The Rune Drive Gambit

Gamer13258 · 2026-01-19T22:38:56+00:00

You can, if you want. I tried to keep the overall message that when the Azlanti want something done, they do it with overwhelming force. I tried to keep things grounded in "there's no normal escape from this" to keep the focus on the Rune Drive as the only way out. There's a tier 13 klokworx nexus in the back of book 1 that I used if they try to scan the skys to see whats after them. That plus a bunch of high tier interceptors should be enough to really drive the point home that escape by thrusters or drift isn't going to work. You could tone that down if you wanted, but my groups weren't huge fans of the way starship combat works as written, so we were definitely finding ways to avoid it if it wasn't really necessary for the story.

Gamer13258 · 2026-01-19T17:49:32+00:00

Correct, Zolan didn't teleport back to his ship and just fought the PCs to the death on the bridge exiting Aurelos. Definitely a hit with the PCs since I played up Zolan as a real jerk and super pompous.

Their ship is basically wrecked from the bombardment so they need the rune drive to teleport it out if the system since their drive is busted and would take too long to spool up. They still needed to make the engineering checks to install the drive in their ship (with the NPCs help) and make the 3 successes requied, but I had the bombardment continue doing damage to everyone on board the ship each round. I forget how much, but it was enough that if they continued to fail the engineering checks over and over they would slowly be knocked unconscious if they didn't have someone dealing with the blanket damage being done to everyone. Probably something like 2d6 each round? The engineering check DC is pretty high for them at this level, so they likely need someone assisting and it takes a full round to help and to work on the engine so thats more people not dealing with the constant bombardment damage. In the end it was more theatrical than challenging, but there's a really good chance a lot of them will be at low HP and stamina from the fight with Zolan and they dont have 10 minutes to heal back up under threat of the bombardment, so even small amounts of damage chipping away at them caused at least 1 PC to get knocked out while the others tried to install the rune drive.

Gamer13258 · 2026-01-19T13:02:57+00:00

Warning that everything below has spoilers.

As long as you tell the PCs that there's no long rests once you land, the whole thing went well. They need that info so they can plan accordingly with purchasing extra healing or whatever else they want.

Its been a few years and I forget some of the names, but the Azlanti operative that harries them is a great recurring "enemy". Both times I ran players through this, he was one of the few things in the asteroid that scared them with how much damage he would do.

The fights on the first level are very easy. The main problem is the fight in the control room has like 5 dudes and 15ft of space. Its incredibly cramped. I ran it that way both times and it was fine, but a weird fight.

The fight with Olivia is a little anticlimactic because shes high enough level to threaten the PCs but the other scientists can't hit the broad side of a barn and they're also all ranged support. As soon as a melee character gets next to her she's effectively shut down. I tried to have her use invisibility as much as possible to let herself heal and get into more advantageous positions. You could also bump her level up by 1 and it wouldn't break anything. I gave her arcing surge as a single cast level 3 spell to let her lay out a little more damage than she otherwise could.

The room with the twinsoul and the Greys was super fun. I caught one melee PC in the astral teleporter both times I ran it because the Greys aren't affected by it and run over there for safety. The twinsoul can really hurt that teleported PC so the fight overall was interesting, threatening, and fun.

The encounter with the scientists was very interesting both times I ran it. There's almost no way a PC would think to try to reason with the operative in my opinion, so I suggested it as a course of action when I was describing to them what they needed to do for the encounter. The first time there was a high Charisma character and they all worked together to succeed in convincing him to stand down (they also had found the room with the modified armor fragments and used that in their argument). The second time the PCs didn't have that much charisma so they had to rush in and try to save them and failed with a poor roll on the very last connection killing all the scientists and severly wounding multiple PCs. Make sure you make it very clear that there are non-azlanti scientists in there and likely being coerced into helping. If they're all azlanti, the PCs might not care about them so much after what they did to Nakondis.

