Starfinder Playtesting Overview

The Starfinder Playtest and the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Rulebook are coming soon! On behalf of the entire Starfinder team, we’d like to thank you for your time, dedication, and enthusiasm for the next edition of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. The upcoming playtest is a vital part of making sure Starfinder Second Edition will be the best possible game it can be! Your feedback is indispensable to our process, and we literally couldn’t do it without you!

Illustration by Alexander Gorbunov

How We Playtest

The easiest way to playtest is to explore the material, cooperate with other players, and report back using our surveys! There will be four surveys: the Class Survey asks specific questions about your character choices and experiences, the Class Open Response Survey that allows for more freeform feedback about each of our six classes, the Game Feedback Survey that lets you provide feedback about any other material in the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook, and the Adventure Feedback Survey where you can share your experiences and feedback about our playtest adventures! 

You can find the playtest and all supplementary information at StarfinderPlaytest.com

When We Playtest

The Starfinder Playtest Second Edition Rulebook, our first two playtest adventures, and the playtest surveys go live on August 1 at 10 a.m. EST. The Playtest Rulebook PDF is free and the necessary rules from Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core can be found online with our partners at Archives of Nethys. The playtesting period lasts until December 31, 2024, when the surveys officially close. You can go back and modify your survey at any point during the playtest period, so don’t wait until the last minute thinking you’ve tried every class or run every adventure.

What We Playtest

We’re releasing two Starfinder adventures and four scenarios during the playtest period that help support the playtest itself. These adventures and scenarios feature a wide variety of challenges and encounters as the playtests focus on player facing options. We won’t spoil anything here for our players who want to avoid spoilers, but you can read more about each adventure on their accompanying product pages!

Playtest Scenarios are one-shots that should take roughly 2 hours to play, but can be used as a launching point or side quest during a longer ongoing campaign.Starfinder Playtest Scenario #1: Shards of the Glass Planet by Mike Kimmel is a 1st-level scenario,Starfinder Playtest Scenario #2: It Came from the Vast! by Jessica Catalan is a 5th-level scenario,Starfinder Playtest Scenario #3: Wheel of Monsters by Dustin Knight is a 10th-level scenario with variable encounters coming out September 25, and Starfinder Playtest Scenario #4: Rescue at Shimmerstone Mineby Jenny Jarzabski is a 15th-level scenario coming out late October.

Playtest Adventures are longer self-contained adventures that should take multiple sessions to complete and take characters across multiple levels. These adventures are great introductions to the Starfinder setting and help players experience two major events taking place in our setting.Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: A Cosmic Birthday by Jenny Jarzabski begins at 1st level, and Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: Empires Devoured by Thurston Hillman begins at 10th-level and will be released in October.

Home game data will be immensely helpful during the playtest process. GMs are highly encouraged to use monsters and other threats from the playtest adventures or Pathfinder Second Edition sources like Pathfinder Monster Core. Additional guidelines to running adventures during the playtest can be extrapolated using Pathfinder GM Core. We suggest avoiding variant rules during the playtest period, such as free archetype rules or proficiency without level.

Who We Playtest

When building characters, stick to the official character creation guidelines as much as possible. We will have pregenerated characters for every class available during the playtest, with character sheets you can print out at home that include all the information you need to play each character.

Players should avoid using Pathfinder Second Edition ancestries, backgrounds, classes, equipment, and feats that aren’t explicitly included in the playtest. Note that most of the skill feats and some class feats from Pathfinder Player Core have been included in the skill feat tables and are part of the playtest. Spells should be selected from the Playtest Rulebook and Pathfinder Player Core. While these options are available, we encourage players to try the new feats and spells from the Starfinder Playtest Core Rulebook to provide us with new data.

Where We Playtest

Gen Con and other major conventions, both in person and online, provide ample opportunity for playtesting. Finding a local or online Starfinder Society lodge is a surefire way to find people interested in playtesting, and you can find out how all these adventures fit into our Organized Play Program here.

Why We Playtest

The entire team is grateful for everyone’s enthusiasm and excitement as we venture into this new era of adventure! Paizo has a long tradition of playtesting new material, and the data you provide playing our games is critical to our process and morale (after all, nothing encourages a game developer like hearing about people playing our games)! While we prioritize the data we get from the playtest surveys, the Starfinder team actively reads and welcomes your thoughts on many social media platforms and communities including our own Second Edition Playtest Forum!

—The Starfinder Team