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My group has chosen for me to run Gatewalkers next and I read that running Stolen Fate after that is simple enough, so that is my plan. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or suggestions to foreshadow any of the main plots or main villains in Stolen Fate during Gatewalkers.

Should any of the harrow cards be introduced to the PCs during Gatewalkers? Also, how should the PCs harrow suite background be utilized if they aren't taking any of the backgrounds from Stolen Fates at first level. I intend on them to take only a Gatewalkers background to take a deviant ability when they create 1st level characters, but not sure if the harrow suites associated in the various Stolen Fate backgrounds need to be addressed as well at 1st level. Or just wait until Stolen Lands starts, then let them choose a suite?

I heard that AV is a really good AP as a prequel for Stolen Fates. We've already run AV several years ago and half of the current group were players in that campaign, so that is an AP that I don't want to run again with 2 players that have already run through it and 2 that haven't.

My group just finished a PF2e converted campaign of Return of the Runelords and we are wanting to start a new campaign at 1st level. We've already played through Abomination Vaults and Age of Ashes. After some discussion with the players on what we are all looking forward to play next and what I'm interested in running, i've narrowed it down to running Crown of the Kobold King. But that ends at 6th level. I know that I am going to try to connect that with Stolen Fate AP, but that doesn't start until 11th level. I've tried looking but can't seem to find anything that is published and designed to be between 6th - 10th level. Does anyone have any ideas or sources for a 6th - 10th level adventure? Or a combination of individual adventures between 6th and 10th levels? I can figure out how to connect the adventures, I just need something to run in between Crown of the Kobold King and Stolen Fate. I'm not interested in making my own adventure, but I have no problems converting a 1e adventure.

So my players are about to end City Outside of Time and I'm reading more in depth into Book 6 and getting ready to prep that. I'm confused about how to start this adventure. How do the players know that they have to go back through time, how do they know they are supposed to use the Cyphergate, and how do they know that they have to go to Zinnlun's tomb to get his skull? The Sihedron Heroes tell them? They go back to Jorgenfist and read about it, but then how do they know to go there at all? I guess I'm really asking where can i find in the AP where it says where and how they learn about what they are supposed to go/do regarding the Cyphergate?

And my second concern is this: Did anyone who has run or played the last book have any issues convincing the PCs to do the time travel instead of trying to save Varisia by going to all these places? My players are fairly stubborn and will try to take the most difficult path possible; they will definitely want to rush headfirst into Magnimar and try to fight Colyphyr instead of getting involved with time travel. I guess the special NPC comes in and begs them to do it?

I've heard from another source that a PDF for this will not be made available to people who did not back this, that Paizo will not be selling a PDF copy when it goes on sale on Oct 26th. Is that accurate or was this source incorrect? I only play via VTT so that would be a huge bummer.

Am I running Computers correctly in Starfinder? If I'm not making the below rulings correctly, then is the Computers skill just WAY too OP?

My players are all 6th level and one of them, (a technomancer) has decided to max out her computers skill as high as she can at that level. That's fine, though there is literally no check she can fail at this point, she is rolling over 30 consistently. But my question/concern is along the lines of this: She is wanting to use Computers for EVERYTHING. For example, a few sessions ago she had her own radio comm and wanted to roll Computers to use that to hack into a datapad of an NPC across the room and download its contents to her datapad. I ruled no, that is not the purpose of a radio comm and you can't remotely hack things like that without somekind of remote hacking module. She argued that computers in Starfinder are all connected wirelessly thanks to the Infosphere and that it made no sense that she shouldn't be allowed to hack any computer she sees from her radio comm. I ruled that not every computer is on the Infosphere.
Another time, she hacked into a secure system on a moon prison and learned that the system controlled only the lights and heating systems. She said that is impossible, that she has root access and that she should have access to everything that is controlled by any computer in this facility, including oxygen. She wanted to suck the oxygen out of the facility except the room they were in so they would kill all of the guards. I ruled no the computer only controlled lights and heating. Another time, she has tried to use her radio comm to hack a drone robot and command it to attack another enemy, and I ruled against that as well. Overall, that player is extremely dissatisfied with the campaign due to me constantly saying that's not what Computers are or how to do it. She has also argued that door locks are connected to computers and therefore should also be connected to remote cameras and she should be able to disconnect cameras from a door lock terminal.

Is the technomancer player correct that once you hack into any computer, you get access to EVERYTHING not listed as a module? And you can control anything that a computer can control, including life support, lighting, flight controls, AI, anything? I've read some modules that said such and such a computer terminal controls lighting, but remains silent on if they control anything else.

