Kishmo's page

There's probably a better way.

DriveThruRPG does have a way for creators to send promotional copies :)

It was only just changed to allow up to 7. And scenarios already went higher than 10.

Ah, I suspect you may be stuck on Lost Golarion, my friend!

But seriously, you should come play in space sometime. There's lasers! Pew Pew!

Question for Alex et al:
The level ranges for community Society Infinite Scenarios are in two-level ranges, and go all the way to lvl 20.
The Org Play character creation rules let us create character at odd-numbered levels, but only up until 7. This made sense, when the assumption was scenarios would only go up to level 10.
But, now that we can make our own high-level scenarios, can the Org Play Creation rules be amended, so that people can make odd-numbered characters higher than 7?
Your pal,
"Cooking Up A lvl 11-12 Scenario" Kishmo

Paizo Peeps: has it been announced if you're going to put out 2e Quig and Raia pregens? If you're not planning on it, I might take a stab at some 'unofficial' ones, like I did for Kyyduh, Ciravel, and Veerkea.
...but if you're doing it, I'll leave it to the professionals :)

I agree that people with esoteric precise senses should still be able to function, even in environments that, technically & realistically, shouldn't support that sense. So I'd say, unless an adventure or something specifically says "precise smell / thoughtsense / lifesense / whatever doesn't work here," then just hand-wave it away and say space-magic and/or super science have solved it, without needing to get into the specifics.

It's come up before, though, as there are Society scenarios that specifically say "smell doesn't work here." So it's worth thinking about, I think, what you would do in those situations, either as a player or a GM. In past threads, I've come up with "probably just slows you down in Exploration mode; probably need to have enemies Pointed Out in combat mode."

While the route we took to get here isn't exactly joyous - shoot, heck if I ain't excited about some Community scenarios :) Smash cut to a bookshelf filled with crumbled papers, labelled "toxic Radaszam yaoi"

One thing I don't see addressed is the use of canonical NPCs. Are we allowed to have canonical figures, like Venture-Captain Arvin or Eando Kline, give briefings? (Arvin and Eliza Petulengro are mentioned on the guidance page, but just as an example of how to write a mini stat-line.)

Is there any guidance for these shared, canon, NPCs? One would hope that the kind of people who'd go to all the effort of writing a scenario for people to play aren't also the kind of people who'd have NPCs do something egregiously out of character - like, I dunno, have Celita throw a cybercustard pie at a PC's face during a briefing, but. I mean, I dunno, feels like there should be some guard rails? Smash cut again to a bookshelf filled with crumbled papers, labelled "toxic Radaszam yaoi"

(I guess there's a greater question of "canonicity" overall, here. What is or is not "canon" in these community scenarios, and if anything is canon, how far can we impact the setting? But that's an even bigger question, and separate from Canon NPC usage.)

Lastly - great job, on the "No AI (not even a little)" clause!

Can't wait to sink my teeth into this - very excited to hear that some of the mechanic and technomancer pain points were addressed! Thanks, Star Friends!

Using the similar khizar feat Carrion Feeder as a comparison, I agree: I'd rule using that feat requires the Interact action (i.e. 1 action, with the Manipulate trait.)

I also enjoyed the beginning of this scenario! I'm really liking that season 2 scenarios seem to be more willing to have non-traditional beginnings. This one starts with PCs just lounging around and happenening to be in wrong (or right?) place at the wrong time, as disaster strikes. I won't go into spoilers, but, 2-04 A Watery Grave similarly opens with a pretty cool, non-traditional, start.

There's nothing wrong, of course with the usual "a Venture-Captain / other Starfinder leader summons you to a briefing" beginning; indeed it makes a lot of sense in a lot of cases. But it's a nice change of pace to see more serendipitous scenario starts, too! Sort of a refreshing palate cleanser :)

It feels like there was a lot of discussion about SF2 in the lead up to its launch, but not a lot since then.

That tracks for me, personally - I checked out of a lot of forum/threads when it became clear to me that what I liked and valued about Starfinder, as a SF1 enjoyer, was apparently pretty different from what a lot of PF2 players thought ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

But, I also understood that those feelings weren't particularly widespread, and I was more of a black sheep, in that regard. I wonder what happened to some of the other "regulars," from the SF1 forums, if not that?

...anyone seen any large northern European canids around lately?

a secret fourth thing

Hey nonny nonny, Master Speidel!

I had this question, as well. I don't think the designers intended for a common Heritage to grant that many immunities, at level 1. So, the way I'm interpreting it, Enshrined Vesk grants only:
You don't need to eat, drink, or breathe. You always have basic environmental protections. You don't need to sleep, but you still need a daily period of rest.
and not the stuff implied by the Construct trait. The PC has the Construct trait, but probably only for being included for things that specifically work with constructs or not. I'm assuming that, if they wanted to give this heritage some Construct immunities/etc, they would've given it a bespoke ability, like androids, or automatons.
I think this falls under the "ambiguous rules" sidebar, Player Core p. 390: "If one version [of a way to interpret am is too good to be true, it probably is."

Never say never! Just look at the izalguun, who went from a meta-plot, First Contact, species encountered in a scenario to, well, having one leading the Starfinders :)

This season you’ll also see a few new additions to the campaign, including new boons in our boon store and a generic adventure sanctioning document, which will allow players to gain XP for their Starfinder Society characters while playing longer Starfinder adventures.

!!!

unfortunately we continue to live under capitalism and must make money.

Preach, Brother Speidel.

Bumping to show there's still interest here. SF2's second Adventure Path, Tales of the Vast, is releasing soon - subscribers are already getting PDFs. Without many player options in it, and without any Society progression for running it, I'm not planning on purchasing this, or bringing this up as an option for my players, when we next discuss what to play. I'd rather GM people through ongoing Society scenarios.

A generic Chronicle sheet to give out to people, and to let me get Org Play GM credit, would be enough to change that calculus. I don't need bespoke boons or items, just the ability to report it in the system. Sure, it would be great to get custom boons, but that's (imo) a "Nice to Have," whereas Society credit is more a "Must Have."

(Heck, I seem to recall Paizo people saying, when boons moved off of SF1e scenario chronicle sheets and into the online Boon Store years ago, that this situation is something the Boon Store was designed to address, and that Boons could be added, retroactively, to already published adventures. Seems like setting up a generic, bare bones, Chronicle that grants just XP, Credits, and Downtime, now, and maybe revisiting later to add some boons to the Boon Shop later, would be a great quick win. But, again, for me at least, it would be enough to just get the generic chronicle. If we never got custom boons/etc, but could at least report and level up, that would be good enough in my books.)

The "Fail Forward" is

** spoiler omitted **

When I ran for my group, and their starship dropped to zero HP, I said

Did your players figure out how to get the pilot maximum bonuses to Dodge the Crosshairs?

No - but that's something I will definitely highlight if I ever GM Narrative SSC again. "You have a third action - you should definitely be using it to Prepare to Aid, or casting Guidance, or whatever.

Just to add one more data point: I GM'd 1-17, and initially ran the narrative starship combat as-is. My players had a couple bad rolls and couldn't recover; I changed to Easy Mode modifications, but their ship was still dropped to 0 HP by Round 3. I'm glad there's a "fail forward" ending to this encounter, though, and it's not a scenario-ender!

It will be interesting to see, if there are future Narrative SSCs in Scenarios, if they're this deadly, or if this one is just a one-off!

In a way, it's sort of fitting - there's a sense of symmetry, compared to, say, the "ship killer" Nuke Boats of 1e's Dead Suns XD

I'm pretty sure this works, but, just want to make sure this carries water:
If I had a ranged unarmed attack, for example from being the right kind of shirren, contemplative, recipient of the wicked OP Eldritch Bond spell, or whatever - can that ranged unarmed attack be upgraded using the Hardlight Handwraps?
Hardlight Handwraps specifically say they work with other, non-fist, unarmed attacks, and they don't specifically exclude ranged attacks, so I'm pretty sure this works. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something? The in-game flavouring gets a bit funky, but, that's a solvable issue, as long as the RAW support this.

Ah, this takes me back to the times it's come up in 1e; like that time people were speculating about a blind vlaka ace pilot XD

Anyways. As others have pointed out, there's enough textual backup to say that deafblind vlaka can use a comm unit to communicate just fine with the rest of the party, with the actual mechanics of how that's accomplished being so much hand-waving. Which is fine, IMO. Anyone that wants to deep-dive into the specifics is free to do so (so long as it doesn't dominate the table) and those who don't want to can just say "super-science future tech makes it possible" and carry on with the adventure.

The tricky part will be - what happens when a deafblind Vlaka goes adventuring in an area without atmosphere, and therefore loses their one precise sense, scent? I can think of at least two scenarios already in Season 1 where this is going to come up. If you're in space or some other no-atmo situation, you're deprived of scent (and, at least one scenario specifically called out that smell-based senses didn't work), so if you're naturally without sight or hearing...what do you do?

In Exploration Mode, I assume you'd still get to participate, assuming the rest of your party can keep you in the loop; and where relevant, you'd just have to get up close to stuff to physically interact with it. In combat, again assuming your party is communicating with you, you could treat every creature as Pointed Out, meaning they're Hidden, but not Undetected / Unnoticed, to you. And from the special rules for Blind characters, you could still target and attack them, with only a DC 5 Flat Check. So, possible, and not that punishing. Probably wouldn't want your deafblind vlaka to be footpaddin' up ahead, though, in vacuum...

Thanks for the table, everyone, and thanks for running, cmlobue! A pleasure as always :)
Life Science Lore Earn Income: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25
Ha, well, would you look at that XD

(Link to the Post and the Vote in question)

Of the choices, I think I like "comet" the most. They're all appropriately Space-y, of course, but comets are out there, zipping around, visiting space systems, and doing things. They're dynamic, in a way that rings, nebulae, and moons just aren't.
(I liked my Singularity suggestion, but I guess it wasn't to be ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Like you, I also think my favourite scenarios have been the non-meta ones, so far! 1-02 and 1-06 have been delightful, and while I haven't played or GM'd 1-10 yet, it looks fun, too! Of the upcoming releases I think I'm most excited about non-meta ones, as well, like 1-17 Corpse Fleet Conflict, or 1-23 Psychic Echoes as a follow-up to 1-02. Nothing against the metaplot, mind you - Akiton and First Ones just aren't gripping to me, personally.

Campaign Coins, and other accessories, are officially back on the table, now! They updated the Accessories Page to make it clear PF2 and SF2 perks are in line now :)

I can't find a specific post to point to online, but, I am 90% sure I remember Alex saying at GenCon at the launch that Starfinders don't get provisions.

Happy holidays, for those who're into that!

Alex posted in the Venture Officer discord that 1-19 was cancelled.

...how very curious! I wonder what the story there is. Thanks for sharing!

In case anyone was still wondering about this but hadn't seen it yet - upcoming scenarios are back on the Starfinder Society scenarios store page :)
(And there's even a suspicious absence, between 1-18 and 1-20!!! Ominous XD Did somebody say 1-19: Perplexity Two: Perplexity, Too?)
Yes I know there was a Perplexity 2, and apparently even 3, in 1e, don't @ me, it's just wordplay :D

I will also admit I, too, am snared by the siren's song of GM Widgets...but, for me, I think the bigger draw for wanting sanctioned adventures is getting XP. It would be nice to get GM prestige for, say, running my home group through Murder in Metal City - buy it would be great to add +12 XP to one of my sweet, beautiful, precious, -27XX babies for running my home group through Murder in Metal City (and I'm pretty sure most players would prefer gaining XP as well.)

While it's still early days for SF2 org play and there literally aren't any scenarios for levels higher than 2, this is less meaningful. But that content is right around the corner - and, the more higher tier content there is, having ways of getting to those tiers becomes more and more valuable. Sure, we now have the ability to make PCs at higher level, and that's great. But I think, given the choice, players will always prefer to play a PC that got to any given level organically, rather than one that is seeing play for the first time at a higher level. (Again, stressing that being able to make higher level PCs is amazing; I just find that so much of my PCs' characters, and growth, and mannerisms, come from natural stuff organically happening at the table.)

I was wondering this, too.

I hear there's room for a +1 in here now, once Ye Olde Forumes return? I can sub-in and play Obozaya still, for fun and ease.

I think Frog is on to something. Verdant says:

You don't need to eat, drink, or sleep if you're exposed to natural sunlight for at least 4 hours per day.

Which is all well and good, but, it doesn't mention breathing. Which makes sense - khizars are plants, and plants still need to breathe. Heck, in 1e, they had a species ability called "Carbonic Respiration" which specifically called out that while they do breathe, they breath CO2, not Oxygen.

While slowly learning about all of the stuff in PF2, I had a thought: conrasu really feel like a Starfinder species. In SF1 they were mentioned as an important part of the Nebula Union, the civilization on the other side of the Jatembe's Jaunt Drift Lane, but that was never really explored.
In the same way that humans, ysoki, androids, etc., exist in both rules, but have different options in both, it'd be really cool to see conrasu get a full Starfinder species entry in this book!

They very explicitly said:

Additionally, Starfinder Society will not have a GM ranking system akin to the previous system of stars, glyphs, or novas at launch. This will return at a future date in some form, though not necessarily the one you may be used to.

So we know it's coming. Just not yet. That whole blog post is worth reading, if you haven't seen it.

Who gave the Hellknights the right to look that stylish?! Harrumph, I say!

*The Order of the Drip has entered the chat*

to add to that, the precog was combined with the Witchwarper, so we have 9 of the original 13 Sf1e classes.

Yeah, but ... all that the 1e and 2e Precogs have in common are the name :( The 1e precog was beautiful - playing with predestination with your banked Paradox d20 rolls, interesting and useful applications for even low Paradox rolls, and incredible build diversity: there was support for blasty casters, utility casters and/or off-healer, ranged attackers, or even (my personal favourite) a dodge-tank style melee build.

Ooof. I wonder if there's something in the big blocks of Starship Combat this breaking the forum's formatting?
In the old Game, it looked like it was just the one page of SSC that was breaking - maybe if we just post a bunch to start a new page, the new pages will behave?

Khajiit did Kishmo did nothing wrong! Kishmo is innocent of this crime! What is the charge? Enjoying a sanctioned adventure? Enjoying a succulent, generically sanctioned, adventure?
(Maybe some s!&%posts will help the cause? I'm trying here, ok? XD)

Just so it isn't buried behind a spoiler - I rolled a 1 for our Piloting Init, womp womp. Is everyone okay if I use one of the rerolls we earned from Mustering on that?

Those of you saying “this isn’t a big deal” - it may not be a big deal for YOU. But as someone who organized conventions, sometimes you have to hand a GM a scenario and ask them to run it on the fly. “But, Mark, they can use their phone to get the stat blocks!”. It isn’t that simple. Some convention halls don’t have good cell reception, and most don’t have available wi-fi. I can’t tell you how many times *I* have been asked at a con to run something on the fly.

Mark, I agree with everything you just said. I started in 2010 and my experiences have been the same. This is a significant barrier to growth and participation.

That's fair enough - running something cold, with no prep time, feels like a very fair and valid reason to want to have all the stat blocks in the scenario.

I get it happens, but - does it really happen often enough, to warrant being a major, or even a significant, driver of policy?

I'm excited, but I also really hope some sort of shared ancestry feat system is on the books so that they don't get overshadowed by the core races.

I really agree - this would be a great way to add more "Starfinder" flavour to the game. At one point during the Playtest I thought it would be neat to see groupings of feats for Species with similar physiologies or characteristics, called, I dunno, "Phylum feats" or "Clade feats" or something. (Don't @ me biologists, I know that different species couldn't possibly share taxonomic categories; it's just an easy short-hand for "species must be similar to take these feats.) But like, a handful of feats for Flying species, or multi-armed species, or a handful of feats for Plant or (plant-like) species, or aquatic / amphibious species, etc etc, would be both flavourful, and distinguishing for Starfinder.

