Dead Ahead

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Illustration by Marias Tapia

What's that looming heavy on the horizon like an ominous thundercloud? Why, it's none other than the sixth and final adventure of the Starfinder Adventure Path: Empire of Bones by Owen K.C. Stephens! Though your heroes have tangled with agents of the Corpse Fleet in past volumes, this particular adventure has more undead than you can shake a stick at!

The Empire of Bones of the title is a massive ultranought flagship of the Corpse Fleet larger than some cities. It leads an armada of other hostile vessels, intent on seizing control of the ancient alien superweapon known as the Stellar Degenerator. Which would certainly mean the death of every living thing in the Pact Worlds system and possibly beyond. No pressure! Your characters have survived up this point, and are probably more than up to the task of infiltrating the Empire of Bones and taking over the bridge, right? You will only have to face bone troopers, corpsefolk, and ghouls, as well as Starfinder versions of baykoks, kurobozus, mohrgs, and pale strangers. Oh, and did I forget to mention the gatecrasher, a horrific blend of powered armor and necromancy-infused flesh?

Even with a few surprises along the way, this adventure is sure to be a walk in the park—no, not park. Graveyard. A walk in the graveyard. Enjoy and good luck!

Jason Keeley
Developer

A Star to Steer Her By

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The second installment of the Dead Suns Adventure Path, Temple of the Twelve, has hit the space lanes this month, bringing us one-third of the way through Starfinder's inaugural starfaring campaign. As a result, it seemed a good time to show off some more of the art from Dead Suns and hint at some of the friends, foes, and extraterrestrials the heroes might encounter during the Adventure Path.

In Starfinder Adventure Path #1: Incident at Absalom Station, the heroes acquire their very own starship, a Sanjaval Spaceflight Systems Vagabond named the Sunrise Maiden. But the ship is far more than just a stock light transport/freighter. The Sunrise Maiden will accompany the heroes on their adventures throughout the campaign, and as the player characters advance in level, they'll be able to improve and customize their vessel to truly make it their home among the stars.

Meanwhile, in Starfinder Adventure Path #2: Temple of the Twelve, the heroes head to the planet Castrovel, home to the lashuntas, elves, and formians, though the famed universities of Qabarat welcome scholars of other species as well. The Cult of the Devourer also makes an appearance in this volume, along with new Devourer-themed gear, spells, and the devastator mystic connection.

Among the creatures presented in this volume's Alien Archives are the woiokos, a humanoid species native to the planet Heicoron IV (itself detailed in Starfinder Adventure Path #1's "Codex of Worlds" article). Woiokos have two subspecies, the Floatborn, who live on the ocean's surface, and the Deepborn, who embraced their ancestral aquatic heritage to live underwater, and their entry includes racial traits for woioko player characters.

We'll end with a taste of Starfinder Adventure Path #3: Splintered Worlds, available in December, which sees our heroes visiting the scattered asteroids of the Diaspora and the dead world of Eox. The native inhabitants of Eox, the elebrians, turned to undeath long ago to survive a planetary cataclysm, but a handful of living elebrians survive, making an appearance in this volume's Alien Archives, along with racial traits for elebrian player characters.

Stay tuned! There's plenty more to come in the Dead Suns Adventure Path, from yaruks to skreelings to four-eyed bug-weasels, not to mention frailty cannons, necrografts, and much, much more!

Robert G. McCreary
Creative Director, Starfinder

Here There Be Aliens

Monday, August 14, 2017

Amid our preparations for Gen Con, we here at the Paizo offices are strapping ourselves in for the launch of the Starfinder Core Rulebook and all of its related material (in less than a week!), including the first volume of the Dead Suns Adventure Path, Incident at Absalom Station. You've already seen a preview of the adventure, but I'm here to talk about the exciting new aliens and other threats that appear in the back of the book!

Much like how Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes present new monsters, every volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path will come chock full of new creatures in a section we are calling the Alien Archives. Many of these aliens will be found within the accompanying adventure, and some will present rules for playing them as characters, but all of them will help to flesh out the wider Starfinder universe. For the first volume, we presented ourselves with a unique challenge: we asked artist Allison Theus to draw two new aliens of her own design, and we would then write statistics and words to match! Feast your eyes on what she provided to us.

