<Incoming transmission from the Starfinder team… >

Hello, Starfinders!

The Starfinder Second Edition Playtest is ready for launch—but before we begin the countdown (t-minus two weeks and counting!) we’re sending out a transmission across the galaxy. The Pact Worlds needs those most celebrated heroes: playtesters! Are you ready to answer the call?

When the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Rulebook releases at GenCon 2024, we invite you to hop right into the action. Get your hands on the playtest rulebook, roll up some characters, and get playing! To support the playtest, we’ve got three tools waiting on standby! Download pre-generatedcharacters, play the demo at a convention, and purchase the Starfinder Playtest Scenarios!

Pre-generated characters (better known as pregens) are official sample characters available as a free download on starfinderplaytest.com. These pregens encompass all six of our playtest classes and are available at level 1 and level 5. Each pregen includes a character sheet and accompanying reference sheet which includes all the details a player needs to play that character. Our playtest pregens include: Navasi the human envoy, Chk Chk the shirren mystic, Iseph the android operative, Dae the pahtra solarian, Obozaya the vesk soldier, and Zemir the human witchwarper.

The Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Demo is a short, 45-minute to 1-hour demo adventure to be run at special events, including GenCon 2024! This demo adventure showcases the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest in a fun, engaging way. All players will use 1st-level pregens. So, grab your pregen and hop aboard a shuttle for Golarion World! That’s right! Excitable skittermander Novadorio needs your help to save his best friend, Prisma, from a group of vicious raiders infiltrating an unopened part of the amusement park! This delightful demo adventure uses Starfinder Flip-Mat: Amusement Park.

Novadorio, a skittermander whose friend is in peril!
Art by Ksenia Kozhevnikova

Ready for more adventure? Set course for Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Scenarios! Each Starfinder Playtest Scenario is a short, single-session adventure designed to be played in 2–3 hours and written by a member of the Starfinder Team. Participants in our Organized Play Programs should also download a copy of the Starfinder Playtest Sheet from starfinderplaytest.com to unlock additional rewards in our OP campaigns! (More information available here). Two Starfinder Playtest Scenarios release on August 1st, 2024, with one additional scenario releasing in late September and one in late October.

Starfinder Playtest Scenario #1: Shards of the Glass Planet is a first contact–themed adventure for 1st-level characters written by Mike Kimmel! In the wake of the Drift Crisis, the impenetrable energy field surrounding the planet Birnam’s Bubble is shattering, and shards of this solidified energy have begun to fall through the atmosphere to the planet’s surface, causing significant destruction. Enter the breach and uncover the secrets of the lost civilizations of Birnam’s Bubble before they're lost forever!

Starfinder Playtest Scenario #2: It Came from the Vast! is a horror-themed adventure for 5th-level characters written by Jessica Catalan! When the Xenowarden biomechanical starship Bloom is discovered careening uncontrolled through space, it’s up to a team of brave spacefarers to enter the starship and uncover the fate of its missing crew! The Bloom is haunted. That’s the least of your problems.

Starfinder Playtest Scenario #3: Wheel of Monsters is a combat-heavy adventure for 10th-level characters written by Dustin Knight! Step right up, come on down, and ready your laser pistols… You’re the next contestants on Zo!’s Wheel of Monsters, a thrilling game show that pits contestants in lethal combat against dangerous creatures collected from across the galaxy. Don’t worry, contestants, there’s a big prize if you make it out alive!

Starfinder Playtest Scenario #4: Rescue at Shimmerstone Mine is a rescue mission and dungeon delve for 15th-level characters written by Jenny Jarzabski! Meanwhile, in the Veskarium, inexplicable disasters and sudden riots are breaking out in shimmerstone mines all across the frigid planet of Vesk-8. While many corporations react with attempts to sweep these events under the metaphorical rug, Shim-Tek desperately seeks outside agents to visit their shimmerstone mine, investigate the disturbance, and rescue any imperiled miners still on site.

Famesworn, one of the many dangerous creatures you might face on the Wheel of Monsters!
Art by Max Roche

Of course, we’ve got a few other adventures waiting in the wings. (A Cosmic Birthday and Empires Devoured, anyone?). But that’s a blog for another day!

The website starfinderplaytest.com is the place to watch for news and information about the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest and feedback process. We’ll have more Starfinder Second Edition news—and the playtest itself—at GenCon 2024!

Happy playtesting!

—The Starfinder Team

It’s time to celebrate! Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: A Cosmic Birthday is the first full-length playtest module for Starfinder Second Edition, and it tells the story of a disastrous surge of eldritch energy that disrupts Absalom Station and threatens to throw a community into chaos! The player characters are going about their typical adventuring lives when they suddenly find themselves shunted to the Ghost Levels, a strange dimension filled with occult threats and mysteries. Can they find other survivors and escape the Ghost Levels? And, if they manage it, what will they find once they return to Absalom Station? Things aren’t going so well for the people of the Little Akiton district. The PCs have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to help the community back on its feet, learn the truth behind the strange power surges, and get things back to normal!

It wouldn’t be a very good cosmic birthday without a cosmic birthday party!
Illustration by Ivan Koritarev

Playing this adventure, you’ll not only be directly involved in a major event in the Starfinder setting, but you’ll have a chance to playtest characters (or GM encounters) using the brand new Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Rulebook! You’ll start by creating a level 1 PC, and you should reach level 4 by the end of the adventure—and we want to hear all about your play experiences! Keep an eye on the Starfinder Playtest website for more news about our playtest feedback surveys, which we’ll use to help fine tune the final version of the Starfinder Second Edition rules.

A space station gremlin is here to… help?
Illustration by Pixoloid Studios

A Cosmic Birthday, by Jenny Jarzabski, is an epic adventure that tells the story of our heroes as they battle occult horrors, explore the community of Little Akiton, investigate strange occurrences, and ultimately confront a dangerous cosmic being that threatens Absalom Station. This softcover adventure module takes PCs from 1st to 4th level and includes a mix of new and iconic Starfinder creatures, memorable characters, and bonus content related to the creation of a new core Starfinder deity: the Newborn.

Make your mark on Starfinder history by playing the adventure and participating in the feedback process. Happy birthday!

— The Starfinder Team

Hello again from the Starfinder team! With the launch of the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest right around the corner, it won’t be long until you can dive in, build characters, and try the new classes for yourself. Still, we couldn’t resist one last, brief glimpse into the sixth class from the Playtest Rulebook: we’re talking, of course, about the witchwarper!

Zemir, the iconic witchwarper
Art by Kent Hamilton

Witchwarpers are reality-bending spellcasters whose lives are defined by a paradoxical event that forever warped their existence. Origins in an alternate reality? A trip along a parallel timeline? A quantum experiment gone awry, or a malfunctioning alien device? The Gap itself? Whatever the cause, each witchwarper’s exposure to paradoxical reality has given them tremendous magic abilities.

Beyond affecting reality with mere spellcasting, witchwarpers can create a reality-warping quantum field. In another reality (which is to say, in Starfinder First Edition, insert wink emoji here), witchwarpers had to expend spell slots to use their reality-altering infinite worlds ability. Witchwarpers had to choose between altering reality through spells, or through infinite worlds. Later, in Starfinder Enhanced, the enhanced witchwarper gained additional spell slots to use for infinite worlds.

While a witchwarper’s spellcasting and quantum field are still mechanically intertwined, we’ve taken a new approach. In Starfinder Second Edition, witchwarpers can use the Warp Reality action as often as they want. This brings their quantum field into existence, and the effects of this quantum field depend on the paradox that defines the witchwarper’s magic power. Witchwarpers gain additional abilities through their paradox (and feat selections) that allow them to manipulate or interact with their quantum field, whether by moving it, applying additional zone effects to it, or targeting creatures inside it with reality-altering powers.

Of course, warping reality requires focus. While witchwarpers can create their quantum field as often as they like, they must Sustain it if they want it to stick around. Thankfully, witchwarpers have a new option at their disposal: abilities with the anchoring trait, such as a witchwarper’s focus spells, signature spells, and certain feats, automatically sustain the quantum field in addition to any other effects they may have.

