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I could see that this would be useful for the following situations (possibly homebrew rulings, but I didn't see a similar discussion in the homebrew forum so I'll add it here):

1. Your target is on the other side of a thick transparent aluminum wall, so you can see them and they don't get concealment. The skipshot lets you shoot at them without damaging the wall.

2. You are shooting at an enemy but your allies are in between you. The skipshot pistol would let you avoid the soft cover penalty since you don't have to worry about hitting your friends.


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I created a couple of player handouts.

If Quorsica trusts the players, she can give them a map based on her memory of having been in the garrison.

If the players hack or get the Royal Venture's virtual intelligence, Ellioch to assist, they can get a map of the ship.

I've placed these images in a google drive folder


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I'd use house rules of escape pods having just enough thruster to stabilize (so you aren't tumbling tilt-a-whirl style until rescued) and just enough fuel to nudge you toward the nearest planet if you are in a system. Why not have the slowing mechanism be a buoyant helium balloon/paraglider. On a terrestrial planet a successful piloting roll improves the chance of landing on your preference of land or water, and if you fall into a gas giant, you might stabilize and float at some level and have a chance of rescue too.


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Note that for grenades, in addition to the Explode property description on CRB p.181, also apply the first paragraph on Grenades on page 183. The DC for the reflex save is harder if the thrower has high dex, and easier for every range increment beyond 20'.

If you are the type that has a computer handy while you game, I created a table of DC's and grenade type stats, which saves some calculation time during our combats.

Grenade DC Chart


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Maybe this is in the House Rule category, but I'd allow a reaction of this sort to be bundled in to a readied action, so the trigger stated by a player could be "If any foe comes up next to me, I will Kip-up and do my full melee attack on that person". The reaction would be defensive, so I'd count that as before the enemy action (removing the +4 to hit prone), but the full attack comes after the enemy action.


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Hawk Kriegsman wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:


roflstomps

Great word. LOL!

Consider it pinched.

I agree! Maybe "Rolfstomps" will be a brand of Vesk combat boots in the next visit to the equipment store...


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Thanks for the various viewpoints.

Since True Seeing is a sixth level spell, which in Starfinder is the most powerful level, and a holoskin is a 2nd level item, it feels to me that True Seeing should easily cut through the holoskin effect. But it really depends on the balance of power you want between technology and magic in your universe, so I can see it being played either way.


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As a GM I don't normally track food and water. One character did find a clear spindle Aeon stone, which negates the need for for food and water.

Sometimes I throw in additional loot if there is an additional encounter cause by a side-trip. In the cargo hold of a Klockworx Prism cargo hold, I threw in for fun an Azlanti food replicator (turns UPBs into luxury Azlanti foodstuffs) which created all sorts of exotic things for them to try eating. Other than that, I only pay attention to food and drink if it's key to the adventure or adds color to a special restaurant visit.


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Our group has been enjoying Dead Suns, enough that we plan to finish out the AP, and I've bought the last two books recently as we play through book 4.

As far as time, if I remember right, we've easily gotten over 30 hours of play time from Dead Suns book 1. I was new to GMing and we were all new to Starfinder, so it was a little slower than typical, but we spent 3 and a half sessions gaming in the first book. When you consider entertainment for 6 people for 30+ hours, the price isn't too bad. Definitely only buy ahead one or two books at a time as you become certain your group wants to continue in that adventure path.


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I'm running a party through the second half of Dead Suns #3 soon, so the discussion on Eox is very relevant now. I thought it apropos to cast "Raise Thread" to say thanks for all the great discussion, ideas and taking the time to write up things that are useful to other GMs, even a year and 7 months after the previous post.


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One thing I'd like to see is an "Identify DC" added near the top of the Stat Block. Not just in Alien Archive #, but in adventure paths and anywhere else a new creature is published.

example wrote:

CEPHALUME CR 2

XP 600
NG Medium aberration (plantlike) >>>Identify DC 13 Life Science (Common)<<<
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft; Perception +12

With so many aliens to choose from, part of the fun for the players is figuring out what they are up against. Almost always the first action they will (should) be doing is an Identify Creature skill roll. It would be a nicety for the busy GM to have the skill (or skills, if more than could apply) needed plus the assumed rarity from the typical Pact Worlds resident perspective. Naturally, you'll need to adjust the DC up or down based on the character making the skill check as rarity is relative to where you're from; "Very Common", "Average" or "Rare" (CRB pg.133)


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Owen KC Stephens wrote:

Kasatha do generally have a primary hand (and secondary and do so), it is a matter of choice made as a youth. In fact, their word 'sethekt,' often translated as 'idiot,' literally means 'accidental hand,' and refers to someone who gave no thought to which hand to train

#StarFound

I like this. In my homebrew universe, Kasatha are not just left or right handed, they also tend toward upper or lower handed. Those who are lower handed are generally considered to have better balance, while those who are upper handed are thought to have more lifting strength.

Instead of two names, "left" and "right", they have four hand names:
Kaloob (upper left), Sikrid (upper right),
Sathap (lower left), Maruq 'Ul (lower right)

I keep them straight in my mind by the letter at or near the end of the name, b, p, d or q, the loop is the body and the ascending or descending line indicates the arm.

Before standardization, some ancient pre-Gap Kasathan maps used a compass rose placed at 45 degrees with the directions named Lah'Kalo, Lah'Sikri (magnetic North), Lah'Maru and Lah'Satha.


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Reminds me of D&D, where somewhere in the depths of the world on the 3rd level of the dungeon a 6th level Cleric is casting a 4th level Detect Lies to determine if the Dwarven Thief they captured is on the level when he says "aigh, this corridor ain't level, it's leading us down!"


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I think this is going to be a tough encounter. The scale of the Stargazer map is 10' per square, and Salask can hit the whole battle map without penalty (within the first 250' range increment) except for a little bit of the northwest corner. The plaza area itself will be difficult terrain--costing double movement. Sniping every other round until the party is within 70', and then shooting once every round at closer targets. Finding the sniper is hard, taking a move action to perform the Perception search task before the party can even know where to close in on the sniper let alone fire back. Since Salask is an expert sniper, it will be -20 to the perception check at 150+ feet away, and -10 to the check at 50 to 150 feet away to locate her (Natural 20 is your friend here).

To give reasonable challenge to the Skyfisher, I'm thinking its parachute shaped body will let it focus on an action and only fall about 10 feet. This creature also has a stealth of +11, and will go translucent for an additional +10 to stealth. Being translucent makes it staggered (only one move action OR one standard action), thus my parachute idea so it can attack without falling completely out of the sky. Since the filaments it attacks with are like spider webs, damage to those are not causing damage to the skyfisher's hit points. The PCs will have to attack the body itself, and with a total stealth of 1d20+21, the party will have to perform a visual search (move action Perception again) to find it before attacking. Also, once spotted, just because one PC sees it doesn't mean they all see it, I'll give a +5 to the Perception check for each PC that see's it and is helping the others find it. If anyone sets it on fire (for example a critical hit with a laser weapon) the smoke will give a +15 to spot it.

I'll report back after I run this part of the adventure.


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ghostunderasheet wrote:
I thought they explained it as the weapon feeds on the ammo/energy converting it to what it needs to continue surviving. But I wouldn't mind feeding my weapon the blood of my fallen enemies. Which sounds dark. But it's like those guys that would cut themselves on their blade to sate it's bloodlust in those stories animes and movies.

Ooh blood! I hadn't thought of that, but considering these were originally swarm technology that wouldn't be far fetched. I like the idea of a pact worlds version of these using very dense food bars that are equivalent to battery packs in cost, capacity, size and weight, but maybe a little harder to come by on the availability. If you have captured an authentic sting pistol of Swarm origin, I can see a GM requiring you to fuel it with blood or something else somewhat difficult or unpleasant to use.

I've been GMing and was just looking for a few unusual things to throw into the adventure now and then. Perhaps a Defiant fusion (CRB pg 193) on one of these, I could then describe it--"Little legs grasp your hand back as you hold it and a segmented whip tail wraps around your wrist. The smooth chitinous body snuggles into your palm, slightly warmer than room temperature. Through the translucent plate by your knuckles, you can see its stomach is fully charged."


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There are some big IFs that have to fall in your favor for Charm Person to work. A lot of it is situational, so it can only happen if the GM wants to let it happen.

I see the language as the primary barrier, because in addition to the Charm Person, you probably need to follow it up with a Big Bluff to fast talk the target into believing that maybe their associates are not true friends, and that's why you have to attack the non-charmed Azlanti co-workers.

Maybe you have a Mindlink Circlet Mk3, the only model that will let you telepathically communicate with someone who doesn't have a language in common with you. If your party can delay violence for a round, long enough to (telepathically) Bluff that "You are in great danger, those you are with are about to turn on you. In order to protect you we must attack them."

Maybe the GM rules that the target Azlanti doesn't really like his fellow co-workers. (These are the guys that hazed him cruelly in boot-camp.) If instead they are truly close friends, then an attack on them could easily be considered as if the target was attacked directly.

Maybe the Azlanti you choose to charm doesn't have the stereotypical "Every other race is inferior to us" attitude. Again the GM would have to enable this to let the plot twist in an interesting direction. Fate brings you into contact with one of the very few Azlanti that has sympathy for another race.

Maybe you and your party have some time to pull off some theatrics, a disguise to make the witchwarper look like another Azlanti, a way to communicate and a good story/bluff to give a good reason why a combat against the target's companions is about to happen.

That's a bunch of big Maybe's that have to go your way. In this unlikely of a situation it will take some effort on your party's part and a huge amount of luck to pull off. If the target of the Charm Person is a key NPC it's worth trying. You don't go to this level of effort to try and make the combat easier and ultimately kill off the charmed character at the end of the battle. Charm Person is a Finesse-and-avoid-combat spell rather than a combat spell.


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Or the hostage taker has a needler loaded up with a scary deadly disease serum stolen from a military bioweapon lab. We all know no one's going to survive the Starfinder disease track.


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C.Scott Franklin wrote:


...
My first attempt at creating something here. I was concerned with trying to keep up with the environmental checks also and a "travel log" sounded like a good idea. So I made this for the 12 day trek to help me out. Maybe it will help some of you out also or maybe it sucks but like I said first attempt here so be kind :) Feel free to print it off and use if you wish. I printed at as a full page slide and it looks good to me. I also included some of the requirements at the bottom so I wouldn't have to keep flipping back and forth in the CRB and a few spaces to fill in appropriate data for each PC. I tried to color code the pertinent information together so that it would be easier to read quickly.

Hope this is useful.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vpnnSQXJ5UK_z1E0fcgHbIBvZUUDqvN3/view?usp= sharing

Thanks for sharing your chart. It inspired me to customize and create my own version. It's "Wilderness Trek Sheet share" in this Google drive folder

http://bit.ly/StarfinderShare

It incorporates a few of my house rules, like Lashunta Tempweave being free of the -4 penalty to heat dangers (CRB pg.402).


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I find the disease tracks complex to track. I created some disease track reference sheets.

If you see any errors or have suggestions, feel free to reply here or share back your corrected copy.

Google docs Affliction tracks

You can give a printed sheet to the players if you want them to do their own tracking. For keeping track I recommend taking a slice of sticky note with the characters name and sticking it in the column representing their state. For diseases that need 2 saves, I put the characters name in the bottom of the column. When they save, they move to the top of the column, or to the bottom of the next improved column if they are already at the top of a column. If they fail a save, move their name to the bottom of the next worse column.


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I ran this recently for our group. Here’s how I played it:

I ruled the max speed they could travel was 50% of their normal movement (zero-G paragraph at the top of CRB pg.402). The corridors were oddly shaped, 5ft wide and 15ft tall, which meant they were always within reach of a wall to grab onto. (You could even turn that sideways, and call it a 15ft wide hall with a 5ft ceiling.)

I had the players do the acrobatics or athletics check, whichever is better, at DC 20 to gracefully stop when they get to their destination, typically the wall they were aiming for. I considered this first check to be part of the movement so it didn’t use up one of their actions. If they fail, which will happen a lot, they take on the off-kilter condition, (flat-footed and -2 to attacks, except for Ysoki can ignore these penalties, see Moxie on CRB pg.54). To end the off-kilter condition, I made them roll the DC 20 athletics/acrobatics check, which expends a move action. Going by Off-Kilter (CRB pg.276), a character can’t take a move action, so I required them to end the off-kilter condition before they could move by expending a move action to make another DC 20 athletics/acrobatics check.

Unless the surface is especially “bouncy,” like a trampoline, I ruled that their collisions were inelastic, so they stopped when they ran into something. This was more for playability than realism. If they failed their roll to land or grab-on gracefully at their desired destination, they were off-kilter, but were stopped within easy reach of the wall to try another check. If you are ysoki and don’t plan to move anytime soon, you don’t need to waste a move action to steady yourself, unless it bothers you that you are not instantly ready to move if needed.

We game with miniatures on a map. We found that additional flat markers, like coins, were handy to mark current and last position, so if characters are drifting over a long distance it was easy to figure out their next position by continuing the line they were on. You can use a permanent marker to write character initials on the coins to tell them apart if needed.

If you like making house rules, you could allow them to move while off-kilter, but I suggest having the player make an acrobatics/athletics roll at DC 25 (or higher, like 30, if pushing off from a slippery or hazardous surface, or if they are trying to push off without stopping first). If they fail this roll, they don’t to go in the direction they want. Failed checks could result in a random d8 direction roll, with any directions into the wall meaning they just stop where they are, still off-kilter. I believe the rules picked 50% of your normal movement to represent careful movement without risk of injury. At some point, building up too much speed should make it harder to control their movement, increasing DC to move, and could start to incur a risk of injury if they fail their roll and the random direction roll sends them into the wall (sort of like the damage you take when falling), perhaps a 1d6 damage for every 10 points by which they fail their roll.


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Of course the typical Eoxian doesn't care about atmosphere...as long as it's gloomy.


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Most PCs will have a space suit or vacuum-proof armor, which should in most cases be a great way to contain a contagious disease. The key factor is recognizing someone is diseased, so a perception or medicine check will be needed. A lifesciences, mysticism or relevant field (culture) can also provide the players a chance to know that creature/plant/NPC may possibly carry certain diseases or use a venom.

Having an undiagnosed touch contagious disease could really cramp a healer that needs to make touch based healing. But the rules seem to allow characters in armor to heal each other just fine, so they just need to keep their gloves on when healing, even though they may be in the habit of taking them off and making skin to skin contact.


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I just received some of these ships. There are 12 for the price $5.18, but the quality is good and they are painted as shown, and about 1.5 to almost 2 inches in size. I also considered the others mentioned by Jasque, but I decided I didn't need a whole lot of them, so I bought the ones I liked better. A friend brings over a mini-projector which is suspended over the table for our maps, so we can scale the hexes to fit the ships.


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Jasque wrote:

Linkified

http://bit.ly/SFcombatSheet

Thanks Jasque.

Version 2, with a clearer name

------=====##( V2 )##=====------
http://bit.ly/SFshipCombatRolesV2
------=====##( V2 )##=====------

Added some information on Critical Damage, Critical Effects and Single role reference sheets (and some hints on letter size print formatting, Cell D2 of most sheets)