The Chimera Mystery sets up the characters as needing to choose from one of six backgrounds which concludes with "Later volumes further detail the use of the PCs’ roles."
I know book 6 introduces Erem, but I haven't seen any other material making use of this part of the first adventure. I am aware that the modules have different authors. Can anyone point me to the spot in the adventure path that makes use of this feature?
I’m curious about this too.
I just finished Book 1 with my group and am prepping up to end of Book 3 now to where the group really gets to become themselves. I think Books 3, 4, and 5 are trying to establish more of reptoid presence and threat in the Pact Worlds as a kindof backdrop to the PCs learning/relearning who and what they are. Erem and the association with the party in my view is just an example of how intense the threat has become - but I agree that it causes a problem for one player’s story over the others.
I wonder if there’s opportunity to incorporate others into the Book 6 reptoids? Like push a PC to become a dwarf and then reveal them as Stormhammer? I’ve been thinking of re-skinning these final reptoids as the PCs, but it seems like a shame to waste the art assets.
Another option might be to incorporate the other PCs into Books 4 and 5 and big bads. And alternatively the remaining non-Erem PCs into future books at high level like Devastation Ark.
So reading the Adventure Path, it only mentions in book 4 that the PCs gain their first hints about their doppelgangers when accessing the wider infosphere newsfeeds. Otherwise, only in book 6 is one of the doppelgangers (Erem) is detailed. The other PC doppelgangers don't show up in the adventure path.
It is going to be up to the GM to design side encounters for PCs attempting to look for their doppelgangers.
I would recommend the PCs encounter one of the doppelgangers in Book 4, in Roselight. Make the reporter in Book 6 another doppelganger, and foreshadow Erem by book 3 or 4.
In Continuing the Campaign in Book Six, there is also an adventure hook that deals with hunting down the other doppelgangers.
My players were expecting something to result from these stipulations placed on them. Maybe the original author could expand on their concept for it
So there is really absolutely nothing coming out of the backgrounds as written? (Haven't had A chance to read the whole AP thoroughly, yet)
So there is really absolutely nothing coming out of the backgrounds as written? (Haven't had A chance to read the whole AP thoroughly, yet)
My assumption at first was that the backgrounds are used to help a character have a tie to politics. This is a false assumption because anyone can haves ties to Erem, they don't have to be a politician.
"Erem is a popular and compelling politician, so you might consider choosing the PC with the highest Charisma bonus, a PC with the icon
theme, or the PC who has been the most diplomatic during the campaign. Alternatively, you can select a gruff and laconic PC as an interesting counterpoint,"
So no, there is nothing coming out of the backgrounds. I searched the PDF for all the backgrounds given and the term background. I was expecting something like the pathfinder campaign traits to tie the characters in, but there is only one PC tie in and it is unrelated to the galactic gumshoes party creation backgrounds that explicitly said that they would be used in the AP.
The closest thing I can come up with is "The Hollow Cabal" references Roselight's art scene alot, and profession artist helps the PC's gather information. This city would provide RP for the artist.
Visionary would have ties with the Barathu peoples, possibly a continuation of the artist.
The veteran character could have ties with the Knight-Errant
Krelo Danesh or the stewards even ( but imagine the look on Danesh's face!)
Intellectual could have a connection to one of the many labs in the AP. The others are kinda evident, traveler and entrepreneur. I would even say that if the entrepreneur has experience with cybernetics, the implants in the AP would catch their eye.
Not every PC needs to magically be connected to the specific events of this AP, it seems forced even though they were specifically chosen.
I agree, they don't necessarily need to meet their doppelganger, because that would definitely seem forced. But seeing somebody on a holofeed news report or being mistaken for the actual person would go a long way towards making these backgrounds mean something without invoking a "doppelganger of the week" feeling.
I guess, I'll have to look through the books and see where those little cameos of sorts fit in nicely. Maybe even a combat encounter, where a local gang tries to kidnap one of the PCs thinking that they are a celebrity our something.
Has anyone already done this? Or maybe anything with more intimate knowledge of the overall campaign has any ideas where scenes like this would fit in?
My party is now in Upwell, taking temp jobs for cash and starship upgrades and, ahem, speeding along the passport applications.
So far, 2 of the 4 party members have uncovered their doppelgangers' photos: one, from a celebrity cookbook; the other, from posters of a Solarian/wrestling tour.
The other 2 members of the party will eventually find that their doppelgangers are "Erem" though I changed the name and some other circumstances, and an amoral cybernetic weapons developer who won't appear in the adventure (sequel material lol).
They also so holo-CCTV footage from the Pact Assembly where a familiar face was talking about an incident in the Diaspora involving a "signal-based contagion". It was the doppelganger of a 5th party member who is sadly gone.
That's exactly the kind of "encounters" I was thinking of. Thanks for sharing!
Where exactly did you slip those in?
That's exactly the kind of "encounters" I was thinking of. Thanks for sharing!
Where exactly did you slip those in?
The cookbook first appeared in an old cabinet in the galley aboard the Voidcrier. That character is constantly eating or looking for things to eat, so it seemed like a fun tease. I seeded it early, b/c the party actually skipped the part of book 2 at the Gray station where they would have found the nutrient goo and the evidence of one of their doppelgangers.
The footage was seen while doing an Infosphere sweep to catch up on news when they first arrived at Upwell.
The cybernetics one can be discovered accidentally when hacking the mainframe at Gamut Bio, in the form of intercompany business communications, but no connection to the main plot.
The Erem reveal will be a slow roll, with the doppelganger's name, then face, being briefly seeded in newscasts from Absalom Station.
Of course, once the party successfully defeats the Grays at Laoe Arae and hacks their communications, they will get the full dossier on themselves. But by then they should already have the unsettling knowledge of having doppelgangers in strange positions of power.
Sounds great. I like that you tailored the doppelganger of at least one of the PCs to the player's role-playing. I think, I will wait and see how my players play their respective PCs and then try to find some fitting matching or complete opposite persons of interest.
Yeah, I dont think they should all match, but there should be some overlap on capabilities and interests with some of them. This would align with the Reptoids wanting to specifically replace persons with certain skill sets or in niche positions, and would still translate along genetic lines to their unwitting clones.
That being said, there should be at least 1 with wildly different skills, to throw them off. Like an "oops" in the cloning process. And personality should definitely be different for all of them--Reptoids can be clever actors, but their natural cruelty and ambition usually presents. Plus, each PC should have a unique soul, per Starfinder universe lore.
I also think it's funny to see if the PCs think THEY are the originals who have been cloned, not the other way around.
Wait - are the PCs reptoids? That's not how I read it, but you mentioning the reptoids' cruelty showing in the PCs personalities makes me think that that's what you're saying.
Wait - are the PCs reptoids? That's not how I read it, but you mentioning the reptoids' cruelty showing in the PCs personalities makes me think that that's what you're saying.
No, they're not...
Though this now raises the question: how did the Grays create the PCs if the original beings were all replaced by Reptoids? Does taking a sample of a disguised Reptoid only yield the DNA of the being the Reptoid is pretending to be??
Gotcha, the PCs' doppelgangers are reptoids now.