| 23 people marked this as a favorite. |
Starfarer Companion!
A Starfinder-Compatible Supplement from Rogue Genius Games, Coming in August of 2017, written by people who Know the Game!
What is in the Starfarer Companion?!
Races! – Aasimar, Catfolk, Deoxyians, Dhampirs, Grippli, Ifrit, Kitsune, Kobolds, Mechanoi, Nagaji, Oreads, Samsarans, Suli, Sylphs, Tengu, Tieflings, Undine, Vanaras, Vishkanya, and Wayangs!
Classes! — Starfinder-compatible versions of the Bard, Cleric, Magus, Paladin, Ranger, and Wizard!
Feats! — Support feats for the new class options, plus fun possibilities for characters of any race or class!
Spells! –7th, 8th, and 9th level spells, plus lots of old favorites brought into the Starfaring Age!
Companions! — Paladins and rangers have lots of cool companion options.
Computers! — New modules and upgrades, plus tons of pregenerated computers to save GMs and players both considerable effort!
Starships! — More options, and lots of pregenerated Starships to drool over!
And More! All ready for any campaign, but including the flavor needed to integrate smoothly with the Blood Space setting, RGG’s upcoming Starfinder-compatible campaign setting that can be a stand-alone adventure ground, or just Another Place in the Galaxy of Your Games.
The Starfarer Companion is written by Alex Augunas and Matt Morris, with the assistance of Matt Banach and Owen K.C. Stephens
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Looking forward to you guys seeing this one! :D
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
So I have to ask, does this mean this material (Classes, Races and level 7-9 spells) will not be covered in a future official Paizo product?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
...I'm beginning to think that I'm going to be buying more 3rd party material for Starfinder than I will of Paizo's.
So I have to ask, does this mean this material (Classes, Races and level 7-9 spells) will not be covered in a future official Paizo product?
Not sure. Matt and my logic was: "Do you want to wait to find out?"
...I'm beginning to think that I'm going to be buying more 3rd party material for Starfinder than I will of Paizo's.
Buy everything! It's the only way to grow the TTRPG sector!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So I have to ask, does this mean this material (Classes, Races and level 7-9 spells) will not be covered in a future official Paizo product?
As far as 7th-9th level spells are concerned, I hope they remain a thing of the past.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So I have to ask, does this mean this material (Classes, Races and level 7-9 spells) will not be covered in a future official Paizo product?
RGG has no ability to dictate what Paizo will or will not do in official releases, nor any special guarantees that our 3pp material may not someday be overshadowed by official versions. Certainly the fact RGG did archetypes before Pathfinder added them, and had a class using a Charisma-based version of grit called panache before Pathfinder did never prevented Paizo from adding those elements what that is what their brand management and design needs took them.
That said there is no doubt out versions would, in fact, be pretty different, so even if you had to rename out starfaring wizard the thaumaturge because an official wizard came out, you'd still have a valid, well-built class different from whatever Paizo does, much as psychic magic can be used right alongside Dreamscarred's psionics.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I was keeping myself away from Starfinder (found other RPGs I want to spend my limited budget on)... but... Finding out RGG is doing a full on companion book is enough to tip me back over the edge to wanting to get it again.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I was keeping myself away from Starfinder (found other RPGs I want to spend my limited budget on)... but... Finding out RGG is doing a full on companion book is enough to tip me back over the edge to wanting to get it again.
We are delighted, and honored, to hear it.
Two of those races don't sound familiar.
Mechanoi sounds like a sentient droid race
Deoxyian... DNA... Shapeshifters? Sentient viruses?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So I have to ask, does this mean this material (Classes, Races and level 7-9 spells) will not be covered in a future official Paizo product?RGG has no ability to dictate what Paizo will or will not do in official releases, nor any special guarantees that our 3pp material may not someday be overshadowed by official versions. Certainly the fact RGG did archetypes before Pathfinder added them, and had a class using a Charisma-based version of grit called panache before Pathfinder did never prevented Paizo from adding those elements what that is what their brand management and design needs took them.
