WinterwolfNW's page

Well I appreciate all of your responses, but only 1 of you is a GM and that one is only a 1 Star GM.
I would really like to hear from some experienced GM's before making a decision.

I was always under the impression that both of these, being FORCE effects, applied to TOUCH armor class as well, especially since Shield spell blocks Magic Missile.
My local Event Co-coordinator has ruled otherwise, saying they ONLY block Incorporeal touch attacks but not others, like Ray of Frost, Acid Splash, Scorching Ray, Guns (point blank) etc.
I GM 3 Pathfinder home games as well, but before I switch tracks I'd like some other GM's to confirm the EC is right. I'm not really asking for an explanation, just for several other seasoned GM's to confirm what the EC decided...

Well we finished Dead Suns 1 last session. We meet every 2 weeks and it took us 5 sessions. I bought the AP because I wanted to see how the Piazo GM's did an adventure, I have been creating and GM'ing adventures since 1977 and usually do my own, except for a 4 year stint in PF Society. I have 5 male players ages 31 to 70.

I felt the chapter 1 opened extremely good for new players to the game and new characters, it got us into the action right away. I usually go by the written rule book unless they conflict with my campaign concept or common sense, so they got book credits. Most the 5 players were using slug pistols as then didn't want to spend the credits to buy the laser piston, so after the gang fight they looted all the Azimuth laser pistols and batteries right away. Then they began looking for the Starfinder Guild.

I read the SF Society Guide and I personally don't like the Faction set-up where you can join every faction. It's like being a member of every team in a Little League. Sort of like a Nanny State, no matter which team wins you win TOO! If you're gonna have teams pick one, otherwise having "sides" is a waste of time. Anyway I changed where it references SF Society to SF Mercenary Guild and that made the wording in the AP work out fine. I also looked over the characters closer and saw every character had an ODD number in their stats, so I changed Step 4 on page 18 CRB to 11 points to give them a wee bit better character.

Continuing with chapter 1 the players (and GM) had an adventure in the station, they got to know several important NPC contacts and had some more action. I give chapter 1 a 5 STAR rating.

Chapter 2 starts off learning space ships and combat. I GM'd Traveller (all versions) occasionally since 1980 and I like the Starfinder rules much better! In Traveller only the pilot and gunners really had something important to do during combat. I think it is Great that the Captain, Engineer, and Science Officer have meaningful tasks also, and that you can have more than 1 active Engineer and S.O. Our space battle took us 1 entire game session lasting 10 rounds, granted we were slow because we were learning, but it was a battle and not a 1-Hit kill. After they destroyed the Stiletto, my players went after the pilot and captured her alive, getting her to talk after offering her safe passage back to the station. Another 5 STARS for starship combat rules!

Upon exploring the mining ship the party went right into it entering through the Engineering air lock and engaging the 2 monsters in engineering. The Akatas were a good monster but I think a special side note needs to be added regarding their void bite. When you're in an armored space suit you have no body parts exposed (to vacuum). Being a Traveller GM I know this, but a fantasy GM may not. So I imagine many GM's had their players make save vs the disease which cold not reach their skin. Of course the original crew aboard the Acreon were in casual dress, not vacuum tight, and could be exposed. The Goblins and Trapped door were a good touch for variety too. I give the Acreon a 4 STAR rating overall.

Chapter 3, the Drift Asteroid, has some problems however. The map was simple and easy to draw and the Void Zombies were good. I thought about putting another encounter in D1 but could not find anything I liked that could live in a vacuum.
First problem I has was with the Driftdead, an incorporeal creature. Even the new Alien Archive does not have a listing for Incorporeal in the "Universal Creature Rules". So I had to make a few GM decisions. I used the Pathfinder rules for incorporeal so that meant non-magic melee weapons and slug throwers do no damage (of course we had NO magic weapons) I let lasers do 1/2 damage and the TM's Magic Missile do Full of course. After a stirring battle and a magic missile they destroyed it. But incorporeal needs to be defined, at least in any module where it is used.
A second problem we had was the Charge rule (CRB 247). I don't know whether it escaped the editor's attention, is a typo, or some writer at Piazo just had a brain fart, but it lists Charge as -2 ATTACK and -1 AC. For 30+ years it has been +2 Attack. With it as listed there is no point to the Charge action, it is a wasted bit of verb-age in the rule book. I figured it was a typo and could be fixed with a flick of a pen and had my players change it to +2 Attack. (This is not a module problem but a CRB problem of course.)

