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Since the Powers-that-Be are currently developing Starfinder’s adventuring materials very slowly for the excellent Starfinder space opera game, taking an entire year just to release Dead Suns, let us instead cannibalize the current Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path for Starfinder and see what happens to a group of characters going where few others dare tread, shall we?
The adaptation will be ‘as best as can be done’ to fit the Ruins of Azlant into the Pact Worlds mileau of Starfinder. In the fulsomeness of time this may prove to be awesome, or way the Hell off-base, or merely mediocre. For now, it’ll scratch an itch and serve its purpose. Hopefully this thread will show that it is possible to adapt other Pathfinder AP’s and 3pp campaigns to Starfinder.
Our Heroes
- ’Gyro’, CG male Ysoki Outlaw Mechanic (exocortex); wanna-be Rocket Raccoon. Athletic campaign trait (ACP reduced by {⅓ character level} for Acrobatics and Athletics).
- Raia, CG female Damaya Lashunta Scholar Technomancer; wanna-be Indiana Jones. Healthy campaign trait (+1 Fort saves).
- Ninura, CG female Kasatha Priest of Weydan Mystic (healing connection); Expert Explorer campaign trait (+1 Culture).
- Grath, NG male ‘human’ Ace Pilot Soldier with a fondness for explosives. Knows how to read and speak Archaic Azlanti.
Prologue
Vaylen-Narani Industries (VNI) had established a foothold in a secluded star system unimaginatively dubbed ‘Our Solar System’ by VNI deep within the Vast shortly before the Gap began. During the chaos of the Gap and the ensuing re-establishment of cultural identities many records were destroyed or lost. With such a vague name it is understandable that it took three centuries before a chance scanning of records for lost opportunities uncovered ‘Our Solar System’ in 313 AG. In 314 AG VNI quietly dispatched survey teams to reassess the potential value of 'Our Solar System' in light of current and projected market demands over the coming decades and century. When the survey teams returned, one world in particular shows particular promise, the planet of Ancorato, named after the captain of that assigned survey ship in 316 AG.
Ancorato and its solar system are not ‘merely’ deep within the Vast, it is deep within the Vast. VNI’s astrogators settled on an acceptable route through the Drift requiring two stops at the outer edges of nameless star systems currently considered to be of little import to VNI interests. VNI’s ships rarely use anything better than a Signal Basic Drift engine, resulting in each leg of the journey to Ancorato requiring (15d6) days’ travel time. On average, each trip to or from Ancorato takes 7½ weeks (52 days, 12 hours), often rounding up to 8 full weeks taking a day at each way station and allowing 36 hours’ layover time at Ancorato for each ‘part’ of a given trip - i.e. 3 days’ total layover in Ancorato.
A hush-hush element of the colony is the presence of what are believed could be ancient Azlanti Star Empire ruins. Preliminary carbon-dating suggests these ruins pre-date the Azlanti Star Empire by a staggering 10-15 thousand years, perhaps more, perhaps less thanks to the Gap. Either way, part of the interview process for those coming along aboard the VNIS Peregrin was to attempt to hone in on those with any applicable archaeological expertise that may prove worthwhile to VNI as a way to gain favor with the governments of the Pact Worlds in dealing with the Azlanti Star Empire. Not much is expected to come of it. In for a credit, in for a mega-credit! VNI has certainly invested more than 1 or 2 mega-credits in this endeavor...
The VNIS Stoppergrin’s Delivery delivered its cargo of colonists shortly before planting season begins on Ancorato in late Calistril (February) of 317 AG, with the VNIS Peregrin arriving six months later in mid-Arodus (August) of 317 AG with additional colonists and supplies for the burgeoning colony of Talmandor. So named in a time-honored demonstration of corporate nepotism/asskissery after the current CEO of Vaylen-Narani Industries, Talmandor Tifflestoppergrin.
Ancorato proper is a predominantly island world with few large land masses above sea level. Captain Ancorato’s supposition on her survey reports believes that the world had been ravaged by an exceptionally devastating series of comet strikes at some point in its geologically recent past, resulting in a world ripe in resources whilst occupied by no identifiable sentient species that would concern those of strong ethical bent. In time Ancorato may become a tourist destination, but for now it is VNI’s unspoiled frontier world and star system to exploit. All they have to do is be patient and quiet lest they be discovered by the Consortium Mega Corporation which has a reputation for claim-jumping its lesser rivals in areas of ‘private concern’ to the powers-that-be in Absolom Station.
Ancorato and its colony of Talmandor is a calculated risk by VNI. If their covert enterprise is as successful as it promises to be, VNI will be catapulted to the top echelons of Pact World corporations. As such the Talmandor Venture Co., LLC was spun off as a technically independent enterprise. VNI proper will not unduly suffer should the Talmandor colony fail, although Talmandor the CEO will assuredly be updating their resume if it does.
The VNIS Peregrin is a Kevolari Venture-class freighter transporting some 180 tons of cargo and 50-odd colonists including the Manager of Talmandor, Ramona Avandth. The Peregrin enters into low orbit as the Ruins of Azlant begins in earnest for Our Heroes.
... to be continued ...
Preliminary Commentary
One of the things that stands out about Starfinder in comparison to Pathfinder is that coming back from being killed is far less likely. reincarnate is not even an option before 10th level while raise dead does not come along until any earlier than 13th level. Not dying once a character hits 0 hp requires some unspent Resolve Points, which are somewhat similar to Hero Points save that (a) they replenish; and (b) are used to do all kinds of things, including - but not limited to - casting some of the nastier spells, including the long-distance transportation spells such as shadow walk. Even if a character is part of a group of 10th-13th level, death attacks/effects thwart both reincarnate and raise dead in Starfinder. stabilize is a must-have spell since it can spare one’s allies from burning up RP, at least from a glance at the system. I am confident that Our Heroes will become intimately acquainted with Starfinder’s dying mechanics in short order.
Another nice thing to see is that there are no age categories in Starfinder. Nor is being a Small character an almost-mandatory consideration for spell casters. These changes I for one welcome. No more venerable gnomes starting with a 23 Charisma, elves starting with a 23 Intelligence or dwarves starting with a 23 Wisdom.
As an aside on ability scores in Starfinder, it is possible to attain very high ability scores without magical belts of Studly McMuffinpants and the like. Presuming one starts a given ability score at an 18, 4 level advancements can add another 4 points for a 22 at 20th level, whilst a mk 3 (+6) personal enhancement adds a +6 enhancement bonus for a total of 28 (+9 bonus). As the equipment table stands, you don’t want to take your light armor wearing character’s Dexterity above a 27 since the best maximum Dexterity allowed by armor in the game that I could find caps at a +8. The best theoretically possible ability score array with three mk 3 personal enhancements is 28, 28, 28, 22, 18, 18 in whichever order. Given the default of point-buy these days, and the theoretical nastiness of high-level Starfinder play, even this ability score array probably won’t come close to making a character unkillable. It’ll help ... some. In practice ability score arrays will probably be significantly lower well into the teen-levels.
Bonus types are vastly truncated and often far smaller in scope that we’re used to seeing in Pathfinder. Almost everything falls under one of four bonus types: divine, enhancement, insight and luck. Circumstance modifiers are common. Rarely are any of these particularly high. Feats have been largely condensed and many have been overhauled, thankfully. It only takes 2 feats to snag Weapon Focus with all of your proficient weapons - and if you’re a less-than-full-BAB character, Weapon Focus improves from a +1 bonus to a +2 bonus. There are a plethora of changes that overall I am quite happy with, although I do have my nitpicks about some of the feats. All in all though, I’m very pleased with Starfinder.
Critical hits received a much-needed simplification. You only threaten to critical on a natural 20. Ever. Critical hits “only” deal double damage. However, many have additional effects that the target gets to save against. At high-level play many of these are nasty. One of the milder ones is a 6d6 bleed. Ouch!
Lastly, the introduction of Hit Points (hp or HP) and Stamina Points (SP). Everything has both, with SP representing flesh wounds, bruises, minor scrapes and other annoyances. Characters need a 10-minute breather and spend 1 RP (Resolve Point) to replenish all of their SP, permitting them to continue kicking butt and taking stuff. SP is damaged first, always, period, end of story. SP are derived from a critter’s Con modifier, class/HD and, if they have it, Toughness feat. SP accrues a lot faster than hp, so in some ways Starfinder critters are tougher than Pathfinder critters.
Or are they? Given the damage output by Starfinder weaponry starting about item level 10, I’m not so sure. We’ll have to see how things play out when the time comes. *grin*
HP represent a critter’s physical durability and slowly increase from the starting combination of race-based and class-based hp, with class levels adding more hp as levels are accrued. Critters start dying at 0 hp and you need RP to not just up and die. Most critters that are not PCs simply die when you put ‘em down to 0 hp, speeding up play that much faster. The Diehard feat comes into its own in Starfinder when it lets you not only stabilize when dying but put yourself back up to 1 hp so you can try to save your bacon from an undesirable trip to the Boneyard.
NPC conversions
Let’s cobble together a Starfinder stat block template. Note that, as usual, the ‘standard stat block’ has a nasty tendency to omit useful information that the harried GM might be too busy to remember. In my experience the more information included for ease of reference, the better. Monsters appear to only get hp, but NPCs built as PCs should get all of the stuff. Again, later material by Paizo seems likely to make this moot ... but if we’re in need of stat-blocking sample characters this format should prove more complete than a bog-standard critter stat block.
