Faction Overview: Wayfinders

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Illustration by Josef Kucera

The Wayfinders represent some of the Society's foremost experts in first contact scenarios. An organization dedicated to fully pursuing the Starfinder Society's mission statement of exploration, the Wayfinders are at the forefront of expeditions to scan a planet, set foot on an asteroid, or greet a previously unknown species. Wayfinders have a natural passion for exploration, be it through social situations with new species or discovering ancient alien ruins.

Before I start this blog, I want to congratulate some of you on being excellent detectives. The Organized Play team worked diligently in putting together a release schedule for our Starfinder Society factions, which we're now in the process of unveiling. At PaizoCon, several of you approached me and mentioned something about "the Wayfinders" and I feigned ignorance and made jokes about magical compasses. It appears that one of our scenarios let this secret out way earlier than anticipated... so, it's about time to dish out some facts.

With the Wayfinders faction, we have a group of like-minded Starfinders with a common interest: exploration. Starfinders working with the Wayfinders specialize in going beyond the Pact Worlds and into the star systems beyond. They eagerly travel into the Vast to seek out new life and new civiliz... they eagerly explore the Vast and engage with alien species, learning about foreign cultures and crafting strong alliances between the Starfinder Society and alien organizations. Many outsiders consider the Wayfinders' boundless enthusiasm for exploration as reckless; some even cite the recent Scoured Stars incident as a reason for the Starfinder Society—particularly the Wayfinders—to take a more cautious approach to exploring the Vast.

A faction as dedicated as the Wayfinders deserves a dedicated leader. Fitch (CN female ysoki technomancer), not only provides active support to fellow Wayfinders, she also goes out of her way to help Starfinders without ties to her faction. Starfinder Society #1-03: Yesteryear's Truth, by Paizo's own Jason Keeley, is a fine example of Fitch stepping in to energetically support fellow Starfinders going on missions into the Vast. I suspect many players will enjoy interacting with Fitch, especially after getting a chance to meet the faction leader onboard the Wayfinders' flagship: the Master of Stars.

Illustration by Sebastian Rodriguez

Now, I've backed myself into a corner when it comes to showcasing these factions. In the last two blog posts, I've shown off some boons related to the factions. So, I suppose it makes sense to showcase something specific to the Wayfinders. Like I did with the last two previewed boons, I'm going to showcase a different category of boon for the Wayfinders. Allow me to introduce something we've been calling a capstone boon.

Alien Allies (Untyped Boon)

Your tireless contributions to the Wayfinders' cause has not only uncovered unknown worlds; you've also introduced a new species into the Society.

Prerequisites: Wayfinders: Tier 4

Cost: 4 Fame

Benefit: When you select this boon, it does not apply to your current character. Instead, select one of your Starfinder Society characters with 0 XP. That character can select a new playable race without expending the personal boon slot. That character cannot slot a different race boon into the personal boon slot, but can slot another type of personal boon. The rules on this new race will be made available in a future update—and may vary by season.

Special: A new character can only benefit from this boon once. You can only purchase this boon once per character.

Ok, I guess I can't just smoke bomb out after dropping something like that, can I?

Each of our factions will have a capstone boon. These boons are all untyped boons that apply to a new character in the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. The Wayfinders' boon is something that the organized play team knows is popular: access to new races. As the boon says, the specifics of the new race aren't yet detailed, which is quite intentional (I swear, I'm not skimping out on work). John and I have schemed together and already have potential candidates for this new race, but the result will come down to player choice. Hint: Just like in Pathfinder Society, the reporting conditions will be very important to the continued narrative of the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild campaign.

Alrighty, another week, another faction complete! Check back soon, when I present details on the Dataphiles—a faction we've talked about before, but have some new ‘data' to share (*badumtish*). Ok, that joke was bad and I'm sorry... but believe me when I say, you'll want to come back to read about the Dataphiles and a new subset of boon that's sure to shake up how people think about gaming in the organized play format!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer