Driftbourne's page

I'm guessing the difference in page count between 8 and 16 is. One is a count of pieces of paper, and the other is counting each side as a page.

Augmentations changed a lot in SF2e; they are more limited in total number, but can now be stacked in one location, making a body chart for them less useful.

The other thing missing from the SF1e Character Folio is the pages for starship combat, but that makes sense since the SF2e starship rules are not out yet.

My disappointment is in the loss of the 4 pages of rules reference that the SF1e Character Folio has. I think of the old Character Folio as a player's version of a GM screen. I wonder if this means that the SF2e Character Folio no longer counts as a Rules Reference for the Organized Play Accessory Perks & Promotional Boons.

This seems like a product that could use updating when Starship combat comes out, and if there is some way added, like feats or an archetype that lets you have more. I wonder if classes like the technimancer or machanic could have more Augmentations slots. If it gets an update, I hope the rules references are added back in, too.

I'm running this live next weekend, so I have been looking for parade float miniatures. I ended up going to a Dollar Store.

found a garden decoration that was the right size. It's a fake rock with a flower and a butterfly. I figured the flower would match the one in the garlands, and fit with the rekindling being a kind of spring season. The purple butterfly I figured, would represent Desna.

Since I'm playing on the Daskar, it's a foodie thing, I found a cookie monster toy driving a car as the other parade float, and to play into the foodie theme even more, I'm using cookies for hero points...

Cookie Monster works great with the t-shirt barrage. I can just say he throws them, and the flower has a center dot that could be a t-shirt cannon.

I'm courious what others have been using for parade float miniatures.

Things I would want in my fantasized "Pathfinder Stuff in Starfinder" book.

Bard
new muses would always be nice.

Some way for a bard to be in a band and not a just solo artist.

Inventor
New modifications that can be put on Innovations. I would say more innovations, but that could stray too close to the mechanic.

I'd like to see new innovations for starships. Since starships are not part of the coreruels might be best if that was part of the starship rules, then in the class. Same with Machanic, I'd like to see Machanics being able to put their turret on a statship.

Anyone can play a Dragonkin in Starfinder 2e.

Playing all the SF2e playtest during the playtest is the requirement for playing Dragonkin in Pathfinder 2e.

The SF1e Solarians were charisma-based, so I'd like to see a Solarian specialization that brings that back. The current Solarians are kinda of wartime Jedi, a charisma-based Solarian would be great for K-pop Demon hunters. The Dae pregen also seems like someone who wouldn't mind dipping more into charisma. Most people I've seen play Dae have leaned heavily on performance, which plays well with all the rock star Enovys we have locally.

Étoile marcheuse starts again to move the sled.

[Dice=Acrobatics]1d20 + 4

- Kick in
- Slide
- Kick in

Your last action in round 2 was Kick it, which lasted until the end of round 3, so you don't need to Kick it again unless you bump something. So I'm going to change your action to slide, kick it, slide, if that's ok.

I know you said you're on a phone and can't move your token, so I'm going to assume you are aiming at the nearest target.

__________________

Étoile bumps into the Doctor, making the Doctor bump CTU 5 feet into Blake, bumping Blake 5 feet. Then Étoile kicks it and then slides the other way, making an escape.

Driftbourne wrote:

Part of it is also trying to maximize the skill monkeyness of the envoy. With a +3 in Cha, Int, and Wis, you can be trained in all skills related to those attributes.

Obviously, you do you. But this character will need to pick up medium armor proficiency pretty quickly to not be absurdly fragile and its direct contribution to killing things in combat will pretty much be throwing grenades.

It can be made to work in a home game, but it seems a very significant outlier from expectations.

I only play in organized play. I tend to build a skill support or resource (lots of consumables) support characters that aren't great at any one thing but can help any party, no matter what classes the other players bring. Although I have fun playing combat-optimised characters almost every time I play them, I feel the party would have been better off if I had played my support character instead.

Besides the medium armor proficiency, getting a force field as an armor upgrade and the Dermal plating augmentation would help defense.

Grenades are my go-to for odd characters in SF1e, as well as grenade tactics most would not consider. Sometimes dropping a grenade on yourself is the best option. Grenades are great for having multiple damage types, which would go great with an Envoy with all the Recall Knowledge skills for dealing with creatures. But looking more into it, it looks like grenades might not work with Get Em! Grenades also don't work well with Digital Diversion.

So until we get more equipment or something else to help compensate, I'm scrapping the +3 in Cha, Int, and Wis in favor of the +3 in Cha, Dex, and Int idea.

