MVulpius's page

It especially problematic to be banning Mother Vulture considering Paizo had been trying to be culturally diverse and she was one of the few things that really pushed the assumed normality by challenging Eurocentric concepts of how to treat the dead. If Paizo is saying this is not allowed should kholo (gnolls) be limited too, since they are also explicitly stated to practice endocannibalism?

Equally misunderstood is the kholo practice of ancestor worship and endocannibalism. Kholo consume their dead as a sign of reverence, holding a grand feast and transforming the bones into art or weapons. Kholo extend this honor to respected foes, hoping to bring their enemy’s cunning or strength into the clan.

It's kinda funny. I have a beloved 1e PFS character that I just revived for 2e PFS (exemplar due to sort of being mixed up with the events of Tyrants Grasp) who was a sort of "paladin" of Mother Vulture (cavalier[knight of arnisant]/mortal usher) who was sent off to the Pathfinder Society by the Knights of Ozem due to religious bigotry and here we go having the IRL Pathfinder Society trying to erase him for being too 'weird'.

Benefit: You can develop, organize, and work in your game store by GMing Starfinder Society games. Whenever you GM a game after January 1 2024, check one box below. Whenever you GM a game at an RSP-supported location, instead check two boxes below. Whenever you GM a game at a convention of any size, instead check three boxes below. Bounties check one box regardless of where they are run. Running sanctioned content longer than a scenario (such as an Adventure Path volume)allows you to check three boxes upon completion and reporting of the adventure. You must check these boxes in order, beginning with People Person. When a set of boxes is fully checked, this character gains that benefit while this boon is slotted.

Should we be checking off boxes for playtest games run or not? They are reported and grant SFS ACP, plus are a time and effort commitment like any other SFS scenario/adventure.

Rolling Precog into Witchwarper looks great.

Any particular reason Zemir has a streetlamp now?

Very interested about this since the 2e way of handling Ancestries is one of my concerns for SF2e.

Part of cantina feel to me is having different species being different from the start. I know Paizo has, in the large part correctly, moved away from biological determinism in recent years, but that works differently in science fiction setting where an important theme to explore is the similarities and differences brought about by being/interacting with creatures that have fundamental differences from the naked apes we are IRL. So I worry PF2e's general 'start out mostly the same (other than minor things like vision or movement speed) and earn back a few limited things that make you different from a human' might feel extremely wrong for a game like Starfinder.

On the other hand if the goal as stated before is 100% compatibility between PF2e and SF2e, it might be awkward having to tell the strix PC they have to wait until 5th level and spend an ancestry feat to be able to glide at half-speed, while the dragonkin gets to fly at 1st level. Or the kitsune can't be a true shapeshifter while the astrazoan does.

Any information on how we are supposed to use other sources of replays not tracked in the system such as the one that allows you to give replays to others?

This issue could be avoided with a simple check box on the reporting page for "replays tracked elsewhere" or something along those lines that allows credit without subtracting from the online replays. If worried about trust you could make it require VO approval or something.

1) Vulkarisu, how can you not!
2) Nelentu (while the a la carte version of entu symbiote is too flexible for SFS it should be fairly simple to make a set version of it for SFS use that is only everyone's favorite fungal bats. Especially if entu colony can be purchased or a sentient gas cloud (thyr) is always available now)

Excited about Tanuki, but I want to know, are you going to fix up Kitsune? As it stands there are a ton of issues with it that prevent them from functioning as proper shapeshifting fox people, especially if you want to go for more of the magic fox rather than human with tail character.

Most of those issues were fixed in the Kitsune of Golarion Infinite product but that can't be used in Society and it is kinda embarrassing that the quintessential shapeshifting tricksters shapeshifting is represented by choosing to either be a human or an incredibly mechanically flawed approximation of a fox through pest form.

How are we supposed to handle reporting for replays outside of the replay points system? (e.g. 2020 SFS GM Boon, Seeker of Knowledge (Ehu/Jad))
I don't want to lose replays I earned by having me use Endless Potential but the system use my points, but it sounds like as it stands if the GM puts in my info and I've played it previously they either 1) check off that I am using a replay and it takes replay points or 2) they don't and it doesn't give me credit for playing that table as if I replayed for no credit to make a table fire.

