Speculation about the Starfinder Society's Role

[thecursor]

Okay, so I REALLY want organized Starfinder play but I'm not going to speculate about it anymore because that's just gonna drive me to distraction, instead I want to speculate about the role of the "Starfinders" (I don't think we know what the actual name will be in the setting) and their place in society.

In PFS we get a rather interesting view of the Aspis and the Pathfinders in regards to their actual legal authority. Pathfinders in the current setting are basically a non-profit NGO that travels the world looking for just about anything that strikes their interest. At times its a little frustrating because the Pathfinders don't actually have a solid goal. They merely have a mission that all agents roughly pursue. The Aspis, are sort of in the same boat but their goals are different. In the setting, the Consortium is essentially a corporation that wants to make money and gain power. Nobody has any formal authority.

But is it possible that with the sudden appearance of an overarching goal (the Gap) that might unite various worlds, is it possible that we might see a player organization that has actual agency behind it? Like the Starfinders work directly for the Pact worlds and the Aspis (whatever they will be) have a similar arrangement.

Basically, do you think that instead of Murder Hobos, we might see Murder Police?

[Tom Kalbfus]

In Traveller RPG, they are called Scouts, there is an Imperial Scout Service which does exploration, the term "Starfinder" would seem to be self-explainatory, they find stars, or more specifically they explore star systems.

[Torbyne]

I suspect the Starfinder Society will still be NGO-esque, they may have popular support, especially with academic institutions and corporate backers with an interest in the new worlds and alien technologies that the Starfinders come across and the society in turn leverages those connections for access to higher learning, archives and experimental or military grade tech to further their goals. Actively pursuing knowledge and making discoveries coupled with those connections will make the society a powerful polity in the Pact Worlds... They might outright be the governing polity of Absalom Station even. There will probably be different branches for "Admin" and "Ops" and the PCs inevitably end up working in or for Ops which doesnt have authority within the Pact Worlds but is equal to Admin which does control some areas and has clout of its own.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

Due to the nature of Pahtfinder players, I really can't imagine SFS being any different than PFS save with lasers and chainswords... but mostly lasers.

There actually is some precedent in novel fiction... The Gateway Series of books. Now THAT would have been a great idea to steal, I mean borrow for an indefinite period of time. You could have vanished Elves taking the place of the Heechee, giving us a plausible reason to completely remove them from the setting.

[Garrett Guillotte]

If there's organized Starfinder Society play, I hope Paizo makes it completely distinct from PFS in structure and type as well as the theme and underlying system.

For instance, in PFS agents bounce between lodges almost arbitrarily; V-Cs are pretty stable but the PCs might be in Absalom one scenario and Tian Xia the next. Whatever relationships they might have are transient by nature.

blah blah it's star trek ok:

SFS could take advantage of the setting's nature (and the fiction that inspires it) and crew Starfinders on ships, with arcs that develop the same NPC allies over time. Instead of a V-C of the day, they report to the same captain and officers throughout. At low tiers they're ensigns and work their way up in rank alongside their level, eventually getting assigned their own ship in higher-tier missions. They might get temporarily reassigned, deal with higher officers, or get recruited on the sly for odd jobs, just as Pathfinders sometimes do, but in the end they have the same home and same NPC allies and friends.

And while I don't expect factions to go away in some sense, I'd like to see player mission objectives focused on role first and faction second.

[Stargypsyd]

Garrett Guillotte wrote:

If there's organized Starfinder Society play, I hope Paizo makes it completely distinct from PFS in structure and type as well as the theme and underlying system.

For instance, in PFS agents bounce between lodges almost arbitrarily; V-Cs are pretty stable but the PCs might be in Absalom one scenario and Tian Xia the next. Whatever relationships they might have are transient by nature.

** spoiler omitted **

That is a great idea/concept for Starfinder Society. I may even join!