Lanliss and Alestone, with the aid of Sandara and Aretta, manage to keep the bilges clear and flowing. The work, however, is exhausting and Alestone feels the effects of the labor. (Alestone is fatigued.)
Duo and Herbert have a successful shift, each meeting a couple of officers and not overworking themselves to the point of exhaustion. (You met Peppery Longfarthing, Sailing Master; Riaris Krine, Master Gunner; and Patch Patchsalt, Boatswain's Mate.) Additionally, you learned the general layout of the ship. (There is now a map of the Wormwood and a general description of each key area in the Campaign Info tab.)
Sunny has a successful day in the rigging, completing her tasks and feeling no ill effects from the work.
When the time comes for the Bloody Hour, Scourge is clearly gleeful. His face falls as Sunny steps forward, though. "No. Not you, elf. The man. The one who punched first."
Herbert is dragged forward and secured to the mast. Plugg announces his sentence. "This man started a fight for no other reason than demonstrating his dominance. Such arrogance will not be tolerated. Three lashes, Scourge."
Lashes:
1 is automatic miss 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8 for 1d3 ⇒ 2nonlethal 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25 for 1d3 ⇒ 1nonlethal 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18 for 1d3 ⇒ 1nonlethal
4 nonlethal
Only one other receives lashes tonight - Rosie, the halfling violinist. Again, she is accused of insolence, but her punishment is increased to six lashes. She collapses after the fifth, but a male officer you haven't met yet steps forward and holds some strong-smelling salts under her nose and pours a concoction down her throat to revive her for her final lash.
After the punishments have been handed out, Grok, Kroop and Aoro bring the food around - fish soup again. Sandara joins you again, bringing a sullen Rosie with her. As she sits at the table, she throws a small bag on the table, saying "I managed to talk Grok out of a bit of your gear - it's not all of it, but it should make life a little more bearable. Sorry Rosie - I still haven't managed to get your violin."
The bag is small, but inside you find:
Duo's Blank Spellbook
Herbert's Dagger
1 of Alestone's Flasks and His Holy Symbol
Aoro's tattooing tools
After dinner is over the rum is brought around and the evening's activities begin.
You can now make your Rum Action and Nighttime Actions. Also, feel free to RP anytime from Bloody Hour to going to sleep.
While scouring the murky waters of the bilge, you find a small, metallic item. Reaching into the waters, you withdraw a handaxe of masterwork quality.
You don't need a stealth check to make a perception check to look around the ship.
You make your way up to the middle deck of the ship and you see a flight of wooden stairs that climbs up to the officers’ quarters. You see in the shadows a man chained to the foremast here. He turns to look at you and begins making a lot of noise, rattling his chains and trying to break free of his bonds. In a fright, you head back down to the bilges.
Aoro:
Kroop chuckles merrily as you speak. He leans in conspiratorily at one point during the meal. "You're a good sort, you are. I 'spose ol' Plugg took your gear did'n he? Let me have a chat with ol' Grok tonight. See if she can't get ya' sorted out."
Your daytime action was "influence" - and you increased Kroop to Helpful. Even with your poor roll. ;)
Alestone and Lanliss: You're working with Sandara and Aretta Bannison - one of the cronies who attacked you this morning. Since Sandara is Helpful, you get +2 to your work check.
Sunny: You're working with Maheem, another one of the cronies from this morning.
Duo's energy washes over the group. The sailors you were fighting feel the healing benefits, but make no mention of it or offer any thanks.
The entire group makes its way to the deck. Upon arrival, they're greeted by a sour looking Plugg and a nervous Scourge. Seeing the group arrive en masse, Scourge's face goes dark and angry. "It's about time you lot came up!" Plugg says. " What's the meaning of the delay?"
Without hesitation, Tam speaks up. "The newcomers wanted ta' make a name fer themselves an' picked a fight with a couple of us." Plugg looked at Scourge for a moment before nodding.
"There will be no fighting under my watch. Three lashes for whichever of you started it. So - who was it?" Tam points to Herbert. "Well, well. We have a date at The Bloody Hour. Now, Scourge, assign the tasks for the day."
Daily Tasks:
Duo - 1d6 ⇒ 5
Herbert - 1d6 ⇒ 5
Lanliss - 1d6 ⇒ 1
Alestone - 1d6 ⇒ 1
Sunny - 1d6 ⇒ 4
Aoro - 1d6 ⇒ 2
1d100 ⇒ 51Higher Is Better
Scourge addresses your group. "You - mute and the fighter (Duo and Herbert) - you're going to be runners today. You'd better not drop a single letter or miss a single order, you hear me? And you," he says, turning to Alestone and Lanliss, "I think you need another go at the bilges, dwarf. This time, though, you get to bring a friend. Lanslip - you go see if you can help him do a better job today."
"Now you, elf, I want you to do some rope work today. Make sure you get those ropes stowed away properly. And you, cook boy, you head down and see what Kroop needs from ya."
With that, Scourge sends you off for your duties. You can see the dice rolls and checks needed for your daily tasks under the Campaign Info tab.
Aoro:
You head down to the galley to find a relatively sober Kroop. "Oho! Two days in a row. Ya' must like the cooking post!" Kroop says. "We've got some work ta' do, so let's get to it."
Since Kroop is sober, you don't have to make any task checks today.
In addition to your daily tasks, you have time to partake in additional activities.
Daytime Actions:
Work Dilligently: Gain a +4 bonus on any one check for the job's daily task.
Influence: Attempt to Influence a Single NPC during your job using Diplomacy, Bluff or Intimidate.
Sneak: Make normal checks for a job's daily task, then attempt to briefly explore one area of the ship (make a single Perception Check in the area with no chance of detection.)
Shop: Take a -2 Penalty on all checks for a job's daily task and visit the quartermaster's store
Shirk: Take a -2 on all checks for a job's daily task and take some time to explore the ship. You can take 10 on a single Perception Check or other skill check, but must make a check to avoid being discovered slacking.
Please post your checks and add some flavor to describe your day of working. Each of you are also working with another member of the crew - I'll get that posted in a second if you want to wait to determine your daytime actions.
Again, the first blow catches him in the temple and he nearly staggers before regaining his balance. The other three attacks don't land, fortunately.
Seeing that Lanliss is down, the two sailors facing him turn their attention to the group - they flex their muscles when Duo approaches, but don't attack. Duo's healing washes over Lanliss (you're no longer staggered), who immediately attempts to trip up one of his foes. He is unsuccessful, and seeing that their prey is moving again, the two kick at him.
One of the attacks land and Lanliss feels as if he'll be staggered again, but barely maintains his composure.
The two are paying such close attention to the fallen elf, they don't see the peg-legged-dwarf approaching.
Fort Save:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10
The target of Alestone's attack coughs in pain and looks in shock at the ferocity of the dwarf's attack.
Seeing the effect of the blow on their comrade and seeing the effect of the acid on their skin, Tam calls them off. "This t'aint over," he says, spitting on Lanliss before backing off.
Unless you want to continue the battle, you're out of initiative.
Aoro's words fall on deaf ears. Tam, the bulbous-nosed dwarf, spits on the ground and says, "Keep ye'r words to yerself ya' lubber."
The sailor Herbert targeted was surprised by the attack - he was looking to Tam, the leader of this little ragtag group when Herbert reared back and turned just time to meet Herbert's fist with his face. He stumbled backward and cursed loudly.
Immediately, four of the sailors jumped to action - one of them a mean-looking half orc. They all lash out Herbert.
Both attacks land, dropping Lanliss to his knees. You've taken 8 points of nonlethal damage and you're now staggered.
Sunny, inspired by Alestone's words (or Duo's Blessing), steps forward and playfully pushes one of the men who laid into Lanliss. Unfortunately, her push doesn't even cause the sailor to budge.
Day 2
You all awake, feeling refreshed and relatively energized. You see the sun peeking in through the windows. And hear the crew around you waking and stowing their hammocks. You follow their example and soon you're ready to head above deck with the rest.
Moments later, you hear the bell tone, and the sailors wearily make their way to the main deck. Or so you think.
Four sailors approach your group. Others loiter around the room, obviously aware that something of interest is about to happen.
"In a hurry?" one of them asks, laughing and pushing Sunny back towards the group. "Why don't you stick around and play a bit?"
They block your way, and it's clear they want a fight.
You don't have to swing away - unless you want, of course - but you must act in initiative order. That is, as we discussed, group of PCs, group of baddies, group of PCs. You may post in any order within your group - first to post, first to act.
Round 1 (No surprise round)
Initiative Order:
Herbert, Aoro
Unfortunately, when you find Grok, she is drunk out of her mind. She is with Kroop down int he galley and they are laughing wildly at some unheard joke. She smiles stupidly as you speak to her. "You talk pretty boy," she says. "But leave me alone. Me and Kroop here need to finish off this ale before we sleep. Come see me tomorrow in the store, though. We'll get you sorted out."
You've managed to shift Grok to friendly!
Heading down to the sleeping area, you find hammocks are strung from the 16 pillars that support the ship; each crew member has a locker along the wall for their possessions, and there are additional lockers stacked against a wall that aren't being used - presumably for your use once you have gear to stow.
You are still exhausted, but you are healed of any nonlethal damage.
Sandara seems pleased to meet all of you. As Lanliss mentions his and Duo's missing gear she nods and says, "I'll keep an eye out. Ol' Grok can be moody, but she can be convinced to hand over the goods. I got my precious symbol of Besmera back, as I told her it would curse her if she kept it. Worked like a charm."
But when Lanliss starts talking of offing Plugg she quiets him down. "You'd best keep thoughts like that to yourself or you'll be worse off than Magpie."
After dinner is over, a barrel is brought around. Sandara eyes it warily. "Plugg serves up this rot to keep the crew docile. And weak. This stuff will rot your gut. Be careful. I'm off to gamble. Talk to you lot later."
The rum aboard The Wormwood is potent. You have three options for how to deal with it.
