Kishmo's page

Amazing - thanks, Jessica & everyone who made this happen!

So, all told, that's what - ten ancestries in the Core, six in Galaxy Guide, one in Metal City, and now two here in the Player's Guide, for a total of nineteen species available at launch? (And that's not even counting the PF2 ones?) Including some mechanically bonkers, or very iconic "Starfinder" species, like Contemplative, Skittermander, Astrazoan, and Barathu?

It feels like a Cantina up in here :)

It's not always (or even often) possible, but I like to try and experience things first as a Player, and then GM it - either for home / IRL groups, or Online, or whatever.

In practice, this ends up looking like playing new scenarios as they come out at the big online conventions (either VTT or PbP) and then GMing them, in whatever medium you want.

One piece of advice, though - when you're juggling which PCs can play a scenario or receive credit for GMing them with multiple play modes, do recall that, although the rules are very clear on PCs only being able to participate in one adventure at a time, Chronicles from GMing can still be assigned, even during a long PbP adventure - they just don't take effect until after.
(At least, that's how 1e works. TBD if there'll be changes in 2e, once that campaign's rules come out!)

I wonder if there'll still be physical copies of The Gap for purchase at Gen Con...

Echoing others: I like the idea of a casual AMA stream with just whatever random stuff going on for visuals. The chibi-Iconics were lovely, and it was pretty cool to see their creator getting rep'd in Chat!

But, also like others: I don't know much about Warframe, and didn't get much out of that specifically. Especially since that aspect was mostly watching hyper-acrobatic space-ninja jumps. Made me a little motion sick :D Something a bit less ... frenetic, may be a better choice. I'd def watch again with, I dunno, Darktide or Helldivers 2 or something!

Thank you, everyone, for your congratulations - and thanks to all those who've played in my games! I couldn't've done it without you, and the Online Region (because I live in the city from Footloose that hates dancing, but also TTRPGs, strangely? Some day, our Kevin Bacon prince will come.)
Congrats to our new coin-holders, and my fellow Five Thingy-Havers!

As the dust cleared, she heard, “Navasiiiii!” echo from the extemporary exit Trace’s grenade had blown in the wall

Na-va-siiiii! *shakes fist at projected sky*

Hey Kishmo! To clarify, are you referring to vouchers or other stored Paizo store credit?

I appear to have a voucher from Outpost VIII; but it would be good to know for either, really :)

Yes, all Gen Con releases will be available in the Paizo booth during Gen Con. :)

Related question: do you know if there'll be a way to use Paizo Store Credit (like for having GM'd at PaizoCon) at the Paizo Booth at GenCon?

We are not doing pickups at Gen Con this year. Sorry, Kishmo!

Oh, boo. Well, follow-up question then: do you know if there'll be a way to use Paizo Store Credit (like for having GM'd at PaizoCon) at the Paizo Booth at GenCon this year?

Is there a way to pre-order this now, but for pick up at Gen Con, rather than to be shipped?

Johnny Spacebucks who used his 2000 Pathfinder AcP to unlock a whole bunch of stuff

Well, that's my -2701's inspiration sorted XD

I can't wait to browbeat cordially invite a handful of like-minded players into making an all morlamaw party for this. Surely, politely forming orderly queues is a winning strategy for this high pressure reality TV race, and who better than The Dapper Flappers to do so? XD

Also, I need to know where are the chronicles for the Playtest Adventures? I want to report them, but I didn't know we could.

As others have said, it's just one tracking sheet for all of the Playtest adventures, and not individual ones per each adventure as usual, but - it's here!

Holy s%** Fitch is still alive? Dang, way to go, Grandma!

As much as I still have Feelings™ about PF2 Assumptions & Meta bringing down the spirit of Starfinder - it is pretty cool to be able to unlock PF2 options for SFS2! Very interested to see what will be available there, and when! Access to PF2 species, especially ones that are still common in Starfinder times like elf or dwarf, feels like a slam dunk. I'm not sure I have an opinion on "having PF2 classes out of the gate runs a risk of diluting the SF2 classes." I can see the point that's being made, though. Requires further thought.

