Khaladon's page

It would certainly be cool.

In the meantime, however, there is always this.

Oh man!! I SO wish I had seen this way back then! (Kinda took a hiatus from P2P for a while due to a little bun emerging out of it's oven ; )

If anyone knows or hears of this happening again please let me know!

As well if anyone is still interested in the idea in the original post, also please let me know!

Oh man! Sorry to hear about that Corerue! Hope it all works out alright!

(I may make one more IC post, a speech, after Nik and before Jemini. Depending on how things roll ; )

Areas of Development

Having trained for many years as an Aldori swordlord himself, Akiros would be very interested in helping Borodin open an Aldori fighting school.

To compliment Borodin's Magus society Akiros will start an Oracle society. He will be primarily focused on Battle Oracles, but all types will be welcome. Should Jemini wish to aid in this endeavour he would welcome her help. The society would be closely linked with the Shine/Temple to Iomeade. The primary purpose of the society will be to help prepare Newhaven and her citizens for the oncoming war with Choral, and protect the nation and her people in general.

However, due to his many other commitments, this endeavour will be last on the list of his priorities and time available to spend on it. He will search for someone appropriate to take over the general running of the society.

Akiros will very much wish to have the Iomeade shrine upgraded to a full, if small, temple. He is still on the search for a priest or priestess to run it. In the interim though he does his best to minister to those who come to seek Iomedaes guidance.

Professional & Political:

Akiros does all he can to stay out of politics as much as possible. He fully meets his duties as Warden Marshall and Founder, of course, yet he has no stomach for or interest in, the endless debate and squabble some founders seem to revel in.

Also very important to him is his duty as "Shining Sowrd of Iomeade's Justice". Yet he is still not quite sure just what such a duty entails. Although he has not spoke of this to anyone, not even Elspeth, he feels that he is being made ready for something, something important, he just does not yet know what that something may be.

Akiros fully supports Elsir and Borodin being made full founders.

In general, Akiros supports pretty much any idea or motion which will help protect Newhaven and her people. He will move to block encroachment by Brevian nobility or any moves by any of the founders he sees as seeking more personal power. Areas where he and Verik might butt heads might be increased rules and restrictions on personal rights and freedoms. Akiros firmly believes in Law, yet he believes it is a tool to serve the people, not the other way around.

They will also likely have issues from time to time over Verik's Vaultmen. Akiros does like the Banker, though he keeps a close eye on the Abadarian's seemingly never ending desire for more power, control and influence.

Akiros fully supports all Berrin's plans for increasing Newhaven's military strength. He is particularly interested in the second cavalry of monster hunters and law keepers. However he will move to have it's Name adjusted ; ) Likely something simple like...The 2nd cavalry.

Akiros will push hard for the increase and further training of the guardsman. Basically he'd like them to be a second army whose main task is to protect the city from all threats, external and internal.

He will also work with Berrin on training a large militia.

Personal Stuff

Other than spending time with Elspeth and his family, Akiros doesn't have much of a personal life outside his duties. Berrin, Zander and Borodin would be the founders he spends the most time with. I can completely see Berrin's and Akiro's children playing together, and as well I can see Aylene and Elspeth getting along, having both grown up noble, but having little interest in the typical interests and character of your average Breven noble. I also completely agree with this
"Berrin and Akiros have reached some understanding between each other despite Akiros's rigid nature and Berrin's roguish one. They both know that each has Newhaven's best interest at heart and I can see them becoming fast friends if Akiros is onboard with that. They have so much in common that I see opportunities for friendly rivalries everywhere (swordplay, horseback riding, how much their babies weigh and how old they were when they said 'Dada'). As too setting laws, Berrin will oppose Akiros just as staunchly as he opposes Verik if he pushes for something that Berrin sees as 'too much'."

As for Nikolai, their relationship will always be a strange one. They have been through more together than any other two founders, and most of their past consists of things neither of them would prefer to think of. Plus, they were once leader and sworn follower, yet are now equals. Akiros knows Nikolai's true potential though and will do all he can to support that growth and possibility. In the end, they are, and always will be, friends.

Akiros is a simple man at heart, and has little need or interest for anything in his life beyond his family and his duty. While not overly demonstrative in public, he is deeply and passionately in love with his wife. He also adores his children (I would like it if they had twins first, a boy and a girl, and then another girl, a little younger than Berrin's Maegar. They have no plans or desire to have more than that. Home is the place where the stern and duty bound Marshal can drop his iron mask and relax, and play with his progeny. While still stern with them in areas he feels are important, like duty, honour, respect and physical training, he's also thrilled to be 'horsey' and storyteller and playmate.

Akiros has built a modest home for them, sturdy, well protected, far enough from the city for some privacy but still a quick ride to the castle. Akiros' family knows how important his job is, and how much duty means to him, so they accept that sometimes he cannot be home for long stretches, or needs to sleep in his office occasionally. He makes every effort though to be home with his family as much as he possibly can. Nothing in the world means more to him.

Kydal is definitely a part of his family. The children adore him, and, if anything, the powerful, fierce, intelligent warhorse is even more fond of them. He also makes a pretty great babysitter.

Surprises & Twists:
- More trouble with Elspeth's brother, Alexey
- Possible intrigue with House Garess. Maybe not having an heir and looking to Elspeth or her children?
- Some relatives of Akiro's slain former Aldori swordlord brothers, or Sarah and Matthias, seeking him and/or Nikolai out for revenge and/or justice
- Perhaps a run-in with his evil cousin Korias (from THIS post where he has flashbacks and becomes an Oracle)
- Something to do with his Omen(Faith) feat?

