Iron Gods race question(spoilers)

[The Genie]

So in the free players guide it makes special note to mention kasatha. And that if you have one in your party the gm will need to adjust the story.

Why is that?

[DM Corerue]

Only look if you like spoilers! :P:

No idea really just yet. I own the couple of adventure modules that are out but the only reason I could think of is because its technically an alien race the Technic League would be... After them? I will, double check and make sure I didn't miss something improtant. ;)

[Hayato Ken]

Spoiler & Speculation:

I can only assume at this point, but on the crashed starship were definately Kasatha. So if you have a Kasatha PC, players already know about them (or at least partly) and any encounters with them might run differently. Also the owners of the starship and others might have to react different.

[The Genie]

I see. I thought it might be as such. The players guide did mention various futuristic encounters so I thought as much. I also was not aware it was not all out yet.

[CorvusMask]

So, what is the actual reason for this?

I mean, now that whole AP has been released, what is the exact reason for this?

[Revan]

Kasatha and Mystery:

There are three major encounters with Kasatha built into the Iron Gods campaign--first, an encounter with a band of undead Kasatha in a crashed habitat dome in the first adventure, which draws a significant amount of eerieness from the fact that the PCs have no idea what these things are, as Kasatha are not even from the same solar system as Golarion. As written, PCs might possibly think that the strange four-armed creatures *were* the Androffans. That eeriness and obfuscation is lost if a Kasatha is a member of the party. The second is with a potential ally, whose character write-up assumes that she is one of the very few Kasatha on board Divinity who survived--to the point that she is unwilling to countenance the death of the Kasatha you encounter within Silver Mount, despite that one being a chainsaw-wielding sadistic psychopath in service to Unity. Moreover, it's a plot point that those Kasatha were very familiar with the workings of Divinity and technology in general, and it is inferred from their write-up that any Kasatha alive on Golarion today survived the crash in stasis pods. None of these are insurmountable obstacles, but there a myriad of minor tonal shifts a DM has to be aware of if allowing a Kasatha PC.

[Cuuniyevo]

Spoiler:

The Kasatha are an alien race, as was surmised above, and they show up at multiple points throughout the story. Playing as one of them is certainly doable, but would require some adjustments. Kasatha are supposed to be very very rare on Golarion and almost all of the ones you encounter in Iron Gods are enemies. There is only one friendly Kasatha npc and they are described as being shocked upon meeting another Kasatha who is still alive. If one of the players is a Kasatha as well, it kind of cheapens the story point about their rarity, to say nothing of how all of the other people you'd encounter in the world would react to seeing an obviously alien creature walking around. Kind of how I would advise against allowing a player to choose Azlanti as their race for RotRL, Drow for Second Darkness, Gnoll for Legacy of Fire, Lizardfolk/Serpentfolk for Serpent's Skull and so on. A GM can make any of those situations work and be interesting, but it will require more work and you should know what you're getting in to. The story you come up with may be more fun for you than following the AP as-written, but it may also derail the whole thing.

EDIT: Ah, ninja'd, and Revan went into more detail about the plot.

[MMCJawa]

Personally, after reading Iron Gods, I don't see a huge issue with Kasatha PCs. I think it's mentioned (either in the bestiary of that volume, or in the People of the Stars book) that their are a few small tribes of Kasatha roaming Numeria, descendents of survivors from the crash.

It's likely that the tribes probably have lost much of their history, so a PC from such a group probably wouldn't be privy to the various secrets revealed in the AP regarding Divinity.

[Acolyte of Mushu]

MMCJawa wrote:

Personally, after reading Iron Gods, I don't see a huge issue with Kasatha PCs. I think it's mentioned (either in the bestiary of that volume, or in the People of the Stars book) that their are a few small tribes of Kasatha roaming Numeria, descendents of survivors from the crash.

It's likely that the tribes probably have lost much of their history, so a PC from such a group probably wouldn't be privy to the various secrets revealed in the AP regarding Divinity.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Before Fires of Creation was even released and had the idea of a stoic kasatha ranger on the 1-year tempering ritual, searching for a way home. I thought maybe he could even masquerade as a human for a while, with various pigment disorders as his cover for skin, while hiding his extra arms and spade-shaped head with plenty of clothing. (This was a bit of a stretch though.)

[rungok]

A hat of disguise would help out bunches.

[CorvusMask]

Huh, so basically Kasatha pc would just take mystery out of some encounters before you learn what Kasatha are?

Still, sounds like kasatha pc could be really interesting...

Do we know how people of Numeria generally react to aliens?

[Acolyte of Mushu]

CorvusMask wrote:

Huh, so basically Kasatha pc would just take mystery out of some encounters before you learn what Kasatha are?

Still, sounds like kasatha pc could be really interesting...

Do we know how people of Numeria generally react to aliens?

I think that depends on where you are. Torch would probably wary but understanding/welcoming, Iandeveigh would be wary and possibly hostile, Scrapwall wouldn't give a crap, maybe just intimidated, Starfall citizens would either be afraid or want to capture you to sell to the Technic League, and other unvisited places like Hajoth Hakados would be completely welcoming. Oh, and tribal Kellids would be afraid/wary and probably hostile.