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So I'm a huge fan of the author Louis McMaster Bujold, both the Chalion stories and the Sharing Knife series. Recently I've been putting together a campaign all about abberations. Do any of you have suggestions for some fun nightmare fuel? I'm already working out a False Hydra, and I'm creating from scratch a Malice, or Blight Boggle, from the Sharing Knife books. It's obviously 1st edition Pathfinder since I am DM and haven't gotten 2nd Edition yet.
So how often do other DMs roll ability scores for their villainous NPCs, most specifically non-humanoid ones. For example, say I want to create a unique black dragon encounter. He isn't THE BBEG, but is a legitimate boss fight. But he's not just some black dragon Mook. He has a name, quirks, all that. Do you roll ability scores, give him maybe a couple different spells or spell-like abilities? Or is he just another 'adult black dragon'? Or does it have to do with player composition? I have a fairly in-depth story, where the NPCs all tie together at this stage. My players enjoy the depth of the world, but I know some wouldn't. Would you do the encounters differently, depending on play style?
So I've been working on building a few different ships, both for NPC vessels as well as learning how the rules work so I can better assist my players as they play. The rules I'm trying to figure out the most right now involve the maximum crew. So using sources from many science fiction world's I will explain my confusion. As examples we have the UNSC Infinity from the Halo franchise. It would classify as a Starfinder dreadnaught, since it is over 15,000 feet in length - 18,682 to be exact. According to Starfinder the maximum crew is 500. Then, from the Halo wiki and lore comes this: "The total known estimate of Troops aboard Infinity is 7,150. This is spread out among an unknown amount of Spartans, 5,400 Marines, 750 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, 800 UNSC Army Troopers, and 200 UNSC Air Force personnel." And: "In total, the crew was about 11,112. This was composed of about 8,900 Naval Personnel, 1,700 ONI Personnel, 480 UEG Personnel, 24 Swords of Sanghelios, and 8 Special Assets." With the Starfinder rules on crew and guest quarters, I don't see a dreadnaught in the Starfinder universe housing anywhere close to that number. Star Wars, another VERY known sci-fi (and one that certain elements of Starfinder we're inspired by) has another example. The Imperial-1 Class Star Destroyer measures 5,249 feet - a Starfinder battleship in size. Yet here are the numbers for it's crew. "CREW
So.... Are the maximum crew numbers in the rulebook just as who is on the clock while the others are sleeping, while the minimum numbers only for the most dire circumstances? Or are the Starfinder ships just woefully undercrewed and undermanned compared to other well-known sci-fi universes?
So here's the story: our party of adventurers are all not-so-nice people to begin with, but the new guild master of our guild is even worse. So far he's tasked us with finding a few artifacts; the concept behind him is that while he himself has very little magical talent, for some reason he is a very good conduit for magical items. So he's become somewhat of a collector. I need help compiling a list of items; I've contemplated taking some themes from movies/games/etc. One is a blade similar - SIMILAR, not a clone! - of Frostmourne from Warcraft. I so far have a small fist-sized star sapphire, the sword, a piece of armor, a spear, and some kind of obelisk or something. Main advice I could use is certain powers. Like I said, the sword will be a soul-stealer among other things I already have planned... but as for the rest I've been drawing blanks. The party is level 3, almost level 4, and while we have to find these trinkets we are also secretly plotting to kill our jack!$@ of a guild master. It'll be around level 11 or so when we get around to killing him; he isn't the end-all be-all villain, but he's still tough. Any advice for abilities/powers, or even suggestions of other artifacts that give bonuses to evil peoples would be awesome! (I'm not asking for artifacts like a bag of devouring or anything like that heh)
Recently my friends and I have played off and on an episodic campaign designed more around when we feel in the mood to play, but not so much any serious adventure path. It's short, sweet, and one that can be picked up and dropped with little to no fuss. My question concerns how I can get in touch with folks from Paizo about letting them pick apart my brain like a psionic truth-seeker. Or... however they want to go about it. I'm not a published author, yet, and while I'd like to be, it's sometimes tough getting the ball rolling. In spite of this, I would like to submit an idea or two... or ten... to Paizo's good administrators and other in-charge people, or find out ways I can go about proving myself first if it is needed. I'm not new to the game, but sadly I'm still new to the forums. I'm not sure where to go, and as it's late and I should be sleeping to get ready for work tomorrow, I find my brain won't STOP TALKING! and here I am, burning the candle to a stump. If anyone, Paizo employee or otherwise, has advice, an open ear, or constructive criticism to offer, I would greatly appreciate the help and/or advice. Also... I appologize for the wordiness. I get wordy when I'm tired. |
