Owen K.C. Stephens's Blog, page 14

Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Barrier Emoji

Okay, this week I’m back to doing glyphs, runes, and symbols for the project to convert to Starfinder all the Pathfinder 1st edition spells that don’t already exist (or have a clear replacement) in that game. You can find an index of the spells that have been converted to-date here.

Today I’m converting symbol of sealing, which mostly works like my mirror emoji spell, but is just different enough that I decided I needed to write out the spell’s details out, rather than saying “as mirror emoji, but…” .

(Art by Franck Thomasse)

Barrier Emoji
Class technomancer 6
School illusion [figment]
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw None (harmless); Spell Resistance yes

This spell allows you to scribe a potent rune of power upon a surface adjacent to a door, doorway, portal, corridor, junction, or similar area creatures can more through, which must be no larger than 25 square feet (one side of a 5-foot x5-foot square) per caster level. Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that indicates a barrier or wall to the viewer. When triggered, a barrier emoji covers the selected doorway or portal with a wall of force. Once triggered the wall of force lasts 10 minutes, though it can be re-triggered during that time to reset the duration. Each time you cast a barrier emoji, you must expend one Resolve Point. You cannot regain that RP until the mirror emoji is discharged, dismissed, or dispelled. Additionally, when you cast this spell you can choose to instead expend 4 RP to cause the barrier emoji to reset after each use, as long as you neve choose to recover those RP.

Until it is triggered, the barrier emoji is inactive (though visible and legible at a distance of 60 feet). To be effective, a barrier emoji must always be placed in plain sight and in a prominent location. Covering or hiding the rune renders the mirror emoji ineffective, unless a creature removes the covering, in which case the mirror emoji works normally.

As a default, a mirror emoji is triggered whenever a creature does one or more of the following, as you select: looks at the rune; reads the rune; touches the rune; passes over the rune; or attempts to pass through a portal bearing the rune. Regardless of the trigger method or methods chosen, a creature more than 60 feet from a barrier emoji can’t trigger it (even if it meets one or more of the triggering conditions, such as reading the rune). When you cast the spell, you can also specify a password or phrase that allows a creature speaking it to bypass the rune and pass through the opening. You can also attune any number of creatures to the barrier emoji so they do not trigger it, but doing this extends the casting time by 10 minutes per creature you attune it to. However, the force wall created by the rune blocks attacks and line of effect even for creatures that know the password or are attuned—the password only prevents them from triggering the symbol, not from ignoring its effects if triggered. Once the spell is cast, a barrier emoji‘s triggering conditions, passwords, and attuned creatures cannot be changed.

In this case, “reading” the rune means any attempt to study it, identify it, or fathom its meaning. Throwing a cover over a barrier emoji to render it inoperative triggers it if the spell is set to reacts to touch. You can also set special triggering limitations of your own. These can be as simple or elaborate as you desire. Special conditions for triggering a barrier emoji can be based on a creature’s name, identity, or official group affiliation, but otherwise must be based on observable actions or qualities. Intangibles such as level, class, HD, alignment, Resolve Points, Stamina Points, or Hit Points don’t qualify.

Detect magic allows you to identify a barrier emoji with a DC 34 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol. A barrier emoji can be removed by a successful dispel magic targeted solely on the rune. Other spells that affect text or computer programs do not affect a barrier emoji unless they specify they function against magic glyphs, runes, and symbols. Destruction of the surface where a barrier emoji is inscribed in destroys the symbol, but such attacks also trigger it causing it to be protected by its own wall of force before an attack can hit it.

Magic traps such as barrier emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a barrier emoji (which may trigger it), a character must use the lowest of their Engineering or Mysticism skill (based on the skill’s total bonus) to disarm it. The DC in each case is 39.

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Gatekeeper’s Campaign for PF2, Session 2 (Part 4 of 4)

Here’s part four (of 4) of my Game Session 2 notes for my Gatekeeper’s campaign for PF2 (part one here, part two here, and part three here). The articles at the Gatekeeper Index can remind you of all the characters, backstory, rules changes, and setup, if you want a refresher.

The PCs set to camp, and a massive thunderstorm moves in (similar to ones they have been seeing for several says to the north, including producing weird green lightning bolts where one bolt strikes down, and 5 more curl up from the same point in the clouds to arc back into the sky).

While camping, Nambra and Brôg sense something while on watch. They wake everyone, and Nambra is able to identify it’s location within a few feet due to her Whisper Elf hearing, but no one can see it. Calling out to the unknown creature, it replies that they are in danger, and the PCs realize it’s the 7-legged giant spider Morgan freed from its collar. The PCs try to strike up a conversation, with Holly specifically inviting it to come talk to them on future evenings, but it proves difficult. The spider often repeats part of all of what the PCs say as its response to them, with changes in emphasis (“Are you our friend?” “AM I your friend?”). A few skill checks in, it’s decided that it really does under stand them and wants to communicate, but its grasp of their cultural norms is weak, so it tries to mimic their speech patterns as much as it can to try to be talking the way the PCs talk. After repeating “You’re in danger” a few more times, the spider flees into the night. In the morning, the PCs find the waterproof web canopy it made for itself some distance off from their camp.

