Is it legal to bring a character to Society if they're partway through an Adventure Path?

[BastionofthePants]

Question about the rules for playing in an Adventure Path. On Page 12 of the the Guild Guide, it states that when playing an Adventure Path or other multi-session event, that:

"Until applicable Chronicle sheets are handed out, these characters may not be used in any other Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild event."

I'm a little confused by the wording. Does this mean that we are required to finish the adventure before using that character # as a PC in a Starfinder Society game?

Other question: At what point are GMs and player required to choose which character the chronicle gets applied to? At the beginning of the adventure or the end when chronicles get handed out?

[HammerJack]

This thread should probably be moved to the organized play forum.

That being said, character numbers should be set at the beginning, and the character with that number is restricted from being in 2 adventures at once, so that you don't end up with a weird situation if they die in adventure A while they're in the middle of adventure B.

[BastionofthePants]

HammerJack wrote:

The character with that number is restricted from being in 2 adventures at once, so that you don't end up with a weird situation if they die in adventure A while they're in the middle of adventure B.

So that is literally what happened. I was unaware of this rule, and my Dead Suns character (who wraps up book 4 this weekend) just died at lvl 2. I'm trying to figure out how to resolve it.

(Also oops, I meant to post this in the OP section)

[pithica42]

Campaign mode is weird.

Are you saying your character died in a normal SFS game or in the Campaign mode game?

If it's the former, you're stuck using the options available to all characters in SFS (spend fame/cash to buy a res).

If it's the latter, it's whatever your GM says to continue the game, which could be 'make a new character'. The things that happen to your campaign mode characters have no impact on your SFS character beyond the chronicles.

[Master Han Del of the Web]

Any characters you play in Campaign Mode are separate from your SFS characters. You are free to apply the chronicle sheets from a campaign mode game to any of your SFS characters that qualify for them.

[Ascalaphus]

The answer here depends on whether you're playing campaign mode or event mode. In event mode, you use a regular SFS character to play a chunk of an adventure path. In campaign mode, you play a separate campaign, and occasionally you get some chronicles that you can give to an SFS character

It looks from your question as if you're playing in campaign mode, because in book 4 an event mode character could not be level 2.

"Campaign Mode: For sanctioned Adventure Paths, GMs are
allowed to use their own rules for character creation and running
the presented content (the entire book or series). Credit is applied
to an appropriate Roleplaying Guild character as if the character
created were a pregenerated character."

What happens in campaign mode stays in campaign mode. The GM could be using a completely different rule system to run the campaign, and that is fine, but it does mean that what happened in that weird other universe doesn't carry over into the perfectly normal SFS universe.

Basically, if you finished book #4, you get a tier 7-8 chronicle that you can put on any character you like. Doesn't have to be the same one that your #3 chronicle went to.

And yeah, if you assigned the chronicle to a character that was much lower level, there's a lot of adventures in between assigning it, and getting to apply it. If your SFS character dies while a pending chronicle was assigned to it, that's very sad, but unfortunately it can happen.

[BastionofthePants]

OK I guess I should be more clear about the specific situation, so let me try again:

For 18 months, I GM'd Dead Suns. We're about to wrap up book 4. We were playing Campaign mode. All of those chronicles are applied to character # 3.

Now, unaware of that rule on p 12, I brought character # 3 to a Society game, at lvl 2, where she died. Taking all 18-months worth of my Dead Suns chronicles to the grave with her. Because she was only lvl 2, she didn't have access to any of the fame or money on those chronicles, and therefore couldn't get raised.

So basically, I'm desperate for a *legal* way to not just lose all of those chronicles before I even get to apply them. Honestly, it feels needlessly mean-spirited to force a player to apply a chronicle to a dead character. It takes a lot away from the player without really improving the game in any meaningful way.

So here's the question: was it legal for me to bring Character # 3 to a Society event when I was mid-adventure. If not, would an acceptable resolution be to adjust the unapplied chronicles (Chronicles 2-4) and apply them to character # 4.

Does that make sense, or is my brain just stuck in the "Bargaining" phase of the grieving process?

[pithica42]

It is my understanding that it absolutely was legal to bring your character to that game. While you absolutely cannot play a character in two games at the same time, there is some weird leeway for GM'ing and for campaign mode APs. I don't have a link handy, but there was a thread on this in the OP forums where John Compton said as much... Oh wait, I do have the link handy.

As for your other question, I'm honestly not sure of the answer. I know you physically can adjust the reporting of the later AP volumes to have them go to a different PC, but I don't think it's legal to do so.

Wait, no, I take that back, it's spelled out in the link I posted, it's definitely not legal to change it...

John Compton wrote:

Similarly, assigning high-level GM credit to a PC that dies before redeeming that credit means that the credit is also lost.

EDIT: I'm also super curious as to what scenario you died in at level 2. I've only encountered one tier 1-4 scenario that was deadly, so I'm curious if it's the one I already knew about or what happened.

[BastionofthePants]

pithica42 wrote:

EDIT: I'm also super curious as to what scenario you died in at level 2. I've only encountered one tier 1-4 scenario that was deadly, so I'm curious if it's the one I already knew about or what happened.

Bluerise Breakout. To be fair, I probably would have survived if I had played a little smarter. Or if the GM hadn't rolled a crit when I had only 3 hp left.

I'd have gotten over it by now if I didn't just lose a year's worth of chronicles without ever getting even getting to play a character who had applied them.

[Yakman]

pithica42 wrote:

It is my understanding that it absolutely was legal to bring your character to that game. While you absolutely cannot play a character in two games at the same time, there is some weird leeway for GM'ing and for campaign mode APs. I don't have a link handy, but there was a thread on this in the OP forums where John Compton said as much... Oh wait, I do have the link handy.

