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Well THIS is an interesting one. Can I say how much I love the maps? The water effects are really beautifully done.
Request: can you please please please include more information about weird races into the scenarios? This adventure has a race appear in it in a way that makes it kind of a cluster... well, you know what.
However, the ongoing media smear campaign has soured the opinion of Lead Representative Tsisitra (N female syngarathrix) toward the Starfinder Society, and she keeps her distance from the PCs throughout the event.
First of all, no reference was added for the race. It turns out that that's because it's not from a book, it's from another scenario! Calling out the scenario would have been helpful, in part because the spelling of the race's name differs between this scenario and the other, so nothing I did (including full-text searching every PDF I own) got me to the right place. It wasn't until I started reading through Honorbound Emissaries that I turned it up, but I was really reluctant to do that because I haven't played the scenario! :(
For future GMs:
Syngnathrix
Syngnathrixes resemble a chameleon-seahorse cross, with coral-like growths on their heads which differ from individual to individual, with those of females being usually larger. Syngnathrixes move on land on hundreds of cilia, and manipulate objects with a prehensile tail. Male syngnathrixes carry young to term during gestation. (Honorbound Emissaries)
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Just ran this last night, interestingly, the PCs started off by taking the worst spot (The Needle) because they mistakenly thought it would make everyone else like them more because they gave the other teams the choicest spots (I rewarded them by turning one of the average checks to easy for one of the later arrivals.) While I thought the DCs were high, they crushed it and ended up with 8 recordings, 8 favor, and all the findings. (They missed one recording because they damaged the lily pad, but got automatic favor with the group that landed that there were the Xenowardens and one of the PCs had ashes of discovery-Xenowardens).
I have to say, checking back and forth all the time for the scenario was a real hassle. They author could have just picked an order that they show up in. It isn’t as if the scenario is repeatable so the randomized element doesn’t seem nessisary.
Still, a fun, skill-heavy scenario that makes use of a bunch of different skills. The fight were a joke in the higher tier though. PCs barely took any damage at all.
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There's no grid because it's just for reference, it's not a combat map, and I presume if there were it'd be 1 square = 60 feet or something nuts. Each pillar is as far apart as the plot demands.
Traveling between pillars takes some amount of time, but not a whole setup phase (I plan to say it takes 10-15 minutes to get in the spaceship, power it up, hope the relatively short distance and land safely).
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That makes sense. Having a scale on there threw me. My new concern is the Grotean Vandals trying to make piloting checks (piloting +4/+5) vs the churning surf's Average DC 16+. I forsee a good chance of at least one hovertrike becoming an uncontrolled vehicle! Could be hilarious.
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I was going to make a snarky comment about the scale on a map without a grid, but I decided against it. You weren't the only person who noticed, though!
I also counted transit time as irrelevant--I let each party member choose to investigate one thing during a single setup phase. (so long as they could get there somehow.)
After having run it, the scenario seemed to be missing a lot of detail. The handout points out when the cultists land, for example, but there's nothing in the text describing what happens. (By process of elimination it seems they land last and would take the needle. Assuming someone's party doesn't take the needle, anyway.)
There weren't ways written to get favor with all of the groups, just most of them--and one of those required a previous chronicle. A note saying you can't get favor with them would have been nice, but the handout seemed to suggest you could.
Also, the party immediately wanted to go defuse the bombs on the second pillar during the fight, but defusing wasn't covered by the scenario. It's easy enough to set a reasonable Engineering DC, but that seems like something that should have been covered!
Everyone had a good time, which is the most important thing! That said, I had to ad-lib a lot myself after not finding some obvious things in the scenario. It seemed a little sloppy as a result...
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First of all, no reference was added for the race. It turns out that that's because it's not from a book, it's from another scenario! Calling out the scenario would have been helpful, in part because the spelling of the race's name differs between this scenario and the other, so nothing I did (including full-text searching every PDF I own) got me to the right place. It wasn't until I started reading through Honorbound Emissaries that I turned it up, but I was really reluctant to do that because I haven't played the scenario!
Good point, sorry about that. I focused on fleshing out the shatoris and inadvertently took the Season 1 metaplot scenario info for granted, including the Kreiholm Freehold races. The typo in the name just adds insult to injury. In the future I'll pay closer attention to which species I use so I don't leave GMs in the lurch if they see something unfamiliar.
While I thought the DCs were high, they crushed it and ended up with 8 recordings, 8 favor, and all the findings. (They missed one recording because they damaged the lily pad, but got automatic favor with the group that landed that there were the Xenowardens and one of the PCs had ashes of discovery-Xenowardens).
Interesting, I thought the DCs were high as well. The goal was to scale the checks so the PCs could succeed roughly 75% of the time without special resources, even with a few Aid Another successes. That way PCs who brought relevant boons would feel the added benefit was significant. I suppose it's possible that your group just got lucky, but I'll keep this in mind for future skill-based scenarios.
