Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle
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Summarizing discussion about the scenario from the Major Cons planning server (for Gen Con).
Q: The adventure seems to assume that environmental protections protect you from cold like they did in SF1 (the mission briefing has text referring to this). But this isn't the case in SF2 and there is nothing the party can reasonably obtain that protects from Severe or Extreme cold at level 1-2.
A: You can track environmental damage, fatigue and healing, or you can just handwave and go along with the assumption.
Q: Is there existing published art for a Kaylix somewhere?
A: No.
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I was looking for a way to make the encounter with Daskar Kopalak last longer. In The Great Absalom Relay, I had Nib ask the PCs if they would let her sneak on their ship next time they went to Akiton. So I'm thinking of having Nib sneak onto the PC's ship. When the PCs find Nib, and when Nib finds out that they are not going to Akiton, Nib decides to hitch a ride with Daskar Kopalak. With Nib's connection to the Deep Cultures Institute, wanting to go with Daskar Kopalak to see a rekindling sun makes a lot of sense.
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This kind of connection reminds me of early Season 1 of SFS 1E, where just about every scenario had a teaser reference to something coming out a couple months later. Those throwaway bits never seemed to connect to much until I starting going back to run a lot of S1 for new recruits these past couple years. Suddenly, it seemed like they were everywhere, and I actually saw the majority of the connections! Naiaj "randomly" complaining about dealing with drow traders is the one that always comes to mind first, because both ends of that were among the first dozen or so scenarios I ever ran for SFS 1E.
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I started playing Starinfeer a couple of years into its release, so I've only played in a few scenarios in the right order to make those connections. Good to know that's a more common thing. I love looking for things like that.
Speaking of connections, I almost fell out of my chair backward when I ran into Hope 0-1 in season 7 Jek was too high level to play in that scenario, but my other character sent Jek a text message about the missing person posters Jek put up all over Absalom Station.
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I ran this adventure to today. It ran a little over 4 hours, but easily could have been run quicker. One reason it ran long was that I added some winter survival skill challenges to identify snow pinwheels and determine avalanche hazard risk by them. I also added the bit with Nib I posted above.
Also, the PCs asked what time of day it was when they landed, and I just off the top of my head said midday. There were worries that, without proper winter gear that it would be better to wait until sunrise, so there would be plenty of time to get to the site and back. So the PCs spent the first day collecting samples of local plants and discovered the claw marks from a large creature.
This led to the PCs going back to the ship for the night, and the players OOC sharing their real stories of winter survival, and camping in remote areas where it's so quiet you can't sleep because your hair is making too much noise, the horrifying sounds of trees cracking in the wind, and the sound of sap coming from trees. This all really added to the atmosphere of the game, and although OOC could have been the same conversations the PCs would be having on an isolated planet. The next days, the PCs were very engaged with the winter environment of the game.
It also helped the players get to know each other better. I have been playing with 2 of the players for over 2 years, and didn't know them very well, because in the past we had often been rushed for time, or when not rushed, the game finished on time, but with no extra time to socialize. So I really like the shorter adventures to have some time for a bit of table talk.
Something else fun that happened in-game, because the PCs spent the first night on the ship. I had them wake up to their ship being surrounded by
Lu-Venon tracks. I waited a while before they encountered Ulea Su-Tae. So they spent part of the day wondering what was out there, checking them out.
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My question is should PCs be explicitly warned if they use Exposed armor that they will likely die? Does seem like maybe this should be made more explicit what the environmental effects are?
I don't think the adventurer was written intending for it to be so deadly. It was likely written before the Player Core came out, so the writer didn't know that there was no environmental protection available at low levels, and there isn't even winter clothing available yet. So hand-waving it is a perfectly fine option.
I think using the environmental damage would be very deadly for a 1st-level party, especially since the boss monster can do 3-6 points of damage to the entire party in one attack. On top the that, the party would be fatigued from the cold too.
My compromise was not to use the cold damage, but to have the party make some survival skill checks to deal with the cold. Like having to stop once in a while and build a fire to stay warm. The group I ran it for chose to do the explorations checks first and then spend the night on the ship, so they were not exposed to the cold for as long at one time.
But if you do want to use the cold damage, I'd ask the players, since it turns the adventure into extra hard mode.
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I'm running Mystery of the Frozen Moon, a second time, this time as a play-by-post. Of the PCs, during asked about how they would be getting there. When I said they would be taking a starship on their own, one of the players seemed excited to be the pilot.
Although there's nothing for a pilot to really do in the adventure, I decided to add the roll for drift travel time so the pilot would have something to roll. Then I decided to modify one of the ship stat blocks from Guilt of the Grave World, and posted it for the PCs to see, so they would feel like they are on a real ship. When the PCs encounter Daskar Kopalak, I'm going to let them scan the other ship, just to give them something starship crew like to do.
I also realised before this game who Nib was in SF1e, so I made a replacement NPC of my own to replace my Nib idea to add more to the Daskar Kopalak encounter. My new NPC is a janitor for the Starfinder society, whom the PCs meet before the mission briefing starts. The new NPC asks the PCs questions about their past missions and backgrounds to help get the PCs introductions going, and as the GM it helps me learn more about the PCs too.
Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Bellevue
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My new NPC is a janitor for the Starfinder society, whom the PCs meet before the mission briefing starts. The new NPC asks the PCs questions about their past missions and backgrounds to help get the PCs introductions going, and as the GM it helps me learn more about the PCs too.
It's been awhile since you made this post. But I just wanted to say I like the idea of adding an NPC to ask those kind of questions to generate some early role play. Well done.
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My new NPC is a janitor for the Starfinder society, whom the PCs meet before the mission briefing starts. The new NPC asks the PCs questions about their past missions and backgrounds to help get the PCs introductions going, and as the GM it helps me learn more about the PCs too.It's been awhile since you made this post. But I just wanted to say I like the idea of adding an NPC to ask those kind of questions to generate some early role play. Well done.
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback!
I've run Mystery of the Frozen in person and in Play by Post. Adding an extra NPC was fun in both, but was really helpful in PbP One of the players had another game to finish, and another needed a few days to make their character, so having Tux Manifold to interact with gave the rest of the players something to do while we waited to start.
It's been a fun experiment. I just started running SFS2 1-10 Rites of Rekindling right after Mystery of the Frozen, and it works out great for having the janitor (A yoski I named Tux Manifold), who wanted to become Starfinder too, become a stowaway in Mystery of the Frozen Moon. Tux then left the PCs ship to help Daskar Kopalak. It made for an interesting mission debriefing/briefing going into Rites of Rekindling when Venture Captain Arvin asked Have you seen our janitor?