Also, to be honest, I’m just not sure what to call this new rank. Rings? Comets? Moons? Donuts?

Damnit Speidel, give the people what they want! The children yearn for the Space-Donuts! XD

As far as Achievement Point awards, I miss the expensive vanity purchases from PF1, like being able to buy your own island or ship. It was a lot of fun when you had to travel somewhere by boat to the adventure to say, "Let's take my ship!" I liked the ability to invest my characters further into the world. I'd love to see that kind of thing.

Seconding this. Even the handful of rare Vanity Boons, either official or unofficial, in SF1 were pretty cool. Things that weren't really 'mechanical' benefits but still impacted the narrative and overall story helped me feel like a part of the living world: stuff like Strawberry Machine Cake or Abysshead! albums, Personal Vaults from 1-16, or everyone's favourite pal, the Sharktopus (<3) not only helped the universe feel more lived in, but that it was lived in by us, the players.

I know that Starship Combat is still a ways away, but in SFS1 having special Starship Boons was always cool - you knew you were in for a ride when someone slapped a Gorgon boon sheet down on the table! Some way to bring that back in, even as just a flavourful narrative thing for now, would be cool, but full on custom starship stats when rules for such a thing exist would be awesome! (On that note, it's been three years, but, my offer still stands XD)

Like, picture a Spacey-P boon called "Space-Paint Job." For a modest fee of meta-currency, you can narratively declare the shuttle / Pegasus / Whatever that you're riding to the scenario location has a custom paint scheme, instead of the standard Starfinder Society livery. Cherry red Drake? Pegasus with Purple accents, to be sneakier? The dreaded Oops, All Sparkles Azata? Sure, why not! I don't know to what extent Vehicles will show up in SFS2 scenarios, but same idea there. An exploration buggy is cool, but an exploration buggy with dangly fuzzy d20s is cool.
Granted it feels a bit silly, sure, but, c'mon, it's Starfinder. Silliness in Space is part of the charm!

These are really cool, especially the technomancer! Although something that's bugging me is the level 18 technomancer feat, Sudo Spell.

Sudo is short for "substitute user do"; it's a command you use to run other commands at a different privilege level (typically root). It has nothing to do with precision or duplication.

I agree with this point, and was going to reply with some ideas on alternate names for some of the technomancer feat/ability names that don't quite land; but it got big enough that I figured I'd just make a thread for it.

Since the Venn diagram of "Starfinder enjoyers" and "computer programmers" has loads of overlap, I'm sure others have lots of awesome suggestions, too!

Replying to this comment:

These are really cool, especially the technomancer! Although something that's bugging me is the level 18 technomancer feat, Sudo Spell.

Sudo is short for "substitute user do"; it's a command you use to run other commands at a different privilege level (typically root). It has nothing to do with precision or duplication.

It kinda reminds me of those crime dramas with the terrible/hilarious hacking scenes, but it's also pretty confusing when there are existing class features and feats that have to do with root access. I spent more time than I'd like to admit trying to figure out the relation between this feat and 10th level spells :P

I feel the same way.

If I can make some suggestions, that I don't think go too far off into the weeds (no more so than, say, quine relay, anyways):

Speedrun (feat p 31; spell p 33) isn't actually about speed; it's about phasing through walls. This could more accurately be called Noclip, or you could recycle 1e's Glitch Step.

Sudo Spell (p 31) is about a spell effect repeating the next round; this could more accurately be called Echo Spell, or for more techie jargon, Loop Spell, FOR Loop Spell, DO Loop Spell, or BREAKIF1=0 Spell.

Debug Spell (p 30) isn't too bad, but debugging is more about removing errors, than tweaking code. This could more accurately be called Refactor Spell, Reformat Spell, Retool Spell, Recompile Spell, or something along those lines. Or heck, even just Optimise Spell. Which frees up Debug for something else more appropriate.

God Mode (p 31) isn't bad, but, I think God Mode could be better used. Since it's about adding more spellshapes, you could call it Memory Boost, or even Spell API Call or something with an "Adding Additional and/or External Resources" vibe. Or, to get real Starfinder-y, since it lets you add up to three spellshapes at once, it's a great use-case for a Triune reference. Triune's Glitch, Triune's Favour, Tripartite Spell, and so on.

Root Access (p 31) also isn't too bad, but as Dire Mosasaur points out, it's not not a bit of a stretch. This would be better place to use God Mode, if we freed it from above.

Then again, my railing against the use of "quantum" doesn't seem to have done much, so. I won't hold my breath observe my qubits.

Echoing others: I am very excited about all of these changes, save the cap. Starting at higher levels sounds great, and making most content available at release without boons or Spacey-Ps? Chef's space-kiss! Seeing That Cantina Feel remain as a core tenet of Starfinder Society from 2e's get-go warms the cockles of this longtime Starfinder Society fan's heart <3

However, the level 10 cap just doesn't feel good. I think a lot of people will agree that the "sweet spot" of play happens around mid level, roughly levels 5 - 15, where you have enough abilities to do cool stuff, but not so much complexity that a single PC's three actions takes 30 minutes and requires a delve into two rulebooks. Cutting down on the higher end of the sweet spot hurts.

I know the player counts aren't there for higher level content, but those of us who are there, love it. High tier is where all the cool stuff happened: high tier is where we fought demi-gods. High tier is where we ensured smooth transitions of power in AbadarCorp's Board of Directors. High tier is where we performed unexpected power cycles on Guidance. Those are the things I remember my high level characters doing throughout their careers, in 1e.

Maybe keep the door open for some "Space-Seeker" content at tier 11-12, someday. Mechanically speaking, a lot of cool stuff happens at lvl 11: proficiency bumps for the things your class is good at, aim dice ++, level 6 spells, access to lvl 12 "elite" weapons and the damage dice ++ that that entails, and so on. In many ways, level 10 feel close to a cool level to end at, but not quite there. Just one or two more levels would feel more "settled," if that makes sense. Level 10 feels like an unsatisfying, or perhaps unfinished, level to end at, in the 2e math.

Not having access to the spell gems and chips you need for your class ability is a bit of a kicker, but honestly shouldn't come up too often. To be blunt, if the problem is "The GM isn't giving out any/many spell consumable to the class who's entire schtick is using spell consumables," that sounds like a GM problem, not a Technomancer problem.
The situations where it could arise, though, could be handled by crafting? To that end, maybe the Viper language could grant you the Fabricator skill feat (SF2 PT Core P. 150) so you can use Computers to craft tech items, possibly with a rider along the lines of "Viper allows you to craft spell gems and spell chips without needing the Magical Crafting feat; crafting other magical items require that feat as usual" so you can make some basic stuff right out of the gate? If we wanted to get really fancy, you could even say a Viper user's spell cache also functions as a commercial Creator Capsule (p 211) for printing spell gems & chips.
(Feels a bit silly if your spell cache is, like, an implant or a virtual construct or something, but, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

How do I find the old playtest tracking sheet now? D:

It's still around!

Oh man, hat's off to whoever came up with the Technomancer programming langauges' names & write-ups :D
...that said, I really hope the final version explicitly allows people to re-flavour those names (but keep the same mechanics, of course) just for funsies. "Choose a programming language from the options" implies you must use the names are presented, but c'mon, we all know the children yearn for the mines dumb puns and arch japes of made-up sci-fant progamming langauges.
inb4 COBOLd

Starfinder Society Scenarios in Second Edition do not include ... challenge points, treasure bundles

Oh dang, sweet! As someone who's run a lot of 1e SFS but with very little familiarity with PFS2, having to figure out and memorise the maths for CP, treasure bundles, dayjob checks, etc, was one of the things I wasn't looking forwards to. One less thing to have to figure out in August :) And everything being replayable per character?! FeelsGoodVelloro.jpeg

