Starfinder Space Goblin Blood Orange IPA T-Shirt [RPG]

Everyone assumed that space goblins would be to Starfinder what goblins are to Pathfinder, because no one anticipated the popularity of skittermanders.  But that’s okay—I like my (deep breath): Starfinder Space Goblin Blood Orange IPA T-Shirt anyway.  The space goblin on the cover definitely pops, looking more creepy than cutesy with crazy red eyes.  I don’t *really* get the “Blood Orange IPA” apart from a reference to violence and beer, so I wonder if there was a meme or joke I missed somewhere along the lines.  Anyway, it’s a very cool design that surely elevates me to supreme nerd amongst all the other nerds at the gaming table.

Starfinder Society Year of Scoured Stars T-Shirt [RPG]

The first season of Starfinder Society is the Year of Scoured Stars.  The corresponding t-shirt is really cool, with the colorful SFS logo, futuristic Wayfinder symbol, and and season name in a genre appropriate font.  This is probably my favourite gaming shirt--I've worn it while GMing almost all of Season One.  And with the recent announcement that the "Year of Scoured Stars" is actually going to last *two* years in the real world, I'll get plenty of chances to wear it again.  Good thing it's held up well!

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 52 [RPG]

[23 Kuthona 4707 continued]

Having left his new allies behind, Innes Falkenrath, Paladin of Vildeis, sets off southwest along the western banks of the Skull River.  His goal: to reach the Shimmerglens and find out why an old friend named Yap is desperate to speak with him.  But barely an hour into his journey, Innes comes upon a strange sight: a young red-haired woman is snoring peacefully on the ground and being slowly tied up by ropes that seem to move of their own accord!  Noticing a tiny arrow protruding from the woman’s calf, Innes realizes pixies are at work.  He asks them to explain themselves, and they become visible.  They explain that they were “recruiting” additional help for Innes and then fly off.  When the woman awakens, quite groggy, Innes tells her what happened.  The woman gives her name as Katzumi and says she was sent by her master to live alone in the wilderness as a test of her endurance and will.  However, Katzumi seems happy to go along with Innes and finds her horse grazing nearby.  Together, the two reach the southernmost fringes of Kreegwood, almost directly opposite Turtleback Ferry.  But without a way to cross Willow River, the two travellers are forced to march ten more miles to reach the thorpe of Bitter Hollow on the shores of Lake Coal.  There, at the settlement’s lone trading post, a grubby, superstitious local takes one look at Innes’ deathly pallor and refuses to allow them to stay the night.  The fellow grudgingly promises to ferry the pair across the river in the morning.

Skull's Crossing speaks to the incomprehensible
power of ancient Thassilon

The two set a campfire just a stone’s throw away from the grimy buildings of Bitter Hollow and settle down for an uneasy night’s rest in the cold.  Wisely deciding to exchange watches, the two are not taken completely unaware when danger arrives in the form of a trio of large red-and-yellow scaled forms that look a little like dragons (but much smaller and with only two legs): flame drakes!  The drakes demand something from the travellers in a language that neither Innes nor Katzumi can understand.  When the response they seek is not forthcoming, the drakes swoop down and breathe balls of fire on the unfortunate adventurers.  Innes yells for her injured steed to flee, and it bolts with one of the drakes chasing after it and losing ground.  Meanwhile, the two adventurers draw their swords and wait for the drakes to swoop at them before lashing out with their blades.  The battle is a near thing, but the two humanoids emerge from it alive.  Even Innes’ horse returns, having escaped its pursuer.

Meanwhile, far to the north, another group of adventurers set up camp barely a half hour from their destination.  Goragar, Kang, and Artemis have journeyed to Skull’s Crossing without incident.

[24 Kuthona 4707]

In the morning, as they trudge the last couple of miles to the dam, the trio of adventurers are lost in thought.  Artemis feels the burden of having lost several allies already, but knows that his duty is to carry on.  Kang wonders whether it may be about time to quit the mud and blood of the adventuring life and return to his experiments full time.  Goragar thinks about the people of Turtleback Ferry, and how all of his battles recently have contributed to their safety.  Then, rounding a bend in the river, all three see Skull’s Crossing in its massive magnificence.  Over three-hundred feet high and spanning the width of a gorge, this bulwark from ancient Thassilon, covered in carved skulls, still holds back the waters of Storval Deep despite being thousands of years old.  But it’s also apparent that something has gone wrong: a steady flow of cascading water pours through what appears to be a recent break in the dam, and several lumbering shapes can be seen moving about on its upper reach.  Even from this distance, the adventurers come to the same conclusion: within a handful of days, the entire dam will fail, flooding the area downstream for miles.  Kang suggests evacuating the people of Turtleback Ferry, but the others persuade him to investigate the dam first.

