Sebastian Hirsch's page

Mr. Fred wrote:

I'll have a question, Jim, You mentioned that you will stop producing PFS/SFS foundry modules, to my understanding, it's not profitable enough hence constitue a financial Risk and I am sad to hear about it. Does this will apply as well on Foundry modules like adventures and adventures Paths ?

I'm not Jim, but no. While we are placing future Foundry modules for Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society on hold for the time being (note that the current ones will continue to receive regular content updates through the end of the season), our plans for future Adventure Path releases, standalone adventures, token packs, etc. have not changed.

Is there a good way of giving feedback from the people that have bought other Foundry modules but not the org play ones, despite running org play?

Karai Snillore wrote:

While I am having the same response as most, and hope the best for Paizo and it's staff, my brain and eyes can't help but drift to this. Are they saying 3rd party individuals will be able to publish Society Scenarios with paizo? Like anyone can just, post a scenario and it will be good as long as it fits the guidelines?

With the generic sanctioning document for Starfinder (and no reason a similar one can't exist for Pathfinder), the mechanics of sanctioning third party content should not be difficult. My question, as someone who also games in the video way, is what sort of quality control there might be. If Infinite is filled with Society-legal shovelware, that is going to discourage people from playing Society and maybe drive them to other systems. On the other hand, checking all these offerings takes resources which Paizo might not have to spare right now.

Yeah I feel for Paizo as this was caused by bad actors outside of their control and layoffs are rough at the best of times, but the org play changes and how they could be dealt with.. occupy my thoughts.

**EDITED BY MEC 6/9/2026 TO REMOVE AN UNPROVEN RUMOR**

My gut instinct is that this ability is there more as set dressing or those crude cutout backdrops in theatre productions with a lower budget.

While I think the class could use some more power, I would rather see this power get expanded a fair bit with significantly more word count, or reduced to essentially the effects of a cantrip.

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

I am working on my own reaction to the playtest but yeah the class is very complicated, and has so many reactions and free actions... I honestly know players that would just be overwhelmed playing this class, and that would be a bad experience at the table.

While I might arrange a shorter oneshot for someone to test the class, right now I would just ban it from my games and continue my life, it is too much work for the players and GM at this point.

Do you ban buffers/debuffers more generally? The amount of engagement here seems pretty trivial and not all that distinct from what like, a bard does, except minus all the spellcasting so even less.

I agree that in its current state the role mechanic seems overly wordy but banworthy seems like... a lot for how little is actually going on there.

I try to dedicate somewhat equal time to all of my players, and while not every player is equally fast at doing their turns and making their choices, I personally thinks that combat in particular should run fast as in my experience players seem to zone out when it takes too much time between their turns.

In that context I am not a fan of abilities or mechanics that take a lot of time to resolve, or disrupt the flow too much abd force me to spend a lot of focus, attention and time on a single player as there is a point where that become unfair to the others.
Another thing I am not a big fan of is having abilities that require other players to react, speak up, or not use them part of the reason I was not a fan of the commander class as all of those tiny delays tend to degrade the experience for me.

This is not even about finishing sessions or adventures faster, I just think there are more enjoyable things than waiting.

It has been a while since I started my last set of APs but personally I have would need players to make an amazing case for me to want to have to deal with investigator, thaumaturge, commander, and I guess this new class.
There are certainly ways to minimize the impact of those issues but... I have run 5 books of an AP for a player with an investigator and while that player was very experienced he still took forever to resolve his turn, partially because the core mechanic of that class often had him switch to a plan B that was not fully formed.

I have played TTRPGs for decades, Paizo's org play for more then 10 years at this point... which is why these days I am more pro-active in limiting experinces that wear me down.

Of course it is all very much a matter of personal taste, but at the end of the day so is someone's choice of hobby or even a particular TTRPG.

I struggled to write this post, but I feel like I have managed to communicate my concerns.
“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter”, very much applies here.

Initial reaction

When I started reading the class I got excited by hardlight and hologram sidebar, because that is a rather cool sci fi element I am interested in. Unfortunately shortly after that element got me excited the class introduces itself as something that admittedly feels like a very specialized class/archetype, something that I would have expected to be released several years after the Player Core and not … while the system only has 8 classes.

That does not mean that the final result is not going to be appealing just that I and I guess some others might have been looking forward to classes that serve in a different role, after all this is the 3rd Starfinder class that uses Charisma as a key ability score.

Weirdly if you skip past most of the spotlight and role rules… There are some cool hardlight effects in there, and I would love if that was a legit way to play the class without really interacting with the roles and spotlight.
After all if you work in with sculptures, setting them up and having them lit properly is also an expression of art, I would like to see more support for players that want to engage with this aspect of the class please.

Complexity and interruptions

My main issue as someone that GMs significantly more than he gets to play is the complexity of this class at the table and the mental load/chores this add to the GM’s workload.
I have run PF2 and SF2 at various levels and know that these games can get rather fiddly especially if you include certain spells, and if your party has a lot of reactions that trigger reliably .

The design of this class includes a lot of potential interruptions to the game as the Luminary needs to move the spotlight, and this can’t really be automated because it is a choice to move it. Once you have more than one spotlight to move things can get even more complex.

A lot of the reactions in the game have a rather specific trigger, like getting hit, a champion’s reaction, counterspell and GMs will know to give the player a moment to react when they come up… the Luminary at level 3 gets a reaction to Set a Spotlight and that triggers at the start of every creature’s turn that does not currently have the spotlight.

Since roles and spotlights matter and might affect how the GM or other players can resolve their turn.. so the start of most turns will have a tiny pause to see if the Luminary wants to use their reaction… and those delays add up and are a negative change to the game.
The class also has a number of other reactions and gets more reactions at higher levels, we saw a the potential for a similar setup for the Envoy class during the original playtest and it was not a good experience for the table.

Offline, I could see a player mark their spotlight visa markers/token rings etc. and a substantial set of printed out cards to manage the buffs, and debuffs/roles, though it gets more complicated once players unlock the ability to adjust them.

Online, at least in the VVT of my choice, a lot of those roles and (despite me trying otherwise) the spotlight a lot of this will need to be applied to the enemies by the GM…. long term macros etc. might help but that is not a level of work that I am personally interested in adding to my plate. Unless the workload changes I am not looking forward to having that class in my games, this is supposed to be fun and not a second job.

I hope development finds a way to play the class in a fashion that is less complex and involves fewer interruptions.

Theming and flavor:

This never really bothered me that much before but I feel like the stylings and flavor that is injected into this class really is less agnostic than it has been for other classes like Operative and Soldier.
While I have seen a lot of rather silly Starfinder characters over the years, that usually involved a player taking something serious like an operative and turning it into a cosplaying streamer that likes to look tougher than he really is (my own character). In SFS1 characters like that often included fun hireling that added more RP and expression potential which also involves adding flavor to a rather straightforward option.

For the first time, though I would not be surprised if this is a trend, the class already tends to be a bit ridiculous, maybe we all got over the point that bards just start singing to inspire their allies in battle, but I have heard similar feedback from some locals. In a serious adventure, where players are essentially sent on special ops missions… bringing the fashionista certainly creates a level of narrative dissonance.

The roles mechanic might also interact negatively with other peoples RP, and perception, people do tend to complain about other players messing with their presentation, but getting cast in the Romance role… feel different to that.
Of course the way things are written the player can likely not even accept the role at all, but I suspect that might cause unnecessary friction, where some generic “protective hardlight effect that needs the light to activate” might be more palatable.

As is, it almost feels like a group needs to buy into having this class at the table (somewhat similar to the Commander class), which is not really something that applies to most classes.

Feast like Comic Relief have a very real chance to really mess with the tone of an adventure or the GMs style of running the game.

Feats like Blooper inject the same sort of comedic tone into the game and … … I have issues with the idea of the BBEG slipping on a banana peel, as that also has the potential for changing the tone.

Right now I have listed a couple of reasons why I would be apprehensive at having the class at the table and if I have some input which players try to play it, but on the flipside… I am not seeing a lot of reasons to have the class present.

Supporters like bards have historically always felt like a third wheel or a 5th player, but considering the classes and the demands of most adventuring parties … I think the luminary is not really adding a lot at this point, any only a single platform adds some much needed healing in a system without a lot of focus spell healing.

I do not expect the tech core classes to add a lot of healing options either.

I guess if you have access to everything that exists in PF2 to fill out the large gaps Starfinder currently has (seriously summoning spells just do not work without PF2 at this point, Alien Core just did not cover enough basics/level ranges) this is just yet another class to throw on the pile.
If you are playing org play or your GM is just not allowing PF2 options… I am not sure if the Luminary is adding a lot of the things I have seen people asking/hope for.

Break A Leg… I have gotten through all the witch and misfortune material in PFS1 and I think that effects like that are pretty miserable. Players certainly seem to curse every time an adventure includes a lesser death, and for the GM, it gets old really fast particularly if the effect is applied without a saving throw or the incapacitation trait.

Conclusion

Right now I would not be willing to let a player play this class in one of my non-org play games, and while I have the right to not allow the class at the table before it is actually printed and published properly - I am more than apprehensive for the final release.

I really want to like the class, I even have a character concept but, the current state of things is not something I have the spoons to engage with any more, and I am optimistic that development changes that.

I am working on my own reaction to the playtest but yeah the class is very complicated, and has so many reactions and free actions... I honestly know players that would just be overwhelmed playing this class, and that would be a bad experience at the table.

While I might arrange a shorter oneshot for someone to test the class, right now I would just ban it from my games and continue my life, it is too much work for the players and GM at this point.

The previewed changes look promising, though I am reserving the right to be excited once we can actually see them ^^

I am however curious about Arvin in the artwork is he some sort of spellcaster?

I am really annoyed by this unpleansantly late announcement, I had already planned to run this adventure online, seems it will just take me more time to prep it.

Similarly to how Paizo only released physical pawn packs for an AP when it was fully releases, I doubt that releasing the Foundry version later will have the same impact as making it availble on release.

Having already run Murder in Metal City online and offline, having run all the SFS2 scenarios offline... I am not really in the market for Guilt of the Graveworld, it is just not what I am looking for right now.

So my options are to do something more tedious and prep it myself or look for another game to play or run.

I am dissapointed that this was not communicated earlier.

I just made 2 separate purchases, in one order, I bought the PF2E Tokens: Monster Core and Starfinder Token Pack: Alien Core (Foundry VTT). Everything worked out as far as I can tell, the codes were a gift for someone and I have sent them to the recipient.

Then I bought Alien Core Foundry code for myself but the Library just.. replaced the already existing code there with a new one.

Now I have forwarded the first gift codes already, and claimed the second one, but if I had not done it in this precise order, the first code would not be visible to me anymore, likely necessitating an email to customer service.

That felt like a bug worth reporting.

The review system has lost many features. Could we please get back the following?

- Ability to edit/update a review: mistakes happen.
- linking reviews to your account so readers can find other reviews written by the same person
- Ability to format your reviews, currently, even if you are reposting a properly formatted review (bold text, spoiler tags, paragraphs), it turns into a huge, very hard-to-read block of text. This makes it next to impossible to write nuanced reviews that anyone would actually bother reading.
- limit the ability to post a review to people who are logged into a store account

Congratulations to the new campaign coin recipients and PF2 Glyph GMs, particularly Kwinten Koëter and Nils Janson ^^

This page shows an image for the SF2 Alien Core Foundry token pack, but there is no link, and I can't find a product page https://store.paizo.com/virtual-tabletop/starfinder-accessories/
That sounds like a bug, considering the product is already on sale via the Foundry Marketplace.

I am looking forward to some player options relating to those dragons

When I tried to download the pdf of the recent Starfinder Warframe colab, it shows up twice in the new store library page, neither actually includes the pdfs.

At this point, it seems like there is no button to preview a review, which would be a helpful addition (and the ability to dod spoiler tags if they are not available in some fashion)

Physical and pdf version now being on two different product pages is going to be really confusing.. also related... how will that work out with reviews are the physical books and pdfs going to have different review scores?

The new website has changed the country of some of my addresses to the United states .. I guess that has a massive potential to mess with all of the international customers.

I've got 643 reviews (and counting) up, and I would hate for them to vanish in a blink.

Just in case, I had good results going to the "my reviews page" in my profile and printing the entire page as a pdf with Chrome... pretty fast, but you need to check if the text is still selectable.

Thanks for letting us know, this is a good reminder for me to go save my reviews since I was on vacation when the last blog went out.

Was there any resolution reached on migrating reviews and having 'verified'/unverifieid reviews as mentioned being discussed here?

Same question, though I also archived my reviews.

I managed to download it again, and the 60+ MB package worked for me, while a slightly higher resolution for the various artworks included in the pdf is a bit low/more compressed, I know where to find them online, or equally likely, a staggering amount of cool fan art, the Warframe community is pretty creative.

