Announcing the Starfinder Roleplaying Game!

so now i know what to do with that (maure) robe of transmutation and its prime transformation ability.
Get starflight.. :p (and the head hits a crystal sphere.. hahah!)

1. If it's because you have bad memories of the play by post of the 70s and 80s, fear not. It isn't nearly the same level of waiting and frustration.

Never experienced that. I'm old, but wasn't into gaming at the time.

2. If it's because it's too techy, I'd posit that it's an EXCELLENT way to play an older style of game due to the pace with which you can form in character posts etc.

Hardly. While I'm no computer expert, a play by post wouldn't be difficult. I just mostly prefer face-to-face gaming. For me, it's always been as much about the personal interaction as the game itself, and you just don't really get that through computer.

Unless you do something like Skype, which I considered with my old Philly group. But then you'd be even more captive to the whims and whimsy of your internet connection.

As mentioned above, you can look around for a group that suits your style. The forum is full of every style of play you could ask for.

I'd thought about that, but I doubt I'd find enough people from this website I'd get along with well enough. That's already part of the reason I don't game these days. I had a group, but some of the people in it were unlikable douchebags. I have little enough time to game as it is. I'd prefer to do it with people I actually like.

quibblemuch wrote:

Welp, I don't know about the rest of you, but I am cryofreezing myself till next August so I don't have to endure months of bouncing anticipation.

I will spend my time assimilating the masses.

Resistance is futile.

Assimilate all you want, I will of course be taking a forced conversion route via space warping and corruption.

In the spirit of that...BLOOD FOR THE LISA, SKULLS FOR THE LISA THRONE!

So... Which group screwed up which Adventure Path so badly the gods had to whisk Golarion away? Or did I miss Pathfinder Apocalypses?

I am excited for this. May the Force, or what ever we will be calling magic, be with us.

Never have I been so glad to see that it was not April 1st.

When can I pre-order?

This is everything I could have ever hoped for and more!

MMCJawa wrote:

Nightterror wrote:

The beginning of the end. Next big bestiary will feature only monsters for this. Bye myth monsters you were great and will be missed.

You should be happy. Monsters sound like they will be compatible between both editions, so there is a much greater likelihood of a bestiary 6 next fall, which would include a lot of starfinder appropriate critters but would probably also include regular monsters.

Way to kick Sincubus in the shins with the news of no Bestiary 6 this year, MMCJawa! You brute! :-P

Uhm I didnt eben expect a bestiary this year. It has always been around two years.

And the entire bestiary six full of star based monsters, then I rather see no bestiary six at all.

So... Which group screwed up which Adventure Path so badly the gods had to whisk Golarion away? Or did I miss Pathfinder Apocalypses?

If I were to make a guess, I'd say it had something to do with Rovagug and his Cage. Maybe someone found a way to open it without the key, and the gods were just like "Nope, not risking it, everybody off".

So... Which group screwed up which Adventure Path so badly the gods had to whisk Golarion away? Or did I miss Pathfinder Apocalypses?

I am excited for this. May the Force, or what ever we will be calling magic, be with us.

Depending on how many thousands of years into the future this is, Rovagug could have nearly broken free with the help of the Dominion of the Black and the gods had to take his prison elsewhere. :P

I'd really love to be able to playtest this. This seems to be exactly the ruleset I'd need to finally put into existence my long-hedged plan of setting Green Ronin's Freeport Trilogy on a space station.

captain yesterday wrote:

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

Same here ;_;

I hope paizo is paying attention - this type of comment is being posted often now in this thread by those that are typically AP subscribers.

Eh, a lot can change in a year. This time last year I couldn't even afford to subscribe to adventure path. :-)

Rysky wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

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

Same here ;_;

I hope paizo is paying attention - this type of comment is being posted often now in this thread by those that are typically AP subscribers.

That's not a business reason not to do it though. It is a separate subscription, so it won't increase your current expenditure. I feel the pain though. I'll have to balance my hobby budget and decide what I can afford.