Rum Rations:
Dispose: DC 10 Stealth Check. No bonus/penalty.
Sip/Make Grog: A pirate often waters the rum down with water, ale, or whatever other liquid might be handy/less potent. A pirate who nurses his rum, or dilutes it to make Grog makes a DC 10 Fortitude Save, or is fatigued (Note: Alestone is immune to the fatigue effect and need not make the save). 8 hours rest removes this fatigue. (Essentially failure means the PC needs to rest for a full night). This is a poison effect.
Drink Deeply: A true pirate drinks his rum and likes it! He makes a Fortitude save at DC 15 or takes 1d3-1 Con Damage. He also gains a 1d4 alchemical bonus to Charisma for 8 hours (pass or failure). The next morning the PC must make a DC 10 will save or be fatigued until the PC can get 8 hours rest (Note: Alestone is immune to the fatigue effect and need not make the save). This is a poison effect.
After dinner each night, you have have a choice of what to do.
Nighttime Actions:
• Sleep - Go to bed early and sleep through the night (automatically recover Fatigue or Exhaustion)
• Gamble - Play or gamble on a pirate game of chance or entertainment (see spoiler)
• Entertain - Make 1 Perform check to entertain the crew (see spoiler)
• Influence* - Attempt to influence a single NPC.
• Sneak* - Take time exploring one area of the ship. PC may Take 20 on Perception or any other skill check but the PC must make a check to avoid being discovered.
• Steal* - Attempt to open a locked door or locker. The PC must make a check to avoid being discovered.
You can also attempt to take up to two additional ship actions during the middle watch in the dead of night (any nighttime ship action marked with an asterisk), but to do so the PC must make a successful Constitution check (DC 10, +4 per extra ship action taken) or be fatigued for the next day.
Entertain Mechanics:
Make a Perform check to entertain the crew. This is generally sea shanties, songs, or something similar. If you hit DC 20, you gain a +2 bonus to all Cha-based checks made to interact with any listener in the crew (including as part of the Influence action) for the next 24-hours.
If your Perform check result is a 9 or lower, however, the next time you attempt to Entertain the crew, you must first make either a Bluff or Intimidate check DC 15 to get them to stop ignoring you, at which point you can then make a Perform check.
Gamble Mechanics:
You may play and/or gamble on the following entertainments. Minimum bet is 1gp (or an item of equivalent value).
• Arm Wrestling - Not the typical contest, rather this is usually done on a barrel with broken glass, caltrops or some other dangerous hazard. It's an opposed Str check with the higher result winning and the loser taking 1d2+the opponent's Str modifier in damage.
• Hog Lob - A game where contestants attempt to hurl a lead ingot covered in a greased up piglet skin the farthest. A bet is agreed on before starting. Contestants roll a d20 and add their CMB to this. The ingot counts as an Improvised weapon and suffers the appropriate -4 penalty to the roll. If you have the Throw Anything feat it negates this. Your final numerical result is the number of feet you threw it, with the winner being the one who threw it the farthest.
• Heave - A potentially deadly game where you try to drink your opponents under the table. Bets are made beforehand. Each person swigs a half pint of rum. You then make a DC 15 Fort save or take increased damage from your rum rations. Each next swig increases the DC by +3. The game lasts until only 1 pirate is standing.
Despite your fascination with Sunny, you manage to do an exemplary job of untying knots. Unfortunately, you are less successful with your discretion, as you notice several sailors laughing at your obvious attempts to gawk at the rigger.
Seeing a break in the toil, you decide to head down below deck to poke around. Unfortunately, you trip on the stairs heading down and barrel head first into none other than Scourge. "Well, well! What have we here? Our work too hard for ya, elf? Ya' need to sneak away for a bit of rest? Not on The Wormwood. Get back to it maggot. But don't ya' worry about paying for this mistake now - you've got more work to do. You can pay up during Bloody Hour." he says, an evil grin spread across his face. He forcibly shoves you back on deck and keeps a steady eye on you for the rest of the day.
In your effort to keep on Scourge's good side, you work to the point of exhaustion. Almost collapsing on the deck at the end of your shift.
You are now exhausted. -6 to all Strength and Dex checks until rested.
Alestone:
Don't forget to include your fatigue penalties.
The muck and mire of the bilge comes up to your chest in some areas. Taking that into account along with the night's revelry and this morning's exercises makes it extraordinarily difficult to complete your task. You completely fail to unclog the bilge pipes, causing more water to come into the chamber.
While you're down there, you do spot a man manacled to the wall. He looks dejected and completely ignores you. When you ask Tilly about him, she simply shakes her head and mutters something about a "thief."
Tilly, who is also working the bilge with you isn't much help either and the two of you, at the end of the day, are filthy, exhausted and have earned the wrath of Scourge. "What did you two do all day?" he says furiously when coming down to inspect. "It looks worse than when you began! Perhaps a few lashes will teach you not to take your tasks so lightly in the future. Come on you, two. Or, three rather. Your time has come, Magpie. Let's go." He heads over and unchains the man who doesn't even bother to put up a fight. Scourge then leads you out of the bilges and up to the deck.
You are now exhausted. -6 to all Strength and Dex checks until rested.
Sunny:
Unfortunately, you can't take 10 on these checks - yet.
Climb Check:1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
You manage to climb all over the ship without a problem, but the rigging proves to be a difficult challenge. You just barely manage to make the repairs before the end of the shift.
You all hear a loud ringing come from the main deck of the ship. It is coming from a macabre brass-and-copper clock, which depicts worms writhing through whale corpses. The clock makes a heavy reverberating tick each second, and chimes with haunting bells at dawn and dusk.
Everyone gathers around on the main deck. There is a nervous, anxious energy that spreads over the crew. Finally, Scourge emerges from below deck leading three individuals - Alestone, a woman, and a man. All three of them are filthy beyond belief, but the man's face is drawn and empty - he looks like a shell of his former self.
"It is the BLOODY HOUR!" Scourge screams loudly, his face beaming with delight. "For those of you new to us, we use this time to motivate the crew to do their jobs to the highest possible level. Some of you newcomers need a little motivation. Elf - Lanslip, was it? - step forward. You can join your new companion the dwarf here in our little celebration."
Lanliss' shirt is stripped off his back and he is tied to the mainmast. Plugg steps forward and says, "This elf thought he could shirk his duties and head below deck for a little nap. That's unacceptable. Three lashes." Scourge smiles wickedly and takes his place.
After he finishes with Lanliss, Alestone is led to the mast. "This dwarf couldn't even handle the simple task of draining the bilges. Three lashes," Plugg says dismissively.
After Alestone, Tilly is brought up, followed by Rosie, the halfling violinist. Rosie is being punished for insubordination ("If you would've given me my f%%#in' violin, I wouldn't be f@*$in' insubordinate!"), but remains silent during the punishment.
Lashes:
Lanliss 1 is automatic miss 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23 for 1d3 ⇒ 3nonlethal 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21 for 1d3 ⇒ 1nonlethal 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15 for 1d3 ⇒ 3nonlethal
7 nonlethal
Alestone 1 is automatic miss 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17 for 1d3 ⇒ 1nonlethal 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20 for 1d3 ⇒ 2nonlethal 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7 for 1d3 ⇒ 3nonlethal
6 nonlethal
As soon as the whipping is finished, one of Scourge's toadies - Narwhal, the bulbous-nosed dwarf - brings the man forward. He is bound tightly in a rope. "Mr. Jakes Magpie here, stands accused of theft. He has admitted to his crime and accepts his punishment," Plugg says, failing to conceal the look of glee on his face. "Before the evening meal, we will all witness the fate of anyone who dares steal from his brothers and sisters!" Without warning, Plugg pushes the man overboard.
Perception DC15:
You notice the relish with which Mr. Plugg, in particular, tugs at the rope as the unfortunate Magpie is dragged under the ship.
The man is drug under the boat for more than a minute before being pulled back on deck. All that remains is a bloody mess that has been torn to shreds. He is almost immediately thrown back overboard to be fed to the sharks.
Heal DC15:
Inspecting the body before it is thrown overboard reveals that the unfortunate Jakes took about 24 points of damage from the punishment and drowned as well.
After the Bloody Hour is over, Aoro, Kroop and Grok bring up the evening meal - a fish soup. It appears the special occasion was only for the ship's officers. The meal, though, is not bad.
The six of you all naturally end up sitting next to one another, as it appears no one else wants to be seen with you. Until, that is, a striking young woman approaches your table. She closes her eyes and mutters a few words. Instantly, Alestone and Lanliss feel a wave of healing energy wash over them.
Channel Positive Energy:2d6 ⇒ (5, 5) = 10
"Name's Sandara," the woman says, sitting down. "Hope that makes ya' feel a little better. That Scourge's a right piece of work, that one. Tried to make a pass at me last night. Earned the back of my hand for that. And, well, I earned the 'cat' for that." She smiles easily. "Twas worth it, though." She has a fiery red mane of hair that sits beneath an exquisite tricorn hat. She dresses to accentuate her figure, and her whole appearance speaks of the sea, from the seagull feather in her hat to the sailor tattoos on her arms and the clay pipe thrust into the corner of her mouth.
"You can't have too many friends on a ship like this, and you lot look like you could use one."
You've met Sandara - and she is helpful towards you! Feel free to role-play the dinner. My fingers need a break from typing this stupidly long post! Post-dinner activities coming shortly.
Also, the Campaign Info thread will be updated to reflect the new NPC, as well as your current conditions.
It is the night before the first day of Autumn. It is late in the evening at The Rusty Dragon - many who were gathered have left and returned home. There are other patrons in the bar, but the energy has died down dramatically. There are six of you who feel especially drawn to one another - whether through previous connections or that night's festivities.
The bartender poured you three pitchers of wine before heading off to bed. And now you sit, the Six, discussing your plans for the festival and the future.
Hey everyone. This is the new discussion thread for the reboot of our game. I'll be reading through all of the connections from the previous thread to do my best to keep everything you guys developed.
