“By the way… what’s your name?” I ask my pink companion who isn’t actually there. Am I insane?
“Call me Patricia, if you like. I haven’t had anyone to talk to in ages.” Says the voice in my head. Maybe I am dying….
“Great. I’m Alex. Alex Abrams. Oh and… what’s my starting wealth?” I can guess, but….
“Whatever you can find here. We can’t shape things outside ourselves directly this way.” Wait…
“Directly?” I prompt.
“Right. If you shape yourself in a way that lets you do so, you can use that to make things… within the limits of the rules for it within your Mythos.” Ah.
“So I can, say, make a scroll of Magic Missile, but I’d need materials and the Scribe Scroll feat to do it.” I think I get it.
“Right,” Patricia confirms.
I get to it: The house rules of my gaming group are complicated. For character creation, though? It’s a high point buy on our stats, a “kitchen sink” style source list (anything that’s remotely compatible with the base system and isn’t bad homebrew is fair game), a feat every level, maximum hit points (double at first), and a handful of small bonuses (an extra feat, a few extra class skills, that kind of thing). And apparently we’re using Starfinder as the base this time, because otherwise outer space doesn’t make sense….
SpoilerSo yes, Freelancer, free archetype of Monsterkin, for my class. I'll have a lot of decisions to make on that later. For race… I'll go with Hume as always - it's human with the serial numbers filed off, and gets a few minor bonuses. On the point buy… I can use Freelancer to eventually negate the need for my base physical stats, so I set those as low as I'm allowed to maximize my mental stats, most notably Charisma (I'll be able to eventually hang just about everything off of that) and Intelligence (because of course I want to be a genius), with Wisdom taking the remainder… not that Wisdom in the game is really Wisdom as we think of it… more like awareness? Regardless: After Charisma and Intelligence, it's the most useful ability score for my build.
For feats… I'll take the major drawback of Low Fortitude: I plan to be immune to most things that require the save… and with the campaign background feat, the human bonus feat, the first level feat, and the drawback I have four feats to play with. There's really only one way to get Charisma to initiative, and going last sucks, so I'm absolutely grabbing Noble Scion(War) to get that now - especially as it's a first level only feat, so this is the only time I can take it. The other three… there's a lot I want out of Freelancer, so Extra JP for all of them: That will get me ninety points to play with on Freelancer. I also get Improved Unarmed Strike and Run as bonus feats from Light Body technique… we use that 3rd party rule because Gary likes a more Wuxia feel for his games. It means everyone knows how to throw a punch and has some baseline ability with athletics… which grows considerably with level… but mostly I'm going to just bypass all of that. The free ranks in Athletics will be handy here, though.
As for Freelancer itself… OK, so… I need to solve vacuum dangers, food and water, and space travel. And I can use Pathfinder creatures, CR 1 or lower at this level. The “From the Void” ability of the Necrophage Slasher, afflicted Peasant” gets me out of eating, sleeping, drinking, and general space exposure hazards. For space travel… ah, the Excuba from Starfinder gets Spaceflight(Mysticism), which permits basic stellar navigation, and Slip Drive, which lets me go interstellar. It's CR 2, but the Degenerate template reduces that to being in range. That's thirty points down, and will let me get to safety.
Well. To a planet somewhere. That may or may not be safe… I'll grab Constructed from the Arbiter Inevitable, again… CR 2, but the Degenerate template brings it into range. It's a host of immunities, plus a few extra hit points… makes me treated as an outsider and a construct, though, which can sometimes have drawbacks. In the same vein, Autotelic from the Trompe L'Oeil template (applied to a common bat for being in range) lets me ignore my Constitution score, hanging everything off of Charisma instead. Also… I really don’t want to die, so Rejuvenation from a Poltergeist (again, CR 2 but that's what the Degenerate template is for… at least in my case) means I can revive from death… in two to eight days.
Of course, I can't just soak. I also want to be able to hurt things that want to hurt me… spellcasting, from the Generic Spellcaster. It's great: I can make it Charisma based, and it gets spells from the biggest casting lists (Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric, and Druid). It's just Sorcerer-like casting, which means limited spells known, but I have a trick up my sleeve for fixing that at level two. This one costs twenty points, and will cost more later, but full casting is SO worth it.
And that leaves me with ten points… I always want immortality. Ageless, from the Sublime Creature template, gets me there… and, because it specifically says aging bonuses still accrue, I can make myself Venerable for a nice boost to my mental stats at no further cost. And because we're using a Starfinder base, I'll grab the Xenoseeker theme for a little more Charisma and an extra class skill.
I also, of course, pick out my skills and spells known, and grab some minor drawbacks from the Spheres of Power Oath system to get more feats… eventually. Forbidden Knowledge (Lesser Madness: Overkill) can be easily mitigated with a Will save (it’s just a save or waste an action making sure they're dead when I down an opponent in combat… and the save difficulty won't scale up, while my actual saves will), and the Oath of Honor(Tribal): Basically just gives me a few minor rules to follow, or I take some penalties… but it fixes itself each level, the rules aren't that hard, and there’s lots of things I can do to increase my “honor score” so minor infractions aren't an issue. The rest is just math: Calculating my actual saves, hit points, attack bonus, armor class, resolve points, skill checks, and so on. I also pick traits, but those are pretty minor, in general.