If you think you’ve heard the concept of an “anchor” somewhere in Starfinder before—you’d be correct! An anchor was an important part of the time-bending precog class from Starfinder First Edition. Precog is part of the witchwarper class now—in fact, precog is one of the paradoxes you can choose for your witchwarper character! Anchors aren’t just for precogs anymore: every witchwarper has an anchor, which is a memory, concept, or object that keeps them grounded in true reality. A witchwarper can sustain their quantum field through a special “anchoring action” granted by their anchor, granting them greater flexibility from round to round, rather than forcing them to sustain their quantum field by casting specific anchoring spells. Witchwarpers can even gain the ability to anchor their quantum field through their Strikes!

Witchwarpers have a big impact. Conjuring zones of otherworldly darkness. Infusing spells with energy from another reality, or even borrowing spells and ancestry feats from other realities. Altering the flow of time. Erasing enemies from existence. When every reality is at your disposal, the possibilities are infinite.

We’re especially keen to receive your feedback on the witchwarper class, as it’s gone through multiple different realities during the course of development. The Starfinder Playtest site is the place to watch for news and info about the playtest and feedback process, and we’ll have more Starfinder Second Edition news at GenCon 2024. Which is to say—quite soon!

— The Starfinder Team

Hello everyone! Starfinder team here and ready to give you a sneak peek into Starfinder Second Edition by giving you a preview of the solarian class! We’re sure you can’t wait to playtest it yourself once the Starfinder Playtest Rulebookreleases this August, but in the meantime, read on!

Dae, the iconic solarian
Art by Kent Hamilton

Of course, we can’t talk about solarians without shining the spotlight on Dae, the new iconic solarian. In fact, Dae has already had their blog debut, and you can read all about them in our Meet the Iconics: Dae post from June. They’d appreciate it if you like, comment, and subscribe.

Solarians are solar knights who harness the powers of light and gravity to manifest powerful armaments in their quest to understand the cosmic forces of the universe.

Designing solarians for Starfinder Second Edition presented the team with an opportunity to reexamine the solarian toolset. In Starfinder First Edition, solarians had a key choice at first level when selecting whether their solar manifestation would be armor or a weapon. As the solarian leveled up, they chose stellar revelations, special powers they could use while attuned to gravitons or photons. Some powerful revelations could be used only if the solarian spent enough time building up their attunement points to become “fully attuned.” To match the mechanics to solarian beliefs about the cosmic cycle, First Edition solarians were encouraged to select an equal number of graviton and photon revelations.

With Starfinder Second Edition’s three-action economy in mind, the team took a new approach to solarians. We wanted the narrative of the Cycle to continue to match the mechanics while still offering solarians flexibility, both in their character build and in their round-by-round action economy. To that end, solarians in Second Edition don’t have to choose between armor or a weapon: from level 1, they can manifest a solar flare (ranged attack), solar nimbus(defensive reaction), and solar weapon (exactly what it sounds like—a melee attack). Each of these manifestations has a different function based on whether the solarian is graviton-attuned or photon-attuned.

So, what major choice do Second Edition solarians make at level 1? That’d be their solarian arrangement! All solarians have personal beliefs, practices, or training that cause them to gravitate (pun intended) toward a specific aspect of the Cycle, whether that’s gravitons, photons, or balance. This arrangement grants them revelations, which (like in First Edition) are special abilities that interact with the different states of attunement and, in many cases, interact with their targets’ Hit Point totals, enemy positioning, the solarian’s mobility, and so on.

Okay, so if solarians choose a solarian arrangement that focuses on gravitons, are they going to spend all their time attuned to gravitons? Doesn’t that go against the narrative of the “Cycle” and balance between stellar forces? This is where we’ve made what is possibly the biggest change to solarians: their attunement works differently now. Gone are the days of tracking attunement points: you’re either attuned to gravitons, photons, or neither. Furthermore, we’ve introduced a new type of ability: those with the cycle trait, which—you guessed it—cycle your attunement! Using a cycle ability while graviton-attuned means that you resolve that ability (applying any additional effects from being graviton-attuned), and then immediately become photon-attuned. If you want to be graviton-attuned again, you’ll need to use another cycle ability or take the Attune action, which attunes you to your favored attunement state. If you want to play a solarian who does lots of attunement swapping and has greater attunement flexibility, you’ll want the “balanced” solarian arrangement, because (among their other fun abilities) the Attune action lets you pick either graviton or photon!

This round-by-round decision-making process based on each ability’s unique attunement effects has played out quite well in both internal and public playtests, and we can’t wait for you to try it out. Players seem to enjoy the rush of cycling between graviton and photon attunement, and the “combos” they can create with a solarian’s abilities. You might not need to take the Attune action during combat at all if you’re intentional about how and when you use your cycle abilities, but if you really want to make an impact, you’ve got another exciting new type of ability: actions with the disharmony trait have a big effect, then completely end your attunement. You’ll need to spend an action to Attune again after using a disharmony ability—otherwise, you can’t manifest your solar shot, nimbus, or weapon. Then again, by that point, the battle might be over!

Okay, we’ve talked about the cool things solarians can do, but one big question we get a lot is how solarians will work as primarily melee-focused characters in an otherwise ranged-combat “meta.” We’ve mentioned their solar flare, a fun way to attack enemies at a short distance; it’s a great ability to fire off while closing the gap. Speaking of closing the gap, solarians have a plethora of options when it comes to battlefield positioning, whether that’s gaining a big speed boost or taking a more direct approach and moving enemies around with gravity powers. You might need to work a little harder than the sniper in your party when it comes to tactical positioning, but the cinematic combos you can pull off while getting into position will be a blast! If you’re worried about what might happen to your Hit Points while you’re moving in, you’ve got options there, too: Solar Shield, a level 1 feat, allows you to manifest a stellar shield that floats nearby. You’ll also likely have a decent AC and a fair number of Hit Points to rely on. Because your key attribute is Strength and the damage of your primary ranged attack (solar flare) uses Strength as well, you’ll likely be able to make room in your build for attribute boosts to Dexterity, Constitution, or both!

We’re excited to see what kinds of solarian builds you create during the playtest. In our own internal playtesting, we’ve built solarians who focus on big speed boosts to get in close and deal tons of damage, others who stay in the front lines to fight like a tank, and still others who pin enemies down as masters of battlefield control. Every solarian we’ve playtested has felt different. Most importantly, though, each of them has felt very much like a solarian.

Remember to keep an eye on the Starfinder Playtest site for more news and info about the playtest and feedback process. We’ll have lots more Starfinder Second Edition news to announce at GenCon 2024, when you’ll finally be able to purchase the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook (or download the free PDF)!

— The Starfinder Team

Chk Chk (he/him), formally named Chkoresk*, is no stranger to the galaxy’s perils. His father Keskodai was a traveling priest of Pharasma who wielded mystic powers. Keskodai carried baby Chk Chk in a fortified cradle-jar when he left his home on Verces to visit as many incredible worlds as possible—and experience even more incredible adventures. One such adventure got a little too incredible, smashing open Chk Chk’s container during an emergency landing. Fortunately, Chk Chk was safe, but Keskodai felt the existential dread of losing his child and realized it was time to return home and be with their loving throuple.

Chk Chk the Shirren Mystic. Art done by Kent Hamilton

Keskodai’s adventures and beliefs had a profound impact on the larval Chk Chk. As a child, the aesthetics and rituals of Pharasma’s faith awed him. As he grew older, he practiced his father’s faith but felt a restless yearning for something different (ironically, Chk Chk’s questioning mirrored his father’s adolescent rebellion many years ago). As Chk Chk stood on the cusp of self-discovery, the universe provided a brutal catalyst that would change his life forever.

When Aucturn exploded, every telepath under the Fullbright** sun suddenly lost control of their psychic projections. Every intrusive thought, destructive impulse, and damning secret became public as a mysterious psychic contagion spread. Chk Chk was sipping a cappuccino and shopping at the local market when he heard the screams. People all around him–some of them friends and neighbors–were screaming and venting their psychic stress or fighting each other with fists and makeshift weapons.

Panicked, Chk Chk began a prayer to the Lady of Graves but couldn’t recall the sacred words. Keskodai burst into the shop and Chk Chk felt the psychic whiplash of doubt and fear pouring from his father’s spirit. He felt Keskodai remember the pain of believing he’d lost his only child in the crash-landing long ago mixed with his current dread at seeing their neighbors wracked by fear and pain. Instead of resisting the intense feelings, Chk Chk embraced the emotional hemorrhage. As the pain washed over him, he mentally composed a poem. When someone tore the shop’s roof off, the harsh sun brought Chk Chk’s shadow into harsh relief. His shadow changed and spread, growing into tendrils that protected him and his father from the glaring sun. Chk Chk spoke another stanza, and soothing shadowy arms wrapped around his panicking neighbors. Thanks to Chk Chk’s unconventional prayer, the chaos calmed as quickly as it began.

That’s when Chk Chk realized there’s more to the soul’s journey than life and death. Destruction and creation, pain and healing, light and shadow–these dichotomies exist in every spirit. Chk Chk stayed up night after night studying philosophy, listening to music, and writing poetry in his sacred journal, driven to compose a pure expression of the beauty of contradicting unity.

Chk Chk broke his social isolation to join a group of artists he met at a nonstop café in Takoris. At first, Chk Chk got a job as a barista so he could attend the meetings without attracting attention. As he improved his skills at writing dark poetry and brewing dark roast (both topped with colorful sprinkles), Chk Chk gradually became the spiritual glue holding the group of misfit artists together. One night during a midnight jam, the group had a religious experience, feeling a surge of bliss as Zon-Shelyn Embraced them and their work. Zon-Shelyn called on Chk Chk to become their minister by nurturing creativity and creating a safe space for artists to gather. The tiny cafe was consecrated as one of Zon-Shelyn’s first temples (they still serve coffee), but Chk Chk was inspired by the idea of ministering in a new place, feeling the same wanderlust as his father before him.

With his father’s letter of recommendation in one hand and his poetry journal in the other, Chk Chk got an internship with the Starfinder Society at the busy Lorespire Complex. Being on Absalom Station expanded his social horizons, too. He found a new coffee shop to sling beans at, quickly meeting others who felt the Embrace of Zon-Shelyn. He learned how to use a painglaive from a sculptor who creates impressive wood carvings with the weapon.

Chk Chk met his best friend Dae at a pop-up dance party in the Vesk Quarter. The pair bonded the first time they met. Dae’s performance inspired Chk Chk to write a poem***. The poem didn’t do the dance justice, so Chk Chk tore the page from his notebook and threw it away, but Dae found the discarded poem, read it, and confronted its moody author. Now Chk Chk always wears the friendship bracelet Dae gave him. Since meeting Dae, Chk Chk’s opened up about sharing his art with others—you can read part of one of his poems below!

*Chk Chk only lets members of his mystic bond call him Chkoresk, and usually prefers Chk Chk. After all, Chkoresk is the full name his family used when discussing serious or unpleasant matters.

**Fullbright is the scorching, rural desert region of the tidally locked planet Verces. Chk Chk’s family lives in a shaded encampment in Fullbright.

***The following is a part of the poem Chk Chk wrote after dancing with Dae.

A prismatic kaleidoscope burns the shadow patchwork wrapped around my heart.

We are dancing lights that shine within a cold and empty void, eternal.

Will your searing brilliance chase away my shadows?

Or will your light be eclipsed by my spirit’s umbral shroud?

Your warm silhouette reaches for my neck,

Only to wipe away my bloody tears.

— The Starfinder Team
-Thurston Hillman, Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
-Jenny Jarzabski, Senior Developer
-Jessica Catalan, Senior Developer (Starfinder Society)
-Dustin Knight, Developer
-Mike Kimmel, Developer

The Starfinder Second Edition Playtest is set to launch midsummer at GenCon 2024! Full details about this open playtest, which is focused on the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook, will be announced in July 2024. Six Starfinder Second Edition adventures will be released to support the playtest, including two softcover adventures* and four short digital-only scenarios**.

We’ve written each playtest adventure and playtest scenario to be like the adventures you’ve come to love from Paizo. They feature narratives and encounters that showcase how we can use the new Second Edition rules to create evocative stories in the Starfinder setting. These include all-new art and major setting events, and it’s our hope that these adventures remain relevant long after our playtest is over and we’re well into the new edition.

That said, these adventures are not specifically built for Organized Play. So how does Organized Play fit into all of this?

So happy you asked!

Illustration by Sophie Medvedeva

When the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest launches, visit starfinderplaytest.com and download the Starfinder Playtest Tracking Sheet. Each time you play one of the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventures or Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Scenarios listed on this sheet, check off the associated box. By checking off these boxes, you’ll unlock rewards in our Organized Play campaigns! Earn Achievement Points in Starfinder Society (first edition), gain access to exciting alien ancestries from the wider galaxy in Starfinder Society (first edition) and Pathfinder Society (second edition), and gain access to campaign-exclusive backgrounds themed to the events of these adventures in Starfinder Society (second edition). No need to select which rewards you want most—you get them all!

For the purpose of Starfinder Society (first edition), these adventures are considered repeatable, meaning players and GMs will earn Achievement Points every time they play or run them. Characters do not earn in-game rewards such as credits or XP for these adventures.

We hope this encourages players engaged in our Organized Play campaigns to enjoy these adventures and to participate in the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest!

I look forward to charting our course into the future with all of you!

Jessica Catalan
Senior Developer (Starfinder Society)

* Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: A Cosmic Birthday and Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: Empires Devoured.

** Starfinder Playtest Scenario #1: Shards of the Glass Planet, Starfinder Playtest Scenario #2: It Came from the Vast!, Starfinder Playtest Scenario #3: Wheel of Monsters, and Starfinder Playtest Scenario #4: Rescue at Shimmerstone Mine.

Hail and well met, ’Finders! It’s that time of year again—Free RPG Day is just around the corner! Paizo is excited to once again be participating in Free RPG Day and supporting FLGS around the world!

This year, Paizo is offering a Pathfinder one-shot adventure and a collection of preview creatures for the Starfinder Playtest!

Pathfinder Adventure: The Great Toy Heist

DON’T TOY WITH US!

There’s always someone up to no good in the Chelaxian capital of Egorian, and this time it hits a little too close to home! A corrupt banker discovered there was something magical about The Terrific Toyshop beyond just the magnificent creations within. Greedy and unprincipled, this wealthy noble found a loophole in the diabolically complicated laws of the city and exploited it to seize the deed to the toyshop and threaten to boot the toy maker and his lovely creations out on the streets. What are sentient toys to do in the face of such reprehensible actions? Break in and steal the deed back, of course!

In The Great Toy Heist, you take on the role of one of four unique poppets—living toys with strong wills of their own. While your gentle creator is beside himself with worry, you and your friends enact a risky plan to save your home and livelihoods with stealth, subterfuge, and no shortage of luck!

Starfinder Second Contact

THE EVOLUTION STARTS HERE

Experience the evolution of the Starfinder roleplaying game with over a dozen iconic creatures fully compatible with the upcoming playtest and your existing Pathfinder roleplaying game campaigns! Inside you’ll find friends and foes, ranging from the whimsical asteray to the classic cybernetic zombie. This dossier also includes previews of spells, weapons, and even a squox companion to help you face extraterrestrial threats. Get started today and prepare your players for out-of-this-world adventure in the second edition of the Starfinder roleplaying game!

Free RPG Day takes place on Saturday, June 22^nd, 2024.
Find a participating retailer near you: https://freerpgday.com/gamers

Welcome to the fifth Starfinder Second Edition Field Test!

The Starfinder Second Edition Playtest is coming soon—but for some, August isn’t nearly soon enough! To give you some insight into the process of creating a new edition of Starfinder, the Starfinder team has released four Field Tests so far. These small snapshots of our work in progress have previewed three classes (the envoy, mystic, and soldier) as well as new ancestries. For our fifth Field Test, we’re doing something a bit different: encounters! So, it’s time to make some Starfinder characters, if you haven’t already. These Corpse Fleet raiders and Aeon Guard soldiers aren’t going to fight themselves! (However entertaining that would be…)

Who needs regular zombies when we’ve got cybernetic zombies?
Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

Field Test #5 includes two encounters, one for 1st-level characters and one for 5th-level characters. Each encounter includes everything a GM needs to throw their party right into the action: a basic narrative setup, a battle map, multiple enemy stat blocks, and enemy tactics. We’ve even included the text of our new weapon traits so you know how the enemies’ weapons work, and some discussion of our encounter design principles so you can see what we’re going for.

