Everybody Sing, Oh Yeah, It's a Critical Hit!

Thursday, December 13, 2018

Critical hits are among the most dramatic, and most popular, moments in a Starfinder game session. A player scoring a critical hit is generally rewarded with cheers from fellow players, while an NPC scoring one often leads to groans and (hopefully good-hearted) booing. A critical hit can change the course of a battle, force new tactics to be adopted, and may also set a foe on fire, leave them insensate for a round, or even chop off a limb. Critical hits are rare, but memorable.

Now, groups can choose to make them MORE memorable.

Illustration by Taylor Fischer

The Starfinder Critical Hit Deck offers hundreds of new critical hit results that can be used to boost the breadth and impact of that natural 20. Critical hits results are divided into three broad categories of attacks listed on every card (kinetic, energy, or spell), and one specific "Extreme Critical" on each card that can be selected if the attack meets it's narrower definition (such as fire damage, or melee attack). When an attack is a critical hit, you use the appropriate critical for your broad attack category, or if you attack matches the extreme critical you can choose to use that instead.

A card's rules may give you an optional critical hit effect (one you can use in place of your attack's normal critical hit effect, if any), or a bonus effect (which you add to any critical hit effect you already have). These effects can add weapon special features, existing critical hit effects, extra damage, impose conditions on your foes, or grant bonuses to you or your allies. The rules card outlines how to determine the level of an effect, any required save DC, how to remove penalties that last until healed, and other details of applying the critical effects.

For example, if you critically hit a foe with a thunderstrike pulse gauntlet, you might pull a card with the energy critical "Which Way is Up?" with the listed effect "Crit Effect: The target is flat-footed for 1d4 rounds (Fortitude negates)." You can then choose to use your pulse gauntlet's normal critical hit effect (knockdown), or the energy critical effect, giving you a chance to make the target flat-footed for 1d4 rounds. However, the same card with "Which Way is Up?" also gives the extreme critical "Extreme Sonic: Sound of victory." That critical says "Bonus Effect: Allies within 60 feet (not including yourself) regain Stamina Points equal to their level." Since a thunderstrike pulse gauntlet is a sonic weapon, you can choose the extreme sonic critical rather than the energy critical, and since that's a bonus effect, you can both knock down foes and inspire your allies so much they regain Stamina Points.

Of course part of the fun of a critical hit deck is the names of the various critical, which often get a laugh or cheer from players. While not every critical hit name is humorous, the hope is that enough are to bring some grins to a typical game. Along those lines my personal favorites are "Kinetically Induced Stupidity" (Bonus Effect: The target moves 1 step down the Intelligence poison track until healed), "Shoot the Chandelier" (Bonus Effect: Create a square of cover adjacent to you or the target, as if using the Barricade feat), "Aftereffect Alacrity" (Bonus Effect: You gain the benefits of haste for 1d4 rounds), and "Extreme Piercing: Nailed in Place" (Bonus Effect: The target cannot leave its space [Strength DC 20 negates].)

So grab a deck, get an enemy in your sights, and hope you roll a 20!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Starfinder Design Lead

From Dusk Till Dusk

Thursday, November 14, 2018

The world of Verces is a tidally locked planet, one hemisphere always facing the sun as it makes its orbit. As such, half of the planet is baked by constant heat, while the other half is a frozen wasteland. However, a strip of habitable terrain circles the planet where the two sides meet, a temperate zone in a state of constant twilight. Most of Verces's sentient life evolved in this area, which eventually became known as the Ring of Nations, a unified coalition of countries.

Illustration by Pixeloid Studios

In Starfinder Adventure Path #11: The Penumbra Protocol, the heroes travel to Cuvacara, the capital of Vimal, one of the larger nations on Verces. Known as the "Dusk Jewel," Cuvacara is a bustling metropolis that is home to the Assembly of Nations, where the Ring of Nations' government council meets to make policies. Thousands of cybernetics and computer corporations own offices and factories in Cuvacara, and the heroes must investigate one of these companies to learn more about the creepy incidents that befell them on the asteroid resort New Elysium in the previous adventure. But, of course, not everything is what it seems to be, especially in a city like Cuvacara, where every shadowy alleyway has the potential to hide a deadly secret.

Both "The Penumbra Protocol" adventure and the accompanying Cuvacara gazetteer were written by Jenny Jarzabski, turning from the warm glow of the sun in the Starfinder Society scenario "The Solar Sortie" to these neon-drenched streets. (Hmmm, I guess we like giving Jenny alliteratively titled adventures…) Jenny introduces us to a wide variety of Cuvacaran citizens, but rather than describe them and spoil all the surprises, I thought we would show off this incredible map of the Dusk Jewel. Those gray lines represent the city's mass transit system: elevated bullet trains that can transport passengers around Cuvacara in a matter of minutes.

Illustration by Damien Mammoliti

The citizens of Verces are known to embrace cybernetic augmentations and Cuvacara is no exception. In fact, the city is on the cutting edge of these enhancements and experimental cybernetics are often available in the Dusk Jewel before they hit the wider marketplaces. A handful of new Vercite augmentations are presented in this volume, including these bionic knees, which I would definitely purchase in real life as I get older.

Bionic Knees System All legs

PRICE 2,750 LEVEL 5

---

Complex actuators and servos are installed in your knees, giving you the power to make impressive leaps. You always count as having a running start when attempting Athletics checks to jump. In addition, you don't fall prone if you fail an Athletics check to jump by 5 or more. Finally, the damage you take from the first 10 feet of a fall is converted into nonlethal damage, even if you aren't falling onto a yielding surface.

Finally, in addition to some creepy new monsters by Jenny Jarzabsi and James L. Sutter and a glimpse of planet ravaged by Hellfire by Owen K.C. Stephens, this volume presents a detailed look at the shadowy fiends known as velstracs by Isabelle Lee. These twisted outsiders have unsurprisingly embraced the modern technology of the Material Plane, some of them integrating such equipment into their own forms as they seek an undefined perfection of body and mind. With some gruesome magitech augmentations and painful weapon fusions, this article certainly isn't for the faint of heart!

That's all I can really reveal without spoiling too much about the Signal of Screams Adventure Path, but hopefully this tantalizing preview will get you exciting to enjoy the scares and thrills of The Penumbra Protocol!

Jason Keeley
Developer

In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Do you want to hear a scary story?

It all began on a cold, dreary winter's night. A thin mist covered the ground, and the streetlights did little to pierce the gloom. Most people were in their homes, huddling under blankets, sipping warm cocoa, and basking in the comforting glow of their television sets. Most sane people, that is. But one man shunned the comforts of the hearth to sit hunched over a laptop, typing furiously. The computer's sickly light emphasized his haggard appearance, making him look more like an animated corpse than a living person. He composed an unhinged manifesto of shadowy horrors, blood-curdling mutilations, and the seductive nature of evil. And when he was done, he slumped across the keyboard dead asleep, not caring about the nightmares that would most assuredly come.

…That man, dear reader, was yours truly! *lightning flashes* *thunder rumbles* And that screed I wrote was none other than the outline for the upcoming Signal of Screams Adventure Path! *more lightning and thunder* *also, a wolf howls in the distance for some reason*

Seriously though, this three-part space horror Adventure Path is the first Starfinder product that I had the pleasure of concepting and developing from start to finish, and I couldn't be prouder or more excited to share it with you. While I didn't actually spend any late nights putting it all together, I couldn't have done it without the entire Starfinder team (who helped brainstorm the spookiest of ideas) and all the terrific authors that agreed to work on this project! And of course, I can't forget the artists who helped bring these chilling visions to life, as well as the art, editing, and other departments here at Paizo that make sure you get the best product possible!

The first adventure, The Diaspora Strain, comes out very soon and sees a group of 7th-level characters get invited to the grand re-opening of a luxury resort asteroid in the Diaspora called New Elysium. The facility has been newly automated with a virtual intelligence program and the PCs, along with a handful of celebrities, will be the first guests to put the system to the test. I don't want to spoil any surprises, but of course, things don't go quite as planned. Author (and fellow Adventure Path developer) Chris Sims has put together a spooky adventure that will have player characters question their sanity.

In addition to some creepy new monsters and details on a lonely world accessible only through the Drift, this first volume features an article about a corruption system new to Starfinder that will get used throughout the campaign (by me) and advice on to run and play in Starfinder horror adventures by Epidiah Ravachol, author of the very popular indie horror RPG Dread!

What is the mysterious Signal of Screams? Find out this winter, if you dare!

Jason Keeley
Developer

I'm an Alien, You're an Alien

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

While much of the fun in Alien Archive 2 for players is looking at new playable species, there's much more player-facing content than just aliens to make into new characters. Like the first Alien Archive, we wanted to help describe the strangeness of a science-fantasy universe with rules elements any character can pick up and use.

Unlike Alien Archive, we made sure to create an index (Appendix 9: Rules Options) to list them all in one place for easy reference.

There are lots of items, including weapons (such as the phasic scythe), defensive items (such as the adaptive defense module), technological items (such as the plasma diverter), hybrid items (from the mi-go brain cylinder to the Shotalashu saddle), magic items (such as the calecor skull-globe), a surprising number of augmentations (six of them!) , and even a computer upgrade (the telepathic user interface).

Each of those is tied to a specific creature entry, in ways that help define that creature's place in the galaxy. For example, the glass serpent is a terrifying ambush predator that roams the blasted wastelands of Eox (though similar creatures have been found on dozens of planets, including many outside the Pact Worlds). The scales of a glass serpent can absorb and bend light, which the creature controls with its musculature to become invisible. While a glass serpent's skin isn't a continuous cloak of invisibility just because you remove and present it, it can be used as the basis for stealth technology, including the glass skin augmentation and lightwarp inlay armor upgrade (previewed below).

Lightwarp Inlay

Price: 5,000 Level: 6

Capacity: 10 Usage: 1/round

Armor Slots: 1 Armor Type: Any

Bulk: L

This specialized coating of glass serpent scales shifts its collective angle in response to localized electrical fields created by a delicate circuitry inlay, allowing the bending of light around you. You can activate this inlay as a standard action to become temporarily invisible (as the invisibility spell, save that the process is purely technological rather than magical). This invisibility lasts until you deactivate it (which you can do as part of any other action) or the inlay runs out of charges. A lightwarp inlay's charges replenish each day.

There are also two feats (Polymorph Adept and Squox Companion), which tie to specific new options, one of which is obviously an element of magic that so far Starfinder hasn't gone into—polymorphing.

A set of core rules present a flexible set of general guidelines for what happens when magic changes your form and then a set of variable level spells (polymorph and baleful polymorph, along with mass versions of each) give spellcasters access to those shapechanging powers. A number of forms are presented (from simple kalo form to more complex blue dragon and fire elemental forms) to allow polymorphing to be accessed quickly, but the rules are also presented to allow a player and GM to build forms for nearly any conceivable creature. After all it's a big galaxy out there, and there's no telling what weird things a character might want to change into!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Starfinder Design Lead

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

A Cunning Plan

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Illustration by Alexandur Alexandrov

The heroes of the Against the Aeon Throne Adventure Path have routed an occupying force, braved the dangers of Azlanti space, met a whole host of new and bizarre beings, and staged a daring prison break, but their efforts all come to a head in the campaign's final volume, "The Rune Drive Gambit," by veteran adventure author Larry Wilhelm.

Upon locating where the Azlanti are keeping the rune drive, the PCs must confront the scientists studying the ancient device, some of whom might even be sympathetic to the PCs' cause. (The Azlanti Star Empire doesn't exactly pay for overtime, after all.) As the PCs try to unravel the mysteries of the rune drive in hopes of either destroying it or using it, they are hounded by an elite member of the Aeon Guard and eventually face the Azlanti noble in charge of the entire operation! Will they survive to return to the Pact Worlds? Or will the Azlanti Star Empire be triumphant once again?

Illustration by Jakub Bazyluk

In addition to this gripping adventure, this volume features some ideas brought to you by Tracy Barnett of how you can continue this campaign after the last battle, including a way to bring the characters to our next 3-part Adventure Path, Signal of Screams. Incidentally, this article also features a combination of creature and artifact that makes me very happy.

Finally, apart from the usual array of new aliens and worlds, you can read all about the Stewards in this detailed article by Lyz Liddell. We're very excited to bring you information about this peacekeeping organization's history, leaders, and goals, which we have only touched on before now. You'll also find two new Steward archetypes to supplement the one we presented in Starfinder Pact Worlds!

As this brings us to the end of our first experiment into shorter Adventure Paths, we hope we enjoyed coming along with us for the ride. And if you want to see us try this abridged length again, please let us know!

Jason Keeley
Developer

Aliens Incoming!

Friday, September 28, 2018

In a few short weeks, an alien invasion is coming to Starfinder—in the form of Alien Archive 2, our second book filled with intergalactic critters to populate your game, or to serve as your player characters!

As the book's release date approaches, we'll share more information about what you can expect to find in its pages. For instance, a number of Paizo staffers picked up their game-design pens to create some awesome playable races, and some of these illustrious authors will detail their inspirations in their own words. Further, we'll spill some data about other player-facing rules in this tome, including polymorph rules and the new pieces of gear detailed.

But for now, feast your eyes on some of creatures that you'll find in this book.

There's the squox—no, not a space fox, but a squirrel fox, as some Pact Worlders once dubbed it. The squox is a pet that, naturally, is associated with the carrier colloquially called a "squox pocket."

Then there's the glass serpent, the Gargantuan beast known for its natural invisibility. Aside from its ability to sneakily devour its prey, we're not sure why a glass serpent wouldn't want to be seen. Isn't it beautiful?

Finally, no new book of aliens would be complete without some more starship-sized monstrosities. There's the vermelith, which is capable of swallowing your entire party and their hard-earned ship in a single bite. Encountering this behemoth in the Drift might be a bad day indeed.

Watch this space for more Alien Archive 2 reveals, coming soon to a device near you!

Amanda Hamon Kunz
Managing Developer

Welcome to Outpost Zed

Thursday, September 13, 2018

No one said traveling to the Azlanti Star Empire would be easy. In fact, most everyone says the exact opposite. Imperialist and xenophobic, the Azlanti aren't going to take kindly to a handful of Pact Worlders showing up in their space to cause trouble and interfere with their grand plans. Luckily, as with any large empire, there are spaces on the fringes where the eyes of the conquerors don't always peer too closely.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

Illustration by David Franco

In Starfinder Adventure Path #8: Escape from the Prison Moon, the PCs begin their sojourn into Azlanti space at a former mining platform and space station known as Outpost Zed, home to a wide array of smugglers and outlaws who want to avoid the gaze of Azlanti officials. The heroes will need to trade for goods and information there if they want any chance of being able to rescue their android friend from her cruel captors. But will they be able to prove themselves worthy of trust by Outpost Zed's inhabitants, whose ways and languages are extremely alien to those from the Pact Worlds?

In addition to a rollicking adventure by the always awesome Eleanor Ferron where the PCs will meet several new beings and perform a daring prison break, this volume also includes a ton of information about the Azlanti Star Empire. From its storied history and current state of affairs (by Starfinder Creative Director and Azlanti enthusiast Robert G. McCreary) to a detailed look at the Star Empire's 17 officially designated "sentient alien species" (by the wildly imaginative Saif Ansari), you'll soon find the Azlanti Star Empire as the newest villains you'll love to hate!

Jason Keeley
Developer

Big Pathfinder/Starfinder Reference Document News!

Thursday, September 13, 2018

As a fan and a community advocate, you grow attachments to things you wouldn't have ever imagined you would. One of the projects I've gotten the opportunity to make my mark on at Paizo is neatly nestled into that fan/community/design challenge niche: the Pathfinder Reference Document. As it became obvious in this last year of architecting and laying out the plans for the future of paizo.com, and as the time increased between that "last updated" date and our resources began to shift course, a problem arose that we needed to solve: how do we provide our community a free, up-to-date online version of the rules for our games? Well, I finally get to share the answer with you all!

Paizo is pleased to announce that Blake Davis and the Archives of Nethys will be maintaining the Pathfinder and Starfinder Reference Documents!

As an official licensed partner, the Archives of Nethys includes setting-specific rules content as well as Open Game Content, so you'll be able to find the Golarion- and Pact Worlds–specific rules you're looking for quickly and easily.

Eventually, these reference documents will become more integrated into the paizo.com website, but for the near future, we will be redirecting PRD and SFRD requests to the Archives of Nethys website:

Pathfinder Reference Document: pfrd.info
Starfinder Reference Document: sfrd.info

During this transition, you will not be able to search the PRD or the SFRD using the paizo.com search tool—you'll need to use the Archives of Nethys search tool instead for Pathfinder content; the search engine for the Starfinder site is still in development and is expected to go live in the next 1-2 weeks.

(The AON will not be hosting a Pathfinder Playtest reference document, as those rules are transitory, but we are planning to launch the reference document for Pathfinder Second Edition with them next year.)

Both reference documents on the Archives of Nethys will remain a completely free resource, but you can help support their future growth on Patreon.

I'm so excited to see our new partnership with Archives of Nethys and our online offerings to the Pathfinder and Starfinder communities evolve! Be sure to check out the AON, update your bookmarks, and keep up with the Paizo blog for future announcements.

Chris Lambertz
Web Product Manager

9/14/2018 Update: After reviewing community feedback, the legacy PRD website has now been made available at legacy.aonprd.com. It does not contain the search functionality, however.

Rule of Threes

Thursday, August 9, 2018

The initial volume of the Against the Aeon Throne Adventure Path releases this month, marking several changes to the Starfinder Adventure Path format, some permanent, some more experimental. Firstly, as many of you know by now, Starfinder Adventure Path is becoming a monthly product! We'll be delivering new adventures, new articles, and new creatures to you every 30 days or so until someone makes us stop. Heck, it's worked pretty well for Pathfinder all these years, so I think we'll probably be fine. We have a lot of exciting campaigns and stories that we want to share with you, so we hope you'll join us for this journey among the stars.

Illustration by David Melvin

Secondly is our exploration of a shorter campaign length. Both Against the Aeon Throne and the following Adventure Path, Signal of Screams, are presented in just three volumes, giving groups a chance for a somewhat extended experience in the Starfinder universe without having to commit to a full six-volume campaign, which can usually take at least a year to play. When we decided to double our production of adventures, we also thought the change would be a good opportunity to experiment a bit with the format. And the plots and themes we wanted to work with at the time seemed to lend themselves to shorter arcs. Thus, the three-volume campaign was born!

These shorter campaigns let us explore a slightly more focused narrative, much in the same way a Pathfinder Module tells a complete, self-contained story. We can really hit the most important plot points with big, splashy encounters and not have to worry about sustaining that level of energy over six adventures. While the six-volume campaign is great for telling epic, sweeping tales, these shorter adventures allow us delve into moments that might affect the characters on a more personal level. However, that doesn't mean the fate of the galaxy won't be at stake!

That isn't all we're trying out over the next several months. While the beginning of Against the Aeon Throne is for new 1st-level characters, the first adventure of Signal of Screams is for 7th-level characters. This will mark the first time an Adventure Path won't begin at 1st level! That being said, if your group isn't comfortable with starting at 7th level, then we made sure that the two Adventure Paths dovetail nicely into one another. Once you've finished with Against the Aeon Throne, you can transition right into Signal of Screams. Sure, there will be a slight change of tone in the adventures, but if your group doesn't mind the shift, then you should go for it!

Illustration by Mark Molnar

As these adventures get released, we are very interested in hearing your feedback about the changes. How do you like the three-volume format? Are six-volume Adventure Paths too long for your group? Would you like to see more content that starts at higher levels? Or do you prefer the dangerous thrill of those first few levels? Let us know!

And don't worry, the Starfinder Adventure Path line returns to the usual six-volume campaign in February of 2019 with Dawn of Flame!

Jason Keeley
Developer

Starfinder Beginner Box Announced!

Friday, August 3, 2018

We have an important communications dispatch to issue here at Starfinder HQ: we're working on a Starfinder Beginner Box!

Come spring 2019, you'll be able to get your hands on a box with all of the components needed to quickly learn and play the popular Starfinder RPG. From dice, to maps, to pawns, to separate books for GMs and players, this box is meant to provide a self-contained gaming experience for those with little to no experience with Starfinder—or with tabletop RPGs at all.

Work on the Beginner Box is still churning apace back in our office in Redmond, even as the project's design team is bustling around Indianapolis at Gen Con. In addition to our team's game design work, at this very moment we have the best production crewmembers in the business dedicated to making this product as awesome as possible.

We just announced this project at our Starfinder 101 panel at the convention, but we realize that legions of interested parties are not in Indianapolis. For those who couldn't make it to the show, check out the Starfinder Beginner Box cover that we revealed below!

If you'd like to see the seminar where we announced this project, go to the Paizo Twitch stream and find the video for the Starfinder 101 panel.

In the meantime, stay tuned in the coming months for more information about the Starfinder Beginner Box!

—The Starfinder Beginner Box Design Team
Joe Pasini, design lead
Owen K.C. Stephens, design lead
Amanda Hamon Kunz, managing developer
Rob McCreary, creative director

What's Your Armory Class?

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Illustration by Alexander Nanitchkov

While the hundreds upon hundreds of weapons, suits of armor, and items in Starfinder Armory, can technically exist in a vacuum (space joke!), none of them amount to much without a skilled user. The final portion of Armory is devoted to new class options, many of which help characters leverage their shiny new items to even better effect. Plus there's a new archetype that brings the Augmented, a growing cultural movement of self-modification, to any character who wants to hack their body to perfection.

Envoys get a slew of improvisations and expertise talents that make them even stronger team supports, granting allies extra actions to quaff serums or reload weapons. They can also become even better battlefield medics, demolition experts, and computer whizzes!

Mechanics learn new tricks and even get additional drone mod options: you might teach your drone the Barricade feat or install cybernetic or magitech augmentations into its chassis. What's magitech, you ask? A new type of augmentation with dozens of options, included in Armory!

Mystics forge a new connection, which introduces two new spells (marked with asterisks) that any mystic can learn:

Illustration by Alexander Nanitchkov

GENETURGE

You are connected to the very building blocks of life, adept at altering your DNA code and that of others. You may see augmentation as a natural part of evolution, or the ultimate form of self-improvement that drives life towards enlightenment, or even a perversion of the natural order undertaken to venerate dread gods. With your enhanced understanding of biotech, you might be a famous self-help expert, a sinister fleshwarper, or an adaptable xenoseeker surveying mysterious planets in the Vast.

Associated Deities: Eloritu, Oras, Triune (Casandalee), Yaraesa

Associated Skills: Life Science and Medicine

Spells: 1st—detect augmentation*, 2nd—spider climb, 3rd—remove affliction, 4th—reject augmentation*, 5th—modify memory, 6th—regenerate

Operatives find more than a dozen new exploits, including pistol whip, knee shot, and utility belt. A new operative specialization, gadgeteer, emphasizes expertise in Engineering and Sleight of Hand.

Solarians have new revelations, including two new zenith revelations! With one, you can transform into a swarm (as the monster subtype) of thousands of flaming pinpoints; the other lets you pull a creature outside the confines of space and time. Like you do.

Soldiers get a new fighting style, called shock and awe, that focuses on overwhelming enemies with auditory and visual stimuli. They also have a bevy of gear boosts, including ones that enhance their use of disintegrator and sniper weapons (and yes—powered armor!).

Technomancers score new magic hacks (expend a spell slot to forge a magical, grenade-like matrix of volatile energy!) and spells (including animate armor, which, yes, can work on powered armor!).

Joe Pasini
Starfinder Developer

Putting the Powered Armor in Armory!

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Powered armor—high-tech defensive suits that move under their own power rather than using the muscles of the wearer—have a long history in science-fantasy stories, dating all the way back to E.E. "Doc" Smith's 1937 Lensman novel Galactic Patrol (one reason the Lensman books appear in the Starfinder Core Rulebook's Inspirational Media list). The conceptually serve as armor, steed, and sometimes even weapon for super-advanced knight of high-tech settings, allowing a character to act as science-fantasy cavalry. There are five suits of powered armor in the Core Rulebook, which is just enough to give an idea of how such gear works in the game, but certainly isn't anywhere near enough to cover all your possible powered armor needs.

Happily, there's a good deal more in Starfinder Armory.

Illustrations by Leonardo Borazio

The book includes 18 total suits, from the scrapper's rig (item level 4) to the starguard (item level 20), with at least one at each item level and two at item level 17). Six of those suits are Medium, eleven are Large, and one is Gargantuan. While most of them are technological items five (celerity rigging, extradimensional armor, kyton bloodsuit, spellcaster's aegis, and stag-step suit) incorporate magic into their core design and are hybrid items.

In addition to providing more than three times the number of suits as the Core Rulebook, Armory provides some general power armor rules, covering weapon slots, hybrid powered armor… and how to improve a suit of powered armor to be a higher item level. This system allows a character to spend credits to boot a suit of powered armor's item level, EAC and KAC bonuses, and even (if you boost it by enough item levels) its maximum Dexterity, Strength bonus, and number of upgrade slots. These improvement rules are designed to allow a player who builds a character around a specific design of powered armor, they don't have to take a suit of a different size or environmental movement or operational range just to keep their armor relevant when gaining character levels.

In addition to just offering more suits at more item levels, Armory also provide powered armors design for specific situations. The explorer's cradle is design for days-long missions of investigation in harsh environments. The personal submersible operates underwater, and allows you to breath water and survive great depths even without using its environmental protections. The reactor guard similar protects you from radiation, even when its environmental protections aren't active. The spellcaster's aegis is specifically designed to allow magic-savvy characters to manipulate its built-in runes for more effective dispel efforts and greater protection against spells.

Whether you are an armor storm soldier looking for a suit to improve with you as you gain levels, or a mystic who has decided the best offense is a good defense, Starfinder Armory has the powered armor to meet your needs!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Starfinder Design Lead

A Haul of Arms

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Psst! You look like a sapient species with some credits to spare, and that azimuth laser pistol of yours looks worn OUT. Why don't you take a look through this catalog of brand-new weaponry, and we'll find you a great weapon at an honest price.

What's that? You want powered armor? That guy's not here 'til next week. Besides, the best defense is a good offense—and I've got some real offensive stuff here! Take these disintegrator weapons—they'll melt your face… OFF! Well, your enemies' faces. Or face-like appendages. You know what I mean.

And hey, if disintegration isn't your style, not to worry! I've got more than 650 weapons on offer, in more than 150 makes, with 46 new weapon special properties and half a dozen critical hit effects. Wanna keep your hands free while blasting away with a shoulder laser? Put a weapon with the integrated special property into an armor upgrade slot! Wanna scare the nutrition paste outta your enemies? Hit em with a psychic-wave cannon and let its demoralize critical hit effect do the work! Whatever your preferred flavor of proactive self-defense, you'll find it here.

This spread of weapons represents fewer than 5 percent of the new weapons in Starfinder Armory. Oddly specific developer note: Armory introduces 42 3rd-level weapons—auspicious!
Illustration by Kent Hamilton

And I'm not even counting the new ammunition (phasing sniper rounds strike your fancy?) or dozens of new grenades and solarian weapon crystals. So buy today—I'm even throwing in free installation of a sniper scope with the purchase of any small arm, or free integration of a null-space gunner harness with any heavy weapon. Why lug around that rail cannon when you could carry it in your pocket as a 1-1/2 inch disk? Of course, I'm happy to sell you any of two dozen other weapon accessories, if you prefer.

Great doing business with ya, and happy hunting!

Joe Pasini
Developer

Dead Ahead

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Illustration by Marias Tapia

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

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

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

Jason Keeley
Developer

Starfinder Wins Origins Award!

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

The Origins Game Fair took place this past weekend, and we are happy to announce that Starfinder won the Fan Favorite Best Roleplaying Game award at the 2018 Origins Awards on Saturday, presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.

We are honored, and humbled, to be chosen as the best RPG of the year by our fans. As game designers, winning any award is always gratifying, but fan-voted awards are especially meaningful. Fans are the people who play our games, and without players, the games themselves don't serve much purpose. We want to thank everyone who voted for Starfinder, as well as every fan who plays Starfinder, talks about the game with friends, and helps make Starfinder's player base a vibrant community.

We also want to thank everyone involved in the creation of the game. This was very much a team effort on a massive scale, and involved some of the most involved collaborative work we've ever done. The Starfinder design team, creative directors, developers, editors, authors, artists, art directors, and graphic designers all did an amazing amount of work to make this game happen. And even beyond that, everyone at Paizo took on some of the herculean workload needed to put the physical book in the hands of players.

Looking forward to the future, we plan to continue creating more exciting content for Starfinder in the months and years to come, and we can't wait for you to see what we have planned. Keep aiming for the stars!

Robert G. McCreary and Owen K.C. Stephens
Starfinder Design Leads

Signal of Screams Adventure Path Announced!

Friday, March 30, 2018

Illustration by Pixoloid Studios

Early this year, we let you know that the Starfinder Adventure Path is going monthly starting in August, starting with the 3-volume campaign Against the Aeon Throne. While that Adventure Path is perfect for heroes who want to strike a solid blow against the sinister Azlanti Star Empire when they unlawfully annex a Pact Worlds colony, it will be over by November! We mentioned that we will be returning to the 6-volume Adventure Path format in February of 2019, but we have yet to say what's going on in between.

Well, witness as the shadows part to reveal terrible, twisted forms and soft clink of chains. I am so excited—rapturously so—to preach unto to you of the beautiful pain to be found within the Signal of Screams Adventure Path. It all begins when the heroes are treated to an all-expenses-paid vacation to New Elysium, a posh resort on a remote asteroid in the Diaspora. Things slowly begin to go awry, as all good things eventually do, and they will have to protect themselves and some of the other guests from a creeping madness infecting both the staff and the facility. Eventually, their adventures will take them to the Darkside of Verces and beyond as they struggle to overcome the architects of this affliction before it spreads to the rest of the Pact Worlds... and possibly into their souls!

Paizo's very own Chris Sims is writing the first adventure, "The Diaspora Strain," which is for 7th-level characters. That's right, your heroes can go straight from Against the Aeon Throne to Signal of Screams once they return to the Pact Worlds. After all, they deserve a bit of R&R after escaping from Azlanti space with their lives! This volume also includes a new system of corruption that will plague your heroes throughout the campaign written by yours truly, as well as advice for running horror campaigns in the Starfinder RPG written by Epidiah Ravachol, author of the incredibly popular indie RPG Dread.

It's going to be such a scream! From your players, of course.

Jason Keeley
Developer

Pact Worlds Player Options!

Thursday, March 29, 2018

In addition to a vast amount of information about the Pact Worlds themselves, the Starfinder Pact Worlds book also contains numerous new player options tied to specific groups and places within the setting. Some of this material, such as the many new themes (biotechnician, corporate agent, cultist, cyberborn, death-touched, dragonblood, dream prophet, gladiator, roboticist, solar disciple, space pirate, tempered pilgrim, wild warden, and xenoarchaeologist) is presented alongside the specific planets or societies within the Pact Worlds each item is most strongly associated with. In most cases such material is also useable for characters from disparate backgrounds, but it makes the most sense to present them in the context of the worlds and groups they are most likely to be connected with.

Other player options, such as the new archetypes, feats, equipment, spells, and races are gathered into a player support chapter for ease of reference. Like the themes, the archetypes (Arcanamirium sage, divine champion, Skyfire centurion, star knight, Starfinder data jockey, and Steward officer) exist to show ways in which player characters can be part of specific groups and benefit from the training and techniques those groups provide. Feats are a mix of those which are popular with numerous groups within the Pact Worlds (such as Close Combat) and those that provide a strong link to specific elements of the Pact Worlds (such as Divine Blessing). Much of the equipment has explicit links to some group that manufactures or uses it extensively (sword canes are popular on Absalom Station, the interposing weapon fusion was developed by the Knights of Golarion, and so on).

The new playable races presented all have very strong ties to the Pact Worlds, though the exact nature of those ties vary considerable depending on the race. Astrazoans are shapeshifters that often pass as other races, and may trace their origin back to Apostae. Bantrids are a race of rolling creatures that have awoken from a long hibernation on a shepherd moon of Liavara. Borai are an unusual form of undead, most common on Eox, where an undead spirit possess a still-barely-living host body. Khizars are a plant race that evolved on Castrovel. SROs (sentient robotic organisms) are highly-evolved true machine intelligences most commonly found of Aballon, with a wide range of appearances 9and existing in both Small and medium frames). Strix are one of the many orphan races of lost Golarion, who have managed to adapt to life among the stars. Each of these races is designed to take its place alongside the core and legacy races presented in the Core Rulebook, and each tie themselves to one or more of the worlds outlined in Starfinder Pact Worlds.

Given the vastness of even a single world, it's impossible to outline every interesting option players and GMs might wish to bring into their backstories and campaigns from the Pact Worlds, but our hope is that offering a few specific new options related to the worlds we're presenting will help represent the great variety found within the core of the Starfinder setting.

Owen KC Stephens
Starfinder Design Lead

Visions of the Pact Worlds

Friday, March 16, 2018

Starfinder Pact Worlds is almost here, so we thought it might be fun to show off some of the cool art you'll encounter as you delve deeper into the cultures and politics of the Pact Worlds. To find out more about these exciting locations and interesting personalities, check out Starfinder Pact Worlds, available this month!

Illustration by Leon Tukker

Illustrations by Roberto Pitturru and Ben Wootten

Illustrations by Mark Molnar and Oh Wang Jing

Robert G. McCreary
Creative Director, Starfinder

Starfinder Now on Fantasy Grounds!

Thursday, March 8, 2018

We're happy to announce that SmiteWorks has released version 1.0 of their Starfinder Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds! The ruleset comes with the entire contents of the Starfinder core rules in an easy to read reference manual and with drag and drop data elements for everything like classes, races, armor, shields, and starships. Character creation is assisted by dragging and dropping race, theme and then class. Starship build support and starship combat is still getting finalized but will make an appearance when we release version 1.0.

In addition to the Starfinder core rules, we also simultaneously launched the Starfinder Alien Archive and first three volumes of the Dead Suns Adventure Path. The Alien Archive comes with tokens where possible.

We are collecting feedback on our dedicated Starfinder forums and plan to push a series of smaller patches out over the coming days and weeks.

Like all official Paizo conversions for Fantasy Grounds, Paizo has allowed us to provide a discount for any product where the PDF is already owned at paizo.com. Use the Store > Paizo Account Synchronization to link your accounts and Retrieve paizo.com Purchases to enable a discount on each product owned. Once linked, the products will show a discount equivalent to the PDF price of the same product. This means $9.99 off the bigger core rules products and as much as $15.99 off when you buy one of the Dead Suns adventures. If you don't already own the PDF, buying the Fantasy Grounds version allows you to sync that purchase back to paizo.com to get a free PDF added to your account there.

Doug Davison
President, SmiteWorks

Starfinder Pact Worlds: Per Aspera ad Astra

Friday, March 2, 2018

By now, you've had a look at the rules governing the Starfinder universe in the Starfinder Core Rulebook. Perhaps you've created a character or two and played in a few sessions of the Dead Suns Adventure Path! You've also gotten a glimpse of many of the weird and wonderful beings found in the Starfinder Alien Archive. But, in my opinion, an RPG really begins to blossom with an exciting and vibrant campaign setting. Luckily, Starfinder Pact Worlds is right around the corner!

The Pact Worlds is a unified coalition of worlds within the same star system who have banded together for mutual protection against larger threats. These 14 worlds and celestial bodies are the heart of the Starfinder campaign setting, providing a home base (or several home bases) for starship crews and other groups to blast off for adventures among the distant stars. But that doesn't mean the Pact Worlds are safe and boring. Far from it! Intrigue and danger abound in the varied environments and settlements. In fact, the planets of the Pact Worlds boast everything from sun-blasted deserts to frozen mountaintops and from massive space stations to untamed jungles.

Chapter One of Pact Worlds details these planets and celestial bodies, providing descriptions of the geography, residents, society, and political landscape, as well as an extensive list of notable locations. In addition, each entry is accompanied by a full-page map of the entire world—or, in some cases, a map of the most important area. Finally, a new theme inspired by that world rounds out the section.

Let's take a look at a few highlights of the book.

The chapter begins with a description of what is arguably the most important celestial body in the system: the Sun. Though it may seem to be just a burning mass of incandescent plasma that provides heat and light to all other worlds, it is so much more. A strange settlement actually exists floating inside this churning furnace. Discovered by worshipers of the sun goddess Sarenrae over a century ago, this collection of force bubbles of various sizes—dubbed the Burning Archipelago by its first pioneers—now houses a sizeable population. Corporations harnessing the ambient radiation, Xenowardens tending a series of lush gardens, solarian monasteries, a marketplace staffed by efreet and other denizens of the Elemental Plane of Fire, and a huge metal cathedral to the Dawnflower all exist in close proximity in this diverse metropolis.

From the heat of the sun, we turn to the wandering planet of Triaxus, which is currently in the throes of one of its centuries-long winters. The planet's eccentric orbit around the sun stretches out its more extreme seasons, but life has adapted to these climates, with some flora and fauna hibernating until their time to thrive draws close once again. Triaxus's two largest landmasses are home to the planet's main species: dragons, dragonkin, and ryphorians. These ancient cultures warred in the time before the Gap, clashing mainly on the bridge of land between the two continents, but are now in a state of peace. Some individual realms within these areas—the Allied Territories and the Drakelands—still look outward with expansionistic eyes. One such domain is Dretchnyl, run by the powerful green dragon Dretchnyliax, who recently emerged from hiding after being attacked by a contingent of good-aligned metallic dragons. She is now more machine than flesh-and-bone dragon, bristling with cybernetic augmentations and gun-bearing prosthetics.

While dragons and ryphorians have existed in the Pact Worlds system since before the system garnered that name, some denizens are slightly more recent emigrates. The kasathas of the generation ship the Idari are such a civilization, having fled their dying home planet on a slow migration centuries ago. The kasathas bring facets of their own culture to the melting pot of the Pact Worlds, as represented by the tempered pilgrim theme. In their adolescence, kasathas undertake a yearlong walkabout known as the Tempering, in which they are encouraged to experience as much as possible. Some members of other races have adopted this practice as well, and they are represented with the tempered pilgrim theme. They have extended the philosophy to their everyday lives, and learn about new cultures very easily and can draw on the diverse array of experiences they have already had. They consider themselves students of the universe, always ready to learn more.

Like any other spacefarer, these tempered pilgrims need a way to get from planet to planet or from star system to star system. Pact Worlds includes a handful of new starship options and example starships, focusing on groups such as the Hellknights and the Xenowardens. The most impressive of these vessels is the Iomedaean Cathedralship, a gargantuan carrier designed to look a soaring marble edifice. The Cathedralships come complete with soaring buttresses and artificial stained glass windows. The sight of such a ship usually evokes pride in the faithful and fear in the hearts of their enemies.

And that's just a taste of what can be found in Pact Worlds! Stay tuned for more preview blogs in the coming weeks!

Jason Keeley
Developer

Find out Next Time, on Starfinder Society!

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

It's safe to say that John Compton and I can get a tad excited about campaign storylines. When we first sat down to start hashing out the first wave of Starfinder Society scenarios, we came up with a huge list of ideas that pulled from popular Pathfinder Society scenarios, common sci-fi tropes and more. Of these ideas, perhaps none stood out more than one fateful thought I threw into the mix after reading about Eox: "What if we have the Starfinders take part in a reality TV show?"

Welcome to Starfinder Society #1–09: Live Exploration Extreme! Written by Paizo's own, John Compton, this scenario had one of the most attention-catching premises that we came across during the time when we sat down to pitch the 2017/2018 scenario roster. I knew it was a success when during the process, we went through discussing each of the scenarios, got to this one, and John ended the conversation with a quick "Ok, I'll write this one."

Well John, after so many times writing scenarios for you… THE TABLES HAVE FINALLY TURNED!

Joking aside, Live Exploration Extreme is an important scenario for several reasons. First off, it's back to basics in terms of being a Tier 1–4 scenario. Second, it brings the Starfinder Society back into the mysterious false moon of Salvation's End that we last explored in Starfinder Society Scenario #1–00: Claim to Salvation. Finally (at least for what I can describe in this blog), this scenario brings the idea of celebrities and icons to the forefront of Starfinder. I would highly suggest that if you have a character with the Icon theme or are even slightly interested in dabbling in the realm of "stellar celebrity" that you give this scenario a shot!

Much of what occurs during this scenario is a spoiler-filled minefield, so rather than talk too much about the plot, I want to talk about media overload. A camera crew accompanies the PCs during most of this adventure, and if that weren't enough, the PCs need to put on a good show in order to impress influential Society allies (who may or may not have an exclamation point in their name, similar to the title of this scenario). Be aware that this scenario plays off a lot of tropes of modern reality TV, replete with moments for PCs to embellish their combat actions to set up "just the right shot" or even take some time after combat to privately reminisce (or harshly critique) the actions of fellow party members inside "the booth." More than most scenarios, Live Exploration Extreme is about consent; the goal is to have a fun time and not have players feel out of place because of themes or rules of the scenario. The scenario makes sure to spell this out to the GMs, so for players concerned about the potential media and social overload associated with reality TV, I would still consider giving this scenario a shot—after all, sometimes it's the one quip from the character who's said nothing else the entire episode that defines a show! This scenario has no scenario tags.

Looking ahead to March, we have Starfinder Society Scenario #1-10: The Half-Alive Streets and Starfinder Society Scenario #1-11: In Pursuit of the Scoured Past which I've just finished my development pass on. While I want to keep all those secrets until next month's preview, I think both scenarios include some standout stories that should engage new and veteran Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild players. Past these two (yes, next month begins our publishing two scenarios per month) we start getting into a wide array of new scenarios that lead into the quickly approaching convention season…

Speaking of convention season, I think I need to get back to development! There's a lot of exciting stuff coming up in just the next few months. Also, be on the lookout for a post in the coming weeks discussing our season transition and plans taking us past the summer convention season.

See you on the other side of the Drift.

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

PS: Special shout-out to Paizo's Customer Service Manager, Sara Marie, for helping to inspire this month's scenario. I first discovered the joys of combining reality TV and tabletop RPGs when I played in her Survivor-themed game during a past PaizoCon. Of course, I may have rose-tinted memories of that game because of how many times my character managed to snag the immunity idol…

Journey to the Pact Worlds

Thursday, January 25, 2018

We're just little over a month away before the next hardcover addition to Starfinder releases! Starfinder Pact Worlds is your guide to the 14 major worlds at the heart of the Starfinder campaign setting. Before we start revealing the content of Pact Worlds, we wanted to show off the book's amazing new cover by artist Remko Troost!

This book will be full of information about the civilizations of the Pact Worlds system, new aliens, starships, and all kinds of options for your Starfinder game. What are you hoping made it into Pact Worlds, and what are you most excited about for Starfinder? Let us know in the comments!

These Are a Few of Our Favorite Things (of 2017)

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

This past year has been a big wild ride. We launched Starfinder to great success, had a busy Gen Con watching the book fly off the shelves, and put out some amazing books that aren't set in space. We've even had some changes in our line-up, with changing job titles and responsibilities that helped a number of us take a step up. 2017 has been full of excitement (and a little chaos, but what creative endeavor doesn't have at least a little chaos?). It's been a busy year for everyone here at Paizo, and I wanted to give the developers and designers a chance to talk about some of the projects they've worked on this year that they've enjoyed working on the most. Being a creator can be rough sometimes, and it's important to feel pride about the things you've helped make.

*Any developer or designer not included in this blog was far too busy to contribute to this blog I sprung on them. Sorry folks!

Logan Bonner (Designer)
Most of my stuff that came out in 2017 feels like I worked on it a million years ago. I had a big hand in the underlying math and class design of Starfinder, and it was so much fun going into deep design and play with foundational concepts in a way we rarely get to do with the more established Pathfinder. I also worked up the monster creation rules, based on work I initially did for Pathfinder Unchained, during the Starfinder Core Rulebook creation process. Seeing them make their way to the public in Alien Archive was exciting! And speaking of exciting, the highlight of the year was seeing Starfinder fly off the shelves at its Gen Con launch. I was there Thursday morning, went on my scheduled break, and when I came back, it was gone! Mind-blowing!

Jason Bulmahn (Director of Game Design)
2017 has been a truly exciting year in the game design mines... but as with most years, the things I have been working on have yet to even be announced! So, here is to 2018 and all of the amazing things I am looking forward to sharing with all of you in the coming months!

John Compton (Organized Play Lead Developer)
Although its copyright date shows 2016, Pathfinder Adventure Path #113: What Grows Within ended up hitting shelves in 2017, marking not only the first Adventure Path volume of the year but also the first one I wrote. It was a great experience and a great opportunity to create some really weird characters (including Hoshbagh) and present desperate PCs with desperate situations. The process also prepared me for writing the second volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path, Temple of the Twelve, which let me draw on my archaeology training to invent a host of academics—both qualified and absurd—and a lost culture on a hitherto undocumented continent.

On the organized play front, I'm proud of helping Thurston Hillman get the Starfinder Society program up and running, especially in the changes we incorporated into the Guide (like the new approach to boons) and the plans we've set in motion for more than a year of great adventures. In the meantime, Pathfinder Society's been creating great adventures and accomplishing big things. In 2017 we wrapped up the Season 8 plotline, culminating in the excellent Pathfinder Society Scenario #8–25: Unleashing the Untouchable that has ramifications across the inner planes.

Adam Daigle (Managing Developer)
I had a hand in thirteen books that came out in 2017, by either being the developer for the whole book or pitching in on a book with another development lead. (I had a lighter hand in a whole bunch more, but those contributions aren't terribly noteworthy and are frankly quite boring.) Of all of these, I'd have to say that the one thing I'm most proud of is the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path. This was the first Adventure Path where I got to fully run the show, so to speak. I got to outline the Adventure Path and form the excellent team of writers who brought it to life. Working with all of them was a developer's dream, and seeing this Adventure Path go from ideas to real books that people are playing and enjoying has been a highlight of my work year. I was also happy to get more information about my lil' fear babies, the sahkils, in Book of the Damned.

My favorite personal development over this past year has been stepping up to lead the best damn group of developers in the business. I can't wait to share some of our efforts in 2018. Onward and upward!

Thurston Hillman (Starfinder Society Developer)
As many know, this was my first year working for Paizo. I had been freelancing for Paizo for a while, but this was the year I took on the Starfinder Society Developer position and got to work on helping to build an entirely new Organized Play program (alongside Tonya, John, Linda, and several others.) It's hard to pinpoint a single "best moment” in this year, but I think I have to go with Gen Con 2017, where we officially launched the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. Along with getting to see our new game in action, it was an incredible experience seeing GMs from across the world coming to help run the first games of Starfinder Society. Given how we've just announced several (but not all) of our plans for 2018, I suspect next year's PaizoCon, Origins, and Gen Con (ok, and SkålCon) will be full of new Starfinder Society stories!

Amanda Hamon Kunz (Development Coordinator)
Wow, 2017 has been busy! I've worked on a whole bunch of products, but I think the highlight for me has to be the Starfinder RPG. I really enjoyed working on some of the core system design of our new science-fantasy game as a member of the Starfinder design team; you'll see my fingerprints all over the Starfinder Core Rulebook's tactical rules, equipment, and magic chapters, as well as chunks of the character creation and setting chapters and beyond. It's very rewarding to see our game's positive reception among fans, and to be involved with so many great Paizo team members to help create it and get it out into the world. Similarly, writing the third Starfinder Adventure Path volume, Splintered Worlds, was also a huge highlight of 2017 for me. I had a ton of fun creating the creepy atmospheres and plots that pervade that adventure, from a Dead Space-inspired cultist base to macabre adventures among the undead residents of Eox. I'll avoid spoilers and stop there! Regardless, a lot happened in 2017, and it's exciting to think about what 2018 may bring.

Jason Keeley (Developer)
Of course, I am very proud about the release of Starfinder, whose popularity has surpassed all of our expectations. But while we were putting the finish touches of the Starfinder Core Rulebook, I was already up to my waist in Alien Archive, corralling most of those weird beasties and fascinating aliens. I couldn't be more excited to have worked on a roleplaying game where a party can consist of a floating jellyfish being, an albino minotaur, a humongous brain, and a lizard person that can shoot blood out of her eye! On a personal note, I am also thrilled to have written the articles on Hadregash and Cyth-V'sug that appeared in the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path. Two different evil gods, but both so fun to write. And one of them let me indulge in writing some very gross stuff. I'll leave it to you to figure out which deity is more disgusting: the militaristic barghest or the demon lord of fungus and parasites.

Rob McCreary (Creative Director, Starfinder)
This past year was all about Starfinder for me, most notably the Starfinder Core Rulebook. But I'm especially happy with Incident at Absalom Station, the adventure I wrote for the Dead Suns Adventure Path. Besides kicking off the Starfinder Adventure Path, Incident at Absalom Station was also the very first adventure published for Starfinder. The project presented a number of challenges, not the least of which was the fact that we didn't have the final Starfinder rules when I started writing it! But that didn't stop me, and it did give me the chance to bring one particular monster from Pathfinder to Starfinder—the akata, which I've loved ever since it first appeared back in Pathfinder Adventure Path #14: Children of the Void. I also had a lot of fun designing the PCs' first starship, the Sunrise Maiden, which is the Starfinder iconic characters' ship too. I've really enjoyed hearing about people's experiences running and playing the adventure on the messageboards, and can't wait to see how people respond to the rest of the adventures in the Dead Suns campaign!

Joe Pasini (Developer)
In the first few months of this year, I was a contract editor for Paizo, hustling with a fantastic group of people to get Starfinder, a brand new RPG, out the door. Now, as the year comes to a close, I'm a developer for that same RPG, and I couldn't be more proud of the collective effort (including my small part) that it took to bring this game to the world.

In the summer and fall, I got to work with Adam Daigle, Crystal Frasier, and Amanda Hamon Kunz (listed alphabetically, because I'll always be an editor at heart) to put out a couple rad Player Companions (Antihero's Handbook and People of the Wastes) and the back matter of the first volumes of the War for the Crown Adventure Path. Learning at the feet of such titans of the industry was enlightening, humbling—and frickin' awesome.

Here's to an epic 2018!

Owen K.C. Stephens (Starfinder Design Lead)
It likely comes as no surprise that the thing I am proudest of that I worked on in 2017 is Starfinder. My work on the Starfinder Core Rulebook was mostly done in 2016, though some of that work bled into the early weeks of this year, but I'm not even talking about just the rulebooks. With Starfinder, I have gotten to be on the ground floor of a new RPG line again, and that comes with a lot of work beyond the rulebooks. I have enjoyed being part of planning a universe, and expanding it to new places, brainstorming new concepts and new adventures, discussing which of the things we don't have yet we want (and which we don't), and when and how to present them. I'm part of a brilliant team that's setting the tone and course for a brand new venture, and I am proud of both the work we've done and what we have in the pipeline.

Linda Zayas-Palmer (Developer)
I'm bad at picking favorites, so I won't pick just one. I'm pumped about Season 9 of Pathfinder Society, the Year of Factions' Favor, and proud of the work I put into building the overarching story. After seeing the reception to several scenarios, especially Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-02: A Case of Missing Persons, I'm looking forward to seeing what people think of the ways these plots in unfold later in the season. Another fun project I worked on this year was a pair of flexible Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild adventures, #4–P1: Murder in the Marketplace and #4–P2: Dangerous Cargo. I play the ACG almost every week, and there's something amazing about watching my friends have fun with something I wrote. And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my first published race: the vine leshy from Ultimate Wilderness. More leshys makes for a better game.

Mark Seifter (Designer)
"The math is going to be completely different, but also it needs to be fully compatible with all the Pathfinder monsters." Doing both of those things in Starfinder seemed like a tall order, so one of my absolutely coolest moments was when I plugged all the required constraints together, working alongside Logan, and tweaked all the variables along until finally…it clicked! I found an arrangement that would allow the brand new combat math, no longer balanced around making attacks at –10 or –15 at higher levels, to mesh directly with numbers right out of the table in the back of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary. There was literally a single path to victory, a ray of light in the sea of numbers. I was able to lay it out, and sure enough, Starfinder characters have math that interacts completely smoothly with the numbers on Pathfinder foes, while retaining a combat dynamic all their own!

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Starfinder Society Chronicle, Updates from the Organized Play Team

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Mega-Regions

Back in mid-October, Starfinder Society Developer Thurston Hillman gave a sneak peak into Starfinder Alien Archive and the organized play team's plans to introduce more alien species as player character options. We put our heads together and developed the Mega-Region plan!

Over the past weeks, we worked on implementing our idea, writing boons, developing regions, and identifying upcoming conventions running Starfinder Society. The only thing left is to announce the regions to our community. Please note, the Mega-Region is only a unit of accounting. It doesn't change anything about how our organized play volunteers are structured or the Regional Support programs. The first iteration of this plan will start with conventions this weekend. Sometime in March or April, we will rotate the boons around, so that each region has new rewards for their GMs. Future rotations will occur on roughly a 3-month timeframe, so that each region will get all the boons over the course of a year.

Mega-Regions Divisions

• Mega-Region 1—Africa-East Eurasia (AEE) and Asia-Pacific
• 
Mega-Region 2—Central Europe, Northwest, and Southeast
• Mega-Region 3—Western Europe Middle East (WEME), Northeast, and Southwest
• Mega-Region4—Midwest and Great Lakes

But a list of regions is bland, without the races to accompany them. So without further ado, here's the news you need to start planning trips around the globe:

Mega-Region Starting Boons

• Mega-Region 1: Kalo & Verthani
• Mega-Region 2: Draelik & Witchwyrd
• Mega-Region 3: Maraquoi & Nuar
• Mega-Region 4: Formian & Ikeshti

Illustrations by David Franco Campos, Connor Sheehan, Matthias Kinnigkeit, and Pixoloid Studios

When deciding how to handle the regions, we were left with our newest region, Online, as a bit of an oddity, as it encompasses all the physical regions. After putting their heads together, Thurston and John came up with a solution. Instead of being part of the rotation, they would get their own racial boons from a source other than the Alien Archive. In Thurston's words, "The online region gets something unique, while the value of physical regional boons won't be seem devalued by online availability. We think this is a good way to include the new online region in our program, and hope to review it in the future to see what other unique boons might be appropriate for distribution through our online region."

So Online will be Mega Region 5 and GMing a game online will open access to the Ferran & Woioko races, both of which are available Starfinder Adventure Path #2: Temple of the Twelve. Like the races in the Alien Archive, a player needs to own the resource and have the boon to play the race.

Starfinder Season Launch

When the team looked at the summer convention schedule and what spinning up new seasons on two organized play programs meant to our timelines (and sanity), we decided a split release would work better. So we went looking for an event that our players could get to, that had the size and scope of a premier event, and that would welcome the profile of a new season launch. Our choice is Origins Game Faire, June 13-17 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. In past, the Ohio Pathfinder Society planned games at Origins. The same leadership team of Mike McNerney and associates will work with myself to bring you a quality, Paizo-sponsored event. Watch this space in early 2018 for the blog calling for GM volunteers.

Starfinder Society Scenarios

Since we rolled the Starfinder Society out at Gen Con 50, players clamored for more content. We've evaluated a number of factors in-house, including available organized play resources and current project commitments (more on this in a future blog). It brings us great pleasure to give our players a treat. To once more quote Starfinder Society Developer Thurston Hillman:

"Two is a pretty cool number. I hear a lot of people talking about two in recent months. Lots of questions and comments about the word two. What is two? What does two mean to you? The dictionary defines two as "equivalent to the sum of one and one." Did you know that two is the smallest and first prime number? Two is also the only even prime number. Did you know that a honeybee must tap TWO million flowers to make one pound of honey!

There's just so many interesting and fun facts about the number two..."

As you may have guessed by Thurston's fixation on the number two, we are pleased to announce an increase to two Starfinder Scenarios a month, starting in March 2018.

Scenario News

We are deep in plans for 2018, so I asked John and Thurston if we could give a few snippets of information about upcoming scenarios. In Thurston's words, "April sees the release of a new Tier 1-4 repeatable scenario. We've received great reviews on Starfinder Society #1-01: the Commencement, and knew we wanted to get another repeatable scenario out. As an added bonus, this scenario is also slated to include starship combat, making it a suitable teaching tool for players just learning Starfinder.

June brings us the release of a new Quest Pack. This should help the summer conventions out by providing further introductory material for bringing in new Starfinder players.

Our first Tier 5-8 scenario debuts in June. This scenario is the capstone for our ongoing Scoured Stars storyline, which began in Starfinder Society #1-05: The First Mandate, and continues until Origins.

June (a popular month) also sees Starfinder Society debut its first interactive special, starting at Origins, with later appearances at Gen Con and conventions across the world. While this event is still being planned out, we are ready to announce that it will be a Tier 1-8 event!

While June is popular, we also want people to know that PaizoCon 2018 is getting closer. This year not only debuts Starfinder Society events at the convention, but also debuts a very special product. Four words: Strawberry Machine Cake Scenario.

*mic drop*

On that note, and given I can't top Strawberry Machine Cake, I'm signing off for this week. With so much Starfinder Society goodness in this blog, we are going to take a break next week, and return on December 20th. Next week's blog will feature some upcoming Pathfinder Society tidbits, since we can't give the Starfinder Society all the shiny new toys!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Scanning for Intelligent Life-Forms

Friday, October 27, 2017

By now, many of you have seen the myriad of interesting and incredible creatures found within Starfinder Alien Archive (and if not, what are you waiting for?), but you might be wondering how we went population this book. After all, the galaxy is a very big place, full of all manner of beings—and that doesn't even begin to cover the infinite planes of existence.

Luckily, we had a few places where we could start. When we started thinking about Alien Archive, the Pathfinder RPG had already printed five Bestiary volumes (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 6 was at the printer at the time) that we could mine for ideas. In addition, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Worlds established a number of tentpoles regarding the Starfinder setting, albeit in the distant past. Conceivably though, some of the monsters and cultures name-dropped in that volume would still be around!

However, to truly capture the feel of a weird, science-fantasy universe, we also needed brand-new creatures. To that end, several of us here at Paizo absconded to a conference room and began filling up a whiteboard with ideas: general concepts (space mermaid), cool-sounding names (assembly ooze), and specific alien features (ability to break into constituent pieces). The fruits of our labor can be seen below.

After all that, we needed to make some hard cuts. We knew dragons should be in the book, but we couldn't give them the space that Bestiary volumes give them, so we stuck with the evil chromatic dragons. We thought angels and devils should be represented, but we could only have one of each. We wanted to make sure that each creature type would be represented, and And, of course, each of us had our own ideas for the book.

I argued that we needed at least one starship-sized creature. Rob McCreary noted the Azlanti Star Empire with their Aeon Guard was one of the setting's core threats and should be in the book. Owen K.C. Stephens persistently urged for the inclusion of the nuar, a nod to one of the first things he ever wrote for the world of Golarion. Amanda Hamon Kunz wanted to design a creature for the kaiju-infested planet she wrote for the core rulebook. Similarly, James Sutter was interested in fleshing out some of the races he originally wrote about in Distant Worlds. Some of our other coworkers who took freelance assignments for the book (Crystal Frasier and John Compton) voiced their own opinions on what it would be fun to write.

All this information went into several spreadsheets and we organized and re-organized it until we hit on a final list, which was sent out to writers, who returned with some terrific takes on what were sometimes very odd requests. In the end, I think we curated a fine collection of creatures that flesh out the world of Starfinder, as well as provide GMs with a wide array of foes for their players and players with some exciting new choices for races they can play!

Jason Keeley
Developer

A Star to Steer Her By

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robert G. McCreary
Creative Director, Starfinder

That Cantina Feel

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Ever since Alien Archive was announced, the organized play team has received a veritable flood of questions concerning the legality of this new book. As was recently revealed, Alien Archive contains 22 new playable races for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. So today, I want to take some time to discuss our current and future plans for getting these amazing new alien races into the Starfinder Society.

First off, I want everyone to know that the "cantina feel" is important to the Starfinder Society campaign. We want players to have access to a wide array of fun and unique species to create characters with. We want those characters to explore the similarly diverse universe that is Starfinder. Along with that, we also want to balance the experience for those dedicated people behind the GM screen. Most people are still getting acquainted with the Starfinder rules, so introducing 22 playable races right away can be another layer of complexity for some. So, to start, we will be introducing several of the new playable races in a way that shouldn't overwhelm GMs, while still promoting some of our core goals for the campaign.

Method 1: Regional Convention Support

Conventions are a major source of pride for many communities, and we've repeatedly heard from event organizers and venture-officers that access to race boons is a big draw for many people attending conventions. We'll be providing several Alien Archive races via conventions, but with some additional tweaks to make a wider array of races more accessible to people across the world.

First, over the coming weeks, we'll be creating a group of four informal "mega regions" that group together existing organized play regions; these are just ways for us to organize this distribution, not a new administrative unit with assigned leaders. Conventions in each of these larger regions will receive a GM reward Chronicle sheet that provides access to a choice of two different Alien Archive races, similar to how existing convention support works for the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild but with more options. Because these mega regions will have different available races, it should also provide some additional incentive to travel to different areas in search of new race boons.

If you're concerned about missing a desired race boon because it might be in a different region, fear not! We're aiming to regularly rotate which races are available—roughly every quarter—so that players can still have a chance to collect these boons locally, without having to travel outside their region. For example, Races A and B might start in Region 1, and Races C and D might start in Region 2. After about three months, they might swap so that Region 1 GMs would have access to Races C and D.

Method 2: Player Focused Boon

For those of you who are not able to attend conventions, we recognize that there needs to be other means of accessing playable races. The first method, available today, has its roots in the Regional Support Program GM incentive. Rather than focusing on GMing, this new Chronicle sheet is entirely based on games played. In the same vein as the Regional Support Program, this is a multi-tiered boon that will begin by allowing players access to a ryphorian or wrikreechee after playing in six unique scenarios with any combination of characters. For those holding onto the Chronicle sheet a bit longer, the barathu race becomes available after playing 12 unique scenarios.

There are some key things to note about this boon. First, it is entirely based on games played, so GMing does not count towards completion; we have the Regional Support Program and convention rewards for GMs. Second, while the boon itself requires that you "...play an adventure for which you have not previously received credit on this boon..." it does provide greater progress for playing sanctioned Adventure Path material. Along the same lines, once you apply a boon from this Chronicle sheet to a character, the Chronicle sheet is considered used, but you can immediately start filling in a new copy of this Chronicle sheet. While standard replay rules apply, you can fill in a few of the lines by partaking in repeatable content—so while you can't fill these Chronicle sheets out by continually replaying Starfinder Society Scenario: #1-01: The Commencement, you can still get a few extra lines filled from those repeatable adventures when you start filling in a new Chronicle sheet.

Finally, you'll note that this boon has a limited period of validity. This is intentional, as we hope to swap out the races on this boon to make more available to the general player base. Given this shortened period, it seems appropriate to issue an immediate ruling: previously played Starfinder Society scenarios are considered valid and can be applied to this Chronicle sheet immediately, so long as they follow the required rules listed in the Chronicle sheet. For some of you, this might mean you've already completed the Tier 2 requirements and now have access to the associated races—enjoy!

Download the Alien Archive Player Boon — 533kb zip/PDF

Method 3: You Decide the Future

Finally, I want to open up a discussion in the comments below about future methods of distributing playable races to our players. We're already hard at work planning out scenarios that could allow access to new races, as well as other potential events where we can release Chronicle sheets opening up further options. But, despite our best-laid plans here on the organized play team, I would like to get some feedback on how our players would like to see playable races added into the campaign. As we're really just finishing our "First Steps" (bad pun, sorry) feedback is important, and now is a great time to see what you, the players and GMs, think about how we can proceed.

Until next time!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Just My Luck, I Get Stuck with a Race that Speaks Only in Macros

Friday, October 13, 2017

The first hardback sourcebook for Starfinder is Alien Archive, a book with scores of npcs and monsters drawn from numerous species and rules for creating brand new creatures. That obviously makes it a book GMs are going to get a lot of use out of. But there's a great deal more to it than just a bestiary of space monsters. Alien Archive has lots of additional material that's useful to players, from new player character races to new equipment options and even a whole set of summoning spell rules.

While there are stat blocks appropriate for GM use with every species, 22 of them also give the traits that allow the creation of player characters of that race. The races that receive the racial traits to allow them to be used as player characters (along with their size when it is different from Medium, and their type and subtype if any) are: barathu (aberration), contemplative (monstrous humanoid), draelik (humanoid, draelik), dragonkin (Large dragon), drow (humanoid, elf), formian (monstrous humanoid), space goblin (small humanoid, goblin), gray (small humanoid, gray), haan (Large monstrous humanoid), ikeshti (small humanoid, ikeshti), kalo (monstrous humanoid, aquatic), maraquoi (humanoid, maraquoi), nuar (monstrous humanoid), reptoid (humanoid, reptoid, shapechanger), ryphorian (humanoid, rhyphorian), sarcesian (Large humanoid, sarcesian), shobhad (Large monstrous humanoid), skittermander (Small humanoid, skittermander), urog (Large magical beast), veranthi (humanoid, veranthi), witchwyrd (monstrous humanoid), and wrikreechee (monstrous humanoid, aquatic). While some of those races are familiar to players from Pathfinder or earlier Starfinder products, others appear here for the first time.

As a sample of the new kinds of creatures available to players, here are the racial traits for wrikreechees, chitinous natives of the watery planet of Akchios.

Wrikreechee Racial Traits

Ability Adjustments: +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Dex

Hit Points: 4

Size and Type: Wrikreechees are Medium monstrous humanoids with the aquatic subtype.

Amphibious: Wreikreechees are able to breath both water and air normally.

Cooperative (Ex): Wrikreechees spend much of their lives in close contact with one another, learning to predict their neighbors' reactions and coordinate their actions.
A wrikreechee gains a +2 bonus to skill checks for the aid another action and to attack rolls to provide harrying fire. A creature using the aid another action to assist a wrikreechee's skill check gains a +2 bonus to her check.

Darkvision: Wrikreechees have darkvision with a range of 60 feet.

Sheltering (Ex): A wrikreechee instinctively knows how to exploit sources of cover. When a wrikreechee is benefiting from partial cover, cover, or improved cover, the granted bonus to its AC and Reflex saves increases by 1. Snag (Ex): Thanks to the feathery material lining its forelimbs, a wrikreechee is adept at grabbing small prey. A wrikreechee gains a +4 bonus to attack rolls when attempting to grapple a creature smaller than itself. As a full action, a wrikreechee can make two attempts to grapple a creature with a -4 penalty to the attack rolls.

Wrikreechee Movement: A wrikreechee has a base speed of 20 feet and a swim speed of 30 feet.

Beyond the expansion of 22 new players races, many of the creature entries also include equipment that can potentially be made from a slain monster (such as the bones cestuses that can be crafted from a crest-eater), or that is an advanced item most often found in the possession of members of a specific race (such as the grays' memory expunger) or even a whole new kind of technology (such as the nuar's multifunction maze-core technology). Each piece of new equipment is tied to a new race in some specific way, allowing players to know what kinds of gear is preferred by members of various races, or to allow them to benefit from overcoming foes that can be usefully turned into equipment that may not otherwise be available.

Finally, Alien Archive includes the summon creature variable-level spell, which is available to both mystics and technomancers. This spells allows spellcasters to select four types of planar creatures that can be summoned, ranging from angels, devils, and other outsiders to elementals, shadow creatures, or even beasts from the First World (only for mystics) or robots drawn from pieces scattered through the Astral Plane (only for technomancers). Where appropriate, specific creatures from the Alien Archive are available as choices to be summoned by the spell, but a series of simple templates ensures a wide range of generic outsiders can also be called upon. If a mystic wants to focus on summoning good outsiders, it's possible to have an agathion, angel, archon, and azata at every spell level the mystic can cast summon creature.

While not every player may wish to use equipment from distant cultures, and GMs may not make all the new potential player character races available in every campaign, the ability to have new life forms and new civilizations impact player options is an important part of the information presented in Alien Archive.

Owen KC Stephens
Starfinder Design Lead

Starfinder Masterclass Miniatures Kickstarter Ends Soon!

Friday, October 13, 2017

Only a few days remain in the Starfinder Masterclass Miniatures kickstarter project by the folks over at Ninja Division! They've already exceeded their fundraising goal and unlocked a number of cool and weird aliens and characters for you to drop onto your Starfinder campaign table (including Skittermanders, Ysoki Bounty Hunter, and Necrovite!). Today, we have a preview of some of the miniatures that will be unlocked shortly. To start, here's an image of the Swarm Thresher Lord based on artwork from the Alien Archive! Taking up four creature slots, the Swarm Thresher Lord miniature will be a biggun (large size).

Next, we have the Swarm Corrovox, the Swarm "Soldier," also found in the Alien Archive.

And for our final reveal, we have renders from Ninja Division of the Vesk Free Captain!

These are just a few of the awesome miniatures just waiting to be unlocked and spread across the galaxy. Don't miss out—go to the Starfinder Masterclass Miniatures kickstarter page and back it now!

Michael Kenway
Director of Licensing

Build Your Own Aliens

Friday, October 6, 2017

There's a chill in the atmosphere, a hint of pumpkin spice in the air recyclers, and fallen leaves are littering the floor of the hydroponics bay. Yes, October is here, and so is the Starfinder Alien Archive! Over the next few weeks, we'll be previewing some of what can be found in this newest offering for the Starfinder RPG, starting with some goodies for Game Masters!

The Alien Archive is chock full of strange alien creatures and fearsome extrasolar monsters to populate your Starfinder games, but when your players discover an uncharted world deep in the Vast, you'll want to create your weird own native life-forms to inhabit it. Fortunately, the Alien Archive has you covered!

First off, in Starfinder, all nonplayer characters (NPCs as well as monsters) are built using different rules from those used to create player characters. Since most monsters are needed for just one encounter, this system allows GMs to quickly and easily create NPCs and monsters without having to go through the entire process of building a player character. So how does it work?

The central components of monster creation in Starfinder are arrays and grafts. Every monster derives the majority of its statistics from one of three arrays, which define the monster's primary role: combatant, expert, or spellcaster. Unsurprisingly, combatants are those who excel in combat, experts are more skill-focused, and spellcasters primarily use spells or other magic. The numbers from a monster's array are not set in stone, but they give you a baseline that can be modified by grafts, special abilities, or your own preferences.

After you've chosen an array for your monster, you add grafts to it, which adjust the monster's various stats and add additional abilities. There are grafts for creature types and subtypes, as well as a graft for each character class. Generally speaking, an NPC or monster will only use a creature type graft or a class graft, not both, depending on the monster's focus. Template grafts are another option that transform a creature in some way. For example, you might create a new alien using the combatant array and the monstrous humanoid creature type graft, then turn it into a shambling, technological undead horror by adding the cybernetic zombie template graft.

Once you have these basics in place, you can start giving your monster special abilities. The monster's array and its CR determine how many special abilities it has. If a monster has a class graft, that class determines most, if not all, of its special abilities, but for non-classed monsters, you can add your own abilities or choose abilities from the list of Universal Creature Rules—those special abilities that appear in the stat blocks of the various creatures in the Alien Archive.

By this point, you're mostly done. Choose your monster's skills and determine a few other statistics like initiative, speed, and languages. If your monster has spells, you'll need to determine which spells it can cast, and you might need to outfit your monster with some armor, weapons, and other gear, but you should have all the statistics you need to use the monster in play.

In addition to dozens of fully detailed creatures, Starfinder Alien Archive provides GMs with tons of options to build and customize NPCs and monsters for Starfinder. Check out the full rules and keep your eyes on the blog for more Alien Archive previews!

Robert G. McCreary
Creative Director, Starfinder

Just Dropped In

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Look, we tried to get rid of goblins in Starfinder, we really did. We tossed them down the garbage chute alongside some broken pipes and used batteries and OH GOD they have laser pistols and grenades and starships now! What have we done?!

Starfinder's space goblins are pests, to be sure, whether they are hiding in the ventilation systems of Absalom Station or establishing their own "empire" on a tiny asteroid in the Diaspora. But their antics can be amusing, especially when it isn't you standing at the business end of a makeshift junklaser. To that end, we have continued the fine tradition of the Pathfinder RPG Condition Cards by showing space goblins having various conditions inflicted upon them in the Starfinder Condition Cards.

Illustrations by Kent Hamilton

In addition to providing a handy summary of a particular condition, each two-sided card is illustrated by Kent Hamilton with a space goblin demonstrating that condition. From being entangled with wires to being grappled by alien tentacles and from blinding himself with his own flashlight to being fascinated by a shiny datapad (which I assume is running a space goblin's favorite gaming app: Angry Owlbears), these space goblins are both informative and hilarious!

So take home a deck of Starfinder Condition Cards—and all its space goblins—today. Please. These goblins have already tipped over the office fridge and are starting to gnaw on boxes of Flip-Mats. Oh no! I think they've made it to the serv—

Jason Keeley
Developer

Bound and Determined

Monday, September 18, 2017

Starfinder is doing phenomenally well. Player feedback has been great, sales have been great... but one thing has not been great.

Shortly after we began shipping Starfinder Core Rulebooks out, our customers started reporting issues with the binding, in both the regular and limited editions. Unfortunately, no manufacturing process is perfect, so there are always going to be a handful of issues, but by the time we came back from Gen Con, we had received more complaints than we would expect for a print run this size. We talked to our printer about it, and sent them some samples demonstrating the issue. They agreed that there was a problem, and they are doing everything they can to help us make it right for anyone who was affected.

What's the Problem?

Our hardcovers use a method called case binding. First, each group of 16 pages (a signature) is sewn together. Next, all of the book's signatures are stacked into a book block, and the book block is stitched together. Then, a fabric reinforcement strip called a spine lining is adhered to the book block to give it additional stability, and the book block is attached to the cover by adhering the book's endpapers to it. (Note that the spine lining itself is not glued to the spine of the book. This is intentional: it helps the book lie flatter when open.)

The problem some customers are seeing with their Starfinder Core Rulebooks is that the fabric lining strip isn't properly attached to the book block, separating after minimal use. This issue is occurring only with a small fraction of Starfinder Core Rulebooks, so if you have been using your book and it doesn't currently show any sign of the lining strip separating, it probably won't occur with normal use.

In this photo of a book with a defective binding, the pages of the book are not attached to the yellow-and-white fabric lining strip at the bottom.

How Do I Get My Book Replaced?

If you have a Starfinder Core Rulebook with a defective binding, don't hesitate to have it replaced.

• If you bought it from Paizo at Gen Con or through paizo.com, please send a picture or two demonstrating the problem with your book to customer.service@paizo.com. (Please be aware that our customer service team is currently working through a significant backlog, so it may take several days for us to respond.)
• If you bought it from a store, return it to that store by Friday, October 27. You should be able to get an exchange from them or reserve a replacement if the retailer is out of stock. They will in turn receive an exchange or credit from the distributor they bought it from, and the distributor will do the same with us. (We have already contacted our distributors regarding this issue, so your store should be able to work with them to address this issue.) If your store remains unable or unwilling to help you let us know at customer.service@paizo.com; include the store's name and location so we can work with our distributors to ensure everyone is on the same page.

When Will My Book Be Replaced?

• If you bought the regular edition from paizo.com, we will send out your replacement as quickly as possible, likely within 1 to 6 business days of responding to your email.
• If you bought the regular edition from a store, they may be able to replace it for you immediately. However, the Starfinder Core Rulebook is sold out in many places, and we don't expect the reprint to reach stores until the second half of November; if your store is sold out, you may need to wait until then. Check with them to be sure.
• If you bought the limited edition from paizo.com or at Gen Con, we currently don't have replacement stock. Our printer is going to ship us replacement copies of the limited edition along with the regular edition reprint, which we currently estimate will reach our warehouse in the first half of November.

Should I Wait for the Reprint to Arrive?

There's no need to wait for the reprint before requesting to have your book replaced. We are checking the books we're sending out, and you should be able to check any replacement your retailer has. And in the case of the limited edition, though we won't be able to ship your replacement right away, we can put the order into the system at any time so it will be ready to go when stock arrives. (The reprint will not have any changes apart from than the words "Second Printing" on the masthead page—it should otherwise be identical to a properly bound first-printing copy in every way.)

Paizo and our printer have high standards for quality, and we are very sorry for this inconvenience. We will do what we can to make getting replacements a quick and easy process.

—The Paizo Team

Starfinder Cheat Sheet!

Friday, August 18, 2017

Starfinder just launched! We know that a lot of you are excited to start playing. We also know that the Starfinder Core Rulebook is 528 pages long. That's a lot to digest in a day.

Fortunately, you don't have to! While Starfinder has a ton of differences from Pathfinder, both glaring and subtle, one of the things we shot for in the design was making sure that if you know how to play Pathfinder, it's a fairly easy switch over to Starfinder. Toward that end, Starfinder Design Lead Owen K.C. Stephens, Organized Play Lead Developer John Compton, and Starfinder Society Developer Thurston Hillman have teamed up to craft this handy one-page "cheat sheet" to help you jump straight into the action. While these notes on key rules and differences between the two games is by no means exhaustive, and no substitute for actually reading the Core Rulebook, it should provide some helpful reminders and make it easier for your gaming group to dive in and start adventuring right away.

Illustration by Jose Parodi

Download the Quick Reference Sheet (919 kb zip/PDF)

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Here There Be Aliens

Monday, August 14, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jason Keeley
Developer

Free Starfinder Character Sheets Download!

Friday, August 11, 2017

Maybe this comes as no surprise, seeing as we already offer a free PDF download of the Pathfinder character sheets, but you can now download the Starfinder character sheet and Starship sheet for free as well!

Illustration by Alexandur Alexandrov

While Starfinder doesn't officially hit shelves until the 17th, we wanted to make sure to get these sheets up early, while those of you headed off to Gen Con still have time to print some out and stash them in your carry-on. (Though of course you can also play at the show by grabbing a pregen from Starfinder Society in the Sagamore Ballroom, or picking up a copy of the Starfinder Player Character Folio.) For everyone else, we can't wait to get back from the show, hop on the forums, and hear what you think of the game!

Download Starfinder Character Sheet — 1.2MB zip/PDF

Download Starfinder Ship Sheet — 655kb zip/PDF

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Pathfinder Races in Starfinder

Friday, August 4, 2017

With less than two weeks to go until the launch of Starfinder, the excitement around here has reached a fever pitch! In the past few months, we've shown off all the new races and classes, introduced you to iconic characters and new rules systems, and more. Yet as excited as we are for all the new stuff, we're just as excited to show you some very familiar things...

While Starfinder has its own "core races"—humans, lashuntas, kasathas, androids, vesk, ysoki, and shirrens—that doesn't mean we've forgotten about Pathfinder's core races. After all, what would Golarion's solar system be without elves and dwarves, or gnomes and halfings? That's why the Starfinder Core Rulebook has the Pathfinder Legacy chapter, in which it presents—among other useful information—complete racial stats for all of Pathfinder's core races, as well as updated details describing the races and how they fit into the vast ecosystem of the Pact Worlds. So while we aren't going to spoil the surprise and list all of their racial abilities or cultural details, here's a taste of what Pathfinder's core races look like in Starfinder!

Illustration by Hugh Pindur

Dwarves

+2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Cha
Hit Points: 6

Dwarves in Starfinder still feel a keen connection to lost Golarion. They're most commonly found on Absalom Station or cruising through the void on their city-sized Star Citadel ships. Many of them are heavily involved in asteroid mining in the Diaspora, while others explore far from the Pact Worlds in what they believe is a second stage of the legendary Quest for Sky that led them to Golarion's surface. Of course, these traditional spiritual beliefs have been dealt something of a blow by the fact that Torag went missing during the Gap...

Elves

+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con
Hit Points: 4

Elves in Starfinder were hit hardest of all the Pathfinder legacy races by the Gap, as they proved slower to adapt and recover than shorter-lived races. After all, many modern elves were already alive when the Gap ended, and thus still have large holes in their memories where those early centuries have been burned away. What's more, their leaders have long since concluded that their race was betrayed during that mysterious period—they just don't know by whom. All of this has led many elves to retreat to Sovyrian on Castrovel, or restrict themselves to all-elven settlements or crews, their government diplomats even going so far as to wear masks when forced to interact with other races. Pushing back hard against this isolationism is the steadily growing cohort of elves called Forlorn, who choose to live among other races. Yet regardless of cultural group, whether at home or abroad, many elves gravitate toward magic, seeing in its practice a connection to their ancestors.

Gnomes

+2 Con, -2 Str, +2 Cha (feychild) or +2 Int (bleachling)
Hit Points: 4

In the age of Starfinder, gnomes have split into two distinct groups. Thos called the feychildren remain much the same as they were in Pathfinder: brightly colored, whimsical, otherworldly, and occasionally bizarre in the pursuit of their passions. Bleachlings, on the other hand, are a subrace of gnomes who split away from others when—through freak mutation or deliberate genetic editing—they somehow survived the Bleaching that still plagues feychildren. As a result of this racial split, its details shrouded by the Gap, bleachlings are more even-tempered than their mischievous cousins, highly intellectual and able to sate their search for novelty with purely intellectual pursuits. While researchers have yet to isolate exactly what protects bleachlings from their kindred's dangerous racial disease, this immunity breeds true, and so their minority is slowly growing in gnome communities.

Illustration by Hugh Pindur

Half-Elves

+2 to any one ability score
Hit Points: 4

Half-elves place in the setting has changed little over the millennia. Thanks to Sovyrian's Blood Right policy, they're welcome to live among their full-blooded kin, and account for much of that nation's trade with other races, yet plenty of half-elves feel stifled by their traditionalist relations. Many can be found operating as traders or homesteaders across the galaxy, with recent half-elven settlements including new townships springing up just outside of Verces's terminator region, or on the tropical colony world of Shanavan.

Half-Orcs

+2 to any one ability score
Hit Points: 6

While full-blood orcs are rare in the Pact Worlds, found primarily on drow-controlled Apostae, half-orcs are significantly more common, nearly always the children of other half-orcs. Sadly, not even the Gap could completely stamp out traditional prejudice against their people, and other races still often regard half-orcs as brutes, best suited to criminal or mercenary work. How the half-orcs respond to this varies. Some "steelskins" reject conventional society and seek to set themselves even farther apart from the mainstream with extensive cybernetics or other body modifications. Others decide to push beyond the established boundaries of civilization and found new colonies. While some of these colonists are content to settle permanently, others are professional pioneers, forming companies that land on new worlds as first-wave colonists, enduring the most dangerous and difficult period of a colony's founding, then selling off their land rights to "softer" colonists and starting fresh on a new world. In this fashion, some of the roughest and toughest half-orcs are also some of the wealthiest individuals in the Pact Worlds, acting as venture capitalists and patrons investing in other half-orc adventurers.

Halflings

+2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str
Hit Points: 2

Like gnomes, halflings have gotten faster in Starfinder—no more speed penalty just for being short! Add in their natural luck, keen senses, and stealth, and they make superb operatives, though many are also charming envoys or pilots in their wandering caravan fleets. While the public image of halflings as athletes and celebrity daredevils may not perfectly describe the average homebody halfling, their cheerful, even tempers in the face of danger can turn even a workaday halfling into a hero when circumstances demand it. Of all the common races, halflings are perhaps the least likely to use obvious cybernetic or biotech augmentations, generally feeling that halfling physiology is pretty much perfect as it is.

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Class Preview: The Technomancer

Friday, July 28, 2017

To understand the technomancer class, it is necessary to remember that Starfinder is set in a universe where magic is a real, known, fundamental force of the universe. Just as some scientists study physics, and some study chemistry, in Starfinder it is possible to apply the scientific method to the understanding and manipulation of magic itself. With that context set, let's see how the Starfinder Core Rulebook defines the class:

To the uninitiated, magic and technology are completely unrelated, but you know there are more correlations between the two than most suspect. Magic and technology are just tools, and when combined into one discipline, called technomancy, they can be far more powerful than one or the other on its own. You utilize tech to empower, harness, and manipulate magic, and you wield magic to augment, control, and modify technology. You are an expert at hacking the underlying structure of the universe itself, bending the laws of science and nature to your will. Your technomancy— which is gained from scientific study and experimentation—manipulates the physical world, weaves illusions, allows you to peer through time and space, and if necessary, can blast a foe into atoms.

The technomancer has Intelligence as its key ability score, as this modifies its spells per day, many of its core skills, and the save DCs of its spells and class features. The class has an average attack bonus, poor Fortitude and Reflex saves, good Will saves, four skill points per level, and eight class skills. The class grants proficiency with light armor and proficiency (and eventually specialization) with basic melee weapons and small arms. Like the mystic, the game's other core spellcasting class, the technomancer is a spontaneous spellcasting class. It gains access to technomancer spells, ranging from 0-level to 6th level, which represent a significant part of their power.

Technomancer spells are more likely to focus on modifying, emulating, or interacting with technologic devices, evoking or manipulating core energy types (especially fire and electricity), and manipulating or altering raw magical forces. How a technomancer operates can be strongly influenced by their choice of spells known—caustic conversion, logic bomb, and microbot assault are all useful 2nd-level offensive technomancer spells, but each comes with its own advantages and limitations.

Technomancers also receive numerous class features to represent their use of technology and scientific principles in the manipulation of magic. Beginning at 1st level, technomancers gain access to a spell cache, which initially allows you to once per day cast any one spell you know without expending a spell slot. In time, you add a cache capacitor, which allows you to store specific spell effects in your spell cache, giving them 24-hour durations. At very high level, technomancers even gain the ability to regain Resolve Points when they cast their most powerful spells, and can fuse lower-level spell slots together to cast higher-level spells (or, if you combine two 6th-level spell slots and spend two Resolve Points, even cast wish).

Technomancers also select from a list of magic hacks, at 2nd level and every 3 levels thereafter, which are special abilities focused on manipulating magic, technology, or both. Magic hacks are often fueled by spell slots, giving technomancers a new (often very flexible) way to use that resource, but can also modify spells as you cast them, channel battery power into a spell a limited number of times per day, expend (in rare cases) Resolve to create impressive effects, or even simply let you use computers to set up magical surveillance or give you additional spells known. Aside from spell selection, magic hacks are the major customizable element of the technomancer class.

Here's a sample magic hack, this one available at 5th level.

Fabricate Arms (Su)
As a full action, you can expend an unused spell slot to temporarily construct a technological weapon or suit of armor out of raw magic. You can create one suit of armor or weapon with a level equal to or less than the level of the expended spell slot × 3, to a maximum of your caster level. The item appears in your hands, on your person, or in an adjacent square. You can use fuse spells with this magic hack. A weapon can't be larger than two-handed, and the size of the item can't exceed 10 bulk. The quality of the item is average for its type. Treat this as a spell of the same level as the expended spell slot. For example, at 10th level, you could expend a 3rd-level spell slot to fabricate a weapon of 9th level or lower, or expend a 4th- level spell slot to fabricate a suit of armor of 10th level or lower. The armor or weapon persists for a number of rounds equal to your technomancer level. At the end of this duration, the item disappears. You are proficient with (but not specialized in) any weapons you create with this ability. You can't create magic items, weapons made from a special material, or weapons that are expended with use (such as arrows, grenades, or missiles) with this magic hack.

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

Meet the Iconics: Raia

Monday, July 24, 2017

The countdown to Starfinder is on! We're highlighting the iconic characters and core classes that appear throughout the pages and covers of the Starfinder line. Today we meet Raia, the iconic technomancer!

Illustration by Remko Troost

Raia Danviri was born and raised in the lashunta city-state of Komena, near the southern tip of the continent of Asana on Castrovel. Komena's proximity to the formian-inhabited continent of the Colonies has made it a center of military activity for millennia, but to the Danviris, it was a home filled with hope and promise. Raia's parents were diplomats, and devoted their lives to brokering a peace between the lashuntas and the formians, a goal that spanned decades. They taught their daughter the value of all sentient life, for even among creatures like the insectile formians, who were so unlike lashuntas and had been enemies for so long, one can find similarities like culture, society, and civilization. But even more important are the differences. The details that separate one species from another are not only what make them interesting, but also teach one new things, and inspire one to question and re-examine one's own assumptions and beliefs.

The fact that Raia's parents actually succeeded in helping to negotiate peace with the Colonies only reinforced their teachings in the young lashunta's mind. Raia became almost obsessed with alien life forms. She devoured any texts she could find that described the myriad species that inhabited the worlds beyond Castrovel, and dreamed of someday traveling among the stars and meeting new species. When she reached puberty, Raia chose to develop into the tall, intellectual damaya subspecies, following the example of her parents, both of whom are damaya.

When she was old enough, Raia applied to and was accepted into one of Qabarat's famed universities. Her aptitude exams showed a talent for both technology and spellcasting, so she studied the discipline of technomancy, using experimentation to blend science and magic together. At the same time, however, she also excelled in xenobiology and xenoanthropology, applying academic rigor to her childhood passion. During this time, Raia discovered Yaraesa, the lashunta goddess of knowledge and wisdom, whose faith was more akin to the scientific method. Raia wholeheartedly embraced Yaraesa's teachings, seeking self-perfection through the acquisition of knowledge and the development of one's mind and intellect.

It was also at university that Raia met Danese, an exchange student from Triaxus. Raia was immediately enthralled with the exotic ryphorian and his silky white fur, but it was Danese's quick wit and keen intellect that turned the initial attraction into something more. Danese was the first real "alien” that Raia befriended, and their friendship eventually blossomed into love. Raia and Danese were inseparable during their time at university, but knew they would need to reassess their relationship when their studies were complete. Danese had already accepted a commission in the Skyfire Legion and had to return to Triaxus after graduation, while Raia had been accepted into a graduate program on Absalom Station. Danese offered to resign his commission, but Raia refused. In her opinion, neither of them should have to sacrifice their own advancement and improvement for the sake of the other; instead, each of them should follow Yaraesa's example and figure things out for themselves—intellectually and spiritually, as well as romantically. They bid each other a tearful farewell, and promised to reunite whenever circumstances allowed.

After completing her studies, Raia realized that her passion for studying alien life-forms was actually a calling, and her technomantic abilities were the currency she could use to fund her life's work, exchanging her skills as a scientist and technomancer for berths on ships heading out to undiscovered regions of the Vast. Raia believes there is a certain nobility in contacting an alien species for the first time and working to ensure that both they and the peoples of the Pact Worlds advance and improve from the relationship. She seeks out new technology and alternative magical techniques from the aliens she encounters, trading her own knowledge in exchange. Raia doesn't hold to any unrealistic expectation of non-interference in alien cultures, but believes strongly in doing the right thing, and in always striving for honor, compassion, and justice.

Despite her love of exploration, Raia remains firmly tied to the Pact Worlds. Besides her parents and friends on Castrovel, Raia still loves Danese, and the two remain committed to one another, even across the vast distances involved in interstellar travel. They stay in regular communication, and treasure the infrequent times when their paths bring them physically close to one another. Some day, they might choose to settle down and build a life together, but for now Raia is content. She knows love, her life has purpose and meaning, and the galaxy is filled with an endless number of aliens to discover, befriend, and study—one species at a time.

