Venture-Agent, France—Paris
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Hi everyone,
Slight spoilers from the 1-05 Sloughscar Summit.
My character is an Envoy, she's young, bold and rather immature. But as I'm not very fond of Envoy's feats, I wanted her to take Mystic Dedication. As it's not really in line with her current behavior, I wanted her to be kind of cursed, like an Oracle.
As the early SFS2 adventures speak a lot about the First Ones, I decided for her to progressively get cursed because of her exposure to First Ones "stuff" (I don't know the adventures yet so I can't be more precise).
Sloughscar Summit introduces the Functionary, who makes a rather odd proposition to everyone. Following the bold and curious nature of my character I decided to follow the Functionary. I want to consider that she followed the Functionary, and then woke up outside the Wreck, changed, and with no memory of what exactly happened. Whether she's escaped, got cold feet at the last moment or got turned and released for some nefarious intent would never be answered.
My VC/GM told me that it's incompatible with the lore and that as such my character would be removed from the campaign...
I have hard doubt that it's incompatible with the lore, as there are not many unescapable things in Starfinder (and I'm pretty sure we will explore the Wreck at some point so it's not one of them). But I can't be 100% sure.
So I wanted your point of view. Is my idea completely out of line or just far-fetched? And if you have other ideas that would work too, don't hesitate to tell me.
Venture-Captain, North Carolina—Central Region
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A VC/GM does not have the authority to remove a character from the campaign for being "incompatible with the lore".
That being said, on the GM side of that adventure, it's intended that PCs be strongly discouraged from wanting to go with the Functionary. My recommendation would be to shift your character's triggering event to something a bit more off-screen, so that you can keep the flavor you're going for without necessarily entangling yourself with a significant event. For example, maybe play 1-08 Compliance Protocol with a different character, but have its events affect this character in some unexplainable way off-screen.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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It sounds (I haven't played this adventure) like this is a case where an NPC makes you an "offer", but if you accept it you basically wouldn't survive it.
We've had situations like that with vampires asking the characters to bare their necks so that they can make you one of them. But of course they'd just drain you dry, toss aside your corpse, and have an easier time fighting the remainder of the party. There's no option there for you to have a happy outcome and get cool vampire powers.
Likewise, your VC may have been trying to tell you there's no happy destination if you go there.
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Venture-Agent, France—Paris
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It sounds (I haven't played this adventure) like this is a case where an NPC makes you an "offer", but if you accept it you basically wouldn't survive it.
The adventure doesn't specify anything. So, there's room for interpretation. And I find that removing my character from the campaign is a harsh interpretation. That's why the lore compatibility is important: If it's really not compatible with the lore, then I also don't want to bring crazy stuff around the table. But if from a lore point of view there's no issue then there's no need to go for the harshest interpretation, in my opinion (opinions may differ).
My recommendation would be to shift your character's triggering event to something a bit more off-screen
While I agree that it would solve the situation with less friction, I find it much more interesting to use an actual in game event than to come up with an out of game explanation. Be able to play other adventures with the rest of the team would create much more interesting situations (roleplay-wise), I think. Also, it's rather uncommon to be able to use an adventure as a justification for character growth.
That's why I'm really focused on lore compliance, as it's the reason my GM brought to not allow me this action. If it's lore compliant, then I think everything's fine. Clearly unexpected (if alignments were still a thing I'd be on the chaotic side of them) but not game breaking or problematic for anyone around the table.
PS: This is my character's second adventure, so being removed from the campaign doesn't mean much, I can recreate it with close to no loss. It's not really an actual threat. But I don't want to bring a character that doesn't make sense from a lore point of view, because it affects negatively everyone at the table.
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Not being familiar with the scenario or the specific interaction at the table, it seems to me as though the "surviving the act of following the Functionary" is what is not compatible with the lore (e.g., what the Functionary does with/to anyone who followed them), rather than saying your character's motivations are incompatible with the lore.
On a general note, advice I would give anyone for organized play is to not build a backstory that ties too closely to important NPCs (e.g., don't be the son of Primarch Wynsal Starborn) or describe the source of powers as something that would require a GM to adjudicate (e.g., don't insist your powers really do come from an alien parasite living in your chest). I don't think that's the issue here.
EDIT
The adventure doesn't specify anything.
How do you know?
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Venture-Agent, France—Paris
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"surviving the act of following the Functionary" is what is not compatible with the lore
It's a way of rephrasing my question. And the source of my doubts, as a functionally unescapable Functionary would put it at an incredible level of threat. I've seen countless backstories of "a dragon burned my village and I'm the only survivor" that unescapable things in Path/Starfinder are very close to god levels of power.
How do you know?
I've downloaded it after the session to see what my GM was working with. Mostly nothing.
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Having GM 1-05 Sloughscar Summit, I can see a couple of problems with following the Functionary.
1. The scenario says, Sarmak asks the PCs to maintain order inside the building while he heads out to ensure the Functionary remains peaceful. Sarmak is the current leader of the Starfinder Society. Not sure how I would deal with a PC that directly goes against the leader of the Starfinder Society, right in front of the leader.
2. Exposure to First Ones' "stuff" seems to be mind-control, or connected to a hive mind or network, from a central controlling entity, which includes the Functionary being controlled also. Which could make your curse be having the GM run your character. Which isn't something that should happen in organized play.
There's a bit of conversation on this in the GM section near the end of this thread.
SFS2E 1-05 Sloughsour Summit .
All of my suggestions were arguments to help persuade the PCs from not following The Functionary, so not sure what to do if someone followed, but forgetting everything seems like a good solution. Since no one really knows what would have happened to you, it would be hard to have a curse around that. Having conspiracy theories about what happened to you would be a good solution, conspiracy theories don't have to be lore acurate, and beliving in them can be it's own kind of curse.
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Venture-Agent, Wisconsin—Franklin
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Sidenote: I love your character concept, and it's a great way of trying to make a cool concept fit with mechanics.
The functionary herself is (probably) not an insurmountable threat, but getting out of the wreck when it's on maximum alert as its emmissary returns with new blood (who are likely to be swiftly brainwashed) is. As GMs have talked it over, I think it's therefor important for people who GM this scenario to A) inpress upon what a bad idea taking the Functionary's offer is through her characterization and foreshadowing from Sarmak and Posit-Certitude, and B) to stop any PC who stubbornly insists on going anyway from actually getting there.
Possible solutions I've seen are
- a direct order from Sarmak not to go
- The Functionary weeding out some suspicious individuals on their way out of the summit, including any PCs.
I've soured on amnesia as a solution (despite suggesting it myself over in the VA discord) just because I think it makes PCs too much of a security risk for the society to send on missions. Then again, the Pathfinders and Starfinders have made a lot of questionable decisions of late, so maybe it's not out of character.
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Having a backstory of "a dragon burned my village" is not the same as an event in a scenario. You put the GM in a tough spot if you ask to go way off script, tougher if you insist on it. Threatening to kill off your character or turn them into an unplayable NPC is an extreme way to get you back on the railroad is extreme, but I also wasn't at your table to know how insistent you were being nor is the GM here to defend their statements.
For clarity: do you mean, as we have assumed, that the GM would mark your character dead? Or do you mean they would remove you from the scenario and adjust the challenge for the revised number of players?
I disagree with Driftborn's take on your desire to be affected by exposure to First One tech. There is at least one scenario where it is clear they engage in species modification, so coming into contact with an unidentified widget that gives you cantrips is not too far to stretch things.
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Venture-Agent, France—Paris
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For clarity: do you mean, as we have assumed, that the GM would mark your character dead? Or do you mean they would remove you from the scenario and adjust the challenge for the revised number of players?
The adventure is over. The GM just removed my character for the end of the adventure, which surprised me (in general, when choices are given to Starfinders, the adventure handles both possible answers, I was not expecting my choice to be unhandled). And the question is just if my character survives or not. But more generally, if this is valid to consider that my character could somehow escape/survive/whatever or if it's not conceivable.
As it was my second SFS2 adventure, I don't know much about the First Ones.
I've soured on amnesia as a solution (despite suggesting it myself over in the VA discord) just because I think it makes PCs too much of a security risk for the society to send on missions. Then again, the Pathfinders and Starfinders have made a lot of questionable decisions of late, so maybe it's not out of character.
When I see the story of the Waterfall, I have the feeling that the Vigilant Seal has a lot of work to convince the Path/Starfinder Society to behave cautiously.
The functionary herself is (probably) not an insurmountable threat, but getting out of the wreck when it's on maximum alert as its emmissary returns with new blood (who are likely to be swiftly brainwashed) is.
I'm pretty sure you'll be proven wrong. Friendly NPCs inside dungeons are so classic there will certainly be one inside the wreck unless the metaplot is 5 adventures long. If they somehow managed to slip through the cracks then my character can. Getting out of the wreck seems insurmountable because we don't have much inside intel, but with the unfolding of the metaplot we will most certainly find ways for it to be possible (if not probable).
Venture-Captain, Online—VTT
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I think Blakes Tiger hit the nail, a background of "My character woke up after accepting that offer and has no memory..." that may or may not be true, is probably absolutely fine, it's a background not something that happened in a scenario and we have countless 'dragons burnt my village', 'my parents are secretly royals', etc that are just flavour with no mechanical effect (or even provably true).
If during the scenario you accept the offer and get taken away... yeah, your character could reasonably be marked as dead (the GM should definitely inform you this is not likely returnable from beforehand imo though).
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The functionary herself is (probably) not an insurmountable threat, but getting out of the wreck when it's on maximum alert as its emmissary returns with new blood (who are likely to be swiftly brainwashed) is.I'm pretty sure you'll be proven wrong. Friendly NPCs inside dungeons are so classic there will certainly be one inside the wreck unless the metaplot is 5 adventures long. If they somehow managed to slip through the cracks then my character can. Getting out of the wreck seems insurmountable because we don't have much inside intel, but with the unfolding of the metaplot we will most certainly find ways for it to be possible (if not probable).
That depends a lot on the characterization of the enemy. The first ones are a lot closer to Mass Effect's Reapers or the TNG Borg in their characterization. Rescuing *one* person from such foes even tempotarily is a high level adventure.
I have no doubt we'll strike a significant blow against them before the end of the season (Although they might continue to be a threat in season 2 much like in season 3 & 4 of Pathfinder 2e), but during the first half of the season that groundwork has not been laid.
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I disagree with Driftborn's take on your desire to be affected by exposure to First One tech. There is at least one scenario where it is clear they engage in species modification, so coming into contact with an unidentified widget that gives you cantrips is not too far to stretch things.
I'm not say that's not a good explanation for new abilities, I'm trying to find reasons why the GM would take away their character for lore reasons. Why they got new abilities is not a reason for that, but mind control is a reason to lose control of your character.
There is one example in 1-00 Collisions Wake of creatures changed from being exposed to the wreck with no involvement of the First Ones. All other creatures we have encountered with modifications have been intentionally modified by the First Ones and are also under mind control.
1-08 Compliance Protocol is called Compliance Protocol for a reason
The main issues aren't how the OP's character got new abilities, if they survived, or how they escaped the First Ones and avoided mind control. To me, it's that they voluntarily quit a Starfinder Society mission in front of their leader to join an invading enemy force. The needed background story isn't how they got new abilities; it's why the Starfinder Society should let them back in. I was under mind control at the time might be their best defense.
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On a side note, I do find it hilarious how many people are apparently determined to walk into the Borg Assimilation Center.Especially when the next scenario in the meta plot is called Compliance Protocol.
Also, reading between the lines...
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On a side note, I do find it hilarious how many people are apparently determined to walk into the Borg Assimilation Center.Especially when the next scenario in the meta plot is called Compliance Protocol.Also, reading between the lines...
** spoiler omitted **
Good call, I had guessed the
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Can you tweak your story just a little?
You remember accepting the functionaries offer, walking out, etc.
But all the evidence shows that you did NOT do that at all. Your team mates all remember you muttering a little about leaving but they convinced you to stay. Video footage conclusively shows that you did NOT leave.
If you mention this to everybody they just think you've gone a little insane, had a nervous breakdown.
And they're probably right. Probably.
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Venture-Captain, Online—VTT
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I suspect that at this point, as long as the GM gave them sufficient warning, the character chose to leave with something likely to result in their death and that's the result, anything else is wildly outside of Org Play. Though having them return in 1-09 could be a great idea for a home game using Society scenarios!
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I played this scenario with the author. I probed the author about going with the Functionary. He was pretty clear we die. Which isn't the best because thats not written in the scenario, but there is the "word of god".
Do to the nature of the scenario your group might be a little mad at you for missing what happens next. (I will say no more)