The first encounter tasks the player characters with defending a data center from Corpse Fleet privateers. If the initial encounter isn’t enough for you, there’s a bonus stat block for groups who want an extra challenge against a tough enemy! (Spoiler alert: some of you may die.)

This Aeon Guard trooper wants you to make a character. For target practice.
Illustration by Roberto Pitturru

You’ll need 5th-level characters for the second encounter, which pits the player characters against a group of Aeon Guard troopers. Careful! Rumor has it that they’ve got some sort of ferocious beast protecting them. I’m sure it’ll be fine, though. You’re going to make an amazing Field Test character. And they totally absolutely won’t die. Definitely not!

In all seriousness, please feel free to use this content in whatever way you like. The Field Tests are only snapshots, and we realize that you can’t really create a full Starfinder party yet, unless you double up on some of the classes we’ve previewed so far. That’s okay! This content is meant as a preview. Have fun with it. Mix it up. Maybe give enemy stat blocks to the players and let them play out a Corpse Fleet vs. Aeon Guard battle royale!

What’s next? When’s the playtest?!
It’s only a few short months until Gen Con 2024, when we’ll officially be releasing the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook! The PDF of the rulebook will be a free download, and you’ll also have the option of buying a softcover print book if you prefer a physical format for your playtest rules! We’re printing a limited quantity, so if you want a piece of Starfinder history, consider grabbing a copy.

Along with the rulebook, we’re releasing two playtest scenarios (Shards of the Glass Planet and It Came from the Vast! ) and a full 64-page module, A Cosmic Birthday , filled with more encounters and lore. Watch this space for news about more scenarios and another adventure module releasing in the following months. Finally, on June 22, 2024, you can pick up even more free Starfinder Second Edition Playtest stat blocks in our Free RPG Dayproduct!

I’m sure you can’t wait to make characters, play the adventures, and provide playtest feedback. We’re not quite there yet—but we will be soon! In the meantime, check starfinderplaytest.com for the latest news and information about Starfinder Second Edition, enjoy Field Test #5, and be sure to check out our Starfinder panels and play some games at PaizoCon Online 2024! (Alas, we don’t have an entire panel dedicated to the many benefits of making attack rolls against Aeon Guards, but it’s on our bucket list.)

Starfinder PaizoCon Panels

Friday 5/24
Keynote: 10–12 p.m. (PST)
Starfinder Second Edition: 12–1 p.m. (PST)
StarFriends Live Playtest Extreme!!: 4–6 p.m. (PST)

Saturday 5/25
Transitions from Starfinder First Edition to Second Edition: 12–1 p.m. (PST)

Sunday 5/26
Mechageddon!: 4–6 p.m. (PST)

Download Starfinder Field Test #5

— The Starfinder Team

-Thurston Hillman, Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
-Jenny Jarzabski, Senior Developer
-Dustin Knight, Developer
-Jessica Catalan, Starfinder Society Developer
-Mike Kimmel, Developer

Welcome to the fourth Starfinder Second Edition Field Test!

As the Starfinder team prepares for the launch of the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest later this summer, we’re releasing small snapshots of our work in progress. So far, we’ve previewed the soldier class, a couple of ancestries, and the mystic. Be sure to check out those Field Tests if you haven’t already! We appreciate all the discussion and hype around the Field Tests, which energizes and motivates our creative processes even more than coffee does (if you can believe it).

Speaking of motivation, Field Test #4 previews Starfinder’s “team player” and “party leader” class, the envoy! Inside, you’ll find our thoughts on the envoy’s role and capabilities, and an alpha version of the first 5 levels of the class, just like our earlier class previews. While you may have seen the envoy in action during the Starfinder team’s livestream playtest in October, or perhaps you were lucky enough to play a demo at a recent convention, this is your chance to see the actual draft of the class!

Oh, and did I mention new art? I’m sure you’ve met our iconic envoy, Navasi!

llustration by Kent Hamilton
The Iconic envoy, Navasi, is ready for the field test!

So, what’s the envoy all about? They’re a Charisma-based class, and the Starfinder team generally thinks of envoys as “support” characters, though they’re quite likely to play a leadership role, whether as a mover and shaker in your campaign, as a “party leader” or “face” for the rest of the player characters, or all the above! For envoys in Second Edition, we’re trying a brand new mechanic in the form of “envoy directives.” These abilities—some of which you get automatically, and others which you can select as envoy feats—give some direction to the envoy’s allies and grant the envoy and their allies a small benefit for following through on the orders. Directives have a variety of uses, from singling out targets with “Get ‘Em!” to hustling the team into a better tactical position with “Get in There!” Envoys can also “lead by example,” following their own directive to grant everyone an additional bonus for the round. Combined with numerous other feats that grant envoys combat options (like doling out temporary Hit Points, buffs, and debuffs), the ability to wield awesome sci-fi weapons, and several unique reactions, envoys have a satisfying and flexible action economy. Every team will be happy to have an envoy along, and your ability to build an envoy character to fit a variety of party roles means your envoy will always have a team to call their own!

Illustration by Alexey Chernik
Navasi lends a helping hand at a diner.

Envoys must be ready for anything, from performing community service to battling whatever horrifying creatures Thurston decides to throw at the rest of the team during internal playtests! So far, we think envoys are a blast to play. They almost always have time to get into a good position on the battlefield while consistently dishing out damage, granting benefits to their allies, and tackling unexpected situations with their variety of skills and adaptive skill feats. Sometimes a single turn for an envoy has a major impact on a fight, such as by repositioning the entire team after a nasty ambush. We’d love your feedback on how envoys play at your table, especially in different team compositions—or with multiple envoys in the same party!

So, what’re you waiting for? Get in there and read that field test! Finally, if you’re hoping to catch more snippets of the playtest, stay tuned for announcements about future playtest livestreams. We’ve still got more to show you between now and the playtest release at GenCon!

— The Starfinder Team

-Thurston Hillman, Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
-Jenny Jarzabski, Senior Developer
-Dustin Knight, Developer
-Jessica Catalan, Starfinder Society Developer
-Mike Kimmel, Developer

Download The Fourth Starfinder Field Test Here!

The Starfinder Second Edition Playtest products revealed.

Hello everyone! As some astute fans have already noticed, we’ve uploaded the first products related to the upcoming Starfinder Second Edition Playtest. For those of you who’d like to learn more, the team thought it wise to provide additional context on what to expect!

Illustration by Kent Hamilton

The first product we’ve announced is the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook. This 264-page softcover playtest book contains a figurative ton of new Starfinder content using the Pathfinder Second Edition rules as a foundation. You’ll notice right away that this book requires the use of Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core. The reason for this is because we wanted to provide as much new content as possible without reprinting massive sections of rules that already exist in Pathfinder rulebooks and on our online PRD at Archives of Nethys. All relevant rules will be reprinted in full for our 2025 release.

Inside this rulebook, you’ll find six classes (including the Envoy, Mystic, Operative, Solarian, Soldier, and Witchwarper)*, new ancestries, new feats, new spells, a new equipment system, and more! The idea is to provide as many tools as possible for a Starfinder game, along with some of the new systems and tweaks necessary for running a science-fantasy game. When 2025 rolls around, we’ll be splitting this content (and more) into appropriate player- and GM-facing books. Please note, the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook will not have any special edition covers or hardback editions and is intended to be released as a softcover book. The PDF for this product will be made freely available at launch.

While many of you have heard about the playtest rulebook already, you probably haven’t heard about our playtest modules and the associated flip-mat. So, let’s talk about those!

Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: A Cosmic Birthday, written by Paizo senior developer Jenny Jarzabski, is the first of two playtest adventures that we’ll be releasing during the playtest window. This adventure takes place on Absalom Station and is meant to introduce new 1st-level characters to the setting of Starfinder. You’ll explore the station as a setting-shattering event occurs: the hatching of the planet Aucturn and the emergence of a new deity into the Starfinder core pantheon! We’ll have SO much more to share about this in the coming months!**

Illustration by Ignacio Bazán Lazcano

Our similarly announced Starfinder Flip-Mat: Second Edition Playtest Multi-Pack also has a bit of a spoiler which we’ll talk BRIEFLY about…

Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: Empires Devoured (product page coming soon!) is our second and final playtest adventure. Written by Thurston Hillman (that’s me!), this 10th-level adventure takes place on the distant world of Kehtaria during the signing of a historic peace accord between two galactic superpowers…let’s just say that things don’t go entirely as planned.

We’ve written each playtest adventure to be like the adventures you’ve come to love from Paizo. These won’t involve slogging out wave-based encounters to stress test combat, but instead, they’ll have narratives and encounters that showcase how we can use the new Second Edition rules to create evocative stories in the Starfinder setting. These include all-new art and major setting events, and it’s our hope that these adventures remain relevant long after our playtest is over and we’re well into the new edition—after all, we need to know where your character was when Aucturn hatched!

Again, we’ll have SO much more to explain in the coming months about all these products. For now, enjoy a quick art preview of what to expect in Empires Devoured…

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

Thurston Hillman
Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)

*Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten the Technomancer and Mechanic and will share our plans as soon as we can!

**You might even get some early hints if you’re involved in Starfinder Society Organized Play…

Here’s a look behind the scenes at our PAX Unplugged demo!

Hiya, it’s me Jenny Jarzabski (Senior Developer) reporting in from the field! I got to spread some Veskmas cheer by running the playtest demo at Pax Unplugged, and I’m here to tell you all about it! This playtest is an encounter designed to test out some of the basic rules of Starfinder Second Edition. Reading on might spoil the demo’s content, so for those of you planning to attend Owlcon (in February) or Norwescon (in March) where some Starfinder team members might be running this demo, you’ve been warned!

Here’s Jenny GMing for one of many amazing demo tables at PAXU!

PAXU Demo
Map: Starfinder Flip-Mat: Mining Operation
Character Level: 3rd

The goal of this demo was to test out what we’ve been working on internally with a wider pool of players and see some early reactions from the community. I won’t be going into extreme detail about everything we tested in the demo, especially since some of those rules may have changed after we implemented feedback and prepared the Playtest Rulebook for the printer over the past two weeks! If you want the full experience, you’ll have to find me or one of my teammates at an upcoming convention or wait for the next batch of demos we’ll no doubt be cooking up for GenCon!

Players chose from the following premade characters:

• Envoy
• Mystic
• Operative
• Solarian

The Fight
The players approached from the north of a seemingly abandoned mining site strewn with cranes, vehicles, crates, and other large objects providing that sweet, sweet cover. A massive pit in the center of the map created an obstacle for characters favoring melee combat styles. But these lucky gamers were playing a game that favors ranged combat (YEEHAW!) so they all had a ranged damage option in the form of guns! Pew pew pew! Even so, some attacks and abilities perform better in closer quarters. The solarian’s playstyle focuses on getting close to enemies and hitting them with powerful attacks from their solar weapons, and some of the mystic’s spells don’t work from too far away—so not everyone thought it was a good idea to camp out at the edge of the map behind the safety of cover. (Just the operative. Always. So tacticool.)

As the players investigated the mine, a trio of pirates popped out from behind cover and fired the first shots of the battle. These pirates were packing guns of their own—machine guns! This meant they could shoot from a distance or get close and unleash a rain of bullets on multiple targets with automatic fire. The pirates’ tactics were to shoot once from a distance, then move in and switch to spraying auto-fire to pew pew as many of their enemies as possible.

Tactics and Playtesting
Changing the pirates’ tactics changed the encounter. I experimented with some different tactics and eventually settled into a routine of two pirates following their normal tactics, while a third perched behind a toolchest (cover) on top of the crane. Sometimes, it was like running two battles in one: a sniper fight between crane guy and the operative, and the chaos of machine gun space pirates versus everyone else. Other times, the players disrupted this setup—they gravity welled crane guy off his perch, attacked him with his own shadow, and more! Poor crane guy!

The point is, different groups always used different tactics. Patterns emerged, of course. Generally, the operative hung back and kept in cover while sniping, while the mystic slung spells and pew pew’d from a medium distance. Sometimes the mystic even got into melee and used their painglaive to share their emotions with the enemy on a more personal level. The solarian usually charged into battle, either going after the sniper (RIP crane guy) and using abilities to try to drag him off his perch or intercepting the gunners on their way toward the party. The envoy had a lot of choices between shooting and giving directives like Get in There! to boost everyone’s speed, or Kiss It Better to “heal” someone with temporary HP. No two groups I GM’d for used exactly the same combination of actions. Considering each premade character only contained a snapshot of the rules we’ll be playtesting later this year, you should expect a lot of fun choices when you build your first playtest characters.

A Note About Pregens
he StarFriends (as we members of the Starfinder team call ourselves) each designed one of the premade characters available for the demo. Dustin created the mystic, Jessica whipped up an envoy, Mike crafted a solarian, and Jenny built an operative. Thursty designed the encounter, so we gave the boss a pass this time!

Here’s Jenny CRITTING that amazing demo table! Oh no!

Bonus Encounter
If the players ROFLstomped the pirates, say with a string of crits, the demo had a second encounter loaded in the chamber so the demo wouldn’t run disappointingly short. A fourth pirate gunner and his hacked robot ally emerged from a building and attacked the party right after they defeated the pirates. The robot advanced and went pew pew pew with its laser rifle while the pirate crept up behind it, using her hacked tank-bot as mobile cover until she reached spray-and-pray range. The robot might power down at half HP or use its healing nanites to keep fighting longer, depending on the group. Only a handful of groups played the bonus encounter, including the Cosmic Critters. More about that in a minute.

A Veskmas Miracle
Playing games with nufriends in the community is always a great time. Thanks to all you gamers at PAX: Unplugged who wandered over to the Paizo tables to try Starfinder 2. Thank you to the GMs who volunteered their time to run demo tables—y’all are some space badasses!

Speaking of space badasses, in addition to the public playtests, I had the honor of playing the demo with the wonderful casts of Atomless, Cosmic Crit, and No Quest for the Wicked. They really kept me on my toes with their rolls and roleplay. You can listen to the Cosmic Critmas demo here; my sessions with Atomless and No Quest are coming soon!

But I Want More!
Do you want more teasers about the playtest rules? Are you looking for spoilers before release? Interested in more detailed notes about our internal playtesting? Stay tuned to this space for more news from the StarFriends SOON™!

Jenny Jarzabski
Senior Developer (Starfinder)

Happy New Year! Welcome to the exciting reveal of our third Starfinder Second Edition Field Test.

It’s a new year and a new Field Test release! The Field Tests include early, behind-the-scenes previews of rules the Starfinder development team is playtesting internally in preparation for the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook release later this year. Our latest offering includes a preview of two ancestries appearing in the Playtest Rulebook, as chosen by community vote. We’re excited to announce the winners of that vote and the ancestries we’ll be featuring in today’s Field Test: the android and vesk!

Ancestries are the updated version of what were known as species (also called races in older products) in Starfinder First Edition. Ancestries are an important part of Starfinder’s “cantina feel,” a term referring to the sci-fi trope of a spaceport bar packed with all kinds of aliens. In this context, it means players get to create and play as alien characters, and every planet or space station in the setting is teeming with weird and wonderful sapient lifeforms that player characters might interact with. Our goal is to keep the cantina open, so to speak, while we update existing Starfinder ancestries to be compatible with the new edition. 

Starfinder ancestries might look familiar to those of you who play Pathfinder Second Edition. Starfinder First Edition players might notice the new ancestries are a bit of a departure from what you’re used to, but don’t panic! In Starfinder Second Edition, each ancestry entry includes more content than the small sidebar allotted to them in Starfinder First Edition.

In existing Starfinder books, you’ll often see a species boiled down to a list of statistics with a handful of abilities. Presenting species this way allowed the Starfinder team to introduce many playable options right away, but there was little players could do to define their character’s progression—via their species—beyond the initial selection. In some specific cases, a species was so numerically superior that they were the obvious “best” choices (we’re looking at you, SROs!). This was fantastic for certain players but didn’t always reward players interested in exploring different options. In the new edition of Starfinder, we want to create deeper meaning and context for ancestries that you’re going to play or feature in your campaigns. This means including more space for narrative lore related to each ancestry and information on how it fits into the setting, as well as progression-based selections to help further customize a character of that ancestry.

In addition to a set of starting adjustments and abilities, ancestries in Second Edition get access to ancestry feats. A character gains an ancestry feat at 1st level and then another at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th-level. Ancestry feats explore different paths within each ancestry and grant more powerful abilities as a character progresses—allowing you to customize your character beyond what was possible in Starfinder First Edition. The team’s been experimenting with some interesting new options, like expanding lashunta psychic powers or introducing a type of shirren that grows wings!

Illustration by Sophie Mendev

Today’s Field Test focuses on the constructed androids and the reptilian vesk. Androids and vesk are both staple ancestries in Starfinder, but each represents a very different part of the design spectrum. Androids already exist in Pathfinder Second Edition (see Pathfinder Lost Omens: Ancestry Guide), so the Starfinder team updated the ancestry to be compatible with the “ancient androids” who once walked lost Golarion while creating new options to represent the changes in culture and technology that separate the Starfinder setting from its distant past.

Meanwhile, vesk is an ancestry that’s never appeared in Pathfinder Second Edition, giving us a blank canvas to work with. Our intent was to keep the spirit of the First Edition vesk while exploring new build types, from movement-based shenanigans to different forms of natural melee attacks, and more.

The team is excited to see what you think of our initial foray into ancestry design for the new edition. We also strongly suggest you read the foreword in this document, which may reveal some important news related to what ancestries you can expect to see in the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook releasing this summer!

Stay tuned for our upcoming Paizo Live! where members of the Starfinder team will further discuss the Field Test, as well as give more hints about what we have planned for the new edition of Starfinder.

— The Starfinder Team

-Thurston Hillman, Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
-Jenny Jarzabski, Senior Developer
-Dustin Knight, Developer
-Jessica Catalan, Starfinder Society Developer
-Mike Kimmel, Developer

Howdy, everyone! It’s the Starfinder team reporting in. We got a lot of great data from our recently streamed playtest as well as from comments you’ve sent in on our past Field Tests. We’ve enjoyed sharing these experiences with you. Right now, we need your help to decide the content for our third Starfinder Second Edition Field Test.

If you didn’t already know, we’re creating a new edition of Starfinder, with an open playtest scheduled to begin next year. We’ve released two snapshots of some new rules we’re testing internally as early previews called Field Tests, and we’re looking to release our third preview.

Field Test #3 will include a preview of two Starfinder Second Edition ancestries. We know how important the cantina feel is to the Starfinder community, and we agree that having a plethora of playable alien ancestries is a core part of the game. There are MANY options to choose from and we all have our personal favorites, but we’ve decided to start with the ones that resonate most with the Starfinder community. To that end, we’d like to invite you to vote on which ancestries you would most like to see covered by our upcoming Field Test.

Follow the link HERE to vote for your top 2 ancestries or versatile heritages. The two with the most votes will appear in Field Test #3, releasing January 2024. Please choose from the following options:

Android: Androids are synthetic beings with souls. Most androids look like humans with glowing circuitry beneath their skin.

Barathu: Barathus are floating beings that evolved on the gas giant Bretheda. They rewrite their own genetic code instinctively, shaping their bodies into bizarre forms.

Human: Humans are adaptable, ambitious, and endlessly curious. Originally from lost Golarion, they maintain a robust presence across the galaxy.

Kasatha: Kasathas are four-armed humanoids steeped in the ancient traditions of a distant homeworld orbiting a dying star.

Lashunta: Lashuntas are psychic humanoids who live on Castrovel. Lashuntas evolved a unique dimorphism, choosing whether they grow up to be burly, athletic korashas or graceful, willowy damayas.

Pahtra: Pahtras are a humanoid feline species from Pulonis, known for their achievements in magic, music, and war.

Shirren: Shirrens are a psychic insectile ancestry who split from the Swarm to end a cycle of stellar war and pursue their own identities.

Vesk: Vesk are a warmongering reptilian people who conquered the eight worlds in their solar system shortly after they developed spaceflight. They have claws, scales, and powerful tails.

Ysoki: Once known as ratfolk, ysoki thrive on countless worlds thanks to their flexibility, cleverness, and willingness to accomplish tough tasks.

Borai (Versatile Heritage): A borai is an undead soul possessing a living body. Most borai are created by botched resurrection attempts, necromantic experimentation, or stubborn spirits refusing to die easily.

Prismeni (Versatile Heritage): A prismeni is suffused with the energy of the Drift, a recently discovered hyperspace plane. They are spiritual kin to the spectra who call the Drift home.

Don’t forget to vote for your top two choices here, and bookmark this page for news about Starfinder 2E! We look forward to hearing about your favorite ancestries and versatile heritages. Voting will close on November 15^th.

— The Starfinder Team

-Thurston Hillman, Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
-Jenny Jarzabski, Senior Developer
-Dustin Knight, Developer
-Jessica Catalan, Starfinder Society Developer
-Mike Kimmel, Developer

Cast Your Vote Here!

Starfinder releases its second Field Test!
Hey everyone! Welcome to the exciting reveal of our second Starfinder Second Edition Field Test.

If you didn’t already know, there's a new edition of Starfinder on the way. We’ve previously released a Field Test document that highlighted a work-in-progress snapshot of the new soldier class, plus some new firearms. Today we’re taking a similar approach and releasing the first five levels of the new mystic class, along with a handful of Starfinder 2e spells.

Concept Sketches by Kent Hamilton

Mystic is a class that we’re really interested in getting more feedback on. As a spontaneous caster, its connections currently give it access to the divine and primal traditions. However, regardless of the chosen connection, the mystic gains powerful healing in the form of its vitality network ability. Mystics can further customize how they use their vitality network through their connection and feat choices, but you’ll have to download the Field Test to learn more!

In our playtests, the mystic has been exceptionally efficient as a healer, in part because its powerful vitality network ability has the potential to restore large sums of Hit Points as a single action. However, the mystic is also a class that manages its resources, either doling out Hit Points in smaller chunks or saving up for a big heal that depletes the vitality network entirely. We found that in challenging encounters, the mystic might easily deplete their vitality network and need to decide whether or not keeping allies alive at low Hit Points is worth the risk.

This new rendition of the mystic relies on its connection and forming bonds with fellow party members. It shares a lot of the same design space as the First Edition mystic, just reworked to fit the Second Edition engine and to mesh in a broader sense with the setting. We’re taking some steps to allow for mystics to be more directly connected to deities, which wasn’t entirely possible in the past. This means that a player can create a mystic character who is a priest or follower of a deity and gain many of the same benefits that a cleric might enjoy. Don’t worry, mystics won’t be required to worship a deity.

Along with the mystic, we’re also including some new spells for everyone to check over. Some of these are spells we mentioned in our prior Field Test, now with actual stats included. In addition, we’ve included some fun thematic spells like doom scroll and motivating ringtone, which really show what Starfinder has to offer in terms of a truly different type of spellcasting—not to mention the modern and futuristic themes we want to explore with our new rules. As always, we’re excited to see fan feedback on our work and can’t wait to see the thoughts people share with us in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned for our upcoming Paizo Live, where members of the Starfinder team will further discuss the Field Test, as well as give some hints on exciting up-and-coming content for the new edition of Starfinder.

— The Starfinder Team

-Thurston Hillman, Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
-Jenny Jarzabski, Senior Developer
-Dustin Knight, Developer
-Jessica Catalan, Starfinder Society Developer

Here’s a look behind the scenes at Paizo’s internal playtests.

Welcome to the second blog following up on the recent announcement of Starfinder Second Edition. You can read the first blog here!

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Thurston Hillman, the Managing Creative Director for Starfinder. Basically, that means that I guide the creative vision for the Starfinder brand, while also managing the great folks who work on the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Today, as we continue our open playtest experience, I wanted to give you a behind-the-scenes look at some of the internal playtesting we’ve been doing here at Paizo!

As a heads up, the playtests I’m talking about here took place before our Gen Con announcement, so I’m sure the online discourse about the new edition has already been buzzing. Sorry I can’t capitalize on any memes yet.

So up until this point, the team had been doing some immediate stress tests of new classes under the GMing stewardship of our Director of Game Design, Jason Bulmahn. These involved some themed adventures about a starship that went too cloze to the Horizon of an Event, or a deadly jungle encounter where we learned the creature hunting us could bleed and so we could kill it. The playtests we’re reviewing here take place after those, bypassing some of our rockier initial class design, and instead focused on exploring some other aspects of Starfinder in a new game engine.

Playtest #2: Blackpowder Guns in My Space Adventure?!

Map:Starfinder Flip-Mat: Drift Crisis
Character Level: 5th

This second playtest, once again GM’d by myself and attended by the same group of PCs, happened a week after the previous test and involved a SPECIAL MYSTERY GUEST. The goal of the second playtest was to test out some issues we’d discovered in our prior playtests. We also decided to add a guest player:

• Gunslinger: Michael Sayre (Pathfinder Rules & Lore Manager)

Yes, today’s test was to see how a Pathfinder gunslinger (from Guns & Gears) would operate in a Starfinder party and get a sense of the relative playstyles and power levels. Michael was gracious enough to give us a few hours of his time and bring in his esteemed character, Griestly Peppercorn, a Way of the Sniper gunslinger to work alongside Jessica’s operative sniper. Also, Griestly had heard that we were “fightin’ space fascists” and suddenly travelled through time to help. Just normal Starfinder things.

This fight had the PCs travelling through relatively narrow 10-foot hallways and engaging in some medium to long-range firefights with more of the Aeon Guard. The first encounter involved battling yet more Aeon Guard troops with laser rifles, though this time they were supported by a hovering drone.

The players deployed really strong tactics, with the soldier once again providing some mobile cover and firing area weapons to suppress foes. The mystic used their Song connection ability to provide an Inspire Courage-esque buff to the group, and the witchwarper tossed in damage spells while using their aura to provide a speed buff to allies starting inside their aura. The operative had some middling rolls this playtest game, but still managed to provide long-range support in the form of consistent damage and occasional debuffs (like a very useful clumsy condition that stacked well with a lot of other effects going on).

Then there was the gunslinger. I don’t know about y’all, but I think this Pathfinder game has some really powerful classes. They might need to look at how they balance things over on that side of the digital cubicle. 😉

OK, maybe it’s just me being a bit salty, because Michael’s gunslinger opened with a critical of 31 damage against the Aeon Guard drone. This explosive opening was then followed by the gunslinger using the Soldier as mobile cover to perform a covering reload and then unleashing more shots into the drone, which quickly ended it. Then on his next turn, a follow-up charge with a bayonet into close melee (something the operative avoided doing as they stayed back to take long-range shots) put the gunslinger in the thick of things and provided an opportunity to deal out a 47 damage critical on a backshot against one of the troops. With the drone down, the remaining Aeon Guards didn’t really stand much of a chance against the party’s onslaught.

That’s when I pulled out the big guns and went right into the next encounter, with only a few rounds of rest in-between. The next fight opened with an immense Aeon Guard robot, which trundled down the halls and fired a line weapon that dealt 25 damage to both casters and 50 to the soldier. For reference, our witchwarper had 36 Hit Points total, and the soldier only had 83. Area of effect weapons will be common in Starfinder, and positioning is going to be key.

Then Michael decided his anachronistic gunslinger needed to crit again. Half of the robot’s health disappeared. I’m not bitter. No, not me. Never.

At this point, the team had started reconsidering our earlier assessment that the operative might be overtuned, based on the gunslinger’s sheer damage output and ability to take multiple shots in a round—Starfinder sniper weapons currently have an unwieldy trait that prevents repeated firing each round, giving them the feel of really meaty single shot weapons that you want to plan your turn around.

But then, Michael got greedy. He fired again. He misfired. Goodbye, arquebus.

Suddenly, the whole combat dynamic shifted as the fight became a struggle for life and death as the spellcasters tried to work out how to best handle the robot. For reference, the Aeon Guard robot was essentially a retooled golem statblock that replaced magic immunity with a 40-foot line ice gun it could fire with two actions. This necessitated some tactics of hiding in hall alcoves and positioning farther away to avoid being hit, in the operative’s case.

After taking out the supporting Aeon Guards, the group turned their attention to the robot, who had now cut the gunslinger off from the others and had him in a corner. As a massive fangblade bore down on the poor time-displaced gunslinger, my dice betrayed me, and I landed two critical misses and a miss. This stay of execution gave the team all the time they needed to bring their arsenal of abilities online and take the robot down with a stream of constant (albeit resistance-reduced) damage and debuffs.

One standout moment of the session played out a few rounds before this, as the gunslinger took a blow from the robot and was in desperate need of healing, but the mystic’s vitality network was tapped out. Luckily, the mystic had a spell just for that: motivating ringtone. This in-testing spell currently works akin to the soothe spell, but it plays off the mystic ringing your comm unit and causing an uplifting tune to play that restores Hit Points and provides a save bonus as long as the song continues. Sadly, there was one problem with this strategy for our time-travelling friend, as Dustin soon realized and shouted, “OH NO! The gunslinger doesn’t have a cellphone!” Again, normal Starfinder things.

Our test with the gunslinger was revealing. It provided the team more details on some of our new spells that we’d want to tweak or get tighter verbiage on. It gave us a better look at how cover interacts with tactics in our game, especially in those iconic hallway fights where PCs are going to use corners and allies for impromptu cover. Finally, it let us see how the operative and gunslinger would work together in a party. Overall, the experience went better than we hoped, as the gunslinger felt more like a class that could spike good rolls and flirt with danger by taking extra shots and risking misfires, while the operative was firing single shots each round but generally putting out consistent damage without the risk of losing their weapon—Jessica’s terrible rolls this session notwithstanding.

The team left this second playtest with lots of notes and ideas, but overall, with a sense that these two games really can work together and provide some fun and dynamic ways to play. On the design front, we realized new ways to combine the strengths of tried-and-true Pathfinder mechanics and the brand new mechanics we’re designing for this new edition of Starfinder. Thanks again to Michael Sayre for taking a moment to jump into the future and help us perform this outlandish playtest with a time-displaced gunslinger!

Stay tuned to this space for more behind-the-scenes looks at our playtests, news about our ongoing releases, and discussions about Starfinder Second Edition!

Thurston Hillman
Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)

Here’s a look behind the scenes at Paizo’s internal playtests.

Welcome to one of our first blogs following up on the recent announcement of Starfinder Second Edition! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Thurston Hillman, the Managing Creative Director for Starfinder. Basically, that means that I guide the creative vision for the Starfinder brand, while also managing the great folks who work on the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Today, as we continue our open playtest experience, I wanted to give you a behind-the-scenes look at some of the internal playtesting we’ve been doing here at Paizo!

Up until this point, the team has been doing some immediate stress tests of new classes under the GMing stewardship of our Director of Game Design, Jason Bulmahn. These involved some themed adventures about a starship that went too close to the Horizon of an Event, or a deadly jungle encounter where we learned the creature hunting us could bleed and so we could kill it. The playtests we’re reviewing here take place after those, bypassing some of our rockier initial class design, and instead focused on exploring some other aspects of Starfinder in a new game engine.

Playtest #1: Streetsweep

Map: Starfinder Flip-Mat: Enormous Battlefield
Character Level: 5th

Our initial playtests generally took place in confined environments, or locations that forced some tight-quarters gameplay. This was great, because we all know that there’s going to be a ton of adventures happening in cramped starship corridors or on alien worlds with lots of dense foliage. However, those situations are only a small part of the Starfinder experience. One element that I’ve been passionate about—speaking as the developer who proverbially trademarked “1 square = 30 feet” in an adventure I developed for Organized Play—was that we needed to try out some open-area and long-range combats to make sure all these futuristic guns and grenades we’ve been working on were going to be fun and balanced in play.

Starring in this playtest:

• GM: Thurston Hillman (Managing Creative Director for Starfinder)
• Operative: Jessica Catalan (Starfinder Society Developer)
• Mystic: Dustin Knight (Starfinder Developer)
• Soldier: GM NPC played by Thurston
• Witchwarper: Jenny Jarzabski (Starfinder Senior Developer)

For a quick recap of the classes at play here…

The operative focuses on using guns and taking an aim action to get extra precision damage. Jessica’s operative for this playtest was built to be a sniper (as opposed to our iconic, who is more focused on using pistols at close range).