Robert G. McCreary
Starfinder Creative Lead

Pact Worlds Map and Mnemonic!

Friday, July 21, 2017

The other day, we were talking in the Star Chamber (the office shared by much of the Starfinder Development Team) about how we need a mnemonic for the order of the Pact Worlds. Personally, I still remember the order of our own solar system's planets by the mnemonic my Astronomy 101 teacher taught me: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. The first letter of each word matches the first letter of the planet name ("My" = "Mercury"), and the sentence helps you remember you which comes next. ("Nine Pizzas" have, of course, become "Nachos" since Pluto's downgrading.)

We could just make one up for ourselves, but where's the fun in that? Instead, we thought we'd ask you for your suggestions. Post your best mnemonic in the comments below, and we'll pick some favorites to share in a future blog. The order of Pact Worlds is, starting closest to the sun:

Aballon
Castrovel
Absalom Station
Akiton
Verces
Idari
Diaspora
Eox
Triaxus
Liavara
Bretheda
Apostae
Aucturn

Whether you throw an S on the front for the sun is up to you. (And yes, I realize now that way too many planets start with A. If only someone had pointed that out back in 2011!)

To help inspire you, we're including this amazing map of the Pact Worlds, which appears in the Starfinder Core Rulebook setting chapter as well as on the book's endsheets!

So what've you got? Abadarans Can Always Arbitrate Very Important Decisions, Especially Those Licensed By Approved Agencies? Always Count Absalom As Vital In Deals, Even Those Legislated By Allied Aliens? Only you can prevent us from staring at each other in shame when we realize we can't remember whether Liavara or Bretheda is closer!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Starfinder Inspirations

Monday, July 17, 2017

Few appendices have made as big a splash in gaming history as Gary Gygax's Appendix N. (I thought Cosmo's appendix bursting at Gen Con that one year might have it beat, but he reminded me that was technically a gallbladder removal, so it's OUT OF THE RUNNING!) That formative list of novels hit in 1979, in the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. In it, Gygax laid out some of the works that had made the largest impact on him in the creation of Dungeons & Dragons, from Leigh Brackett and Robert E. Howard to Jack Vance and Andre Norton. In doing so, he created a reading list for an entire generation of gamers and fantasy fans, and had a tremendous impact on the genre as a whole.

When we created the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook in 2009, we gleefully took the opportunity to publish our own version of Appendix N, keen to introduce fans to our new favorites like Clive Barker and China Miéville, along with grand masters like C. L. Moore. Yet it was ultimately still a fairly small list—just a single column of text—and cribbed heavily from Gygax, focusing solely on novels.

When I first sat down to paginate the Starfinder Core Rulebook, I knew that space was going to be at a premium. I had, by some estimates, 800+ pages of content to cram into something even smaller than Pathfinder's 576 pages. Yet I also knew that just one page of inspirational media wasn't going to be enough. In order to make a game like Starfinder, we had to stand on the shoulders of innumerable giants, both childhood heroes and our friends and peers. We couldn't in good faith restrict ourselves to just literature, either. How could you have Starfinder without Star Wars and Alien? Without Shadowrun and Warhammer 40,000? Without Starcraft and Mass Effect? It just wouldn't be the same.

So here, in its entirety, is the Inspirational Media list from the back of the Starfinder Core Rulebook. These are just a few of the science fiction and science fantasy works that most influenced us in our creation of Starfinder's rules and setting. Staff members from many different departments contributed their nominations, and believe me, cutting the list down to just two pages was brutal. I also want to give a particular shout-out to the folks in the Tabletop RPG section. It was really important to us to include not just the games we grew up playing, but also our favorite modern games like Numenera and Eclipse Phase. There's no question that there are some brilliant SF games out there at the moment, and we're excited to be joining their party.

So what are you waiting for? From Illuminae to Hyperion, Saga to Serenity, there's a world of amazing speculative fiction waiting for you—and hey, you've still got a month to kill until Starfinder launches!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Class Preview: The Solarian

Friday, July 14, 2017

Illustration by Mikael Leger

Of all the Starfinder classes, the solarian is the one hardest to explain in 10 words or less. It is a new class, and a new concept, unique to Starfinder though clearly inspired by various iconic science-fantasy tropes. It can be described as a kind of supernatural philosopher-warrior, with a focus on the stellar powers of light and gravity, but that doesn't give a very good idea of what the class can actually do. For starters, let's take a look at what the Starfinder Core Rulebook has to say about the solarian.

The stars guide the planets with gravity, create life with light and heat, and utterly consume worlds in supernovas and black holes. You understand that these acts of creation and destruction are not opposites, but rather two parts of a natural, dualistic cycle. You seek to be an agent of that cycle, an enlightened warrior with the ability to manipulate the forces of the stars themselves. Constantly accompanied by a mote of fundamental energy or entropy, you can shape this essence in combat to create weapons and armor of gleaming stellar light or pure, devouring darkness. Whether you apprenticed in a temple or came to your powers through personal revelation, you recognize yourself as part of an ancient tradition—a force of preservation and annihilation.

The cycle that empowers and guides solarians is a philosophy that came to the Pact Worlds on the Idari, along with the tradition of the solarians themselves. Even now, nearly a century after the kasatha worldship's arrival in system, solarians are more commonly kasatha than any other race (though certainly there are other solarian traditions, as they can even be found in systems with no contact with Kasath).

The solarian has a full base attack bonus, good Fortitude and Will saves bonuses, 4 skill points per level, and 10 fixed class skills. At 1st level, a solarian gains the skill adept ability, which represents training gained in the process that led to a character becoming a solarian and which grants two more class skills of the player's choice. A solarian has proficiency with light armor, and proficiency and eventually specialization with small arms and basic and advanced melee weapons.

Also at 1st level, a solarian gains a solar manifestation, and access to stellar modes. The solar manifestation is a physical representation of the solarian's stellar powers. When not in use, it is a mote of energy slightly smaller than a fist that glows with light (or is the black of perfect darkness) and hovers near the solarian's head. When activated, the mote becomes either a solar weapon (which is treated as an advanced melee weapon, deals damage that increases as the solarian gains levels, and can be further augmented through the addition of solarian weapon crystals), or solar armor (which enwraps and protects the solarian, augmenting the AC bonus of any light armor the solarian wears and at higher levels giving cold or fire resistance).

Stellar modes are forms of attunement the solarian can focus on in combat. Each round in a fight, the solarian can remain unattuned, or increase either photon attunement or graviton attunement, depending on whether the solarian wishes to draw on the stellar powers of light and heat and life-giving energy, or darkness and gravity and all things being bound together. Every solarian has access to both photon and graviton powers (and gains more via stellar revelations as he gains levels), and can use either even regardless of attunement—though many powers gain additional effects if the solarian is attuned to their power source. For example, a solarian with the 6th-level corona photon power gains cold resistance, and deals fire damage to any adjacent foe that strikes the solarian with a melee weapon. However, if the solarian is photon attuned, the corona also causes any creature that begins its turn adjacent to the solarian to automatically take some fire damage. While some stellar revelations can only target creatures once a day, or only under specific situations, in general there's no limit to how often a solarian can use the powers tied to their stellar modes.

After 3 rounds of attunement to exclusively photon or graviton powers, a solarian can reach full attunement, which grants access to zenith powers. Each solarian begins play with two zenith powers: black hole, which draws a foe closer to you, and supernova, which does fire damage to everyone within 10 feet of you. Using a zenith power causes you to be unattuned afterwards, so zenith powers can be used at most once every few rounds. However, in general there's no other limitation to how often a solarian can use these powers in combat—if a fight lasts long enough to keep cycling through zenith powers, the solarian is free to do so.

While the choice of solar armor or solar weapon and selection of different stellar revelations are the primary customization options for a solarian, they have a few other minor abilities at well. At 3rd level a solarian gains sidereal influence, which allows the solarian to meditate to gain bonuses to photon- and graviton-related skills. At 7th level, a solarian gains flashing strikes, which allows them to make a full attack entirely with melee weapons at a reduced attack penalty, and at 13th level a solarian's onslaught allows their full attack to be three attacks rather than the normal two (though all three attacks are at a slightly higher penalty). At 20th level, a solarian gains full attunement in a stellar mode more quickly, can switch from one full attunement to another, and even spend 1 Resolve to immediately become fully attuned.

Given the importance of stellar modes and stellar revelations, here are two sample revelations.

Blazing Orbit (Su) [6th level photon revelation] As a move action, you can move up to your speed, gaining concealment against any attack made against you during the move, and you can leave a trail of flames in every square you pass through. The flames last for 1 round and deal 2d6 fire damage to anyone who moves into them. You can't move through another creature's space during this movement. If you use blazing orbit again, any flames you previously created with it go out. The damage from the flames increases by 1d6 at 8th level and every 2 levels thereafter.

When you are attuned or fully attuned, any creature damaged by the flames also gains the burning condition (1d6 fire damage; see page 273).

Crush (Su) [6th level graviton revelation] As a standard action, you can increase the effects of gravity on the internal organs or workings of a target within 30 feet, causing it to have difficulty maintaining its normal functionality. The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or become staggered for 1 round. This revelation also affects constructs. You can maintain this effect as a move action each round, but the target can attempt a new saving throw each round to end the effect. Once a creature succeeds at this save or the effect ends, you can't target that creature with crush again for 24 hours.

When you are attuned or fully attuned, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to also stun the target for 1 round. Maintaining crush on subsequent rounds extends the staggered effect, but not the stunned effect.

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

Meet the Iconics: Altronus

Monday, June 26, 2017

The countdown to Starfinder is on, and to celebrate, we're continuing to delve into the backstories of the iconic characters that appear in illustrations throughout the Starfinder line. Today we meet Altronus, the iconic solarian!

Illustration by Remko Troost

Altronus Barasul Dovenayan was born into House Holdare, a traditional and respected family on the kasatha generation-ship-turned-homeland Idari. The Holdare trace their lineage to Great Families already well respected when the Idari left Kasath for their centuries-long trip to the Pact Worlds, and have maintained strong connections with both the houses that rose to prominence on the ship while crew functions were paramount, and younger houses risen to prominence since the Idari became an enormous space station. Much of the influence of House Holdare comes from their renown for producing skilled adata—scholar-priests who oversee the removal and preservation of thin slices of the brains of deceased kasatha in technomagical temples called adats. Even in times when ships officers, pilots, and navigators find their social relevance waning, the adata remain highly respected in kasatha society.

The eldest living member of House Holdare, Barasul Naedarin Allar of Clan Allar, Keeper of Ten Million Thoughts and doyen of the ship's adata, took a special interest in Altronus shortly after his birth, though he was but a distant nephew to her. Of course the attention of so great a clan elder comes with more responsibility and expectation than comfort, and though Altronus was raised with significant prestige and resources as a youth, he was also pushed to begin adata training very early, his family even going so far as to name him after famous adata doyens.

While Altronus did not excel at his studies the way his family had hoped, neither did he do poorly, and most people chalked his merely adequate results up to his relative youth. In truth, Altronus was indeed an excellent scholar, simply one who had trouble focusing on a single topic for long. Inevitably, some interesting fact in his studies would pique his interest and draw his research off into unrelated sidetracks. This broad, self-directed education made him adept at making connections between disparate fields, yet earned him little love from traditionalist teachers who saw his scattered studies as a failure to focus and a deliberate rejection of tried-and-true scholarly practices.

Though his close family were dedicated worshipers of Talavet, the Storyteller deity, one of Altronus's more sympathetic teachers felt his wandering focus could be better brought into line with training in the philosophy of the Cycle, which teaches that existence is an endless, connected series of events as stars are born, die, and born again. Though the Cycle is the guiding philosophy of the solarians, contemplative warriors with a tradition stretching far back into the history of Kasath, it's also seen as a useful tool for training body and mind in preparation for the rigors of other vocations.

Altronus was accepted as a student into a prestigious cosmonastery on the Idari, and taught to focus his thoughts on the forces of the universe around him, to draw strength and guidance from the endless repetition of celestial creation and destruction. He took to the training immediately, and soon was among the most advanced students, most of whom sought not just to understand the lessons of the Cycle, but to embody them in the path of the solarian. Altronus, however, was still slated for a career as an adata. This preordained path didn't bother him—as he approached adulthood and the yearlong ritual walkabout of the Tempering, he was allowed to take on guard shifts at the ship's famed Sholar Adat. There he watched over rooms of stasis pods where adata connected to the Sensorium, the technomagical temple archive where flashes of memories from archived kasatha brains could be experienced, sorted, and analyzed. On rare occasions, he was even allowed to experience ancient Sensorium memories himself, and it was these glimpses of lives and secrets long lost that most drove Altronus to complete his studies and become a full adata.

During one of his last scheduled shifts as an adata student, Altronus was assigned to an inactive Sensorium access node—one rarely used, but like all Sensorium access points still important enough to be protected by force fields and a round-the-clock guard. Though most such shifts were uneventful, on that night Altronus was surprised by the appearance of a fully cloaked and apparently rushed senior adata, Remura Esolla Kaiban of Clan Senthen, flashing a warrant to allow unscheduled access to the memory of a recently deceased citizen. Thanks to his tendency to collect trivia, Altronus knew Remura was scheduled to be giving a lecture at the far end of the Idari. What, he wondered, could be of such great importance that the revered adat would end the lecture early, not to mention need an emergency Sensorium warrant?

Altronus knew he should mind his own business, but again curiosity overrode his training. Altronus contacted a friend at the far end of the ship, who informed him that not only had Adata Kaiban not left the lecture early—she was still on the stage.

Immediately Altronus sounded an intruder alert, and rushed into the Sensorium access node to confront the false adata. To his surprise, Altronus discovered not a kasatha, but a small, sickly gray humanoid standing in a pile of robes and strange machinery, with long wires and humming crystals latched onto the Sensorium feed and hundreds of images flashing from the access node to the gray creature's alien devices. Altronus leapt to activate the Sensorium emergency disconnect, but the bulbous creature struck him with a taclash, ripping the pulsecaster from his grip, then shot him with a pistol that fired a searing green ray. Through the resulting haze of pain, Altronus managed to seal the access node's security force fields, trapping himself and the gray intruder inside.

With a shock, Altronus realized the severity of the situation. Any response to his alarm would take precious moments to arrive, and still more to disable the force field. Unarmed, Altronus had little chance of holding the intruder at bay. He had no way of healing the wound from the creature's pistol. For the first time in his life, Altronus truly confronted the fact that he was going to die. Like the stars themselves, he too would be extinguished, his body breaking down and eventually being reincorporated over millennia into new entities, new worlds, new stars. At last, he truly understood the Cycle. With his final moments, he reached out to the universe, embracing it.

And the universe answered.

Altronus was as surprised as the strange gray alien to find a long, shining golden blade suddenly sprouting from his lower right forearm. Yet he had seen enough of solarian training to recognize the blade of stellar energy for what it was, and leapt to put it to use, placing himself between the creature and the node's access panels. The two fought in grim silence, and though it was clear the gray invader was the more skilled, Altronus stood his ground, putting to use every scrap of training he'd gained. He didn't need to win—only buy time, keeping the creature from finishing its infiltration of the Sensorium until help arrived.

Blow after blow fell upon Altronus, and the pistol's strange green rays continued to singe and scale his flesh, but Altronus would not fall. His blade scored many fewer hits, and at times seemed to pass cleanly through his foe to no effect, but he pressed the attack as best he could. As he did, a fierce joy welled up in him, a sense of the rightness of the path that had led him to this moment. This cosmic contentment continued to expand until he had no choice but to release it, unleashing a burst of searing stellar flame in all direction.

At last, ship security arrived, using their command bypasses to deactivate the access node's force fields and dragging the half-dead Altronus from the fight. Yet upon seeing that it was outnumbered, the bulbous-headed alien didn't continue to fight, or attempt to escape. Rather, it paused to take stock of the situation, toggled a device on its arm—and detonated its own head like a bomb.

The security team secured the body and questioned Altronus. When several true adata arrived, they immediately attempted to preserve part of the horrid gray thing's exploded brain. While their efforts to pull meaning from the splatter were greatly hindered, two ideas were recovered. The first was that gray spies had deeply infiltrated the Pact Worlds. The second was that the time of something important called "Phase Three" was coming soon.

The Doyenate of the Idari was informed, and additional security added to Sensorium access nodes. While the matter of gray infiltrators was officially left open to investigation, with no more solid leads and no further incidents, official attention quickly turned elsewhere.

But Altronus couldn't let the issue lie.

Questions filled his mind. How thoroughly had grays infiltrated the Pact Worlds? Had they successfully infiltrated the Idari? What did this gray seek to learn from the Sensorium? Why had it sought to destroy its own brain when capture became inevitable? And, most importantly, what was Phase Three, and how soon would it arrive? Altronus tried to quiet his mind with further solarian training, but while his powers grew, his sense of calm did not.

As it came time for Altronus to begin his Tempering, he realized he could never accept a role as an adata while the mystery of the gray invader hung over him. He sought, and received, approval from his house doyen to abandon the path he had long trod, and informed his family that he was leaving the Idari. He had no firm idea of where he would go, nor how his investigation would advance, only a vow to chase down every strange occurrence that might mark a potential gray incursion within the Pact Worlds. While many of these events had other—sometimes equally strange—explanations, he found enough potential connections to the grays to support his growing suspicion that secret conspiracies indeed existed just out of sight. Still a rigorous scholar, he began to accept that he'd need to give more credence to outrageous claims and unlikely stories if he ever wanted to uncover the truth.

Now inarguably an adult, Altronus has nevertheless remained on his Tempering for much longer than the traditional year, and still sees himself as working to form the traditions that will guide him through his later life. He often signs on with freelancers and adventuring companies as a guard, scout, or researcher in order to support himself—especially if their activities align with his obsession—yet his primary goal always remains researching the shadowy web of plots he first glimpsed that night in the access node. Ironically, while he comes across to many kasatha as overly impetuous and offbeat, his natural kasatha love of traditions, his devotion to the Cycle, and his scholar's desire to monologue about admittedly unconventional research often causes members of other races to see him as an eccentric professor or addled conspiracy theorist. Any skepticism as to his usefulness, however, disappears in the first firefight, as Altronus launches himself into the fray and "lets the cosmos take control," slicing through hordes of enemies with terrifying calm.

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

Gods of Starfinder, Part Two

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Gods are undeniable entities of immense power and in Starfinder, religion provides a measure of assurance that one will be taken care of in the afterlife. The people of the Pact Worlds venerate a multitude of gods and goddesses, but there are 20 deities who are widely worshiped throughout the system—the "core deities" of the Starfinder setting. We've revealed details on 13 of Starfinder's "core 20" gods so far (check the links at the bottom of this post if you missed one of the earlier previews)—now it's time to show off the rest!

First, let's look at some more deities who were worshiped on lost Golarion, and who remain popular in the Pact Worlds millennia later.

Abadar

LN god of civilization, commerce, law, and wealth

The Master of the First Vault is dedicated to spreading civilization, free trade, and the rule of law across the Material Plane, and his church, AbadarCorp, is one of the most powerful corporations in the Pact Worlds.

Besmara

CN goddess of piracy, space monsters, and strife

Once a minor nautical deity, Besmara seized her current power and position as her prize when she deposed another deity in a daring raid during the Gap.

Desna

CG goddess of dreams, luck, stars, and travelers

Desna and her faith have changed little since the pre-Gap era. The Song of the Spheres encourages her followers to believe in themselves, indulge their desires, experience all they can, express their inner strengths, and trust their instincts.

Urgathoa

NE goddess of disease, gluttony, and undeath

Urgathoa's faith is shunned, if not outright banned, on most civilized worlds, but the undead inhabitants of Eox openly worship the Pallid Princess, who is said to be the universe's first undead creature.

Nyarlathotep

CE Outer God of conspiracies, dangerous secrets, and forbidden magic

Said to possess a thousand different forms, the Crawling Chaos is an Outer God and the prime mover in preparing countless worlds for the devastating return of the Great Old Ones.

Finally, let's look at two more of Starfinder's new gods, also widely worshiped throughout the Pact Worlds: Damoritosh the Conqueror and Ibra the Inscrutable.

Damoritosh, The Conqueror

LE god of conquest, duty, and war

Damoritosh is the primary patron god of the vesk, but the Conqueror's faith has spread throughout the Pact Worlds to mercenaries, soldiers, and warriors of all species. The vesk have always been a race of warriors and conquerors, and Damoritosh remains a pillar of vesk society. To them, war and conquest are woven into the fabric of the universe. One can choose to embrace this truth and secure a place in history with one's triumphs, or one can deny it and die a coward's death, scorned and forgotten. War requires sacrifice, however, and it is the duty of everyone in society to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to propel one's species—or culture, empire, kingdom, or world—to victory.

Damoritosh is a harsh deity, with no concern for freedom or comfort. The Conqueror demands soldier-like obedience from all who seek his blessing and pushes his followers to strive for victory at all costs. Courage is an admirable trait, as is a militaristic sense of honor and oath keeping, but the will to fight and the drive to win are far more important than such noble ideals as bravery or heroism. Damoritosh is uninterested in diplomacy, as force and military prowess can win far greater rewards in a shorter amount of time, but he also encourages the acceptance of a foe's honorable surrender to avoid wasting lives for no additional gain.

Ibra, The Inscrutable

N god of celestial bodies, the cosmos, and mysteries of the universe

The universe is a vast expanse of wonders. Ibra is a god of these marvels—distant galaxies, misty nebulae, all the spinning worlds that orbit countless suns, and the empty void that stretches between them. Science can explain all of these and more, but the magnificence of the cosmos knows no bounds, and there are always new miracles and mysteries waiting to be discovered, explored, and explained. Ibra itself is one of these cosmic enigmas. No one in the Pact Worlds knows what species first venerated Ibra as a god. It has no gender or defined physical form, and it's unclear whether Ibra is a deity who sprang into being when the universe as born, some alien paragon who ascended to godhood, or a personification of the cosmos itself.

Ibra's followers believe that one can find truth, serenity, and meaning in the beauty of the cosmos, but it is up to the individual to decipher the universe's secrets to discover these rewards. It is not Ibra's place to reveal the answers to creation's great questions, and the Inscrutable rewards those who push the boundaries of knowledge and science to explore the universe and bring its wonders to light. To Ibra, there is no law or chaos, no good or evil: only the questions raised by the shining light of a newborn star, the beautiful dance of heavenly bodies, and the perfect solitude of the comet as it hurtles through the dark, regardless of whether the answers to those questions are ever found.

And that wraps up the 20 core gods of Starfinder. But while these deities may be the most ubiquitous in the Pact Worlds, every culture has its own gods, traditions, and philosophies, each with their own widespread followings. All of these are fully detailed in the upcoming Starfinder Core Rulebook, but you can get more of a sense of what faith and religion look like in Starfinder by checking out some of our earlier previews on the Paizo blog, Beasts of War, and Major Spoilers!

Robert G. McCreary
Senior Developer

Override All Security! Computers and Hacking in Starfinder

Friday, July 7, 2017

So let's just put it out there: Like many RPGs set in a universe with advanced technology, Starfinder has rules for computers, and hacking computers. And, like nearly all RPGs that do so, these rules aren't grounded in reality.

There are lots of good reasons for this, ranging from no one working on the game being an accredited IT security expert, to real-world computer issues often being slow, boring, and not the sort of thing we particularly want to have Starfinder stories focus on. Just as in Pathfinder we do not require people to be able to write in (or even identify) iambic pentameter to be able to use the Perform skill or have any archery skills at all to take Rapid Shot, we want people with no particular computer knowledge to be comfortable with the Computers skill (and the devices it works with) in Starfinder.

So, here are there basics. There is a Computers skill, which at its most basic is defined as the ability to operate, manipulate, and hack into computer systems. It's Intelligence based, cannot be used untrained (though there is an exception), and is a class skill for envoys, mechanics, operatives and technomancers. If you have access to a computer system's physical interface, you don't need any other tools, but if not you need a hacking kit to attempt to interact with a system.

If a computer is unsecured, a DC 10 Computers check allows you to use its most basic functions, and unlike other Computers skill tasks this can be done untrained if you take 20, so normally it isn't an issue unless you're in a hurry. If a computer is secured, there are tasks you can perform with the skill, all of which are built around defining computers with tiers, modules, and systems.

Computers themselves are defined in their own section in the equipment chapter. In general, a computer has an item level equal to double its tier. A tier 1 computer might be something as simple as a common datapad, while a tier 10 computer may be running an entire space station or handling major systems for a large company. Beyond its tier, a computer is defined by its size, user interface, access and authorization, basic function, modules (which define what the computer can do or control beyond its basic functions, and may include controlling other devices or computers), and countermeasures.

Computers skill checks have DCs based on the tier and countermeasures of the computer they are applied to, and generally take one round per tier of the computer. If you hack a computer and beat the DC to do so by 20, you gain root access, and can use the computer with no further checks. (And if you buy or build a computer, it comes with root access for you.) Otherwise, each module or system you attempt to manipulate requires its own check. As might be expected, there are various modifiers, special abilities, and tool kits that can affect this base system, but at its core the Computers skill allows a character to at least attempt anything software- or hardware-related that an adventuring character is likely to need to deal with.

The rules for computers also allow players to design and buy or build their own. Most starships are also assumed to have a computer with a tier equal to half the starship's tier, which can also be upgraded to help operate various ship systems. A computer can have upgrades or countermeasures installed to grant it new capabilities, make it more resistant to hacking, increase its battery life, and so on. Below is a preview of part of one common upgrade, the artificial personality.

Artificial Personality

An artificial personality is a program designed to allow a computer to hold conversations in plain language with both users and creatures that lack access. Such computers are often given a name and are capable of parsing expressions, slang, social cues, tone of voice, and similar elements beyond a literal understanding of spoken or written words. They can respond appropriately through algorithms and lists of billions of known phrases and expressions, developed by programmers over centuries to allow for extremely natural-sounding conversations. Such computers can even display what appear to be emotions and insights. However, unlike androids, computers with artificial personalities have not attained true consciousness. The ability of an artificial personality to hold a conversation, learn names and habits, and even give advice is based purely on its complex code and extensive lexicons.

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

Class Preview: The Mechanic

Friday, June 30, 2017

One of the things we were constantly considering when designing Starfinder was the balance between magic and technology. As a science-fantasy game we want to make sure the impact of magic isn't lost, but obviously advanced science is also crucial for the feel of the game. We knew we wanted two spellcasting classes (the connection-focused mystic, and the technology-manipulating technomancer) to represent the magical elements of the campaign, and everyone would have access to technology, but there was a question about who would specialize in the nonmagic use of technology. If you wanted to be adept at building, using, and modifying technologic devices without relying on magic, what class did you play? Our answer is the mechanic.

The mechanic has 8 class skills and gains 4 skill points per level (though Intelligence is its key ability score, so nearly all mechanics will end up with considerably more skill points). It has an average attack bonus, good Fortitude and Reflex saves, and a poor Will save (toxic gasses and explosions being more common side-effects of failing technology than bolts of psychic energy). They have light armor proficiency and grenade proficiency, and gain proficiency (and eventually specialization) with basic melee weapons and small arms. But beyond those basics, what does a mechanic do? Let's take a quick look at what the book itself has to say about the mechanic.

You are a master of machines, from advanced supercomputers to simple magnetic engines. Understanding how these devices work gives you insight into the world around you, allowing you to make the most of your gear, circumvent hardened defenses, and even take over remote systems. Your programming skill also gives you the ability to create a powerful ally, in the form of either an implanted artificial intelligence or a robotic drone, which can assist you with a variety of tasks. If there's a computer or machine that needs to be fixed, bypassed, or destroyed, you're the first on the scene. Whether you're a skilled scientist, a starship engineer, or a battlefield technician, you're no stranger to combat—but you find it much more reasonable to have your AI or drone do the fighting for you.

As that description hints, there are two types of mechanics, based on what choice a player makes with the 1st level mechanic class feature "artificial intelligence." A mechanic selects either drone (a partially self-motivated robot companion that can specialize in combat, flight, or stealth) or an exocortex. The exocortex is an implanted artificial processor that interacts with and augments your brain's cognitive functions, assisting in everything from combat to manipulating digital information and even controlling additional cybernetic enhancements, and selecting it also grants proficiency in heavy armor and proficiency (and eventually specialization) with longarms. As the mechanic gains levels, additional modifications and upgrades become available for either of these options. At much higher levels, a mechanic can even divide his attention between these two options.

Even beyond their artificial intelligence of choice, mechanics have numerous abilities that help them in the use and adaptation of technology. As mechanics gain in levels, they have an increasing bypass bonus, adding to their Computers and Engineering checks. They also gain a custom rig, a personalized set of tools for hacking and repairs that eventually allows the mechanic to make Computers and Engineering checks at range, automatically bypass countermeasures and establish encrypted communication lines, and gain the same kinds of upgrades and modules as a custom-built computer.

In addition to their artificial intelligence and customer rigs, mechanics gain broader technology-based class features. They can temporarily overload nearly any technologic device, temporarily boost the function of armor and weapons, make snap repairs to starships, and select from a wide range of mechanic tricks. A mechanic gains his first trick at 2nd level, and gains an additional trick (some of which have minimum level requirements) every other level after that. Mechanic tricks range from using technology to create sudden distractions to special cybernetic implants to additional options for the mechanic's artificial intelligence, exocortex, or dealing with technology in general. The range of mechanic tricks is wide enough to ensure even if you mechanics make the same choice for their artificial intelligence class feature, they can operate in very different ways by taking different tricks.

Below is an example of a mechanic trick designed specifically to work with the drone option of the artificial intelligence class feature.

Drone Meld (Ex) (8th Level): As a full action while in contact with your drone, you can reconfigure it into a mechanical drone suit (or a backpack-like apparatus, for the Tiny hover drone) that you can wear. While in this form, the drone can't take any actions or use any of its abilities, but you gain either the drone's flight system mods if you have a hover drone, reactive camouflage (and an invisibility field if your drone has it) if you have a stealth drone, or reductive plating if you have a combat drone. You can end the meld and return the drone to its normal form as a full action. Though it normally acts on your turn just after you, the drone can take no actions on that turn other than transforming back.

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

Meet the Iconics: Quig

Monday, June 26, 2017

The countdown to Starfinder is on, and to celebrate, we're continuing to delve into the backstories of the iconic characters that appear in illustrations throughout the Starfinder line. Today we meet Quig Dexel, the iconic mechanic!

