Announcing the Starfinder Roleplaying Game!

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Ever since Pathfinder Adventure Path #3, when James Jacobs and Wes Schneider had to hold me back from putting a space elevator in Varisia, I've wanted to take Pathfinder to the stars. A year later, I had the honor of writing up Golarion's solar system in Pathfinder Adventure Path #14, and then expanding it further in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Worlds. But I'm not the only one around here in love with outer space and science fiction—I think all of us have at various times said, "Wouldn't it be fun to do a futuristic version of Pathfinder?" Yet aside from the occasional jaunt to other worlds in adventures like Pathfinder Adventure Path #70: The Frozen Stars, it's always been a dream just out of reach.

Until now.

Next August, Paizo will be releasing the Starfinder Roleplaying Game—a new science fantasy RPG based on the Pathfinder universe and rules, but complete and standalone. It'll be backward compatible, so you can still use all those Pathfinder RPG bestiaries, but will feature all sorts of new classes, races, equipment, and other elements uniquely suited to our far-future setting. You want to play a lashunta technomancer using magic to hack the defense grid, or an android assassin with a laser rifle, or a ysoki ratfolk mechanic clambering around the guts of a spaceship as you blast your way through the enemy blockade? This is the place for it. There will also be new races you've never seen before, new worlds beyond Golarion's system that we've never visited, new twists on magic and the rules system itself—and, of course, ton and tons of cool science fantasy gear, from starships and computers to infinitely sharp zero-edge swords and rune-augmented plasma cannons.

The Starfinder RPG Core Rulebook will be releasing at Gen Con 2017, but that's not all—we're also going to be starting a monthly Starfinder Adventure Path in addition to our ongoing Pathfinder Adventure Paths. The Starfinder AP volumes will include both adventures and cool new rules and setting information to help expand your Starfinder game. Plus monsters. Lots of monsters.

So how does all this science fantasy goodness fit into the Pathfinder setting? Simple: Starfinder is set in Golarion's solar system, but far in a possible future—one in which the gods have mysteriously spirited Golarion away to an unknown location, and refuse to answer questions about it. In its place, the cultures of that world have evolved and spread throughout the solar system, especially to a vast space platform called Absalom Station. Gifted access to a hyperspace dimension by an ascended AI deity, the residents of the system suddenly find themselves with the ability to travel faster than light, and the race is on to explore and colonize potentially millions of worlds. But there are horrors out there in the darkness...

As the Creative Director of Starfinder, I can't wait to show you everything we've been building. Joining me as key players on Team Starfinder are longtime Paizo developers Rob McCreary and Owen KC Stephens, as well as Creative Design Director Sarah Robinson on the art side, but all the designers, developers, art staff, and editors are working on different parts of the project—it's an all-hands-on-deck affair. And it's not just us, either—as Starfinder will be released under the OGL, we're looking forward to robust third-party support of the game.


While the size and scope of the new game make a full public playtest infeasible, we'll be starting to bring in key community members to check it out in the next few months, so keep an eye on the blog for your chance to participate! In the meantime, we wanted to give you a sneak preview of some preliminary concept sketches for Absalom Station, androids, and ysoki from artist Taylor Fischer (who you might know from games like XCOM and Civilization)—while these are only our initial explorations, and far from final, it's fun to see the process as things change and evolve. And it's never too early to chime in and chat with us in the new Starfinder forum!

We hope you're as excited about Starfinder as we are, and that you'll join us as we boldly go where Paizo's never gone before!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

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Tags: Starfinder Taylor Fischer
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4 people marked this as a favorite.

So...Starfinder Tales?

Scarab Sages

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Bullo Dagmawi wrote:

I'm having a little trouble processing this:

...

So, Golarion is whisked away? Check.
"In its place"- With Golarion not there, the cultures of Golarion have evolved and spread throughout the system? Check. Wait, what? If the world these cultures are on is removed from the solar system how do the cultures of that world evolve to spread throughout the solar system?
I can see the cultures of the other worlds of the solar system evolving in its absence, but how do the cultures of that world evolve to space flight without that world?

My guess would be that Golarion's civilizations developed space flight, they met the other cultures in their solar system, some people from Golarion emigrated to the rest of the system, and then Golarion disappeared.

It reminds me of Titan: A.E.. In that film, some of the surviving humans tried to preserve Earth's cultures in drifter colonies. Others assimilated into the wider galactic culture, with varying degrees of success.


I was always hoping you guys would take hold of Gamma World and make it right after TSR ruined it.

The Exchange

2 people marked this as a favorite.

While I love the idea of the Starfinder RPG and will most definitely be buying the Core Rulebook when it comes out, the letter said that this was an "all-hands-on-deck affair." Does this mean that the normal Pathfinder RPG is going to be falling by the wayside? If so, I can tell you that you ARE going to lose some people on that.

Not me. Never me. But I've been trying to run the Iron Gods AP for my players since it was published, with no success, and that's because of the technology aspect and the shouts of: "get your stupid laser pistol away from my spellbook!"


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Oh man, I can't wait! This is going to be so cool! And I absolutely love the concept art, it's really cool to see it taking a unique direction compared to Pathfinder. Great work!


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Yes. So much Yes.

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

Since it's a completely new game I hope it's separate from golarionand pathfinder in terms of fluff. Sure use similar races but take all the pathfinder fluff out, I like the idea of two, separate, fully supported games ftom a great game company. I also don't want competition between them, I'd be upset if, for example, we got 1 AP for each a year.

That said I wonder if we'll get some miniatures support for this line.


5 people marked this as a favorite.

As long as the front cover is a mahossive space attack cruiser gliding through the blasted remains of the elder gods I'll be happy!!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Color me interested. I mean, I'm going to have make an effort not call it "SpaceHack," but I'm looking forward to it. :)


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Sounds at least potentially pretty cool. I loved Distant Worlds, and I love science fantasy, so I'll definitely be interested in seeing how it shakes out.

Scarab Sages

Nightdrifter wrote:

I find this to be an odd business move considering:

*Lisa is the one who pointed out part of TSR's downfall was due to self-competition with different campaign settings

*Paizo's reluctance to reprint old APs as that would mean competing against current APs

I hope this doesn't come back to bite Paizo in the behind.

This was the first thing that popped in my mind as well.

We already see a couple of posts on the first page talking about having to budget their purchases with both campaigns. And another on page 2.

Just read Lisa's reply - we will have to wait and see, got a while to wait. No public playtest, does that slow down the process? The amount of time that went into mythic shows playtest doesn't always make a great ruleset (mythic stunk mighty heaping piles).


11 people marked this as a favorite.

In space, no one can hear you SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I welcome this!

It´s a very good chance to move forward with a lot of stuff and it has the potential to draw in a great number of people.
I do hope some of the rules get thouroughly revisited, but the technology guide gives me a positive mood there.
Please use the chance to go into a more unchained direction. A space theme needs streamlined rules.
I also hope there will be very good rules for ship to ship combat, something all party members are able to participate to avoid the situation where only 1-2 players see action and the rest has to wait it out.

What makes me a bit sceptical is "While the size and scope of the new game make a full public playtest infeasible, we'll be starting to bring in key community members to check it out in the next few months, so keep an eye on the blog for your chance to participate!"

Please choose those people carefully. I don´t think this is the place for being to conservative or a grognard. :D

Silver Crusade

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Golarion being wisked away reminds me of what Tiamat did to Krynn.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

As long as we don't run into whatever Dou Bral met out in the black..

Given the prevalence of undead in Pathfinder, I wonder how many established characters (and at least one evil iconic) will still be around, even this far into the future?

I also REALLY am anticipating some possible changes to domains (and the practices of the followers) of some of the Pathfinder deities. Within mortal lifetimes is one thing, but I can hardly expect gods to be completely idle for that long.

Let's hope the bindings on Rovagug's prison are still holding, or were refreshed at some point >_> There were a lot of "five minutes into the future" problems to be aware of in the setting.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Backlash3906 wrote:
Let's hope the bindings on Rovagug's prison are still holding, or were refreshed at some point >_> There were a lot of "five minutes into the future" problems to be aware of in the setting.

