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Has there been any indication what sorcerer bloodlines will be included?


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By this point, there is an awful lot of material published for both Pathfinder and Starfinder. However, all of it is published under the OGL - which Paizo is unlikely to use once the ORC license is finalized.

Which leaves the question how, when, and if older rules material will be made available under the ORC license so that others can use it.

I mean, I think it's a given that the Pathfinder 2E and the Starfinder rules will be released under the ORC license pretty quickly. But what about rules supplements? Or adventure paths and scenarios? Not all of these might be worth the effort of rereleasing them under the new license.

And Pathfinder 1E material probably won't be rereleased under the ORC license at all, since that would require significant editing work - unless it's done as an update to the Pathfinder 2E rules via a crowdfunding campaign (as it has happened with the Kingmaker campaign, for instance).


Since I've just finished playing the adventure path, time to add my own:

Name: Hadvar Redtongue
Race: Ulfen Human
Class: Skald (Spell Warrior)

Death #1:

Adventure: The Hill Giant's Pledge
Location: Grenseldek's room.
Cause of Death: Grenseldek unloading a full attack into Hadvar. Damm anti-human rangers...

Fortunately, the friendly Iomedae ghosts in the nearby chapel raised him after we helped them.

Death #2:

Adventure: Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen
Location: Skirkatla's Lair.
Cause of Death: Skirkatla getting up close and personal. But it's my own damn fault - I should have stuck with my tried and true Agrimmosh # Buckler loadout instead of being tempted by that damn Undead Bane greataxe. Sure, it did more damage - but at a horrible cost to my defense!

This time, the druid decided to cast Reincarnate on Hadvar - and he returned as an ysoki (or "ratfolk"), as they were more commonly known. He thus picked the new name "Hadvar Twice-Fallen", and survived until the end of the campaign.

This was actually less of a problem to my playstyle than it might seem - thanks to Agrimmosh, I simply cast Enlarge on myself during the dungeon crawls, which allowed me to use most of my previous combat tactics (though I was a bit slower). Also, I started to regularly cast Mirror Image on myself, which was a real lifesaver.


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Okay, here is my crystal ball gazing and rampant speculation for a possible game plan for Paizo - assuming that the OGL 1.1 is published as leaked.

All 2E products become _temporarily_ unavailable for sale. Then they are aggressively errataed, with the errata clarifying that the OGL is removed (and hopefully replaced with a more suitable license). There will also be all sorts of minor name changes to remove what might be recognized as "iconic elements" of D&D - for example, renaming "magic missile" into "force missile", and so forth (see the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game for examples). This process will start with the core rule books and move out from there. Physical stock will get sheets of paper with the errata added to the packages. Production of new material will temporarily slow down to ensure that the new products will fully comply with the new rules, but hopefully they will soon return to full speed.

All 1E products will remain unavailable for the time being. However, the more popular 1E Adventure Paths will eventually receive Kickstarters so that they can be updated to 2E _and_ be compliant with the new situation.

All this added effort - and loss of back sales - will still hurt Paizo, but hopefully it will be manageable.


Thanks for your replies, everyone! I have some further questions:

- Does every affected weapon need to get the same enchantment bonuses/special abilities, or is it possible to pick these individually for each affected weapon?

- If the latter, who gets to pick how the bonuses are used? The Skald, or the wielder of the affected weapon.

- Assuming that everyone has to get the same bonuses: If the Skald gives special abilities instead of enchantment bonuses, does this mean that one who wields an unenchanted weapon is unaffected by the rage powers of the Weapon Song?

The Weapon Song description states that "The wielder of a weapon enhanced by this raging song counts as if he were under the effect of an inspired rage raging song for all purposes involving the skald’s rage powers."

- So this means that the weapon must actually be wielded in the target's hand, instead of merely carried on their person, right?

- If they drop the weapon, does this mean that the rage powers immediately end?


I have one big wish: Would it be possible in the future to add the actual name of the product to the PDFs you provide as digital downloads?

