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Is their a simplified version of the OGL that cuts through the legalese to use as a quick, on the fly reference?

I know app versions of pathfinder core books exist but is something similar being made for Starfinder?

I prefer book format but often read while eating and Starfinder books are very susceptible to damage from liquids. No, not just spills, mere unnoticed droplets rendered a hole in the envoy abilities info and a section in alien archive 2 unreadable. A digital copy would mean I would at least have a version I do not have to replace each time that happens. (I haven’t replaced either yet due to a lack of a gaming group).

I tried making an alien using alien archive, and it seems way to powerful. I had the idea of a small bird alien with clever abilities to manipulate. The abilities were vocal mimicry, fast learning of languages, a bonus to bluff, perform, intimidate, diplomacy, and disguise checks that involve mimicry, the ability to remember three phrases so exactly that they can fool even machines,, and of course flight. However four special abilities(flight is free) meant a high CR (as did cutting it to three, which was cr 12 at the lowest. With a high melee damage ability. I was wanting a small, weak, bird with dreams of glory and enough tricks to manipulate others and access voice activated ship systems. But it seems by the alien archive a skill critter with an envoy trait needs a high CR to have four special abilities.

With all the great starfinder products it is tough to picture what else is needed. But this is the ideas I had cross my mind.

1. Veskarium Guide: With the pact world guide on the way this seems like a natural follow up.

2. Fleet Commander: A guide to playing fighter squadrons, ship positions, small ship types, how to cripple larger ships and do support maneuvers to help other PCs, etc.

3. Vehical designers guide: A quick guide on how to make land, sea, air, and space vehicals

4. Akiton campaign setting: Ok, this is more pathfinder than starfinder as it is set in the pre-gap past, but I wanted this since the distant worlds book.

I made this up to help as a guideline for world design. The info was gathered online and may be incorrect. (On checking some on my less readable notes I learned the largest exoplanet I wrote down is no longer the largest). I originally planned to include all the data points Starfinder lists for planets and extend the data for stars but I grew tired of it. I was going to add some info on oddball planets (Iron planets, Cthonic Planets) but didn't despite notes as it didn't quite fit and their were oddball types I missed before (Carbon planets).

Yes I am aware Starfinder is fantasy and has no need to follow these rules.

Well here it is.

The Planetary Cheat Sheet

What are the size limits of a planet?

The smallest possible size for a rocky planet is 600 KM, for an ice planet it is 400 KM.

How big can a world get before it gets too thick of an atmosphere and becomes a ice or gas giant? 5-10 earth masses. (2 Earth radii).

A rocky planet Larger than Earth but smaller than Uranus or Neptune (who are 15-17 earth masses) is often termed a super-Earth.Those on the higher end of the scale may be more accurately termed gas dwarves (mini neptune, and transition planet have also been used). A gas dwarf may have hydrogen/helium atmosphere and deep layers of ice, rock, or liquid oceans of water, ammonia, heavier volatiles, or a mix of them.

I could not find a size cut off between a gas and ice giant sadly.

Hot big can a planet get?

A world 15 jupiter masses or larger will fuse deuterium becoming a brown dwarf star.

The largest known planet, Tres 4 in the constellation Hercules is 1.4 times the size of Jupiter (70 percent larger). 0.8474 Jupiters mass but low density. (Update: WASP 12b, WASP 17b, and CT Chamaeleontis are larger).

To put the Jupiter measures in perspective, Jupiter is 317 times more massive than Earth, 11 times larger, 1400 Earths can fit inside of it.

At what size is a planet habitable?

Larger than Mars but smaller than Earth. 0.3 Earth masses is the possible dividing line.

Smaller planets have a higher surface to volume ratio, lose energy quickly, and end of geologically dead.

To be habitable a world must not rotate too quickly. It needs a magnetic field, gravity, and atmosphere to hold water.

Can exotic materials effect things?

Yes, but this is very very unlikely. A planet of pure Platinum could hold Earth like gravity at a size slightly smaller than the moon. A planet of pure Osmium can hold Earth like gravity at half the size of Mercury.

