It's been a while since we played this, but if I remember right, wasn't it an escalating Perform check to twist effects into your song and/or maintain it?
Personally, I would have been content with the following as core classes:
* Artificer: Craft bombs, mines, poisons, potions, turrets, and all kinds of alchemical nonsense in your very own inn room/ass-smelling basement/mad scientist's laboratory! Be your own test subjectguinea pigunwilling victim control group!
* Fighter: You're good at killing things. Really, really good at killing things. So good you're developing your own unique, if rough, fighting style, complete with stances, powered-up combat maneuvers, and the Plain Old Honest to Aeon Longsword Through The Heart.
* Mage: Every mage since the days of Melf, Tenser, and Mordenkainen knows Read Magic and Magic Missile by heart. They're to mages what Billy Joel is to 21st century humans-- stuff everyone knows. But mages get the powers of the elements, powers to give their opponents the shaft, and really just make fighting your group of heavily-armed ruffians really not worth it.
* Monk: Unarmed, unarmored, wise, scholastic, agile, brave, clean, and reverent and quite capable of beating your ass. The monk is high-risk, high-reward, which is what tabletop RPGs need-- you are competent as it is at full health, but you get better as you run closer to defeat.
* Mystic: Somewhere between the mage and the fighter in terms of ability to cast spells and fight, but the mystic's quite capable of doing both-- often at the same time, just like the magus of years ago!
* Priest: "Waah, my name's Regdar and I got a minor booboo," SUCK IT DOWN, I've got better things to do than waste spell slots on Cure Wounds! I've got the Lay on Hands I "liberated" from that paladin, I can smite in the name of my god, I've got spells based on my god's spheres of influence, and I can channel divine energy to make undead melt into blood! THAT'S what it's like to be chosen to be a deity's champion!
* Rogue: You were never here, were you? Nah, you were always there, watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity. Whether through fancy footwork, a charming smile, or having the Dark One's own luck on your side, rogues always have what they need to reach out and touch someone. (In the back.) (Of the head.)
So I noticed that there are old Russian tanks statted out in Pathfinder, as well as several World War I-era weapons. But try as I could, I couldn't help but notice that planes are missing (specifically, the Sopwith Camel and the Fokker Dreidecker I triplane.) I don't seem to see any vehicle creation rules, either.
Any stats, official or otherwise, for planes? Or at least vehicle creation rules for them?
"It was crazy. Some maniac with a plasma cannon blew up the place and ran off that way."
...
"Why are you looking at me like that? You think I can fit a plasma cannon down my pants or something?
Sara the Soldier: Hey, you know what would have stopped a maniac with a plasma cannon? A lady with a laser pistol! Or a slugthrower! Or a cryo gun! Or a hunting rifle! Or a scattergun! Or an arc rifle! Or a heavy machine gun! Or a shirren-eye rifle! Or an assload of grenades!
Telkiel the Technomancer: (mandibles clicking) Are you still upset about the security screening?
Sarah the Soldier: Ugh, I hate the security checks at Absalom. This is such BS.
Samara the Solarian: (antenna wriggling) It's to keep Absalom Station secure, Sarah.
Eddard Edvard, Envoy Extraordinaire: (hands his survival knife over to station security) They give you a receipt, Sarah. Chill.
Sarah: Ugh, fine. (hands her laser pistol over)
Security Guy: If you're packing, we want all of it.
Sarah: Oh, for God's... (hands over her slugthrower pistol) (and her cryo pistol) (and her hunting rifle) (and her scatter gun) (and her arc rifle) (and her machine gun) (and her shirren-eye rifle) (and her dueling sword) (and her survival knife) (along with about three dozen various frag, shock, incendiary, flash, and sticky grenades)
Security Guy: ALL of it.
Sarah: (sighs, and hands over the pathetically small needle gun she had in her ankle holster that she forgot about)
So, today we started Dead Suns. As usual, my friends didn't fail to impress me, make a huge mess of things in their wake, and entertain us with some black comedy.
Meet the Crew
Chikkuumzu, vesk mercenary soldier: Played by Bryan. Chikkuumzu was tasked with joining the Starfinder Society in an effort by the Vesk Hegemony to extend an olive branch to the various species they were at war with. (Un)fortunately, they sent a vesk who prefers straight-up fighting over diplomacy, and one who prefers to speak with his assault cannon than with his voice.
Emissary63, android xenoseeker envoy: Played by Cory. A personal concierge-for-hire android on Absalom Station, Emissary offers his services as a guide, travel companion, and escort for travelers in the Pact Worlds. He joined the Starfinder Society as he desired to go out into the galaxy to meet new species.
Maelari, lashunta (I didn't catch her theme) solarion: Played by Chrissy. She who believes in the power that the very stars have in the Pact Worlds, Maelari joined the Society as it's her belief to go out to the stars themselves. She uses her latent telepathy to express ideas the crew would prefer to not be voiced out loud. (This is roleplayed by Chrissy putting her index fingers up to her head and wiggling them like antennae.)
