Alien Archive 2: Eclectic Boogaloo

Friday, October 12, 2018

Howdy! Joe Pasini here, Starfinder developer and monstrous humanoid. One of my favorite things about Starfinder is that it's chock full of alien creatures that you can not only crush, kill, and destroy, but also befriend, bedazzle—and become!

Today we'll meet a few of the 16 new playable species presented in Alien Archive 2, along with notes from their writers.

Illustration by David Alvarez

Careful readers of the Starfinder Core Rulebook might have noticed a brief write-up in the setting chapter about Daimalko. On that blasted planet, horrific colossi have rampaged among the ruins of two once-great civilizations since an event called the Awakening. The survivors—the damai—have turned to empathic leaders and their powerful magical orbs to keep these roving beasts away. That planet is one of my strange little Starfinder children, and in Alien Archive 2, I had the privilege of dropping another piece of Daimalko into the game—now you can play a damai! When you do, your racial traits will reflect these people's time subsisting in underground caverns, as well as their now-innate survival senses. For those interested in Daimalkan lore, the write-up also includes the story of Reirali Kokolu, the first Guardian who both discovered the orbs linked to the colossi and united the disparate pockets of survivors into the pseudocivilization that exists on the planet today. If Daimalkan lore—or kaiju survivors, empaths, or scrappers—are your thing, playing a damai might be right up your alley!

—Amanda Hamon Kunz, Managing Developer

I wrote about Orry, the home planet of the phentomites, in the Starfinder Core Rulebook. The location was inspired by a homebrew Runequest game I played over a decade ago, where the players and GM worked together to collaboratively create an original setting. It was a thrilling creative exercise for everyone, and though we only played that game a handful of times, the experience has stuck with me. Of course, we pictured humans exploring this world's floating islands, but when you adapt something for a science-fantasy game, you get to make things a little more… alien. While they weren't named or described in the Core Rulebook, the inhabitants of Orry were illustrated, and I had a hand in that as well. When it came time for Alien Archive 2, I pitched giving these folks full stats and a bit more information about their home world and culture. Now that they are fully entrenched in the Starfinder canon, I just hope I can expand further on the phentomites at some point in the future!

—Jason Keeley, Starfinder Adventure Path Developer

Illustration by Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo

I did the embri! In the spirit of honesty, I hadn't even noticed these mollusk-people tucked in the Starfinder Core Rulebook at first. But I discovered their write-up was really evocative: it starts with their eerily orderly society, then reveals that Hell is behind it all. Cue the ominous music! I tried to keep the same themes in my Alien Archive 2 entry, but I had to think more about embri masks. Why do these emotionless critters wear them? Probably as identifiers, but maybe also because showing even a little bit of emotion is exceptionally rude in their society, so they're socially expected. I thought about giving the ubiquitous masks some game benefit, but ultimately went the other direction—not wearing a mask makes an embri feel exposed and dangerously expressive, so they take penalties when not wearing one. If you play an embri, you'll want to keep your mask in place. The hivemask magic item helps you work well with your teammates—and keep a close eye on them!

—Ron Lundeen, Pathfinder Adventure Path Developer

Illustration by Alexandur Alexandrov

Hi! I wrote bolida and osharu. The bolida were my attempt at the molefolk trope—except instead of being inspired by adorable rodents, they're horrifyingly gigantic centipedes, 'cause why not! They otherwise stay true to the trope: a hardy, subterranean people who minded their own business deep underground for centuries. They didn't really care (or even know?) about the outside world until they were discovered by accident. The osharu were quite shamelessly inspired by the Bajorans from Star Trek. I was enamored of the idea of a spacefaring society whose religion takes the forefront in their culture. The osharus' cities were actually inspired by my daily commute through a pretty much town-sized college campus. I thought it would be interesting to have metropolis-sized settlements composed entirely of different departments of learning, where everybody worked together for a common cause (in this case, scientific and spiritual enlightenment). I must admit it was intimidating writing two races and cultures from scratch, with no previous material to use! I hope y'all enjoy my additions to the Starfinder universe!

—L Pellazar, Editor

Illustration by Mary Jane Pajaron

Design of the quorlus is rooted in history and novelty. My assignment was to create a unique quadruped species that's not like a centaur. Long ago, I really loved dralasites—a species of little, shapeable blobs who could have multiple legs. (They're from the Star Frontiers RPG.) I started with bloblike, and then decided to use environmental extremes. What if quorlus adapted to harsh tectonics? From that came the silicon-based physiology and geothermic nature, along with no need to breathe. It also sparked a culture of practical, skilled engineers and miners who find it easy to accept loss. The seismic violence of the quorlu home world instilled within them a spirit of cooperation and love of peace. I also decided quorlu voices must be highly resonant, carrying through earth and stone (and quorlu "flesh") rather than air. A short leap led to the idea that other species might find these sonorous voices pleasing. Then, I integrated them with Pact Worlds species as ideal explorers and surveyors of harsh environments. That's the quorlu, in a lithic shell.

