Sharkbite's page

There are no new player-facing options in this book.

Thank you kindly for taking the time to answer. As a convention regular, I purchase everything with character options, because I've been called upon at tables to produce books and show GMs obscure options. One of my great fears is neglecting to buy a random book that seems innocent enough, like an AP, and then later wanting to use a spell or piece of equipment or background, but not owning the book and not being able to get a copy as it's out of print.

By way of sanctioning, I know Adventures no longer count for Organized Play. I also realize that this book is set outside of the traditional Starfinder setting.

Do character options appearing in this book (feats, spells, equipment, ancestries, etc.) appear valid for Organized Play character options?

I know nothing about Warframe and won't likely play the adventure for no Organized Play credit when it doesn't include any Starfinder official lore or story I need to keep up on.

But if there's going to be an Ancestry or some feats/spells/equipment or something that are only accessible by owning the PDF, I'll get it just so that I'm not missing options.

Pretty famously, when a certain other company leaked their newest edition plans and got utterly crucified on the public opinion, there was an important distinction that was identified.

The GMs for tabletop roleplaying games generally spends roughly 10x as much money as the players. GMs buy books, not just ones with character options, but also ones with world-building and lore. The GMs buy the maps. The GMs buy hundreds of miniatures, while the players buy just a handful to cover their own characters. The GMs buy these adventures and scenarios. The player just shows up with their character sheet and plays.

The GM is spending a ton of extra money, and also devoting a ton of extra time into preparing the game. More time, more effort, more energy, more money.

A company named Paizo said they wanted to do business in a different manner than that other company. Instead of trying to fleece their GMs, punishing and taking advantage of their biggest supporters, Paizo wanted to treat their GMs well. So they created a GM Incentive Program which was designed to reward the person who contributes so much more.

And by doing so, many players who would have normally been content to just be players, instead became motivated to GM, at least on occasion. Paizo had a brilliant system that rewarded people for GMing, so it didn't always have to be the "Forever GM". This allowed an ability to spread the responsability around, to avoid burn-out, and to be a little bit kinder to the people who make these games happen.

Except, with Starfinder 2E, those GMs no longer matter. The game is fine without them. They aren't important. Having somebody around to run the games is no longer important. Nobody else should bother to take a turn.

At Crittercon, my convention GM dropped out of our game 2 weeks before the convention. They put out the word and searched for anyone willing to run the SF2 scenario that had a full group of players ready.

NOBODY was willing. With two weeks to prepare, nobody would fill that spot. So the day of, a bunch of players showed up, hopping into a channel, and then one by one left feeling disappointed. Nobody was willing to do it.

And why should they? Why would anybody want to pay money, buy a scenario, and then invest time and effort into preparing to run it for strangers, when there's nothing they get in return?

Paizo has built a very strongly built community based on good decisions like the GM Incentive Program, the Retail Incentive Program, and a robust Organized Play system. The number one thing that I hear people say about GMing is that they enjoy that extra Hero Point, a Hero Point that they do not get for themselves, but that they instead get to share with other players.

Paizo's way is great.

So... wouldn't it be better if Paizo did things the Paizo way? You know, instead of trying to be more like ... the other company that views GMs only as a resource to be exploited.

As someone who's only GM'd a few games so far, 2 in SF1e and 1 in SF2e, I'm not driven by how many of symbles I get next to my name, but at least being able to get that first one means a lot to at least show I'm a GM, and involved in organized play.

I'm not a big fan of character death. I get it happens and will happen, so the GM reward of getting more hero points to give the players is a HUGE incentive for me. Not just for avoiding character death, but also for having extra hero points when you have new players at the table.

Precisely.

It's not about bragging or showing off.

But simple things like additional Hero Points for PF2, or the +Nova reroll in SF1, were able to be game-changers in a tight situation.

And since none of that is permitted in SF2, it would be nice if the work we put into GMing in SF2 counted SOMEWHERE. Otherwise, why wouldn't I just GM something else where I actually get credit for it?

Sharkbite wrote:

It would be nice if running games for SFS2 actually counted towards something, instead of, you know, telling us that running the SFS2 content isn't worth anything.

It does. It counts for all of the players at your tables you have ran. It counts for the AcP you get. And it counts for the self recognition of what you have done and provided. That you have selflessly volunteered your time X times.

Yes. The INCENTIVE program was eliminated.

It now counts for "You did it X times".

But it does NOT count for "You are earning something by doing it."

I personally suspect this is a strong contributor in why we have next to no games being offered for even the newest of SF2 content. There are mobs of players signing up for spots in a matter of minutes, but there are not GMs that are wanting to run it, at least not at the rate the players want to play it.

Because there's really nothing in it for the GMs.

The GM Incentive Program was a great customer service way that Paizo previously used to recognize their GMs and provide the GMs a zero-cost compensation for the time and effort they put in to providing these games for the community.

My polite request remains. Since these tables do not count for anything, could they either count towards SF1 (the way that the SF2 Playtest tables did), or could they count towards PF2 (because the rules are essentially the same and so they reflect a similar level of proficiency in running the game).

Or, I guess we could continue to tell the GMs that any effort running games right now serves no purpose, but SOMEDAY there will be some future program... and all the work we're doing right now doesn't count towards that.

And then we can just hope that people feel motivated by a desire to do no reward work, instead of running, for example, SF1 or PF2 content where their efforts will actually be rewarded.

Since the GM Incentive Program was eliminated for SF2, would it be possible to either:

1. Give credit for SF2 tables towards the SF1 Novas, the way that SF2 Playtest tables counted, so we can continue working on our Novas while running the new content players want.

OR

2. Give credit for the SF2 tables towards the PF2 Glyphs, since the rules of the systems are the same and both reflect essentially an understanding and equal effort towards that same rule set.

It would be nice if running games for SFS2 actually counted towards something, instead of, you know, telling us that running the SFS2 content isn't worth anything.

Oops. Sorry. I already started running it. I guess I jumped the gun a bit.

My physical copy arrived today.

Where do we find the Sanctioning Chronicle?

Will this count towards Starfinder Society GM tables?

Since Starfinder 2e isn't getting any GM incentive program, it would be nice if the Starfinder 2e tables still counted towards our Starfinder 1e Novas.

I still feel like we don't have such a flood of GMs that the GM Incentive Program needed to be eliminated. But I suppose Paizo has the metrics on their side and must have realized that too many people wanted to be the GMs and nobody really wanted to be the players, so they needed to remove the very small reward for GMing.

If feels like just putting the URL on the new player cards would be an easy fix and great courtesy to those players, so they aren't stuck stabbing around blindly through a website they've never visited.

A very small quality-of-life change that would help new players to get registered for organized play.

I expected there would eventually be pregens for Mechanic and Technomancer.

I guess I just presumed that since we were told they would not be in the Player Core, but they were society legal at launch using the Playtest Rules, that we'd get a pregen for them.

When running demos at the local shop and trying to teach new players, I've found a lot of my players enjoy trying out the various pregens before settling on what they actually want to play. I had hoped we'd get the pregen for the additional two launch classes by launch.

I've seen 1-6's, which typically grant 1 level per 2 levels of the AP.

I was just a bit confused to see an AP with an odd number of levels, wondering how it's going to split in half.

For Organized Play purposes, how many true levels are granted by applying the Credit for running a 5 level adventure?

Previously, a 2 level book gave 1 true level for the chronicle, but Starfinder has never had a 5 level adventure book before.

Minor request.

The pregen characters that are included, could those Character Sheets be designed like the actual Pregen characters on the website, instead of like the versions in Free RPG Day?

You know, with the descriptions of exactly what the abilities do already included on the card, without having to double over to a different book.

It's a silly little thing, but when it comes to level 1 Pregens, I've found them most frequently used to teach new players. Experienced people who know what those abilities do, they brought their own character most of the time.

And as a regular Convention GM at live cons, having a couple of heavy cardstock versions that actually have the instructions to help you play the character, that is massively valuable when trying to teach a new player without slowing down the table too much for everyone else.

Are there Mechanic and Technomancer pregen characters?

Going to politely mention a few things I suppose the development team did not think about.

1. Lack of Novas for GMs "to avoid GM Burnout" seems to already be a self-correcting problem. You see, getting the 5th Nova doesn't just require 150 tables. It also requires running 50 different scenarios (and there won't be 50 different scenarios for likely over 2 years). Additionally, it requires running 10 of the specific Nova scenarios, which are either multi-table specials or specifically chosen high level content. Since there is no high level content, and there is no multi-table special at least until next year, this is also impossible.

In short, GMs literally cannot burnout trying to race to the end, because there is not enough resources to reach the end. At best they can race to the middle. GM burnout is not a concern with the launch of a new system, because those GM novas are impossible to get at least for a couple of years.

However, if what we are doing now actually counts, then when there finally are enough different scenarios that it can be done, players are already a portion of the way there, so the "race" to get to the end isn't starting at ground zero.

In short, by giving GMs zero credit now, you actually create the situation of burn-out when the system goes live later. If you allowed us to get GM credit now, then when the 5th Nova becomes available, players don't burn-out trying to get there because they already have a year in as a head start.

2. Without Novas, the Hero Point system never offers us those extra Hero Points. Having GM Glyphs is frequently an important part of playing high level scenarios, being able to bring extra rerolls to the table. Starfinder is denied access to those, regardless of how many tables GMs have run.

3. Since boons are allegedly going to be "affordable" with a suggestion of 10% or less than the price in previous system, what the heck is a GM supposed to actually DO with the ACP? When the ACP is literally the only reward, it will be important to have something that we can spend it on. Otherwise we cap out early, and there is literally zero incentive to spending our money to buy scenarios that we then spend our time to prepare and run, all for the privilege of some unneeded ACP and the exact same chronicle that we could have got as a player, but without the chance to actually play our character.

Like many of the questionable decisions you've made about Starfinder 2E, I hope the neglect-the-GMs mission statement is one that you rethink sooner, rather than later.

So for Free RPG Day, I was able to run the Starfinder 2e table a couple of times. Several new players tried out the game, since our local lodge of existing players overwhelming have rejected the 2nd Edition rules.

While introducing new players into Organized Play, I ran into the same problem multiple times.

I hand them the business card with the organized play number that they can register. It has a code on it that they can input to register the number.

It does NOT have:

The Website where they need to go to register it.

So on every card, I have to handwrite www.paizo.com on the back.

And then I get players who go to the website, create an account, and that's it. By registering their email and making a Paizo account, they think that they are done, without entering their Organized Play code.

Would it be possible to put the full link to the Register Your Organized Play Code page on the card?

Already with more than half of my players, I have to keep their Organized Play numbers recorded in my binder of players at the comic shop for the purpose of reporting, because they don't frequent the website. But the way those cards are laid out actually causes many of the players to fail to even register it in the first place, thinking they are done just by logging into the Paizo website.

It feels like a small ask. Can we put the website on those cards, so that new players know WHERE to go to register, instead of just what to enter after blindly stabbing around hoping to find it.

I've liked most of the things I've played with.

Thaumaturge would probably have been my favorite if it weren't for the occasional "GM doesn't know how Esoteric Lore/Diverse Lore works so he won't allow what my class is supposed to do."

So instead, I'd say probably Battledancer Swashbuckler has been the overall most positive experience. Leading Dance to keep forcing the enemies into flanking positions, and then the big finisher when you've got the best possible chance of hitting.

Premaster, Superstition Barbarian. Playing that was a giant middle finger to anyone in the party playing magical support/healer, like a Bard. It was annoying to have one in the group and to have to work around them. The new version is much, much less annoying since now it's "saving your life with Heal makes you Frightened 1 instead of making you either refuse it or leave the group or just let you die."

Anything like that where it's sabotaging someone else in the group to have you along is something I really dislke.

My 2001 is a premaster Superstition Barbarian and I've found that he works great in virtually every group, including alongside casters.

The Superstition Barbarian needs to be self-sufficient. It's that simple. Take Medicine and Battle Medicine (yes, your int suffers so you're a couple levels behind the curve, but it's fine). Take Robust Health. Make sure you take the potions as your Provisions instead of the way everyone wants to grab the scroll and hand it to the caster. Pick up some healing items, like Grub Gloves.

The Superstition Barbarian in no way hinders the rest of the party. If anything, having one is freeing to the rest of the party. Bard wants to cast Courageous Anthem... then do it. I just don't benefit from it. The rest of the party does, and it doesn't hurt you in the slightest.

You're a healing Cleric, and you're mad that I don't want your healing. Well... why? Do you literally feel so useless that healing me is the only thing you can do on your turn? You have nothing else productive to contribute? I'm not sabotaging you; I'm freeing up your turn to do literally any other thing that you might want. I mean, seriously, would you accuse me of "sabotaging" you if the enemies missed me and I didn't take damage? In what world does not needing you to heal me equate to me screwing you over?

The premaster Superstition Barbarian has a great function that too frequently the players ignore. When they rage, they recover Hit Points equal to the Temporary Hit Points gained. Frequently, I do not rage on Round 1. Instead, I charge into position and start wading through with damage, and then, after I take my first significant hit, I rage. I enjoy the higher AC at the start of combat for damage avoidance, and then I take advantage of the heal when I rage (instead of it happening when we're already full right at initiative).

But none of this hurts your action at all.

What would you be doing if the Barbarian wasn't on your team? Do that.

A properly built Superstitious Barbarian should either be self-sufficient, or should have another player they regularly team with whom can be taking care of them via Medicine. As a random Organized Play party, treat a Superstition Barbarian like a pet. Ignore them, let them do their own thing, and don't waste your resources on trying to babysit them.

I have been really, really struggling with the Witch. To the degree that it is incredibly discouraging and makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong, but there seem to be no practical guides that explain how to PLAY, just some general ranking of abilities to vaguely guide how to build.

From the beginning, there is the fundamental issue with low level casters: limited spell slots meaning that you have to be 90% cantrips, and only one focus point. Maybe the all-in approach of having just one or two major spells and then falling back to the weak options would balance out with the Martial classes that are more consistent across the entire combat, if the big spell would actually work. But it feels like because the enemies are built with a design scale that places their stats far above that of players, they always Save and often Critically Save, so my rare chance to contribute meaningfully is most likely negated.

Then there are my Hex's, which trigger abilities off of my familiar, but my familiar is required to be within 15 feet of the enemy, so it just constantly dies. For something that is required to be right there inside of the danger zone, they certainly don't have the ability to survive like the beast pets or the eidolon. In my brain I rationalize it like the beast pets are martial classes, and the witch familiar is more like a wizard: squishy but capable of casting awesome spells. But tactically, a spellcaster isn't required to be within 15 feet of their enemies for their core ability to work. The familiar is perpetually always dead, often killed on a MAP-10 casual swing that wipes them out in a single hit.

I straight up have no clue how this class is supposed to operate to be as competitive as a Martial Class, and I can't even make it work on the level of the basic casters. It just feels all-around inferior in every possible way and impossible to level up except as a tagalong that is begging their comrades to do all of the work and babysit them to keep them alive.

In any other circumstances, I would have written off this class entirely by my 10th adventure of never seeing these things improve. Unfortunately, my wife who does not play often, but does do three conventions per year where she joins me for the weekend and plays games (and actually has fun most of the time), she is adamant about wanting to play a Witch as her next 1-4 character because she loves all those classic Witch movies like Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic. So I must figure out how to play this awful class well enough that I can then teach it to a player whom only tentatively plays and is only truly one frustrating weekend away from quitting PF2 altogether with a "Well, I guess I'm not good at this game. I'll stop coming."

Every other class I've played, there was a clear choice for a "basic" mode that was easy to learn, easy to play, and performed at an acceptable level. Then, by going into deeper and more complicated builds and tactics, players could break that glass ceiling and start to excel. With the Witch, there doesn't seem to be a good learner option, and even with extensive experimenting across other patrons and spells and such, nothing has really performed adequatedly enough for the character to not feel like a burden on the party. "I'm just here to increase your challenge rating; don't expect me to contribute anything meaningful."

Is this a class that doesn't actually come online until level 6+, with a heavy amount of suffering as the cost of entry, or is there something huge that I am missing out on?

"I do not think it means what you think it means." Indigo Montoya

I have absolutely observed the same thing that the Paizo developers have observed; high level tables seem to play less often.

I do not believe this means what Paizo has claimed it means: Starfinder players are less interested in high level content.

Rather, although there is a correlation, I do not believe it is a result of a direct causation.

Evidence that I would look to:

- As a regular GM at several live conventions, overwhelmingly I am asked by coordinators to run high level scenarios. These scenarios have always fired. They are often the fastest things to fill up.

- Looking at PaizoCon as an example, the Starfinder content being offered trends substantially more towards the higher end. The 11-14 Final Assessment scenarios offered filled up faster than any other scenario for Starfinder.

