Starfinder Society Developer
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What's one of your favorite things about Starfinder that you haven't had a chance to reveal yet?
This is a tough one! Since a lot of the "secrets" I get to hold onto are Organized Play related, there's just a lot of things we haven't got to talking about yet.
I guess the biggest thing is some of our future plans for the Starfinder Society, and how we're going to work a variety of plot threads into the evolution of the campaign. The "Scoured Stars" story line is just the focus of our first season, but we're planning on exploring a whole bunch of different stories in an attempt to generate player interest and see which ones people want to explore. So that type of approach is pretty exciting!
Beyond Starfinder Society, I'm actually pretty excited about Aballon. I got to work heavily on the Aballon section of the Pact Worlds book, and I think some of the explanations and changes to that planet (compared to Distant Worlds) will shock and inspire GMs, giving a lot of plot hooks to run games on Aballon. One of the goals I always try to aim for in a project as big as that, is to provide at least one seed for an adventure path. I'm pretty sure I met that goal at least 2-3 times with Aballon.
I was actually really excited by the difference in appearance from Abellon in DS to its SF incarnation! So cool! So hype!
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Starfinder Society Developer
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I was actually really excited by the difference in appearance from Abellon in DS to its SF incarnation! So cool! So hype!
Excellent! I was glad that Sutter trusted me with that particular gem.
Here's hoping the words match the expectation! ;)
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Favourite game out of Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, 2, 3, and Bloodborne?
Bloodborne > Dark Souls 3 > Dark Souls 1 > Demon's Souls > Dark Souls 2.
Bloodborne tops the charts, just because it worked so well as a stand-alone piece. The story within it was really compelling, especially given how you had to piece a lot of it together from item descriptions and area environments. I've always been a fan of how the Souls-Borne games provide a story in a manner that isn't just NPC dialogues.
Also, if for anyone interested in the story and who might not have pieced it together from the game—I sure didn't get everything on my first play through—then I would highly recommend watching this video from the extremely talented Vaatividya. His videos are pretty much the BEST source of lore explanations for Bloodborne and Dark Souls.
Regardless of my order, I adore all the games for different reasons. I've platinum trophied all of them, and they're the only games I go out of my way to get all the achievements on—I also play them on PS4, just because I prefer consoles for these types of games. Currently, I'm finishing up Nioh, which I'd consider a weird, but still very enjoyable, cousin of this series.
I've always wanted to create a souls-like RPG project, focusing less on giving the PCs the story through dialogue and breadcrumbs, and more about detailing a world through descriptions and environment. There wasn't really an obvious way of doing this, at least up until we released Occult Adventures, which I now see some really cool potential with, especially if you give all the PCs some kind of specialty object reading to allow for the dissemination of the sort of 'item lore text' that makes Bloodborne/Dark Souls so captivating.
I'd started on this project awhile ago. But I've put it on hiatus due to my increased freelance over the last year, and then starting to work at Paizo. Sufficed to say, I've got a fair amount written, and a lot of ideas on how to run a Pathfinder RPG style souls game (setting neutral, of course).
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Yay!
Bloodborne is my favourite too, and I think I rank all the others (including weird cousin Nioh) equally just for the stories they tell (or monsters in Nioh's case).
And ooooo that sounds like fun, I'm doing something similar in my homebrew PBP, going for a very "show, don't tell" approach on a cursed island.
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Wow, suddenly I'm painted as a monster. I see what you're doing here, Brookes O_O
Well, given your avatar ...
The Shirren were part of the Swarm.
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The Shirren were part of the Swarm.
Hey, don't bring me into this. I've never flipped off a single kitten.
I just came here for a light meal between star systems and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now...
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Starfinder Society Developer
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The Shirren were part of the Swarm.Hey, don't bring me into this. I've never flipped off a single kitten.
I just came here for a light meal between star systems and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now...
Don't worry! I'll be dealing with you soon enough... ;)
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How do ships maneuver in Drift Space?
Since drift space is not empty, we know that a ship may need to move around obstacles, if not engage in combat.
The reason for my confusion is that many ships, including the Sunrise Maiden, don't have enough PCUs to power both their Drift Engine and their Thrusters.
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Starfinder Society Developer
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How do ships maneuver in Drift Space?
Since drift space is not empty, we know that a ship may need to move around obstacles, if not engage in combat.
The reason for my confusion is that many ships, including the Sunrise Maiden, don't have enough PCUs to power both their Drift Engine and their Thrusters.
Ships maneuver in the Drift as they do on the Material Plane. A Drift Engine simply transports the starship to the Drift or back to the Material Plane. This is somewhat touched on in the Core Rulebook on page 291, where it says "For a starship to engage its Drift engines
to either enter or exit the Drift, it must remain stationary withits conventional thrusters turned off for 1 minute."
The PCU powering of both systems on the Sunrise Maiden isn't a big deal, as the Drift Engine doesn't need to be 'active' while the ship is in the Drift. Though there'd be some jiggering on turning off conventional thrusters, then bringing up the Drift engine, then plane shifting into the Drift, then disabling the Drift Engine, then turning on thrusters....
Not sure if that's the intention for the ship. You might want to check with the adventure's developer (Rob McCreary) on the specifics for that!
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How do ships maneuver in Drift Space?Ships maneuver in the Drift as they do on the Material Plane. A Drift Engine simply transports the starship to the Drift or back to the Material Plane. This is somewhat touched on in the Core Rulebook on page 291, where it says "For a starship to engage its Drift engines
to either enter or exit the Drift, it must remain stationary with
its conventional thrusters turned off for 1 minute."The PCU powering of both systems on the Sunrise Maiden isn't a big deal, as the Drift Engine doesn't need to be 'active' while the ship is in the Drift. Though there'd be some jiggering on turning off conventional thrusters, then bringing up the Drift engine, then plane shifting into the Drift, then disabling the Drift Engine, then turning on thrusters....
That is what I was unclear on. :)
What does it look like in the drift?
As in, what's it like outside of the ship?
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Starfinder Society Developer
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What does it look like in the drift?
As in, what's it like outside of the ship?
Page 290 of the Core Rulebook describes the Drift loosely as "a void of swirling color without substance", which I always took as being akin to Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night".
That being said, I'm sure we'll be getting a WAY better description in Dead Suns #4: The Ruined Clouds by Paizo's own Jason Keeley (not sure if he wrote the Drift article or not.) Anyways, I would keep an eye out for that product for any 100% canonical descriptions of the Drift!
Thanks! I was kind of hoping for mooooorrrrrrrrrrrrre, because that description is cool, but I'm just curious if there are any features. So far, anyway, it sounds an aaawwwful lot like I always imagine either Limbo or the Maelstrom. Or the "Far Realm" to a point.
Speaking of, are there any natives? Radiation?
(That article may answer all of these, but if I didn't torment a known "Kitten Flipper" for his many, many crimes - and to sate my curiosity - obviously, I'd become the villain, and nobody wants that.)
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Thanks! I was kind of hoping for mooooorrrrrrrrrrrrre, because that description is cool, but I'm just curious if there are any features. So far, anyway, it sounds an aaawwwful lot like I always imagine either Limbo or the Maelstrom. Or the "Far Realm" to a point.
Speaking of, are there any natives? Radiation?
(That article may answer all of these, but if I didn't torment a known "Kitten Flipper" for his many, many crimes - and to sate my curiosity - obviously, I'd become the villain, and nobody wants that.)
Not quite my place to give away those secrets. You'll need to wait for AP #4. As for Starfinder Society secrets... well, that's a different matter entirely! ;)
So: Weydan. Is he Odin?
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Starfinder Society Developer
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While we're asking about deities, how much of a coincidence was it that the god of evolution shares his name with an abbreviation for pokemon games?
I wasn't responsible for any of the new deities... but I can probably guess that it's about 95% coincidence? :)
... gotta catch 'em all?
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Where did you find the time to write an entire Pathfinder AP volume in the midst of your Starfinder duties?
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Where did you find the time to write an entire Pathfinder AP volume in the midst of your Starfinder duties?
That sure was a "learning experience" where I took on the AP assignment before I fully ended up taking on my Starfinder roles. It ended up having to get done between all my development on the Gen Con release scenarios, which was pretty intimidating, especially considering I was also doing a bunch of other random freelance projects that NEEDED to get done.
Luckily, despite writing two APs back-to-back, I had a fairly long break between the two adventures. So that helped my sanity quite a bit. In the end, it worked out for the best, as we're in the middle of purchasing appliances... and those phat freelance bucks sure do help! :)
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So that helped my sanity quite a bit.
Too late. ;)
Having stumbled across this thread, recently, again, I feel compelled to ask: flipped any kittens lately? (Off, or otherwise.)
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Thursty, you're a smart cookie. How do I make an NPC minotaur brawler with the avalanche whatever archetype? I don't want him to have the standard axe in the Bestiary 1 profile 'cause he's a brawler. He doesn't need an axe when he charges everything with those awesome horns.
His background is from the Eberron: Stormreach book, he is Kolos of the Red Ring and in my campaign he's something of a s!&& disturber. He's trying to create a union of sorts for gladiators and generally making enemies of the stable masters and in turn, one of the mayors of the city.
Also, speaking of freelancing, have you considered writing for Raging Swan? One of my other favorite authors, Richard Pett, wrote for them recently. Since Logue seems to have crawled down a hole somewhere, I don't think we'll get a RS village backdrop from him. So you should totally write one to scratch that itch. They also advertise as having one of the best freelance rates in the business...
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Thursty, why didnt you tell me about this thread?
You're alive!!!
You had everyone in FaWtL worried (okay, only Freehold, maybe John) that you'd been conscripted into the Windmill brigade (or whatever you kooky Dutch do when you're not on FaWtL).
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Thursty, you're a smart cookie. How do I make an NPC minotaur brawler with the avalanche whatever archetype? I don't want him to have the standard axe in the Bestiary 1 profile 'cause he's a brawler. He doesn't need an axe when he charges everything with those awesome horns.
His background is from the Eberron: Stormreach book, he is Kolos of the Red Ring and in my campaign he's something of a s*%+ disturber. He's trying to create a union of sorts for gladiators and generally making enemies of the stable masters and in turn, one of the mayors of the city.
Also, speaking of freelancing, have you considered writing for Raging Swan? One of my other favorite authors, Richard Pett, wrote for them recently. Since Logue seems to have crawled down a hole somewhere, I don't think we'll get a RS village backdrop from him. So you should totally write one to scratch that itch. They also advertise as having one of the best freelance rates in the business...
I fully admit that I am NOT the best person to talk to about builds for NPCs. I would suggest just throwing together what works in Hero Lab, as that's how I typically approach NPCs. It already sounds like you have a really solid premise on what you want it to be, so now I would just enter the information or start mucking around with the finer options. :)
As for Raging Swan, they've certainly been on my list to contact! Right now I'm just trying to balance my time between Starfinder Society work, existing freelance, time with my partner, and getting in other games whenever I can.
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Thursty, why didnt you tell me about this thread?You're alive!!!
You had everyone in FaWtL worried (okay, only Freehold, maybe John) that you'd been conscripted into the Windmill brigade (or whatever you kooky Dutch do when you're not on FaWtL).
I AM!
Without the chat, I've been generally spending time on FB and SFS/OrgPlay Discord. Of course, most of my time has been spent working on Org Play stuff, so I've had less time to be active in most chats. Still, I do miss the old days... nothing quite like coming to my boring desk job to open up that chat and spending the day puttering about with a bunch of gamer friends! :D
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Outpost Zed. Oh Canada, I thought that was great.
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What's the weirdest job you've ever had.
And you can't say "This one" Adam already used that, and you're from Canada, so surely you've driven a Zamboni or milked a maple tree herd or gone Ice road truckin' or something like that.
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Starfinder Society Developer
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What's the weirdest job you've ever had.
And you can't say "This one" Adam already used that, and you're from Canada, so surely you've driven a Zamboni or milked a maple tree herd or gone Ice road truckin' or something like that.
When I was doing customer management for aviation software I ended up doing a bunch of wild things. In one job, I traveled to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Dubai. I spent over 6 weeks in each of those locations and it was a real life changing experience to see that (albeit VERY secure and sheltered) side of the world.
Beyond that, I used to do customer service for Comcast, back when it was cheaper to hire Canadians to do call center work for US companies. I ended up getting up to a supervisor position and dealing with all the calls that ended with "I want to speak with your supervisor." Somehow, I accumulated a large list of "unique" customers that had some of the strangest stories. The company found out, and rather than getting scolded for keeping a text file of customer account numbers, they asked if they could use them for training purposes. That was pretty cool!
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Hi Thurston
Could you please help advise me on designing an Influence encounter. You look to have written the most published examples of this mechanic (Blakros , Alabastrine, Crownfall and Wrath of Thrune). I am struggling with:
- How many “turns” / attempts should be allowed at each event
- How it is decided how many influence successes are needed for certain people
- the spread of skill DCs (i gather this is just a case of giving low DCs to more obscure skills + adding options so these encounters aren’t solely the realm of the party Bard)
They presumably link in such a way so that it isn’t easy to secure all the successes in say half the allowed time
For context I am looking to use flesh out the influencing of the aristocrats of Kintargo in Book 3 of Hells Rebels more that the page count allowed for in that book. Alabastrine seems to be a good chassis for this but I am interested in knowing how the challenge is balanced
I would really appreciate any help!
Thanks
Super agreed on this question! Also looking forward to any feedback or ideas you can throw down!
(Also thinking of adapting something similar for WotR, specifically influencing Nocticula and/or Shamira)
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Starfinder Society Developer
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AH! Sorry for my late response on this >_>
For Influence mechanics, it's certainly something of an "art" rather than a hard science. What I tend to do in these circumstances is look at the number of players who would be making checks, then compare to the number of NPCs that exist in the encounter. I tend to set a mental list of "OK, I expect the PCs to influence X out of Y of these NPCs" and then build a lot of the math to support that.
In a home game, this can be a bit easier to prepare for, since you know your PCs and can get a sense of their skill check modifiers. What I would do, is take a look at what PCs have what skill bonuses and then try to craft DCs to work in the "on a 10+, the PCs should succeed at this" and then reduce that number by 4. This accounts for unexpected failures, and for PCs attempting checks who don't quite have optimal builds in a skill. You also want to factor in a number of failures based on PCs messing around or attempting incorrect skills in an influence situation.
Overall, the math should be constructed in such a way that the PCs get to influence a good number of NPCs but not EVERYONE. In Organized Play environments, I tend to be VERY conservative with these numbers and it's quite likely for a semi-optimized group to influence everyone, but that's more a result of catering to newer players than catering to those who've really optimized. In your home games, you can adapt on the fly!
Hmmmmmm, but... I was going to be all jidgemental...
(Thanks!! Good to know!))