That said there is no doubt out versions would, in fact, be pretty different, so even if you had to rename out starfaring wizard the thaumaturge because an official wizard came out, you'd still have a valid, well-built class different from whatever Paizo does, much as psychic magic can be used right alongside Dreamscarred's psionics.
Thank you for the reply!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Two of those races don't sound familiar.
Nope!
Mechanoi sounds like a sentient droid race
Yep!
Deoxyian... DNA... Shapeshifters? Sentient viruses?
Close!
Is this going to be a PDF-only book, or will there be a print version available as well?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is this going to be a PDF-only book, or will there be a print version available as well?
It will absolutely be print on demand, but the logistics of whether or not POD will be ready initially are hazy right now. If POD isn't ready the day SF launches, it will be ready shortly after barring any major catastrophes. (Knocks on space wood.)
This book alone just removed all of my group's doubts and worries. I am overjoyed.
Which is exactly why we made it. Happy to hear you are interested in SF again!
Is this going to be a PDF-only book, or will there be a print version available as well?It will absolutely be print on demand, but the logistics of whether or not POD will be ready initially are hazy right now. If POD isn't ready the day SF launches, it will be ready shortly after barring any major catastrophes. (Knocks on space wood.)
Looking at what all is included, it looks to be pretty good sized. Will it be hardcover, or just softcover? I'll use the PDF and I like to actual have physical copies too. And hardcover looks nice on shelf together. :)
This book alone just removed all of my group's doubts and worries. I am overjoyed.Which is exactly why we made it. Happy to hear you are interested in SF again!
When I saw the list of races I knew you were involved, and I mean that in a friendly chiding way. That is a good thing though. That is one of the big draws for me. You are one of my favorite Pathfinder 3PP writers. I'd never really cared for Kitsune, and your book was good enough to make me want to play one.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Gonna need a squeedgy for all this drool.
When I saw the list of races I knew you were involved, and I mean that in a friendly chiding way. That is a good thing though. That is one of the big draws for me. You are one of my favorite Pathfinder 3PP writers. I'd never really cared for Kitsune, and your book was good enough to make me want to play one.This book alone just removed all of my group's doubts and worries. I am overjoyed.Which is exactly why we made it. Happy to hear you are interested in SF again!
So funny enough, I only did kitsune because I had a LOT of fans ask me to do them. Granted, the Blood Space kitsune aren't EXACTLY alike the PF kitsune flavorwise; thousands of years of technological, social, and cultural development tends to change most societies and cultures.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
That said, there is a LOT about all of the Blood Space races that I love (I got to do creative and mechanical directing on both aspects of all of the races). Like kobolds; space kobolds are SO great but also so, so tragically dreary. TT_TT
Woot! Can't wait to see what exactly you're coming out with!
When I saw the list of races I knew you were involved, and I mean that in a friendly chiding way. That is a good thing though. That is one of the big draws for me. You are one of my favorite Pathfinder 3PP writers. I'd never really cared for Kitsune, and your book was good enough to make me want to play one.This book alone just removed all of my group's doubts and worries. I am overjoyed.Which is exactly why we made it. Happy to hear you are interested in SF again!So funny enough, I only did kitsune because I had a LOT of fans ask me to do them. Granted, the Blood Space kitsune aren't EXACTLY alike the PF kitsune flavorwise; thousands of years of technological, social, and cultural development tends to change most societies and cultures.
Ok, that is hilarious.
Can't wait to see the work you've done. I had mostly mentioned the kitsune as an example of your writing skills - making a race interesting enough for me to want to play them, when I never had before.
What's the idea for Blood Space?
A setting and adventures (AP maybe)?
Any idea on release dates?
Would I be correct in guessing that you basically have this product ready to go at the earliest allowable date and time?
And would your NDA allow you to tell us when that is?
When do preoders become available?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Looking at what all is included, it looks to be pretty good sized. Will it be hardcover, or just softcover? I'll use the PDF and I like to actual have physical copies too. And hardcover looks nice on shelf together. :)
We are estimating a page count between 160 and 240 -- it's hard to say when we don;t have the graphic design locked down yet and pagecount is imperfect with this many tables and headers.
And... and I still want to add some stuff, but I may not have time...And yes, at that size the POD will definitely be hardback.
What's the idea for Blood Space?
A setting and adventures (AP maybe)?
Any idea on release dates?
So, obviously we can't use the game setting Paizo is using for Starfinder for the same reason 3pp pathfinder books can't use Golarion. But we DO want to include some flavor in our rules expansion. If we tell a GM what our races are like, even if they decide not to use any of our setting material, they'll understand WHY we designed them the way we did, and be empowered to make any changes they prefer.
Thus, Blood Space.
Now we are ALSO releasing an introductory adventure in August, Blood Space and Moon Dust, which (unsurprisingly) is set in our Blood Space setting.
That setting is designed to be broad enough you can set a campaign their, but contained enough a GM can make it Just One Place in a Big Galaxy. that's one of the nice things about ftl travel and spacefaring campaigns. You have a whole galaxy to populate, and we can just be one more port of call.
So, for August release, it's the Starfarer's Companion, and Blood Space and Moon Dust.
Longer term? Sure, we have all the notes we need to do a campaign setting. More adventures also seem likely.
An AP is another matter. We have the talent pool, for sure, but that is commitment to a LOT of work. We'd have to see how early offerings sold before I asked anyone to tackle that much work.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Would I be correct in guessing that you basically have this product ready to go at the earliest allowable date and time?
And would your NDA allow you to tell us when that is?
We HOPE to have it ready at the earliest time... but we swung for the fences. We could have done a much less ambitious book and been sure to have it ready, but we wanted to cram as much into this as we could. (As it is I am sad we can't fit in the witch, psychic, druid, cavalier, alchemist..., goodness I want to do a Starfinder alchemist...)
So, we expect to have a PDF ready on August 17th, when Starfinder releases, as Day One support.
We'd LIKE to have the POD available then as well... but that's much iffier.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
When do preoders become available?
The current plan is to just make it available for sale as soon as it is done and we are allowed.
We're doing print on demand, so we don't have to gamble on a print run. And we took the leap to do this without a Kickstarter or outside fundraising.
We wanted to get THIS out, and let people have Starfinder in their hands, before we asked for money for product you couldn't get yet, through any source.
Once the game is a known factor, and we have proven ourselves? Then we'll see if preorders to fundraising make sense for even bigger or more difficult books.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
It may be worth noting that we are also in talks to make Hero Lab support available for purchase for this book.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'll put this out right now. I'm interested in the PDF, print, and Hero Lab support, sight unseen.
Any idea if the POD version will include the PDF copy for a bundle price?
We almost always allow you to get the pdf at a significant discount when you buy the POD.
For example, right now if you buy the Talented Bestiary POD, you can get the pdf for $2 more.
It might be more like $5 more for Starfarer's Companion, but it'll be much cheaper than buying them separately.
|
Any idea if the POD version will include the PDF copy for a bundle price?We almost always allow you to get the pdf at a significant discount when you buy the POD.
For example, right now if you buy the Talented Bestiary POD, you can get the pdf for $2 more.
It might be more like $5 more for Starfarer's Companion, but it'll be much cheaper than buying them separately.
Deal!
It may be worth noting that we are also in talks to make Hero Lab support available for purchase for this book.
That seems great, and with HeroLab will be greater still. Just want to know if the Print on Demand will be only on USA or the rest of the world too. I am interested on the book, but if is not possible or the shipment cost will be greater that book itself...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You have revealed enough that I will definitely be buying two copies of the PDF -- one for myself and one as a gift for a friend on a limited budget. I am very interested in how it appears that it will go beyond whatever is in the Core Rulebook about converting Pathfinder races and classes to Starfinder.
It may be worth noting that we are also in talks to make Hero Lab support available for purchase for this book.That seems great, and with HeroLab will be greater still. Just want to know if the Print on Demand will be only on USA or the rest of the world too. I am interested on the book, but if is not possible or the shipment cost will be greater that book itself...
Since this is a RGG product Owen knows more about the logistics, but since we're using POD I assume we're probably using Lightning Source, which is world-wide. (I know that they have an HQ in the UK and can ship to the rest of Europe at a cheaper cost than what flying across the pond'll get you. Not sure how those rates will change in the coming months with all of the national turmoil over there, though.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Now reprint them into official material. :P
You have revealed enough that I will definitely be buying two copies of the PDF -- one for myself and one as a gift for a friend on a limited budget. I am very interested in how it appears that it will go beyond whatever is in the Core Rulebook about converting Pathfinder races and classes to Starfinder.
This is something I'd LOVE to talk about, but can't for a myraid of legal reasons. You'll have to wait for now! :D
It may be worth noting that we are also in talks to make Hero Lab support available for purchase for this book.That seems great, and with HeroLab will be greater still. Just want to know if the Print on Demand will be only on USA or the rest of the world too. I am interested on the book, but if is not possible or the shipment cost will be greater that book itself...
We'll almost certainly do it through DriveThruRPG, so it'll be however good (or bad) shipping from them it to your location. they have much greater reach than we do.
Now reprint them into official material. :P
As always, if Paizo decided to cover this ground, they'll do it on their own terms, with their own content. :)
Well, as a developer on the Starfinder Team, I'm sure you have some sway. :P
| 9 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well, as a developer on the Starfinder Team, I'm sure you have some sway. :P
Nope.
Or rather, if I do, I never use it.
My five game industry jobs (Starfidner Design lead for Paizo, Freeport Developer for Green Ronin, Publisher for Rogue Genius Games, Project Manager for Rite Publishing, and consulting/freelance writing) are 100% firewalled from each other. I do not use the knowledge of any of those positions with a company to benefit any other company, and I do not use my position within any of those companies to push agendas to benefit anyone other than the people paying me for THAT position.
To do so would be unethical.
I wrote a estoc for Rogue Genius Games years ago. When it was time for a Pathfidner estoc, I designed a new one, without looking at or referencing my old design. because that is what Paizo wanted -- new content disconnected from any need of a new OGL section 15 entry. It would have been great to have an RGG weaon picked up and become official, just to prove how good RGG content is, but that's not a consideration when i am doing my Paizo job.
Now if James Sutter, brand manager, asked me to look for the best 3pp Starfinder content at some point? I'd make a fair an honest assessment of everything out there.
But I do not expect that will ever happen, as Paizo prefers to make its own content its own way.
Now reprint them into official material. :PAs always, if Paizo decided to cover this ground, they'll do it on their own terms, with their own content. :)
We even took naming precautions so that if that ever happened, things wouldn't be TOO confusing! :D
I don't think this is a spoiler (sorry if it is, Owen!), but basically when Matt and I named the classes, we took a page out of Pathfinder Unchained's book and called them the "Starfarer [CLASS]." So the book technically lists the Starfarer Paladin, the Starfarer Wizard, etc. etc.. After that initial heading it just shortens it to wizard or paladin (again, taking cues from Pathfinder Unchained's format), but the idea is that if you want to try and port PF's cleric or PF's wizard into SF yourself, you can still differentiate between the 'cleric' and the 'starfarer cleric.' Or if Paizo comes out with a cleric, you can differentiate between their 'cleric' and our 'starfarer cleric.'
I was only saying that because honestly I don't think the races could be done better than whatever you come up with, and because 3pp things have been turned into 1st party content in the past.
As for the rest of the content I don't actually expect it to overlap with anything Paizo will do in the future, especially not the class conversions.