I notice it says "the orc ancestry/species is now always available for both Pathfinder and Starfinder Society". Since it just says Pathfinder Society does that mean it's been opened up in PFS1e too? Or is that too much wishful thinking? :)

Also, the 25 playable Starfinder races mentioned in the product description are: astrazoans, astriapis, cephalumes, contemplatives, dragonkin, formians, hadrogaans, hanakans, kalos, kobolds, maraquoi, nuars, pahtras, psacynoids, quorlus, raxilites, ryphorians, scyphozoans, shimreens, SROs, trox, uplifted bears, urgos, vlakas, and worlanisi.

Aww. Was kinda hoping we'd get PC Ixtli in this. (Come on Paizo you know you have to give us the bunnies sooner or later!)

Third warning: they give 0.25xp. If you don't want to deal with fractional XP on your character pretty much forever, do four at once. :)

Another trick is, as long as you do less than four, that fractional xp effectively doesn't matter; you just have some extra credits. (An 5.75 xp and 5xp character are effectively the same; both are level 2 and after playing their next scenario will be level 3.) The only way it would matter is when we get bounties at higher level you would need to remember how many you have done in case that would be your fourth bounty.

Also, they really should have a way to get at least 1 rep if you do 4. 2e bounties give rep to add up to effectively be a scenario but if you do 4 SFS bounties you are behind some reputation for your level which can feel bad since the extra credits aren't really that much. (A bit above 'rolled really well for a day job' amount.) Kinda feels like the flawed first attempts at quests back in 1e.

(On that note, I know Ambush in Absalom is available free but what about The Urge to Evolve? I'm a bit of a completionist and the only way to legally do that one would be to hunt down an old copy of Kobold Quarterly 23.)

Congrats!

Why does Jim have a plushie of the german company Ulisses on his shoulder?

If I recall correctly they are the official German language translators for Pathfinder. I think he mentioned in a post awhile back they sent him the custom plush as a gift.

If you are going to make up ridiculous statements like that, good riddance.

I'm still waiting for them to process my order from the clearance sale in late March. I've emailed twice to try to get things moving but I'll probably have to email a few more times. The last time (over a week ago) I was told it has been ready to pick but they'd rather deal with the subscriptions.

Arawn703 wrote:

(Now that we have a symbol can we get it added to the forum instead of the blank space to the left of my name?)

I've been told by tech that there's something broken about the image uploading process, which is linked to the reason we haven't had new avatar images in a while either. As soon as that gets ironed out it's absolutely on my list!

Ah. So that's why I'm also stuck with the irony of having a blind vlaka looking though a telescope!

What will happen to PDF to Foundry now? It would be a shame if this partnership just results in the commoditization of something that was previously a free community resource. (Assuming you own a legal PDF)

Stavian III, Stavian seems to be a first name. What's the family name of royal house?

I don't think that is ever stated. The legendary founder of Taldor is Taldaris, so you could call the royal family of Taldor the House of Taldaris. That being said there are a lot of gaps in the named Grand Princes in the 5,862 years between the death of Taldaris and the ascension of Eutropia Stavian IV so it is safe to assume there probably were at least a few cases where the main line died out and was replaced with a cadet line.

Edit: In fact I just dug a bit deeper on the wiki. Grand Prince Beldam II (d. 4499 AR) died childless and adopted Micheaux, a Taldan nobleman, as his legal successor. So the current royal family if actually still descendants of Taldaris are a distant cadet branch. Micheaux was the father of Stavian I and most of the Grand Princes since have been named Stavian, so I would call the current royal family the Stavian dynasty.

This was unexpected. One of the ideas I've had floating around my head lately was converting Crown of the Kobold King into 2e with a party of poppet pregens that have to go rescue their kids.
Guess that can wait until it's official.

To anyone that says slavers can't be redeemed I submit this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3G-suuZgK4
Per Wikipedia
"John Newton (/ˈnjuːtən/; 4 August [O.S. 24 July] 1725 – 21 December 1807) was an English Anglican cleric, a captain of slave ships who later became an investor in the slave trade but subsequently became an abolitionist. He served as a sailor in the Royal Navy for a period after forced recruitment.

Newton went to sea at a young age and worked on slave ships in the slave trade for several years. In 1745, he himself became a slave of Princess Peye, a woman of the Sherbro people. He was rescued, returned to sea and the trade, becoming Captain of several slave ships. After retiring from active sea-faring, he continued to invest in the slave trade. Some years after experiencing a conversion to Christianity, Newton later renounced his trade and became a prominent supporter of abolitionism. Now an evangelical, he was ordained as a Church of England cleric and served as parish priest at Olney, Buckinghamshire, for two decades. He also wrote hymns, including "Amazing Grace" and "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken".

Newton lived to see the British Empire’s abolition of the African slave trade in 1807, just months before his death."

