New Starfinder Playtest For 2020

Nanocyte gets me closer to my dream of "playing a sapient gray goo" (who has decided not to eat the universe.)

Nanocyte sounds weird. I have no use for mechs, though, silly things.

Hopeful for the new class, I'm a big fan of Gen Rex.

Mechs I'm not as thrilled on since it just sounds like "power armour but works weirdly with CR and doesn't interface with the power armour options".

It's mighty nano morphin time! With dino mechs!

Here comes the Super Sentai AP.

Nanocyte definitely sounds like fun, i'm keen to see where yo go with it.

But please please please don't fall down the rabbit hole with mechs.

Starfinder isn't a mech game, please don't start rebuilding the setting and chopping up the rules to suit giant suits of armour.

One day away from the internet for an operation and John Compton has to post the coolest thing ever!

Nanocyte definitely sounds like fun, i'm keen to see where yo go with it.

But please please please don't fall down the rabbit hole with mechs.

Starfinder isn't a mech game, please don't start rebuilding the setting and chopping up the rules to suit giant suits of armour.

I don't think that'll be an issue. Starfinder already has 60 ft. tall giant suits of armour.

I hope the mech rules will support both the (relatively) more realistic "advanced military tech" and the gonzo quasi-superhero subgenres of mecha (row row Fight the Power!); the latter doesn't have to cause a setting rebuild if they are suitably uncommon or limited to a particular location, after the fashion of Alkenstar in Pathfinder.

I would assume the key foundational mechanic for mecha is "starship damage scale". What's the difference between a 60 foot powered armor, and a 60 foot mecha? The 60 foot mecha can shoot down a spaceship, the 60 foot powered armor can't.

Nanocyte... sounds like I can play my ooze again!

I’m excited about the mechs and the nanocyte. What will the crew at Paizo come up with next!? The Starfinder setting has room for basically anything. And at the same time it has unique lore and story depth.

Seriously looking forward to this!

I would assume the key foundational mechanic for mecha is "starship damage scale". What's the difference between a 60 foot powered armor, and a 60 foot mecha? The 60 foot mecha can shoot down a spaceship, the 60 foot powered armor can't.

I'm really hoping that the power balance is more on the "now PCs can fistfight a Kyokor" side of things.

Nanocyte sounds really interesting. Love the fantasy, curious how the mechanics will look. Hyped.

Don't really care about the mech thing but sure, why not.

I knew mechs were going to be a part of the playtest, but I was surprised by the Nanocyte. I'm excited for both and cannot wait for the playtest to begin!

Nanocyte sounds weird. I have no use for mechs, though, silly things.

Look out, we got a madlad in our midst!

I'm sorry, it sounded like someone said techs-mechs, and I have never been more excited for a game.

Will I be able to fight villains from afar in my giant robot car.

So, I'm really wondering about these rules and if they were influenced by the "Mecha Crusade" mini-campaign in Polyhedron from back when Paizo did Dungeon Magazine. I may have just dug it out of a comics long box to confirm I didn't imagine it.

For the curious, it was issue Dungeon #95/Polyhedron #154

I like mechs, but the nanocyte sounds more like a species or template. I don't quite see how that's a class...

Mech pilot, now that's a class.

So, I'm really wondering about these rules and if they were influenced by the "Mecha Crusade" mini-campaign in Polyhedron from back when Paizo did Dungeon Magazine. I may have just dug it out of a comics long box to confirm I didn't imagine it.

For the curious, it was issue Dungeon #95/Polyhedron #154

I was an avid Dragon reader for many years, but my exposure to Dungeon was fairly limited. Neither Amanda nor I (co-authors for the mech rules) were familiar with that article. Maybe there's some inadvertent overlap!

bdk86 wrote:

So, I'm really wondering about these rules and if they were influenced by the "Mecha Crusade" mini-campaign in Polyhedron from back when Paizo did Dungeon Magazine. I may have just dug it out of a comics long box to confirm I didn't imagine it.

For the curious, it was issue Dungeon #95/Polyhedron #154

I was an avid Dragon reader for many years, but my exposure to Dungeon was fairly limited. Neither Amanda nor I (co-authors for the mech rules) were familiar with that article. Maybe there's some inadvertent overlap!

Oh, I figured it was a long shot. I mostly found it a fun sort of "full circle" back to the kind of content Paizo made pre-Pathfinder.

John Compton wrote:

bdk86 wrote:

So, I'm really wondering about these rules and if they were influenced by the "Mecha Crusade" mini-campaign in Polyhedron from back when Paizo did Dungeon Magazine. I may have just dug it out of a comics long box to confirm I didn't imagine it.

For the curious, it was issue Dungeon #95/Polyhedron #154

I was an avid Dragon reader for many years, but my exposure to Dungeon was fairly limited. Neither Amanda nor I (co-authors for the mech rules) were familiar with that article. Maybe there's some inadvertent overlap!