Maybe spiriting Golarion away was the solution to that problem? Or at least delaying the escape?

Scarab Sages

Sadly, my response is "meh". Mostly because I don't really game much anymore since leaving my old group in Philly and not having anyone to game with in Houston.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Unexpected. Exciting. Awesome even. It's gonna play Hell with my wallet.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Well I'm already running a space campaign using the technology guide and various third party materials so this and all third party material involved may as well already have been bought by me.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

5 people marked this as a favorite.

*dialing sequence initiated*

Did anyone else see the station and think of an Ancient Flying City.

Wait... Are the Star Frontiers races in the d20 future OGL?

Grand Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Hopefully it'll have some decent starship/spaceship combat rules.

Scarab Sages

3 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm very excited about this. I've hardly played any sci-fi RPGs on the tabletop, though I've always wanted to and have a number of systems and books. I just don't have the time or energy at this point in my life to explore and learn new systems. There just is only a limited amount of time I have to budget to RPGs. So to get a Pathfinder compatible sci-fi game is a boon, because it gets me an entirely different experience without the fixed costs of time and effort to learn something from scratch.

I'm really looking forward to hearing what will be in the pipeline for the first year. I know Liz and others have said up above in here that this will be self-contained (i.e. no independent Campaign Setting line, etc. because it will be tied directly into the AP volumes), but I'm curious how that will play into pawns, flipmaps, etc. as well. I.e. will there be pawn sets for this? Will they be standalone purchases, part of the Starfinder subscription, or part of the standard pawns subscription?

Also, I love the idea of a world with Golarion dropped out but with residue of the whole world of material that has been built up. I've got a vision of this Mos Eisley cantina vision of a universe packed full of aliens and other cultures that would put a lot of sci-fi universes to shame in terms of density.

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Subscriptions?


2 people marked this as a favorite.

1. OMG, SO EXCITED.

2. Will the new rules be useful for running a more "modern" style game as well?

3. The Absalom-built Androids appear much less human than Androffan ones.

Is this a design choice by their makers to dehumanize them or is to give them a more distinct identity?

Or does it just mean the tech used on Absalom station is more primitive than the Androffan one?


7 people marked this as a favorite.

I can't afford both Starfinder and Pathfinder. :-\


Flixerine wrote:

Yay, now we can purge the xenos in Pathfinder/Starfinder as well.

Also I hope space elves are a thing, yes? I need my space-elf waifus.

Androids are basically space-elves already.


10 people marked this as a favorite.

Elves are Space Elves in Pathfinder. :-)


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Bullo Dagmawi wrote:

I'm having a little trouble processing this:

***
Simple: Starfinder is set in Golarion's solar system, but far in a possible future—one in which the gods have mysteriously spirited Golarion away to an unknown location, and refuse to answer questions about it. In its place, the cultures of that world have evolved and spread throughout the solar system, especially to a vast space platform called Absalom Station.
***

So, Golarion is whisked away? Check.
"In its place"- With Golarion not there, the cultures of Golarion have evolved and spread throughout the system? Check. Wait, what? If the world these cultures are on is removed from the solar system how do the cultures of that world evolve to spread throughout the solar system?
I can see the cultures of the other worlds of the solar system evolving in its absence, but how do the cultures of that world evolve to space flight without that world?

I think the gods put the people of Golarion onto the space station when they took the planet away (Since we fleshy things can't survive in space) and with the tech on the station they started spreading to the other planets.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Aberzombie wrote:
Sadly, my response is "meh". Mostly because I don't really game much anymore since leaving my old group in Philly and not having anyone to game with in Houston.

Have you considered playing by post? It's an amazingly robust way to get your gaming in. I play plenty of AP and PFS online. I even play with my high school group from the mid 1990s. There are plenty of places to find great games on paizo.com

I'm super excited, but I have to be realistic about my bandwidth. I have so many questions. I'll be keeping a close eye on announcements.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

"Far in a possible future" The whole "building a space station and spreading through the solar system" might have happened before Golarion disappeared.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Mine all mine...don't touch wrote:
Subscriptions?