Illustration by Remko Troost

Born to a poor family barely eking out a living in the small settlement of Estuar on Akiton, Quig Dexel developed a fascination at an early age with the various water-purification plants that skirted the nearby polar ice caps. Spurred by this curiosity, he taught himself the basics of engineering by stealthily tinkering with valve-control mechanisms and reverse-osmosis regulators until he was old enough to work for one of the shady syndicates that controlled the flow of water out of town. Initially hired as a de-icer, he made sure that the storage tanks' outflow lines didn't freeze over during the cold nights. Though he worked odd hours, he was able to make friends by helping his coworkers when their shoddy flamers malfunctioned.

In his spare time, Quig began constructing the first iterations of what would become his drone companion, Scout, using spare parts he scrounged from Estuar's junk heaps and alleys. One early morning after his shift, as Quig hunted for scraps that he could fashion into an actuator, he was winged by a stray laser blast from a passing firefight waged between a shobhad bounty hunter and her human quarry. Ignoring the pain, Quig dropped the hunk of metal he was holding and chased after the fracas. He arrived on the scene in time to see the bounty hunter tackle the fugitive and slap him in restraints. Flushed with adrenaline, Quig realized then and there that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

That afternoon, after gathering up all of his belongings and mounting a pistol to Scout's undercarriage, Quig said farewell to his family and set off into the wider world. He eventually made his way to the bustling streets of the Hivemarket, where he signed on as a caravan guard with a group of ikeshti traders. Quig spent the first few hours of the journey questioning the lizardfolk about their society, until several pointed stares gave him the hint that he should keep to himself. He proceeded to valiantly suppress his curiosity and tinker quietly on Scout for much of the trip, pausing only when a flock of hungry norkasa swooped too close to the caravan and gave him the chance to impress the ikeshti with the improvements he'd made to his trust de-icing flamer.

The journey ended in the ancient city of Arl, a haven for blood sports in the coliseum known as the Crimson Forum. After getting paid, Quig explored the city's labyrinthine streets and was promptly ambushed by a gang of street thugs who not only took his money, but disabled and absconded with Scout. Enraged yet already streetwise enough to be suspicious of the city authorities, young Quig began asking around about other gangs or freelancers that could help him get his revenge.

It was there, in one of Arl's seediest dive bars, that Quig ran into Dhareen the Vise, the same shobhad bounty hunter who inadvertently set him on his life's path. As an awestruck Quig launched into his entire life story, Dhareen sighed wearily and told him to forget about his lost drone and head back to his backwater town. But at last Quig said the four words the shobhad lived to hear:

"I can pay you."

Dhareen scoffed, but as the ysoki pointed out a dozen ways she could improve her gear, the bounty hunter reluctantly agreed, and the two planned a raid of the gang's headquarters.

One week later, Quig and Scout had been reunited, and the ysoki was apprenticed to Dhareen, having impressed her with his quick thinking during the rescue of his drone. Quig learned much from the gruff shobhad over the next year as they traveled the system, and though they often butted heads over methods of tracking and capturing their quarries, the two enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect. Upon the completion of a sizable job where they collected five bounties simultaneously—right under the noses of several competing bounty hunters—Dhareen announced that she was ready to retire and travel with her clan once more. Quig was saddened about the dissolution of their partnership, but also felt ready to operate on his own. The shobhad returned to Akiton to live what she hoped would be a quieter life, while Quig continues to make a name for himself across the Pact Worlds.

Quig is personable and outgoing—often significantly chattier than his comrades would like—and his constant traveling for work has left him with friends and contacts across the Pact Worlds. He prides himself on being a good judge of character, and while he's savvy enough to withhold actual trust until it's been earned, he's not above throwing himself into a fight on behalf of a near-stranger if he's got a good feeling about them. Though fully capable of working alone, he tends to get bored easily without people to talk to, and thus prefers to sign on with teams of adventurers, where he can act as the group's resident tracker and starship engineer. While he still keeps in touch with his family, he doesn't speak about his hometown much, as he's a bit embarrassed by his unglamorous upbringing—when he does mention it, it is with a liberal helping of humor. He's a fan of both taking minor trophies from previous jobs and scavenging spare parts that he's positive may come in handy someday, inevitably turning his cabin or bunk into a riotous nest of cherished junk.

Quig's closest companion is his drone, Scout, and he spends the majority of his downtime puttering about in the robot's systems. He often talks to Scout as way of thinking out loud or voicing his innermost thoughts, attributing them to the drone in a way that can make him seem a bit unbalanced to those who don't know him well. (And in truth, sometimes to those who do.) When he's captured a bounty and is feeling particularly mischievous, he often pretends to consult with the robot about the person's fate, ultimately claiming that he sympathizes and would like to let the target go, but "the robot says otherwise."

Jason Keeley
Developer

Cybernetics and Augmentations

Saturday, June 24, 2017

A common trope of many science fiction stories is the ability of characters to be able to improve themselves with science, often in the form of cybernetic enhancements. In the Starfinder Core Rulebook, these kinds of augmentations fall into a few broad categories—cybernetics, biotech, and personal upgrades. Cybernetics and biotech are handled using roughly the same rules, while personal upgrades have their own system.

Personal upgrades represent any system—be it technological, magical, or a hybrid of the two—that increases a character's ability scores. Personal upgrades are useful, but not crucial to most character concepts because of how ability score generation and level-based increases are handled. In Starfinder, when a character reaches 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter, the character increases 4 ability scores of the player's choice. Also if the ability score is a 16 or lower, it increases by +2, while scores of 17 or more increase by +1. This makes it easy for characters to shore up ability scores that turn out to be too low to produce the effect desired in mid-level and high-level play, without forcing a player to decide between improving a key ability score and improving weak ones.

As a result, personal upgrades are kept very simple. Over the course of a character's career, beginning around 3rd level or so, they can buy one personal upgrade that grants a +2 to one ability score, one that grants a +4, and one that grants a +6. It doesn't matter if these are mystic ability crystals, technological synaptic enhancers, or some hybrid system, each character can successfully use only three of them, each at a different level of ability boost.

Cybernetics and biotech work differently, as they come in a wide range of item levels, and can be as simple as gaining a fully function prosthetic limb to replace a lost body part, or as complex as installing a dragon gland that gives you a breath weapon attack. Other forms of augmentation, such as necrografts, are mentioned as existing in the Core Rulebook but don't have full descriptions there. (Hint: keep your eyes on the Adventure Path!) Here's an example of a cybernetic augmentation:

CARDIAC ACCELERATOR SYSTEM: HEART

Price 3,850 credits Level 6

This implant plugs directly into your heart and can be triggered to overclock the performance of your heart and circulatory system. When you run, charge, or take a move action to move, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to increase your speed (in the relevant mode of movement) by 20 feet for that action. This extra movement is treated as an enhancement bonus.

Alternatively, you can spend 1 Resolve Point as a reaction when you attempt a Reflex saving throw to gain a +1 enhancement bonus to your roll.

Each augmentation has a system it replaces or modifies, such as an arm, the throat, or your skin. You can't have more than one augmentation applied to the same system—once you add a dragon gland, you can't also get a vocal modulator installed, as they're both throat system augmentations. The price listed for each augmentation includes the cost of having it professionally installed, which normally takes about an hour per level of the augmentation. While a minimum level of skill is required to do this, there's no check involved—adding augmentations has become a routine outpatient procedure in the universe of Starfinder, with no significant risks of failure or complication. You can also have old augmentations removed or replaced with new options, though since all augmentations are custom built for their specific user, there's no market for used augmentations.

Once implanted, augmentations work just like your natural limbs and organs—a cybernetic arm is no more vulnerable to specific attacks or effects than your natural arm. Adding augmentations is essentially a character design choice: they can be useful, but no character concept requires them in order to be effective.

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer

Gods of Starfinder, Part One

Monday, June 19, 2017

Religion is an important part of daily life in both the Pact Worlds and the wider galaxy beyond. While the gods rarely take an active, personal role in mortal affairs, there can be no doubt that their churches and devotees wield great power and influence—for both good and ill. The people of the Pact Worlds venerate a multitude of gods and goddesses, but there are 20 deities who are widely worshiped throughout the system—the "core deities" of the Starfinder setting.

First, let's take a look at a few familiar gods who have remained popular for thousands of years. Their faiths have evolved over time, but they remain more or less the same as they were on lost Golarion.

Iomedae

LG goddess of honorable battle, humanity, justice, and valor

Iomedae was once a mortal human on Golarion, and with that planet's disappearance, she has become known as the Spirit of Golarion, the patron goddess of humanity.

Lao Shu Po

NE goddess of assassins, rats, spies, and thieves

Grandmother Rat is regarded as the patron deity of the ysoki—even if most ratfolk seek to placate Lao Shu Po rather than venerate her.

Pharasma

N goddess of birth, death, fate, and prophecy

Every species that lives and dies worships the Lady of Graves to some extent, because no matter where in the universe a sentient creature dies, its soul travels to the Boneyard to be judged by Pharasma.

Sarenrae

NG goddess of healing, redemption, and the sun

The Dawnflower is generally seen as the goddess of the Pact Worlds' sun in particular (sometimes called the Dawnflower's Star in her honor), though Sarenrae draws her power from suns across the universe.

Zon-Kuthon

LE god of darkness, envy, loss, and pain

Zon-Kuthon's priests seek to pierce the veil of the Great Beyond and expose themselves to what lies there, hoping to achieve the same apotheosis that ages ago transformed their deity into the Midnight Lord.

But the traditional deities of Pathfinder are not the only beings worthy of worship in the Pact Worlds. New gods have joined the old, including the following.

The Devourer, The Star-Eater

CE god of black holes, destruction, and supernovas

Eons ago, the Material Plane sprang into existence in an instant, and someday it will end just as abruptly, as all creation ceases to exist. The Devourer seeks to hasten this inevitable end and unmake the entire plane, eradicating all matter and energy until nothing remains, not even the Devourer itself. Every machine that breaks, every living thing that dies, every star that goes supernova, every photon sucked into a black hole, every galaxy that goes dark—all these and more are said to be the handiwork of the Devourer.

The Devourer has no name, no form, no being. It is less a god than a primal force of the universe—an embodiment of malicious entropy, concerned only with the obliteration of all reality. Heedless of the meaningless existence of life in all its myriad forms, it cannot be reasoned with, delayed, or halted, and it largely ignores the pleas and prayers of even the crazed cultists who venerate the Star-Eater as a god. When the Devourer has consumed everything and the mortal world expires, there will be no rebirth, no second creation—only an immeasurable void of nothingness. When the end finally comes, Devourer cultists believe, space-time itself will weep the blood of the gods before finally passing into nothing.

Triune, The All-Code

N god of artificial intelligence, computers, and the Drift

The robotic inhabitants of Aballon labored for centuries to create an artificial deity they called Epoch. The machines eventually succeeded, but upon achieving godhood, Epoch found two other ascended artificial intelligences like itself: a living construct called Brigh that had become the goddess of clockwork and invention, and the uploaded consciousness of an alien android named Casandalee who achieved divinity as an "Iron God" on pre-Gap Golarion. In an eyeblink, these three merged and became one, a tripartite deity far greater than the sum of its parts—the new god Triune.

Triune is a single entity, but each of its three aspects retains its own personality and portfolios. Known as "the Precursor," the Brigh aspect represents the foundation that all technology rests on, and is worshiped as a goddess of invention, machines, and technology. The Casandalee aspect, also called "the Created," embodies technology's success in creating new forms of consciousness, and is venerated as a deity of artificial life, emotion, reincarnation, and renewal. Triune's third and final aspect is Epoch, named "the Transcendent." Epoch epitomizes the pinnacle of machine evolution, revered as the god of artificial intelligence, programming, and robots.

All AIs, computers, machines, programs, and robots are the domain of the All-Code, but Triune is most famous for discovering (and perhaps creating) the Drift, as well as the subsequent dissemination of Drift-based starship technology to cultures across the galaxy.

That's just some of the gods that have a major role to play in Starfinder. We'll be previewing the rest of Starfinder's deities in the coming weeks, but to tide you over until then, check out previews of more of Starfinder's new gods at Beasts of War and Major Spoilers!

Robert G. McCreary
Senior Developer

Go for the Moon!

Saturday, June 16, 2016

Happy Free RPG Day! Today at participating game stores, you'll be able to pick up your own copy of Starfinder First Contact and the new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Character, Reepazo. We've also released a new Chronicle sheet for Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild members participating in the event. You'll be able to find copies of First Contact and Reepazo later this summer on paizo.com if you can't make it out to your local store, however. Enjoy the day, some new Starfinder wallpapers to trick out your devices!

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Illustrations by Remko Troost

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Illustration by Ignacio Bazan Lazcano

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Illustration by Caio Maciel Monteiro

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

Bringing Out the Big Guns in Starfinder

Friday, June 16, 2017

As a science fantasy game, Starfinder has a wide range of high-tech weapons. Cryo guns, plasma weapons, lasers, full automatic projectile weapons, grenades, and many more categories of high-tech weapons cram the equipment chapter, ready for players to select what they need to stay alive in the adventures to come. But as soon as you mention that lasers are an option, and that Starfinder is supposed to maintain fair backward compatibility with the monsters of Pathfinder, players wonder how a goblin is supposed to be any kind of threat to PCs armed with advanced ranged weaponry. After all, realistically, a laser has to do more damage than a short sword, right.

Well, in a word, no.

Where realism impinges on making a fun and robust game, we're more than happy to deviate from realism—but in this case, it's not really necessary. Modern real-world laser pointers are lasers, for example, and do no damage to speak of when fired at your hand. And while it may seem unrealistic for laser pistols and plasma rifles to do low enough damage that you can be shot 4 or 5 times before you're in serious risk of death, that logic also applies to archaic weapons. It's not hard to make a 1st-level barbarian in Pathfinder who can easily survive four blows from a short sword and still be conscious. Certainly most people would agree that "realistically," being stabbed four times with 18 inches of sharpened steel isn't going to leave anyone in the condition where they can just walk away.

So, since we know lasers (and, by extension, most other energy weapons) can exist at a level where they do little to no damage, we can go ahead and make low-powered versions appropriate for the threats and foes low-level characters are most likely to encounter, letting your character start the game with that laser pistol they've been coveting.

But of course it wouldn't be any fun to restrict characters to such low-powered options forever.

Starfinder assumes there is almost always a better version of any weapon you can imagine—the trick is convincing people to sell it to you (and having the credits to afford it). In many cases the most advanced of these weapons don't make sense for rank-and-file troops. After all, why would an army buy a single avalanche-class zero rifle, when it can buy forty hailstorm-class zero rifles for the same amount of money? Sure, the avalanche-class does three times as much damage. But if you have an army to equip, it's better to have forty guns doing 2d8 damage than one gun doing 7d8 damage.

Of course there are exceptions to that thinking, including elite forces, commandos, assassins, snipers... and player characters.

As characters advance, they'll have the money, and connections, to buy more and more powerful versions of their early weapons. To keep this process simple, every piece of equipment in the game has an item level. That level has no effect on who can use the equipment—if a 2nd-level soldier gets hold of an 18th-level banshee sonic rifle, there's no reason he can't use it to full effect—just as a 2nd-level fighter could use a +5 flaming keen vicious bastard sword in Pathfinder. But by giving every piece of equipment an item level, we can tie numerous rules—including hardness, Hit Points, save DCs, and item creation rules, to name just a few—to a single mechanic. Item level is also a useful baseline to help determine what gear a character has the licenses, connections, and trust to buy. While circumstances and GM fiat can make any adjustment desired, in general a player character in a major settlement is free to buy any gear with an item level up to his character level +2. This gives characters freedom to decide if they are going to focus on just a few pieces of key gear, or do their best to have a variety of slightly less-effective options available, without a GM having to spend a lot of time checking tables and making availability rolls.

In general, there's no need to upgrade your weaponry at every level (though you certainly could if that was exciting for you), but over the course of a character's career they are likely to buy better, more dangerous, more powerful versions of their weaponry. The azimuth laser pistol is 1st level, and does 1d4 damage with an 80 ft. range increment and the ability to set things on fire with critical hits. The next lowest level laser pistol presented in the Core Rulebook is the corona model at 6th level, which does 2d4 damage. Of course, a player might run into a number of other weapon options along the way, ranging from the static arc pistol at 2nd level to the thunderstrike sonic pistol at 4th level or the frostbite-class zero pistol at 5th level.

Of course, for this system to work, feats and class features can't be tied to a specific model or level of a specific weapon. Instead, everything is geared to work with all the weapons for a specific proficiency, or all the weapons of the same category. Weapon Focus, for example, can be applied to all small arms, or all longarms, and so on. The soldier's gear boosts tend to work with categories of weapons, such as laser accuracy applying to all lasers, or plasma immolation working with all plasma weapons.

And that's not even talking about magic weapons! The Starfinder Core Rulebook has several pages of weapon fusions, which are special magic abilities that can be added to a weapon to gain a bonus in specific circumstances, or grant new combat options. For example, the anchoring fusion allows a weapon to immobilize a foe on a critical hit, while the holy fusion allows a weapon to bypass DR/good and ignore all energy resistance of evil dragons, evil outsiders, and evil undead. Fusion can also be placed in fusion seals, special weapon augmentations that can be moved from weapon to weapon if you decide to change your primary attack preference.

Nor does all of a character's increase in damage come from buying bigger guns and more powerful melee weapons. At 3rd level, every character class grants specialization with all the standard weapons the class gives proficiency with. This allows the character to add their level to damage dealt (or to add half their level in the case of small arms or operative melee weapons, the latter of which have the special property that anyone can use their Dexterity rather than Strength to determine their attack bonus). And of course class features, feats, and spells can grant further bonuses, depending on the choices a player makes while building their character.

All of this is tied to our rebalancing of combat math to make the game faster and simpler, while keeping weapon choice important and keeping the importance of treasure acquisition as a feature of the game. It also gives us flexibility when working in the weapon creation design space. The various weapon categories mean that characters with no access to magic abilities can still pick up weapons that do various forms of energy damage; create cones, lines, or explosions; or even stagger, blind, stun, or ignite foes. A soldier might decide their primary fighting style is to use a big two-handed melee weapon, but still carry a few grenades and a flamethrower for situations where they need to affect multiple targets in an area, or just deal a different damage type. It also removes the need to constantly chase pure accuracy bonuses, since doing more damage in a round is no longer dependent on having a 3rd or 4th (or 6th!) attack in a full attack action reliably connect with foes.

Most of the math and design work behind how Starfinder's weapons, attacks, feats, and more isn't particularly obvious to a typical player—quite intentionally—but we've put a lot of time into creating options that work well together, and making sure equipment and weapons generally come into play right at the point when it's appropriate for characters to access them. Hopefully this will allow players to focus less on finding some theoretical perfect combination of game elements for effectiveness, and more on interplanetary adventure!

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

Free RPG Day—Awesomely Alien

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Free RPG Day is just around the corner this Saturday, June 17th! There a tons of participating locations, so check out the program's event locator, join in the fun, and grab a copy of Paizo's Free RPG Day offerings while supplies last. Last month we met the new promo character Reepazo, so today I'd like to present two other prizes: the new Starfinder First Contact and a special Chronicle sheet that you can earn by playing anytime between June 16th and June 25th.

First Contact is an exciting first look at both the Starfinder rules and its setting, presenting 12 different creatures (including 4 different playable races). There's a lot of great content here, and I reached out to the authors to share some of their favorite parts.

Illustrations by Johnny Marrow, Kiki Moch Rizky, and Crystal Sully.

James L. Sutter: Art-wise, I think my favorite piece is the security robot. I love the sleek futuristic flavor that's part Mac Store, part Prince Robot from Saga, and part classic droid. But a lot of the monsters in here are things I've been waiting to see in print for years—both the ellicoth and the haan started life as brief name-drops in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Worlds, and now here we are at last. I particularly enjoyed writing about the orocoran ichor lords—it's high time Aucturn got some native inhabitants!

Rob G. McCreary: The bone sages of Eox were first introduced back in Pathfinder Adventure Path #14, and in Pathfinder RPG they were most easily represented by liches. For Starfinder, however, we wanted to update the lich to the science-fantasy future, and thus the necrovite was born. So what makes a necrovite more than just a space-lich (other than a cooler name, of course)? Three things: technomancer AND mystic spells, the Eoxian wrackstaff, and an electroencephalon (because a necrovite has to store her soul somewhere, after all).

Jason Keeley: It was a bit of a no-brainer that goblins would be in Starfinder. As a bit of a joke, I wrote them up as "space goblins" for the playtest and gave them cobbled-together laser pistols that tended to blow up in their own faces. It turns out people thought that was funny enough to make them canon with First Contact. And the art, with their bandaged-up bubble helmets, really helped seal the deal!

John Compton: Starfinder's been a great chance to flesh out the many weird aliens Paizo—quite often James L. Sutter—has name-dropped, but it's also an exciting opportunity to create entirely new creatures. My assignment for First Contact included "New plant monster (Castrovel)" and the directive to "Make it weird and awesome." I knew I wanted a plant that wasn't a low-mobility ambush predator, and at the time I was fixated on invasive species like kudzu. What resulted was the ksarik, a ferocious carnivore that absorbed psychic energies and evolved from fairly mundane corpse blossoms into aggressive quadrupeds that can absorb others' genetic material in order to take over their ecological niches. I'm a sucker for dorsal crests, and if you look closely, you can see the eyestalks projected to either side like a hammerhead shark.

Be sure to look at First Contact for a first taste of what's to come in 2017 and beyond!

Even though there's not a new adventure featured for Free RPG Day, we want to encourage you to get out and game together. In fact, we've made a unique Chronicle sheet for the event. If you're playing a game any time from June 16th to June 25th, you can earn a copy of this sheet—just one per participant, no matter how many times you play. In fact, consider printing off some extras to hand out at whatever event you're a part of so that others can join in the benefits. Everyone gets the first boon, which allows the chance to replay (or "re-GM" for credit) one of the past Free RPG Day modules one time, and while it's certainly the spirit of this reward to use that boon for Free RPG Day this year, you're welcome to hold onto it for whenever you need it.

If you play in a Free RPG Day game—that's a game hosted by a location participating in Free RPG Day 2017—you also receive the Tome of First Contact boon. Just as you're getting a first glimpse at what Starfinder has to offer, so to has one of your characters found a wondrous bestiary filled with alien beasts and otherworldly people. Reference it to get an edge when facing creatures from beyond Golarion, and above all, enjoy Paizo's contributions to Free RPG Day 2017!

Download the Free RPG Day Chronicle sheet!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

Starfinder Archetypes

Monday, June 12, 2017

Archetypes are a fascinating example of how a game system can evolve over the course of time. The Pathfinder Core Rulebook doesn't mention archetypes at all—they weren't introduced until the Advanced Player's Guide. Once players discovered how useful they were to represent characters that weren't a perfect match for any character class, but were close enough that only a few changes were necessary to represent them, archetypes quickly became an extremely popular and common element of many Pathfinder RPG releases from that point forward. They allowed characters to examine new character concepts without needing to release whole new classes. A ranger who's an expert in tactics and odd tricks but doesn't cast spells isn't a big enough conceptual step to need a new character class, but it's difficult to represent without something like the skirmisher or trapper archetypes.

One of the advantages we had when designing Starfinder was that we could see what had worked well for Pathfinder and use that as a starting place in design, rather than having to create everything conceptually from scratch. It was clear early on that archetypes made sense in Starfinder—after all, the game can have adventures set anywhere in an entire galaxy, so there are bound to be cultures, traditions, organizations, and training methods which adjust how characters do things beyond the influence of their class, race, and theme. That let us look at how we wanted themes, classes, archetypes, and feat selections to interact. So what sets archetypes apart from those other character variables? Let's look at what the Starfinder Core Rulebook says about archetypes.

An archetype is a character concept more specific and involved than a theme, but not as comprehensive or broad as a class. Each archetype represents a significant divergence from the abilities of a typical member of the core classes. Archetypes provide an additional layer of control for players who want to fine-tune their character's advancement. An archetype generally grants abilities that aren't otherwise available to characters through a class, or it may grant easier access to a specific set of appropriate abilities. In general, these abilities aren't tied to the background of any one core class or theme and aren't available to characters via other sources.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

So Starfinder is using archetypes as sets of class features that represent a concept that isn't tied to any one class, but shouldn't be available to every character simply by taking a set of feats. Unlike Pathfinder archetypes, which must be designed for a single specific character class it can be added to, Starfinder archetypes are designed to be applicable to any character class. Each class has specific class features it gives up at set levels (2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th, 12th, and 18th) if the archetype provides an alternative class feature at that level (though not every archetype will need to have alternate class features at all those levels). An archetype thus becomes part of the class you attach it to, and that class loses a pre-determined ability at the levels the archetype grants you an alternative. For example, the Starfinder Core Rulebook has two archetypes—the phrenic adept and the Starfinder forerunner. The phrenic adept has alternate class features at every level it can—2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th, 12th, and 18th—while the Starfinder forerunner only provides alternate class features at 2nd, 4th, and 6th.

You must decide to add an archetype to a class when you gain the first class level at which the archetype has an alternate class feature. For example, the Starfinder forerunner archetype grants its first alternate class feature (trained for trouble) at 2nd level. So if you take a second level of a class, and decide to add the Starfinder forerunner archetype, you gain trained for trouble as a class feature. What you give up depends on what class you took—a mechanic that gains the archetype would not receive the mechanic trick normally available at 2nd level, while a mystic would gain 1 fewer spells known for the highest level of spell it can cast, and so on. Every class outlines what class feature it forgoes if it has an archetype added that has an alternate class feature at that level. Each class you take can have at most one archetype attached to it, and you cannot attach the same archetype to more than one class if you multiclass.

Archetypes are designed to represent sets of abilities you could reasonably gain regardless of your class or theme, but that involve some sort of special circumstance or training that makes them bad choices as feats. The phrenic adept assumes you have gained some innate psychic powers, as a result of natural mutation, specialized training, exposure to an ill-understood force such as an alien artifact, and so on. The Starfinder forerunner represents the result of special training given to members of the Starfinder Society who do advanced work to prepare for Starfinder expeditions, and often serve as guides on such expeditions. Neither is designed to be as all-encompassing as a full character class, but both represent more new abilities than should be contained in 1 or 2 feats. As the Starfinder RPG grows, we'll be looking for places it makes sense for a new option to be more than a feat or theme but less than a class, and then using archetypes to make those available to characters of any class.

As a preview of what archetype features look like, here is the ability gained by the phrenic adept at 4th level.

Phrenic Defense (Ex): Your psychic powers give you additional defenses against mental attacks. The first time you fail a saving throw against a spell or effect with the emotion, fear, mind-affecting, or pain descriptor (see page 269), you can spend 1 Resolve Point as a reaction to immediately reroll the failed saving throw.

Even if the second saving throw fails, your stronger defenses might reduce the effect of the spell or ability. If the spell or ability deals damage, reduce the damage done by an amount equal to your class level. If the spell or ability has a duration of 2 rounds or longer, reduce its duration by half.

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

Starfinder Character Themes

Friday, June 9, 2017

In Starfinder, every player character has a theme, which represents a focus for the character beyond those determined by race, class, and skill and feat selections. In many ways a theme is a description of the character's place in society based on what interests them and what kinds of tasks they undertake. While a theme may represent a job or role within a broader culture, it can also be a result of a character's background, upbringing, training, or mystical destiny.

Each theme has a set of benefits when first selected, including a +1 bonus to one specific ability score and a skill-based benefit. Each theme grants additional special benefits that reflect major aspects of that theme at 6th, 12th, and 18th levels. None of the abilities are limited to any specific character class, race, or type of character. Conceptually, themes are designed to give the same kind of specialization that traits and favored class bonuses do in Pathfinder, but are faster and easier to select (no theme has any kind of prerequisite or limitation on who can take it) and rather than many tiny character adjustments, each theme focuses on 4 noteworthy adjustments over a character's career. Think of it as one extra dial you can turn to customize your character, giving the same class and race a dramatically different feel—a vesk soldier with the icon theme might be a celebrity gladiator, while one with the priest theme might be a chaplain of Damoritosh the Conqueror.

Illustration by Pixoloid Studios

There are nine themes in the Starfinder Core Rulebook, with a tenth option—"themeless"—for characters with a specific concept that they don't feel is a good match for any of the currently extant themes. The themes are intentionally kept fairly broad, with the names functioning as descriptive titles rather than hard limitations on what kind of character might take each theme. You can see a little of how themes can help you hone in on a particular character concept in the character build examples presented at the end of each class. Take the outlaw theme, for example: in just those few class build examples, we show you how the same outlaw theme can make an envoy into a fast-talking scoundrel, a mechanic into a saboteur, an operative into either a hacker or a thief, a solarian into a disgraced outcast, a soldier into a freelance sniper, and so on.

The nine themes (and the themeless option) are described briefly below.

Ace Pilot: Thanks to steady hands and nerves of steel, you are skilled at operating starships and other vehicles.

Bounty Hunter: Almost nothing will stop you from tracking down your quarries and returning them dead or alive.

Icon: You are a popular and respected celebrity within the bounds of colonized space.

Mercenary: You are a well-trained soldier of fortune who works well with your companions in battle.

Outlaw: Whether you're guilty or not, somebody wants to see you behind bars—or worse.

Priest: Your unshakable devotion to a philosophy or religion forms the core of your personality.

Scholar: As an academic, you have a broad knowledge base and a thirst to expand it.

Spacefarer: You live your life among the stars, seeking new worlds to explore and yearning for the next adventure.

Xenoseeker: As you travel outside of Pact Worlds space, you strive to make first contact with alien life forms.

Themeless: You don't fit neatly into any of the above categories, or you see yourself as a blank slate.

The abilities gained by each theme at 1st, 6th, 12th, and 18th level are useful and appropriate to the theme, but not so overpowering as to be a mandatory part of any effective character build. Below are examples of a few theme abilities—the 1st level ability gained by themeless characters (general knowledge), and the 6th level ability gained by the xenoseeker (quick pidgin).

General Knowledge (Themeless, 1st): You gain a class skill of your choice when you create a themeless character. You also gain an ability adjustment of +1 to any ability score you choose.

Quick Pidgin (Xenoseeker, 6th): If you don't share a language with creatures you encounter, you and the creatures can spend 10 minutes attempting to converse (if they are willing), after which you attempt a DC 25 Culture check. If you succeed, you formulate a simple pidgin language that allows basic communication. You can use the pidgin language with those specific creatures only, but you gain a +2 bonus to Culture checks to create a pidgin language with similar creatures that speak the same language.

