Hey guys. I was hoping for two players who are rapidly able to go through the new playtest characters that will drop on the 29th. One to play Guardian, and one to play Commander.
I'll be choosing people who can hopefully post once or twice per day on weekdays to try and get a good feel for the classes. I'm thinking we can go through concept and character creation together on discord once we get the actual playtest classes and then... either keep playing there or come here on the boards. I've got a character creation system I've been working on that I hope will be fun and discord tends to go faster than forum posts for that part.
It'll be a mechanics focused game of course... not coming up with a major backstory or anything like that. It'll be more of a hub structure than a dungeon crawl though.
Maps will be used, either google slides or I'll figure out owlbear rodeo or something.
Since these both are martials, I'm up for suggestions on how to create a well rounded party that can play the 'standard' Cleric/Fighter/Rogue/Wizard expectation of the game.
One thing that's worked well for me is to come up with passive personality GMPCs that will follow direction and we can decide on what they are to fit the two PCs. I know GMPCs can be terrible so maybe we can come up with another solution but I'm confident in my ability to keep them NPCs.
Apologies if this has been asked but is there any plan for the four remastered classes to be playtested before publication? Or even other remastered rules in general?
So with kobold press and mcdm and others all seeming to be wanting to create their own games to escape WOTC it seems like the possibility of a mass migration to pf2e is not going to happen.
Which is honestly fine despite my paizo fandom.
I'm hoping though that all these publishers and paizo can work together to publish under the same common license at the very least. Maybe everyone can work together to publish some general guidelines on how to convert between the systems as well.
Korvosa sits at the end of Conqueror’s Bay, where the Jeggare River spills into the sea. The city fills the spit of land formed by two sharp turns in the Jeggare River and Endrin Isle (which splits the river at its mouth), with a few outlying areas on the far shore of the Jeggare. It stands on two hills: Garrison Hill on Endrin Isle and Citadel Hill on the mainland. The Narrows of Saint Alika separates Endrin Isle from the shore. Off the coast of the southern end of Citadel Hill rises Jeggare Isle, a small rock that juts from the sea.
The city is unsettled just like every other part of the continent of Avistan. The last 10 years or so have seen the Inner Sea rocked by one world shaking event after another. Just as news of the Worldwound closing settles in everyone minds, the missive that the Whispering Tyrant has broken free of his prison, destroying the nation of Lastwall and turning it into a GraveLand starts to filter into the city alongwith refugees fleeing the lich. The threat of the undead forces many different ancestries to start to overcome age old prejudices out of sheer necessity. Orc, Goblin, and Hobgoblin, newly allied with the other humanoids of the world.
Still the most momentous event, as far as Korvosans are concerned, remains the death of the cruel Queen Ileosa 13 or so years ago. The latest to succumb to the curse of the Crimson Throne. The former Field Marsall of the Guard, the fair and lawful Cressida Kroft was appointed the next queen and has thus far avoided the same fate.
***
Midland is the cosmopolitan and friendly face of the former Chelaxian outpost in the region of Varisia. Situated on the leeward side of Citadel Hill, Midland stretches from the end of Enderin’s Wall south to Gray District and the Pillar Wall. It rises from sea level to climb the eastern slope of Citadel Hill, where it ends just below the summit line.
It is here, on the 20th of Kuthona, one night before the Winter Solstice and the festival of CrystalHue, that three people, for reasons of their own, find themselves on Eodred street next to the eerily quiet market of Eodred's Walk. As the snow falls in gentle swirls and the moon provides light enough to see by, even the nocturnal habitants of the city seem to have decided to take a rest.
As the human, sprite, and half orc's eyes meet from different corners of the street. The peacefulness of the night is pierced by a sudden shout of pure terror from a nearby alley. The shout rapidly oscillates higher into a high pitched scream!
Paizo must be aware the OGL makes it real easy for people to just yoink pf2 like paizo yoinked d&d 3.5.
Heck it doesn't even have to be pf 2.5,it could be pf 2.01, I love the rules so much.
Which leads me to speculate how much the company is committed to allegedly abusive and absolutely not worker friendly management... The game rules are there for anybody to just take after all. Why risk it?
Paizo has pivoted before and I trust they're smart enough to pivot again.
So I was thinking about this and I figured it would be good to run it past more experienced folks here.
For spells other than the ones that already play well with the action economy like Magic missile and heal why not reduce the action to cast by 1? (min 1). Add MAP to subsequent offensive spell casts to balance multiple spells in a round and... It should be fine? Definitely a power bump but since the spells themselves are tuned down as well I think it works? Allows more dynamic caster turns as well. Move spell move anyone?
It seems to me that Discord gaming might have taken a large chunk out of Pbp forum games, even more than VTT.
VTTs are an online way of playing TTRPGS sure, but they offer a very different play experience than the text RP heavy and slower playing rate of Pbp games. While I've never played a Discord game, it seems to me that medium has the ability to replicate the strengths of forum gaming while adding modern conveniences and more open modular technology that forums can't replicate.
You can't just add a bot or create one for a forum for example, and it's hard to create side chats as needed on the fly, and Discord also has the advantage of being a platform that many people already just have as opposed to having to create a forum account and actively visit. On Discord you just get a notification that someone has posted.
Am I wrong about this? Can someone who has played on both mediums comment? Of course a good group trumps all, but what advantage that PBP provide that Discord can't replicate?
And have a lot of GMs and Players migrated their time to Discord or is it just my imagination?
Don't think we've approached the topic from this angle so I thought I'd bring it up.
To me the witch was one of my fave classes. Which is quite surprising as I don't like Vancian magic!
I realize that 2e is different enough from 1e that there's no direct mapping possible or even desirable but here is my personal rundown of some of their features, why I liked them, and hope it'll inform the designers as they update it to 2e!
A. Loved
* Hexes, slinging hexes around on a round by round basis as my main combat thing is/was fun as hell. It's a tactical minigame for me, do I spread my hexes around? Do I try and really lock the bad guy done? In what order? Can I get away with cackling to extend it or am I forced to do something else? Errating out Cackling twice in a round made me :_(. The Hexes themselves were flavorful too! Evil Eye, Misfortune, Hair Strangle! And I know that players with cursed dice ironically liked this as they didn't have to roll, they made their VICTIMS roll.
* Creepy spell list. I'm glad overall the custom class spell list of 1e are gone but they were really great for the witch. You had Creepy, You had debuffs, You had creepy debuffs (Cackle into Vomit Swarm all day err day), plus healing! Made perfect sense and there was a lot of useful stuff.
* Basically it was the premier debuffer which is a great mechanical niche for all the kids to enjoy.
B. Meh
* Patrons, never came up unless I made them in the backstory in a way that was easy for the GM to incorporate.
* Familiar, I always gave my familiars personalities but there wasn't anything I could do with them as they were too precious and fragile.
I really like the suggestion of some cantrip/bard composition style hexes suggested here:
https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42u2w?Witch-should-be-inspired-by-the-bard
As it allows for my PF1 witch playstyle of hexing multiple enemies/allies and cackling to keep all the debuffs/buffs going.
It's a unique playstyle that benefits folks who want to roll as little as possible and it gave a very strong and useful mechanical niche of premier reliable debuffer at the cost of action economy.
PF2 witches of course can't do this as Hexes are a focus spell and so you can only have one up at a time at the start and a max of only three up. Having some cantrip hexes would alleviate that.
Is there something about the common PF1 Witch Strategy that is somehow not a good fit for Pf2?
Enjoying the playtest discussion, figured I'd throw my two cents in.
For a variety of reasons the witch having access to the arcane tradition just doesn't sit well with me. To me the 'logic and rationality' of arcane doesn't really fit with gaining powers through the gift of a mysterious patron. Heck, arcane magic doesn't really deal with the 'spirit' or the 'soul' which are very 'witchy' things to me. Considering the 'patron' it makes far more sense for a witch to have a divine patron rather then have access to the energies a book learned wizard does. Occult and Primal though FULLY fit, with Occult leaning into the Halloween Witch while Primal emphases the fae, hedge magic, Wiccan side of the fantasy.
That leads me to my suggestion. Drop arcane, keep occult and primal. And make the choice of occult and primal more compelling by putting some extra mechanics heft to it.
Duality is such a strong part of the witch myth. The 'Good' and 'Wicked' witch of The Wizard of Oz, subverted in later takes of the story (such as Wicked the musical). There's also the best witches in fiction to my mind. Discworld. Granny Weatherwax in fact really really embodies The Dark vs Light.
The reason why the bard being an occult caster really compelled me is that it made complete sense for a the bard to fight Occult horrors the way champions face off against divine monsters.
Heroic Witches should do that better.
Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett Major spoilers:
Quote:
She glanced up at the tall, silent figure beside her.
GOOD EVENING.
“Oh … you again.”
ANOTHER CHOICE, ESMERELDA WEATHERWAX.
“Light and dark? It’s never as simple as that, you know, even for you.”
Death sighed. NOT EVEN FOR ME.
Granny tried to line up her thoughts.
Which light and which dark? She hadn’t been prepared for this. This didn’t feel right. This wasn’t the fight she had expected. Whose light? Whose mind was this?
Silly question. She was always her.
Never lose your grip on that …
So … light behind her, darkness in front …
She’d always said witches stood between the light and the dark.
[…]
Death reached down and took a handful of sand. He held it up, and let it slip between his fingers.
CHOOSE, he said. YOU ARE GOOD AT CHOOSING, I BELIEVE.
“Is there any advice you could be givin’ me?” said Granny.
CHOOSE RIGHT.
Granny turned to face the sheer white brilliance, and closed her eyes.
And stepped backward.
So anyway duality is enforced by having two spell lists and primal and occult are for more relevant to the creepy and/or Wiccan theme of the witch than arcane is.
The Lesson of Protection can easily be an Occult one, while Lesson of Deceit can easily by Primal (cause fae flavour).
Perhaps, to really make the witch familiar the best familiar in the game, the occult familiar should get a unique familiar ability, and same for the primal familiar?
All of this is IMO of course.
Edit: If I have offended any Wiccans with my post then please accept my apologies, it was not my intention.
Hi, I'm a bit confused on how non lethal works in Starfinder Generally but it seems like to do non lethal Entropic strike you need to take a -4 penalty on attack rolls?
A nice part of unarmed combat in Pathfinder is the ability to easily switch between non lethal and lethal damage with no penalty. It would be great if Vanguard could have a similar ability with Entropic Strike either baked into the class or as an easy option to take. I'd prefer the first option as it gives some nice added in combat utility.
It's a bit of an odd thing in the Vanguard where it's build to mitigate damage but some of the fun things it can do are dependent largely on taking damage.
I've built a high Dex vanguard and took Enhanced Resistance as well as the Friendly Fire discipline to enhance survivability.
It's offputting that all the resources I invested into that work against my ability to gain Entropy Points. t's a weird situation where I'd rather take 16 damage (at level 8) rather than 14 or 15 damage and having DR/Resistance that juuuust pushes me lower than that feels bad.
Entropy Points don't seem powerful enough to justify making it harder to gain them really so why not make them easier to gain by specifying that the amount of damage that triggers the Entropy gain should be from before damage mitigation.
I just built the character so I'll update thread as to how it goes in play.
So Int seems like it's become a niche attribute in the playtest. In 1e it was the skill point and Knowledge attribute which made it pretty decently powerful.
With skill points going away in 1e and a lot of 'knowledge' recall actions being folded into Wisdom based skills instead Int's really taken a hit.
But I think it makes a lot of sense to ADD Int bonus to EVERY skill roll.
Yes every skill roll. In addition to any existing attribute it's based on as well of course.
For example
Thievery becomes Dex + Int rather than just Dex
Survival becomes Wis + Int rather than just Wis
Crafting on the other hand remains just Int.
Make the Int bonus a minimum of 0 to keep from penalizing low Int concepts but it will instantly make Int an attribute that you are rewarded for not ignoring.
And honestly it makes a decent amount of sense.
Things like Medicine, Thievery, Nature etc. are easy to see how high Intelligence makes a lot of sense to enhance.
But even the charisma face skills of Diplo, Intimidateion, Deception can be and SHOULD be enhanced by a character smart enough to know what incentives people can have and what buttons are best to push or not push. Fantasy is replete with 'mastermind' type characters who rely on their intelligence to be very good at exactly those things. It's why the Investigator was such a great class for fulfilling some character niches in 1e.
Even in Physical skills this make sense as all sports have elite atheletes who are the best at their sport because they're whip smart students of their game (LeBron James, Tom Brady, Messi etc.)
Of course you can make the same case for Wisdom, but in terms of game balance, Wisdom is plenty good already and this is a way of raising up Int and making it THE skill attribute again..
There seems to be quite a lot of concern that the tighter math in 2e won't allow the incredibly optimized 1e characters that can succeed at what they're trying to do even at a roll of 5 or lower (even on a 1 with Mythic 1e!)
Most of that is coming from the very few bonus types in 2e and the fact that they don't stack.
Now I completely understand why Paizo is doing this as the amount of optimization 1e allows really rewards the kind of system mastery that new players are scared off by.
But for tables that want that old feeling why not houserule that all bonuses stack? Then players can happily hunt for all the various places to get bonuses and pile them on each other 1e style. Then on top of that the Bard can Inspire Competence and the Cleric can Bless and I'm pretty sure even in the current playtest you can get to the point that you're succeeding on level appropriate challenges on a low dice roll!
Hey all, since this is a core rule book it has to serve many masters and while I think it's very good there is more Golarion stuff in the core rules (in fact I think it's kinda necessary). I think some nods should be given to the homebrewers among us.
The best way to do that I think would be a small chapter that gives an overview of the Golarion setting and its high fantasy, kitchen sink approach to things. This should be very high level and give a quick run through of the continents and then a few lines on nation and region. The planes and other planets should be mentioned but not delved into. Basically this should be a bit of an informative advert for all the setting and adventure content that Paizo publishes to support Golarion. (To learn more..)
Then a similar amount of page space should be given to "What if you don't want to play in Golarion!". A quick discussion of some of the setting assumptions that inform the core rules (such as Ancestral Hatred, level of technology, high magic etc.) and advice on how to a GM might take or tweak or modify the rules and build their own world and classes etc. This also shouldn't be very in depth as a later Game Mastering product is where this should be really delved into.
I'd love a later Game Mastering book to really delve into the reasoning behind design decisions of Pathfinder 2e and thoughts on how those reasons might not apply to a different setting (low fantasy, no gods, post apocalyptic etc.) but that's a different topic. :).
Uh, pretty much everything I wanted to communicate is in the subject.
To elaborate a little bit.
There's of course going to be ways to build a character in a game like pathfinder that is terribly unoptimized. Like a Barbarian that puts all their boosts into mental stats or an alchemist that doesn't boost int for whatever reason...
What makes the Monk a little different is that it's pretty MAD. It benefits from Str, Dex, Con, and Wis and it is very easy for someone to think that they should be able to mix and match these according to their character concepts.
Except that you can't make a slow bruiser that focuses Str and Con or a hard hitting mystic that boosts Str and Wis and leaves Dex behind as Dex is the ONLY way that I have found that can boost the monk's AC to an acceptable level for a melee martial class. It has to get at least three boosts in charater creation, if not four.
I don't know if this would be considered a problem or not but it does feel limiting.
I think a class feature that allows a Monk to replace Dex to AC with Wis to AC would allow for at least a somewhat greater variety of builds?
Str, Con would still be a problem though. I guess that idea overlaps too much with how Barbarians work though.
I think I'm missing this. Basicall I'm wondering if there's any equivalent to the 1e table of comparing how Extraordinary, Supernatural, Spell like abilities, spells etc. worked or didn't in magically suppressed areas.
Is there a page reference I can be pointed to please?
I searched for a thread about just this but I don't see one dedicated to the confusion between 'Spell Points' and 'Spells' and heck also with 'Powers' being so closely associated with 'Spells' that they're listed together.
I would strongly suggest renaming 'Spell Points' to 'Power Points'. Power Points don't sound any more 'gamey' than Spell Points and have the advantage of being far less confusing. Power Points are far more obviously tied Powers and clearly delineated from 'Spell Slots'.
As a bit of organization it would also be helpful to separate Spells and Powers from each other in the alphabetical list of Spells and Powers. The fact that they use the same format is great but it's odd to be hunting for a Monk ability in the middle of a gigantic list of spells.
Having 'Powers' act in pretty much every respect like 'Spells' and have the same format is great, but separating them from each other would not only cause less confusion but also would have the added benefit of making them more thematically distinct from Spells. I'm sorry but it feels really offputting for my mystical Monk build to be associated so closely to spellcasters.
The bit of thematic distance would also allow 'Power Points' to be used for a possible Stamina Trick system that Paizo would want to come up with for pure martials in the future without it feeling incredibly jarring. Or use a version of it for Grit/Panache Points just as a version of it is already being used to replace Ki Points.
I like the mechanics of the concept, but I strongly feel that separating it a bit from traditional spell casting will do wonders for it both in terms of understand-ability and theme both in the core rules and as a base to build off in the future for martials as well as spell casters.
Wherever the monsters and monster creation rules first appear for 2e (whether in Core or Bestiary 1), can the design team please create a robust method of turning low level monsters into deadlier higher CR gangs?
There are a few troops in 1e and they're pretty great but they need to be hand crafted pretty much so there aren't many of them as they haven't been very supported.
It would be spectacular if support for them was baked into the core of 2e adversary design. The ideal situation would be that any monster created for whom it makes sense would be able to turn into a 'troop' or a 'swarm' based on its intelligence. Loner monsters or others for which troops or swarms don't make sense just wouldn't have the swarm or troop tag.
Maybe each monster could include a tag that would specify it can join a troop or swarm of its fellows and optional rules on special ability the 'gang' might have? Then the troop or swarm 'template' itself can take care of the rest based on the base monster's numbers?
Wouldn't it be great to be a group of 6 level 20 characters facing off against say 3 troops of werewolves and 6 swarms of dire wolves or something? and be able to easily throw that together right from the start?
This sort of thing seems hard to force into a monster creation system later on so a new edition is a great opportunity for the base game to provide this tool to GMs right from the get-go.
So one of the biggest changes to class design between 2e and 1e seems to be that Paizo has split the class features of each of the core classes (plus Alchemist!) into two groups
Core to the class - these remain class features as in 1e. Here you have Barbarian Rage, Rogue Sneak Attack etc.
Optional class build paths - these have turned into 'class feats' in 2e.
This, like any big change, is controversial. After all big decisions have to be made on what is 'core' to a class and what is an optional build! Especially as this new design interacts with the new universal archetypes, where the Optional class build feats can be swapped out for archetype feats but the Core features can't be. But there's other threads for that discussion.
What I'd like to talk about is two features that were core to the 1e Monk that have turned into Option class build paths in the 2e playtest.
First is Ki. The 1e monk was always mystical from 4th level up, the 2e playtest monk *could be* mystical right from 1st level but only if they choose to use a class feat on the Ki Strike monk class feat, which gives them a 'Spell' pool to use on classic monk abilities like Abundant Step and Quivering Palm etc.
Second is Monastic Weaponry. The 1e monk was trained with a selection of weapons while the 2e playtest monk gets NO weapon training... unless they take the Monastic weaponry monk class feat which lets 'them use their unarmed attack proficiencies, as well as any monk abilities that normally work with unarmed attacks, with simple and martial monk weapons.'
Now both of these aren't straight up replacements of their 1e core feature counterparts.
In 1e for example, the Ki pool class feature was how monks unarmed strikes were treated as enchanced for the purpose of overcoming DR (magic, cold iron etc.) In 2e playtest that feature isn't tied to Ki strike and is a part of the core unarmed strikes class feature. Another difference is that in 1e the bread and butter use of the Ki pool was to power an extra attack on top of the flurry of blows. This is completely irrelveant to the 2e playtest monk's Action Economy.
Because of this greater focus on what Ki is used for I am pretty much alright with Ki becoming a 'Wuxia' build option for the 2e playtest monk rather than core. Paizo seems to have come to the conclusion that non mystical martial arts heroes (like those in Jackie Chan classics) are monks rather than fighters and Wuxia heroes are monks that invested heavily in Ki monk class feats. I'm good with this.
Monastic Weaponry I'm having a harder time with.
Now Monastic weapon training is a bit stronger than the 1e monk's training since 'any monk abilities that normally work with unarmed attacks' can suddenly be used with simple and monk weapons while in 1e monk weapons just allowed them to be used with a flurry of blows. I just don't think it's enough.
A 2e playtest monk who does not take the Monastic weaponry feat has suddenly become very bad at dealing with ranged enemies and is level locked in dealing with enemies that have many kinds of DR. From what I can see it's just too harsh a nerf to the 2e playtest monk's in combat utility and Monastic Weapon Training is a necessary 'feat tax' to get away from it.
Now of course this might not be true in practice (I certainly haven't played a monk in 2e yet :p). But I would propose that
1. Monks do get weapon training in simple and monk weapons as a part of the the core chassis so they can at least pick up a bow and fire it if they need to, or smack a fae around with a cold iron club with a decent chance of success.
2. Monastic weaponry Training becomes 'any monk abilities that normally work with unarmed attacks can be used with simple and martial monk weapons'.
The class feat is still pretty powerful as you can now Flurry with simple and monk weapons and then eventually Paizo can publish a whole whack of Zen archer or Sohei monk class feats that have Monastic Weapon Training as a perquisite!
So my players want to use a pack animal of some sort to head into the wilds in Temple of the Twelve.
Reasonable. But also with very little core rule support!