It definitely appears as though the interest in high end content is there.

So why then is low level content running more frequently than high level content?

I politely suggest that it has nothing to do with player interest. In fact, I'm positive that if Paizo did an internal metrics analysis, they would find that an overwhelming majority of Replays are being spent on high level scenarios, supporting the idea that players want to play this content more than any other content, even when they have already played it.

Instead, I would suggest these as the reasons why low level content fires more frequently than high level content.

- Lack of high level repeatables. When dozens of low level scenarios are able to be replayed, but none of the high level scenarios are able to be replayed, Society Players do not have the choice to play high level content as much as they can play low level content. We exhaust the high level content available and are forcibly funneled into low level scenarios with no other options.

- Lack of society legal characters. Level 1-4 content always has the option to make a new character, or had the option to play a Level 1 or Level 4 Pregen. Level 3-6 could play the Level 4 pregen. 5-8 had the level 8 pregen. Level 9-12 and 11-14 required a character that had been fully leveled to that point by legal society play. That means a bare minimum of 24 tables of level 1-8 content before a player qualifies for a level 9 game. Sometimes players simply do not have a character that high. Sometimes, our characters reach level 13 and we do not have an additional character that high. Lack of a legal character does not equate into lack of desire to play.

- Simple math. In a game with linear progression, the results will exclusively taper. What is the most frequently played character level? Level 1. Because not every level 1 character will be continued at level 2, but every level 2 character had to first play level 1. And so on. If we try to interpret this as meaning the most frequently played level is the favorite level for the players to play, the results would suggest that players love to be Level 1. Talk to basically any player and you're going to overwhelmingly hear the contrary, that most do not truly enjoy a character until at least level 3 when customization and basic game abilities like Weapon Specialization come online. The further the player goes, the more customization is available, and the more fun the player seems to have. But because those lower levels are mandatory, they will always be more frequently played because they are REQUIRED.

It seems as though Paizo saw the problem and proposed a solution for which I've heard an overwhelming amount of positivity from the community: the ability to start characters at higher levels. That option to just make a higher level character is a great solution to problems like players not having a character in the proper level range, or even for players who do not want to play at the lower levels and prefer the higher levels, improving player experience.

Additionally, the stance that all content would be repeatable, a second solution is made available to the high end content. If it's repeatable, then we can actually play it more often. I'm sure it's no secret behind the scenes that repeatable scenarios are the most popular scenarios, because GMs are more apt to purchase a scenario they can run more than once, and players are more apt to play a scenario more than once if they are allowed to get credit for it more than once.

You have all the tools in place to make high end content available to all, to solve the problems and let the players enjoy themselves. Freely repeatable high end scenarios, along with the ability to create characters starting in those higher level ranges (there is no reason why you couldn't extend the Start At levels to include 9 when 9-12 scenarios become available, or 11 when 11-14 scenarios become available).

But instead, a because of what I am certain is a misinterpretation of data, you have become convinced that the players do not want the thing that they have been starved for. Just because we weren't always allowed to play high level doesn't mean that we didn't want it. And so cutting it off forever is a very sad, very disappointing stance to take.

Adventure Paths are not a substitute for this. In fact, in my experience, Adventure Paths frequently showcase character stories that are not connected to the Pathfinder/Starfinder Society. Transferring a character OUT of Society Play and into an AP would largely not make sense for most characters.

Being truthful, there were a number of things about the SF2 playtest that I do not like, changes from SF1 where I felt that the original Starfinder simply did it better. My local players at the shop were similarly disappointed... until we got to Empires Devoured. It wasn't until we were playing the level 10 characters that I finally started to be able to get some of them on board with the idea of the change. To convince them that maybe part of the reason why they weren't enjoying the new game was simply because it was a reset to zero, and they liked their high level characters and didn't enjoy shunting back to level one, independent of the game's rules. I was starting to get them excited to give it a shot.

And then you announced that you had forbidden the one thing that they actually seemed to like. That half of the playtesting we had done did not represent what Organized Play would be like, because we weren't going to be allowed to play at those levels.

And with that one fell swoop, you killed all interest in the game again. "Yay. Instead of working through the low levels like a chore so that we can later enjoy the high levels, we get to be stuck in the low levels forever doing chores and NEVER get to enjoy the high levels."

