Darius Silverbolt's page

It's good enough for me, coupled with JB response on the GCP discord and Mona's recent reply on the reddit.

links to those please.

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Effective date Nov 2021

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What is page 23 all about with the 3 digit codes?

Nevermind I have since been told. The are codes to the Map Pack tiles.

Darius Silverbolt wrote:

I really think SF isn't your game and you may need to look elsewhere. Shadowrun / Rifts maybe a good fit for you.

When you suggest Rifts as a more sensible alternative to Starfinder you know that something is seriously wrong.

I enjoy both system and many others. You need to find something that suits you.

That's very fair. Again, I don't dislike the rule. I'd even be willing to run it like that myself. But I'm not currently the GM for our game lol. For 2 upgrade slots, it certainly seems fair for it to be always on, or at least turn itself on after the first hit. Which that might be how I run it, you can turn it on as a reaction. So then there's still some advantage to CIc and whatnot.

You just made me think of another option. Force field can just take one slot BUT operate as per the book.

I think his rule does stop them at 16, if I'm interpreting it correctly.

You did :-)

Maybe it should have let the biohacker use their int bonus on the check. Because being injected with 20 ccs of dihydrogenmonoxide certainly SOUNDS dangerous.

LOL deadly stuff...to hang overs.

LOL accurate. Starships is something best left to a team who are going to be together for a while like in an AP. Trying to sort the variable on a new player Tier 1-4 SFS scenario makes this all the fun with the new options.

I love the game but this aspect is hard with new players and challenging to GM's to keep all players interested while we sort WTH is happening in this part of the game.

My favorite AP before this month was Against the Aeon Throne. It's 1st level (so you can dive right in with new characters), it's only 3 volumes (so it's less of a commitment), it's got great bad guys and set pieces (the colony world of volume 1 and the prison break in volume 2 are especially good), and it's in print and supported on Virtual Table Top. Now Fly Free or Die has come out, and I've been working on that for a year, so of course that's my favorite. But you will have to decide for yourself! Dawn of Flame is also a long time fave, as I like the supporting cast and the effreet adversaries a lot.

I have really enjoy the system so far. I really enjoy the AP’s. I have completed dead suns 3 as a GM , Aeon Throne twice and running 2 sets of signal of screams now. I find the system fun and enjoyable. I needed a break from fantasy RPG

I rub SFS games as well but I too, a break from scenarios for a bit to push more of the AP play. Aeon Throne is my favorite so far. I made a few changes as a GM to book one to make the bad guys really bad....and it worked great for the story. My PC in each campaign were hooked to the end and wanting more.

Yes I agree starship side could use some love but no system is perfect. I house rule things as I see fit but honestly I haven’t needed to really change anything to much.

In signal of screams I have added the some elements from shadowrun , I mean why not , the players are in pursuit of an “evil corporation” and its fun.

I do think the math in SF is tighter than it was in 3.5/PF1 and that is good and bad in some ways but once you understand the math you know how to manipulate it and that is what a GM does. You massage things so the math, story, and players all come together and forgot the worries of the real world a few hours at a time.

Paizo delivered a solid product and I appreciate the efforts.

Also I go to Taiwan for work and will be there next few months. I will be working mostly in Kaohsiung. I am a Venture Agent for SFS play and have ran a lot of starfinder. If you wish I can help with things once I am in country if you happen to be on the south side.

Send me a private message here and I will send you my email and we can work things out.

It felt more than a little bait and switchy to have pages of hand outs about the NPCs we're supposed to interact with, only for all the importance to suddenly be on the beacons PCs may not discover before it's too late.

Unless the expectation is that the party isn't doing the interactions one at a time, you could easily have a party of 5 go socialite socialite socialite engineer socialite.. and then need to make 4/5 checks in the next round.

Slight necro. I am finding the same when it comes to social interaction vs beacons. I try reminding the players to keep their eye on security as that was the main focus in the brief but the amount of interactions can be a slight bit tight if you have PC's with some social skills wanting to role play some and that is something I like to encourage.

*raises hand*

I can offer one of my own Character Creation comments:

I think character creation is very stingy on ability scores. You get effectively a total of +5 to distribute between your ability scores, and with a cap of +4 to each stat, you end up with many characters that max their primary stat and add +1 to one survivability stat and then have to make do with 10s everywhere else. Even if you drop your primary stat to +3, you don't get much more wiggle room.

I liked PF1 point buy better since you could trade a little bit off your highest ability score for a 13 or 14 in some tertiary one that you felt like your character would have. "I want a technomancer that's a suave rogue" is a very tricky 1st level concept, since a 16 or 18 INT leaves you with very little for CHA or any survivability ability score like DEX or CON.

PF2 just offers far more ability scores in general (+9 total in terms of bonuses), so you don't feel so constrained.

IN my Starfinder home games which I run the various AP's. I give an house rule option that players can get 12 points to start but at the end of creation no stat can be 17+. Or the can use the standard 10 point buy. This has allowed more player choices and less min maxing so I can run more of the AP's as is vs buffing things up as the players get stronger. This allows at lv 5 for the PC to get the +2 bumps in any stat and the players like that. At level 10 the primary and maybe secondary stats only get the +1.

So far through 7 AP's this has worked really well.

Can we get sub-forum for the Devastation Ark AP?

I am not a fan in general of the weapon BP cost redo. I do think coilguns were too cheap but I think the tracking weapons price increase to the levels they went up has basically cost themselves out of the game.

I am running my 7th AP and so far my players Don’t want tracking weapons. There is to many drawbacks as is and they slow down game play if they don’t hit in the first round. I have seen the players just straight up out run tracking weapons or make sure they have to lock back on.

This revamp was extreme in my opinion and I will now just house rule the changes to something else.

We're all safe as long as Urgothoa doesn't branch out into computer viruses...

How to get started with roll20 If you can do this, you can start playing in 15 minutes.

How to make a roll 20 table .. and run a game with it. Play a few games first.

That is really good stuff here. I am going to share that on my discord and give proper credit.

Darius Silverbolt wrote:

Ok I think I am in trouble for the Beta order. I don't show any order number for my order. I have 1 pending order on my account but I can't find a way to check what the pending order is as it does not show in order history.

Help!

I've identified the problem and will be sending you an email.

I have to disagree with you Sharaya you didn't just ID the problem you fixed it and made it all better.

Once again Paizo staff shows me the have the best customer service in the industry.

Thank You !

10 years out of a rule system is great but when you add the 10 years of additional books and introducing new things to the system over time the creators will be changes they want to make.

Magic items need a re-tooling (Love Starfinder in this aspect)

Gamers hate buying new books all over again. Paizo is oging to keep Pathfinder 1st Edition alive which is amazing in its own right.

Lastly unlike other companies that change systems in 3-4 years, Paizo waited and allowed Pathfinder to mature. The game is ready to for a 2nd edition.

To our Paizo overlords, Let's see whatcha got for us :-)

I am excited to see what they have done for all of us.

Jason Avery wrote:

Williamsburg is Virginia, not Massachusetts. I know my presence from New Hampshire confuses the issue. ;)

Lol, not sure where that came from. Didn't even spell Massachusetts right, either. Oh well, I give. But it was Virginia, I do agree with that. Lovely Virginia that had no snow, then I got to Atlanta and got snowed in at the airport. But that is another story...

Tonya hard a hard trip. Couldn't remember the state nor how to spell my name ;-) It was a pleasure to meet you Tonya.

There should be a dropdown menu below the dropdown for scenarios which allows you to select an organized play type. Does it appear when you navigate to the event reporting page? If so, does it change the contents of the scenario dropdown menu if you select different organized play types?

I don't this drop down menu and went back and dug all over for it. I only have SFS material selected and only ALL of PFS still shows. I have not selected any PFS materiel for this event.

Ok I made a new event to report my events as it seemed like a decent work around.