In the morning, the PCs find the edge of the Eirsyus burial grounds. It’s cutoff from the rest of the forest by a roughly-30-foot-wide break in the trees and large bushes, which Averill confirms is salted earth, likely as part of an occult “firebreak” to keep the spirits of the place bound within the burial ground. The PCs can see old cairns and burial pits covered by heavy rock that must have been quarried elsewhere. They decide to walk around the burial grounds once to see what can be seen from the firebreak before going inside.

During lunch, on the forest side of the firebreak, they are attacked by a festrog which burrows up out of the earth to attack them, starting with a surprise attack just behind Averill. It is riddled with diseased pustules, boils, and supperating rashes, and the stench is nearly as bad as it’s actual attacks. The PCs defeat it, and it rots away before their eyes. The hole is crawled out of is at least 20 feet deep, and the top lined with detritus from the festrog’s diseased flesh. The PCs decide to ignore it, for now.

Walking the firebreak around the 400 or so acres of the burial grounds reveals a crater — apparently a lightning strike — that’s destroyed part of the firebreak. Within the crater are tiny black lightning-shaped buts of obsidian. Jaedyn decides to try to use salt to complete the line through the crater, but as the group adds salt, storm clouds and green glows begin to boil into existence just above them. They stop, and clear the salt they’d already added, and the clouds dissipate.

The PCs gather all they can find (using Averill’s telekinesis, rather than getting into the crater), and decide to stay here overnight, roughly 100 feet from the crater, to observe the burial grounds at night.

The first watch hears something scurrying around in the burial grounds, but can’t see it. They talk at it, and it replies, promising all sorts of information if they give it some of their blood. They need not step into the grounds… a few drops soaked onto a cloth they toss to it would suffice. The PCs refuse, and the creature scurries away.

Second watch spots a wight-with-lock-in-its-forehead, far into the burial grounds. It uproots an old, dead tree with 1 arm, and suddenly throws it at the PC’s camp. The tress explodes when it crosses the line of the firebreak, and the PCs take a little damage. The wight rushes the firebreak as the PCs deal with the fallout of the exploding trees, but it is incapable of pushing past some invisible barrier at the edge of the firebreak. The PCs try to talk to it, it demands they give it their blood, saying blood is the key, but it is eventually thrown back by the invisible barrier, deep into the burial ground, and is not seen or heard again.

The third watch hears strange howling within the burial ground, which is answered by similar howls on the forest side. This goes on for a bit, and then two volkyr (same kind of evil spirit reincarnated as wild beasts they faced yesterday) leap from the woods to attack them. Averill is nearly knocked out in a single blow, but the PCs manage to win the fight.

As dawn approaches, a few of the PCs can ear a creepy clicking, scraping noise coming from the crater. The party goes to investigate, and discovers tiny salt crystals (all 5-sided, and flickering with 5 different colors) are growing in the crater. As they grow, the crater slowly fills in with dirt. By morning, there is no longer any sign of a lightning strike having broken the line of the firebreak. The PCs aren’t sure if their presence caused that, or if it was perhaps removing the lightning obsidian that allowed the line to heal? As a test the PCs run a line of salt over where the crater was, and nothing unusual happens.

The voice of the 7-legged giant spider comes from the forest side, saying in apparent awe that they stayed on “the line” all night, and guarded it. It is now repaired, claims the spider. But when the PCs try to ask the spider questions, it just repeats (you are all in danger,” and flees.

The PCs still have unanswered questions (Why did a wight want to buy food? Who was Chandra Chase and why did she pretend to have been hired by Pottage? Who collared the 7-legged spider, why was it kidnapping people, and what are its intentions now? What caused a storm that blew a crater in the firebreak of the burial grounds? Why do groups of 5 get pulled together, and then suffer terrible fates, once a generation? What is the Underhill Grove?), but decide for now to head back with the information and materials they have gathered.

End Session 2

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Gatekeeper’s Campaign for PF2, Session 2 (Part 3)

Part three of my Game Session 2 notes for my Gatekeeper’s campaign for PF2 (part one here, and part two here). The articles at the Gatekeeper Index can remind you of all the characters, backstory, rules changes, and setup, if you want a refresher.

The PCs gather at Pottage’s Tottage, and briefly update each other on their experiences of the day. Then they go inside and, to their relief, Pottage is in fact present and willing to explain what’s going on… such as he knows it.

Pottage reveals to the PCs that while he was indeed a foundling, he was found with a trunk of possessions that Nana Cutthroat kept for him until he was a young teen, when she gave it over to him. He discovered in the trunk a family journal, which claimed his family had been moving back and forth between Tidegate and the Continent for generations, trying to solve the mystery of “The Five.”