I have been thinking of a possible new drone type that I feel would be good. The repair drone. A helpful utility bot who allows a mechanic bonuses with his abilities and at higher AI levels maybe to use them two places at once. I can picture it using any from. Stealth for a drone that can sneak in and hack systems. Spy for a flying fixer to reach hard to get areas. And combat for a medium sized, well armored, robotic buddy who speaks in beeps and whistles.

Some of the basic drone abilities and mods are ideal for this.

For abilities a skill unit with computers or engineering would be key. A master control so the mechanic can use Hi skills through the drone will likewise be a nice fit. If their were ways to use an attack action for skills instead of (or in addition to) combat then the different AI levels would be nice. Also accessing advanced mods would also be a nice choice.

For mods manipulator arms, skill subroutines, and a tool arm seem to be key to this build.a camera could be useful. Resistance or greater resistance could be good if you plan repairs in hostile environments. A medical subroutine can be nice to patch you up in an emergency or help fix bio ships.

However a few things to make an ideal repair drone seem missing.

As I said before an AI mod that can do skills as an action would be nice.

A few more skills to choose from such as perception (for spotting mechanical issues), piloting (so he can Man the ship while you are on the surface), medicine and life science (to fix bio ships) all would be nice.

Access to it’s own custom rig also would be good,

Finally tools usable as improvised weapons. A saw, drill, arc welder, blowtorch, etc. usable in a fight if needed.

I pre-ordered the alien archive from Amazon and cannot wait until it is ready to ship. I hear it has rules for making aliens as both monsters and PC races.

However I worry if it will be good at handling species defects or not. The Pathfinder book on races had all the abilities you could ever want, but very few defects.

However some of the aliens I am thinking of making have the following problems.

Debilitating condition: A species hit by a disease, curse, or poisoning that cannot be cured, only held off. Who seek a cure among the stars.

Alien psysiology: They need to breathe odd gases or live at temperatures uncomfortable or lethal to most species yet find normal temperatures harmful.

No fine manipulators: For bird-like, dog like, or fleshy glob like aliens without hands.

Truely alien communication methods: Such as communicating through scents, electric field modulation, and such.

Is their some kind of quick planet building guide that shows examples of typical planets, moons, stars, and exoplanets in starfinder style stat blocks to serve as a rough guide for making your own systems?

I posted this on the starfinder facebook page, I might as well post this here and see what you think.

I have been thinking of theme/class combos, but not things like "he was a scholar but then was drafted and became a soldier" but ones that combine the two. Here are some thoughts I had. I also tried to avoid obvious ones like Fighter pilot (soldier plus ace pilot)

Ace Pilot/Envoy

-courier: You carry messages from one world to another. Some worlds may be hostile or in asteroid fields. Other times you may have to send a message from military command to the soldier in the field. Either way you need the piloting skill to be able to dodge hazards and weapons to get the job done.

-pro racer: You are famous for winning races and are seen as a spokes person for the race circuit. Your skill and personality has ensured you a fan base, the sports popularity, and revenue from advertizers whose products you mention on TV.

Ace Pilot/Mechanic

- Garage Tinker: You have a vehicle you are working on. You built it from scratch and know its every clank and rattle. You drive it very well and keep it well maintained.

- Ship Maker: Making starships is your job, of course you have to give each one a test flight before you can sell it.

Ace Pilot/Operative
- Reconaissance: You are the one who uses stealth vessels to scout behind enemy lines and radio back troop locations and strategic targets.

Bounty Hunter/Envoy

- Negotiator: Not every bounty is obtained by violence. Sometimes someone has to talk a criminal out of a tense situation and convince him to turn himself in, or at the very least hit him with a stun weapon until you can convince him to surrender.

Icon/Envoy
- Celebrity: Famous system wide for your TV show or movie roles. You are a household name on most worlds,

- Social Elite: You may be a politician, Royalty, or a CEO of a major corporation. Either way when you speak the system listens.

Icon/Mechanic: (I thought host of a tech show was too obvious)

- Famous Inventor: You made something that is either revolutionary or bears your name. If they know your invention they know you.

