SFS #2-15 The Infernal Gallery

[Dracomicron]

My copy of the scenario is currently missing starship combat map information about where the water hazards are, as well as the ship starting locations.

Anyone know where they should be?

[loki.the.mischievous]

I'm running this scenario tomorrow morning and have the same issue - no hazards or starting locations are marked on the map. Hoping to have an answer before having to wing it in the morning.

[Aaron Reichgott]

Also, is the -2 penalty from those water hazards supposed to apply to the current round or next round? I'm not sure how it's supposed to apply to the current round, so I assume that a pilot flying through it would get the penalty to their NEXT piloting check.

[Preston Hudson]

loki.the.mischievous wrote:

I'm running this scenario tomorrow morning and have the same issue - no hazards or starting locations are marked on the map. Hoping to have an answer before having to wing it in the morning.

I second this but I am going to wing it as I am currently running this scenario. Bad time to miss this part.

[Dracomicron]

My table of this got cancelled, but what I was going to do is just roll a double handful of dice across the map and those would be the water hazards.

[Zenithar Ragphlanil IV]

I will note that on the space map there is a distinct lack of any markings as it also implies that the ships start in specific places and apparently the island is supposed to be visible as well.

[HammerJack]

I also ended up using an assortment of random water spheres. I don't think anything was lost for them not having a Correct placement. Unfortunately, between the decision to make the tier 1-2 ship effectively unarmed (completely unable to keep up with shield regeneration after it's expended its torpedos) and the party taking the Pegasus, the addition of terrain wasn't able to keep this combat from being a long, boring slog that led to the scenario going well over the scheduled slot. It would be a lot better if the enemy ship had some kind of morale condition to flee when they no longer had any possibility of damaging the PC vessel, instead of their instructions to not surrender or flee under any circumstances.

[BigNorseWolf]

Am I missing something or will the leaches either sneak up on the party at zero range or die in a hail of laser fire before ever getting near the pcs? (because they're very slow)

[HammerJack]

I kind of expected concentrated long range fire, and was wondering if they should burrow, but players built for melee obligingly moved right up.

[Zenithar Ragphlanil IV]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Am I missing something or will the leaches either sneak up on the party at zero range or die in a hail of laser fire before ever getting near the pcs? (because they're very slow)

It doesn't specify until the house what the light conditions were, so I assumed low-light in the drift which made it a little harder to see them. I didn't see until the house what the lighting was for the entire plane. Normal lighting makes this swamp a little less intimidating than it should be in my opinion. My group with a couple of bad perception rolls didn't see them for a bit because I had them approach underwater. Without that they wouldn't have even got an attack in.

[Jessica Norveg]

Zenithar Ragphlanil IV wrote:

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Am I missing something or will the leaches either sneak up on the party at zero range or die in a hail of laser fire before ever getting near the pcs? (because they're very slow)

It doesn't specify until the house what the light conditions were, so I assumed low-light in the drift which made it a little harder to see them. I didn't see until the house what the lighting was for the entire plane. Normal lighting makes this swamp a little less intimidating than it should be in my opinion. My group with a couple of bad perception rolls didn't see them for a bit because I had them approach underwater. Without that they wouldn't have even got an attack in.

Red eyes appear in the darkness

"They let starfinders out of the lorespire complex without fixing their night blindness problem? "

red eyes vanish in the darkness

"I'm going to go scare the new guys doing that NOW so something worse doesn't do it to them later. Well. Something less friendly anyway. Wait for the screams then bring a mop "

[CanisDirus]

Same question about the starship encounter (probably not going to get an answer before I run this my two scheduled times this coming week, but who knows?)

Also, the Malice is under orders to "leave no witnesses" - in the event that the PCs lose the starship combat, would this be a "game over" for them if the Devil's Talon blows them out of the stars?

[HammerJack]

The way the encounter reads to me like they should destroy a disabled PC ship. The Malice actually managing to win is effectively impossible in low tier, but it could be a possible way for a party to die in 3-4.

[Shifty]

Tip to Starfinders - don’t lose :)

[CanisDirus]

HammerJack wrote:

The way the encounter reads to me like they should destroy a disabled PC ship. The Malice actually managing to win is effectively impossible in low tier, but it could be a possible way for a party to die in 3-4.

When the dice go cold, even at 1-2 the Malice can give a Pegasus a run for its money.

[CanisDirus]

HammerJack wrote:

Unfortunately, between the decision to make the tier 1-2 ship effectively unarmed (completely unable to keep up with shield regeneration after it's expended its torpedos)

Just noticed this comment a bit after the edit window on my last post expired.

For whatever reason (maybe the same reason that many of the kinds of missiles fired from missile-launchers in Starfinder don't have the explode property), light torpedoes are the only tracking weapon in the game that don't have "limited" inventory* (pending any future errata to the CRB, that is), meaning the Malice can "run silent, run deep" and try to torpedo the PCs' hopes all day long at subtier 1-2.

* credit goes to the VO who ran this for me last week for pointing this out to me when I was about to have them run out when I GM'd it for him.

[HammerJack]

It could if it didn't run out of torpedos. Only having a gyrolaser means that it requires a run of bad luck from the players to ever deal hull damage again. My biggest irritation with this scenario was that it was required to keep fighting a Pegasus after that point, wasting valuable table time with no dramatic tension, instead of fleeing or surrendering once it was effectively unarmed.

[Shifty]

As a GM you always have the ability to close out the scene once their fate is essentially sealed. You can always segue to 'unable to attack effectively, the Malice is also unable to defend itself either, yet they stubbornly refuse to concede - do you disable them or blast them into space-junk?'.

Start giving the players some ethical decisions to make, it will set them up for the rest of the scenario :p

[CanisDirus]

HammerJack wrote:

It could if it didn't run out of torpedos.

It doesn't :)

See above.

Although I do really like Nik's idea as well!

[HammerJack]

Mike Bramnik wrote:

HammerJack wrote:

It could if it didn't run out of torpedos.

It doesn't :)

See above.

Although I do really like Nik's idea as well!

That is a massively important thing that I got wrong.

[CanisDirus]

I almost missed it myself, too, so don't sweat it!
Literally every other tracking weapon in the game (that I'm aware of) has limited fire, so especially amidst not having the right instructions for the encounter, it's an easy thing to miss.

[thistledown]

BTW, the scenario got an update that adds the locations of the hazards and where Malice starts, but still nothing on where the PC ship starts.

[CanisDirus]

James Anderson wrote:

BTW, the scenario got an update that adds the locations of the hazards and where Malice starts, but still nothing on where the PC ship starts.

Thank you for posting about this, James!