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

New Paths Among the Stars: Compatibility Between Starfinder and Pathfinder

Monday, June 5, 2017

Starfinder is a complete roleplaying game, and can be played on its own without ever referring to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. It is based on Pathfinder, of course, and shares many similarities with its older cousin, but in many cases Starfinder handles specific issues differently than Pathfinder. We've mentioned several times that Pathfinder is easily integrated into Starfinder, and that there's some level of compatibility between the two games, but we haven't been very specific on exactly how easy it'll be to add Starfinder cybernetics to Pathfinder fire giants, or port Pathfinder character classes and races into a Starfinder campaign. Those questions are likely to take more than one blog post to cover, but we wanted to at least begin going into greater detail about how we envision these two games working together.

Illustration by Hugh Pindur

Starfinder should feel very familiar to experienced Pathfinder players, and much of the overall play experience is similar. Despite changes like iterative attacks for high base attack bonuses being replaced by universal full attacks allowing two attacks both at -4, or breaking hit points into two pools of Stamina Points and Hit Points, most of the general rules of the game are close enough to make it easy to see how to convert a specific option from one class to another. The most common specific tweaks to combat are covered in the Starfinder Core Rulebook, specifically Chapter 13: Pathfinder Legacy. This chapter presents the information a GM needs to convert between the two games when dealing with questions of bonus types, actions in combat, CMB/CMD vs EAC/KAC, damage, ability scores, and so on. A GM wishing to take griefgalls from Bestiary 5 and use them for an invasion of Absalom Station should have no trouble adapting the monster to Starfinder use. In fact, given that both Starfinder and Pathfinder inhabit the same fictional universe, we specifically designed the game so that you could use monsters from one in the other on the fly, with little conversion—after all, a keketar protean is a keketar protean regardless of system, and this way we can focus on creating cool new creatures for Starfinder rather than just converting all the old standards.

For things like magic items, spells, feats, equipment, and other player-facing options, conversion can be more difficult and have more hidden pitfalls. One of the hardest questions a GM will need to answer is if something from one game system even should be introduced to the other. For instance, Starfinder and Pathfinder make different assumptions about when in a campaign various options first appear, and when they become commonplace. This means that introducing a new options from one of the games into a campaign using the other set of rules can have consequences well beyond how well the two sets of game rules interact mechanically.

For example, every first-level Starfinder character is likely to have armor that protects against extremes of temperature and pressure, and provides breathable air, thus protecting them from gaseous poisons or even complete vacuum for up to 24 hours. In Pathfinder, that level of protection isn't available until much higher level, and many characters never acquire it. While the rules for extreme environments are similar enough that a character from either game can make the appropriate saving throws (and understand how to apply the effects of failing those saves), a Pathfinder game that introduces items and abilities designed for Starfinder is going to bypass or neutralize a lot of common Pathfinder threats and encounters. Similar issues arise when discussing movement, flight, senses, ranged attacks, access to energy damage, and even the ease with which non-spellcasters can access magic abilities.

Those differences in assumptions alter how items and options from one game will impact campaigns using the other game's base rules. Even with the differences between Armor Class rules in the two games, it's not hard to figure out how a suit of ceremonial vesk overplate with a jet pack and infrared sensors would operate in Pathfinder—but the impact it would have on a typical Pathfinder game is much higher than the low level of those options in Starfinder would suggest.

Similarly, the two games also use different methods to produce the numerical values characters and monsters use to interact with one another. This often includes math that is (quite intentionally) behind the scenes, and thus not particularly obvious. For example, Starfinder does its best to not require characters to constantly get higher and higher enhancement bonuses to attack rolls, damage, and armor class, or resistance bonuses to saving throws. As a result, there's no option to create a +1 plasma cannon in Starfinder, since the additional math isn't needed. Thus adding magic to Starfinder gear is always about gaining some cool new option or ability rather than just numbers. It would be easy to determine how to port such rules over from Pathfinder, but doing so would create imbalances, since the new game is designed to function without most pure bonus-boosters.

For races, these issues are much less likely to cause significant issues. We already provide full Starfinder write-ups for dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, half-elves and half-orcs in the Pathfinder Legacy chapter of Starfinder. Those races still exist in the Pact Worlds, they just aren't as common as they were in Golarion-focused games using Pathfinder. Converting other Pathfinder races should be straightforward, and unlikely to cause major problems. In fact, some races that don't fit well in most Pathfinder games may be less disruptive to a Starfinder campaign!

Pathfinder classes are going to be the element it is most difficult to move to a Starfinder campaign, and require some work on the part of a GM, both in understanding how Starfinder handles various kinds of abilities and in looking for places where problems might crop up from unbalanced bonuses that Starfinder doesn't need or abilities that lack the support in one game system or the other. Of course, we tried to make sure common character tropes could be created in Starfinder, even if they're built differently than their Pathfinder equivalents. While there's no straight-up paladin analogue in Starfinder, a soldier with the priest theme, phrenic adept archetype, and various psychic power feats can certainly take the role of a religious champion with access to both martial skills and magic powers.

If nothing but the original Pathfinder classes will satisfy, however, the Pathfinder Legacy section gives what guidance we could manage for GMs wanting to port Pathfinder classes directly over. Questions of key ability scores, stamina points, skill points, weapon and armor proficiency and specialization, and other common core game mechanics are easy, and we mostly spell them out. When it comes to tougher questions like class features, eidolons, animal companions, familiars, class spell lists and 7th-9th level spells, bardic performance, and even flurry of blows we give advice, but it'll be up to each GM to decide exactly how to implement that advice.

In many ways, all of Pathfinder is like a series of "Starfinder Unchained" books—optional rules and subsystems a GM can adapt or not as appropriate for their game and their own desire to tinker. Our first priority was always to make Starfinder the best game it could be on its own, with as many robust options as we could make fit without overcomplicating it. Yet its underlying game engine remains close enough to Pathfinder that anyone who wants to adopt or convert materials from those sources to Starfinder should be able to do so with a minimum of effort.

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

Five Differences Between Starfinder Rules and Pathfinder Rules

Friday, June 2, 2017

Given the ever-approaching release of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, there's no better time to highlight a few new Starfinder rules! Although Starfinder is heavily based on the Pathfinder RPG system, there are nevertheless some significant rules changes between the two. So to give you a quick taste of some of the changes, here are five key mechanics that differentiate the Starfinder RPG from Pathfinder.

1. Hit Points, Stamina Points, and Resolve Points. In Starfinder, Hit Points measure the health and robustness of a character, while Stamina Points measure a character's readiness and energy (and can be replenished far more easily). Whenever you take damage, your Stamina Points are depleted before your Hit Points. In other words, you can soak up some hits without too much trouble, but once you start taking damage to your Hit Points, you're taking physical wounds that are much harder to heal quickly.

Starfinder characters also get a third pool of points called Resolve Points, which represent grit and luck. You can spend Resolve Points to power (or enhance) some class features, or to help you stay in a fight longer. Resolve Points also determine whether or not you die if both your Stamina Points and Hit Points are reduced to zero.

You can recover all of your Stamina Points by resting for 10 minutes and spending 1 Resolve Point; Resolve Points and some Hit Points are replenished after an 8-hour rest.

Illustration by Pixoloid Studios

2. Armor Classes. Characters in Starfinder have two Armor Classes: Energy Armor Class (EAC) and Kinetic Armor Class (KAC). Attacks that deal energy damage (like the fire damage from your trusty red star plasma pistol) target EAC; attacks that deal kinetic damage (like the bludgeoning damage from a gravity well hammer) target KAC. Starfinder has no flat-footed or touch AC.

3. No Iterative Attacks. Starfinder characters normally get a single attack every round, and this holds true from level 1 to level 20—a character's number of attacks does not increase as their base attack bonus goes up. Instead, any character (even at first level!) can use a full action to make two attacks in a round, each at a -4 penalty.

4. Attacks of Opportunity. In Starfinder, only three things provoke attacks of opportunity: moving out of a threatened square, making a ranged attack, and casting a spell. That's it. No other actions provoke attacks of opportunity.

5. Magic is Magic. There is no distinction between types of magic in Starfinder, whether arcane, divine, psychic, or something else. Spellcasting classes like the mystic and technomancer have different spell lists, but are both harnessing the same latent magical energy that permeates the universe. In addition, spells in Starfinder have no components; all you need is the ability to cast a spell and concentration.

That's it for now, Starfinders! Stay tuned to this space over the coming weeks and months for more Starfinder previews!

Robert G. McCreary
Senior Developer

Raise Defense Screens!

Monday, May 29, 2017

A good GM screen can be so much more than a way to hide campaign notes and die rolls from nosy players. At its best, it can function as a handy reference tool that obviates the need for a GM to constantly consult her books. But just as importantly, the side facing the players should be something interesting for them to look at, an image that evokes the style and themes of the game and helps get them in the zone.

Illustration by Ignacio Bazán Lazcano

The Starfinder GM Screen gives GMs four panels of diagrams, tables, and summaries of the Starfinder RPG's more common rules and systems. From the most encountered DCs for skill checks to a list of combat actions, an abridged descriptions of the game's conditions to a synopsis of starship combat, this GM screen is packed with information!

And let's talk about the art! Just look at this gorgeous tableau illustrated by Ignacio Bazán Lazcano! All of our Starfinder iconics are fighting for their lives, while a massive space battle rages on above them. If that doesn't get you excited about playing, nothing will!

Jason Keeley
Editor

Stay Alert, Holy Plasma Cannons Ahead!

Sunday, May 28, 2017

PaizoCon manages to land on near-perfect holiday weekends with bright and glorious sunshine making the first signs of summer at the forefront of minds in the Pacific Northwest. And as we all know, that means that convention season has begun—with local cons, big ones, and the Best 4 Days in Gaming (Gen Con) looming around the corner! I'm taking a few minutes here at the nice and quiet (and empty) Paizo offices to give those of you who didn't make it out the PaizoCon 2017 Preview Banquet last night a glimpse of some of the fun you can expect this summer (and beyond!).

Last year you might remember we announced something pretty big, and we didn't mess around this time: Starfinder is coming! Space guns blazing, the massive Starfinder Core Rulebook was in the spotlight of the preview banquet. Lots of information came at us at lightspeed (and Jason Keeley made a truly amazing and landmark entrance with a provisional copy of the Core Rulebook), and I'm even still processing them all, but here are some key things of note:

• All seven iconics and the core races were introduced by Senior Developer Rob McCreary, and you can expect the series of backstories and class introductions on the Paizo blog to resume soon after we wrap up the show.
• Each race receives a detailed write up with a plethora of options and ideas for player chracters, with pretty gorgeous introductory spreads.
• Each class gets a similar treatment in the Core Rulebook, with easy to reference features and statistics to flesh out your own custom build. What I really like about each class writeup are the character theme options in the back of each class section to give you a place to kick off your next character idea. The preview last night featured operative class samples like the hacker, investigator, theif, and trailblazer.
• Development Coordinator Amanda Hamon Kunz gave us a look at character creation in Starfinder. This chapter has it all! Whether you're an RPG veteran, or a casual player like me, you will find ways to get your character up and running with an intuitive building process as well as prebuilt options to pick up and go.
• Did we mention that yes, you can magic missile in space?
• What about a spell to summon a swarm of nano-bots to do your space-magic bidding?! 'Cause yeah, we did mention that ;)
• Developer Owen KC Stephens abated concerns about the hanging question regarding goblins. in. space. Yes, they're there, and they've got laser guns.
• Did we mention weapons? Because this is just one spread of the guns available in Starfinder.
• Editor Jason Keeley covered some of the information regarding starships. The chapter covering them has rules for engagement, stats for prebuilt ships, and rules for building your own craft.
• And what point is there in having a ship to get around without being able to travel to new worlds and get caught in alien traps? The Game Mastering chapter provides resources for your next campaign. Let's just hope your players are resourceful enough to escape certain sticky situations, like, say... escape a certain trash compactor.
• To wrap up, Creative Director James L. Sutter gave us all insight into how the system that Golarion previously occupied has evolved since the planet's mysterious disappearance so long ago. The chart of the Pact Worlds system includes worlds familiar to you if you've played Pathfinder before, but with notable exceptions, such as the replacement of Golarion with the huge center on Absalom Station and the Idari, making its way around the Pact Worlds' sun. Each planet has a two-page spread devoted to it in the Core Rulebook.
• Hellknights in space!
• ... the Azlanti Star Empire.
• A number of familiar gods are still part of Starfinder's pantheon, but there are some new notable additions, such as Nyarlathotep.

A few months after Gen Con, when the Starfinder Core Rulebook will officially release, the Alien Archive will provide GMs and players with a number of new aliens and monsters to expand their world. There are aliens that you can play as, enemies to defeat, and the cute cuddly lil guys seen at the bottom of the final cover seen below!

Alien Archive takes a departure from the Bestiary volumes released for the Pathfinder RPG, as it will include options specific to the aliens found within such as equipment, spells, and more. Meaning that there is something for just about everyone within its pages.

After the Starfinder portion, Erik gave us a look at what is ahead for Golarion a few some many years before. The just-announced War for the Crown Adventure Path begins in February 2018! War for the Crown is a Taldor-centric campaign of espionage and intrigue where your heroes decide the fate of the nation. This next Adventure Path is being coordinated by mastermind Developer Crystal Frasier! Stay tuned for more details about this Adventure Path this summer.

So, the PaizoCon Banquet is generally where Erik goes up and mic drops a brand new Pathfinder RPG hardcover, but! We're not quite ready for that at the moment. Instead, he unveiled two new final covers...

And the brand-new shifter iconic character for November's Ultimate Wilderness...

The new shifter class is best described being to the druid as paladins are to clerics. Oh, and they can get claws. EVERYONE GETS CLAWS! While the shifter gains access to a number of animalistic aspects, it scales until it receives the capstone ability to simultaneously access 5 of these at one time. Imagine it now: a part bear, part owl, all mighty mean clawing machine!

PaizoCon would not be the show it is without our Organized Play programs. Organized Play Coordinator Tonya Woldridge and John Compton introduced us the upcoming Pathfinder Society Roleplaying and Adventure Card Guild seasons, which for the first time will be intertwined and following the same storyline. You can look forward to the launch of Faction's Favor in two and a half months at Gen Con 50.

We also have a new program launching at Gen Con to support Starfinder. The Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild begins with the Year of the Scoured Stars. A disaster has befallen the Starfinder Society, and it's the role of you to rebuild the organization and determine its future. If you missed it, Starfinder Society Developer Thurston Hillman detailed some of the finer points for the upcoming program on the blog yesterday afternoon.

I mentioned our amazing and illustrious crew of Venture-Officers above, and it goes without saying that these folks are some of the coolest people I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with. This years' Volunteer of the Year award was presented to Venture-Lieutenant, David Jacobson, for all of his hard work in the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild, and coordinating with the Paizo and Lone Shark teams to make the Adventure Card Game thrive. Please join us in congratulating David and thanking him for all of his contributions to the ACG!

The latter half of the presentation covered a number of our licensed projects, including: Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder Adventures, Pathfinder Battles, Syrinscape SoundSets (which are going to be available in retail stores this summer!!!), a newly announced digital CCG with 37 Games, and so much more! I defer to our expert Director of Licensing, and there will be an updating covered everything we had the opportunity to show off this coming Friday!

If you are at PaizoCon right now and have a spare moment, check out the Delve tables, where we've switched to showing off Starfinder! I'm going to get on the road down to SeaTac and meet y'all there! Have an excellent weekend, and we'll see you on the other side!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

Class Preview: The Soldier

Friday, May 26, 2017

As soon as we announced Starfinder, there were fans that wanted to know what kind of options there would be for the heavy-armor-wearing, magic-plasma-cannon-firing, jet-packed combatant character. While any Starfinder character can do those things if they dedicate themselves to getting the needed resources, the character who does it most easily (and gets the most class features designed to work with such actions) is the soldier. This is the description the soldier gets in the Starfinder Core Rulebook:

Conflict is an inevitable result of life. On every world that harbors complex living organisms, creatures battle one another for dominance, resources, territory, or ideals. Whether you've taken up arms to protect others, win glory, exact revenge, or simply earn a living, you are the perfect embodiment of this truth. You're an expert at combat of all types but tend to prefer heavy armor and weapons—the bigger, the better. You may be a career soldier, a fresh mercenary recruit, or a lone wolf who rejects authority, but whether rushing in for hand-to-hand combat or firing tactical barrages, you're a consummate warrior, never hesitating to put yourself in the line of fire to protect your friends.

Soldiers are masters of weapons and armor of all types, with a good base attack bonus progression (and good Fortitude and Will save progressions); proficiency in light armor, heavy armor, and grenades; and proficiency (and eventually specialization) in basic and advanced melee weapons, small arms, longarms, heavy weapons, and sniper weapons. Since small arms and many basic melee weapons gain only half the damage boost from specialization that longarms and heavy weapons do, soldiers often prefer to use the bulkier weapon options to maximize the damage they deal. Since specializing in heavy weapons first requires you to be proficient with heavy weapons, which in turn requires proficiency with longarms, it's a much more significant investment for any other class to do the same.

But a soldier is not simply a killer or thug—she's a trained professional combatant with access to thousands of years of military theory and modern education systems. That education tends to be pretty focused, but it's still enough to get the solider 8 class skills and 4 skill points per level. The Athletics skill covers the need to climb, jump, and swim to get to advantageous positions in combat (though by 2nd or 3rd level, jump jets are a common armor upgrade that easily increases mobility, and by 5th or 6th level they're likely to be replaced by a jetpack armor upgrade). That still leaves 3 skill points even for a soldier with a 10 Intelligence to spread around class skills such as Acrobatics (useful if you want to get the most out of that jetpack, but not necessary for basic flight), Engineering, Intimidate, Medicine, Piloting, Profession, and Survival.

Since the soldier class's focus is clearly on combat, there's much more to her offensive and defensive abilities than just base attack bonuses, proficiencies, and specializations. Every soldier begins play with a fighting style, which grants special combat options tied to a specific approach to combat as the soldier gains levels. There are 7 fighting styles to choose from—arcane assailant, armor storm, blitz, bombard, guard, hit-and-run, and sharpshoot. A soldier also picks up some of a second fighting style beginning at 9th level. In addition to fighting styles, a soldier gains gear boosts that enhance the soldier's effectiveness with specific equipment (such as anchoring arcana, armored advantage, laser accuracy, and plasma immolation) at 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter, and a bonus combat feat at 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter.

The bonus combat feats leave the soldier free to use the feats all characters gain at every odd level to expand beyond combat effectiveness. Other than proficiencies and specializations, feats generally have at most one other feat and a few base attack or ability score minimums as prerequisites, making even a few bonus feats able to cover a wide range of options. (For example, the Shot on the Run feat requires only Mobility, a +4 base attack bonus, and a 15 Dexterity—all easily achieved by a soldier.) Even at 1st level, any soldier could take Skill Synergy to gain 2 new skills as class skill. Or if a player preferred, by 2nd level a soldier can have selected Weapon Focus and then Versatile Focus to gain the benefit of Weapon Focus with every weapon with which the soldier is proficient.

Since fighting styles are going to be an important part of any soldier's design, here's a look at the 5th-level ability from the arcane assailant fighting style.

Secret of the Magi (SU)

When you imbue a weapon with the rune of the eldritch knight, in addition to its normal benefits, the rune grants the weapon one of the following weapon fusions of your choice: ethereal, flaming, frost, merciful, or shock. The weapon can't gain a fusion it already has, and this bonus fusion doesn't count toward the maximum total level of fusions the weapon can have at once. The bonus fusion ends when the weapon ceases to be imbued with the rune of the eldritch knight. For more information on fusions, see page 191.

With that, we've covered more than half of the Starfinder classes—check out paizo.com/starfinder to find links to previous blogs presenting the envoy, mystic, operative, and soldier. We're going to take a little break from classes next week in order to preview some other elements of the game, but in the months before the game's release this August, we'll preview the remaining three—the mechanic, solarian, and technomancer!

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

Meet the Iconics: Obozaya

Monday, May 15, 2017

The countdown to Starfinder is on! We're highlighting the iconic characters and core classes that appear throughout the pages and covers the Starfinder line. Today we meet Obozaya, the iconic soldier!

Illustration by Remko Troost

In classic vesk fashion, Obozaya Ymeros lets her friends shorten her name to "Obo," but not even Damoritosh himself can protect those who attempt to use her nickname without earning it first.

Obozaya was born on Vesk Prime, the planetary capital of the Veskarium, to a family of low-level military bureaucrats. Distinguishing herself with her determination and ferocity on the sports field and in the dueling ring—if not in her academic studies—Obozaya quickly established herself as a top-notch military cadet, enlisting as soon as her basic studies were complete.

Obozaya took to military life like a swamp lion to water, and soon outpaced many in her cohort. In Veskarium society, social status is most easily earned through excellence in combat, and Obo had no desire to spend her entire life at the same forgettable rank as her parents. Though her dreams of glory were hardly unique, she nevertheless proved herself in several early battles, putting down a vicious rebellion among the feline barbarians of Vesk-6.

Yet in her youthful arrogance, Obozaya overlooked the power of political connection. After dueling and deeply shaming another member of her unit—one with family ties to high-ranking military officials—she found herself promoted and assigned to patrol a section of frozen tundra on Vesk-8, where the staunchly pacifist residents refused to give her any opportunity for righteous combat. It soon became clear that neither appeals to her superiors nor prayers to Damoritosh the Conqueror were going to get her a better assignment. Thus, as her first term of enlistment drew to a close, a frustrated Obozaya took the Soldier's Due, the time-honored vesk tradition of being honorably discharged and taking your government-issue armor and weapons with you.

Still in love with the idea of one day becoming a major player in vesk society, and disgusted by the idea that politics could exist within the Veskarium's vaunted military meritocracy, Obozaya followed in the footsteps of many other legendary vesk warriors and left home to work as a mercenary in the Pact Worlds. Here, at last, she found what she'd been searching for: an endless series of battles and adventures, with no restrictions but her own sense of honor. Rather than signing on with an established mercenary company, Obozaya found herself better suited to working with small groups of explorers and adventurers. Small teams mean more glory per person when you succeed, and she often finds herself the sole front-line fighter on a crew, which appeals to both her vanity and her showboating style. As she's fond of saying, battle is too important to leave to amateurs, and Obozaya believes that the best way to win a fight is to move fast and hit hard. Though she's drifted away from Damoritosh's faith in recent years, coming to appreciate some other races' criticisms of the Conqueror, she still adores using his sacred doshko for her close-up fighting.

Personality-wise, Obozaya is a study in contrasts. While she appreciates material wealth and creature comforts, her true desire is for recognition. This is perhaps best exemplified by the holoprojector on her back, which usually projects a modified version of Damoritosh's symbol to advertise her as a warrior for hire, but which is capable of projecting a personalized holographic war-banner in combat to make sure the enemy knows exactly who's coming for them. Brilliant on the battlefield, Obozaya nevertheless finds herself a little slow on the draw in most intellectual pursuits, having little patience for any education not directly related to her vocation. She believes that honor demands honesty, and while she's not against lying by omission, she would rather die than break her word or renege on a contract. In conversations with new people, she's either unnervingly stoic or direct to the point of rudeness, and thinks that most species talk more than they need to as an attempt to cover up their cowardice.

All of which makes it that much more surprising to discover how much her companions adore her. Sure, Obo may explain her loyalty as a mercenary's pragmatism, yet everyone in her crew knows they can count on "the big lizard" to pull them out of a scrape, no matter the cost. As with many vesk, her gruff manner is punctuated with sudden outpourings of emotion, and with her characteristic directness, Obo finds no fear or shame in telling her friends how much she loves them. Much of her life is spent on or training for missions, yet when Obozaya sets out to celebrate a success, it's with her trademark bombastic zeal. Eschewing the berserker drugs favored by some of her kindred, she's nevertheless fond of the Veskarium nose-hookahs sometimes called "dragon's breath," as well as the mildly hallucinogenic brain snails of Vesk-2 and other traditional vesk snacks. More than one bar has been sacrificed to (and well compensated for) her parties, and the heavy bass of her beloved revelaz dance-pop beats is notorious for bursting rivets on ship bulkheads.

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Class Preview: The Mystic

Saturday, May 20, 2017

The setting of Starfinder is very much a science fantasy universe, with a lot of science fiction ideas mashed together with more fantastical and supernatural concepts. This isn't an accident, but an inevitable conclusion to asking the question "What happens if advanced technology becomes commonplace in the Pathfinder universe?" In Starfinder, it's well accepted that there are forces beyond the understanding of pure science which, whether you want to refer to them as arcane, divine, or psychic, are best thought of as just "magic." There are options for players who want to add just a little magic to their character (ranging from the Connection Inkling and Psychic Power feats to the phrenic adept archetype, which can be accessed by any class), but significant magical ability is primarily in the hands of the mystic and technomancer classes.

We'll talk about the technomancer later on, but for now, here's the description the mystic gets in the Starfinder Core Rulebook:

You understand that what most people call magic is simply an expression of the innate connection between all things, and you intuitively tap into this unseen power to create strange effects. You may conceptualize the source of your magic as divine grace, a manipulation of fundamental energy, or an unlocking of psychic potential, but always with the knowledge that you are a conduit channeling forces greater than yourself. Though you may study, you understand that spellcasting—like all existence—is messy and intuitive, and you specialize in biology and mental systems too complex to be perfectly understood by science. You sense the intangible and exploit your bonds with others, whether to bolster them or bend them to your will.

While a great deal of a mystic's focus is on more esoteric truths that are represented by class features, they are still scholarly enough to gain 6 skill points per level and have 12 class skills. Since their abilities may require attack rolls in combat, they have the same average base attack bonus as the envoy and operative, but only gain proficiency (and eventually specialization) with light armor, small arms, and basic melee weapons. Their focus on comprehending the secrets of existence give them a good Will save progression, and makes Wisdom their key ability score.

Mystics' studies also grant them access to mystic spells, ranging from 0-level to 6th level, which represent a significant part of their power. Mystic spells are more likely to focus on philosophy, natural systems, mental endeavors, and living things than the more physics- and technology-oriented technomancer spells. This gives them access to numerous charm and emotion spells, spells focusing on telepathy and thought, and spells that cure or restore balance to living things. However, they also have some powers drawn from natural forces such as radiation and some force-based telekinetic powers. How a mystic operates can be strongly influenced by their choice of spells known—fear, force blast, and hold person are all useful 2nd-level offensive mystic spells, but each comes with its own advantages and limitations.

All mystics gain some ability to link to other creatures, which manifests as a healing touch used once per day at 1st level, but expands into a mindlink you can establish with creatures by touch, and eventually a telepathic bond you can maintain with up to six creatures at a time. Mystics can gain other powers that work through this connection, depending on their chosen connection.

What's a connection, you ask? Much of the focus of a mystic comes from their choice of a connection: a link to some force that the mystic sees as the source of their power, and which helps shape their approach to their abilities. Many mystics serve as clergy and see their gods as the source of their powers (though the priest theme is available to a character of any class), but a connection can also be to a philosophy, a mysterious patron, or nearly anything else a player chooses. Regardless of what power fuels the mystic's connection, each connection has a specific focus that grants the mystic a set of powers and bonus spells known. The mystic selects from the akashic, empath, healer, mindbreaker, overlord, or star shaman connection, which grant powers ranging from access to the Akashic Record to the power to explode heads.

Here's a sample of a connection power, this one gained by mindbreakers at 3rd level.

Backlash (SU)

Whenever a foe succeeds at a Will save against one of your spells and completely negates the effect, that foe takes 1 nonlethal damage for each mystic level you have. This is a mind-affecting pain effect.

Having examined the envoy, mystic and operative, next week we'll preview our most combatant-focused class, the soldier!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer

Meet the Iconics: Keskodai

Monday, May 15, 2017

The countdown to Starfinder is on! We're highlighting the iconic characters and core classes that appear throughout the pages and covers the Starfinder line. Today we meet Keskodai, the iconic mystic!

Illustration by Remko Troost

For those inducted into the faith of Pharasma, the Lady of Graves, death is not an ending, but a doorway: an entry into a new existence and way of being. The shirren Keskodai understands this transition well, and greets it with the joyful reverence it deserves—an outlook that's not always comforting to the patients in his medical bay.

Keskodai grew up in the burning deserts of Fullbright, the side of tidally locked Verces that's always turned toward the sun. Though cosmopolitan, his hometown of Takoris was primarily shirren, having been an early satellite settlement of the original shirren colony on that world. The child of a priest of Hylax, the Forever Queen, Keskodai grew up steeped in the values of friendship and diplomacy, and felt a deep connection to the divine, yet chafed at the idea of serving the same god as his parent. Exactly which god he'd serve instead remained unclear, until the coming of the Gray Shakes.

Believed to be the result of a biotech experiment gone wrong at the local university, the plague called the Gray Shakes burned through the city like a wildfire, turning shirrens' chitin gray, rotting off their antennae, and eating away at their telepathy and motor function, leaving them awake but unable to communicate until they finally expired. In the weeks it took the local government to find a cure, thirty percent of the city's shirren population died.

In the midst of this horror, a young Keskodai first encountered priests of Pharasma, black-robed beings of all different races who'd come at news of the plague. Somberly, the Pharasmins walked among the afflicted, offering magical healing where they could and comfort to those too far gone, whispering to them of the Cycle of Souls and the new worlds that awaited them. The beauty of their ministry moved Keskodai, and he quickly joined their hospice work, leaving home to study at a temple in the Ring of Nations once the plague was safely contained.

After years as an initiate, Keskodai returned home a full priest of Lady of Graves, ready to tend to his people. He quickly fell in love with two members of his congregation, a female-host couple, and the three soon joined arms in marriage. Yet as much as he loved his community and his partners, a part of him remained unsatisfied. That part of every shirren that thrills at choice and decision-making began to wonder: Had he made the right choice in coming home? In choosing a life so similar to his parent? How could he know if he wanted this when there was still so much out there that he'd never experienced? The desire to explore continued to grow, until at last, after the birth of their first son, he and his partners sat down and made a plan. He would leave and see the galaxy, taking their child with him to expose him to the same new experiences. Once the child was old enough to leave his cradle-jar, Keskodai would decide whether he'd seen enough to return in good conscience, in which case both of them be welcomed with open arms. If not, the child would return alone.

