Rohne's page

The adventure paths, "Against the Aeon Throne" introduced a "sinister" empire that has resisted contact by the Pact Worlds. They sounded really interesting.

1. Do you think Paizo would be interested following up this group with a Sourcebook that would develop the idea much more? (culture, religion, military structure, political government(s), economics, law, post-Gap history, mannerisms, and so forth)

2. Do you think it would be "fun" to play as the Azlanti (seeing the Pact Worlds as the "sinister" ones who are harassers of your borders, disrespecting your customs, or worse, attempting a soft coup/invasion of your territory?

3. In the meantime, any 3rd Party supplements or Homebrew suggestions to help develop an Azlanti-based campaign?

I was reading through some old interviews of Isaac Asimov, one of my favorite science fiction writers. He is the author of the Empire series, the Robot series (include the "I-Robot" account), and the Foundation series. And in his science fiction books in those series, he purposely left out aliens. So I was wondering about adapting his ideas to the Starfinder rules: a setting without aliens.

So I came up with a list of several character "race" options of what would be left if we removed aliens from the Starfinder setting (some of the 'examples' could fit in a different category, but I made my best guess). Now comes the challenge for creating these "homebrew" races. Some are already written up in the Starfinder rules, but I could use some help with the others (tweaking or creating). Here's the categories that I have so far:

Type I: Pure Strain Human (natural)
True humans conceived from unaltered gametes; also humans cloned from other standard humans are also standard humans. Examples include: Pure Strain Humans (Gamma World), humans (Pathfinder/Starfinder).
Source: Core Rulebook, p. 44-45

Type II: Clones
Same as natural humans only conceived through artificial means using existing DNA as its template. Examples include: “Tanks” (Space: Above and Beyond), Designer Babies, The Island, Clone Wars (Star Wars II), Picard/Shinzon (Star Trek Nemesis), Aeon Flux, The 6th Day, Oblivion, Multiplicity.

Type III: Augments/Transhumans (modified)
A sperm or egg with genetically-modified chromosomes makes a GMO-human, which could lead to speciation. Examples: “Augments” (Star Trek II; Enterprise), GATTACA, “Gelfs” (Genetically Engineered Lifeforms from Seaquest DSV), Touched by Vorlons (Babylon 5), Eloi/Morlocks (The Time Machine), the Fremen (Dune).

Type V: Mutants/Hybrids
They are humans that have been extensively modified with different species (such as adding gills, wings, fur, or other features) whether naturally, magically, or artificially. Examples include: Waterworld, The Island of Dr. Moreau, lycanthropy (werewolves), The Fly, X-Men series, Daleks (Doctor Who), Humanzee (chimpanzee/human hybrid).

Type VI: Uplifts
They are animals that have been extensively modified with human traits such as intelligence, speech, and tool-using capability. Examples include: “Ape” (Planet of the Apes), “Dolphins” “Chimps” “Gorillas” (David Brin’s Uplift War).
Source: Alien Archive 2, p. 16-17 (Uplifted Bear)

Type IV: Synthetics (Synthoid)
A biomechanical lifeform constructed to look human. They are constructed very similarly to their biological counterparts, but are silicon based lifeforms. They are not true GMOs; they are not genetic copy-paste. They are built from scratch using natural genomes as a guide, or spliced together from known genes. Examples: Rachel (Blade Runner_Synths), the twelve models (Battlestar Galactica 2004_Skinjobs), Splice, Elroy EL (Space: Above and Beyond_Silicates), David (Prometheus). It could also be argued that the synthetics from the Aliens series (Ash, Bishop, Call) are also synthetics since they 'bleed'. Synths are like the “Android” race from Pathfinder/Starfinder.
Source: Core Rulebook, p. 42-43

Type VII: Cyborgs
Beings with organic brains or intact nervous systems, but with machine body parts. Examples include: Officer Alex Murphy (RoboCop series), Star Wars, The Borg (Star Trek: First Contact_Borg), Cyberpunk 2077, Bionic Man).

Type VIII: Androids (“Droids”)
An artificial being constructed to resemble a human being and are difficult to distinguish by physical appearance. Mechanical brains with organic parts with sophisticated, but limited programming. Examples include Bicentennial Man, T-800s with organic camouflage (Terminator series), D.A.R.Y.L., Blade Runner_Worker models, Westworld androids.

