By Vanessa Hoskins

Have you ever had a beloved family pet expire due to old age, illness, or getting hit by an errant enercycle? The Pet Revitalization Project (PRP) would like to help return your best friend back to your side. This Eoxian company will use special silicon-based technology to revitalize your pet, keeping their personality, friendliness, and loyalty intact*. Many will find their pets stronger, more resilient, and hardier than before revitalization; works great on guard animals!

Though this technology was previously only available to the richest and most well connected individuals, new sources of resin and modern techniques have driven the cost of revitalization down. The PRP would like to extend these savings to you and your family. If you and your family are without the means to afford pet revitalization, the PRP has set aside a fund to aid in the swift return of your perished pet.

Pet revitalization is only viable for a short time after a pet’s expiration without proper body preservation techniques, leading some owners to preemptively revitalize their pets, ensuring their pets will remain with them always. Don’t you want your best friend to be your best friend forever? Contact the PRP today!

This message has been paid for by the Pact Worlds Commission for Unliving Rights, the Eoxian General Council, and the Eoxian Office of Pact Worlds Ambassadorship.

*Less than 10% of revitalized animals experience side effects such as insatiable rage, unshakable ennui, or empty compliance.

Mummified squox from Alien Archive 4, illustration by Olli Slyusareva

REVITILIZED PET SQUOX — CR 5

XP 1,600
Silicon mummy squox (Starfinder Alien Archive 4 75, Alien Archive 2 118)
N Tiny undead
Init +5; Senses blindsense (scent) 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +11

DEFENSE — HP 70
EAC 17; KAC 19
Fort +7; Ref +7; Will +6
Defensive Abilities constructed shell, silicon casing (25%); DR 5/adamantine; Immunities undead immunities

OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee bite +13 (1d6+7 P)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Offensive Abilities squox tricks

STATISTICS
Str +2; Dex +5; Con —; Int –4; Wis +0; Cha +3
Skills Acrobatics +16 (+20 to balance, escape, or tumble), Athletics +11 (+19 to climb), Stealth +16
Other Abilities solar battery (1 point), unliving

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Constructed Shell (Ex) For effects targeting creatures by type, a silicon mummy counts as both a construct and as undead (whichever type allows an ability to affect them for abilities that affect only one type, and whichever is worse for abilities that affect both types)

Silicon Casing (Ex) A silicon mummy’s protective exterior and nonfunctional organs limit critical damage; the mummy has a 25% chance to ignore the extra damage dealt by a critical hit and gains a +4 bonus to saves against critical hit effects.

Solar Battery (Ex) A silicon mummy can absorb solar energy in the form of Solar Reserve Points (SRP), which they can spend in place of Resolve Points. For every 8 hours a silicon mummy spends exposed to the light of a star, the mummy gains 1 SRP, to a maximum number of SRPs equal to one-third their CR (1 for a mummified prophet). For every week a silicon mummy absorbs no stellar energy, they lose 1 SRP. However, the mummy can intentionally enter a state of hibernation to lose only 1 point per 20 years, and although the mummy is aware of their surroundings and can fully animate as a move action, they are staggered for 1d4 hours afterward. As a swift action, a silicon mummy can expend 1 SRP to enhance either their next melee attack, ranged attack, or spell before the end of their turn. An enhanced attack gains a +2 circumstance bonus to its attack roll and deals an additional 3d6 damage if it hits. An enhanced spell increases the spell’s saving throw DC by 2.

Squox Tricks (Ex) A squox can use Acrobatics to jump instead of Athletics. In addition, a squox can use its Acrobatics bonus as its attack bonus when it attempts a dirty trick, disarm, or trip combat maneuver. If the squox succeeds at a dirty trick maneuver, it can choose only between the entangled and off-target conditions. A squox’s tail, two front paws, and mouth count as hands free for a disarm attempt.

PLOT HOOKS

Game Masters might consider the following plot hooks as a means of integrating a revitalized pet into any Starfinder game.

• The PCs attempt to break into the home of a corporate executive, only to find an augmented squox guarding the interior.
• A PC takes the Squox Companion feat, but later wants to ensure their little friend can survive the rigors of higher-level combat.
• Murders in an Aballonian archology trace back to a group of silicon mummy animals, kept as house pets and guard animals that have somehow formed a telepathic network and started to attack those who would abuse them.