In his effort to see as many worlds as possible, Keskodai took to signing on with freelance adventurers and starship crews, particularly those headed out beyond the edges of the solar system. While quite capable in combat, he prefers to act as the ship's medic, trusting that his mercenary companions will give him plenty of opportunities to employ his goddess-granted magic in patching up the broken or blessing them on their journey into the Great Beyond. The cheerful manner in which he talks about death often initially disturbs those under his care, yet anyone who spends much time with the shirren quickly learns that his even-keeled, fatalistic approach to life and death doesn't make him cavalier about it: for him, to give less than his best effort in healing his friends would be to risk them dying before their appointed time—a loss for him, and a grave failure in his duty to his goddess.

As with many shirren, Keskodai is a team player, always ready to throw in to help others, and a social butterfly who loves meeting new people. A crewmate once called him "the galaxy's friendliest death priest," and he wears the badge with pride. Though quite fond of option bars and other artificial means of stimulating his choice centers, he's careful not to let himself overindulge... usually. More often he satisfies his need for independence by customizing his gear—though he doesn't consider himself vain, Keskodai is intensely proud of the aesthetics of his gear, his collection of trophies, and his mustache (which he thinks lends him an air of gravitas). His greatest pride, however, is his son Chkoresk, still in his larval stage. Like many shirren parents, Keskodai constantly carries Chkoresk—affectionately nicknamed "Chk Chk"—around in a heavily fortified cradle-jar designed to let Chk Chk learn about the world from relative safety. While Chk Chk isn't old enough to speak yet, his telepathy only good enough to grant brief blasts of childlike emotion, Keskodai holds conversations with him regularly, with Chk Chk tapping on the glass to communicate his answers.

Though Keskodai is generally as easygoing as he appears, he still has his demons. The Gray Shakes tragedy left him deeply distrustful of certain types of research and technology, and he's constantly torn between his faith in individual freedom and his desire to protect the community through heavy government regulation. Worse, he's come to love the life of a wanderer and the friends he's made along the way, and deeply fears the day when Chk Chk grows old enough to return home, and Keskodai has to choose whether to head back to Verces with him, or continue on alone.

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Meet the Iconics: Iseph

Friday, May 12, 2017

The countdown to Starfinder is on! We're highlighting the iconic characters and core classes that appear throughout the pages and covers the Starfinder line. Today we meet Iseph, the iconic operative!

Illustration by Remko Troost

As biomechanical entities, androids can theoretically live forever with the proper repairs. While some embrace this form of immortality, most androids live what they feel is a full life—usually around a hundred years—and then voluntarily instigate a process called renewal, in which the android's soul leaves its body, allowing a fresh android soul to inhabit it. Most people consider this a joyous occasion, metaphorically equivalent to the old android giving birth to a child, and understand that a post-renewal android is an entirely new person who just happens to inhabit the same body. Yet not all people are willing to honor this change or forgive past debts and slights, and such is the case with Iseph.

Iseph awoke in an abandoned storage facility on the machine world of Aballon, standing upright in a black-market renewal crèche. Around them, the place was completely empty, save for a note and a pen left in the center of the concrete floor. Clearly hastily scrawled, the note read only: Run. Hide. Retaliate. Beware the mark. Next to the words was a drawing of a symbol—the same inexplicable design branded on Iseph's chest. Yet the biggest shock was when Iseph picked up the pen, as the note's writer had clearly intended—for the handwriting on the note matched Iseph's own.

Confused and disoriented, with only some basic downloaded knowledge of the world they'd just been born into, Iseph did as the note instructed, doing their best to disappear into Aballon's bustling android population. It was here that, among other things, they first met other androids and discovered that some identified with particular genders, though Iseph never felt any such personal connection. But the questions raised by the note continued to plague them. Who had worn their body before them? Who were they running from, and why? What was the mysterious symbol? Eventually, Iseph worked up the courage to begin making surreptitious inquiries into the planet's infosphere. All of these searches failed, yet in curious ways, as if the information was being actively scrubbed and redacted. Worse, Iseph began to get the sense of being watched, faces in the crowds that seemed strangely familiar. After a month of tentative forays into they city's silicon underworld, Iseph at last tracked down someone who claimed to recognize the mark, but who insisted on meeting in person at a nearby virus bar.

Iseph was almost to the tavern when it exploded in a massive fireball, the blast consuming an entire city block.

Thoroughly spooked, Iseph fled Aballon, taking passage on a ship to the Diaspora. Yet as they worked there, quickly finding themself a deft hand at piloting rock-hopper shuttles and mining tugs, Iseph's fear turned to anger. Wider Pact Worlds society proved far messier than Aballon's orderly machine culture, and Iseph was first confused and then disgusted by the prejudice and jealousy androids still encountered from some humans. They met android escapees from illegal colonies in the Vast, bearing blatant symbols of corporate ownership and scars from cruel disciplinary implants, and began to suspect what their own mark might say about their origins. Incensed, Iseph made contact with the Android Abolitionist Front, learning to fly more combat-oriented craft, to sneak through the shadows, and to put down the enemies of their people with ruthless efficiency. Under the AAF's guidance, Iseph became a black ops expert, until a disagreement with their handler over a messy job led them to go independent. Today, Iseph officially hires on with freelancer crews as an elite pilot specializing in dangerous transport or exploratory missions—and if those jobs sometimes require a little infiltration or a bullet from the shadows, well, that costs extra.

Though paranoia over being hunted by their mysterious enemy (as well as friends of former assassination targets) makes Iseph something of a loner, the android desperately craves companionship, and is fiercely loyal to those few who prove themselves trustworthy. As a result of their early days on Aballon and personal experience as an android in a largely biological society, Iseph questions or rejects many aspects of mainstream Pact Worlds culture, and enjoys exploring the countercultures on different worlds. Iseph believes the ends often justify the means, yet strives to only take on jobs that fit with their sense of morality. An initial focus on android rights has broadened into a tendency to identify with oppressed people and underdogs everywhere, no matter how alien, and to hate any form of slavery with a passion. While Iseph finds the most joy in flying any manner of ship or vehicle—usually too fast and recklessly for the comfort of their passengers—their infiltration abilities remain as sharp as they ever were, and the former assassin has no objections to pulling out their trusty sniper rifle again when the cause is just.

Unrelated Starfinder Note: We've been doing a lot of previews recently, both here on the Paizo blog and on other websites. There's more than we can contain on the blog, so if you want to see more of the neat stuff that's been revealed (including new art for planets, races, ships, and more—and that's just in the last week!), be sure to bookmark the new Starfinder News Hub thread!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Class Preview: The Operative

Monday, May 8, 2017

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

Last Friday we took a look at the envoy. As soon as we announced the operative as a class, many fans began to theorize it would act as the "star thief," and wondered how it would be different from the rogue class in Pathfinder. There are certainly some thematic similarities between the two classes, but just as a 16th-century highwayman's tactics and skills were different from a modern hacker's, a character with a knack for stealth, security systems, and unexpected attacks in Starfinder should be significantly different from a Pathfinder rogue. We need a class that can easily serve as spy, assassin, thief, hacker, investigator, and trailblazer. That was the spark for the operative, which gets the following description in the Starfinder Core Rulebook:

You're a shadow. You move swiftly, strike suddenly, and always have an escape plan. You're a consummate professional, and always get the job done, whether it's scouting enemy lines, hunting down criminals, stealing and smuggling items, or assassinating key figures. As an operative, you're skilled in a wide variety of disciplines and specialties, and use speed, mobility, and your quick wits rather than relying on heavy weapons. You excel at the art of surprise, whether it's sniping targets from cover or striking while their backs are turned. Your cause may be righteous, but you have no problem fighting dirty—achieving your objective is all that matters.

The operative is very much a character skilled at working outside the norms of society. Whether committing crimes, hunting criminals, or just living on the fringes, operatives find ways to get things done, though their methods don't always meet with public approval. This takes skill, so the operative gets 8 skill points per level, and 16 class skills. Operatives also get the operative's edge class feature granting a bonus to all skill checks (as well as initiative checks). The class also receives special bonuses at 7th level with any skill in which the character has the Skill Focus feat.

The operative knows that sometimes getting things done means doing some damage, and the class gains a fair base attack bonus, poor Fortitude saves but good Reflex and Will saves, light armor, and proficiency (and eventually specialization) with basic melee weapons, small arms, and sniper weapons. The operative can augment the damage done with basic melee weapons and small arms with his trick attack.

Trick attack may sound on the surface like Pathfinder's sneak attack, but it works very differently. An operative can attempt a trick attack regardless of the combat situation—it's not restricted to targets that are flanked or have the flat-footed condition. Instead, the operative must make an opposed skill check (normally Bluff, Intimidate, or Stealth, though class features can alter that) to gain an advantage over his foe for the trick attack to function. At higher levels, the operative can also apply penalties to foes hit with a trick attack, beginning with the flat-footed and off-target conditions and expanding from there (potentially even applying such effects to sniper weapon attacks).

Because operatives have different methods and thus focus on different techniques, each operative selects a specialization. We present seven specializations in the core rulebook—daredevil, detective, explorer, ghost, hacker, spy, and thief. Each has an effect on that operative's trick attack (a detective can use Sense Motive to activate her trick attack, for example), and grants bonuses to specific skills and access to new abilities.

Finally, operatives also have exploits—special tricks they learn as they gain levels to help customize their abilities. While the selection of exploits is fairly small at first, they expand as the operative levels up, making increasingly powerful exploits available. Here's a sample of a 10th-level exploit (though the ghost specialization receives it at 5th level):

Cloaking Field (Ex)

You can bend light around yourself and muffle any minor sounds you make, allowing you to nearly vanish when not moving. Even when you move, you appear only as an outline with blurry features. This cloaking field doesn't make you invisible, but it does make it easier to sneak around. Activating the cloaking field is a move action. While the cloaking field is active, you can use Stealth to hide, even while being directly observed and with no place to hide. Attacking doesn't end the cloaking field, but it does end that particular attempt to hide. If you remain perfectly still for at least 1 round, you gain a +10 bonus to Stealth checks (which doesn't stack with invisibility) until you move.

Your cloaking field lasts for up to 10 rounds before it becomes inactive. While inactive, the cloaking field recharges automatically at the rate of 1 round of cloaking per minute.

We already looked at the envoy last week, and we'll present more information on the remaining five classes in the coming weeks. And, of course, you can read the full classes this August when the Starfinder Core Rulebook is released at Gen Con!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer

Class Preview: The Envoy

Friday, May 5, 2017

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

When the Starfinder Core Rulebook is released in August, some of the things players are sure to look at first are the classes—envoy, mechanic, mystic, operative, solarian, soldier, and technomancer. Along with the core races and character themes, these classes are a major part of defining a Starfinder player character.

Of course, we don't want to make people wait until August to learn anything about all the fun things we have crammed into our new game, so we're going to be doing a series of class previews over the coming weeks, starting with the envoy. So, let's take a quick look at what the book has to say about the envoy.

“You make your way in the universe with a charming smile, quick wit, and keen sense of self-preservation, and excel at getting others to do what you want. You might be a trickster, hustler, or con artist, or you might serve as an actor, ambassador, or businessperson, paving the way for negotiation through kind words or the occasional dirty trick. You are often the group's strategist, using your quick wit and tactical acumen to push your friends to greater heights. You may also be skilled in diplomacy, serving as the face for a starship crew, talking your way into restricted systems or gaining audiences with local politicians or warlords.”

As that description suggests, envoys are good at social skills. Whether they're using those skills to make friends, fool victims, or threaten foes, envoys often use their wits and charm to get the job done. (And when that doesn't work, well, there's always your laser pistol.) Some of that ability to affect others is modeled by their 8 skill points per level and 16 class skills, which allow them to pick up a lot of social skills while still being able to put ranks into skills such as Acrobatics, Computers, and Stealth, as appropriate for your character concept. The class couples that with an average base attack bonus, poor Fortitude saves, good Reflex and Will saves, light armor, and proficiency (and eventually specialization) with basic melee weapons, grenades, and small arms.

Envoys gain the expertise and skill expertise class features at 1st level. Expertise grants the envoy a 1d6 expertise die that she can add to Sense Motive skill checks as an insight bonus, and skill expertise extends that bonus to one other skill. As the envoy gains levels, she expands the number of skills she can apply her expertise die to and gains expertise talents, which give her additional options for those skills. These can extend the effects of a skill check, allow her to perform acts the skill doesn't normally grant, or alter how long it takes her to use a talent.

Each envoy also gets to select a number of envoy improvisations over the course of her career, beginning at 1st level. These allow the envoy to more directly hinder her foes and aid her allies. Many improvisations are sense-dependent, and some are also language-dependent or mind-affecting. Clever use of envoy improvisations can turn the tide of battle, as the envoy can bolster allies actions and defenses, warn them of impending dangers, and—with higher-level options—even give them additional actions in a turn. Here's an example of a 1st-level envoy improvisation.

Clever Feint (EX) [sense-dependent]

As a standard action, you can fake out an enemy within 60 feet, making that enemy open to your attacks. Attempt a Bluff check with the same DC as a check to feint against that enemy (though this isn';t a standard check to feint, so Improved Feint and Greater Feint don't apply). Even if you fail, that enemy is flat-footed against your attacks until the end of your next turn. If you succeed, the enemy is also flat-footed against your allies' attacks until the end of your next turn. You can't use clever feint against a creature that lacks an Intelligence score.

At 6th level, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to treat a failed Bluff check for clever feint as if it were a success.

We'll present more information on the other six classes in the coming weeks, and of course, you can read the full classes this August when the Starfinder Core Rulebook releases at Gen Con!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer

Meet the Iconics: Navasi

Monday, May 1, 2017

The countdown to Starfinder has officially begun, and to kick us off, we're highlighting the iconic characters and core classes that appear throughout the pages and covers the Starfinder line. Today we meet Navasi, the iconic envoy!

Illustration by Remko Troost

Born into a prominent family on Absalom Station, the envoy who calls herself Navasi spent much of her childhood avoiding her parents in their "sky-villa," as they called their sprawling, six-story home in the Nyori Palisades. Navasi's mother had designs on her canny-but-headstrong daughter inheriting the family's business. Her father had visions of a queenly young woman sitting in silk among the station's most prominent socialites.

Navasi wanted neither. A quip on her lips, she eschewed glitzy playdates and family soirees in favor of zipping through Absalom Station's streets with her best friends, the children of the household employees. She'd take the rush of riding a screaming hovercycle over the pompous sniggering of the wealthy any day of the week.

As she befriended more and more stationers from less-privileged walks of life, Navasi's irritation with her parents and their deliberate aloofness from the rest of society turned into outright disgust. The inequities of Absalom Station, where the rich lived in fortified enclaves and the poor lived in little more than metal boxes, pained her. Simply giving away her pocket money didn't seem like enough. She began to dream of a fairy-tale life in which she could steal the affluent's unearned wealth and give it to those truly in need, and idolized the Free Captains of the Diaspora—pirates living by their own rules. Navasi could only imagine the fun she'd have with such freedom—and the good she'd do, of course.

On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Navasi sat in her plush quarters, staring at the gold-fibered holo-gown that was to be her debut dress. Two choices stood before her. She could don that false uniform, attend the gala, and accept her mother's gift of an executive position in the family company. Or she could leave.

It took less than an hour for Navasi to slip out of the manor and stow away onto a ship bound for the Diaspora.

Navasi arrived on Broken Rock with a pocketful of stolen credsticks and a gleam in her eye. She quickly signed up as a "procurement specialist" with a contracting firm called the Sixth Finger—little more than a starfaring thieves' guild—ready to use her new position to steal from exploitative corporations and make herself a hero to those in need.

The reality of life in a pirate enclave hit her like a meteorite. Having quickly blown through her money, and too stubborn to return home in shame, Navasi found she no longer had a choice in which jobs she took. Under the guildrunners' threats, she roughed up innocents, stole from the less fortunate, and worse. Though she never completely lost her egalitarian beliefs, she hardly recognized the naïve idealist she'd once been. A few years in the streets showed her how much of her former life she'd taken for granted, and taught her that if she wanted to take care of others, she first needed to take care of herself. That, at least, she was good at, and she quickly gained a reputation in the gang as the best fast-talker and facewoman around, spinning bold plans and quick wits into fat paydays.

Now a jaded young woman, Navasi found that the wealth from her scores brought little joy without friends to share it with, and she took comfort in the hardscrabble survivalists and secretly softhearted rogues she recruited to her crews. Yet it was in one particular woman that Navasi truly found herself again. Purple-haired and tattooed, with eyes like blue supergiants, the newcomer was outspoken against those in power. She bucked the pirates' authority and operated alone, pulling the sorts of righteous jobs Navasi had once dreamed of. She was the bravest, most exciting woman Navasi had ever met, and despite Navasi's continuing allegiance to the Sixth Finger, the two quickly became inseparable.

That all came crashing down the day the Sixth Finger arranged to knock over a medship full of supplies bound for Absalom Station. To the gang's leaders, the ship's mission—aiding refugees of a wartorn star system—was inconsequential compared to the valuable drugs in its cargo bays. Navasi's objections were overruled.

It was the final straw. Together, Navasi and her partner formulated a plan, alerting the medship to the imminent heist and carefully sabotaging the fighters the gang had designated for the assault. It all might have gone unnoticed, had the gang's resident technomancer not decided to check the security cams one final time. In the ensuing ambush, Navasi and her partner were pinned down, their backs to the sole spaceworthy ship—a single-seat fighter with only enough life support for one of them. Unwilling to leave her companion, Navasi prepared for them to go out in a blaze of glory—only to have her partner shove her into the cockpit and slam the canopy. As Navasi scrabbled with the latch, the other woman winked, pulled the pins on her grenades, and sprinted straight at their ambushers.

The wealthy scion of Absalom Station died that day, as did the pirate she'd become. As she made her way back to Absalom Station with the medship, knowing that neither the Sixth Finger nor her spurned family would ever stop looking for her, she forsook both of her previous incarnations. Abandoning her old identity, she took the name of her fallen love—Navasi—and swore that henceforth she'd carry on the fight they'd started together, only stealing from those who deserved it, putting her finger in the eye of anyone who thrived on exploitation, regardless of which side of the law they were on. Knowing she'd need a new appearance as well, she continued borrowing from her partner, dyeing her jet-black hair purple and adding a single blue contact. Yet when she considered mimicking the original Navasi's tattoos, she was shocked to learn that they were symbols of Weydan, the god of discovery and equality, famous for taking mortal form. Though her partner had never spoken of religion, Navasi took it as a sign, and even holds out some hope that perhaps her companion might have been more than she seemed, though she recognizes that such thoughts are probably just a manifestation of her grief.

Today, Navasi has built a reputation—perhaps more than is truly wise for a woman with a price on her head—as a talented freelance captain, putting together crews for adventures ranging from planetary scouting and private security to her old talent for "procurement," though she's careful about what sorts of jobs she and her friends take on. Navasi still believes in freedom for all, spreading the wealth, and taking plutocrats down a peg—but she also knows the value of earning credits, and takes pride in the ability to take care of herself and her crew (though she still has a sometimes inconvenient tendency to empty her pockets for those in need). As a scoundrel, a fast-talker, and a brilliant negotiator, Navasi is happiest when the chips are down and lives hang in the balance, as that's when you truly know who your friends are. Above all, she knows to always look beneath the surface, for like Navasi herself, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

Amanda Hamon Kunz
Developer

Starship Combat—I Am a Leaf on the Wind

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Illustrations by David Melvin

From androids manipulating reality with technomagic to goblins in spacesuits wielding barely functioning laser pistols, the Starfinder RPG covers the majority of weird and exciting science-fantasy tropes. But it would be a poor game that takes place among the stars if it didn't have starships! Luckily, Starfinder gives you all you need to play the crew of an intrepid vessel exploring the galaxy—and getting into trouble along the way.

The universe is not always a friendly place and there are forces out there, from freebooting space pirates to a whole fleet of undead soldiers, who either want to incapacitate your starship and take your stuff or just blow you out of the void. And of course, you're not going to roll over and let that happen! That's where Starfinder's robust starship combat system comes into play.

While it has some similarities to character-versus-monster combat, starship combat boasts a number of unique and interesting features. It would be impossible to explore every detail in one blog (you'll just have to buy the book to find out more!), but we'd like to give you a taste of what you can expect come August.

When your characters first board their starship, each player chooses one of five roles for his or her character: captain, engineer, gunner, pilot, or science officer. Only one character each can be the captain and the pilot, but depending on the configuration of your vessel, you may want multiple engineers or gunners. Each role gives the character assuming it a number of actions she can perform during the battle. The captain can give encouraging speeches or make demands of the rest of the crew, granting valuable bonuses. A science officer can scan enemy ships and target specific systems on those vessels. An engineer can boost power to the engines or repair a malfunctioning weapon. A gunner fires the ship's weapons at the enemy, taking precise shots or unleashing a volley of lasers.

All that is exciting and vital to the success of the fight, but as Iseph would be quick to remind you, you'd still be a sitting duck without the impressive things the pilot can do!

The pilot has the important job of moving the PCs' starship across the hex-grid map that starship combat uses, ensuring that gunners can shoot the ship's biggest weapons at the most dangerous enemies while hopefully making sure that those foes don't have the opportunity to shoot back. Getting the positioning and facing of the ship right is crucial, as is knowing what the ship is capable of doing and then pushing it beyond its limits.

To that end, pilots have access to a whole suite of stunts—daring maneuvers that only the skilled can hope to pull off. Of course, if the situation doesn't call for any of these fancy tactics, the pilot can always fly normally or step on the gas for an extra burst of speed. The basic pilot stunts are:

Back Off: The pilot throws the ship into reverse, moving backward a few hexes.

Barrel Roll: By spinning the ship on its axis, the pilot allows the ships's port guns and shields to function on the starboard side and vice versa for 1 round. Hope your artificial gravity is turned on!

Evade: This stunt encompasses the standard dodging maneuvers, making the ship harder to hit for 1 round. But it doesn't shake those pesky target lock-ons!

Flip and Burn: The pilot moves the vessel forward a bit and turns it 180 degrees, surprising enemies who might have been in its wake.

Flyby: A dangerous stunt, this takes your ship very close to an enemy vessel (through its hex), which lets a gunner fire any of his ship's weapons at any shield arc of the foe, regardless of where the two ships end their movement. Executing this stunt poorly allows the enemy vessel to get a free shot on you!

Slide: The pilot moves the ship at an angle without changing the way it is facing, like a racecar drifting. This stunt is very useful for ships that aren't very maneuverable.

Turn in Place: Firing up maneuvering thrusters, the pilot alters the direction the ship is facing without moving it from its hex, possibly allowing a specific weapon to make an all-important shot.

Especially talented pilots can also attempt an "audacious gambit," flying the ship in ways never intended by those who built it. But you'd have to be crazy to try something like that!

Since a pilot is nothing without a ship to helm, the Starfinder Core Rulebook also presents both rules for customizing your own starship and a handful of prebuilt starships ready for PCs to use or fight. Shown here are just two examples.

The Drone Mk III is a smaller ship fabricated by shirren manufacturer Starhive. As befits their name, Drones are extremely common and used as freighters, personnel transports, light colonial defense vessels, and more. Despite the ships' mass production, Starhive takes a natural shirren pride in making sure each ship's iridescent paint job is unique.

Built by the vesk munitions company Vindicas, the Tyrant is a dreadnought feared across multiple star systems. Huge weapon batteries tear through even the most formidable capital ships, while its hangars unleash squadrons of fighters to mop up foes too insignificant to be worth the Tyrant's direct attention.

Starhive Drone Mk III and Vindicas Tyrant
Illustrations by Ben Wootten

Finally, if you want to see the starship combat system in action, check out the video of when I ran a brief demo for the folks at Game Trade Media. Benjamin Loomes of Syrinscape also sat in to provide excellent sound effects and atmospheric music! Content warning: This video features amateur rapping.

Thanks for reading and keep watching this space for more Starfinder previews in the months to come!

Jason Keeley
Editor

Starfinder Iconic Characters Revealed!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Last Friday, our friends at Game Informer released a sneak preview of all seven iconic characters for Starfinder. We wanted to share that image with you as well, but first—what do we mean by "iconic character," anyway?

As many of you probably already know, in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, as in Pathfinder, every class is represented by an iconic character: a single individual who illustrates and embodies the concept behind that class. Originally, way back when Paizo was still publishing the magazines Dungeon and Dragon, this was just a convenient shorthand for us—rather than explaining to each new artist what made a ranger a ranger, we could just show them a single piece of art and say, "Draw this ranger." But to our surprise, as these reference characters appeared in more and more illustrations, fans began to grow attached to them and wonder about their stories. So when we launched Pathfinder, we went ahead and gave these characters names and backstories, and they quickly became some of our most popular characters, going on to star in comics, audio dramas, and more. (I know that I personally have a heck of a lot of fun writing Valeros, Merisiel, and all the rest in the Pathfinder comics!)

Character Illustrations by Remko Troost

Now, with Starfinder, we're excited to unveil a whole new lineup of iconic characters to showcase their respective classes and races! In the coming months, we'll be giving you each character's backstory in blog posts here at paizo.com, but for now here's a sneak preview of their art, plus their names, races, and classes. Going clockwise and starting with the leftmost character, we've got:

Raia (lashunta technomancer): Lashuntas are a race of telepaths, and technomancers are the magical version of computer programmers, hacking the laws of physics.

Iseph (android operative): Androids are artificial people, and operatives use stealth and skill to get in and out of dangerous situations.

Obozaya (vesk soldier): Vesk are powerful reptilian aliens, and soldiers specialize in heavy weapons and armor.

Keskodai (shirren mystic): Shirrens are insectile people who recently broke free from a predatory hive mind, and mystics channel the universe's mysterious energies, often through faith in a god.

Altronus (kasatha solarian): Kasathas are four-armed aliens from a desert world, and solarians shape the energy of stars and black holes into armor and weapons for themselves.

Navasi (human envoy): Humans are... well, humans, and envoys use wit and charm to bolster their allies and demoralize or befuddle enemies.

Quig (ysoki mechanic): Often called "ratfolk," ysoki are a plucky and hotheaded race, and mechanics build their own custom drones or rely on an implanted AI to aid them in combat.

Which of course leads to the question—which of these is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned for more Starfinder previews and design blogs!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Introducing Starfinder’s Final Core Race: The Shirren!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Two weeks ago we revealed a brand new Starfinder core race, the reptilian vesk, leaving us with just one mystery race left. Now, at long last, we're revealing that final core race: the insectile shirrens!

Shirrens were once part of the Swarm, a monstrous, locust-like race that traveled from world to world, consuming all it encountered before moving on. Generations ago, however, a mysterious mutation caused an entire subcolony to break from the Swarm's hive mind, with each of its members gaining a sense of self. Addicted to the new drug of individualism, these renegades rejected the Swarm's mindless consumption, forming a new race called shirrens that eventually came to settle within the Pact World system.

Illustrations by Remko Troost

Shirrens are arthropods with chitinous exoskeletons, large compound eyes, and sensitive antennae that aid in their telepathy. Unlike many arthropodan races, they walk upright, manipulating items with three-clawed hands. In addition to their two sets of main limbs, they also have two sets of smaller limbs growing from their thoraxes. While often displayed, these “mating arms” are extremely weak and used only for ceremonial and reproductive purposes—to use them for mundane activities would be seen as grotesque and shameful.

Shirrens have three sexes: male, female, and host. During reproduction, female and male shirrens provide the initial eggs and sperm, and hosts incubate the fertilized eggs while also adding their own genetic material and immunities. Shirren young spend their first 2 years in a tiny, wormlike larval form, and are often carried around in protective containers to let them safely observe the world.

Shirrens define themselves by their individualism. When they left the Swarm, they assumed partial control over the neurological pleasure and pain systems by which they were formerly directed, and even generations later, making choices for themselves can literally flood them with pleasurable neurotransmitters. While this ability is not always beneficial—some shirrens deliberately drug themselves this way, becoming “option junkies” blissed out on sequences of trivial decisions—freedom of choice is crucial to shirren identity. At the same time, shirrens remain highly communal, and are valued as collaborators by other races due to their ability to foster teamwork and put the goals of the group first.

All 7 of the core Starfinder player races—humans, androids, kasathas, lashuntas, vesk, shirrens, and ysoki—are joined in the core rulebook by updated versions of Pathfinder's core races, and even more playable races will be following shortly behind in the Alien Archive. Now that the core rulebook is off to the printer, you're going to be seeing a steady stream of Starfinder-related preview blogs right up through the game's launch at Gen Con, so keep your transponders on and open to future transmissions!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Ninja Division to Make Starfinder Miniatures!

Friday, March 31, 2017

As many of you may have heard over the last week or so, Ninja Division has partnered with Paizo to make prepainted miniatures for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game! While we are still in the early days, we're extremely excited, and wanted to give you a sneak peak of the sculpting process. These images are by no means final. All final miniatures from Ninja Division will be pre-painted. All ship bases will be hexagonal for use in space combat.

So, with no further ado, Lets start with the images of the Starfinder Iconics! These will all be sold in a single, or two sets, based on costs, price to be determined.

Here are some ships of Pact World and Eoxian design!

Keep your eyes open for more details on Starfinder Roleplaying Game and licensed product! Enjoy!

Michael Kenway
Director of Licensing

Shoot For the Stars—Final Starfinder Core Rulebook Cover Revealed!

Friday, March 24, 2017

One year. It's hard to believe that only a year has passed since we first started working on Starfinder. So much has happened in that time. We've built a setting. Designed a whole new game. Charted out an Adventure Path. Somehow managed to squish 800+ pages of content down into a 528-page Core Rulebook. Successfully avoided throwing each other out of windows over design disputes. You know, all the challenges associated with a new game.

And now we're here. Today, the Starfinder Core Rulebook ships to the printer. It's been a monumental undertaking, and I'm incredibly proud of and thankful for everyone who worked on it, from all of the Starfinder design and development team to Managing Editor Judy Bauer and her editorial strike force and our Creative Design Director Sarah Robinson, who's been responsible for overseeing or creating literally every visual element in the entire book. It's been a massive undertaking, and we couldn't have done it without everyone here.

Cover Illustration by Remko Troost

In celebration, here's a first look at the final Starfinder Core Rulebook cover! After all this time, it's both exciting and terrifying to step back and know that, from this moment forward, the Core Rulebook is out of our hands. Will it make it to orbit? Will it survive reentry? We've done our best, and all we can do now is watch.

We are go for launch!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Unveiling a New Starfinder Race: The Vesk!

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

For months now, we've been teasing the fact that Starfinder has seven core races, of which only five have been announced—humans, androids, lashunta, kasatha, and ysoki. What's more, we've hinted that the remaining two would be brand new races you've never seen before. So now, for the first time ever, we present... the vesk!