I've read through the game thread so far and my take on the AP is a little more traditional than Rysil's. I hope that's ok.
Check in here and let me know when your character sheets are good to go.
Also, as noted in the previous thread, please email me your .por files if you use Hero Lab.
I should note, a nat 1 is always a fail, just as a nat 20 is always a success. That might be a houserule, but it only seems right to me. There's always a risk/reward to rolling the dice.
That looks fine to me, Herbert. You're going to want to stash those somewhere until you put them in your footlocker, though. Just to clarify, this is what you found.
Found Stuff:
2 Pipes and 4 Pouches of Tobacco - 4gp
Vials - 2gp
Cap (art) - 20gp
Hooks and nets in need of minor repairs - 10gp
A selection of "holystones" - 3gp
A few random coins that equal - 11gp (let's give you the full value of your trait!)
Total Haul: 50GP
I will be away from teh keyboard for much of the rest of the evening, so here are the daytime recaps of the three who have already posted. Once the other three post, I'll update and we'll move on.
Herbert:
Don't forget your fatigue in your rolls - no big deal today, but keep it in mind for the future.
You, along with your shipmates, manage to catch and drown a large number of the rats that infested the hold. At the end of your shift, you are still tired and you've gotten remarkably dirty, but you're not seriously worse off than when you started.
Aoro:
Note: You can't use profession skills untrained. I just swapped your Cook check for a Survival check since they use the same modifier.
Kroop is clearly pleased by your attitude and your performance. He pats you on the back after you've finished slaughtering the pig. He then takes the time to show you how he prepared the pig for the Chelish nobility he rubbed elbows with in his previous life.
Thanks to your diplomacy and your success, you've managed to shift Kroop's attitude to Friendly! You didn't really learn much about him today, but you've clearly impressed him.
Duo:
You come perilously close to getting sick, but manage to fight off the effects of the seasickness. However, the combination of nausea and fatigue from the morning interfere with your ability to spot anything out of the ordinary, as you must focus all of your attention on the task at hand - which is surprisingly difficult.
You finish the task and though you're still tired from this morning's "tests," you're not significantly worse off.
Throughout the workday, some of you meet a fellow shipmate or two. As today is your first day aboard, you don't have the chance to really get to know them apart from catching their name and getting a sense of how they felt about you.
Alestone met Tilly Brackett, a human female. She couldn't care less either way about you.
Herbert met "Badger" Medlar, a female half-elf. She's an older woman who shaves her gray hair into stripes. She appears to be an unfriendly sort. He also met Jaundiced Jape, a humorless half-orc mute who was hostile the entire work shift. He was one of the pirates who accompanied Scourge to wake you this morning.
Lanliss met Rosie Cusswell, the halfling violinist with the foul mouth from the night before. She was also trying to adjust to her surroundings and didn't seem to care one bit about you. You also met Crimson "Cog" Cogward, a male human who was quite unfriendly during the work day; Giffer Tibbs, a one-eyed female gnome who didn't pay you much attention; and Fipps Chumlett a fat, pushy bully who gave you trouble all day. He was also one of the pirates wielding a sap with Scourge this morning.
Sunny met Tam "Narwhal" Tate, an old male dwarf with a bulbous nose. He, too, was one of the pirates who accompanied Scourge this morning. It was apparent he didn't take kindly to you.
Aoro met Ambrose (obviously), as well as Cut-Throat Grok, a half-orc woman with a huge scar across her neck. Ambrose informs you that she serves as the ship's quartermaster. It is clear that Ambrose and she are close friends.
This information will be kept up-to-date in the Campaign Info tab.
I hope this isn't too much of a bother, but can someone take all of the connections and put them in one place? I'm getting confused on what was approved vs. what was proposed (there may not be any difference).
Also, do any of you use Hero Lab? If so, can you email me your .por file?
I took some liberties with the rules to keep people alive. And if you think about it, trying to climb a rope netting while hungover is bound to tire you a bit, isn't it?
"Done," Plugg says to Aoro. "You - head down to the galley. Kroop's waitin' fer ya. Now, the rest of you lot, Scourge will put you to work." Plugg turns and leads Aoro down into the galley.
Daily Tasks:
Duo - 1d6 ⇒ 3
Herbert - 1d6 ⇒ 2
Lanliss - 1d6 ⇒ 4
Alestone - 1d6 ⇒ 1
Sunny - 1d6 ⇒ 1
Aoro - 1d6 ⇒ 6
1d100 ⇒ 63(Higher Is Better)
Scourge turns first to Duo. "You - mute! You get to swab the decks. Grab a mop and get to work - you can handle that, can't you?"
Backbreaking work mopping the decks and scrubbing them with sandstone blocks called holystones, requiring a Strength and Constitution check. Failing either check results in Exhaustion.
Then he turns his attention to Herbert. "And you, I want you head below deck and clear out some rats. We seemed to have gotten an infestation while we were in port."
Catching vermin belowdecks, requiring a Stealth, Survival or Dexterity Check to catch and kill enough rats for a day's work.
To Lanliss he says, "You're going to put those pretty little fingers to work tying and untying the knots we've got around the ship and hauling the ropes where they're needed. You can keep your spit to yourself while you do it, too."
You'll be tying and untying knots in the ship's ropes and moving heavy coils of rope from one part of the ship to another, requiring a Profession (Sailor) or Strength check and a Constitution Fatigue Check or you will be exhausted.
To Sunny he says, "Rigger - you get to repair some of the damage we faced while in port. Head up and get to it."
The ship's rigging frequently is damaged and needs repairs, requiring a Climb check followed by a Profession (Sailor) or Dexterity Check .
Scourge assigns various tasks and duties to others around the deck before yelling loudly "Now get to work ya' bilgy rats!"
Finally, he turns to Alestone with a cruel smile. "And you, our seasoned vet, you get to be the bilge b&*+%. You make sure it's cleared out and nothing backs up."
Vile and sweaty work cleaning out the bilges, requiring a Strength check and a Fatigue check.
Aoro:
You head below deck into the galley. The cramped and chaotic kitchen holds two wooden worktables, several wooden cupboards, and two small stoves against the port wall, as well as virtually every cooking utensil imaginable and a frightening array of meat cleavers. A score of chickens and three goats wander freely throughout the chamber; the goats are meant to be caged, but have a distressing tendency to escape their bonds. The kitchen is a madness of dirt, food, and knives. The stoves are perpetually lit, and large cauldrons bubble away atop them all times. A huge array of spices mingle with barrels of rainwater, two tuns of rum, cupboards full of ship’s biscuit and salted beef, barrels of sauerkraut, and a small supply of fresh vegetables picked up in Port Peril.
You spot who you assume is Kroop. He is wearing a filthy apron covered in various stains and remains. As you get closer, the smell of alcohol is staggering - it is clear this man likes his drink. Plugg looks at him with disgust before saying, "Here's your new assistant. The cap'n wants a special meal tonight - you think you can handle it?" he asks. Kroop nods and Plugg turns to leave.
"You're here to serve me, got it?" he says, his voice deep and rich. Kroop doesn't appear to be drunk at the moment, which is positive. "You do as I say and you'll do just fine. We keep this ship running with our cooking - any foul up is sure to foul us up, if you take my meaning." He looks up the stairs to be sure that Plugg is out of sight before saying quietly, "It’s poison, this ship, but don’t let anyone hear you say it aloud. The hull listens, see, and the cap’n hears it all. Poison the Wormwood is, though, rotten to the core. You’ll not meet a more nasty, sour piece of work than Cap’n Harrigan in all your days at sea, and his crew’s the same, ’specially the first mate, Mr. Plugg. Vicious little sod, he is. He’d take his own mother’s liver to the butcher to make pies with, he would. But they leave me alone, mostly. They know I can’t ’arm ’em. You'd be wise to keep your head down, too. Do your job. You'll be fine."
"Well, let's get to it. Captain Harrigan must want to celebrate our departure and wants one of the ship's animals butchered and cooked for dinner. To welcome you to the crew, I'll give you that honor." He says, handing you a razor-sharp knife.
You must make a Profession (Cook) or Survival Check to slaughter the animal, then help Kroop to clean, cut and prepare the carcass.
Additionally, anyone who is unaccustomed to life on board a ship needs to make a DC 5 Fort save or be Nauseated for the day due to Seasickness. This may impact any checks you make for the day. Include this in your post please. I leave it to your discretion as to whether or not your character would need to worry about this.
Also, when posting your checks and what daily action you'll be taking during work, feel free to elaborate on what you do and how your job work goes. This doesn't need to be just a series of skill checks and that's it. Give it some flavor. Also I've left the DC's off of the skill checks as I want it to be a bit of a mystery at first. I'll include them later as we go forward.
Ok - I sent Zelaria a PM. I think we're good with 6 players and we won't need to recruit someone to replace Esme.
Is there somewhere that I could see a summary or easily digest the player connections? Or do I just need to go back and read through the beginning of this thread?
The climbing goes well only for Herbert and Sunny - everyone else has multiple falls to the deck. Upon falling, Scourge and Plugg laugh heartily, crack their whips and curse at you to get back to it.
I'm going to handwave the fall damage for you, but Alestone, Lanliss, Aoro and Duo are all fatigued (-2 penalty to Str or Dex checks until rested). I'll be updating the Campaign Info tab with relevant status for the party, so check there for up-to-date information.
It's a close race, but Sunny does manage to edge out Herbert's climb to the top. As you all make your way back down, Plugg says, "You, elf, you've earned a spot as our new rigger." Turning to the others, he asks, "Next, any of you know how to cook? Ambrose needs some assistance down in the galley."
Hey everyone - Rohan has recruited me to run your RotRL game.
Can everyone post here to let me know who's around and to see the aliases of each of you, please?
I'm going to start a new thread for the new game, as I was a little unclear where the previous GM was heading. Is that still ok with everyone?
A couple of character-related questions:
1. Do you want to keep your ties to one another and the NPCs?
2. Do we have every role filled still? Do we need to do a little extra recruitment?
3. What are your expectations for this AP? Heavy character development? Combat-focused? Open? Just want to make sure your hopes and dreams align with my posts.
The pirate groans angrily as Lanliss steps on his toes, but doesn't strike back.
As you make your way to the maindeck, it’s quickly apparent that you are on a sizable ship in the middle of the ocean, far from any land. Port Peril and the mainland of the Shackles are just an ochre haze many miles astern. Figures cluster around the ship’s mainmast, looking up at the higher deck on the stern, where two figures stand. One of them is a broad, muscular Garundi man with a shaven head, a long beard bound with gold rings, and an eye patch - it is clear from the way he carries himself that this man is the captain. The other is a younger, balding man with a long black ponytail, wearing a long coat and carrying a well-used cat-o’-nine-tails.
You also notice that you are not the only new recruits - four others are standing with you on the deck, set apart by their relative cleanliness and apparent unease with their newfound situation. A dozen or so other pirates, clearly existing members of the crew, stand about on the deck or in the ship’s rigging.
Once everyone is on deck, the captain addresses the crew, his voice booming over the deck. “Glad you could join us at last! Welcome to the Wormwood! My thanks for ‘volunteering’ to join my crew. I’m Barnabas Harrigan. That’s Captain Barnabas Harrigan to you, not that you’ll ever need to address me. I have only one rule - don’t speak to me. I like talk, but I don’t like your talk. Follow that rule and we’ll all get along fine."
He stares out over the recruits, taking in each one individually. “Oh, and one more thing. Even with you new recruits, we’re still short-handed, and I aim to keep what crew I have. There’ll be a keelhaulin’ for anyone caught killin’ anyone. Mr. Plugg! If you’d be so kind as to make pirates out of these landlubbers, it’ll save me having to put them in the sweatbox for a year and a day before I make pies out of ’em.”
At the end of his speech, the captain walks away, leaving behind the man with the cat-o’-nine-tails - this, apparently, is Mr. Plugg. He looks down at the impressed captives and smiles unpleasantly.
"Scourge, it looks like you rounded us up a filthy lot of land lubbers who've never seen a day at sea in their lives," Plugg says. "Except maybe that grizzled old peg-leg there."
He walks down the steps to the main deck. He takes in the six of you in particular. "We need a new rigger. One of you lot is going to earn that...honor. We'll decide who it will be with a little sport. Whoever makes it to the crow's nest first will be rewarded with the position. Now - climb!" He says, snapping his cat-o-nine-tails loudly.
You all need to make a series of DC10 Climb checks to see who reaches the top first. The crow's nest is roughly 60' above the main deck. You climb at quarter speed - or half speed with a DC15 accelerated climbing check - it will take most of you 8 successful checks to reach the top. Alestone, it will take you 12. Please post 15-20 climb checks in a spoiler tab and RP your climb to the top. I'll figure the success or failures for you.
You discern the aftertaste of oily nutmeg on your tongue. You recognize this as a clear sign of oil of taggit poisoning. You remember indulging in the spicy food and rum late last night, and
realize that the oil was likely added to your food or drink; the spices hid the taste of the taggit oil.
The whip cracks again. "Water? You think we would waste our water on you maggots!? You have ta' earn yer keep ta' get the water." the man says, sneering.
"Don't you lay your head back down, ya bilgy Dwarf!" the man says, cracking his whip loudly. "UP!"
"You want to know where you are? Ye'r aboard the Wormwood. This be Cap'n Harrigan's - the fiercest pirate in the Shackles - vessel and ye'r under his command now. And he don't take kindly to layabouts. So get up there!"
Duo:
You don't spot any of your belongings.
Aoro:
The man appears hopeful that you will fight back - he wants to use his whip and pirates to teach you a lesson.
Duo: your "common" language can be lip reading. No need to take an extra skill. You must be facing and paying undivided attention to someone to understand them, obviously. Also, you can speak, but most of the crew won't understand what you're saying. You'll need to invest time into your friends who will gradually come to understand you clearly.
Still looks like you've spent 2 too many ability points.
You've spent one too many skill points.
What spell are you tying to Magical Lineage?
Herbert:
Sent you a PM with the character sheet from Hero Lab - showing some slightly higher numbers. Let me know if you see anything that looks wrong in what I sent.
Aoro:
How much does a wooden statuette weigh? I did a tribal fetish, but I'm not sure if that's equivalent.
We can resolve those issues later - the first game thread is up!
Images of the night's revelry flash in your mind; good loud music, flirty wenches of questionable morals, and numerous glasses of rum, ale and wine. The last thing you remember was plates full of sausages and meats being brought out to loud cheers and greedy handfuls.
It was truly a night worthy of the Pirate capital of the Shackles.
Those happy remembrances are immediately replaced by a pounding headache. You must still be drunk, as you feel the floor beneath swaying at regular intervals. Licking your lips, the taste of the wine is replaced by an ashy, unpleasant flavor.
Opening your eyes, you discover that you are in a ship's interior. You see others around you slowly coming to, faces you recognize from the Formidably Maid the night before - all of whom are worse for the wear, much like yourself. Looking around, you quickly realize that you've been stripped of all your belongings, with nothing more than the clothes on your back. No weapons. No magical components.
Nothing.
Lifting your head, you see a tall, skinny man in a long coat and breeches and boots. He wears a dark beard braided down his chest and his mouth gleams with gold teeth as he snarls cruelly at the lot of you. Six other burly men stand around him, all armed with saps.
His voice rings out in a shout as the whip in his other hand cracks out above your heads. "Still abed with the sun over the yardarm?! On your feet, you filthy swabs! Get up on deck and report for duty before Cap'n Harrigan flays your flesh into sausage skins and has Fishguts fry ye up for breakfast!"
You are on a boat. Against your will. And this man, standing above you, is apparently your new boss.
Your pirate career is off to a dramatically different start than you anticipated.
I really want good old Gorber's speeches with voice acting x'D I've never gotten syrinscape stuff because I never figured out how to use that stuff with discord or roll20, but this kinda makes me want to learn. Does syryinscape do paizo content anymore?
(sidenote: is this ap getting soundtrack as well? I know seven dooms did and so did wardens of the wild, but season of ghost soundtrack doesn't still seem to be out even though it got teased)
Miyaro apparently has child(maybe in plural because why else specify "eldest child") who is in ten years old enough to be advisor to Ameiko.
I'm fairly certain this is retcon inspired by Miyaro being described watching party bit like distant parent of sorts, but it amuses me because original ap really implies Miyaro seems to live pretty removed from mortals life as agent of her adoptive kami family. So its bit like "wait, when how why with whom what" to me xD
I think its also because original ap didn't really make any implications of the kitsune settlements deeper in the forest or that Miyaro lived among them at all. Like no clue if she has surviving spouse, but yeah huh, I guess she is less lonely character than I thought? Like she is mentioned to need work to blend in with humanity, she is mentioned to be agent kami send outside the forest, etc kind of things made me think she wouldn't have close personal relationships like that unless all kitsune in forest have aloof kami like disposition? .-.
This is making me confident that my guesses of Sarenrae/Asmodeus/Pharasma are all wrong and all three Divine Mysteries stained glass gods survive :'D
(btw, do we still get short stories for 9 gods that aren't part of 10 week countdown or are we left forever wondering what their prophecies would have been? x'D)
So having played this to finish then read pdfs to see what gm changed... Wow, umm... Yeah. I see why lot of things got changed and not just mechanically.
So even from our campaign, its kinda apparent this is bait and switch from compelling "Town Guard" ap to "National security secret agents" AP.
But like... AP would work much better as 3 part one? Heck, the Twilight Four plot would work as four part level 5-15 ap. Final adventure does nothing plot wise that demands it being level 20, most of enemies are lower level outsiders given power boost. You could adapt it to level 15 and change nothing plotwise (kinda think at that level, the grand plan should involve more than just ruling a city. Our gm did fun thing with them literally trying to steal city to Duskfathom)
And like... Its weird when you could literally remove all town guard aspects from plot and barely anything changes? Its kinda clear non lethal thing was added post ap being written to player's guide and ap itself mostly assumes lethal combat. But bigger problem is its framing of pcs being super agents who do everything on their won without backup. Like whole thing of being part of town guard is feeling of being part of organization you can get help from. Named Edgewatch characters as written don't really exist after book 1 and it makes no sense this story wise. Heck lot of them are wasted potential, Lavarsus is treated as sitcom archnemesis you want to see getting his just desserts, but he explicitly does nothing too bad and is just grumpy. That's major waste of "grudging respect" character development plot.
...Sooo yeah the AP is lot of wasted potential. Its very clear it would have been written differently when 3 part aps became a thing, but even then it just doesn't take full appeal of its premise and doesn't care about the npc cast.
I'm kinda wondering if I should now try to do individual reviews of the ap? Its kinda hard to split the overall campaign ethos things to six different parts when I feel like what needs improvement is handling of the campaign. I didn't even get tot he "each book assumes it takes week" super fast pace to fit inside two month festival x'D
(I'm really confused by that aspect: because there is zero reason why the story would NEED to take place during radiant festival besides it sounding neat thematically. Its really weird time frame for level 1-20 adventure
Why does first book assumes it ends on Arodus 3 and final book on Rova 7? That's less than month for entire thing)
Overally, I still like campaign, but man its as written super rough. Its good source of inspiration and encounters to be used though if you ask me
Like we all know that post OGL, runelords are not tied to D&D OGl wizard schools anymore now that they are removed, but I find it funny they had the thing with "we are ignoring 8th school because its not REAL school fo magic since we all know real school of magics are themed around seven deadly sins"
...When there actually is eight deadly sins depending on christian tradition and funnily enough sin of Sorrow kinda matches with Divination school? x'D Like in orthodox christianity its considered greatest of deadly sins because the whole point of deadly sins are that they are things that lead you down to temptation of damnation and worst of them is despairing at false belief you are beyond redemption? So that funnily enough matches with typical "I can see into future" villains' flaw at future being unavoidable?
