RustyHarlequin's page

Well here we are rapidly approaching the end of January and still not a peep from Ninja Division or any sign of figures here in Europe..... :-(

And the radio silence continues from Ninja, I can only presume it has gone belly up and we'll all have to mark it up as a "learning" experience (ie. steer well clear of any Kickstarters in future) :-(

As a GM I felt that it didn't really make sense as its written so altered it that it can be used to cancel the damage out that it reflects back on the attacker...... as it still only works for Hit point damage rather than Stamina it seems a fair tweak?

It seems to imply that when you decide to dismiss it as a reaction the damage you just took gets reflected back at the target who needs to make a Reflex save for half.

It neither says you take or not take the damage in the description. So
how does it work?

I find that using CON only (rather than Fortitude Save) to resist Disease and Poison makes them both far more realistic/effective/deadly - after all a disease cares not how experienced a person is, simply how good their resistance is.

I keep hearing about how lethal the diseases are in the first Dead Suns module, and how nasty diseases in Starfinder are in general.

What's the big deal exactly? Our group made it through the first module just fine. Those space dog things did a lot of damage to our melee fighters, and even a little bit to me, the sniper in the back row, and we're just fine. Why are other groups having such a hard time?

I keep hearing about how terrifying it was for other groups and I'm left to wonder if our GM may have ran it wrong. I'd provide more details, but the actual game was months ago and I don't remember much more than making our saves after the attacks and the GM telling us that we succeeded.

I use the following table to give me an idea of the size of possible bounty (alive, half or more dead):

CR BOUNTY (IN CREDITS)
1/3 150
1/2 230
1 460
2 775
3 1,100
4 1,400
5 3,100
6 3,900
7 4,600
8 5,400
9 10,000
10 14,700
11 25,000
12 34,000
13 50,000
14 77,000
15 113,000
16 178,000
17 260,000
18 405,000
19 555,000
20 782,000

We have the bounty hunter theme, Sentinels, Hellknights, spaces pirates, space slavers, and other assorted ways for people to get into mischief and people who want them caught.

How would you go about assigning/claiming bounties? Ideally, it's based on the crime vs. a metagame consideration like WBL but that could provide some basis as a higher-level offender can probably pull off more villainous/higher-profile offenses.

Coincidentally, this is as much a question for applying bounties to PC law-breakers as it is for PCs to collect on bounties.

In science fiction asteroid belts are generally shown as much denser than reality, however with the Diaspora we actually get a much closer match due to it being made up of two planets each roughly the size of our own Earth. Crunching the figures, and having the two original planets having close orbits rather than each other, gives me the following (for your amusement and possible use?):

The two asteroid fields are divided by only a small distance in stellar terms, with the gap only slightly emptier than the belts themselves. The density of each ring is some 2,083 times that of our own (which is only 4% the mass of Earth’s moon, with the moon being 1.2% the mass of Earth, therefore our own belts is 0.05% the mass of Earth). Each of the Diaspora’s belts however consist of the remains of a planet the size of our own, resulting in the much denser nature of the belts. Compared with our own which has roughly one asteroid (asteroids over the size of a yard across) per 1,737.5 square miles, those of the Diaspora have around one asteroid per 0.77 square miles…….

Which at the sub-light speeds of a standard vessel does indeed become hazardous (consider each hex in starship combat as being 6 miles across, a vessel travelling at speed 10 is effectively moving at around 10 miles per second or 36,000 mph)......

I'm not sure the Aballonians would really want to live in the Goldilocks spot. But to each their own.

Hence the "(or at least on its borders)" for Aballon & the Drow world, as the former has habitable spots whilst the latter probably is just outside the viable region :-)

Whilst I love most of the rules, concepts etc to do with Starfinder two things have stuck out as....... 'issues'

1) Multiple habitable planets/moons within a single star system, from close in (all-be-it not overly hospitable) to far out, rather than spread over multiple systems.

Solution: I've ended up drawing up details for each of the habitable worlds but put them in neighbouring star systems, rejigging some of the script, where they each sit in the 'Goldilocks' spot in their respective star systems (or at least on its borders).

2) Solarians glowing orb above their head, essentially a big shoot me target and a good way to blow their cover if they try working undercover as all the bad guys realise that they could well be able to generate a weapon at will so can never be 'disarmed' - so trying to enter a nightclub results in "sorry sir but no weapons allowed".

Solution: The stellar energy they can tap is internal, but can be summoned out at will (allowing them to shield or weaponise themselves depending on their original choice), and when fighting and attuning themselves will indeed hover over them. Once unattuned it disappears again....
:-)

To be honest there is actually an easier way of balancing out the Rogue, Talents and all.

Simply put they have to make a Stealth roll vs the sneak attack victims Perception roll, rather than automatically allowing the Rogue to sneak attack a flanked opponent - in most cases the Rogues stealth will be enough that they will still make the attempt however in the flow of battle it still gives an opponent who is constantly moving and looking around to avoid being flanked to catch a glimpse of such sneaky characters (sneaking around in melee is very difficult with all the movement occuring and the chance of a friend catching a glimpse of a figure sneaking at the edge of their line of vision striking out etc).

An nearly auto-hit for sneak attack is kinda cool, actually. Kinda spoils the fun when you rogue, just about to stab some one (completely unaware of the rogue)in the back...misses. This is a partial fix for a lower level "assassin", and maybe be able to actual kill some one in one shot.

Thanks for that correction, it helps a little, still the Rogue Talents seem unneccessary as the class was already able to hold its own and the increase in hit points and various rules clarifications are ample?

Well in 3.0 & 3.5 the Rogue really became a character worth playing, and able to stand with his more combative & spellcasting peers.

Pathfinder has made some interesting modifications and balances to a number of classes making them more playable, however - the Rogue had no real need for much if any changes. The Rogue Talents, as we've been finding seriously unbalance this otherwise stable class, a Rogue with the ability to cast 'True Strike' before making his Sneak attacks anyone?? able to gain combat Feats every two levels etc

:(

Long time Rogue player but no longer keen on continuing such due to inbalance.