Final Note:

If the Dark Future does indeed come about, I can see the reason for Akiros not being in it as that, at some crucial, critical juncture, he sacrificed himself to save others, or for the good of all. This is very much something in line with his character.

Akiros Level up:
Oracle 3
BAB +1
HP +8
Fort +1, Ref +1
SQ: Revelation - Battlecry
Spell: +1 1st lvl per day/known - Command

Skills; Ride +1, Knowledge (planes) +1, Swim +1, perception +1
Feats; Weapon specialization (bastard sword)

Didn't add on any new gear, what with his already being over wbl.

for Lomar

Hey thanks bro!

Did you write that review?

Seriously can't think of any other moves at this point for Akiros. Even Guidance is redundant with Prayer still in effect, yes?

Maybe Akiros could try a few cheerleader somersaults to rally the gang?

Thanks for the DMPC by the way. Had three guests for several days, busy week.

Also, seriously, there must be some kind of glitch in the Paizo system that whenever dice rolls are combined with the word "Akiros" the roller is forbidden to go over a 10 : |

Are we still only going with the basic spells and such? Not all the expanded or 3rd party material?

I think it looks quite cool. Like the intertwining of mech and necrotech

He has reach, so Berrin has to leave the 10' square to reach a place (5') where he can attack with the greatsword.

Ah, right, thanks DM B, forgot that bit.

Cool drawings dude.

How is Leon's arm mechanical? Seemed to have missed that.

Haven't had a chance to go over Akiros' sheet yet, but if anyone feels inclined to, and notices any other mistakes, please feel free to point them out to me.

I have to leave for work now, but may be able to post later tonight (or tomorrow morning, to be precise) when I'm done. Anyway, sometime tomorrow.

I'll likely use his Resolve: Determined ability to remove the shaken condition and I'm thinking about using a hero point to get another standard action in.

EDIT: Oh, and just curious, why would Hargulka get an AoO against Berrin? Doesn't that only happen when leaving a threatened square?

How dense is the forest here DMB?

Does it seem like Akiros would have a good chance to stay mounted while in combat?

Wish enlarge worked on horses! I gotta admit, I like the idea of a Large Akiros on a Huge Kydal! :D

Hey, so what's the plan with Hargulka folks?

What buffs do we want to put into place first?

Akiros has three 1st level spells left. So he can enlarge three of the group, and/or cast protection from evil.

Also guidance and resistance on everyone.

Ok, perhaps we'll just say that Lomar and Cid proceeded to scout ahead again and after seeing the big group either waited for, or came back and got the others.

All good, just trying to keep Lomar in character. : )

Ah, ok, was posting quickly, missed the different ACs.

In my previous post I'd said that Kydal rode back to 80' away, so yes within charge range.

What was the double miss chance for? The two heads? So if he hits with either one it's a hit and needs two misses to miss?

Will get Akiros' post up tonight.

Corerue, how long would it have taken for Kieran to go back to the litle girl, have the quick chat, and come back with her?

Just trying to coordinate our timeline here.

Oh, and Ganit, Kirean's totally right that it's safer to gather the group and all proceed forward together.

Unfortunately Lomar's blood is up, and he has no intentions of letting the dwarf get away. In his mind, keeping his sis safe is top priority. So leaving the undead dwarf to maybe come back and attack them again does not seem to Lomar like a good way to do that.

Thanks V! And for DM B for giving it ;)

Also fantastic post and use of Pyrotechnics there for Elsir, Sigz!

Oh, and perhaps there's some confusion? I am under the impression that Lomar has found two healing potions in the backpack and has just used both of them, one on himself and the other on Seren. I understand that Cid had another potion that is presumably going to either Seren or Jaegar.

I have no problems with corrections if any of this is incorrect though

Lomar def won't be going back to the group, as he doesn't feel they have that kind of time. He'll wait a few seconds/rounds at most, to see if the others can help get Seren and Jaegar up and well, and then he'll be off again after the dwarf.

I admit I'm a bit nervous at seeing Nik's hp compared to what the minotaur's likely are, but overall I think it's gonna be a pretty even match, decided by the dice (or maybe some sneaky tactics)

Haste and bless would for sure help, but if we only have one of each, my vote says we gotta save it for Hargulka and the trolls that will be sure to be with him.

Sorry Steve!

What's "T" on the map?".

Well, clearly, hence most of us sticking around for closer than a decade than not. Plus, you know, the overall PbP addiction pretty much all of us suffer from to one degree or another.

Bet that got your attention!

So, this is how this idea came to be. I've begun reading the Pathfinder comics, and I must say, it's super cool to be able to read, and see those PCs going through the same trails and tribulations that our PCs went through when they started RotRL so long ago (Over SIX years now these PCs have been adventuring together!!).

I mean, our guys would totally kick those guys' asses, but still, it's cool.

So then I started thinking 'Oh man! Imagine a comic book of OUR PCs adventures! Holy moly I'd LOVE that!!!'

and then 'Hey! Maybe that's a great idea for some enterprising artist!'

And thus the idea was born:
Custom made comic books of an adventuring party's adventures.

If I had the artistic chops, I'd Totally start a kickstarter campaign or something for that.

But since I don't, I put it out there to all of you.

How much do you think you'd be willing to pay, as an individual or a group, to see your fav PCs immortalized in a personalized comic book/graphic novel??

How much do you think something like that would cost to make?

Am I the only one interested in such a thing?

Perhaps some sort of software could be developed to streamline the process?

Many questions seeking answers!

Oh, and, to be clear, should this ever become a huge money making idea, I fully expect to be cut in on the take. After receiving my first graphic novel, of course.

On a separate note, I've begun reading the Pathfinder comics, and I must say, it's super cool to be able to read, and see those PCs going through the same trails and tribulations our PCs went through so long ago.

I mean, our guys would totally kick those guys' asses, but still, it's cool.

Oh man! Imagine a comic book of OUR PCs adventures! Holy moly I'd LOVE that!!!

Hey! Maybe that's a great idea for some enterprising artist!

Custom made comic books of an adventuring party's adventures.

If I had the artistic chops, I'd Totally start a kickstarter campaign or something for that.

How much do you think you'd be willing to pay, as an individual or a group, to see your fav PCs immortalized in a personalized comic book??

Yup, both Marak and Set will for sure be dearly missed.

We do have two half-healers though, so hopefully we'll be good. Plus we have a bunch of loot to sell eventually so can invest in some wands and such.

As an added bonus, now Wellard will be able to enjoy the game more with his significantly increased chances of offing us.

But, um, hopefully this doesn't mean too squishy an end for our dear friend!

Did you still want the Enlarge if your facing a major baddie?

However, as he's only got 3 1st level spells, I'm waiting to see who the foe is to see if it will be worth it to blow 2/3 his spell wad on this one combat

Oh ya! Almost forgot. Akiros can also give a protection from evil AND an Enlarge, both of which will last 2 min.

An enlarged Nikolai should be a pretty cool sight!

Ha! That a true story about Cid? If so, cool!

And thanks for the Loot compilation bro.

Oh, you mean the future Borodin's from, that's CHANGED now, since he's here?

DOOM-DOOM DOOM-DOOOOOOM!

Really? Well I understand, I've been through similar phases with my PbO myself. Would be sad to see ya go Set, but I'm glad to have gotten to have gamed with a player of your calibre! Marak will be missed!

I've enjoyed everything you've crafted for us bro, so bring it on! ; )

Hope your family is all well soon! It's tough when the lil ones are sick.

First we have to all survive this war though, yes? ; )

Bump!

Sorry, I edited my post and changed my question when I rechecked the map. My bad. Guess you saw my post before the edit. : P

Ok, next question, do we Have siege weapons??

I'm assuming that Verik would have eventually told us about something as important as Hargulka having magic that protects him from fire. If that was a mistake on my part, my sincere apologies.

DMB, what is the bridge made of? And do we have any idea how to destroy it? Or do we need K Engineering checks?

Also, is it safe to assume that the two opposing centaur tribes on the lower (south?) side of the river cancel each other out, so that we have an extra unit of centaurs we can deploy?

Hey guys, sorry, I got some stuff going on right now. I'll post soon if I can, if I don't, please don't wait for me. Cheers.

Ya, I see that now, but didn't take it into consideration properly before posting. I still would have Akiros act pretty much exactly the way he did. He's had one thing on his mind for the past hour and a bit, namely getting home to Elspeth, and Sanctuary, in time. Now he just found out that he's already a day late. He's always been practical, straightforward, duty bound man or few words and direct action. So now more than ever he has no time for long speeches, extended debate or anything else that makes it longer till he can get home.

All that being said, I totally coulda, and shoulda, waited some more before posting. My apologies.

Just to be clear too, that's all from Akiros' point of view. I love everything all you folks write. This has been in my top most fav games ever right from the get go, and it's never disappointed since. I especially liked how both Steven and Cromlich picked up, and rode right along with the whole tie in to the Cog's "crossed swords" speech.

Spot on, that!

If we're expecting a Troll army at any time, I guarantee Akiros (or any quarter decent general) would have scouts at least 2-3 days out in Every conceivable direction the enemy might come from.

Hmmm, question though. If we've been preparing for a Troll invasion, how could their entire army be one day's ride away and Sanctuary not been aware of it??

They (we) should have known they were coming days ago.

Hey Steven and all, my apologies if my 'aid' there was ungainly or ill conceived. Was just trying to alter the stage a bit there so we can allow Nik and Aki to be part of the scene without having to do some reexplaining or whatever.

Ok well ya, I'm pretty much in line with Steven. My thought was just to do what would make most sense to our PCs, i.e. get home as fast as possible.

If having say Zander, Borodin and Akiros arrive significantly ahead of the others throws off your story or makes your job more difficult I have no problem whatsoever with you just rolling it all into one post.
S'all good.

Keep forgetting about those handy sack of haver! Cool.

And yup, I am not expecting Niki to react well at all either, but it's still all true! ;)

Ok, so, Akiros has just laid out his plan to Nik. Not sure how the big guy will take it, but there you have it.

He'll also be trading in his ruined(?) full plate for studded leather or a chain vest.
Kydal will also be riding without barding.
He plans to make it back to Sanctuary as fast as humanly possible and will do everything in his power to make that happen. He's got some very compelling reasons to do so.

He's also going to suggest that we load up all the loot in the secret chamber. If it lasted undetected all these hundreds or thousands of years, a few more days or weeks won't make a difference. We, all of us, need to get back to town as fast as possible which means we don't take anything with us that's not essential. At least that's how I see it.

On another note, you guys ever seen a show called "Doomsday Bunkers"?
Crazy what these people are doing! I mean, I totally get it, and if I had the extra cash and a family to protect I may just be doing something similar myself. But man some of these folks are serious about it! And are laying down some serious dough to do it!