Zam Qatar Hjüb of House Hadalar, kasatha ace pilot mystic: Played by Matt. Not only does he have the only name I've ever seen not fit on a Dungeons & Dragons character sheet, Zam joined the Society so that he can see new worlds and help those who need medical assistance. Apparently, he is Doctor Captain Zam Qatar Hjüb of House Hadalar.
All Aboaaaaaaaaaaaaaard
Upon their arrival, they look for their contact, Duravor Kreel. After some getting to know each other, complicated slightly by the fact that all they know about Duravor is that he's a he, they find their man. Somehow, Maelari doesn't notice him. Emissary does notice the two groups of gangers getting ready to draw down on each other, and politely asks Duravor if he notices the strange men "getting ready to attack each other."
Then all hell breaks loose as laser fire fills the docking bay! People scream and run for their lives, our heroes go into cover, and Duravor heroically takes a laser bolt to the windpipe. Chikkuumzu immediately opens fire with his assault cannon on one of the Downsiders, while everyone shuffles around laying down covering fire/exchanging gunfire with the Level 21 Boyz and Downsiders.
Zam moves out into the open and tries to save their contact's life. Emissary wonders if that is a tactically sound idea. Chikkuumzu is too busy screaming like a madman over the sound of his assault cannon to consider tactics. Maelari moves in to help Zam drag Duravor to cover.
Zam then gets the idea of dropping Duravor onto the baggage train that's parked in the docking bay. The rest of the group, save Chikkuumzu, agree. (Chikkuumzu is exchanging obscenities and energy discharge with one particularly stubborn Downsider.) Once Zam gets the baggage train started, he drives it around the docking bay as the party boards. Our ace pilot gets the train to serve as a mobile gun platform, picking the vesk up once they drive on over (and once he finally manages to hit the Downsider, reducing his head to "what looks like he suffered a catastrophic stroke on both sides.")
As they drive to "glory" out of docking bay 94, one of the Downsiders decides to get brave and hop on the one empty space in the baggage train. This... does not work out for him, and he goes down in a hail of gunfire (and under the tires of the baggage train. Thankfully, Zam decided not to back over him "just to make sure.")
So. Yes. The group borrowed the baggage train that one of the Level 21 Boyz was using as cover (which he stopped doing once a critical hit set him on fire.) They had a fun time explaining that to Station Security.
You Pay For the Dance in Advance, Right?
So now the crew met Chiskisk and were handed their first mission: Avenge the death of Duravor. One tram trip to the Downside, and seven hours of kasatha inquiries, lashunta 16-Charisma cleavage, and various naked threats to sentient life from the vesk later, they find out about the Fusion Queen Nightclub. The bouncers don't let Chikkuumzu in (specifically, they don't let his assault cannon in; he decides to go across the street and sulk at another bar called Another Bar) but the rest of the party gets in after checking their weapons. (I didn't want Emissary's Diplomacy check to go to waste.)
The crew decides that the best way to get information is, in classic sci-fi tradition, to go to the bar and buy drinks go all-in on a lap dance for the android. The shirren who offered the dance was vetoed; they got a human instead. "You are very skilled at giving lap dances," Emissary said. "Should I be feeling something right now? I *am* fully functional, after all."
This gets the wheels turning in Zam's head. He comes to the conclusion that, in order to meet the leader of the Downsiders, they need to get Maelari to wear lipstick and skimpy club clothes and "apply for a job" (read: "dance on the table") and see if she gets a job.
The Stripperific Earn-As-You-Learn Program
Maelari: (wiggling antennae) I don't own any skimpy clothes...
No problem. Common clothes are one credit, professional clothes are five. ("The professional stripper clothes come with a transparent silk tie," I said. "After all, when you have a job interview, you wear a tie. No exceptions.")
The next night, Emissary then offers to help everyone conceal their guns; Chikkuumzu passes and decides to give the bouncers the stink-eye from Another Bar. The bouncers take their dear sweet time feeling Maelari up/searching her for weapons, and once everyone's cleared to go in, Maelari hops onto a table and begins "shaking her lobes and her ass-ets."
Maelari: (wiggling antennae) I don't know how to dance!
Me: Straight Charisma check! :D
(She got a 17.)
Zam sticks around her, silently acting as a lookout/bodyguard while Emissary goes into the staff-only area. Sure, he did initially piss off the three gangers playing poker, but when he asked about the game (good Diplomacy check!!) they grinned at each other, looking forward to winning some of Emi's money.
He won some hands, lost some hands (yay +2 Bluff!) and finally decided that he needed to cheat to win.
Good news: He won.
Bad news: He got caught cheating. ("I saw you pull a card! And what the hell is a 27 of spades!?")
Just at that moment, Zam goes to check on Emissary. In chronological order:
1. Zam goes to check on Emissary, just as his cheating is discovered.
2. The Downsiders pull their guns.
3. Emissary pulls his laser pistol from his concealed carry compartment.
4. Zam opens the doors and asks "What the hell's going on back here?"
5. One of the Downsiders aims at Zam instead.
6. Zam grins and whips his concealed slugthrower pistol out from behind his arms.
"The Crew Shoot Up a Night Club"/"It's Always Sunny in Absalom Station"
Immediately, it goes to gunfire. Zam uses his Mind Thrust on one of the gangers (doesn't kill him) while Emissary overturns the table for cover. Maelari hops off the table ("Boing!") and walks over to the backroom. Once Chikkuumzu hears the high-pitched whine of laser fire, he spins around on his barstool, aims his assault cannon at once of the bouncers, and shouts "HEY! A~~+#@$!" just as he pulls the trigger.
