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I’m GMing Fly Free or Die via play-by-discord (still in part one) and some interesting things came up, so I’ll share here.
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50 tons of Yaro berries in 50 pounds crates = 2.204 crates. It’s mentioned the crate the PCs get is worth 500 credits in Akiton (I wonder how much they are worth in Castrovel - and thankfully no one thought of buying some extras), so the cargo is worth 1,102,000 credits - not bad for a crew of schmucks! That’s also 275,5 crates moved per hour to complete the task in just 8 hours.
Initially the players didn’t take the hint of helping Runo Pratt with his tablet, so I came up with the idea that it would take about two hours for him to go all the way to Port Authority, formalize the change of ownership in their systems and come back. They finally decided to hack the datapad when he was finishing putting his raincoat and about to head out.
The revelation about the space goblins made some of them paranoid immediately, so they decided to check some crates for goblins and keep an eye out for every crate moved onto the hover trailer, expecting goblins to be hidden somewhere trying to board their ship. I had Runo leave to “investigate” the presence of space goblins with his network of merchants, to give the impression the threat was somehow being addressed - didn’t want the PCs to become too paranoid and mess up the surprise later.
I think Runo sells very well the importance of the cargo to his life going forward (the old hand PC sympathized right away), and the bonus crate solidifies his presence in the player characters' heart.
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The first combat is brutal! I have a balanced enough group (soldier, envoy, operative, biohacker) though lacking a magic user, but the junkbot was whopping the ass of anyone within reach. The fire breath with the tanks of petrol makes for an amazing intro. It almost took out one of the characters that was right in the middle of the trap in round 1.
One weak spot of the decoy junkbot would be his lack of ranged options - two of the PCs can fly (espraksa and strix), so if they hadn’t spotted the goblins when they took to the skies, they could’ve kited the robot with ease. Though I’d probably have it pick up the tanks and toss them against the birds. That’s something to keep in mind when writing adventures for level 1 in SF, there’s a lot of characters that can fly or climb right from the gate.
The goblin attacking the party (while the other two loaded up crates) had some amazing rolls and caused a lot of trouble. 6 HP doesn’t seem like much of a threat, but when 3/4 of the party is ranged and the melee is busy getting beat up by a robot, it takes some effort to drop one of the goblins - the supenga creature companion was getting more results than the ranged folk.
I had a bunch of NPC tokens on the sidewalks, initially spread out but inching ever closer, with their comm units or datapads taking pictures and streaming the action. One of them eventually was hit with a fire breath for 11 damage - I assigned them 12 HP, so the fella was almost burnt alive. I kept expecting the PCs to share a healing serum or drop some credsticks to him as compensation, but I guess they didn't have a big enough heart to help some nut job that approaches a gun fight to take a selfie. That did trigger the “police will take you in for at least 24 hours” event, informed to the PCs via a DC 10 culture check.
One of the PCs stole a junkcycle and rammed the goblin ‘sniper’, which ended up causing it to explode and nearly hitting the cargo. That was quite amusing, though I was too rusty on vehicle rules to GM it properly - certainly wasn’t expecting that development. Besides looting the goblins, they also loaded up the remaining junkcycles into the hover trailer - not sure if that was planned in the wealth budget of the encounter, but it’s an interesting element to include this early.
One of the players asked about fixing the junkbot after the combat. I know Starfinder has no rules for purchasing or crafting robots (other than those level 4 and level 10 drones), so I just ruled that it was a monster instead of an object, therefore it couldn’t be fixed - besides, goblin tech probably falls apart into thousands of pieces after it’s broken. But it got me thinking how the goblins managed to get their hands on such a powerful robot - for a moment I thought it had something to do with the junkbot spells, but the first one of its kind is a 2nd level spell, with just rounds per level duration (and it’s also garbage)… I guess it would make more sense if it was an SRO accomplice or something, mechanically speaking, instead of something they built.
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The PCs decided to flee the scene, with a successful Piloting check. To keep the tension up, when they were about to leave Castrovel I added a last minute dispatch from traffic control, mentioning that the Port Authority would like a word with the captain about an incident in Ship’s End... but only the next time they visit the planet. They didn’t want to bother with the situation as well.
Also to keep the tension, and the grittier realism, the presence of the crates almost overloading the cargo hold keeps getting inserted in the PCs interactions during the trip to Akiton - lack of room for privacy, to exercise, to do anything - it’s just crates everywhere, everywhere.
The box on page 10 encourages Downtime activities, but the BD514 is ill-equipped for that. Even some of the activities suggested can’t be used, at least right away - like lounge, which requires good or luxurious crew quarters (or a tech workshop somehow) or work out, which takes 7 days to kick in, while the most the trip will take is 6 days. I’m cutting a lot of slack so the players won’t have a bad impression of this ruleset, but I believe this box should’ve been included after level 2, when they can upgrade the ship a bit.
The pilot managed to roll a 1 on the Manage Course downtime activity, triggering the “If you fail by 10 or more, you also suffer more serious consequences as normal”. There are no examples of further information about this, so I decided they “drifted out” for a couple of seconds in front of a corpse fleet vessel, were shot at and drifted back to their regular course. I was hoping for at least a critical threshold to be reached, but I managed only a little dent on the hull - should’ve gone with a higher tier ship!