This month, we’re proud to release Starfinder Alien Character Cards, which serves as an easy reference when players want to know what racial traits a given alien species offers. While the Alien Archives provided the bulk of these species, we also took the opportunity to present five new-to-Starfinder species for eager players as well—gnolls, gripplis, kitsunes, kobolds, and samsarans.

It seems unfair to only let players take these classic fantasy species for a spin in the Pact Worlds, so here are some rules for GMs. Use these creature subtype grafts when crafting NPCs of the associated species. For more information on creature grafts, see page 133 of the Starfinder Alien Archive.

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Gnoll

This subtype is applied to gnolls and creatures related to gnolls.
Traits: Blindsense (scent) 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft.; if the NPC is of the gnoll race (see Starfinder Alien Character Cards), it also gains the natural weapons and rugged travel racial traits and Survival as a master skill.

Grippli

This subtype is applied to gripplis and creatures related to gripplis.
Traits: Darkvision 60 ft.; if the NPC is of the grippli race (see Starfinder Alien Character Cards), it also gains a climb speed of 20 ft.; the jumper, swamp stride, and weapon familiarity racial traits; and Stealth as a good skill.

Kitsune

This subtype is applied to kitsune and creatures related to kitsune.
Traits: Low-light vision; if the NPC is of the kitsune race (see Starfinder Alien Character Cards), it also gains the shapechanger subtype graft, the natural weapons racial trait, Acrobatics and Athletics as master skills, and can use the following spell as a spell-like ability: 3/day—dancing lights.

Illustration by Matthias Kenningkeit from Starfinder Alien Character Cards.

Kobold

This subtype is applied to kobolds and creatures related to kobolds.
Traits: Darkvision 60 ft.; if the NPC is of the kobold race (see Starfinder Alien Character Cards), it also gains the armored scales and dragon-scaled racial traits and Engineering, Perception, and Physical Science as master skills.

Samsaran

This subtype is applied to samsarans and creatures related to samsarans.
Traits: Low-light vision; if the NPC is of the samsaran race (see Starfinder Alien Character Cards), it also gains a +2 bonus to saving throws against death effects and can use the following spells as spell-like abilities: 1/day—comprehend languages, share memory (Starfinder Character Operations Manual 141), stabilize.

The new Starfinder Alien Archive 4 brings nearly 100 life-forms, a dozen playable races, and new alien technology. In the last part of this series let’s take a closer look at one of those species, the symbiotic hadrogaans, and some of that tech!

Though now the symbiotic primary inhabitants of the three moons of Hadrogess—a desolate world in the Vast— Hadrogaans once lived on the planet itself, millennia ago. They possess knowledge of their life on Hadrogess’s surface, and their departure from it, that date back to before the Gap, but even so, much of that history has been lost. Obsessive historians have reconstructed pieces of their history, but uncertainties and inconsistencies still plague the field.

All hadrogaans know for sure is that some catastrophe caused the planet’s atmosphere to begin slowly leaking into space. Faced with extinction, they scrambled for a possible solution. Following a series of frantic and unsanctioned experiments, a team of fringe scientists discovered a sapient crystal that grew deep beneath the planet’s crust, one that could merge with a hadrogaan body in a process that—in most cases— led to greater intellect and insight. These scientists claimed that the crystalline organisms, collectively called kallestrine, not only willingly participated in these experiments, but that they had sent psychic signals to the scientists—leading the latter to discover them—and had even proposed merging the entire hadrogaan species with kallestrine. Successful merging caused a rapid processing-power expansion that many felt could propel the two organisms into a new era of enlightenment, and in fact, many hadrogaans saw this way as their only hope for salvation.

Modern hadrogaans know that most of their people accepted the merging and somehow found a way—before the advent of starships—to settle their planet’s three moons. In their new symbiotic forms, hadrogaans formed a society dedicated to science, philosophy, progress, and utilitarianism in all matters. Their advancements positioned them to embrace Drift travel soon after receiving Triune’s signal, and whenever possible, hadrogaans seek positive relations with alien life—but should peace talks fail, they have no qualms with swift and efficient military solutions.

Most hadrogaans stand at about 8 feet tall with long limbs, thin bodies, and elongated fingers. Large hollows perforate their torsos, limbs, and sometimes their necks and faces, each filled with glimmering crystals—the organism that hadrogaans merged with during the Gap. The merging altered the species’ genetic makeup, and hadrogaan children are born with these crystalline hollows, which can grow and shift over time.

Hadrogaan racial traits include Dual Nervous Systems and Hadrogaan Senses: The crystals in a hadrogaan’s body can sense subtle vibrations in the environment. A hadrogaan has blindsense.

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Alien Archive 4 is filled with alien related technology!

A massive species of spaceborne plants inhabits the rocky rings of gas giants throughout the galaxy. Known to Pact Worlds scientists as greater ring roots, these creatures resemble immense, hirsute tubers bristling with gnarled tendrils and alien eyes. However, countless tragedies since the Gap have earned the infamous plant its more common name: the shipkiller bulb.

GRAVITY GRENADE: Level 2-12
Derived from the gravitational organs of shipkiller bulbs, gravity grenades generate a micro-singularity that pulls affected targets towards the detonation point. Creatures in the area move the listed distance toward the blast’s center if they fail a Fortitude saving throw. Unsecured, unattended items of 1 bulk or less automatically fail this save. The force is not powerful enough to move bigger objects, such as Large vehicles.

Despite being large, bipedal creatures, thermatrods use a knuckle-walking quadrupedal gait resembling a gorilla’s stride, though they occasionally stand on their back legs or use their arms to climb.

MAGMA SLEDGE
Inspired by the red-hot stony body of a thermatrod, magma sledges are the larger cousins of the more agile magma blades (Starfinder Armory 38). At first glance, a magma sledge seems like an analog weapon with a steel shaft and a head of solid stone. However, when the weapon powers on, cracks form along the surface show the magma hidden within, held in place with powerful magnetic fields. When slammed into a target, the intense heat and force can send even the most powerful opponents reeling. Factory floors that mass produce magma sledges are often swelteringly hot.

Populating Triaxian children’s horror tales, ursikkas roam the Triaxian wilderness during the wandering planet’s winter years.

URSIKKA HIDE ARMOR
Some of the most intrepid hunters seek out ursikkas—and wily scavengers often search the tundra for fallen ursikka bodies—to harvest their hides. Ursikka hides are light, supple, and have an insulating quality that traps body heat, making them an ideal material for cold weather gear and clothes. Talented armorsmiths can create flexible light armor from this leather, which grants cold resistance in addition to the benefits listed on the table below. Basic ursikka hide armor provides cold resistance 10, and the resistance increases to 15 and 20 for advanced and elite suits respectively.

The Alien Archive 4 Cover Artist was Remko Troost with Interior Artists: Trevor Brown, Dominik Derow, Tuan Duong Chu, Nicolas Espinoza, Michele Giorgi, Alexandre Honore, Geun Cheol Jang, Víctor Manuel Leza Moreno, Artur Nakhodkin, Vladislav Orlowski, Mirco Paganessi, Rashad Pozdnyakov, Henrik Rosenborg, Victor Rossi, Gin Sakalauskas, Ruslan Skifonich, Olli Slyusareva, Luca Sotgiu, Matias Tapia, and Remko Troost.

Don’t miss the previous parts of the series that focus on the astriapi, the copaxi, and entu three of the twelve new playable species. Find your path to friendship and science-fantasy adventure with Starfinder!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

The Starfinder Roleplaying Game is both weird and wonderful. So, even though the Holiday season is upon us—or perhaps because of it—we present to you the full fungus entry from the new Starfinder Alien Archive 4 to battle, befriend or become. Introducing the entu colony!

Entu Colony

Entu colonies begin their life cycle as a collection of minuscule spores. Over time, the spores fuse together through intricate networks of mycelia that function similarly to neurons, creating sapient and mobile fungal colonies. These structures generate conscious thought and obtain sensory information about the colony’s environment.

In their first weeks of life, entu spores gradually coalesce into amorphous pools of opalescent slime with malleable pseudopod-like organs. At this stage, colonies can communicate telepathically with other creatures using a lexicon of sensory and emotional concepts. Entu colonies can reproduce asexually once they reach maturity, typically six months after they first sprout mycelia. Most of the resulting spores integrate into the parent colony, but some may split off to form a separate colony.

Thought not parasitic, entu colonies feed on emotion and thought. In fact, some seek to consensually merge with other sentient creatures rather than form into full-fledged and independent colonies. Instead of harming their host, an entu fungus’s adaptable cells mimic the host’s brain and nerve tissue. Their mycelia intertwine with their host’s central nervous system, creating new synapses and enhancing sections of the host’s brain. Despite inhabiting the host’s body, the entu fungus retains a separate consciousness which intertwines with its host through shared functional memories and sensory input. The resultant symbiotic life-form, called an entu symbiote, eventually attains self-awareness, complex thought, and even linguistic ability. Entu integration can sometimes result in entu symbiotes’ offspring already being seeded with the fungal life integrated into their bodies and brains; this development has led to the “uplifting” of entire species of previously non-sapient animals.

The nelentu, one of the founding species of the Kreiholm Freehold, is a prominent example of a successful symbiosis that spans generations. Originally a species of bat-like animals called neleks that evolved on Agillae-2, these once unintelligent, fruit-eating creatures encountered entu spores early in their evolution and willingly became their hosts. The two species formed a society based on this symbiosis. Today, nelentus inhabit tiered jungle-cities built around green spaces, known as Gardens of Thought, where they cultivate entu spores for future generations. Nelentus consider themselves to be one species, referring to themselves and other nelentus using plural pronouns in deference to their dual nature.

Entu fungi of all kinds seek constant exposure to emotion and thought to thrive, and those involved with symbiotes prioritize their hosts’ physical needs. They prefer to enter symbiotic relationships with creatures who can benefit from their cellular mimicry, living as long as the host creature does—and dying along with it. Entu colonies, on the other hand, can survive for up to 300 years.

The entu are two-playable-races-in-one!

Entu Colonies

Ability Adjustments: +2 Int, +2 Cha, –2 Str
Hit Points: 2
Size and Type: Entu colonies are Small oozes. Amorphous: An entu colony has the amorphous universal creature rule (page 152).
Entu Colony Senses: An entu colony has blindsight (emotion) with a range of 60 feet.
Limited Ooze Benefits: See page 34.
Limited Telepathy: Entu colonies have limited telepathy with a range of 30 feet. Tactical Symbiosis: See page 34.

Entu Symbiotes

Ability Adjustments: +2 Int
Hit Points: 4
Size and Type: Entu symbiotes are Small, Medium, or Large animals with the entu symbiote subtype. Entu Symbiote Senses: An entu symbiote has blindsense (emotion) with a range of 30 feet and low-light vision.
Extrasensory Perception: The mycelia integrated into an entu symbiote’s nervous system allow them to perceive ambient thoughts and emotion. They gain a +2 racial bonus to Perception and Sense Motive checks.
Limited Augmentations: The only augmentations that can be installed in an entu symbiote’s brain are datajacks and the mechanic’s custom rig.
Limited Telepathy: Entu symbiotes have limited telepathy with a range of 30 feet.
Natural Weapons: Entu symbiotes have the natural weapons universal creature rule with a kinetic damage type chosen at character creation.
Symbiotic Enhancement: At character creation, an entu symbiote chooses a fly speed (Ex, average), burrow speed, climb speed, or swim speed, matching thematically the type of animal on which the entu symbiote is based. The entu symbiote has that speed with a value of 20 feet.

The Starfinder Alien Archive 4 Editing Lead was Avi Kool with Editors: Judy Bauer, Gideon F., Leo Glass, Patrick Hurley, Avi Kool, Ianara Natividad, Kieran Newton, and Lu Pellazar.

Don’t miss Part 1 and Part 2 of Aliens Among Us which explore the astriapi, the copaxi, and species grafts. Next week we examine the hadrogaan and more!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

Today we continue a series sampling the Starfinder Alien Archive 4!

