At its core, Starfinder is a game about exploration and possibilities. Whether you’re excited to uncover new expressions of heroism through new character options in the Character Operations Manual, explore the Pact Worlds’ closest neighbors in Near Space, dramatically expand what’s possible in spaceflight with the upcoming Starship Operations Manual, meet extraordinary lifeforms in Alien Archive 4, or just blast into uncharted space with the Galaxy Exploration Manual, the past year and upcoming 12 months’ hardcover books keep bringing new reasons for excitement!
So forgive my Zo!-like theatrics in saying: “But wait, there’s more!”
That’s right! Why pine longingly for amazing 2021 content when you could playtest it this summer? Beginning in July 2020, Paizo is launching not one—but two—different Starfinder playtests, opening up new possibilities for your gaming experience and inviting you to become part of the creative process! Final versions of both playtests’ contents will appear in an upcoming, yet-to-be-announced book.
A New Class!
As a guiding philosophy when designing new classes, the Starfinder team is always pushing to expand innovative ideas and territory: the biohacker brings a new spin to the scientist trope, the vanguard weaponizes the multiverse’s fundamental energies to redirect damaging forces, and witchwarper takes a fresh approach to magic, superimposing alternate realities to create supernatural effects. Naturally, an additional class we’d make would want to meet or exceed those standards for conceptual novelty, visual wow-factor, and fun at the game table. It’s a high bar!
Enter the nanocyte.
The nanocyte’s body houses nanites in untold numbers, granting them impossible strength, transforming into tools, and coursing between obstacles to overwhelm their foes. The same nanites can reshape the nanocyte’s body to avoid harm as easily as they reconfigure features to conceal their presence or mask a lie, making the nanocyte an adept combatant and infiltrator able to manifest weaponry at a moment’s notice. Whether their powers stem from excruciating experiments, accidental infection, or voluntary symbiosis, the nanocyte’s nanites grow stronger by the day as the character evolves into a being more machine than mortal.
A New Way to Play!
Starfinder allows for so many stories and ways to play: infiltrating an embassy ball, trading shots across a shell-cratered battlefield, racing after villains in futuristic vehicles, soaring through space in elegant starships, and more! But since Starfinder’s debut in August 2017, the fans have echoed the same question: Where are the mechs? Sure, Starfinder provides powered armor that enhances a user’s natural abilities, and there are even a few larger powered armor suits that give that tower-over-the-opposition feel. Yet the game so far lacks the ability to pilot that giant robot, that titanic vehicle whose power far exceeds that of its pilot.
Not anymore! In July Starfinder will publicly playtest new mech rules, allowing PCs to jump into single-seat mechs or team up with friends in even larger behemoths to stomp, fly, and jump-jet around the battlefield! Mech combat is designed to use most of the familiar tactical rules and 5-foot squares you already use in your games, making mechs a feature you can as easily drop into a single encounter as you can build entire campaigns around them. And as you would expect, mechs represent a significant power boost, allowing PCs to take on far greater challenges than they might on their own—just what you’d expect from a system that lets you customize your mechs’ frames, limbs, armaments, power cores, and more!
Get excited and follow along for more updates! The action begins this July!
John Compton
Starfinder Senior Developer
New Starfinder Playtest For 2020
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