I don't think anacites or SROs are good candidates for versatile heritages, but SROs can really push the regular, vanilla, heritage system to some cool places!
In 1e, SROs could be Small or Medium sized, and although they never got alternate species features, there were a number of neato feats and things that they could take; the usual feats and things of that sort (like go-go-gadget arms or super robo-optics) but also alternate class features specific to contructed creatures, like the Robotic Improvements mechanic, or hacking spell chips into your robo-body. Turning those types of things into Heritage choices could be really interesting - like choosing to be Small, Medium, or (gasp!) even Large, or having a heritage to grant built-in shortwave transcievers, or a built-in spell chip array, and who knows what other stuff the Star Friends could cook up!

In 1e, Anacites were not a playable species, but more like a family of creatures, similar to devils, or velstracs. There's everything from the low-level anacite wingbot messengers to higher level combat anacites. They had their own lore and backstory, and we saw their plot evolve over the course of 1e with the expansion and addition of various factions (most of which named themselves "Those Who [Some Verb]") as well as some veiled allusions to their history, cousin species, and ongoing lore stuff happening in the final season of Society play.

I'm kinda glad that they were never a playable species; it would get confusing. That said, there was nothing saying you couldn't play an SRO and flavour yourself as being an anacite, though! SROs were a broad category of "literally anything sapient and robotic" so there was a lot of leeway there to play around with.

Woot wooooot, all aboard the Starfinder Society Hype Space-Train!!! (Irrisen, eat your cold heart out XD) And, can I just say, it's very heartening to hear wording like "radically different" and "taking some risks" about Starfinder!

The Starfinder Society has been front and center for many major events in the Pact Worlds including ... the liberation of Pulonis

Oh dang, is this happening "On Screen" somewhere? Or is this referring to the Combatant's Concerto arc?

Yeah, if I remember correctly, Embroi actually being a thrall-planet of Hell is pretty secret knowledge. Most embri don't even know that, at the top of their leadership, is a bunch of devils:

Few residents, and even fewer visitors from the Pact Worlds, realize that Embroi is a fiefdom of Hell. The diabolical population exists only in the planet’s shadows, and overt infernal influences remain minimal. Knowledge of the world’s vast network of underground thoroughfares has been erased from Embroi’s histories. This nether realm is now the domain of quiet levaloch armies; burning portals to Malebolge, the sixth layer of Hell; and scab-encrusted sacrifice machines. Over it all watches the victorious malebranche Occhiorasoi, who conquered Embroi before the onset of the Gap. Now she waits, as she has for eons, ever prepared for her world to contribute to Asmodeus’s unknown immortal designs.

For me, a big "Hell Invades!" AP would require a good motivation. Who is invading, and why? To take on something as big and powerful as the Pact Worlds, you'd need more than just, I dunno, some loser fiefdom of Hell; you'd need a massive force, probably commanded by a true archfiend or other fiendish divinity. And for someone at that power level to get involved - why? Is Asmodeus involved, or at least, tacitly approving?

Loads of deities, not least of which is, as OP says, Iomedae, have a vested interest in the Pact Worlds, so any assault on the Pact Worlds could provoke a huge response. There'd have to be a pretty big reward, to risk the wrath(s) of Iomedae, Abadar (the Corporate HQ is the Golden Vault on Absalom Station), Cayden Cailean, Hylax, Triune, and who knows how many species deities (Angradd, Calistria & the elven pantheon, draconic deities from Triaxus, and so on.) If this takes places after the 2e setting stuff has happened, the Pact Worlds could even include Pulonis in some capacity, so who knows - there could even be some kind of Pahtra Auxilliaries kicking ass, too!

I'm not saying it couldn't be done, it's just that there's some questions to answer, first. I mean, Dawn of Flame is proof that you can do a good "extra-planar invasion!" storyline in the Pact Worlds! Sounds more like a Home Campaign kind of idea, rather than a published AP, though.

I think what you have is not a Starfinder- or Science Fantasy-wide problem, but rather a game tone, or perhaps game theme, problem. If you're playing a lot of corporate espionage, dystopian cityscape, or cyberpunk-y kinds of stories - yeah, that stuff goes quickly. Planet-wide infospheres and digital actions mean that everything could move really quickly.

Maybe you should try and lean out of those kinds of stories, and try some other ones where timing maybe isn't so important? A long voyage through the Drift to the Vast where you've got nothing to do for weeks, or helping xenodruids cleanse a blighted icecap on Aballon that could span months or more, a slow-paced space-cattle drive on Akiton where a hungry predator is slowly picking off one head of space-cow every week, or who knows what else!

To borrow from the upcoming Galaxy Guide's ideas - we've heard the Star Friends talk about sections in the book giving toolboxes for how to run different kinds of stories in Starfinder. Maybe it's time to veer away from a Dystopian or High Tech story, and instead try a Fantasy, Into the Unknown, or "Weird?" story, instead! See if that changes peoples' assumptions, and the narrative tone?

Thursty ruled, way back in the day, that you can apply boons a PC has to Chronicles assigned to that PC from GMing, so - you're good to go! I think the general idea is that GMs should never be 'punished,' in terms of what they get on a chronicle, for GMing (as opposed to playing) a scenario.

Dae's art continues to rock, hard. Also - omg is that a slice of pizza on the ship's console?? Pizza confirmed in X-Finder lore! XD

So not only do we get full, updated Starfinder lore, but if so inclined we can now properly populate our fantasy games with dogfolk, dragonfolk, shapeshifting doppelgangers, and giant floating brains to boot?

I really encourage you - and everyone else, for that matter - to give Starfinder itself a shot! Don't just think "neat, dogfolk in my Pathfinder game" :) Vlaka are their own unique thing, and - as you'll find out when the book comes out - aren't just space-dogfolk. (Or, heck, skip the line and read about them now!)

Preparing to run this via PbD for Outpost VIII, and something leapt off the page at me. The mission briefing has this little piece of set dressing:
The conference room is brightly lit, with vidscreens covering the walls displaying incoming data from groups of Starfinders on missions across multiple galaxies.
"Multiple galaxies" has to be a typo, right? Starfinder is pretty firmly set within the Desna's Path galaxy, and travel beyond is rare and dangerous. Drift travel doesn't extend outside the galaxy, and people who try come back traumatized, if they come back at all (cf. The Fray, Ports of Call p. 10 and "Travel beyond the Rim" in the CRB, p. 291.)

Sure, there's ways around this (looking at you, Rasputin Must Die!) and adventuring outside of the Material Plane happens all the time. If any organization was going to regularly have agents operating extra-galactically, the Starfinders would be top contenders (my own pesonal difficulting finding enough high-level Starfinders to fire tables of Tier 11-14 scenarios notwithstanding :C) Hell, the Starfinder Society even has one ship entirely dedicated to exploring alternate realities: the Fairweather Foe from 4-05: A Waltz Through Myriad Worlds, so 'multiple galaxies' could just refer to alternate Desna's Paths?

Still, though - what do people think? Is this a harmless little editorial misprint, or are the Starfinders more extragalactic than we'd assumed?

Has anyone else stopped to give their party a rest, in between Chapters 1 & 2, to regain spell slots, abilities and such? As written, the narrative moves at a pretty breakneck pace: after the Moderate Zavozaya fight, the PCs get a chance to lick their wounds, but it's more of a short rest, than the full 8 hrs - the adventure says, "allow the PCs some time to rest and recuperate following the climactic showdown. Before too long, the PCs comm units crackle with an incoming message." And then it goes to the Moderate Orbital Bombardment, then to the Moderate Crashed Mauler hazard, and then another Moderate fight against the Sihedron Guard, and then a slightly easier Moderate against two more Guards when they reach Atuity.

My party got through the first three, and we're now about to start the first Sihedron Guard fight, from pg. 26, and they're tapped out; high level spells slots are empty, and everyone's low on HP, thanks to some unlucky rolls during the Crashed Mauler hazard. I'm going to hand-wave giving the party a rest, just so they don't all die. How have others handled this string of encounters?

