Dungeon Painter Studio

Often enough with Adventure Paths, your find a description for an area without the accompanying map. It's not intended to be a combat encounter. APs rarely, if ever, provide maps for encounters intended to be resolved through roleplay. As a GM, never underestimate the eagerness of PC's to shed blood. Dungeon Painter Studio is an essential tool for creating maps quickly with minimal effort.

I spent too much time looking for random maps like the above image, cutting/pasting with paint.
I spent a shorter amount of time creating the map featured below. Better still, I choose the grid size and instantly match it up wit my virtual tabletop grid with zero issues.

If you need the Bodega for Dead Suns, download it here Google Drive

You can purchase the software here Dungeon Painter Studio

Taking 20 goes over the software here Taking 20 Youtube

How to prolong your Dead Suns Adventure Path

Many people say the Adventure Path for Dead Suns is too short. Incident at Absalom Station has 31 pages of adventure content. When you compare that to the average 50 page of Pathfinder content, it may seem decidedly so. However, I see a lot of roleplay opportunity and information gathering, especially so for when the adventures visit a locale for entertainment and nourishment. With the right amount of pacing, there is a lot going on within those pages.

If you are still unconvinced, then I would highly suggest the inclusion of Starfinder Society content. There are quite a few pdf's ready to dive into. With the range of available tiers based on APL (average party level), you can most assuredly spread out additional content through the varying volumes of Dead Suns. I recommend this option and I will be adding this into my game.

Mass Effect- The Citadel had you exploring the dizzying levels and pathways of side tracking. If you will recall, Commander Shepard needed to go shopping. As the Captain of the Normandy, Shepard needed to add some things to his aquarium before he could save the galaxy. You never know, you may just pick up on a distress signal from a nearby star system.

The Starfinder Society features invaluable content, especially so with the beginning amount of content available for this new roleplaying system. With those pages, there are numerous starship encounters and planets to land upon. Extending your AP, your crew arrives at Dock 94 of Absalom Station, perhaps they recently apprehended a fugitive or brought back salvage from a crashed vessel. Further still, after the events of the first encounter within the AP, the party views a list of missions available to earn credits. The society pdf's are reasonably priced and are a resoundingly successful option for your game.

Message Manager for Maptool

For too long, one of my players would succeed on that knowledge or perception roll and garner that highly sought for information, relaying to the party. Yet that apprised individual did so as an echo.. every time. Everyone would hear what the GM said first and the player would either repeat it or say "Yeah, what he said".

That gm manipulation takes away from perhaps those quiet ones at the table or someone's moment to roleplay. I'm terrifying guilty of this. I strive to correct this.

I have the message manager setup now for book 1 so that I can send private messages when someone rolls culture, diplomacy, computer and intimidate. Even if multiple players roll, I can send each player there own level/tier of information gathered. Those apprised but selected few adventurer's can then confer with each other, as well as the group, on what they learned. There are multiple information unlocks at 10+,15+, 20+, and 30+. The lowest and highest gathers will each have there moment, rather than the GM encroaching on the player's moment to shine.

Don't worry GM, you'll sparkle too, just read that room's description out loud and that italic flavor text just under that creature's name.

Plo's Message Manager

I dragged the file onto the map. You will see an open book icon appear. Click on it and look at the selection tab/window. Hit the Yellow macro button that reads Msg.managr. You should see the messages pane appear. You can move it where you like. I dragged it over as a tab next to the chat window. Add your messages and when ready, send to those players connected on Maptool. Simple to use when you can click rather than type.

Maptool Spotlight on Starfinder

Maptool is a highly customizable and free virtual tabletop for roleplaying games. I was able to launch my online Pathfinder group because of it and have been playing weekly since 2012. Given that long of time and the numerous adventure paths that I have run (Curse of the Crimson Throne, Jade Regent, Iron Gods, and Hell's Rebels), I thought it was about time to hang up the well worn gm hat. Not so, a fan of mass effect, Starfinder has caught my eye and I'm hooked. Another exciting endeavor, I present my macro showcase for Incident at Absalom Station, Dead Suns- book 1.

A member of my rpg group built the framework for Spaceship Combat. By setting the facing of the starship token, flight paths along the grid are highlighted. The macros help keep track of things like shields, health, and piloting checks. I'm fortunate to have a great group of people who look forward to my game.

This is the beginning of my path into Starfinder, documenting the detailing highlights and building processes of weekly gaming. My hope is to create a small community/network of followers who use maptools, or those interested in using the virtual tabletop. I have all of the tokens and macro commands finished for book 1. I plan on running this soon and will add the other books into the program. Everything is looking great. The anticipation is mounting as I finish up Hell's Rebels, Breaking the Bones of Hell- book 6.