The security robot was a tough challenge, especially with lasers that do only a D4 damage, they got a couple criticals on it and that made it doable.
The Garaggakal was another matter. A CR5 monster vs level 1 & 2 characters? Either the writer did not read the Designing Encounters section (CRB 388) or he did not understand it! It had 75 Hit Points, with a little statistical math it would take an average of 30 HITS with a D4 weapon to kill this beastie, and most characters would only hit 30-40% of the time with it's EAC, worse vs it's KAC. They do D4 or D6, while it does 2D6+9 and hits 80-90% of the time, or an automatic 5D6 with an FDC for 1/2. To keep from having a TPK (Total Party Kill) I had to Nerf this encounter. So I had it move a lot giving the melee players a lot of Op Atks. Even then I had one character at -2 and another with only 1 HP left at the end.

I like to run a game where the players work their way though an adventure and the campaign, not roll up NEW characters every 3 sessions! An occasional Kill is expected but not a TPK! Because of the problems I had with this chapter I give it only 2 STARS, not that anyone may care.

The important thing I was trying to decide was whether to buy the 2nd book in the Dead Suns series or drop it. With the bad ending in the 3rd chapter I think I'll drop it and create my own adventures in my Regular SF campaign. But I will DEFINITELY keep running my Starfinder campaign, my players all love it!
If Piazo comes out with Starfinder Modules I'll look them over as I like Pathfinder Modules.

WinterwolfNW wrote:

This has been run dry in the following thread:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l4gk?Gang-Up-with-ranged-weapons#1

The general consensus is Gang up DOES give flanking if 2+ allies are threatening. If you are using a Ranged Weapon you do NOT get the +2 attack bonus that you would with a Melee weapon, but you DO get your Sneak Attack damage.
I have never seen any "Official" Ruling on this.

You haven't? Ok, here you go;

Gang Up doesn't allow Rogues to ranged sneak attack

Thank you, even though it opened up a whole new problem with allies using ranged weapons.

So if you have 2 allies with ranged weapons in the party they threaten EVERY FOE that they can see and give the melee rogue flanking against ALL foes threatened...?
Seems a bit OP (Over Powered) to me. Why don't you just add Godzilla to the party!
Do 2 sorcerers with Magic Missiles qualify too, they are ranged attacks that can threaten?

Well actually "Feat" is an ADVANCED Rogue Talent... and their definition does NOT say they can only be selected ONCE. So if a rogue wanted to take say... 2 DEFENSIVE ROLLS to be able to use it twice a day he could, the same with FEAT or any other ADVANCED RT's including ones from the APG or any other rule book that having two or more of the same would make sense.
You are reading something in that is not there. Give the writers at Paizo credit for being accurate and inclusive.

This has been run dry in the following thread:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l4gk?Gang-Up-with-ranged-weapons#1

The general consensus is Gang up DOES give flanking if 2+ allies are threatening. If you are using a Ranged Weapon you do NOT get the +2 attack bonus that you would with a Melee weapon, but you DO get your Sneak Attack damage.
I have never seen any "Official" Ruling on this.

This has been run dry in the following thread:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l4gk?Gang-Up-with-ranged-weapons#1

The general consensus is Gang up DOES give flanking if 2+ allies are threatening. If you are using a Ranged Weapon you do NOT get the +2 attack bonus that you would with a Melee weapon, but you DO get your Sneak Attack damage.
I have never seen any "Official" Ruling on this.

Yea... I cut my regular players a lot of slack I know but I let them use the Command Word as a Swift action, since you can say 2-3 sentences as a FREE action. - House Rule I have.
For Society games they must use a SA to recover the spell.

What is the GM doing about all this? It is HIS game and he should be in control not the Druid or any other player! Talk to the GM first. If he can't handle his own game and control his players he should NOT be GM'ing!!!