Type IX: Mechanoids (full mechanical beings)
Fully mechanical being that resembles a human being; an automaton. Examples include: Pinocchio, Data/Lore (Star Trek), all of Asimov's other robots, the Toaster-cylons (Battlestar Galactica), Centurions (Battlestar Galactica), Terminator T-1000 & T-X, C-3PO, Sonny (I-Robot), Arthur (The Passengers), Cybermen (Doctor Who), and so forth.

Type X: Bots/Constructs/Golems
Fully constructed beings without “life” that obey commands (whether verbally given or programmed software) that do not resemble human beings. Examples include: R2D2 (Star Wars), Battle Droids (Star Wars), ED-209 (Robocop), Replicators (Stargate SG-1), TARS (Interstellar), Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet), Robot (Lost in Space), Cylon Raider (Battlestar Galactica reboot), K-9 (Doctor Who), AMEE (Red Planet), Max (Flight of the Navigator), Johnny Cab (Total Recall), Twiki (Buck Rogers), Golems (fantasy games like Dungeons and Dragons).
Source: Alien Archive 1, p. 94-95 (Security Robot); Alien Archive 3, p. 86-87 (Robot), Alien Archive 2, p. 10-11 (Anacite), Alien Archive 2, p. 66-67 (Golem)

Type XI: Isomorph/Hologram (“Iso”)
A constructed, artificial being as a three-dimensional image formed by the interference of light beams and force fields from a laser or other coherent light source. Examples include: Quorra (Tron Legacy), The Doctor (Star Trek: Voyager).
Source: Alien Archive 3, p. 66-67 (Living Hologram)

Type XII: Pure Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)
A constructed set of programmed software with the capability of a computerized machine to imitate intelligent human behavior such as problem-solving and speech. Examples include: Skynet (the Terminator series), H.A.L. 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey), VIKI (I-Robot), Mother (Alien), EDI (Mass Effect 3), Agent Smith (The Matrix series), Jarvus (Iron Man series), Andromeda (Andromeda series), W.O.P.R. (War Games), Simone (Simone).

** Undead are intentionally left out. I strongly dislike undead.

So any advice/insight on making these character classes balanced for Starfinder gameplay for a setting where there are no aliens in the universe? (and if I missed some other Starfinder source references that would be useful, please point those out, too). Thank you for your help.

Being new to Starfinder, I'm not sure if this issue has already been addressed or where I can find the appropriate information. So I apologize if this is redundant.

Several people in my community are hoping someone will run a Starfinder campaign. And having run fantasy campaigns in the past, I'm stepping up to learn Starfinder and be our first GM.

So I'm looking at Space Goblins as an interesting adversary. But what are they like? How do you run them in your campaigns? I'm interested in broad categories (Space Goblin law, politics, economics, religion, customs, favorite sayings, quirky behavior, education/intelligence level, motivations, favored tactics, favored weapons, and even a short history of how they came to be). Where are most Space Goblins now? What are their future goals?

And if you can point me to some references (official books/adventures or homebrew), that would be helpful, too.

(and I realize that they can vary depending on the person's campagin... I'm just casting a wide net to gather all the ideas I can get so I can start planning)

When can we expect an Errata update on Starfinder?

At the last GenCon (September 2019), the developers talked about a running 'in-house' list of errata for Starfinder. I'm just wondering when will such a list be released to the general public?

Any suggestions on where to find starship miniatures for ship combat on the hex grid?

I'm looking for:
1. Cheap starting packs (bulk; plastic is okay for starting)
2. Eventually, nice ships (singles; metal with hex stand)

I don't really like the Pawns. Yes, the artwork is very good and relatively inexpensive, but I'm a traditional "RPG miniature" person.

I'm fairly new to Starfinder and I'm trying to understand the game setting of the Pact Worlds. I know the campaigns are set to begin in 317-318. Once the Gap happened, and Galorian disappeared, did that mean most of human civilization disappeared, too?

I know Absalom Station has a little over 2 million people by 317-318, but are there no other human colonies? Are dwarves and halflings an endangered species now? Have elves, formians, and lashuntas carved up Castrovel for themselves?

I'm wondering if humans are now looking for a new home (since Galorian is gone), or have they established colonies throughout the Pact Worlds, or do they have established settlements in the Pact Worlds, Near Space, and the Vast? And are there different human governments? I'm trying to understand the political, economic, and cultural situation of the human race from the time of the Gap to 317-318.

Thanks in advance for your assistance and insights.