I really do hope this is a decision that you're willing to table discussion on, because it absolutely is hedged up as a barrier for player interest. One of the biggest appeals I've heard that has differentiated Paizo from D&D is that Paizo was not afraid of high level games. So it is very sad that you are now afraid of high level games.

My two favorite characters from 1E were a Nanocyte and an Evolutionist. They were fun classes. It'd be great to see them.

That being said, I'm not looking to re-create the same characters I made before, and easily half of what made them so fun was that they were crazy alien species that I spent a bunch of ACP to unlock and basically never saw anybody else playing.

To give real perspective, I played six playtest games since January. I have seen more Human characters in those six games than I have seen in the past four YEARS of playing Starfinder 1E.

I need more Ancestries, and I need for some of them to not just be vague reskins of existing ones. I don't just want "Star Trek diversity", where everybody looks like a human with one cosmetic difference that is barely noteworthy.

I want "Futurama diversity"! I want aliens that are so un-human that they create an immediate distinction.

And an SRO or Anacite Ancestry for people who want to play robots that are like REAL robots, instead of the almost-human Androids. Nothing wrong with Androids, but they do not scratch the same itch.

Seriously, just two weeks ago I cancelled my Starfinder Subscription and Preordered the Special Edition of the Galaxy Guide for exactly this reason. I wanted the classier looking covers where everything thematically matches.

Great to see that I can re-sub and just get what I wanted in the first place.

Honestly, what I want is a generic "Alien" ancestry.

Kind of a do-it-yourself species with access to several generic Ancestry feats. This frees up the chance for players to roughly recreate their favorite species for 2E right at launch, instead of this strange lack of new alien recruits that occurs with us suddenly getting this incredibly less diverse Society as though hundreds of races just got kicked out of the Starfinder Society and no longer get recruited.

Unless there is a Lore reason why hundreds of species are no longer working as Field Agents, it feels highly inappropriate for hundreds of species to become non-playable. A generic package Alien as a placeholder, accompanied with a "You can retrain out of this ancestry once, to accommodate changes should your Ancestry get a more in-depth release", could fix the problem in the meanwhile.

Choose extra limb and climb speed from a list of options, and here is the budget Maraquoi. Choose Large size and natural weapons, and here is your Uplifted Bear. Choose Large size with extra limb, and you've got an Izalguun.

The lack of diversity is the number one off-putting thing of SF2. I have never seen this many humans before in Starfinder games. The world just got a whole lot more generic, and that definitely needs addressed sooner rather than later.

Just cancelled my Starfinder Subscription so that I can manually buy the Collector's Editions.

It feels strange that the best way to support the game is apparently to NOT use the subscription service.

I too was very confused if this was a new map or a re-release of the previous Space Station.

Honestly, it's one of the changes that is most obnoxious. At least in the eyes of myself and my group of players here.

The previous multi-hand race treatment didn't feel particularly unbalanced to me. A Kasatha lawman walking around with a lethal smallarm, a nonlethal smallarm, and a melee weapon (while also keeping a free hand) still felt fine. Because they still only got one attack as a Standard Action, or two-with-penalty as a Full Round Action.

I directly compared it to Weapon Mounts for Armor Upgrades. Two-handed species could effectively wield more than one weapon at a time, and freely swap between them without it requiring some extra action.

Like most racial abilities, it was something that was easily matched by everyone else through simple equipment upgrades. If you want to have your melee weapon and your ranged weapon out at the same time, you mount one (or do the bayonette mounting on the ranged weapon).

Similar to how Jetpacks allow non-fliers to fly. Hydrojets allow non-swimmers to swim. Various eye upgrades allow people to overcome a lack of low light and darkvision. etc.

There was a simple equipment manner to accomplish the exact same mechanical advantage as multi-arms: carry multiple equipments and have them all be useable at once.

Multi-arms was not granting extra attacks.

This new change of an action to swap arms makes multi-arms feel pointless. Your non-dominant arm is basically just a sheathe, and you still effectively have to waste the action readying the weapon before usage.

It wasn't broken. It didn't need fixing.

I actually quite like it. The importance is distinction.

Dubious Knowledge is not designed for the GM to try and present 2 ideas and for the Player to figure out which is truth and which is false.

Dubious Knowledge reflects two pieces of information and that character believes in BOTH.

It doesn't have to be a good lie; the point isn't to trick the player. The point is that this is misinformation that the Character DOES believe. So you can toss out something stupid, and the player roleplays that their character believes.

"Aha! A Skeleton! Skeletons have brittle bones and are vulnerable to bludgeoning damage. The brittle bones are caused by a calcium deficiency during their mortal lives, so if you throw Milk or Cheese on them... they will be destroyed!"

I feel stupid for asking, but WHERE are the pregen characters found?

I'll be running Playtest #1 at my local comic shop tonight, and looking through the store, the books, and the scenarios, I still cannot find the characters.

I also felt the ending fell flat. I haven't been changing the way it's written, because I want the playtest to actually test as intended.

I honestly think if you were taking the "run to the ship" option, I'd just flip the encounters. Robots first, and then the collapsing shell hazard as a pressure while you're on your way to the ship.

If they're doing the "fix the tower" option, I'd probably have the first tower deliver a data drive or something that just needs installed into an unmodified tower. Collapsing shell on the way to the tower. Then I'd do the robot encounter AT the tower, but with the robots attempting to sunder the data drive to prevent "server corruption". Have the party do the hot potato routine, like the opener in Liberation of Locus-1, or somebody needs to install the drive in the middle of combat (easy Computers check, but requiring 3 action activity).

Does this Adventure use only the maps from the Playtest Pack, or are there other maps I need to pick up in anticipation?

(Or worse still, are there a bunch of custom maps in the book that are never printed in map form, so I'm stuck drawing them all by hand.)

For the life of me, I cannot find where I am supposed to go to purchase the tickets.

I was looking at PF2 races that overlapped already with SF1, and ended up with my initial dabbling being with a Ghoran Envoy. I went with the Lead From The Front mentality where he was actually going to be more in the thick of things, and ended up with Deputy Sumac "Mac" Cornwall, a giant stalk of corn that is a cowboy old west lawman.

I will be running this scenario at Gamehole Con.

I won't get my copy until closer to the Con, but if somebody doesn't mind either posting it here in spoiler tags or shooting me a PM, I'd like to know what I need for miniatures so that I can get them ordered and painted in preparation for the Con.

When people are paying money for the Convention experience and table spots, I feel like it's my duty to make sure that maps and miniatures are on point for the best possible experience.

Do these lengths and patterns also represent your intentions for Starfinder?

A 1-4 multi-table really boxes a lot of characters out.

And given the content, it seems very odd that a multi-table would mobilize a large number of society members but bring none of the veterans for leadership.

"We have an important mission. We're going to need dozens, maybe even hundreds of Starfinders. I need a list of our newest, least experienced, least capable agents for this important work."

Honestly, I would have loved to bring my old Attack of the Swarm character out of retirement and have him throw down with the bugs for one last hurray.

If Ghibrani are being made Always Available, Wayfinders need a new Capstone Boon.

I have no idea where or how to go about this stuff, but the past 5 years I have attended Gamehole Con in Madison, WI. I always play (and often GM) multiple tables, and the event has an attendance in the thousands. It's pretty big.

Yet we never have the Charity Boon Auctions or the Organized Play GM rewards or anything.

How do we go about connecting with Paizo to get that sort of stuff lined up?

Mechanically, it all looks sound enough. It'll work like it does in PF2, as I suspected.

Thematically though, at least from this first impression, the Cantina is closed for business. The emphasis appears to be on making a smaller number of species that have more robust variety of options.

And while mechanically that is great for player customization, when it comes to the FEEL of the world, it is decidedly less diverse.

20 Androids that are slightly different is not the same thing as 10 different alien species.

Ideally, seeing how this undermines so much of what makes Starfinder unique, I would really like to see some sort of Legacy compatibility.

You know that Optional Stamina rule? Can we do that with Legacy species? A very simple base translation that allows most, if not all, Legacy races to be ported forward to 2E in their previous state until the point when 2E can catch up and accommodate them with proper revisions.

I would hate to feel like 95% of all species just got booted out of the Starfinder Society for some reason that rigidly follows the lines of race. "Look at all our diversity! We no longer allow most races to join us, but that Android is slightly different than this one."

Support heavy Envoys have been many of my favorite characters.