As they were discussing it they did give me the out of making it some sort of a sci fi equivalent of a pack animal. So I looked into differnt parts of the rules and the closest analogue I can come up with is a specialized vehicle. I quickly wrote this up. I'm sure it needs a lot of editing but here's the gist of it:
Robo Mule Level 1
Price 500 Medium land Vehicle (5 ft. wide, 5 ft. long, 5 ft. high)
Speed Same as a typical PC
EAC 10; KAC 11; Cover none
HP 7 (2); Hardness 4
Attack (Collision) 2d4 (DC 9)
Modifiers –1 Piloting or Survival, -2 attack
Systems Transport Module, Travel Battery, Saddle Attachment, Animal Intelligence,
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Transport Module (Ex) The Robo Mule is able to carry 15 Bulk of equipment without any change to its speed.
Travel Battery (Ex) In standard operation the Robo Mule uses up 4 batteries for every regular day of travel. Less strenuous or more strenuous activities can change the rate battery consumption as per GM discretion.
Saddle Attachment (Ex) The Robo Mule comes with an optional saddle attachment, a small or medium sized humanoid can ride the Robo Mule. This reduces the Robo Mule Transport Module's carrying capacity to 11 Bulk without any change in speed.
Animal Intelligence (Ex) The Robo Mule has a rudimentary AI that mimics the behaviour of common pack animals on primitive worlds. They react to danger by acting 'afraid' and acting for self preservation just like a biological organism would. It reacts well to the same kind of treatment that a real pack animal would (Survival checks can be used to direct the animal). This allows the Robo Mule to act with autonomy and not require direct control at all times.
This behaviour can be overridden but requires either direct access to the robo mule's computing module or a hacking kit. The computer module is a Tier 2 computer. Once overridden the operator must devote a move action and a DC 10 computers check whenever the Robo Mule's movement is to be changed. Full direct control requires a DC 15 computers check and no other action can be taken while the operator is thus controlling the Robo Mule.
So I think we can all agree that the Pathfinder name, for all of its merits, is kind of terrible when it comes to being easily searchable and identifiable. 'Pathfinder' is a really generic term and is more associated with Nissan than Paizo! Plus it's used in dozens of different things as well which means Pathfinder game stuff on social media is harder to find than it should be..
Of course over the past ten years its built up a good reputation and a fair bit of brand recognition among RPG gamers. But if Paizo wishes to be bold then why not change the name entirely?
Instead of calling it Pathfinder Second Edition, why not call it... AdventureSeeker or something?
So I'm running Dead Suns as an AP by PBP and finished Book one. One of the players requested a chronicle sheet and I'm a bit confused as to how to finish it off.
I downloaded the character sheet and the players pretty much found all the equipment.
I'm pretty certain they get 1 Xp and 2 Fame. But how many credits should they get? And since this is campaign mode am I correct to say that a Day job roll does not apply?
Please let me know and please let me know if I got anything wrong.
Also as an aside. Whenever I create an event through the website. If I don't edit it at all then the link to Report it is there. If I edit it to even put a name for the event in then the Report link disappears. Is that expected?
I only started playing Tabletop RPGs a few years ago and P1E is the first system that I have ever played (though I did used to love thumbing through older D&D sourcebooks just for the feel and flavor of them).
I think because I didn't have any actual experience with playing the older classic D&D games there were a bunch of oddities in P1E that I had to struggle with to understand. They're a bit second nature to me now but there are definitely a lot of mental hurdles that need to be cleared to get even a basic level of proficiency in playing and understanding Pathfinder 1E. Now complexity isn't a dirty word as that is what enables the character customization and options that we all love. But needless complexity is of no help to anyone.
Which leads me to one bit of needless complexity in classic D&D that this is the perfect time to put out to pasture with P2E. And that is having two numbers for abilities when one will do.
Why oh why are there two numbers to define a character's ability? Why have score and modifier, with one of them being directly derived from the other. (To get Modifier you do (Score - 10) / 2 Rounded Down Or you look it up in a table)
Compared to other major changes being made to P2E (such as three actions per round, completely different spell casting, completely new death rules etc.) keeping the modifier only is a minor change.
Sure it would take a bit of getting used to for veterans but it wouldn't detract from the moment to moment game and in fact remove one extra thing to think about.
(example: what is the modifier for 23 again? Uh... well 23-10 is 13 and /2 is 6.5 which means +6! Why not just have the +6?)
And for newcomers every bit of simplification and streamlining helps to get situated to the game. Especially when looking at an intimidating character sheet with a ton of boxes to fill out. Getting rid of scores and just keeping modifier would remove six numbers from the character sheet and that is a pretty damn good cleanup!
Sure this would mean we would have a little less granularity. But honestly having odd numbers in ability scores is a tedious bit of crunchiness that doesn't bring much benefit to the mechanics of the game and no benefit at all to the flavour. It's a bit of legacy that can easily be moved on from.
And heck there's weird situations all over the place in P1E such as a +1 weapon being twice as powerful as getting a +1 to STR. Why? 'cause that +1 on the weapon impacts the game directly while the +1 to STR impacts the score instead which you need two of to make a difference to the modifier which is what actually matters. Blaaaarrgggh!
Currently we have the situation where Ability Score is what matters during Character Creation and Advancement while Ability Modifier is the number that matters for actually playing the character. This is unnecessary and so easily resolved at the start of a brand new edition.
Honestly Paizo design has been trending in this direction for a long while anyway.
The Simplified Monster Creation rules in Unchained and Starfinder don't even bother to give ability scores to NPCs/Monsters because... what's the point? And if there's no point there then there's no real point for PCs to have them either is there?
The Automatic Bonus Progression system in Unchained hands out even score bonuses all over the place which guarantees that the modifier (the thing that matters in the game) will go up by +1 anytime the bonus is earned and avoids the situation where you get a shiny new +1 to score and... it doesn't matter one bit to how powerful you are in game!
Consolidating matters by using one number rather than two will
* Make the Character sheet simpler
* Make the introduction of new players to the system easier.
* Tie Character Creation and Advancement closer to the moment to moment gameplay as it will be the same number used in both places (modifier).
* Have minimal impact on the moment to moment gameplay since we almost entirely use modifier there anyway
On the other hand the ability score is something that is very well known and well loved by veterans and removing it is certainly a big aesthetic change.
But it's a far smaller one than many of the other changes that we've seen so far on the blog. Let's just rip this particular bandaid off once and for all and not look back!
NB: I made a post very much like this in the Starfinder forums where I decried this is a Lost Opportunity.
We're a group of five characters in a Hell's Rebels game that's been running since Jan 2016. I myself joined pretty late but it's a great group of characters, two of whom have been with the game since the start! Since we're only Level 2 I think we haven't progressed very far in Book 1 and our GM, the excellent StoryTeller-Shadow, had to step away from GMing the game.
So... I think we'd all like to continue! I think we all post pretty regularly and it'd be great if we were able to continue the story. Considering the game has been running for over a year I think we're a pretty committed bunch with interesting characters.
So there's
Zeldana - Level 2 Half elf witch
Sholti - Level 2 half elf Bard/Vigilante
Sera - Level 2 half orc Alchemist
Kadwyn - Level 2 Human Bard
And me
Stricia - Level 2 Human Monk.
All female. I think that was one of the conceits of the original recruitment.
Would love to have another GM step up and give the characters a home!
I've drafted some Mechanic buffs and would like some feedback.
The first thing is a generic skill buff for all mechanics by enhancing the speed of Bypass progression.
The rest is kind of a rewrite of the Exocortex to make it more combat capable as that seems to be the point of this branch of the Mechanic. The biggest change is to Combat Tracking at level 1 to just make Exocortex Mechanics full BAB and at level 11 onwards I've replaced the slooow denerfing of vanilla Combat Tracking that's not needed anymore to give an Onslaught ability. Also removed the weird fiddly part of not being able to use the exocortex's additional skill abilities during combat.
What do you guys think? These are straight buffs and they allow the Exocortex Mechanic to be, situationally, one of the best hackers in the game at Level 15 but I don't think it outshines Hacker Operatives, Hacker Envoy's with their Expertise die, or Hacker Technomages with their spells.
It also makes them one of the better longarm specialists in the game but I don't think it steps on the toes of dedicated Soldier builds either.
General Mechanic
BYPASS (EX) 1ST LEVEL
You are skilled at getting inside computer systems and electronic devices. At 1st level, you gain a +1 insight bonus to Computers and Engineering skill checks. At 2nd level, every 4 levels thereafter, this bonus increases by 1. To a maximum of +6 at the 18th level.
**One level faster than Operative's edge but restricted just to the two iconic skills of the Mechanic. Fair tradeoff I think and the Hacker Operative is ahead of the curve at lower levels anyway due to their free skill focus feats. The vanilla Bypass is SO SLOW!
EXOCORTEX
Your exocortex grants you all of the following abilities as you advance in level.
Combat Tracking (Ex) 1st Level
Your exocortex provides you with enhanced combat ability, granting you proficiency with heavy armor and longarms. At 3rd level, you gain weapon specialization in longarms just as if your class granted proficiency. The exocortex feeds you telemetry, vulnerabilities, and combat tactics, allowing you to make attacks as if your base attack bonus from your mechanic levels were equal to your mechanic level. **This effectively means you're a full BAB character.
Memory Module (Ex) 1st Level
You can use your exocortex’s memory module to enhance your own knowledge. Once per day, as a reaction, you can reroll a failed skill check to recall knowledge. In addition, your exocortex grants you the Skill Focus feat as a bonus feat. Every time you gain a mechanic level, you can rebuild your exocortex’s memory module, replacing the exocortex’s bonus Skill Focus feat with Skill Focus in a different skill.
**Removed the weird hard to keep track of fiddly bit of not being able to do this while in combat. In the odd situations where something like this would even matter let the Mechanic shine I say.
Wireless Hack (Ex) 5th Level
Your exocortex can access another computer system within 20 feet, allowing it to attempt a Computers check against that computer each round, using your skill bonus. This counts as a standard action for the purpose of the Computers skill. You must remain within 20 feet of the computer system for the entire time your exocortex is interacting with the computer. If the task requires multiple actions (or even rounds) to accomplish, you can spend your actions to work in concert with your exocortex, counting both your action and the exocortex’s effective standard action toward the total time required. If you don’t have the remote hack class feature, you must be adjacent to the computer to attempt your checks.
**No change here.
Exocortex Mods (Ex) 7th Level
Your exocortex allows you to apply any one of the following drone mods to yourself as if you were a drone with that mod installed: armor slot, cargo rack, climbing claws, enhanced senses, hydrojets, jump jets, resistance, smuggler’s compartment, speed, or weapon proficiency (gaining proficiency in advanced melee or heavy weapons). At 11th level, you can apply an additional mod, and your options expand to include echolocators, excavator, flight system, greater resistance, invisibility field, and reactive camouflage. At 14th and 17th levels, you can apply an additional mod. Each time you gain a level, you can switch any of your mods for different mods, but you must always choose at least one mod from the 7th-level list.
**No change here
Exocortex Onslaught (Ex) 11th Level
Your exocortex's ability to act in concert with you in combat increases. When you make a full attack using basic melee weapons, grenades, small arms, or long arms, you can make up to three attacks instead of two attacks. You take a –6 penalty to these attacks instead of a –4 penalty.
**Same as Solider's onslaught, but restricted to the Exocortex's list of proficient weaponry.
Multitasking (Ex) 15th Level
The range of your exocortex’s wireless hack increases to 40 feet. Your exocortex also enables you to to hack a nearby computer during a full attack, but the hack attempt counts as one of the attacks (so you can attack three times, or attack twice and hack, or hack twice and attack once, or hack three times within the same full attack). The ability to hack multiple times can also be used outside of combat as a full action.
**This will make the exocortex mechanic a very very fast hacker but I think it's justified as this is late game and the person has a level 15 computer in their heads!
I think the Mechanic is an incredibly interesting and versatile class, both the Exocortex and Drone options are not only very distinct from each other but are the best kind of class abilities as they are not only interesting mechanically but also springboards for the imagination.
The issue is though that if you hear the word 'Mechanic' then the images that evokes is of grease monkeys like Kaylee from Firefly, or starship engineers like Scottie and Geordi LaForge from Star Trek. People who are the absolute best of the best when it comes to anything to do with the machines and mechanisms that are integral part of any futuristic science themed fiction (like Starfinder!). It's not an accident that both those terms sound so much like the Mechanic!
It's not just the name even, every piece of art for the mechanic shows people who seem like they would be at home working on a custom built joyride or hotwiring someone else's to steal it! Heck the description of the class says right at the top. "You are a master of machines". They are supposed to know machines better than anyone. Point blank and full stop.
The problem is having the slick spy, the hardboiled detective, the daring thrillseeker operatives shove the Mechanic out of the way with an impatient sigh when an Engineering or Computers check comes up with a "Why don't you sit over there while I take care of it huh?" It's like if Beverly Crusher, in her downtime, became better at running the Enterprise then Geordi while still being a full on doctor! (By the way the Operative needs a Medic specialization!)
It just feels wrong for anyone else other than the Hacker Operative to not only equal the Mechanic in the check, but to exceed it. Those other Operatives should be (capable) second fiddles to the Mechanic when these situations come up not the masters!
To be fair the fantasy of the machine savant IS reinforced by all of the Mechanic's class abilities and many of its Tricks. Overload, Remote Hack, Expert Rig, Override, Coordinated Assault, advanced rig etc. are all great. it's just these all come very slowly over a Mechanic's career and it can't overcome the numbers the Operative can throw around in Computers and Engineering thanks to Operative's edge.
The Mechanic *sounds* like a skill monkey class, but it really isn't. It's a pet class with the drone or a ranged combat class with the exocortex that has some very good class abilities that interact with machines.
That's great. But just like the Envoy is the master social class thanks to Expertise (while also being a buffer/debuffer). So should the Mechanic be with Computers and Engineering.
The fix is simple. The Bypass class ability just needs a simple buff is all.
Change it to:
BYPASS (EX) 1ST LEVEL
You are skilled at getting inside computer systems and electronic devices. At 1st level, you gain a +1 insight bonus to Computers and Engineering skill checks. At 2nd level, and every 4 levels thereafter, this bonus increases by 1.
Boom done. It maintains what seems to be Paizo's design philosophy to limit insight skill check bonuses to +6 overall (check the math on both Operative's edge and the current Bypass) AND it allows the Mechanic to stay one step ahead of non hacker Operatives in the early game when it comes to just these two skills. I don't think it's overpowered at all.
I'd also change the name to Machine Savant and change the flavour text to.
"U R BEST AT MACHINES".
Or
"Your mastery of all things technological is truly astounding."
Ok, so one of the things Paizo has done with Starfinder that seems to be going pretty well is that they're not going to be publishing as many lines for the game as they do for Pathfinder. It seems like Starfinder has:
1. The Core Rule Book.
2. Starfinder Society adventures
3. Beast books like Alien Archive
4. Setting books like the upcoming Pact Worlds
5. The APs
And the latter 3, which are traditionally GM books, all are packed with player options, making it unnecessary to have extra lines focused on giving Players extra content.
That's grand. But Paizo is a publishing company and they can't sell content that they don't make. Seeing as we're mostly all Starfinder fans here and want to see the game have a long and healthy life I think that is a bit of an issue.
One thing that Paizo could do, which I wouldn't mind, is collecting player options from the Archives, the setting books, and the APs, and just straight reprinting them in some sort of player focused book. Maybe a good idea would be to go through these options and explicitly sanction them or not for Society play in the book.
Usually we want Paizo to expand on reprinted content but in this case I think, other than snazzy new art and any errata and fixes, they shouldn't do that in this theoretical reprint line. It's just a player resource with the player playable aliens, gear, character options, spells, feats, that are trickling out in the other lines. It doesn't quite make sense to me to expect players to buy GM focused books, especially spoileriffic APS, so this would serve a good purpose especially for society players. Am I wrong? It would be a great yearly hardcover I think. It wouldn't contribute to the dreaded bloat of rules and mechanics (other than art. And you can never have a bloat of great art). One thing they could add though are some extra strategy guide type aids to help get new players into Starfinder, loads of different pregens, or other similar player focused articles.
Other then that what could Paizo do to balance the need to make money and the need to keep the game streamlined?
I can really only think of licensing, licensing, licensing! Guardian of the Galaxy style comic books! Pact World Intrigue Board Games, RPG OR FPS Video games etc. Then Paizo wouldn't need to put out a product every two weeks for the game.
It was only a few days. But it had felt like much longer. The horrifying discovery under the basement of the burnt out orphanage, the vicious plant attacks in the forest, Jeva's betrayal, the long oppressive corridors of the undertemple dedicated to the evil dwarven god Droskar, the even longer rough hewn tunnels of the kobold warren. All of these things wore on you despite the successful outcome of your trip. Each one of you fall into a long dreamless sleep. Albus in the lonely family home, Aelerie cradled in the arms of her mother, Laro in his small apartment, Javell in his customary room in the Jak'A'Naps inn which he uses on the rare occassions he isn't settling down in the wild, and Virdel in his stuffy family manor room.
News of the rescue of the five children of the village from dark kobold magic by local heroes spreads while you sleep. Kimi is the most talkative focusing on your exploits, Hollin isn't further behind with tales of his longer capture and the evil of the now dead Kobold King and Shaman. Mikra, Jurin, and Savra on other hand aren't seen. Being kept safe by protective parents no doubt.
The next day dawns. You learn from the awed townsfolk that the trading caravan that had arrived a little while ago still had not left, though it was going to be packing up to leave soon. If it does then you'll have to trek to the nearest large settlement to make use of the items you recovered from underneath the old abandoned temple of Torang...
It just seems odd to have a Station which seems to have all the survivors of the planet Golarion only having 2 million people on it. That's less than many Earth cities! Tokyo by itself is like 36 million!
for my head cannon I much prefer Absalom Station be far more like Tokyo than Toronto in terms of population amount and density :) Just fits a techno space cyber future better to have lots and lots of people living close together for me. Plus everyone in the universe with Drift Travel (which is everyone, thanks Triune!) can get to the station in 1d6 days because of the Starstone. That's got to create a population boom too!
So for me Absalom Station is at least 40 million, or more like 100 million.
Your home planet, and it was odd how the sights, smells, and textures of it are starting to fade from your memory even though you fled from it not long ago, does not have many aliens in it. It is almost entirely populated by Tian refugees, the vast majority of them human, from Absalom station who struck out as soon as Drift Technology was granted to sentient beings by Triune, the All Code. They abandoned the Station in favour of a Golarion like planet and over the course of the three centuries since then, have built it to reflect the memory of the glories of ancient Tian-Xia, lost along with Golarion itself to the Gap.
Which is to say that all you know about Kasathas you have learnt from bits of old school books or terrible trivid action flicks. In all of them Kastahas are portrayed as dignified and wise warriors with iron self control who find honour in hand to hand combat.
Gorsen, lazily twirling one of the many pistols of his collection in one of his hands while another plays with the hem of a Lashunta dancer pressed up against him as he lounges at his desk, is none of these things. His third hand waves you closer with what you imagine to be a leer hidden behind his traditional face covering, the only bit of Kasathan etiquette that he seems to have retained. Ah Feh-uunnh he deliberately mispronounces your name as you approach him. His fourth arm comes down to clamp on the but of your pistol. The best errand girl in the belt comes back for another package to deliver he sneers You should take my offer and give up on piloting my fine vessels from rock to rock. You'd make far more if you came to my side of the desk. His third hand comes down to pat his lap in invitation as the dancer glares at you with open hostility.
He's lying about the junk ship he's allowed you to use for his jobs as being anything close to fine. He is true though, you would get far more money doing almost anything else than what you're doing now, shuttling mysterious packages from one rock to another in the Diaspora, the asteroid belt in the Pact Worlds, known for many reasons as The Lost Ones. For one it describes you perfectly.
Prospero-4:
We were lost in slavery but we are now found in freedom. The Android Abolitionist Front has made it so. The Android opposite you intones as you sit in the small room that has been your home for the last little while. It's small, and all it contains other than two cots is a small trivid set that doubles as a commlink to non real time repositories to the Infospheres of various Pact Worlds, and a small armory of basic weaponry. To you, it's a paradise, as the only home you knew before this was slavery.
The Android Abolitionist Front got you out of that terrible situation and brought you to this tiny, cramped rock floating in the Diaspora to acclimatize you to freedom through trivid and Infosphere exposure. You've adjusted to this limited stimulus far faster than most and when you were deemed ready to be functional in a free life you requested, without prompting, to join the Android Abolitionist Front yourself.
For you to be unshackled is enough for the Android Abolitionist Front. You do not owe us anything other than to make full use of your new life. The Android that has been your mentor says to you seriously This is not a step to be taken lightly. Do you honesty wish to dedicate your life to serving freedom?
Leila Bluetistle:
Freedom. That's what you've always felt when you looked up at the stars. That's why you've always loved looking up at them. Some people might think that growing up in Asalom Station meant you could see them anytime you wanted. But you know better. You grew up in the depths of the Spike, Level 21 to be exact, and all you can see when you look up there are the grey or brown of a metal ceiling. That's why you've gotten away from your job as many times as you can to go to Domesview Park, a nice green area of The Ring that has a stunning view of The Eye from one side and a glorious view of the stars on the other, away from the light pollution of The Eye.
The middle class locals around the Park shun the place, knowing it derogatively as "Downlow Paradise" because of the large number of Spike dwellers that take advantage of its proximity to a high speed conduit elevator from the Spike. You don't care though; it's the place you find easiest to dream of a better life.
It's also close to The Lorespire Complex, home of The Starfinder Society. You know you have what it takes to be a valuable member of the Society and get out of a life stuck in the Downlow. Not only do you have the analog mechanical expertise that a Spiker almost needs to survive, you've also picked up a lot of digital knowhow that is harder to acquire there. It's all self taught though so what you don't have is academic certification proving you can do what you know you can. Back when the Starfinder Society had the pick of the crop of recruits from all across known space begging to sign up they brushed you off whenever you tried to join.
The Scoured Stars incident's humbled them quite a bit though and your repeated attempts to get through to a recruiter started to make some headway when the shattered organization started to rebuild under the leadership of a new First Seeker. Finally a dwarf named Duravor Keel you've been pestering returns your comms.
Listen Kid, I've got a shuttle that I'm sending out to pick up some other potential recruits. Nothing fancy, just a floating bedroom, run by a single pilot that we contract for stuff like this. I can call in a favor and get you on board. If you can actually do half of the things you claim the pilot'll let me know. Be the Engineer, Science officer, whatever of the shuttle, and, if you do a good job, then I'll help you get in. What do you say?
The first break you get and it's going to send you straight to the Stars!
Astrianna Sparacello:
So do you really want to be a star? Are you really not happy with the viewers you get? Intora says after he shuts off his infosphere link and finishes off his post workaround cooldown. He knows what he's talking about when it comes to this stuff as he almost finished training at one of the finest private soldier academies in Castrovel but then gave it up to be a bodybuilder and lifestyle vlogger.
That's why you're crashing with him in his fancy digs in Qabarat, one of the most beautiful cities in the home planet that you two share. Of course you're from the elven parts of Castrovel while Qabarat is very much Lashunta, just like Intora. But that doesn't matter to you much in your quest for more and more viewers. You're here to glean off some of his viewers if you can. While he's making a series of vlogs about helping newbies start seriously working out, you're making a series of goofy vids about your attempts to learn new skills. The result is amusing enough but Intora's viewers don't seems to have much patience for your antics while your viewers seem to be smitten by the gorgeous hunk that he is. If anything your some of your viewers are going to be spending their clicks on ogling him instead of you rather than the other way around! This. Isn't. Working. And you've been complaining about that fact non stop as soon as the comms shut off.
Look, you're good Intora says. But the kawaii style of vlogging is just really over saturated y'know. If you really want to get your counts up then you're going to hafta come up with a better gimmick. he sighs as he wipes off his face and dires the sweat dripping from his antenna. Look, there's something that I can twig you onto but I don't know, it could be not safe, y'know?
He's strong, he's gorgeous, he's got a great screen presence. And now he's showing he's smart as well? No wonder he's got all those subscribers. The Universe Just Is Not Fair!
Don't know if this is of any interest to anyone else but I'm really considering having the game start with a simple little scene of the Okimoro being jumped by a lone goblin 1/2 tier junk ship and giving the players the option of either playing the encounter out or just running away from it. As such I statted out the Okimoro.
Since in the AP the shuttle seems to be meant to tootle around the Pact Worlds picking up folks to bring back to Absalom Station I built it to be pretty tanky and as fast as I could make it. The only crew is a pilot who is a Shirren named Kerpask with a Piloting rank of +1 and skill of +5 (to not outshine any pilot PCs who might want to take over). Her approach to combat is to RUN AWAY AND NOT DIE and the Okimoro reflects those twin desires. Since it takes 1d6+2 days to go from planet to planet the Okimoro is fitted with a state of the art HAC Entertainment module along with the necessary Guest Quarters and Escape Pods.
Attack (Forward):
Flak thrower (3d4) Short, point +8
Power Core:
Pulse Black (120 PCU)
Hyperspace Engine:
NONE
Systems:
Advanced medium range sensors
crew quarters (basic)
mk 2 armor
mk 2 defenses
mk 1 mononode computer with a false shell and a firewall protecting the systems that control the ship.
Expansion Bays (3):
Guest Quarters
HAC recreation
escape pods
Modifiers +1 any one check per round, +2 Piloting; +4 Computers
(BP used 55/55, Power used 97/120)
Morale: Kerpask keeps an eye on her state of the art medium range sensors to detect any threats as she flies from world to world as contracted by her clients. Upon detection of any threat Kerpask speeds away in the direction of the closest Steward security station. If given chase she blares out a distress signal as she runs. She only accepts work that takes her through well guarded space.
Hey guys, here's the discussion thread for this. I don't think there's a huge rush to start up especially as this is a brand new game and none of us have much experience :). Maybe we can aim to start early October? Maybe a little earlier?
Would be good to throw ideas around and walk each other through coming up with four fun characters to go through Starfinder's inaugural AP.
And heck these APs are smaller than Pathfinder APs so we might actually finish! I'm hoping for a post a day rate to keep the game ticking along.
Let's start with a quick introduction and how much experience we've got with Starfinder! I bought the core rule book and had a fun time going through it both in pdf and hardcover form. I managed to get into three Starfinder Society games on these boards and a few posts in those more than qualifies me to be a GM that won't make any mistakes at all!
I've GMed one Pathfinder module to completion and am GMing another, along with a game of Iron Gods so I'm not completely green to GMing.
Oh and the Startfinder SRD is up. Paizo was nice enough to make Starfinder character creation a VERY step by step process and it's on the SRD. We'll be using the standard creation rules (10 point buy, one to one!). So even if you don't have the CRB you'll have all the information you need to play. I played Pathfinder through free resources only for a long time.
There's no Player's Guide to the Dead Suns AP but looking over it, it seems like they're aiming for a very swashbuckly galaxy trotting adventure type of feel. So even if you've got a super deep backstory and a ton of NPC connections on Absalom Station I probably won't be able to incorporate them all that much while the four of you go off exploring the planet of the week. In fact the AP states outright that it expects that your starship (You will get a starship!) will be your home base rather than anything on a planet or Absalom Station.
For a bit of guidance though the AP will start with the four of you arriving at Absalom Station having arranged to meet a dwarf named Duravor Kreel who has promised to help you become members of the Starfinder Society.
Please don't shoot Duravor Kreel in the face when you meet him :(.
Hey, so I made this post on the blog post for the Starfinder and Pathfinder compatibility blog post and I wanted to discuss with a wider audience.
I just feel like this would have been a great place to remove an oddity of D&D where you have two numbers for each ability, score and modifier, with one of them being directly derived from the other.
With so many other major changes being made to actual gameplay elements such as AC and HP and weapons etc. doing something like removing the ability score entirely and just keeping the modifier would have been a very welcome purely mechanical simplification to the system.
Sure it would take a bit of getting used to for veterans but it would also remove one extra thing to think about
(example: what is the modifier for 27 again in a high powered game? Uh... well 27-10 is 17 and /2 is 8.5 which means +8! Why not just have the +8?)
And for newcomers every bit of simplification and streamlining helps to onboard. Removing seven numbers from the character sheet is a pretty good cleanup!
Certainly there would be ripple effects such as how to figure out when a character dies and how to deal with character advancement but these would be far less of a big deal than the major changes already in Starfinder to AC and HP for example.
Prologue:
Sharae of The River, a human wanderer from the Riverlands, and Criek Prisil, a native ratfolk of Numeria, were roped into trying to save the town of Torch when the mysterious pillar of light that gave the town its name and reason for existence, mysteriously vanished.
Delving into the tunnels beneath the town Criek and Sharae, along with some other adventurers, including a gnomish Professor from Absalom, followed in the footsteps of Khonnair Baine, a wizard and popular town councilor. He had not returned from his second expedition and the town was growing increasingly worried, not least because the forging of sky metals in the flame of Torch's light is how the settlement earned its prosperity which the tyrannical Technic League taxed the town heavily on. Without the Torch, and without Khonnair Baine, the very existence of the community was at stake.
In the tunnels the three friends found a mysterious metal wall and managed to bypass it and discovered, as Khonnair Baine had suspected, that under Torch lay the remains of an ancient starship which had crashed down onto Golarion during the Rain of Stars millenia ago. While exploring the ship the three found many technological wonders still functioning even after all this time. They found Khonnair Baine trapped in a mysterious pod and managed to rescue him. Then returning into the ship they managed to explore and fight until they reached the heart of the vessel where they discovered that a mysterious priestess calling herself a 'Lord of Rust' Meyanda had been redirecting the power from a still operation fusion reactor to a power relay in Torch and then onwards. The party defeated the robot guardian left by Meyanda and ended the theft of power which reignited Torch and brought hope back to the residents of the town.
Back on the surface Sharae, Criek, and their friends discovered that Meyanda had recruited corrupt helpers in Torch that were protecting the power relay that was sending the power on to a tough scavenger settlement known as Scrapwall. The party defeated these and recovered the power relay, ending the threat to the town.
The town councilors urged the party to travel to Scrapwall to discover what Meyanda and the Lords of Rust even wanted with the power of Torch!
After arriving at Torch, Sharae, Criek, and Anody were convinced by a tough gang leader named Sevroth Slad to 'take care' of a rival gang leader named Birdfood in exchange for her cooperation. The party agreed. Birdfood attacked them and as they fought back a mysterious demonic figure appeared on a tech screen and mocked the party while disparaging Birdfood. Then lending Birdfood demonic strength the visage vanished. The party defeated and killed the maddened Birdfood and now they return to Sevroth Slad for answers...
Hey guys, figured we'd talk about reviving the game as a group!
Here are my initial ideas for how the game would go.
Make it Gestalt to compensate for two players and do theatre of the mind combat to speed things up. Anody would be there still but don't worry he'll be a supporting NPC. No desire to make him an all powerful GMPC of any sort
The ramshackle town of Falcon’s Hollow rests perilously close to the infamous Darkmoon Vale. The jagged shadow of nearby mountains casts a shroud of gloom on the desperate souls who call this place home. Many are drawn here to make their fortune cutting a swath of darkwood lumber through the lush forests of the vale. Others journey to these remote fringes to start over, piecing together their shattered lives on the edge of an untouched wilderness far from the things of man. Persecuted zealots and outcasts flock to Falcon’s Hollow. Here, these fanatics practice their strange and often deviant rites unfettered by the mores of civilization.
It's a hard place and folks go missing regularly despite the efforts of the hard bitten sell swords and mercaneries hired by the local Lumber Consortium to keep its lumberjacks and townsfolk safe from the dangers of the Vale.
Recently word of a deadly plague sweeping through the small town has spread through the region keeping trading caravans away. Just as quickly though different news has been spreading that the illness has receded, or that it's been cured, or, more likely, the whole thing was a bunch of exaggerated hogwash and there was no plague in the first place.
Whatever the truth may be a trading caravan has just set up right across the River Foam on the other side of the ferry braving the rumours of a plague to do business with the isolated settlement. Being more adventurous than usual the caravan includes some vendors of more exotic fare than the usual purveyors of mundane necessities and trinkets.
Aelerie:
Your mother has made a full recovery and is in good health. She's a bit worried about your father though as he's been gone for two weeks and has two weeks left in covering for Milon. Milon's been in town for that whole while spending most of his time in the Rogue Lady, one of the disreputable places on Mud Street that the lumberjacks waste their money in when they're on leave.
Your father was in the best mood you've seen him in for a long while though. It seems like the close brush at losing one of the people he loves the most in the world has made him thankful for what he has.
Hildrensocks is more than glad to have you back helping him in the shop and loved the summoning salts you got him as a gift. He's got a raven now that spends its time roosting on the roof of the Goose’n’Gander. This does make with the suspicous folk of the town nervous but everyone in town has put two and two together on how a slender girl such as yourself carrying around a huge book all the time would have been able to be a valuable part of a perilous expedition deep into the Darkmoon Forest and seem more accepting of your unspoken talents. Maybe even a little protective!
Albus:
Laurel put you to work coordinating with the Sheriff in bringing the folks of the town she knows to be suffering from the taint in to get a dose of the cure. With your help the guard were able to do a brisk job of it before the rest of the town realized what was happening and rushed to Laurel's shop for their own turn at the cure. The rest is a blur of Laurel closely examining the other folk and either giving them a fake yellow potion or the real cure based on whether they actually have the taint or not. She notes with satisfaction that they've saved about twenty souls and that she's made a lot of coin from the others.
Roots'N'Remedies is now a much busier place as folks in town now come to Laurel for pretty much everything and your cousin is certainly reaping the reward for being instrumental in saving the town from the disease. A lot of her extra income goes to taxes to the Lumber Consortium of course but that's just the way it goes in Falcon's Hollow.
Sheriff Baelson has let you know that you did a much better job than he was expecting when he sent you out on a desperate quest to do somethig... anything.. for the town. Anytime you want to join the Guards again is fine by him. You still have a month of leave left from the Legion so you have some time to make a decision on what direction your life will take for the next while.
With Astrianna gone Lady Cirthana of the Iomedean church has been incredibly complementary of you in her sermons, especially when you are in attendance at worship. The Church is busier on the holy days now too.
Whisper has decided to adopt you as his big brother of sorts. It sticks to you close when you're in town but is far more comfortable for ranging around when you're in the wilds.
Virdel:
When Laurel made her offer for you to bring your brother a fake potion for his imagined taint you are tempted to take her up on the offer, maybe it's mainly because of the 25 gold you stand to make from the transaction, maybe it's mainly because you know your brother won't listen to you about him not being sick and will go in to Laurel himself for his 'cure' if you don't deliver it to him. Either way you are no longer just Vamros's younger brother but a local hero!
After life in the town gets back to normal though you find yourself back in your dull job in paper mill working for your elderly uncle Rabod Harg.
That's life I guess.
Albus, Aeleire, and Virdel:
It's up to the three of you how much the inquiriing townsolk are able to pry from you on what actually happened deep in the Vale. The Sheriff, Hildrensocks, the mayor, and the cleric of the Iomedean church do have pretty good reports too as they are your superiors or patrons in your expedition and wanted detailed information. Some rumours have seeped out however at the very least and the three of you are know known as the Heroes Of the Vale.
In particular a young woman named Evani has started hanging around the three of you either speartely or together. She's inordinately proud of being in the line you three cut in front of at Laurel's back when all this started.
The arrival of a caravan is always a source of excitement for the townsfolk and you three agreed to visit the caravan together to try and take care of the various bits of treasure retrivied on the adventure into the Vale. It's been three weeks since you got back from the ancient dwarven monastery.
Of special note are a tough looking Shoanti woman who seems to specialize in weapons judging by the contents of her stall, A dwarven book merchant smoking a pipe outside of his wagon, and a gnome selling magical trinkets who's been spending a lot of time with Hildrensocks.
Milon Rhoddam came to each of you in turn or together and thanked you in his stoic way for getting the cure in time to save his nephew. He wants you to know that you've got a friend in him in the future.
You three can RP the trading caravan parts while we recruit a frontliner and get Farfeet situated or we can just handwave it and you tell me what you want to sell and how much GP you guys get
