Jonathan Barrett's page

I was skeptical about the university stuff. I was worried the stuff with the journalists would grind the game to a bit of a halt... so I had some angry formian terrorists break into the uni wanting to get reprisal for the xenophobic rant Ailabeins made. It eased the scene a bit, got a police officer in the building, gave the journalists some reason to interact with the players, and introduced a new sub-plot I can bring in later. When they ended up talking to Nuhali, I still made her uneager to interact with the players (I played her as an overworked, jaded woman with more important things on her mind, like the terrorist attack in her foyer), but she happily agrees to give the players access to Solstarni's office. Whilst she was looking for the keycard.... the players went to Ailabein's to talk to him about what he had said anyways. Ailabein's attitude is much harder to defend when there has already been consequences to his actions. Everything in the book ultimately played out, just there was an added combat (the players were really happy about the roleplay/combat balance in that session, which also included the smugglers, who recognised the players from news reports of the terrorist incident and were alerted very early that they were being investigated).

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I had a question about the Yaruk encounter at the start of Act 2: do other GMS run it as purely narrative, or do you treat it as a mini-game and set out the actions for players before hand? I feel the encounter is necessary (the players are massively excited about Ukulem, to the point of singing the Jurassic Park theme at the mere mention of creatures like the Yaruks), but I've never had great luck with running encounters like this where it is expected that the players do actions from a particular list, whilst randomly receiving damage. I wonder what approach everyone else takes?

Also, is Oatian culture described in more detail anywhere but here? After this adventure we'll be doing more homebrew stuff, so I was thinking of making the 'piece of...

So... you rewrote the extended encounter? I like your solution and creative thinking, but this pokes at a major problem in the whole AP...lack of options, at least lack of prepared optional outcomes.

Since vehicles are illegal during the wilderness trek, do you think it would be legal for a party to purchase or rent a Shotalashu for the trip?

If so, can anyone suggest a price for renting or buying one? I'm struggling with it because I have nothing to compare it to.

Would there be any penalties for a non-telepathic character handling a Shotalashu, or would they just miss out on the bonuses mentioned for Lashunta mentioned in the telepathic link?

Can anyone think of any other Castrovelian creatures that would be appropriate as mounts or pack animals?

Wouldn't this make it even more likely to prematurely overtake the cultists and ruin the railed plot quite a bit. Even a GM counter of "the baddies also buy mounts" it changes the overland speed and endurance checks along the way reducing time and danger and at the end, makes for a pretty nice haul to gather and return the mounts the enemy used. Not to mention the burning question, what if the players actually catch up to the cultists, even if it's just on the day they arrived at the Tot12?

I'd be hesitant to disable a PC mechanic's drone over it. For one, it's a class feature and shouldn't be disabled lightly. For two, it's an advanced AI: it can and should be allowed to follow its own independent programming.

In my mind, it's there to be more of an impediment to long range communication. I wouldn't do more than than maybe add a little static to line of sight communication methods. The communication disruption serves to help the PCs feel isolated and, frankly, it is there to provide a story reason to make Tahomen the last encounter.

Wouldn't this, in effect, disable Tahomen's transmission to his allies in the Diaspora?

Also, regarding that, what if, somehow, the players catch up with Tahomen's group and either eliminate him before he gets to the Tot12 or somehow destroys his equipment that he uses to transmit his findings? The AP makes no accomodations for a mere 2-day head start and the possibility of very resourceful PC's with really good checks.

I know you can't account for everything, but a few alternate rails would be nice.