Looking over this 2nd level spell I think it would be a lot more interesting and useful if instead of creating multiple discuses you allowed it to BOUNCE from one target to another making a ranged attack on each target until it missed or hit a maximum number of targets, depending upon level. Sort of like a real discus bouncing from foe to foe. As is it's just a scorching ray (of a different color).

Just an observation.

Ahhh... thank you, I'll check my downloads.

So what's your point?
You know, TriOmegaZero, if you click on the name of the poster, then on their profile (if not already there) it will show you the number of GM stars they have, if any. You should try it sometime.
Anyone at Piazo have a better reply?

I'm looking to buy a copy and don't understand HOW CAN A DOWNLOADED PDF COPY be UNAVAILABLE...! Did someone hack your files and delete it? WTF gives????

Ahhh... I found the problem. I did download that file, last May, they updated it a month ago and added the Druid Character sheets but I didn't notice that. Downloaded it again.

Thanks Much Hawkmoon269

Been "Here" spent over 20 minutes looking at Here, still trying to find the Character sheets for the Expansion Druids deck I just bought yesterday...?

ARRRUGHHH... I save up items until I get $100+ to save on shipping. With the new Occult book I was ready to order when it died, so I went out and bought Emerald Spire today at a local game shop. Now I see it's working again but I don't have $100+ anymore to order!
BANG.. BANG.. BANG..

Yea same here... Couldn't access my saved items on Sunday. I sent an email to Sara and Jeff (who have helped me a lot in the past with order problems) but have not heard back from either yet and still can't access them today (Monday).

We finally got together a 6 player group last night to try a 42 card Blessing Deck out.
Two of the players were new to the game never having played the card game before, so we did the Basic RR Lost Coast series. We played 4 scenarios between 7 PM and 12:30 AM (did Brigandoom twice) and had some interesting observations.

The 42 card deck worked well and everyone got to play their character enough in each run.
With 7 draws each and 8 locations we had several near deaths. I was playing the paladin and used my 1 Cure spell on each run to save someone. (We had no cleric)
With 6 players Luck plays a greater part, in one session we found the henchman in 3 locations and closed them off before the 1st round of draws was completed.

Luck also plays a bad part as there are more players to draw a boon that YOU might want but they don't have the skills to acquire it. A lot of good boons got wasted as they were drawn by the wrong person. So only a 16% chance you'll be the one to get any specific boon in the locations.
There needs to be some way to fix this. Yea I know you could toss a Blessing of the Gods on the person who got the boon, IF you have one in your hand!
I'll have to think on this one.

Anyway the 2 new players loved the game (with our house rules) and can't wait until we schedule another session.

The problem with character death, as I read it, is that basically you throw the character away and create a new one, abit at an advanced level or tier.
This does not sit well with many players, especially since in the Pathfinder RPG and Society play characters can be revived from death and this game also uses the Pathfinder name.
When a player spends 10-15 hours or more playing, developing, and building their character, throwing it in the trash makes those hours seem like a waste of time. Many players may consider the game "Broken" at this point and just walk away, never to look back.

My goal is to keep all players enjoying the game so the campaign continues week after week after week!
So I have instituted the following Revival rule in my games, it seems to ease everyone's fears about the Permanent Death that exists in the rules.

When/if your character dies to get revived after the scenario ends he must Burn 2 cards in his hand that belong to the Level/Tier being played.
Say you are playing a Level 3 deck and die, you must Burn 2 of the Level 3 cards you have in your deck.
If you have 3 or more you chose which two.
If you have less you Burn what you have then make up the difference by Burning Level 2 cards (your choice again if you have more than enough), and on down to Level 1's if not enough 2's.
You must replace the Burned cards with Basic (B or C) cards from the box.

You also lose the scenario of course and have to sit out the remainder of it.

This makes death something to be avoided but not the ultimate tragedy. You can replace the lost cards through future play of course, if you can find them.

Yea I got to thinking about difficulty levels after writing the above.

I'm gonna make 4 of them, Novice, Average, Heroic, & Champion

Novice, for New players, 1 less location stack but No Feat awards.

Average, as exists now.

Heroic, 1 extra location with a random Henchman in it. Get to draw a random card of your current tier.