Haha! Ditto! ^ ^

You are one hard working dude, Coreure! Not mention tough and hard to put down! You take your licks and keep on ticking!

Ya, we know that Nik is Verik's favourite toy to play around with. I mean, sure, he's likely to get his hands and tongue chopped off for it eventually, but for now, wheeee! ; ]

Speaking of fun, I'm sure all you guys have seen all these already, but just in case not, check 'em out! They're Great! (and if anyone can recommend similar stuff, please fell free to! )

Hands Of Fate!

The production company, Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, has a bunch of great stuff!

OH, and thanks Celeador, glad you enjoyed it! : )

So I recently discovered the Unmitigated Pedantry world building resource (great site) and their article about polytheism in which they specifically call out the D&D (and Pathfinder) style religion as negative example

The tl;dr version:
Everyone knew that all gods are real, so only worshipping one does not make sense. Instead you performed regular rites in order to keep all of those deities happy and also when you want to strike a bargain with a specific deity.

That sounds like an interesting concept, although it would require some rewrites to the clergy of each deity and possibly paladins.
Has someone played with a more polytheistic interpretation of the pantheon and how did it go? Or just has some idea about rites for each deity (is there a 3rd party product or some alternate class which does something like this?)

Or do you rather prefer the current system where people devote themselves to one deity and if yes, why?

As we are soon getting a (maybe) pirate or criminal AP I wonder how people handle travelling from Near Space or the Vast to the Pact System. Does the 1d6 travel time only apply when you are going to Absolom Station and you have to spend another 1d6 days when you go somewhere else in the system (and also have to deal with Absolom authorities if you don't jump away fast enough) or do you let the PCs go to any location they want when coming from the outside directly?

Is there an overview what fleets are active in the pact system (or at least based in it or operated by an organization within the pact)?

Obviously each planet has its own fleet, probably even several if they are not unified like Castrovel.
And then there are different churches (with the Church of Iomedae being especially heavily armed with T18 dreadnoughts).
And then there are Hellknights, Knights of Golarion or the Skyfire Legion which have their own line of ships.
Or the Overwatch fleets from the stewards.

But who else is out there? When you read the descriptions of the ships in SOM you can make a lot of money selling T15 Battleships (Starhive Vespinar) and even "budget-conscious police forces" are in the market for such ships (Norikama Valkyrie. I do not want to see what well funded police forces use).

Has the Devestation Ark AP some information on that?

So as a spinoff to my question about the population of the pact system the question of the political landscape of the pact system and how much influence each planet has came up (well, I skirted the issue and thought, why not make a thread about it?)

As with population the lore we have is pretty vague. We do know how the individual planets work, more or less, but the details about the pact world government was left out. So this is also more a "how do you envision it for your campaign" discussion as a resource for others than a definitive list.

And to be honest, I do not have a defined political system for my version of Starfinder yet, so writing things down is also a bit of a help for me to get it sorted.

For now I will ignore the fine details of how the politics work in the pact system like how many delegates each planet has etc. and look at more basic things like how much say would the individual planets have in my opinion (and feel free to disagree or bring up things I missed). After all, there is also soft power involved which might make planets more or less important than they would be based on their delegate numbers.

Sun
-- Just a protectorate without voting right
+ Religious symbol
+ Point of contact with the plane of fire

Being a protectorate without voting rights of course severely limits the political importance of the sun. It does have an increased importance when it comes to diplomatic matters and if it can leverage or even stir up Sarenrae worshippers its voice will be heard despite its status

Aballon
++ Major manufacturing capacity
++ High population count
+ Birthplace of a part of Triune
+ Planetary government
- Mostly robotic inhabitants

Aballon would be one of the most important planets, maybe even the most important one, in the system with the political power to match it. I only added robotic inhabitants as a negative as it might breed some resentment among the biological inhabitants of the system that robots are de facto deciding what happens. But that depends on how egalitarian the setting is. Also, machines likely have a very different thought process than biologicals which might also cause friction.
The question is how much do the Anacites use the power they have

Castrovel
++ Earth sized garden world
+ Manufacturing capabilities by necessity (war)
- Undeveloped

With Golarion missing Castrovel is the most hospitable, earth like planet in the system which could give it a lot of influence because of population alone. The problem is that large part of the planet is undeveloped by design which means it is far below the potential it has.

Absolom Station
++ Starstone location
+ Humanities "home"
-- Tiny population

Absolom station certainly has vastly more influence than it should have, being a single space station. Normally I do not think it would have any say at all if it were not for the starstone and the effect it has on drift travel. And with it being the adopted home of humanity (despite humans being much more numerous elsewhere) they likely lobby pretty hard that it has a say in interplanetary politics. Still at the end I think this only goes so far and Absolom is just a minor voice in the system, even when it likely thinks (and behaves) as if it is much more important

Akiton
- Small population
- Desolate
- Disjointed leadership
+ Past industrial importance

Akiton is a small, barren planet with a few city states who will likely have trouble to form a consensus on interplanetary politics. The previous thasteron rush which brought prosperity to Akiton might still have political effects in the form of old regulations and rights which favoured Akiton and were not repealed once the thasteron industry went bust.
Still in my opinion Akiton would be the cranky old man of politics which insists on ancient rights but no one is paying attention to it for longer than they have to.

