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Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Dispelling Emoji and Distracting Emoji

Yep, more  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.

Since I have a baseline on how emoji-sells-adapted-from-symbol-spells-that-don’t-work-off-HP work in mirror emoji, I can now go back and adapt the rest of the spells of that line. Which brings us to symbol of dispelling, which is a fairly straightforward adaptation, though I do want to make this 6th-level spell something worth casting and keep the thematic link between emoji spells and RP/SP/HP. And since that should be pretty easy, we can also tackle a conversion of symbol of distraction.

(Art by Koya979)

Dispelling Emoji
Class technomancer 6
School abjuration
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw None; Spell Resistance yes

This functions as mirror emoji, except as noted above and as follows.  Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that indicates an item commonly associated with disapproval, denial, refusal, or forbidding. When triggered, affected creatures are targeted by the area dispel option of the dispel magic spell. Each creature targeted must expend 1 Resolve Point, or the dispel check gains a +4 bonus against them. If a creature has no Stamina Points remaining, the dispel check also gains a +4 bonus.

Detect magic allows you to identify a dispel emoji with a DC 21 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.

Magic traps such as dispel emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a dispel 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 34.

(Public domain artwork)

The one thing to consider in turning symbol of distraction into a Starfinder spell is what level to make it. Mostly, if a symbol spell is available to a PF1 spontaneous spellcasting class that has access to 0-6th level spells (such as bard), I keep the emoji version at the same level for Starfinder. However, in the case of distracting emoji I dislike the idea of it being a 6th level spell, on par with the death and debauchery emoji spells. So, I saw that wizards got symbol of distraction as 11th level characters in PF1, and technomancers gain access to 4th level spells at 11th level in Starfinder, and this feels on-par with other 4th level Starfinder spells, and opted to go at that level for distracting emoji (and kept that in mind when deciding on its effects).

Distracting Emoji
Class technomancer 4
School enchantment (compulsion, mind-affecting)
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw Will partial (see text); Spell Resistance yes

This functions as mirror emoji, except as noted above and as follows.  Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that is commonly associated with surprise, shock, suddenness, or interest. When triggered, affected creatures are magically compelled to move toward the symbol for as long as they are within the rune’s area, and 1d4 rounds after leaving it (which they may find difficult).

Creatures who succeed at a saving throw and have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining are staggered. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore this condition for 1d4 rounds.

Both creatures that succeed at a saving throw but do not still have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining, and creatures that fail at a saving throw and do have both SP and HP remaining, must take a move action to move toward the rune each round, and cannot move away from it except by using a guarded step. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore this compulsion for 1d4 rounds.

Creatures that fail a saving throw and do not have both SP and HP left are staggered and must move toward the symbol if they are not adjacent to it (moving at least 20 feet each round if they have a mode of momvement that fast, or as fast as they can if they don’t). Each round such creatures may expend a Resolve Point to merely be staggered and not able to move away from the symbol for 1 round.

Detect magic allows you to identify a distracting emoji with a DC 19 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.

Magic traps such as distracting emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a distracting 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 29.

PATREON!
If you enjoy any of my various thoughts, ideas, and posts, please consider adding a drop of support through my Patreon campaign!, or dropping a cup of coffee worth of support at my Ko-Fi (which is also filled with pics of my roommate’s cat).

Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Debauchery Emoji

Yep, more  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.

Since I have a baseline on how emoji-sells-adapted-from-symbol-spells-that-don’t-work-off-HP work in mirror emoji, I can now go back and adapt the rest of the spells of that line. Which brings us to symbol of debauchery… which is gross. If I had a character fail a single save and then spend time trying to “rush to the nearest creature in order to caress and kiss it,” and that cause the character to be making unwelcome inappropriate advances, I would be unhappy.

So, let’s do a ground-up revision.

(Public domain art icon)

Debauchery Emoji
Class technomancer 6
School enchantment [compulsions, emption, mind-affecting]
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw Will partial (see text); Spell Resistance yes

This functions as mirror emoji, except as noted above and as follows.  Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that indicates a item commonly associated with hedonism and overindulgence, such as wine, food, or the holy symbol of a god of debauchery. When triggered, affected creatures are overcome by waves of debauched impulses, which take time and effort to resist.

