This is not so much to replace a Session 0, as to fill in for what the AP Pathfinder Player's Guides normally do.
But, given that Paizo has proven reluctant to create Player's Guides for Starfinder APs, what in people's opinions should a GM include in any Guide that a GM would make for his players?
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1) What the campaign is about
2) What kind of characters might work well here. If its an intrigue or stealth campaign, the heavy armor vesk soldier with an 8 int may want to look at a different concept.
3) what kind of players this is for. If bob only rolls dice when there's something to kill, the dinner party at the end of the universe campaign may not be for him.
4) What kind of bad guys you're going to face. IE, if you're an operative you may not want to take anything that requires a fort save in the second half of dead suns or Robot Uprising IV, the circuiting.
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What BigNorseWolf said. You do not want to give away all your tricks, but saying things like "you are going to be fighting a lot of outsiders, plan around that" is more helpful that "This AP uses a ton of Genies, so plan for fighting efreeti". I would say go generic vs. specific for players.
1) What the campaign is about
2) What kind of characters might work well here. If its an intrigue or stealth campaign, the heavy armor vesk soldier with an 8 int may want to look at a different concept.
3) what kind of players this is for. If bob only rolls dice when there's something to kill, the dinner party at the end of the universe campaign may not be for him.
4) What kind of bad guys you're going to face. IE, if you're an operative you may not want to take anything that requires a fort save in the second half of dead suns or Robot Uprising IV, the circuiting.
I think you could just combine 2 & 3 together and just give a campaign focus...if it is combat heavy...intrigue heavy...if it is city based or wilderness..,etc.
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I don't think #2 and #3 are quite the same thing. They're related, but not the same.
For example, I'm playing Against the Aeon Throne with some people who really do enjoy the occasional heist and infiltration game. But the blurb for AtAT doesn't really tell you much. So they came up with a Shobhad and a Bantrid. Suffice to say, we're not doing all that great at the whole Disguise aspect.
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I don't think #2 and #3 are quite the same thing. They're related, but not the same.
For example, I'm playing Against the Aeon Throne with some people who really do enjoy the occasional heist and infiltration game. But the blurb for AtAT doesn't really tell you much. So they came up with a Shobhad and a Bantrid. Suffice to say, we're not doing all that great at the whole Disguise aspect.
Thank you for illustrating the reason I wanted to discuss GM created Player's Guides. In this case, informing the players that the AP puts a premium on characters that can "pass for humans" (with disguise) before they become invested in a character concept.
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Thank you for illustrating the reason I wanted to discuss GM created Player's Guides. In this case, informing the players that the AP puts a premium on characters that can "pass for humans" (with disguise) before they become invested in a character concept.I don't think #2 and #3 are quite the same thing. They're related, but not the same.
For example, I'm playing Against the Aeon Throne with some people who really do enjoy the occasional heist and infiltration game. But the blurb for AtAT doesn't really tell you much. So they came up with a Shobhad and a Bantrid. Suffice to say, we're not doing all that great at the whole Disguise aspect.
That was one of the primary reasons I created that guide for my players. I didn't want them to invest in a character and suddenly have a giant roadblock. I wanted to give them that info up front. If they decided to then make a non-human character, at least they were aware of some difficulties up ahead.
Another thing I added was info about the settlement. This was a way to introduce them to the starting area, give them some info they may have already, and get them somewhat invested in the settlement.
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I think in general, the PG should give you enough info to make good character building choices, such as...
- Will there be significant amounts of starship combat? Make sure everyone has a good role on the ship.
- Are we going to run up against a lot of enemies immune to (all the spells I was just about to choose)?
- Do we all need to have a certain skill, or least not be especially bad at it? (Disguise in one AP)
- Do we need to be able to cope with a particular environment (you'd better be able to breathe underwater and have a swim speed for this AP..)
PF1 exemplified this with the ranger, who needed advice on favored enemy choices. That's very hard to do without being kinda spoilery.
But I think this is more like the blurb on the jacket of a book, giving you an idea what the book is about, and that lets you figure out if this is the right book for you (or your character concept).
Really want to hear horror stories of PCs who insisted on playing a conventional photon mode solarion in Dawn of Flame.
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Keeley and I are ensuring that every AP, starting with Attack of the Swarm!, has a Player Guide in the first volume of the AP. I can't promise we'll address all the concerns in this thread—as we don't want to spoil the adventures—but we can provide theme, class, and archetype advice, backgrounds that connect the PCs to important NPCs in the adventure, and gear/spell choices that will be especially appropriate. If an AP has a starship-emphasis, you're going to see a section pointing that out and encouraging the players to make a crew that works well together.
If you're doing a player's guide for yourself—and that's a great idea!—you can spoil the adventure to the exact degree you want to spoil it, and you can tailor the guide to the players at your table. If you know one person is really into subsystems, for example, you can point that player to a character that will really enjoy that subsystem. And you can introduce PC hooks to NPCs that you know you want to introduce or emphasize. And of course you can include any house rules.
So yeah, I love the idea of making a player's guide for your campaign. Not only for APs that don't have one, but even for APs that do, so you can customize the experience to the players at your table.
The Attack of the Swarm player's guide isn't bad. It covers player expectations and gives a decent overview of what to expect.
The one issue I have with it is that I think it could be a little clearer about directing players toward the Profession(Soldier) skill, which ends up being something you can use fairly often.