.gender species Class #
AL Size Type (subtype)
Init +#; Senses sense # ft.; Perception +#
Defense_________________ HP # ; SP # ; RP #
EAC #; KAC #; KAC vs combat maneuvers # (KAC +8)
Fort +# ; Reflex +# ; Will +#
Defensive Abilities if any
Offense
Speed # ft.
Melee weapon +# (#d#+# X)
Ranged weapon +# (#d#+# X)
Offensive Abilities if any
Spell-like Abilities (CL #xx)
Known Xx Spells (CL #xx)
(# known) SL (DC #) #/day x, x, x
(# known) 0-level (DC #) x, x, x, x
Statistics
Str #; Dex #; Con #; Int #; Wis #; Cha #
BAB +#;
Skills X +#, X +#, X +#, X +#
Feats Xx, Xx, Xx
Languages Common, Xx
SQ Xx
Gear xx, xx, xx at bulk #
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Fortunately, this is a Starfinder conversion. There are no annoying feat taxes to make your stuff, all you need are the materials, skills and tools. Our Heroes have the skills covered, and they will only get better unless they are all eaten first. The colony and the inevitable piles of stuff will surely address the materials and tools.
Here is where we begin deviating from The Script of Ruins of Azlant for Starfinder. Instead of transporting more colonists among whom Our Heroes are slightly-better-than-most Named Mooks, the VNIS Peregrin is delivering its cargo and the colony’s dedicated archaeological team/specialist troubleshooters, i.e., Our Heroes / your Starfinder characters, plus the Colony Manager. A Starfinder colony is no mere bunch of semi-literate carpenters, farmers and laborers with a dozen slightly more competent PC-types playing Management and Security. There is no such thing as NPC classes in Starfinder. Vaylen-Narani Industries has anywhere from “a few” to “several” mega-credits wrapped up in an interstellar colony of significant importance, so they’re sending the best they can recruit on the sly plus the Colony Manager.
In other words the first wave of colonists are were highly-skilled professionals covering a gamut of professions necessary for establishing, operating and thriving as part of a corporate colony. They were only missing the guiding hand of VNI management and a small group of persons whose sole purpose is to keep the bigger nasties away. Unfortunately for Talmandor, VNI did not send the Peregrin fast enough ...
This version of Ramona is an excellent all-around manager of both people and corporate assets, able to make both sides happy without bankrupting her employer. She loves her work, she loves people ... and she’s in for a Hell of a rude surprise here shortly.
female Human “Negotiator” Icon Envoy 5
NG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +11
Defense_________________ HP 34 ; SP 35 ; RP 6
EAC 18; KAC 19; KAC vs combat maneuvers 27 (KAC +8)
Fort +2 ; Reflex +7 ; Will +4
Defensive Abilities Not in the Face (DC 16)
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee tactical dueling sword +3 (1d6+3 S)
Ranged thunderstrike sonic pistol +6 vs EAC @ 40’ range incr. (1d8+1 So; shots: 10/battery) or frag grenade mk 2 +6 @ 20’ range incr to grid point (explode: 2d6 P, 15’ r.; Reflex DC 15 ½)
Statistics
Str 10; Dex 16; Con 13; Int 16; Wis 10; Cha 18
BAB +3;
Skills Culture +11, Diplomacy +12, Perception +11, Piloting +11, Profession (accountant) +11, Profession (corporate professional) +11, Profession (manager [theme]) +12, Sense Motive +11
Feats Basic Melee Weapon Proficiency, Grenade Proficiency, Improved Initiative, Light Armor Proficiency, Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Profession (manager)), Skill Focus (Sense Motive), Small Arm Proficiency, Weapon Specialization (basic melee weapons, grenades and small arms)
Languages Brethedan, Common, Kasethan, Lashunta, Shirren, Triaxian, Vercite, Vesk, Yoski
SQ Envoy Improvisation (Clever Improvisations, Hurry, Not in the Face), Expertise (1d6+1) [Culture, Diplomacy, Sense Motive], Expertise Talent (Diplomacy), Skill Expertise (Culture, Diplomacy)
Gear D-suit mk 1 armor with infrared sensors, tactical dueling sword, thunderstrike sonic pistol, clear spindle aeon stone, iridescent spindle aeon stone, 2 mk 2 frag grenades and 11 spare batteries at bulk 2
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As a dual-purpose Campaign Journal / Pathfinder-to-Starfinder AP conversion I won’t be boring everyone with the details of scenes that they should be playing out for themselves other than noting if anything of significance happened to Our Heroes and any amusing dialog.
Edit pertaining to the first post:
Drift travel takes a mere (1d6) days to return to Absalom Station which cuts down on the essential-to-the-campaign long, slow trip to get to Talmandor. Adjust the travel time to get out here to six separate 'jumps' through the Vast at a total of 30d6 days, solving the problem of how long it takes the Vaylen-Narani starships to get to Ancorato. It also addresses what makes the long slog potentially worth it: the half-a-week-ish trip back once the cargo is loaded!
We now resume our regularly scheduled mayhem...
Unlike the Peregrin of sail and wood, the VNIS Peregrin has a crew of 6, as follows:
- Captain Jakob Markosi (LN male human), employee of Vaylen-Narani Industries, loyal to his crew, his starship and his passengers, in that order.
- First Mate/Pilot Naerath (NG female human), a tall green-eyed beauty who is steadfastly loyal to her skipper.
- Science Officer Tyra Swain (N female human), a quiet woman possessed of that subtle presence that is felt without consciously realizing it.
- Boatswain/1st Gunner Raearg (N male Vesk), burly Vesk stereotypical bruiser who is good at his job of operating the ship’s cargo lifter.
- Quartermaster, Purser and ship’s Engineer “Bean Counter” Brady (LN female halfling), cargo chief and nominal cook with a predilection for bean dishes. If she’s not careful, some stretches of the trip out from Absalom Station are ... robust until the air scrubbers kick in.
- 2nd Gunner NPC of your own creation, if you’re so inclined. There is a 2nd Gunner, although this person is noteworthy as the only one of the Peregrin’s crew that wears a jacket in a flattering shade of crimson.
.. .adjusted and continued from the first post ...
The VNIS Peregrin bucks as it descends from space into the upper atmosphere of Ancorato on approach to Talmandor’s landing beacon. Science officer Swain’s quiet, persistent voice hails Talmandor’s comm station only to receive static in reply every few minutes. A slight frown accompanies a slight downward crinkle on her forehead as she switches over to the ship’s sensors after her third attempt. Several minutes pass as the Kevolari Venture-class ship clears the stratosphere, entering the troposphere.
“Captain, something’s not right here.”
Colony Manager Ramona Avandth’s concern is immediate and plain while deferring to the Captain for the moment. With a small gesture she beckons Our Heroes a bit further forward from the rear of the bridge.
“Swain, center Talmandor into our main viewing window on translucent, if you please.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
The holographic display changes, shifting the ship’s standard atmospheric in-flight display to either side while displaying the colony of Talmandor in the larger central viewing window in a translucent display that doesn’t interfere with Naerath’s piloting of Peregrin.
Swain relays what she has learned in her quiet voice, matching the on-screen imagery to her commentary, slipping in a wry comment regarding VNI’s unwillingness to upgrade the ship’s sensor suite to something more robust. Perhaps something with thermal imaging, which would have been a great help in determining if anyone was alive behind the walls of the colony’s buildings.
There is not a lot to say about a tiny colony on an unsettled planet under normal circumstances. Pre-fab buildings, a comm antennae cluster atop one, a small wind turbine, an ultra-efficient solar collector, and a landing pad 300’ out large enough to accommodate the Peregrin from the edge of the beach was sited so that a ship’s thrusters wouldn’t glass half of the beach with each take-off. A floating dock connects the landing pad to the shore. When cargo has to be unloaded, power can be directed from the collector or wind turbine to ‘lock’ the dock into a solid configuration to permit stable loading and unloading of cargo. In the case of power failure the dock incorporates an analog backup system permitting a team of mechanics the ability to fairly quickly ‘lock’ or ‘unlock’ the dock.
“Where’s the ship’s boat?” Naerath and Gyro commented simultaneously. They’d grown rather fond of each other during the months-long flight out here.
Stoppergrin’s Delivery had left one of its ship’s boats with the colony for use during the months before Peregrin’s arrival.
“There was no sign of wreckage during our descent in the immediate area,” Swain.
“Please, please someone tell me Arkley didn’t abandon the colony,” Ramona.
“If that’s what you want to hear, Bossette,” Gyro.
Instead, what there is to say is that no one can be seen, the colony’s comms emit dead static ... and there are clear signs of battle damage, some buildings appear to have been burned out. As the competent hands of Naerath coasted the Peregrin on final approach to the landing pad a hundred yards out from the beach Swain patched in the ship’s external microphones while using the computer to filter out the noise from the ship’s thrusters. The only sounds heard at this distance are the lapping of the crystalline blue waves over reefs and sand, plus the flight of local avians from the evergreen treetops surrounding the colony.
Grath spoke in the quiet of the bridge, “If anyone remains they ought to know we are here.” Ah Grath, honorary captain of the starship Obvious.
As the Peregrin began to lower herself onto the landing pad, Ramona turned to Our Heroes after quietly conferring with Captain Markosi.
“When this island was first surveyed two potential sites for the colony were identified. This was chosen as the better of the two, making the second site the colony’s designated evac point. Captain Markosi is of the opinion that any survivors may have taken the ship’s boat to the evac point. I’d like you to disembark here and check out Talmandor. We need to know what happened and who is still here. In the meanwhile we’ll fly over to the evac point. Comm when you’re done here.”
“Roger that, Bossette. Gonna miss ya, Freckles!” Gyro smacks a peck on Naerath’s check.
A bit exasperatedly, Ramona is also relieved at the amiable familiarity of the Ysoki, “Bossette! Gyro, you little ...”
The Peregrin clunks and thumps onto the duracrete landing pad.
“Grab your stuff, get off my boat and take care for now, ruffians,” Markosi says with a wry grin.
“You hear that, Grath? Ruffians!” Gyro snarks.
“We are good looking ruffians I’ll have you know,” is Grath’s deadpan reply.
“By your standards?! HAH! C’mon man, you think animal-sourced leather is the in-fashion and holography is magic! Gimme a break.”
Rolling their eyes in unison Raia and Ninura shake their heads having preferred Tyra Swain’s quiet company during the trip, “Boys”.
The bantering subsides to silence as Our Heroes check and load their weapons before advancing down the ramp. The Peregrin’s idling thrusters roar to life once the quartet make it halfway down the floating dock towards Talmandor, the ship swiftly ascending to 300 yards overhead before swinging her bow to port and heading north above the water towards the second evac point.
... wait, when’re we gonna kill stuff?! ...
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The Lonely Dock
This is a bit of a change-up from The Script.
As the Peregrin’s thrusters fall from overwhelmingly loud to a dim bit of background noise the insects and avians in the area wait a minute before resuming their late summer susurrus. The floating dock extends from the duracrete landing pad all the way to above the high tide mark on the beach ahead of you some 250 feet.Where you are standing the dock floats over a shallow sand bar where the ebb and flow of the sea churning up enough sediment to obscure the white sand beneath the water. At the far end of the floating dock the sun reflects off the metal skin of the colony’s exploration buggy, parked askew as if it had been braked suddenly for disembarkation here.
When not ‘locked’ into its freight handling configuration the loading dock is about as stable as the ship’s boat described in The Script, although it cannot be capsized, is much tougher and has no bow or stern to worry about falling overboard from. Otherwise run the encounter with the grindylows - and add in the fuath gremlin who was chillin’ with his grindylow buddies until the roar of the starship scattered them beneath the loading dock. All of them attempt to flee when reduced to ½ hp or fewer.
CE Small Aberration (aquatic)
Init +2; darkvision 60’; Perception +4
EAC 14, KAC 15; KAC vs combat maneuvers 23 (31 vs reposition and trip)
.hp 6 each
Fort +1; Refl +2; Will +0
Speed 15’, swim 30’; jet 200’
Melee tactical spear +1 (1d6+1 P; WQ: analog, block) or bite +1 (1d3+1, WQ: archaic)
Ranged thrown tactical spear +2 (1d6+1 P; 20’ range incr.)
Special Attack tangling tentacles (swift) +6 trip
Str +1, Dex +2, Con +1, Int -1, Wis +0, Cha -1
BAB +0
Feats Basic Melee Weapon Proficiency (B), Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills Athletics +5 (+13 to swim), Perception +4, Stealth +13; Racial +4 Stealth
Language Aquan
SQ amphibious
Gear 1 tactical spear
Tangling Tentacles (Ex) Although a grindylow can’t attack to cause damage with its six tentacles, these wriggling legs constantly writhe and reach out to tug at and trip adjacent foes. During the grindylow’s turn, it can make a single trip attack against any adjacent foe as a swift action. It gains a +4 racial bonus on trip attacks made with its tangling tentacles, and if it fails to trip a foe, that creature can’t attempt to trip the grindylow in retaliation.
Identifying Skill Life Science (DC 11) - DC 16 reveals jet (speed) and tangling tentacles (special attack).
CE Tiny Fey (aquatic)
Init +5; darkvision 120’, low-light vision; Perception +4
EAC 14, KAC 15; KAC vs combat maneuvers 23
.hp 9, DR 5/cold iron
Fort +2; Refl +2; Will +1; Resist cold 10; SR 12
Weaknesses vulnerable to fire and sunlight
Speed 20’, climb 10’, swim 30’
Melee claw or bite +1 (1d3-2, min. 1 pt.)
Ranged thrown carbon edge shuriken (1d4-2, min. 1 pt; 10’ range incr.)
Special Attack congeal water (DC 10)
Spell-like Abilities (CL 1st)
- At-will ‒ daze (DC 9), token spell
- 1/day ‒ grease (DC 10)
Str -2, Dex +1, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha -1
BAB +0
Feats Improved Initiative, Special Weapon Proficiency (carbon edge shuriken) (B), Toughness (B)
Skills Athletics +10, Perception +4, Stealth +9, Survival +8; Racial +8 Athletics, +4 Stealth, +4 Survival
Language Aquan
SQ amphibious
Gear 10 carbon edge shuriken
Congeal Water (Su) Once per day, a fuath can surround a creature in a thin layer of magically viscous water as a standard action at a range of 30 feet. A target that fails a DC 10 Reflex save becomes entangled and must hold its breath or risk drowning. The target or an adjacent creature can spend a full-round action on its turn scraping off the clinging fluid, allowing a new Reflex save with a +2 bonus; otherwise, the effect lasts for 1d4 minutes. A fuath can use this ability even if there is no source of water nearby. The save DC is Charisma-based and includes a +1 racial bonus.
Vulnerable to Sunlight (Ex) A fuath gremlin takes 1 point of Constitution damage after every hour it is exposed to sunlight. Water of a depth of at least 1 foot negates this harmful effect.
Identifying Skill Mysticism (DC 12) - DC 17 reveals DR/cold iron, fire and sunlight vulnerabilities; DC 22 reveals congeal water special attack and that it has minor spell-like abilities; DR 27+ identifies the specific spell-like abilities.
Yay, we have the first combat encounter of Starfinder’s Ruins of Azlant all converted over, eager to kill as many PCs as possible. Welcome to Ancorato, gentlecritters.
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Let’s try out Starfinder’s combat system with Our Heroes against a pair of converted grindylows and the fuath gremlin. Fortunately for Our Heroes, this is a gremlin instead of a pugwampi. Unfortunately for Our Heroes, they don’t have any cold iron ammunition or weapons. Why would they? After this encounter, they’ll probably correct this deficit at their earliest opportunity.
The GM has already decided that the grindylows and gremlin are aware of the player characters and, for the sake of simplicity, rules that they have taken 10 on their Stealth checks to hide beneath the floating dock in the murky waters, resulting in an opposed Perception DC of 19 for the gremlin or 23 for the grindylows. Our Heroes have the typical spread of Perception bonuses for 1st level characters, so the odds are not in their favor. Grath’s natural 5 fails by a sizable margin whilst Gyro, Raia and Ninura roll natural checks of 18, 16 and 17 respectively for totals of 22, 19 and 20. All three of them notice the hiding gremlin, none pick up on the grindylows, who are awarded a surprise round.
Initiative order is 18, 18, 20, 19 natural checks for the PCs whilst the gremlin’s natural check is a 10 and the pair of grindylows throw a natural check of 2. The resultant initiative order on the first full round of combat is Grath, Gyro, Raia, Ninura, gremlin, grindylows.
Randomly the grindylows decide that Gyro, being about their size, will be the easiest kill, especially from surprise, so they emerge from the side of the floating dock nearest the ysoki and attempt to skewer him with their tactical spears. Unlike in Pathfinder, one does not lose their entire Dexterity bonus to AC. Instead, the defenders’ ACs are penalized by 2 points - although this is made even simpler by awarding those that attack with surprise a +2 bonus to their attack roll against the target’s AC and being done with it. We shall do so here, improving the grindylow’s melee attack bonus from +1 to +3 against Gyro’s KAC (Kinetic AC) of 15 - the grindylows have to roll a natural 12 or better to hit. Grindylow’s are somewhat dull creatures, but they are able to use their swift actions to attempt to trip Gyro by way of their tangling tentacles special attack, so they do so - again with the benefit of surprise, improving their bonus to trip from +6 to +8 against a KAC of 23 vs combat maneuvers. Sadly, they roll quite poorly with natural 3 and natural 4 on the dice respectively.
The first attack roll is a natural 20 whilst the second is a natural 4. Now we get to see what a Starfinder critical hit is all about. Confirmation is simpler - and much more likely - in Starfinder as we find out that the confirmation roll is (20 +# attack bonus), in this case, a 23, well in excess of Gyro’s 15 KAC. The critical hit thusly confirmed, the lucky grindylow inflicts (2d6+2) 9 damage, wiping out all 8 of Gyro’s SP and dealing 1 out of his 8 hp. Ouch! Because of the tactical spear’s ‘block’ weapon quality, that specific grindylow gains a +1 enhancement bonus to AC against melee attacks from Gyro for 1 round. No one fails their Acrobatics checks during the surprise round to keep their balance.
Grath begins the first regular combat round of this fight, his hunting rifle already in-hand and equipped, so he takes aim and attempts to shoot the grindylow that just skewered his mechanic. This has the added disadvantage of having to shoot through soft cover (Gyro), so Grath’s adjusted bonus on his attack roll is a +2 (taking the +4 cover bonus to the target’s AC as a -4 penalty on the attack roll) - rolling a natural 14 for a total of 16 is sufficient to hit the grindylow’s KAC of 15 for (1d8) 4 piercing damage, pushing that grindylow into a frame of mind to retreat as fast as possible. Grath does not fail the DC 10 check to retain his balance atop the floating dock.
Gyro is threatened by two melee-armed enemies while equipped with a his own hunting rifle and he’s down to hp thanks to that critical hit from a spear. Since Acrobatics can be used untrained, Gyro does so with his +3 bonus in an attempt to leave the particularly dangerous threatened square. Due to the grindylow’s fractional CR, the DC to do so successfully is a 15, requiring a natural 12 against which Gyro’s check is a natural roll of 4. He fails to move and provokes reactions from the grindylows into taking attacks of opportunity against him. Rolling horribly both attempts to skewer the yoski for attempting to escape their clutches fails. Since they’ve already used their reaction option until their turn starts, Gyro shoots the lucky grindylow from earlier with a natural 15 using his own hunting rifle for (1d8) for 3 hp, killing it outright (-1 hp is below 0 hp and few monsters have RP - these certainly don’t). Gyro squeaks by on the Acrobatics check, making it exactly with a total of 10.
Raia with her tactical semi-automatic pistol already in hand and no longer impeded by a soft cover penalty to shoot the second grindylow, rolls a total of 8, missing wildly atop the floating dock’s mild gyrations - at least she rolled a 14 to keep her balance, so there is that. Nanura on the other hand has the grindylow’s number dialed with a natural 20 confirming on a 22 for (2d6) 8 hp, blowing the second grindylow wholly off of the dock.
The gremlin, angry that his friends just got themselves shot full of holes and filled full of lead, attempts to finish off Gyro via its congeal water special attack. Gyro rolls a 19 on the check and grins, “Looks like we’re not done with company just yet, Ruffians.” Not understanding a word of Common, the gremlin only hears landlubber blubbering, scowling up at the “raccoon man” between the plasteel planks of the floating dock.
The second round sees Our Heroes each move away from the gremlin’s perch beneath the dock before they chuck fragmentation grenades into the water with it after electing to delay until Nanuri’s action so as to make short messy work of the monster beneath the dock. Four explosions roil the water and wildly agitate that section of the floating dock, requiring each character to succeed on a DC 12 Acrobatics check to not at the least fall prone - and if they fail by 10 or more, find themselves flung into the shallow water. Grath is unceremoniously dumped into the drink 20’ away from the gremlin - so he is able to directly observe the results of their fragmentation grenades upon the gremlin.
Amazingly enough the gremlin manages to fail all four Reflex saves to halve - and thus ignore - the damage from the grenades. (4d6-20) results in 1 point of damage getting through. Cursing in a language the rest of them don’t understand - including the gremlin - “it’s innately resistant to kinetic damage - we need fire or magic!”
Instinctively sensing the threat posed by the two female humanoids still atop the dock, the gremlin attempts to make them slip and fall by way of its grease spell-like ability - neither fail.
Grath spends his round standing back up in the shallow water and slogging closer to the tiny fey, unsheathing his tactical knife as he closes.
“Fire I can’t do nothin’ about, let’s try ... hot screaming lead!”, Gyro shoots the gremlin center-of-mass with his rifle getting another 2 hp past its damage reduction.
Raia’s energy ray configured to fire fails to penetrate the gremlin’s resistance to magic but shrieks in imagined pain at the jet of magical fire. “Fire it is then.”
Nanura’s mind thrust punches through its SR and, against a Will DC of 14, the gremlin’s +0 save bonus predictably fails to hold up against the overload of psychic information to the tune of (2d10) 11 hp, putting it well below 0.
Collecting the grindylow’s spears and the gremlin’s pouch of shuriken before pushing the corpses over to a cluster of crabs a bit away from the loading dock, Our Heroes eventually collect themselves together, dry each other off via token spell and use one of Ninura’s mystic cure spells to heal Gyro of (1d8+3) 7 hp, replenishing the 1 lost hp and 6 of his 8 stamina.
“Okay, I don’t know what the Hell those things were, but I’m not hungry enough to eat any of ‘em.”
“Calamari goblins taste terrible and you should feel bad for even suggesting it.”
“What?! It is not Grath, you gotta ....” as the conversation continued for a few minutes while loose rounds of ammunition were reloaded before pressing further along the loading dock towards the exploration buggy.
.... to be continued ...
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Let us discuss quick conversions. One of the nice things for The Lost Outpost chapter of Ruins of Azlant is that the critters are mostly “aliens”, being largely aberrations, effed-up fey, magical beasts and monstrous humanoids. Sure some conversions will be faster than others, but the goal here is to swap over the stat blocks into Starfinder-usable form without having to perform the full overhauls posted previously for grindylow and the fauth gremlin. Rules of thumb: AC = KAC, EAC = (KAC-1), hp +25% (no SP or RP), modify (Sp) and skills as/if necessary.
So let’s see what we have to work with:
- The cockroach swarm in the provisions building at A3. The food stores are 200 man-years' worth of R2Es (feeds 200 people for 1 year). Thus there is no basis for the roaches’ existence here.
- The poltergeist in the chapel at A6. The characters will instead collect the pertinent information from an AV journal on Silas Weatherbee’s corpse.
- The echineisis for the “Peregrin’s Plight” encounter. Something else will be substituted in its stead.
Now we address the quick conversion stats for Our and Your Heroes to ‘interact’ with, violently or otherwise:
- Ghosthater Goblin hp 16 each, KAC 15, EAC 14, tactical spear +3 melee or +4 thrown (1d6+2) or survival knife +3 melee or +4 thrown (1d4+2); Acrobatics +4, Athletics +9 to climb, Stealth +12; Gear - scavenged stationwear flight suits, survival knives (3), tactical spear
- Clockwork Spy hp 6, KAC 15, EAC 14
- Ankheg Nymph hp 18 each, KAC 14, EAC 13; bite +8 to grab; KAC 30 vs reposition and trip
- Ankheg hp 35, KAC 16, EAC 15; bite +9 to grab; KAC 32 vs reposition and trip
- Blood Maize hp 23, KAC 12, EAC 11
- Choker hp 20 each, KAC 17, EAC 16; tentacle +6 (+10 to grab) (1d4+5)
- Boars, but come up with something alien-ish. I suggest using this instead. Otherwise use boars with hp 22 each, KAC 14, EAC 13, goring tentacles +4 (1d8+4). ;)
- Incutilis hp 22, KAC 18, EAC 17; tentacle +2 (1d4+4 plus grab @ +6)
- zombified Raila Lyonheart hp 15, KAC 12, EAC 11; DR 5/S; slam +4 (1d6+4)
- octopus - octopuses are already rather alien in appearance compared to mammals, so I suggest that these are the same freaky light blue as the grindylows; hp 16 each, KAC 15, EAC 14; tentacles +7 to grab or bite +5 (1d3+1 plus Strength poison) (bonus on their bite once they’ve grabbed ahold of something and started nomming)
- Brinetooth hp 54, KAC 17 (33 vs reposition and trip), EAC 16, tactical pike with anchoring fusion (DC 16, item level 2) +9 (1d8+9) or bite +9 (1d4+9); instead of Power Attack she has Deadly Aim (-2/+2).
- darkmantle hp 18 each, KAC 15, EAC 14, slam +3 (1d4 plus grab @ +7); SA constrict (1d4+4); SLA daze monster (DC 12) instead of darkness
- crysmals hp 32 each, KAC 17, EAC 16, sting +7 (2d6+6) or 1/day ranged shard spike +7 (3d6+3); crystal sense becomes blindsense 30’ (technological items); SLAs become detect magic, ghost sound, holographic image (SL 2nd), psychokinetic hand at-will & 3/day each daze monster (DC 14), dimension door and mind thrust (DC 13, SL 1st)
- assassin vine hp 37, KAC 15, EAC 14, slam +7 (1d8+10 plus grab @ +11); SA constrict (1d8+10), entangle ; SQ camouflage
- skum soldiers hp 25 each, KAC 13, EAC 12, thunderstrike sonic pistol +3 (1d8 So) or claw or bite +4 (1d6+2); Gear - thunderstrike sonic pistol plus 1 spare battery.
- warden jack swarm add technological subtype; hp 33, KAC 21, EAC 20
- auto-targeting crossbow trap becomes an auto-targeting ‘trap’ using a squad machine gun at a +15 attack bonus (1d10+4) with a +10 Perception bonus using darkvision 60’ and low-light vision. Its ammunition feed holds 40 rounds plus it has an automatic loading mechanism holding 2 fully loaded spare magazines of heavy projectile rounds.
- Urlgryber hp 75, KAC 15, EAC 14; thunderstrike sonic rifle +7 (1d10+5 So) or claw or bite +9 (1d6+9); Gear - thunderstrike sonic rifle plus 1 spare high-capacity battery, mk 2 serum of healing
- Medium water elemental hp 37, KAC 17, EAC 16, DR 5, slam +7 (1d8+7)
- Eliza Haniver hp 37, KAC 13, EAC 12; Gear - second skin armor, tactical pistol +3 (1d6+2) with 27 spare small arm rounds, 4 mk 1 fragmentation grenades (DC 12), 2 mk 1 serums of healing
- Rayland Arkley hp 61, KAC 22, EAC 20, thunderstrike sonic rifle +8 (1d10+5 So), 2 mk 2 fragmentation grenades +8 (DC 18, 2d6 P), mk 2 serum of healing, lashunta ringwear II heavy armor, 2 spare high-capacity batteries
The tricky part is solving the gear riddle ...
There are three important differences to consider when going from Pathfinder to Starfinder.
First is that the experience advancement track in Starfinder is Pathfinder's fast advancement track. You simply don't need as many CR awards to get the player characters to where they need to be in terms of character level. Story awards can slim this down even further so that you only have to provide enough combat encounters to flesh out what's going on in a given story.
Second is that Starfinder characters have a "WBL" expectation that changes in monetary value from the get-go. It isn't a lot different from what we're used to in Pathfinder until you hit high-level play over 13th or 14th level.
The final 'elephant-in-the-room' difference is an expectation that the group has a starship available, and that it steadily improves over time along with the characters. The presence of the group's starship is not to be considered an impediment to the stories being told, but rather a systemic expectation of both rules and genre.
In essence, the group have feet/horses that cover parsecs rather than miles. Embrace this expectation as the GM. You'll be glad when you do. If it gets blown up without them in it (killing them all in the process), anticipate providing for its replacement ala Guardians of the Galaxy's ending scene where the Nova Corps has rebuilt/replaced Quill's Morano-class starship.
The one question I did not notice that begs to be answered regarding starships is simple. "What about doing the Star Wars bit where Luke has an X-Wing, Han and Chewie have the Millennium Falcon and Leia winds up with an entire fleet?"
TBH, Leia's an NPC, R2 is either a drone or a cohort and that group has only 3 player characters (4 if R2-D2 is an on-again off-again PC - but right now we have no rules for bona-fide robot PCs).
Nonetheless, this does not answer the question. Simplest terms, the Rebel Alliance lent Luke his x-wing and that solves that. In game mechanics that character's x-wing is simply (a) transport, and (b) metaphor within the story. It doesn't come into play except at the very end of A New Hope.
Naturally, this still does not satisfactorily answer the fundamental question of 'what if we want our own Drift-capable squadron?'. At this moment all I can offer is a guesstimate: don't worry about it at APL 1, you can barely build a decent starship on 55 BP. At higher levels reduce APL by 1 for each character's ship. Thus, at APL 1-2 the entire group of 4 has a wing of 'mk 1 Gunstars' or what have you. At 20th they're incredibly powerful with APL 19 starships ... I have no idea right now how well that balance of 4x 900 BP starships holds up against 1 1k BP starship, so more thought on balancing multiple starships might be necessary in the future.
A prime limiting factor remains starship size and the expansion bays that come with them for all manner of reasons. You can't get a lot of useful toys without them. A single-group starship is effectively capped at Medium due to the minimum crew compliment of 1. (Large ships have minimum crews of 6 and it skyrockets from there as the hulls get larger.) If one limits the possession of multiple starships to Tiny ships, there's only so good they're going to get. They can get nasty make no mistake, but those expansion bays are generally going to prove crucial.
Later on, hopefully tonight, I'll address these concerns as regards Chapter 1 of the Ruins of Azlant AP.
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Now is the time to examine the trifecta of PF vs SF concerns as regards converting Chapter 1 'The Lost Outpost' of Ruins of Azlant for Starfinder.
The level advancement guide suggests the following benchmarks:
- Attain 2nd level by the end of part 1 'The Vanished'.
- Attain 3rd level by the end of part 2 'Settlement Amid the Strange'.
- Attain 4th level by the end of Chapter 1.
Since Pathfinder assumes a medium xp progression whereas Starfinder assumes the equivalent of fast xp progression, the amount of XP required is significantly reduced. As a result Our Heroes require - within the standard presumptions of 4 PCs - different totals of XP at each advancement point.
- 5,200 party total XP upon wrapping up exploring abandoned Talmandor.
- +8,000 xp (13,200 party total xp) earned by the end of 'Settlement Amid the Strange'.
- +10,800 xp (24,000 party total xp) earned by the end of Chapter 1.
Also of concern is expected WBL, not counting an allowance for consumables.
- +4,000 cr earned upon wrapping up exploring abandoned Talmandor.
- +8,000 cr earned by the end of 'Settlement Amid the Strange'.
- +8,000 cr earned by the party by the end of Chapter 1.
Here are my suggestions for converting The Vanished from Pathfinder into Starfinder.
No sentient creatures.
Yes, I converted the grindylows and gremlin earlier not to mention the slew of quick conversions, but in my opinion they detract from the eerie abandoned vibe of the colony that I believe that the author was going for.
Instead, remove everything but the ankheg nymphs (3 total for 600 xp), ankheg (800 xp), blood maize (600 xp) and clockwork spy (200 xp) from Talmandor (2,200 out of 5,200 xp). Award the remaining 3,000 xp as follows during the course of investigating the colony:
- 200 story xp for investigating the sabotaged exploration buggy at the foot of the dock (per previous flavor text description)
- 800 story xp for discovering Silas Weatherbee's audo-visual journal on his corpse in A6
- 400 or 600 story xp for dealing with the clockwork spy without destroying it, per The Script
- 400 story xp for perusing the notes and logbooks at A10
- 400 story xp for sending the wedding band back with the Peregrin, per The Script
- 800 story xp for discovering the note at A17.
Equipment to be discovered is as follows:
- 4 serums of healing, mk 1 in A2.
- 42,613 R2E meals in A3, representing roughly seven months' food supply for 100 persons.
- 8x frag grenade I in the "Emergency Only" box in A4.
- 2 trailblazing fusion seals (IL 5) in A5.
- 1 trailblazing fusion seal (IL 5) and 4 serums of healing, mk 1 in A6.
- 1 trailblazing fusion seal (IL 5) is all that survived on the corpse at A13.
- 4,000 UBPs in A7 in two industrial backpacks stored in the small chest.
- Another 4,000 UBPs in A9 in two industrial backpacks.
- A functioning Archaic Azlanti silver pocket watch, powered by miniature aeon stones attached to the delicate mechanisms housed within, eternally spinning even now after all this time. At this stage of the campaign this item does not have a monetary value of significance.
These items and UBPs address equipment concerns for the characters through 3rd level.
Next up are adjustments to Talmandor's buildings, although there are not as many necessary adjustments as might be considered at first thought.
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For the most part a distant high-risk colony of this sort is not going to be entirely fabricated from duracrete, lexan-grade 'glass', paved roads, planet-wide comms/internet and unlimited electrical power.
Instead there are a few crucial buildings that are so made, everything else is fashioned from local materials with the assistance of rechargeable power tools. Otherwise, there is not a lot of difference between spacefaring colonization and age of sail colonization. Those differences are significant, but not all-encompassing. The lifestyle is appealing to frontiersfolk of all species.
Asides from the landing pad and floating dock, considered critically important with only the colony's communications array deemed to be of greater import than the landing pad, only A3, A4, A5, A6 and A10 are of essential importance to getting the colony up and running. These buildings are made from duracrete with plasteel doors featuring rudimentary locking mechanisms. There is not much need for significant security on a colony world with no confirmed sentient or hostile, invasive species.
Or so they had thought.
A3 and A4 are otherwise as-written, with the colony's power and mechanical tools that are not a part of A5's tech workshop are housed.
A5 is where the exploration buggy was housed (under its open overhang), while inside is the equivalent of a starship's tech workshop expansion bay. The colony's ultra-efficient solar collector sits atop the roof of this building.
A10 has the colony's small wind turbine, computer and communications array within or atop it.
A6 has the equivalent of a starship's medical bay and synthesis bay as this building does double-duty as both chapel and clinic.
Importantly Our Heroes have access to ample battery recharging stations at no cost. A hundred-fifty colonist's worth of power tools require a lot of recharging capacity, which the colony has in spades. As a side note, wall-attached batteries store a weeks' power in each of these two buildings for the few power-using systems present. This is enough power to recharge several hundred batteries a hundred times over should the need arise. i.e., the players need not concern themselves with access to replenishing their spent batteries, so long as they picked them up.
Once Our Heroes conclude their investigation of Talmandor, they comm - either via personal comm units or, smarter still, using the colony's comm array - the VNIS Peregrin, beginning Chapter 2.
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Chapter 2 'Settlement Amid the Strange'
The central consideration of 'Settlement Amid the Strange' is the remainder of the colony. At the start of this conversion the VNIS Peregrin is not carrying the scripted fifty-odd colonists, just a bunch of cargo, Our Heroes and Vaylen-Narani Industries' assigned Colony Manager (see OP). The reason that the Peregrin is not carrying nearly five dozen passengers was (a) so that the 3rd-5th level PC-classed NPCs didn't go on and do Our Heroes' jobs as they otherwise would be able to do were they present; and (b) transporting that many colonists requires a bulk freighter fitted with 10 good guest quarters in its expansion bays, plus some of the colonists coming along via 'working passage' (i.e., performing as crew during the voyage).
When Our Heroes comm the Peregrin there is significant radio interference, permitting only a badly garbled message once from each end of the transmission before further attempts are disrupted. With the exploration buggy defunct without access to make whole, the PCs are hoofing it to the evac point.
There are two basic options for the GM to use going forward. Option 1 is to run it as-written with lots of combat encounters. Use the above post containing the quick conversions and proceed as-scripted. The GM will have to keep in mind that the characters advanced in level faster than is the PF norm.
Option two is to continue with the scarcity of sentient foes for Chapter 2 as well as removing 'non-alien' encounters. En route north to said evac point only encounters C and D retain the necessary feel. E - the Peregrin's Plight encounter, is not the result of monsters nomming on the hull. Rather it is the result of a semi-functioning tractor beam from an emitter that the Peregrin's crew has not put two-and-two together regarding. DC 18 checks at the GMs discretion by the party permit them to identify and target the emitter jamming the ship's comms and attempting to drag it to its doom by way of smashing it into the waters and pinning it there to be smashed into scrap. Once they are able to target it, let 'em cut loose with the Peregrin's laser cannon, taking 20 hp to beat down its shields and 5 hull hp. So long as they don't miss the AC 5 target more than 5 times they should be able to do so in about a minute. The three combat encounters award the group 2,000 xp. The story xp awards for the balance of encounter of greatest interest to the GM should comprise the necessary balance of 6,000 xp to be awarded prior to beginning 'Menace Released'.
Once Our Heroes (or direct the Peregrin's crew) to liberate themselves from the tractor beam, the ship's comms come to life. The VNIS converted bulk freighter Molting Feathers has made better-than-expected time, signaling its emergence from the Drift into Ancorato's orbit. The Peregrin returns to Talmandor's landing pad and Our Heroes make preparations to receive the remaining colonists, off-loading the cargo from the Peregrin and hopefully effecting repairs to the exploration buggy.
From here the Peregrin serves as a glorified shuttle for the Molting Feathers once they borrow the colony's assortment of chairs to permit crude orbit-to-ground transportation.
Once the group has earned the 6,000 xp worth of various colonial tasks and solved problems, they are ready for Menace Released.
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Unresolved stuff from Part 2
Colony Manager Ramona Avandth and Your Heroes will have spent a fair bit of time together dealing with assorted drama and miscellaneous tasks, perhaps including the resolution of encounters with indigenous aquatic and subterranean sentient life forms of man-eating persuasion.
The VNIS Peregrine and Molting Feathers return to Absolom Station after they are unloaded during the first few days of Part 2.
Ramona agrees to a regular transport contract with Captain Markosi and the Peregrine. In general the Peregrine will return to Ancorato and thus Talmandor roughly thrice a year, depending on the vagaries of multiple Drift jumps and how long it takes Vaylen-Naruni to fulfill the supply requests back home, which could reduce trips to twice a year.
Part 3 'Menace Released'
Run this largely as-written with the previously posted quick conversions. Omit the skum from P4 and the water elemental from P11. Doing so award as much as ~12,000 xp to the party, putting them well on their way to 5th level at 9,000 xp each if I've done my math right. If not, Part 3 provides plenty of xp padding to absorb earlier shortfalls in xp awards.
Rename Spindlelock Tower to Spindledock Tower depending on which source of starship you elect to go with (see below).
The characters will loot - as noted in the quick conversion notes - several sonic pistols and a sonic rifle from the skum, well above the WBL for 4th level characters. Adjust the treasures from Part 3 as follows:
- M The map is on a skum personal comm unit designed to function without difficulty underwater at any depth that skum operate at.
- N The celadon's treasure is removed except for the tablet, which depicts a tower on a different planet in this star system. The planet is 'Mordant Sire', the tower is 'Mordant Spire'.
- P4 no treasure.
- P7 no treasure.
- P9 the treasure is largely as-written save for the storage medium being in the same vein as the other Archaic Azlanti hybrid magical-technological items found herein, and just as fragile as-scripted.
And now for the part we've all been waiting for: the players' starship!
There are several options available, so pick one you find acceptable or come up with something tied to one or more characters' back stories if you're of the mind to do so. We won't judge, although the Starship Enterpoop might warrant some ribbing. ;)
- Ramona asks the characters for their 'starship wishlist'. Have the players design a tier 5 starship that they can crew on their own. It is delivered on the next supply run - this delivery handled by the VNIS Molting Feathers instead of the Peregrine at the end of the local year (December/Kuthona AG 317). This starship remains VNI property but is otherwise free to use as the characters see fit as part of their employment.
- The roof of Research Station Spindledock Tower includes a nanite fabrication system into which a starship blueprint of up to the minimum end of Small (60') can be made and, depending upon the design's requirements, one or more ships can be manufactured and built. Intended to provide the researchers with a back-up method of evacuation this device is as ancient as the rest of the complex. It does not work as fast as it used to, taking (1d4) weeks instead of (1d4) minutes to manufacture the input design. The database itself is corrupted somewhat - the original Archaic Azlanti shuttle design stored within is long lost. The materials and nanites within the fabrication system are sufficient to make a single tier 5 Small starship (using the Shuttle base frame) or potentially several Tiny starships if the GM is so inclined. It is recommended, at GM discretion, that two tier 4 Tiny or no more than 4 tier 3 Tiny starships can be fabricated - with the presumption that the characters remove each starship from the roof as it is completed. If the GM doesn't want to have characters waiting for a protracted period, the fabricator works as well as it originally did, producing the ship(s) in a few minutes. The aesthetics of the ship(s) produced are Archaic Azlanti despite the modern updates that the characters will input into the fabricator's specifications matrices.
- The characters discover a submerged Archaic Azlanti wrecked starship off shore after an early autumn hurricane shifts several feet of sand off of the hull. Enough UBPs were brought along by the Peregrine to renovate and refit the hull after the characters salvage the shell. This is an Archaic Azlanti hull that is refitted with modern-standard tech. Select a base hull before letting the players design a tier 5 starship that they are working on until the end of the local year.
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Figures that the SF CRB has the typical scattering of breadcrumbs throughout:
If the PCs have more than one starship, use the highest-tier ship’s
tier as a base and add 1 to this value for each additional starship
within at least 2 tiers of that starship. If none are within 2 tiers,
add up the tiers of all the additional starships and add 1 to the base
value if the total is equals or exceeds the base starship’s tier.
So, if I'm reading this right, a group could have two starships 1-2 tiers lower counting as APL = tier without skewing the game's expectations. If the stock group of 4 each have their own starship at (character level = tier), that adds 3 ships for (tier +3) for the purposes of space combat encounter design.
Given the scaling DCs at higher levels - and no easy way to keep up with that scaling for most classes - branching out into multiple starships is probably the sanest way to do things at a tier divisible by 4.
So, using the above example of the nanite fabrication system on the roof of Spindledock Tower above, Our Heroes have the following options:
- 1 tier-5 starship
- 2 tier-4 starships (highest tier of 4 +1 for 1 added tier 4 ship)
- 3 tier-3 starships (tier 3 +2 tier 3 starships)
- 4 tier-1 starships (losing an APL in the process)
- 1 tier-2 and 3 tier-1 starships (keeping even with APL)
- Outside of the above-written guidelines but perfectly acceptable so long as the GM is good with it - say limiting further supplies from which to upgrade their ships until later levels - the entire group could have tier-5 starships individually, counting as an APL 8 for starship encounter purposes (5 +3 for the 3 additional tier-5 starships).
However, divesting too far bites you in the keister when the group's several starships are spread across too wide a tier range. If the group individually has (APL-2) tier starships, then the worst-case scenario for a group of 4 is that they count as (APL+1) for ship encounters.
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The nice thing about a new game is there's about eighty million questions and clarifications as people poke the game with a variety of sticks.
One of which that I glossed over that's really important is that stamina, unlike hit points, cannot be magically/technologically healed. When your stamina is gone, with rare exception, you have to take a breather and burn a resolve point. Not the end of the world per-se, but definitely different from the hp mechanic we're used to in Pathfinder et al.
Wow. Very nice. Thank you.
I do not know enough about the original AP and I am clearly behind in my mastery of Starfinder but it's easy to see that this will be very valuable for those of us looking to run APs.
I take it this is a full conversion of critters and associated treasure. One thing I am not concerned about is the XP balance because I just don't track it and just level up my PCs when it's 'right to do so'. My only concern is to make sure that the challenges (and rewards) are appropriate for their level.
Did you assume that the PCs PF and SF levels are the same?
Will you continue to do this with later installments of the AP?
Will you update the critter conversions once Alien Archive is out?
I guess I need to get RoA once I finish reading the Starfinder CRB. :)
Thanks again! :)
The Ruins of Azlant is the current AP, only the first chapter is out right now. If you wish you should be able to subscribe so as to get both the PDF and the print copy as each is released. If you're overseas and don't want to get beaten up over the shipping costs you'll need to snag the PDFs as they are released.
I only did a full conversion of two critters and went with quick conversions on the rest.
Without the "Bestiary" for Starfinder I don't have any set of benchmarks to use and won't until the earliest of chapter 3 of RoA. In other words, I'm making this up as I go along using the Starfinder XP chart and WBL chart to figure out XP awards and equipment.
This chapter's appeal - to me - is that the colony of Talmandor is abandoned. Having it crawling with critters is counter to that 'feel'. So while I did quick conversions for everything, the recommended changes and removal of encounters should address keeping the party within the recommended level range.
Thinking on it a bit, simply removing anything outside of Spindlelock Tower with any intelligence (except the incutilis) should have some of the players a bit on edge. Level to 2, 3 and 4 as indicated should do the trick. There are only 1 or 2 encounters (when you strip out the grindylows and chokers) that are a serious combat risk, both of them are in Act 3.
Don't worry about being behind on mastery of Starfinder. Everyone's learning the ropes, so we're going to make mistakes and learn from 'em together over time and as we play/run the game.
The plan is to do this as each subsequent chapter is released. Critter conversions ... I dunno. I'm inclined to perform a more thorough conversion once more concrete rules are available. This takes considerably more time per stat-block compared to the quick-n-dirty simple conversions earlier in the thread. NPC stat-blocks may get a more thorough overhaul. Leaving the "end bosses" as-is with the noted quick conversions gives them unique abilities that don't muck up The Script, which has its uses.
Thanks for the prompt response.
I am aware that RoA is very new, which is why I was asking if you were going to continue doing this conversion as the new books came out. I'm glad that's your plan. :)
BTW, I'm Ok with the quick and simple conversion of the critters. I GM PBPs and have time to adjust things if things are too easy or too hard. However, I won't turn down more thorough conversions.
I hope I can pick your brain some more...
Why did you choose the treasure that you did?
I guess the PF healing for SF healing and PF consumable for SF grenades is logical but I'm curious about the sonic weapons and trailblazing fusion seals? What was the thinking behind that? BTW, what is (IL 5)?
Also, is the idea with the UPBs so that PCs can 'make' what they need/want?
Thanks again!
Thanks for the prompt response.
I am aware that RoA is very new, which is why I was asking if you were going to continue doing this conversion as the new books came out. I'm glad that's your plan. :)
BTW, I'm Ok with the quick and simple conversion of the critters. I GM PBPs and have time to adjust things if things are too easy or too hard. However, I won't turn down more thorough conversions.
I hope I can pick your brain some more...
Why did you choose the treasure that you did?
I guess the PF healing for SF healing and PF consumable for SF grenades is logical but I'm curious about the sonic weapons and trailblazing fusion seals? What was the thinking behind that? BTW, what is (IL 5)?
Also, is the idea with the UPBs so that PCs can 'make' what they need/want?
Thanks again!
Underwater features heavily as-scripted, thus the trailblazing fusion seals at IL 5. With 4 of them this lets the PCs slap 'em on their weapons and not worry about using them for the entire remainder of Chapter 1 and into the first portion of Chapter 2.
Sonic weapons should be fully effective underwater - if nothing else skum-engineered sonic weapons WILL work underwater just as well as they do on land. Stuff that works underwater is part of the theme of the campaign.
As an aside, I picture the skum's "pistols" as 'forks' (tactical spear stats, two tines) with an integral sonic pistol as part of the weapon's haft, firing from between the tines. The 'rifle' is along the lines of a lizard king's 'war trident' (tactical pike stats, two-tined), much nastier in melee with the added bonus of an integral sonic rifle. I forgot to incorporate the concept into the above quick conversion stats.
The healing serums is KISS loot. Each PC gets enough for each to have a couple for a while until they can advance levels and use the UBP's to make their own stuff.
The UBPs are precisely meant to let them make their own stuff. It fulfills the WBL requirements and it puts the onus on them to spend their UBPs wisely. Most importantly, it saves the GM immense headaches since there is no such thing as custom-made magic items. No 1/2 rounds infinite true strike for 2,000 gp nonsense.
The UBPs are precisely meant to let them make their own stuff. It fulfills the WBL requirements and it puts the onus on them to spend their UBPs wisely. Most importantly, it saves the GM immense headaches since there is no such thing as custom-made magic items. No 1/2 rounds infinite true strike for 2,000 gp nonsense.
Stuff that works underwater then makes lots of sense.
I hadn't considered the 'UPB as treasure angle' and it's interesting because it's not that hard to make stuff in this game. Maybe this could be 'fluffed' up by the PCs having to obtain blueprints for something that they want but have not seen, much like a 3D printer.
I still don't know what 'IL 5' is? :)
EDIT: Trailblazing fusion seal is a level 1 fusion seal but can be affixed to a weapon of level 5 and lower, which is the 'IL 5' part. I think I got it. :)
The UBPs are precisely meant to let them make their own stuff. It fulfills the WBL requirements and it puts the onus on them to spend their UBPs wisely. Most importantly, it saves the GM immense headaches since there is no such thing as custom-made magic items. No 1/2 rounds infinite true strike for 2,000 gp nonsense.Stuff that works underwater then makes lots of sense.
I hadn't considered the 'UPB as treasure angle' and it's interesting because it's not that hard to make stuff in this game. Maybe this could be 'fluffed' up by the PCs having to obtain blueprints for something that they want but have not seen, much like a 3D printer.
I still don't know what 'IL 5' is? :)
EDIT: Trailblazing fusion seal is a level 1 fusion seal but can be affixed to a weapon of level 5 and lower, which is the 'IL 5' part. I think I got it. :)
Fusions/fusion seals are 'bought' at a set Item Level (IL) for which they will work on that item level or less. They can be upgraded and improved along with the items they start play with. Over the campaign the shoddy gear they start with at 1st level can be steadily improved over time into the monstrous weapons, armor et al we see at IL 18-20. Ace Pilot Bob's starting hunting rifle "Betsy" remains "Betsy" despite becoming "Betsy the paragon rifle of DOOM" by the end.
UBPs allow for the one thing players love: shopping even if they're in the derrier of nowhere. With a few days' to weeks' downtime they can put together their kit - so long as they have enough knowledge to make it (skill ranks in appropriate skills). The colony's assorted labs/facilities help to ensure that they shouldn't waste any UBPs. Finally, UBPs being present are quite sensible for a colony. They're incredibly efficient equipment storage. 1 bulk stores 20 bulk worth of 5 cr items! You make what you need within a few hours' realization that you need it. In a pinch you can have 'em fashion R2Es and the like.
Fusions/fusion seals are 'bought' at a set Item Level (IL) for which they will work on that item level or less. They can be upgraded and improved along with the items they start play with. Over the campaign the shoddy gear they start with at 1st level can be steadily improved over time into the monstrous weapons, armor et al we see at IL 18-20. Ace Pilot Bob's starting hunting rifle "Betsy" remains "Betsy" despite becoming "Betsy the paragon rifle of DOOM" by the end.
UBPs allow for the one thing players love: shopping even if they're in the derrier of nowhere. With a few days' to weeks' downtime they can put together their kit - so long as they have enough knowledge to make it (skill ranks in appropriate skills). The colony's assorted labs/facilities help to ensure that they shouldn't waste any UBPs. Finally, UBPs being present are quite sensible for a colony. They're incredibly efficient equipment storage. 1 bulk stores 20 bulk worth of 5 cr items! You make what you need within a few hours' realization that you need it. In a pinch you can have 'em fashion R2Es and the like.
Agreed about the presence of UPBs making sense for a colony.
I didn't think you could upgrade weapons/items in SF.
I always house ruled this in my fantasy games because I hate 'throw away items'. A +1 sword was a great treasure at 1st level but you need to throw it out if you get it from an enemy once you get a few levels under your belt.
What I would do is have the PC spend the 'cost' difference say between a +1 and +2 weapon but make the 'original' +1 weapon now a +2 weapon. That way, you can keep 'Betsy' throughout your career if you wished, much like you are saying.
Is this (upgrading items) now legal in SF meaning I won't have to house rule it?
Did you read my post on the forums about traveling in the Drift? I think the scenario you present above where traveling to Ancorato takes three times as long with a couple of intermediate stops to get may not be within the rules. Not that being within the rules ever stopped me before. :)
Also do you need 'coordinates' to get to Ancorato? Are those a closely guarded secret? If so, that could explain why not everyone has gone there already.
Thoughts?
As I understand the Starfinder rules ... that's exactly how crafting higher-level equipment works. I would apply some common sense - you can't upgrade light armor to heavy armor and certainly not directly to power armor. Nor could you upgrade projectile weapons to energy weapons. By my understanding of the RAW, however, all you need are (a) sufficient skill ranks; (b) the correct toolkit; (c) sufficient universal base polymers; and (d) some few hours' time.
I did not spell it out so well as I would have liked during the opening posts re: my thought process on dealing with the travel time in Starfinder terms.
As-written for Pathfinder the Ruins of Azlant states that each trip to-from Taldor to the island of Ancorato and its colony of Talmandor is 12 weeks' round trip plus however much time to procure the requested stuff. This process in a non-industrialized society that makes everything to order by hand is going to add no small amount of time to fulfillment requests, especially for all things agriculturally sourced. 84 days is the average of 24d6. However, one needs to factor in procurement time both in terms of the Venture's budget from which to pay for it and the time necessary for crafters to make everything before loading it all up on the ship and making the return trip. It is reasonable therefor when running RoA for Pathfinder that each round-trip by the Peregrine takes six months. Keeps it simple and reinforces the isolation of the colony from the homeland.
Converting this into Starfinder terms, several factors have to be considered.
- That the lengthy travel time be retained.
- That there are no short cuts to decrease the travel time to the Ancorato planet's star system.
- The return trip to Absolom Station is by definition all of 1d6 days and fulfillment of almost anything ordered will not take terribly significant amounts of time per se, making budgetary constraints the primary factor once the Peregrine returns from Ancorato.
Fortunately, the solutions are as follows - and can or will probably be expanded upon during the forthcoming chapters of the campaign/AP:
- There are no Drift beacons in Ancorato's system. The only reason Vaylen-Narani Industries (VNI) is aware of both the system and how to get there is because of their incredibly ancient records.
- Acquiring such beacons requires the participation of the church of Unity. Doing so compromises VNI's operational security to an intolerable degree from VNI's perspective. Later stages of progress will warrant limited cooperation with Unity's clergy to establish the minimum quantity of Drift beacons to permit 'Vast' travel time directly to 'Our Star System'.
- VNI already tried directly Drifting to Ancorato as part of its original post-Gap scouting mission. None of them returned save for Captain Ancorato's ship which (fortuitously) miscalculated its Drift trip and wound up in a different star system instead. From there they were able to Drift into 'Our Star System' and perform their mission. Upon returning, much to everyone's consternation, they realize that the direct approach does not work ... for reasons unknown.
- A few more trial-and-error runs finally resulted in the 'path of stepping stones' trip required, taking 30d6 days in total (six Drift jumps into the Vast of 5d6 days each). Without really knowing the why, they know the how and that it works with 100% reliability.
- This is deliberate in much the same vein as any number of proposed 'home-brew' solutions dealing with higher level characters simply teleporting back and forth later on in the original Pathfinder AP. A huge part of the Ruins of Azlant is this isolation from immediacy.
Vaylen-Narani Industries will guard the route from Absolom Station/the Pact Worlds/Golarion system to Ancorato as ruthlessly as they are able. We're talking about a prize that, when fully realized is worth hundreds of trillions of credits. They bundle up the financial risks into Talmandor Venture Co., LLC. If things go completely south, they ride out the bad PR, sack their CEO in a media circus and shell out a million credits or two to any remaining relatives of the lost colonists and move on. In 20 years or so the 'Lost Colony' will have long fallen from public perception.
Ramona and her bosses currently believe that keeping those in the loop to as few mouths as possible will greatly aid in retaining their secret for as long as possible. Paying handsomely - but not outrageously, as doing so is as sure a method of tipping their hand as blaring the direct Drift coordinates to Ancorato would be - is often more than sufficient operational security. A skilled detail of operatives keeps low-key tabs on the crews of the Peregrine and Molting Feathers whilst they are in port. The crew of the Stoppergrin's Delivery are the CEO's personal retainers/employees, so they're already as safe as can be. Everyone else that could spill the beans is already there, to their belief marooned should they elect to cut the cord. This is something Ramona is probably aware of, but not seriously expecting to occur, i.e. part of the 'hazard pay' line item on her paystub.
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Works for me. If isolation from immediacy of Ancorato is part of the set up for this adventure to work then I have no problem house ruling something, such as what you propose above, to make the trip(s) to take longer than it would normally take to get to a regular place in the Vast.
I don't think we know how 'coordinates or addresses' really work.
However if a vector (start and end point) was needed to get somewhere then we could just say that no direct vector exists for Ancorato BUT we do know that using these five (or six) vectors work to get there. Hence the multiple jumps.
Looking at your computer number pad and simplifying things, imagine there's no direct way to get from the 1 to the 2 so you had to go from 1 to 4 to 7 to 8 to 5 and finally to 2.
I hope we get a little more detail on Drift travel soon.
Game on!
Or 1 to 4 to 5 to 6 to 3 to 2, same result and both demonstrate VNI's current understanding of the route necessary to get to Ancorato.
Think of it as how oceans have assorted directional currents, Sargasso areas and dead calm areas. Without Drift beacons they have to follow a series of currents - think of how the East Australia Current is depicted in the film Finding Nemo - avoiding Sargasso areas, reefs, "here there be monsters"/nebulae and 'dead Drift zones'. Since Golarion, and by extension its star system, are set in the same galaxy as Earth (if my memory serves me accurately), the dark matter spaces between the galactic arms are perhaps 'dead Drift zones' with Ancorato literally on the other side of the galaxy across multiple arms and around assorted nebulae that muck astrogation up something fierce, let alone the unspecified but probably horrible effects of whatever monstrous gravitic mass lurks at the center of the Milky Way (in Starfinder terms).
Excellent stuff Turin, and wonderfully detailed in all of the above posts. I have always enjoyed your expansions on the traditional trimmings in the respective rules editions and house rules that you have smartly implemented. They give both additional flavor and detail to the game. I can fondly recall one game session many years ago with Turin the Mad as the GM, where his wonderful Critical Hit table, that he is fond of using, resulted in all kinds of problems for the player characters during what has since become known as the “battle of the lizard kings.” I had one character getting impaled in the torso with a trident (using those wonderful critical hit tables) who was then hampered for the duration of the 8 hour combat. Additionally in the same encounter, the Rogue PC was literally knocked unconscious via a critical trident hit to the head, and was found hours later after the fight was over (he was invisible at the time of the hit) buried under the bodies of multiple dead lizard kings. Good times.
That was the Skills and Powers 2e critical hit tables, KGM. That was an epic fight to be sure.
So far not much needs to be done to tweak Starfinder - but then, the game isn't even a month old yet. ;)
Any of the old crew playing in this Turin?
So, Turin, have you had a chance to convert anything new now that Ruins of Azlant has completely released? I have to admit, having not yet read the RoA AP, your postings have inspired me to definitely consider using it as a Starfinder setting, and I would thoroughly enjoy seeing what you would suggest for the remainder of the Adventure Path.
Sorry Maverick, More-Important-Stuff has kept me away. I just piled up chapters 2-6 of the Ruins of Azlant. I expect it to take about a month or so to peruse and convert, longer if I'm lucky (since a busy Turin is a makin' moolah Turin).
Any of the old crew playing in this Turin?
No crew whatsoever at present.
Just wanted to say: this conversion is very cool. Really enjoyed reading it so far! Hope you get to continue it in the future.
Thank you very much, ubiquitous. The plan is to do so, once I get settled in for the process. It goes very fast to do the stat blocks, it is the meat of a given chapter that takes the most time to digest and convert.
Ooookay. Having read through Chapters 2-5 and working on 6, I have to say two things.
First, the Ruins of Azlant is an excellent Pathfinder AP.
Second, it is not the best suited after the first chapter for conversion to Starfinder. The amount of re-tooling required is more than I am willing to do. It would ruin a great deal of the ambiance of the campaign to apply the significant shift in feel/tone/"vibe".
Not for the current edition of Starfinder. This would work great for Starfinder if it retained the "lost colony" vibe throughout. Unfortunately, it does not, shifting at first slowly and then rapidly away from that into "oh look, mini-onions".
For PF2e ... maybe. I'll wait and see what my impressions are of the playtest materials to be more certain. Perhaps inspiration will strike between now and then.
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No problem, Turin. :) I've adapted Jade Regent to Starfinder, myself, and we're having a blast. I'm changing things around a bit so that the Jade Empire is practically unknown among the Pact Worlds, and much like the Azlanti Star Empire, is hidden across the Vast.
The PCs recently found some Minkaian starships that had fallen into the hands of a clan of space goblins, and are now investigating their origins on behalf of Marshal Hemlock of the starport town of Sandpoint, capital of the world of Varisia.
My players seem to be enjoying it so far, and I'm having a blast. I'm converting some JR enemies but bringing in a lot of the Alien Archive and Starfinder stuff when it makes more sense than what's in JR - Ravenscraeg will be an outpost located in the Diaspora, Tsuishen is a royal yacht that was sold to fund the family's integration into the Pact Worlds and recently "acquired" by a Free Pirate captain, and Brinestump Drift was a mining outpost in the asteroid belt of the Varisian system originally built by dwarves who located and attempted to study some unusual noqual formations (unfortunately for the dwarves, they invited the akata from Dead Suns Book 1 to dinner).
The space goblins found the station just days after the first akata hatched and found themselves trapped there and hunted as the fighting with the akata damaged most of their recently-salvaged starfighters. A couple of fighters escaped, and ended up taking potshots at the players' incoming vessel (Sandru Vhiski's Tier 3 explorer the Varisian Splendor), and paid for their eagerness with their lives. When Sandru had his crew (the PC) report the incident to Sandpoint's chief law enforcement officer Marshal Hemlock, he temporarily deputized the crew to investigate the origin of the fighters.
If there's any interest, I should probably post this in its own thread somewhere...
Do it.
Do it.No problem, Turin. :) I've adapted Jade Regent to Starfinder, myself, and we're having a blast. I'm changing things around a bit so that the Jade Empire is practically unknown among the Pact Worlds, and much like the Azlanti Star Empire, is hidden across the Vast.
The PCs recently found some Minkaian starships that had fallen into the hands of a clan of space goblins, and are now investigating their origins on behalf of Marshal Hemlock of the starport town of Sandpoint, capital of the world of Varisia.
My players seem to be enjoying it so far, and I'm having a blast. I'm converting some JR enemies but bringing in a lot of the Alien Archive and Starfinder stuff when it makes more sense than what's in JR - Ravenscraeg will be an outpost located in the Diaspora, Tsuishen is a royal yacht that was sold to fund the family's integration into the Pact Worlds and recently "acquired" by a Free Pirate captain, and Brinestump Drift was a mining outpost in the asteroid belt of the Varisian system originally built by dwarves who located and attempted to study some unusual noqual formations (unfortunately for the dwarves, they invited the akata from Dead Suns Book 1 to dinner).
The space goblins found the station just days after the first akata hatched and found themselves trapped there and hunted as the fighting with the akata damaged most of their recently-salvaged starfighters. A couple of fighters escaped, and ended up taking potshots at the players' incoming vessel (Sandru Vhiski's Tier 3 explorer the Varisian Splendor), and paid for their eagerness with their lives. When Sandru had his crew (the PC) report the incident to Sandpoint's chief law enforcement officer Marshal Hemlock, he temporarily deputized the crew to investigate the origin of the fighters.
If there's any interest, I should probably post this in its own thread somewhere...
What the Dudemeister said,Maverick. DOOO EEETT!