Natalie Kertzner's page

I LOVE the Dirindi.

Are the Jinsuls playable?

My trick: if you're the GM, everything is playable ;)

Really? Supporting TotalCon? You don't need to approve *every* request for convention support, especially when doing so promotes a convention that doesn't protect it's attendees, has abusers and harassers as Industry Guests - and isn't apologetic about it, actively promotes them and accepts their money, and has made no moves to change their policies in the wake of their previous convention?

Atlas-1, you’re clearly a jinsul trying to masquerade as a reasonable person. But I see through your disguise, I see the chitinous leg blades tapping away at the keyboard! What are you worried about? Are you worried the sharktopodes will reveal something about your Master Plan?! Will they lead us mystical wonders? Do they have mystical powers to hurt the jinsuls? Are jinsuls secretly the good guys trying to protect our universe from an all-out invasion by the sharktopus race? TOO MANY KNOWN UNKNOWNS AND UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS!

You just tell the GM to play the air guitar for 40 seconds and then hand out Chronicle sheets.

IDK, I've definitely had AP sessions that ended almost exactly that way before.

Given that the race which previously claimed possession of HG was highly militaristic, I can only assume they had him for military purposes.

I disagree with this, sort of. They definitely had the original sharktopus specimen for militaristic purposes, but I’m not sure it was specifically nefarious (i.e., that they wanted to use the sharktopus as some sort of “attack creature”. The other (deceased) specimens of various animals found in that lab were all physiologically similar to creatures found within the Pact Worlds or were actually from the Pact Worlds. To me, that indicates that the jinsuls were testing their new CBRNE(which one???) weapon on creatures they thought would react most similarly to those in the PW.

I’d also point out that the “rapid-self cloning” is an observation – what we can see with our eyes. Has this been studied in a lab to confirm? Have DNA studies (do they even have DNA???) be done to confirm that they’re clones? Has DNA testing been done on adult Besmarans to see if they are clones?

I am not sure if I should be relieved or concerned by this revelation, as the Sharktopus species is largely an unknown, but I suspect these are infants. Should I prove to be correct, an adult creature, with this physiology, and a near invulnerability to all damage, is a disconcerting mental image. Particularly given how quickly and easily they reproduce...

Do we have any evidence they are actually reproducing? Is the second sharktopus a descendant of the original, or does the original divide, like an amoeba? If they’re not reproducing, where does the second sharktopus come from and what prompts it to appear? Is the original calling or summoning it? Does it require energy? So many questions, and I’m not sure I want to know the answers.

Are we trying to fix a problem with the existing "judge ranking system"? Could someone please articulate what problem we are trying to fix?

New players are great, and we want more of them. I think the issue is that previously (Novas and Glyphs still being TBD), achieving a 5* designation was something you earned, above and beyond just numbers of tables run. What we’re debating is an existential question – what does it mean to be 5* GM? If it’s beyond just 150 tables, what should the qualifiers be?

Nosig, regarding your observation of elitism…I wouldn’t say it’s inaccurate per se, but I can see where you’re coming from. I think there are people that feel (and probably rightly so) that they are good GMs and want to be recognized by the community as such, and having 5* GMs that are…just plain bad detract from that status. Obviously, that's a bit of a blanket statement and not everyone will fall under that, but I think that's the general idea. "We want this to mean something, under the current system, it doesn't."

Or we just keep things as they are. When you complete 150 games, 50 different scenarios, and 10 specials, the local VC/RVC submits you for the fifth [token]. Period. If someone sucks bad enough after what is likely more than a thousand hours of GMing and prep then the local community is at fault for not expressing their concerns with the GM and mentoring them to foster improvement. We are not going to have a standard that can be applied and accepted equally throughout the community. It's folly to think we can. Let's keep the five-[token] status primarily as a reward for time invested in the campaign and keep the campaign coins to recognize those individuals who go above and beyond for the community. Simple.

This will ensure that the five Glyph/five Nova achievement is merely a measure of quantity, and not quality.

I disagree with your statement that it's the fault of the community for having bad GMs. There are plenty of five Star GMs that are...well, they don't provide a good player experience, and they're either not receptive to coaching or no amount of coaching will give them the intuitive nature of a responsive and engaged GM. There are also some people willing to put up with a less-than-ideal player experience/game just because they themselves don't want to GM, and the community might support it because they're the only person willing to run game regularly at that store.

Do I have to keep the pet? Can I at least get it spayed or neutered?

Apologies for overthinking something that is supposed to be cute and fun, but I feel that the adventure is forcing my character to be, at best, an irresponsible pet owner, and at worst, genocidally criminally negligent. I can see that the beasts need to breed fast so every PC can have one, but invasive species can be really bad news even when they aren't genetically engineered to be WMDs.

If this is the prelude to a tribble-apocalypse adventure, then it was really unfair to give us the pets with no chance to respond in character.

I could play my character as paranoid about this as his player, but I suspect that would not be fun for the other players.

I'm not sure if this is the right sub-forum for this, but it seems too spoiler-ish to put anywhere else.

Perhaps this will prompt your character to become a xenowarden or xenobiologist! Study how they replicate, and see if you can somehow control it (or at least, slow it down)!

Fortunately, I'll be running this as a non-Society home game and thus can fudge things around.

John, I'm happy to discuss with you ways to make the scenario even more...tricky for the PCs, given that you're running it in campaign mode :D

Have: GenCon PFS GM + 1 Boon (allows for 10 replays)
Want: Haan race boon

** spoiler omitted **

Flip-mat: Cantina = ALL THE ROOMS

What's the organized play situation at Origins? How do sign-ups for GM slots work for that convention?

Not sure if I'm having problems with the Google Doc - here's another link that worked in another browser:

Click this link.

All spoilers for everything - including the AP and all scenarios - are in this link.

I've become increasingly intrigued by the ongoing conspiracy regarding the Scoured Stars Incident and whether the three alien artifacts (Drift Rock, Salvation's End, Sangoro's Bulwark) are involved. Clues keep being dropped in the SFS scenarios regarding the Conspiracy, Guidance, the Forum, and the Second Seeker, so I've gathered all the information in one document.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the ongoing Conspiracy, whether or not AbadarCorps, the Aspis Consortium, or even Luwasi Elesbo herself is behind it.

If you add comments directly into the google doc, I'll update the document as I can and start summarizing.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jg8quVZRvqSeLbyAPWBqgnsJRGVnsj-0XTMdHVx UgWw/edit?usp=sharing