Mika Hawkins Sales & eCommerce Assistant |
Toxicsyn |
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You got mail! Checking your inbox, it's from Desna.
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Cynosure appears to have regular traffic of planar travelers. According to old PF lore, stellar travelers are welcomed in Cynosure. So I imagine it's going to be similar as a location compared to Triune's Alluvion, which is another location where travelers are welcomed and just happens to have one of the Core Starfinder Gods ruling the city. In SF lore, Cynosure is described as a demiplane and located in the Vast.
I'm looking forward to the Cynosure gazetteer. With more information on Black Butterfly and Pulura. Also.. Estonars!
David knott 242 |
Asking the important questions: on a scale from Sailor Moon to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, how would you rate the Magical Girl content?
I will have to leave that question to someone who understands it far better than I do.
David knott 242 |
What are the new critters?
Mustyotal Agathion
Astral LeviathanChirosepia
Cynogerm
Glitch Dog
Hellhound (standard and ravager versions)
Luminix
Panic Psychemental
Leon Aquilla |
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Asking the important questions: on a scale from Sailor Moon to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, how would you rate the Magical Girl content?
It's an archetype in the back. No real magical girl stuff in the actual adventure unless you include the Elton John-lookalike "Lovely Ria".
Based on Jenny Jarzabski's Twitter feed I think she had some stuff cut by editors.
Leon Aquilla |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Do we stay on single dimension/plane for this one? :D
So after reading the backmatter about Cynosure it is apparently a star in the galaxy that always appears equidistant no matter where in the galaxy you are, like some sort of uber-pole star. Without a portal/gate you could never actually get to it, so I think technically that "counts" as a second plane.
So you go to 2 different planar locations in this.
Appearance-wise Cynosure is kind of like a futuristic version of Tir na Lia from The Witcher 3.
CorvusMask |
Kishmo wrote:Asking the important questions: on a scale from Sailor Moon to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, how would you rate the Magical Girl content?It's an archetype in the back. No real magical girl stuff in the actual adventure unless you include the Elton John-lookalike "Lovely Ria".
Based on Jenny Jarzabski's Twitter feed I think she had some stuff cut by editors.
What tweet btw? Like was there implication of additional content? :O
Leon Aquilla |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I don't know. It was an off-hand tweet earlier this year about letting go when editors chop up the work you submitted because that's the way business is. Probably was about Paizo-related stuff but I don't know if it was specifically about this AP.
Is there any character options tied to Desna or Cynosure ?
Yes as people have mentioned there's two archetypes, though neither is 1:1 linked to Desna or the Black Butterfly.
IS there any new mystic connection, operative specialization or soldier fighting style ?
Yes there's a new mystic connection, Dreamer.
John Mangrum |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
For the record, the backmatter includes:
* 3 new gear boosts for soldiers (meteoric speed, shooting star, and sidereal arc)
* 3 new archetypes (disciple of the Stillness, sleep researcher, and starsinger)
* 1 new mystic connection (dreamer)
* 1 new theme (gambler)
* 1 new weapon (chorister)
* 2 new magic items (paramour's prism and starshine serum)
* 1 new tech item (tactical pumps -- "pump" as in the shoe)
And 8 new critters:
* Agathion, mustyotal (which, intriguingly, look slightly like humanoid ilskitts)
* Astral leviathan (starship creature native to the Astral Plane)
* Chirosepia (tentacle-y critter native to the Drift)
* Cynogerm (minor heralds of Desna -- think in terms of the outsiders specific to deities presented in PF1E's Inner Sea Gods)
* Glitch dog (modern evolution of blink dogs)
* Hellhound (not technically the first time they've appeared in SF, but their first full bestiary entry - and a very slightly different, but not incompatible, take)
* Luminix (rat-like robots)
* Psychemental, panic (a manifestation of strong emotions from the Astral Plane; new to SF, but have more psychementals appeared in PF?)
The Codex of Worlds presents Joyview-5, which is not Golarionworld, but does seem to present some additional context for that upcoming Ports of Call entry. (Short version: Themed amusement park planets are a trend in the galaxy.)
Personal note on the archetypes: All three use the word "optional" when presenting their class features, but by my read only the disciple of Stillness archetype includes the option to take the alternate class features or not at each level.
Opsylum |
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Just want to sneak in here and thank Jenny Jarzabski for creating such a legendary encounter. I've wanted a direct interaction with Starfinder/Pathfinder's gods in an adventure for so long, and never thought it would happen. I'd been holding off on reading these books because I'm currently a player in a Drift Crisis campaign, but I couldn't help myself any longer and decided to just sneak a little peek. Beautiful stuff. No one tell my GM!
Opsylum |
Quote:I've wanted a direct interaction with Starfinder/Pathfinder's gods in an adventure for so long, and never thought it would happen.???
You meet Iomedae in Wrath of the Righteous (and if you sass her she blows out your eardrums with lethal sonic damage)
Really? I only thought that was in the video game. Well...guess I need to acquire some new APs. Thanks for the heads up, Leon.
John Mangrum |
Finally got a chance to sit down with this. Upon an initial read, this is a pretty strong adventure and buoys my hopes of running this AP someday. The hyper-episodic nature of the AP works well here, as the PCs zip through three very distinct scenarios. Compared to The Perfect Storm, Nightmare Scenario feels like it has more room to breathe. Semi-spoilery notes on that:
Also, nice to see dynamic hacking getting a little time in the limelight.
That said, tight space does raise its head again:
More general trend I'm seeing in this AP, really appreciating, and want to call out: No iconics in the art. Iconics are great for branding, but as a GM I have a constant utilitarian hunger for art I can show to the players with a simple "It looks like this" vs. "It looks something like this, but imagine your PCs here instead of these guys."
John Mangrum |
For now that is my review; personally I wouldn't want to submit a "real" review until I've actually run an adventure. There's always something that jumps out at you, for good or ill, at the "table."
Or in other words, I'd have to tweak my thinking quite a bit to provide a star rating. But it's on my mental "want to run" list.
TRDG |
GM's are quite free to change specific things if they think its a bit to tough for their party, easy fix and you should know that by now with all the games you run right?
Not a huge deal honestly to lower, or raise a DC or give them some other helping hand to not bottleneck the progress. We should all be old hands by now at this for Starfinder, PF I and PF II AP's by now, LOL
Not a snide comment but this is a basic thing you should also mention in all fairness.
"DC a bit High for X so I am going to lower it", or as I usually do if they RP it in a cool and different way before they roll the check I lower the DC. If they flub it or do no RP I tend to raise em, and all my players know this from the get go. :)
Especially for Diplo checks!! Ha Ha Ha
Tom
Leon Aquilla |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"If you don't like it, change it" is not a valid reply to a criticism of an AP. If it was, all AP's would be 5 stars since ultimately everything about them can be changed. The reason I buy them is so that I don't have to do as much prep - therefore the more I have to finagle it, the lower the score. I've been quite honest about that, it's in my profile.
CorvusMask |
Hmm yeah, review wise I think high score and changing AP mostly mesh together if ap INSPIRES further changes rather than requires them.
(that said arguably if your table experience is improved by extremely small change, I think its fair enough, but its kinda rare that book would jump multiple stars review wise with that kind of change and as reader you likely would feel like "why they didn't just do that from start?" especially if there wasn't sidebar suggestion to present it as alternate valid option writer is informing you of.
Still though, I do think it happens sometimes. Like let's assume ap book would be perfect, except that writer gave out loot that trivializes fun challenging mechanic of it right at the start. If you can improve adventure by just moving item to later point or to end of adventure, I think its confusing why it was given at start, but alright to give good review score anyway.)
So yeah, overall I agree that ye shouldn't review books based on your own changes, but it depends on context for me heavily so I'm unsure of agreeing with that as general rule.
captain yesterday |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"If you don't like it, change it" is not a valid reply to a criticism of an AP. If it was, all AP's would be 5 stars since ultimately everything about them can be changed. The reason I buy them is so that I don't have to do as much prep - therefore the more I have to finagle it, the lower the score. I've been quite honest about that, it's in my profile.
It's also relevant to point out because it could be a typo or the author wasn't aware they made a mistake.
Also I know a couple of people who "go by the book!" As they say.
John Mangrum |
There's an interesting moment in the finale that caught my eye:
During the climactic starship chase scene (which turns out to be a recurring motif of the AP), the PCs briefly pop into the middle of a massive space battle between the Azlanti Star Empire and the Veskarium. But I glean that the Primorata is probably still in "our" multiverse at that point, so it'll be interesting if we hear more about this in the future.
TRDG |
Thing is Leon, just one DC thing that takes 10 seconds to change, not rewriting an entire chapter. So more a small bump on the road most of us are well used to in AP's by now.
I totally get you on what "I pay for I expect to run perfectly with no issues or changes I need to make at all", BUT
I hav'nt found an AP yet I did'nt tweek to better suit the party play style, or for me as a GM, make things easier, or harder and so on.
But I think in the end on not so good DC is not something to really super "Chapter one Vexing" if that was all their is honestly.
I guess its more of well Chap 1 has a wrong DC so chap 1 Vexing (worthless/not worth buying and GMing or running even?)
Thats kind of the impression/tone I got when I first read your post kinda thing.
I have mine but just paged through it as I'm super focused on Mod 1.
Tom