As an example, I've bought the recent Humble Bundle that included the Abomination Vault Adventure Path. The single-file downloads are provided as ZIP files with names like:

PathfinderAdventurePath164HandsOfTheDevilAbominationVaults2Of3PDF-SingleFil e.zip

So far, so good. However, when I unpack this, I get the following file names:

PZO90154E.pdf
PZO90164 Interactive Maps.pdf

These are presumably the product codes, and I do not object to having the product codes as part of the file names. However, it would really help me if these file names also included the actual names of the product.

When I buy PDF products, I rename them into something I can recognize, such as:

Abomination Vaults 2 - Hands of the Devil.pdf
Abomination Vaults 2 - Hands of the Devil Interactive Maps.pdf

But, since these are not part of the file name, I have to manually type them. And what's worse, I can't unpack all my purchases into the same directory - I need to unzip each of the purchases into separate directory so that I know from the directory path which PDF represents which module!

This is a major hassle each and every time I buy PDFs from Paizo, and I'd appreciate it if the actual module names were included in the PDF file names at some point in the future.


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I'm about to start playing in the Giantslayer campaign, and I will play a Skald (Spell Warrior) from the Lands of the Linnorm Kings. He insulted the wrong Linnorm King (three guesses which one), and decided that getting out of the region was preferable to an ignoble end by the king's henchmen. Nevertheless, he is searching for an opportunity to witness event worthy of a new saga - hence his presence in Trunau.

As a skald, he should interpret events around him through the lens of Ulfen sagas and folk tales, and constantly make references to these tales. And this is where I could use some ideas and assistance.

- Who are the great culture heroes (and villains) of the Ulfen?
- What were some epic quests and tales of adventure that an Ulfen character might feel worth emulating?
- What are some good Ulfen proverbs and sayings that a skald might quote?

The "Lands of the Linnorm Kings" seems to be a bit light on these topics - so feel free to come up with any ideas of your own!


I'm currently trying to create a character for the Giantslayer Adventure Path, and right now I am contemplating a Skald/Spell Warrior. But I am a bit confused how Weapon Song works.

"Enhance Weapons (Su) At 1st level, the spell warrior can grant a +1 enhancement bonus to the weapons (including ammunition) of allies within 60 feet. At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, this enhancement bonus increases by 1. The maximum bonus gained is based upon the number of weapons affected: +5 to one weapon, +4 to two weapons, +3 to three weapons, or +2 to four or more weapons. Fifty pieces of ammunition count as one weapon for this purpose. The wielder of a weapon enhanced by this raging song counts as if he were under the effect of an inspired rage raging song for all purposes involving the skald’s rage powers.

These bonuses can also be used to add any of the following weapon special abilities to the weapons enhanced by this ability: dancing, defending, distance, flaming, frost, ghost touch, keen, mighty cleaving, returning, shock, seeking, or speed. Adding these weapon special abilities consumes an amount of bonus equal to the special ability’s cost (see Table: Melee Weapon Special Abilities). These enhancement bonuses and special abilities overlap with any enhancements or special abilities the weapon already has, though duplicate special abilities do not stack. If an affected weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other special abilities can be.

Let's say that, by default, I plan to boost the four party members who fight with weapons. Does this mean that I effectively "top out" at Level 5 unless I decide to enchant fewer weapons?

Or is this limitation merely to the direct to hit/damage bonus, and could I shift the "excess" bonuses to weapon special ability (for example, "+2 flaming weapons" at level 10)?


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CrystalSeas wrote:

You need to use the product categories and subcategories.

For example

Store>Pathfinder>Accessories>Maps>Flip Tiles puts you on a page that has an "On Sale" tab with 16 products on sale in the Flip Tiles category.

Store>Exclusives>Apparel and Gifts>Figures And Plush puts you on a page that has an "On Sale" tab with 5 products on sale in the Figures And Plush category

If the Black Friday Sale is truly active, then it doesn't have the PDF sales of previous years as far as I can determine.

Since this is the part I am actually interested in, I will sit this one out.


....is it just me, or are the naiad and dryad queens missing some text in their action descriptions?


