Rune's page

I was compiling a list of loot (to check what might need to be changed to use the Monster Part system I alluded to in another thread) and I noticed that there seems to be no treasure listed for area G4 (Open Barrow).

Since this is where Hiajor died, I would think that there would be a few things to be found there?

I would love if you would share that list, since I'll be doing the exact same thing in my game.

Rune wrote:

(such as guidelines for awarding Hero Points, for example).

That one is actually in the guide here.

Thanks for pointing that out. The way GMs talked I thought there was an specific orientation for Society.

Have you played? Why not ask your GM?

I have been playing PFS for some time and GMing private games for many years. I asked a few PFS GMs for guidance but couldn't really parse all the information they presented (which says more about my difficulty in processing informal information than their ability to explain). I have a PFS# and have read all information available at the Organized Play Foundation but have yet to find some things they cited off-handedly (such as guidelines for awarding Hero Points, for example).

I really want to start GMing Society games online but I feel completely overwhelmed by all the decentralized informations and find myself completely unable to visualize any steps to start. Could anyone point me a how-to guide or explain the process to me like I'm five?

5.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S5qperP-0G_H92hjYpBM-asF4Z2M9Qom/view?usp= sharing

I added this as an additional note that Voz was carrying on her person. It manifested as a way to warn the PC's about the Greater Barghest's danger and evilness (for the Goblin Alchemist), but it also serves as a means to tease the Scarlett Triad and a key way to deliver some clues about navigating the 7 mile cave crawl from Guardian's Way to Alseta's Ring which I decided to expand upon in the narrative.

This is really great, contains really useful information and foreshadowing. Seeing as there are a lot of groups that play in other languages (including two of mine), could I bother you to provide the Word version of this so we could translate to our native language?

Her backstory indicates that she has only recently established herself on Kintargo as a local leader of the Bellflower Network, previously acting more as a roaming field agent. So you have a default reason why she's not present in HR. If you do want to include her before that, she might be an up-and-coming field agent eager to work with and learn from the PCs (and happens to share a couple of Nolly folktales).

Actually in the book Breachill has ~50 guards and a barrack. The city itself has ~1500 citizens so it is perfectly fine to assume that under the barrack they have some sort of prison for at least 5/10 criminals.

This makes a lot of sense. I've been portraying the town as a kind of pleasantville, but I guess they could use the prison as a drunk tank. What I meant by that is that I don't see them sentencing a guy to like 50 years of imprisonment and just throwing him in a dungeon cell.

The PCs managed to convince Calmont that they would help him find Alseta's Ring, and then subdued him after he let go of Helba. They're bringing him to justice in Breechhill and should be pretty interested in his fate.

Question is: what happens to him now? Breechhill doesn't seem well-equipped to hold a prisoner for extended lengths of time, and they seem fairly lenient (but then again, this dude burned a traditional building down with children and elderly folk still inside). What are the possible outcomes for this situation?

The Calmont in my campaign lost most of his family and family home to goblins during the Goblinblood Wars, and is a violent bully that absolutely hates goblins. He set fire to the Town Hall wearing a goblin mask and let himself be seen running to the Citadel hoping people would blame the Bumblebrashers (and refuse Warbal's cry for help). He didn't manage to get any information about the goblins because his blind hatred for them didn't allow him to calm down and just listen.

And how would it relate to Survival?

I have DMed Kingmaker to a couple of groups (and played in other), and this is what I would like to see in a compiled, updated version:

* Write out the Brevoy connection as much as possible in the beginning (or capitalize on it and include elements of it during the AP). Players get the impression Brevoy's political situation will be important in the adventure, but it never actually gets dealt with. In this Game of Thrones climate, that is bound to happen.
* Dudemeister's contributions further enhance the whole story (the kobold dinner in Book 2 is great foreshadowing).
* A rework of Varnhold - the combination of tight maps and Large Redcaps is just a nightmare and Vordakai's dungeon is underwhelming.
* A streamlining of the Kingdom Building system. The whole system was way too clunky, took too much time and always left a couple players bored out of their minds. Further additions made it way more complicated than needed. It needs something to encourage and highlight player-made organization, like arcane schools, knighthood orders, cleric churches, etc.
* A more seamless connection between the books. 5 to 6 was such a nightmare - absolutely NO Kingdom Building stats given to Pitax made this an enormous pain.

