Tim Emrick's page

I GMed at my second con (and GMed my second SFS special) at a local con (LexiCon) last weekend. I got to run for some of the same fun players I did last year, and got to GM for our RVC for the first time (which was a blast, after I got past my initial nerves). I'll also be GMing at Origins this summer (my second time at that con, first as a GM).

I've decided to run the Scoured Stars AP [SF] for my home group. We've had our Session Zero for char-gen, and will play the first adventure sometime soon. I'm sharing the same weekly time slot with my eldest, who is running us through Sky King's Tomb [PF2], with our schedule largely determined by the availability of our one part-time player (SKT on weeks when he's available, SS when he's not).

One of our local branches has a surprising number of RPG books on its shelves: PF 1E CRB, lots of D&D 5E, Star Wars, and a smattering of other systems. Or they did pre-COVID, anyway; I haven't really been back to it enough since then to check if they still do.

Around this time last year, my wife (who was a VO then, and is now a VL) was investigating public spaces where we could run OP games, to try to revive in-person play in our area. Our FLGS had very limited hours post-COVID, and weekends were dominated by CCG events, so we had to find new venues.

She found that our local library system has meeting rooms that are available for use on a sign-up basis, but IIRC they had a strict limit on how often the same person/group can request space, in order to keep it available for others. We did run at least one game at a branch library before discovering some other options. However, one of those options (a new game/coffee/comics store) has since become a bit TOO popular and crowded, so we may go back to looking at libraries again.

Arachnofiend wrote:

If a beast starts devouring gods the first thing I'd check is if anyone's seen Achaekek recently.

He's probably in Pharasma's basement still. I'd make sure Rovagug hasnt had any more kiddos

From the overall feel of the story, this makes me think that something very similar might have happened during the time before Rovagug was imprisoned, but instead of Erastil as the first victim, it was some primeval god nobody remembers anymore.

Granted, this never-seen predator sounds far more subtle than the Rough Beast is ever given credit for. But maybe that's just because it changed tactics once it was finally flushed out of hiding. And, as we all know, the victors write the history books.

For a recent example, the movie Wonder Woman 1984 features an antagonist who gains the power to grant other people's wishes, rather than getting his own directly. And, yes, it very much goes wrong, on a global scale. (The movie has some glaring flaws, but the basic premise is a fascinating one.)

Do the maps listed have names or anything to maybe find something close on a flip map or other maps?

One of my groups just now asked if I have this yet to run....... GULP!!

Tom

I acquired the print version this past week, and have started reading through it in preparation for running it for my home group whenever we can fit it into the schedule. I've played all of the original adventures, and a couple of our other players have played most of them, but we certainly didn't play them in any kind of coherent order. (1-99 was my third SFS scenario ever.)

I haven't yet compared the maps in every adventure with the original scenarios (that's coming eventually), but there have been a few map changes here and there. It looks like most of the changes involve substituting newer flip-mats or flip-tile sets for maps that originally used map packs that are now long out of print (like Starship Decks, which saw heavy use in 1-99). Every map that uses a flip-mat or flip-tiles has a note with that map's product name (much like how they're labeled in SFS & PFS scenarios). And there are still a number of maps that were unique to the original scenarios, which have been reprinted with few if any changes.

As far as I can tell so far, there is only one jinsul-related Society adventure which was not included in the AP: 1-23 Return to Sender, which chronologically comes right after The Scoured Stars Invasion.

I do very much appreciate the Developer Sidebars throughout the AP. Some note connections to other scenarios (like Return to Sender, and the S1 Historia arc) that GMs can use to expand their campaign. Others point out changes that were made, such as one of the Commencement missions being replaced, and the reasons for them.

Finally, I just have to say that final adventure promises to be very exciting! I played the original at the highest subtier (11-12), but the AP version has been rewritten for levels 13-14, so that very last boss-fight promises to be even more dangerous and epic.

Are you asking about 1E or 2E or both?