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Victor Ravenport wrote:


Because the presumption of innocence is and has been the corner-stone of any enlightened juridical system and society, and has been so since the early Roman Republic and from that moment forward. Only in the darkest reaches of the medieval era did we fall back into the presumption of the inherent guilt of accused.

This is not a judicial trial, and none of us are in a courtroom. And in fact, most cases of sexual harassment never get this far because the victims are pressured to keep quiet.

We've heard the statements of the victims and witnesses, and I believe we should take their statements seriously. Meanwhile, the other side has made no comment, or joked about the incidents without bothering to do something fiendishly difficult like an outright denial.


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Sissyl wrote:

The current attitude seems to be that all allegations are true, the only way for the accused to react that doesn't make things worse is to admit and apologize, being accused means someone is a worthless human being (if that), shunning someone who has been accused makes you complicit, and claiming "innocent until proven guilty" is a microaggression.

I thought America had learnt from the days of random accusations and published lists of suspected communists.

Guess not.

The problem with looking at the incidents like this is that the alleged perpetrators haven't even bothered to deny what happened - instead they deny that what they did was anything worthy of censure. Indeed, some of them are even joking about it.

So this doesn't appear to be a "witch hunt". Instead it has become apparent that some of thr most prominent members of our hobby cannot tell right from wrong.


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Coz wrote:

I almost never post here (or anywhere for that matter), but this topic has made me delurk.

I absolutely believe Jessica Price and Robert Brookes.

And what they say about Mentzer and Webb is damning enough. But there is another thing that I have to speak up about:

That a volunteer was silenced from reporting the abuse or harassment they suffered while participating as a volunteer because they were under NDA.

That is absolutely not what NDAs are for. An NDA exists to protect trade secrets and business practices, not to silence victims. If terrible anti-harassment policies are a trade secret or business practice that Paizo has to protect itself from with an NDA, then Paizo is not the publisher I thought they were and are unworthy of our support, monetarily or as volunteers.

And while Paizo might be reluctant to comment on these incident before some further internal investigation, it would be useful for them in public to clarify precisely this - that their NDAs are not intended to prevent victims of harassment from speaking about their experiences, and that they won't pursue actions (legal or otherwise) against those who do speak out.


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mwjen wrote:
Burroughs' Red Martians did lay eggs, they also could live a thousand years. Starfinders version are just humans with red skin.

Sadly, they are also very underrepresented in the art (as in, is there any art of them at all in the Starfinder publications?), despite presumably representing much of what is left of humanity outside of Golarion.


I am currently working on a system of randomly creating worlds suitable for the Starfinder setting... including randomly picking creatures that inhabit it from both Starfinder and Pathfinder canon (the first sample world is inhaboted primarily by Locatath and Vodyanoi, for instance). There are a lot of details on history, society, politics and so forth and the results require some interpretation, but the first results look promising.

Unfortunately, this project is on hold until I finally get Internet access in my new apartment. .. :(


So who gets to decide which species are "irredeemable outlaws"? And how precisely should "irredeemable outlaws" be treated by the law - or at least in the interplanetary regions that are within the jurisdiction of the Pact Worlds law enforcement (as opposed to member nations)?


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In science fiction, too. I mean, is there a "half anything" character in Star Trek who isn't half human?


Some local governments might be more tolerant about goblins, but the Committee determines the status of species across the Pact as a whole. Members of these species must be given some minimal rights in the jurisdictions of all member nations - their governments cannot declare them "un-persons" and do what they want with them.


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And from a meta perspective, it's useful to have some enemy species around that the PCs can just shoot without worrying about the legalities.


thejeff wrote:


I'd take J4RH34D's test: If individuals of a species ask to be considered persons - that species should be considered persons. (Barring cases where those individuals are reasonably representative of their species - not magically or technologically enhanced or controlled, etc. No Awakened dogs demanding personhood for all dogs.)

I think there is.

Ultimately, the principles of the Pact do not derive from an abstract Declaration of Universal Sapient Rights. They are not the Federation of Star Trek, and the only reason they care about anything outside of the Pact Worlds system is because the outside can affect them and their citizens.

They are a mutual self-defense pact. And if an outside species might be able to contribute something to that defense - politically, economically, militarily - then you may be given the benefit of the doubt. But if you are incapable - likr goblins - then why should they want to waste resources on you?


thejeff wrote:

Instead you simply want to classify some species as non-persons with no rights or protections whatsoever. Now it's not merely informally okay to kill them, but abuse them in whatever fashion people choose - enslave them, experiment on them, hunt them for sport.

And as they are non-people with no rights, even exemplary individuals can not legally protest their treatment.

Why do you want to have a category for slave species?

Because the Eoxians are firm members of the Pact, and they have created quite a few sapient slaves over the centuries.

If the species in question has enough exeptional individuals arguing for their freedom, their status can be changed - that happened with the androids, after all.


Do you asking them whether they care before or after shooting them? ;)


Oh, they are not - but if the Pact has any meaning, there needs to be some basic rights and protections for its citizens no matter what species they are - especially if they are outside of their home jurisdiction. And it would solve so many problems if the Pact Worlds administration could say: "Goblins, aboleths, etc. cannot be citizens and do not have any rights."

Because then there would be a clear divide between citizens and noncitizens, not a sliding scale based on whatevee is convenient at the moment. Because if it is merely informally okay to kill goblins as opposed to legal, then what species that used to have meaningful protection under the laws will be next?


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Ventnor wrote:
That would be an interesting character concept. A Priest of Oras whose ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone in the universe can love whoever they want to love, no matter what shape that love takes.

Or to be more precise, that they can produce viable, fertile offspring.

What could possibly go wrong?


Metaphysician wrote:

Something on my wishlist: a Planet of the Week generator. Probably best found in whatever future supplement covers exploring the Vast. Basically, a series of tables used to generate a random Notable Planet. . . though less from a astrogeographical perspective, and more from a This Week's Episode perspective. Doesn't just cover the physical properties of the planet, but also its populace if any, recent events, unexpected catastrophes to strike the PCs when they come nearby. . .

Basically, a randomizer that produces Star Trek episode synopses. If it has enough meat to build at least basic adventure challenges ( tables of standardized encounters, flavorable to theme ), that's great. However, even without, it would be great material to provide inspiration when building your own adventures, seeds for quick off-the-cuff improvised sessions, or amusing references to "Where the party was yesterday, offscreen".

...I am actually working on something like this. Not a free-standing random generator, but a process that shows how to use several other random generators to build an interesting world for Starfinder. I've already written the first part, and more will come.

...assuming that I get non-mobile Internet access at my new apartment, which seems to be receding more and more into the future.


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Tarik Blackhands wrote:
Not necessarily. I mean, humans evolved and adapted on the same planet as dolphins and we can't exactly make fertile offspring with those.

Not for lack of trying... on both sides. To "successfully copulate" depends on your definition of "success", after all.

And hybrids might be created with a little genetic engineering if they don't come "naturally".


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Umbral Reaver wrote:
Now have a romance between a human and a sentient mobile fortress.

All the fortress needs is a robotic avatar with certain... enhancements.


EC Gamer Guy wrote:

I like this legal person idea. If someone doesn't fit, they don't have rights and can be enslaved or killed with impunity. My vesk will have great deals of fun and profit with this. Thank you for the legal lesson.

Anyone know a guy who knows a guy who makes Goblin sized control collars? Maybe some 'reeducation implants?'

I doubt that the Pact Worlds as a whole would have a legal problem with goblin slavery as such - but by enslaving them you also have to accept legal liability for them.

(Meanwhile... how about using goblins as a substitute for animal testing?)

Another good example of a "slave species" would be certain undead enthralled by the Eoxians. Even if they are intelligent, they might have no free will of their own - or they are feral if uncontrolled. Thus they cannot be legal persons, and Eoxians can do what they want with them - but they are also responsible for what they donif they enslave them.