When it comes to the map, honestly, I like the choices here: you can buy the flip maps (slight variations like no ship on one), which is very convenient for those who want a physical map but struggle to print, or you can print them yourself or show them on a VTT/big screen on your table (the dream for many gamers).

I am pretty happy with the package and will use this opportunity to showcase SF2 and Warframe to more people.

(Need to write a review, but after looking over the protoframes, this is very much what I expected and hope for, and ... ... like many Warframe players, I am looking for versions for my own favorites ).

I was busy GMing, but having snatched parts of the Warframe Twitch stream... pretty cool to have more people exposed to this game.

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

Thank you Maya having a precise time makes the waiting more bearable ^^

You're very welcome! We're just glad you're so excited!! ^_^

Actually, having downloaded it, while I appreciated the alterations to the existing flip maps used, I really would like to use them for VTT use or print them but all the graphics in the pdfs are pretty rough-looking. Likely while the thing is under 3 MB.

Can you maybe ask if we can get an updated version, this is looking rougher than I am used to from Paizo, and looks a bit ... unpolished for what I hope to be a good partnership.

GuySmile wrote:

Fair point. I just wouldn't expect something to change to 'unavailable' and not just still be listed as before. (I am assuming that the lack of ability to add to the cart is a time zone issue as they are Pacific US.)

I have asked! A couple things here:

1. Our website does not allow for pre-orders for digital goods, which is why the PDF says unavailable. It will become available at the time of product launch.

2. The time of product launch is 9:01AM PT! This is in a little less than 30 minutes from now. Both versions, physical and digital, will be available then.

Crisis averted!

Thank you Maya having a precise time makes the waiting more bearable ^^

Why is it yesterday the PDF was listed as available today and physical pre-order as unavailable, but today the PDF is unavailable but you can now pre-order the physical book ... though there's no release date? And no way to add it to the cart....

It might be a time zone's issue, while it is afternoon on release day here, Paizo workers might still be drinking their first coffee. I would give it some time, even if the physical version is a surprise and maybe a mistake.

Interesting thread, I think a lot of very reasonable concerns and pain points were mentioned.

One thing that has become apparent to me is that some of the newer Paizo pdfs have ballooned in size (particularly looking at SF2, but some AP volumes have also gotten to quite the size), which can be overwhelming to some older devices (like my old phone and tablet).

Unfortunately, that is where not having everything in a single pdf can be an issue, pre-loading a single pdf with a certain number of pages can work even on older devices, but having to switch between different pdfs to access the stat blocks of different creatures... at that can really slow you down, even if your phone/tablet device is of a more recent make.

Thus far, statblocks (but unfortunately not a copy of the elite/weak templates) were included in SFS2 scenarios (and they were using variants/custom enemies most of the time anyway), but I am expecting the issue of stat blocks to eventually become an issue once Alien Monster Core is released. I am not exactly looking forward to it, but it will be nice for people to actually be able to summon things.

Zaister wrote:

I take it this is not canon to the Starfinder Universe, right?

Nope! Also, to note, I heard that the product WON'T be released under the ORC license, so all content in it will use standard copyrights (and thus any stat blocks probably won't be in AoN or any other online SRDs).

That will make it harder to run on Foundry, but not impossible, just more prep, still quite unfortunate.

Thought I had posted in favor of this already, but apparently not.

I am aware of no good reason not to do this, and frankly, this thread is full of good reasons to consider doing this.

It is nice to see updates to chronicle sheets, but I am frankly shocked that nobody fixed that low-resolution image in 1-06, and I was already unpleasantly surprised that it was released in this state.

I am not aware of a single argument against allowing slow track, particularly with the (somewhat controversial) option to create up to level 7 characters.

It would be nice if the new store prevented you from gifting a pdf to someone who already had it. That happened to me once a couple of years ago, and it still feels bad.

Purging all the old reviews is shocking news, and even more so to see that it was hidden on page 2 of a discussion.

Congratulations James, it was a pleasure to do your evaulation ^^

I am beyond excited for this, even got me back into Warframe.

Looking up, I might have said the same before but that was ... a couple dozen hours of Warframe ago, even broke down and bought the skins for the protoframes..

I am extremely excited for this, absolutely did not see this coming yet it's such a wonderful fit

Displaying "verified purchase" next to a review by someone who has actually purchased the product, potentially with a toggle a viewer has to press to actually see all the unverified reviews - sounds like a fair compromise here.

Related to that, over the years, I often had to purchase products for players without a credit card, or for my GMs, I am assuming that a gifted purchase, or someone redeeming a Humble Bundle code, also qualifies them to give a review? Anything else would be pretty silly.

At the end of the day, I fear that limiting the ability to give feedback via reviews is just going to cause people to voice that sentiment in other places, and thus far, "leave a review, they read those" was a good way to limit players from complaining while still at the table.

Not entirely sure if players starting a thread or several complaining about something in the org play section is going to make the forums more pleasant, though that is usually the area where GMs have to run things as written, and feedback tends to be rather direct.

I had the pleasure of evaluating Kishmo, absolutely one of the best SFS1 GMS out there, if you ever have the option of playing at his tables, I can very much recommend the experience.

I am anything but thrilled about rewarding people to follow Paizo on a lot of platforms, that feels more like something a free-to-play game would do.

There are other aspects I do not love but those get the strongest gut reaction right now.

It's a horrible story. I hope the many affected publishers make it out of this crisis. This really is the time to support them for those who can.

I struggle to really interact with the story as the art just screams troll to me, but to be honest, I prefer the artist's older pieces (like stuff done in 2007), the more recent works are not my cup of tea.

LiaElf76 wrote:

there’s absolutely no way for Paizo to account for what hundreds of different groups might have done.

This would be a substantially more compelling argument if there weren't an entire rest of the planet they could have picked to set this scenario at where this problem didn't arise.

I just shared this blog with the group I ran AOA for and every single one of them got angry about it.

Yeah, all my my AOA players were either confused or unhappy about it as well, really a peculiar choice.

Lovely to see that the team has gotten a great new addition, welcome Aras, I swear that we can be normal... sometimes ^^

Having run Age of Ashes, the starting adventure location and plot are wild to me.

DeadGators wrote:

DemonicDem wrote:

How will we prove we played the playtest? I played it 3 times.

And thank god for starting at higher levels. Low-level play is just not fun for me.

Your GMs will have reported your participation during each game you played, just like in Society play.

Bit confused about your phrasing, though. There are six different playtest adventures, two of which are not one-shots.

There isn't anywhere to report SF2 playtest. You just get a sheet with check boxes

The GM can report the session of the playtest as long as it is one of the 4 scenarios, Empires Devoured or a Cosmic Birthday. If reported it should show up in the players sessions.

The only thing the playtest does not have are chronicle sheets - this one just has a tracking sheet, but if the sessions are properly reported that one also feels like something the GM does not need to be involved with.

I might be able to cancel my credit card, I only had it to buy stuff on Paizo.com.

Back in the old days when it was not completely nonsensical (shipping to he EU got real expensive and the local taxation setup changed), I liked having subscriptions, but these days getting the physical book at all might be a downside.

A lot of very promising changes, personally I fear that the Envoy change is a distinct power increase but in our playtesting we often had an operative that made enemies off-guard so I can see why they went into this direction.

As I am still running playtests, it would be nice to get a couple of these changes spelled out as rules, so the transition to the final rules is less jarring.

I was excited for an AP that lets people take on Tanglebriar, but the Razmiran character on the temp cover is giving me pause.

There might be reasons for it, but it is certainly something to talk with your local VO about. It might also be the case that the GMs find it easier to see the dice than you calling out the number - or there might have been issues or worries about people cheating.

Or maybe try some online gaming, where using a VTT is perfectly normal, and people wanting to roll their own dice are the minority.

It's a solid video, but I really did not vibe with that feedback about the mystic, though I can fully admit that the current method is not sacred.I can totally see that you could remake the pool with charges that heal X per charge and recover a charge per turn etc. though personally I really want to keep the aspect of recharging the pool.

The way the recharge scales is may be something to consider.

Yeah, he is your point of contact and gets players out of jail if the bank heist does not work out as planned, I would spend a bit of effort on setting it up, but beyond that, once the players are in the elevator that setup story has done it's job.

Congratulations to the campaign coin recipient and the 5 donut GMs, org play would be a shadow of itself without talented and motivated volunteers like you.

Special callout to Charlene, it has been a delight to see your GM skills improving over the last couple of years, and the recognition is more than deserved.