While the gunfight's going on, Zam uses Telekinetic Projectile to hurl an amplifier at the guy he Mind Thrusted. (Didn't kill him, either.) Once he started to flee, Zam followed him, trying to brain him with a Telekinetic Projectile-hurled cash register because "HE'S A WITNESS!"
He missed, by the way.
Vrokilayo, this friggin' huge vesk bodyguard, comes out of the back office with his own assault cannon. Zam mind thrusts him (doesn't kill him, either.) and Vrok replies by shouting "YOUR DEAD, PSYKER!" and double-tapping with the assault cannon.
Miss, and a natural 1. Fun! :D
The gun fight continues. Zam uses Telekinetic Projectile on a chair, hurling it at Vrok.
Natural 20.
Boxcars on the damage.
Vrokilayo gets one chair leg through each eye, and the remaining two legs messily through his chest. He goes down, dead-man's-trigger-finger blowing part of the ceiling apart. The remaining Downsiders surrender.
Ferani surrenders as well; I played her as knowing when to cut her losses. She spills the beans on the plot, and she and her gang will leave the crew alone.
Gathering into the office, one of the Downsiders slips Maelari his comm number, making the universal "call me" gesture.
Just as a final bargaining chip, Emissary takes the chair that's impaling the dead vesk and props it under the doorknob.
The Summary
My group "borrowed" a baggage train and turned it into a gun platform, convinced one of their own to wear sexy clothing and dance for perverts, turned a backroom poker game into a brutal gun battle, hurled a cash register across a night club floor and through the front window, and pinned a chair on a pissed-off lizard-man.
Sarah the Soldier: Dude, what the hell?! I've seen these grenades! They're the ones that make a miniature black hole that explodes into a supernova! Don't you know how *extremely* dangerous these things are?!
Weapon Seller: Sure do! That's why they're called weapons!
Sarah: And you're selling these?! Out in the open!?
Weapon Seller: Two hundred credits a grenade! The perfect way to say "To whom it may concern" out there in the Beyond!
Sarah: I'll take a gross. (buys them)
Samara the Solarion: Sarah? That's 144 grenades!!!
Sarah: I'll be careful! (starts carelessly tossing quantum destabilizer grenades into her backpack)
The Rest of the Team: (suddenly decide they're rather not be on Abasalom Station when Sarah's backpack gets shot and those grenades go off)
Considering I volunteered to run Dead Suns for our group starting on Sunday, I wish I knew about this before I volunteered! D:
Yeah. I think I'm gonna just set the stunt DCs as (10/15/20 + tier); flyby will be 20 + target's tier. This way, I don't have to assume we have a lashunta at the helm, and it keeps the math simpler for this idiot DM.
(The group was already warned that if they wrap the ship around a planet, it's coming out of their wealth by level.)
Why It's Bad: This is what happens when you do a PG-rated sequel to an R-rated movie. Plus, you know, all hopes for Conan the Conquerer pretty much died after this one and Red Sonja happened.
Why I Like It: It's not Conan the Barbarian. It's never going to be Conan the Barbarian in terms of plot, or sheer brutality, and its villain sure as hell doesn't live up to Thulsa Doom's high mark, but there's still some awesome fights in this. (Plus, if you really think about it, this is the best adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons to film.)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Why It's Bad: Your pain runs deep, Uhura fan-dances, this plot makes absolutely no f%#*ing sense, James Tiberius Kirk meets God and finds out He's a hundred-watt floodlight with a face, a lot of things went wrong behind the scenes
Why I Like It: Ignore the (admittedly horrible) special effects shots; William Shatner had a fantastic eye for awesome set pieces. Besides the cinematography, there's some genuinely good moments from Kirk, Spock, and McCoy ("They found a cure! A GODDAMNED CURE!")
The friend in question said she's gonna consider making the major villains into her evil-aligned gods.
I said "I hope someone else wants to think of what domains/weapons Beryl, Metallia, Demande, Death Phantom, Nehelennia, Pharaoh 90, and Sailor Galaxia have, because I'm spent. XD"
One of the friends in our D&D group has been invited to make a region in our campaign setting. She needs gods. I came up with half of these as a joke; my best friend helped refine these.
I apologize immensely for what you are about to read.
I'd prefer it to be abstract, cuz in advanced societies with economic systems there's gonna be loans and interest rates and stuff like that and I'd rather keep it all background. I also don't want to adventure to seek out neosheckels. Traveller is dull because of the trading and stuff.
Goddamn it, man, I want to line my pockets with space bucks! =p
One final nice card game here. One with absurdly high stakes (No. Seriously. Caesar's Entertainment lists profit/loss from this on their quarterly financial reports. I am not making this up.) One that is the preferred card game of international superspies everywhere[1].