New event made 158589.

I edited the schedule of games played to only Starfinder material.

When I hit report. I basically get every PFS scenario/AP/Module i could ever report on but not a single SFS scenario or AP.

So I re-edit event and deselect the SFS games to see of they add back in.

No Change.

TLDR
New Event made but still can't report SFS games (PFS seems viable)

Ugh, Have fun Vic. Wish you and the team the best with that. Try not to pull out all your hair.

Any idea and the inability for some to not be able to report games or edit games in our events?

As an online GM I am glad to see Jesse and crew get recognition. It is very safe to say that the online community is growing by leaps and bounds. Thank you to the carious VTT's creators for making that possible, especially for me.

I think your idea sounds fun Diafanus and most enjoyable for your kids and a great way to reward other solutions other than sword and spell.

End of an era. You will be missed Liz!

As someone who prefers simpler answers to issues for PFS, I think the items that were heavily modified should have just out right banned in PFS and just allow players to recoup the losses.

House rules can fix most issues in RPG books. D&D, Pathfinder, Rifts, Gurps, etc.. there is always going to be optimal equipment either by design or accident.

Let the home games take care of themselves when it comes to issues like that. Errata's should be more focused on typo's, and adding clarifications as needed.

I am sure Paizo sees the reaction here and react as needed. Overall I still think they are a top notch company.

If we are going to reward GM's for multiple runs I think it needs to be simple. More words on a chronicle will force more time for the editors which is a scare resource. Tonya and John will have to add rules for older chronicles to figure how to get the GM award.

I think a flat Gold / Fame (No Boons/Items) award is the better way to go for ease of implementation. Gold value would be based on the tier. We already have so many special rules for PFS, let's keep it simple.

I also think if this was to complete into play that the stars for replay should go away. The special boon for recharge GM's star replay should go away.

Edit
Idea - Would it be time to have a Player Guide to PFS and a GM guide?

Congrats Jesse!

Strongly opposed to all.

Remove the rule of allow party members to assist is raising the dead as this exception is what opened the door.

For those opposed to all. How do you justify the allowance of sharing of resources to raise a dead party member?

I find myself appalled that people in general are more worried about the extreme minority that will game the system (and always will game the system) than the rest of the player base who would actually like to help each other in the spirit of being good Pathfinders.

I am not a fan of polls on forums because it only represents a small portion of the actual player base and I would rather have the campaign management just make the call as the campaign will survive either way

For the sake of consistency we should either allow it or not allow it. Having a exceptions to the general rule of having party members help raise the dead is what opens this door to this discussion. The rule book to PDS play is large enough, let's simplify it.

My players are about to do the Kobold lair. I have been thinking on how to execute the Manor inventory check.

I was thinking of having the appraisers follow behind the party safely to help reduce the five finger discount but my players for the most part are honest PC's.

I am hoping to get more in town role play after the Kobold lair. I got a few additional minor side quests in there that makes the party talk to other members of the town.

I am prepping the module for play on Roll20.net and I can tell just by reading it this is once a again a Mike Shel homerun.

I am taking the advice of using XP instead of the milestone method because I want to encourage the group to learn the history and get to know the town.

My party size is going to be 6.

@Mike Shel by any chance do you have any advice to adjust for 6 players? I tend to throw the extra mooks but in some areas sometimes you need something more exciting ;-)

Welcome back to your old job Adam ;-)

If it's split across days I'll allow multiple rerolls, because I simply don't have the brain capacity to remember who has and who hasn't used their reroll. If it's a long session I won't.

^ This is the most honest answer ever :-) and one I agree with.

Tivadar27

If you do a search on replay under PFS forums you can find the many threads that come up about this issue over the years.

I was once a voice for replay and over the years I agree with Drogon reasons.

To make a long story short. Replay today exists in a limited form now that it ever has in the past.