Evil people don't always have to stay evil. They may never be able to fix the harm they have cause, but they don't have remain a bad person. That is a trap that often keeps people from becoming a better person.

I know it's a different issue, but will we ever see a digital version of Heroes for Highdelve? It's the only modern PF book that is not available in any form.

I assume the Manifold Host Instructor boon will also be changed the same as the Luwazi/Ehu ones?

I also really hope Manifold Host Exemplar is getting patched since it is very unlikely I'll reach another 11 rep on that character by December unless I rush things.

For what it’s worth, I don’t need my management team to be writing RPG content, and I think that’s a silly thing to hold against them (after all, they’re managers, not writers)… especially in the face of allegations of tangible, serious problems.

EDIT: If the manager of a restaurant is mistreating staff, I wouldn’t go “and they can’t even cook!”

I agree with that; I was more curious to see if they had written anything but couldn't find anything. Would have thought they would have tried their hand at it at least once in ~10+ years.

Yeah my argument isn't that they need to write content to be leadership in the company, but that they're not the reasons that I love the company, because I love the company for the worlds they've built. Erik has certainly contributed to that, with adventures and other content in the campaign setting. The rest of the executive team hasn't impacted me in the same way. (note that I've never read Emerald Spire, so I can't say one way or another if Lisa's writing impacts me or not)

ES1:Tower Ruins is okay and Emerald Spire is the best thing that came out of the PF:Online project. (Not that that means much considering the mess that was/is) According to PFSTracker it's the most played evergreen module and 5th most played evergreen, but I think that has more to do with it being fairly quick and uneventful so people would speedrun it for an easy 3xp to get out of 1st level.

MVulpius wrote:

If this technology is easily accessible to restore mobility to the disabled, why isn't it available to enhance the able?

Because this is a game, not a reality simulator; and the primary purpose of being inclusive is to allow people have fun, not to declare a "winner"?

I mean, yes, we all know that a lot of things don't make sense. In real life, anyone capable of casting illusory scene would quickly turn into the owner of Golarion's most depraved holodeck.

We don't need to be realistic on everything. Let's just suspend disbelief.

And, uh, maybe cut back on our fascist temper tantrums.

The issue isn't realism or "winning", but consistency; if access to an item is available to one group but not another there should be a reason for it. We saw this a lot early on before Paizo got better about explaining access conditions.

(And they're still somewhat flawed; I have a gnoll flind character that I've had to jump through hoops and have been forced to somehow integrate backstory options/a background that I don't really want just to get access to nunchuku flindbar because Tien characters get a monopoly on it despite it being an iconic weapon among a subgroup of gnolls.)

Plus, part of being inclusive is representation and we can't have proper representation without figuring out a way to explain what is and isn't an appropriate user.

And I hope it wasn't your intention but please don't lump me in with the losers that would send death threats over a bit of homebrew. I was asking because I enjoy adventurers of different sizes and abilities and curious about how the fluff implications might open up character ideas for me.

For instance, would an aquatic ancestry using this be proper? We haven't seen any properly aquatic ancestries yet (Azarketi are more amphibious) but going by 1e they tend to have a 5-10ft land speed. Similarly, fox-form kitsune now have limited mobility being permeantly stuck at 10ft movement.

In-universe these are both disabilities compared to able-bodied humans (one more obvious than the other, but still valid) that would be helped by a wheelchair. Would these be allowed? Or are in-universe representations of ability and disability too far from PFS's vision of inclusivity?

P.S.
Congrats to Michael, Jocelyn, Andrew!

Any update on when we'll see a sanctioning document for Tyrant's Grasp?

That's a heck of a monument for Elender Anthusis. I never pictured Elender to have that much marble monumental construction. And a sort of unusual Modernist architecture. (or is the building on the left supposed to be collapsing?)

Really excited for the Mwangi book; every picture I've seen is a work of art!

So I take this as Fox Shape is going to be a part of PF2 kitsune!? ^w^
(So excited!)

An Andoran man bursts into the lodge’s meeting room. He is a tall, red haired, muscular man with a subtle foxish appearance, wearing a set of studded leather straps. He is followed by a small, tentacled badger-like creature.

“I am Renart the Strong! And this is Mr. Badger! We are here to help! Say hi to the nice people, Mr. Badger!” A small, clearly abnormal creature wave wildly at those in the room and utters, “A Ĝal! Ul Ka’a Dimmakurra!”

“Where is Drandle Dreng? Didn’t he summon us all here for a mission?”