Tonight, we're talking about baccarat. Specifically, Chemin de Fer, the way 007 plays it.
Get six decks of cards, ditch the jokers as per usual. Shuffle them well. (To quote Casino Royale, "there's absolutely no chance of tampering with the shoe. The cards are shuffled by the croupier and cut by one of the players and put into the shoe in full view of the table.")
One player, starting from what we'll call Seat Number One, is offered the chance to be the banker. If he declines the bank, the opportunity goes clockwise around the table. Once somebody accepts the bank, he makes his wager. We'll call him the Banker, and the other players seated at the table the Punters. Starting from the Banker's left, each Punter has the opportunity to match the Banker's wager; this is called "going bank," and only one Punter is allowed to do this.
If nobody goes bank, each Punter is allowed to wager as he or she desires starting from the Banker's left. If the Punters collectively wager less than the Banker, the Banker can either remove his excess from the table, or the observers watching the game can stake the difference. (This being a casino game, you can be sure people will gather 'round the table to watch.) If the Punters' stake exceeds the Banker's, he can either increase his wager or the croupier can refund the Punters' bets (starting from the Banker's right) until the two stakes match.
Once the two stakes are even, the Banker deals two cards to himself and two cards to the Punters as a whole. The Punter who has the highest stake is chosen to look at the two cards. (If two or more made the same bet, the Punter closest to the Banker's left looks at the cards.) If they add up to 8 or 9, he declares this and reveals the cards. The Banker reveals his at this point. If the Punters' cards are closer to 9, they win. If not, the Banker wins. Ties are played again.
If the cards don't add up to 8 or 9, the Punter does one of the following:
If the cards add up to 6 or 7, he declines a card.
If the cards add up to 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, he accepts a third card. This card is dealt face up instead of face down.
If the cards add up to 5, it's the Punter's choice entirely whether or not he takes a third card.
The Punter is, like in any other game, free to accept or decline a third card as he wishes, but considering he's literally playing with other peoples' money, they'd be very cross if his screwing around with betting convention lost the hand, and most social circles would force him to repay the other Punters. (If he went bank, he can do as he pleases. It's his money, after all.)
In case you're wondering, aces count as 1, tens and court cards count as 0, and 2 through 9 count as the value printed on the card. If the value of the cards you have add up to more than 10, you drop the tens digit; holding a 9 and a 7 means you have a total of 6, and would stand.
Once the Punter either has his third card or not, the Banker gets to play. If his initial two cards add up to 8 or 9, he turns them over and wins. If he does not have an 8 or 9 total, he can accept or decline a third card as he sees fit. (Again, to quote Casino Royale, "Otherwise, he is faced with the same problems as I was. But he is helped in his decision to draw or not to draw a third card by my actions. If I have stood, he must assume that I have a five, six, or seven; if I have drawn, he will know that I had something less than a six and I may have improved my hand or not with the card he gave me. And this card was dealt face up. On its face value and a knowledge of the odds, he will know whether to take another card or stand on his own.
"So he has a very slight advantage over me. He has a tiny help over his decision to draw or to stand. But there is always one problem card in this game-- shall one draw or stand on a five, and what will your opponent do with a five?")
Once the dealer makes his decision, the cards are revealed. If the Punters' hand is closer to 9 than the Banker's hand, the Punters each receive their wager back and the same amount from the Banker's stake, and the player to his left becomes the new Banker. If the Banker's hand is closer to 9, he adds the Punters' money to his bank and remains the Banker. He can withdraw at any time, in which case the player to his left is the new Banker.
[1]Look, as much as Casino Royale is my second-favorite Bond movie and as much as I understand why they did this, they really should have kept the baccarat in instead of changing it to poker.
Okay, I have a third actual played-on-Earth card game that should be more popular. It's called Trente et Quarante, or "Thirty and Forty" in Roman Catholic.
First, you get six decks of cards, toss the jokers out (notice a theme going on with these games?) and shuffle them all together really well. Then the players place their bets. There are four possible bets in this game:
Rouge: You're betting that the row marked "red" will be closer to 30.
Noir: You're betting that the row marked "black" will be closer to 30.
Couleur: You're betting that the first card in the winning row is the same color as the winning row (a heart or diamond for Rouge, a club or spade for Noir.)
Inverse: You're betting that the first card in the winning row is the same color as the losing row (a club or spade for Rouge, a heart or diamond for Noir.)
All four bets pay even money.
You can also buy insurance against a refait; that costs you 1% of your wager, to a minimum of 5 gold pieces. What's a refait? You'll find out in a minute.
Once everyone makes their bets, the dealer starts dealing cards out to Noir (aces count as 1, face cards count as 10.) Once he exceeds 30 points, he then starts dealing to Rouge. Again, he stops once Rouge has more than 30 points.
Whichever row is the closest to 30 after going over wins for that color. (If Noir has 35 and Rouge has 34, Rouge wins.) If the first card in the winning row is the same color as the winning row, Couleur wins. If not, Inverse wins.
If both hands tie, that's a push. There is one exception to this: Un apres thirty-one.