(that said I do think seven runelords is much more manageable than eight of them(for example siheidron as seven pointed star is cooler), plus it was fun subversion of "wizard per spell school" symmetry. I mostly find it funny that when you think about it, you could easily justify one more one even if its apocryphal in a way x'D)
My first impression is positive on this. I'm glad to see that this looks to be grandfathering in existing characters as much as possible, while the free rebuilds allow people the option to convert to new versions of the class or any other options. Overall, this feels like it gives as much choice as possible for players and that's a good thing.
The removal of pathfinder training is only going to get a big "meh" from me - I basically picked Generalist on every character anyways for the slightly better healing potions and I can't recall the last time I took anything but that for supplies anyways (aside from scrolls of Heal on appropriate characters maybe).
I could have sworn I heard some comments on some specific trait being considered redundant and due to that going to be removed, but I now realize that 1)I'm not sure which trait 2) I'm not sure that is actually going to happen and isn't just hearsay or my misunderstanding?
But yeah, was there basically trait that was more trouble than its worth?
Like, yeah it can trigger swarm's aoe weaknesses but... Like at level 9 where item is considered appropriate, you would have striking rune at best meaning as written it deals 4 damage on failure. And it has once per hour limit.
Like... I can see why it would flavor wise be silly to keep throwing multiplying hail of sharp objects every round*, but besides system already having more gonzo things than this that you can do, why does it have time limit with this amount of damage? I would understand timelimit if it dealt weapon's damage in aoe (4d4 damage with shuriken as aoe isn't much but it makes sense for once a hour free aoe), but why limit aoe that deals from 8 to 2 damage on level where its appropriate since higher level version of rune doesn't exist?
*(with returning rune. Though as written, I don't anything actually prevents it being used thrower's bandolier because bandolier etches rune on every thrown weapon inside it rather than you using bandolier's rune? Unless I'm missing a general rule.)
I'm mostly confused of "Is this typo or just devs being bit too careful?" since like. Silliest case of scenario is that with 700 gp you could just buy 23 level 3 fireball scrolls and do more damage in single hour. Item would make sense as written either with increased damage or time limit removed, as long both aren't done at same time. Am I just missing something?
Ya know, one of reasons I'm not super enthusiastic about using PF2e ancestry in starfinder cantina is that lot of PF2e ancestry design is made with pathfinder assumptions in mind.
Meaning that its kinda sucks for me flavor wise that Automaton is living construct that has nothing interesting from being construct besides that they can avoid eating, sleeping and technically don't breath despite needing oxygen. So I'm still affected by poisons, diseases, can't store smuggle myself in vault inside a box, etc.
I assume SF2e isn't just going to be like "for balance reasons, SRO need breathing equipment to survive in vacuum and also have +2 vs poisons", so I would like to see PF2e ancestries have things like "in starfinder, strix can fly since form level 1 instead of needing high level ancestry feat to fly", so figured out I should make thread to say it aloud at this point while I still can :D
So I was thinking that if SF2e gets rarity system from PF2e, it has to be adjusted to standards of the setting.
Like its always kinda funny to think of difference between level 20 common, uncommon and rare monster(at least with summon spells uncommon means it can't be summoned even with level 10 summon spell) since for any of them level 1 character can't roll good with recall knowledge anyway, so it becomes this "okay this creature is legendary and this creature is so obscure even scholars probably don't know it exists" kind of dealio.
However, starfinder 1e had funny feature of "as long you have access to internet and have about 2 minutes worth of time, you can take nat 20". So you would think by that logic, its much easier to find basic info about common level 20 creatures. So assuming all super high level creatures aren't uncommon or rare in starfinder, it would make sense to use uncommon or rare traits as modifiers for how long it takes to find information(or if its even possible) on local infosphere :D
(note: I also think that due to whole interstellar cantina feel of starfinder, the meaning of uncommon and rare has to be drastically different from pathfinder so I'm curious of how devs solve that when it comes to equipment and such.
Like I could see possibility of "what if uncommon items ACTUALLY require players to have access to them with license they have bought or trained for", that would be more fun to me than 1e style "uh, gm can stop players buying higher level items they somehow have money for from high level settlements by quoting licenses" :D
Like maybe we get to see more kish and annansanoi content in 2e x'D Or at least horror related things with Esthayiv. Or learn what happened to sivv! People acknowledging that all runes of eloritu have been found! So many things that could be finally acknowledged x'D
Like I obviously want corebook's release to pair with SF2e Alien Archive and Species/Ancestry book, but I'd honestly really like gm book for Starfinder themed variant rules and such. Would be nice to get that vast book in SF eventually, but not at release and I'm not sure I want 2e pactworlds and near space books since 1e ones should still work x'D need to hear any ap setting updates from somewhere though. Starfinder religion book might also be nice now that they use same format as in pathfinder
But yeah feeling like I'm forgetting something obvious for what would be nice. So uh, yeah what other books would be nice whether close to release or not?
So since everyone keeps believing that Xanderghul has survived due to cheeky hints about it, let's make guesses about how that might be possible considering at first it seemed like his canon fate was super perma mega death. But I believe we can make guesses on this based on hints in Return of the Runelord.
We know that in Returns, Alaznist ganks him with time travel shenanigans and thus his mythic powers have been stolen by her and he is resurrected by his contingencies in weakned form composed of Shadowstuff essentially making him living illusion until he can recover his power. Assumption for adventure is that if pcs stop his shrines resurrecting him, the players can kill him for real or humiliate him and make him surrender, canon here seems to be fight to death.
Upon death, this is described to happen:
If he’s dead when the rod is removed, a distant sound of the runelord’s scream of agony and despair echoes through the chamber, and the entire temple of the Peacock Spirit seems to shudder as its god’s soul finally moves on to face judgment in the Boneyard. As he dies, his remains transform into a creature of resplendence—the Peacock Spirit itself—and then this too vanishes from the world. With the death of its god, the cult of the Peacock Spirit is no more.
Then later on when players need to recover Karzoug's soul and find his soul has been stolen by daemons from river of soul, they find Karzoug's soul being used on weight to find souls more sinful than him to be sacrificed to Black Sun in abaddon. When players arrive, Xanderghul's soul is being compared with Karzoug and if players don't interrupt the "cutscene", Xanderghul's soul is sacrificed to Black Sun which you think would destroy his soul completely. Assuming players don't rescue his soul so that Pharasma can properly judge it, it would be bit surprising if that was the canon though because its treated as "if players do something we didn't expect them to do, Pharasma approves"
So we are back to question of "how the hell he survived his soul being sacrificed to Bound Prince? He seems to be super mega ultra dead." and I think there are several things that hint at possibility of it DESPITE his soul seemingly being destroyed.
1) His death scene describes his soul moving to Boneyard while his body composed of quasi real shadowstuff transforming into Peacock Spirit and vanishing. While that could be really cool death animation, it does kinda imply something is happening to his body while his soul moves on.
2) His stolen mythic power was supposed to return to him when Alaznist died, so where DID it go?
So as result here is bunch of my crazy theories on what might have happened
a) he split into multiple entities upon his death and only his human soul went to be judged.(his mythic power might have returned to second entity or became its own one as well)
b) being sacrificed to black sun doesn't actually destroy the soul
c) he fooled everyone and the soul that went to be judged was also extremely realistic illusion (aka, something something multiple contingency plans)
d) canon is that he actually got his souls saved and post judgement he retained his memories and ascended
e) Alaznist's time paradoxes caused shenanigans to happen
I mean, it would be nice, vehicle combat overall is bigger dealio in starfinder than pathfinder. Plus it would have some use over even in pathfinder size, I mean Champion of Gilded Host is pretty much magical mecha even if it doesn't have pilot ;D
I'm kinda wondering whats point of aeons and proteans now since preview pdf seems to admit that law vs chaos conflict was irrelevant, are they just random outsider monsters for encounters now without really grand relevance in cosmology or stories?
(I'm mostly over it by now, but that did kinda hurt that text directly says it wasn't important x'D Like whats point of keeping axis and maelstrom around if the main themes of them are stated to be unimportant?)
Sphere of annihilation or Holy Avenger aren't going to be too hard to replace, but what is going to replace our favorite "time to play mini game for random catastrophic results" artifact? :'D Its not like we can just have harrow deck of many things right?
Saw on steam the other BKOM pathfinder game and that one is kinda lowering my expectations again ^_^; Vampire survivor type pathfinder game just doesn't feel very pathfinder to me, but maybe I'm just being grumpy
...Does this mean we can finally consider THE VOID official name of Negative Energy Plane?
Because I seriously prefer that as the official name of negative energy plane rather than as nickname xD Negative Energy Plane just sounds so... Academic xD the VOID is fun to say aloud
...Do you think paizo will 1) rename them 2) replace them with new devils or...
...and this is my favorite option...
...3) use it as opportunity to have come back of more obscure 1e fiends like Ukobach(tinder devil, CR 4), gidim(posession devil, CR 6) or even chortov(..I don't think this devil got title in council of thieves, anyway CR 9)?
...I really like idea of them bringing back forgotten pathfinder original fiends to replace "iconic OGL ones". Like I think lot of the ogl fiends overshadowed lot of the similar level ranges :'D
I'm kinda wondering if easy to miss mention of "Gap protocol" in Triune's speech is "protocol related to dealing with Gap" or implication that Gap was established to prevent something from happening?
I'm feeling drift crisis felt pretty underused. Like majority of the factions or npcs introduced didn't even show up in any of adventures during the year.