Pretty cool, right? Here's where I came in. Starfinder creative lead Robert G. McCreary asked if I wanted to be the one to write up these new aliens. Of course, I jumped at the chance to contribute to the first ever Starfinder Adventure Path volume. And since I had created adversaries for the playtest and the Free RPG Day product Starfinder First Contact, I was already familiar with the system we were using to build NPCs.

Let me walk you through some of my thought processes as I got my first glimpses of the art, starting with the rauzhant—that's the purplish-blue flying creature. We didn't yet have plans to introduce any new types of dragons into the game, and this beast has some wyvern-like qualities, so I started with the dragon creature type. The next thing that drew my attention was its face… or lack thereof. I figured it would have some form of blindsight (perhaps even being completely blind without it), and it really had to be able to do something with all those extra teeth and fangs, as well as those little hook-shaped claws. I decided it would have the ability to clutch on to its prey after succeeding at a bite attack and then rake with those claws in subsequent rounds. In the process, a rauzhant folds up its wings so that it and its victim begin plummeting through the atmosphere of Liavara, the gas giant the creature calls home. Once its prey is dead, it resumes flight while feasting on the corpse. A Large creature, the rauzhant is CR 6.

Next, let's look at the vracinea—that sort of plant-spider hybrid. With its wood- and grass-covered exterior making for good camouflage in jungle environments (especially those of Castrovel), this plant creature seemed like it could be an ambush predator of some kind, using its bright-purple blossoms as a lure. I followed this train of thought for a bit, making the lure a supernatural effect, turning the creature into a kind of aboveground plant-based anglerfish. I decided that, as a plant, the vracinea isn't very fast, so I gave it a paralyzing scent that freezes its prey in place, giving the creature enough time to approach and begin chomping with its many sharp-toothed maws. Also a Large creature, a vracinea is CR 4.

Look for more exciting new aliens in the upcoming Dead Suns Adventure Path volumes and the Starfinder Alien Archive, all coming soon!

Jason Keeley
Developer

Dead Suns Dead Ahead!

Monday, July 31, 2017

We're fast approaching the release of the Starfinder Core Rulebook and the first Starfinder Adventure Path, Dead Suns! So, what do you have to look forward to? Keep reading, but beware—there might be a few spoilers ahead!

One of our goals with the Starfinder Adventure Path was to feature material that would be useful to both GMs and players. Of course, every volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path includes an exciting adventure for GMs to run for their players, but we've also worked really hard to include new rules and mechanics for players, such as new equipment, new character options, and new feats and spells. We'll also be presenting new alien creatures (both to fight and to play), new starships, and new planets to visit.

Illustrations by Victor Manuel Leza Moreno, Allison Theus, and Mirco Paganessi

For Dead Suns specifically, we wanted to show off the scope of the Starfinder setting. As a result, the Adventure Path starts off on Absalom Station, but the PCs soon leave the station to visit some other locations in the Pact Worlds, including Castrovel, Eox, and the Diaspora. But there's a whole galaxy to explore in Starfinder, so the PCs will also head into the Vast to visit some new, unexplored alien worlds. Before the campaign is finished, the heroes of Dead Suns will have visited space stations, asteroids, jungle planets, dead worlds, gas giants, derelict ships and not-so-derelict ships, and even vast megastructures.

What else can you expect in Dead Suns? The Starfinder Society is a major faction in the Starfinder setting, and it plays a central role in the Adventure Path as the PCs are working for the Society during the campaign. Two groups who make their debut in the Starfinder Core Rulebook—the Corpse Fleet and the Cult of the Devourer—are the main antagonists of Dead Suns, and the Adventure Path will feature expanded descriptions of both factions, as well as new rules elements thematically tied to these groups. In addition, there will be some ancient alien technology to examine, horrors from outer space to contend with, and of course, starship combat against a host of enemy vessels!

The first Dead Suns adventure, Incident at Absalom Station, hits store shelves and paizo.com in August, followed by a new volume every other month, so get ready. Adventure among the stars awaits!

Robert G. McCreary
Senior Developer