Whilst I love most of the rules, concepts etc to do with Starfinder two things have stuck out as....... 'issues'
1) Multiple habitable planets/moons within a single star system, from close in (all-be-it not overly hospitable) to far out, rather than spread over multiple systems.
Solution: I've ended up drawing up details for each of the habitable worlds but put them in neighbouring star systems, rejigging some of the script, where they each sit in the 'Goldilocks' spot in their respective star systems (or at least on its borders).
2) Solarians glowing orb above their head, essentially a big shoot me target and a good way to blow their cover if they try working undercover as all the bad guys realise that they could well be able to generate a weapon at will so can never be 'disarmed' - so trying to enter a nightclub results in "sorry sir but no weapons allowed".
Solution: The stellar energy they can tap is internal, but can be summoned out at will (allowing them to shield or weaponise themselves depending on their original choice), and when fighting and attuning themselves will indeed hover over them. Once unattuned it disappears again....
:-)
I'm not sure the Aballonians would really want to live in the Goldilocks spot. But to each their own.
Gark the Goblin wrote: I'm not sure the Aballonians would really want to live in the Goldilocks spot. But to each their own. Hence the "(or at least on its borders)" for Aballon & the Drow world, as the former has habitable spots whilst the latter probably is just outside the viable region :-)
I created a version of our own Solar System which could exist within the Starfinder setting in which each of the eight planets are habitable. I created a description of Earth similar to those of the Pact Worlds in the back of the Core Rules book.
I am also going to create similar descriptions of Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. And I'll tell you how I made all those planets habitable. First off I've exchanged our own Sun for the Star Alpha Centauri A, The important thing to know about Alpha Centauri A is that it is 50% brighter and larger than our own Sun, that also means that its habitable zone is wider and further our, so I moved the planets Venus, Earth, and Mars further out while keeping the same spacing they had in our own Solar System. The Earth is in the "sweet spot" Venus is the same distance it is from us toward the Sun, but since the habitable zone is wider, Venus now falls within that habitable zone, it is hotter, but it is not the Hell it was in our own Solar System. I did the same thing with Mars. With Mercury, I made it a moon of Venus, it orbits at approximately the same distance as our Moon does from Earth, its greater mass makes it orbit a little faster countering Venus' weaker gravity to some extent so a Mercury orbit takes about a Month. I spun up Venus while keeping its axial tilt, and I did the same with Mercury and I gave it an atmosphere and water, yes tidal forces will eventually lock the planet like it did our Moon, but this is a young artificial system created by the Greek gods, so it will take a time longer than history for the forces of nature to reassert themselves.
Mars is like it is in our Solar System only warmer and with a thicker atmosphere.
Jupiter, I turned inside out to some extent, all the breathable gases are on the outside, I also increased its radius while leaving the mass the same, a wall of force holds the atmosphere up, and anyone falling through the atmospheric layer gets crushed long before reaching this wall of force. The habitable layer rotates once every 24 hours, and also did I mention that Jupiter is orbiting our old Sun at a distance of 1 AU once every 365 days. Jupiter is a huge planet, and I made it larger, it is mostly atmosphere with a few rock island mountains sitting on the wall of force, it is the peaks of these mountains where creatures and people that can't fly all the time live. Saturn has a similar set up, but it orbits Alpha Centauri B, an orange star. Jupter has Neptune as one of its Moons in addition to Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, Saturn has Uranus in addition to its one large moon Titan. And finally their is the fourth star, Proxima Centauri, this has a planet now called Proxima b which I relabled Minerva, it orbits Proxima once every eleven and a half days keeping the same side facing the red dwarf as it does so.
Here is a chart of this solar system it has four stars as you can see which I named Apollo/Alpha Centauri a, Helios/our old Sun, Pyros/Alpha Centauri B, and Prometheus/Proxima Centauri. The most massive star in the group is of course Apollo, so that is considered the center of this Solar System, the orbit rings around that are not drawn to scale, so I labled their radii along the x-axis, coming up along a 45 degree angle are the time intervals indicating howmuch time elapses before the GM needs to move each planet counter-clockwise to the next tick in each orbit on this orbital placement chart. Helios moves to its next tick one every 9 years of game time, the other two stars are so far out that I treat them as stationary for all intents and purposes. I am working on the other seven planet descriptions and will be posting them as soon as they are complete ont he threat "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn".
RustyHarlequin wrote:
1) Multiple habitable planets/moons within a single star system, from close in (all-be-it not overly hospitable) to far out, rather than spread over multiple systems.
Solution: I've ended up drawing up details for each of the habitable worlds but put them in neighbouring star systems, rejigging some of the script, where they each sit in the 'Goldilocks' spot in their respective star systems (or at least on its borders).
Actually I really rather like this one, because the concept of the 'Goldilocks' spot being the best or only location for life involves annoying degrees of anthropocentrism about how life chemistry can work.
We go with what we know, the only example of life we know about exists on Earth, My solution to this dilemma is to have four stars in a system with four habitable zones within, about half the star systems in our galaxy have more than one star in them, so its not unrealistic from that standpoint. Golarion's star system had only one sun, because its modeled after our own, but since we have a whole Galaxy to play around with, I created an alternate version of our own Solar System with four stars, adding our own sun to the nearest other star system of Alpha Centauri with its three stars, then we hand wave it, say the gods did it, turns out that the Greek gods weren't entirely fictional under this assumption, there was a period of long absence, and then they returned and rearranged the planets of our Solar System during the Gap, so not even the gods, except Chronos remember doing this. Chronos also has the Roman name of Saturn by they way. Each god has a resident on the planet with its Roman name. On Earth for example Gaia is an elder goddess, although her age does not show, she is best represented as the mother of Grendel in the movie Beowulf. Gaia is a lot like Grendel's mom in that movie, her true form is that of a 60-foot tall greater titan, but she can change her size and her form if she wants, every northern spring is mating season for her, she finds a mortal human male, seduces him just like Grendel's mom did with Beowulf, and nine months later she gives birth to a beast. While Gaia is quite intelligent, she has the empathy of a beast, she is quite selfish and amoral, her monstrous children tend to wreck all sorts of havoc with the human societies on Earth. The governments of the World have an easy truce with her, they set aside some parkland for her children to roam on and they in turn mostly stick to that. Gaia has had a lot of children, her children tend to be monsters including such things as dragons and so forth. But other than that, she mostly keeps to herself, doesn't have long range plans or goals and is a personification of nature itself.
RustyHarlequin wrote:
2) Solarians glowing orb above their head, essentially a big shoot me target and a good way to blow their cover if they try working undercover as all the bad guys realise that they could well be able to generate a weapon at will so can never be 'disarmed' - so trying to enter a nightclub results in "sorry sir but no weapons allowed".
Solution: The stellar energy they can tap is internal, but can be summoned out at will (allowing them to shield or weaponise themselves depending on their original choice), and when fighting and attuning themselves will indeed hover over them. Once unattuned it disappears again....
:-)
Solar manifestation wrote: You can shut off the light or darkness as a standard action in order to blend in or assist in stealth, but whenever you enter a stellar mode, the glow or darkness returns immediately. You are one standard action after combat away from the normal rules.
Obscure citations wrote: RustyHarlequin wrote:
2) Solarians glowing orb above their head, essentially a big shoot me target and a good way to blow their cover if they try working undercover as all the bad guys realise that they could well be able to generate a weapon at will so can never be 'disarmed' - so trying to enter a nightclub results in "sorry sir but no weapons allowed".
Solution: The stellar energy they can tap is internal, but can be summoned out at will (allowing them to shield or weaponise themselves depending on their original choice), and when fighting and attuning themselves will indeed hover over them. Once unattuned it disappears again....
:-)
Solar manifestation wrote: You can shut off the light or darkness as a standard action in order to blend in or assist in stealth, but whenever you enter a stellar mode, the glow or darkness returns immediately. You are one standard action after combat away from the normal rules. That's nice but kind of "out of left field" for this discussion, but I'll keep that in mind the next time I have a character who is a Solarian.
ThomasBowman wrote: That's nice but kind of "out of left field" for this discussion How? You said you don't like the glowing orb, someone pointed out a rule about hiding it. That's precisely on topic.
ThomasBowman wrote: We go with what we know, the only example of life we know about exists on Earth True, but with Starfinder containing such clearly not DNA-based lifeforms as urogs and hallajinn, I think this ship has already sailed.
Your setting sounds interesting; how much have you played/run in it?
the nerve-eater of Zur-en-Aarh wrote: ThomasBowman wrote: We go with what we know, the only example of life we know about exists on Earth True, but with Starfinder containing such clearly not DNA-based lifeforms as urogs and hallajinn, I think this ship has already sailed.
Your setting sounds interesting; how much have you played/run in it? Actually I haven't played in it yet, it is still under construction, I've got two planets detailed in the same fashion as the Pact Worlds are detailed in the Core Rule book, here they are:
Venus
Earth
The features on Venus are named by Earth humans based on pre-Gap Earth data and matching topographical features. Earth scientists think the Gap covered a period of 300 years starting on January 1, 2019, but on Venus obviously some more time has elapsed, about 30,000 years, before that we get to the pre-gap Venus, the lifeless Hell we know from our science books, somebody moved planets around during the Gap.
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