Champion, 1 extra location card with a random Villain in it. Get to choose a card of your tier (or lower).

It'll take me a while to try them out, if they work I'll note it here for those interested.

Adding another location is easy... There and many unused location cards in the box, just draw one at random for 6 players.

Here's another thought...
Many games have different levels of Difficulty. Novice, Average, Heroic and the like.
Maybe Paizo could come up with something official like that based on how many extra locations were used. Something the players could try for to see if they are good enough. Maybe you would win extra card draws or get to choose a card from your tier as a prize? I know I could set it up in my home game but if Paizo made it official it might encourage other groups.

You are correct Theryon. The idea is NOT game balance... it is how much enjoyment and fun the players get from the game! Some "players" may enjoy watching others play but my group is more active and each wants to run their character too.
If the players are NOT enjoying the game then they will soon move on to something else and the game will be discarded into the dust pile of history. So Enjoyment & Fun have top priority!
Once everyone is enjoying the game, balance can be easily achieved so the game is also challenging. I like the idea of adding an additional location and I think the other players will too.

No we kept it at 30 for 1-4 players. I thought there was a limit of 1 card type per combat? Guess we were doing that anyway so we'll keep it up. Thanks for the info Keith

However I do like the idea of adding an additional location, I'll talk that over with the other players and see what they think, thanks Greyhawke!

I should note we are all new to the card game and have not even opened deck 3 of the Rise of the Runelords set. But we are having an awful lot of fun in the game. So far NO ONE has missed a session.

We have had a game going on every Monday night and I find the Blessing Deck size is okay for 4 players or less, but when you get to 5 (or 6) it decreases the number of turns each player gets to 6 (or 5) respectively. That makes it hardly worth taking the time to set up a game for 5 or more.
Experimenting a bit I have found increasing the size of the Blessing Deck to 7 cards for each player (i.e. 35 for 5 players) makes a good balance and give all players an even chance to play their characters and enjoy the scenario.
I do admit we have not had a 6 player game yet, but it will probably come soon. If I should find something else works better for 6 I'll append this thread.

Okay, sorry I have not been to Origins since Pacific Origins in 1981 when it was in San Mateo California. Did not know they fixed it.

Where is Origins this year?

Yea I have seen this too, the Thornkeep reporting system is all screwed up!

Is there a pdf download we can get of the Character Traits available for Core characters?
If so can someone list a link to it?

Good idea marking it for FAQ. It is a wimpy spell but it is often all low level arcane casters have against undead, so it is important to them.

Until I hear otherwise I'm going to continue to allow it to do full damage against incorporeal undead for my players.

It is Positive Energy like channeling, it should do FULL damage anywhere! Magic Missiles do full damage anywhere.

However it is a good question and should be answered by a Paizo rule committee member.

Are you sure? We've got VL John Francis saying it's not, and I'm not sure who outranks who!

Duhhh... The COO is usually only outranked by the CEO and Board of Directors!

Cool... it has been added and I downloaded the chronicles already. Now to go to my local game store and buy the series.
TYVM Liz, I appreciate your quick response!

Just a question... Does this AP have a PFS Sanctioned section with Chronicles???

I have 2 (Paizo printed) modules to trade. Murder's Mark & Fangwood Keep, both list at $13.99 and are in Very Good almost Like New condition.

I am looking for Dhampir race boon and Elemental race boon.

Am willing to trade either one, your choice, for these 2 boons. PM me, or for faster response email me at:
WinterwolfNW@msn.com
If you are interested.

- Mike

Back to the topic Risen from the Sands...

I played it Friday night (4th Alchemist) with four 2nd levels. It was grueling, I ran out of bombs and we had to camp overnight in the Pharoah's tomb room (after we destroyed him), but completed it and all survived after smoking 22 charges from my Wand of CLW, 8 CLW pots and the Cleric using all her channeling and healing spells. The GM is fairly new to Pathfinder and did not know the monsters well.

The real fun came last night when I GM'ed it and truly saw what was in it. This module is a real MEAT GRINDER!!! We had an experienced group with an APL 3 and if you play the monsters to their fullest you'll get a TPK 90% of the time. The Mummy's WDC 16 is especially deadly to 3rd levels and I got 3 of 5 paralyzed for D4 rounds. Fortunately I rolled short paralysis times and they were BARELY ably to survive the room after several going down and being brought positive again. They completed the module in 5 hours with no losses but using 47 charges from 2 CLW wands and all the Cleric's channels & spells.