Probably not before September comes...otherwise they would be begging for "Hey, August is here and I still don't have my subscription item...rant...liars...rant...never buy anything here again...rant..." reactions ;-)


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Thank you Paizo!!

Tears of joy! These are tears of joy!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I am definitely interested in seeing where this goes...

Cautiously optimistic? Yes, that's what I think I'm going to go with.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Yeah, I went with cautiously optimistic. Then the shock wore off now I'm going with freak out in excitement!!!!

I may or may not (I'm not!) return to cautiously optimistic.


13 people marked this as a favorite.

I hope everyone packed a towel!


Sounds good. I don't like the concept art or fonts etc. I think having a less 3d modelled art style and more painterly style would be better...but interested in the product.


With the existence of Numeria and high tech stuff in Golarian already I knew it was just a matter of time before they did something like this.

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Wife is going to kill me but we all have to die sometime right?

Liberty's Edge

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Starfinder Superscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
Generic Villain wrote:
I wonder if they'll eventually add Starfinder Companion, Starfinder Campgaing Setting, and Starfinder Module lines.
Currently, the plan is that the Adventure Path line will provide all of the rules and campaign setting support alongside the adventures. Of course, if you all tell us you need more, that plan could be revised, but that's our starting point.

Honestly, this sounds good to me.

I'm #1 fanboy squee about STarfinder. I do feel a little overwhelmed by the rate of Pathfinder releases, however. (I also don't want to see the Paizo creative, writing, editorial, and production staff spread themselves too thin.) The idea of a Starfinder Core plus a monthly Starfinder release on the scale of the current Pathfinder release sounds awesome. (And it's still more support than almost any other science fiction game has received before -- and is definitely more support than any other fantasy-infused science fiction game I can think off off of the top of my head.)


2 people marked this as a favorite.

PEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEW!!!!!!!!!!!


2 people marked this as a favorite.

So this is super exciting (although it, like many people, is causing me to eye my wallet wearily).

But so so many questions:

1. I know there is a mention of a separate AP line for this, but what about a separate hardcover line? AP's have only so much room for new content, but a completely separate RPG line would break the devs, and honestly I just don't have the cash for two of those lines. But I wouldn't mind at all if we got one Starfinder hardcover a year in the RPG line. Generally I think the Pathfinder RPG is entering a phase where it really only needs a couple of RPG hardcovers a year. So how will just affect the other lines?

2. There is mention of this being a completely different game, but also that it will be OGL compatible and that normal Pathfinder monsters will be compatible. How easy will it be to use elements from one system in another. Will I be able to drop a SF class into a Pathfinder AP with only slight tweaks? Seems like the big things that would be needed to change would be the skill system and baseline assumptions of tech level (item availability and weapon familiarity), classes obviously, and maybe magic and alignment. I am way more excited about a book I can merge with my existing Pathfinder stuff than I am on something that I can only use in the new game.

3. How weird are races going to be? I mean sure, space elves and space orcs are thing to some extent, but moreso than with Pathfinder I want some really bizarro 0HD races. I really hope the game embraces the Mos Eisley effect

4. Will the core Starfinder book have a lot of CS material in it as well?

5. Will Arcane and divine magic be downplayed, and occult systems the norm?

6. Is Starfinder the big 2017 Gencon release...or is there another RPG line book as well???

So so so many questions.

The Exchange

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Very excited for this one. Please just take my money now.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Will there be a Starfinder Exploration Society.

Dark Archive

Rknop - right there with you. Anything more than i title a month and i am going to be forces to decide what line to cut and i really dont want to have to do that. Now the odd extra book of critters or such and im talking one maybe two a year would be okay but i dont want another three four books a month senario.

Silver Crusade

captain yesterday wrote:
I can't afford both Starfinder and Pathfinder. :-\

Same here ;_;

Dark Archive

Okay let me be the first.....minis?


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Excited! I need to make sure I receive a raise over the next year to account for the cost, though.


We'll see how it goes...
There's some strong competition out there for space as well, mind you!


5 people marked this as a favorite.

Piiiigs iiiiiin Spaaaaaaaace!

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