Episode 2: Project Lobotomy Download (Updated!)

As promised, here it is: Everything.

Every single thing I put together for my Pathfinder/Mass Effect adventure, Project Lobotomy.

The zip file below includes several things:

Project Lobotomy Adv.docx: This is the adventure itself, which is really to say my super elaborate notes for this adventure. More than a decade of writing game stuff means that I can't really help but write my notes in the house styles I use most frequently, which of course means this document looks akin to the way we currently style adventures at Paizo. (Not exactly, but Pathfinder Adventure Path readers should find pleanty of familiar formats.) If you're interested in playing this adventure, which really means taking my 6,000+ words of notes, suggested ad-libs, scripts, plots, statblocks, suggestions, etcetera, and making them yours, this is the place to start.

Level 1 and Level 2 Tags.png: The tagged maps of the station. These maps are actually edited maps from Doom 2. This turned the work of mapping the whole base into a few prunes with with an image editor's erase tool. Handy thing that Google image search.

ME Races.docx: Easily the document people have been asking after the most, this is my build of six Mass Effect races using the Pathfinder RPG: Advance Race Guide's race builder. The races included are the asari, humans (a variation from the Pathfinder RPG core), krogan, quarians, salarians, and turians.

Starting Handouts: This folder includes the handouts the PCs start with--untagged schematics of both station floors and a mysterious partial transmission from 2175 Aeia.

Handouts: This folder includes all the rest of the game's handouts (even one or two I put together but never worked into the text). These are all .txt files, which I suggest opening using the program WriteRoom with the Terminal theme (green text on a black background).

So that's what's in the following file. If you want all of that, all you have to do is click the link below.

XXX LINK XXX (See Updated Page)

Additionally, everything that I created for this, which is to say, everything that isn't a proper noun from the Mass Effect series or a Pathfinder rule, I'm releasing via a Creative Commons license. I'm still getting acclimated to many of the aspects of these licenses, but in short, if you want to use anything that I created in this download for any non-commercial venture, please do so (and tell us all about it here!).

While we're talking about downloading things, the Mass Effect 3 Datapad easily wins the award for coolest game handout I've ever thrown on a table. The app takes the codex from the Mass Effect games--your character's ever available encyclopedia to the game's rich universe--with its polished graphic design and the calmly read entries (yes, it reads all the primary entries for you) and ports them to your iOS device. Which really should be to say, your naked iPad, because the marriage of this program with the iPad's sleek glass instantly make you forget it isn't a device from the future. The Mass Effect 3 Datapad app is a free download, available here and if you're going to futz with any one thing from this page it should be this. This app was kind of the reason I put Project Lobotomy together (well, that and I thought the Project Overlord missions for Mass Effect 2 were amazing). The window into that world that this complete codex offers made such an enticing handout that I just had to have a game that used it. Check it out and I'm pretty sure you'll see what I mean. And, if you've gotten this far without knowing anything about Mass Effect, you can change that right now too. Hit he link and download Mass Effect on Steam immediately.

That's it for Project Lobotomy. Putting this together totally satisfied the mad scientist part of my brain and it was a total blast to run--entirely thanks to all my awesome players. I hope that anyone who downloads the notes gets to run the game and has just as fantastic a time as we did.

As for what's up for Erratic Episodes next... I'm not sure yet.

Probably something with swords.

Project Lobotomy by F. Wesley Schneider is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Episode 2: Space and Time, Lessons from a Sci-Fi Mystery

I’ve had a game in the back of my head for a little over a decade now. Something modern, disturbing, and detailed enough to leave the players wondering, how much of this is actually made up? Something with downloaded police reports, stained manila folders, and gory images from the bowels of the internet. Something with gruesome murders, a big map of a city, and links to real websites. The sort of game that ends with the takeaway “I’m so glad I’m not really a cop.”

I haven’t run it, despite having a number of the handouts made, because I know it’s going to take a lot of effort to create and a significant amount of time to run. And after this week’s game, maybe even longer than I thought.

I set up my Pathfinder/Mass Effect game as a mystery, and a pretty linear one at that. The clues in low-numbered areas fed into clues in high-numbered areas, the first floor’s mysteries got deeper on the second floor, room 2 doesn’t necessarily reveal the secrets of room 1, but it’s not far from that. Things went really well and the party gobbled up and digested the majority of the first course's clues before heading into later levels' second course.

But it was definitely a bigger meal then I’d anticipated.

The way this Mass Effect game panned out taught me two related lessons, which I figured I'd share with anyone planning on running mystery RPGs (for any game system).

Lesson One: Simpler Mysteries

But not for the reason I usually give professional adventure authors. I’ve seen plenty of adventures collapse under the weight of their own elaborateness—and I was definitely wary of mine veering onto that course. When a mystery adventure demands the players find every clue—or worse, find every clue in a rigidly specific order—it’s easy to frustrate players. They know there’s pieces of a thousand puzzles scattered before them, but without the GM's guidance they have no idea what sort of picture they’re trying to put together. Directionless players quickly find themselves asking, why bother? Additionally, if clues prove contradictory—whether purposefully or through a GM mistake—it’s easy for players to dismiss the mystery as either beyond them (usually in interest, not intellect) or impossible.

For me, I try to think of clues as the steady I.V. drip keeping the mystery alive. In the case of this Mass Effect game, the mystery was one of “What happened?” not, whodunit. This simple sort of mystery is pretty easy to keep rolling, as the clues become a series of handouts and cut-scenes, revealing more of the story behind the story. Normally I wouldn’t consider doling out background details piecemeal a mystery, but when it’s treated like a puzzle, when it reveals the reason behind unexplained set pieces, and—most importantly—once the players start theorizing, it becomes a mystery. In our game, the clues seemed to keep the players engaged and I was pleased both that their theories were typically on the right path and that their revisions constantly strengthened their previous assumptions. If they were totally off base, that would have been much more my fault then theirs. 

In this case, I’m advocating simplicity because mysteries balloon—big time. The content I generated for night one spilled well into the third session. The finale I planned to conclude the adventure on night two we only got to two-thirds of the way through last night’s third session. This meant that in the last hour I was having to throw in some pretty heavy handed guideposts (“Did anyone look at THIS”), flubbed at least one clue, and had to cut or skim through sections entirely.

Had I to do the whole game over, I would have made things simpler, as the script far exceeded the stage time we had. Much of the group seemed to really enjoy examining the clues and amending their theories, which was great, but this more than anything took time. As much as that sort of investment is worth encouraging (I'd say it’s even one of the main points of running an RPG) it’s also worth accounting for timewise. This wouldn’t be a big deal if we were a bi-weekly group getting together to play, but with limited time and availability it created a problem. The end result was that, even after going into overtime, the final session turned into a race for details and the expected big reveal to tie everything up. As this happened less naturally then the slow build of the rest of the adventure, the horror was drained out of the final revelation, transforming the climax into just a big set-piece fight. I wouldn’t say the end was ruined, but the compacted timeline gave it the feel of a long-running series forced to wrap-up prematurely. Spending another session on the ending would of solved much of this, but that solution would have exacerbated another problem (see Lesson Two).   

Ultimately, the lesson here is that if you’re going to run a mystery adventure, make sure you have the time to run it all the way to its conclusion. You want to give the PCs the time to feel like sleuths, and  definitely want to make sure the adventure comes to satisfactory reveal and conclusion. If you’re worried about the time that might take, go for a simpler mystery. A good simple mystery that feels like a mystery beats an elaborate mystery with a forced climax.

Lesson Two: Timing is Relevance

Cliffhangers are the perfect way to keep up tension between game sessions, but anyone left hanging too long falls.

There were five months between sessions one and two of this Mass Effect game, then four months between two and three. Even after a detailed recap, there were plenty of “I think…” and “Remember you thought this…” moments. When the GM is reminding you of your awesome theory from four months ago, it doesn’t really feel like your awesome theory anymore. In this game, the long pauses between sessions caused several nuances to fade and even I, holding all of the notes, lost a few threads. Apparently RPG mysteries share something in common actual detective work: too much time between new discoveries causes the trail to go cold.

If you’re going to run a mystery, make sure it remains relevant to your players. Everyone in this game seemed to honestly enjoy playing, but with more than half a year passing in the interim, the urgency worked up during an individual game didn’t transmit to the next one. There’s bound to be some of that with any break (it’s one reason why televison series do weekly recaps), but after a month—maybe even after two weeks—the GM isn’t just fighting to spark the player’s memories, he’s fighting to spark their senses of relevance and interest. Additionally, if the main plot has to fight for significance, the players’ connection to their characters suffers even more, causing nuances, character quirks, and personal goals to shift or evaporate entirely between episodes.

My big take away here is to schedule every session of a short series at once. It would have been better to push back the first game and find multiple weeks the players could devote to playing rather than fight schedules for a year, ultimately to the game’s detriment. I plan on taking this as a lesson for all my games from here on out, especially when it comes to more complex adventures that rely on pacing and revelation.

Next Time

Those are my takeaways from our Pathfinder/Mass Effect game, but my next post is going to be all about your takeaways. I’ll be putting up all of my notes, handouts, maps, and the Mass Effect races I created using the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Race Guide for anyone who wants to run this adventure or tell their own stories in the Mass Effect galaxy.

