference I found in pictures. The top one is found in Waking the Worldseed, and the artwork from "The Church of Eloritu" shows the lower-left one that seems to refer to the one of the Shadari Confederacy. Which one is from the Lashunta, Kasatha and Ijtikri? Which one is the sixth yet undiscovered one? ![]()
Yakman wrote: i guess we are about 5 sessions from completing the AP... very excited. i have some ideas about homebrewing the cycle of encounters before the end to make them a little more tense, and then probably going to run the last part as is, although i should probably spend a bit of time re-reading it... I'm curious, is your elected board ends up cannon or is there any changes? For my team the Kasatha was replaced by Uvali Rycast. ![]()
If he still have ties with the Shadari Confederacy, he could also call home saying that he found the renegrate group of cultist. Would they be willing to invest a fleet or two in the defense of New Harmony? Another interesting call would be the Marixah Republic, since they had a lost colony on New Harmony, and they always wanted to show off that they can provide military support to the Pact and the Veskarium. ![]()
The top hexploration activities you get for traveling at 20 mph (35 km/h) or more is 6. You won't gain more by going faster. It is comparable to the speed you would have at horseback, or the speed of a tourist bus making a tour of a city. As a tourist you wont know everything there is to know about the city hex, but i dare say you will have a good idea of the city layout and have a good idea of what you want to see later on inside it... If you can't explore in an exploration buggy, you should get a refund! :) ![]()
I tried it in Puppet Without Strings (tTC module 6), when my team went reomte hacking KSN Interstellar. It made a nice change of pace. The hacking options are simple and usable. Still, when someone max out their computer skill, dealing with the 3 subskills does not add a lot to the experience, unless your making a hard hacking encounter. Be sure to put some specific things for your support (non-lead) hackers, unless it becomes tiresome for them. ![]()
Multiple ideas... I'd like to have a bit more of Triaxus. Could go a long way with the shadowrun-like idea i've seen up, with dragons being so present... Also, I would expect to see the return of the aboleths by now, with their past involvement with Golarion and the Azlanti. But anyway, the AP I would do would be 6 modules, going level 1 to 20, with holes between modules to give space for other stuff such as character or patron storyline. ![]()
Yakman wrote: has anyone run the sniper encounter? thoughts on how to make it suspenseful? Tried to... My first plan was to add an assassin robot, the team would encounter it while it projeted an humanoid image, while the sniper would shoot them at long range. I would have put some automated traps on the way to the sniper too. But my players did not at all press the issue about him so the encounter never happened. Sad, because I planned to use his phase shift escape operative ability like a gray escape plan, and so tossing some red herrings in the investigation. Plan B : He and his robot would be shooting from afar while the party engaged Erem. That did not happen... I changed the Gray plot too because I ran about half of this AP after "Against the Aeon Throne" AP, so the story and relations of the team are a bit different. They were able to befriend Jymna and her gang to engage Erem, so those two gangs had a sniper party while the team engaged Erem as normal... ![]()
TRDG wrote:
You got at least part of the answer in the Galaxy Exploration Manual, pp 38-39. You can have as much as 6 exploration activities if you go at 20mph with an appropriately designed vehicule. So you should not have to dismount. If your party pitch in together at the beginning, they could buy an hovertrike, that could be in the cargo hold of your Star Settler right at the start. I figured if they explored Nakondis with this, I don't see why New Harmony would be different. The other questions though, it would make interesting exploration of the rules... ![]()
Normally, you should be 3rd level after first module, 5th after the second, 7th after the third, as indicated in the beginning of each module. I've run this with 6 player party. First module runs adequately without too much modifications, I may have added a guard in one or two encounter but that's it. At low levels the firsts boss are hard enough. I made a one-shot in Dalesko at the end of first module. Which gave my player a head start for the second module, which i ran as is. I had to add some people in the third module with 6 players. There are some possible solo boss fight that can be too easy with more than four player, so you have to adjust the number of goons accompanying them. I modified the ending with contents from the Starship operation manual, For instance, I could not resist adding an automated party in the last starship battle. Have a nice campaign! ![]()
GarthR wrote: On another Note. Are you able to build Settlement Projects eg Library etc, a second time in a different settlement, or is it assumed that once it is built in 1 settlement it automatically gets built in any other settlements . My assumption is they are only built once, due to the stat bonuses, as it would be too simple to add cheap projects to each new settlement to bump up the Charter stats relatively quickly. How is everyone else handling this? If you read the requirement in the advanced projects section, it specifies that charter projects can be made only once, in opposition to settlement projects. So my take is if you want a library in 2 settlement, you have to build it two times... See also thr Factory, the effect is only for 1 settlement. One strategy for colony building would be to concentrate on only one metropolis and specialise it. Another would be to expand with many settlement, with everyone working for the greater good of the charter. ![]()
Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:
Well on the first 2 modules at least (the third is in the mail), the charter patron does not change a lot of things except for charter beginning score and some events that are to be initiated by a secondary charter. The patron could imply special visitors, or special tasks or requests that are unique to the patron. ![]()
It lacks something to speed things up. The only thing that allows that seems to be the Elite Reclamation Team to claim 2 hex rather than one. But still you can make only one advanced project per month. It seems weird that if you have more than one settlement, you can still only build one advanced project, and still can do only two projects in your turn. ![]()
I found the max item level a bit odd also. Ok, during downtime a character can work to gain credits/UPBs, and later using those UPBs to get better stuff. Since they have to explore and administrate the charter, they don't have that much time on their hands as a limiting factor. Still, imagine you are an adventurer in the charter rather than the administrator. You have factories, armories, multiple settlements, a space elevator, but still you are limited to level 4 equipment? My interpretation would be that you can buy level 4 items in your charter when you begin it, because it is fairly tradable items, brought with the new colonists and other traders. Economy allows measures the ability to create, buy and sell for the charter, and Technology and Magic covers about everything you can buy... I would guess that when you have an higher ECO, MAG and TEC, you can buy higher items in your charter. Perhaps you would need ACC and CUL too, so your max item would be the lower of your charter trait scores? You could mitigate a lower score with an appropriate trade deal with another charter... It is not written anywhere, but it would be my best house rule after reading the two books. |