The mystic class creates a bond with their party members and has a vitality network that allows them to store Hit Points and deliver them to bonded allies with a single action (for those clutch heals). Dustin attempted a test build using the song connection to provide some buffs in addition to healing.

The witchwarper class activates a quantum aura, which creates bizarre effects and manipulates nearby space. Jenny’s witchwarper used the precog anomaly to help control the flow of time in and around them (as well as stacking grenades in their cheek pouches).

Finally, my soldier was built using a bombard-focused style, packing a stellar cannon and a machine gun to take advantage of being a kasatha and having four arms. For more info on the soldier and how it plays, check out Field Test #1.

We got right into the action, with the party confronting a group of Azlanti Star Empire Aeon Guards advancing through the streets of an embattled city. These well-trained troops used an ability called “aeon advance” that allowed them to spend a single action to move and fire their rifles if they ended adjacent to another Azlanti ally. This led to a vicious opening salvo, as the Aeon Guards had some exceptional initiative rolls, and advanced to slam a withering fusillade of fire into the soldier. This also led to the enemies clustering up, which turned out to be pretty useful in testing out how the soldier worked.

Once the PCs got to go, the situation quickly changed. Jessica’s operative took their first shot and opened (naturally) with a critical hit. This single shot dealt a whopping 2d12+2d6+1 damage, then doubled, then another 1d12 for the extra fatal damage dice. This dealt in the 40s for damage and immediately popped one of the Aeon Guards down, as they only had 30 Hit Points.

This set the tone for the combat as the soldier began unleashing hell with their stellar cannon, dealing regular damage to the clustered Aeon Guards. The mystic provided spot healing through their vitality network, while the witchwarper opted to try out grenades. Right now, the Starfinder team is experimenting with grenades as placed area effects with a limited range and no attack roll that use a character’s Class DC to determine targets’ saves. Our tactics were a success, and it didn’t take long for the players to overcome this Moderate threat encounter.

The second encounter of this playtest had the PCs advance further into the city, where they came under fire from additional Aeon Guard ground troops, as well as a pair of Aeon Guard snipers. These snipers held back and used a ported-over version of the “Sentry’s Aim” action found on the Archer Sentry in the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide, which let them sit back and fire with their long-range weapons and ignore cover on targets—a VERY powerful ability. Currently, the operative’s aim action isn’t quite this good, but NPCs get to cheat every once in a while!

What stood out most about this fight was the use of a simple piece of terrain on the map, a downed tree, for cover. Much of the combat saw both sides on opposite ends of a toppled tree stump, each firing at one another and then taking cover for increased AC against return fire. This led to a really fun and cinematic combat, which also forced a “sniper duel” as Jessica’s operative had to battle the two enemy snipers, one of which was almost 200 feet away, so far away they aren’t even visible on the screenshots.

This fight had some other interesting mechanics at play. The soldier fired a warning shot prior to the start of combat to suppress one of the Aeon Guards, applying a combat penalty that actually stopped the guards from hitting in the first round, and slowing their advance into cover thanks to the suppressed condition (see Field Test #1 for detailed info on how all this works). Our witchwarper was able to flush the Aeon Guards out of cover, and then the mortal coil, by zipping forward with the help of magic and tossing grenades into them as they clustered for cover behind the tree stump. Meanwhile, the mystic continued to provide healing to everyone through their vitality network, while also tossing out reliable offensive spells like noise blast to help overcome immediate threats. The combat was over in round 5, thanks in part to the precog’s aura giving a speed boost to allies that let them close the gap with the snipers in short order.

This was the end of the playtest session. In the team’s debrief we discussed how area weapons were overall way more effective on groups of enemies (big surprise, I know). This had been a sticking point in our prior playtesting where enemies were spread out or we battled single foes where the area damage didn’t make much difference. This really made us think that the soldier might need more abilities to focus on single targets, something we’re already started pondering.

It also got us talking about adventure design and including options for encouraging creatures to group up for benefits. The sniper operative was consistent, with strong capabilities of popping lower-level threats through crits and dealing reliable damage with their aimed shots, which made us concerned about the overall damage the class could put out (more on that in our next playtest!). The mystic felt like it was in a good place with how they could provide secondary healing while also actively participating in battle. The witchwarper continues to be one that we fine tune, as its quantum aura ability requires them to stay mobile and play close to enemies to take advantage of some of their unique warp spells and effects.

Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes looks at our playtests, news about our ongoing releases, and discussions about Starfinder Second Edition!

Thurston Hillman
Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)

Today we’re ecstatic to officially announce that Starfinder Second Edition is happening. Back in 2017 we released Starfinder, a new game system and setting to stand alongside Paizo’s tried and true Pathfinder brand. Today we’re revealing the next evolution in Starfinder as we announce its second edition and lay out our plans for the future.

This new edition of Starfinder is being designed to be fully compatible with the upcoming release of the Pathfinder Remastered rulebooks and all future Pathfinder Second Edition products. This means that all your Pathfinder content going forward will be compatible with the new edition of Starfinder, and that all Starfinder Second Edition content will work in Pathfinder—with your GM’s permission, of course!

We’ll be releasing a full playtest in Summer 2024, but we wanted to announce the new edition early because it’s our intent to make Starfinder’s playtest the most open playtest Paizo has released to date.

That all starts today with the release of our first Starfinder Field Test. These documents are a little different than the playtest files we’ve released in the past. Each Field Test is a snippet of ongoing design work drafted by the Starfinder team and is intended to show what we’re working on and some of the directions we’re exploring. Our first document focuses on the first five levels of one of our new base classes: the soldier. Along with this, we’ve included some rules for futuristic weaponry and a couple of creatures for you to toss into your games.

Unlike other playtests, the Field Test documents will not be accompanied by a feedback survey, as they are intended to be behind-the-scenes looks at what is coming. Look forward to August 2024, when the full playtest launches for your feedback!

Along with the first Field Test, we also wanted to announce the first four classes to be included in the upcoming Starfinder Playtest Rulebook.

The mystic is a spellcasting class that focuses on the divine and primal traditions and has the unique ability to form a bond with their closest allies. Using their bond to impart a variety of bonuses on their allies, the mystic can also heal them through their shared bond. Once represented by Keskodai, our iconic shirren, a new iconic has taken on the role of the mystic. Chk Chk grew up in his father’s larval container, witnessing all manner of traumatizing adventures in his childhood. Now an adult, Chk Chk has become a devout worshipper of the amalgamate deity, Zon-Shelyn, and believes in channeling suffering into artistic expression.

The soldier gets its first preview in today’s Field Test and specializes in taking hits and unloading with area of effect weapons. With different fighting styles at their disposal, soldiers can focus on different areas of importance, like defense, ranged offense, or even a bit of melee effectiveness. The iconic vesk soldier, Obozaya, returns in all her glory. While she hasn’t turned over her doshko blades yet, age and battle scars have forced Obo to turn her attention to heavy weapons and contributing to the fight in a new way—but don’t worry, she still beats things up in melee!

Along with these two classes, we are also announcing the envoy and the solarian. These classes are still undergoing some internal testing, so we’re going to hold off on saying too much about them for now. What we will say is that the iconic envoy, Navasi, is returning with many years of adventuring behind her. Along with Navasi, we also have a new solarian iconic whose art we’re revealing; we’ll be keeping the remaining details under wraps for the time being. Canny viewers should notice that the art for this iconic is an ancestry that wasn’t in the Starfinder Core Rulebook. That’s because the feline pahtra species are now a core ancestry in Starfinder Second Edition!

Concept sketches for the four iconics. Chk Chk, a shirren mystic. Navasi, a human envoy. Obozaya, a vesk soldier. An unnamed pahtra solarian.
Concept Sketches by Kent Hamilton

To complement this announcement, we’ve also put together a Frequently Asked Questions page related to Starfinder Second Edition, where we’ve included a few more details about the project. Check that out and keep an eye on the Starfinder Playtest page for the latest content and news related to the newest evolution of the Starfinder roleplaying game.

We’re so excited to undertake this journey and hope you’ll be at our side as we take a step into a bold new future together!

— The Starfinder Team

-Thurston Hillman, Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
-Jenny Jarzabski, Senior Developer
-Dustin Knight, Developer
-Jessica Catalan, Starfinder Society Developer