I have to say, checking back and forth all the time for the scenario was a real hassle. They author could have just picked an order that they show up in. It isn’t as if the scenario is repeatable so the randomized element doesn’t seem necessary.
I can see why that would be annoying, sorry for the inconvenience. I randomized it because I know several convention GMs who run the same scenario multiple times. Even though this scenario has no mechanical replay value, I figured GMs who are going above and beyond to offer this scenario to multiple strangers could spice it up with a bit of randomization. Plus, there wasn't a narrative reason for the attendees to come in any particular order, so I figured shuffling the arrival times wouldn't hurt. Lesson learned.
Still, a fun, skill-heavy scenario that makes use of a bunch of different skills. The fight were a joke in the higher tier though. PCs barely took any damage at all.
This is valuable feedback, since I got some complaints about my first SFS scenario (1-34) that the difficulty was too high. I was already planning to scale it back, and I may have gone further on the easy side because this is a 1-4 adventure. I'm still calibrating my SFS encounter difficulty, so next time I'll shoot for something in between this and the 1-34 boss fight.
There is no grid on either of the maps of Wealdriad's Crown. One map has a scale 1 square=5 feet, but there are no squares. Running this Friday 1/25/20 and would like to know how far apart each pillar is. Also, is traveling between pillars part of a setup phase?
Xalxe is correct, the distance between pillars has no grid because it's an overland map (i.e. not for combat). I suspect the "1 square = 5 feet" scale was part of a Starfinder map template that got left in by accident. The distance between sites is fairly arbitrary (as Xalxe put it, "as far apart as the plot demands") to encourage PCs to travel between sites by vehicle (Pegasus, CHERAV, or PC-owned) rather than swimming. If the PCs use a vehicle, the travel time is negligible; it doesn't cost a Setup Period because the transit is built into the other activities that make up a Setup Period. If the PCs insist on swimming, then travelling between the pillars costs 1 Setup Period because swimming is slower and more treacherous in the stormy waters.
For what it's worth, my draft map had a scale that set the width of the entire map at 26 miles (roughly 1/2 inch = 1 mile), so the longest travel distance (A1 to A8) was about 20 miles. In a vehicle that can move at least 60 miles per hour, covering that distance should take about 1/3rd of an hour (i.e. 20 minutes), so each travel period should take roughly 10-15 minutes as Xalxe suggested.
My new concern is the Grotean Vandals trying to make piloting checks (piloting +4/+5) vs the churning surf's Average DC 16+. I foresee a good chance of at least one hovertrike becoming an uncontrolled vehicle! Could be hilarious.
I hope that does happen! Since this was a vehicle-tag scenario, a goal of mine was to make the final encounter dynamic concerning the vehicles, particularly when the enemies have an ability to throw the PCs out of the CHERAV. Between the storm's combat modifiers, the unfriendly terrain, and the vehicle rules, I hope the final battle has enough cinematic chaos to make it memorable.
After having run it, the scenario seemed to be missing a lot of detail. The handout points out when the cultists land, for example, but there's nothing in the text describing what happens. (By process of elimination it seems they land last and would take the needle. Assuming someone's party doesn't take the needle, anyway.)
There weren't ways written to get favor with all of the groups, just most of them--and one of those required a previous chronicle. A note saying you can't get favor with them would have been nice, but the handout seemed to suggest you could.
Also, the party immediately wanted to go defuse the bombs on the second pillar during the fight, but defusing wasn't covered by the scenario. It's easy enough to set a reasonable Engineering DC, but that seems like something that should have been covered!
Box text for the cultists' arrival was omitted because I didn't have enough word count left for it. I figured it was an acceptable loss since it doesn't really change the story and GMs can describe it without my exact guidance on how it would play out.
Each group does have specific ways to get both a Recording and Favor from them (barring a disqualifying event like damaging the Lily Pad). The CPBN, Kreilholm Freehold, Land-Hoard Holdings, and Weydanites each have 2 different skill checks associated with their cooperation - one Average, one Hard. PCs who succeed on one check get their choice of a Recording or Favor. PCs who succeed on both checks get both rewards. The Church of Desna and the Xenowardens both have one skill associated with earning their favor, plus a slightly more involved way to impress them (sharing Findings for the Desnans and capturing the Groetans alive for the Xenowardens). PCs can offset the tougher requirements for impressing those two factions by slotting the correct boons for this scenario.
I might have made the bombs a trap if I had more words, but ultimately they were just a plot device to draw the PCs into combat with the Groetans, so I didn't bother to make them more involved.
Everyone had a good time, which is the most important thing! That said, I had to ad-lib a lot myself after not finding some obvious things in the scenario.
I'm glad you enjoyed it despite the hiccups. I like ad-libbing when I GM, so I saw that as a feature rather than a bug. I guess it's part of my writing style that I need to take into account when I script adventures.
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Just ran this tonight, had fun with it! Nice to have a wide variety of skill checks, I think everyone did something vital tonight which is great.
Couple of notes, just for future GMs:
- We have a four-hour timeslot and I ended up cutting things short (had the Groteans show up around setup 10) because people were doing a good amount of roleplaying the various groups
- I made paper cards to represent the vehicles, highly recommend so people know how big they are and can drive them around properly
- Practice pronouncing Nyarlothep a few times so you don't feel foolish :P
Starfinder Society Developer
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First of all, no reference was added for the race. It turns out that that's because it's not from a book, it's from another scenario!
My bad entirely. I honestly didn't notice it during my dev pass and should be more diligent in the future on stuff like this.
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First of all, no reference was added for the race. It turns out that that's because it's not from a book, it's from another scenario!My bad entirely. I honestly didn't notice it during my dev pass and should be more diligent in the future on stuff like this.
He liiiiiives!
Thanks Thursty. I know I had some gripes about this one (which I swear I will turn into a cohesive and constructive review at some point) but you're pretty good about kicking butt with this sort of thing. We all appreciate you being available and checking in even when we're not at our best behavior here on the forums! :)
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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I'm currently running this in play by post, and I noticed a discrepancy. On page 7, in the section Wealdriad's Crown, it says setting up the equipment is an Engineering or Survival check. Yet every single individual pillar's description says it's a Computers, Engineering, or Physical Science check. Which one is it?
I'm currently running this in play by post, and I noticed a discrepancy. On page 7, in the section Wealdriad's Crown, it says setting up the equipment is an Engineering or Survival check. Yet every single individual pillar's description says it's a Computers, Engineering, or Physical Science check. Which one is it?
Good catch, I must have missed the discrepancy when proofreading the final draft. Default to what it says for the pillar descriptions (Computers, Engineering, or Physical Science) - the Engineering or Survival check from from an earlier draft. I expanded the skill options so fewer PCs would feel trapped if they don't have Survival or a good engineer.
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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Also, to comment on what's been said earlier: I like the idea of the arrivals being randomised, but it does indeed lead to a lot of flipping back and forth. It's a kind gesture for the GMs who run this scenario back-to-back, but maybe it would've been easier to give a randomised option in an appendix? Now there's DCs on page 5 (though easily fixed with a post-it), individual descriptions of the pillars on pages 7-11, and the randomised factions on pages 6 and 7. At least having the faction on the same page as the description of the pillars is a lot easier for looking up which skills to use and such: Pillar 1 has faction X with skills B and C for the talky team, and the hazard/skills for the exploration team are D, E, and F.
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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After-action report now that my PbP is over:
My players absolutely crushed all the skill challenges. They rolled really well, but some of them were also very specialised in certain fields, so that helped as well. The players had all the required Recordings and a Favor and a Finding by hour 4 or 5 or so (they split the party, not sure if I should've let them, but I didn't see why they couldn't), so I decided to speed things up a bit. Groetans arrived by hour 6 and fought them by hour 7, because having to play out all 12 hours felt like a waste of time when they've already basically succeeded.
I really liked the final combat. I can't speak for my players, but I liked how vehicles were involved. It really felt like a "vehicle combat" without them being forced down your throat or relying on a gimmick. The Solarians with the Black Hole were a good use of playing with the environment as well. Again, I found it a pretty fun twist where they're not just simply trying to kill you through HP damage. Good use of environment and abilities. The ramming of the CHERAV was also pretty fun, I found. I only got to do it once, but it hit for a lot of damage. I couldn't gauge the fear of the players, but I got the feeling it did put some urgency on taking out the drivers, as one more ram could be fatal. The boats all giving a penalty on to hit was kind of a bummer, but the enemies had poor AC to compensate, which is nice. Didn't feel too penalising for failing a Piloting check.
I also liked the world-building. I'm kind of sad we didn't get more information about Wealdriad's purpose, but I guess it's setup for a later adventure.
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Also, to comment on what's been said earlier: I like the idea of the arrivals being randomised, but it does indeed lead to a lot of flipping back and forth. It's a kind gesture for the GMs who run this scenario back-to-back, but maybe it would've been easier to give a randomised option in an appendix? Now there's DCs on page 5 (though easily fixed with a post-it), individual descriptions of the pillars on pages 7-11, and the randomised factions on pages 6 and 7. At least having the faction on the same page as the description of the pillars is a lot easier for looking up which skills to use and such: Pillar 1 has faction X with skills B and C for the talky team, and the hazard/skills for the exploration team are D, E, and F.
I do my randomized rolls prior to game and have all the data filled in on the sheet before the first player sits at the Virtual table but I would do the same thing for a CON. At a CON I would use the same random setup for the entire CON for ease of prep but next CON/Event I would change it up.