AndMyAxe.jpeg!

From the sign-up form, it looks like the answer is "no," but, just to ask the question: will there be any SF2 Playtest stuff on offer at PaizoCon?

Starfinder Society Scenario #7-10: Rasheen’s Requiem is an adventure for 7th- through 9th-level

That should be 7th through 10th, right? Regardless - wow, this has been an open thread since, like, season 1!! Very curious to see how Rasheen's story ends!

Woot woot, all aboard the SF2 Hype Train!!

Very interesting, to hear that SFS2 scenarios will be shorter!

I fully intend to sign up to GM some SFS2, but - first I need to make sure I can actually get Housing at Gen Con this year, after getting burned when Housing sold out last year. I figure you'd rather have a GM sign up solidly later, rather than a GM sign up shakily, now.

I hope they turn you into a toaster. At a middle school, in Wyoming.
I mean, thanks DiceBot. I like your shirt, too /sob

I'll counter and say we already have not one but two archetypes focused on creating equipment on the fly in the forms of the Mind Smith and Soul Forger so the design space is also narrowed there.

Fair point, but, "gear" is only 1/3 of what a nanocyte does. Now, I don't know everything about the PF2 class ecosystem nor what's available re: archetypes, but the other arrays - sheathe array, the very interesting (to me, anyways) cloud array, or going even farther afield, the spellcasting eldritch array or Enhanced's defensive-minded body array - are ripe for some sci-fant shenanigans!

I'm honestly still a bit surprised that they're bringing in the Mechanic before the Nanocyte. Given we already have an Inventor, the design space for the Mechanic feels a lot 'smaller' - unless it's getting a big overhaul, like the 2e Operative. On the other hand, Nanocyte doesn't really have a 'competing' (for lack of a better term) PF2e class, and has loads of very original, very 'uniquely Starfinder' flavour to it. Bringing Nanocyte in sooner rather than later would've been an easy way to differentiate Starfinder more, similar to how the Witchwarper, another 'uniquely Starfinder' class, is the Core arcane/occult spellcaster. Plus, it still has that 'vaguely technological' vibe to it, what with being empowered by tiny robots and all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nanocyte aside, it will be interesting to see the degree to which Mechanic and Technomancer interact with rules stuff we haven't seen yet: vehicles, starships, mechs, and power armour.

In general, some vesk have the blunt, rounded, snout of an iguana (like 1e Obozaya,) whereas some have the same blocky, pronounced, underjaw of TriStar's 1998 Godzilla remake, and then there's the more 'draconic' ones like Tassada Kor from 3-11 or Enktuya Shipbreaker from 2-04, that have more of an anthropomorphic dog-snout lizard deal thing going on?

When it's come up before, Paizo People have said that it varies depending on the artists and authors involved.

There's talk of a "design bible" and consistent guidelines for 2e, so it could change, though, and maybe the blocky jaw that 2e Obozaya's sporting in her 2e pregen art will be the norm!

I think we can all agree, though, that yeah, they're lizards, through and through. No mammalian chest stuff going on. Near Space talks a bit about vesk physiology, and we know they're a warm-blooded, egg-laying, species. I would assume they're scaled all over.

One could guess that, like Earth lizards, they're less protected on the 'underbelly,' but then again - there are no bipedal lizards on Earth, so that may not be a safe assumption? If anything, the vesk's long history of war and conflict probably means evolution has weedled out any obvious weak spots in their natural armour, so it wouldn't be improbable for vesk to have tough scales all over with no 'underbelly' area, of softer/smaller scales.

Happy holidays to all who celebrate!

There's some stuff and guest appearances I hope you really like :-)

So pumped for this one! I'm very curious to see if the whole Salvation's End thing gets a neat little bow put on it, or if it will keep being A Thing in 2nd Edition Society!

Does anyone have a folder (preferably .json for foundry) of pregens for this scenario?