Refait: If a refait happens, you have two choices here: You can withdraw half your wager and forfeit the rest to the house, or you can just grin, bear it, and leave your wager on the table for the next hand. (If you paid for insurance on the refait, you get even money on the insurance. Unlike blackjack, where insurance is a step above just giving a ten dollar bill to the dealer, refait insurance is a legitimately reasonable offer, considering a refait happens about once every thirty-eight games.)
All right lads, here's another nice and easy card game before I head to work. It's called Newmarket (it's also called Chicago and Michigan; Newmarket sounds more fantasy-ish, so let's go with that.)
You need one full deck of cards (minus the jokers, of course) and four cards from another deck: one jack, one queen, one king, and one ace, each of a different suit. (Traditionally, I've seen the Jack of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds, King of Spades, and Ace of Hearts, but so long as you have those four ranks and those four suits, you're good to go.) You put the four spare cards down in the middle of the table.
Everybody has to wager five gold pieces: One goes into the central ante, and the other four go on the four spare cards we just placed in the center of the table. You can wager those four GP however you want, whether all four on one card, or one on each, or two each on two cards.
The dealer then shuffles, cuts, and deals every card out. One extra hand, called the "widow" or "dead hand," is also dealt; this is not played (or even looked at) but will be important in a few minutes. This may mean someone gets less cards than the others. That's fine.
The player to the dealer's left gets the first play. He can play any suit he wants, so long as it's the LOWEST rank he holds. (If I have the eight and six of clubs, I have to play the six.) Whoever holds the next highest rank plays that, and so on. If nobody is holding the next card, whoever played the last card gets the honor of leading the next run. (Again, he can play any suit so long as he starts with the lowest rank he has.)
If anybody plays one of the four cards with coins we put in the middle of the table, they win the coins on it. Whoever empties their hand first wins the center ante. Any coins still on the cards after the ante is won are left there for the next deal.
Some people say poker is the best card game in the world. I say they are F!&+ING *WRONG.*
The best card game, and one that really really needs more play, is called Napoleon. (Problem is, Earth's the only place that HAD a Napoleon, but don't you worry, the game's also alternately called Nap.) Though traditionally played as a five-card game, I prefer the seven-card variant which I'll talk about below.
You get one deck of cards minus the jokers and a total of five people (you can play Nap with three to six people, but five works best.) Everybody gets seven cards. The player immediately to your left gets the first chance to bid.
HOW BIDDING WORKS: You look at your cards and bid based on how many tricks you think you can win. The bids, from lowest to highest, are:
The Bids:
Three - You try to win three tricks. If you do, everyone pays you three gold pieces. If you do not, you pay everyone three gold pieces each.
Four - You try to win four tricks. If you do, everyone pays you four gold pieces. If you do not, you pay everyone four gold pieces each.
Five (or "Nap") - You try to win five tricks. If you do, everyone pays you ten gold pieces. If you do not, you pay everyone five gold pieces each.
Misere - You think your hand sucks, so you're gonna play this game to lose. If you lose all seven tricks, everyone pays you ten gold pieces. If you take one trick, you owe everyone five gold pieces.
Six - You try to win six tricks. If you do, everyone pays you eighteen gold pieces. If you do not, you pay everyone nine gold pieces each.
Seven (or "the lot") - You think you have a real boss hand and think you can win all seven tricks. If you're right, everyone at the table pays you 24 gold pieces. If you're wrong, you pay everyone twelve gold pieces each.
Wellington (or "the double," because the Duke of Wellington was never on Golarion) - You can only call this bid if someone bids seven. A Wellington bid is you saying your hand can totally take all seven tricks and is better than everyone else's. If you win all seven tricks, everyone owes you 48 gold pieces. If you lose one trick, you pay everyone 24 gold pieces.
Blucher (or "the redouble," as again, Gebhard Leberecht van Blucher was only on one planet) - You can only call this bid if someone bids Wellington. A Blucher bid is you saying that a) You have the best seven cards in the deck and can totally win seven tricks, and b) You are a deranged lunatic. If you actually win all seven tricks, everyone owes you 96(!) gold pieces. If you don't win all seven tricks, you owe everyone 48 gold pieces (and will probably get brutally beaten if you can't pay up because you're only a first-level adventurer.)
Starting from the dealer's left, everyone gets a chance to bid or pass. Once everyone has a chance to bid, whoever had the highest bid has the honor of playing the first card. The first card's suit is the trump suit for the entire round (unless you bid Misere, in which case there's no trump suit) and everyone has to follow the suit, just like in Hearts.
Play continues until the bidder makes his contract or becomes unable to. Everyone pays up, the cards get gathered and shuffled, and a new round begins.
Anton's name was added to the To Absent Friends memorial at Earth Spacedock if you play Star Trek Online. (At least on the test server.)
And this isn't just a case of "We added Anton's life years and an optimistic quote to the first page of the flavor text." When I say "Cryptic added Anton Yelchin to the memorial," I mean "The graphics design team made the memorial taller and added 'Anton Yelchin' under 'Leonard Nimoy' and 'DeForest Kelley.'"
Ca-CHUCK!
Score a critical hit with a double-barreled shotgun firing two slugs.