Forms of Legal Replay
1. Level 1 Modules
2. You can play / GM a scenario in the standard Campaign and then in the CORE campaign which effectively give 4 credits for once scenario.
3. Tier 1 only scenario's
4. Use your GM stars to (and have the chronicle sheet marked that a star was used.) replay. 1 Star per scenario.

Yes some of the methods above require you to GM / Contribute to the life of the campaign which I think is a fair trade.

Many of the "veterans" of organized play can tell you about players who have abused this. I have given warnings and booted one player from a game for using knowledge of the scenario that his PC couldn't have known and then shared to players at the table.

The rule of No-Replay exist as a tool to limit the abuse that can happen.

Yes some players are more than capable keeping PC / Player knowledge separate but in this case it is a blanket rule that just helps reduce the headache.

That is my 2 electrum pieces on the subject.

I admit I never was a fan of this class. The main class feature to me should have been the SLA to smin Monster "x" and not the outsider. I think the class should have another name.

The class abilities are almost exclusive to the Eidolon , once it out if the equation the class abilities other than SLA's are moot.

The master summoner archetype to me was the "true" version of the class but players had to be prepared in advance to play and swarming an encounter with multiple uses of the SLA could slow the game down a lot and make it harder to the GM to prepare for.

The only thing I "think" will be a problem with the unchained summoner is eidolon a will die fAster and just disable a summoner class abilities faster.

I started working on Guide 7.0 today. I opened this with much anticipation and hope and, after reading just a few replies, am disapponted.

I started GM'ing again ;-) after a 2 year break. I am reading up on the current guide to see what has changed.

SKR did a great job at Paizo. I wish him and his wife the best of luck in the future.

Hats off sir!

I also see only 7's on the D8 RNG.

Feature Request: For sake of speed is it possible when making tokens to have a quantity selection? No one ever fights 1 orc, goblin, or zombie. :-)

I consider death by self inflicted firework wounds as the players all scream "hoorah!" as succesfully completling the mission ;-)

I am an opening rolling GM that uses 35mm Dice that are one flat color w/ white numbers. (Very easy to read) as I prefer people to see what is happening and know everything that happens is legit.

At times the dice are hot and in 130+ tables ran I think I Have TPK'ed 3-4 tables (2 at GenCon).

So 20~ish deaths due to TPK there plus maybe 20-30 more. Most were raised but the TPK's were both level 1's. So that is what a 6.4% chance of death at my tables?

I don't try to kill players but it can / does happen. I don't take deaths lightly and I try to involve a dead players in the game still by having them run the bad guys.

Also on tables with new players I tend to dumb down the tactics as TPK's on new players is a horrible way to start off the PFS experiance.

Also I have less deaths more recently as high body count isn't what I want as a GM. I want players to feel challenged and like they have accomplished something when the sheets are handed out at the end.

Also there are lots of little things than can help to avoid death as a GM and as a player.

My 2 cp.

Less deaths are better IMHO but as you GM more and more it is going to happen at times.

I like most of the AP. To me they are my Dungeon magazine. I keep my subscription because i want the PDF and the book.

The AP are the best i have found for consistant story and output. i rob from all the material to make my AP's work.

The price hike had to happen one day. Inflation sucks and even Paizo has to follow the economy.

I used to subscribe to everything but a set of twins and one on the way changed that.

I also keep my subsciption as i want to see Paizo succeed. I don't want to replace my Dungeon magazine again.

So keep up the hard work.

A very long time ago a fresh set of Pathfinders attempted to play Hydra's Fang at my house.

We had four players plus me as a GM. We were all getting excited about PFS and the fact pathfinder was keeping our 3.5 book useful. (Core Rulebook wasn't out yet)

So the party get their mission from Osprey and off we go for some fun.

...then it went bad....Monte Python style...

So my first time GM'ing I TPK'ed the party twice in the same scenario but to be honest the whole day was a blast and we laugh about it once in a while but my players at least put 1 rank in swim now.

The game was more of an experiment to see if we liked what we saw from Paizo involving PFS. As you can see it sort of stuck with me.