Affected creatures are stunned for 1 round/level, and each round, they may expend 1 Resolve Point to instead be dazed and able to take a single move or swift action for that round. If a creature affected makes a Will save or has Stamina points remaining, it is dazed (but able to take a single move or swift action each round), and each round may expend 1 Resolve Point to be staggered for the round. If the creature makes a Will save and has Stamina Points remaining, it is staggered for 1 round per level, and each round may expend 1 Resolve Point to be able to act normally for that round.

Detect magic allows you to identify a debauchery emoji with a DC 21 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.

Magic traps such as debauchery emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a debauchery 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 34.

PATREON!
If you enjoy any of my various thoughts, ideas, and posts, please consider adding a drop of support through my Patreon campaign!, or dropping a cup of coffee worth of support at my Ko-Fi (which is also filled with pics of my roommate’s cat).

Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Mirror Emoji

Okay, we’re still 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.

I noticed that while several symbol spells are cued off HP in PF1, such as symbol of death, others aren’t linked to HP but still otherwise follow all the “symbol” spell rules. Obviously, I’ll want to be able to refer to previous spells, i.e. “this spell acts as death emoji, except…” but it makes sense to have one set of rules for those that work on SP/HP/RP, and a different set for those that just affect every creature in the area when triggered. So, I found the lowest-level “symbol” spell in PF1 and have made a Starfinder emoji spell version, so that all higher-level spells using these rules can refer to this one.

(Art by Zahid)

Mirror Emoji
Class technomancer 2
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 or encode it within a computer program. Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that indicates a mirror or reflection to the viewer. When triggered, a mirror emoji grants a single image (as mirror image) to each creature within 60 feet of the rune (treat as a burst). The mirror image lasts as long as the creature is within the rune’s area (a new image appearing at the end of the creature’s turn if the previous one is destroyed), and for one minute or until it is struck once the creature leaves the area. Each time you cast a mirror emoji, you must expend one Resolve Point. You cannot regain that RP until the mirror emoji is discharged, dismissed, or dispelled.

Once triggered, the mirror emoji‘s rune becomes active and glows, lasting for 10 minutes per caster level. A creature that enters the area while the mirror emoji‘s rune is active is subject to its effect, whether or not that creature was in the area when it was triggered. Until it is triggered, the mirror emoji is inactive (though visible and legible at a distance of 60 feet). To be effective, a mirror emoji must always be placed in plain sight and in a prominent location, or tied to a computer or computer program so it becomes visible when they are activated. Covering or hiding the rune renders the mirror emoji ineffective, unless a creature removes the covering, in which case the mirror emoji works normally. Similarly if attached to a program in a computer, it has no affect until and unless that program is activated or hacked, in which case the mirror emoji‘s rune appears on the computer’s control screen and becomes active.

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; activates a computer or a computer program into which the rune is embedded, or passes through a portal bearing the rune. Regardless of the trigger method or methods chosen, a creature more than 60 feet from a mirror emoji can’t trigger it (even if it meets one or more of the triggering conditions, such as reading the rune). If a mirror emoji is tied to a computer or computer program, it can appear at any interface (including a hacking effort), but once it does so that is the only interface the spell’s rune appears at. Once the spell is cast, a mirror emoji‘s triggering conditions 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 mirror emoji to render it inoperative triggers it if the spell is set to reacts to touch. You can’t use a mirror emoji offensively; for instance, a touch-triggered mirror emoji remains untriggered if an item bearing the spell’s rune is used to touch a creature. Likewise, a mirror emoji cannot be placed on a weapon and set to activate when the weapon strikes a foe.

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 mirror 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.

When encoding a mirror emoji, you can specify a password or phrase that prevents a creature using it from triggering the spell’s effect. Anyone using the password remains immune to that particular mirror emoji‘s effects so long as the creature remains within 60 feet of the spell’s rune. If the creature leaves the radius and returns later, it must use the password again.