For 1E, the "We Be Goblins" series are the first to come to mind. Most players will have fun hamming it up with their goblins, and many of the encounters are on the wacky, absurd side, easily encouraging crazy shenanigans.

For 2E, there's #4-16: Dacilane Academy's First Great Prank War. The title says it all, really.

#4-03: Linnorm's Legacy is also on the wacky side. Babysit some young linnorms, you say? What could possibly go wrong?

A weapon fusion placed on a solarian weapon crystal will affect the solar weapon produced by the receiving mote exactly as a fusion placed on any other kind of weapon would. So if it's a melee-only fusion, you can use that crystal with a solar weapon but not a solar flare. If it's bludgeoning-only, you can only use it on a solar weapon that deals that damage type, not one that deals S or P damage.

Note that fusion seals can be used with weapon crystals, too. The text for the soulfire fusion (the most popular crystal-only fusion) explicitly refers to fusion seals. And like any other fusion seal, you can't attach it to a weapon that isn't a legal choice for the fusion.

When this got scheduled locally, I made a point of running the previous two Elytrio adventures so that some of our group would have the full history. (#1-03 was one of the first SFS scenarios I ever played, but I'd never played #1-21. My wife and one of our other local GMs had never played either one.) I just played 'Hope tonight, and it was a blast! Thanks, HMM, for a fun adventure! I am eager to run it for the couple of players who played the first two with me but couldn't join us online tonight.

I loved the Unisystem rules for Buffy and Angel, and the group I was with before this one played in several seasons of two separate series that I ran. I also was lucky enough to get to playtest for Eden Studios.

That game was a blast

After a long hiatus, our main GM proposed a "reunion arc" to wrap up some old loose ends (while dealing with some new threats), and we did a 10-year jump in game to move things forward to match up with the then-current real-world date. We also switched over to Fate to simplify the mechanics, because in this alternate Buffyverse, most of our heroes had acquired more experience and power than Unisystem could accommodate easily.

That was in late 2019, and sadly, our GM died a year or so into the Covid pandemic (3 years ago today, by eerie coincidence). After the initial shock, the rest of us decided to carry on and finish the campaign she had started, led by her best friend, who had been her co-GM and co-conspirator. We finally finished that arc a couple months ago, wrapping up an epic, multiverse-shattering story. It was bittersweet but glorious, and a fitting tribute to our friend.

...And because we love the setting and our characters too much to say goodbye to them forever, we are still playing through some "aftermath" threads. We're also starting to make plans for a "next gen" type game set in the same world, some (TBD) years in the future, and focusing on new, younger heroes (starting with some of the children of our current PCs, and their friends). We haven't decided yet whether to stay with Fate, go back to Unisystem, or try something else. But that's going to continue to be a big part of my gaming plate going forward.

Qimok, my skittermander soldier, in his new brand-new powered armor.

Anohana, a new character (samsaran vidgamer witchwarper) who will be getting the new SFS "Game Store Owner" GM boon.

A close-up of Anohana, showing part of her haunted prosthetic hand.

I realized after drawing and coloring Anohana that she looks a lot like an Andoran from Star Trek, but that was completely unintentional! She has vestigial antennae because she was born to a lashunta couple. (I'll likely give her the limited telepathy species graft once she's high enough level to gain access to it.)

Maybe the large-sized First Seeker will finally get us ships with large-sized hallways on them for us morlamaws and the bears. Getting around inside a pegasus is... not fun.

Seriously. My sarcesian took Tight Fit because she's pretty skinny and flexible for a Large character, but my dragonkin is NOT.

I'm rereading the anthology High Seas Cthulhu, which I received several years back because my friends know I've run multiple campaigns combining pirates and the Mythos.

Can we get a boon granting access to the Russian language? After playing a certain scenario set someplace cold, my linguist PC would very much like to add her new friends' native language to her repertoire.

(If a way to do this already exists, please enlighten me!)

This weekend, my hag bloodline sorceress completed her SECOND scenario that gives access to the Baba Yaga witch patron theme. I'm convinced that Little Grandmother is trying to tell her something, but I can't figure out what, because she's saying it in Russian...

