Converting the Skull & Shackles adventures to Starfinder...

[Techpriest Vesper]

So I don't post here much and have not for a long time as I kind of move away from Pathfinder... but Starfinder has got me interested enough to give the system another go. Someone elsewhere mentioned converting the Skull & Shackles adventure path AND that really got me thinking. And so, here I am :)

Right now I think I will probably wait for the Alien Archives to really feel comfortable making up stats for anyone, except maybe a base Space Pirate (from First Contact). But I thought I would start fleshing out my idea of the adventure itself and get some feedback where I could flesh it out better. This is kind of long so...

First I am going to place the pirate port (called Point Peril) on the inside asteroid belt of Diaspora. Probable on the inside of one big one that the various Free Captains found maybe 30-40 years ago and set up shop.

I like Captain Barnabas Harrigan so we will keep him and rename his ship the Wormwraith. Right now I am thinking of a Tier 11 Large vessel. Of course the ship that they later capture that the heroes gain will be much lower but still trying to figure out starships :D

I am thinking about either making the Pack Worlds a bit more 'dark and corporate evil' so the players might have a reason to become pirates (as I don't like running evil campaigns) or maybe after they get their own ship at the end of the adventure they sign up as privateers raiding other pirates, etc. Still thinking.

Also wooden ships have much different tasks the starship so the assigned "jobs" for the characters are going to be much different and have to come up with some new challenges and checks for the players. So of course they will not be assigned to anything "Crew" worthy but mostly minor maintenance work, one gets to work in the gallery with the cook of course, and maybe two get assigned to Engineering to 'assist' the chief engineer. Their main function of course is to act as canon fodder with boarding actions against target starships or whatever raid they might be going on.

The first encounter is the heroes waking up and Master Scourge ordering them about. The heroes probably get to keep their armor as it is assume somewhat about vacuum possibilities so I need a high-tech 'cat-of-nine-tales'. I was think something similar to an Incapacitator but something that also causes pain. Maybe call it a Pain Prod and add the Pain feature (similar to stun BUT with pain). He uses it on all of them just so they get a taste.

For other gear the heroes probably start without much or anything else. Drones will be handled like animal companions. You can either get it later in the adventure or its down in the hold somewhere to be sold off later.

For Mister Pluggs tests not sure what would be good for here. He probably just asks who can cook or likes food to assign that person to the gallery. I was thinking not even a test, he just looks for the smartest species like Androids and Ysoki first and assumes they known engineer and send them to the engine room.

The heroes day to day lives for the next couple of weeks will mostly be interacting with other crew members and doing lots of basic manual labor/chores. They will notice that they ship has suffered a lot of damage recently (where Wormwraith lost most of its crew).

They might land on some of the outlying planets or moons to pick up new supplies and get something special for the Captain ("He has a fondness for Marata Blood-Snakes. The fresher the better so you need to try and catch them live. Yes they are very poisonous. Try not to die...").

Then the captain spots the merchant ship the 'Wanderer of Ibra' and attack. The heroes are given weapons and maybe space suits for a vacuum assault. If they do good they get some respect from the Captain and get to be part of the skeleton crew who is to take it back to Point Peril for prize.

Now maybe a Drift problem causes the ship to be damaged on the way and they have to put down for repairs. Still trying to figure this out.

That's all I got right now. Any more ideas to flesh it out. Mostly the story right now. Stats come later when I see how better to build NPC/Monsters.

[bmsattler]

Do you feel like you need to make the campaign setting within the Pact Worlds? If you were to set it adjacent to the Azlanti Star Empire, or some other evilish empire like an Aspis Consortium corporate system, that would make the whole piracy thing much more like privateers. It would also give you a Cheliax analogue for later in the AP. Sure, you're moving away from the presented setting somewhat, but you'll have lots of themes from the Skull and Shackles AP to draw from for ideas. Zombie planets, aquatic planets, planets inhabited by giant cannibals, etc.

I feel like one of the problems that Pathfinder had as Pirates is that the ship's crew would matter way more than the ship itself. Starfinder will sidestep this somewhat. I've stopped trying to use the ship combat rules in the original AP and just move straight to a boarding action. I like the idea of translating this to Starfinder to sidestep this issue. I do think that you'll likely need to come up with some kind of boarding aids for a space pirate themed campaign, as its much trickier in space.

I'd look at making Scourge a Mindbreaker Mystic.

It will be interesting to figure out the starting ship. It will need to be something vaguely merchant-ish, but at the same time suitable for piracy once the PC's take over. I'd actually suggest some kind of evil empire Q-ship; a merchant that's designed to counter pirates with hidden weapon and semi-military capabilities. The Wormwraith is way too much of a combat monster to be taken by its ambush, but it serves decently against other merchant vessels. That would also give it more cargo space than the typical Millennium Falcon-style PC ship and require a crew beyond the PC's themselves.

You'll probably want to look ahead somewhat and figure out some of the pirate council personalities, and come up with side plots to work into things. I'm presuming that you're not running this for players who have already played through the original AP.

[Techpriest Vesper]

Hmm those are some good ideas thanks! Especially about the Azlanti Star Empire. I could really mix some Star Wars stuff in there :)

As for Ship combat, at least for the first one there will be no real player involvement. Its mostly going to be "We have disabled them, now you all space walk over there and take them out. If you survive and do a good job... well we will see"

Q-ship is also a great idea

I have been putting together some ideas for my Free Captains group along with a Criminal organization that deals with pirates. Being a bit Dark Heresy/WH40K setting fan (not rules fan) I will probably call it the Cold Trade as it is such a cool name (at least in my mind). They deal mostly with a lot of stolen goods and smuggling.

Thanks again, this gives me some good ideas...