Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Manitoba
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Hi folks, I saw there wasn't a thread for this scenario... hopefully it's because it's just so well-written that there's no need for any additional questions! :) But it could also be because it's so free-form that it's too confusing, or that no one is running it. I know I learn a lot as an author from reading all the GM threads on my own (and other peoples') scenarios, so I figured I'd start this up and ask a few questions for my own edumacation.
So, do people find they are selecting various traits that fit the existing NPCs, or rolling randomly? Obviously each option fits a given NPC better than others - are there enough NPCs to make this re-playable without feeling repetitive? Additional encounter locations would have been nice, I'm sure, but hopefully there's enough variation within the personalities that even a repeated encounter should feel new.
Is there anything in the situations that strain credulity too much, or just doesn't flow at the table? This is the first full-on repeatable I've worked on, so anything people can share about how it's working or not would be appreciated.
Venture-Agent, Netherlands
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I thought it was great! I ran it a few weeks ago and had a great time, the players really went into bat for the NPC they had to protect!
Funniest moment was in the bar, random guy spills drink on NPC, (they tried to protect him from this stuff but you know), then he gets really offended (Nuar with the existing things), so one of the PCs goes to fight the guy in a boxing match outside the Cantina.
CR5 vs Level 3 PC...needless to say the PC got knocked out hardcore haha but they loved it!
Catching Squox went extremely well, they found it hilarious, never thought I'd see a Vesk trying to gently get a Squox to ignore their sharp claws!
The only combat that went slightly sideways was the Mall Rats. They never saw the Sniper, and it was very effective, one PC unconscious and general confusion!
I did find they sailed through it with ease. They didn't have much diplomacy in the party but they didn't need the optional encounter.
They did have a great time overall, playing up the NPC is crucial as the GM I think, making sure you really get into it. Nice work :)
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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I ran it on Saturday, it went relatively quick, my first impression is that it is a better replayable than it is as a standalone scenario (but that is usually how good replayables work - I have pretty much the exact opposite problem with 1-01 which is a good scenario but a bad replay experience).
This is getting a proper review, there are some areas where I would have wanted a bit more, others where I was not super happy with the effects of success and there is one dignitary I would personally never ever chose or want to have at a table where I play that scenario.
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I am slightly confused on Representative Tradok's gender and write-up.
Are the pronouns called out incorrect, or is the write-up on them in their dossier incorrect?
Formal Title: Representative Tradok. Pronouns: He/him
Representative Tradok is here on behalf of the colony of New Labyrinthia, the first major settlement of nuar discovered by the Pact Worlds beyond Absalom Station. New Labyrinthia is located in a complex maze tunneled beneath the surface of an unnamed (by the Pact Worlds) asteroid in an asteroid belt in Near Space. New Labyrinthia has been home to several hundred nuar since before the Gap, and this meeting represents first contact.Representative Tradok is something of an enigma compared to the Nuar on Absalom Station, curt almost to the point of rudeness and displaying little of the patience of her kin on Absalom Station. Supremely confident in the value her people bring to any treaty relationship, she is unlikely to respond well to threats or heavy-handed negotiations.
Thank you for your time in advance!
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I am slightly confused on Representative Tradok's gender and write-up.Are the pronouns called out incorrect, or is the write-up on them in their dossier incorrect?
Formal Title: Representative Tradok. Pronouns: He/him
Representative Tradok is here on behalf of the colony of New Labyrinthia, the first major settlement of nuar discovered by the Pact Worlds beyond Absalom Station. New Labyrinthia is located in a complex maze tunneled beneath the surface of an unnamed (by the Pact Worlds) asteroid in an asteroid belt in Near Space. New Labyrinthia has been home to several hundred nuar since before the Gap, and this meeting represents first contact.Representative Tradok is something of an enigma compared to the Nuar on Absalom Station, curt almost to the point of rudeness and displaying little of the patience of her kin on Absalom Station. Supremely confident in the value her people bring to any treaty relationship, she is unlikely to respond well to threats or heavy-handed negotiations.
Thank you for your time in advance!
When I ran it, I went with "he/him" because that's what it said in the Pronouns section. It's not his fault that the dossier misgenders him (in-game, I'd say it's because it was written before they asked for his pronouns).
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I recently ran this as my second time GMing Starfinder, and it went pretty well. We ran low subtier, and had one player who was playing SF for the first time. I chose to use "Hammer of Hylax" as the dignitary, because she entertained me the most, and I just used her default profile.
None of the 3 PCs was built for social skills, so we had the envoy pregen as a virtual 4th player. Everyone, including the envoy, rolled poorly in the first interview, so the dignitary started as hostile to the group. However, they had done just fine learning what Hammer's comfort and taboo were. That gave them the guidance they needed to rapidly improve her outlook through their actions. IIRC, they had made her helpful after only 2 of 4 outings, and managed to perform well enough on the final two to not lose any ground.
There is a LOT of text to review before running this thing for the first time, but that's also true of the better repeatable scenarios in PFS1 (which I have more experience with). I was tripped up momentarily by a reference to the Armory (in the mall rats' gear) that I didn't catch and research ahead of time. I don't own the book, but a quick online search found what I needed.
My only real quibble is about the dossier handouts: I only gave the players the boxed text at the top of Hammer's dossier, and showed them her picture. The comfort, taboo, and species lore all require skill checks to learn, so presenting them as part of the player handout is awkward. My group still got all the information, but giving them the whole sheet up front could be a big spoiler if they didn't.
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I redacted the Comfort and Taboo then wrote them in as the party discovered them.
At least, that was the plan, but I got a little dislodged in time and had to ask the party to kindly ignore that I'd already provided the info.
However, they were able to suss out pretty quickly the comfort (Hedonism -- hey, living in a stodgy mining community is so BORING!) and the taboo (the bovine humor went for about five minutes) pretty quickly and they salvaged it when they realized that the emissary was Not Impressed.
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Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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This is why I make my own handouts, like this one for Hammer of Hylax. It just works better to format them the way I want.
Hmm
Starting this tonight in my home game. I actually presented the players with the full list of dignitaries and asked them to pick the one that appealed to them the most. Well, they've almost completely evenly split the votes (sorry Nuglub) so we may end up just going with a random die roll in the end.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Manitoba
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I got to play this recently, and the GM did make up their own dignitary. It went really well, although that was an amazing GM who had run the scenario a whole bunch of times already.
If you know all the players and know they'll "get" the joke, it might work, although I would avoid using a complete clone of someone from another universe, personally.