It sounds like there will be more powerful alchemical items so that you can scale up even if you don't take levels in alchemist. The one thing that worries me is that the alchemist is falling into the gunslinger trap:

We get bombs that are a weapon that (in theory) anyone can use. However, the alchemist is the only one who gets the bombs to scale into the late game. So if bombs are balanced for the alchemist, then it is pointless to use them for anyone else.

It also makes bombs a newbie trap in that a new player might make a "bomb using paladin" and then find that all his investment becomes useless by level 9 when the alchemist is doing 4 times his damage.

You have just described 1e's alchemical items.

I really hope they aren't folding the Oracle into the Cleric.

Really hope they ARE folding the oracle into the Cleric. I always felt their concept was somewhat muddy - their mysteries list gods, so they might worship them, or might not - but oh, so could the PHB Cleric! The Oracle was mechanically different (and by that I mean way, way more interesting) but I always saw it being used as a Cleric 2.0 - the worshipper of a god with divine powers.

Well maybe Jambô Editora?

Considering that their major product is a customized D&D 3.5-compatible medieval fantasy RPG, I believe that to be a pretty big conflict of interests.

I second what has been said: I started DMing with D&D 3rd edition and their release schedule was actually great, despite some major translation mishaps. After that they just seemed to give up.

I DM Pathfinder since the alpha and have bought a couple of books and a LOT of pdfs - not one of them in Portuguese since their release has been abysmal to say the least. I would love to try to introduce the system to new players (and maybe even join or run PFS), but the language barrier is still a major problem. If we had a translated edition of Pathfinder I would surely buy the books and collect the line.

@Rune:

Building a tanking Drone isn't really viable unless you only fight 1 combat per day, mainly because its HP is poor, healing the Drone is such a pain, and its AC lags a few points behind a proper tank, even with the AC mod.

Thanks for the comprehensive response. You have convinced me to drop the idea of the tank drone (albeit that would be hilarious as a literal tank).

As for actions in combat, no one has mentioned the Overcharge line of Mechanic Tricks. With the right positioning, you could take two move actions to power up the weapons of two combatants -- say, your party's Soldier and your own Drone. From a DPR standpoint, this option may not be much worse than firing your own weapon.

I've looked into it, but I'm not really impressed. The problem is the bonus applies to only the "next" attack - if it applied for a full round buffing the soldier would be quite a fair trade.

Agree with Ravingdork on skepticism on smoke grenades. In my experience whenever people start tossing these or spells like Fog Cloud, it's rare that it helps much more than it hurts. There are definitely situations where it can be clutch, but it might only be 1 battle out of 5 or 10.

Sure, I only meant it as crowd-control. If a fight has 5 guys, I can toss it on the back, forcing a couple of guys to spend a couple actions moving out of cover, etc.

According to the suggestions provided, some non-attacking actions might include:

- Hacking the environment to provide advantages/disadvantages.
- Creating distractions by hacking (using the Amplified Glitch feat on 3rd level)
- Creating barricades (using the Barricade feat)
- Could the feat be used two times in a single round to create 2 squares of cover in adjacent squares?
- Tossing smoke grenades to hinder enemies.
- Overloading enemy weapons/armor (requires an adjacent drone or exocortex) at 3rd level

I believe the Soldier is going Dex/ranged, so our group is missing a melee meatshield. Any suggestions on how to build the drone that way?

I don't think so. Sivron is the only case of an NPC described by the book without the gender tag in the short description. Everyone else is like Vane Oreld (N male human expert 2) while Sivron is just (CG elf rogue 5).

Sivron Nal (CG elf rogue 5) earned theirposition managing the distant outpost by advocating for more ready inclusion of half-elves into Kyonin politics and families, and they still agitate on behalf of those with blended parentages, even with the limited authority they command, tutoring the curious in elven history, culture, and magic in exchange for scouting services.

Those are three separate, deliberate uses of the singular "they", followed by the only instance of not mentioning of the NPC's gender on the book. I'd say that's good evidence for my case.

Thanks for the reply, Yakman. Right now I just finished book 1 and will be running a session to tie loose ends. I think I'll deal with this issue while I have the time right now.

On my second or third read-thru I finally catched on Sivron Nal being referred as "they" and "their" in the text, implied they are non-binary (English is not my first language, so it took me a while to get there). Could anyone offer any insights on how to describe and portray such character faithfully?

It sucks that my native language (Portuguese) doesn't have a non-gendered pronoun (even our objects are gendered for some reason!).

Why do you want to play a non-combat role in a game where 90% of the rules govern combat?

That's a valid question and it highlighted how poorly worded my OP was. I did not mean that I want to build a character that's useless in combat, far from it. I meant that I wanted a character who does other stuff in combat besides dealing damage, since I just started in the system and am not familiar with all the options around. That's why I suggested having a drone to pick up the slack, etc.

Also, my preliminary research showed a mechanic just couldn't compare DPR-wise to the other classes, so I thought of branching out and trying to do different stuff instead of trying to compete.

So my PCs are dead set on trying to recruit Sivron Nal and the people of Cavlinor to their rebellion, as they (rightfully) fear that the Ironfang Legion will take over their area.

Has anyone made any developments to this town and its leader, Sivron Nal? Any tips on how the PCs could convince they to leave their lodge?

Too bad the Distracting Hack trick only applies to the mechanic :(

My first thought is having a drone do all the heavy-lifting DPR-wise. Which one would be better to both deal and survive damage?

What actions would be useful to take in combat besides attacking?

I'm building my first SF character and wanted to build a Kaylee-like mechanic - a person that doesn't have much combat training and does other stuff in combat. How could I go around doing that without being a burden to my party?

The party is comprised of a soldier, an envoy and a technomancer; the campaign is homebrew.

Actually, Aubrin is not associated with the Chernasardo Rangers else she would know where to find the forts and give the PCs an "in" for any Chernasardo they might run across as a random encounter.

Allow me to offer a few counterpoints:

As a young child in Nirmathas, Aubrin (“Abby” to most) grew up on tales of heroism. She played at being a famed ranger, liberating her toys from the oppression

of Molthune.

For years, the she honed her skills until she became a Chernasardo Ranger in the Fangwood, and eventually ventured beyond Nirmathas.

The guide Aubrin (see “Trail of the Hunted”) knows much about the Chernasardo Rangers, having briefly served with the group.

...Aubrin trained briefly at Fort Nunder.

She has yearned to be a Chernasado ranger most of her life, trained with them, served with them and then retired due to a career-ending injury. The second book tries to slightly downplay her relationship with the rangers to allow the PCs to discover things organically instead of just receiving an info-dump.

Beware that the entrance to Runeforge is pretty difficult to open without a wizard or a versatile caster, requiring one spell of each school to be cast.

Just make the players responsible for running the NPC. They are probably gonna be happy enough about the power surge from that character's spells (a 3rd-level wizard has 2 bull's strength spells, one vanish for the rogue, one enlarge person, and one protection from evil) that they won't mind managing him/her.

AaronUnicorn, have you thought about a pure support-focused cohort controlled by the [u]players[/u]?

Any PC might take the Recruits feat and have a couple of low-level casters to switch back and forth. The PC should build the NPC and control it in combat, including preparing its spells. On level 7 the feat turns into full-fledged Leadership, making the cohort a lot more useful. Alternatively, you could just waive the feat and let the party control this last member. They will probably build him/her as a support/utility character, not liable to steal the spotlight from the PCs.

There are a few NPCs in Runelords that might be up for that (with just a bit of reskinning):

Ameiko Kaijitsu, bard.
Brodert Quink, wizard (his age penalties would make him both a superb wizard and a fragile damsel-in-distress).
Chask Haladan, bard (or easily a wizard).
Cyrdak Drokkus, bard.
Kaye Tesarani, sorcerer.

The following NPCs are presented as antagonists - a quick readjusting of their attitudes could place them by the PCs side:

Lyrie Akenja (if she survives Thistletop), wizard. Just play her as focusing on her own survival, willing to betray Nualia and ally with the PCs. At the PCs' side she will amass a fortune and get all the Tassilonian magic she can carry.

Caizarlu Zerren (if he survives Habe's Sanitarium), wizard. He may surrender to the PCs during the fight, promising to provide them with his expert knowledge about the ghoul menace.

You could introduce a wizard NPC as a thrall in Xanesha's service, perhaps tied up in her lair (a faceless stalker might have stolen his/her identity).

I just finished the audiobook of READY PLAYER ONE about two weeks ago and found it to be pretty poor and very juvenile. Possibly if I were a teen I would have enjoyed it more?

I was left with a similar question when I finished the book: Who is this for?

The book is comprised mostly of 80s references and a run-of-the-mill teen romance and plot. Older audiences will "get" the references but are sure to be off-put by the juvenile antics, while younger ones that would like the characters and storyline are gonna be flabbergasted by all those missed one-liners.

I audibly went "huh?".

Well, now I feel silly for not noticing that. Thanks *Thelith and Lunaramblings.

So in my next session the PCs (including a fairly standard bomb alchemist) are entering a pugwampi-infested ruin.

The pugwampis have a shatter spell-like ability. Even though it has a pretty low DC (10), some saves will probably fail due to the pugwampi unluck aura.

My question is: How should the shatter's area attack affect the alchemist? All of his extracts are stored in glass vials and the bombs are probably ceramic. Should he make a separate save for each extract and all remaining bombs? Only one save for all?

Used as an area attack, shatter destroys non-magical objects of crystal, glass, ceramic, or porcelain. All such unattended objects within a 5-foot radius of the point of origin are smashed into dozens of pieces by the spell. Objects weighing more than 1 pound per your level are not affected, but all other objects of the appropriate composition are shattered.

I think the tieflings facing prejudice and rising above it is a theme more in line with both the campaign and Ragathiel. He faced prejudice from the celestial host and proved himself able again and again, finally being able to be accepted among them.

That would mirror the PCs' arc. First they suffer prejudice, but after book 1 they basically are national (and religious) heroes. I think their example should go a long way towards making other tieflings more easily accepted by the crusaders and general society. "Did you hear that the heroes who killed those demon lords and closed the Worldwound were tieflings? I guess that means they are not born evil after all".

Crypt of the Everflame takes place in the northern part of the Fangwood. It serves as an excellent level one introduction to Nirmathas.

I did that as a prequel to the campaign. Just moved it to Phaendar without having to change much.

What about the svirfneblin trader, Novi? I've used her to good results in my campaign.

She was visiting the troglodytes and actually followed the PCs around the dungeon to ascertain their purpose. They managed to beat her Stealth check once or twice, seeing a shadow in the distance disappearing between the stones. Before facing the troglodyte boss they actually managed to perceive her and proceed to parlay. She gave them some information about the next encounters and some backstory about the dungeon (also a glimpse of the mythology around the Vault Builders), establishing trust with the PCs. Turns out she is pleased with the idea of another group taking the caverns, one that's liable to trade the cavern's many crystals with her (I portrayed the troglodytes as seeing the gems as holy relics).

What's Rune?

That's me, actually. Why are you raving?

That's so incredibly sad.

On some campaign settings, members of the halfling race have an unique name that they use to refer to their people as a whole, such as Mystara's "Hin" or Greyhawk's "Hobniz" (yeah, I know). The general idea is that "halfling" is probably a term created and used by other races, and can be perceived as a little insulting (you're being defined as "half of something").

So, do Golarion halflings have a name they use to refer to themselves as a people and/or race, or has that been stripped from them by slavery like almost all else?

So in my campaign I played Belor as the no-nonsense "straight" guy to the party's antics. He would do some version of this A LOT: "So you guys ran around the town, causing dozens of gold pieces of damage on merchant stalls and roof tiles just because you 'thought you saw' some kind of shady deal going on?"

During the "Local Heroes" chapter I had him taking a trip to Magnimar to personally request reinforcements after the initial goblin attack. He deputized the PCs, asking them to just very visibly walk around town helping people in order to curb crime and raise morale. In the process they discovered a Sczarni plot to make Belor "suffer an accident" during the trip.

He was EXTREMELY tight-lipped about what the resolution of the Chopper murders, as he fears the knowledge of the Pazuzu's name might bring its attention back to the town. That led to much frustration for the party's paladin, whose parents were killed by Chopper, which resulted in him being raised by Sir Jasper.

Unfortunately I never got to develop him that much. Anyone has a better grasp at the feud with his brother?

Sounds like I need to check this show out.

If you like your sci-fi somewhat low-budget but your characters interesting, then you really should.

For starting gear, I set up a thread Right here that has starting gear for characters catagorized and set up. There are a few things to consider, if the PC prefers light or heavy armor, and if they what kind of weapons they use.

I will be diving into that, thanks!

Kinda want to play this, now.

>.>

Did you get to finish the series?

Yeah, my greatest challenge will be devising the PCs' previous criminal personas AFTER they pick their race-theme-class combos. I thought the Icon would be a pain in the butt, but I have SO many ideas that now I'm hoping that someone picks one.

Any suggestions of possible criminal backgrounds? I think the most difficult ones will be the Mystic and Technomancer. How would those guys use their powers for personal gain? What kind of unlawful careers could they have?

Hi JJ, glad to see you're back to the forums!

Have you seen Travel channel's "Myth or Monster"? In it, Patrick Rothfuss presents cryptozoids, starting with the Mothman :D

Rune, I'm blaming you for this, 'cause you introduced me to that shoooowwwwww...

I take full responsability for that with pride.

I have to admit, tho, if this was me GMing, I'd totally have a dimensional slice longsword, a storm arc pistol, a zenith laser pistol, a tempest arc rifle, and a true photon crystal, and maybe a zenith artillary laser (note the lack of unwieldy); plus one nanotube carbonskin or specialist hardlight series, one vesk monolith III, one jarlslayer, one and a number each prismatic force fields and regeneration tables equal to the PCs hidden somewhere. I'd also replace the backpacks with null space chambers.

I will do something like that. There's an extra-special safe inside the smuggle compartments, and it contains some serious loot and at least one person in deep cryostasis. If that person for some reason looks completely identical to the party's Icon, so what?

Rune. Ruuuuuuuuuuune. Rune.

>:I

We need to talk... Rune.

You got me hooked on a show. Rune.

That I then shared... Rune. I then shared... with my wife.

Rune? Rune. Rune.

We don't have time for this, Rune.

I don't know when we're going to play Starfinder again, now Rune.

ಠ_ಠ

Yeah, sorrynotsorry.

I couldn't feel happier that I made you guys get into it. That show provided a lot of fun for me and my ex-fiancée, love to see it get the love it deserves.

Also, I hope you guys will feel sad like me at the end of season 2.

When you're finished with it, go get The Expanse. It's on Netflix.

It's another category of proficiency, just like basic melee, advanced melee, heavy weapon, longarm, and small arm. EDIT: As far as I can tell, no one starts with this, but you can get the feat if you have a basic melee weapon proficiency or small arm proficiency, you can get one "special" weapon proficiency with a feat.

EDIT 2: see the Class chapter (each class), and page 152 and 162 (the feats chapter), and page 243.

So they're like PF's exotic weapons? That's just bonkers! None of those seems like a good use of a feat.

A quick question: In regards to proficiency, what kind of weapons are Carbonedge Shuriken? It just says "special" on the table.

Dude, that's just me nitpicking. Your list gave me a wonderful headstart, shaving a couple hours picking at equipment tables.

I'll throw in a couple kinetic guns just 'cause they look like cheap, disposable gear that will get traded out in the first opportunity.

Also, I'm so happy I got another person hooked on Dark Matter!

- general-purpose weapons (<#PCs*710>+120): small arms (flare gun, an azimuth laser pistol, and a pulscaster pistol, each), basic melee weapons (tactical baton, survival knife), 20 extra batteries, 4 extra flares (each)

- more advanced gear (3420): ~3 advanced melee (2 standard taclashes, a tactical doshko), ~4 longarms (2 pulsecaster rifles, 2 laser rifles), 1 heavy weapon (azimuth artillary laser), 15 grenades (5 frag g. Is, 5 smoke g.s, 5 sticky bombs)

Is there any specific reason you didn't list any kinetic ranged weapons? Are the energy ones better, for some reason?

I like Tacticslion's list, with potential editing as needed to make the extra equipment match what the original mission of the star ship would have been, though it would probably make your life easier if you expect a little variation depending on the race/classes that people actually build. Pull out some equipment/value, maybe 1-2k spread across the party, so if someone's looking for something specific (and that thing is reasonable, and not out of level/tier), offer a roll to see if they can find the thing somewhere. We usually go with 2d6, and if the GM wins, no thingy, but if the player wins or ties, they can find the thing they actually want.

The other way to go would be to have some actual listed equipment, and supplement that with schematics for a bunch of the available items, and a box or two of UPBs (Universal Polymer Base) so the crew can have the 3d printer whip up whatever equipment they may need.

I conflated the two suggestions in one since my answer will be the same: both are solid ideas (the last one is just great thinking), but I am trying to minimize choices to prevent choice paralysis and too much information too quickly. It's easier for the PCs if there are "one rifle, a couple of swords and a laser pistol" instead of "take a look at this long-ass list and choose one - what's that special property? Let me check".

I would lean away from having cybernetic parts available, since no level 1 PC is likely going to be able to install it.

That's an insightful suggestion, I will definitely follow. Also, I feel cybernetic enhancement should be a conscious mechanical choice supported by roleplay.

so the crew can have the 3d printer whip up whatever equipment they may need.

For that to happen, is the ship required to have a Tech Workshop?