This module would be challenging for a 5th to 7th level party, IF the monsters were run to their max. If the writer needs monsters like these to challenge his 3rd level group, he is a very wimpy GM who runs all monsters like crippled Orcs.

Having just run Risen from the Sands last night, I came to the forums to look over comments on it.

As for Trample I consider it an Attack, and unless otherwise noted in it's stats, a monster gets only ONE attack per round. So I run it that a monster can make 1 Trample attack per round. If it is Large and there are 2 Medium or Small foes directly in front of it, then it's gets both. It can continue moving until it comes to another foe (or the end of it's speed), then it must stop and cannot make another Attack (Trample) until the next round.
That's how I have been doing it for years anyway and it works out well for me.

Hey... I got my table credits back! It's showing 69 tables which is about what I think I have. I don't keep exact count, since 2/3rds of the games I GM are Regular Pathfinder and not PF Society events. Close enough for me anyway.
Thx Guys and Gals.

For the free RPG modules it never made sense to me why they were +2 GM credit when they took only one slot to run. If that is Paizo's intention I wish they would just announce that and give the reasoning behind it.

They are probably giving the GM's extra credit for recruiting new players to the game, which is what most of the Free RPG Day modules are best for... a GOOD idea if you ask me.

Anyway, I'm still short of table count. Which brings to mind the old adage...
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
I saw no problem with the site/program before so why did someone start reprogramming it?

Got most of my credits back, still missing 14 I think.

Problems noted with We Be Goblins and Master of Fallen Fortress mainly, they are not giving the Extra Table credits for Modules yet. Also it's omitting credit for additional reruns GM'ing We be Goblins. It says I ran the Module earlier and gives 0 credit for running it again.

I hope this helps.

I know it's going to be rough having Paizocom and having to explain to new players/GM's why they are not getting the proper credit. With D&D Next coming out tomorrow it may cost us Pathfinder GM's players!
I certainly hope the program is fixed and all credit restored before Gencon, that would be much more embarrassing and costly in terms of getting new players/GM's.

There is another thread on this topic located here...

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r6ly?table-credit-discrepancy-for-modules#15

Liz Courts wrote:

Removed a post. Let's not be insulting or jumping to conclusions. If you're still having problems with your credit being reported incorrectly, please email customer service.

No data was lost, nobody was disgruntled, and there was no hacking involved. The issue causing this display error was very tangentially related to a behind-the-scenes code change which effected how these products were hooked into reporting. They've been placed back, but I need to be sure that the values for GM credit are properly accounted for (which is the cause of the rest of the discrepancy), which is what I was referring to in my previous post. It is very near the top of the list of things I have on my plate to address.

Thank you for clearing that up Chris..! I was beginning to worry someone was trying to sweep it under the carpet, censorship causes that feeling. I'm in no hurry to get my stars back, they have no real value anyway except for rerolls, which GM's don't use. You guys can take your time and do it right as far as I'm concerned.

Best Regards and have a Great Day!

I lost GM bonus credits for all modules, only my Adventure Path events in Wrath of the Runelords kept the bonus credits. Did they have a Newb programmer messing around with the code at Paizo???

Page 48 of the Mythic Adventures book shows a very nice picture of a Dwarf firing a Crossbow with a Bayonet ATTACHED and UNDER the bolt "barrel"

Proving once and for all, Crossbows do NOT have a hole to shove the bayonet into and... that designers who have NEVER seen a weapon should not try and write rules about it's use!

As written:

Invisible layers of solid force surround and protect the target, granting that target a +2 armor bonus to AC.
Components V, S, M (a piece of metal cut from a shield)

This being an "Armor Bonus" would NOT normally stack with material armor or Mage Armor. But since 99%+ of all characters use one or the other... WHAT would be the point of having it in the description if it did NOT add to AC for Armor Bonus items?

Is there any official ruling where this "force shield" surrounding the player DOES ADD to his AC?