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Well, that’s as far as I have GMd the first book, I’ll post more as we move along, probably once we reach part 2.
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I’ll also include here this very important resource for GMs: it’s a little over an hour long video with the AP developer, Jason Tondro, talking about the first book:
Fly Free or Die Developer Diary 2: We're No Heroes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaIkxaCHLuA
The revelation about the cover art alone is worth the watch - also the insights about key characters and moments.
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I’m GMing Fly Free or Die via play-by-discord (still in part one) and some interesting things came up, so I’ll share...
This sounds like a great game! Thank you so much for telling your story, and I appreciate your observations. I think you’re right, that sidebar about downtime activities should acknowledge the PCs won’t be able to use most of those options till volume 2! Great point.
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Thanks for the comments, glad to see this being of use or at least being an interesting read.
We wrapped part 1, so here are my considerations.
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The PCs arrive on Akiton, where we are properly introduced to Tarika. Her art displays her with one of those “faces you can trust” and one of the PCs has the Old Hand background, so it was a nice moment - they even had nicknames for each other. Maybe I should’ve used her a bit more right at the beginning of the adventure, instead of only the name drop.
There’s an error in page 11, right after they speak with her: “Tarika is based out of EJ Corp offices in Absalom Station. It takes 1d6 days for any transmission to reach her and 1d6 days for any transmission she sends to reach anywhere in the Pact Worlds.”
But the Starfinder Core Rulebook states on page 430, System-Wide communications: “The current best technology uses Triune’s network of Drift beacons—while bouncing the signal between them often mysteriously shortens the time delay beyond what would normally be possible with physics, it also randomizes the delay, making all messages within a solar system-sized area take 1d6–1 hours to reach their destination.”
So far the only consequence is that afterwards, when they got in contact with her, I had to respond way sooner than expected, before they arrive at Absalom Station. I hope this doesn’t result in any problems moving ahead.
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Hivemarket is ridiculously tiny. When moving about I just stated the PCs could get anywhere in about 15-30 minutes.
The group did try to contact Ka Imports before moving, and while the recorded message left one of them suspicious, they didn’t give it much thought. It was an interesting touch, to start giving hints of trouble early. They also searched the infosphere about the store and I added that it seemed to be in a recent wave of success, with good customer reviews. I think it helped justify the million credit deal and what happened concerning the Golden League.
Once there they made the Culture checks and discovered the connection with the Golden League. One of the PCs has the Golden Parachute background, but he’s keeping it a secret (when they decided to go inside he stayed out, worried someone might recognize him - it was very amusing). I wondered what to do if they all never went inside Ichihara Imports, but I don’t think they even considered that.
I played Ainsley as someone sure she’s in charge - she gave the PCs the needle heavily (lots of jabs at EJ), but never as if she were itching for a fight. It was quite entertaining, and it’s a bit of a shame she is killed off-screen.
The envoy with diplomacy expertise failed the check to get the 50% so they decided to leave. He also barely made the Find Buyer downtime activity (needed two assists to make the minimum DC). Since I like to pile on damage to the PC’s psyche, I played it like this: several vendors had an immediate interest in the cargo, resulting in a bidding war even - it was very likely they were going to get the full price or very close to it. Then suddenly every single one of them dropped out, giving ridiculous excuses or just shutting down any communication with the PCs. At the end of the 24 hours of hunting around for a buyer, they find the one person that was out of town and is willingly to pay a good price. They go to his store, and during negotiations, he’s called aside - when he returns he states the price is 30%. He was even open with them and confirmed that Ichihara Imports was interfering the the deal.
Exhausted and wanting nothing more to do with the Golden League, the PCs decide to sell to this guy. At this moment I had to do another bit of improvising - if they had dropped the cargo at his store and returned with an empty cargo rig to their ship, the shobhad ambush would seem very weird - they demand a cargo the PCs clearly don’t have, now what? Drag them back, annul the contract and put everything back on the hover trailer? That seems too much for a couple of enforcers. Instead the buyer asked them to go back to their ship and wait for a pick up - he would send trucks from different companies to collect the crates, and that would not only be faster but also safer, since people might attack them to gain sympathy from the Golden League. The PCs could have refused, decided to deliver themselves to said companies, but they were so burned out from the failures that they just agreed right away. You could feel the defeatedness oozing from them, it was amazing.
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The shobhad battle was also brutal! Most of it was fought with the NPCs on the ground while the PCs were on top of the vehicle - with their height and extra reach, the NPCs clearly had the advantage. Foolishly I moved the enforcers too close to the vehicle (it seemed the party was going to buckle under the threats - they tricked me!), allowing the single melee character to do a number on one of them.
The injured one moved away and kept punishing the party at a distance, eventually even using the BD514 for cover. Curiously, he spent most of the battle with only 1 hp, so the combat could’ve ended much sooner had they kept at him, or had better rolls.
The other one kept using the pike against the ranged characters, which were kinda stuck next to him due to a critical attack. He dropped the pet companion with this crit, and per AA3 rules, they had 3 rounds before it died - it was quite the struggle to try to stabilize the supenga without being murdered by the 15 ft. reach of the Shobhad. One of the characters dropped under the cargo rig and started crawling under it, trying to get to the pet. It put me into somewhat of a jam: I ended up ruling that while she had the prone condition, she also had cover against the shobhad - so the pluses and bonuses nullified each other (and she was also immune to attacks of opportunity, which was huge in this situation). She had insulted the shobhad earlier, so he was going mercilessly after her.