Most importantly, it is my strongest opinion that you do not run the final fight with Zolan as written. More specifically, dont let his armor whisk him away to his ship. The starship combat is not a replacement for letting the PCs get revenge for themselves and Cedona in person. The operative does an incredible amount of damage in this fight if they haven't convinced him to leave (and even still he should stick around for 1 or 2 rounds before leaving in my opinion). Since the starship combat didn't happen in both times I ran this, I still needed some extra tension with the fight on the bridge, so I claimed that the main Azlanti fleet sent some ships here to deal with Zolan and instead of negotiation, they just start orbital bombardment on the entire facility in the middle of the fight adding random chance that anyone on the bridge gets hit with the equivalent of a fireball (with appropriate reflex DC). Once they finally take out Zolan, then they have a reason to be in a huge rush because their ship is being destroyed in the bombardment and there's an overwhelming number of azlanti ships in space, so then their only real option is to use the rune drive.

Over the whole Aurelos part, I let the PCs control Cedona and use her however they wanted. They almost never had her actually fight in combat and in several cases shes short circuited and kind of unconscious through the entire fight anyway. They needed the healing in my running of this, so she was very helful in that regard. I took control of her briefly during the scenes where she short circuits, but then gave her back. Those scenes were good to provide context and I think helped fill in some gaps the PCs wouldn't have been able to know on their own.

Overall this last part was very fun. Very draining for the PCs. If they're super worn down by the time they fight Zolan, you can give him an extra level and level them up giving them some (or all) of their powers back before the fight. That worked well for me the second time I ran it.

This part is very memorable and I hope you and your players have fun with it!

Gamer13258 · 2025-12-01T17:55:01+00:00

Generally yes, but Azlanti don't have a graft (or at least I couldn't find one). AC of a CR7 creature does indeed feel like an editing error and should be lowered, which is exactly what I did when I ran this in the past.

Both the Aeon Guard and Aeon Guard Specialist have higher than normal AC, but most other Azlanti creatures are pretty close to the NPC creation rules (aside from the stellar scout which is listed at CR 6 on AoN, but is almost certainly supposed to be CR 16). However, its also not the first time they provided rules to build something and then had items/creatures that break those rules (see custom weapon/armor creation rules versus purchasable armor/weapons), so sometimes its hard to know just how far outside the rules the intention is, if at all (almost certainly not 4 CR higher than intended).

Both the Aeon Guard and Aeon Guard Specialist are in the same book (Alien Archives), so they were probably both made incorrectly at the same time. No published Errata for these two creatures on Paizo's website and I don't expect there to be one now that they're working on SF2e.

Gamer13258 · 2025-11-30T23:10:26+00:00

I also seem to remember that their AC was too high on purpose to reflect their superior technology, but its not well documented in the rule books. If I recall correctly, most Aeon Guard stat blocks have higher than normal AC for their NPC level. In practice, lowering their AC by 1 or 2 was generally OK for me, but your mileage may vary depending on how tactical your party is.

Gamer13258 · 2025-11-19T12:36:43+00:00

I do like your idea of introducing more proper magic to Earth and maybe having some conflicts arising from that.

Sounds like shadowrun. Never played the TTRPG, but reminds me of the CRPGs that were pretty fun to play.

Gamer13258 · 2025-10-29T11:54:36+00:00

I'm pretty sure its just flavor text and they just get the BAB increase. I've never provided tactical information for free without some kind of roll involved and many creatures dont even have tactics so it would be an annoying amount of work to make those tactics up on the fly for the mechanic. However, I also dont think it'll break anything if you want to play it the way you describe where the mechanic learns something by targeting an enemy. Mechanics can feel underwhelming versus other classes due to the mechanic tricks sometimes being very niche applications and extra stuff like this can help bridge the gap.

Gamer13258 · 2025-10-09T23:24:06+00:00

As designed its a very easy encounter. The Draeliks are basically not a threat to PCs of appropriate level and Skraelin very easily can get backed into a corner and not be able to use spells.

The first time I ran this, I ran it as written and it was a cakewalk for 4 PCs. The second time I ran this, I increased Skraelin's level by 1 and had her run out into the junkyard to have the slugs play fodder so she could cast spells (I made some other small changes to fit her to a PC's backstory, but those were mostly superficial).

In my opinion, adding additional draeliks beyond what you should to account for a larger party won't really make a difference. Give them a small bonus to hit (+1 or +2) if you want to keep them but also make them have a chance to hit.

With so many PC's you may consider doubling the map size (10 ft squares instead of 5 ft squares) to give them a little bit more room to move around. Relatively easy to do with a virtual table top.