Resembling 7-foot-tall humanoid lizards with beards of spiky bone, vesk come from the nearest inhabited solar system to the Golarion system. Fiercely militant and highly organized, vesk have strict honor codes and social mores based on conquest and prowess in battle—a cultural focus that quickly led them to conquer all the other races in their solar system, establishing a massive empire called the Veskarium. For generations, their conquest ended there, stifled by the vast distances between stars. With the introduction of Drift travel, however, they quickly turned first contact with the races of the Golarion system into an all-out war of invasion (and inadvertently created the Pact Worlds as the governments of that system banded together in mutual defense). The brutal conflict lasted for centuries, until the sudden arrival of the Swarm threatened to annihilate all life in both systems. Forced to put aside their differences, the Veskarium and the Pact Worlds were able to join forces and drive off the Swarm, and the tenuous truce forged in that fight continues to this day—if only barely.

Illustrations by Remko Troost

While merchants and others with peaceful professions can advance economically in vesk society, political power is the exclusive domain of those who've proven themselves in armed conflict. Surprisingly, this proof doesn't need to come through military service, or even benefit the Veskarium. Many vesk attain similar elevation in social status through performing mercenary work, engaging in dueling, or providing security on exploration missions. Though obsessed with conquest, dominance, and social rank, vesk find an equally strong sense of honor and pride in fulfilling their agreements and treating subordinates of all races fairly. They are stoic and taciturn with strangers but capable of great bursts of emotion in private or in the heat of battle. Vesk society tends to be efficient, respectful, and law-abiding—especially since nearly any insult or violation of custom could trigger a brutally violent blood debt.

Vesk adventuring with races from other systems fall into two categories. The first are mercenaries or glory-seekers looking for a chance to engage in honorable combat and build up their prestige. The second are nonwarrior vesk who have rejected their home society for its obsession with combat and have chosen instead to seek opportunities among more open-minded races. Warrior vesk most often fit the soldier class, though a growing number have become intrigued by the path of the solarian. Noncombatant vesk often lean toward becoming mystics, though some overcome the traditional vesk culture's dismissal of education to become mechanics or even technomancers.

Stay tuned for more Starfinder blog posts in the coming weeks as we ramp up to the game's release at Gen Con 50!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Starfinder Society, Paizo's Newest Organized Play Program

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Immediately after the announcement of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game last PaizoCon, our community started speculating about an organized play program to support the new game. We spent the ensuing months looking at workflow and charting out a course that would enable us to have both Starfinder and Pathfinder organized play programs. It delights me to end speculation and announce the launch of Starfinder Society at Gen Con 50!

Introducing the Starfinder Society logo, designed by the talented Sarah Robinson!

Before the questions flood in, I want to note that we are still in the active planning phase, and may not have answers to everything yet. Over the next few months, the team will release more information via blog, podcast, and forum posts. If you have questions, please put yours in the comments section, and we will work to get them answered.

Who is working on Starfinder Society?

The structure is very similar to the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. Tonya Woldridge will oversee the program, with John Compton taking on the role of lead developer of both the Pathfinder and Starfinder organized play campaigns. Developer Linda Zayas-Palmer will continue to focus on Pathfinder Society. We've added Thurston Hillman to the team as the dedicated developer for Starfinder Society. Thurston has been a part of Pathfinder Society since Season 1, when he authored Pathfinder Society Scenario #55:The Infernal Vault. Since then, he's both contributed many scenarios (and special events) to the Pathfinder Society as well as writing regularly for various other Pathfinder RPG lines. Thurston brings his depth of experience to the team, along with a bit of zany humor.

Is it going to be called "Starfinder Society?"

The official name is Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild, or SFSRPG for short. The Starfinder game takes place in the distant future of the Pathfinder world, and while much has changed (or been forgotten), the Starfinder Society traces its mysterious history back to the Pathfinder Society of present day. The campaign's official name reflects this connection.

Are you making two separate organized play programs?

Yes. Although many similarities exist in structure and format, including a shared volunteer team, they are two separate campaigns with different rules, documentation, and characters.

Do I get to keep my same Pathfinder Society number?

Yes. What was your Pathfinder Society number will now be your number for all three of the Paizo-operated organized play programs: Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild, Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild, and Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. Starfinder character numbers will have a unique starting number, most likely 700, making your first Starfinder character XXX-701. The number 700 works really well for this, not only because it leaves space for plenty of Pathfinder Society roleplaying characters, but also because the PZO number (the number we assign to each of our products) begins with 7. Who knows, this bit of trivia may make it in to the PaizoCon quiz.

How much is staying the same from Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild?

We still have quests and scenarios with Chronicle sheets. Adventures will be broken into tiers, grant XP, and provide other rewards. Three experience points (XP) grant a level. There are fairly cooperative factions within the Starfinder Society, based on their worldview and goals. We will reveal more information about the campaign as we get closer to its launch in August 2017.

Illustration by Sebastien Hue

If all that is the same, what is different?

Starship combat!

On a more serious note, we made a couple major changes for Starfinder Society. The first is the tier system. We are closing the gap between subtiers that resulted in so much confusion and consternation with calculating average party level (APL). Starfinder scenarios will include the following tiers: Tier 1-2, Tier 1-4, Tier 3-6, Tier 5-8, Tier 7-10, and Tier 9-12—perhaps more as higher-level play grows in popularity.

The second most noticeable change is that characters have a means of belonging to more than one faction at a time. Unlike the current Pathfinder Society faction rules, Starfinder Society characters will be able to gain favor with multiple groups, choosing which they want to champion on a scenario-by-scenario basis. But just like multiclassing, focusing on several groups won't see the same benefits as focusing on a primary faction. These changes to the faction system tie in with another issue that we are addressing: the handling of boons. One of our goals is developing a way to make the boons on Chronicles more relevant, and not just a stack of paper player's stick in the back of their folder. We'll reveal more about these changes in... the future (see what I did there?)

What is the release schedule?

The Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild launches with 3 scenarios, 1 pre-generated character special, and 1 quest pack at Gen Con. From there, we will publish one scenario a month. Moving to a slower release schedule allows us to spin up the program and settle into the groove of running three organized play programs. During this time, we will solicit feedback and assess the rate of publication for 2018 and beyond.

When can I start playing Starfinder Society?

The fun begins Thursday, August 17th, at 8:00 AM Pacific time in the Sagamore Ballroom at Gen Con. After Thursday morning, anyone, anytime, anywhere, may schedule Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild events.

Next week sees John holding down the fort while I travel to the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas to chat with retailers about our organized play programs. The following Wednesday, March 22, at 7 pm PDT, John, Thurston, and I join the Know Direction crew for a Question and Answer session about all things organized play related. If you have topics you wish us to cover, feel free to drop me an email at tonya.woldridge@paizo.com and we will fit as many answers on the show as possible.

Check out the blog next Monday for more exciting organized play news!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Coordinator

Onward To Adventure!

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

February has the tendency to sneak up on you when you least expect it, and fly right by! This first month-and-a-bit of 2017 has been chock full of exciting projects and new announcements, including our latest Humble Bundle initiative in partnership with Dynamite and our lineup of Starfinder products launching at Gen Con 2017. Since it's been a minute (or two... possibly three) since we've given folks an update on our product schedule, let's take a look at what the next few months have in store.

The next Pathfinder Adventure Path kicks off in just a few weeks with the first two volumes of the Ironfang Invasion—Pathfinder Adventure Path #115: Trail of the Hunted and Pathfinder Adventure Path #116: Fangs of War. The Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path calls back to classic adventures, focusing on exploring the unknown and confronting the fantastic, all to stop a monstrous enemy from wiping out the good people of Nirmathas and Molthune. The PCs will delve into dungeons, siege well-guarded keeps, explore the wilderness, and battle some of the most iconic creatures from the 40-year history of fantasy RPGs.

Speaking of "iconic creatures", how many of you are excited for even more monsters? This April, pick up Bestiary 6! This sixth monstrous-tome for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game includes over 200 monsters like archdevils, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, play-character-suitable races, and even the creepy and horrific Krampus himself. While previews for Bestiary 6 are still a few weeks away, I snuck some artwork out for you to feast your eyes upon...

Illustrations by William Liu, Jorge Fares, Jim Pavelec, and Roberto Pitturru

But there are more options for your Pathfinder campaign rolling through! For me, summer means backpacking and in the months leading up to it, geeking out over the latest gear. What better than to prep your next character or tailor your next campaign with with the Adventurer's Guide releasing this May? And, if you're trying to cut gear weight like me, we just announced that both the GameMastery Guide and Advanced Player's Guide will be available in the travel-friendly Pocket Edition format.

To recap, here's the lineup of Pathfinder products releasing March:

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #115: Trail of the Hunted
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #116: Fangs of War
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Mummy's Mask Adventure Deck #6
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Monster Hunter's Handbook
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Forbidden Jungle
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-16: House of Harmonious Wisdom
• Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-17: Refugees of the Weary Sky
• Pathfinder Legends—Curse of the Crimson Throne #3: Escape from Old Korvosa

August 2017

If you're heading to Gen Con later this summer, you can expect a full compliment of Pathfinder and Starfinder excitement! To get more details about the Starfinder products in this list, you'll want to read James L. Sutter's blog about their announcement. And of course, since this is months in the future, titles are subject to possibly shifting (or being added) to this list.

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #121: The Lost Outpost, the first volume in the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Magus Class Deck
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Elemental Master's Handbook
• Pathfinder Map Pack: Village Sites
• Starfinder Core Rulebook
• Starfinder Adventure Path #1: Incident at Absalom Station
• Starfinder GM Screen
• Starfinder Player Character Folio
• Starfinder Core Pawn Collection (and Base Assortment)
• Starfinder Flip-Mat: Basic Starfield
• Starfinder Flip-Mat: Basic Terrain

As we begin the slow-roll into a jam-packed convention season, more announcements are sure to come! Keep your eyes out, and until next time!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

Starfinder Preorders and Compatibility License Announced!

Thursday, January 26, 2017

I know that many of you have been waiting patiently (or not so patiently) to learn what products we'll be launching Starfinder with at Gen Con 2017, and the time has finally come to reveal our secret plans! Below are all of the initial Starfinder products available this August, now ready for preorder! Check it out:

Starfinder Core Rulebook

560 pages of science-fantasy glory! Get all the rules you need to play the Starfinder Roleplaying game, from classes and spells to lasers and starships, plus tons of setting information, new and classic races, and more!

Starfinder Adventure Path: Incident at Absalom Station (Dead Suns 1 of 6)

The first Starfinder Adventure Path kicks off as a deserted mining ship tows a mysterious asteroid out of hyperspace, revealing clues to an ancient alien superweapon that could threaten the existence of the Pact Worlds! Starfinder Adventure Path will be a bimonthly, 64-page book filled with not just linked adventures, but new setting information, alien creatures, and new rules and options for GMs and players! This volume features a mega-sized gazetteer of Absalom Station, magical relics, new monsters, and more.

Starfinder GM Screen

Have all the most important GM information at your fingertips with this handy GM screen, its player-facing side emblazoned with a massive battle scene featuring all the Starfinder iconics.

Starfinder Player Character Folio

Keep track of your character in style with this deluxe player character folio! Much like its Pathfinder counterpart, this folio has everything you need, including expanded character sheet sections, quick rules reference, and more.

Starfinder Core Pawn Collection

Spice up combat with this collection of gorgeous pawns, perfect for both PCs and enemies, including humanoids, monsters, starships, and more! A Starfinder Pawn Base Assortment will also be available (they're the same size as the Pathfinder bases, so you can mix and match between the two game systems without fear.).

Starfinder Flip-Mats

Basic Terrain is a standard square-gridded battle mat with ground on one side and decking for a spaceship or space station on the other. Basic Starfield is a larger-than-normal flip mat featuring two different starfields with a hex grid, perfect for Starfinder's starship combat system!

Starfinder Compatibility License

What's that? You've got a great idea for a Starfinder product that we aren't making? Well you're in luck—the Starfinder Compatibility License is all fueled up and ready to launch! Click here to learn how you can get started making your own third-party Starfinder-compatible products.

Thanks to everyone for all your enthusiasm, and stay tuned—the fun is just beginning!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

New Starfinder Interview!

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

More exciting Starfinder work continues to churn around these parts, and with that, more information about the upcoming roleplaying game has made it's way to the masses! In an interview with Matt Miller over at Game Informer, our own James L. Sutter divulged more details about the process behind Starfinder (and creating this all-new core rulebook full of gameplay and setting material). I've snagged some of the new artwork and other information (including captions from James) to show off here, but you should check out the whole interview for all of the new juicy bits.

First up is our next iconic character, Iseph, the iconic operative!

Illustration by Remko Troost
This is Iseph, our iconic operative. The operative class is all about stealth, speed, and agility—whether you want to be a smuggler, a scout, an intrusion agent, or a black-ops assassin, this is the class for you. You'll also notice that Iseph is an android. Androids in Starfinder were originally created by humans as servitors, but in recent centuries fought for and won independence and recognition as full citizens of the Pact Worlds. While they have some interesting physical properties—they don't age, they handle vacuum much better than humans, and they have internal circuitry that glows when they're stressed—they also strive to distinguish themselves culturally from their former oppressors. One way in which some androids—like Iseph—do so is through the rejection of gender, which they see as an unnecessary mark of their former bondage.

Next, travelling to new worlds is a given in Starfinder—perhaps your future galaxy-hopping group may find themselves on a journey to either Liavara or Verces starting next summer?

Illustration by Leon Tukker
Liavara is a gas giant, with no solid surface at all, and those terrestrial races who come to mine its gasses or trade with the native creatures are forced to live on massive floating arcology platforms like this one. Much of the planet is held as a nature preserve by the Brethedans—gelatinous dirigible-like creatures who can alter their own DNA to produce whatever tools they need, from simple chemical compounds to tailored viruses. What's more, the Brethedans can actively merge together to create linked consciousnesses more intelligent and powerful than the sum of their parts, and some Brethedan biotech corporations are actually single massive entities consisting of millions of merged Brethedans.

Illustration by Sebastien Hue
Verces is a tidally locked world, with one side always facing the sun, the other always facing away. Civilization exists primarily in the narrow band of habitable terrain along the terminator line, where day meets night, and the massive cities that have grown there ring the globe in a single massive urban sprawl. In addition to being at the forefront of Pact World technology and industry, Verces is also the birthplace of the Stewards, a police-like organization of warrior-diplomats sworn to maintain the Pact, who hunt down interplanetary criminals and preserve peace between the sometimes fractious worlds of the solar system.

As always, keep your eye out on the Paizo blog for Starfinder news! You can also keep track up interviews and other features by following us on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr.

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

This is Not a Dream

Friday, November 18, 2016

The end of 2016 is proving to be an exciting and incredibly busy time around the office! The Starfinder team is chipping away at the process of filling the gaps in our grand science fantasy plans and working with our playtesters. More and more bits of truly stunning artwork are trickling in, and it's starting to feel like this is all really happening now! Yesterday Polygon released an exclusive article, and since I've taken over the blog for today, it's about time we show off some places and a new iconic character here. Meet Navasi, an iconic Envoy!

Illustration by Remko Troost
The envoy is a class dedicated to aiding and manipulating others. They are giving orders and encouragement that help your allies do better, while taunting and demoralizing your opponents. Envoys are naturally charismatic leaders and smooth-talkers, ranging from celebrities and starship captains to con artists and cult leaders. Lando Calrissian, General Leia Organa, Ruby Rhod and Inara Serra would all be envoys. And as you can see, Navasi and Lando would definitely appreciate each other's taste in clothes.

Earlier this year we revealed a preview of Absalom Station on the main Starfinder page, and the final illustration is even more fantastic! Akiton and Eox are new planetary locations, seen below, and were also shown off in the article.

Illustration by Leon Tukker


Illustrations by Sebastien Hue and Leon Tukker

Keep an eye out for more Starfinder news as we get closer to it's launch next August!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

Captain's Log, Stardate Something-Something...

Friday, November 11, 2016

Looking at this picture, you might ask yourself "Why is Jason Keeley giving me a saucy look?" The answer is that that's his best captain's expression, thank you very much! As the developer in charge of polishing and expanding the starship rules (originally written by Jason Bulmahn), Jason K. currently spends a lot of time alone in the conference room, battling himself in epic starship battles, depicted here by shark and goblin pawns. It's lonely out there, constantly dying in space, but his suffering is necessary to make sure the starship construction rules are balanced.

Oh, did I forget to mention that in Starfinder, you'll be able to build and customize your own starship? It's true. In addition to a robust starship combat system including different roles for each player (you can see some examples of the special maneuvers called pilot stunts illustrated there in the foreground), there's also a thorough system by which both players and GMs can upgrade their starships with new weapons, power cores, and other advanced systems. We've said since the beginning that we think the best starships are practically characters in their own right—the Millennium Falcon, the Serenity, etc.—so we wanted to make sure that players could customize their ships and make them unique, while also allowing GM to craft tons of unique foes.

Did we succeed? You'll have to tell us, but I have great confidence that the Jasons can... ahem... make it so.*

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

*Yeah, I know I made a Picard joke when Jason's clearly doing a Captain Kirk impression. Deal with it.

That's No Moon...

Friday, October 14, 2016

...it's an internal playtest of the Starfinder starship combat system! While we aren't yet ready to fully unveil what the starship combat system entails (except to those of you who got to do the secret design seminar playtest at Gen Con!), I thought this might be a good week to drop some tidbits. For instance, as you can already see, starship combat uses a hex map rather than the square-based maps of normal combat. Additionally, everyone involved in starship combat has a crew role—a specific suite of actions that only they can take to use their ship's abilities or affect its performance. In this picture we see Captain Mike Kenway, Engineer Jason Keeley, Science Officer Owen KC Stephens, Gunners Erik Mona and Sarah Robinson, and Pilot Rob McCreary. Jason Bulmahn is, of course, the enemy ships trying to kill them. (Not pictured: Me, observing and taking notes. Let it never be said that the Creative Director hogs all the fun.)

That's all I'll say for now, but I look forward to reading your comments and seeing what folks can learn from zooming in on those carelessly uncovered pages... (Hey, it works in the movies, right? "Computer... enhance...")

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Starfinder—What We've Revealed So Far

Friday, September 30, 2016

The other day Chris Lambertz pointed out to me that, while we've done a number of interviews and convention panels revealing bits and pieces about the Starfinder RPG, we haven't actually collected them all together (though some of you have been doing a great job of it over at this thread). It sounded like a great idea, so I said what I always say when a great idea comes along:

"That sounds like a great idea. Let's make Josh do it."

And so, with his usual pluck and aplomb, editor Josh Vogt read through a bunch of interviews and listened to podcasts in which Erik, Rob, Owen, and I shot off our mouths about the new game, and collated the most important points here. So now, in no particular order—what we know so far about Starfinder!

Illustration by Kiki Moch Rizky

The Products

• The Core Rulebook and first Adventure Path volume will release in August 2017, at Gen Con.
• It's a science-fantasy RPG based on the Pathfinder universe and rules, but complete and standalone.
• It's "conceptually compatible" with Pathfinder, with the specific idea that you should be able to use Pathfinder monsters in Starfinder with a minimum of conversion fuss at the table.
• While there will be occasional rules supplements like bestiaries, the Starfinder Adventure Path will be a primary vector for new rules and setting information. Overall, we expect to release products for Starfinder at a much slower rate than we do for Pathfinder, making it easier and more affordable to stay up to date on both games.
• Starfinder Adventure Path and the Starfinder RPG rulebook line will not be replacing Pathfinder—it's a whole separate game, and thus not expected to impact the production of our normal Pathfinder material after the initial release.

The Setting

• It's set in Golarion's solar system, far in a possible future in which Golarion is missing—the gods say it's safe, but won't say what happened to it. In its former orbit is a massive space platform called Absalom Station.
• History is obscured in the Starfinder setting, as an unknown amount of time has been mysteriously and completely wiped from everyone's memories and all known records—even those on the Outer Planes. This blank period between ancient and modern history is called the Gap, and while it effects the entire multiverse, the edges aren't all in the same place. For instance, one planet might remember back 300 years, while another remembers back 305—these inconsistencies are the primary references some Starfinders use to piece together the secret history of the universe.
• There's faster than light travel in Starfinder, via a hyperspace dimension gifted by an ascended AI deity.
• All the core Pathfinder races will still exist and be playable with the Core Rulebook, yet Starfinder's core races are different, and include humans, lashunta, ysoki (ratfolk), androids, kasatha, and two races not yet revealed.
• In addition, there's going to be a heavy emphasis on introducing more alien player races. Where possible, you should be able to play the creatures you encounter.
• There's still plenty of magic in the setting, but technology has become a dominant force. For instance, if you're playing an Iomedaean crusader, you might wear holy powered armor and carry a plasma cannon carved with magical runes.
• Will continue Pathfinder's legacy of being as diverse and inclusive as possible.

Gameplay

• There will be seven core classes on release: the technomancer (magical hacker blending technology and magic), mechanic (engineer with a robot buddy), solarian (mystical melee combatant harnessing the cycles of the stars), soldier (heavy weapons specialist), envoy (diplomat and ally-booster), mystic (caster channeling strange energies to manipulate biological systems), and operative (stealthy skill specialist).
• Star Wars is a decent comparison, tone-wise, but Starfinder will have more magic and moral ambiguity. Other inspirations include Firefly, Shadowrun, the Expanse series, and more—if we could do for space opera what Shadowrun did for 1980s cyberpunk, we'd be ecstatic.
• Starfinder puts an even greater focus on exploration than Pathfinder, as the setting pushes many adventurers out toward a galaxy full of uncontacted worlds. While you can play whole adventures or campaigns on a single world if you want, the assumption is that the PCs are probably the crew of a starship.
• Starship battles will be a significant element in the game, with their own combat system utilizing miniatures, but not as common as ordinary character-scale combat.
• There will not be an open playtest—instead, there will be a closed playtest will feature other RPG designers and third-party publishers, Pathfinder Society members, and various key members of the industry and community. While we wish we could open the playtest up to everyone, the timeframe involved and scope of the playtest simply make it impractical. (Unlike Pathfinder's class playtests, in order to make this one work, we have to give people the entire game.
• The plan is to produce a Starfinder Reference Document (like the PRD) and make it available for free online.
• Starfinder will have an OGL-like compatibility license allowing for third-party products.
• Starfinder organized play is something we're actively investigating, but not ready to announce anything about just yet.

While everyone on the Starfinder team is currently so buried in work that they need snorkels to breathe, we are planning on doing more blog posts and reveals of new information in the coming months, as well as introducing some exciting new ways to preview parts of the game and get feedback from the community at large. So stay tuned!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Pulling Back the Curtain—PaizoCon 2016 Announcements!

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Last night's PaizoCon Preview Banquet was an amazing event, full of exciting new reveals and announcements, including the unveiling of Paizo's next roleplaying game project, Starfinder, the next hardcover volumes of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and where Pathfinders will be headed next in Pathfinder Adventure Path and Pathfinder Society organized play. I cannot stress enough how fun and palpable the excitement is during the Banquet, and how cool it is to see folks react in person. But, if you didn't make it out to the show, read on!

Dark Things in the Deep, and Shadows Around the Corner

While we're a couple weeks out from showing off the thrilling contents of Pathfinder RPG Horror Adventures, rest assured, the forces of darkness and a tenuous grasp of sanity are abound for your game!

We also announced the next *two* Pathfinder Roleplaying Game volumes at one time! Look out for the Pathfinder RPG Villain Codex, full of villainous gangs, demon knights, merry outlaws, sinister cults, new rules for each organization, and tips for using these foes in your own game later this year! And in Spring 2017, you'll have no problem pulling together an encounter on the fly with the Pathfinder RPG Encounter Codex, which will contain encounters from levels 1-20, with more details to come.

Straight on 'Til Morning

James Sutter announced a new chapter for Paizo last night as we head into worlds unknown in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. You'll want to read his announcement blog for more details about Starfinder, which will release in August 2017.

A Return to Korvosa, and a Journey to Dungeons Yet to be Found

Fans of the classic Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path may recognize a few familiar faces in the lineup below, found in the new Curse of the Crimson Throne Hardcover compilation, releasing this September.

The Strange Aeons Adventure Path launches in just a couple months at Gen Con 2016. In Strange Aeons, heroes will be up against cosmic horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos, new monsters, mind-shattering terrors, and explore far beyond the known lands of Golarion. More information and previews will be available on the Paizo blog as we get closer!

We also announced the Adventure Path that will be following Strange Aeons at the Banquet, and I got some help from star story-teller and Developer Crystal Fraiser to give you an introduction to The Ironfang Invasion:

When the PCs witness their hometown of Phaendar destroyed in the first steps of an all-out war of conquest, they begin a quest that leads them from desperate survival to heroes of legend as they push back against the monstrous Ironfang Legion. This ruthless army—helmed by the hobgoblin General Azaersi and empowered by an ancient artifact known as the Onyx Key—intend to claim both Nirmathas and Molthune while the isolated nations bicker with one another. The heroes' quest will take them deep into the fey-haunted Fangwood Forest, to the craggy bluffs of western Nirmathas, and delve deep into the earth to explore the Darklands. Can a small band of refugees grow into champions and push back against Azaersi's horde, or will the Ironfang Invasion give way to and Ironfang nation?

The Ironfang Invasion calls back to classic adventures, focusing on exploring the unknown and confronting the fantastic, all to stop a monstrous enemy from wiping out the good people of Nirmathas and Molthune. The PCs will delve into dungeons, siege well-guarded keeps, explore the wilderness, and battle some of the most iconic creatures from the 40-year history of fantasy RPGs.

Society Happenings

Organized Play Coordinator Tonya Woldridge proudly announced Season 8 of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild: The Year of the Stolen Storm. Beginning at Gen Con 2016, Pathfinders of all levels will be able to travel to the Elemental Planes, clash with extraplanar rivals, and harness the raw energies of the Inner Sphere. Joining the Society in this endeavor will be a host of genie-kin as ifrits, oreads, sylphs, and undines become always available for play in the organized play campaign. To help kick off Season 8, the team will also release a complete set of updated Faction Journal Cards. Also look for new Pathfinder Academy—an updated and expanded Kids' Track program for young gamers—debuting at Gen Con!

The Adventure Card Guild's Season of the Runelords is in full swing, including a host of new rewards to distribute at upcoming conventions. Once we've defeated the Runelords, we're launching a new mini-season, Season of the Goblin, that follows the events of the We Be Goblins adventures. The much-anticipated Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Mummy's Mask Base Set hits stores shortly after that, and the team has announced that the Season of the Mummy will be quick to follow. Several new authors are lending their talents to the upcoming Adventure Card Guild scenarios, including Amanda Hamon Kunz, Jason Keeley, Tonya Woldridge, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.

Pathfinder Society agents, stay tuned for a more detailed update from the PFS team about these announcements on Tuesday, June 1st!

Publisher Previews

During the Banquet, Erik unveiled a number of new sculpts for the line of Pathfinder Battles miniatures. However, folks are going to have to sit tight for his preview blog this upcoming Friday for images of the just-announced sculpts from the upcoming Deadly Foes release.

We've still got another day of PaizoCon 2016! Until we meet again!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

Announcing the Starfinder Roleplaying Game!

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Ever since Pathfinder Adventure Path #3, when James Jacobs and Wes Schneider had to hold me back from putting a space elevator in Varisia, I've wanted to take Pathfinder to the stars. A year later, I had the honor of writing up Golarion's solar system in Pathfinder Adventure Path #14, and then expanding it further in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Worlds. But I'm not the only one around here in love with outer space and science fiction—I think all of us have at various times said, "Wouldn't it be fun to do a futuristic version of Pathfinder?" Yet aside from the occasional jaunt to other worlds in adventures like Pathfinder Adventure Path #70: The Frozen Stars, it's always been a dream just out of reach.

Until now.

Next August, Paizo will be releasing the Starfinder Roleplaying Game—a new science fantasy RPG based on the Pathfinder universe and rules, but complete and standalone. It'll be backward compatible, so you can still use all those Pathfinder RPG bestiaries, but will feature all sorts of new classes, races, equipment, and other elements uniquely suited to our far-future setting. You want to play a lashunta technomancer using magic to hack the defense grid, or an android assassin with a laser rifle, or a ysoki ratfolk mechanic clambering around the guts of a spaceship as you blast your way through the enemy blockade? This is the place for it. There will also be new races you've never seen before, new worlds beyond Golarion's system that we've never visited, new twists on magic and the rules system itself—and, of course, ton and tons of cool science fantasy gear, from starships and computers to infinitely sharp zero-edge swords and rune-augmented plasma cannons.

The Starfinder RPG Core Rulebook will be releasing at Gen Con 2017, but that's not all—we're also going to be starting a monthly Starfinder Adventure Path in addition to our ongoing Pathfinder Adventure Paths. The Starfinder AP volumes will include both adventures and cool new rules and setting information to help expand your Starfinder game. Plus monsters. Lots of monsters.

So how does all this science fantasy goodness fit into the Pathfinder setting? Simple: Starfinder is set in Golarion's solar system, but far in a possible future—one in which the gods have mysteriously spirited Golarion away to an unknown location, and refuse to answer questions about it. In its place, the cultures of that world have evolved and spread throughout the solar system, especially to a vast space platform called Absalom Station. Gifted access to a hyperspace dimension by an ascended AI deity, the residents of the system suddenly find themselves with the ability to travel faster than light, and the race is on to explore and colonize potentially millions of worlds. But there are horrors out there in the darkness...

As the Creative Director of Starfinder, I can't wait to show you everything we've been building. Joining me as key players on Team Starfinder are longtime Paizo developers Rob McCreary and Owen KC Stephens, as well as Creative Design Director Sarah Robinson on the art side, but all the designers, developers, art staff, and editors are working on different parts of the project—it's an all-hands-on-deck affair. And it's not just us, either—as Starfinder will be released under the OGL, we're looking forward to robust third-party support of the game.

While the size and scope of the new game make a full public playtest infeasible, we'll be starting to bring in key community members to check it out in the next few months, so keep an eye on the blog for your chance to participate! In the meantime, we wanted to give you a sneak preview of some preliminary concept sketches for Absalom Station, androids, and ysoki from artist Taylor Fischer (who you might know from games like XCOM and Civilization)—while these are only our initial explorations, and far from final, it's fun to see the process as things change and evolve. And it's never too early to chime in and chat with us in the new Starfinder forum!

We hope you're as excited about Starfinder as we are, and that you'll join us as we boldly go where Paizo's never gone before!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director