What sci-fi universe will Starfinder be most similar to?


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I know it's not going to be exactly like another sci-fi universe, but if you were to pick one that Starfinder's style has the most in common with, which would it be?

Star Trek?
Star Wars?
Farscape?
Firefly?
Starjammer?
Star Frontiers?
Traveller?
Dune?
Doctor Who?


With both tech and magic, i am going to vaguely correlate Dragonstar.


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

Cowboy Bebop meets Star Wars.

As a purely uneducated and speculative stab in the dark.


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[Lone voice screaming from back of the theatre]Mobile Suit Gundam! [/Lone voice screaming from back of the theatre


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I am going to guess Farscape and Star Wars (especially Stars Wars if you incorporate other media). Both have pretty overtly magical elements (more so Farscape I think) incorporated into a framework of laser guns and spaceships


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I think in every interview so far they have referenced Star Wars, the Gnome Stew one called it the middle ground they were going for with balancing science and technology. I would also suggest Babylon 5 as a contender for closest comparison, especially later seasons where we are introduced to powerful telepaths, technomages and, well, spoilers, immortal alien god beings that can bring back the dead (mostly).

Dark Archive

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I'd like to subtly throw out the idea of Lexx in the hopes it can be a potential influence.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I would think Farscape

Scarab Sages

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From what little I've read about it so far, I get a Shadowrun meets Star Wars sorta vibe.


How was Dragonstar not the first option on the list? :)


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I would be happy to see the magitech of Dragonstar mixed with the 'gravitas' of Star Wars mixed with the mystery & symbolism of Babylon 5.

At the end of the day Starfinder should stand on its own and have its own flavor, but the mark of good writing is making it hard for people to tell what you used for inspiration. :)

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

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Flash Gordon


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Matthew Shelton wrote:

I would be happy to see the magitech of Dragonstar mixed with the 'gravitas' of Star Wars mixed with the mystery & symbolism of Babylon 5.

At the end of the day Starfinder should stand on its own and have its own flavor, but the mark of good writing is making it hard for people to tell what you used for inspiration. :)

Well said, let's pilot star furies down the death star trench with our mind powers!


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When I first found out about this Starfinder thing, I looked at the concept and said "Pathfinder meets Babylon 5." Absalom Station kinda gives that away.

What will it likely be more like? It'll likely start along my initial thoughts, possibly focusing a bit on the mystery of why Golarion has been removed from its solar system and the other ramifications of such a thing. What gods, if any, are currently around and how they interact with the larger degree of technology.


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Whilst I think it may be Dragonstar like I will readily admit I was a fan of the setting so I am biased.

I will posit that certain elements of Babylon 5 might be applicable (they had a group that acted like and called themselves mages in that show who used 'super science' like magic).

I am just wondering if I can do a Thundarr the Barbarian style game with it?

Science and science fiction games have so many themes and tropes and milieus that they cannot all easily or reasonably fit into one setting.

Differing tech levels alone can make for vastly different worlds and backdrops. Like pre stellar flight capable tech compared to newly interstellar capable tech compared to interstellar capable minivans or mom and dad level tech, etc.

And we are adding magic on top of all that.

Probably be best to have a setting specific level of tech and, IMO, that would include a well defined listing for what magic and technology currently can and CANNOT do (that last possibly being the most important).

Then have alternate setting updates or timeline paths that can handle different era's and the tech/magic differences in those times.

Lord Fyre wrote:
Flash Gordon

What I would not give for a modern take on Flash Gordon with todays CGI.


Well, what fantasy universe is Pathfinder most similar to?


Giorgo wrote:
How was Dragonstar not the first option on the list? :)

Because I never played it and know nothing about it.


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Brew Bird wrote:
Well, what fantasy universe is Pathfinder most similar to?

I would say mostly Discworld, with influences from Nehwon, Call of Cthulhu, Hyboria, and Alice in Wonderland, and aspirations towards Middle Earth.


Lord Fyre wrote:
Flash Gordon

Good one!

Yeah, I forgot Babylon 5 too.


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darth_borehd wrote:
Brew Bird wrote:
Well, what fantasy universe is Pathfinder most similar to?

I would say mostly Discworld, with influences from Nehwon, Call of Cthulhu, Hyboria, and Alice in Wonderland, and aspirations towards Middle Earth.

One should not also forget Oerth and Faerun.


Shadowrun in space.


. . . IN SPACE!


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Cole Deschain wrote:

Cowboy Bebop Outlaw Star meets Star Wars.

As a purely uneducated and speculative stab in the dark.

Much as I love Cowboy Bebop, the OS setting and conceits are far more likely to be part of Starfinder. Though Starfinder (like PF before it) will likely be more serious than OS, and more grim than SW, it's going to be a very different sort of grimness than that of CB, and the technology and magic are already going to mesh better with the stuff found in OS and SW than CB.

So, in the end, I think (hope) Cole is right: also that it'll be like Farscape. ;D


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I'm quite enjoying Dark Matter, at the moment. That's the kind of game I'd like to be able to run, I think. (Granted the science is more prevalent and the fantasy is pretty mild).


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Giorgo wrote:
How was Dragonstar not the first option on the list? :)

Probably because of a severe lack of all-encompassing space empire ruled by dragons. The question after all is about the SETTING, not the mechanics.

From what I see, the answer is pretty much going to be none of them.... save possibly the Far Future version of The World of Two Moons of the Elfquest series, and only that by a fairly slim amount.


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Id love to see it be as fun and enjoyable as Star Frontiers was/is for me. My take on it is it will be it's own stand alone game universe and I think that is refreshing. Admitedly, the gaming community here where I live isn't too excited about the game. I think that will change once it hits stores and makes a splash.


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I'm saying full Dragonstar. Like as in: Pathfinder is to Dungeons & Dragons as Starfinder is to Dragonstar.

That said, media wise, I'd say it'd going to be pretty much Star Wars with magic, monsters and gods.


Grimcleaver wrote:

I'm saying full Dragonstar. Like as in: Pathfinder is to Dungeons & Dragons as Starfinder is to Dragonstar.

That said, media wise, I'd say it'd going to be pretty much Star Wars with magic, monsters and gods.

What made Dragonstar distinctive was not the mechanics, which were hoohum adaptations of D+D 3.0, but the setting of the Dragon Empire. I'm sure that Starfinder's setting will have none of that particular flavor. I am hoping that it will make good reading, and Paizo's given good reason to do so.


Pathfinder is to Dungeons & Dragons as Starfinder is to Dragonstar (which could both be aptly described as "hoohum adaptions of D&D 3.something" and was the big reason I ditched out around Second Darkness originally.)

Oerth is to Golarion as the Absalom Stationverse is to the Dragon Empire (which is where I start to get excited, because I really love the Dragonstar setting material and it seems to play to the Paizo idea that *everything* is part of the Pathfinder universe.)


I'm hoping for Valerian & Laureline


From James Jacobs in response to my crusty old post Holy Crud Golarion is in the Same Cosmology as Earth.

James Jacobs wrote:

To further freak folks out... we also assume the Material Plane is big enough not only for Golarion and Earth... but for pretty much ALL campaign settings. For all RPGs. And for all books and movies as well. The planet Vulcan's out there somewhere, as is Narnia and Middle Earth. In some cases, time AND space separates these lands from Golarion, but in some cases only space separates them.

And all of those worlds are contained in the Material Plane, which is a speck at the center of the elemental planes, which are combined to a speck in the center of the astral plane, which is a speck at the center of the Outer Planes.


Grimcleaver wrote:

From James Jacobs in response to my crusty old post Holy Crud Golarion is in the Same Cosmology as Earth.

James Jacobs wrote:

To further freak folks out... we also assume the Material Plane is big enough not only for Golarion and Earth... but for pretty much ALL campaign settings. For all RPGs. And for all books and movies as well. The planet Vulcan's out there somewhere, as is Narnia and Middle Earth. In some cases, time AND space separates these lands from Golarion, but in some cases only space separates them.

And all of those worlds are contained in the Material Plane, which is a speck at the center of the elemental planes, which are combined to a speck in the center of the astral plane, which is a speck at the center of the Outer Planes.

I've never liked that idea. For some things it works. Others have such differing cosmologies that it just doesn't make any sense.

Hell, some settings have different setups of "Prime Material Planes" or alternate realities or Shadows or whatever you want to call them. How do those fit together?

Sure. For a lot of things you can easily make it work, but I really don't like it as a general rule.


I had some issues with it too. And when I tried to work them out in that same post and try to flesh out what the developers were talking about, they got mad (or seemed to--internet's hard to tell) and started throwing a bunch of smoke around to muddy things. So I just threw my hands up and went back to settings that make sense.

But yeah, that's a thing. You have settings that totally don't work together. Especially with it being thousands of years in the future. So what Earth are we talking about? Starcraft and Star Trek have trouble if they co-exist in the same universe. The X-Files, Stargate, Deus Ex, Star*Drive and Gamma World all have Gray Aliens. So which is it?

It opens up a lot of questions that can be interesting or infuriating depending on how much you love or hate that kind of setting cross-pollination.

Marvel and Scooby Doo.

It can get weird.


Grimcleaver wrote:

I had some issues with it too. And when I tried to work them out in that same post and try to flesh out what the developers were talking about, they got mad (or seemed to--internet's hard to tell) and started throwing a bunch of smoke around to muddy things. So I just threw my hands up and went back to settings that make sense.

But yeah, that's a thing. You have settings that totally don't work together. Especially with it being thousands of years in the future. So what Earth are we talking about? Starcraft and Star Trek have trouble if they co-exist in the same universe. The X-Files, Stargate, Deus Ex, Star*Drive and Gamma World all have Gray Aliens. So which is it?

It opens up a lot of questions that can be interesting or infuriating depending on how much you love or hate that kind of setting cross-pollination.

Marvel and Scooby Doo.

It can get weird.

I don't know if the idea was ever meant to be taken as literally as some people take it. It's mostly the idea that if GM's want, they could easily drop in other settings as places on the material plane, because Pathfinder cosmology is such that the material plane can easily incorporate other worlds and settings.


I think more it was meant totally literally--I just don't think the folks who came up with the idea had thought out what that really meant for their setting when they said it or how weird it would make things.

I mean really it's one way or the other. Either all that stuff is out there or it isn't. You can't really soft shoe something like that.

You say "the planet Vulcan is out there somewhere" and "ALL campaign settings...for all RPGs...all books and movies too" and I think what you mean is pretty much that. Now whether that spirals off into crazy town or not...well it's pretty much going to spiral off into crazy town.


I always thought that there was a distinction between material plane and the physical universe(s) - in that the material plane contains many different universes which may or may not have any connection with one another. (Do they still use the denomination "Prime Material Plane" to distinguish it from other material planes?)

Vulcan existing on the material plane doesn't imply (as I think about it, anyhow) that you can drive a rocketship from Earth to Vulcan, nor even that the laws of physics on Vulcan are the same as the laws of physics on Earth.


Magic and tech?

Warhammer 40K?


All of them.

Just like Golarion has nations with vastly different "flavors" of fantasy, Starfinder will have different systems of planets with all of the "flavors" you want to play in - or ignore completely.


Grimcleaver wrote:

I think more it was meant totally literally--I just don't think the folks who came up with the idea had thought out what that really meant for their setting when they said it or how weird it would make things.

I mean really it's one way or the other. Either all that stuff is out there or it isn't. You can't really soft shoe something like that.

You say "the planet Vulcan is out there somewhere" and "ALL campaign settings...for all RPGs...all books and movies too" and I think what you mean is pretty much that. Now whether that spirals off into crazy town or not...well it's pretty much going to spiral off into crazy town.

I dunno. Infinite space is awfully huge and if they say that the Prime Material plane is infinitely large and has say regionally variable laws of physics it is easy to think that the galaxy that say Vulcan is in is far enough away and through enough 'aberrant subspace warp fields' that it could be in the same Prime as Golarion.

Near infinate distances can easily account for nearly any milieu. Star Trek had not mapped the known universe or even all of the Milky Way. That is why the wormhole near Bajor opening on another Galaxy was so huge.


Gilfalas wrote:
Grimcleaver wrote:

I think more it was meant totally literally--I just don't think the folks who came up with the idea had thought out what that really meant for their setting when they said it or how weird it would make things.

I mean really it's one way or the other. Either all that stuff is out there or it isn't. You can't really soft shoe something like that.

You say "the planet Vulcan is out there somewhere" and "ALL campaign settings...for all RPGs...all books and movies too" and I think what you mean is pretty much that. Now whether that spirals off into crazy town or not...well it's pretty much going to spiral off into crazy town.

I dunno. Infinite space is awfully huge and if they say that the Prime Material plane is infinitely large and has say regionally variable laws of physics it is easy to think that the galaxy that say Vulcan is in is far enough away and through enough 'aberrant subspace warp fields' that it could be in the same Prime as Golarion.