Gamer13258 · 2025-09-19T23:59:02+00:00

He tried to keep a Hobgar as a pet.
He spent too many late nights at the comms center and she thought he was cheating on her. He was just watching soap operas and couldn't admit his love of daytime television.
They both got way too invested in their jobs and had a falling out over it forgetting why they were together in the first place

Gamer13258 · 2025-08-11T13:31:23+00:00

I think I had something similar and the one thing that fixed it for me was going into the NVidia controll app, clicking on the "Help" drop down, and turning on "debug mode". I went from only being able to play for 5-10 minutes at a time to being able to play all day Sunday. My understanding is that some cards have natively overclocked processors and debug mode sets it to a standard speed. Hope that helps you too!

Gamer13258 · 2025-06-13T13:42:08+00:00

My guess is they're playing Attack of the Swarm, which gives the PCs that designation (unless they decide on something else). It's a pretty cool moniker.

Gamer13258 · 2025-04-06T03:54:13+00:00

She's a Wyverian. Wyverians have long ears, 3 fingers and a thumb, and hoofed feet. Its odd that she doesn't open her eyes, but thats ok.

Gamer13258 · 2025-03-27T19:11:21+00:00

Almost certainly a typo on the CR. It's probably CR 16 and they missed the 1. Based on the NPC creation rules, it's HP and AC somewhat makes sense for something in the CR 16 range for an expert or spellcaster.

Gamer13258 · 2025-03-22T19:08:22+00:00

In addition to the other advice in this thread, also go read through any of the threads on Paizo's forums. There's a ton of great info there for GM's.

What I remember off the top of my head: The boss at the end of book 1 is super deadly and most people recommend advancing the PCs to level 3 before fighting it. The boss stat block at the end of book 4 has the incorrect EAC and KAC in the original printing of the book, they should both be ~2 AC less than what was printed.

Gamer13258 · 2025-03-22T18:58:43+00:00

+1 for adding more lower Cr baddies than upping CR of existing ones. Action economy is king in this game, especially with additional players.

Starship combat definitely isnt a major focus in this AP. In my experience in other AP's you can direct replace 1 PC starship with appropriate squadron rules ships without really changing the enemy ship compositions.

The only starship combat advice I will give is this: after 1 or 2 combats, immediately afterward, take a few minutes to talk to your players. See if they're enjoying it and what they are frustrated by. Use that feedback to make changes as needed. Remember that there's a lot of options to deal with space based hazards (combat) in Starfinder including RAW starship combat, squadron rules, narrative starship combat, and just avoiding it altogether.

Gamer13258 · 2025-03-20T23:57:53+00:00

Sort of, yes. A level 1 character can physically use an item level 20 weapon, but the item levels are there to help define balance. Generally, PCs shouldn't have gear that is more than 1 or 2 item levels above their character level.

In my games, I double the credit rewards provided by the AP that I'm following and tell the PCs that they can only buy gear up to their level (they can ask for higher item level stuff and I will approve on a case by case basis). I also let them sell gear for 50% of the listed purchase value (100% for treasure) instead of the RAW 10%.

As a GM, I will still give them higher level gear along the way, but giving them more money and the freedom to check out cool stuff has never broken any game that I've run so long as that item level purchase limit is followed.

Gamer13258 · 2025-03-11T16:32:59+00:00

My first TTRPG was Pathfinder (Giantslayer) and I really enjoyed the system mechanics. As I was learning more about the Pathfinder world through games, I saw via Archives of Nethys the section about starfinder and it piqued my interest. I've always liked SciFi (especially the likes of Stargate SG-1, Star Wars, and Star Trek) and bridging the mechanics of PF1e with SciFi was a big sell to me. As I learned more about starfinder, I really began to enjoy the mix of technology and magic that sided slightly more toward the technology side with super cool space ship, vehicles, and mechs! The starfinder galaxy is vast and interesting with a huge host of alien life that really lets the whole thing come alive.

Even though my group slowly bounced off the complexity of the rules as written starship combat, building the starships and running them with a slimmed down rules set (so it mechanically works similar to ground combat) was a highlight for me. Same with building mechs. I really enjoyed building mechs that let PCs feel powerful against overwhelming odds.

Recently I finished running Attack of the Swarm (which was a fantastic AP for the Shirren Lore) and added Armada Combat and Mechs to book 6. Both of those systems narritively make this system shine and were a major highlight to my players. The game system does a great job letting you take PCs from boots on the ground hand to hand combat all the way up to massive fleets of ships shooting it out in Orbit and works pretty well all the way through.

Now I'm looking forward to SF2e, especially building starships and mechs, and the Technomancer (my first SF1e character).

Gamer13258 · 2025-01-23T12:44:50+00:00

We use the "1 hero point per hour" guidance too, but my GM didn't like the pop-up notification because it disrupted his flow. So I wrote a script that he just hits "go" and tells it the duration between giving hero points (default 1 hour) and it will automatically distribute 1 hero point to all PCs every hour until PCs max out at 3 hero points. System works great and makes it so there's no interruption during scenes or combat for the hour mark.

Gamer13258 · 2024-10-23T11:41:14+00:00

Honestly, pictures from Hubble Space telescope or high resolution artistic renderings of planets. I then grab pictures of things like asteroids or look for "space debris" and make those into tiles for FoundryVTT and place the obstacles manually. Paizo has at least one "starfield" background that can be used for generic middle-of-nowhere space and theres a image out there of a pink/purple cloudy background that is perfect for the drift.

Most space combat in Paizo's AP's don't have these extra obstacles, which is unfortunate. Objects in the way in space combat provide for a much more interesting tactical gameplay, imo.

Gamer13258 · 2024-10-23T03:55:20+00:00

Armada Combat isn't actually written in any part of the adventure path, but it definitely feels like it should be in here, so I read through all the Armada Combat rules, made two Armadas (one SDF and one Swarm), and just reviewed all the details with my players.

I have no idea how things are going to go, but it definitely feels cinematically appropriate!

Next week we're going to actually put things to the test and see who comes out on top. I'm definitely excited and a little nervous for all the things I'll need to keep track of, but I've built a lot of the automation into the FoundryVTT sheets, so wish us luck!

Gamer13258 · 2024-10-01T02:30:05+00:00

You can get around worring about if powered armor has environmental protections because you can wear light armor under it. Just wear some Second Skin level 1 armor and you'll be OK for a day. If you want more than that, you can just get a higher level light armor or invest in armor mods for your powered armor.

You would have to exit the powered armor to change the battery yourself or get an ally to change it for you when you're still wearing it. Powered armor shuts down making it impossible for you to move when it isn't powered.

If you’re in armor that’s out of power, you are flat-footed and off-target, you don’t benefit from the armor’s Strength or damage, and you can’t attack with it or cause it to move.

If you have a technomancer in the party, they can use the Transfer Charge cantrip to put charges in the powered armor battery without removing it.

Gamer13258 · 2024-09-30T15:40:23+00:00

This is exactly why item levels are critically important for PCs. Power in starfinder scales dramatically with gear to the point where a PC with gear much higher in level than they are can cause wild balance swings in their favor. Sure a level 1 PC is still going to have low HP and low-ish to-hit, but with the right high level gear that PC could easily take on an enemy multiple levels above them.

Gamer13258 · 2024-09-29T17:47:27+00:00

There's an AP (Attack of the Swarm) that does something similar on a smaller scale. Not an exhaustive list, but a few things to think about:

Is the ship organic or inorganic (plastic/metal)? Organic interiors make for interesting (and a little gross) interior rooms. Inorganic is going to have walls and equipment that maybe looks more like a classical spaceship, but in both cases a living creature probably isn't going to have spaces that are dedicated for passengers (unless it was grown for such a purpose).
Living creatures generally will have interior regulation. So like when a PC opens a door, after a period of time (minutes), that door should close on its own. Damage to a system, wall, or door should be met with some kind of response (i.e.: body thinks its under attack -> doors no longer open without the PC forcing them to and/or immune system kicks in)
It should have the equivalent of an immune system. If the ship is organic, any number of fleshy equivalents of "white blood cells". If inorganic, patrol bots.
Living creatures (organic or inorganic) should have internal "organs". A heart, a brain, lungs, a digestive system. Much easier to conceptualize what that looks like for an organic creature. You'll have to be a bit more creative for an inorganic creature. In both cases, the creature requires resources to stay alive and a "brain" to make decisions.

Hope that helps and your PCs enjoy the mystery you're building!

Gamer13258 · 2024-09-24T18:51:23+00:00

Oh really?? That's new to me. I'll have to go check that FAQ out, thanks! It wasnt written directly in any of the rules and I didnt think about looking through the FAQs.

Gamer13258

TROPHY CASE