Hex Grid Heroes

Overtaken by Shadowy energies, a deceased Ama wrecks the cave in order to destroy the Light. Meanwhile Agent K-279 makes their way back to camp.

K-279 continues their infiltration towards the temple of light while Ace combs through 49% of a video. Mal has a conversation with the mysterious creatures in the dark before Captain Amalialee Snow takes charge of her own destiny.

Riddled with radiation sickness, Ama begins to show signs of exhaustion as the crew begin their search outward for clues. K-279 takes a sneaky jaunt into the wilderness alone. Music: Dark Side Of Mars by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Music: Endings by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Pattern Recognition - TabletopAudio Additional Music from SynaMax https://synamax.bandcamp.com/

The team band together to fight off a horde of Space Pirates.

Kelly reveals their hidden identity and the group splits up to gather materials needed to get them off this strange world. Mal gets some spooky answers that raise even more questions, such as who are the Ing? Whose temple do they want him to plunder? And just as Ace returns with a now radioactive Ama, figures in the dark shuffle forwards.

These strangers working together have stumbled upon a whole mess around this starship. After tussling with an Ing Warrior things get so tense in fact it seems one of them is beginning to crack around the edges. Or is their true self being revealed? Find out this week on Metroid BallZ! Also stay tuned to after the episode for a fun announcement. Music by Synamax, used with permission. Music also from TableTopAudio Music: They Come At Night by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Music: Big Boi Pants by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Music: Cheese Greater by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

The party gets hung up and around a tunnel. Kelly does some mischievous things while temporarily separated but Ace is starting to notice. Tunnel conquered, they waffle on what's more important: saving people, or staying together as a group. Music this week by TableTopAudio and SynaMax. Check them out for your games today!

Uncovering tampered bodies and equipping themselves with San-Torches, the disparate Aether travellers head deeper into this Base of Operations. And there's something not quite right about Kelly... Music provided by Synamax https://synamax.bandcamp.com/ and Kevin Macleod https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/search/

Four strangers converge on the planet of Aether, pool their abilities, and seek out together to obtain supplies from other downed vessels. Music by Synamax, used with permission. Music also from TableTopAudio, SFX from Zapsplat.com

This begins our Metroid-Inspired Starfinder Adventure ran by Shawn. The Galactic Federation has detected Space Pirate Activity in the Dasha System and are sending detachments to the area. Those familiar surmise that the outlaws only camp out on planets for one reason: Phazon. Our party makes separate, but equally not great landings on the planet of Aether, the last confirmed location of the Space Pirates. Will our heroes fall prey to the heavily biotech modified Space pirates, be hindered by the Galactic Federation's skirmishes, confounded by the Luminoth architecture and technology, or is there something darker on Aether? Music provided by Synamax https://synamax.bandcamp.com/

Tallie and Akim conclude their fight with the nuars and head back to the ship. All other pertinent business completed, the ENTIRE crew of the Bazaar Encounter meets up for gift-giving and some downtime to watch a holofilm called First Echo... Season 2 is officially complete! Had a lot of fun with the adventures we had this year and I'm already brainstorming what's to come in Season 3. But before the crew reconvenes, Shawn is going to be running the gang thru a Metroid-inspired Starfinder adventure. Included at the end is a brief introduction to that story.

Lemon and Keet ponder the mysteries of life and oysters before boarding the Bazaar Encounter while Brasha is crafting up a storm. Meanwhile Tallie and Akim square off against a pair of Nuar tough guys shooting up a bar. Stay tuned after the episode for a taste of what's to come in the next arc of our show!

Brasha faces off against the mysterious Mistress that sent Hobgoblin kidnappers in the New Year, Lemon meets with an old friend for some guidance, Keet has a hero's welcome and immediate tragedy befalls him, and we round things out with Akim and Tallie getting into a shootout at the Click-Clack Club.

The crew of the Bazaar Encounter is still split up handling their own things. Brasha gets into a fight, Tallie gets a gig, Akim gets a client, Lemon gets a ride, and Keet has a truly touching and emotional conversation at the Starfinder HQ. Seriously, the music for that scene was PERFECT.

This week the crew of the Bazaar Encounter breaks off and do their own things for a bit.  Lemon tends to some wounded in a deplorable gang violence altercation, Akim has a business meeting at the Click-Clack Club with Tallie serving as bodyguard, Keet heads to the Lorespire Complex to report his success saving the Starfinders,, and Captain Brasha goes up to the space docks to meet with Watanabe about their due payment.

Continuing the conversation even further around the #UnionizePaizo movement, this week I chat with Starfinder Developer and Mech Superfan #1 Jenny Jarzabski. We talk about her gaming experience, what she's playing now, and we dig into the UPW efforts. Note: this was recorded mere HOURS before it was announced the Paizo executives voluntarily recognized the union so I realize some of this is old news. BUT. Jenny is an amazing person to just talk to, definitely still tune in to this as well as keep an eye out for her return to Twitch streaming. 

This is going to be another special release in the middle of the week, continuing the conversation with folks that work at and around Paizo about the #PaizoAccountability and #UnionizePaizo movement going on. I discovered Brian thru his lengthy(but informative!) twitter threads providing valuable insight on everything going. So of course I snagged him up, and after we go into his history of gaming and his career path leading up to working for Paizo, we dig in on how things are looking for the heroes at our favorite ttrpg production company.

Finally a moment to catch their breath after battle, the heroes collect their loot and we discuss their new level 7 abilities before the constabulary shows up. 

This week I hangout with Emma, the GM for the homebrew Starfinder podcast Galaxy's Greatest. She's here to chat about her truly delightful show, and to tease a little of the Pathfinder 2e Twitch stream she and her podcast network are launching on October 11th. Gilesrien's Greatest is a high fantasy story following a party of adventurers and the first ever boy to be made a witch in this homebrew world. Hence the name for the game: Tales of the Witch Boy.  They will be streaming Monday, October 11th at 6:30pm PST over on Twitch. DO check them out, mostly because it's already such a rich world Emma has created. I know this for a fact as I've been invited to join as a player. https://www.twitch.tv/greatestguardiangaming

This conversation fills me with such happiness. I've long been a fan of the Dice Will Roll podcast, so to get to gush a while is a dream come true. On top of diving in on their podcast, Derry goes into detail about the #PaizoAccountability moment from their perspective helping to organize. Derry was also here to promote their PF2e/D&D5e module 'Safe Haven'. From the Kickstarter going live October 12th: "A Low-Magic, High-Weirdness Western adventure module for gunslinging heroes between Level 5 and 8..."

The battle in the sewers comes to a conclusion. More spells are slung, and healing-both physical and emotional, is needed.

The Osharu that stepped forward reveals themselves to be an Evolutionist, the current playtest class Paizo is doing. No time to collect their thoughts, the battle rages on with massive amounts of damage being dealt on both sides. Also....some of the party finally realizes the loot I've given them in the past is GOOD, actually. 

Akim investigates a door, and then the party separates to explore the immediate area. Loot is found, Naruto is discussed, and a fight breaks out with those fake Absalom Station Security guards from before...

This week I got to chat with Critically Accursed aka Chris, the Storyteller/GM of the PbtA actual play podcast 'Horizon'. We talk about his superhero adventure podcast, our shared disdain for Shadowrun's character creation, our work together in the 'We Roll Dice' Discord, his past pod work, Shawn's hair, and much more! Chris is a great guy, and you might be able to hear a little bit of nerves from me because I had such a thrill getting to swap stories with this fella. Check out Horizon wherever you download podcasts! Link to 'We Roll Dice' Discord server: https://discord.gg/dzmTFdyxjp

THIS WILL BE OUR 100th PODCAST RELEASE. We open up this episode with artwork for our newest party member, and then we dive RIGHT back into the fight with the people who are clearly NOT Absalom Station Security guards. 

Akim meets a fan, and the group descends into the bowels of Absalom Station where they run afoul of some shady characters. 

Tallie and Lemon meet an old friend who has information they need for their investigation, and Brasha makes a deal with a Vesk.  Joining the crew this week is Keet, the Brenneri Mechanic. Before the pod, Tallie and Lemon used to do off-the-record Starfinder Society scenarios with Keet that I GMed. What effect will this have on the group's energy? Find out!

This week I got to chat with Cameron from the Sinister Shenanigans in Space podcast about the new Starfinder playtest of the Evolutionist class. But before that he regales us with the rundown of his Starfinder homebrew podcast that I strongly encourage everyone to check out. It's got a great story and truly endearing characters. 

After receiving personal correspondences, the crew of the Bazaar Encounter arrive at Absalom Station. The terraforming team departs, as do some of their companion NPCs. The party then divides up a bit to tackle some personal business. First up: Lemon has a meeting w/ an authority figure from his past....

The crew of the Bazaar Encounter are headed back to Absalom Station after a job well done. Showers are taken, course laid in, and we get a little taste of what's awaiting some of the party members when they arrive.

Wounds and crits abound in this fight around the power core. After patching themselves up the crew gathers everything together and makes their way from this bizarre planet.

This week I sit down and chat with Adam and Jeff from the Emergency Power Podcast. They're a homebrew Starfinder pod that's truly captured my heart with what they're doing in their campaign. In this discussion we go over lessons learned in their early days, LARPing, and we dig into some of the subsystems like starship combat. Very fun chat.

Returning from their crossover, the crew of the Bazaar Encounter heads down to the power core to start wrapping up this extended job of theirs. However, first they have to deal with this room full of radioactively infused undead Aculeans!

Plucked from their respective universes, 10 beings come together upon a stellar sight: an Ancient Greek-style longboat floating amongst a gorgeous nebula. Their captor/benefactor Stelios is a strange man with strange desires: in exchange for fabulous prizes, he wants to match racing prowess against these adventuring parties he's been following the exploits of. Hilarity ensues. This episode was a massive undertaking, fraught with difficulties. The worst offender was actually me, my audio was a touch blown out. I did everything I could to clean it up, but on top of that juggling 11 audio tracks BEFORE music ended up being a bit more than I could handle. Lesson. Learned.  Still, my deepest thanks to those podcasters from 'Cosmopunk' and 'Sinister Shenanigans in Space' who joined us for some fun in the stars. I promise the next time I do something like this it will be much more streamlined. I hope you enjoy it!

Joining me this week is Pan from Cosmopunk, a UK-based Starfinder homebrew Actual Play. Their show is one of my absolute favorites, and Pan is just a delight to chat with. This Hangout sets up what will eventually turn into a 3 podcast crossover event, and that is the next episode that will be published. Super excited for that!

This week I'm joined by Paizo freelancer Alex Augunas to talk all about his work on Starfinder and his latest book now crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Starfarer Species Reforged takes the rather outdated 'race' concept currently used in Starfinder and opens it up to the much more accurate species, and there's mechanics to how one goes about creating and adapting your PCs to it. More info at the link below, but we really dig in on it here. Plus there's a PWYW option on DriveThruRPG in that link to get an example of how it looks. Really fascinating stuff, super thrilled to have gotten to chat and to back this book. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owenkcstephens/starfarer-species-reforged-a-starfinder-compatible-project/description. 

Part of the crew goes to see the Queen while Akim checks the progress of the excavation. They are nearly there, nearly finished. But what's that strange cloud?

Everyone sleeps and awake newly level 6. Akim and Tallie are still suspicious of the entire situation down here and it gets a little philosophical around interfering with a culture's development. Did I inadvertently make a Star Trek arc?!

Finishing their tasks for the day, Tallie, Akim, and Koof relax in a sauna made by Akim's portal magic and a liberal application of the Token spell by Fortinbras. Brasha and Lemon have trade thoughts on the current diplomatic situation.

Investigating the cavern of death with Tallie, Lemon sets about performing a cleansing ritual. Note: it took me a while to find adequate music for that scene, please let me know how you felt about it. Meanwhile, Brasha has completely torn apart the weather-altering machine and made a new little buddy. Akim came up and healed the broken components.

While Tallie fights a pair of sea serpents, Brasha begins to make some sense out of the alien weather machine in the Aculean Hiveship. Lemon is requested by Akim to help him deal with a cavern filled with psychic anguish made material in the form of a smoky crystal called void glass. 

The crew of the Bazaar Encounter set to work on tasks to get the Aculean colony back on its feet. While Brasha and Lemon observe the weather-altering machine in the hiveship, Tallie goes on an underwater patrol with Koof and some Aculean warriors. And Akim makes a startling discovery in the lower levels....

Awaking underground and having breakfast with some of the terraforming crew, our heroes are led to the Hive Mother's chambers and are shown what their true task is: help repair damaged equipment vital to hiding the Aculean people from the Swarm.

Hours of swimming later, the crew arrives at the home of the not-Formians. Introductions are made, and stories shared with Kodai, an elderly Shirren tending to a clutch of eggs.

I've been wanting to have a deep dive chat with Alison for a good while now. They've been a real champion for the Starfinder system and are probably even busier than I am.

The crew descends to the subterranean hive of the insectoid aliens that have recruited their assistance.

Discovering someone was left behind, the crew begins to put some pieces together around what happened to the terraforming team on Kizor-4.

This week I get to hang out with Federico Sohns of Araukana Media and we chat about his ttrpg system Nibiru. If you like the setting of Starfinder HALF as much as I do, you will find Nibiru to be very fun as well. 

This week I sit down with one of the players in my off-the-record playthrough of the Starfinder AP Fly Free or Die. Eclipse is an extremely talented vtuber that plays games and makes music on Twitch. Be sure to give her a follow! https://www.twitch.tv/darlingdemoneclipse

Landing at the site of the terraforming crew, there's not a soul in sight. This will be the 50th episode of Hex Grid Heroes. Thank you to everyone that's stuck with us this far, I am entirely beside myself with pride at how far we've come as a show I owe it all to the friends who've gone on this journey with me, and am going to redouble my efforts for the next 50.

With four days on their hands, the crew sets to do some crafting as they arrive at the Kizor system.