Verces
++ Development
+ Global government
+ Stewards
+ Population

Verces would be another one of the power houses of the pact system much like Aballon. A earth sized planet, although with the problem of being locked, would still result in a higher population compared to places like Akiton. And it was already an spacefaring society in the times of Pathfinder. That means that the planet is very well developed with a corresponding high manufacturing capability.
And while the Stewards are supposed to be neutral, the fact that they come from Verces certainly also increases the importance of the planet even more.

Idari
-- Tiny population
- Hardly any manufacturing capability
+ Diplomatic connections to the homeworld

I am amazed that the Idari even has the status of a voting member considering that its about the size of a small city with no redeeming qualities except serving as a diplomatic channel back to their homeworld now that drift travel exists. Still in my opinion giving them voting rights was likely a political compromise and probably annoys the heck out of protectorates like the Sun or the Diaspora.

Diaspora
-- Protectorate
-- Lawless
- Disjointed leadership
+ Population?

Another protectorate with not much rights. The Disapora also has the problem that it has no structured government and is known for its lawlessness and being a haven for pirates. As such it probably has next to no political influence and is the problem child of the system. The only upside it might have is its population. It might not have a big population centre, but all the small outposts over the huge area it covers might add up. The question is if the other members of the pact recognizance and acknowledge that.

Eox
+ Military power
+ Manufacturing capability
-- Distrusted

Eox imo likely has less official influence than it technically should have. It is also a ancient spacefaring race and even thought the planet is devastated it still seems to retain its manufacturing capability, mainly because they don't care much about the devastation anymore. And even with the defection of large parts of the fleet (officially?) it likely remains one of the primary military contributors to the system. The reason Eox is not more influential is that they are undead and thus mistrusted. But I guess that suits them just fine as the Sages are content to do things unofficially instead through proper political channels. A bit like Russia maybe.

Triaxus
++ Earth sized garden world
+ Manufacturing capability
+ Population
-- Disorganized leadership

If Eox would be the Russia of the system, Triaxus would be the EU. Technically they would have huge power. The planet is the only fully developed earth type planet of the system as it does not have the disadvantage of being locked like Verces nor that it purposefully leaves its nature untouched like Castrovel. So it has the potential to surpass them in population and development. The problem is that it has a very disorganized government. You have many megacorps which certainly do not cooperate for the greater good and on the other side you have many different nations and city states in the allied territory which do not seem to be able to agree on much. And then there is Ning which pretty much has adopted the stance of Switzerland and not to have an opinion on anything.
So by the time Triaxus has formed an opinion on a interplanetary issue that issue has very often already been decided on by the other members or has changed and the whole process has to start again.

Bretheda
++ Population
+ Manufacturing/technological capability
+ Multiple planetary bodies
- Nonstandard lifeforms

Another political powerhouse of the system. Bretheda actually covers multiple planets which alone would give it a lot of clout it also has a huge population and a well developed technological base. The capabilities of the Barathus to merge into biological supercomputers also supports that. I added the nonstandard lifeform because I can imagine that because of the very different way they live the thought process of Barathus is very different from most other pact world inhabitants which would cause friction, same with the Anacites.

Apostae
- No natural resources
- Small population
- Distrusted
+ Potentially dangerous

To continue with the real world analogies, Apostae would be more like North Korea. They are distrusted and do not have much traditional power in the system both militarily because of its small size or economically as it lacks natural resources. The only reason people pay attention to it is because no one knows what slumbers beneath the surface which only they have access to. So the only influence they have would be limited to making demands while making a poker face

Aucturn
-- Protectorate
- Inhospitable
- Hard to reach
+ Dangerous

Aucturn is also just a protectorate which is understandable as no one sane would have an interest in ruling this place nor would you really trust a person who does.
The only reason the system might pay attention to this place is again because of the potential danger it might pose. But that danger is more abstract than in the case of Apostae

So with that, this would be my ranking:

Aballon
Bretheda
Verces
Triaxus = Castrovel
Eox
Absolom Station
Akiton
Apostae
Sun
Diaspora
Idari
Aucturn

Have you noticed if any items, abilities, races, etc. published in recent books have the potential to affect older APs by making them more easy or even derail them completely?

Things I can think of.

Inspired by the "how common are solarians" question, how big do you think the population of the Pact System is (in your campaign).

Population means anything recognized as sentient/sapient which is granted rights and protected by law.
Maybe excluding Anacites or listing them separately as they would likely inflate the number a lot.

For comparison, Earth currently has nearly 8 Billion people on it.

Mechs are not supposed to take part in normal combat and instead have special mech combats.
One way to avoid that organically is to have adventures in places normal mechs can't go. The problem is that the size category of huge does not prevent that.

1. PCs can be huge normally. There are powerarmor which make you huge. By locking out huge mechs you also lock out huge powerarmors

2. You have the possibility of large characters, thus many places should allow them to function normally. This also means that mechs can squeeze into such places. They will be less effective, but still very powerful

3. Baleful Polymorph can reduce the size category of a creature. That can be used to make a mech large sized which can then function just like a large character.

A very basic, but important question. Are mechs considered creatures for spell targeting?

If not many damaging spells would not work on them as they either directly target creatures or only damage creatures.
On the other hand, this would also mean spells like Baleful Polymorph, Build Trust and Borrow Corruption would work on them.

While most threads in the playtest are discussing the intended use of rules, lets talk about the unintended uses, a.k.a exploits.

What type of possible exploits have you noticed with the mech rules, even if they are just theoretical and depend on GM interpretation?

One thing would be if a character has a huge power armor, thus is the same size as a mech to use the mechs build points to make a level appropriate weapon for himself.

