PFS2 4-12 Negotiations for the Star Gun

[Hartan]

I have a question about the Fading Foxes in Encounter A of high tier. Page 22 of the scenario. Many of the creature's abilities are only useable in "natural surroundings". Here's the Archives of Nethys link to the creature. https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1159

Does the city where this encounter take place count as a natural surrounding? If not, these creatures are significantly weaker. They won't be able to use their reaction to hide and they won't be able to use sneak attack because it is near impossible to flank with a creature that is tiny. According to the wiki, Segada is a large city so I would typically not consider it to be a "natural surrounding" but I'm not sure if Arcadian cities are as traditionally urban as Avistan cities. Also, I'm not sure if it was the developers' intent to place these creatures in a location where they can't use most of their abilities.

[logsig]

I agree that the city doesn't qualify as "natural surroundings".

It isn't unusual for creatures to appear in scenarios under conditions where they can't use all of their abilities so I wouldn't take that as a strong indication of intent.

[Silbeg]

I agree with logsig

In fact, they often put interesting critters in situations where they cannot do all their fun stuff as a balance thing.

[Kyrand]

I also agree. For me, them being in such a different environment seems particularly intentional, as a clue to players that the animals are being manipulated into attacking by an outside force.

The issue I ran into while running was the trap... If no characters are affected by it (such as from making the saves or noticing\disabling it), as written, the whole dream sequence doesn't happen, leaving out some crucial info for the players. I personally ran the sequence but had them auto-succeed the saves to avoid giving up anything about their mission, but I'm curious how others handle it

[logsig]

Kyrand wrote:

The issue I ran into while running was the trap... If no characters are affected by it (such as from making the saves or noticing\disabling it), as written, the whole dream sequence doesn't happen, leaving out some crucial info for the players. I personally ran the sequence but had them auto-succeed the saves to avoid giving up anything about their mission, but I'm curious how others handle it

I agree with you on this point and would do basically the same, were I in that situation. It puzzles me when scenarios appear to have interesting info (it needn't be actually crucial or important really) that PCs only get when failing checks.

[Darrell Impey UK]

Are PCs meant to know the Influence thresholds of the council members or are they meant to be secret?

I ran it as letting them know when they had reached maximum influence on a particular NPC; but that resulted in them continuing to gain points with Tekawenda even when they had already gained her backing rather than moving on to other NPCs, and missing out on a unanimous decision and a treasure bundle.

[logsig]

Darrell Impey UK wrote:

Are PCs meant to know the Influence thresholds of the council members or are they meant to be secret?

I ran it as letting them know when they had reached maximum influence on a particular NPC; but that resulted in them continuing to gain points with Tekawenda even when they had already gained her backing rather than moving on to other NPCs, and missing out on a unanimous decision and a treasure bundle.

I personally would let them know when an NPC is fully "on their side".

The influence subsystem is known for having certain pitfalls and ambiguity that lead to significant table variation.

[Silbeg]

Just had a quick chuckle. On page 20, the Witch's Eyes have shortswords that allegedly do bludgeoning damage.

Not going to worry about that, going to run them as actual shortswords doing piercing... but it was funny to me.

[Silbeg]

Ran this tonight at low tier and 13 CP, and we had a lot of fun with it.

There was a good mix of RP and combat, though the combat seemed a little too easy (though that may have been the 4 crits by the barbarian).

All and all we had a very good time with this one.

[BretI]

So how are people handling the preparation for the dream sequence SWEET DREAMS?

Specifically:

Quote:

This interrogation causes a fitful sleep, and any afflicted PC may be woken up by a conscious comrade, instantly ending Suhko's attack.

So how do people frame it as far as crashing for the night without telegraphing that someone should stay up on watch that night when they are in the middle of an urban area?

I want the characters to have a chance without overly telegraphing what is going to happen during the night.

[Silbeg]

I asked one player what they were dreaming about. When they were done, I broke in with the box text.

I then described to the other players that they experienced the same thing.

[BretI]

So how do you determine if anyone stayed awake while others were sleeping?

[Darrell Impey UK]

IF they haven't specified, then they aren't. Remember that they have separate rooms too.

[BretI]

Yeah, as it turned out in the game last night it wasn’t even a question.

Each of us gets our own room? We spend time checking for traps. No traps? Great we lock the doors and go to sleep.

It was very clear they were each sleeping in their own rooms and crashing for the night immediately.

[Pirate Rob]

DavisZW helpfully added an influence action reference sheet as well as a player facing reference for the NPCs. (Assumes you don't know skill list)

I put together a combo that assumes you do know the influence skill list and uploaded it as well.

Both can be found here.

[LeftHandShake]

According to the secondary objectives (p15, right column), this scenario doesn't actually provide additional reputation for attaining the objectives. It *describes* the objectives, but the usual sentence providing the reputation ("Doing so earns each PC 2 Reputation with their chosen faction") is missing. As far as I can tell, this is the only PFS2 scenario with this text missing.

Is this intentional? Should PCs actually get additional rep for hitting secondary objectives? Has this been clarified?