This weekend I finished reading Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons, which tells the origin story of the Amazons in DC Comics continuity, up to the point of Diana's birth. Or a version of it, at least. (I'm still rather salty at the radical changes to WW's story immediately after her exceptional "New 52" era ended.) But the art is gorgeous throughout--even when it gets a bit weird (which it frequently does, to emphasize that the gods are Not Like Us).

I may end up stealing bits of characterization of the goddesses (and gods) from this for the Greek myth game I run for my wife, whenever we finally get back to it to wrap up the final chapter. I've established my own takes on several the gods over several years of play, but there's always room for more flavor.

Back during the last couple years before COVID disrupted in-person play at our FLGS, we had a PFS 1E player who was fairly new to the game, and struggled to keep straight all the rules that impacted how his characters worked, particularly those involving action economy. It got fairly annoying to have to remind him of the same rules, session after session, but he did slowly get better.

Then one night, he asked, in his usual slightly confused way, "Can I charge and Vital Strike at the same time?" When one or two of the other regulars started to bristle, clearly about to go off on him about trying to combining standard actions again, he stopped and cackled. He had learned enough about the rules, and had enough self-awareness about how irritating his struggling along had been, that he had deliberately baited them!

Aasimar = 80

Resurrection = 40

I have 6 aasimars :(

But you still have 480 points' worth of bragging rights for having 6 aasimars before they were free.

Tim Emrick wrote:

After some part-IC/part-OOC chatter about booze and Cayden Cailean, one of my PCs got their zen on and intoned:

"Alcohol is a solvent, but it is not always a solution."

This is awesome.

*bows*

After some part-IC/part-OOC chatter about booze and Cayden Cailean, one of my PCs got their zen on and intoned:

"Alcohol is a solvent, but it is not always a solution."

Fun minis and excellent review, HMM! I'm looking forward to running this sometime next month, so the suggestions about maps and such were very welcome.

There used to be some Radiant Oath boon that allowed changing a Battle Medicine CF->F. I'd like to see more of those - boons that enhance the use of a variety of skills, but not just in the Earn Income.

It's called Practiced Medic (spend downtime to "charge" it, expend it to improve a Medicine check by one degree of success). It's still available to Radiant Oath PCs, using ACP.

I would like more boons along the lines of that and Off-Hours Study. I believe most of the factions now have a boon that affects downtime activities, but more variety would be nice. Especially options that do something other than just giving a minor tweak to earning income or crafting.

Continuing the Musical Theme...

Make the old Tune-Bot 2000 boon available through the boon store. I was lucky enough to get one back when RSP boons were still a thing, and it provided the first spark of inspiration for my musician icon envoy character (who is now 7th level, and remains only moderately useful apart from his Diplomacy and Profession [musician] skills, but he's still great fun to play).

Can we get a boon granting access to the Russian language? After playing a certain scenario set someplace cold, my linguist PC would very much like to add her new friends' native language to her repertoire.

(If a way to do this already exists, please enlighten me!)

"But long names are glorious!" pipes up a gnome with brightly hair dyed resembling an exploded rainbow. "Maybe we need a catchy little jingle to help everyone learn how to say 'Nykiti Lampadephoros' properly." The gnome repeats the name to himself a few times, reveling in the cadence of it. "I just need to come up with some really good rhymes..."

So, my nephews are Mythos n00bs. In your opinions, what are the first three stories I suggest to them to read??

My list is:
1. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"
2. "The Dunwich Horror"
3. "Call of Cthulhu"

... and after these three stories, it will be of course be "Mountain of Madness" (for the final exam.)

I wrote a very brief introduction to Lovecraft many aeons ago, and posted a copy on my blog here. For the purposes of that essay, I split his stories into Mythos stories, Dreamlands stories, other stories, and miscellaneous other writings, with a few suggestions for where to start exploring each group.