I couldn’t help but think of someone trying to smack a rat/cockroach under a fridge using a broomstick.
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The battle over, all characters into hit points and a nearly dead pet, two corpses of Golden League enforcers on the sands of Akiton, some crates splattered with shobhad blood… I couldn’t resist. The PC on top of the cargo rig immediately notices lights from two large vehicles making a turn around the city walls and coming towards them.
The paranoia, the despair, the arguing about what to do now… everyone loved it. I was sure they’d assume it was the trucks coming for the crates and they only had to hide the bodies, but was I ever wrong. They assumed it was the Golden League, that the buyer had sold them out, that they were about to be killed, some wanting to stay and fight, others already inside the ship and ready to leave everyone and everything behind… it was just a whirlwind of chaos. Eventually they decided to drag the bodies inside the BD514 (the hovercarts were incredibly useful) and take off, to observe the situation from above.
The trucks arrive to pick up the crates and the owner/leader of the company mocks them mercilessly until they fly back down, but is much more sympathetic once they come out of the ship, looking like minced meat.
“Looks like you had the akitonian welcome! One week in one night, as they say. Just sit tight and try not to bleed over my cargo, we got this.” says the NPC, while sitting cross legged on top of their nearly abandoned cargo rig, observing the work.
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They managed to completely avoid the Khulan encounter, but I played with it a bit. Once they are taking off to leave the planet, the pilot is maneuvering the ship around to avoid hitting the city with their thrusters, when she spots a khulan standing on top of the city walls, staring straight at her - with other two khulans jumping/floating between building roofs, making a beeline to join the first. Let’s just say the pilot wasn’t interested in sticking around to see what they wanted… had they stayed, I’d just have the khulans demand the bodies be properly buried before they left, perhaps comment on the whole situation with Ichihara Imports.
They finally clear Akiton, badly bruised, with only 30% of the original bounty (split between both sides, to dismay of some members of the crew), and fly towards Absalom Station, shocked at how hard it is to deliver some berries (even if they are worth over a million).
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That error concerning the time it takes to communicate inside a star system has, in fact, been bugging me for about a year, long before any of you could read it. But nothing I could do about it except say, yep, you’re right.
That error concerning the time it takes to communicate inside a star system has, in fact, been bugging me for about a year, long before any of you could read it. But nothing I could do about it except say, yep, you’re right.
Hey, at least it isn't a light saber stuck in a tree.
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Finishing up the drift leechs battle soon, probably will post about it separately, since it's not connected to part 2.
Setting up the map for Lamashtu's Lair (page 18). I believe it has no front door.
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I’m back, and we completed Part 2 just yesterday.
Here’s the party composition, to help put in context my impressions and comments:
Espraksa Corporate Agent Envoy (with the Free Trader archetype)
Ghoran Spacefarer Operative (with a Supenga creature companion)
Nuar Mercenary Soldier
Strix Street Rat Biohacker
Damage dealing is in short supply, other than the soldier - and the operative has the Stunt and Strike alternate class feature, so that shouldn’t change in the future.
EVENT 4: DRIFT LEECHES! (CR 3)
This was the weakest part of the book so far. It’s a bit early for a random encounter, but the main problem is that it was a really boring combat.
The drift leeches are just ridiculously weak - the low attack bonuses combined with low damage and lack of a special attack is a very lackluster combo. The healing power just drags things even more. Zero gravity is an interesting conundrum to throw in a fight, but in such an open environment it didn’t factor much.
Here’s some ideas on how to spice things up a bit:
- Get rid of the Computers check to detect them outside. Instead, the SO or the engineer detects only that there’s some external hull damage that’ll require a bit of patching up. Downplay it completely. That way only the character with engineering or perhaps one extra PC escorting him will go outside - when they get there all the drift leeches pop out of the damaged area and gang up on them. Now the one or two characters are in a bit of danger while the rest of the party has to rush outside to help them;
- Or instead of the leeches hanging around outside, have them infiltrate the ship and suddenly pop out of the walls, from power conduits or whatever (this would require giving them some ability to move through electricity). Random PCs would be asleep, and this would probably be the first close quarters combat, after the previous battles on top of the cargo rig. Everyone in different rooms, being chomped at by space slugs;
- Or my favorite: get rid of the drift leeches altogether and replace them with 4 Drift Motes instead, also introduced in the Alien Archives of book 1. These things have way more interesting abilities, not to mention a nasty special attack!
TARIKA
Since the PCs were already in Absalom Station, I just had Tarika drop by the ship instead of doing a videoconference. Also used the occasion to give them some healing serums, since they don’t have a healer.
One of the PCs has the golden parachute background, so the mention of Lord Sinjin had him squirming - a lot. Still keeping his past a secret from his colleagues.
The party had no qualms in accepting the job (they are quite morally grey in such matters), being more worried about missing deadlines like in the previous job. They were happy to hear there isn't one - at least a strict one.
Some nice bonding moments with their only friendly NPC, and off they went.