Metaphysician wrote:
I think its barking up the wrong tree. You are allowed to kill goblins, not because they are non-people, but because they are presumptive outlaws. If they put even the minimum effort into not-always-being-terrible, then they'd get the same basic legal protections everyone else has. As is, they don't, and are unlikely to do so ever. So, since "being a goblin" actually *is* 99% probable evidence that you have, are, or will do something horrible to other people, nobody questions that your killing of goblins was justified.

So either "presumptive outlaws" is a legal category (in which case I don't see much difference to my "belligerent" category), or law enforcement and judges get told during their training:

"If members of species X get killed, don't bother investigating - they probably did something to deserve it."

And the latter strikes me as a terrible idea for a legal system - after all, it means that legal rights and protections can be revoked not just by legal processes, but by informal opinions.


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I wonder if there are going to be any changes to Stamina Points. I mean, undead technically don't have any stamina to speak of...


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I think you are in luck. From the description of the upcoming Pact Worlds Guide:

"New playable alien races, from undead Eoxians to Castrovellian plant-people."


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In general I would say as long as the entities involved have erogenous zones [1], they can have recreational sex unless said zones are somewhere really inaccessible without a highly specific anatomy (and even then there will probably be technological workarounds).

[1]Hopefully all of the entities have erogenous zones, but in a pinch one will do.


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Quote:
Tarik Blackhands wrote:

This is Hanar love erasure.

No human would want to procreate with a big, stupid jellyfish.

...you just had to invoke Rule 34, didn't you?


Claxon wrote:

Under normal precedent, all persons are legal persons. Youre definition still doesn't fit.

Legal persons is usually meant to allow things like corporations to have limited rights of people.

Under "normal precedent" for Earth maybe, and even that was not universal (consider the old Roman Republic and Empire, which were legalistic societies with slavery). But a society like that of the Pact Worlds which knows hundreds, if not thousands of species - and dozens of thise which "do not play well with others" - the legal situation is bound to differ.

And in my perspective, the situation for the Pact Worlds is this:

"People": Sapient beings which I, the speaker, can empathize which on some level - something subjective with no legal standing:

"Legal persons": Sapient beings with clearly defined rights and responsibilities within the Pact Worlds.

Hence, goblins may be recognized as "people" by many - their gleeful sadism and enthusiasm for things that go "bang" are easily recognizable by many other humanoid species. Yet they are incapable of blending into Pact Worlds society and thus cannot be "legal persons".


Aerotan wrote:
Likewise things like the Aboleth or Goblins. You can wipe those out by the dozen, but they're still people. It's still strongly frowned upon to desecrate their corpses, try to eat them, or torture them without a damned good reason.

They may be considered "people", but they are not considered "legal persons" in the Pact Worlds. They have proven themselves to be incapable (goblins) or unwilling (aboleths) to work within the legal and social framework of the Pact Worlds, and thus have no rights whatsoever. There is no legal consequence for killing them and, I suspect, desecrate their corpses, eating them, or torturing them (though local governments might have some ordnances against the latter, this will not be true for the Pact Worlds as a whole). There might be social consequences for eating goblins, but that's not the same as legal consequences.

And from a "meta" perspective, this gives player characters "acceptable targets they can pick fights with without having to fear legal consequences.


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EC Gamer Guy wrote:

I think the OP mixed up a lot of concepts and got lost on the way.

Whether a being is a "person" vs whether they can be a citizen are different concepts.

In this case, I explicitly refer to "legal personhood", which pretty much means "can be citizens under the law".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_person

Whether individuals or groups consider someone a "person" is not addressed here, nor whether the Starfinder rules consider someone to be a "person". This only addresses the legal perspective of the Pact Worlds governments and their courts.


Furthermore, keep in mind that the Committee is not intended to settle philosophical questions about the nature of the Self - it exists in order to determine a legal status that the Pact Worlds government can work with. And the basis of that ultimately boils down to "species we can work with"... or at least, "species we want to work with".


Individual swarm intelligences would count as "persons" for this purpose.

Furthermore, it's one thing if an individual member of the species is a sociopath unable to operate within Pact Worlds society - it's an outlier that can be dealt with. But the Committee evaluates entire species, not individuals - and if all members of a species could be considered "sociopaths", then they probably won't be able to integrate into society.

(For a video game example, consider the Typhon from the recent game "Prey".)


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As an offshoot from the discussion whether or not androids are "alive", let's consider who gets to be a "legal person" in the Pact Worlds - someone who is either a citizen or a non-citizen who could become one. And for that, the question whether someone is alive cannot possibly matter - because the bone sages of Eox are very much "people" as far as the Pact Worlds are concerned, yet very much "not alive".

My suspicion is that this decision is made by a committee staffed with representatives of the Pact Worlds governments, and they make this decision based on a number of criteria.

The first one is that members of the species must be intelligent enough to understand the general laws and customs of the Pact World - they need not be lawyers, but they must be able to figure out what is and what is not appropriate on the member worlds with some coaching. In game terms, this probably means at least an average Intelligence of 7.

Furthermore, they must be willing and capable of respecting those customs. Members of the Dominion of the Black, for instance, are certainly intelligent enough - but their intelligence is extremely alien and they show unrelenting hostility to the Pact Worlds. Thus, no citizenship for them. And then there are outsiders and aliens that evolved in extremely alien environment whose society is just not comparable with that of the Pact Worlds and who have just as much difficulty grasping Pact World society as humans have grasping theirs - though considering some of the Pact Worlds species (such as Brethedans), they must be very alien indeed.

Beyond that, there are further criteria on whose importance each Committee member will have a different opinion.

One of these is whether the species in question has souls - indeed, this is said to be the main reason why Androids are accepted as citizens in their writeup. There are several effects that refer to souls in the Starfinder Core Rules - raise dead, reincarnate, and the Soul Upload Trap. Other effects presumably exist within the setting even if they are not explicitly mentioned - for instance, divination effects that contact souls in the afterlife. If one or more of these effects work on member of the species, then they can be said to fulfill this criterium. However, note that fulfilling this criterium will not impress the representative from Aballon.

Another one is whether the species in question has free will - that is to say, are capable of making autonomous decisions for themselves. A slave species (whether biological or machine) cannot be held responsible for its action - but that also means it does not have a choice whether or not it can adhere to Pact World laws and customs. Note that "slave species" has a different meaning from "species that has been enslaved" - individuals of the latter may rebel and flee their masters, while the former is genuinely incapable of doing so.

Further criteria depend on the individual Committee members' biases and prejudices - most will generally try to look for things in the alien species that has some resemblance to their own species or culture. Great cultural works, recognizable worship of deities, an aptitude for tinkering... any of these and more can sway the verdict of council members. Conversely, anything that evokes similarities to traditional enemies (the Swarm or the Dominion of the Black, for instance) might sway a Committee member against the species.

Once the Committee members have deliberated, they will eventually make their decision and assign the new species a status from the following list:

Legal Person: Members of this species will be fully recognized as people and may not be harmed without clear justification, nor may their property be arbitrarily seized. They may apply for citizenship in whatever Pact Worlds entity is willing to take them in (though Pact Worlds members might give citizenship even to members of species that don't fall into this category, this probably won't be recognized by most other jurisdictions). Their governments may establish full diplomatic relationships with the Pact Worlds. Citizens and organizations operating out of Pact Worlds space may not wage campaigns of aggression or even genocide against them.

Protected: They aren't fully recognized as legal entities of their own right, but it was a fairly close thing - they impressed several Committee members enough that they are given some weak protections (this will likely require fewer votes than "Legal Person" status - perhaps "Legal Person" requires a majority vote, while "Protected" requires only one-third). Citizens and organizations operating out of Pact Worlds may not kill them for their body parts or make gross alterations to their habitats - in effect, the Pact Worlds governments designate their environment a "nature preserve". In practice, this means little - Pact Worlds citizens may still kill individual members without repercussions back home, and some limited resource extraction remains permissible, with a fair amount of flexibility on what precisely is considered "limited". However, if there is a big enough stink back home there may be legal sanctions. Which can be effectively evaded by just creating a new company that doesn't operate within Pact Worlds space (the Pact Worlds governments have better things to do than trying to patrol worlds outside their system), in which case any repercussions must come from locals - or outside activists (most prominently the Xenowardens).

Not protected: The species in question receives no protection at all from the Pact Worlds governments, and may be freely killed or enslaved.

Belligerent, redeemable: The species might qualify as "Legal People", but it is currently hostile to the Pact Worlds. However, there is hope that this state of affairs may cease at some point in the future. Obvious military forces may be engaged at will, but attacks and atrocities against recognizable "civilian" populations and installations should be avoided. The military forces of the Pact Worlds governments are held to the highest standards here (though even so, the rules for "collateral damage" remain very generous), while mercenary forces and private adventurers will hardly monitored at all. Still, the (admittedly low) possibility to be charged for "war crimes" remain, especially if they interrupt delicate peace negotiations. The Pact Worlds government might accept individual members of the species as refugees, or even as representatives of a "government in exile" (and smuggling such people out makes for an excellent adventure hook), though such refugees will be watched closely and may face prejudices from the local population.

Belligerent, irredeemable: The species is considered hostile and may be engaged at will with any and all means, and erradication would be seen as a positive goal by the Pact Worlds governments - examples include the Dominion of the Black and the Swarm. It would require extraordinary evidence to change this status.

So, what does all this mean in practice?

Whenever there is a report of a new, apparently intelligent species coming in - whether from the Starfinder Society, colonists, assorted organizations, or individual explorers and adventurers - the employees of the Committee will take note of it and add it to a list of species to investigate for possible legal personhood.

This list is very, very long, and getting longer all the time.

But there are ways of fast-tracking this process. The simplest way is for a member of the species to show up on Absalom Station and declare: "My species wants to establish diplomatic relations with the Pact Worlds." Even then there will likely a bunch of interviews (possibly involving requests for further information and all sorts of medical and magical examinations) and a waiting period of a few days until the Committee can make its decision. Gee, I hope the alien diplomats have some good local guides and bodyguards (i.e. player characters) who can protect them during this time!

It also helps if a Committee member strongly supports the application of a particular species, which usually means that their government has some sort of interest in the species or their world that would benefit from establishing diplomatic relations. To a lesser degree, this is also true for corporations and other organizations - if they hope to make trade deals with them or otherwise see something beneficial to their agenda, they can make an effort to convince the Committee members of it and fast-track the process. Sometimes the Committee members' government benefit from the trade and will be easily convinced, while sometimes the convincing needs a little push (bribery is such an ugly word...). However, sometimes rival corporations and organizations will oppose the fast-track process for their own reasons (usually because they want to exploit the world on their own terms) and work behind the scenes to slow it down.

Very occasionally, lone individuals or small groups manage to get the fast-track process started on their own, without the backing of governments or large corporations - usually by making a huge PR splash. Player characters with the Icon theme (and possibly the Envoy class) will have the best chance at this. It's not easy, but if they get enough public attention those Pact Worlds governments who are responsive to public opinion might get behind their efforts.

If there is no fast-track process (and truthfully, these tend to clog the Committee's agenda), then the assorted sub-committees will gradually gather more and more information and have their experts evaluate it until they are confident about the quantity and quality of their data and the analysis of the data. Worlds colonized by Pact Worlds members that see frequent trade will almost inevitably accumulate the most data, while lone accounts of explorers will be filed in the archives until more information comes up. Very occasionally they might send one of their experts to an alien world to evaluate a local species, especially if the world might feature other things of interest (such as tradable or extractable resources), but for the most part they will leave such exploration to the Starfinder Society with whom they have a good working relationship - many Starfinders report their encounters with alien species to the Committee, while the Committee is generally happy to share its information about species in its archives with Society members.

Well, these are my thoughts on this issue. What are yours?


And on many planet fast transportation exists. Not including the possibility that the PCs own their own spaceship. Thus, getting to a "major settlement" is largely an inconvenience - it will take maybe a day to get there and another to get back again.


Of course, getting away with this requires that no cameras recorded it - and cameras are cheap.