Icon/Mystic

- Emotion Farmer (empath):: You are famous and people love you, and you use that emotion, feed on it, both emotionally and magically. You may use your powers to pose as a medium or a fortune teller, but in truth you use your emotional connection to feed your own emotional link.

- Demogogue (overlord): Their are those leaders who rule through rational debate, not you. Whether a politician or a cult leader you plsy the crowds emotions and they love you for it. You manipulate joys and fears, hates and hoped like an expert musician. What you are missing in intellectual might you more than make up for in force of personality. After all it is not about being right, it is about being SEEN as right.

- Hypnotoad! (overlord): What better way to brainwash the masses than through television, you may not even need to use your powers.

Icon/Soldier

- War Hero: The tide turned and the battle was won thanks to you. your name is celebrated system wide now.

- Gladiator: You battled for sport and you did well. You have a fan base now.

Icon/Operative: (I assume daredevil operative covers acrobats and other agility performers. Plus a detective can be famous for solving cases)

- The Phantom!: Your name is spoken in feared whispers. You are treated more as a supernatural entity than a man. The silent death from the shadows, the theif who steals an object unnoticed while the guards watch you, etc. You are a legend to many, maybe even considered a myth, but you are very much real.

Icon/Solarian

- Enlightened Master: Your wisdom and enlightenment is sought by students from lightyears away.

(couldn't think of anything special for mercenary)

Outlaw/Envoy

- Con Man: You use your people skills to get money for nothing, of course you should leave before the people you conned realize it is nothing...

- White Collar Criminal: Theif? How dare you! You just work with numbers. Moving a few bucks to your bank account here and their. Small amounts build up in the long run and you get rich.

Outlaw/Mechanic: (left out hacker as it is a character option for mechanic (and technomancer) already if I remember right)

- Saboteur: Knowing how to fix machines means knowing how to break them. You know just what modifications are needed to make a star ships drive explode or a vehical lose brake pressure mid pursuit.

- Arms Dealer: You know weapons very well, you build them, fix them, and sell them to the highest bidder regardless of who it is.
Outlaw/Operative: (Since theif is an operative type as is spy I left them out)

- Terrorist: You slip unseen into buildings, plant explosives, and, if lucky, slip away. If not you died for a cause and hopefully will be a martyr.

Outlaw/Soldier

- War Criminal: Maybe you were just following orders. Maybe you were doing what you had to do to win the battle. Maybe you needed to use extreme torture or to hurt innocents to get vital military info. Regardless, you broke the rules of the pact worlds and are now seen as an enemy.

- Losing Side: You lost the war, and the winning nation is not going to let you go home in peace. All the enemy soldiers who survived are now being hunted down.

Scholar/Envoy: (this also works for Xenoseeker if you want a more hands on version)

-Anthropologist/Sociologist: You use social skills and interaction to study societies themselves. The better you know people the better you can manipulate them.

Scholar/Mystic (also works for Xenoseeker)

- Research Ecologist (Star Druid): When you harness the power of nature it helps to know nature. To understand the animals and plants inside and out and to know how the many links of an ecosystem tie together.

Scholar/Solarion

- Mystic Astronomer: You use the power of stars so you might as well understand them. You never know, you may learn how to harness the power of pulsars, neutron stars, and magnetars if you understood how the work. (I later looked them up and discovered pulsars and magnetars are neutron star variants so that is redundant).

Spacefarer/Envoy

- Sales Representative: For a company to thrive someone with people skills needs to seek out new markets and convince them to be customers.

Spacefarer/Solarion

- Void Ascetic: You head out among the stars to learn and be one with them. You meditate in the void to learn of the stellar power you can harness.

Xenoseeker/Envoy

- Diplomat: You find new species and forge alliances with them.

- Trader: You seek new species for financial reasons. To either buy new, never before seen, goods from them or to sell to them.

I was thinking, how about a post about wild speculation on what might have happened to the Golarion system between the starfinder system and now. Here are my ideas.

