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So I'm gearing up to run this for some experienced players who are also die-hard PFS GMs.
I want to get crazy with races.
Really crazy.
Race-builder crazy.
I'm giving my players instructions to create alien races with the race building rules, as well as to agree on some backstory details like a common homeworld for these races.
They'll start the adventure coming out of cryostatis in an area that then connects to A1 (as backup power to that area runs out). Due to the cave entrance being underwater, I don't expect they'll be able to exit for a while, possibly not till they accidentally rescue Khonnir. (I will switch out one of his prepared spells for Water Breathing.)
Then they can leave, visit Torch, learn Common, and find out just how far from home they really are.
I know I'll have to carefully tailor the loot in the early areas to what they'll need, having no access to shops yet.
Any suggestions? Especially in motivating PCs who effectively can't go home to carve out their niche as heroes on a new world?
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Well, the motivation for the ongoing AP would be different. Normally there's a sort of "somebody's screwing with our country and we don't like that" vibe; you'd need something more like "we have unresolved bussiness with the ship that brought us".
Talk with your players about this, and just ASK them to make characters that would be motivated by these kinds of things.
If you read book 1, you'll notice that Divinity plucked a lot of aliens from primitive worlds. I'd recommend that PCs are also from a primitive world - different from Golarion, but also that they don't already understand all the technology of Divinity.
Are there stats for little green men from mars?
Are there stats for little green men from mars?
Martian Man hunter was the first thing to some to my mind.
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I would like to add that compared to some of the other "I wanna do something different to this AP", this proposal is rather on the sane and plausible side. It could certainly work.
With regards to player motivation: I find that it's most straightforward to just tell the players what sort of campaign I'd like to run, and ask them to make characters with motivations that work with that. (There's some give and take here of course; first I extensively consult which campaign captures their imagination.) I don't accept PCs that aren't interested in anything, though I can work with some PCs being willing to tag along with whatever the group is doing. Obviously, at least several PCs have to really be motivated otherwise the group's not going anywhere. That's why just telling them "make characters motivated for THIS" is so ideal.
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My personal twist on the AP will be trying to bring in much more of the barbarian horde society, and the other factions lurking in the shadows. I envision a great Numerian civil war featuring crusaders, 'allo 'allo clerics of Brigh, Kyton research labs, Unity cyborging Hellknights, meddling from Lashunta/Elven extraterrestrials and so forth.
I have a player playing a Sergal whose whole reason to be against the league is that they're psionic and the league ripped them open countless times to learn her odd anatomy until a attempt to crack her head open created a psionic burst unlocking their potential.
Aliens in IG's isnt that bad if done right, so far the few players I have had who went the route of aliens turn out pretty well especially since there is a refuge of aliens in Numeria ran by a witchwyrd and a lashunta.
None of these players would have a reason to speak common, which should present huge difficulties.
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None of these players would have a reason to speak common, which should present huge difficulties.
Yeah, that will be a problem. I'm surprised that the Technology Guide doesn't have any sort of translator in it. Though I do see one in Lords of Rust. Rather than just leave one of those lying around, I may do something to play up the horror factor.
One or all of them will wake from stasis able to read and speak Androffan. Careful examination will reveal implanted skillslots, with Androffan language skillchips inserted. This will give them a common language with at least someone on Golarion (Baine knows Androffan).
And of course, this raises the question of who had them implanted without their consent, and what else might be implanted.
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I dunno about giving them Androffan. I kinda liked that at first, understanding text was sporadic, the result of occasional castings of Comprehend Languages.
The Technology Guide does seem rather... limited. Not nearly as many implants and gadgets as I'd like. But that's fine; it presents a good framework for describing technology in PF. From thereon I can convert stuff from my Shadowrun collection.
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Wouldn't it just be better run original adventure with alien party? Iron God's better points are about mystery that you wouldn't have with aliens <_<
If you look at the Kasatha in book 1, those guys were basically primitives snatched by the Divinity crew and put in a habitat for observation. Nobody explained stuff to them.
Meeting aliens would be generally as mysterious to them, because they only know the ones from their own planet. They don't know anything more about Divinity than normal Golarion natives. And they don't know much about Golarion either.
And imagine running into the one member from your species that did get educated by the Androffans (book 4); that would be quite a reunion!
Alien PCs? Maybe [self-promoting] skindancers? [/self-promoting] There's also a pic and more Golarion-specific history in Wayinder #7.
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Wouldn't it just be better run original adventure with alien party? Iron God's better points are about mystery that you wouldn't have with aliens <_<
We're nearing the end of book 1 now, and it's working fairly well, details on what I changed when I get a chance at a longer post.
The campaign's definitely hitting a different set of mystery points than as designed. The chief of them being the details of their abduction, and what, if any, way there is home.
Part of me really wants to see the Dralasite, Vrusk, Yazirian, Osakar, Humma, and Ifshnit done up by your players for this using the race guide.
OTOH that's a 6 person group, which is quite large. As a more on-point thought, what about replacement characters?
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None of these players would have a reason to speak common, which should present huge difficulties.I'd think learning a local language would be relatively high priority for them... it *would* be interesting to run a game where no-one shared a language til level 2 and they all put a point in language, thou.
Also, elven is spoken on a couple different worlds in Pathfinder. Some overlap is possible.
They are from a world too distant to have ever heard Elven. But the influence of the outer gods is strong on their world, letting them pick a dialect of Aklo as a starting language.
I switched one of Khonnir's languages for modern Aklo, letting them communicate a little.
And yes, the downtime to level up from level 2 to 3 included a whirlwind lesson in Common.
Replacement characters are going to be tough if I want to stick to an all-alien party. Given that they've claimed the scroll of resurrection for rescuing Khonnir alive, it may not come up unless things go very badly.
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It's gone well so far. Our monk had to drop, but we were able to pick up a replacement member out of a wrecked ship on the road to Scrapwall.
They're just about to break into Hellion's domain under Scrapwall now.
But I have a new question for those who have run the AP. I want to start hinting at the possibility of a way home buried in Silver Mount. Any ideas to hint at that without giving away the full potential of the Divinity Drive too early?
Are you going to hint there's a shuttle, a star map (but they'll need to know how to recognize where they come from), and a technical artifact that with a very high astrogation check can open a portal anywhere in the galaxy in Silver Mount? Because you need all three things plus some knowledge and skills to pull it off. It's theoretically possible but not practically so.