As for your other question, I'm honestly not sure of the answer. I know you physically can adjust the reporting of the later AP volumes to have them go to a different PC, but I don't think it's legal to do so.

Wait, no, I take that back, it's spelled out in the link I posted, it's definitely not legal to change it...

John Compton wrote:

Similarly, assigning high-level GM credit to a PC that dies before redeeming that credit means that the credit is also lost.

EDIT: I'm also super curious as to what scenario you died in at level 2. I've only encountered one tier 1-4 scenario that was deadly, so I'm curious if it's the one I already knew about or what happened.

I can see a character going down in that one. I thought it was a lot of fun, although our party was absolutely the worst possible one for completing it and some of my tablemates weren't too keen on it.

My solarian almost died in the Half-Alive Streets. He was down to 0 HP, 0 RP but was saved by a timely heal serum from a party member.

[Ascalaphus]

Ashen Asteroid can also be rather nasty.

[pithica42]

I hadn't played Ashen Asteroid or Bluerise Tower yet. I was mostly just curious. And I fully understand the dice going against you. Almost nothing can be done about a crit when you're down to 3hp.

Hard SFS scenarios:

I know the first fight in 1-18 Blackmoon Survey can be a killer if you aren't prepped for it. The snipers can easily cause a TPK on a bunch of level 1 or 2 characters that are mostly melee or short range weapon users. I've also seen the 'boss' (last fight) in both Into the Unknown and 1-16 Dreaming of the Future almost kill someone a couple times.

[Corsair17]

So if you want to play Society and AP you really need to have two characters?

[Ascalaphus]

Corsair17 wrote:

So if you want to play Society and AP you really need to have two characters?

I'd say that it's a bit safer to not assign credit into the far future of a character.

Also, these scenarios are rather the exception for deadliness. Unlucky..

[Corsair17]

Ascalaphus wrote:

Corsair17 wrote:

So if you want to play Society and AP you really need to have two characters?

I'd say that it's a bit safer to not assign credit into the far future of a character.

Also, these scenarios are rather the exception for deadliness. Unlucky..

Okay, thanks! It does give me an excuse to try out a different style character. [I'm thinking of a Telia Mystic Healer]

[pithica42]

Corsair17 wrote:

So if you want to play Society and AP you really need to have two characters?

I am of the opinion that you should create as many society characters as you can get away with actually playing and GMing for, plus one. One of the biggest strengths of OP is the ability to try out different playstyles/concepts while still feeling like you are contributing to a singular overall goal. There are a handful of scenarios that give you benefits for all your characters or for some character other than the one you played the scenario with, so you benefit from a breadth of characters.

That being said, if you GM a lot, you can get away with applying your society and AP credit to the same character really far in advance with almost no risk. I think dying in someone's very first game at level 2 was a pretty big fluke. While all of the scenarios have risks and you can always run into a string of really bad dice rolls, most of the low-level stuff and most GM's running for low-level characters have kid gloves on and pull their punches.

I happen to prefer playing in more deadly games over less deadly ones, but that isn't the norm. My single favorite experience in SFS so far was when Thursty killed my 5th level Envoy. But, since everyone's here to have fun and most people don't consider dying fun, most of the time everyone tries to avoid it.

[Corsair17]

pithica42 wrote:

Corsair17 wrote:

So if you want to play Society and AP you really need to have two characters?

I am of the opinion that you should create as many society characters as you can get away with actually playing and GMing for, plus one. One of the biggest strengths of OP is the ability to try out different playstyles/concepts while still feeling like you are contributing to a singular overall goal. There are a handful of scenarios that give you benefits for all your characters or for some character other than the one you played the scenario with, so you benefit from a breadth of characters.

That being said, if you GM a lot, you can get away with applying your society and AP credit to the same character really far in advance with almost no risk. I think dying in someone's very first game at level 2 was a pretty big fluke. While all of the scenarios have risks and you can always run into a string of really bad dice rolls, most of the low-level stuff and most GM's running for low-level characters have kid gloves on and pull their punches.

I happen to prefer playing in more deadly games over less deadly ones, but that isn't the norm. My single favorite experience in SFS so far was when Thursty killed my 5th level Envoy. But, since everyone's here to have fun and most people don't consider dying fun, most of the time everyone tries to avoid it.

Well, I am so new, GMing is still in the distance. But, thank you for clearing this up for a new guy!

[Hmm]

Corsair17 wrote:

Okay, thanks! It does give me an excuse to try out a different style character. [I'm thinking of a Telia Mystic Healer]

I love the idea of someone doing a telia! I love the fluff about how their race deals with memory. I just wish that it included a retraining option built into the race based on that fluff.

Regarding the healing mystic... Does your group have an envoy planned as part of the team? If so, I would suggest that you choose ANY other mystic connection. Healing connection mystics are the most likely of any mystic to feel irrelevant because they do not have a way to heal stamina, and many fights don't get into hit point damage. There are a lot of wonderful mystic connections out there, many with great flavor and interesting abilities.

(However, I do note that epiphanies now allow you to mix and match abilities from another connection, which is really cool.)

Hmm

PS What AP will you be playing?

[Corsair17]

This would be a "ready" character, as my group is just doing Society right now. Dr. Tortellini would use a ranged weapon, doing his best to stay out of melee and being strictly a support type character. I am debating between him and a Pahtra Solarian.

[Hmm]

The Pahtra solarian could be fun. If you do Dr. Tortellini as a healer mystic, I would consider the medic archetype so you can heal stamina.

Envoys and biohackers also make interesting doctors, too.

Which AP are you doing this for?

Hmm