Driftbourne wrote:

I found this combination last night, that can work with a Dex, Int build.. Networked Android, Infosphere Director gives Digital Diversion a 30-foot range and doesn't require having a hacker's toolkit or free hand. It is also a lot less situational than the default requirement of the opponent being adjacent to you. So this is more versatile than just using Create a Diversion.

If this were for an Int-based character, I'd agree, this makes Computers a much more versatile skill. As an Envoy, though, training in Deception and Computers will net you even more versatility without requiring that same investment, and your mod when Creating a Diversion will be higher. I think the build you're suggesting would work very well on a Mechanic or Technomancer, though, or even a Witchwarper given their Int key attribute.

Part of it is also trying to maximize the skill monkeyness of the envoy. With a +3 in Cha, Int, and Wis, you can be trained in all skills related to those attributes. I'm also considering a Cha, Dex, Int envoy concentrating on having at least 3 lore skills. I'm assumming on a skill monkey, you're never going to have a +4 attribute.

If I were focusing on more Diversion/Digital Diversion, the Int classes you suggested make sense.

I'm running this as a Play by Post, just got to the bumper sleds, and have a few questions on how they work.

What happens if someone reaches the end of the map on the track in a bumper cart? We just set up for a practice round, and I told my players that if they whet off the map on the tracks, they could choose to come back on the next track over to either side. If that seems to take too long, I figured I could have Daskar Kopalake have someone fix the track, making it so you bounce back at the edge of the map. Just right now, I realised that maybe pushing someone off the map is how they fall off the track, which is my next question.

How does someone fall off the track? Getting pushed off the map on the track could be one way, or pushing someone at a T intersection seems like the most obvious way.

I have PC playing a Dragon Kin that was joking his cart is practically a truck, and the other players are joking they hope it doesn't hit like a truck. So I made it hit like a truck.

For Large PCs, I increased all the DCs to SLIDE by 2 and had all but a crit fail get moved up one degree of success, with both crit success and crit fail requiring a reflex save to not fall off the track, for both the target and the slider.

Then, for anyone sliding into a large PC I decreased the degree of success by 1 degree wiht a natural crit fail requiring a reflex save to stay on track.

Depending on how that goes, I might just use that for the practice round.

The bumper carts look fun. I'm curious how others are handling them?

______________

With the SF2e scenarios being 2-3 hours long, I like to find ways to make them run longer if needed. I came across this line in the scenario and decided to expand on it

"He’s (Daskar) a bit of a foodie, enthusiastic about festival foods and the cuisines of the home planets of his guests."

This is what I added.

Forgetting why you are here, Daskar Kopalake picks up a menu and almost gets as excited as a shirren at the choices.
"I'm very fortunate to have a developed palate and nose that can handle almost all the alien foods I've encountered wandering the stars. Tell you what, I'll buy you lunch if you can name a food I haven't tried."

You can ask a question at any time to try to get Daskar Kopalake back to talking about why you are here without a skill or lore check. But doing so with a Diplomacy or Society check can get Daskar to answer the question without getting distracted by talking about food.

You can make up any crazy food that your character has tried. Roll any skill or lore check you can think of related to that food. Examples, it could be military lore for a rare field rations, or Life science for something you grew in a lab and ate.

You can roll a Decption check to make up a food that doesn't exist at all.

3 successes for the party of any type gets Daskar Kopalake's mind off of food."

As the PCs ask a question or succeed at coming up with food, Daskar hasn't tried before. Daskar gives the answers on page 4.

My PCs didn't get to 3 successes before getting all the questions answered. So I had Daskar keep talking about food, which I did by having the PCs do a Will or Fortitude save to not fall asleep. When 2 of the PCS fell asleep, it led to Daskar showing them to their lodging.

If both the meta plot and the solo scenarios get a 5-6 scenario, to get there, the solo scenarios are short by two 3-4 level scenarios (assuming at least 3 more 3-4 solo scenarios come out)

Since the Beast of Bo is a 2-part scenario, I was thinking of running that with the solo scenarios if needed.

It could also be that some of the last solo adventures tie back into the meta-plot, allowing for there to be two 5-6 level scenarios in the meta-plot to end the season.

Most of our PF2e players are waiting for the Starfinder update to the Patbilder App, so we have only run 2 of the meta plot scenarios. I've been running the solo scenarios until we can run the meta plot more consistently.

I found this combination last night, that can work with a Dex, Int build.. Networked Android, Infosphere Director gives Digital Diversion a 30-foot range and doesn't require having a hacker's toolkit or free hand. It is also a lot less situational than the default requirement of the opponent being adjacent to you. So this is more versatile than just using Create a Diversion.

Then the problem for me is in Digital Assessment! needing class DC to make a target becomes glitching 1 on a failure. If the Infosphere Director allowed you to use Int for your class key attribute, it would be better at doing what it's trying to do. This also solves class DC for grenades or other area weapons.

Driftbourne wrote:

Quote:

but even the Bard gets to use Charisma for Bardic Lore.

This has been mentioned twice now in this thread. Where do you get that from? Bardic Lore, unlike Esoteric Lore, is just another Lore skill and should use intelligence, shouldn't it?

From the OP's OP

I don't play a lot of PF2e. I've never played a bard, or even played with a bard in the party. I mostly play SF1e and SF2e. I also only play in organized play, so mixing classes between isn't something I've looked into yet. I do hope it's officially supported someday.

Regardless of whether Bard gets to use Charisma for Bardic Lore or not, I was using that as an example of the SF1e professions vs 2e lore, since professions are not limited to just being an Int skill, but also include Cha and Wis.

_____

I started building an Infosphere Director with +3 Cha, Int, and Wis last night. I was trying to reach +4 Int, but I'm having a hard time finding a combination to make it happen. I was hoping to boost my Int to +4 to make Digital Diversion a better option than just using Create a Diversion. At +3/+3 Cha/Int, Digital Diversion is at least equal for the dir roll, but Digital Diversion's other requirement makes it very situationally. I wish you could use Digital Diversion to help another party member against an opponent they are adjacent to, remotely.

I also wonder if going full in on Int for Infosphere Director and using Int for class key attribute. I also wouldn't mind a Cha option like that for the solarian.

Heroism Range touch; Targets 1 creature. It's got a bigger bonus than Get Em! But range is touch and only affects 1 PC

Anthem is a focus spell as long as you sustain it; it's mostly better than Get Em! Get Em! does more damage, especially for the envoy. If you don't sustain Anthem, you're likely to run out of focus points during the fight.

Courageous Anthem is better than Anthem since there's no need to sustain it, and it's a cantrip.

Get Em! was so overused in SF1e, they made it a class feature so players had room to choose other directives. When I'm playing an envoy, I'm happy to get a chance to do something other than use Get Em! But I'll never complain about an envoy in the party yelling Get Em! Also, using Get Em! just sounds better.

So what do you do when there are 2 bards in the same party? What do you do when your 3-piece rock band has a bard, an envoy, and a rhythm mystic? I would help the players get along as well as the Villarreal sisters; you have been warned!

The Warning.

__________

I do think Teridax has some good points about Digital Diversion. I hadn't considered. My current Infosphere Director has +3 Con... Think I'm going to try an Infosphere Director with +3 Cha, Int, Wis

Get Em! being a status bonus, especially when Paizo explicitly stated they would make it a circumstance bonus, is equally disappointing.

I don't know the history of what Paizo said the bonus type would be, but regardless of what type it is, it wouldn't stack with 2 envoys using Get Em! in the same party on the same target. Having played an envoy in such a party, I worked out well. There are some situations where having Get Em! on different targets would be a good thing, or being able to use Get Em! again in the same round after the first target was killed. The other advantage of having 2 envoys was that one of us would use Get Em! freeing up the other to use their leadership style instead, often that came down to who rolled better on initiative.

I have a few pet peeves with Infosphere Director, like the fact it requires a decent Intelligence on an already MAD class. This isn't unusable, and I think it's actually one of the better subclasses despite this, but even the Bard gets to use Charisma for Bardic Lore.

I don't see Intelligence as a disadvantage in a skill monkey class, especially when lots of the published scenarios give lore skills a +2 or +3 advantage over other skill checks. I don't think the problem here is the class; to me, it's SF2e dropping SF1e profession skills to use PF2e style lore skills. Lores are all Int-based, whereas professions were split up into Cha, Int, or Wis, making them usable by a much wider group of characters. The Bard getting to use Charisma for Bardic Lore is basically an SF1e profession.

I don't expect my skill monkey character to have any abilities maxed out. I often compensate for that with equipment and ancestry options. This is kind of funny because I also use equipment and ancestry options to compensate for characters that are only good at one thing.

Also, Digital Diversion, really?

I love the flavor of it. After rereading it a few times, it seems the intended use is to make an adjacent opponent off guard without having to flank them. The other use would be to sneak away from an opponent with reach and a reactive strike safely and still have an action left for a ranged strike vs an off-guard opponent.

RAW Digital Diversion says "on an adjacent target carrying, wearing, or wielding a tech item." Personally, I would rule to allow that to include being accent to and able to see a vid screen. The other option is to plant your com unit on the target. We don't have holo grenades yet, but I could see using one to trigger Digital Diversion; the rules for that could be with the grenade without updating the feat.

I'm way behind the time. I just discovered Kpop Demon Hunters 3 days ago.

The video has some good points. The Honmoon as a ritual. KPop lore makes a lot of sense, especially considering Ejae's KPop Idle training, which is a real-life story just as good as the movie.

I think the video's biggest difference is their take on the Saja Boys. I think Rythem Mystics is an interesting alternative.

However, someone decided to play them as characters, the movie seeems ot fit well with Starfinder

Kpop deamon hunters show how charisma-based solarian are done done done

Huntrix how it’s done

Huntrix definitely looks to be using solar-manifested weapons when demon hunting.

Meanwhile, the Saja Boys are using solar flares to throw hearts at fans, solar nimbus to bounce fans off of them, and nimbus (abbs) surge to force an opening in their foe's mental defenses.

Saja Boys Soda Pop

I feel that both bands could be solarians; both would need charisma, the Saja boys could lean more into the strength side, especially Abby. They could be a mix of pure solarians, solarians with the envoy archetype, or an envoy with the solarian archetype. Both would need dex for the dance moves as well.

_______

Checks for updates on upcoming Strawberry Machine Cake tour dates in the Pact Worlds...

I've played a healing oriented envoy (Through Desperate Times) in several low level PFS adventures. In those, it seems to perform adequately if not wonderfully.

Get Em is NOT the only directive. I've got a fair bit of use out of Get in There.

My basic impression has been mostly "Meh". I've been playing most classes and enjoying my dragonkin Solarion and my mystics most so far

I'm playing a Through Desperate Times safety inspector envoy that uses the watch out feat, and has skills and a boom pistol for taking out hazards. It's been fun and effective, although my definition of effective is likely an anathema for anyone optimizing for max damage.

I know that the economy during/since COVID has hit everyone and every business pretty hard. However, unlike places like Target or Walmart that keeps the cost up when the economy changes for the better, at least you have Paizo decreasing the cost for the scenario when the length decreases to 3 hours. You have them keeping the Core rulebook at the same price. I could be wrong but I'd like to think that if it was up to them, they'd take the pre-pandemic economy and pricing structures over anything they have now.

The big change in scenario prices for SF1e and PF2e was the jump from $5.99 to $8.99 after the Paizo Works Union was formed in 2022. I could be wrong on the timing, but it looks like some of the older seasons have gone back down in price to $5.99 since the new store opened. The new SF2e and PF2e scenarios that are $5.99 are cheaper because they are shorter. I never followed PF1e prices, but they look to currently be at $4.99

Currently, the main issues affecting prices, especially physical books, are the stupid tariff and Diamond Distributor bankruptcy, which just got a not so good sounding update this week. Most of what we know about that situation comes from Roll for Combat.

They Went Bankrupt AGAIN and Now I’m SUPER Screwed!.

Here is the best advice I can give:

You prepare and run the scenario as written, and you only stop when PLAYER actions force you to improvise/change a part of it. The goal should be, with any change, to get back to the story as written.

The part I put in bold, I think, is a really good point. There are a few situations where I don't follow that exactly, but I do kind of in spirit. First is to do something at the beginning and resolve it before the scenario starts, and the second is to do something after anything that affects the outcome of the scenario is done.

You should never prepare ahead of time to deviate from the written scenario.

I can't speak for PF2e since the new short 3-hour scenarios are not out yet, and I also haven't GM PF2e yet. But all SF2e scenarios are 2 to 3 hours long now, and some have been reported as running in under 2 hours. We have players who travel 45 minutes to an hour and a half to get to the game, so I need to find ways to make the game last longer to make it worth their time. I prep all the extra ideas I have to make a game last longer. I just use them, leave them out as needed.

For last week's game, the scenario gave us NPCs with just their name, species, gender, occupation, and a one-word description of their attitude. I added a flip mat to make the social interaction more interesting, found pawns for all the NPCS. I used the Deck of Endless NPCs to add more depth to each NPC, and even brought a fake microphone to use with the reporter NPC. Then created skill checks to interact with the NPCs.

Why? For a couple of reasons:
1) Because you never know who is going to sit at your table.
-It could be a a group of new players who have the time of their lives with your changes.
-It could be a group of new players who have their game ruined by your changes.
-It could be experienced GMs who have run the scenario before and find it goes against the spirit of the rules and give you a hard time of it.
-It could be the scenario author or PFS developers at a convention that look at you completely strangely when you present them with the changed format.

I have seen all of these occur in my time in PFS OP leadership.

I think these are all valid points to be considered. For me, the main consideration is new player experience. As for experienced GMs, authors, or developers, I'm always grateful for any feedback from them. I try to post my changes and mods to scenarios on the GM section of the organized play subforum, to share my ideas and get feedback.

2) Depending on how much you deviate from the scenario as written, it could come back to bite you in the behind with OP leadership. I remember the original debate over a decade ago about RAW and the craziness that was presented then as evidence for and against the rule and I have also had to deal with many complaints over the years from players regarding minor re-skins to major re-skins. Believe me, you do not want the headache.

Something I have done with some scenarios I modded, and should probably do with all of them, is ask the players if they want me to run it RAW or with my mods. So far, every group I asked agreed to play with my mods.

Reskins are something I typically save for running repeats, so it feels different for the players. A good example would be reskinning all the challenges and encounters in SFS2e 1-04: The Great Absalom Relay to turn it into an annual event, assuming the author doesn't make a sequel next season, which I hope they do.

Now to answer your question: I think the most out of RAW I did was for Day of the Demon for a convention where I had to run it 6x in a row. I really prepped the initial roleplay interaction so much that I think only one of those tables ever did a sense motive check on the little girl, (which failed for the party).

6X games in a row! That's a lot of OOC will and or fortitude saves for the GM to keep going.

Envoy
Get'Em Directive - 2 Actions - Adds Charisma to damage against that one target.

That's not all it does your missing Regardless of whether the Strike hits, you and your allies gain a +1 status bonus to damage on subsequent Strikes made against the enemy until the start of your next turn. Increase the damage by 1 at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels.

Driftbourne wrote:

My new NPC is a janitor for the Starfinder society, whom the PCs meet before the mission briefing starts. The new NPC asks the PCs questions about their past missions and backgrounds to help get the PCs introductions going, and as the GM it helps me learn more about the PCs too.

It's been awhile since you made this post. But I just wanted to say I like the idea of adding an NPC to ask those kind of questions to generate some early role play. Well done.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback!

I've run Mystery of the Frozen in person and in Play by Post. Adding an extra NPC was fun in both, but was really helpful in PbP One of the players had another game to finish, and another needed a few days to make their character, so having Tux Manifold to interact with gave the rest of the players something to do while we waited to start.

It's been a fun experiment. I just started running SFS2 1-10 Rites of Rekindling right after Mystery of the Frozen, and it works out great for having the janitor (A yoski I named Tux Manifold), who wanted to become Starfinder too, become a stowaway in Mystery of the Frozen Moon. Tux then left the PCs ship to help Daskar Kopalak. It made for an interesting mission debriefing/briefing going into Rites of Rekindling when Venture Captain Arvin asked Have you seen our janitor?

So where are the stats of players ship?

The players' ship stats are built into the 4 cinematic starship scenes stat blocks on pages 26, 67, 70, and 74.

The player's ship stats start at "Starship Description" and include everything up to the "Threat" section of the stat block.

A few more points to add to this debate/request.

If the solution for there being no scenarios planned for above the 10th level in SFS2e is,

Those who are interested in play above 10th-level should look to our other published Adventure Paths and Adventure content. Organized Play is a great way to find other players you enjoy gaming with for these additional experiences!

Blog post link.

Also, it looks like the next hardcover SF2e adventure book is Starfinder Adventure: Tales from the Vast Adventure Anthology. Which suggests it's a collection of shorter adventures. If that is the case, that would likely work well for organized play, too.

Both of these seem like good reasons to have some type of chronicle for these adventures to be playable in organized play.

___________________________

My hopes for the New Year.

1. Starbuilder APP gets released. At least locally, I feel this will be the real launch of SF2e.

2. An update from Paizo on what the plans are for organized play. PF2e and SF2e share core rules, but organized play rules are all over the place between the 2 games. I'm hoping for more consistent, organized play rules between the 2 games, where possible. Like, why is Pathfinder Game Night: Dawn of the Frogs sanctioned, but Stafinder Murder in Metal City is not? It's hard to imagine a justification for not sanctioning SF2e adventures when PF2e adventures are. There have been other changes to SF2e organized play I like, and hope we get in PF2e, such as all scenarios being repeatable, and starting characters at higher levels. I feel those 2 things address current PF2e issues more than current SF2e issues. I'm just wondering what the goal is and if there is a timeline to get there?

I'm having a lot of fun with SF2e organized play, just wondering where the (star)ship is headed...

On warhorn I see unloved scenarios get filled with a huge waitlist because they are high level and its a rare chances to bring out of retirement.

Unfortunately, with all the old reviews gone from the new store, I have no way to see what high-level scenarios are unloved or why. Is there something about the high-level scenarios that people didn't like?

Driftbourne wrote:

I agree that the way you are describing Akashic Dragons is how most of them would be like; however, there's no right answer here. An Akashic Dragon will behave very differently if it's a friendly NPC, a neutral NPC, or (very rarely) the Big Boss monster. Also, where they are from could make a big difference; an Akashic Dragon in the Azlanti star empire might be the curator of the department of propaganda's library of disinformation, known to the public as the Library of Truth.

Hellknights trying the contract trick, likely wouldn't write the contract themself but would call upon the highest level lawyers from hell to do so, and would likely be in a contract so long it would take years to read, and other efforts would be made to distract the dragon during the reading of the contract. Here, the people pulling this off would be the Boss monster.

The Akashic Dragon I'd personally like to hang out with is the one in charge of the Library of Galactic Music.

It is all fun and games until the dragon starts blasting retro EDM death polka.

EDM death polka 4d12 sonic damage... :)

I don't follow PF2E news closely, but for SF2E, scenarios are capped at 10th level. The reason given seems ot be to address exactly the problem you are talking about.

Paizo Blog.

Level Cap
We do not intend to publish adventures for characters above 10th level. As scenarios get into higher level ranges, we see diminishing table counts. These high-level adventures are also significantly more involved to design and develop. We’re announcing this cap now to set expectations and to ensure you’re all aware of our plans from the start. We’d hate for you to create a character whose build comes online late in the game, only to find out that you won’t have a chance to play them in the campaign.

Those who are interested in play above 10th-level should look to our other published Adventure Paths and Adventure content. Organized Play is a great way to find other players you enjoy gaming with for these additional experiences!

It doesn't look like Paizo is going that direction with PF2e since

I didn't realize POF2e pregens only went to 5th level. At one of the big Play by Post events last year, I played 9 characters at one time, between 5 tables. 6 of the characters were all 8th-level Starfinder pregens I just played to help fill tables to get the game started. At the time, without the 8th-level pregens, 4 tables I played at would not have had enough players to start.

So, since there are so few scenarios and players for high-level characters, it seems like having all high-level scenarios be repeatable and come with pregens would help. By repeatable, I mean Starfinder Society Scenario #1-32: Acts of Association, level of repeatability, and GM options like being able to create completely new species and a home world for the main NPC, something where the GM has to keep the math, but has control to change the look and feel. Something like that for high-level should probably be priced like a special.

I ended up using the Deck of Many NPCs to get ideas to give the panangers more personality.

For the Scientist, I had Tolar Keif needing the PCs' help to convince Suluzak, who is hiding his identity by wearing a green hazmat suit. (inspired by the Vesk science pawn wearing a green hazmat suit.) That Vesk are not the type of invasive species the people of Castervol are concerned about. Apparently, Suluzak got the idea from seeing a video on the infosphere.

For Delaphine Von Sprouse, she is concerned that one of her children doesn't want to work for the family business (A large corporation) and instead wants to be a living statue mime. The PCs have to figure out which of 3 statues in the room is her child. Then PCs have to decide to help the child or the mother convince the other to join the family business, or that it's ok to be a mime. (The mime idea was inspired by using the Deck of Needless NPCs.)

I had Mack recognize any PC that played in The Great Absalom Relay, and I want to interview them about the race. If the PCs had not been in the relay but had been to Akiton to deal with the Wreck of the Return, I would have instead had Mack interview them about that. (another excuse to use the fake microphone I made for the Relay.)

I used an SF1e map of Starfinder Society starships to give the
interaction with the passengers, a sci-fi feel.

a single table falling through can mess up a carefully crafted plan. Keep in mind for some of the larger conventions you are signing up for tables months before hand.

A plan with a single point of failure isn't a carefully crafted plan. A carefully crafted plan should be ready to deal with that if it happens.

As the says goes
"No plan survives contact with the enemy."
or in this case
"No plan survives the convention starting."

Yesterday we had 3 tables scheduled. The first table was a high-level PF2e game that was full. The other 2 tables only had 1 player signed up each. One was PF2e and the other table SF2e. The PF2e GM and player had agreed in advance that if no one else showed up, both would play SF2e instead. 30 minutes before the game was supposed to start, I checked Warhorn and saw no new signups, so I started setting the table for the Starfinder game. A few minutes later, 2 players new to our group showed up at the store with PF2e characters.

Luckily, all the original players and GMs had brought both SF2e and PF2e characters and the PF2e scenario as back-ups. We have started referring to this happening as "it's a good problem to have." Something like this happens about every 2 to 3 weeks. Our VC is good at scheduling games in advance so we know who's running what, but what makes the group really work well is that we are prepared to deal with whatever happens. It helps that a high percentage of our players are also GMs.

If I had to plan a large convention, and the goal was to have all the players who signed up months in advance get to play the character they brought (assuming everyone only brought one character) I would have a pool of volunteers in groups of 7 (enough for a full table on their own) that were ready to fill in as GMs or players as needed. If they are not needed, then they just play as their own table. Depending on the size of the convention, you might need more than one group like this. To reward volunteers willing to be this flexible and prepared, give them all GM ACP, even if they only end up playing as a player at the event.

Having players/GMs who are willing and prepared to be flexible is a huge help to any size group. There is probably a theoretical minimum number of flexible people needed that make a local group or event run smoothly. Whatever that number is, perhaps some kind of boon or reward to encourage it, and some reward for when it happens, would help.

Warning, Brainstorming ahead.

Prescient Planner player/GM boon: You gain one use of the Prescient Planner feat. You can use this with any of your characters. You can gain this boon multiple times by being prepared and switching characters or running a scenario on short notice (at the event or scheduled session, other qualifications may apply) to help make an event or session run smoothly for everyone else.

Game prep Assurance player/GM boon: You gain one use of the assurance feat applied to any skill. You can use this with any of your characters. You can gain this boon multiple times by being prepared and switching characters or running a scenario on short notice (at the event or scheduled session, other qualifications may apply) to help assure an event or session works out for everyone else.

Rewards ideas for players/GMs that do this over and over:
Verstial player/GM heritage boon: add something cool here.
Verstial player/GM archetype boon: add something cool here.

Other event-specific rewards for larger events.

I couldn't get that link to work. Here's a link to the page you can download them from.
SF2e pregens.

A lot of the links have been broken when the new store went live. I'm still looking for where the Invasion's Edge Player's Guide moved too.

Campaign Coins are listed under the Organized Play Accessory Perks & Promotional Boons. It's different for each edition.

The Starfinder section doesn't list an edition, but the benefits are clearly for SF1e as they mention SF1e books and resolve points.

I'm courious why SF2e isn't listed or if it uses PF2e benefits.

I had another thought on Akashic Dragons: the type of information available at the location they curate could reflect or influence the Akashic Dragons' personality. Some libraries or museums are very specific about the subject they cover.

So with AoN getting the scenario stat blocks functionality, I am guessing that answers that question.

But my biggest worry is still not commented on. Is there any consideration happening about the 2 level range and its significant impact on the wrangling of physical venues and smaller conventions?

I was wondering if Paizo knew AON was working on that tool, was why nothing was said.

I can't say anything about PF2e or conventions, but for SF2e locally, it hasn't been a problem, mostly because all the scenarios have been levels 1-2 so far, the only exception was 1-00 Collisions Wake, which is kind of a special case.

I haven't done the math, but someone had pointed out that it's possible to play through the SF2e season 1 meta plot with a single character. I just checked the store, and that looks correct. But doing so means not using that character for non-meta plot scenarios. So takes some planning, but still way easier than some seasons trying to play straight through the meta plot.

If PF2e follows SF2e and starts letting players start characters at higher levels, that helps too. SF2e lets you start a character at levels 1, 3, 5, and 7 if I remember correctly. That helps out.

I think letting players make higher-level characters will help out a lot at least locally. Many of the PF2e players have been waiting for the Starbuilder APP to come out, so they will be behind the rest of the players. So starting at the 3rd level would help a lot, letting them join in where we are at. It also helps that all SF2e scenarios are repeatable.

The player's side solution to problems caused by narrow level ranges is simply to have or make characters ready for the range of levels. I already do this with normal scenarios with a 4-level range, so I can play a character that fits the party's needs, class or tier wise. Or I play a pregen if none of my characters fit the party's needs.

I don't go to conventions, do players show up not know what scenario they are playing?

On the top of page 8 it says "A PC who succeeds at a DC 14 Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion check confirms this area is not on Golarion or any other known world—"

I was wondering if that should be Castrovel, since that is the planet the PCs are on at the time.

My other thought is that this is a name drop to make the PCs suspect the glitching planet at B:1 is Golarion, although nothing suggests it is. I love the idea of a good conspiracy theory in Starfinder.

I think I might need to go read the end of Era of the Eclipse again, too.

________________

I'm also courious what other people have done with the passengers on page 4.

Squark wrote:

Hopefully they will also automatically apply the weak/elite templates.

AoN already has that feature. There's a button near the top of any monster stat block.

This is different; the new tool does that for an entire scenario all at once, and turns it into a single printer-friendly PDF.

Encounters for PFS Scenario #7-01: .

I agree that the way you are describing Akashic Dragons is how most of them would be like; however, there's no right answer here. An Akashic Dragon will behave very differently if it's a friendly NPC, a neutral NPC, or (very rarely) the Big Boss monster. Also, where they are from could make a big difference; an Akashic Dragon in the Azlanti star empire might be the curator of the department of propaganda's library of disinformation, known to the public as the Library of Truth.

Hellknights trying the contract trick, likely wouldn't write the contract themself but would call upon the highest level lawyers from hell to do so, and would likely be in a contract so long it would take years to read, and other efforts would be made to distract the dragon during the reading of the contract. Here, the people pulling this off would be the Boss monster.

The Akashic Dragon I'd personally like to hang out with is the one in charge of the Library of Galactic Music.

Driftbourne wrote:

I just noticed that Akashic dragons are immune to stupefied, that's a nice touch.

Akashic Interference. What happens when an Akashic dragon joins the Order of the Eclips...

I feel like that would fall apart quickly. Mostly because Akashic Dragons hoard knowledge, while Eclipse censors (and probably alters) information. Wouldn't be surprised if Akashic Dragons are compelled to record "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you Yluma".

I don't think of Akashic dragons as hoarding information; the Akashic Record is the hoard, the Akashic dragons are just really good at accessing and using that information, or in the case of Akashic Interference, interfering with others accessing it. They might hoard some physical sources of knowledge, but that would pale compared to the Akashic Record.

I don't see anything that says Akashic dragons think truth is power; they seem to be about knowledge is power. How each Akashic dragon uses that knowledge could be very different. One nice thing about getting rid of alignments is that you can just look at a dragon and know its motives.

I could see an Akashic dragon using hellknights to help them control or restrict others from using knowledge.

I could also see hellknights tricking an Akashic dragon to work for them through a deceptive contract.

I just noticed that Akashic dragons are immune to stupefied, that's a nice touch.

Akashic Interference. What happens when an Akashic dragon joins the Order of the Eclips...

I like the Abysium, Akashic, and Cosmic dragons; they all fit into Starfinder easily.

Now Host Dragons, that scare me if they hook up with the Swarm. That's one of the interesting things about Host dragons: you can easily mod them just by changing what they host.

- genuinely impressed at how evocative the names for abilities are in this book!).

I think evocative ability names are one of Starfinder 2e's strongest points.

Someone posted this on Reddit.

Fly Free or Die Starfinder 2nd Edition Conversion.

I'm not familiar with upcoming PFS scenarios, but the SFS scenarios list for next year are all still listed as 5.99 USD

It feels odd talking in the SF 1 Forums lol

Why, the last 30+ threads are all about SF2e, I stopped counting at that point.

Starfinder Flip-Mat: Garage Warehouse
Starfinder Flip-Mat: CityScape Multi-Pack

Both are listed under SF1e Flip-Mats, and should be under SF2e
SF2e Mats on SF1e page.

Also, when sorting by Newest Items, the order seems to be reversed. I tested this on the Mat page and the Starfinder Scenario page.

So if I create my own event, do I keep using that number and just add new sessions to it?

Does Augustana Station Lodge (SFS2) have its own event code for reporting games, or are we still using Castamir's RSP Event number for SF2e? Or do we need to register our games separately?

I'm guessing the older scenarios with challenge points will still need them, while new ones won't use them. Since the new tool is by scenaro, I'm guessing the tool will be adjusted according to the needs of the scenario.

Starfinder 2e is getting the same type of tool; I have no idea if it will be identical to the PF2e version. The tool is only for PF2e season 7 and forward, and Sf2e season 1 and forward, so backward compatibility is not an issue. I'm not sure what changes are coming for PF2e or not.

Hello everybody! This is Bright and Sparkling Zoey! Did you miss me?

It's certainly more Bright and Sparkling with you here, also appreciate all the work you do.

I've tested it a few times, and it also conveniently separates each encounter to a separate page. (may take more than one page depending on font size for an encounter with multiple stat blocks.) You can also choose between 2 columns or no columns, and the font size can be changed from 50% to 100% in 10% increments.

1-09 Abduction just came out today. After reading some of it, if you can convince your GM to let your character back near the end of this scenario seems like the best time lore-wise to do so, assuming again that the other PCs succeed.