theheadkase's page

Woohoo! Just 8 days!

I laughed a little too hard at BigNorseWolf's and Thursty's responses.

First review 5 stars?! Hooray!

I could argue the "Reflective" property allowing you to take damage but still cause damage on the origin of the damage is not a new thing.

Look at Diablo 3, League of Legends, Star Wars The Old Republic, and other such games.

It's lotsa fun!!

Fear the deadly might of my 8-armed, powered armor-wearing skittermander cyborg that wields 10 guns simultaneously!

Heh, still can't make more attacks than what normal combat allows.

Although this makes me think of some interesting design spaces to play in (Powered Armor feats!)

Typically, if an action isn't explicitly said to be different it is a standard action.

But I think our best bet here (to mount/unmount a weapon) is the Manipulate an Item section of the Move Action as its very likely that weapons that would be mounted to a powered armor is considered heavy.

Manipulate an Item
Moving or manipulating an item is usually a move action. This
includes retrieving or putting away a stored item, picking up an
item, moving a heavy object, and opening a door.

Weapon Slots in the Powered Armor section says that Ranged Weapons are what gets installed (not saying there couldn't be a giant lance or something installed but this is what the CRB states) so unless you are carrying your ranged weapon (for example a powered armor sized rifle) you have to retrieve your weapon from wherever it is stored, unmount an existing mounted weapon (if one is there), and mount the weapon which would be 2-3 move actions.

Weapon Slots
Ranged weapons can be installed in most powered armor. The
maximum number is equal to the powered armor’s weapon slots.

So if you have a currently open weapon slot, and you are holding your powered armor rifle, you move to mount and then standard to attack with it. Or you move to mount, and move to draw your powered armor sized sword and next round you look super awesome while you attack with your mounted weapon (which should be a standard) and use your sword to threaten spaces!

If you can, are there plans for cursed or malfunctioning items in this book?

[list]

I took it completely as an in-character thing :) I love you playing it up!!

Ok!

• Attacking while using the cloaking field doesn't end the cloaking field, it just ends the Stealth attempt to hide in plain sight for that round. So you're field is still active (and you don't have to use a move action next round to activate it again) but until you attempt to hide again. So, you could for example be hiding at the beginning of your turn, attack, and then use your move action to make the Stealth check again to hide (even as part of your move action with no penalty if you move half your speed)

• Stealth is the skill you would use to make a check, for example, to hide. You don't have to have any ranks in Stealth to attempt a check since its untrained, you use your Dex for the check, and armor check penalty applies.

• Concealment regards line of sight (if the creature can actually see you) but not line of effect (if they throw a grenade and your square is within the blast radius) and regular concealment is like hiding behind a something that doesn't quite cover you completely. Every attack targeting you has a 20% chance of missing you.

• Total Concealment is like if you were hiding behind a large barrier that covers you completely. The enemy can't see you (they might still know you're there), they can't directly target you, and any attack in a square occupied by you has a 50% chance to miss.

• Some things allow attacks to ignore cover (or reduce total to just concealment) which negates or reduces those miss chances.

• Cover is similar to concealment but it regards line of effect. Regular cover gives you +4 AC and +2 to Reflex saves. This is again similar to hiding behind something like a table that doesn't cover you on all sides.

• Total cover is like being behind a forcefield or wall or something where they could possibly see you but can't use a grenade or something to reach you with an attack.

• Unseen is exactly that...you aren't able to be seen. Think of a guard walking into a room where Solid Snake is hiding in a cardboard box. They don't see him.

• Aware of presence would be where someone knows something is there, but doesn't necessarily see or know exactly where that something is. Think when a guard chases Solid Snake into a room where he hid in a cardboard box. They know you're there but don't know where, look for a little bit, then leave thinking that Snake must've gotten away somehow.

• Aware of location is where the guards watched Solid Snake go into his cardboard box and shoot the heck outta him.

• Perception checks are used in so many ways there's no real point to trying to list them out. Just think that any time there's something that *could* be overlooked, a strange smell could tip off something to something else, a sound could alert anything listening, etc...then those are good times to use a Perception check as a GM. As a player you can ask your GM if you can make a Perception check at any time if you think something tricky is afoot or you might have missed something.

• Light levels determine visibility in an area if a creature doesn't have a way to see without light. Invisibility is just that...you're not visible in the visible spectrum of light (but you might still be able to be smelled or heard).

• Precise senses are usually vision, or a combination of other senses that are as good as vision.

• Imprecise senses are senses that let you know the broad picture of a place but not necessarily the exact location of things. Think of it like this, I can smell a skunk that recently sprayed...but I can't tell you exactly where it is by my nose alone.
  

I disagree with the way you are reading the turret firing in a different arc means it doesn't take a penalty. If it counts as being in all arcs, and that was important enough for them to spend wordcount on pointing that out, then it is affected if any arc is critted against and a 31-60 d% is rolled. Its a risk/reward decision, your turret can fire in any arc but if any arc is critted and that percentile range is rolled then it is affected.

Mainly, because Paizo spent wordcount on explicitly stating that turrets count as if in all arcs on the table where this crit effect is listed leads me to read it as they are affected no matter what arc they are firing into.

If you remove or a temporary source wears out that was providing one or both of darkvision and low-light vision then you lose the ability to use the exploit until one or both is reinstalled or recharged.

REFLECTING ARMOR 1

School abjuration (force)
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range personal
Duration 10 minutes/level or until dismissed (D); see text
You create a shimmering skin-like coating of mystical force
that covers your body, allowing you to reflect damage you
take back against your attacker. At any time during this
spell’s duration, when you take Hit Point damage from an
attack made with a weapon by a foe within 100 feet, you can
choose to dismiss the spell as a reaction. If you do, the armor
crackles with energy as it disappears, arcing through the air to
strike the attacking creature, which takes an amount of force
damage equal to the damage dealt to you at the time this spell
was dismissed (maximum 10). The target can attempt a Reflex
save for half damage.

Bolding mine.

You have to take hit point damage for this to work and you have to have a reaction available for you to dismiss and reflect the same amount of damage you took back to the attacker.

There's some dastardly fun to be had in this book!

Can't wait to see discussion from folks who get this cursedly good book!

Thank you for taking the time to review Cole. Very thorough and we appreciate it greatly!

Also, good luck on classes!

The language is inclusive, but the important bit on the expansion bay is Medium and larger, not Medium and Large.

The other bit that could cause confusion is that "Huge starships can have up to two power cores, Gargantuan starships can have up to three, and Colossal starships can have up to four."

The way this is written is that Huge starships can ALSO only have 1 additional power core from default because they omitted the word "additional" from that 2nd sentence. This is what it probably should have been and would need an errata: "Huge starships can have up to two additional power cores, Gargantuan starships can have up to three additional, and Colossal starships can have up to four additional."

This would then equate to:
Medium and Large = 2 potential power cores
Huge = 3 potential power cores
Gargantuan = 4 potential power cores
Colossal = 5 potential power cores

Anything that makes them lose concentration works. My favorite is a constantly shifting extreme gravity cell.

You know that Cosmic Odyssey: Service Bots and Synthetic Companions book I won't stop talking about? It is HERE!!!

Make your own synthetic pal with over 690 septillion combinations or use one of our 100 pregenerated Service Bots included in the book!

Here's the link

Cosmic Odyssey: Pirates of the Starstream is now available!

Paladinosaur wrote:

That seems pretty cool.

It would be awesome if the Paladin could get a hoverbike as a divine bond.

Maybe in the future, but for now we stuck to companion critters because (A) it was a new system we wrote for the book and (B) we'd have to do some work figuring out how motorbikes would scale and the like. (So its a GREAT candidate for the Advanced Starfarer's Guide, but not so great for the first one.)

That being said, one cool thing that the paladin CAN do with her divine bond is:

** spoiler omitted **

That would go quite well with my upcoming:

I half joked to Rick Hershey about wanting to do some hex maps featuring space locations, such as a black hole, multi-colored nebulas, and near planet areas.

He said to do it.

And here we are! Star Maps Vol 1.

oh damn, we need a lot more submissions!

Yeah poor Tim will be inundated around the last week. He'll get a good flow in the beginning of October then suddenly get drowned.

26. Anthropomorphic race of bull peopled (maybe something like...minotaurs) peacefully rallied against the connotations the name and effect that spell had with their race.

16. One single spellcaster propagated false results of testing that indicated Bull's Strength caused genetic mutations and it was snapped up and repeated by various new age science and magic illiterates.

I can tell you that there WILL be robotic companions available to every player through Fat Goblin Games!

Once you've set up any subscriptions, the customer service forum is the best place to post queries or to request changes. Paizo CS are really helpful and responsive.

If things ever change it's easy and painless to make adjustments or to cancel some subscriptions.

Can confirm, Paizo CS are like the cuddliest and most efficient carebears ever.

While I'm disappointed that the Superscriber benefit is only available when subscribing to 4 physical subs, I totally get why they did it. That being said...

HUZZAH FOR STARFINDER SUBS!!

A new sidebar from me, courtesy Fat Goblin Games!

Sidebar: Fun with Arcane Mark

Welcome Landon! When the Janitor hands you a mop, just start cleaning. Not worth arguing:)

Would've liked to see the lizardfolk NOT be the militant/warlike race but still a cool reveal!

Ghosts in the Shell.

theheadkase wrote:

Syndicates

Like, details of criminal organizations?

I realized this could also sound like a race...maybe of creatures that copy others.

I'm genuinely excited for the possibilities of the different types of products that can (and likely will) be written for Starfinder. I know I personally want to explore pitching something like bubble theory universes where the adventures (small and large) are set and there are small differences from the normal universe.

theheadkase wrote:

Syndicates

Like, details of criminal organizations?

Yep, like the Hut family in Star Wars or the Spacing Guild from Dune. It would be great to have as a background (or foreground) thing that players could run into, turn left, and go on another adventure involving a syndicate or a syndicate war and so on.

Especially if they wanted to play a Dune style thing and have a single syndicate responsible for interstellar navigation.

So much intrigue and story potential...story for both the campaign and player backstory!

Starship civilisations

Trading outposts

Syndicates

Star systems' historical timelines (kind of like adventure seeds)

Sigh, once again the baby (and holidays) have eaten away my time. Maybe next issue :(

Zenith Games is looking for Authors for Cursed Items

Project Length: Any number of cursed items
Pay Rate: $.01 Per word

Additional details:
Please send me a single, fully written cursed item as a pitch, as well as your credits and a writing sample/published product (item related if possible). Make sure that your item isn't a reskin of an existing Paizo item, and that it make the game more FUN(NY) and INTERESTING instead of annoying.

If you have pitched us before (or are currently pitching us for Spells for the Common Man), please feel free to pitch us again! If you have never pitched anything before, now is your chance! We are looking for plenty of authors for this one.

Respond to: zenithgames.blog@gmail.com with your name, credits, and pitch. Subject line should be "Cursed Items Pitch"
Respond by: January 31st, but sooner is better.

Yes, we do have two open pitches going right now, but that's just how we roll. If you want to pitch both (and you should), then please send separate e-mails for both pitches.

Would you prefer the cursed item in a doc or docx format, link to google doc, or in the body of the email?

theheadkase wrote:

Hey James, when you're helping another design or editing another's work, how do you go about giving suggestions whilst still leaving room for the author to have their voice and not your design?

I don't. It doesn't really work that way. Once an author is done and I"m developing or editing it, I try to maintain the author's voice and ideas as best as I can, but in the context of Pathfinder products, the author is hired to help build our world and our brand, and if something in there doesn't sit well with our goals for the brand, I have no qualms about re-writing it entirely if I need to. As a general rule, I do let the authors know about this, and they also know this is the situation going into the project, and I try to send the developed text back to them to check out to make sure they're happy with the results. I've not yet had anyone tell me "No! That's garbage. Take my name off it!" I've had a few authors push back and at that point we talk it out and sometimes they capitulate and accept my change and sometimes I do and fix it back to their original if they can convince me of its value in the setting.

But yeah... When an author writes for a Pathfinder product, they sell all rights to the words to Paizo and they understand that any or all of it is subject to change. It's not really as much a collaborative process in the way you imply.

I have done those types of collaborations though, before. I co-wrote Into the Darklands and The Midnight Isles with Greg Vaughan, for example, and co-wrote Magnimar with Adam Daigle, and so on. In those cases, we work together to figure out the plot and then split up the writing tasks and go from there. But even then, the ultimate result is something that ends up subject to the developer's needs.

In other cases, I've co-written books with other authors for other companies, and in those cases, I work with them as needed to build the plot, and then do my best to write my words to do their job and support theirs as well, knowing in the end...

Thanks James!

I mean...he IS the janitor...he's the one who cleaned up the bundle. ;P

Wacky, inflatable, waving arm guy!

(Seriously though, it's a great bundle)

You'd be crazy not to get this folks! Even if I contributed to some...there's some amazing talent and content there.

Taking all bets on how many entries are a re-skinned River Tam.

Money"Gang, we need this wand of air walk to use on the fighter. Wait...where's the gold? YOU LEFT IT?!?!?! WE'VE GOT TWO DWARVES WHO DON'T HAVE ENCUMBRANCE!"

Oh and Booster Gold.

I am so glad that Owen mentioned Dan Simmons, Hyperion Cantos is one of my favorite book series, especially concerning character and development.

I totally want to see something like the Shrike, the merlin sickness, the sphinx tomb, etc.

I also would like to see something like the latest Deus Ex videogame where different races or cultures have sometimes violent reaction to android/cyborg enhancement.

mellowgoth and Torbyne, you are both kind of hinting at a class that already somewhat does that...the Alchemist :) At least in theory.

Alchemy would likely be referenced as Technomancy in the future.

@Robert Little - I'd like to see something that supports PCs being at stations providing things to do in combat. FrEx: Weapons station is attack rolls, engineering station is repair rolls and rolls to provide a bonus to attack or defense (via shielding) by rerouting power, comms station for diplomacy or intimidation or bluff, etc.

My first and most burning question?

Do you need any help and would you keep me in mind? :)

After that:

Have you thought about new environmental things on a ship scale like black holes/event horizons, wandering clouds of ion/electricity/whatever, and mass haunts like derelict spaceships?

All those new avatar images to choose from for my aliases.

What are you excited for :p