You also can attune any number of creatures to a mirror emoji, but doing this can extend the casting time. Attuning one or two creatures takes negligible time, and attuning a small group (as many as 10 creatures) extends the casting time to 1 hour. Attuning a large group (as many as 25 creatures) takes 24 hours. Attuning larger groups takes an additional 24 hours per 25 creatures. Any creature attuned to a mirror emoji cannot trigger it and is immune to its effects, even if within its radius when it is triggered. You are automatically considered attuned to your own mirror emojis, and thus always ignore the effects and cannot inadvertently trigger them (though you may consciously choose to trigger it).

Detect magic allows you to identify a mirror emoji with a DC 16 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.

A mirror 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 death emoji unless they specify they function against magic glyphs, runes, and symbols. Destruction of the surface where a mirror emoji is inscribed or a computer it is imbedded in destroys the symbol but also triggers it.

Magic traps such as mirror emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a death 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 21.

PATREON!
If you enjoy any of my various thoughts, ideas, and posts, please consider adding a drop of support through my Patreon campaign!, or dropping a cup of coffee worth of support at my Ko-Fi (which is also filled with pics of my roommate’s cat).

Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Death Emoji

Okay, we’ve moved into 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.

That brings us to symbol of death, which is the basis for a lot of “symbol” spells in PF1. Honestly, glyph and symbols don’t feel very much like mystic or witchwarper spells (or empaths, for that matter), which means I want to write these as just technomancer spells. And if I am making that change anyway, I may as well reframe them to feel more technology/computer symbol bases.

Symbol of Death is also one of the classic “Save or Die” spells, which can be a big problem in PF1. If a target saves, they take no effect, and the spellcaster feels their effort was wasted. Since I’m reworking the spell for Starfinder, I have many more tools at my disposal to make it a powerful magic warding, without going entirely all-or-nothing with it. The rules I picked actually cut PCs a break compared to most NPCs… and I’m fine with that.

So, here’s death emoji.

(Art by Michael Hinkle)

Death Emoji
Class technomancer 6
School necromancy [death]
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw Fortitude partial (see text); Spell Resistance yes

This spell allows you to scribe a potent rune of power upon a surface or encode it within a computer program. Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that indicates death to the viewer. When triggered, a death emoji damages or kills one or more creatures within 60 feet of the rune (treat as a burst). The death emoji affects the closest creatures first. Once activated, the rune deals a maximum total of 150 points of damage. Each time you cast a death emoji, you must expend one Resolve Point. You cannot regain that RP until the death emoji is discharged, dismissed, or dispelled.

If a creature has any Stamina Points, the death emoji deals damage equal to their current Stamina Points, then moves on to the next target in range. If a creature has no Stamina Points, the rune deals Hit Point damage until the target is reduced to 0, in which case the target dies. If a creature has Stamina Points, it can expend a number of Resolve Points needed for it to Stay in the Fight to reduce the damage it takes from the death emoji rune by 50% (though the full amount is still counted against the rune’s 150 damage total). If a target succeeds as a Fortitude save, it also takes half damage (which also counts against the rune’s total damage done). If a target both expends the needed Resolve Points and succeeds at a Fortitude save, it takes no damage.

Once triggered, the death emoji‘s rune becomes active and glows, lasting for 10 minutes per caster level or until it deals 150 hit points of damage, whichever comes first. A creature that enters the area while the death emoji‘s rune is active is subject to its effect, whether or not that creature was in the area when it was triggered. A creature is damaged by the death emoji only once as long as it remains within the area, though if it leaves the area and returns while the death emoji is still active, it is targeted again.

Until it is triggered, the death emoji is inactive (though visible and legible at a distance of 60 feet). To be effective, a death emoji must always be placed in plain sight and in a prominent location, or tied to a computer or computer program so it becomes visible when they are acrtivated. Covering or hiding the rune renders the death emoji ineffective, unless a creature removes the covering, in which case the death emoji works normally. Similarly if attached to a program in a computer, it has no affect until and unless that program is activated or hacked, in which case the death emoji‘s rune appears on the computer’s control screen and becomes active.

As a default, a death 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; activates a computer or a computer program into which the rune is embedded, or passes through a portal bearing the rune. Regardless of the trigger method or methods chosen, a creature more than 60 feet from a death emoji can’t trigger it (even if it meets one or more of the triggering conditions, such as reading the rune). If a death emoji is tied to a computer or computer program, it can appear at any interface (including a hacking effort), but once it does so that is the only interface the spell’s rune appears at. Once the spell is cast, a death emoji‘s triggering conditions 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 death emoji to render it inoperative triggers it if the spell is set to reacts to touch. You can’t use a death emoji offensively; for instance, a touch-triggered death emoji remains untriggered if an item bearing the spell’s rune is used to touch a creature. Likewise, a death emoji cannot be placed on a weapon and set to activate when the weapon strikes a foe.

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 death 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.

When encoding a death emoji, you can specify a password or phrase that prevents a creature using it from triggering the spell’s effect. Anyone using the password remains immune to that particular death emoji‘s effects so long as the creature remains within 60 feet of the spell’s rune. If the creature leaves the radius and returns later, it must use the password again.

You also can attune any number of creatures to a death emoji, but doing this can extend the casting time. Attuning one or two creatures takes negligible time, and attuning a small group (as many as 10 creatures) extends the casting time to 1 hour. Attuning a large group (as many as 25 creatures) takes 24 hours. Attuning larger groups takes an additional 24 hours per 25 creatures. Any creature attuned to a death emoji cannot trigger it and is immune to its effects, even if within its radius when it is triggered. You are automatically considered attuned to your own death emojis, and thus always ignore the effects and cannot inadvertently trigger them.

Detect magic allows you to identify a death emoji with a DC 21 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.

A death 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 death emoji unless they specify they function against magic glyphs, runes, and symbols. Destruction of the surface where a death emoji is inscribed or a computer it is imbedded in destroys the symbol but also triggers it.

Magic traps such as death emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a death 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 34.

PATREON!
If you enjoy any of my various thoughts, ideas, and posts, please consider adding a drop of support through my Patreon campaign!, or dropping a cup of coffee worth of support at my Ko-Fi (which is also filled with pics of my roommate’s cat).

Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Glyph of Warding/Glyph Circuit

This is another entry in my 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.

Going in alphabetical order, the next spell we’d convert would be absorb rune, which works on magical glyphs, symbols, and similar spell effects. The problem? Starfinder doesn’t really have glyphs, symbols, and similar spell effects. (Enduring stylus may create a symbol, but no one is going to care much about moving the location of one.) But if we are going to convert all the PF1 spells into Starfinder spells, it will have such effects eventually. So, it makes more sense to hop forward to glyphs now (and maybe symbols right after), and once we have figured out how those are going to work, we can build the spells designed to modify such abilities.

And that brings us to glyph of warding.

Glyph Circuit
Classes mystic 3, technomancer 3
School abjuration
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range touch
Effect warding rune on an object or an area up to a 20-foot-square
Duration permanent until discharged (D)
Saving Throw see text; Spell Resistance no (object) and yes; see text

You create a circuit of magic energy that can discharge to harm a target that enters a warded area, or touches or activates a warded object. A glyph circuit can guard a bridge or passage, ward a portal, trap a container, weapon, scanner, tool, and so on.
You set all of the conditions of the ward. Typically, any creature entering the warded area or activating the warded object without speaking a password (which you set when casting the spell) is subject to the magic it stores. Alternatively, or in addition to a password trigger, glyphs can be set according to physical characteristics (such as height or weight) or creature type, subtype, or kind, or to a specific activity (such as speaking a specific word, or touching the warded object rather than activating it). They cannot be set according to alignment, creed, class, HD, or level. Glyph circuits respond to invisible creatures normally but are not triggered by those who travel past them ethereally. Multiple glyphs cannot be cast on the same area. However, if a cabinet has three different drawers, each can be separately warded.

When casting the spell, you weave a tracery of faintly glowing lines in a circuit-pattern around the warding sigil. A glyph circuit can be placed to conform to any shape up to the limitations of your total square footage. When the spell is completed, the glyph and tracery become nearly invisible.

Glyph circuits cannot be affected or bypassed by such means as physical or magical probing, though they can be dispelled. Mislead, polymorph, and nondetection (and similar magical effects) can fool a glyph, as can any disguise that gains a bonus to the Disguise check (such as granted by technological or magic assistance), though other disguises and the like can’t. Detect magic allows you to identify a glyph circuit with a DC 15 Mysticism check. Identifying a glyph circuit does not discharge it and allows you to know the basic nature of the glyph (version, type of damage caused, what spell is stored). Each time you cast a glyph circuit, you must expend one Resolve Point. You cannot regain that RP until the glyph circuit is discharged, dismissed, or dispelled.

Magic traps such as glyph circuits are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a glyph circuit, 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 28.

Depending on the version selected, a glyph circuit either blasts the intruder or activates a spell.

Blast: A blast glyph circuit deals 4d8 points of damage to the intruder and to all within 5 feet of them. This damage is acid, cold, fire, electricity, or sonic (your choice, made at time of casting). Each creature affected can attempt a Reflex save to take half damage. Spell resistance applies against this effect.

Spell: You can store any harmful spell of 3rd level or lower that you know. All level-dependent features of the spell are based on your caster level at the time of casting the glyph circuit. If the spell has a target, it targets the intruder. If the spell has an area or an amorphous effect, the area or effect is centered on the intruder. If the spell summons creatures, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and attack. Saving throws and spell resistance operate as normal, except that the DC is based on the level of the spell stored in the glyph circuit.

PATREON
If you enjoy any of my various thoughts, ideas, and posts, please consider adding a drop of support through my Patreon campaign!, or dropping a cup of coffee worth of support at my Ko-Fi (which is also filled with pics of my roommate’s cat).

On Education, Experience, and Crowdfunding in the Game Industry

So, let me start with this: My industry opinions are based purely on my experience. I don’t have a writing degree, business degree, or any college degree. I barely passed High School. I lack any certifications or formal training. My only claim to knowing what I am doing is that I keep getting paid to do it. What I do know, I learned over 25+ years being in the industry, doing dumb stuff that taught me not to, and listening to people who were smarter, better educated, and more experienced than I am.

That’s often meant watching changes impact the tabletop game industry, and trying to figure out what they mean as they happen. A great example of that is crowdfunding. While there were forms of crowdfunding when I first got into the industry in the 1990s, it was far less common, successful, or sophisticated than it is today. This often leads people to wonder, why do companies insist on crowdfunding games now, when they didn’t used to have to? In my experience, the biggest reasons for the change toward using crowdfunding are threefold.

First, pre-orders basically do not exist anymore. In the 80s and 90s, you could solicit a game product through the three-tiered distribution channel, and get pre-orders that both paid you for a chunk of your total print run months before you had to make them (especially before you had to pay the printer’s bill), and gave you some idea what the total demand for that product might be. If you were thinking of printing 10,000 copies, and pre-orders were 500, you knew you had way overshot the level of interest. If orders were 9,5000, you knew you should print more.

This allowed you to make s big a print run as you could, driving down per-unit costs, without a serious risk of overprinting. This made products overall more profitable. The profit on selling 100,000 units is very different between one 100k print run, and five 20k print runs.

(As an important aside: Knowing how many copies of a gamebook sold doesn’t tell you how profitable it was. How many copies were in pdf or some other electronic format? How many were direct sales? How many foreign sales? How many print runs did it take to produce the volume sold, and at what economy of scale? Was it priced right to begin with? This, by the way, is one reason some things that were popular and sold out don’t get reprinted. If you needed a print run of 20k to make a reasonable profit, and it took 3 years to sell through, and 90% of your sales were in the first 90 days, you likely don’t want to reprint. Because if you print less than 20k more units, you won’t make enough profit, and if it takes 6 years to sell through another 20k at the post-first-release sale rate, your money is tied up in the print run (and warehousing costs), instead of new things that sell faster. Of course, this can be another place where crowdfunding can be helpful. I suspect it won’t be long before it’s typical for game companies to crowdfund reprints. They can set a minimum level to make a profit, and only reprint if they hit that. That’s win-win for consumers and biz.)

Second, crowdfunding a project creates an opportunity for a major marketing push. There used to be multiple tabletop game magazines. You could buy an ad in Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, Pyramid, (or any of a dozen other options depending on timeframe and market) and put your product in front of tens of thousands of eyeballs. There’s no one great place, or half-dozen good places, to do that anymore. And even if there were, without strong preoders, it’s hard to create a useful call to action for a product that brings in a lot of money for the creator when they need it.

But crowdfunding sites allow you to use mailing lists from old projects to contact new people, and multiple different game sites report on new crowdfunding projects getting you much more attention at no cost. (And if you use Backerkit and similar crowdfunding support sites, you can pay for ads to be put in front of large groups of market-appropriate consumers.)

Third, there’s not much widespread evidence to suggest sales during a crowdfunding campaign reduce sales made later through normal venues. Selling 2k extra copies during a crowdfunding campaign doesn’t seem to mean fewer sales over the life of the product in stores. (There are people who disagree with this claim, and that’s fair. And for a specific store, region, or market, it might not be accurate. But my experience from publisher-side observations is enough to convince me that, as a broad trend, this is true.) And crowdfunding sometimes sells 20k copies (or even 200k rarely) of products that similar ones without crowdfunding sell 2,000.

And, of course, game prices have not kept up with inflation. The vast majority of game companies are strapped for cash. This was true even before the pandemic, and the “Extinction-Level Events” that have come with it. So, maximizing the potential for income while minimizing the risks is not just attractive or an effort to money-grab, in many cases it’s an effort to avoid bankruptcy and having games disappear off the shelves entirely.

Supporting This Blog
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Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Absolution

Continuing the week’s trend of converting Pathfinder 1st edition spells to Starfinder, and the next spell in alphabetical is absolution. (You can find an index of the spells that have been converted to-date here).

The PF1 version of this is essentially a lesser version of atonement… which is potentially tricky since Starfinder doesn’t have an atonement spell. But it does have break enchantment, which is in the same vein. Absolution is also designed to help characters who have lost class features from violating a code of conduct… which also isn’t really a thing in Starfinder. But there IS the Divine Blessing feat, which we can work in to at least include a note of the forgiveness concept, which means GMs who like to build their own curses and powers and campaign universes will have this in their toolbox if they need it.

Absolution
Classes mystic 4
School abjuration
Casting Time 1 round
Range touch
Targets living creature touched
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes

You purge impure or artificially implanted thoughts from the target’s mind and fill them with exultant relief at the forgiveness for their failings. This spell acts as break enchantment, except it only functions against enchantments with the charm or mind-affecting descriptors.

Additionally, if you cast this on a target (other than yourself) who has the Divine Blessing feat and changes what deity they worship to the deity you worship, they gain the benefits of Divine Blessing for their new deity immediately (rather than having to wait until they gain your next level).

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Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Aberrant Lungs

Continuing the week’s trend of converting Pathfinder 1st edition spells to Starfinder, and the next spell in alphabetical is aboleth’s lung. (You can find an index of the spells that have been converted to-date here).

The PF1 version of this scales is 2nd level and let’s you breath water, but not normal air. In Starfinder, where every 1st level character has access to a suit of armor that has environmental seals, that’s not a spell anyne is going to take. Luckily, we can adjust spells as much as we want in a conversion like this. And, since I want to expand it’s duration and utility, I moved the name away from the water-environment-specific “aboleth.”

Aberrant Lungs
Classes mystic 1, witchwarper 1
School transmutation
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range 20 feet
Targets willing creatures in a 20-foot-radius
Duration 1 day/level

When you cast this spell, each target (and their equipment) becomes acclimated to breath in the prevalent atmosphere it is current in, as long as certain conditions are met, The atmosphere must be one that some unaugmented creature of the same type is naturally able to survive in without taking damage. For example, when cast on a humanoid on a world with a thick, corrosive atmosphere, as long as there exists somewhere some kind of humanoid able to survive in that atmosphere without being harmed by it, the target gains the ability to do so as well. This does not apply to conditions lacking any atmosphere, or to regions so harsh no creature of the same type can survive it unaugmented (for example, no humanoids exist that can survive on the surface of a sun).

While under the effects of this spell, a creature loses acclimation to their native atmosphere (but all their equipment that provides environmental support is also altered by the magic to support their new atmospheric needs). Though the caster cannot dismiss this spell when it is cast one someone else, a creature subject to this spell can dismiss it as part of any other action.

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Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Emergency Force Sphere

Still converting Pathfinder 1st edition spells to Starfinder, but rather than grab the next spell in alphabetical order I’m hitting a Patron request (join my Patreon and you, too, can ask for your favorite spell to be converted next!). And that spell is emergency force sphere. (You can find an index of the spells that have been converted to-date here).

The PF1 version of this scales off PF1’s wall of force, and since Starfinder also has wall of force as the same level spell, scaling our converted emergency force sphere off that is fairly straightforward. Mostly the only conversion required is to change it from an immediate action casting time to a reaction, and specify when it’s considered purely defensive.

Emergency Force Sphere
Classes technomancer 4, witchwarper 4
School evocation [force]
Casting Time 1 reaction
Range 5 feet
Area 5-ft.-radius hemisphere of force centered on you
Duration 1 round/level (D)

This spell acts as wall of force, except you create a hemispherical dome of force with hardness 20 and 200 Hit Points. If cast as a reaction to an event that would damage someone within the spell’s area, it is a purely defensive action. The bottom edge of the dome forms a relatively watertight space if you are standing on a reasonably flat surface. The dome shape means that falling debris (such as rocks from a collapsing ceiling) tend to tumble to the side and pile up around the base of the dome. If you make a DC 20 Engineering check, the debris is stable enough that it retains its dome-like configuration when the spell ends, otherwise it collapses. Normally this spell is used to buy time for dealing with avalanches, floods, and rockslides, though it is also handy in dealing with ambushes.

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Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Ablative Sphere

Still converting Pathfinder 1st edition spells to Starfinder, and going back to alphabetical order, with ablative sphere. (You can find an index of the spells that have been converted to-date here).

While the original spell works very differently from this, having just converted ablative barrier, I liked how this rewrite ties into it to form a logical family of spells. This isn’t a perfect match for the original PF1 spell, but works well with Starfinder’s combat assumptions and is still a great hook for a spell.

Ablative Sphere
Classes mystic 3-6, technomancer 3-6
School abjuration [force]
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range touch
Area 10-foot-radius sphere
Duration 1 minute/level

Ablative sphere is a force effect that creates an immobile 10-foot sphere of defensive energy centered on one corner of your space when you cast it. It grants protection as a force field to any creature within its area, against any attack or effect from outside of its area. It has no effect on attacks against targets outside its area, even if the attack’s line of effect passes through the spell, nor on attacks originating within its area (even if they target a creature also in the area). All creatures within an ablative sphere share a single pool of temporary HP granted by the spell, which regenerate at the beginning of your turn each round.

The temporary hit points from an ablative sphere do not stack with those from an actual force field or an effect that specifies it functions as a force field (such as ablative barrier). If you have such temporary HP while within an ablative sphere, each point of damage done lowers the temporary HP granted by both the sphere and the force field effect. When you cast this spell, any previous ablative sphere you cast ends. The type of force field the ablative sphere emulates depends on the level of the spell.

3rd Level Spell: Brown force field
4th Level Spell: Purple force field
5th Level Spell: Black force field
6th Level Spell: White force field

PATREON
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