(also: please gib stellifera) (...or hanakan) (🤍)

A player at one my games pointed out that, although they have a Campaign Coin, by RAW, it doesn't do anything at a SFS2 table, since there is no RAW. Which leads me to ask: are Accessory Perks still a thing for SFS2e? To be honest I had just default assumed "use the same Accessory Perks as PFS2." But it would be good to have something official to point to, or relevant SFS2 entries on the Accessory Perks page.
...asking for the small pile of skittermander dice pouches beside my desk a friend.

I'm honestly surprised at how big of a deal so many people think this is. I just bring a side-device with me (in my case, an older mobile phone from two upgrades ago) to have stat blocks available on. If I'm going to be GMing somewhere with no / questionable internet, then part of my scenario prep is to rip said stat blocks from a PDF/AoN ahead of time, and plop them onto my side device as a local file (pdf, jpg, whatever.)

I dunno, doesn't feel especially onerous or deal-breaking to me. Maybe I'm just used to doing a bunch of digital prep work ahead of time, from all those years of Pandemic VTT, though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Kishmo, you could spend a hero point to reroll your diplomacy check.

Oh, that I could! I spent all of my space-hero points on frivolous re-rolls of the Operation: Seaside Park gacha boon, trying to get a jumbo plush squox XD no ragrets

Are there any updates on the "can SF2 adventures/modules/APs be run for Society credit?" issue? Asking since that is a big factor on if I pick up Guilt of the Grave World or not.

With the release of SF2 GM Core, and its Character Options Entry listing everything in it as Limited for use in Society, I find myself wondering: what does Limited mean? Same with Restricted, for that matter.

Unless my search-fu critically failed, these terms aren't defined anywhere. They're mentioned, but not defined, on the Character Options page. Same goes for the Starfinder Society 2e Guide - those terms are used, but not defined. I even tried the Pathfinder Society Second Edition guide, and same thing: it tells you that some deities or items may be Limited or Restricted, but again, no further details. I don't think it's a Rules thing (that's what common, uncommon, and rare are for, which are defined) but I even tried SF2 AoN. Same thing - some stuff is listed as Limited or Restricted, but not what it means to be Limited or Restricted, or the difference between the two.

It's gotta be somewhere, right? Someone help a space-enjoyer out?

Oh, just wait until you see the boar creature's actual name. That Alex understood the assignment XD

I don't disagree that Wild Bond's additional movement speeds are great, but - it's really the 2 abilities from Eldritch Bond vs only 1 from Wild Bond that shoot EB way ahead in usefulness. Eldritch Bond granting, say, Mental Resistance and 10 ft Reach, or Darkvision and 10 ft Reach, or ... literary anything and 10 ft Reach, at lvl 2? Pretty hard to say no to that.
(Especially considering how the prevalence of flight options devalues the usefulness of a Fly Speed at lvl 2. (Not that I'm complaining, Starfriends!! Thank you for letting shirren and dragonkin et al fly!))
Although, saying that out loud, maybe the Ranged Meta devalues the usefulness of melee reach..? I dunno, there were still loads of melee in the games I played/GM'd at GenCon.

I think Eldritch Bond and Wild Bond need some errata, even beyond Perpdepog's excellent point, above. Or, at least, Wild Bond does, because it is just empirically worse than Eldritch Bond.
EB grants two abilities, from the list; WB grants only one, although the list of possible abilities seem roughly on par with each other. EB bumps up the number of targets to 5, and increases number of damage dice for granted attacks, at level 4. WB has the exact same - at level 5. One of EB's options is a ranged attack; WB only has melee options.
The only thing that I can see that "balances" WB is that is lacks the Concentrate and Manipulate traits, which doesn't feel big enough to justify it being worse is nearly every other way.