Near infinate distances can easily account for nearly any milieu. Star Trek had not mapped the known universe or even all of the Milky Way. That is why the wormhole near Bajor opening on another Galaxy was so huge.

The planet Vulcan, sure. But once you're talking "all books and movies", you're also talking an multiple different Milky Ways, with multiple Earths, since Star Trek Earth isn't the same as Marvel Earth which isn't the same as our real Earth. Possible in infinite space, I suppose, though our best understanding of physics suggests the real world doesn't have infinite space.

Even worse though when you get into fictional universes that have their own defined cosmology: How does Golarion's single infinite Prime Material Plane exist in the same setting with D&D built around infinite numbers of material planes? Or a setting like Amber - where the main characters can freely travel through Shadow?
You can force a lot of things in, but when you get to the point where you're telling the authors they're wrong about the nature of their own setting, it really stops working for me.
Both Narnia and Middle Earth, mentioned in JJ's post, fall into that category for more - though for different, more religious metaphysics reasons.


Yep, it's possible for a GM to drop Earth in Golarion Universe. Thing is: if Rasputin is a wizard related to baba yaga then he is not a Malkavian from World of Darkness, or a Mutant, great-grandfather of X-Men's Colossus.

Unless we are talking about different universes with different rules. Then Marvel is in Golarion Universe just as much as Golarion is in Marvel's


gustavo iglesias wrote:

Yep, it's possible for a GM to drop Earth in Golarion Universe. Thing is: if Rasputin is a wizard related to baba yaga then he is not a Malkavian from World of Darkness, or a Mutant, great-grandfather of X-Men's Colossus.

Unless we are talking about different universes with different rules. Then Marvel is in Golarion Universe just as much as Golarion is in Marvel's

Infinite space->Infinite slightly varying copies of Earth.

Of course, Marvel itself has alternate realities - in fact, they recently destroyed and then recreated all of them, which doesn't seem compatible with Golarion's cosmology.


Yes, but that would be compatible with other stories where reality is also modeled as a multiverse. You could say Golarion is in one of Marvel multiverses, or DC infinite Earths, or Stephen King's The Dark Tower. But it's incompatible with universes which are not built that way, unless we assume people in that universe are wrong, or the universe does not work as the author that created it said it did.

It's not like matter, though. 99% of the people would not use those multiverses and those who do, will care themselves about any compatibility.

Myself, I preffer to "steal" things, shamelessly. For example, I'm going to use a band of dudes pretty much like Mad Max: fury road warboys, shouting "Witness me!" and everything, in my Iron God campaign. No need to add Max himself, or Mad Max story, etc. Pretty much like Numeria take things from John Carter of Mars, without needing to use Mars, or Carter, or a princess.


gustavo iglesias wrote:

Yes, but that would be compatible with other stories where reality is also modeled as a multiverse. You could say Golarion is in one of Marvel multiverses, or DC infinite Earths, or Stephen King's The Dark Tower. But it's incompatible with universes which are not built that way, unless we assume people in that universe are wrong, or the universe does not work as the author that created it said it did.

It's not like matter, though. 99% of the people would not use those multiverses and those who do, will care themselves about any compatibility.

Myself, I preffer to "steal" things, shamelessly. For example, I'm going to use a band of dudes pretty much like Mad Max: fury road warboys, shouting "Witness me!" and everything, in my Iron God campaign. No need to add Max himself, or Mad Max story, etc. Pretty much like Numeria take things from John Carter of Mars, without needing to use Mars, or Carter, or a princess.

Yeah, I've got no problems with stealing material or doing specific crossovers as desired.

If you wanted to do a MCU/Golarion mashup or even a crossover where the PCs fly through space to Marvel Earth and brawl with the Avengers before teaming up, you could do it without any real problems.

It's just the assertion that all settings/books/movies/etc coexist happily just because of infinite physical space that bothers me. There are just far too many cases where that really doesn't work - not without just deciding the authors were wrong about their own creation, which really rubs me the wrong way.


Well, we can safely rule out Firefly. d20 just does not lend itself to being the underdogs...

I'll go with Mass Effect, I think. Paragons and virtues of hope while gaining occasionally morally dubious allies clashing against all consuming galactic evil while being frickin' awesome and failing every Perform (Dance) check you roll sounds suitably d20.


Star*Drive (Alternity setting) was excellent.


thejeff wrote:
Grimcleaver wrote:

From James Jacobs in response to my crusty old post Holy Crud Golarion is in the Same Cosmology as Earth.

James Jacobs wrote:

To further freak folks out... we also assume the Material Plane is big enough not only for Golarion and Earth... but for pretty much ALL campaign settings. For all RPGs. And for all books and movies as well. The planet Vulcan's out there somewhere, as is Narnia and Middle Earth. In some cases, time AND space separates these lands from Golarion, but in some cases only space separates them.

And all of those worlds are contained in the Material Plane, which is a speck at the center of the elemental planes, which are combined to a speck in the center of the astral plane, which is a speck at the center of the Outer Planes.

I've never liked that idea. For some things it works. Others have such differing cosmologies that it just doesn't make any sense.

Hell, some settings have different setups of "Prime Material Planes" or alternate realities or Shadows or whatever you want to call them. How do those fit together?

Sure. For a lot of things you can easily make it work, but I really don't like it as a general rule.

Keep in mind the following two things.

1. Cosmologies are really BIG THINGS. Now imagine the biggest thing you can. Nope, you're still not close enough. Now imagine the smallest thing you can and put it to the left to that big thing from before. That little thing on the left is that big thing you were thinking about earlier. In essence while everything you can possibly imagine may be in that cosmology, there's nothing that says that any two things are going to be close enough to ever notice each other. Golarion and Earth 1908 being an example.

2. James Jacobs likes to say things that make persnickety people's heads explode.

3. There was once a magazine called Omniverse organised around that central concept. It's first issue centered around the Flash and his Cosmic Threadmill.


Gilfalas wrote:
Grimcleaver wrote:

I think more it was meant totally literally--I just don't think the folks who came up with the idea had thought out what that really meant for their setting when they said it or how weird it would make things.

I mean really it's one way or the other. Either all that stuff is out there or it isn't. You can't really soft shoe something like that.

You say "the planet Vulcan is out there somewhere" and "ALL campaign settings...for all RPGs...all books and movies too" and I think what you mean is pretty much that. Now whether that spirals off into crazy town or not...well it's pretty much going to spiral off into crazy town.

I dunno. Infinite space is awfully huge and if they say that the Prime Material plane is infinitely large and has say regionally variable laws of physics it is easy to think that the galaxy that say Vulcan is in is far enough away and through enough 'aberrant subspace warp fields' that it could be in the same Prime as Golarion.

Near infinate distances can easily account for nearly any milieu. Star Trek had not mapped the known universe or even all of the Milky Way. That is why the wormhole near Bajor opening on another Galaxy was so huge.

Star Trek isn't very consistent with it's mapping. For instance if you remember the original Star Trek Tech Manual... the mapping of the Galaxy puts Earth as marking the border Grenwich style between the Alpha and the Beta Quadrants (which contain both the Klingons and the Romulans.) Star Trek Online follows it faithfully while encompassing in it's present campaigns, TOS 23rd century, it's post TNG 25th century present, and the "Kelvin Timeline" that the Abrams movies operate in. Making Vulcan both destroyed and still extant.


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Grimcleaver wrote:

I think more it was meant totally literally--I just don't think the folks who came up with the idea had thought out what that really meant for their setting when they said it or how weird it would make things.

I mean really it's one way or the other. Either all that stuff is out there or it isn't. You can't really soft shoe something like that.

You say "the planet Vulcan is out there somewhere" and "ALL campaign settings...for all RPGs...all books and movies too" and I think what you mean is pretty much that. Now whether that spirals off into crazy town or not...well it's pretty much going to spiral off into crazy town.

I believe the original quote derives from an "Ask James Jacob Questions" thread reply. It's not meant to be take as gospel and it's not a response that the whole development team sat down and talked about.

Do you like Star Wars and want a crossover with Golarion. Then all the Star Wars planets and such are out there. Do you prefer Star Trek? Okay the Federation is out there.

People are just way way overthinking this.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
MMCJawa wrote:

I believe the original quote derives from an "Ask James Jacob Questions" thread reply. It's not meant to be take as gospel and it's not a response that the whole development team sat down and talked about.

Do you like Star Wars and want a crossover with Golarion. Then all the Star Wars planets and such are out there. Do you prefer Star Trek? Okay the Federation is out there.

People are just way way overthinking this.

A lot of this falls under a rule that was occasionally invoked over on the AEG forums... "Don't be a <redacted>."

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