Other thing I'm thinking is that "If paizo is starting to think that maybe they should do more adventures with bigger impact on setting", they probably should have used drift crisis book to canonize pre drift crisis aps since they likely knew they would choose drift lanes to be canon and thus be obviously outdating the old aps ^^; Like I get idea that "well clearly majority haven't played them yet, so let's try to encourage them to play them even if they use drift crisis with this handy article of how to incorporate drift crisis into aps", but it just feels like nah they should have just canonized them instead to me x'D
I mean, I prefer PF2e experience system to 1e/SF one, but am I still only gm who will obsessively count xp for players even if players don't count it and use the encounter exp guidelines? x'D
Its literally staff used by monks that is sometimes used in martial arts especially in wuxia genre :O
Actually, why does monastic weaponry feat not just give monks scaling profiency in martial weapons? Lot of the non monk weapons could be used by variety of different monks and martial artists when you think about it :'D
So as I'm running JR in 2e with homebrew stuff in final two books, I'm kinda curious of what will be canon conclusions of some part in book :'D Like will we finally learn governors of various regions? Will Paizo give canon result for five seals or will they be left unknown so people gming JR can do whatever they wanted with them? x'D Will we answers on some of hooks not used in JR(like last two imperial weapons)? I hunger to know x'D
So I'm in firm belief that SF2e shouldn't be just "PF2e the scifi edition with heavier focus on vehicle/starship/mech combat". Not just because of things like "canteena species system is hard to keep up if everyone has ancestry feats or if species feats are generic" and that "there are lot of different unique weapons out on market and items to allow you to do things that would be higher level in pathfinder at low levels" aspect but also because of things like small flavor differences in mechanics and potential for doing things PF2e did in playtest but didn't get to final version as some of them might be better fit in starfinder.
(pathfinder 1e also had dealios with "well 3.5 monsters should be compatible with system" and starfinder had bugs related to "well pathfinder 1e monsters should be portable to starfinder, so I hope starfinder avoids this school of thought so we don't have restrictions because "you should be able to use pathfinder monsters in starfinder and vice versa without conversion issues!")
For example of the playtest related dealios 1) in pf2e playtest the untrained profiency bonus being equal to your level (or in later errata -4 your level) might make more sense to players in starfinder than pathfinder. I honestly always preferred idea of untrained profiency also scaling with level, but the "I want my wizard to really suck at athletics" crowd won out for understandable reasons. I'd think though that in starfinder it really does make sense that in futuristic word where common education is a thing that everyone has baseline ability to use computers and drive vehicles :'D Its already kinda hurting in starfinder when vehicles come in and only single character has piloting.
There is also that some devs seemed bummed out that removal of baseline for skills meant that skills couldn't be used as DCs more often(in pf2e remnant of this is mostly athletics dc for grapple escape related stuff and deception dc), and I'm curious to see what devs would come up with if all characters could be expected to have at minimum of certain skill dc by specific levels.
Other thing from playtest that I think could have potential here is 2) having profiencies only jump one number instead of two (so 1/2/3 instead of 2/4/6). I honestly preferred the change to bigger numbers since it feels better to me, but I do think devs do have point that it harder to play around with class proficiency(so all martials need to have at least master, because +2 isn't competitive with +6, compared to how +2 would have been competitive with +4 in comparison) and I'm again curious to see what devs would do with that. But main reason I think that might work better here is that starfinder in general feels like there should be smaller jump between levels and effectiveness than in pathfinder, especially assuming if they keep around six levels of spells compared to ten levels.
This is especially important in starfinder because wizard in pf2e isn't competitive using weapon vs enemies, but I feel like mystic with pistol should stay competitive vs enemies in starfinder and shouldn't be forced to have master profiency to do that :'D So if starfinder 2e uses profiencies, expert should be competitive vs high level enemies even if legendary and master are still better.
Third thing isn't strictly playtest thing, its more of how action economy and spells work. I much prefer 3 action economy to swift/move/standard action, but playtest did admittedly show "what if spells had variable effects based on actions you use" where release game just had vast majority of spells be just 2 actions. Basically I think spell design in starfinder using 3 action economy should have all spells have potential of either 1-2 actions or 2-3 actions at least to have spellcasters get full benefit of interesting parts of action economy as well.
I feel like more time passes, less likely it will be that I get to play scoured home with my izalguun character one exp away from leveling up out of tier :'D
So personally Pathfinder 2e is one of my favorite systems, but one of my players seems to prefer Starfinder, so I figured out might as well make post to share gist of their take about it
Basically, they kinda feel like Pathfinder 2e doesn't have mechanically gonzo options that are also good at same time due to Pathfinder focusing heavily on balance and having baseline experience be similar, where Starfinder is balanced game that allows things players to have pointlessly strong abilities like immunities or permanent movement options and other weird variety of things.
I don't personally have huge stake in this(I like both pathfinder 2e and starfinder, but starfinder has lot of small things that annoy me mechanically), but I do agree that my favorite items from treasure vault previews are the most gonzo ones, I'm fan of gonzo in general x'D
So players are currently done with bandits, so for my homebrew this question rises its head again :'D Minkai has eight provinces named after cities, but the jade regent gazetteer never spells them out, but pathfinder wiki assumes (quite logically to be fair) that the said eight provinces are the only eight cities listed on the map. I guess that is fairly safe assumption, but I'm slightly scared of "what if 2e introduces more cities so I assumed provinces incorrectly"
So I'm checking if I'm missing anything and this is literally only information that we have of provinces, the short gazetteer on cities themselves, that one of them actually has a named governor and one of them has comment that governor is lenient?
But yeah, it is handy for homebrew since it means I can fill in 7 governors myself, but its kinda scary tbh since I'm expecting any future 2e minkai info to fill in blanks
In effort to do my homebrew and try to understand how Minkai is split into eight provinces (and get any hints on two missing royal weapons) I've done lot of small details research and I realized something: I don't get the timeline.
So to check, about 50 years ago the oni started their plan to infiltrate Minkai's society and destroy imperial families one by one in 4651. In 4652 Rokuro already saw through the plan and started escape from Oni?
I'm... Honestly confused about this because the timeline assumes it took long for oni to infiltrate everywhere and destroy families one by one, but Amatatsu Rokuro decided to yeet himself out right at start of it. Teikoku, Shojinawa and Sugimatu were taken care during this fifty years(Sugimatu fell first due to poisoning over course of years, Shojinawa went according to rumors period of magical corruption until big explosion and Teikoku were dealt with in military manner it seems. Amatatsu family has no mention so either family was small when Rokuro escaped with his son or everyone else in family just died and its glossed over?)
Well anyway, in 4708 they finally assassinate the current emperor (whose predecessors were also assassinated) and presumably imprison or kill everyone else in Higashiyama family as well making them last of the families to fall.
...Yeah I do kinda wish we would have gotten Minkai book or something to clarify this, would make my homebrewing much much easier x'D
I decided to make thread on most evil factions on setting that aren't cultists, genocidal xenophobes, murderhobos or have inherent lack of free will (such as fiends by being literal manifestation of concept of evil into physical form made out of quintessence aka literal stuff experiences, ideas and alignment is made out of).
The twist here? Speculating on why these factions became evil and whether they have non evil PC potential ;D This might be caused by my annoyance at people assuming this setting is running out of evil, so I'm kinda running with that idea "Okay, let's theorycraft this, could you make non evil PC". After all, as gm, even without making up homebrew setting lore, you can justify anything. Forewarning: Yeah most of these are aberrations, who would have thunk it.
So lets start with almighty fish overlords, Alghollthu and their empire, the mind controlling alien fish wishing to rule their slaves from shadows.:
Why are they evil? Is it because of their powers lead them to easily dominate others? Nah, its most likely because they all share genetic memory from since they were primordial ooze and first Alghollthu with personality to form probably happened to be a jerk who wanted to abuse its natural mind control powers. Alghollthu have individuals due to individual experiences, different bodies and such, but all of them share same lineatic memory to their origin. Their intelligence, power and mind control abilities do kinda foster really narcistic personality types which then pass on to their spawn through the memories, which makes things like "introspection to learn error of my ways" very hard when you have thousands of years of believing in your superiority since from age of mindless cells. The easiest way for non evil Alghollthu I see is them having amnesia to start from blank slate, but them being huge fishes doesn't lead them well to PC status.
Honestly, I only see creations of Alghollthu such as úgothol(wow I did that accent accidentally and now I don't want to correct it) or ulat-kini having non evil potential, especially since ulat-kini don't have the feature of being single gender deep ones anymore. They likely have problems with overcoming psychic programming built into them like how some azarketi have ancient Alghollthu sleeper agent programming hidden inside their minds, but they don't have baggage of literally inheriting your ancestors' narcissism.
Dominion of the Black is vast, so let's focus on Intellect Devourer, the OG darkland body snatchers:
So this one is actually fairly clear besides being Dominion of the Black adjacent alien beings: besides their inherent ability to take over bodies by consuming brain, the main incentive for them to take over sapient hosts is that Intellect Devourers don't have much of sensory sensations in their natural form. Its very much directly stated they are fascinated senses like touch, taste and pain. In otherwords, they are very much addicted to tactile senses.
This is actually one of more common traits between various Dominion of the Black aliens. They in general lack empathy for other beings, seem to share overall philosophy of annihilation/void/oblivion, have tendency to see them as purely resources to be harvested and used(more intelligent beings better resources), but some of them also appear to have hunger for something specific. Chyezaeda have endless hunger for sustenance and knowledge, Neshmaal have hunger for life energy of creatures, Deh-Nolo are stated to have hunger for knowledge Brain Collectors aren't spelled out to thave this hunger(they are fanatical to the Dominion's philosophy though) but they do have biological ability to use stolen brains as storage space.
