Jason Mosher's page

I know I've seen them somewhere around here, but can't find them now. I'm looking for the role sheets that were used at GenCon detailing the different actions each can take.

It's its...

Nice proper use of apostrophes, btw.

Baxder wrote:

I don't understand the +6/4/2 deal. I mean conceptually. It seems arbitrary to me. Essence (right?) in Shadowrun makes sense, but this doesn't. Can someone explain how it does?

No matter the method, personal enhancements use specific frequencies to enhance one's abilities. So far, there have been three such frequencies discovered, each one able to promote slightly more growth. You can only have three because that's all that's been discovered. They're at +6, +4, and +2 because each frequency has a set strength. And you can't stack them because two frequencies of the same type will just cancel each other out.

Nice. I can dig that. Except maybe the same freq's interfere with each other, the results of which you just don't want to see...

Its a tough position to be in but you could try printing out a compilation of the blogs and interviews done so far and discuss the known rules for the game and then highlight how that interacts with the entries in First Contact, going over HP and stamina, how attacks resolve against KAC/EAC, numbers of attacks etc. As i understand it First Contact also has a few entries written up as playable characters and you can show off how rapidly the number of player options is being developed.

Its not nearly enough to run a demo game but i think you can be a one stop shop for everything known so far fairly easily. grab that google doc of collected information and have that to reference interested parties towards.

Excellent advice. I'd actually enjoy that quite a bit. Thanks!

Science Officer role is fun.

Captain: "scan the ship for life signs."
Science Officer: "I scan the ship for life signs."
GM: "you detect no life signs"
Science Officer: "I detect no life signs."

"Computer, is there a replacement beryllium sphere on board?"

ryric wrote:

Usually with a big release like this, Paizo does sometimes sell out, but not until late Saturday or sometime Sunday. Expect long wait times on Thursday.

Yes. And each morning usually begins with lengthy lines to get in to the booth, but by early afternoon, you can usually walk into the booth at your leisure.

Thanks for the warm fuzzy!

This will be my first time, and my wish list is currently slotted almost exclusively with SF events! Partly because I'm a little overwhelmed with all the other options and figure it's a good focus, but mostly because I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT FOR THIS GAME!!!

I just found out about this game, and have read some of the lore that I can find, but I must say that I am disappointed that the PF races won't be included (as far as I can see) in this game.

Will I be able to just shove Elves/Dwarves into this game, or will it require some tinkering, or a whole rework?

There are an awful lot of people here who are having a very hard time coming to grips with the fact that Starfinder =/= Pathfinder. The sooner you do so, the better off you'll be. At least that's what I'm getting from what little Paizo is actually saying, and more so as more information about the game is released. SF is not PF, is not meant to "expand" PF, or even be an eventual continuation of PF. It is an entirely separate, unique game that just happens to be set in the same universe as PF, with little to no correlation to PF otherwise. That's the very reason for "The Gap;" to maintain absolute isolation between the two games while preventing the one from invalidating or overtly influencing the other. In other words, to isolate SF from PF as much as possible. That's how I'm approaching it in the meta, as it were.

Edit: What I mean by "what little Paizo is saying" is that I wish someone from Paizo would come out and say what I just said. I wish people would stop making speculative comparisons and treat the two as mostly unrelated.

I feel like this was overlooked in the Elf conversation...

Archmage Variel wrote:

If the problem is that there has been a change to elves being more isolationist, I would argue that this is not the case. The elves in Pathfinder have largely been described as traditionally adopting an "isolationist" policy. However, in Pathfinder this policy is described as having had negitive impacts on the Elven communities, leading some Elven enclaves to break from their long held isolationist traditions. This reasoning helped to establish reasoning for elves existing as a prominent and core race, while retaining the flavor of elves as holding slight biases and high opinions of Elven tradition and superiority. The only break from this was the forlorn. The forlorn allowed Elven players to break from the Elven archetype of the haughty and naive mage/archer trope to that of a more solem and worldly adventurer. One who understands death and the consequences of time as they apply to the shorter lived races. Forlorn have known true loss. They have formed attachments as most elves would loathe to do, and they have payed the price for their experiences. In this way, Pathfinder was able to both maintain the trope, while allowing for a diverse range of character options. The elves of Starfinder need reason to no longer apply as such a core race to the Starfinder setting, but need to have been made so in such a way that a player can still feel that an elf in the wider setting of Starfinder can feel attached to the setting. I believe the forlorn of Starfinder fill that niche perfectly. They give the opportunity to represent a facet of Elven role play that plays off of their own personal perceptions of the wider universe, as well as the perceptions that their own race holds for them. How does a native Castrovelian elf see a forlorn adventurer. If such an adventurer can beat the solem knowledge that they will inevitably see their party die, would that be a success, or a willful acceptance ones of fate? I think Starfinder forlorn especially seem to be a brilliant race to role play off of.

Think of the implications of the Forlorn on what will eventually become Elven culture. It seems likely that if they are the rebellious youth of the native, enclaved, xenophobic Castrovelian Elves then they may eventually outnumber those predecessors. What's more, they will likely become the SF universes representation of the Elves. They will not be xenophobic or isolationist, or likely even so superior, given how much they will have needed to depend on all the other, more numerous races that have comprised the crews they've worked with. They'd be the Chewbacca's of the SF universe. The isolated Elves on Castrovel will become their backwards, antediluvian ancestors.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Starfinder setting doesn’t need to be an utopian dream of perfect social harmony. Just because it’s a futuristic setting, it doesn’t need to represent the resolution of all of our own gender issues. On the contrary – I’d much prefer a setting where problems linger, and we can explore them through story if we choose (or ignore them in favor of, you know, space adventurez).

I think the important value which the developers have nailed is representation. Instead of having to fill a gender role, lashunta players are free to choose, and are explicitly shown that this is welcome in the game setting. Crystal Frasier’s added description of the change provides a nicely logical context, which elevates the Pathfinder iteration as well. The lashunta realized they needed progress, and are working through it. The binary gender/caste assignment still exists in some cities. It’s not a clean break, and it wouldn’t be. It makes the game more thematically rich than if the lashunta had suddenly solved all gender issues.

Similarly, with the elves criticism, I get that folks are tired of the xenophobia trope, but it says in the text that many reject this attitude (the forlorn), so it’s not an all-or-nothing deal. I’m sure elves exist in many other places besides Castrovel, and their culture(s) will be more diverse than just those in the ancestral homeworld. So I think it may be premature to say that all elves in the setting are expected or perceived to be aloof and snooty.

One last thing I want to commend the developers on. I’m getting a strong Star Trek vibe from the progressive ideas we’ve seen thus far. All of you familiar with Star Trek know that the series has always tried to champion tolerance and acceptance (Kirk and Uhura’s kiss, for one example). Starfinder is showing a deliberate effort to pick up that legacy, and I think it’s fantastic. They didn’t have to include it in their game (it is just a game, after all), but the fact that they did is both brave and It makes me want...

Piggybacking on orphicblue a bit:

I recall previous PaizoCon panels and the like discussing portrayals of social conflicts in Pathfinder. My general takeaway is that many players have to deal with oppressive systems in real life; Paizo ain't gonna bring those to the forefront in their games. For most folks it's more enjoyable and less personally painful to defeat ancient evils than it is to wrestle with prejudice in your leisure time fantasy setting. (or scifantasy, in this case) You can dive into those darker themes, the option's there if it's right for your group, but it's not the standard.

And that fits with orphicblue's Star Trek vibe assessment. Starfinder's leading with interesting, inclusive social norms. That's a breath of fresh air, and gives players tons of freedom. Both in the characters they can play, and because of the basic inclusive outlook the players'll hopefully bring to the table. It's not just "this is pretend, do what you want," but explicitly canonizing diverse (and present day real world marginalized) identities. I'm probably sounding like a broken record on my Starfinder posts, but the "you're welcome here!" spirit is awesome.

I was thinking about this last night after reading the Castrovel preview. Maybe it's just 'cause I'm getting in on the ground floor of Starfinder vs stumbling into Pathfinder later in its development, but Starfinder really seems to lead with self-determination as a value. Shirren value individualism and choice, the Vesk preview highlighted ways that they can break with their more rigid warrior tradition, the Lashunta have a personal say in their development, Navasi had a dynamic path of personal growth. It's a good theme to have!

Where were you guys in the Navasi thread debacle?! Awesome.

If the problem is that there has been a change to elves being more isolationist, I would argue that this is not the case. The elves in Pathfinder have largely been described as traditionally adopting an "isolationist" policy. However, in Pathfinder this policy is described as having had negitive impacts on the Elven communities, leading some Elven enclaves to break from their long held isolationist traditions. This reasoning helped to establish reasoning for elves existing as a prominent and core race, while retaining the flavor of elves as holding slight biases and high opinions of Elven tradition and superiority. The only break from this was the forlorn. The forlorn allowed Elven players to break from the Elven archetype of the haughty and naive mage/archer trope to that of a more solem and worldly adventurer. One who understands death and the consequences of time as they apply to the shorter lived races. Forlorn have known true loss. They have formed attachments as most elves would loathe to do, and they have payed the price for their experiences. In this way, Pathfinder was able to both maintain the trope, while allowing for a diverse range of character options. The elves of Starfinder need reason to no longer apply as such a core race to the Starfinder setting, but need to have been made so in such a way that a player can still feel that an elf in the wider setting of Starfinder can feel attached to the setting. I believe the forlorn of Starfinder fill that niche perfectly. They give the opportunity to represent a facet of Elven role play that plays off of their own personal perceptions of the wider universe, as well as the perceptions that their own race holds for them. How does a native Castrovelian elf see a forlorn adventurer. If such an adventurer can beat the solem knowledge that they will inevitably see their party die, would that be a success, or a willful acceptance ones of fate? I think Starfinder forlorn especially seem to be a brilliant race to role play off of.

Think of the implications of the Forlorn on what will eventually become Elven culture. It seems likely that if they are the rebellious youth of the native, enclaved, xenophobic Castrovelian Elves then they may eventually outnumber those predecessors. What's more, they will likely become the SF universes representation of the Elves. They will not be xenophobic or isolationist, or likely even so superior, given how much they will have needed to depend on all the other, more numerous races that have comprised the crews they've worked with. They'd be the Chewbacca's of the SF universe. The isolated Elves on Castrovel will become their backwards, antediluvian ancestors.

How much does tech hurt stealth in Traveller? SWRPG? Shadowrun? Hell, how much did tech hurt stealth in Star Wars? Stargate? The Fifth Element? Ghost in the Shell? All had their caveats, and all could be eviscerated from this perspective.

All of your points would be valid in the realities of any sci-fi universe, but fortunately for Sneaky McSneak, neither Star Finder nor any of the other universes just mentioned are reality, and the arguments of reality don't need to apply. I would assume stealth still functions as stealth, just as it would in any other sci-fi setting.

It appears to be, yes. But it also appears to be more geared toward the playability of each entry.

7. Wearing a red shirt.

Computer, Will this be available at Gen Con as well?