Oh, I figured it was a long shot. I mostly found it a fun sort of "full circle" back to the kind of content Paizo made pre-Pathfinder.

For what it's worth, you're not the only one who made that connection.

*Gazes longingly out the window; pulls out a faded photo of himself, young and hale, standing next to Dragon and Dungeon magazine laughing at the beach; let's out a deep sigh.*

Wasn't there also 3rd party D&D game called Dragonmech or something?

I just did a Ctrl-F for the phrase "Nanomachines son" and got 0 hits.

I am very disappointed.

Interesting. At a glance the nanocyte seems to occupy the "monstrous biofreak" niche that I had hoped the biohacker would occupy. I await the playtest with great interest.

Mech rules? Exciting indeed. Surprised it's a variation of boots-on-the-ground combat, though. I always envisioned it as something closer to modified starship combat.

Still, I'm delighted to see tour commitment to add a robust set of mechanics on this one. Enough to set up a campaign, even!

I like mechs, but the nanocyte sounds more like a species or template. I don't quite see how that's a class...

Mech pilot, now that's a class.

Its the space fantasy future, anyone can get injected with a self-replicating nano-colony, and then get taught how to control it.

Nanocyte sounds like Venom. The cerebric fungi are able to generate fungus computers, i wonder if a biological spin in the abilities would work. I'll have to try one in my group's Threefold Conspiracy game we are starting up.

Hopeful for the new class, I'm a big fan of Gen Rex.

Mechs I'm not as thrilled on since it just sounds like "power armour but works weirdly with CR and doesn't interface with the power armour options".

Thank you! I read all of page 1 and was disappointed no one had mentioned Rex yet. But at least someone else out here is a also man of taste and culture.

Also: Huzzah that we can finally have a Megas XLR and smite the world!

I like mechs, but the nanocyte sounds more like a species or template. I don't quite see how that's a class...

Mech pilot, now that's a class.

My views are pretty much the exact opposite.

The most reasonable thing to do with mechs is not balance them around hyper-specialized characters so that when they are utilized in a campaign or as set pieces, characters can effectively utilize them without ham-stringing themselves in other ways. A 'mech pilot' class would suffer from the shortcomings of PF1's cavalier but turned up to 11. There are a lot of places it is not and should not be feasible to tromp through in a mech and building an entire class around it would necessitate ignoring huge swaths of class features in many locations. It should be an archetype at most.

Nanocyte, however, sounds like a potentially very interesting class with unique flavor and a broad range of possible mechanical applications. Conceptually, it is little different from the PF/DnD sorcerer which has powers literally because their great-grandpappy had a thing for tentacles and scales. That could also be boiled down to a template like 'half-dragon' or something but still is spun into an interesting class.

I wouldn't be surprised by a mech pilot archetype though. Depending on how the rules end up, that is.
Of course, that's also just me wanting characters options to interact with gear, vehicles and the like.

On another matter : I find it interesting how split we are. So many people all "this half excites me, this other half I really don't care about".
Can't be easy to deal with that nonsense.

I'll certainly watch how mechs look, and specifically what kind/size of mechs we're talking about, but it feels like very much like all or nothing system, the kind you build a campaign around or ignore entirely. Not my main focus, but I'm slightly curious.

But that Nanocyte class ? That I will be watching closely.

I wouldn't be surprised by a mech pilot archetype though. Depending on how the rules end up, that is.

Of course, that's also just me wanting characters options to interact with gear, vehicles and the like.

On another matter : I find it interesting how split we are. So many people all "this half excites me, this other half I really don't care about".
Can't be easy to deal with that nonsense.

I'll certainly watch how mechs look, and specifically what kind/size of mechs we're talking about, but it feels like very much like all or nothing system, the kind you build a campaign around or ignore entirely. Not my main focus, but I'm slightly curious.

But that Nanocyte class ? That I will be watching closely.

Didn't we already have a Pilot theme in the core book? We did, it's Ace Pilot, and I see no reason why it shouldn't apply.

Nyerkh wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised by a mech pilot archetype though. Depending on how the rules end up, that is.

Of course, that's also just me wanting characters options to interact with gear, vehicles and the like.

On another matter : I find it interesting how split we are. So many people all "this half excites me, this other half I really don't care about".
Can't be easy to deal with that nonsense.

I'll certainly watch how mechs look, and specifically what kind/size of mechs we're talking about, but it feels like very much like all or nothing system, the kind you build a campaign around or ignore entirely. Not my main focus, but I'm slightly curious.

But that Nanocyte class ? That I will be watching closely.

Didn't we already have a Pilot theme in the core book? We did, it's Ace Pilot, and I see no reason why it shouldn't apply.