I'd say that Intellect Devourers would have better chance of becoming non evil than Alghollthu have since any being based around infiltration and deception has to have some level of empathy to learn to pretend like person whose body they stole, but likely all Dominion species have developed with ability to not think other beings as really "people" in order to be able to make use of their abilities on other sapient beings without sense of guilt. The main thing is over beings like D&D Mind Flayer who explicitly need sapient brains to reproduce, is that Intellect Devourers likely don't need humanoids or such, they just get more out of them due to abilities or infiltration potential. (though arguably animals likely have equal if not greater sensory input than humans) Another thing to realize is that while Intellect Devourers gain knowledge of how to use their new body's abilities and know their role and status in society, they don't gain specific knowledge or feelings of the body. Because likely if they did see the body's memories and live through them, they'd have better chance of learning to empathize with their victim that would be counterproductive for them. I'd think most likely case of non evil Intellect Devourer would be one that has lived as same person and have to be pretend to be friends with other people for so long they have assimilated into the role. Their culture itself has no strong incentive to encourage altruism or empathy because their ability makes them feel good because it helps them break away from complete lack of tactile sensory input.
PC wise though never playable since too powerful abilities, but I could see them being represented as reflection heritage being with lineage similar to morph-risen.
So another aberration empire, this time Neothelids worm empire:
So why are these level 15 gargantuan psychic worms evil besides having lot of power to abuse? Because they serve the plots of Great Old ones and Outer Gods. Whether because they were created by them or because their alien minds understand and agree their with the alien worldview of Mythos, Neothelids are very much first out of three aberrations listed here that is impossible to fully understand because Ctulhu Mythos relies on concept of "beyond humanoid understanding". Either way, they have knowledge from beyond this reality and plot with their worm servants to rule the world when Great Old Ones arise.
Technically Neothelids could be CN like some great old ones I suppose, but yeah this is very much best argument for always CE out of these three. Its hard to tell even if memory wipe would help here since its unknown how their connection to reality beyond reality works and moment you give them way of thinking that makes sense from human perspective, it doesn't work with Cthulhu mythos rules anymore. They are also last Mythos related faction I discuss because while all mythos factions aren't evil, they just like fiends kinda rely on concept of "it just has to be beyond mortal understanding or it doesn't count". Still though, I think its good thing to note that they aren't evil for evil's sake, their sense of normal is just what would be evil to most beings. Mythos beings can have malice yes, but not necessary from their perspective.
Undead in general, because too many factions to note, but I need this as setup for last one:
Okay, undead are fairly simple: Its pretty much directly stated in lore, outside of starfinder, that to remain as non evil undead you need extraordinary will power because you are animated by entropic energy that gives you inherent need to destroy living beings.
So as results undead are perfect pcs for beings who want to resist corruption inherent to them and do good in spite of their condition. Metawise this is because otherwise by killing yourself you could become immortal and stronger being :p Hence why there has to be trade off for being undead unless you are eeeeeeeevil already. In which case its just small price of losing your original personality and memories to undead corruption.
Uderfhans, created by horsemen as weapons of the apocalypse INCOMING SPECULATION:
So hear me out here: Uderfhans might have "anti souls" somehow made of negative energy that give them similar anthipathy to living beings as undead have(hence uderfhan's gleefulness towards violence and creating better methods of killing), but they aren't actually inherently evil despite being 99.99% evil. I'm sure at least one developer or writer will do spit take now.
Plot twist here? Fiends have no free will. Undead freewill is heavily affected by the negative energy corrupting their souls. So you'd think that uderfhans have no free will due to having souls of negative energy right? Nah, you are thinking of it wrong way around, they HAVE free will AND inherent taste for violence. Paradoxical? Yes. True? Evidence suggests so. Beings with normal soul made out of positive energy have free will and most of them value life. Uderfhans have souls made out of energy of destruction and thus most value death, but they do still have free will by same logic right?
So why is this relevant besides stating that "Its not really that uderfhans don't have choice but to be evil, they just enjoy killing so most of them choose to go with their masters' doomsday plan"? Because of freewill, some of them have created ambitions than just serving their master's will. Some of them want to survive as long as possible. Others want to earn uderfhan species their own glory independent of daemons and culture beyond mindless violence(even if that violence is used towards other things instead in calculated fashion). So it stands to reason that just like how there are super (fictionally) nihilistic serial killers among people, that there probably are uderfhan who have uncharacteristically pacifistic tendencies. Uderfhans have potential to create independent path from daemons, but the main thing that trips us up is that their inherent values are so much different from normal beings that to them, uderfhan who doesn't like violence is as weird as human who loves murdering people with death traps. Aka nobody expects it, but when you think about it, they are very much example of Bizarro people. How far that goes? Hard to say, there are lot of people who don't like killing in real life, but enjoy it in context of games, so I suppose I wouldn't be surprised if its something similar to some of them.
I would have written about serpentfolk next, but tbh, I doubt anyone reads all five of those :'D Nobody reads my long wind posts when I get excited to do lore talk x'D
Realized the one thread I revived wasn't on lore side of forum AND that I have lot more extensive questions about topic than I thought.
So long time ago I asked around why Animated Dreams didn't have spirit tag and was told it was because they were bodiless beings composed of mental essence(so incorporeal astral thoughtform probably wouldn't be spirit, but incorporeal ethereal being would be), but then secrets of magics lore writings told us animated dreams are composed of mental and spirit essences :'D So that created confusion of whether its just matter of "being is made of majority of spiritual stuff". Further confusing matter is that celestials, monitors and fiends have physical body composed of materialized spirit, but they aren't spirits, so what are spirits with physical bodies like kami composed of?
So that's why I made this thread: To theorize and hopefully figure out how variosu beings are composed based on secrets of magics descriptions. My current theory so far is that:
Mortals: Balance of four essences unless they are mindless.
Elementals: All four essences, but heavily leaning towards matter.
Celestials/Monitors/Fiends: Heavily spiritual essence with life and mental mixed in and quintessence replacing need for matter essence.
Kami/spirits with body: All four with heavily leaning towards spiritual essence.
Etherreals: Heavy mix of mental and spirit essences with some life and matter as well if they have physical body.
Shadow: All four, though spiritual essence might be weaker based on shadow creature(implication is that shadow powers are gained by sacrificing parts of your spirits hence why shadowcasters tend to have subdued emotions)
Astral: Presumably Mental and life essences if they are bodiless astral thoughform and Astral, life and matter if they are physical one? Though beings like ennosites might have all four essences with heavy lean towards mental essence I'd imagine.
Dream: This is confusing one. Secrets of magic implies that Animated dreams have mental and spirit essence but not life? I'd personally had guessed that dream beings have mental and life essences and matter if they have body as well and only spirit if they are just beings that have moved to live in dream world. But is actual case that they have all essences except life? Mortal constructs seem to have all four essences, so would dream beings being actual examples of construct like beings that are essentially fully alive?
Another option is that all beings expect spirits have all four essences or one essence replacing need for other essences :'D (like ectoplasm being weird example of spirit stretching matter and quintessence being spirit replacing matter) and only creatures lacking one of essences are mindless creatures?
I've already long ago finished my ruins of azlant campaign, but I'm currently taking inspiration from this artifact, so I want help on this: what would be realistic effects of various Synchrony Device explosions in different locations? My understanding so far is that positive and negative explosions would funnily enough be least destructive while fire and earth ones could be apocalyptic depending on location. But I have hard time grasping on how wide area any of the effects, besides positive or negative, would affect outside of their 500 miles radius.
So while trying to figure out whether half-elf can be a half-drow officially speaking for a darklands half elf character I was making, I realized something: while cavern elves are confirmed to be different from drow, what ARE cavern elves?
Like, is there any elf culture on Golarion that actively lives in darklands or in caves besides drow?
So I'm checking that I haven't missed anything and only 3 out of five are detailed? Or was these some detail on what kind of weapons last two were even if they weren't statted?
So with impending public release of kingmaker 2e, if the kingdom building rules turn out to work great in practice that means it'll be fun to use them in home campaigns as well whether in homebrew or Lost Omens setting :3 So I figured out it'd be fun to ponder where would be good locations for such. (nice thing about kingmaker kingdom building rules is that rules themselves don't assume specific setting per say, though they are missing advice/rules for arctic and desert terrains as those aren't in kingmaker)
I'll just get it out of the way, Sarusan would be good location if we had bigger map of it that would be easier to split into hexes ;D But yeah gm only land aside
I think most obvious locations would be Ironbound Archipelago and Iobaria. Ironbound Archipelago because devs have noted few time it could be fun kingmaker spiritual successor location and it indeed would be :D There are 13 islands with five of them being taken by Linnorm Kingdom, so both provides you a sponsor to settle on other islands, enough space for rival charters and enough self contained location that you could fit entire thing in hex map and not feel like "wait so what about our neighbor Mivon?" since while sea trade being included would be cool and such, geographical isolation makes ignoring wider international politics much easier campaign wise.
(Rest of the Linnorm Kings right now don't have super good space for new kingdom being built since now in 2e two regions don't have linnorm kings, one of them has de-facto ruler who is linnorm king in all but title since he isn't interested in slaying linnorms as he has important border defense thing going on and second is Grungir Forest aka place where Fafnheir lives. So no real new region to build up kingdom in and then cement your place as king by dueling linnorm at higher levels)
Iobaria on otherhand makes sense as its decentralized wilderness region with several small city states and three factions that explicitly want to unite it into a nation. So that's three potential sponsors or rivals if you are founding fourth faction that wants to unite the region and build national identity. Plus the whole history of several different people trying to do so previously builds up lot of regional history and interesting roleplaying moments to party's group trying to do so again.
Azlant would probably also work more or less, Ruins of Azlant didn't have players involved much in building up Talmandor's Bounty or such much since that one had more of optional "you can use downtime rules for creating business or building home" thing going on, but logically if Ironbound isles could work Azlant could too yeah. Main problem doing it on Azlant would be logistics stuff(like, population growth wouldn't really be that high, it kinda feels that Azlant would fit more of settlement builder than nation builder) and that I think Ruins of Azlant are interesting as locations for underwater campaigns which I suspect doesn't really mix well with kingdom building.
Less obviously, I think Five Kings Mountain's would sort of work due to similar themes of "there are only couple city states and there was strong dream of united culture among dwarves that died out", but that one has bit of issue in that unless campaign lasts for hundred years its hard to be convinced that this time it won't collapse in few dwarven lifespans like previous ones did(very Dwarf Fortress-y). Granted maybe its less about what happens in distant future and more about what happens now and giving local dorfs hope about it. *shrugs*
Besides that uh, I can think of few "local people decide to centralize" ideas but I'm not really happy about any of them. 2e kingdom building rules do include Yeomanry as government option, so you CAN represent decentralized nation, but I'm still bit iffy on whether that would fit. Like kingdom building in Mwangi Expanse would feel bit weird since region is much more interesting that decentralized. In Varisia you could build case for them uniting in response to new thassilon and such, but becoming new city states that unites other city states into varisian nation sounds bit off to me and still comes with the "settlers vs natives" problems and Shoanti deciding to unite into one nation doesn't seem like their interest either. One such idea I could actually see is a mammoth lord trying to unite realm of mammoth lords, but that would be more of a possible Quest for Frozen Flame continuation campaign if party decides to break away from traditions as its one of possible campaign continuation ideas. Sarkoris Scar I'm bit unsure about, I could see that one also working concept wise, but that's a lot of demon pollution so seems bit of like hard mode campaign :'D
You knew this was coming ;D Anyway, I'm sure that even with starfinder existing, there is presence of scifi tech in pathfinder and not just because of numeria... Hence thread name. I think 2e version of technology guide should be combined with detailing planets in Golarion's star system with heavier tech focus. If Akitonians can have future guns then why not our android gunslingers too? That and would make it easier to run iron gods in 2e :p We kinda need this anyway for that dominion of the black alien invasion campaign or numeria 2e campaign whatever we will end up getting.
(and no, guns & gears isn't technology guide, that one was less scifi and more steam punk and early firearms even with tesla coils)
Anyway, I'll be doing likely my final lore binge on obscure setting materials since I'm fairly sure this is last corner(or spaaaace) in Golarion('s related material) to discuss. And just remember, having 2e adventures in planets doesn't affect starfinder and vice versa, sword & sorcery planet traveling is as much form of fantasy as other genres present on golarion. We don't even really need AP set on them, we could have just anthology adventure book with one adventure on each of them. Heck detailing them helps with more of Golarion alien shenanigans as well! So yeah summaries of even less technological stuff in solar system(I try to include reason to explore locations in pathfinder era):
LORE BINGE:
Sun(Mataras by Lashunta) the Burning Mother: So this is that one adventuring location you won't really ever be able to just "walk" or "fly" into ;P Burning Archipelago bubble cities existed back in 1e as well and they weren't yet completely abandoned like they were when they were discovered in starfinder, so having details on their inhabitants back then and the mr wizard who decided to move to sun would be fun(who is Eziah anyway? Is he older than Azlant? Is he from recent history?). We likely will never see Sun Deep Cultures from starfinder though because I can't imagine anybody from pathfinder era even getting idea of trying to go that deep into blinding burning fire.
Aballon, The Horse: So the most obviously high technological planet of solar system, perfect for tech guide related adventuring ;D There is actually small group of about 50 people who have gotten stuck on Aballon due to portal shenanigans, so adventure about getting stuck on aballon accidentally both makes sense and if they were rescued from planet nobody on starfinder era would even know they had been there in first place ;D (I doubt we would get playable anacites or khizars though in 2e, but still lot of evocative ideas of bunch of fantasy people getting stuck on cold planet with machine cities and only couple of air pockets... Plus hey legendary survivalists would get use out of that feat if its high level adventure instead :D)
Also fun fact: before Epoch ascended and combined with Brigh and Casandalee, it was a city on Aballon, Epoch the Striving. Or to be accurate, it was massive neural network that was already close to godhood back in 1e. So yes, we could totally witness ascension of new god and have third pre triune machine god clerics in 2e ;D
Castrovel the Green: So this is planet we definitely need to feature in 2e eventually because of elves alone :P I mean, you can't have PCs be aliens, Kyonin have direct portal to Sovyrian and formians and lashunta occasionally on golarion without ever featuring fantasy venus, right? xP They didn't really have space era tech yet in 1e, so its really fitting fantasy location too!
Golarion the Cage got featured its moon(or Somal by Azlanti) in distant worlds instead. Not much to say there besides that would be interesting to get update on Moonscar and City of the Faceless in 2e. Moon Dungeons also had "potentially monumental discovery" that was never followed up on, since penal city was established by azlanti to explore the mysterious tunnels in first place. Moon is gone by time of starfinder, so whatever was there? Never discovered by starfinder's people's because of the gap.
Akiton the Red is mostly on John Carter of Mars level somewhat advanced scifi technology(1e had picture of ikeshi junk trader on pile of metallic scifi junk and cyborg eye, 2e has apparently futuristic looking rifles), but still very fitting fantasy adventuring ;D Apparently Azlant long ago invaded a region and established an outpost too. Either way, besides lot of interesting potential ancestries and adventures, there is apparently already one 2e adventure that goes there so... Yeah, just saying, technology guide would be good spot to detail more of Akitonian technology ;D I don't know if that was detailed even in 1e. Plus mystery of akitonian ysoki would be nice to delve into more too, plus its perfect location for biker mice from mars reference.
Verces the Line is another high technological society, plus an interesting one to see pre its Starfinder incarnation because back in pathfinder their caste system wasn't yet seen as "archaic" and thus it was more culturally important instead of just a tradition. Honestly meeting highly cybernetic society is more fascinating on pathfinder era, especially since clerics and religion is more important in pathfinder than in starfinder, so God-Vessels make me wonder, what were verthani deities?
Diapora the Lost Ones is bit of "well there are so many asteroids that you could easily feature ones never shown in starfinder side or that didn't exist on pathfinder side. Like House of the Void, does it still exist in starfinder? I don't think it has ever been mentioned. Anyway, brotherhood of silent robed people of impossible to tell origin? That is very much something fun to explore. All of planets have bunch of adventure hooks that obviously don't exist in starfinder anymore or locations that never got brought up in starfinder either(so either location doesn't exist or its heavily changed by time or starfinder isn't touching them in case pathfinder wants to use them) I'm not honestly sure how technological pathfinder 1e sarcesians are since they can survive in vacuum naturally, but they were at least advanced enough to have interplanetary magic war with Eox and create a kaiju to send to destroy Eox.
Eox the Dead or as it seemed in 1e, the cyborg Giger-esque lich planet ;D Since Eoxians are basically immortal aging wise, this is most unchanged location by time of Starfinder in terms of locations matching up, though iirc there are several locations still having disappeared(and locals noticed) or changed in scope a lot. Either way, horror of Eoxian liches invading Golarion or experimenting is something I've wanted to see more of in 1e, thought it was nice to have cameo of one of them in one ap in certain funny location ;D Anyway obviously as technological space, it has place in technology guide! Plus corpse fleet isn't a thing in 1e yet, so focus of Eox would be more on bone sage shenanigans than Corpse Fleet terrorists risking their allegiance with rest of pact worlds. Eox is in politically really different place in pathfinder and starfinder since in pathfinder they'd be hostile antagonist and in starfinder they are uneasy evil creepy allies.
Triaxus, the Wanderer, featured in cool book in certain 1e ap ;D Unfortunately both starfinder and pathfinder are in the "winter season" of the planet, but its local dragon related politics and trixians are fun. Not really technology guide related location, but its alternate very dragon focused winter campaign setting with cool dragon riding shenanigans and different feeling from its starfinder counterpart. Either way, you see triaxians occasionally making cameos on Golarion, Triaxus, Castrovel and Akiton are probably planetary stuff references you see most common in pathfinder 1e.
Liavara the Dreamer is bit like Diaspora in that "well this is a location that is actually multiple other locations", with amount of moons I'm fairly sure we haven't even explored all of them in starfinder either. Still lot of Liavara's moons would be fascinating to witness in their ancient state, and would be fun to learn whether Forever Queen of Nchak is actually Hylax's avatar or not ;P Well whatever she is, Trox being from Nchak is fun detail and I hope Trox make come back in 2e.
Bretheda the Craddle is also a gas planet with moons that are actually multiple settings, though presumably less than Liavara's countless shepherd moons, we haven't gotten all of Bretheda's moons detailed in starfinder either. Honestly same what I said about Liavara applies here, it would be fascinating to see pathfinder era of some of the people, but Liavara and Bretheda in 1e are mostly collection of paragraphs about cool thing on a planet that then in starfinder got adapted into playable species. I consider them potentially interesting locations, but since both planet's moons are isolated from each other, they are more of "interesting mini settings" where other planets in solar system work as entire campaign settings. Still it isn't reason to not give us ancestry stats for them Kalo have displaced people on Golarion as well ;D So why not Maraquai in 2e as well? Eh eh? If nothing else, less technologically advanced barathu would be interesting to witness.
Apostae the Messenger: aka the most changed planet by time of starfinder since by starfinder its now the drow planet and Ilee got removed :'D Also since its possibly actually a spaceship with malfunctioning portals... Yeah fitting for technology guide. But yeah would be nice to get adventure to flesh out Ilee and their "each individual of species looks nothing alike" thing.
And finally Aucturn the Stranger, confirmed in doomsday dawn to be... Wait is it a spoiler to say it aloud? :'D Another location that hasn't really changed much politically by time of starfinder since mostly ruled by ageless aberrations, though it has gotten some shifts as biological planet with certain creepy locations being no longer in function by starfinder. This is very much just for local aberration cthulhu dominion of the black shenanigans without needing to go to another star system, but its cool and creepy. Honestly I think this one is more terrifying in pathfider than in starfinder when you have assault rifles and spaceships. If you are stuck on this planet with just sword and shield, good luck :'D I'm sure it would also have a place in technology guide as examples of gross organic technology, especially with dominion of the black having some presence on planet
Sooo yeah. Hope we will get 2e planetary content back xD Especially since starfinder setting content is slow production that likes to focus more on the new materials outside of pact worlds first
