So, Thursty! If you, Thurston Hillman () were transported into the game , and had to be a Starfinder through any of the organized play seasons, what kind of character would you be* (and why) and which season would you be going through?
* You're obviously a human, naturally, but for this purpose, you can incarnate into any body. Similarly, congratulations! You have a class.
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The Society doesn't have much in the way of a hierarchy, correct? It's mostly just Field Agents with Venture Captains just being a Field Agent that takes on the job of organizing and running a Lodge, and similar with the Forum and First Seeker just being Field Agents that other Field Agents liked and thought could handle the job?
Starfinder Society Developer
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So, Thursty! If you, Thurston Hillman () were transported into the game , and had to be a Starfinder through any of the organized play seasons, what kind of character would you be* (and why) and which season would you be going through?
* You're obviously a human, naturally, but for this purpose, you can incarnate into any body. Similarly, congratulations! You have a class.
I would love to be a mechanic or technomancer who shows up in Season 4 (as of yet unannounced) because I think they'll have some really cool chances to shine. But, there's something appealing about being an envoy in Season 1 and just keeping everyone happy and together. :D
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Starfinder Society Developer
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The Society doesn't have much in the way of a hierarchy, correct? It's mostly just Field Agents with Venture Captains just being a Field Agent that takes on the job of organizing and running a Lodge, and similar with the Forum and First Seeker just being Field Agents that other Field Agents liked and thought could handle the job?
Field Agents > Venture-Captains > Forum Members > First Seeker
+ Guidance in a tangential way.Venture-Captains generally manage groups of agents and assign field missions to those agents. Some VCs are members or the Forum, while others are not. The First Seeker is just someone who has been voted from the Forum membership to determine the "overall goal" of the Society for a finite amount of time. Thus helping integrate the concepts of "seasons" in an in-universe perspective.
There's a ton I'd eventually like to write-up on this association/hierarchy, but we haven't had a good product to put it into yet!
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Do you have a firm idea of when the Starfinder Society and its factions were was founded? Breadcrumbs I've picked up so far (that would presumably be fairly general knowledge to Starfinder agents) include...
* The Society was founded not long after the end of the Gap and the introduction of Drift travel. The Second Seekers were obviously central, though we don't know who the founding First Seeker was (unless I'm missing the obvious and it was Ilyastre).
* We haven't learned about the history of the Wayfinders, but they're so close to the core mission of the Society I have to assume the faction's been around from the beginning.
* The Dataphiles were founded by Historia-1, an android, setting up that naming tradition among the faction's leadership. I want to say they were a founding faction as well?
* Sangoro, a vesk explorer from the Veskarium, joined the Starfinders later, sometime during the Silent War, by offering the Society the Bulwark he'd discovered in the Vast. He eventually founds the Exo-Guardians.
* And then of course we have the Acquisitives, the new kids on the block with a clear through-line.
I dunno, put me down for wanting a Starfinder Society sourcebook!
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Do you have a firm idea of when the Starfinder Society and its factions were was founded? Breadcrumbs I've picked up so far (that would presumably be fairly general knowledge to Starfinder agents) include...
PUT ME DOWN FOR WANTING THE SAME SOURCEBOOK! :D
But to answer some questions...
1) The Dataphiles are one of the earliest factions, likely part of the initial Startfinder Society founding.
2) The Exo-Guardians were prior to the Swarm attack, and something of an "I told you so faction" that ended up getting a lot of clout following the Swarm's appearance, but then also took the hardest hit in the Scoured Stars.
3) Acquisitives are clearly the New Kids on the Block (music and all!)
4) Wayfinders probably came up between Dataphiles and Exo-Guardians. There's some hidden lore I want to explore there, but the Wayfinders were NOT one of the original factions.
5) Second Seekers obviously followed the various First Seekers, with some more famous leaders like Roheas and Ilyastre.
6) Extra special bonus points: There are two non-Second Seekers factions that existed prior to the current environment. They've had some VERY light lore shed in past scenarios, but it's an element that I'd love to explore in the future.
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Who's Roheas?
A former First Seeker who was known for spearheading a lot of new starship designs and upgrading the Starfinder fleet, as well as using those ships to protect vulnerable cultures! The relevant lore has appeared on a Chronicle sheet as follows:
Only the longest-lived Starfinders remember the reign of First Seeker Roheas (CG female damaya lashunta mystic) who dedicated much of her tenure to protecting pre-Drift civilizations from exploitation. Though conflicting reports indicate what happened to the First Seeker, a handful of eager Starfinder historians have taken to following in Roheas’ footsteps by forming a minor faction dedicated to preserving what she stood for.
OK, speaking of the hidden history of the Wayfinders has reminded me of a gaggle of questions I have about Fitch. I'll whittle them down to two:
1. Just to confirm, the ysoki kids accompanying her are her children, correct? Pretty certain of this but just caught a reference to them as her grandchildren.
2. What was Fitch's role in the faction prior to the Scoured Stars incident? Obviously she must have been pretty high-ranking to be overseeing the Master of Stars refit, but was she or was she not the faction leader? (I can see apparent rationales for why she wouldn't have joined the expedition either way.)
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1. Just to confirm, the ysoki kids accompanying her are her children, correct? Pretty certain of this but just caught a reference to them as her grandchildren.
I suspect it could be both by this point! But the idea is that it's mostly her children.
2. What was Fitch's role in the faction prior to the Scoured Stars incident? Obviously she must have been pretty high-ranking to be overseeing the Master of Stars refit, but was she or was she not the faction leader? (I can see apparent rationales for why she wouldn't have joined the expedition either way.)
Unspecified, though I suspect she was probably a senior Wayfinder who worked on the Master of Stars (thus explaining her not being present for the initial Scoured Stars incident). I'd likely explain her as being very senior within the faction, but also very likely not present during the events of the Scoured Stars, which means there might have been a more senior member who perished.
Okay, now that I finally have SFS 2-00 in hand, I can ask:
Roughly 80% of the Starfinder Society's personnel were lost in the Scoured Stars event. What percentage was rescued in the Scoured Stars Invasion (1-99)? (2-00 says hundreds of Starfinders were rescued, but since we don't know the grand totals...) From side sources, we also know that most of the Exo-Guardians trapped in the Scoured Stars didn't survive, and it appears neither did the former faction leaders of the Exo-Guardians or Wayfinders.
Rather than nail you down on hard numbers, I'd accept "Most" "About half" or "Some" as an answer to "How many Starfinders made it home?" :)
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Okay, now that I finally have SFS 2-00 in hand, I can ask:
Roughly 80% of the Starfinder Society's personnel were lost in the Scoured Stars event. What percentage was rescued in the Scoured Stars Invasion (1-99)? (2-00 says hundreds of Starfinders were rescued, but since we don't know the grand totals...) From side sources, we also know that most of the Exo-Guardians trapped in the Scoured Stars didn't survive, and it appears neither did the former faction leaders of the Exo-Guardians or Wayfinders.
Rather than nail you down on hard numbers, I'd accept "Most" "About half" or "Some" as an answer to "How many Starfinders made it home?" :)
Maybe another 20-30%? That's kind of what I've been going off of!
Rougher than I thought, but makes sense!
Okay, one more if I can get away with it: What Tier is the Master of Stars?
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The mini stat blocks for VC Arvin describe him as a True Neutral Mystic. Do we know who/what Arvin worships - or where he believes he's getting his Mystic-ness from, if not a god/philosophy? I don't recall it coming up in any of the briefings, although I've not read them all.
(As a GM, I find Arvin the trickiest Starfinder NPC to portray and make interesting. Having a deity/similar as a crutch would provide some flavour for the ol' scamp.)
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Starfinder Society Developer
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The mini stat blocks for VC Arvin describe him as a True Neutral Mystic. Do we know who/what Arvin worships - or where he believes he's getting his Mystic-ness from, if not a god/philosophy? I don't recall it coming up in any of the briefings, although I've not read them all.
(As a GM, I find Arvin the trickiest Starfinder NPC to portray and make interesting. Having a deity/similar as a crutch would provide some flavour for the ol' scamp.)
Eloritu, the tattoo on his head is the nod to that.
That being said, when we added in Arvin, we didn't really have too much to go on about Eloritu, beyond what was in the Core Rulebook. I'd like to explore this in the future, but we need to have a bit more printed / established before I end up going too much more into this connection.
Is it wrong of me to wish that Starfinder's game mechanics were more like Pathfinder 2e? :(
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Is it wrong of me to wish that Starfinder's game mechanics were more like Pathfinder 2e? :(
Not at all! Different people enjoy different systems!
I know I've been running a (temporarily on hiatus) home campaign with Pathfinder Second Edition set in Druma. I've really come to appreciate a lot of elements of the system, and have even dipped my toe into finally freelancing for second edition!
On top of that I've been playing a bunch of Wrath & Glory (the Warhammer 40,000 RPG) that is SUPER narrative-focused, and has been a welcome diversion from the very crunchy nature of Pathfinder/Starfinder! :)
Thursty!
What is happening with the new chapter of the Perplexity in this age of coronavirus?
In retrospect, I didn't see any tables of it at Gencon. Are you waiting until we can buy you beer in person to run it?
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Thursty!
What is happening with the new chapter of the Perplexity in this age of coronavirus?
In retrospect, I didn't see any tables of it at Gencon. Are you waiting until we can buy you beer in person to run it?
Yeah, waiting for a return to person before I run anything. Though I MAY end up running something in the next few months if I can get stuff for it together?
Currently, I'm focusing a lot of my efforts on finishing playable text for 1-98 so other GMs can run that.
Thursty!
What is happening with the new chapter of the Perplexity in this age of coronavirus?
In retrospect, I didn't see any tables of it at Gencon. Are you waiting until we can buy you beer in person to run it?
Yeah, waiting for a return to person before I run anything. Though I MAY end up running something in the next few months if I can get stuff for it together?
Currently, I'm focusing a lot of my efforts on finishing playable text for 1-98 so other GMs can run that.
Awesome, thanks!
I agree; it's...really important to get a public 1-98 right.
Hey, what does Sanjaval Spaceflight Systems think of the Starfinder Society going off to a different company for their new starship design?
More serious, nuts-and-bolts question now: Are the Starfinder starships going to be revised in light of the Core Rulebook's rebalancing of starship weapon costs? Obviously no one's going to go back and revise enemy vessels in older scenarios, but going forward, those enemy vessels will presumably be designed using the new Build Points costs. Meanwhile, under the new math the Pegasus ends up not too far off, but some of the Drake models end up overpowered by a full tier's worth of BP.
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Starfinder Society Developer
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More serious, nuts-and-bolts question now: Are the Starfinder starships going to be revised in light of the Core Rulebook's rebalancing of starship weapon costs? Obviously no one's going to go back and revise enemy vessels in older scenarios, but going forward, those enemy vessels will presumably be designed using the new Build Points costs. Meanwhile, under the new math the Pegasus ends up not too far off, but some of the Drake models end up overpowered by a full tier's worth of BP.
Nothing to announce right now. However, it is on my radar!
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Digital Developer
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Greetings, Mister Hillman!
Can you reveal official plans or schedule for Into the Perplexity trials after the first? Or, if series officially canceled, some hints-guides-materials for unofficilal run - maybe story arc points and themes for seven quests left?
Nothing to announce at the moment! Something I may one day be going back to :)