APOSTAE
The Nightarch Air and Water billing was a great touch - the anti-megacorp sentiment is increasing in the group.
LAMASHTU’S LAIR
A bar in Apostae. That’s probably one of the weirdest places to have a drink in. So many crazy NPCs in each table, just imagine the stories the bartender must have… but no time for that, we have another random encounter!
The PCs were so uninterested in dealing with Horizon and Cicil that it was kinda cringy forcing the issue… the drow is a cool cat, but the gnome has such an obnoxious expression and actions that one of the PCs was targeting them just due to irritation. At least it was all over in 4 rounds.
I’d have preferred if the whole battle had been set up by Tause Jarzeed instead - say during the job interview Horizon busts in through the door into the VIP Lounge, datapad in hands, accusing one of the PCs of having a bounty on his head. He then tosses some crazy grenade at the group and tries to capture his target. After combat, if they examine the tablet they see the picture and some details, but it vanishes before their eyes, as whoever cast holographic image on the device stops concentrating… instead of a random bar fight, we now have a targeted attack against the group! Someone in the bar is out to get them! The paranoia goes through the roof! (And Horizon is no longer a dummy that can’t tell gnomes apart!)
But it was just a ploy by Tause to test the party’s abilities against a beefy opponent, instead of a group of enemies. Which may or may not be revealed later on in the story…
Speaking of Tause, he seemed a bit bland, but it makes sense to not give him a very strong personality, considering Lord Sinjin will be coming up later on. I played him as a softer, friendlier version of his boss, hoping they won’t overlap.
And this place indeed has no front door. The players didn’t question it, but I’d have said one of the windows is holographic, a recent trend on the planet, or something like that.
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I’ll post about Vohxa later on.
Having it be a Tause ploy would just be an explanation that probably won't reach the PCs. I do intend to have Delinda mention she lost money on a bet when the PCs didn't ally with the resistance, and perhaps from that they could infer that they were being setup ever since they crossed paths with the Golden League. Or I could just reveal it to players once the books is over.
i'm liking the idea of making Horizon more of a direct threat - i don't really see my players wanting to get involved otherwise. tempted to go with your plan, but without the 'it was a ploy by Tause' bit, and instead it'll be 'the gnome (who was already in the bar when horizon entered) used the players as a distraction so Horizon saw the player as a target instead of her'.
What would be the exact scenario? Horizon tracked Cicil to this bar, but the gnome recognizes the bounty hunter first and tries to lure the drow to attack the PCs instead? Would Horizon switch targets that easily? Perhaps if the fake bounty was really high.
And choosing the PCs out of everyone there kinda falls in the "random encounter" category a bit.
But what would be Cicil's participation in this? It's not like they can track the holographic image back to them. The gnome will brag about what they accomplished after Horizon is defeated?
though actually i've got a drow PC so might just have that the family he abandoned have set an actual bounty on him!
They get to Lamashtu's Lair so fast after they arrive. Is the family monitoring arrivals? Tracking him somehow through space? Or Horizon is in the bar and has a datapad that scans every patron looking for bounties?
Not sure if the window of opportunity will be enough. Perhaps the PCs could hang out in the bar while Tause prepares the cargo for some hours, then the arrival of Horizon would seem more natural. This also gives the party a better opportunity to role-play with the locals and the bartender, perhaps even the cook (it's a named character that doesn't even have an action!).
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VOHXA
A good opportunity to display all the Gideron Authority starships we got from the Near Space book, patrolling nearby the planet.
The PCs forgot to use their long trip to do research, so I couldn’t use all the information in the back of the book, a shame.
LABOR CAMP 1120
The fly over the planet to the labor camp was a great opportunity to really drive home that they are in a freaking war zone.
Once they land they are accosted by the sassy quartermaster Siib (too bad there wasn’t any art of her in the book!). Tause had mentioned they should deliver the cargo to Commander Vash (Trigun reference?) but he’s nowhere to be found in this section of the adventure. I had her explain he was on vacation (though I should have said he was on a leave instead). I wonder if the idea was that Siib blocked them from reaching Vash on purpose (why even mention him in the first place, though), or if they were originally meeting Vash but it was changed to Siib after a revision/new draft and Vash was an unintentional leftover.
The labor camp presents the Gideron Authority as absolute monsters, something I didn’t get from interacting with them on Starfinder Society Scenarios - they seemed just like another Veskarium, but targeting non-Pact Worlds. I went with it, and the players were plenty disgusted with their buyers.
EVENT 6: HOUNDED (CR 4)
This was a really good one - in a traumatizing kind of way.
A couple of PCs spotted Xoben running from the hounds towards them and were immediately defensive of the cargo, threatening him and ordering him to stay away from the crates. He stood still with his hands up, and when anyone got within 30 ft. they were bombarded by his telepathic pleas for help. I described it like this:
The shirren is projecting a profound and abject sense of fear, and is barely coherent enough to form these words in common: HELP MEEEE PLEEEEASEE PLEEEASEEEEE
The operative decided to help and told Xoben to move behind her and her creature companion, but due to initiative order, the hounds went before him. A couple of charging hobbe hounds can certainly do a number on a low level NPC - he was tore in half before the party could do anything, right in front of them.
Most of the group went to kill the hounds, while the envoy (and captain of the ship) demanded that the troopers collected their monsters. He got so mad when they just stood there, smirking.
This was also a short combat, but it felt very satisfying, with the “justice getting done” theme it had.
EVENT 7: THE RESISTANCE OFFER
Vog Minebrewer did his best to convince the captain, but he didn’t budge. I kinda expected it - despite all the grief he gets from EJ, he’s still a company man. Let’s see for how long.
EVENT 8: WINTERPEAK RUN (CR 3 AND 4) - SIDING WITH THE AUTHORITY
Vog shows up and gives the group quite a nice battle. I wish the truck only had one hobgoblin though - his tactics of shooting the NPC first made things easier for the group, not to mention watching NPCs shoot at each other is very dull.
Fortunately he managed to kill Shenk quickly and proceeded to drop one of the PCs right away, giving Glaka an opportunity to try and protect the fallen character, garnering some much needed brownie points with the group. The thing is, the hobgoblins caused such a bad impression that one of the PCs tried to, well, bullrush Glaka out the window, shoot her and sick her supenga on her - they were all misses, so I played it out that she didn’t realize what was going on.
Had the PC succeded, that would probably have derailed the entire campaign - I can’t see the murder squad of the resistance buying the cargo from the PCs at this points, instead of just taking everything and pushing them down the mountainside to get rid of any witnesses.
Fortunately Glaka had the opportunity to bond with them over defeating Vog and properly explained her side of the conflict, mentioning how the resistance murders all hobgoblins they can find, including non-combatants, and steals everything they can, before hiding like rats. I believe that helped to balance things out a bit, making both sides look terrible.
Vog died, and fulfilled his purpose as an amazing loot piñata! So much good stuff! The only thing missing was a fat credstick.
One thing I didn’t understand at this point is the absence of the second hovertruck - why don’t they help to shoot Vog, why won’t both vehicles just stop and everyone gang up on him? I added some sabotage to explain the NPC-guided vehicle staying behind during this part of the trip (they later find a resistance computer module that was artificially slowing their speed as time went by) and had Glaka egg the players to keep driving, since the resistance never attacks with a single person, more are probably coming, etc.
The resistance fighters aerial ambush was great. Though considering the focus they have on the autotarget rifles, they definitely should have ranged as their high attack bonus, instead of melee. It was really fun to finally use automatic fire in combat, but with a +1 to hit… it was practically pointless. The fighter on the enercopter that attacks the cabin also didn’t accomplish anything with the -4 to hit other vehicles. Once everyone started pike-ing, the PCs were in a pickle. Giving them ferocity was a great choice as well.
The optional events were also pretty good, used up all of them. The only twist I added was in the Reinforcements bit - there was a resistance fighter armed with six mk 2 frag grenades lifted from the second hovertruck. He went inside the cabin and started detonating them on top of the PCs there - it certainly conveyed the desperation and dedication to the cause.
Glaka was killed in one of these explosions, but instead of “just” dying I had her fall off the truck and hang on by the strap of her rifle tangled on the vehicle somehow - the same PC that tried to kill her (and was the designated driver) had the opportunity to try and help her back in. Which she took, kinda surprising me. In-game, she was trying to kill her not 11 minutes ago, now she’s saving her! I guess I was successful in balancing both sides! In the end the PC didn’t have the strength to help her up, so the hobgoblin made the sacrifice of letting go of her hand and being smacked between the cliff wall and the hovertruck. Another traumatising moment!
Near the end of combat one of the players demonstrated a clear intention of jumping onto the second truck. Knowing what happens with it by the end of the encounter (especially on the side of the Authority, where you have to destroy half of the cargo to botch the payment) I didn’t want to outright forbid him, so I tried do disencourage instead: it’d require an Athletics skill check to jump without a running start (I ruled at the start of combat that the crates were difficult terrain) and another Athletics check to climb just to hang on to the truck - failing in either would probably result in death or massive injury (there’s rules for falling damage during a boarding action in Vehicle Chase mechanics, but they seem incredibly tame). Fortunately I was able to get to the tunnel sequence before he decided to roll the dice!
Both my enercopters failed the piloting check. In one round there were four vehicles involved in a massive chase, in the next the PCs were completely alone on the map. It was so abrupt. I was even considering slamming one enercopter against the hovertruck just for a tense finale, but they were gone.
The party finally arrives at the armory. I decided to play these hobgoblins as more professional and focused (all the crazies were assigned to the labor camp - or perhaps they went crazy working there). But the lack of full payment drove the group up the wall. For a moment I thought the PC captain would draw a rifle and have a go at the commander, but they stuck to harsh language. There isn't any info on how they get back down to the camp, so I gave them a ride on the Authority’s enercopters, which were back from patrol. Had they buttered up the commander, he’d have allowed the group to stop on the way and recover a couple of crates that fell during combat, matching the reward from taking the resistance side. Instead, they got some complaints filed by the Authority regarding their behavior.
This is encounter is quite punishing if you don’t take the resistance side - Vog is a much tougher opponent than Shenk and Glaka, you don’t receive free crates at the end of the delivery, and you have to go back down the mountain instead of having someone deliver the BD514 to you.
I wonder which side did the developers pick!
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That’s it for now.
We started Part 3 yesterday, I'm about to get into the Lord Sinjin scene.
And I also have to start prepping book 2.
FWIW, during my prep, I decided to replace this even with a starship event. I'm thinking along the lines of a chase instead of planted mines on the ship which would require some combat. Oh, yes, my players will have an armed ship, so this would be possible. With all the pirates and other bad actors in space, I won't leave the crew without the means to defend themselves.
I thought about this for a bit, how insane it is to leave these space truckers without weapons. While I have no interest in adding a starship combat (they seem to be particularly chaotic/boring in PbP), I wonder how to best let them deal with space pirates or starship-size monsters.
I haven't read Starship Operations Manual, perhaps they have some options for a starship chase there.
Or my favorite: get rid of the drift leeches altogether and replace them with 4 Drift Motes instead, also introduced in the Alien Archives of book 1. These things have way more interesting abilities, not to mention a nasty special attack!
Just realized there's even an illustration for this encounter, on page 56, Alien Archives article.
I wonder if fighting the motes was the initial idea, or if this art was commissioned just to illustrate the one monster that doesn't show up in the adventure... fascinating.
Or my favorite: get rid of the drift leeches altogether and replace them with 4 Drift Motes instead, also introduced in the Alien Archives of book 1. These things have way more interesting abilities, not to mention a nasty special attack!Just realized there's even an illustration for this encounter, on page 56, Alien Archives article.
I wonder if fighting the motes was the initial idea, or if this art was commissioned just to illustrate the one monster that doesn't show up in the adventure... fascinating.
I inserted the motes, instead of the leeches. When they invaded the ship, they fritzed the power core. The entire ship went dark and one of the thrusters malfunctioned, throwing the ship into a spin. Reflex saves for everybody! Made for a fun encounter.
I think the time I spend layering a red emergency lighting layer on top of the starship map on Roll20 was a waste of time. Most of the PCs have darkvision. But it looked cool.
My PCs just TPK'd in the Monitor 77B fight. That multiattack is a killer!
In my campaign, I'm replacing it. If the ship has weapons, make it a starship combat with Deminda.....
The Oliphaunt has a couple of weapons - for a tier 3 starship though, it's very light armed.
If potential GMs of this AP want a detailed example of how each section could work out, you can follow the PBP gameplay thread associated with this profile. For various reasons (detailed in the Discussion thread), I'm running this thread as both the GM and the players, with six PCs. I enjoy the chance to role play a variety of PCs, giving me a way to learn the details of how the different classes compare and contrast, plus I get the fun of melee combat and a chance to better learn the rules as the GM.
I sacrifice, of course, any element of surprise as a player plus the dynamic of different players dealing with each other. Still the game can serve as an example of how each scenario might play out.
Since you can follow the game directly, I'll just give a quick summary of how the early scenes played out. Then I have a question about chases (I'm currently playing through the Winterpeak Run section).
The PCS: I like a team of six PCs, since it's easier to have a balance of combatants, spellcasters, and expert types. It means the melees need some beefing up and the XP and treasure tends to run short unless additional side adventures are added. But that might be useful information to GMs who might be considering a group of 6 rather than 4.
I'm running a Male Brenneri Dream Prophet Mystic (Healer)(Union Busted background), a Male Vlaka Grifter Mechanic (Former Smuggler), a Male Uplifted Bear Mercenary Soldier (Mine Collapse), a Female Human Noble Scion Envoy (Kalistocrat Childhood), a Female Pathra Ace Pilot Operative (Ghost)(New Hire), and a Female Sylph Spacefarer Witchwarper (Terraformer). So far, it seems to be a good blend of strengths and weaknesses. Having a mystic healer has been a good way to keep everyone from dying and at 2nd level, I gave the witchwarper the ability to decrease damage as a reaction and the envoy the Inspiring Boost improvisation, so that helps soften the damage effects further during combat. So far having six PCs did not make any combat sequences too easy, particularly since I generally added an NPC threat or two to keep the balance.
Punching the Clock
The fruit is supposed to spoil if not delivered from Qabaret to Akiton in six days. It presumably takes some time for the merchant in Qabaret to assemble the shipment, so I would play it that they tell him when they arrive and then it takes a day for the merchant to purchase and deliver the shipment. This way it is as fresh as possible with no complications if it takes the PCs six days to get from Absalom to Qabaret. If the fruit is waiting for them when they arrive, it implies the crates have been ready for up to five days (since it might have taken them just 1 day to make the trip). In the end, of course, the spoilage issue is a red herring, since the PCs won't get full payment no matter what they do. But giving the PCs a day to wait for the shipment could give them time to do some shopping and role play. The GM could perhaps use the free time to introduce some kind of encounter that could give the PCs a chance to interact and perhaps earn a little money before the space goblin encounter.
The combat with the junkbot and space goblins was interesting. The junkbot put the first PC to attack it down to zero hp. The character was able to spend RP to get back in the fight. The fight took 5 rounds and at the end, two PCs had lost hp (one was down to just one hp) and three had zero SP. All three of the goblins were killed with only a couple of crates lost (when the junkcycles the goblins were riding away on crashed after the PCs picked them off with ranged attacks).
I have a physics background, so did some calculations regarding the size and weights of the crates. You can read the details in the following spoiler if you are interested.
The drawing suggests that 4 crates fill a normal map square (5'x5' square). The trailer on the map has 32 squares so it can hold 128 crates, assuming they are optimally arranged.
The AP says the shipment is 50 tons with each crate weighing 50 lb. That works out to 2,000 crates. So if there are 128 crates per layer on the trailer it would take over 15 layers, which would rise 40 feet or 8 map squares high. That is pretty unlikely.
Assuming fruit has roughly the density of water, 50 pounds of fruit would roughly fill a bushel sized container, which is a cube roughly 1.25 feet on a side. At this size, you could fit 16 crates in a 5x5 square and 512 in one layer on the truck. So 2000 crates would require only 4 layers and they would only be about five feet high. You could reduce the length of the trailer by half and then the crates would be stacked to a height of ten feet.
Using a smaller crate would mean the crates would be smaller than pictured on the map. The map makes the crates look about 2.5 feet across. The picture on page 4 makes the crates look smaller, but it also depicts the trailer as much shorter than it is in the map (which would be appropriate if the crates really the volume of a bushel). You could fix this by indicating that the 2.5 foot crates shown on the map contain 8 smaller bushel sized containers. The goblins then could grab several of these smaller containers.
On Akiton, I chose to have the PCs accept the smaller amount of payment mostly because I knew that it is the best price they will get and I wanted to move the adventure along. This avoided the combat scenarios with the Shobads, so I can't comment on how such a fight would go. It also means no interactions with the Khulan. In retrospect, it could have been a good way to add a combat encounter to give the PCs more XP and perhaps some cash to spend.
The Gideron Job
On Aucturn
I played the Lamashtu's Lair pretty much as described. I role played the PCs not wanting to get involved, however much they might sympathize with the gnome captive of the bounty hunter Horizon. But once the gnome slips out of his binders and implicates the PCs as having helped them (the gnome is agender), the bounty hunter starts shooting at the PCs, so they have to fight him to neutralize him. The gnome got away and the meeing with Tause took place. The melee took 4 rounds. Only 1 PC lost hp with a couple of them using up their SP, but with 6 PCs, the single NPC was outmatched. Still the melee was interesting. I could have added a side-kick NPC to make things more balanced, but I did not see this as a fight that needed to be highly challenging.
On Vohxa
Knowing the choice between siding with the resistance or with the Gideron Authority would make no difference in the long run, I had the PCs side with the resistance, mostly because I've been playing the group as good-hearted characters who would rather lose their jobs than contribute to the cruel persecution that they observed in the camp.
I added one hobhound to make the encounter with these beasts more challenging. The PCs took them out in four rounds. At the end of the fight, two of the PCs had lost hp, although both were able to replenish some of their SP from the Envoy's Inspiring Boost improvisation. But the spellcasters used up almost all their spell slots, makes them much less effective in the subsequent encounters. We'll see how that plays out next.
I'm in the middle of the Winterpeak Run part of this section. I'll report on that when it is completed, but I also have a question about the chase rules, which I'll put in a separate post.
I was going to post a question about the chase rules as may apply during the Winterpeak Run, but I think I've figured that out, for now.
I did remember one issue I had while playing through the melee with the hobhounds. The creatures have the grab ability added to their bite attack.
The Grab entry in the Universal Monster Rules says in part that "If the creature hits with the indicated attack (usually a claw or bite attack), it deals the normal damage. If the attack roll result equals or exceeds the target’s KAC + 4, the creature also automatically grapples the foe. (If it equals or exceeds the target’s KAC + 13, the creature instead pins the target.)"
In my PC group, however, I have an uplifted bear, which is a large creature. The bear's average weight is listed as 1000 to 1500 pounds and it is about 10 feet tall (when upright). The hobhounds are just 200 pounds and about 4 feet long. In terms of size categories, the bear is large while the hobhound is medium. So RAW a 200 pound dog (effectively) could grapple or pin a 1200 pound bear if its attack result was high enough.
This seems unreasonable, a bit like a 30 pound dog biting a 200 pound person and somehow preventing the person from moving, using any item that requires two hands, or (in the case of a pin) not able take any action that requires any use of his limbs.
There is a discussion of this in the rules question forum and based on that, I think it likely that the universal monster rule for grab had some text left out. In Pathfinder, the rules for grab are the same as in Starfinder, except in Pathfinder it adds, "grab works only against opponents the same size category as the creature or smaller."
So if any PC is large, you should probably amend how grab works against large creatures.
I finished the first part of the Winterpeak Run section using the "Side with the Resistance" option.
Reminder: I'm acting as both the GM and the players, so this is mostly a check of the mechanics of an encounter.
I used this encounter to learn a bit better how the chase rules work, even though the AP suggests that the PCs "discreetly deal with Glaka and Shenk" and assumes the trailing hovertruck does not detect that the troopers on the front truck were attacked. It seemed to me that the trucks would be driving relatively slowly and the second truck would be pretty close to the PC truck. If fighting broke out between the PCs and the troopers, I would think there is at least a chance that the troopers on the back truck realize something is wrong.
I recommend the GM give the PC piloting the first truck some incentive to drive faster and try to get far enough ahead of the 2nd truck that it won't be a threat. Using the chase rules I would give the 2nd truck pilot a skill equal to the skill of the PC pilot. Presumably one of the troopers is in the cab with the pilot and so when the attempt to take out the troopers starts, there will be fighting going on in the cab. Then I would impose a -2 penalty on the PC pilot when making chase piloting checks to speed up, which effectively eliminates the +2 bonus for the leader of the chase. Following the chase rules, the DC to make the speed up action is 17 + 5 (truck level). The trucks have a -2 piloting penalty as well. Either pilot can attempt the speed up maneuver twice per round if they take the additional -4 penalty for the Double Maneuver. I think the odds favor the double maneuver giving a better chance to advance relative to the other truck.
I would start the two trucks in the same zone but not close enough to be engaged. The pilot PC will have to decide between focusing on the speed up action or splitting the turn into a piloting (move) action and trying to help with the attack on the trooper in the cab. The GM can decide whether the 2nd truck driver takes the Keep Pace action the first round of melee. In my play test, I did not impose the -2 penalty on the pilot for the distraction of a fight going on in the cab and had the 2nd truck take the keep pace action the first round of melee. The result was that the PC truck steadily pulled ahead of the 2nd truck until, per chase rules, the was no longer a chase, but I recommend continuing the rolls just to keep track of relative positions.
If the trailing truck starts any round after the first round in the same zone as the PC truck, then it can attempt the engage action and if successful, then troopers on the second truck can fire laser rifles at targets on the first truck (with a -4 penalty).
While the melee is going on in the cab, the odds are even, so whether the 2nd truck gains or loses relative zones on the PC truck is more or less random. After the trooper in the cab is neutralized, then the PCs should pull ahead. This assumes the PC pilot uses the double maneuver. This could be a simple way to introduce the chase rules without using all the options.
Of course, one could use the rules for the 2nd part of the combat after the turnoff toward the resistance hideout, where the book recommends just having the PC make a DC 14 piloting check to keep from being bumped by the trailing truck.
As for the melee to take out the troopers, the PCs will probably try to engage the troopers with melee attacks so the troopers can't use their laser rifles without risking AOOs. But since the troopers have taclashes as melee weapons, they can also threaten out to 10 feet and this limits the PCs use of ranged weapons as well. I started the PCs in the back of the truck close to the troopers when the melee begins and there were several rounds of melee attacks until the soldier of the group moved to the back of the truck and started making ranged attacks at them. When one trooper was left, I had him retreat to a point where he could throw the stickybomb grenades. This bought him some time, but once the PCs in the cab defeated that trooper and started firing on the trooper throwing grenades, the PCs won.
By the end of this battle, the PC spellcasters (a witchwarper and a mystic) were out of spells. None of the PCs lost any hit points and only 2 had to spend an RP to regain SP.
OK.... Where exactly is the entrance for Lamashtu's lair at? I can not imagine the main entrance for the bar is through the kitchen, behind the bar and into the main area.... but I can not find any other doors.
OK.... Where exactly is the entrance for Lamashtu's lair at? I can not imagine the main entrance for the bar is through the kitchen, behind the bar and into the main area.... but I can not find any other doors.
I noticed that as well...
Setting up the map for Lamashtu's Lair (page 18). I believe it has no front door.
And this place indeed has no front door. The players didn’t question it, but I’d have said one of the windows is holographic, a recent trend on the planet, or something like that.
Man, I should get to posting the rest of my notes on book 1 and the stuff on book 2 - we're almost wrapping up part 2.
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It would end the campaign prematurely, for once.
Otherwise, you can explain that it's just part of the project, the most recent one they were working on (“how to attach a null-space chamber to a ship without causing a singularity”); or that it requires proprietary machinery/equipment also created by EJ to put everything together, and the recipe to build those aren't available there.
Another alternative is that they don’t have enough ranks in engineering and mysticism to understand the schematics, but they might remember that in later books and ask about it...
---
On the whole reselling the ship/technology, I laid it pretty thick on Lord Sinjin's spiel that something so unique being shopped around would immediately draw the attention of the authorities and the people selling it would be arrested/caught by EJ - only he and his Golden League network can disguise the technology as something his companies were developing in secret and properly market it. The PCs thought it was a reasonable pitch.
"Good work," Jackie said, grabbing a cup of coffee from a nearby machine she kept in the cockpit, "I'll take us down. Go wake up the other two, would you?" She asked while sitting down, drinking and finally getting the ship prepared to land while getting permissions to land from ground control. She flipped but button that would alert the crew that re-entry was soon...
"BD514, this is Qabarat Ground Control. Be advised that Tropical Storm Daerunia is currently 30 miles off the coast and it is currently 100% precipitation. Begin your approach along heading 090...."
Jackie comm'd back over to them, "This is BD514, we read you, coming along at heading 090. Thank you." Then flipped her A1 switch, "This is your captain speaking..." Jackie trailed off, like pilots did in old trids. "We are preparing for reentry. We know you had little choice in taking this *****y job but appreciate you not complaining, Thank you." She clipped off.
The VI honked at Jackie and a small receipt was printed off a printer nearby. "5 credits have been deducted from your salary for violating workplace codes against profanity."
This AP's off to a great start.