The Colonel Anthony Rogers Memorial Achievement
Deal 1000 total damage with a laser pistol or laser rifle.
Glory Kill
Score a critical hit with an X-laser.
format c: /u
Deal 1000 total damage with an EMP pistol or EMP rifle.
Dud Fire
Have a 1 HD creature survive a direct hit from a rocket launcher.
Fry 'Em Clean, Soldier
Deal 1000 total damage with a plasmathrower.
Indistinguishable From Magic
Get a total +10 worth of enchantments on any one of the following modern or futuretech firearms: arc pistol/rifle, gravity pistol/rifle, laser pistol/rifle, Lawrence 1917 flamethrower, Madsen light machine gun, Maxim machine gun, Mosin-Nagant M1985 revolver, Mosin-Nagant M1987 rifle, sonic pistol/rifle, zero pistol/rifle.
I Don't Think That's How This Feat Works
Learn Greater Weapon Specialization (Death Rays).
I Only Have Ten Bullets, So Some Of You Will Have to Share
Learn Greater Weapon Specialization (Madsen Light Machine Guns).
(INSERT GUILE'S THEME HERE)
Deal 1000 total damage with a sonic pistol or sonic rifle.
Mutilated Monster Meat
Every single square in a rocket launcher's blast radius was occupied by a Small or Medium creature.
Not An Improvised Weapon
Actually kill someone with an autograpnel.
Not As Cool As I Thought It Was
Earn the achievement directly below this when you are the PC with gunslinger levels.
Not As Cool As You Think It Is
Craft a sawed-off shotgun or double-barreled shotgun despite a PC with gunslinger levels telling you how bad of an idea it is.
Nuke It Till It Glows
Irradiate 50 creatures with the atom gun.
One Shot, One Kill
Learn Greater Weapon Specialization (Mosin-Nagant M1897 Rifles).
PC Like Big Boom
Kill at least ten creatures with one single shot from a rocket launcher.
Set Phasers to Frag
Knock out fifty creatures with a stun gun.
I'm still discounting that analysis from way upthread just because a lot of the obituaries I posted were extremely shit luck or blatant stupidity on the group's part. (Plus Ziggy lost his character sheet in one of the Jade Regent deaths.)
I'm gonna type this up, and I'm gonna do something I never do: I'm gonna favorite my own post so I can come back to it after Starfinder comes out and see where I went right/wrong.
Anyway. Snorb's completely baseless class speculation/wishlist is go~!!
Soldier: Even in the far future, war is won and lost by boots on the ground. Soldiers have one job on a team of adventurers, and that is to be the best at killing new lifeforms and civilizations. I'm guessing that they'll have some kind of weapon training like the fighter, possibly some kind of favored enemy like the ranger. Possible options here include shock troops (lightly-armored glass cannon soldiers), ship gunner (good at ground combat, better at space combat!) and genetically-engineered freaks of nature designed for combat (think like the Terrines from Buck Rogers XXVc: barbarians and/or the Helix Warrior from d20 Future.)
Pilot: When you wanna go where you wanna go. Pilots are great at flying anything, from the Tarrasque-class heavy carrier to that pathetic little airspeeder you got second-hand from your uncle in a game of seven card Napoleon[1]. My speculation here is that pilots would be able to grant bonuses to the ships/wrecks they fly, whether in speed, accuracy, or firepower. Guesses as to class options/archetypes include ace fighter pilots (better at flying fighter craft, like the A-Wing), or battleship line crew (better with larger ships, like the Odyssey class starship. If you prefer Star Trek Online to not be canon, pretend I said "Sovereign class" instead.)
Medic: Look, I work in a pharmacy, it's 2016, people still get hurt and sick. You're always gonna need someone to help you get better. I posted my speculation about this earlier in my post history, but the gist of it: You have a great first aid kit. You can use it to CureTreat Light/Moderate/Serious/Critical Wounds. Expansions for it would allow you to perform the equivalents of Channel Energy, Lay on Hands, Neutralize Poison, Cure Disease, Regeneration (the spell, not the thing that turned Paul McGann into John Hurt[2]), Breath of Life, perhaps even Raise Dead. Possible variants/options for medics would be the xenobiologist (specifically trained in treating injuries on creatures outside their species) or empathic healer (their healing is a psychic version of the paladin's Lay on Hands ability, complete with mercies, but they suffer the injuries they heal. Or perhaps half of the injuries if that's too cruel.)
Engineer: While a pilot flies a ship, the soldier kills things that try to hurt the ship, and the medic fixes the people on the ship, the engineer tries to fix the ship. I'm guessing that they would be able to Repair Light/Moderate/Serious/Critical damage for a ship (and maybe androids!), jury-rig damaged ship components, and possibly engage in electronic warfare (like unbuffing enemy ships in combat.) As for their non-ship abilities, I think they'd be able to build some insta-turrets for ground control. (I was looking at the STO wiki.) No real thoughts on class options/archetypes here, guys. Sorry. I am disappoint ;_;
Hack: There's always gonna be rogues, even in the year Four Hundred Billion. Their lockpicks are more the futuretech equivalent of a smartphone, though. Hacks would be able to break electronic security, whether they are biological scanners, coded entry locks, magnetic locks, or simple modern deadbolts. I think they'd have an ability to generate a personal cloaking field for stealth purposes (but God, nothing like the ninja's Greater Invisibility ninjutsu. Having one of those made running Jade Regent a nightmare.) and, that tried and true rogue favorite, sneak attack. Possibilities here? Fixers (guys who know a guy who's friends with someone whose brother is married to a fellow who traded business cards with someone the next urinal over who can get you what you need) and smugglers (who can hide all the illegal stuff you're gonna sell for space bucks. Of course, one world's perfectly legal battle rifles are highly illegal the next system over...)