According to that tome and the research he has done since, every generation 5 people of different backgrounds who happen to be in Tidegate are drawn together, seem to begin to engage in a mystery of some kind, and then are cursed, killed, or disappear. A few generations ago one was a member of his family, and his line has been trying to figure out what is going on ever since. Often the deaths appear to be part of something ritualistic, though it’s not always at the hands of Bloodletters. Different groups, from lone wizards to wicked gollusks, have seemed intent on killing The Five each generation.

So Pottage doesn’t know what is going on, but seeing 5 of them suddenly falling into strange events he was immediately convinced they were this generations example of an event that has ben going on for at least 200 years (since the Continental Empire absorbed Khetonnia and destroyed Eirsyus). He’s spent his whole adult life preparing to help whoever the 5 turned out to be, and now the time has come. He’s been trying to learn all he can and though he has snippets — for example, the Underhill Grove is supposedly a place or group that can aid the Five, but he doesn’t know anything else about it — the core of what causes the Five to be drawn together, and who then destroys them, and why, is still a mystery to him.

And, his shop turns out to be full of secret compartments and hidden shelves. This is where he keeps his tools, tomes, and supplies, since he spends most of his time here watching over his store. Pottage notes that there was no sign of the “new girl” Chandra Chase (who Averill and Morgan ran into), but his personal chambers above the shop, and his locked valuables storage, and his basement deep storage, and his small warehouse were all thoroughly searched and left disheveled, but there’s no sign anyone found his hidden spaces in his open-to-everyone storefront.

Jaedyn suddenly asks if Chandra was the kind of “too gorgeous for it to be normal” that might mark her as a gollusk, and while no one is sure, the idea is bookmarked for later.

Pottage can’t explain the 7-legged spider that grabbed him, though he can say it appeared to be laying in wait for him. He was trying to sneak in the back way of his shop, when he and then his employee Mac where grabbed, poisoned, and wrapped up. Upon hearing about the stranger with a lock in its forehead and red motes for eyes, he notes is sounds like a wight, and was dressed in fashion common in Eirsyus roughly 200 years ago. When shown the coins Nambra grabbed (which the wight spent), Pottage pulls out of of his secret draws which has a book on local Numismatics, and confirms they are of an old Eirysus city-state from the last days of those realms before the Continental Empire crushed them. They have only been seen in recent years in old Eirysus graves.

There is, he notes, an old Eirysus burial ground roughly a day north at the southern tip of the eastern edge of the Wildwood. Upon consulting a map, Morgan confirms that was the direction the giant spider dashed off to when it fled out of town. Although they can’t be as perceive, Jaedyn and Holly also note the wight seemed to be going that way when it turns into smoke.

The PCs agree they are going to go check out the old Eirysus burial grounds, to see if they can find more info. They want to leave in the morning, but Pottage suggests they get out of town now, before the town council can decide to order them to stay here until things are all sorted out. The group decides to go to Morgan’s father’s farm, one of many within a couple hours of Tidegate, stay there for the night, and set out at first light. Pottage promises to do more research about the giant spider and the sigil on its back, and the wight.

The PCs make it safely to Morgan’s father’s farm, where those who have never been before are a bit surprised by its architecture. The entire farm is walled with a stone wall taller than a typical human, which is rare but not unknown, and the main farmhouse and neighboring barn are stone with slate roofs. It is known Morgan’s father left the island years ago, before Morgan was born, because his original home burned down, so mostly his sturdy, stone construction is attributed to that (and, perhaps, the adventuring money he made while he was gone). The farmhouse is big enough that 20 could live there long-term, and 100 people shelter in it, but it’s just home to Morgan and his father at the moment. It has 2 indoor baths with copper water tanks you can heat with a fire, a huge kitchen, and apparently multiple cellars with extensive emergency supplies.

(Morgan’s Fathers House… sorta. The roof should be slate tiles, and wall taller, the gate sturdier, and the windows all narrower and with heavy shutters. But, you know, other than that… Art by Midge9282)

Hearing that they might be tracking a wight, Morgan’s father does two things. First, he tells them if they run into a wight, they should run immediately. Secondly, he gives them a glass bottle totally wrapped in a wicker cover. he says it’s Vingarian Brandy – from Vingarie, on the Continent. Supposedly helps with level loss and doom from contact with undead (“brings warmth back into your soul”). He doesn’t know if it’s true, but it seems worth trying if they get in trouble.

The next day the PCs head north. Since there is no path or road directly to the burial grounds, they must us exploration activities to arrive without getting lost or delayed. Everyone is able to do so except Averill, who just shrugs and follows along when he thinks north is one direction, and everyone else believes it’s the exact opposite way.

Late in the day, the group is attacked by a volkyr — a vicious creature that looks like a cross between a wolf and a wolverine and has flat, all-black eyes. Local lore claims volkyr are reincarnated evil spirits –not born nor breeding like typical animals, but fel souls of mortals that step full-grown out of unlit places to cause pain and misery. The creature begins the fight with a charge, and nearly drops Morgan in a single blow. But the group is able to fight it off, and afterward patch up Morgan.

By then, it’s dusk, and the party decides to camp and continue on to the burial grounds in the morning.

End of Part 3.

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Gatekeeper’s Campaign for PF2, Session 2 (Part 2)

Part two of my Game Session 2 notes for my Gatekeeper’s campaign for PF2 (part one here). The articles at the Gatekeeper Index can remind you of all the characters, backstory, rules changes, and setup, if you want a refresher.

Morgan quickly climbs up to the top of Pottage’s Tottage, and sees a Large spider with a face he realizes matches the one he saw looking over the edge. It has struggling people-sized silk bundles webbed to its hind legs, a bright red sigil on its back, and seems to naturally have just 7 legs (4 on the left, 3 on the right). The spider sees him, covers itself in a fog cloud that moves with it, and jumps away to another roof. Morgan follows town protocol by raising an alarm (screaming “MONSTER! GIANT SPIDER!”), and goes after it. (Chase Rules)

Averill tries to follow from the ground and raise the alarm.

Meanwhile, the PCs at the Smoke Pine Taven are passing out food bundles. The system is simple, a line forms by the counter. Everyone throws down a couple of copper and gets a bundle. But Jaedyn sees a figure she does not know, who is wearing a cloak, completely covering their hands with its edge and totally covering their head with its hood. While it’s not unusual for shy strangers to come in off a ship, one being that covered is odd and with the recent weirdness makes Jaedyn suspicious. She opts to hand it a food bundle in a way that causes it to fall at the last second, hoping to get the creature to look up to grab it. (Thievery check) This succeeds, and she sees it has a desiccated face, a lock built into its forehead (like the front of a padlock), and it’s eyes are hollow black pits, with tiny bright red motes of light far, far back within the eye sockets.

It hisses at her, and runs to exist the Smoke Pine.

Jaedyn throws a knife in an effort to pin its hood to a wall so it is jerked back and its face is revealed. She succeeds, and the whole cloak comes off. The desiccated creature flees out into the street. Holly grabs its food and runs after it. Nambra takes this opportunity to conceal herself from anyone in the Smoke Pine, especially the cats. Jaedyn grabs the dropped cloak, the runs after Holly.

Holly wants to get ahead of the fleeing figure (Chase Rules), and eventually does so. She offers it the food pack, saying it’s done nothing wrong. It crouches and replies “Give me your BLOOD!” Taken aback, Holly refuses, and the creature turns into smoke and flies away faster than be followed.

It begins to rain.

Morgan is chasing the jumping cloud of fog that has a giant spider in it, while Aervill tries to rally people in the streets below. Eventually Morgan catches up to it and, since the fog is made of water vapor, tries to access his water powers (sending a hero point) to dispel it. that succeeds, and the spider creature seems surprised. Getting a better look at it, Morgan sees it has a black collar around its neck, with inward-bent hooks that dig at the spider’s flesh and cause trails of smoke to trail upward from the contact. Morgan tries to access his water powers again, succeeds, and uses them to form curved blades of ice that cut the collar free of the spider creature.

The spider gasps, drops the two figures strapped to its legs, looks at Morgan and chokes out “You’re in DANGER!” Then, it flees.

Morgan cuts the two figures loose, discovering they are Pottage and Mac. He and Averill get back together, and Pottage comes to enough to say he’d like his return to be kept secret for now. Morgan and Averill agree, and happen to mention the new woman working at the Tottage, Chandra Chase, didn’t know he was back yet. Pottage is concern because he hasn’t hired anyone new, and doesn’t know a Chandra. Pottage promises to meet them in a bit at the Tottage, but asks if and can they get Mac to Hexer Helaina, since he’s not recovering as fast. They agree, and while Morgan takes Mac to Hellaina, he sends Averill to go get Jaedyn, Holly, and Nambra and bring them to the Tottage as well.

Nambra, as it happens, noticed the two coins the desiccated figure used to buy food looked different from any others she’s seen, and exchanges them for two coins of her own. Holly and Jaedyn come back in, noting the figure disappeared. Nana Cutthroat comes up to them and hears the description, and says it sounds like a wight. She is asked if wights are common in Tidegate, and affirms they are not. There was one wight captain who couldn’t set foot off his ship that used to come to port now and then, and they allowed it, but it turned out he had a plot to have his ship carried by millions of tiny crabs, and then a holy knight from the Continental Empire showed up and destroyed him.

But, Nana Cutthroat notes, this cloak seems older than that. She gives it a deep sniff, then suddenly says she must talk to the council, and rushed off into the rain, with the cloak.

And just then, Averill shows up, and explains why they should go to the Tottage.

End Part 2.

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Gatekeeper’s Campaign for PF2, Session 2 (Part 1)

As long as there is interest, I’ll keep posting Game Session notes for my Gatekeepers game for PF2. Due to work, illness, holidays, and one players dedication to seeing a single specific college football game every year (Bedlam), it’s been a long time since session 1.