Malugus Kreeg, the overseer of the destruction efforts,
was not as tough as he looked!

A winding stone staircase climbs the western rock face of the valley, and the adventurers decide it’s the easiest way to reach the dam.  Stakes lining the edges of the stairs are covered in skulls, all marked with the territorial runes of the Skulltaker Trolls.  Goragar remarks that it’s odd that the trolls would be cooperating with ogres, but soon the conversation terminates when the stairs end at a dark cave.  Artemis stealthily scouts ahead and sees a massive, two-headed beast arguing with itself!  The ettin hears Artemis and tries to give chase, but Kang’s bombs make short work of it.  Inside its filthy lair, underneath some furs, the adventurers discover a small treasure trove.  Further investigation shows that the cave connects to another set of stairs on its far end, and these stairs eventually lead to the top of the dam.  The choppy waters of the Storval Deep can be seen to the north, surging near to the top of the dam, while to the south is a fatal fall to a muddy lake.  A tower of skull-shaped domes sits in the center of the walkway, and the adventurers have no trouble discerning a small group of ogres near it.  Four of the ogres are hammering at the crumbling stone of the dam, while a fifth sits nearby, shouting orders.  All seem exhausted and prove to be easy prey for the adventurers:  Artemis lets loose with a volley of arrows from hundreds of feet away, and when the ogres try to charge, Kang and Goragar finish them off without suffering a scratch.

Like most of his kind, Yap is kind-hearted and good.

Meanwhile, far to the south, new friends Innes and Katzumi are ferried across the Willow River.  Halfway across, a coterie of pixies suddenly appear, asking why the adventurers took so long and why they don’t just fly over the river.  They promise to go fetch Yap.  The ferryman warns his passengers that anyone with a lick of sense stays on the Wicker Walk (a safe, designated path that leads to gnome settlements in the Sanos forest), but the two adventurers know they may need to head deeper into the trackless Shimmerglens.  They tie their mounts to a tree near the river and proceed on foot through the treacherous terrain.  Before long, another pixie appears and Innes recognizes his old friend.  Yap looks much the same as the last time Innes saw him in Korvosa, but now his clothes are rumpled and his eyes are puffy from crying.  Breathlessly, he explains his problem:  his mistress is terribly ill with misery and heartbreak, and the land around her (an area of the Shimmerglens called Whitewillow) is reflecting her anguish and pain.  Yap’s mood brightens when Innes and Katzumi promise to help, and he leads them further into the tangled trees of the swamp.

Two parties of adventurers are independently trying to put things right that have gone wrong in the Hook Mountain region.  Will their separate efforts result in efficiency or tragedy?

------------------------------------------------------

Director's Commentary (July 29, 2018)

I think Katzumi was a pre-gen PC lent to the player who had just lost Sir Roderick (the goblin gunslinger).

I loved the concept of Skull's Crossing--such an awesome image and place for adventure.  My only regret is that the battle on top of the dam is so forgettable.  What could be more exciting than to have a big climax with the risk of falling off?

Next Recap

Starfinder Module: "Skitter Shot" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Skitter Shot is Paizo’s Free RPG Day offering for Starfinder in 2018.  It’s a standalone, one-shot adventure that casts the players in the role of skittermanders, the delightfully friendly and (sometimes over-)helpful race of six-armed aliens that have become the game’s unofficial mascot through popular appeal.  This review is based on playing through it once and then reading it.  Overall, it’s a fun adventure that, despite a few flaws, should leave players in a good mood when they’re done with it.  It’s really hard to hate skittermanders because they’re just so darned . . . helpful!

SPOILERS

The premise of Skitter Shot is that a vesk space scavenger named Nakonechkin has hired a crew of four skittermanders to help him with his work.  When Nakonechkin disappears while exploring a luxury liner that’s inexplicably drifting in space, it’s up to the skittermanders to find him and figure out what’s wrong.  The answer turns out to be a rogue AI on the cruise ship that has turned the ship’s systems against its crew and passengers!  To save the day, the skittermanders will need to disable the AI and fight off a hostile pirate ship.

The inside front cover of the module provides the layout of the cruise ship, while the inside back cover provides a nice list of “10 Facts About Skittermanders” that should be read to players before the session.  The module comes with a full-page character sheet for each of the skittermanders (they’re Level 2) that includes an entertaining bio and high-quality artwork.  Each of the skittermanders has a distinct personality and role, which always helps to bring pre-gens to life.

The adventure itself is divided into three parts.

In Part 1, “Docking Procedures,” the PCs realize that Nakonechkin has been gone for too long and isn’t responding to communications.  They’ll have to do a spacewalk over to the cruise ship (the “Emerald Empyrean”) and force their way through an airlock to gain entry.  Apart from the risk of being struck by micro-meteteroids, this part’s pretty easy and straightforward.

Part II, “Relaxation Protocols,” is where the adventure really heats up.  The PCs have to fend off security robots who think they are “pets” and should be caged accordingly, robotic massage tables that have trapped Nakonechkin into an endless (and painful) massage, strange shadowy caterpillar-like creepers that have somehow drifted onto the ship from the Shadow Plane, a former crew member that has arisen as a cybernetic zombie, and more.  The encounters are done well and are interesting, but I did find that as both a player and a later reader that it was hard to make sense of how some of the encounters could be traced to the rogue AI aboard the ship.

Part III, “Termination Measures,” is where the PCs have to do a sort of skills challenge (complicated by radiation and electricity traps) in order to shut down the rogue AI.  There’s a problem in the encounter design for this one that is also found in the earlier encounter against the shadow creepers: only one of the four PCs has the skills necessary to succeed, and if that PC is dead or disabled, the party is pretty much out of luck!  More specifically, only the one PC trained in Engineering can disable the AI, and only the one PC trained in Mysticism can stop the shadow creepers from respawning each round.  Arguably, this could be a way for each PC to get a chance to shine, but with a little bad luck the PCs could find themselves in an unwinnable situation.  This part of the adventure also has a battle against space pirates (optional if time is short) that suffers from the same problem I’ve unfortunately found with Starfinder starship combat in general: it’s a long slog that provides more tedium and frustration than exciting thrills.  Still, it is a way to show new players what the system  has to offer.  [as an aside, the artwork for the pirate ship depicts a witch straight out of the credits from Bewitched, something that I found distracting for a futuristic SF game set in another galaxy!]

There’s then a nice little conclusion that has Navonechkin offering the skittermanders their own ship as partners in his business, setting things up nicely for future adventures in future years.  I would like to see more skittermander adventures in the future—they were fun and very different to the normal tone of the game; as long as they don’t get overused. 

Overall, although not perfect, you really can’t complain about such a well-done, professionally written and illustrated adventure that is 100% free.  It’s an entertaining, welcome addition to what Starfinder has to offer.

Starfinder GM Screen [RPG]

The Starfinder GM Screen is a gorgeous, four-panel screen with a vertical orientation.  It’s made of thick layered cardboard so you don’t have to worry about it getting worn or accidentally tearing over time.  The side that faces the players has an exciting and evocative battle scene that stretches across its entire width, featuring the Iconics in desperate combat against a horde of alien robots with starship combat taking place in the background.  Artwork is subjective, of course, but I think it’s really cool and is the sort of thing that instantly sets a space fantasy tone.

Of course, the most important part of any GM screen (apart from keeping secret stuff secret!) is the information on the inside.  Good screens have the most important and frequently-referenced information a GM needs in order to save time from flipping through the rulebook, while bad screens have a random assortment of miscellaneous charts in no particular order.  The Starfinder GM Screen has clearly had a lot of thought put into it.  Each of the four panels has a different subject: Skills, Environment, Combat, and Starship Combat.

The Skills panel has the formulae and categories for identifying creatures and magic item, the DCs for disabling devices and making repairs, and the DCs for doing Diplomacy checks.  I would say most of these things are reasonably useful, though I would have liked to have the information that is used relatively rarely (like repair DCs) substituted for information that is needed in almost every session (like how the Computers skill works).

The Environment panel has a summary of how radiation works, statistics for the hardness and hit points of walls, doors and other materials, a summary of how zero gravity works, and a little bit more.  I may be a weird GM, but the part of GM screens I use the most (at least in Pathfinder) are the materials statistics, because they come up every time someone wants to bash through a door or try to sunder a weapon.  I haven’t had many situations with radiation or zero-g yet, but I imagine it’s useful information to have readily available (both are fairly complicated in Starfinder!).

The Combat panel is the one that’s going to be used the most by most groups, and it’s done really well.  There’s a list of what type of action (Standard, Move, etc.) various things are, quick summaries of the effects of various combat actions (like charging or doing total defense), and then a full list of all the conditions in the game like being flat-footed or prone.  Conditions come up all the time but there are so many of them (35!) that few people are going to memorize them all.  It’s definitely information that will save time in a session and keep combats moving quickly.

The Starship Combat panel is the one I’ve personally found the most important since the whole system is one that’s new and very different to traditional D&D or Pathfinder.  The panel lists the phases in order, has the table for what the effects of critical hits are, and has a nice graphic that shows the different shield arcs.  Having this has saved me flipping back and forth in the book a hundred times, and I consider it essential.  My only suggestion here would be that I wish there was an entire GM screen devoted to starship combat that could include summaries of what each role can do on its phase, the DCs for the various stunts and maneuvers, etc.  But within the understandable limitations of space, the information provided has been well-chosen.

I’ve used this screen in about a dozen sessions.  There are categories of information I forget are there (like the summaries of conditions) that I’ll use more once I get to know the screen better.  There are also still little bits of info that aren’t on the screen that I wish could be there (like the range increments of different weapons, or the formula for how grenades work, etc.) and some categories of information that *are* on the screen that are really unnecessary (like how much damage different sizes of falling objects do).  However, no GM screen can have everything or be perfect for every game.  On the whole, I’m very satisfied with the Starfinder GM Screen and would recommend it highly. 

Starfinder Combat Pad [RPG]

The Starfinder Combat Pad is a handy way to keep track of initiative, round-by-round effects, character conditions, and more.  The basic concept is that the product is a double-sided pad that can be written on with a wet or dry erase marker.  There are then two sheets of little magnets, each of which can also be written on, that can then be arranged and re-arranged to indicate what round it is, whose turn it is to go, etc.  The package comes with the pad and then two sheets of magnets, divided by colour for PCs, enemies, and NPCs, with additional arrow magnets to indicate what round it is.

The main side of the pad, used for traditional tactical combat, will be very familiar to anyone who has used the Pathfinder Combat Pad.  As the picture indicates, there’s a place to keep track of each character’s initiative and what round it is, but also a lot of room for miscellaneous notes—something that is quite handy.  I’ve used this side of the pad in about a dozen Starfinder Society sessions and I’ve found it works well in organizing and keeping track of things.  My only complaint would be that the magnets aren’t *quite* as magnetic as I would like, and they sometimes get shifted around or even fall off if the pad is bumped or held vertically.

The other side of the pad is designed for starship combat.  This side is less useful because there’s not really character initiative in Starfinder starship combat, as everyone just acts (in any order) in the phase corresponding to the role their PC has taken on the ship.  The pad could be used to track who is in what role, but even then it doesn’t detail whose on sensors vs. who's piloting in the Helm phase, for example.  The space for notes is probably more useful as a GM could keep track of what systems on an NPC ship are damaged, etc., but a sheet with more information that is better laid out (perhaps with tick boxes or shield arcs, etc.) would be better.  I don’t really use this side of the pad during encounters.

Overall, I’d rate the Starfinder Combat Pad as a decent buy that’s useful for GMs who haven’t already made custom means to keep track of the information they need during encounters.  One side of the pad is definitely more useful than the other, but it’s always handy to have room for notes.  Oddly, the product comes with way more magnets than is necessary, and I’m not really sure what the intent is there.  It’s not a product that’s as great as it could be, but it’s okay for what it is.

Pathfinder Tales: "In Red Rune Canyon" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

In Red Rune Canyon is a four-part series of free Pathfinder web fiction (available here) that serves well as a prequel to the novel Called to Darkness.  The short story is set in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords and features Kagur, a brave warrior loyal to her tribe (the Black Lions) and her adopted brother, a frost giant named Eovath.  The story is full of exciting action scenes and develops the bond between Kagur and Eovath nicely, which is something that makes the novel better.  It’s a worthwhile read.

SPOILERS

The story starts with Kagur and Eovath as part of a hunting party trying to track down a creature responsible for murdering members of other tribes.  The creature’s trail leads to the forbidden Red Rune Canyon, a place known for strange magic and phenomena as (I think) it borders the Worldwound.  Later parts of the story feature a tense and exciting battle against ghouls and then the appearance of some kind of demon that kidnaps Eovath!  Kagur has to bully a captured ghoul into helping find her brother.  The concluding battle against the demon is done well and is satisfying.

One of the things I really liked about In Red Rune Canyon is that it shows the kinship between Kagur and Eovath while at the same time subtly hinting to Eovath’s dissatisfaction with is “adoption.”  This is a major theme of the novel and I wish I had read this short story first.  I’ll also note that there’s some really good artwork for Kagur.

Overall, this isn’t a mind-blowingly original piece of Pathfinder fiction, but it’s a solid, entertaining read.