Hit me up on Discord (user name = Kishmo there, too.) I have PDFs for some community-created lvl 15 pregens. It's not quite there, but I also have lvl 10 Foundry JSONs for Obozaya, Chk Chk, and Iseph - it's a start, at least?

Hello, space-Friends! What're people thinking of bringing?
In high tier, I've got a lvl 8 khizar nanocyte (has all the blindsenses), a lvl 7 izalguun melee biohacker, and a lvl 7 hanakan spell speaker envoy (plays well with spell casters.) in low tier, I've got a lvl 5 trox heavyweights skirmisher operative - large and in charge!

I'm also doing a regular recruiting for 7-07 Submerged Stars, for those who want to play just that one...

Oooh, interested! I've signed up :) Now, to pick a 5 - 8 character...I could bring my khizar, to continue the trend of "has blindsight (life) and therefore only ever fights robots and undead ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

It's worth keeping in mind we don't know how pahtra independence comes about. It will presumably have happened in universe by the time 2e launches formally at GenCon, but we haven't seen the specifics, on or offscreen, yet, right? The closest we've seen is a coded message in It Came From the Vast!

We know what the end point will be, but not how we get there, similar to how we knew Aucturn was asploding and Zon-Shelyn a-mergin' but didn't know the full story until 7-03. There's still unannounced Season 7 scenarios, and presumably more Playtest material in 2025, to go with the Technomancer and Mechanic playtest. I'm guessing we'll learn more before GenCon. Were I a betting sapient, I'd put money on seeing something Pulonis (..and possibly Miiyu?) related for 7-99.

Vlaka is an interesting choice, since that species is one of the posterchildren posterdoggos for perceiving your environment, with congenital blindness or deafness being out-of-the-gate options for 1e vlakas. As someone who's written a lot about how wonderful the cantina of 1e species variety is, but also how either a blanket FAQ entry or some baseline augmentation options could forestall a lot of questions and confusion, I'm very curious to see how this is handled in 2e.

If nothing else, I really, really, hope that the Starfriends make it super clear with vlaka verbiage on if you can gain a sense. Even with just the stuff in Playtest core, there's tons of stuff that I know is going to be asked about: "Can my blind vlaka see if they take the Predator's Eye lvl 7 Nature feat (p. 155) / the Spiritual Eye lvl 15 religion feat (p. 156) / an autorecognition lens or darkvision capacitor augments (both p. 198) / nano-optics node (p. 199) / retinal reflectors (p. 200) or crystal lens (p. 200) / psychoactive eyes (p. 201)?"

(And, to be really clear, I don't care if the answer to that question is yes or no. I just want the answer to be clearly and plainly stated. Because, if it's not and if 1e is any indication, we're going to get a billion forum threads asking about it.)

The time to set clear precedent is now - I hope we get many of the other zany Cantina species with funky senses (bantrids, khizar, stellifera, and so on) in the future, so the time to address all of this stuff is now. Ideally, in a way that doesn't just address sight & hearing with vlaka, but any sense, in future species.

Cannot find the higher level cash amounts for creation. Is it per GM core Page 61, which would be 3200 GP or 32,000 SP/Credits for 10th level? I know it was posted somewhere in the blog, but every time I search, nothing comes up.

Yeah, it's this, is what I've seen being used: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2662

I haven't checked the pregen sheet, but I know this is actually the case in foundry. I will contact the author to learn more about that

Oh - I can answer this one, 'cause I too stumbled through figuring it out on Foundry - you need to find the Effect: Solar Weapon effect, and drag it onto your character token in Foundry. This will open up a window to choose your weapon's effects, which will then populate a solar weapon your Actions tab.

It's not a particularly intuitive way to handle this, and there's literally no guidance on this process anywhere that I found, so. I hope this is somehow improved in a future Foundry release.