If you are new to Starfinder, the Alien Archives hold a trove of tools for players and GMs alike.

For players “AA4” holds a dozen races with full rules, letting you play everything from a fungus-uplifted animal to a humanoid made of magical coral. Last week we looked at the astriapi. We showcase at the copaxi below.

For GMs there are nearly 100 uncanny life-forms both classic and new, from the batlike grioth and horrifying brain collector to the vengeful endling and dreaded plasmalisk. Grafts were established in the Appendix 1: CREATING MONSTERS AND OTHER NPCS in the first Starfinder Alien Archive. They were further developed or expanded upon the subsequent Alien Archive volumes.

Now, Alien Archive 4 adds species grafts—new rules for grafting the strange physical traits of other species onto your own character, creating a staggering array of customization options!

SPECIES GRAFTS

This section introduces a new type of augmentation known as a species graft, giving you the ability to partially transcend your species by taking on the racial traits of other species. Species grafts follow the rules for augmentations (Starfinder Core Rulebook 208), in that they are installed in specific systems on your body. Once installed, they become a part of your body and generally can’t be affected by abilities that destroy or disable objects. Most of these augmentations are installed into the more common systems.

Species grafts can be cybernetics, biotech, magitech, nanite enhancements, or any other form of augmentation. A specific species graft might describe its form, but that is merely an example. Your GM might decide what a species graft looks like when you purchase one or you might determine its specifics when you craft it. This doesn’t affect how a species graft functions—only its appearance.

The benefits of a species graft don’t stack with the benefits granted by a racial trait of the same name. For example, a vesk character can’t benefit from the armor savant graft.

Read more about the new rules, how they are different from other augmentations, and see the list of over 20 species grafts in your copy of Alien Archive 4. Here are a couple of samples to entire you!

CHEEK POUCHES GRAFT — SYSTEM Throat
PRICE 3,900 — LEVEL 6

Ysoki’s cheeks are remarkably stretchy, and they use this to their advantage. Durable skin implanted in your own cheeks affords you the same benefit. You can store up to 1 cubic foot of items weighing up to 1 bulk in total in your new cheek pouches, and you can transfer a single object between hand and cheek as a swift action. You can disgorge the entire contents of your pouches onto the ground in your square as a move action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity.

LASHUNTA MAGIC GRAFT — SYSTEM All Hands
PRICE 3,200 — Level 5

Most lashuntas have the ability to cast minor spells, even if they haven’t formally studied spellcasting. With tiny attuned crystals or magically aligned plates in your palms, you can cast daze and psychokinetic hand at will and detect thoughts once per day as spell-like abilities. The caster level for these effects is equal to your level.

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Copaxi

Copaxis evolved from copi, an unintelligent, coral-like organism that once covered their home world—the now heavily industrialized planet Tabrid Minor. Copi exhibit a supernatural attunement to the universe’s gravitational forces, and for ages, copaxis harnessed this organism’s power to create floating cities where they lived for centuries in a near-utopia.

The Signal changed copaxi society forever in 3 AG when copaxi inventors discovered how to refine copi into a semi-organic alloy suitable for constructing starships. Conflicting ideologies arose between traditionalists who clung to their people’s ancient mysticism and technological innovators who wished to explore the stars. These differences led to violence and, eventually, all-out war. The ensuing struggles toppled the established order, nearly destroyed copaxi mystical traditions, and led copaxis to abandon their flying cities in pursuit of industrialization. The newly united copaxis decimated the planet’s copi, simultaneously fueling a technological revolution while also severing their connection to the copi’s supernatural power.

Thanks to their world-spanning government’s fearful suppression of its past for decades, modern copaxis have only recently begun uncovering their planet’s history. Most admit that Tabrid Minor has suffered as a result of rapid industrialization, but few know the extent of the damage or comprehend their ancestors’ sacrificed connection to copi. Fewer still know the history of robotic life on the planet, for the government strictly monitors such technology and has instilled a superstitious fear of anything resembling a sentient machine in the populace. After Tabrid Minor began petitioning the Pact Worlds for protectorate status several years ago, the planet’s government increased its crackdown on historical introspection, fearing the world’s fraught past might undermine its chances of being accepted.

Read more about the cotopaxi in Alien Archive 4, including these racial traits:

Natural Communicator: A copaxi quickly adopts new forms of communication. Each time a copaxi gains a rank in Culture, they learn two languages rather than one language.

Regenerative Evolution: A copaxi gradually reshapes their body and neural networks to overcome new challenges. Each time a copaxi gains a level, they can retrain all the choices of one previous character level, as though they had used a mnemonic editor (Core Rulebook 226). They must have qualified for any new selections at the retrained level.

The Alien Archive 4 Authors are: Kate Baker, Tineke Bolleman, James Case, Jessica Catalan, JN Childs, Ed Chuck, John Compton, John Curtin, Adam Daigle, Katina Davis, Crystal Frasier, Leo Glass, Basheer Ghouse, Amanda Hamon, Sasha Laranoa Harving, Thurston Hillman, Joan Hong, Jenny Jarzabski, Jason Keeley, Mike Kimmel, Avi Kool, Chris Lambertz, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Carmen Marin, Hilary Moon Murphy, Adrian Ng, Emily Parks, Joe Pasini, Lu Pellazar, Samantha Phelan, Jessica Redekop, James Rodehaver, Simone D. Sallé, Chris S. Sims, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Owen K.C. Stephens, and Viditya Voleti.

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Next week is a two-for-one alien encounter as we look at the entu colony and entu symbiote—both are playable!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

Today we start a series sampling the Starfinder Alien Archive 4!

If you are new to Starfinder, one of the wonderful things about the Alien Archives line is that they not only provide a host of new friends and foes for GMs, they also include playable races, new spells, weapons, companions, and rules for players. They are books in which your whole group can find value.

I love to let our author’s work speak for itself to give you that browsing-through-the-gamestore feeling. So I’ve simply pulled a few excerpts directly from the hardcover to showcase how the twelve new playable races, new alien technology, and nearly 100 uncanny life-forms offer innovative options for players and GMs alike.

Overview

You are not alone in the universe. In the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, strange new creatures and cultures await your party of adventurers on every new planet and space station. Whether you’re on a routine trading mission in the most familiar sectors of the Pact Worlds or exploring never-before-contacted planets in the mysterious reaches of the Vast, Starfinder is a game about aliens—playing them, fighting them, and everything in between.

Starfinder Alien Archive 4 presents a sampling of such aliens, designed both for Game Masters to use in crafting challenging encounters and adventures and for players to use in creating and customizing their characters. It’s also a font of setting information and cultural details on the melting pot of different worlds that comprise Starfinder’s home galaxy. To fully use the creatures in this codex, you’ll need a copy of the Starfinder Core Rulebook, and the Starfinder Alien Archive contains the details for how to create your own alien foes and other NPCs. In this book, Appendix 1: Creature Subtype Grafts, Appendix 2: Class Grafts, and Appendix 3: Template Grafts give creature creators tools for constructing some of the aliens newly presented here. You can also find Starfinder rules online for free at paizo.com/sfrd.

This book is only a small sampling of the myriad creatures found in the Starfinder campaign setting. For more, see Starfinder Adventure Path volumes, Starfinder Pact Worlds, and previous Alien Archive volumes.

Alien Archive 4 also includes species grafts: a new type of augmentation that lets members of any species diversify their forms as they wish, gaining new abilities as they do!

But Alien Archive 4 doesn’t stop at creatures—this book also presents a ton of alien gear sprinkled throughout the creature entries, such as armor, magic and technological items, weapons, and more, that’s perfect for rewarding or customizing player characters.

There’s a whole galaxy out there, full of creatures to fight or befriend. Are you ready?

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Playable race: Astriapi

Astriapis are bipedal arthropods with chitinous exoskeletons, membranous insectile wings, and large powerful mandibles. Their pigmentation runs the gamut from dark blues through bold yellows, and some astriapis selectively carve their exoskeletons to create individualistic patterns. They can also naturally produce a restorative honey. On average, astriapis stand around 6 feet tall and weigh between 120 and 150 pounds.

When astriapis awoke from the Gap, they found themselves as the sole sapient inhabitants of an immense megalopolis that covered the entire landmass of the Near Space planet Colveare. Through impressive feats of magical and engineering prowess, the planet’s natural resources and native species had been preserved, with every part of the planet’s ecosystem carefully integrated into the urban sprawl. Astriapi society as a whole immediately dedicated itself to studying the city-planet’s workings to maintain the integrity of the system they found themselves a part of, surviving the struggles of post-Gap adjustments through a natural inclination to regimentation and cooperative obedience.

There is still a lot more to learn about the astriapis in the Alien Archive 4, including a unique racial trait, Honey Production! Ok, I’ll give you taste now.

Honey Production: Once per day, an astriapi can spend 10 minutes to produce a vial of magical honey. This honey functions as a mk 1 serum of healing. At 5th level (or CR 5), the honey functions as a mk 2 serum of healing, and at 9th level (or CR 9), it functions as a mk 3 serum of healing. Regardless of its level, the honey can’t be sold, and its magical properties expire after 24 hours, when it turns into mundane foodstuff.

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The Alien Archive 4 Development Lead was Joe Pasini. Development was by John Compton with Additional Development by Thurston Hillman, Jason Keeley, and Jason Tondro.

Next week we will explore species grafts and another playable race!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

At its core, Starfinder is a game about exploration and possibilities. Whether you’re excited to uncover new expressions of heroism through new character options in the Character Operations Manual, explore the Pact Worlds’ closest neighbors in Near Space, dramatically expand what’s possible in spaceflight with the upcoming Starship Operations Manual, meet extraordinary lifeforms in Alien Archive 4, or just blast into uncharted space with the Galaxy Exploration Manual, the past year and upcoming 12 months’ hardcover books keep bringing new reasons for excitement!

So forgive my Zo!-like theatrics in saying: “But wait, there’s more!”

That’s right! Why pine longingly for amazing 2021 content when you could playtest it this summer? Beginning in July 2020, Paizo is launching not one—but two—different Starfinder playtests, opening up new possibilities for your gaming experience and inviting you to become part of the creative process! Final versions of both playtests’ contents will appear in an upcoming, yet-to-be-announced book.

A New Class!

As a guiding philosophy when designing new classes, the Starfinder team is always pushing to expand innovative ideas and territory: the biohacker brings a new spin to the scientist trope, the vanguard weaponizes the multiverse’s fundamental energies to redirect damaging forces, and witchwarper takes a fresh approach to magic, superimposing alternate realities to create supernatural effects. Naturally, an additional class we’d make would want to meet or exceed those standards for conceptual novelty, visual wow-factor, and fun at the game table. It’s a high bar!

Enter the nanocyte.

The nanocyte’s body houses nanites in untold numbers, granting them impossible strength, transforming into tools, and coursing between obstacles to overwhelm their foes. The same nanites can reshape the nanocyte’s body to avoid harm as easily as they reconfigure features to conceal their presence or mask a lie, making the nanocyte an adept combatant and infiltrator able to manifest weaponry at a moment’s notice. Whether their powers stem from excruciating experiments, accidental infection, or voluntary symbiosis, the nanocyte’s nanites grow stronger by the day as the character evolves into a being more machine than mortal.

A New Way to Play!

Starfinder allows for so many stories and ways to play: infiltrating an embassy ball, trading shots across a shell-cratered battlefield, racing after villains in futuristic vehicles, soaring through space in elegant starships, and more! But since Starfinder’s debut in August 2017, the fans have echoed the same question: Where are the mechs? Sure, Starfinder provides powered armor that enhances a user’s natural abilities, and there are even a few larger powered armor suits that give that tower-over-the-opposition feel. Yet the game so far lacks the ability to pilot that giant robot, that titanic vehicle whose power far exceeds that of its pilot.

Not anymore! In July Starfinder will publicly playtest new mech rules, allowing PCs to jump into single-seat mechs or team up with friends in even larger behemoths to stomp, fly, and jump-jet around the battlefield! Mech combat is designed to use most of the familiar tactical rules and 5-foot squares you already use in your games, making mechs a feature you can as easily drop into a single encounter as you can build entire campaigns around them. And as you would expect, mechs represent a significant power boost, allowing PCs to take on far greater challenges than they might on their own—just what you’d expect from a system that lets you customize your mechs’ frames, limbs, armaments, power cores, and more!