I have complained a lot that in my opinion Starfinder ignores its SciFi side too much and is too much fantasy.
But lets try something more constructive.

Which modern concepts do you think could be implemented in a Starfinder game (and how) and which ones should be avoided?

With modern concepts I mean things like everyone have an ID and having to go through immigration when arriving on a new place, so less anonymity compared to fantasy.
And of course gun laws, permits (guns, vehicles, etc), weapon registries which might raise some eyebrows when the PCs have looted weapons which according to the database belongs to someone else.

Or modern police forces which is organized and well equipped and also performs forensics meaning that the PCs are far less likely to get away with shooting places up, no matter how justified they are. This is of course coupled with video surveillance, etc.

You are of course free to add other things you think could or could not work in Starfinder.

While reading through the thread about themes people like to see in APs I started to wonder what type of stories people wanted or expected to see in them.

With type I mainly mean two things, morality and scope.

Morality in most (all?) APs is absolute. The PCs are on the indisputably good side and are fighting against the indisputably evil side. Some APs turn this around but the morality of each side is still very clear.

With scope I mean what is at stake in the adventure. Most APs are either directly save the world, or at least prevent worldwide catastrophic consequences.

Do you want or even require the APs you play to have this kind of scope and morality? Heroic good guys saving the world? Would you play an AP which is more shades of grey or has a much lesser scope? Why or why not?

The Azlanti Star Empire spans multiple solar systems, but most if not all of them are in the vast.
Now because of the unique way travel works in Starfinder this would mean that travel between two system within the empire would take the maximum of 5d6 days.

That does sound kinda lame and makes the Azlanti look a lot more handicapped than a BBE Empire should be. On the other hand it would give them a reason to look for worlds in near space which are faster to reach, making conflict between them and the pact worlds more likely.

So how do you handle it? Are the Azlanti really this handicapped (which also includes the PCs when they adventure within Azlanti space) or do they have a way to shorten the travel times between their systems somehow?

A semi spinoff from the wealth thread.

How do you think the average person in Starfinder lives? What are his working conditions (and job options), how does he live, what is his general living standard, what sort of services can he use (health insurance, etc) and so on.

In my opinion the SF material is very silent on the civilized parts of the setting and the rules do not really help in creating a sensible world.

So lets brainstorm how the non adventuring parts of SF look like.
Of course as big as the Pact Worlds are it is hard to generalize, so please always state what planet, race or region you mean.

I would like to hear some experiences with redeemer champion. Specifically about how serious the player takes the redeem part of the tenets. Does it get in the way often (in APs or self made adventures)?
Have you seen a redeemer champion to also taken one of the oaths and how does he reconcile the must redeem tenet and must slay oath?

From what I read everyone can take the test if they want. But is that really true?
Sure some drunken adventurer can take it, but on the other hand so far only humans ascended.
Of course that might be just coincidence or means the starstone only works on humans. Still, what about the other races? Sure elves and dwarves can probably try. What about goblins now that they are PC races or Iruxi? Can a centaur or gnoll take the test if he wants? Can a red dragon approach Absolom and demand to take the test?

Ignoring the Sci-Fi elements in Numeria Golarion seems to be a Sword&Sorcery setting. Yet when flipping through the Lost Omens book several illustrations give a quite different vibe.

For example one of the pictures about Absolom shows 100 Gun first rates which based on the paint scheme were inspired by the 18th century HMS Victory. So not only come they from a completely different timeframe than what Pathfinder usually uses it also makes one wonder how advanced guns are and how far they spread.
Speaking of guns, the one used for the Sun Orchid Oasis picture (Golden Road) is also quite advanced and wouldn't look out of place in a "Laurence of Arabia" setting.

The Shining Kingdoms are a strange case as the first picture shows renaissance knights charging a dragon which is what you expect from sword&sorcery, the next few pictures though show characters who would fit more into the time of the french revolution or later (the final blade certainly enforces that).

So, how much of that is because of liberties taken by the artist and how much is canon?

When looking at the world maps in the Pact Worlds book I always had a little trouble to comprehend the scale of them. To me they looked more like regional maps than world maps.

Thus I decided to overlay a real world map for comparison.
I be upfront, it didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped. I might work on it a bit more in the future (suggestions how to improve them are welcome).

I used maps found on ArtStation, drawn by Damien Mammoliti and of course copyrighted by Paizo
https://www.artstation.com/damie_m

For the world map I used a Gall-Peters projection for accurate sizes found on Wikipedia.

I did not find maps for all planets, just Akiton, Triaxus, Castrovel and Aucturn. But as the diameter of the last one is not fixed I could not make a map comparison.
When someone has a legal source for maps of the other planets like Verces please comment and I will make another map for it.

I would have liked to embed the pictures here, but according to a quick google search this is not possible on this board, so you have to make do with links.

So for comparison, here the real world map I used:
https://i.imgur.com/ZGgApQp.jpg

Akiton (half the diameter of earth, so only a quarter the surface area)
https://i.imgur.com/DZ0sZzb.png
Overlay
https://i.imgur.com/BPRlQCq.jpg

Castrovel
https://i.imgur.com/6pbldda.jpg
Overlay
https://i.imgur.com/ZDBgu73.jpg

Triaxus
https://i.imgur.com/pyHu154.jpg
Overlay
https://i.imgur.com/omDpOU2.jpg

What equipment, including fusions, magical items and armor upgrades, have turned out to be absolutely essential for you so that you do not want to go without them?

No matter if the items are just "that good" or because your specific campaign, build or group composition makes them useful.

So when the PCs starship has a tracking weapon they have a free and never ending supply of high powered (or even nuclear) explosive devices.

Can someone come up with a good explanation that doesn't sound too much like DM fiat as for why those can't be used as makeshift bombs, either by detaching the warhead and adding a normal detonator to it or just delivering the entire thing to whatever they want to go away and blow it up with a regular timed explosive?

This hasn't come up (yet), but I want to be prepared for things like this.

Also, am I the only one who thinks that giving the PCs a free, endless and legal supply of nuclear devices is a very bad idea?

I am looking for additional ideas how to create adventures in modern/futuristic cities in Starfinder and would like to know if you have done any?

If yes, how did it go? Were there restrictions (laws) in place that prevented the group to carry whatever they want? And how did you handle the police and other official services?

So with starship combat having some room for improvement, I wonder what type of starship combat you think would fit Starfinder the most.

On one end there is the Star Wars single seated fighter combat. Spaceships would not have that much utility, but everyone gets his own ship and has things to do in combat. The downside is that everyone has his own ship and should know how to use it.

A step up from that you have Star Trek shuttle combat (for example DS9 2x21). The ships are two or three seater and have a little bit of utility besides combat. The combat itself is also a bit less WW2 fighter engagement with a bit less focus on positioning, but it is still important. But it might be a bit hard to make comprehensive rules for how the ships are assigned to the group.

Then we have The Expanse style small ships for a single group of people which imo is what Starfinder is now. The group has one ship and everyone controls one aspect of it.

The final category would be Star Trek capital ships. Those ships have a crew which opens up more things for the PCs to do when not directly involved in the ships operation like providing aid. Also the crew can fill any position the PCs can't cover and there can also be some adventures on the ship. But not everyone might like having to deal with an NPC crew and at times it can feel a bit impersonal.

So, what would be best for SF?

Inspired by the discussion about space combat in the APs I started to wonder what people put into the extension bays of their ships and how much use those modules get, like how often have you actually hauled tons of cargo to make a cargo bay useful and stuff like that?

I ask because most bays look to me like they were well meant but are rather useless unless the GM makes this one extension bay important this one time in the campaign.

Whats your opinion of the space combat in the APs?

From what I have seen so far most space combat in APs is a chance to earn more XP, but beyond that do not matter much. No matter if you win or lose the outcome is basically the same, maybe with slight alterations. The enemy disables you and is then driven off or you are forced to land and the adventure proceeds like normal with maybe an additional encounter after landing.

One one had it makes space combat easy to ignore if the group is not suited for it, on the other hand if feels rather disconnected.

So for the most part adventures in Starfinder are similar to what you encounter in Pathfinder, at least when you follow the APs. Players explore ancient ruins, fight wildlife or assault enemy "dungeons".

But there is one kind of adventure you can run in Starfinder you can't run in Pathfinder, or at least would look very differently when you do. Namely, urban adventures.

The difference to pure fantasy settings is that in Starfinder you are often moving in a highly organized society with an equally organized law enforcement which has access to high tech equipment.
This is a unusual setting for PCs compared to most other D20 fantasy settings where they can get away with a lot, either because laws are loose and enforcing them is so problematic that the PCs can often break them without anyone noticing.

The Penumbra Protocol is one adventure with takes place in such a high tech, highly organized city and is in my opinion a prime example of how not to do it, treating buildings in the middle of the city like a dungeon you can crawl through without anything happening.

So what are the differences and problems PC can encounter? Keep in mind though that those are not universal and GMs might decide to ignore many or all of them to keep the game rolling, especially when the urban adventure is an one time exception and the PCs are not prepared to bypass them. Also, not all of those things apply everywhere. Some cultures for example would value privacy so much to not use cameras and so on.

- Laws regarding weapon and equipment
Nearly every society will have laws regarding weapons. Some might allow sidearms, some might be completely free of weapons. Either way, heavy weapons, power armor and maybe even long arms are probably not allowed.

- Social norms
Even when weapons are technically allowed, social norms will still prevent them to be carried around into many areas.

- Surveillance
Here the problems really start. Unlike in fantasy environments PCs can never be sure that they are unseen. In a scifi setting you are most likely to have cameras everywhere, often running facial recognition or even AI supported crime detection in real time.
And it is not just visual surveillance. As soon as gunfire is heard you can bet that someone calls emergency services and it is only a matter of time till law enforcement arrives.

- Networking
Unlike in fantasy setting the PCs are not anonymous. Their birth and citizenship has been registered and they most likely have a passport, there are records of their education, spending habits, licenses for weapons and other restricted equipment, etc.
Coupled with camera surveilance that means that they will be easily identified when they come to the attention of law enforcement who can then easily check where their starship is docked and impound it etc.

- A living environment.
Modern cities are highly dynamic. People commute to work, go shopping, get entertained, etc. Not so much a problem for PCs but it influences the adventure design.
I mainly only mention this because of the Penumbra Protocol

- A law enforcement that has teeth.
The biggest change to a fantasy setting, law enforcement in a scifi city has access to a lot of high tech equipment, infrastructure and also numbers which means the PCs will be outgunned, outnumbered and even if they fight off one police squad they are not in the clear. Instead that raises just the response level.
The police is also networked and quite fast in their response to bigger events like firefights.
That means that as soon as something like that is reported the PCs are on a clock and would do best to not be there when the police arrives.

So what does that mean for urban adventures? Mainly that the PCs have to be subtle and that there is a time limit as soon as fights and other big crimes happens.
This not only requires a different way of playing from the players, but also a different adventure design from the GM.

The main thing is that you can't have a traditional dungeons in a city (unless you are in a very remote part) where the PCs enter and explore it as they go. Instead the exploring part has to be done before actually entering the building by getting access to schematics, bribing informants etc.
That way the PCs should find out where their objective is and depending on how good they are were other goodies are. Goodies can either be treasure or a way to delay a law enforcement response by allowing the PCs to penetrate deeper before they have to fight.
And most importantly, not only should the PCs get XP for discovering things before they go in, they should also get the vast majority of XP and other rewards for going in, fulfil their objective and get out as fast as possible instead of getting penalized for not searching every locker and air duct for treasure.

As I said above, the players have to try to be more subtle, but also need to have the possibility to be subtle.
That includes having a safe haven where they can be safe unless they screw up and can store their heavy equipment.
They also need a way to move unseen in the city of they want to or erase their tracks. Using Computer/Hacking is obvious, but that should not be a mandatory skill. Other options include using disguises, bribing officials or having a powerful backer who takes care of this problem within reason if the GM wants to avoid the hassle.

Also, PCs can and should be able to expoit the society to help them. A forged document should get you far and why carry problematic items with you when you can make or steal a delivery drone to deposit it somewhere you can easily get it once you are past security?

One important thing is that also the enemies are limited by the same rules. Companies have layered defences, starting with being nonlethal and only switching to lethal once you penetrated into the facility. And anyone attacking the PCs also won't have all the heavy equipment they want (or there is the chance for the PC to notice that something is wrong and someone brings heavy equipment with them). And the police will also represent a time limit for the NPCs, so either they will get reckless or flee if the PCs can hold out long enough.

So while trying to imagine how triaxian cities would look like I started to wonder how large dragonkin actually are. After all as integrated as they are nearly all buildings would likely be dragonkin sized with some if them even having space for actual dragons.

The book says 15-20ft. Which seems awfully large and making them tower over most normal 1 story buildings. Good luck playing Against the Aeon Throne with a dragonkin this large.

Then I noticed that the description say 15 to 20 feet long and not heigh. Imo thats a very weird way to measure a bipedal creature which dragonkin are supposed to be in my understanding. After all you don't measure the tail for Vesk.
Still, if one assumes that the tail is 1/3 if the length it would make them 10 to 13 feet tall, a imo much more reasonable number.

Then there is the question if how upright they actzally walk. The art in Starfinder shiws them as completely upright while in Oathfinder they seem to be more bend down. And there is still the question why their length is measured and not their height as if they were quadrupled.

So how do you think dragonkin look like? Hiw upright do they walk and hiw much soace do they need to walk normally? Do you simply extrapolate the 3rd dimension from the combat spacing, making them 10x10x10 blocks and leave it at that or do you require 15ft. or even the full 20ft. ceilings for them to walk normally? (either as pure flavor or even mechanically to not be considered squeezing?)

I have recently looked at the sample settlements in the Pact Worlds book and it seems to be that the population numbers in Starfinder are universally low, sometimes comically so.
For example Zo the "Hub of spaceflight" of Triaxus has a population of 19.000 while the largest city on Castroval has not even a million inhabitants.
Thats a better village and a medium sized city. For comparison, Singapore has a population of 5 million and Dubai one of 3 million.
Is it really intended that nearly all places in the Pact Worlds have a population density of Kansas or are the writers still stuck thinking in (pseudo)medieval numbers?

Also, if you assume sensible population numbers (and even if you don't and take low numbers for everyone), what would that mean for the overall demographics especially in relation of the core races?

Normally humans are the most populous race but in Starfinder they would be rather rare considering that their main planet vanished (unless you also count the Aeon Empire). All thats left for them is one barely habitable dustbowl they share with 3 other sentient races and a space station. There are probably not even a billion or even 100 million humans in the system.
From the way it looks to me there are probably more Elves and even Dragonkin in the Pact System than humans.

Kasatha would be downright rare with the population of a single colony ship spread over the whole system. Unless there has been an undocumented, huge immigration from their home system to the Pact Worlds, despite them having failed to actually colonized anything, there are probably not even a million of them there.

From the core races the only really populous would be Androids (mass produced for some time), Lashunta (Have their own continent on a habitable world, although the population example is extra low balled) and Vesk (although most of them in the Veskarium, how many are in the Pact Worlds is unknown)

Funnily enough though the most populous races should be the NPC/Alien Archive races. Verthani would at least match, if not surpass the Lashunta population and Ryphorians would be the most numerous humanoids as they seem to be the only ones who have a whole habitable planet for (nearly) themselves, even if a third of them have to live under the claw of dragons. Even with the long seasons, Triaxus would support billions of inhabitants. And when you take the demographic of Zo as normal, one third of those billions would be Dragonkin, making them more populous than many core races. Thats even true when they only make up 10% of the population and not 30%.
But even Ryphorians would be outmatched by Anacite and Barathu.

Has there been an official word on the population and demographics and on the extremely low numbers in the Pact Worlds book? And if not do you follow those numbers which mean that even the greatest cities on the planets are just large towns or do you increase the population numbers to "make sense" for advanced societies?
And if yes, how does the demographic in your setting look like? Who are the majorities and who the minorities? Do you elevate humans back to be the most numerous default to match Pathfinder or is someone else the "face" of the Pact Worlds?