There are ways of dealing with cameras, but generally you have to think of them in advance.


The "Ruins of Aztlant" AP is probably also going to be relevant for the Aztlanti Star Empire, although obviously it's hard to say yet.


Starfindet is, of course, a brand new setting with little existing setting material. However, it exists in the same universe as the Pathfinder setting - if temporally removed - and it occurs to be that there ought to be plenty of material out there that could be plundered for Starfinder. Hence this thread - I am not as well versed in my Golarion lore as others here, and I am sure I am not the only one who would appreciate some pointers in where to focus my research (whether setting supplements, certain Adventure Paths, or anything else).

For the sake of comparison, "Distant Worlds" rates the full 10/10, for its full (if out of date) description of the Pact Worlds - including planetary maps!

So what else is out there worth looking at?


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MakuTheDark wrote:
Ravingdork wrote:
Sentience is not one of the qualifications of life.
According to the Pact World, it is :)

I think the Pact Worlds will have a definition of "legal personhood" that is at best only tangentially related to any definition of "alive". I mean, the bone sages of Eox are definitely people with rights in the Pact Worlds, but calling them "alive" would be stretching things.

And then you have to consider cases like Outsiders - which get legal personhood and which do not? Then there are all those aloens out there - which should be treated as people, and which are okay to shoot on sight?

I suspect that ultimately who gets to be a "legal person" and who does not will be decided by a committee, possibly based on some kind of "point system" factoring in things like intelligence, social behavior, and a willingness to respect the aithority of the Pact Worlds legal framework.

And I suspect the politics behind these decisions would be fascinating.


Plus, Earth definitely exists somewhere in the Multiverse (according to at least two Adventure Paths).


Laffite5150 wrote:
So, what really is the difference between the two? Is it something of your level vs the level of the area?

Personally, I'd rule that a "major settlement" for the purpose of item acquisition is a well-connected city of 500,000 people or more - this population can be smaller if the settlement is a major trade nexus (such as a space station dedicated to trade or a city with a significant starport). "Typical settlement" is anything smaller than that, but still a town of significant size.

Mind you, if the PCs are currently in a really small town in the middle of nowhere it would still make sense to introduce an absolute level cap to the items they can purchase... if they need those items in a hurry. But if they have a few days of downtime, and if the town is connected to whatever the local planetary communication networks is, then they can just order the items from abroad and have them delivered there. It's only with the higher-level stuff (i.e. "character level +2") where they will have to make personal appearances so that they can establish themselves as trustworthy customers, and that's why they will need to be in major settlements that have these items on stock.

At least, that's how I would run it - although sufficiently skilled roleplaying can and should circumvent these limits.


Omnius wrote:
Set wrote:

Vesk "Stay behind me hyoo-mon. Your people are too rare to be endangering yourselves like this."

Shirren "We really should find two more. I'm not comfortable with only having a single human, given their precarious condition. We should make sure to always have a proper breeding triad, just in case any more of their worlds get blown up, or disappear, or whatever."

Ysoki "I think they just need pairs to breed..."

Shirren "What? Weird. Whatever, the third can be a spare."

Shirren: "No host? Well, the third can keep the egg warm while the other two humans resume breeding."

Now I imagine a Shirren trying to set up a "human breeding program", finding suitable human mates to "propagate the species". Whether or not the humans involved will appreciate the Shirren matchmaker is another question...


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I've cleaned up my earlier thoughts about arms control in the Starfinder setting and published them as a blog post. I hope you will find them useful!


starlite_cutie wrote:
Seisho wrote:
You consider Zapp Brannigan Charismatic? ... well, each their own
Charismatic isn't the same as being affable. He draws attention when he speaks, which is a hallmark of having charisma.

Somehow he constantly gets important jobs despite a track record of incompetence. That speaks of Charisma - it just doesn't work with those who have to work with him on a regular basis and thus know how dumb he is.


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110) An Ysoki Mechanic with the Icon theme who has transformed their starship cabin into a custom kitchen and runs a vlog kitchen show from it.

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