The articles at the Gatekeeper Index can remind you of all the characters, backstory, rules changes, and setup, if you want a refresher.

The day after taking Hexer Hellaina to the ruined tower outside of town, the PCs want to go talk to Pottage, since he seemed to know what was going on. But, they discover, while they were out all day with Hellaina, the Town Council sent Pottage to Seagrace, to bring the Duchess of tides a report on the recent events around Tidegate. It’s expected to be a week or so round trip. Pottage is often sent on such trips, as he has people he trusts to run his store without him (Pottage’s Tottage), has no other official duties in town, lacks family that might need him, and is younger than other councilors who might otherwise be free to make the trip.

The PCs go about their lives. Holly spends time focusing on the strange new elemental energy she accessed n the first session. So does Morgan, though he does so through the sword exercises his ex-adventurer father taught him. Jaedyn practices with the amazing rapier Nana Cutthroat seems to have just had sitting around to give her. Nambra hunts. Averill puts in extra shifts as a telekinetic dock worker.

It remains an unusually stormy fall.

After a week the PCs get together at the Smoke Pine Taven, and discuss what to do. Pottage should be back now, but no one has seen him. Several PCs notice that Guster, one of the most stand-offish of the semiferal cats that hang around the Smoke Pine stays near Holly, which is unusual. He is also recently well-brushed, and that’s unusual. He’s the same cat that sat on Holly in Session 1 when the PCs warmed by the fireplace in the common room. The PCs wonder if he is a spy for a local witch?

With a major storm threatening, they decide to have Averill and Morgan go to Pottage’s Tottage to see if he’s back, or if his employees have an eta. Meanwhile, the storm looks to have winds strong enough to blow cinders back into the homes of people with simple, cheap chimneys. That means lots of folks will be coming to the Smoke Pine to grab packs of food wrapped in cheesecloth, so they can eat cooked food but close the flue on their fireplaces for the storm, so the other PCs stick around to see if Guster eventually leaves the Smoke Pine, so they can follow him.

Upon arriving at Pottage’s Tottage, Averill and Morgan see Mac, a human who works for Pottage and is famous for moving and talking slowly, battening down the window shutters. The front door is open, so they go in, and encounter a gorgeous young woman they have never seen before. She says her name is Chandra Chace, is very friendly, and says Pottage hasn’t returned yet. So, the two PCs head back out… and Morgan notices he’s hearing shutters around the back of the building bang continuously in the wind. Mac should be able to secure a shutter quickly, so the fact this is still banging is weird. Morgan finds Mac’s prints in the soft earth around the shop, and follows them around to the back where they lead up to the banging shutter and just… stop.

Morgan looks up at the top of the shop, and for a spilt second sees a lumpy, hair-covered face with two giant round black eyes and… fangs? But the face, twice the size of a human’s, ducks back behind the ridgeline of the roof just as Morgan spots it.

End Part 1. I’ll get to part Two tomorrow.

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Nasty Trick Ideas for ttRPGs #BadMoodGameDesign

Sometimes, I’m in a bad mood but the writing must flow. If I can, I try to channel my bad mood into writing that might benefit from a harsh attitude. Sometimes that means writing a whole monster or villain’s plot. Sometimes it just means jotting down a thought or two and trying to get the vindictive part of my mood expunged before moving on to other things. In this latter case, I often end up with just one or two things in my ideas folder, waiting for me to use them.

But my #BadmoodGameDesign ideas list is getting pretty full, so I thought I take some of those concepts out and offering them up as prompts for GMs and adventure writers to springboard off of. I’m starting with ideas for Nasty Tricks to sprinkle into a ttRPG campaign. However, be warned. Nasty tricks are like salt and pepper. A little can make a bland offerings better, but too much ruins it.

We’ll start with a look at three classics of the nasty trick ouvre.

(Art by czitrox)

Self-Aware Villains: Look, if trolls are only vulnerable to fire and they aren’t mindless, they’re going to try to mitigate that vulnerability. Now, sure, a troll could work with a sorcerer able to cast antifire protection spells on it. But it could also only attack merchants crossing a narrow bride (so it can stand in the creek during the fight), or raid farms only during rainstorms, or have a lair in a wet cave behind a waterfall, and so on.

This isn’t limited to feudal fantasy concepts. If Omegaman is sickened by the radiation of Omeganite, he should have an armored radiation suit to protect him. If Mechamen can be shut down by gold dust being jammed into their cooling ports they should wear air filters (even though they don’t need to breathe). If Mrs. Sdrawkcabtiyas is banished if she says her own name backwards, maybe she wires her jaw shut.

Pick any foe with a weakness, and think about how it can be reduced.

Wound Traps: Use your games normal rules for traps or hazards, but the “trap” is a person or creature’s injury. This might be a cruel lure, where a harmless or cute animal or innocent person is intentionally injured and left where foes of the trapper find them, or a combat complication where a specific form of attack leaves all its wounds trapped. The easiest way to explain a trapped wound is a curse of some kind, but real-world concepts such as having a wounded person lay on or near a mine or grenade that goes off if anyone gets near them.

Note that if you use the hidden trap version of this nasty trick for more than one story arc, your players are going to quite reasonably insist on searching for traps anytime anyone or anything needs help, and that can slow the game to a crawl. On the other hand, if you use attacks that cause trapped wounds the PCs know about but just have to deal with, healing-focused characters may feel picked on.

Xanatos Gambits: Yep, taken from the TV Trope, and inspired by the trope’s name-giver, a Xanatos Gambit is a villain’s plot where all possible outcomes benefit the villain, so no act by the heroes/PCs can harm the villain. For obvious reasons these are HARD to set up as a GM, frustrating for players (as, done properly, they leave the players with no win conditions), and can blow up in unexpected ways if the Pcs start trying tothnk outside the box and risk doing soemthing, anything, thegambit-creator didn;t foresee.

Here’s an example of a typical Xanato Gambit – The main villain tricks a major agent of an opposing villain to carry out crimes that benefit the main villain. If the PCs don’t stop the agent, the crimes benefit the main villain as planned. If they do stop the agent, the opposing villain is weakened without the main villain risking resources or exposure. If the the PCs reveal the main villain is behind the new orders, the agent realizes if they are found out by their original boss they’ll be killed as traitors, so they begin working for the main villain.

In my experience, this kind of nasty trick often works best as legend/background. If Lady Needle is well-known for pulling off this kind of gambit, and the players learn of some such she has used to her benefit against other people before they came along, it can make the players cautious and nervous when going up against her. If they are clever enough, by all means let their efforts to find unexpected outcomes pay off.

But if they Leeroy Jenkins everything even after hearing about Lady Needle’s webs of planning?

Burn them.

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Awesome 80s: Transforming Feats for Starfinder

Today we’re wrapping up this week of Awesome 80s blog posts, which are about sharing some of the things I created partially due to the inspirations I got from movies, shows, games, and literature of that decade. It’s been all about transforming vehicle robotstuff this week, so I’m tacking on a couple feats in case you want your species, monster, or ThemeType to focus even more on transforming.

(Art by Jacob Blackmon. Want to pay him to make art of YOUR transforming robot character? Drop him a line!)

Dodging Transformation
You can change forms to duck enemy attacks.
Prerequisites: vehicle form special ability (from the deceptive transforming robot graft, mechamorph species, or mechaserve robot pilot themetype).
Benefit: Once per day, when you fail a Reflex saving throw or your armor class is hit by an attack, you can change modes as a reaction. This allows you to reroll the Reflex save with a +8 bonus, or force the attack to be rerolled against you with a -8 penalty. You can also take a guarded step as part of this action, if you wish.

Triple Transformations
There’s even more to you than one trick up your sleeve.
Prerequisites: vehicle form special ability (from the deceptive transforming robot graft, mechamorph species, or mechaserve robot pilot themetype).
Benefit: Select a second vehicle mode, following all the rules for your first vehicle mode. Any time you switch to your vehicle mode, or gain benefits from your vehicle mode, you can choose between your original vehicle mode or this new mode. Every time you gain a character level, you may select a new second vehicle mode.

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Awesome 80s: MechaServe Pilot ThemeType (Transforming Robot/Vehicle/ Armor Augmentation for Starfinder)

Today we’re continuing the Awesome 80s line of blog posts, which are about sharing some of the things I created partially due to the inspirations I got from movies, shows, games, and literature of that decade. In this case, it’s robots that act like drones but can also be vehicles but can also become augmentations for your armor.

Yep, it’s a pretty specific example. I’m going with the name “MechaServe Robot Pilot.”

To create this as a PC option, we’re using a ThemeType, a PC option that combines a character’s Theme with an Archetype to allow them to be significantly more varied than a typical character. I first introduced and explained ThemeTypes in a 2018 article, and they remain a useful tool for some kinds of character concepts. I’ve done several ThemeTypes already, including multiclass options for nearly all the official Starfinder classes (the new Evolutionist class has yet to get one, but it’s coming), and some special kinds of characters that might have been presented as prestige classes in other d20 games (such as the Psionic and Lawstar Justicar ThemeTypes). Since the MechaServe Robot Pilot has to integrate a robotic drone, transforming vehicle, and armor augmentation, a ThemeType is definitely the way to go with it.

An Aside: One of the things that some people criticize about ThemeTypes is that they prevents you from getting the +1 to 1 ability score that a typical theme grants. While that’s true, it’s also a minor issue. Losing that +1 never needs to result in having a lower ability bonus — all it does is make a single score that would have been odd instead be even, and thus potentially not qualify for feats with ability score minimums. That’s not nothing, but it’s also not a major character balance issue. Essentially you give up a slight edge in a narrow range of feat prerequisites in favor of the greater flexibility of accessing abilities n scale with accessing the features of another character class.

(Art by Jacob Blackmon)

MechaServe Robot Pilot ThemeType

You have access to a MechaServe – a robot that can also be a vehicle that can also become part of (and thus augment) your armor. Maybe you built it. Maybe you found it in a cache of lost technology. Maybe you’re from a world where MechaServes are common. Maybe it came with your role in the cyberband. Whatever its origin, it’s your now, and that gives you a lot of flexibility.

Theme Knowledge (Ex, Theme, 1st Level): At first level, you gain Piloting as a class skill. You may use your Intelligence bonus, rather than your Dexterity bonus, to determine your Piloting skill bonus total, if you wish. You also gain a free dragoon armor upgrade with an item level equal to your character level (minimum item level 2), that only you may use. It can be installed in your armor without using an upgrade slot, and the vehicle it can become can have a level no greater than your character level. You can change what vehicle this is each time you gain a level. This is your basic MechaServe, which starts with two modes (reinforced plates and vehicle, as outlined in the dragoon armor upgrade).

Basic MechaServe (Ex, Archetype, 2nd Level): Your dragoon armor upgrade vehicle also acts as a mechanic’s drone, as if you had the drone version of the mechanic’s artificial intelligence class feature. Your effective mechanic level is equal to your class level –1, to a maximum mechanic level of 3rd. Select a chassis for your drone and build it normally. Your drone can switch between this drone form and the vehicle form for your dragoon armor upgrade. This functions as the vehicle form ability from the deceptive transforming robot graft.

Your MechaServe now has three modes: Reinforced plates, drone, or vehicle. It can change directly from vehicle to reinforced plates, but must be adjacent to you to do so.

You do not gain any other mechanic class features, but your MechaServe does gain drone special abilities, feats, and drone mods appropriate for your effective mechanic level. When it vehicle form it only has access to abilities from that vehicle, and it can still only take actions as allowed by your drone version of the mechanic’s artificial intelligence class feature.

MechaServe Improvement (Ex, Archetype, 4th Level): Though still calculated as your character level –1, your maximum effective mechanic level for your MechaServe’s drone mode increases by +1. You can use one MechaServe Upgrade Swap (see below).

MechaServe Repair (Ex, Theme, 6th Level): You gain the repair drone mechanic trick, treating your mechanic level as your character level -1. You can use one additional MechaServe Upgrade Swap (see below).

MechaServe Improvement (Ex, Archetype, 6th Level): Though now calculated as your character level –2, your maximum effective mechanic level for your MechaServe’s drone mode increases by +2. You can use one additional MechaServe Upgrade Swap (see below).

MechaServe Improvement (Ex, Archetype, 12th Level): Though still calculated as your character level –2, your maximum effective mechanic level for your MechaServe’s drone mode increases by +3. You can use one additional MechaServe Upgrade Swap (see below).

MechaServe Trick (Ex, Theme, 18th Level): You gain one mechanic trick, selected from the mechanic tricks of 8th level or less that grant an ability to your MechaServe’s drone mode (such as drone meld or overclocking). You can use one additional MechaServe Upgrade Swap (see below).

MechaServe Improvement (Ex, Archetype 18th): Though still calculated as your character level –2, your maximum effective mechanic level for your MechaServe’s drone mode increases by +2. You can use one additional MechaServe Upgrade Swap (see below).

MechaServe Upgrade Swaps

Your MechaServe can gain the following abilities in place of drone feats or mods. Essentially, your MechaServe has one less feat or mod in drone mode, but gains the upgrade swap of your choice from the list below. You can’t have more upgrade swaps than have been granted to your by the MechaServe Pilot ThemeType, and you can change what swaps you have at each character level.

MechaServe Enlargement: When your MechaServe is in reinforced plates mode, you can choose to be one size category larger. This increases your reach by 5 feet, and the amount of bulk you can carry without becoming encumbered or overburdened by +10.

MechaServe Reinforcement: When your MechaServe is in reinforced plates mode, you gain a +1 shield bonus to AC. This increases to +2 if your character level is 14th level or higher.

Robotic Flexibility: Your MechaServe retains all its vehicle movement types and equipment when it is in drone mode. If you select this a second time, your MechaServe can carry as many passengers in drone mode as it can in vehicle mode, without becoming encumbered or overburdened. If you select this a third time, when your MechaServe is in reinforced plates mode, you can use any movement form your MechaServe has in drone or vehicle mode.

Swift Switch: Once per round, your MechaServe can change mode as a free action.

Upgrade Flexibility: When your MechaServe is in reinforced plates mode, it can grant your armor any one armor upgrade with an item level no greater than your character level -2. This does not require an upgrade slot, has no cost, and can be an upgrade for any type of armor (light, heavy, or powered), regardless of your actual armor. You may change what this upgrade is each time you gain a new level. If you select this a second time, your MechaServe also has this upgrade when in drone mode. If you select it a third time, your MechaServe also has this upgrade in vehicle mode.

Vehicular Flexability: Your MechaServe retains use of its drone weapons and equipment while in vehicle mode. If you select this a second time, you also have access to its weapons when it is in reinforced plates mode. If you select this a third time, your MechaServe has access to all its drone feats and upgrades while in vehicle mode.

(Jacob carefully made sure a humanoid fit in his MechaServe in reinforced plates mode. And, he had his own thoughts about what it should be called. )

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Awesome 80s: Robofauna (for Starfinder)

Today we’re continuing the Awesome 80s line of blog posts, which are about sharing some of the things I created in part from the inspirations I got from movies, shows, games, and literature of that decade. In this case, it’s robots serve the role of fauna on alien worlds and cultures where robotic life fills every ecological niche, and biological creatures are rare or nonexistent. Such worlds are often also populated by SROs, MechaMorphs and Deceptive Transforming Robots, and may be patrolled by allies or visitors with Transforming Cycle Armor in an effort to fit in and keep up.

Do you want robot bug swarms? Because this is how you get robot bug swarms.

Art by klyaksun.

ROBOFAUNA GRAFT Robofauna almost always matches the form, function, and niche of a type of animal or vermin found elsewhere in the galaxy. They are robots, but robots created by an endless (and arguably natural, by which we mean people almost always argue about it) cycle of previous machines.
Creature Type: Only stat blocks for creatures of the animal and vermin type can be used for robofauna. Type changes to Construct (technological).
Traits: Add: construct immunities; unliving; vulnerable to electricity.
Skills: Add Computers as master skill.
Additional Abilities: Robofauna generally have at least one ability the biological lifeforms that fill the same niche don’t. Roll 1d6 on the table below to determine the robofauna abilities:

1. Add a ranged energy attack (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic). The attack has an attack bonus 2 lower that the creature’s melee attack, and does the same amount of damage.
2. Add DR/adamantine, with a value equal to half the creature’s CR.
3. Add energy resistance against one energy type (acid, cold, fire, or sonic; not electricity) with a value equal to the creature’s CR.
4. Add a new movement type (burrow, climb, land, fly, or swim). This movement is as fast as the creature’s fastest movement type (if climb, land, or swim), or half that (if burrow or fly).
5. Add blindsight (life, sound, or vibration) with a range of 30 feet (60 feet if creature is CR 10 or higher).
6. Roll three times and add all results. This may give you multiple different ranged attacks of forms of blindsight, or double the value of DR or Energy Resistance gained. If you roll a 6 again, rather than roll 3 more times, select one ability the robofauna does not yet have. Also increase Hit Points by +20%, and CR by 1.

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Awesome 80s: Deceptive Transforming Robots (for Starfinder)

Today we’re continuing our look at some of the weird, awesome scif-fi and science-fantasy stuff came out in the 1980s, that impacted my geek trajectory significantly. The Awesome 80s line of blog posts is about sharing some of the things I have been inspired to create by movies, shows, games, and literature of that decade. In this case, it’s robots that can disguise themselves as (and operate in the form of) vehicles.

If this kind of content interests you, you might enjoy my Polymechs entry in the CODEWORLD micro-campaign setting from my blog entries in April 2018. If you want quick, simple rules to allow robots that transform into vehicles as a player character species in Starfinder, check out my MechaMorphs blog entry from December 2019.

Art by klyaksun

DECEPTIVE TRANSFORMING ROBOT GRAFT (CR 1+)

Sometimes, robots are built (or otherwise come into existence) with the ability to switch between robot and vehicle forms, and disguise themselves as typical vehicles when in that form. In some regions of space, transforming sentient robots are the predominant form of spacefaring intelligence and culture, and some fight vast civil wars among differing factions over centuries. The Deceptive Transforming Robot (DTR) graft can be used to turn any robot NPC into a DTR.

Required Creature Type: Construct.
Traits: Vehicle form (see below).
Skills: A DTR gains Disguise and Pilot as master skills if it did not already have them.

Vehicle Form
A DTR can change into a the form of a Small, Medium, Large, or Huge size vehicle (but not starship) as a swift action. Its vehicle form must be within one size category of the DTR’s base form, and have an item level no greater than the DTR’s CR -2 (minimum item level 1). and once selected cannot be changed. While in a vehicle form, the DTR gains a +20 bonus to Disguise checks to appear to be that vehicle (including appearing to have an appropriate driver or pilot, even if it actually doesn’t). Changing back from vehicle form to robot form is also a swift action.

In vehicle form, a DTR can pilot itself (gaining a +8 bonus to all Pilot checks to do so), or allow someone else to pilot it. Anything it carried in its robot form is stowed within it in its vehicle form, and the DTR may opt to allow it to be accessed by riders/passengers. When assuming its vehicle form, the DTR can select equipment or weapons it has in robot form that could be wielded in 2 hands or less, and have them become integrated equipment in its vehicle form. Its vehicle form has the same number of Hit Points as its robot form, and damage taken in one form carries over to the other. It’s EAC, KAC, and speed in vehicle form is determined by the type of vehicle it is.

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