Well, I don't think it is actually Paizo's calculation that everybody who subscribes to Pathfinder AP will automatically also subscribe to Starfinder APs.

However, they do not want to change anything about the Pathfinder RPG for Starfinder, and reducing the number of Pathfinder APs would be a bad idea commercially, so I'm sure that is not on the table.

It is possible, however, that maybe Starfinder APs will be released more slowly, i.e. maybe one a year only. Paizo will probably have to test the waters to see how this will play out.

Hmm, the signs are fortuitous. Just last week I quit smoking and am now roughly £10 a day better off than before.

Methinks a subscription is in order.

...

What do you mean August next year?

Also, who do I petition to make the official Starfinder Team of Designers acronym STD?

Well, I don't think it is actually Paizo's calculation that everybody who subscribes to Pathfinder AP will automatically also subscribe to Starfinder APs.

I would bet that the goal is to expand the Paizo audience. Traditional fantasy isn't going away as an RPG staple, but there are still lots of people out there who might love Paizo's commitment to quality but who have been waiting for it to be applied to something other than D&D-style fantasy.

I am another one that loved Spelljammer and Dragonstar. I kind of consider the one the evolved form of the other. As soon as I can pre-order this in print and pdf I will. Although this said if it ever comes down to Pathfinder and Starfinder I'm sorry but Starfinder will win for me as I am a big space opera.

I'm going to plant myself in the "dubious" category for now, at least until there's more information or a better look at what this is going to be.

However, I think if anyone can pull this of and make it successful, it will be Paizo.

-Skeld

What do you mean August next year?

I don't know if I'll even LIVE that long!

EVERY ADVENTURE PATH IS IRON GODS NOW

Kohl McClash wrote:

Rysky wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

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

Same here ;_;

I hope paizo is paying attention - this type of comment is being posted often now in this thread by those that are typically AP subscribers.

That's not a business reason not to do it though. It is a separate subscription, so it won't increase your current expenditure. I feel the pain though. I'll have to balance my hobby budget and decide what I can afford.

No, but it's a suggestion that to some extent it'll split the fanbase. Some will stick with the current and not subscribe to the new. Others will drop the old and go to the stars. Some will have the interest and resources to do both.

The real question is how many of those there will be and how many new fans it will bring in.

I know what Lisa said, but I'm worried this will cause a slip in original PF quality, much like the ACG when the team was distracted with PF Online. That ended up a debacle IMHO. Hopefully they have learned from that and will be fine. I'm definitely worried, though.

I like the look of this. It'll provide the sci-fi / sword-and-planet stuff I've wanted to see in Golarion's system while keeping the other lines open for filling in Golarion itself. I'm quite pleased that it's staying compatible with PF too.

PF Online failed for completely different reasons and there were actually enough loud people around to cheer that up.
Sadly the majority of people, who tends to be rather casual most likely, and investors thought different. Current trends in online games proof them. The MMO PVP just wasn´t the right thing there it seems.

Totally different topic though and has literally nothing to do with Starfinder! I´m not worried about those aspects at all.
Indeed i have been telling some people who were stating that PF is coming to an end because they made everything and too much, that they were wrong and Paizo would surely come up with something completely new and surprising. Et voila: Served!

I am curious however how the final product will look like and how Paizo will juggle the many, many different interests.
People are already crying for very different directions and someone will be disapointed most probably. Except they make it so flexible everything goes, what would be pretty cool. But then the more restrictive, traditionalist, conservative people will be butthurt^^
Those got served a lot lately though.

Oh and perhaps, but only perhaps this could also be Pathfinder 2.0, backwards compatible in a way that you can use those rules for normal Pathfinder as well and have a fun game there.

* Is it time for PDF ONLY SUBSCRIPTIONS Yet?

might help reduce prices and costs, and maybe boost sales in the process.

Nightterror wrote:

The beginning of the end. Next big bestiary will feature only monsters for this. Bye myth monsters you were great and will be missed.

Lisa Stevens has specifically said this is not going to be the case. She made sure the game we know will not suffer.