I'm getting ready to GM this, and the adventure background makes it clear that the "Atuity Accords" aren't a formal, over-arching peace between the Azlanti Star Empire and the Veskarium. Rather, it's a ceasefire, and blueprint for shared governance, taxation, citizenry, etc., in Atuity. That's it. It's reach doesn't extend any farther than Kehtaria. And it's mostly the actors in Atuity that are pushing for it - the Veskarium captain and Azlanti commander that are stationed there, and have formed a sort of camaraderie in the two years since the Drift Crisis. Like, this isn't the Star Imperators and the High Despot converging to exchange formalities.

The other thing to remember, is - Kehtaria is the link in the Conqueror's Path, the two new Drift Lanes from from Vesk-4 to Kehtaria, and Kehtaria to Oyojii in the Azlanti Star Empire’s Oyoya system. So all of a sudden, both empires have a brand new galactic highway dropped on them. Creating a sort of buffer / neutral zone where those two drift lanes meet is a good idea to prevent border friction, and allow some modest commerce and cultural exchange to take place in a way that is controlled, monitored, and taxed, by both empires.

Datch in PFS confirmed?

For reference, here is the Solarian's Attune action, with emphasis mine:

ATTUNE [One-Action]
Traits: CONCENTRATE, SOLARIAN
Frequency once per round
You steady your body and mind and attune yourself to your stellar focus. If you are unattuned or not in your favored state, you become attuned to the favored attunement of your stellar arrangement. You can also manifest any of your solar manifestations if they are currently dormant, and if you have the free hands to use them.
Special In addition to the above usage, you can also Attune as a free action when you roll initiative.

I think a lot of people haven't realized that Degradant and Radiant solarians can only attune to Graviton Mode, and Photon Mode, respectively, with the Attune action. I've pointed it out to a couple solarian players at tables I've GM'd, and it's so far been met with "....oh, that messes up my routine."

A lot of Solarian players have a default "script" for the first few rounds of combat, and one of the most common I've seen a lot is: a solarian that wants to stay in one Attunement will roll initiative, and assume that they can use the free-at-initiative Attune action to start in their non-favoured attunement, so that they can then use a Cycle action on their turn to finish in their favoured attunement.

So, for example: a tanky degradant solarian starts off in Photon mode, then uses Stellar Rush to Cycle to Graviton mode, so they can be in Graviton mode in between turns for the tanky Graviton riders on Nimbus Surge or Solar Shield. But, that is not what the Attune action does - you can't start the fight off in your non-favoured alignment. A Degradant must start in Graviton mode.

Now, solutions exists - the Attunement Control exploration action does let you begin combat in any attunement. But, this means every Solarian is going to basically always use that Exploration activity, which is kinda boring. They'll never be scouting, or sneaking, or whatever other fun stuff.
Alternatively, you can, of course, just use two Cycle actions to flip-flop and end up in the alignment you started in. But, this basically forces every solarian who wants to stay in one alignment to choose something as their lvl 1 or 2 Class Feat to reliably Cycle, which means your lvl 1 or 2 Feat is almost always going ot be Meditative Analysis or Eclipse Strike, which are the first and only one-action Actions with the Cycle trait without stringent requirements, that you'll get access to. Instead of choosing the feats you want, you have to pay the "Cycle feat tax."

Where I'm going with this: I think Degradant and Radiant solarians should just get a reliable one-action Action with the Cycle trait, that they don't have to spend a Class Feat or Exploration Activity on. Or, the Attune action should let you attune to any alignment, not just your Arrangement's favoured one.

Glad to see this one! It'll be good to get closure on this plot line that's been simmering since season 1!

Dofon's armor has been sealed since last page.

So noted! I didn't go back to read from the start, I was just going from Bretl's post :)

Dofon's flamethrower flares through the gaseous air! Although the gasses almost immediately sluice back in to obscure sight, everyone can see the horrible Swarm creature on the ceiling for a split second.
I'm saying that a Line flame weapon is a pretty clear indicator, so, everyone knows which square both Red and Blue are in, now. Red is looking fairly singed, at this point.

Bolded may go!
Round 2!
Blue Creature
Dofon (sealed)
Burn
Bonkers (sealed)
Chip (maybe sealed?)
Red Creature -> 31 dmg
Kuozar (sealed)
Grognard