Scientist: Every game about science fiction/science fantasy needs at least one class who's there for SCIENCE~!! and this guy's it. You know the type. Can create effects similar to alchemist formulae, can create technological devices, is really REALLY smart.
Esper: Look, "psychic" is already taken, it's 2 am, and I was never creative to begin with. Espers get a small suite of psychic abilities, and I don't mean "wizard spells but psychic" like the actual psychic class. I mean stuff like telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, psychic blades like the soulknife (which I forgot was OGL because of the Expanded Psionics Handbook) pre/postcognition, remote viewing, and astral projection. Smaller scale stuff than making a dragon up and vanish like a fart in the wind because it failed a saving throw. Possible variants could include a technomancer (trading the telepathy for machine empathy; I bet you never saw "I'm going to read your hard drive's mind" in the English language until now!)
[1]This is a real card game. [2]Or Matt Smith into Peter Capaldi. Or Jon Pertwee into Tom Baker. Or Colin Baker into Sylvester McCoy. Or...
I'm not sure about the level you're playing at, but one of my friends had a 12th level cleric/paladin who specialized in Channel Energy and Lay on Hands. He did indeed take Extra Lay on Hands, Extra Mercy, and Extra Channel.
He only prepared the Cure Wounds spells from his paladin spell list, despite his 26 Charisma.
He also only used Light and Stabilize from the cleric spell list, but I think that was only because having 10 Wisdom limits a cleric to his zeroth-level spells.
If there's only one type of humanoids, you still have Aberration, Animal, Construct, Dragon, Humanoid (Human), Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, Ooze, Outsider (Air), Outsider (Chaotic), Outsider (Earth), Outsider (Evil), Outsider (Fire), Outsider (Good), Outsider (Lawful), Outsider (Native), Outsider (Water), Plant, Undead, and Vermin as favored enemy choices! =p
(Note that having only one type of humanoid deletes goblins, orcs, bugbears, and hobgoblins from the setting; they're Humanoid (Goblinoid).)
I've read various Pathfinder and D&D books cover-to-cover. (The toughest one was the Fourth Edition Monster Manual, but, hey, I needed *something* to do during Hurricane Sandy.)
Star Trek Online handled this in a way I enjoy: Starfleet finally (finally!) reissued personal force field belts (last seen in The Animated Series!) and those serve as a per-encounter HP pool.* Body armor reduced damage by a percentage depending on armor and quality.
I'm guessing this can be handled in Starfinder by having shield belts grant temporary HP (like a much better False Life), and armor grants damage reduction/energy resistance.
*Being physically attacked bypassed this pool and directly damaged your actual HP, but the only weapons that do this that I know of are your fists, Klingon targ bites/claws, bat'leths, lirpas, Tsunkatse swords, and Zephram Cochrane's Shotgun.
Minor note about "If it has stats, you can kill it:" Decipher's Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game has stats for the Borg Collective. (Well, one stat, actually: the Collective's ability to resist mind melds. Individual Borg have Strength/Vitality buffs, social penalties, and can assimilate to phaser fire with an extremely convoluted mechanic.)
(SPOILER: Directly connecting your brain to the Borg Collective IS A SUPREMELY BAD IDEA and can result in serious injury and/or death. Data was extremely lucky in The Best of Both Worlds that Locutus/the Collective didn't bodyjack him.)
Anyway, no Borg. At least, not the technozombie "assimilate all non-Kazon at any cost" Borg we got in BOBW and Voyager. If there's Borg, make them technovores like they were originally supposed to be.
(Fun fact: The disappearance of Federation and Romulan observation posts that came up in TNG Season One were supposed to be the Borg's doing; the Bluegill from that episode* were supposed to be their heralds. Then the Writers' Guild strike happened.)
*You know. "Conspiracy." That episode where Picard and Riker phaser a guy until his head explodes in an embarrassingly shitty special effect that somehow manages to look even worse on the Blu-Ray release.
When you cast a spell normally, you can deliver one free touch attack with it. Ranged Spellstrike replaces that touch attack with a bow attack.
For example, you can cast Magic Missile and fire your bow; your target takes the bow's damage and is hit with Magic Missile if you hit your target with the bow, so long as your target's in the range for Magic Missile.
If your spell creates more than one projectile (such as with Magic Missile at higher levels), you only get one projectile per attack you're entitled to (based on either your BAB or how many projectiles your spell creates, whichever is worse. If you can cast Scorching Ray and get two rays, but you only have the BAB for one attack, you're only firing one ray.)
The drawback to this is your attack against your target's Touch AC is instead an attack against their normal AC.
This replaces the Spellstrike ability in the vanilla magus, which let you do basically the same thing except with a melee attack.
Fun fact about why Spellstrike is fun: There's a magus arcana that lets you use Spellstrike with another spellcasting class's spells, if you have levels of that class. I picked cleric. (We fought a lot of undead.)
I hope we see some Form of Damage gradient system (Similar to Firepower /Toughness in Alternity or MegaDamage in Rifts). Tracking damage to vessels with thousands of HP dealing hundreds of damage per attack just doesnt seem feasible. Much easier to simply state something like "Vehicular weapons deal double damage against any target Size large or smaller and Space Craft weapons deal 10x damage vs targets size Huge or smaller." (For example).
I would lower the threshold for death due to massive damage.
"You took a direct hit from a starship-scale rail gun. I don't care what the rules say about rolling dice, you're dead meat, man."
"But I've got 129 HP--"
"The barrel opening on that rail gun was the size of a Buick."
Your bow, made from the latest composite materials, launches an arrow with flexible foam fletching, a graphite shaft... and an explosive-tipped arrowhead.
* A-Wing Starfighter (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi)
* USS Defiant (NX-74205) (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
* The Tumi (Inca & Inca II: Wiracocha) Christ, talk about obscure computer games!
Larger Ships:
* Serenity (Firefly/Serenity)
* USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-F) (Star Trek Online) Hey, as far as I care, the Odyssey class is canon! =p
* The Outrider YT-2400 Heavy Freighter (Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire/like five seconds of Star Wars: A New Hope)
Honorable Mentions
* Your unnamed ship (Solar Winds: The Escape & Solar Winds: UNIVERSE) I LIKE OLD COMPUTER GAMES FROM THE 90S ALL RIGHT
* Protoss Scout (Starcraft)
* USS Rio Grande (NCC-72452) (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) (Fun fact: Out of all the runabouts assigned to DS9, the Rio Grande was the only one to survive the entire series!)
* Enterprise (NX-01) (Star Trek: Enterprise)
Yerdiss, I'm almost insulted you don't have When Gravity Fails on that list. =p
Anyway, Owen question: If I were to take my Space Hoopty and fly it through the space where Golarion should be, would everything be okay, or would my trajectory be affected by gravity as if the planet were still there?
On the one hand, Tomb of Horrors is a shitty adventure.
On the other hand, it's a gaming rite-of-passage, isn't it? "See how close you get to Acererak before something bends, folds, spindles, and mutilates your character."
Fun fact: John Wick, the creator of Legend of the Five Rings, is probably the smartest person to ever play through the Tomb of Horrors. The DM gave each character in Wick's party 70,000 gold to buy gear, and said to Wick that if he knew what a trap in the Tomb was (he played through it once already) he was allowed to tell the rest of the group what it was.
In John Wick's own words:
"Wait a minute," I replied. "Seventy thousand?!"
"Yes."
"One gold piece feeds a family of four for a year. And we have seventy thousand of them?"
The GM nodded again. "That's right."
I told the other players, "F&&~ this dungeon! Let's go home, live like kings. We don't need to go in there! We each have seventy thousand gold pieces! Let's buy a tavern... no, let's buy a city and be done with this."
To their credit, each of the other players considered that notion for a moment... then they decided they wanted to play the adventure anyway.
"Okay," I said, and I bought the one and only magical item I would need.
Shenanigans:
He bought a Bag of Holding.
He then convinced the rest of the party, one at a time, to leave all their stuff behind and crawl into the gaping demon's maw in the first room of the Tomb.
You know. The one with the Sphere of Annihilation in its mouth.
He then said "F@!+ this dungeon," sold the magic items, and proceeded to live like a king.
Why didn't John tell the rest of the group about the Sphere of Annihilation?
So, the starship crew. Obviously, the pilot flies the ship and prevents it from getting shot full of holes. And anyone serving as a gunner gets to roll the d20s that send beam weapons, missiles, dumbfire cannon slugs, rail gun bolts, &c. at the bad guys.
But what of the rest of the crew?
Engineers can do things like repair the ship, of course (if only to jury rig the hull or get a weapon powered so it'll fire again) but they're also responsible for jeeping the ship powered. I don't see why they couldn't temporarily divert power from one system to another during combat (say, -2 to attack rolls in exchange for +2 shield bonus to Defense by diverting power to shields, similar to fighting defensively.)
Scientists might be able to use electronic warfare from their bridge stations (acting as Aid Another, grant a Blur effect against incoming missiles, using the ship equivalent of Dirty Trick...)
Security teams (including some particularly daring PCs!) could be set up to repel boarders, and possibly lead boarding parties to sabotage and/or capture enemy vessels. (There's nothing like seeing an enemy vessel suddenly swing about and open fire on her comrades!)
Point is, space combat isn't just (and shouldn't just) be about two or more ships just trading lasers until one of them goes up in a shitty 1960s Star Trek special effect. Everyone can have their role in victory.
EDIT: Oh, and leveling the ship up with the PCs (like the caravan rules) would be awesome too.