I have no doubt this will be true if Starfinder underperformed or tanks. But if it succeeds at some point the marginal value of time and product investments will shift and these initial plans will be abandoned for wherever the future market is.

Never have I been so glad to see that it was not April 1st.

Literally first thing I checked.

* Is it time for PDF ONLY SUBSCRIPTIONS Yet?

might help reduce prices and costs, and maybe boost sales in the process.

PDFs subs wouldn't reduce prices and costs much (printing is cheap, what is expensive are things that you need to do anyway - art, art, art, words, layout, more art). And it would piss LGS's off even more so than they already are angry at Paizo for providing any PDFs in the first place. So if you put out a PDF subscription scheme with a discount, whatever you will gain in people subscribing won't offset the angry LGS owners who take your product off the shelf and stop hosting PFS events.

And the entire bestiary six full of star based monsters, then I rather see no bestiary six at all.

Isn't it less likely for their to be sci-fi monsters in the Bestiaries from now on, since now they can have all the mythic monsters in Bestiaries and all the sci-fi monsters in the "Menageries" (or whatever they call them)?

PDFs are also actually cheaper. I don't have a subscription to anything other than player companions because Paizo does charge more for physical copies, plus shipping costs, and I don't really care enough to pay extra for them.

Nutcase Entertainment wrote:

* Is it time for PDF ONLY SUBSCRIPTIONS Yet?

might help reduce prices and costs, and maybe boost sales in the process.

PDFs subs wouldn't reduce prices and costs much (printing is cheap, what is expensive are things that you need to do anyway - art, art, art, words, layout, more art). And it would piss LGS's off even more so than they already are angry at Paizo for providing any PDFs in the first place. So if you put out a PDF subscription scheme with a discount, whatever you will gain in people subscribing won't offset the angry LGS owners who take your product off the shelf and stop hosting PFS events.

Just an aside ... Printing ain't cheap, believe me. You're right that art, words, editing, development and layout cost a lot (especially when done at a professional level) but printing is also a huge expense.

I can keep my "SkyFinder" ideas in the freezer.

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.

TSR's problem ended being "too much self-competition".

Competition brings creativity, self competition means they get the money anyway instead of some third party or rivals.

Also, this isn't exactly a new campaign setting. It's a possible future setting set in the same solar system & universe. Between magic and technology, I'm calling it now - an AP that takes you from "present day" Pathfinder into Starfinder. Of course, with time travel shenanigans, the reverse could also happen.

Also, they aren't competing for identical genres - which is where TSR went wrong.

Let ourselves bring the PDF discussion elsewhere to avoid derailling this thread.

Will we be getting periodic teases of what to look forwards to in the form of lore, rule, and art excerpts?

If ratfolk get to be a core race in this, I will be a very happy camper.

I'd personally rather call it "Pathfuture", though I'm optimistically excited about this and glad to hear that there will still be heroes in the future.

Cthulhudrew wrote:

"Gifted access to a hyperspace dimension by an ascended AI deity..."

Sounds like someone we might already be familiar with.

What do you think, Unity or Cassandalee?

It would have to be Cassandalee, Unity lost most of his divinity at the end of Iron Gods. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the once-oracle becomes the gateway to the stars.

I'm going to plant myself in the "dubious" category for now, at least until there's more information or a better look at what this is going to be.

However, I think if anyone can pull this of and make it successful, it will be Paizo.

-Skeld

I was also dubious it will be my cup of tea. However, I agree with you that if anyone can, Paizo can. I'd gladly put money down right now that this will be a success.

I spoke to a number of the staff after the banquet and it was pretty clear that:

1. They all stress about accidentally breaching NDAs.
2. The entire company is super excited about it.

When you have a talented, well resourced team of people (with an enviable and impressive track record) putting their energy into something it's hard to imagine it's going to be anything less than awesome. Each time I spoke to a staff member I got more and more enthused and less and less dubious.

James Sutter seemed to me to be just bursting with energy and enthusiasm for this project. His buzz on it's own would be enough to convince me it's going to be great!

If ratfolk get to be a core race in this, I will be a very happy camper.

They are.

My body is ready!

Hey everybody!

Between my packed panel schedule here at Paizocon and only being able to access the internet on my phone, my posting ability is super limited until Tuesday, but I'm reading all of these comments! I'm really excited to see so many people enthusiastic about Starfinder. It's a crazy-awesome project, and I'm totally thrilled to be leading it, so I look forward to taking about it with you more once I've got access to a keyboard again. :)

James,

In order to play a Pathfinderized version of D&D 3.0 Dragonstar I needed to combine the rules of Pathfinder, d20 Modern, d20 Future and Future tech in a hybrid system to play the game I wanted.

1- Will I be able to use Starfinder to run a future (Starfinder/Pathfinder) Dragonstar game with a more streamline and integrated rules system, replacing all the books above?

2- Have you considered making a Starfinder Introductory Box Set, Pawns, Minis, Xenobiology Book (Bestiary), maps, Hero Labs/Realmswork market place and similar non AP supplements so that, in success, it's a full fledge product line? I am very concerned that Starfinder is just a 1 core rulebook released and then quickly abandoned.

I really look forward to to reading more on this new game, for years I have been reading on these forums and blogs a variation of "Paizo has no interest in a Sci-Fi game product line", and this change in direction came as an unexpected surprise. I am interested in reading your thoughts of what changed Paizos stance from "never going to happen" to "releasing next year". ;)

If ratfolk get to be a core race in this, I will be a very happy camper.

They do. :)

Woo! This is great news I specifically bought into Iron Gods, Tech Guide, Numeria and People of the Stars to show some sci-fi love with my wallet. Hopefully this from myself and many others is what influenced this dedicated space line of material. In any case I'm excited to see what the future brings!

Thanks James Sutter and the rest of the Paizo gang!

Do I get a map?

This could be interesting. One of my favorite short games of Pathfinder took place on Triaxus. Hopefully there'll be some officially statted versions of the other races on that planet? The sky-whales, sky-priests, and other sky-whatsits?

All of the art you're seeing is concept art. It's meant to provide a palette of impressions for future refinement. It's not representative of what you'll see in the finished product, but it does convey a possible sense of the design style we're contemplating. The logo is also temporary, and is likely to change, quite possibly in its entirety.

Thank god, that logo is hideous. I was afraid I was actually going to have to look at that thing. =)

I'd thought about that, but I doubt I'd find enough people from this website I'd get along with well enough. That's already part of the reason I don't game these days. I had a group, but some of the people in it were unlikable douchebags. I have little enough time to game as it is. I'd prefer to do it with people I actually like.

I have several groups of likable douchebags I could refer you to.

Do I get a map?

Pretty sure poor, dumb Harry would just eat it even if we gave you one.

I think it will do well. The strong fantasy elements reminds me of Shadowrun which has done quite well. I think what will set it apart is the adventure paths. This is level of support many Scfi games do not. Also if I am not mistaken Star Wars from Fantasy is number 3 in sales for Rpgs. So the market is there.

David V

Do I need to be familiar with the Pathfinder rules to play this? Does this have its' own campaign setting? If not, do I need to get products so I'm familiar with the setting? I'm REALLY excited about this, as I am a HUGE Paizo fan, but I'm not sure if it's like Star Trek fantasy, or Star Wars fantasy, or something else. If someone could get back to me, that would be great.

Do I need to be familiar with the Pathfinder rules to play this? Does this have its' own campaign setting? If not, do I need to get products so I'm familiar with the setting? I'm REALLY excited about this, as I am a HUGE Paizo fan, but I'm not sure if it's like Star Trek fantasy, or Star Wars fantasy, or something else. If someone could get back to me, that would be great.

Presumably since they're billing it as its own system you can play without knowing the Pathfinder rules, but, uh... if you're not familiar with Pathfinder rules then how are you a Paizo fan?