And who knows, if I ever get the time and a group able to commit a whole weekend to playing it, maybe in the next year or two you'll see that dark detective game I've been plotting show up right here.

Episode 2: Robo Death Race

It’s over. After almost a year, we finally completed our Pathfinder skinned Mass Effect game last night. It went well, but it could have gone on at least another night. Things went fast and there was some definite hand waving to compact the remaining adventure into the time we had left, but the overall gist got through and we had a good time. Here's a bit of what we got up to.

Mass Effect Session 3 Highlights

Captain Eiger, Human Gunslinger (James Jacobs)

* Had sassy times with a gray smoke zombie security chief.

* Almost getting mutinied against after getting the gray-lung. (And almost making a run for it, but decided to instead down a gallon of medi-gel.)

* Tried to make friends with a roboplegic.

* Sniped a nascent techno-god’s corpse.

* Overall Adventure Achievement: Precision Damage Dealer! Took down half a holographic projector pillar and multiple zombies in a single hit!

Sathar Vrusk, Turian Monk-Zen Archer (Rob McCreary)

* Almost mutinying, pulling a rifle on the captain after he was “compromised.”

* Used his grapnel to help allies clamber to the top of the lift, avoiding a goo dip.

* Combat healed Talos, dropping medi-gel on him even while getting pummeled by goo tentacles.

* Totally not bragging that he was of the one race immune to the goop.

* Overall Adventure Achievement: Total Damage Dealer! Spraying anything that moved with a hail storm of bullets resulted in the highest total damage dealt.

Cerise 7, Asari Bard (Erik Mona)

* Writing the lyrics of the galaxy’s new #1 hit: “Three Heads!”

* Despite much of it having to get skimmed over, hit on the vast majority of the session's relevant clues and put together the gist of what had happened.

* Smooth talked a giant disembodied holographic god head.

* Used up every spell and round of bardic performance to get the party through in style.

* Overall Adventure Achievement: Space Sleuth! Between investigation and well-reasoned theories, she most accurately unraveled the station’s mysteries. (Bonus Achievement: Infinite Entendre)

Gippy Consuelo, Salarian (James Sutter)

* Scouring zombie corpses with a fine mist of acid spittle. Pfffffhhhh!

* Blew up the greatest amount of secret lab technology with fire bombs.

* Blasted a hole in the lift’s ceiling, allowing others to climb to safety while condemning himself to goo wading.

* Turned gray-goo traitor! But had bad aim.

* Overall Adventure Achievement: Flames of Freedom! Blew the most things up, all the while giving voice to the plight of the galaxy’s oppressed. Viva la Gippy!

Talos, Quarian (Andrew Vallas)

* Unmuted the station-wide quarantine alarm, revealing that someone/something still had control of the computers.

* Liberated (sort of) a creepy robot science experiment.

* Was the persistent target of a single-minded zombie sniper.

* Revealed the techno-deity’s weakness!

* Overall Adventure Achievement: Station Breaker! Between computer hacking, lock picking, and bombs nothing technical in the station was left with its wiring intact.

A HUGE thanks to James Jacobs, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, James Sutter, and Andrew Vallas for being such a fantastic group. Impossible to pin down, but a fantastic group who made running a third session well worth the wait.

Next time, a few observations I took away from last night, and a bit later this weekend all my notes and handouts for anyone who might like to run a Mass Effect skinned Pathfinder game of their own!

Episode 2: Robobugs and Cybervoyers

After a DEPLORABLE five month gap, we dove back into the Mass Effect universe this week for the second session of what started as a mysterious [Classified Sci-Fi Adventure]. The gap's been so significant that I forgot to take any pictures, so I'll be illustrating this post with handouts from the game--but I'll get into that later. Otherwise, the interim months have been rather kind in regards to new tools to run this specific game.

Mission Brief: Schematic 1

The first, flashiest, and freest is the Mass Effect Datapad app for the iPad, a sleek app that utilizes Mass Effect's in-game menu treatments to present the series's hundreds of fantastic recorded and written codex entries--among other inconsequential options. As I've told each of the game's players that he has an omitool with access to an encyclopedic galactic database, this app manifests that resource at the game table with both the perfect info and aesthetic. Those features, combined with the iPad's already futuristic flair, makes this easily the highest tech player handout I've ever used in a game. The only down side is that the adventure itself is far enough off the beaten path and we have enough people familiar with the Mass Effect universe that there hasn't been overly much reason to consult the datapad. When we do, though, it's @#$%in' cool!

Mission Brief: Schematic 2

The other, far less free tool is the Bose Soundlink Wireless Mobile Speaker. I picked this treasure up a few months ago after Erik got one as a birthday present and totally raved about it--and rightly so. If you don't have one of these or haven't played with one, you are missing out on one of the perks of living in the future. This light, unassuming rectangle easily connects to any Bluetooth device and pumps out room rattling sound. I'm all about using music and soundtracks in my RPGs, especially for this game since Mass Effect has such great (and readily available) music. But for my last few games its meant toting about a defunct computer's speakers and sub-woofer and shackling them to my iPhone or laptop to get the sound I want. No more! The Soundlink magically connects to my iPhone, makes flipping through songs a matter of a thumb flick, and has the power to drown our conference room game space in sound. GMs take note, the technology to conduct your game's behind the scenes orchestra is finally, unobtrusively here.

Okay, so that's what's new from before the game even got started. Here's what's new from the game itself. I forgot to take any photos, so instead I'm going to post every clue, data point, and virtual handout the party has collect thus far. If anyone has any interested in running this game themselves down the line, I'll post my complete adventure notes and the rest of the handouts once the game wraps up...

Oh yeah. So I'm breaking my established structure with my second game: I'm running a third session of this. After two players came to me asking when we can play again and a third noted on his Facebook that we have one session left, it seems like the interest to wrap this one up is totally there. I definitely wrote more than two sessions of adventure for this one, so I'll have to watch that in the future if I'm going to keep to my totally arbitrary two-session structure. So, expect a recap of a third Mass Effect session, hopefully by the end of the month even (doubly so as I'm really getting amped up for the next thing... but more on that in due time).

Mass Effect Session 2 Highlights!

Captain Eiger, Human Gunslinger (James Jacobs)

Mission Brief: Partial Transmission

* Why's there a weasel on my character sheet? A leech weasel?
* Seeing all the hidden pictures* in the schematics--the one-armed frog, the Batman rooms, the sad robot, etc. (*hidden pictures may or may not be an actual thing.)
* Lots of great theories based on hacked e-mails and handouts. Cerberus might NOT be nice people.
* Raiding the liquor cabinet.
* "LANAAAAAAA!"


Sathar Vrusk, Turian Monk-Zen Archer (Rob McCreary)

Blue Suns Drop Team Readout

* Breathing in a hot lung-load of "The Smoke." Following that up with a deep bleaching of his insides to clean out any potential/probable invaders
* Showing real concern for that sick chain letter girl.
* Getting fed up with all the computering and charging down the middle corridor, guns drawn.
* Totally getting the hivemind robo-corpses' attention, both with a flung keycard and bullets.
* Shooting the gooey gray filling out of the corpse-ooze remains of the station's crew.

Cerise 7, Asari Bard (Erik Mona)

E-mail: Yvette Rodriguez

* Coming out of no where with serious science know-how--picked up lots of clues with this (especially in the nano-engineer's chalkboard room and with the homemade V.I.).
* Formulated the theory that the base's first floor is totally a sham. Gathered significant support for the theory.
* Conversing with a pile of 30 not-so-dead station staffers.
* Out performing a robocorpse chorus.
* Opening the door for that nice dead krogan.



Gippy Consuelo, Salarian (James Sutter)

Transmission Log: Hui Napier

* Discovered that fire and gray smoke are not friends. Flamethrowered a smoking corpse to contain its billowing ick--and did so without scorching any teammates!
* Found a hidden password by breaking open a bunch of sports memorabilia.
* Experimenting on the corpses and smoke with all sorts of biotic effects.
* Nice job squirting all over that one corpse.
* Distinguished between the wussy fire bombs and hardcore fire grenades


Talos, Quarian (Andrew Vallas)

E-mail: Zioa Mashir

* Continues to pretty much be the master of the "Tech Check."
* Avoided setting off something terrible in the chief tech's office.
* Hardly any locked or jury-rigged door has kept closed in the face of his hardcore hacking.
* Revealing the schematics for a ridiculously advanced nanomachine... too bad about 50 billion had all ready spooled off the nano-robot printer.
* Firebombs FTW. Especially the lob that took down the last zombie.

Note About Handouts

E-mail: Marshall Hutruger

I've been displaying all of these handouts from my laptop using a projector (check out at the previous Mass Effect post for a glimpse of how this looks in operation). On the technical side, I wanted this to have a look suggestive of 80's sci-fi and Apple 2E interfaces. I was able to get this using a bare bones, free word processing program called WriteRoom using its Terminal display setting and the Glass TTY VT220 font. If you're interested in recreating what you're seeing here, use these. You can also download plain text versions for each of these messages and PNG files of the schematics from the following links (right click and "save as" to download): Schematic 1, Schematic 2, Partial Transmission, Blue Suns Drop Team Readout, Yvette Rodriguez's E-mail, Hui Napier's Transmission Log, Zioa Mashir's E-mail, Marshall Hutruger's E-mail.