Themes & archetypes aren't the same thing.

On another matter : I find it interesting how split we are. So many people all "this half excites me, this other half I really don't care about".

Can't be easy to deal with that nonsense.

I think it makes a lot of sense- it's like how folks picked which of last playtest's classes they were most interested in. This way, Paizo covers both the "I want tiny machines that work inside me" crowd and the "I want giant machines that I work inside of" crowd.

I like mechs, but the nanocyte sounds more like a species or template. I don't quite see how that's a class...

Mech pilot, now that's a class.

I suspect that would be limiting for mechs. The description above talks about mechs being an increase to the party's power and what they can fight, but we already have "mechs of class feature power level". That would be the experimental armor prototype Mechanic with powered armor. If you had a mech pilot class, it'd either need to provide its own mech (limiting you to something close to powered armor), or it wouldn't function in games that don't provide you with a mech.

I just did a Ctrl-F for the phrase "Nanomachines son" and got 0 hits.

I am very disappointed.

Wait until the playtest starts.

I am excited for another playtest! It will be interesting to see how these work. I hope we'll be able to playtest them in Starfinder Society.

Hmm

Tempest_Knight wrote:

Are there plans for testing the Playtest in Starfinder Society?

For mechs, stay tuned! Nothing to announce just yet.

For classes, we'll be announcing that closer to the release of the nanocyte class. Right now expect something similar to what we did for the Character Operations Manual playtest; in order to give people some flexibility in testing out the nanocyte class!

Also, it's so neat seeing a name I randomly pitched for the class suddenly becoming the class name O_O

Hey Hmm...Thursty answered this question in this very thread. Very exciting...

Is that Mrs. Brisby?

What exactly is a new way to play when mechs use the same tactical rules? You could already fly and stomp around the battlefield and modify your armor.

A real new way to play would mean support for non dungeon crawl playstyles instead of more of the same in mechs.

What exactly is a new way to play when mechs use the same tactical rules? You could already fly and stomp around the battlefield and modify your armor.

A real new way to play would mean support for non dungeon crawl playstyles instead of more of the same in mechs.

I mean… normally, players are all moving their characters around? Having the group collaborate to operate a giant mech seems like a genuinely different way to play.

I mean… normally, players are all moving their characters around? Having the group collaborate to operate a giant mech seems like a genuinely different way to play.

If all player steer the same mech then it is starship combat and we all know how that turned out.

Still no new way to play, but a slightly different way to play exactly the same thing we have been playing the whole time.

I mean… normally, players are all moving their characters around? Having the group collaborate to operate a giant mech seems like a genuinely different way to play.

I wonder if that'll actually be a thing. It'll be abit disappointing if mechs end up like starship combat, it can be very repetitive and agency-less if you're in the wrong role.

QuidEst wrote:

I mean… normally, players are all moving their characters around? Having the group collaborate to operate a giant mech seems like a genuinely different way to play.

I wonder if that'll actually be a thing. It'll be abit disappointing if mechs end up like starship combat, it can be very repetitive and agency-less if you're in the wrong role.

That's one of my primary concerns right now. I feel like this will occupy too much of an overlap and mix some possibly negative aspects of both regular tactical combat and starship combat.

Milo v3 wrote:

QuidEst wrote:

I mean… normally, players are all moving their characters around? Having the group collaborate to operate a giant mech seems like a genuinely different way to play.

I wonder if that'll actually be a thing. It'll be abit disappointing if mechs end up like starship combat, it can be very repetitive and agency-less if you're in the wrong role.

That's one of my primary concerns right now. I feel like this will occupy too much of an overlap and mix some possibly negative aspects of both regular tactical combat and starship combat.

It's clear that it's got single-seat mechs, and lists them first. I don't really expect the group mech to be the default; it just seemed like the most dramatic example of a new way to play.

We've got the playtest to help improve mech play, so I expect it will end up feeling pretty good for folks who like mech stuff.

It's clear that it's got single-seat mechs, and lists them first. I don't really expect the group mech to be the default; it just seemed like the most dramatic example of a new way to play.

We've got the playtest to help improve mech play, so I expect it will end up feeling pretty good for folks who like mech stuff.

If its single seat mechs how would combat with them be new compared to normal combat with soldier characters?

The fact that you’re in a mech.

The fact that you’re in a mech.

Which is different to power armor how?

How is that a new way of playing?

Same when you steer multi crewed mechs just that instead of "same as power armor" it becomes "same as starship combat". Its nothing new.

The fact that mechs and power armors are two different things.

Cooldowns and overheating, facing, damage to specific parts, there's plenty of unique aspects you can add to mech combat.

But I suggest waiting to see the rules before panicking.

He picked up his towel and ran cheerfully for the door. Life had been a little dull of late. It showed every sign now of becoming extremely froody.