[collapse]I go through everything again to make sure I have all the little bonuses listed and added, double check to make sure I've gone over all the details… oh, stamina points… handy extra buffer there… then save my work and…
Ooh, my headache is gone. That feels so much better.
Now, nothing I've picked should have much of a visual impact, but I take the time to examine myself anyway… huh, my skin smoothed out a bit, and my stubble is gone… a benefit of higher Charisma, I guess?
So… “I got a little turned around with the attack. Which way is out?”
My pink auditory hallucination Patricia responds, “You’re facing the right way. Just walk forward.”
I do, and soon enough, I'm at a closed door. Stone, and covered in more of those carvings, that sre glowing very faintly blue, “Anything I need to worry about here?”
Patricia gives me a mental shrug, “Not really. It's a heavy door, but you'll… probably be able to manage it. It's a one way trip, but…”
“But there’s nothing here anyway,” I get it, “Hard vacuum on the other side? How's this thing staying closed?”
I get a chuckle, “Because there's not really an ‘other side’ - it's a one-way dimensional portal. When you step through, you'll be elsewhere, but there's no interacting through it.”
“Good to know. So, I just pull?” I reach out, find something I can grab onto, and heave. Nothing happens.
“It opens outward,” she manages not to laugh.
Of course. The other one did too, didn't it? I apply my shoulder and push… it opens easily, and I step through… into the interstellar void.
It's super quiet. Everywhere I look, I see stars. I try to speak, and hear nothing… and I feel fine.
Of course, I shouldn't need air to talk to someone inside my head, “Patricia, are you seeing this?”
“Yes. It's just space. If you think this is great, wait until you see the Drift. Or better yet… we probably ought to get somewhere civilized anyway. Why wait? Go ahead and try for Absalom Station now, if you would.”
Ah, right. I did grab drift travel. I focus… and I'm elsewhere. I'm greeted by a gargantuan, empty void of warping pink-and-purple light patterns and shifting matterless clouds of mysterious energy. I just… look at it for a while. I'm not really sure how long.
Patricia coughs, “We'll be in here for days traveling. May as well get started, no?”
She is right. Absalom Station is one of the quickest destinations due to how Drift travel works… and even that is between one and six days base. And as I have a drift rating of one half… ugh. Better to start now.
So I start my amazing journey, naked, through the void of the Drift…
“By the way… what’s your name?” I ask my pink companion who isn’t actually there. Am I insane?
“Call me Patricia, if you like. I haven’t had anyone to talk to in ages.” Says the voice in my head. Maybe I am dying….
“Great. I’m Alex. Alex Abrams. Oh and… what’s my starting wealth?” I can guess, but….
“Whatever you can find here. We can’t shape things outside ourselves directly this way.” Wait…
“Directly?” I prompt.
“Right. If you shape yourself in a way that lets you do so, you can use that to make things… within the limits of the rules for it within your Mythos.” Ah.
“So I can, say, make a scroll of Magic Missile, but I’d need materials and the Scribe Scroll feat to do it.” I think I get it.
“Right,” Patricia confirms.
I get to it: The house rules of my gaming group are complicated. For character creation, though? It’s a high point buy on our stats, a “kitchen sink” style source list (anything that’s remotely compatible with the base system and isn’t bad homebrew is fair game), a feat every level, maximum hit points (double at first), and a handful of small bonuses (an extra feat, a few extra class skills, that kind of thing). And apparently we’re using Starfinder as the base this time, because otherwise outer space doesn’t make sense….
SpoilerSo yes, Freelancer, free archetype of Monsterkin, for my class. I'll have a lot of decisions to make on that later. For race… I'll go with Hume as always - it's human with the serial numbers filed off, and gets a few minor bonuses. On the point buy… I can use Freelancer to eventually negate the need for my base physical stats, so I set those as low as I'm allowed to maximize my mental stats, most notably Charisma (I'll be able to eventually hang just about everything off of that) and Intelligence (because of course I want to be a genius), with Wisdom taking the remainder… not that Wisdom in the game is really Wisdom as we think of it… more like awareness? Regardless: After Charisma and Intelligence, it's the most useful ability score for my build.
For feats… I'll take the major drawback of Low Fortitude: I plan to be immune to most things that require the save… and with the campaign background feat, the human bonus feat, the first level feat, and the drawback I have four feats to play with. There's really only one way to get Charisma to initiative, and going last sucks, so I'm absolutely grabbing Noble Scion(War) to get that now - especially as it's a first level only feat, so this is the only time I can take it. The other three… there's a lot I want out of Freelancer, so Extra JP for all of them: That will get me ninety points to play with on Freelancer. I also get Improved Unarmed Strike and Run as bonus feats from Light Body technique… we use that 3rd party rule because Gary likes a more Wuxia feel for his games. It means everyone knows how to throw a punch and has some baseline ability with athletics… which grows considerably with level… but mostly I'm going to just bypass all of that. The free ranks in Athletics will be handy here, though.
As for Freelancer itself… OK, so… I need to solve vacuum dangers, food and water, and space travel. And I can use Pathfinder creatures, CR 1 or lower at this level. The “From the Void” ability of the Necrophage Slasher, afflicted Peasant” gets me out of eating, sleeping, drinking, and general space exposure hazards. For space travel… ah, the Excuba from Starfinder gets Spaceflight(Mysticism), which permits basic stellar navigation, and Slip Drive, which lets me go interstellar. It's CR 2, but the Degenerate template reduces that to being in range. That's thirty points down, and will let me get to safety.
Well. To a planet somewhere. That may or may not be safe… I'll grab Constructed from the Arbiter Inevitable, again… CR 2, but the Degenerate template brings it into range. It's a host of immunities, plus a few extra hit points… makes me treated as an outsider and a construct, though, which can sometimes have drawbacks. In the same vein, Autotelic from the Trompe L'Oeil template (applied to a common bat for being in range) lets me ignore my Constitution score, hanging everything off of Charisma instead. Also… I really don’t want to die, so Rejuvenation from a Poltergeist (again, CR 2 but that's what the Degenerate template is for… at least in my case) means I can revive from death… in two to eight days.
Of course, I can't just soak. I also want to be able to hurt things that want to hurt me… spellcasting, from the Generic Spellcaster. It's great: I can make it Charisma based, and it gets spells from the biggest casting lists (Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric, and Druid). It's just Sorcerer-like casting, which means limited spells known, but I have a trick up my sleeve for fixing that at level two. This one costs twenty points, and will cost more later, but full casting is SO worth it.
And that leaves me with ten points… I always want immortality. Ageless, from the Sublime Creature template, gets me there… and, because it specifically says aging bonuses still accrue, I can make myself Venerable for a nice boost to my mental stats at no further cost. And because we're using a Starfinder base, I'll grab the Xenoseeker theme for a little more Charisma and an extra class skill.
I also, of course, pick out my skills and spells known, and grab some minor drawbacks from the Spheres of Power Oath system to get more feats… eventually. Forbidden Knowledge (Lesser Madness: Overkill) can be easily mitigated with a Will save (it’s just a save or waste an action making sure they're dead when I down an opponent in combat… and the save difficulty won't scale up, while my actual saves will), and the Oath of Honor(Tribal): Basically just gives me a few minor rules to follow, or I take some penalties… but it fixes itself each level, the rules aren't that hard, and there’s lots of things I can do to increase my “honor score” so minor infractions aren't an issue. The rest is just math: Calculating my actual saves, hit points, attack bonus, armor class, resolve points, skill checks, and so on. I also pick traits, but those are pretty minor, in general.
[collapse]I go through everything again to make sure I have all the little bonuses listed and added, double check to make sure I've gone over all the details… oh, stamina points… handy extra buffer there… then save my work and…
Ooh, my headache is gone. That feels so much better.
Now, nothing I've picked should have much of a visual impact, but I take the time to examine myself anyway… huh, my skin smoothed out a bit, and my stubble is gone… a benefit of higher Charisma, I guess?
So… “I got a little turned around with the attack. Which way is out?”
My pink auditory hallucination Patricia responds, “You’re facing the right way. Just walk forward.”
I do, and soon enough, I'm at a closed door. Stone, and covered in more of those carvings, that sre glowing very faintly blue, “Anything I need to worry about here?”
Patricia gives me a mental shrug, “Not really. It's a heavy door, but you'll… probably be able to manage it. It's a one way trip, but…”
“But there’s nothing here anyway,” I get it, “Hard vacuum on the other side? How's this thing staying closed?”
I get a chuckle, “Because there's not really an ‘other side’ - it's a one-way dimensional portal. When you step through, you'll be elsewhere, but there's no interacting through it.”
“Good to know. So, I just pull?” I reach out, find something I can grab onto, and heave. Nothing happens.
“It opens outward,” she manages not to laugh.
Of course. The other one did too, didn't it? I apply my shoulder and push… it opens easily, and I step through… into the interstellar void.
It's super quiet. Everywhere I look, I see stars. I try to speak, and hear nothing… and I feel fine.
Of course, I shouldn't need air to talk to someone inside my head, “Patricia, are you seeing this?”
“Yes. It's just space. If you think this is great, wait until you see the Drift. Or better yet… we probably ought to get somewhere civilized anyway. Why wait? Go ahead and try for Absalom Station now, if you would.”
Ah, right. I did grab drift travel. I focus… and I'm elsewhere. I'm greeted by a gargantuan, empty void of warping pink-and-purple light patterns and shifting matterless clouds of mysterious energy. I just… look at it for a while. I'm not really sure how long.
Patricia coughs, “We'll be in here for days traveling. May as well get started, no?”
She is right. Absalom Station is one of the quickest destinations due to how Drift travel works… and even that is between one and six days base. And as I have a drift rating of one half… ugh. Better to start now.
So I start my amazing journey, naked, through the void of the Drift…
