Starfinder Society Guide 1.1

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

A new update to the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide is due... well, right now!

That's right. As of now, the guide has been updated to include a variety of updates put together by the Organized Play Team and built from the feedback of countless players and organizers across the world. I'd like to also give a special thanks to anyone who contributed to the thread that was started months ago on this topic as your comments were invaluable in coming up with these updates.

So, let's hop into a summary of the major changes:

• A new playable faction has been included: the Second Seekers loyal to First Seeker Jadnura. This includes a table of associated boons, including numerous new boons unique to this faction.
• The list of always available playable races has been expanded to include the legacy races included in the Starfinder Core Rulebook.
• The required resources necessary to create a character of a new race have been clarified to accommodate special rules reference handouts included in certain scenarios.
• The rebuilding rules for characters and personal boons has been clarified.
• Numerous faction-associated boons have been clarified or expanded, including hirelings, basic purchases, and improved faction champion boons.
• Details are now available for the Exo-Guardians and Wayfinders capstone boons, providing playable statistics for a new race and starship hull.
• The instructions for filling out a Chronicle sheet have been updated, including when a PC can purchase and sell gear.
• Rules for applying credit have been relaxed slightly when using pregenerated characters in adventures that require the use of such characters.
• Information about the Vehicle scenario tag and the Vanity boon descriptor has been added.
• GMs' Chronicle sheet rewards have been clarified.
• UPBs are now purchasable in single units rather than only in lots of 1,000.
• The Tier 2 and Tier 6 Drake starships' shields and armaments have been updated to better match the hull's intended function.
• The list of Regional Venture-Coordinators and regions has been updated.

From this list, there's a few points I'd like to highlight:

Second Seekers (Jadnura): Ohhhhhhh a new faction! For those who've been interested in seeing how we're going to handle multiple Second Seekers factions, then Jadnura is our first example of that. I suspect a lot of the boons are going to interest some players out there, especially the ability to replay content and earn full credit for it. Similarly, if you like your growing stable of ally boons, then this faction is a great opportunity for those of you who want new characters to earn even more ally potential.

New Capstones: Veteran Exo-Guardians can bestow a new ship on new Starfinder recruits: the Gorgon. This vessel is essentially a murderboat intended to render opposing starships down to fine particulate matter—have fun with that. The Wayfinders also reveal their associated new race, which shouldn't come as a surprise to players who've been playing Starfinder Society since the beginning.

A More Toothy Drake: The Drake base hull has received some further updates. The Tier 2 version of the ship has had some weapon upgrades to make it more in line with the type of starship role we wanted it to have (at a small cost to its shields). Meanwhile, the Tier 6 version of the ship had its erroneous linked missile weapons replaced with a potent torpedo launcher.

Legacy Races Always Available: It may not be uplifted bears (don't worry, I'm working on that) but players can now enjoy all the Starfinder Core Rulebook legacy races as being always available. Go forth and populate the universe with dwarves, elves, gnomes and all the other legacy races!

Quality of Life: We've eased some of the Additional Resources requirements on new races, allowing players to play their new races with handouts provided by scenarios. We've also allowed players to apply credit to a character of any level within the level range of a pregenerated character scenario, which should ease up some of the credit discussions around Starfinder Society #1-00: Claim to Salvation. There's also been some tightening of language around GM Chronicle sheet rewards and how a GM can apply character boons during the course of a scenario they run. Finally, you can now purchase UPBs in single units rather than in lots of 1,000, which should further encourage crafters to build equipment!

I'd like to give a big shout out to our editors, art and layout folks, and Managing Developer Adam Daigle for helping out in getting everything ready for distribution to the masses.

This update to the Guide should last us until the start of our next season, currently slated for June of 2019. Of course, feel free to continue posting feedback about the Starfinder Society Guide on the Organized Play forums, and we'll do our best to keep compiling all the information for future updates.

Note: The following additions have been added to clear up some of the questions we've seen about the new "always available" status for legacy races in the new update to this guide.

Legacy Race Clarification

There have been some questions about how players who'd previously unlocked legacy races should handle them now that legacy races are always available. The following are official clarifications on how players should handle legacy races previously earned in the campaign.

• Characters who've earned a Legacy Race boon from RSP or a special convention boon prior to the publishing of this blog can create or continue playing a Legacy Race and increase one ability score that is 14 or lower by 2. These characters retain their Personal boon slot but cannot slot in a Personal boon that would augment an ability score (such as any of the admittance boons.)
• Characters who've earned a Legacy Race boon via a scenario prior to the publishing of this blog can convert the Personal Boon from the "New Character" option to the "Existing" option and earn the +2 in one ability score that is 14 or lower. This occupies the Personal boon slot.
• Characters who earn a Legacy Race boon following the publishing of this blog can slot the Personal Boon onto their character and select the "Existing" option to earn the additional ability score boost. This occupies the Personal boon slot.
• For Characters who've applied two legacy race boons to a character (one for race access and one for the stat boost) those characters now only gain the benefit of the "Existing" portion of the race boon. The initial "New Character" application of the boon is ignored. In no circumstance, can a PC ever earn more than one +2 increase to an ability score modifier.

So how about making some new characters?

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer