#1-99: The Scoured Stars Invasion GM Thread


GM Discussion

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Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

First impressions - I really like how flexible this scenario is for table GMs! I fear that less experienced GMs might feel a bit overwhelmed on their first read-through, but just like any special, it is very manageable once you start breaking it down into its individual components!

The idea of the R-TEP is, if I may say so, bloody brilliant! It makes things a tiny bit more difficult on the overseer earlier on, but it fits the story, so thumb's up from me!

A couple of quick questions from my first read-through:

Part 2: Evacuation Mission 4 (Location I) - Should PCs approach from the North or the South?

Part 4: Mission - All Hands On Deck (Location L) - How do PCs (and enemies) access area L8 - can it be used for quicker access between the port and starboard sides of the carrier?

Part 4: Mission - Buying Time - Just to clarify, is the ship on the far right-side of the starfield flip-mat the "transport" indicated by the text? Also, should the ships on the left side be completely immobile during this engagement (at least until/unless the "Counterattack" mission is selected)?

I think those are my only questions following my initial read-through. All in all, I am very excited to GM this at Origins! Well done, Mikko and Thurston!

Paizo Employee 5/5 Starfinder Society Developer

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Mike Bramnik wrote:
Part 2: Evacuation Mission 4 (Location I) - Should PCs approach from the North or the South?

I would say either side is fine, since they're roughly equal size. I'd probably veer to the southwest to start.

Mike Bramnik wrote:
Part 4: Mission - All Hands On Deck (Location L) - How do PCs (and enemies) access area L8 - can it be used for quicker access between the port and starboard sides of the carrier?

The intent is those two tubes south of L1. I'd say that should be fine, as most of the battle should take place in the non-L8 portions of the starship.

Mike Bramnik wrote:
Part 4: Mission - Buying Time - Just to clarify, is the ship on the far right-side of the starfield flip-mat the "transport" indicated by the text? Also, should the ships on the left side be completely immobile during this engagement (at least until/unless the "Counterattack" mission is selected)?

The transport is the far right white marker in the bottom-right of the map. The intent for the other ships is that they're just there to give the illusion of a larger battle. Other versions of this encounter had multiple ships going on, but that became a logistical nightmare to track. Throughout the encounter, the ships should remain immobile (cinematic effect really.)

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

Perfect - thanks tons for the quick answers! :D

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

Page 10:
Does the "Keep up the momentum" condition have any purpose other than signifying that 3 recon missions have been completed?

During Counterattack:
Is the intent of the aid token's firing on an opponent to contribute to the damage total for the capital ship?
The mission is for the PCs to damage the aft of the capital ship while surviving the 2 assault craft returning fire. None of the allied ships are in position to fire at the capital ship's aft.

Paizo Employee 5/5 Starfinder Society Developer

Athos710 wrote:

Page 10:

Does the "Keep up the momentum" condition have any purpose other than signifying that 3 recon missions have been completed?

This announcement is just to signify that 3 recon missions have been completed. The text is an artifact from when we had another condition we wanted to give out but removed.

Athos710 wrote:

During Counterattack:

Is the intent of the aid token's firing on an opponent to contribute to the damage total for the capital ship?
The mission is for the PCs to damage the aft of the capital ship while surviving the 2 assault craft returning fire. None of the allied ships are in position to fire at the capital ship's aft.

It's not explicitly called out. Honestly, I would allow it since the PCs will need all the help they can get in that encounter and at the end of the event they'll be pretty worn out! :)

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

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Recon Mission 5: City of the Ancients
Can someone help me understand the map for E Urban Dystopia.
Where do the PCs go, where do the Bots go? It seems like this should have been some kind of city map, not the Mythos Dungeon map.
Help?

Paizo Employee 5/5 Starfinder Society Developer

Athos710 wrote:

Recon Mission 5: City of the Ancients

Can someone help me understand the map for E Urban Dystopia.
Where do the PCs go, where do the Bots go? It seems like this should have been some kind of city map, not the Mythos Dungeon map.
Help?

HUH.... that should have been the other side of Space Station (same as area B). Let me poke the necessary people on that.

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

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For other GMs, I'm kicking ideas around on how to handle the Preparation missions before Part 1 starts. Do you think 3x5 cards would be a good way to approach it? One side has a pic of the Venture Captain (or Faction leader) and the name of the task. Back side has the benefits for easy, medium, and hard, with one of them marked based on their rolls as I hand it to the players.
Alternative is a handout, with everything on it. Would have to hold until the end of Preparation so they couldn't metagame the tasks.

The Exchange 1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Athos710 wrote:

For other GMs, I'm kicking ideas around on how to handle the Preparation missions before Part 1 starts. Do you think 3x5 cards would be a good way to approach it? One side has a pic of the Venture Captain (or Faction leader) and the name of the task. Back side has the benefits for easy, medium, and hard, with one of them marked based on their rolls as I hand it to the players.

Alternative is a handout, with everything on it. Would have to hold until the end of Preparation so they couldn't metagame the tasks.

I'm personally going to prepare individual notes for each one, typed out since what they get is kind of weird easy, medium, hard, I'd like to rewrite the text to personalize it for how well they succeeded.

Putting them on notecards is a good idea though.

2/5 ***

What are the reporting conditions for evacuation mission 5? I assume it is reaching the canyon, but the scenario doesn’t say or I can’t find it.

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

PolarDwarf wrote:
What are the reporting conditions for evacuation mission 5? I assume it is reaching the canyon, but the scenario doesn’t say or I can’t find it.

It says they fail if 1 of the vehicles gets destroyed. As long as that doesn't happen, I'd report a success.

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

Preparations
Threat Analysis
Does the Hard benefit replace the Average benefit?

Equipment Check
"Average: In addition to the reward above, the PCs can also
requisition a single consumable item with an item level equal
to the PC’s level. These consumables cannot have permanent
effects, and PCs who do not use them during the course of
the scenario must return them at the end of the adventure."

Does a serum of healing count as having "permanent effects"?

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

NPC Starships
The Emperyan Eye crew follows the good and master NPC skills exactly at all tiers

The Jinsul Assault craft crew don't.
For the Tier 2, 4, and 6 ships, the Captain is less than the Good NPC skill for both Diplomacy and Intimidate, whereas the Gunners are behind by 1 point. Engineer, Pilot, and Science are right on target.
The Tier 1/2 ship all the crew are "close, but not quite" to the Good and Master NPC skill levels.

Paizo Employee 5/5 Starfinder Society Developer

Athos710 wrote:

NPC Starships

The Emperyan Eye crew follows the good and master NPC skills exactly at all tiers

The Jinsul Assault craft crew don't.
For the Tier 2, 4, and 6 ships, the Captain is less than the Good NPC skill for both Diplomacy and Intimidate, whereas the Gunners are behind by 1 point. Engineer, Pilot, and Science are right on target.
The Tier 1/2 ship all the crew are "close, but not quite" to the Good and Master NPC skill levels.

Intentional. There's likely more chances to fight the jinsuls and their starships are pretty powerful.

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

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I have uploaded ship sheets for the scenario to PFS Prep. Let me know if you find any errors in them and I'll correct them.

Liberty's Edge 1/5 5/55/55/55/5 ** Venture-Captain, Illinois—Fairview Heights

Thurston Hillman wrote:
Athos710 wrote:

Recon Mission 5: City of the Ancients

Can someone help me understand the map for E Urban Dystopia.
Where do the PCs go, where do the Bots go? It seems like this should have been some kind of city map, not the Mythos Dungeon map.
Help?
HUH.... that should have been the other side of Space Station (same as area B). Let me poke the necessary people on that.

Do you anticipate an update on the poking before the weekend?

Paizo Employee 5/5 Starfinder Society Developer

Jacob Rennels wrote:
Thurston Hillman wrote:
Athos710 wrote:

Recon Mission 5: City of the Ancients

Can someone help me understand the map for E Urban Dystopia.
Where do the PCs go, where do the Bots go? It seems like this should have been some kind of city map, not the Mythos Dungeon map.
Help?
HUH.... that should have been the other side of Space Station (same as area B). Let me poke the necessary people on that.
Do you anticipate an update on the poking before the weekend?

Not looking good. However, since the map already exists in the document (area B), you can just use that one.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

Thurston Hillman wrote:
Athos710 wrote:

Recon Mission 5: City of the Ancients

Can someone help me understand the map for E Urban Dystopia.
Where do the PCs go, where do the Bots go? It seems like this should have been some kind of city map, not the Mythos Dungeon map.
Help?
HUH.... that should have been the other side of Space Station (same as area B). Let me poke the necessary people on that.

(emphasis mine)

I really do hate to bother you, Thurston, but this statement seems to be at odds with itself as to which side of the Space Station Flip-Mat we should be using for Area E. I don't suppose you'd be willing to clarify?

Paizo Employee 5/5 Starfinder Society Developer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Mike Bramnik wrote:
Thurston Hillman wrote:
Athos710 wrote:

Recon Mission 5: City of the Ancients

Can someone help me understand the map for E Urban Dystopia.
Where do the PCs go, where do the Bots go? It seems like this should have been some kind of city map, not the Mythos Dungeon map.
Help?
HUH.... that should have been the other side of Space Station (same as area B). Let me poke the necessary people on that.

(emphasis mine)

I really do hate to bother you, Thurston, but this statement seems to be at odds with itself as to which side of the Space Station Flip-Mat we should be using for Area E. I don't suppose you'd be willing to clarify?

Gah, sorry for lack of clarity. Area E should use the same map listed on area B (page 16).

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Superscriber

So is the Mythos Dungeon map used at all?

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

Arc Riley wrote:

So is the Mythos Dungeon map used at all?

It's used in encounter A, the first Recon mission.

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Superscriber

Fantastic. Still awaiting scenario PDF so I'm collecting a list of materials.

Are there asteroids or other objects besides the PC ships, the Emperyan Eye, and the Jinsul Assault craft on the starfield maps?

I'm assuming the Jinsul Assault craft are of the same design as the "unknown ship" from #1-13, so I can reuse the custom ship pawn made with that artwork, or was that unrelated?

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

Arc Riley wrote:

There are asteroids - they don't appear to move, though, if that helps (I just drew them in using a liquid-chalk wet-erase marker last night and plan to leave it there until after Gen Con).

As for the Jinsul craft - yep!

Had I known that we'd be needing more than one "unknown ship" I might have tried to obtain and paint more than one of the "Scarab" mini from the "0-hr" ship line... I think I did an okay job at painting mine - I'll probably save it for the Jinsul Carrier at the end.

(For reference - the base fits inside the Starfield Flip Mat with a tiny bit of room to spare, and as you can see in the picture, the ship is a bit bigger than that)

Hope that info helps!

PS - Are you running this at Origins? If so, and you don't have the pdf yet, maybe drop a line to the PFS/SFS organizers?

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

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Starfinder Superscriber

No, I'm coordinating a 6 table #1-99 game in Portland, OR on Aug 11. I'm sure we'll get the PDFs in time, but 3d printing takes longer.

It'll take the next few weeks to design and print asteroids, ships, etc and I'm very happy to share the designs on Thingiverse. My husband already found the Pegasus and Drake on there.

I personally prefer ships with the cross cutout on the bottom for plugging onto variable height flying pawn bases. That way the ships can be bigger than a hex but not collide with ships in adjacent hexes due to being at different heights.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

In that case, you're looking at:

Complete (I hope) list of items from Starship encounters:
  • 19 asteroids (each one fitting inside a single hex of the Basic Starfield Flip-Mat)
  • 10 derelict ships
  • 1 Empyrean Eye (older Starfinder vessel)
  • 1 Starfinder "Mega Carrier"
  • 4 Starfinder Escort Ships
  • 1 Jinsul Capital Ship
  • 10 Jinsul Assault Craft
  • 1 Damaged Starfinder Pegasus
  • Ship options for the PCs (Pegasus, Drake, "loaned ship" boons)

Hope that helps!

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

During Part 2 Evacuation: If a mission has been completed, and a further success for that mission comes in, how does that get tracked?

Extra recon mission successes in Part 1 gets assigned to a different recon mission. There is no similar wording in Part 2.

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Superscriber

We print asteroids in singles, doubles, triangles, etc as you can see from the thingiverse page, so are the asteroids in 1-hex singles or in bunches like a typical map?

I don't need an exact layout or anything, but the standard set doesn't contain quite that many singles.

Besides the Jinsul Assault craft, are there photos of any of the others? Eg are the derelict ships just random wreckage or is there a design to them?

The pegasus, drake, sunrise maiden, and crypt warden are taken care of. I'm not sure any other "loaned ship" boons exist, but I'm GMing both AP1 and AP3 this month so I expect they'll both show up.

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

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Arc Riley wrote:

We print asteroids in singles, doubles, triangles, etc as you can see from the thingiverse page, so are the asteroids in 1-hex singles or in bunches like a typical map?

I don't need an exact layout or anything, but the standard set doesn't contain quite that many singles.

Besides the Jinsul Assault craft, are there photos of any of the others? Eg are the derelict ships just random wreckage or is there a design to them?

The pegasus, drake, sunrise maiden, and crypt warden are taken care of. I'm not sure any other "loaned ship" boons exist, but I'm GMing both AP1 and AP3 this month so I expect they'll both show up.

They're all singles.

There are no other pictures of ships.

The Exchange 1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Charter Superscriber

There's the manticore, its not a loaned ship but it is out there, there's also a super rare boon the Berky Mark IV.

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Superscriber
Athos710 wrote:
They're all singles.

Husband asked me to confirm since he's printing them today and it sounds odd; so none of the asteroids are adjacent to any other asteroids?

The Exchange 1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Charter Superscriber

So this one is fun but not something I think most people will catch.

In subtier 3-4(which is what I'm prepping), The Dark Apprentice has stellar alignment (graviton) which means he can never attune photon, so while he has supernova because of his solarian graft, he can never use it.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

Arc Riley wrote:
Athos710 wrote:
They're all singles.

Husband asked me to confirm since he's printing them today and it sounds odd; so none of the asteroids are adjacent to any other asteroids?

Mike Bramnik wrote:
(each one fitting inside a single hex of the Basic Starfield Flip-Mat)

Correct - they are all single asteroids, and none of them are adjacent to each other.

Edit: If you have a choice of filament/etc. colors - lighter might be better for these versus the ones in your previous images, IMHO.

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Superscriber
Mike Bramnik wrote:


Correct - they are all single asteroids, and none of them are adjacent to each other.

Edit: If you have a choice of filament/etc. colors - lighter might be better for these versus the ones in your previous images, IMHO.

We received our #1-99 PDFs Friday, and yea I see what you mean. Normally I'd print dark and wash light, but it seems the opposite would be best here.

Question about subtiers and APL; we're pre-mustering by subtier but one of the subtiers is already full.

If a level 4 PC were to play at a subtier 5-6 table (APL would still be 5-6) would they receive subtier 3-4 credits, subtier 5-6 credits, or out-of-tier credits? If the latter, since its not specified on the chronicle sheet how would we calculate that?

3/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton

Arc Riley wrote:
Mike Bramnik wrote:


Correct - they are all single asteroids, and none of them are adjacent to each other.

Edit: If you have a choice of filament/etc. colors - lighter might be better for these versus the ones in your previous images, IMHO.

We received our #1-99 PDFs Friday, and yea I see what you mean. Normally I'd print dark and wash light, but it seems the opposite would be best here.

Question about subtiers and APL; we're pre-mustering by subtier but one of the subtiers is already full.

If a level 4 PC were to play at a subtier 5-6 table (APL would still be 5-6) would they receive subtier 3-4 credits, subtier 5-6 credits, or out-of-tier credits? If the latter, since its not specified on the chronicle sheet how would we calculate that?

Out of tier credit rewards are the average of the tier you played (i.e. 5-6) and the tier you belong in (3-4).

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Superscriber

Ok, since I'm serving as overseer GM I want to be extra sure this is correct. Also AFAIK this is not provided in the Guild Guide 1.0 so I'd really like an official answer on it.

Assuming no PC is playing more than one step out of subtier, that would mean the OOT credits for #1-99 look like this;

  • 1-2 720
  • oot 1090
  • 3-4 1460
  • oot 2772.5
  • 5-6 4085
  • oot 4960
  • 7-8 5835

Another thing that puzzles me; I expected this chronicle sheet to either unlock a special bonus from the Journey to the Scoured Stars segment boons, or to provide a 5th segment of this boon, but its not even mentioned. Is this an oversight that'll be corrected or was it an intentional decision to exclude it?

Paizo Employee 5/5 Starfinder Society Developer

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Arc Riley wrote:
Another thing that puzzles me; I expected this chronicle sheet to either unlock a special bonus from the Journey to the Scoured Stars segment boons, or to provide a 5th segment of this boon, but its not even mentioned. Is this an oversight that'll be corrected or was it an intentional decision to exclude it?

Intentional. There's already enough "grar" that some of the major story elements are locked behind an interactive special, we don't want people to feel excluded from an ongoing boon series because they can't make it to a special.

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Superscriber

Its good to know the boon series will continue.

It seemed that the boon series was headed to the climatic mid-season finale, if its omission is intentional then its still going somewhere vs being forgotten or an editorial error.

Paizo Employee 5/5 Starfinder Society Developer

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Arc Riley wrote:

Its good to know the boon series will continue.

It seemed that the boon series was headed to the climatic mid-season finale, if its omission is intentional then its still going somewhere vs being forgotten or an editorial error.

Ohhhhhhh... we have so much in store.

The Exchange 1/5 5/5 ***

I was just looking over the weapons for the JINSUL Assault Craft. The 1/2 Tier ship has the Light Torpedo Launcher it has a - in the Special Properties column.

Does this mean it DOES NOT have limited fire of 5 shots? Can it really shoot every time throughout the encounter?

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

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It seems to be that some of the starting locations for monsters/PCs are missing from the PDF.

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

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I have been working on notes for each part. I hope to upload them to pfsprep this weekend.

The virtual encounter and the use of grafts took me a little bit to work out but really a cool way of handling that.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Agent, Georgia—Atlanta

Thanks Gary!

Grand Lodge 2/5 5/55/55/5 * Venture-Captain, Washington—Tacoma

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Does the overseer GM get table credit for this scenario, and if so, who does it get reported?

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5

Adam Watson wrote:
Does the overseer GM get table credit for this scenario, and if so, who does it get reported?

For our cons, traditionally the Overseer is reported as a GM for a table with zero players, thus the origin of their credit.

Grand Lodge 2/5 5/55/55/5 * Venture-Captain, Washington—Tacoma

Perry Frix wrote:
Adam Watson wrote:
Does the overseer GM get table credit for this scenario, and if so, who does it get reported?
For our cons, traditionally the Overseer is reported as a GM for a table with zero players, thus the origin of their credit.

We were thinking that, I just wanted to see what other groups do.

3/5 5/55/55/55/5 *** Contributor

The Bay Area GMs are prepping this for PacifiCon this weekend and we are confused about something.

On Page 6, it says that "The PCs should take this opportunity to slot boons. The Table GM should advise any PCs who have the First Skirmish boon from Starfinder Society Scenario #1–13: On the Trail of History that they can slot this boon as a Starship boon for this scenario to receive a bonus at some point in the scenario."

This implies you need to slot this boon to get the benefit.

On page 36, it says "Jinsul attack ships resemble the unknown starship which Starfinders fought in Starfinder Society Scenario #1–13: On the Trail of History, and the PCs’ ship gains a +4 bonus to all starship combat checks for a number of rounds equal to the number of PCs that earned the First Skirmish boon in that scenario."

Emphasis mine. This sounds like you only have to have earned the boon, not slotted it. Could we get some clarification?

4/5 5/5

Given the normal boon system in Starfinder where you need to slot a boon to use it rewardsit it my opinion this is an oversight and should be slotted.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

This isn't *entirely* on topic, but a more general question. I'm prepping to run Scoured Stars as a home game, and with 1-99 being so crucial to the overarching storyline, I'm really hoping to include it in the campaign (when it hits wide release). Any GMs out there with experience running Organized Play home games with advice about adapting multi-table scenarios?

4/5 5/55/55/55/5

Part 4 Missions.

It appears you can start off in space combat, or repelling boarders in part 4.

After the completion of the first encounter, you can stay on the same mission, or swap to the other mission and play its second encounter.

How does this work with successes?

Do you get one success per encounter, or only the success for the mission when you complete the second encounter? If you started with All hands on deck, but then swapped to Buying time, which one is it a success for?

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

My impression is that successes are only reported for the "boss" encounter of each mission set - so Counterattack for space combat and killing the commander on board the carrier.

I'm 99% sure the scenario does say where PCs enter the other "side" of part 4 once they finish one set of missions or decide to swap after their first encounter (if I remember when I get home I'll hunt down the page number).

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