—Chris S. Sims, Starfinder Adventure Path Developer

Illustration by Raph Lomotan

I'm responsible for adding the kanabo, which are oni (ja noi)/hobgoblin crossbreeds. I wrote up the kanabo in Distant Shores for Pathfinder, and I thought that as a species of mystic outsider goblinoid warriors they were perfect for the science-fantasy feel of Starfinder. Of course since we haven't introduced either oni or hobgoblins to the Starfinder universe yet, I had to write both of those up for the book as well. That meant establishing what hobgoblins are like in the universe after the Gap, and if ever there was a group that seemed well-suited to the risks to pre-Drift space travel, the ruthless, organized hobgoblins fit the bill. That allows them to have spread far and wide from their origins on Golarion. With that in place, having ja noi be oni champions embraced by nations of expansionist hobgoblins gives a strong background for what kanabo origins are likely to be. Both hobgoblins and kanabo are available as PC races.

—Owen K.C. Stephens, Starfinder Design Lead

Joe Pasini
Starfinder Developer

Postcards From The Planes

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Cities rise and fall alongside the civilizations that build them; some falling into ruin, some serving as the foundation for new settlements, and some weathering the test of time. Among the nations of humanity, some cities stretch back over 5,000 years of unbroken history, such as Taldor's opulent capital Oppara. To others who live upon Golarion, even this ancient metropolis might seem young, as the elves have civilizations that date back before Earthfall and dragons once ruled in the lands of Tian Xia while humanity was still in its infancy. And eons before even these legendary cities had the first stone placed for their foundations, there were cities among the planes that had already existed for tens of thousands of years. To venture into a planar city is to become part of a living, breathing community that has outlived the greatest of empires on Golarion—and perhaps were even founded before any living creature graced the surface of that world.

Illustration by Mary Jane Pajaron

This month sees the release of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Planar Adventures, but there's far more to the planes than could ever be covered in a single book. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Realms offers a closer look at six planar cities that characters can visit, either as a jumping point into the planes or as adventure locations in their own right. Several previous previews have revealed the identities of many of those six cities; some brave adventurers may have already set foot in them before.

Illustration by Federico Musetti

But before we get into describing the cities and outlining all of their most interesting adventure spots, I wanted to offer a more organic impression of these fantastic locales. So imagine you have just stepped out of a portal or off of a luxurious howdah on the back of an astral whale, and look out onto the superbly illustrated vistas that make up your first view of these cities. Or, if you're the less adventurous type, imagining opening your mailbox to find a postcard with one of these landscapes printed on the front, along with the phrase "Wish You Were Here!" Of course, which particular landscape is printed on your postcard might give a different tone to those words!

Illustration by Biagio d’Alessandro

Eleanor Ferron
Developer

Respect for the Past, Eyes on the Future!

Friday, December 1, 2017

When setting out to write Taldor, The First Empire, I found myself presented with a circumstance unlike any that I had previously undertaken: round up everything we've ever said about the nation of Taldor in the 10 years the Pathfinder campaign setting has been around, put all of that into a single cohesive document, make sure it's exciting and inspirational for readers, and lay the groundwork for a Pathfinder Adventure Path campaign that will take place entirely within the nation and deal with the inner workings of its government and long history. But if anyone could do it, I told myself in true Taldan fashion, it was me. Right?

The first major challenge was determining what tone we wanted to present Taldor with going forward, in part because we've been less than consistent on it in the past. Some sources made it out to be more like the Byzantine Empire, complete with laws dictating who could have a beard, while other sources described the court of Louis XIV, with nobles so incompetent that they couldn't even spell their own names correctly. The problem isn't with either presentation, but rather with the fact that there are a lot of fans of both sides of Taldor.

I spent much of PaizoCon 2017 chatting with the community about what they wanted out of the book, what they liked about Taldor, and what never seemed to make sense to them. The development team held a series of meetings wherein we broke down our own views of the nation and what we needed from it in the future, from NPCs, locations, and events to seed into the campaign setting for forthcoming adventures to even larger meta-plots. Then I took all of that and used it as a guideline when combing through the myriad bits we'd said about the Inner Sea's greatest nation to construct what would become the book itself.

Illustrations by Allison Theus, Mary Jane Pajaron, Raph Lomotan, and Katerina Kirillova

I'm incredibly proud of this book, and think the final result is one of the best entries in the illustrious Pathfinder Campaign Setting line. It will be headed to subscribers and game stores soon, and I look forward to hearing the what the community has to say. Check back next week, when I'll go over a few of the reasons why Taldor is the greatest nation in the Inner Sea, and enjoy these glorious illustrations as a preview of what Taldor, The First Empire has to offer.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager