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We're in the boss fight. The 3 minions were all killed by critical hits; the boss is bloodied, and the GM has not had a turn yet. Nearby is a group of NPC goblins just watching the fight (my character is a goblin). My turn comes up, and I said: "I'm just going to go hang out with the other goblins and brag about how good our party is." Everyone is laughing as the GM gives me a hero point for letting him get a turn.
Society rules say a GM can't increase the difficulty of an encounter, but it doesn't stop a PC from doing so... In Starfinder, I suppose I could have done the same by taking a comm unit call in the middle of combat.
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Rolling 2 Nat1s seems more common than it should be. There's only a 1 in 400 chance of rolling the same number on a d20 twice in a row, but apparently d20s all think they are Han Solo and believe the quote, "Never tell me the odds."
Besides rerolling a Nat1, the other funny one is when everyone at the table uses a hero point in the same round, and no one rolls better.
I just remember another funny one I had. I rolled really low on a saving throw, so I spent my hero point and succeeded with the new die roll, then the GM told me the result was that I had failed. It was some kind of fear effect that played into my background and would have made me flee. I had already been roleplaying my character completely freaking out by the situation. So I asked the GM if I could get the hero point back and fail to take the fleeing condition. The GM was happy to give me my hero point back.
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(I've already posted this in another thread, but it's still entertaining.)
I'm running Starfinder 2E, Mystery of the Frozen Moon. The PCs include a ysoki envoy who the player has decided to play as rather cowardly. (The PC's approach to being an envoy is using directives to inspire the party to defeat enemies more quickly, before any get close enough to hurt them.)
The party is still in the mission briefing, and learns that the moon is inhabited by feline predators.
"Feline predators?" the ysoki's player repeats, in a tiny quavering voice--which hits right in a lull in the table talk, so everyone hears it far more clearly than he really intended. Everyone at the table cracked up, including me, so I tossed him a hero point while we all took a moment to recover.
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Rolling 2 Nat1s seems more common than it should be. There's only a 1 in 400 chance of rolling the same number on a d20 twice in a row, but apparently d20s all think they are Han Solo and believe the quote, "Never tell me the odds."
Probability changes based on how much information you have. The probability of your next two rolls being 1s is 1/400. The probability of your next roll also being a 1 once you've already rolled one is 1/20.
That's also the probability of rolling the same number twice in a row. 1/400... times 20 different way of doing it.
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Rolling 2 Nat1s seems more common than it should be. There's only a 1 in 400 chance of rolling the same number on a d20 twice in a row, but apparently d20s all think they are Han Solo and believe the quote, "Never tell me the odds."
Probability changes based on how much information you have. The probability of your next two rolls being 1s is 1/400. The probability of your next roll also being a 1 once you've already rolled one is 1/20.
That's also the probability of rolling the same number twice in a row. 1/400... times 20 different way of doing it.
I think was better off sticking to "Never tell me the odds." But since we know, if I'm reading this correctly, you're better off rolling 2 dice at once, saying if the blue die is a Nat1 I spend my hero point and go with the red die?
I think at this point the GM might take the hero point from me before I can spend it... Which has a 1 in 20 chance of having been a Nat 1 anyway. I think for this conversation I'd better switch to playing a Worlanisi.
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We're sneaking into an office
"whats this thing here?
"A vending machine
"Buy the crunchiest snack I can and sprinkle it on the floor so we can hear anyone coming to check on the things we're not supposed to be doing...
That's a great use of a vending machine. Did you get a hero point for that or a Scobby Snack? I think it's also a great case for taking Vending Machine Lore.
I got courious and googled: Is there a measurement for how crunchy food is? and got this answer. "Yes, food scientists measure crunchiness using a combination of mechanical force and acoustics with specialized equipment like a Texture Analyser paired with an Acoustic Envelope Detector."
Now we know how to find the crunchiest food in the Galaxy...
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Why is hero point or scooby snack an or question?
It was a food-related situation with the vending machine story; it deserves a food-related hero point. I used Golden Oreos as hero points for Rites of Rekindling to represent the star reigniting, and used a Cookie Monster figure as the boss monster.
If I run Bitter Sweet, I'm diffently gets some kind of candy for the hero points.
Might be a good time to expand this thread to include the funniest things you have used as hero points. I have a bag of skulls I use for horror-themed scenarios. I have some players that have rock star characters, so I have a bag of guitar picks I use as guitar hero points.
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One of the GMs with whom I have played Bittersweet commissioned "Starfinder: 1 Hero Point" labels from an Etsy store to put onto Hershey's Minis candy bars. (He also made small custards to use as minis for the monster in the cover art, so they could be eaten once defeated.)
The same GM has a bag of wooden shamrock tokens (basically meeples, but shamrock-shaped) that he uses as hero points for most of his games. And his wife has a bag of lemon tokens in the same style that get used when he can't find his quickly.
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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I've used these metal coins from Flamecraft as Hero Points for my Age of Ashes campaign. Great physical reminder, and in theme, too.
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Great story.
We were in the middle of a firefight inside the ship, enemy crew surrounding us from both ends of the corridor. Instead of just passing my turn, I said: "I'm going to answer that comm call that's been ringing insistently since the fight started." The GM paused, looked at me, and asked "are you sure? in the middle of the firefight?" I confirmed, and he improvised on the spot a random NPC from my contact list calling to ask if I was coming to their birthday party this weekend, with laser fire going off on the other end of the line. The whole table lost it laughing.
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Great story.
We were in the middle of a firefight inside the ship, enemy crew surrounding us from both ends of the corridor. Instead of just passing my turn, I said: "I'm going to answer that comm call that's been ringing insistently since the fight started." The GM paused, looked at me, and asked "are you sure? in the middle of the firefight?" I confirmed, and he improvised on the spot a random NPC from my contact list calling to ask if I was coming to their birthday party this weekend, with laser fire going off on the other end of the line. The whole table lost it laughing.
I'm guessing the fight was going the party's way when you did that?
On the GM side, I do a lot to try to make the newer, shorter scenarios run longer. I've been thinking about why is that just up to the GM? Most of the time, when I read a review complaining about scenarios being too short, it's players complaining. Your story is another great example of a player action that could help make a too-easy encounter more challenging, last longer, and make everyone laugh at the same time.
I think it might be worth starting a new thread just on what players can do to make a game run longer/funner.
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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I mean, anything can easily be expanded upon if the players want to put in the time and effort. I've seen relatively "empty" scenarios be filled with good roleplay and fun banter. Any scenario can be good, but it's up to the players to make it great. I've seen old PF1 scenarios with barely any flavour being greatly enjoyed because the players took the effort to interact with each other or the situation itself. And on the other hand, greatly flavourful scenarios falling like a dud because the players just shrugged and pushed on.
A decent GM can make the difference, of course, but if the scenario just doesn't offer anything to chew on, they're gonna struggle. I consider myself a decent GM. I'm definitely no Matt Mercer or anything, but I'd like to think I can bring more to the adventure than what's written there. But if there's just nothing to work with, I can only do so much. Just as there need to be something mechanically interesting to have a really cool fight, the same goes for the flavour aspect. If enemies strategise and use smart tactics or use their abilities to their advantage, a mechanically boring fight can become much more interesting than a statistically challenging fight that just dishes out damage by attacking three times each turn. Likewise, an adventure doesn't need to spell out the mood of each room for the GM to make the most of it, but giving them a little to go off of helps a great deal. It helps me at least a lot to get a feel for the environment from the scenario, rather than make it up myself. Could I do it without help? Sure, but I feel like a truly great scenario helps the GM set up for success. As a GM, I already have to think of and keep track of a lot. It really helps me if the flavour text gives me something to work with. And that, in turn, gives the players something to interact with. Compare these two:
"You enter the temple of Shelyn. Pieces of art are visible every so often."
"You enter the temple of Shelyn. Several incence burners assault your nostrils with a variety of sweet scents as paintings cover nearly every inch of the walls. You walk past several contraptions that could either be a sculpture or a very complicated chair."
But it's up to the players, of course. Some players really want to inhabit their character and experience the story as if they're really there. Those players are great. They really liven up the table. But some people are more mechanical-minded and just want to roll dice, and that's cool too. The problem is when these people get in each other's way. I've seen tables where "rollplayers" (to oversimplify) were annoyed by the roleplayer because they kept dragging out the narrative. And the other way around, the roleplayer was annoyed that the other players didn't really interact with their attempts at socialisation.
But yeah, what can a player do to extend game time?
- Interact with the environment. Ask questions to the GM about what they see and hear.
- Interact with each other. Comment on the last fight, how cool the others were. A lot of players take others for granted sometimes. Yeah, the Cleric casts Heal. But characters rarely acknowledge each others's contributions, I feel.
- Act and respond in character. Enlarge lasts for 5 minutes, more than enough to last a whole fight and some time after. Explain how your enlarged character tries to Treat Wounds on someone suddenly much smaller than themselves. A dumb Barbarian might ask a Wizard how they did that magic thing and ask if they could learn that, too. Many ancestries have a lot of great bits of lore, such as how Poppets sometimes treat other inanimate objects with respect, since they might come alive at some point as well. Ask a chair if it's okay to sit on them, for instance.
- Describe your own moves. Not just "I Strike with my sword," but "My blade lashes out almost as if it has a will of its own, connecting with my opponent's shoulder and leaving a nasty wound."
I mean, don't do this all the time, obviously, because that will become tiring, but when you know you've got some time, take some effort to set the scene. Just a sentence or two will do wonders for world-building and hopefully encourages others to do the same.
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One of my favorite examples was in a play-by-post game, but the lessons learned from it can be applied to a live game as well. At the end of the game, one of the players, as part of his down role roll for income, gave all the other PCs tickets to their Brutaris game. So I responded like I was at the game, described an exciting play with our friend scoring a goal, and all the other players joined in describing other plays. We kept the game going in overtime for almost 3 days. The Brutaris player thanked everyone for playing into his character's fantasy, something that didn't come up often in actual play.
Instead of handing out chronicals as everyone packs up, giving players time to act out their downtime. I think this is a great time for players to really act out their character since they are, for the most part, in control of their own downtime.
I have some players with rock star characters; they're really good about jumping at the chance to play on any stage they see.
I was running a scenario with winter survival elements, and just by chance it turned out almost everyone at the table had some form of winter survival training. The player playing the Starfinder Soldier had been in the 10th Mountain Division. So the players were very cautious about winter survival issues, so even though there was just enough time to get from the ship to the site, they decided to wait till morning to have a full day of light to travel. That night ended up turning into storytelling time, with all the players sharing their winter survival stories. Although some of it was out of character, it all fit the situation and really helped add to the atmosphere for what came the next day. That added over half an hour or more to the game.
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Great story.
We were in the middle of a firefight inside the ship, enemy crew surrounding us from both ends of the corridor. Instead of just passing my turn, I said: "I'm going to answer that comm call that's been ringing insistently since the fight started." The GM paused, looked at me, and asked "are you sure? in the middle of the firefight?" I confirmed, and he improvised on the spot a random NPC from my contact list calling to ask if I was coming to their birthday party this weekend, with laser fire going off on the other end of the line. The whole table lost it laughing.
I'm guessing the fight was going the party's way when you did that?
On the GM side, I do a lot to try to make the newer, shorter scenarios run longer. I've been thinking about why is that just up to the GM? Most of the time, when I read a review complaining about scenarios being too short, it's players complaining. Your story is another great example of a player action that could help make a too-easy encounter more challenging, last longer, and make everyone laugh at the same time.
I think it might be worth starting a new thread just on what players can do to make a game run longer/funner.
Thing is the GM knows the scenario and how the game is proceeding.
Players don't.
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Great story.
We were in the middle of a firefight inside the ship, enemy crew surrounding us from both ends of the corridor. Instead of just passing my turn, I said: "I'm going to answer that comm call that's been ringing insistently since the fight started." The GM paused, looked at me, and asked "are you sure? in the middle of the firefight?" I confirmed, and he improvised on the spot a random NPC from my contact list calling to ask if I was coming to their birthday party this weekend, with laser fire going off on the other end of the line. The whole table lost it laughing.
I'm guessing the fight was going the party's way when you did that?
On the GM side, I do a lot to try to make the newer, shorter scenarios run longer. I've been thinking about why is that just up to the GM? Most of the time, when I read a review complaining about scenarios being too short, it's players complaining. Your story is another great example of a player action that could help make a too-easy encounter more challenging, last longer, and make everyone laugh at the same time.
I think it might be worth starting a new thread just on what players can do to make a game run longer/funner.
Thing is the GM knows the scenario and how the game is proceeding.
Players don't.
You haven't met [air quotes]"THE PARTY"[/air quotes]
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In the scenario I ran on Saturday, I managed to slip in a few hands of cards using the Infinity deck. It was just friendly betting, so the PCs didn't use their actual credits, but I did give out poker chips to players as they won rounds of the card game to keep score. We played three rounds. I wasn't planning on it, but at the end of the card game, I was due to give out more hero points, so I let both players who won hands keep one of their poker chips as hero points. When one of the players spent the poker chip hero point, it wasn't a huge change, but it did flavor their reaction to the die roll, which made it a bit more fun.