We left off with the crew descending into the underground second level, facing off against a robotic corpse orgy, and then opening a door that brought them face-to-face with a charging, eyeless Krogan in shattered Blue Suns mercenary armor. Check back in a few weeks for the startling conclusion: "Blind Came the Krogan!" (Also known as: "Berth of Death!" or "Song of the Smokeasites!")

Episode 2: Mass Effect Codex Entries

Since I couldn't get a lot of the audio codex entries to work at the game table, I've linked them here so any players interested can check them out before next session. Enjoy!
Council Races: Asari, Salarian, Turian
Non-Council Races: Batarian, Geth, Krogan, Quarian
Humanity and the Systems Alliance: The state of humanity
The Citadel and Galactic Government: The Citadel, Citadel Council
Planets and Locations: 2175 Aeia
Organizations: Cerberus, Blue Suns
Technology: Biotics, A.I., V.I., Omnitool

Episode 2: Revealed

A: Turian, B: Salarian, C: Asari, D: Krogan, E: Quarian

It's Mass Effect.

We played the first of two sessions last night of the formerly a mystery, sci-fi-skinned Pathfinder game set in the Mass Effect universe. I've been tinkering with this idea for a few months now and was delighted when we settled on this week (the week of the new game's release) for the first game. Folks showed up, characters made, got the reveal on the setting, and then dug into equipping, refining characters, and finding out more about the setting.

There was a pretty major hitch there, though. One of the major reasons I wanted to run this was because I always thought the codex entries (largely voice acted encyclopedia) in the various Mass Effect games (and some other Bioware games) were a rich way to present tons of in-world information. So I was very pleased to find that the Mass Effect Wiki included a significant volume of those codex recordings. With personal computers like omitools in the Mass Effect universe, giving any major player access to that database, I figured I could turned that whole site into a giant, awesome player handout. Adding in the projector we have at the office and my laptop full of displays, schematics, terminal interfaces, crew logs, etc, we had the set up for an appropriately high-tech game. One problem. I couldn't get an internet hookup in our meeting room. So after all of this, no access to the Mass Effect Wiki. Lame.

The set-up this time around

Fortunately, I could get a connective via my iPhone, and running the codex entries for all the races and some major topics like Cerberus and biotics worked. Add additionally, since all of the players also had iPhones, I just told them to look up the codex entries on the wiki and Youtube and use their phones like the omnitools their characters' had been provided. That worked, serviceably, but ultimately the integration was not what I'd hoped for. Cest' la vie.

All that said, once we got past the preamble the technical snafu largely faded into the background. Our team of Cereberus operatives revived their cryptic mission details, landed on 2175 Aeia and set to work infiltrating the research base there, one already compromised by Blue Suns mercenaries. From there, high jinx ensued--though I have to give them credit, the team was largely more commando about things than I'd anticipated.

Captain Eiger, Human Gunslinger (James Jacobs)
* Played a human! Humans get to be captain!
* Showed off his keen piloting skills, buzzing an alien jungle and making a feather soft landing.
* Sniped a sniper through the sniperscope with his darling sniper rifle "Lana."
* Manned the laptop/computer terminal multiple times, tinkering with files, schematics, and reading hacked e-mails.
* Contributed the rules for tech, weapons, armor, future gear, etc, from his massive and awesome Unspeakable Futures post-apocolyptic Lovecraftian horror game. Couldn't have had a game without these!

One of the Station Schematics

Sathar Vrusk, Turian Monk-Zen Archer (Rob McCreary)
* Instantly memorized the entry for turians and totally threw himself into the race's personality and mindset.
* The crew gun bunny, eager to help himself to the Blue Suns' Elanus Risk Control Services Banshee assault rifle.
* Immediately picked up on and made a beeline for the industrial power loader.
* Discovering the etymology of the Venus flytrap mid-game.
* Voted most likely to mutiny.

Cerise 7, Asari Bard (Erik Mona)
* Composed the team Cerberus theme song: "Three heads, are better than one..."
* Quickly got into the detective element of the story and picked up on quite a few of the more subtle clues hidden in the data and on the bodies recovered so far.
* Uncovered or solved such mysteries of the plasticized eyeless corpses, why the mercenary "Cat Man" got his call sign. Oh, and "No one clones a fatty."
* Always kept an eye on the heirloom family length of rope.
* Totally going for a Gender Equality in Gaming Award with his portrayal of his first-ever female character.

Debates... in Spaaaace!

Gippy Consuelo, Salarian (James Sutter)
* Demolitions expert and total commando guy. In front, has a plan, and blows stuff up... even if that stuff is delicate manufacturing equipment.
* Sneaky lizard who also uses his biotic powers to punch in mercenary heads from a distance.
* Full of cagey ideas for setting off motion-detecting turrets (even if they're not there). The flashlight trick was pretty brilliant.
* The rich Latin accent is a nice touch. Makes me imagine that he's playing Rango.
* Commando lingo!

Talos, Quarian (Andrew Vallas)
* Utterly destroying nearly every hacking and tech check thrown his way. No passcode or security lock out stands in Talos's way.
* Attempting to rig the Blue Sun's dropship to remotely self destruct and Sathar's motion detector to not pick up machinery (so another innocent factory machine doesn't get firebombed).
* Figured out that the station is emitting a communications jamming screen.
* If it's been a clue and in a computer, he's found it.
* Giving tit for tat with our mouthy turian.

And the whole thing wrapped up with the PCs opening a secured door and coming face to face with a station receptionist or low tier coms officer... with no eyes!

So that was the first one. I'll put my notes for the adventure and the tons of handouts I generated for this up after the second, concluding session. I think I'll also put together a list of important links to the Mass Effect Wiki for any of my players who want to dig into a bit more with relevance to the adventure. But for now, its time to figure out when we're playing next, and to see if our lethal crew can survive the terror of the Planet of the Eyeless Receptionist!

Episode 2: The Crew

Our mystery sci-fi episode has its first session tomorrow night and our doughty crew, the pros that they are, have their race/class combos in already. Here's who's on the crewlist.

James Jacobs: Human sniper
Rob McCreary: [Mystery Race A] gun kata expert
Erik Mona: [Mystery Race C] bard
James Sutter: [Mystery Race B] sorcerer/tech
Andrew Vallas: [Mystery Race E] alchemist

There's a LOT of firepower in this crew. I think I might need to bump up a few CRs... or at least ad a few more targets.

Episode 2: Character Creation

Now that all the races are out there, it's time to make some characters. Using the basic class guidelines presented a week or so back, I'd like all the players to pick a race, spend their 3 class levels, and generate  stats using the point buy system on page 16 of the Core Rulebook. Players have 20 points to spend.


Go ahead and choose feats and skills as well--don't neglect skills like Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Ride, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device that seem like fantasy-only abilities, as with the sci-fi skin overlaying this game, these skills--respectively--will probably be things like, Knowledge (technology), Knowledge (sciences), Pilot, Tech (using tech as its meant to be used), and Improvised Mechanics (using tech as its not meant to be used). (While we're on this topic, think of Disable Device as "Hacking.")

With that, go ahead and mostly make up your characters, but don't spend any cash yet. We'll handle equipment second thing on Thursday. I'd like to have written in clay ideas of what everyone is playing by Wednesday night so I can post them here (and so I have some idea of what I'm in for). And, if you have any questions about any of this, come talk to me.


Some advice: I know a lot of you really want to have cool back stories and details for your characters so you can really get into their heads, details that are difficult to pin down when you don't even know of you have skin or feathers. In part, suck it up, adlibbing is definitely going to be a part of this game's gimmick. At the same time, look at the context clues you're getting. If you want to build a heavy hitter, use a race with a Strength bonus; if you want to build a shooter, go for an agile race; a dashing character, look at human with that heroic trait. Checking out the Advance Race Guide to translate the race descriptions' short hand will help. In general, pick a fun sci-fi concept and use your abilities, class, and race to build toward that. If you find out Thursday that your race doesn't fit perfectly with what you wanted, well, that can make for some really interesting characters (and you're only playing these characters twice, after all).

Also, try to name your character, with the understanding that there is a common language in this universe, so try for something pronounceable.


Thanks all and good luck!

Episode 2: Race #6 - [Mystery Race E]

This is it! The last player race for this Thursday's mystery sci-fi game! This is a weird one, especially as it has a few unusual traits that will also remain a mystery until Thursday's game.

Race E

Type

   Humanoid (half-construct)                            7 RP

Size

   Medium                                                          0 RP

Base Speed

   Normal                                                           0 RP

Ability Score Modifiers

   Specialized (–2 Con, ­ +2 Int, +2 Wis)            1 RP

Language

   Linguist                                                          1 RP

Racial Traits 

   Defense Racial Traits

      Bond to the Land ([Classified])                  2 RP

   Feat and Skill Racial Traits

      Scavenger                                                   2 RP

   Senses Racial Traits

      Low-light vision                                         1 RP

Weakness

   [Classified]                                                  –1 RP

Total                                                               13 RP

That's all the races now, and all the hints you're going to get on what universe we're playing in. But guessing games aside, now it's time to seriously start talking characters. More on that tomorrow.

Episode 2: Race #5 - [Mystery Race D]

Another reptilian race, but this one's significantly less... squishy.

Race D

Type

   Humanoid (reptilian)                                 0 RP

Size

   Medium                                                     0 RP

Base Speed

   Slow ­–1 RP

Ability Score Modifiers

   Paragon (+4 Str, ­–2 Int, ­–2 Wis, ­–2 Cha)  1 RP

Language

   Standard                                                     0 RP

Racial Traits

   Defense Racial Traits

      Natural armor                                          2 RP

      Desert Runner                                         2 RP

      “Race A” Immunities*                           4 RP

      Improved Natural Armor                        1 RP

   Offense Racial Traits

      Ferocity                                                  4 RP

      Relentless                                               1 RP

Total                                                            14 RP

*Same as duergar immunities

One more to go... and that's probably going to be the one that gives it away. But that's why I'm putting it up over the weekend--so you jackal's can't discuss it until Monday.

Episode 2: Race #4 - [Mystery Race C]

Now, a little something for the ladies.
 

Race C

Type

   Humanoid                              0 RP

Size

   Medium                                 0 RP

Base Speed

   Normal                                  0 RP

Ability Score Modifiers

   Flexible (+2 Int, +2 Cha)      2 RP

Languages

   Linguist                                 1 RP

Defense Racial Traits

   Stubborn                                2 RP

Racial Traits

   Feat and Skill Racial Traits

   Gregarious                             1 RP

   Integrated                              1 RP

Magical Racial Traits

   Elven Magic                          3 RP

   Envoy                                    1 RP

   Seducer                                  2 RP

Total                                        13 RP

Tomorrow, a little something not for the ladies. Unless you're into that sort of thing.

Episode 2: Race #3 - [Mystery Race B]

I'm seriously enjoying the hail of guesses each new race post incites. Not that I'm going to tell even if someone guesses it right. Though a Captain Power, He-Man, Bravestar, Dune, Star Fox crossover is starting to sound pretty inspired.

Here's the new race. Squishy, as promised.

Race B

Type

   Humanoid (reptilian)            0 RP

Size

   Medium                                0 RP

Base Speed

   Normal                                  0 RP

Ability Score Modifiers

   Flexible (+2 Dex, +2 Int)      2 RP

Languages

   Linguist                                 1 RP

Racial Traits

   Feat and Skill Racial Traits

      Silent Hunter                      2 RP

      Shards of the Past              4 RP

   Movement Racial Traits

      Swim                                  2 RP

   Other Racial Traits

      Amphibious                       2 RP

Total                                       13 RP

Tomorrow... something else.

Episode 2: Race #2 - [Mystery Race A]

And the first really real alien race is.... Well, it's clawed, and has armor, and sees in the dark.

That should totally narrow down what universe we're playing in, right? 

Race A

Type

   Humanoid                               0 RP

Size

   Medium                                  0 RP

Base Speed

   Normal                                    0 RP

Ability Score Modifiers

   Flexible (+2 Str, ­ +2 Wis)       2 RP

Language

   Standard                                 0 RP

Racial Traits

   Defense Racial Traits

      Natural armor                      2 RP

      Resistant                              2 RP

   Feat and Skill Racial Traits

      Quick Reactions                  2 RP

   Offense Racial Traits

      Claws                                   2 RP

   Senses Racial Traits

      Darkvision 60 Feet              2 RP

      Low-light vision                  1 RP

Total                                         13 RP

So two down, four more to go. Tomorrow expect something... squishier.

Episode 2: Race #1 - Human

And the first alien race is... not aliens at all. Yup, there's humans in the universe we'll be playing in, and here they are. But, to bring them up a notch to compete with some of the other races in the weird and wild galaxy, they've got the new "Heroic" trait. There might also be some in-story benefits to choosing this race, but you never can tell. Check 'em out.

Human

Type

   Humanoid (human)         0 RP

Size

   Medium                           0 RP

Base Speed

   Normal                            0 RP

Ability Score Modifiers

   Human                             0 RP

Languages

   Linguist                           1 RP

Racial Traits

   Feats and Skills Racial Traits

      Flexible bonus feat       4 RP

      Heroic                           4 RP

      Skilled                          4 RP

Total                                  13 RP

Okay, now that the known quantities out of the way, check back tomorrow for the first mystery race to kick off our week-long march of aliens. 

Episode 2: Prepare for Lift-Off!

We've got our group for our second episode! And since a few of these faces look familiar, I've added an additional spot in the group to keep up the level of new blood. In alphabetical order, here's the party of bold explorers headed for the stars.

James Jacobs: [Race & Class Currently Classified]
Rob McCreary: [Race & Class Currently Classified]
Erik Mona: [Race & Class Currently Classified]
James Sutter: [Race & Class Currently Classified]
Andrew Vallas: [Race & Class Currently Classified]

This is another Paizo rich crew, which is something I'll definitely be addressing next episode. For now, though, lets talk character creation. We'll be using Pathfinder rules with a sci-fi skin, so expect those spells and supernatural abilities to be some manner of tech, futuristic mysticism, alien evolutions, or what not. That said, not everything's a perfect fit, so only the following classes are being allowed (unless you can convince me otherwise). Listed next to each is a profession or two that members of this class might largely be viewed as.

Classes Permitted
Alchemist (Scientist)
Barbarian (Berzerker/Grunt)
Bard (Diplomat)
Cleric (Medic)
Gunslinger (Bounty Hunter)
Fighter (Marine/Mercenary)
Rogue (Engineer/Spy)
Sorcerer (Tech Specialist)

Players should start thinking about their classes and what sort of general sci-fi spin they might want their character to have. But don't get too far down the background rabbit hole, races and the planned adventure will factor into those details considerably.

As for races, I'm still not ready to reveal what universe we're playing in. But, starting a bit later today and every day this week I'll be revealing a race from the adventure's universe with the serial numbers filed off. Each of these races was created using the new race builder debuting in the Advance Race Guide. The details on these abilities largely appear in that book and in the Advance Race Guide Playtest available for free at paizo.com (though, I suspect all of my players might manage to access these rules through their own sinister channels). I've taken a bit of leeway with the system here and there and you'll even see an additional ability or two down the line, but none of that should matter much for the purposes of this one adventure.

Also, don't worry about equipment. I've got something in mind for that too.

But that's all for later. For now, start thinking about what sort of character you'd like to play and what weekday nights you're available for this two-part Pathfinder adventure... IN SPAAAAAAACE!

Episode 2: Registration Closes Soon

Just a reminder that the window for putting your name in for Episode 2: [Still Classified Sci-Fi Adventure] wraps up at the end of the day today. I still haven't revealed much about this, but I've got a neat rules system to handle most of the tech and plan to reveal the races over the course of the next week. Their stats that is, not their names. Players won't know what universe they're playing in until the first session--or unless it gets puzzled out on here first. So if you're up for some interplanetary heroics, and more than a little bit of mystery, sign up in the comments section here, drop me a line on Facebook, or snag me on the street and tell me you want in. I'll be putting together my list of interested parties and making final selection this weekend, so I can post it early next week along with character generation rules and the first race. Good luck to everyone who has already put their names in the hat and thanks to everyone for their interest and for reading!

Episode 2: [Classified Sci-Fi Adventure]

With Episode 1 complete and as successful as it was, I don't want to waste any time before getting Episode 2 off the ground. And Episode 2 is something with lasers.

I'm not going to say much more than that for now, or really until the first session. Once I have my players for this session I'll post stats for four unnamed new races built using the new race builder rules from the Pathfinder Advance Race Guide playtest. Players can create their characters using those races and basic Pathfinder classes (with a few caveats I'll explain down the line - like how to handle equipment). Once all of that is handled, I'll announce the names of each of the races and their context at the start of the session and we'll be off and running.

I've already got a great prop for this adventure... I'm just not quite sure yet how to get it running inside the Paizo conference room. We'll see.

So here's the run down:

Episode #2: [Classified Sci-Fi Adventure]
Game System: Pathfinder
Campaign Setting: [Classified]
Adventure Description: The most important battles don't always happen on the front lines. While war might be brewing elsewhere in the Galaxy, the darkness of space disguises all manner of shadows. It's up to a single team of fixers to retake control of a doomsday weapon capable of changing the face of battle forever. 

Players Wanted: 4
Characters: 3rd-level Pathfinder characters created partially in advance of the first session. Race options will not be revealed until registration is closed.
Sources Available: Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Advance Player's Guide, Advance Race Guide, Ultimate Combat
Miniatures: Not Required 

Deadline for Registration: 2/24/12
Proposed First Session: Friday March 2nd

So what's it going to be? Jetbike jousts with jawa jedis? Battles between bolian battlecrusiers and the borg? Sandworm surfing on the spice seas? Sign up now by posting your interest on the comments page, by sending me a message via Facebook, or by tracking me down and telling me you want in. Registration is open to all cool folks--be they Paizo staffers, friends, local Seattle gamers, whoever. Sign up and you could be the first to know just which galaxy needs heroes most!

(Hint: The picture above is not a hint.)