THE SUN: Perhaps the most unchanged aspect of the system. It still houses plasma swimming fire elementals and wizards oblivious to Golarions fate.

ABALLON: The likely home of the androids, who may be aballonians evolved to a more humanoid form. I would not be suprised if the AI god was one of "those who become" who passed the starstonetrst.

CASTROVEL: I suspect Castrovel would have faced a disaster that made them even more Venus like. Rampant volcanism has made the world hot and the air toxic. The few islands of vegetation between hardened lava flows is more toxic and carnivorous than ever. To survive the Lashunta developed space travel to survive and reach out to others for help. The few elves left descended into primative savagery/

GOLARION: Golarion is missing and replaced by Absalon station but the gods insist it is ok. The reason is most likely due to Rovagug, and most likely the caterpillar of chaos and destruction did NOT emerge to be a butterfly. He likely tried escaping again leaving the world either badly damaged and in need of repairs, or hidden someplace safer where no one could free Rovagug. Who knows where in the universe or planes golarion could be hidden.

we know that humans survived but what of the other races? I assume their gods taken them to other worlds. I would not be surprised if one race was chosen to stay with Golarion in its new location as guardians.

I would not be surprised if the dragons left the world before it vanished.

Also the lost history, since it is in Golarions future, can reveal all sorts of oddness. Maybe humanity was betrayed by one of its ally races, or a primitive race became civilized and an ally to humanity. Or an advanced culture descended into savagery. History that is future to the fantasy world could lead to turning all sorts of notions on their heads.

I also would not be surprised if the gods moved the star stone, placing it in space somewhere waiting for it to be discovered again.

AKITON: We know the rat folks are from here. But how would it have changed? My wild speculation is the Contemplative of Ashok wanted to stop their numbers from dwindling so abducted the very fertile goblinoids of Golarion to breed with. The end result was a small green big brained race with bulging heads who combine contemplative intellect with goblin agression, contemplative science with goblinoids malicious humor. Little green men who conquered the world by building canals to control the rare water resources.

VERCES: I assume another mostly unchanged world with Vercites a major power in the Golarion system. I would not be surprised if the Vercites are one of the unrevealed PC races.

THE DIASPORA: Likely heavilly mined. If any Dwarves survived expect to find them here,

EOX: I assume that after a major war the few surviving Liches fled. They now lead cults of mystic power based around dark and forgotten lore. As for the original species who have members held as lab experiments, they likely escaped and their inbred and heavilly experimented species repopulated the surface.

TRIAXUS: I suspect that the "game of rip offs" world was knocked from its orbit and now is stuck in a cold cycle for good. The few survivors were the ones who for some reason did not return to warm cycle form. Now this ice world has shaggy humanoids whose once ruling nobels have finally fund peace. I also supect the dragons moved on elsewhere.

LIAVARA: The insane yet enlightened, and whimsical minded dreamer brethedans have been seeing visions of distaster and some are leaving to warn other races. Their odd logic and iffy sanity however turns their warnings into cryptic riddles.

BRETHEDA: I suspect the issue with Bretheda is a sub group of their people got tired of the other races bickering on their differences and much to the dismay of the mainstream brethedans, seek to absorb and share minds with outsiders in a permanent conglomeration so they can overcome their differences. How do they maintain a single mindset> By not unmerging themselves and convincing other like minded brethedans to merge.

APOSTAE: I suspect the warring Illee tribes finally managed to free a few of the sleepers below. One of which was not a collected specimen but one of the original builders freed from stasis. He managed to enter the worldheart and with the help of the grandfather stone move Apostae beyond the Golarion system to its original destination. He organized the tribes into nations, they still war, but have a treaty when it comes to the gates and still send envoys to Golarion system through them. Many now seek the world to see if the original Golarion gate can send them to their home world.

AUCTURN: Aucturn is worse, much much worse. Monsters spring from its flesh at a faster rate, the world itself now has a face and whispers sibilant gibberish that drives people insane faster, They fear that Aucturn will soon gain true sentience and destroy the other worlds.

So anyone else have any wild ideas on how they think the system changed over the years.