Question says it. I'm looking mostly at a champion dedication with a summoner and how most of the reactions target an "ally".

If a player has Incredible Initiative and is using the Avoid Notice exploration action, when they roll for initiative, I know that they roll Stealth once and that is their initiative check and their Stealth check to be undetected at the start of battle. Incredible Initiative adds +2 to the initiative check. But is the +2 applied to the Stealth check when comparing it to the enemies' Perception DC to see if they are undetected? Does the GM use two separate Stealth numbers in this case?

So I understand most of the Recall Knowledge action. I'm a GM and I totally get that to use recall some knowledge on a dragon, a player needs to roll Arcana. I also am quite sure of what information to give to players and what DCs to set such checks for. I get all of that (I only mention this because it seems that 99% of all Recall Knowledge discussions fall into either of those two questions - what info and what DC). But here is my question:

I have a couple of players that want to use Recall Knowledge by using the exact same skill on every creature. For example, they came across a blue dragon and the bard didn't have Arcana, but he had Nature. The player could not understand why he couldn't use Nature to identify the dragon because "aren't dragons part of the natural world?" They ran into a group of zombies at one point and the wizard player wanted to use Arcana to use recall knowledge, but I said it had to be Religion. He didn't have Religion and got frustrated that Arcana wouldn't work "necromancers are wizards, how are there undead without the use of magic, Arcana should work!" I even had that bard with Nature try to use Nature to identify a stone golem, because I described it as being made of stone and he argued that since it was made of a naturally occurring substance like stone, then Nature should work.

It's gotten to be pretty much every single encounter, every player wants to roll their 'good' knowledge skill to recall knowledge and get frustrated that their 'good' skill won't identify everything. They then go about a 5 minutes trying to justify why it doesn't make sense that their skill won't work, which often never makes sense to me as the GM.

Does justifying a round about way to use a different skill make sense and not be OP - like using Arcana to identify Undead because necromancers are wizards? Has anyone else come across this at their table, where players just want to roll their one or two trained knowledge skills and get frustrated that such a skill won't work as written? Are there any good house rules or suggestions to alleviate the frustration players get when their skills aren't working when they think it should. It's gotten to the point where the players are using Recall Knowledge less and less when they should be using it more now that they are levelling up and facing higher level creatures all because I'm not letting them use non-applicable skills.

Can the Nyktera sprite use its "Seek action to sense undetected creatures in a 60-foot cone instead of a 30-foot cone" ability to also locate a creature with the concealed condition, say from smoke or fog if the sprite still can hear them? Or maybe ignore the concealed condition?

I have a player that wants to play a sprite druid. She wants her corgi familiar. She also is getting an animal companion from being in the animal order. And she is also stocking up on summon spells. She wants to be able to have three minions out and issue commands to all three of them on her turn, with each having two actions from her one action to command/sustain - giving her a possible max of SIX actions on her turn. I'm sure her corgi's actions will be limited but that's still ALOT of actions each turn! Is this accurate or is there a limitation to minion control that I'm missing somewhere?

I have a player that absolutely loves to try to use Diplomacy or some other Cha skill to stop combat after it has already happened. Like every. single. encounter. I cannot find how this can be done mechanically as of now. Is there a way for a PC to use a Cha skill like Diplomacy or Intimidate or Deception to change the attitude of an enemy that they are currently in combat with? From what I can see, most of the skill actions either do not do that or require 1 minute or more of conversation. My ruling last session was that the player needed to have done all of their diplomacy RP prior to the combat start and if they were successful, then they increased the attitude of the creature and might have stopped the combat, but if they failed then combat could still happen; after combat, the enemies are too hostile to change to non-hostile using a quick 6 second skill check. How has everyone else been handling players that reeeeeeeaaaaaally want to end combat diplomatically vs through violence?

Do wands of widening already have a specific spell in the wand (so that you can only cast the same widened spell with that wand) or can you cast a any applicable spell while holding the wand and it allows you to widen it (if it meets the requirements of the wand)?

I have a druid with the summon fey spell that I cast. My druid is outside of a room where an encounter has started with the rest of the party, but I have yet to enter the room or have line of sight to the creatures attacking the party because I am still in the hallway. If I were to cast summon fey into the room, can I command my minion to make a strike against a specific target even though my druid does not have line of sight to that creature, but my minion now does? Does line of sight have any effect at all on minions attacking your targets? Would simply telling the minion to 'attack my enemies' work as a generic command or would the minion know who my enemies are?

Question:

What do you think each Runelord would have for a theme song? I've gotten as far as Karzoug in thinking about this and I would go with Grand Admiral Thrawn's theme from Star Wars Rebels. What would you play for him instead and for the other six?