Get excited and follow along for more updates! The action begins this July!

John Compton
Starfinder Senior Developer

Each day during PaizoCon Online, we’re taking a look at upcoming products, revealing new art and details, and diving deep into the day’s focus with a livestreamed Marquee Event panel and Q&A session. Today’s Marquee Event panel focused on the upcoming Starfinder Starship Operations Manual and other future Starfinder releases. This blog is a recap of some of the reveals covered in that session. Don’t forget to check out the PaizoCon Online Stream Schedule to stay on top of the latest Paizo news in real time!

Though convention season looks very different in 2020 than in years past, we’re still ecstatic to have the opportunity to spend PaizoCon Online with all of our fans, geeking out together (from a safe distance) over what lies in store for our favorite game of space fantasy.

Starship Operations Manual

This summer’s big Starfinder release is the Starship Operations Manual, a 160-page sourcebook for all things starship related, from custom upgrades and expansion modules, to advice on running starship-based campaigns, new starship monsters to challenge parties of all levels, to details on the galaxy’s most prominent manufacturers!

Cover illustration by Remko Troost

Left to right: starship illustrations by Bryce Homick and Michael Soong.

We would be remiss to make a book this size called the Starship Operations Manual and not include dozens of new starships ready to add to your campaign such as the trio shown here.

Illustration by Daniele Sorrentino

Starship Operations Manual contains rules on building supercolossal starships, such as in this illustration by Daniele Sorrentino.

Alien Archive 4

Following in Starship Operation Manual’s engine wake comes the Starfinder Alien Archive 4. As with previous alien archives, this book presents scores of new friends, foes, and potential player character races with tons of lore and new rules options tied to each.

Alien Archive 4 cover by Remko Troost

Left to right: alien illustrations by Tuan Duong, Victor Rossi, and Alexandre Honore.

Check out these aliens inhabiting the book from Tuan Duong Chu, Victor Rossi, and Alexandre Honore. Can you guess what they are?

Devastation Ark Adventure Path

We don’t just publish rules supplements, though! Starfinder is all about galaxy-spanning adventure, which we provide in the pages of the monthly Starfinder Adventure Path. In August, we’ll launch the first sequel AP in the line with the 3-chapter high-level Devastation Arc Adventure Path. This campaign begins at 13th level, making it the perfect sequel to nearly all of our previous APs, and characters should reach 20th level by the story’s conclusion!

Fly Free or Die Adventure Path

In November, we’ll mix things up and return to our normal 6-chapter campaign format with the Fly Free or Die Adventure Path. In this exciting story, the player characters aren’t necessarily heroes—at least not intentionally. A crew of scoundrels, rogues, and misfits, they find it hard to survive in a galaxy where everyone has a price. Targeted by a crime boss and his army of enforcers, preyed upon by faceless mega-corporations, and hounded by rivals, the crew of the Free Trader Oliphaunt line up the big score that will at last make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. But when their many enemies join forces and the crew loses it all, they find out there are two things in the galaxy that can't be bought: freedom... and revenge.

Galaxy Exploration Manual

Fans wondering what our next hardcover rules supplement will be need look no further, because we’re happy to announce the Starfinder Galaxy Exploration Manual for release in April of next year. This book will provide players and GMs alike with rules for hailing from or exploring the myriad worlds found in the Starfinder galaxy, covering a variety of biomes and planetary concepts, allowing for nearly endless possibility every time a starship drops out of the Drift into uncharted space. It’s still nearly a year out, so we don’t have a lot to show you now, but we’ll have a lot more on this book as its release approaches.

Beyond the Galaxy

That wraps up this infosphere transmission, but we’re on halfway through Wednesday here at PaizoCon Online! Be sure to check out the live-play Starfinder X.T.R.E.M.! stream this evening from 4-7 PM (Pacific Daylight Time) at twitch.tv/officialpaizo. You can find the full schedule of streamed events here. Enjoy the rest of your PaizoCon Online, stay safe, and roll high!

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy