Venture-Captain, Texas—Austin
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Ran this last night, had a good time.
I did have a question come up. If the body snatcher slime manages to snatch someones body, and then use a weapon on that person (i.e. a laser pistol or survival knife), do I add weapon specialization to that attack? and if so, is the it the +3 due to CR, or the PC's?
I know I use its attack bonus, but I wasn't sure if I should add weapon specialization, as the body snatcher does not seem to get the PC's feats.
Starfinder Society Developer
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I think I'd include it just so you can tell the player to blast their fellow party members in the face with the info on their sheets without changing anything.
This is also how I would handle it, for maximum player reaction, of course.
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I laughed a little too hard at BigNorseWolf's and Thursty's responses.
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Starfinder Society Developer
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Looks like there's also a lot of guides online to craft Futurama Brain Slugs. Were I TRULY terrible GM (not me... never!) I would totally make/purchase one of these to have the associated player wear the plush while they gun down their allies.
But I would NEVER suggest you do this. :)
[[But seriously, this should be something of a fun "wait what!?" experience for players and no GM should be using this as a way to murder-TPK a party by using another player to do all the heavy lifting. As with all things, don't be a jerk with these.]]
Venture-Lieutenant, Illinois—Fairview Heights
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[[But seriously, this should be something of a fun "wait what!?" experience for players and no GM should be using this as a way to murder-TPK a party by using another player to do all the heavy lifting. As with all things, don't be a jerk with these.]]
Unfortunately, the only pc the slime could get to was the envoy. Although he had almost convinced the party that nothing was wrong, even after they witnessed the slime disappearing down his throat.
In this example the slug felt subterfuge was the best way to a prolonged existence. That raises an interesting question. Should a slime manage to find it's way into a pc and not be extracted before the end of the adventure, what is the potential result? Is the character not playable and therefore dead, or is there a cure cost for removing a slime?
I don't think it has an official ruling but I would treat it like any disease or poison left untreated the way PFS does...character dead.
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I don't think it has an official ruling but I would treat it like any disease or poison left untreated the way PFS does...character dead.
That is cruel and ridiculous in PFS and it's worse here.
First off in PFS you have to resolve the disease, which can be something as simple as holing up in the inn with chicken soup and making fort saves.
Here the slug needs to make a fort save on a daily basis. It's going to fail eventually and your character can wander back to skyreach after a weeklong "dude where's my ship?" episode.
NOT being written off as DEAD because a DM decided to go outside of the scenario.
I agree it is cruel but I always took it as "the very real dangers of adventure " type of thing.
Although I'm actually fairly curious how long it takes for a host body to be deprived of all of its nutrients, now going to the slug.
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I agree it is cruel but I always took it as "the very real dangers of adventure " type of thing.
The very real dangers of adventuring are in the mechanics of the scenario. Death, dying, HP, poisons, diseases.
NOT the dm decided to do something the scenario didn't account for and even though your character wouldn't die from that, the metagame rules don't have a recovery mechanism so you "die". It's death by exploit.
It is complete, total, and utter HORSEFEATHERS. That isn't death from adventuring it's death from DM fiat. You can't cause outside the box problems and then genuinely insist that all solutions only be inside the box.
At the absolute most it would be body recovery (to find you in an alley somewhere). Or lose your downtime. Death would be completely inappropriate for a low level adventure where the DM went off script. (Even then i would be REALLY leery of costing the PCs anything because I went outside the scenario)
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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If a PC gets infected and manages to hide that, I would let it count against the success conditions, making them loose one.
That would for me be the consequence of that happening. The PC will be fine as the slug will probably have the idea to let go at a point and infect a less dangerous person.
I'm curious if any PCs picked up on the clues to the brain slugs peppered throughout...
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We didn't think the brain slugs were in charge when we played it. We had assumed that some sort of organized crime was using nonsentient parasites as an unapproved treatment to milk money from the survivors.
We didn't put it together until the brain slug went into our envoy's face.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Area B1 seems awfully small to have 20 people waiting in it. And there's no door or anything between it and the trap - just 'cross the line' and the sprinklers go off. That many people would be accidently setting it off every 5 minutes, if that.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Can someone point me to what the 'Target Tracking' ability is that Bargai has at tier 3-4? Is that the exocortex mechanic Combat Tracking ability (move action to designate target, then treat BAB as mechanic level vs that target)? I'm having trouble finding anything listed as 'Target Tracking'
Can someone point me to what the 'Target Tracking' ability is that Bargai has at tier 3-4? Is that the exocortex mechanic Combat Tracking ability (move action to designate target, then treat BAB as mechanic level vs that target)? I'm having trouble finding anything listed as 'Target Tracking'
It is referring to the offensive ability listed in the Vlaka entry in Alien Archives 2. On my phone at the moment and sfrd on Archives of Nethys doesn't seem to have it listed out in full, only in short.
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Can someone point me to what the 'Target Tracking' ability is that Bargai has at tier 3-4? Is that the exocortex mechanic Combat Tracking ability (move action to designate target, then treat BAB as mechanic level vs that target)? I'm having trouble finding anything listed as 'Target Tracking'
I believe the intent is to use the Mechanic Special Rules presented in Alien Archive (page 138). Target Tracking has shown up a couple of times in previous Starfinder Society scenarios.
For a mechanic creature with an exocortex, add target tracking at CR 1 (see below), wireless hack at CR 5, twin tracking at CR 10, multitasking at CR 15, and quad tracking at CR 20.
Target Tracking (Ex): As a move action, this NPC can designate and track a single foe, gaining a +2 bonus to attack rolls against that target. Use this same bonus for twin tracking and quad tracking.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Thanks Gary, that's what I was looking for. I wish they would include these things in the stat blocks. Sounds like it's basically the same as the PC version (Combat Tracking). Does it persist after the round, the way Combat Tracking does, or does it require a move action every turn?
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Thanks Gary, that's what I was looking for. I wish they would include these things in the stat blocks. Sounds like it's basically the same as the PC version (Combat Tracking). Does it persist after the round, the way Combat Tracking does, or does it require a move action every turn?
Dennis, I use it in the same way that a PC's Combat Tracking ability works (i.e., persists until changing a target). I don't see any reason that the NPC version would be hampered. From my perspective, this is a simplified version of the PC ability and should function the same unless otherwise stated.
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I'm curious how other GMs have handled the sections of the adventure around the Respite.
It seems... strange. The PCs are tasked with finding Hurondo and are told to talk to Jiwalla. They don't know the state Hurondo might be in, so there's a good chance that they'll want to head directly to Jiwalla to get their lead and get going. Altruism or curiosity might cause them to pause outside to gather some information, but some of the activities inside the Respite seem absurd to engage in where there may or may not be a Starfinder's life on the line.
Has anyone had PCs engage in the athletics competition or the counseling session? If so, how did it happen?
Venture-Agent, Netherlands
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I'm curious how other GMs have handled the sections of the adventure around the Respite.
Has anyone had PCs engage in the athletics competition or the counseling session? If so, how did it happen?
I had a party of 5. One didn't want to do the Athletics competition, so I got her to do the Counselling while they did the Athletics. Worked out well for everyone.
They had a curiously large interest in Scratch. Failed the Life Science/Medicine check so had no idea what was wrong with him...carried him around the compound trying to get people to help him! Ended up with Jiwalla gently hinting that the couch was the best place for him...priceless!
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Thanks for the advice guys. I went with Jiwalla emphasizing that a refreshed body and clear mind could help them on their investigation, and a few of them glommed onto that right away.
One thing I added (since I'm running the game in Play by Post I have fewer time restrictions) was to ask each of the PCs doing to counseling session to share a story: works really well if you have ex-Scoured Stars PCs in your group.
Finished running this for my home game this week. Amusingly (at least to me), my group progressed through the adventure completely out of order.
Noting some other GMs' reviews, I started not with Ziggy's briefing but with the PCs accompanying an NPC hireling in the party (and survivor of the Scoured Stars) to a group therapy session at the Respite, leading them to handle all the skill challenges while only gradually learning how serious it was that no one could find Hurondo.
Then it was down to the Spike for the mission briefing -- in this case the PCs honoring Jiwalla's request to check in with Ziggy.
Next, the PCs spent some time doing legwork to learn about the Uniters, which led them to the Open Collective. Checking out the clinic first, the PCs stumbled across the slimes and the big "action finale" before, at long last, heading over to the Uniters' headquarters and resolving the whole mess without firing a shot.
All in all, it leaves me thinking we're due to get some resolution for Hurondo. Maybe Year 5 is the time for him to return --now affiliated with the Advocates.