I've only multiclassed once in Starfinder, for much the same reason that I've only used archetypes 2-3 times: most higher-level class features tend to be too valuable to sacrifice, unless the alternative is essential to the character's build/concept.

My gnome envoy dipped xenodruid mystic after acquiring a creature companion, partly for mechanical reasons (being able to use improvisations on his pet) and partly for roleplaying reasons (exploring the ways of his "beast-speaker" ancestors). His middling Wis means he's never going to be a super-effective mystic, which is fine. His spells are all strictly defensive, so save DCs don't matter, and he only really wants or needs the lowest-level class features, which he has now.

I think the one hard and fast rule I would ever follow for multiclassing would be to not do it before you're at least 3rd level in your first class. Weapon Specialization is just too darn useful. Even if you're not built for weapon attacks, a point or two every time you do hit adds up.

I've managed to scrape by with judicious use of mnemonic editors on a couple of my PCs, but this is definitely a useful fallback to have!

I'm also excited to see Marked Starfinder made available to everyone, not just those PCS who played one of two specific scenarios. I'll be buying that for most of my other PCs just as soon as I get home to my character binders...

81. As you wait for a train in the subway, you see the usual rats poking around the rails looking for dropped food. Then you see a group of them working together to drag an old-looking book down the tunnel.

(I'm stealing from myself here. I used this scene in a modern-day Cthulhu Mythos campaign to creep out my players while giving their PCs their first opportunity to acquire a Mythos tome. It worked--my wife and her best friend, who were players in the game, refused to get on or off a train at Boston's Haymarket Station ever again!)

For races, it's a little harder to define, since the Bestiaries included a scattering of additional races that could theoretically be used as PCs, and there are tons of race-centered splatbooks. But the essential sources are:

Core Rulebook
Advanced Race Guide
Inner Sea Races

I play PF1, SF, and PF2, but the amount of each relative to the others has changed dramatically over time.

I got into PF1 first, converting a v.3.5 campaign to PF1 after a move-induced hiatus. I've run a couple other PF1 campaigns since then, but for a few years now, most of my PF1 play has been PFS (which I started in Season 7 or so), but the amount that I played petered off after Season 10. I'm still playing in a non-PFS AP (though we're currently on a break between books), and I still play or run an occasional PFS 1E session online, but beyond that, playing PF1 has largely fallen by the wayside. I haven't started a new homebrew campaign for a couple years, because I'm still feeling a little burned out from my last attempt, which turned out to be a bit over-ambitious. I'm honestly not sure how much longer my home group will be playing PF1, whether PFS or not. But there are still a couple of modules that I would very much like to run someday, at least.

I've been running and playing a fair amount of Starfinder Society ever since very late Season 1 or so, and it's been the main thing I GM for organized play for the past year or two now. (I ran SFS at a con for the first time last month, as well as my first multi-table special in any system.) I've played through one of the shorter (3-book) SF APs, but haven't run one myself, or run any non-Society games.

I enjoy PF2, and have been playing a fair amount of it since PFS 2E started, but I still haven't made up my mind on whether I want to try running it myself. My wife, OTOH, is a V.O. who recently became a V.L., so she's VERY focused on PF2 right now (and SFS to a lesser extent, but she has me to help with GMing that).

My only experience playing a magus was definitely not an optimal archetype, but I still had fun playing the character. The mindblade makes the class into a spontaneous psychic caster, which makes spell combat VERY challenging to pull off: psychic spells have a much higher DC to cast defensively if you don't take a move action to center yourself, which you can't do as part of the full action for spell combat. It takes some investment in traits, feats, Int, and defensive spells to make viable at all. (Sadly, the perfect magic item for fixing the problem--the centering jewel--isn't PFS-legal.) Cassilda is 9th level now, and I've worked out a couple ways of making spell combat work, but she typically replies more on regular two-weapon fighting, pool strike, and occasionally stepping away to cast her higher level spells.

To be honest, despite all the drawbacks, the flexibility of the archetype's psychic weapon has kind of spoiled me on ever playing a plain old magus. The core concept of the old D&D soulknife psionic class has always fascinated me, though I never got to play one, and the mindblade gives me all of that schtick AND spellcasting.

Is your friend asking specifically for a D&D game because of the movie? I'm just asking because you posted this in the Pathfinder 1E forums. You'll probbaly get more on-brand feedback in the 5E forum. On the other hand, if you know Pathfinder better, using that instead is perfectly fine, as long as your player is OK with that.

A solo campaign can be a difficult choice for your first time GMing a system. A game like D&D or Pathfinder is designed for a group of roughly 4-6 PCs, so trying to run it as a solo game completely changes the action economy (how many actions the heroes get vs. how many their enemies get in a round) and the basic assumptions about what abilities and resources (fighting, spells, skills, etc.) a party should have available. There are adventures out there for smaller parties, but they run very differently from those designed for the standard size group.

Alternately, your single player could control multiple characters in order to have a more well-rounded party, which will require less work on your part to adapt published adventures (or to find the proper balance when making up your own). But the extra characters will be more work for them. For someone brand-new to the game, especially if they are new to RPGs in general, their learning curve will be high enough with just one character. And one of the best parts of the RPG experience is having that single character you can identify with and invest in, rather than having to manage multiple puppets.

Here are a few suggestions that may help you and your friend out:

1. See if the other people you usually play with would be willing to play a low-level one-shot adventure to introduce your friend to the game. A good group will be supportive of new people trying to learn the game, and of players trying their hand at GMing (both are needed to keep the hobby alive, after all), and will be happy to answer questions either of you have during play.

2. Find one of the introductory adventures for the system you're using--either the Starter Kit for D&D or the Beginner Box for Pathfinder. Those modules are usually pretty good models for how to run and design an adventure, and a campaign, all in bite-sized chunks. You can sometimes find them marked way down in used bookstores, or on sale when a game store or department store needs to clear out some inventory. (Keep in mind that all of these intro adventures play best with a full-sized party.)

3. If you play Pathfinder Society, bring your friend to one of those games. There are a lot of scenarios available for low-level play, and some are specifically written as introductions to the Society (and Pathfinder) for new players. Most GMs will have pregenerated characters available if players need them, or you can help your friend build their own starting character before game time. Organized Play is a great way to try out a system to see if you like it, with minimal investment of time and money needed up front, and you can play as much or as little of it as your interest and schedule allow.

I'm aware that there are some players (regardless of system) who will always gravitate to the more exotic races, but in my opinion, they are missing out on a wealth of fun, meaty character options possible with just the core races.

In PFS 1E, a good third of my PCs were human, because the bonus feats and skills were useful for numerous builds, and because humans are the easiest race to hook into the setting. Out of 18 PCs, I only ever had 3 that required race boons (tiefling, dhampir, and aphorite, all earned from GM boons), and 2 of them only came very late in the 1E era.

Do I wish I'd had more AcP when I started PFS 2E? Sure! If the 80 AcP bonus had been implemented earlier, my human sorcerer would have been a changeling, to lean even more into her hag bloodline. But I've had a great deal of fun with her in spite of that, and I've since earned enough AcP to start a ganzi and a catfolk, with a lot left to spare.

My wife is a V.O. who is trying to get in-person play started back up in our area. She's been using mostly quests and bounties so far, partly because the shorter run time is good for introducing new players, and because play time is very limited at one of the two venues she's using. We're starting to get into being able to do full-length scenarios regularly at the less restrictive venue, but we'll still be doing quests at the other for a while yet. I'm one of a couple of experienced players who she can regularly get for many of these games, but that also means we've played a few of these quests before. Having more of them be repeatable would be a big help in filling tables, without saddling new players with the extra workload of running a pregen, or roping in volunteers to play for no credit.

I'm rereading A Midsummer Night's Dream because one of my sons is in the cast for his high school's production of it this spring.

I just made a post as my Radiant Oath PC in another thread, and his faction symbol displayed properly.

I checked my Characters list on my OP page, and none of them had a broken faction symbol.

[cue rapturous angelic note]

Praise be to Sarenrae, Triune, and whatever blessed goblins and skittermanders made this possible!

The only way to get those higher level characters is to play a lot of games to earn the XP to get there. And yes, that means you'll often need to play adventures from a mix of seasons to get enough games at the levels you need.

There are 1st-, 3rd-, and 5th-level pregens available for players who don't have characters of their own within a given adventure's level range. But if a scenario's minimum level is 7th or higher, you won't be able to play it at all unless you've played your own legal character up to that level.

And yes, it can take a while to get characters up to those higher levels if you don't play all the time. I've been playing since Season 1, but I've probably only played around twice a month on average. (It's occasionally more, but I also do Starfinder Society and non-organized play home games.) So my highest level character is 9th, and he's just barely able to qualify for the first couple of level 9-12 scenarios that have been released. My next highest is 6th, and I'm trying to get her up to 7th so I can play some of this season's 7-10's with her instead. (She cares more about this season's metaplot than my level 9 does.) My other characters are 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, and 1st.

I'm mostly been playing the low-level ones recently because our local Venture-Lieutenant (my wife) is trying to get in-person play started up again locally. She's only running stuff brand-new players can play until we have a pool of regulars with characters who can do higher-level fare. She running a mix of Intros, S4 metaplot stuff, and older-season scenarios that she and I missed the first time around, plus a lot of bounties and quests (which gain less XP, but are less of a time commitment, so are a good way for newbies to get a taste to see if they like it).

PFS 1E games disallow crafting because their advancement rules require a strict schedule of income in order to adhere to wealth-by-level guidelines. Downtime is also 1) very limited, and 2) of undefined length, so there is usually very little you can do with it other than make a single Day Job check. (A few Chronicle boons will give you other options, but they are very limited in scope.) Classes that automatically give characters crafting feats (like 1st-level wizards) give a different bonus feat instead.

PFS 2E gives more options for downtime, by specifying a standard number of days you earn for each adventure. Both earning income and some crafting are allowed, because they are better integrated into the core rules than in 1E. There is also a host of boons purchasable with Achievement Points that allow you to spend downtime days to earn some other reward (such as learning a new Lore, or a discount on a magic item).

I've heard some GMs talk about adopting a PFS-like model for wealth and downtime in their home games, just to help simplify the bookkeeping for each adventure. The idea of "each PC earns X gp of miscellaneous treasure" can seem a welcome reprieve from tracking the minutiae of who kept what item, how many looted weapons and suits of armor need to be traded in for cash each time the party hits town, and so on.

The PCs are fighting rockbears in a recent SFS scenario.

Player: *rolls dice, gets poor result* "...And that attack misses by a mile."

GM: "No, it bear-ly misses."

I've played a white-haired witch up to Seeker level in PFS, but keeping her effective in melee has been a challenge for her entire career. In particular, her AC has never been as high as I wish it could be. Her build includes things like: king crab familiar for the +2 to grapple; Weapon Finesse for accuracy; false life to offset damage; extended mage armor (using a metamagic rod); spite spell to punish those who do hit her; corrosive amulet of mighty fists for extra damage (and spell storing later for extra effects); Arcane Strike for extra damage (and not having spend for +1 on the amulet); and keeping her Int as maxed out as possible (because the hair uses Int for damage and CMB).

By the time she reached around 7th-8th level, her spells had vastly outpaced her melee abilities, so she rarely entered melee except to threaten enemies with her hair's extra reach, provide flanking for the better melee strikers, and deliver the occasional touch spell from a safe distance.

Thank you for updating the fusion seal rules! There are so many OP scenarios that offer PCs useful seals (either as treasure, or as short-term loans) and assume that the PCs can just use them right away that, in my experience, nobody could ever keep the actual rules straight.

I'd also like to highlight the change to how weapon fusions are priced when you move them to higher-level weapons. Paying the difference in cost, rather than half the new level's cost, brings them into agreement with other items in the game that can be upgraded rather than needing to be entirely replaced. Even though I'm pretty sure this means it will cost more to transfer fusions going forward, I appreciate the reasoning behind it.

My dream to have a fleet of Fey moths is now more achievable!

For now, I will be content with my existing admittance boon upgrading to a stat boost when the new season kicks off. That's exactly the kind of motivation I need to get my space moth priest of the space moth goddess back into the rotation.

Of course, whether bringing more people "to the light" is advisable for mystical moths remains to be seen, but that's what his other boon is for!

I'm currently in the Legacy of Fire AP, which has several achievement feats that PCs can qualify for after accumulating enough points towards various goals. My oracle has Healer's Touch, which required healing a cumulative 1000 hp of damage. The barbarian has just taken his second achievement feat, which required him to take a cumulative 1000 hp of damage, which was reduced by 1/5 of any magical healing he received. Naturally, my PC's main schtick slowed his progress, so there was a great deal of in-character grousing about "I don't need healing, I'm FINE," while my character healed him anyway because if he dies, he can't kill the things trying to kill us all. (Even if it would get him partway to another achievement feat, which requires being brought back from death twice.)

We recently leveled up after a truly epic battle against a foe way above our level. The barbarian easily completed his goal, and then some, despite my healer shoving his internal organs back into place nearly every round. So he had his shiny new feat before our next fight, which was much shorter. When it was over, we had this exchange:

Me: "I cast cure critical wounds on Hakken, but won't insult him by healing all his wounds."

Barbarian's player: "I'm not insulted! Not anymore! PLEASE heal me!"

The worlanisi's effusive farewell earns a rare visible smile from Talgoth, and the half-orc's attempt to return the hug is notably less awkward and perfunctory than last time. "It was good to work with you again, Chance. I hope we'll see each other again."

His partings with the others are much more reserved, though he does take a moment to kneel down and offer a hand to Volitare. "Well done again, little one. Take care of yourself."

I have two new portraits to share this time:

Akkial and Grak, my wife's duskwalker tengu summoner and her psychopomp eidolon. (PFS 2E)

Aru Palben, willower ghoran witchwarper (SFS)

I will need to draw a new portrait for Qimok (my skitter soldier) soon, because he has reached 5th level and acquired powered armor.

I am a pretty visual person, so I will frequently draw portraits of my characters (gotta use my art degree somehow!) or find interesting art online. I also build LEGO minis of all my characters, so there's always a visual reminder on the table, too (even if it's just a token on a VTT).

But I also try to think of a brief verbal description to introduce each character in a memorable way:

"Bjorn is a dwarf wearing shining mithral platemail, and has the holy symbol of Torag proudly displayed on his shield and his beard-clasps. He carries a rune-covered waraxe."

"Millicent is a tall Chelaxian woman dressed in a black robe and cloak, and wearing dramatic, somewhat morbid makeup. She's surprisingly pleasant and chatty, but if you offend her, her green eyes will bore a hole right through you."

"Volitare, try to talk with whatever's swimming in the sand," Talgoth suggests. "If it's another animal, maybe you can persuade it to leave peacefully. If not..." The half-orc finishes that thought by tracking the trail with his rifle.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Eh, whatever, I got my 20 when I really needed it, so can't complain.

Mysticism + trapsmith's tools: 1d20 + 5 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 5 + 4 = 29

"Everyone hold very still for a moment. We've got more venumbrites," Talgoth warns, as he slings his rifle and pulls some tools from his belt. He murmurs some arcane-sounding gibberish as he gestures at and around the swarm with his tools.

Hackrat scurries over to investigate the computer before Chance can get close enough to accidentally blow anything else up.

Computers: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

Woot! Hackrat just earned his wage for the day!

TRUTH OF THE SEEKER

Not sure if Chrys also has a theme song, but she can have 11 SP.

Perhaps... "We will, we will ROCK YOU!"