I get it that some people want to play a more combat-centric role. I just want to make sure there remain options for people who want to be more Support and less Combat-y.

At a certain point, when other classes say "I wish we were more like the Soldier or Operative", we have to consider the option of "Then just play a Soldier or Operative."

I've said it before. I'll say it again.

We need closure on Ziggy's friends who were lost in the Scoured Stars. That was too much of a Chekov's Gun to just get ignored when we actually went there.

Whether we save them or whether they died, we need to discover their fate.

I don't suppose it would be possible to put some sort of additional snippet into 1-99 in order to reveal the final fate of Ziggy's friends. After Star Sugar Heartlove made a big deal of the friends he lost there and his survivor's guilt for having not gone with them, I feel like we should either get a chance to save them, or at least confirm they are dead so that Ziggy can get some closure.

Honestly, I am not a fan of the Pathfinder Ancestry system. I prefer the frontloaded effect of species, with a lessening curve down the road.

By having it be frontloaded, the game feels more exotic and "cantina" right out of the gate.

By NOT having those ancestry additions down the road, as we reach high level play, the importance of species matters less and less, which makes us able to choose that initial species able to be made just based on what looks fun instead of having to play out additional ability unlocks that are going to happen 10 levels later.

I've been telling new players for years "Pick whatever looks like fun. Be what you want to be. Do what sounds cool. Even if it's not perfectly optimized, within a few levels, everybody sort of levels out anyways."

With ancestry, that's less the case. It's a decision that seems pinned down as a more major choice throughout the entire life of the character, and right out of the gate at level 1 when we have very few abilities and such, we get less from the race. At the point when we need them most, when the extra options would have the greatest positive impact to gameplay, we get the least.

For me, I prefer the opposite. Give me species abilities frontloaded, and then as characters level, gear gets introduced that can even any of that out. "You could fly at level 1, but I've got a jetpack now, so it all works out before we hit high levels."

While I dislike the Ancestry system as designed, if we're going to talk about specific species that I want to see what they can do...

Spathinae
Entu Colony

I'd like to see the Spathinae eventually pick up some swarm straights, maybe the option of larger size with morphable space occupation like swarms. The idea of those ancestry feats being chooseable means that things like Size could be introduced as an option without being locked in as a mandatory. Who knows, maybe even eventually the ability to separate the swarm into smaller swarms so that they can occupy different spots on a map for acting purposes.

As for the Entu, the once per day action of the merge is something that could definitely be expanded upon until they have an option to build almost like the Venom symbiote. The ability to do a little more with that, or do it more often than once per day, would be a very unique approach to a race that is unlike anything else.

As a mostly Star Finder player with only a little bit of Pathfinder dabbling here and there when my friends insist on playing it, this entire announcement basically constitutes a declaration of " if you didn't like and switch to Pathfinder 2 three years ago, we no longer want your business."

I do understand that as a development company they can take their product in any direction they want and they have every right to chase where the money is going to be most prevalent. I'm sure it'll be really successful.

But judging based on the way that Pathfinder one was treated after Pathfinder 2 was released, I anticipate I am probably in store for a transition closer to the change from 3.5 D&D to 4th edition D&D. Basically when Infinity or somebody else continues to make open gaming content for the game that I enjoy and we no longer support the game that I enjoy here my business probably moves elsewhere.

Considering that a company abandoning support for a product and trying to insist that customers move to something they didn't want is basically what made Paizo into the successful game developers they are today, it feels really odd to find myself in the other camp now. Being told we made a game that you love and now we're going to require you to move to one that you consciously decided you didn't want years ago and if you don't move then we don't want your business anymore.

I don't like losing hundreds of playable species and that unique Cantina feel and everything that makes starfinder special, to convert it to a campaign setting for Pathfinder players, because the current position is that Pathfinder players find it to confusing to flip between two sets of rules. I preferred starfinder as its own game and it didn't need to be pathfinder. If I wanted to play Pathfinder I probably would be playing pathfinder.

When I reach level 5, I proceed with the following process.

- "Oh! I need a new 1-4 character so I can continue with Society Play!"

- "What's the craziest/coolest/silliest/most fun species I can find for this one? I want to be something awesome. I love how alien this game is, and how every character seems to really feel unique because of all of these options. I pick... this one."

- "Alright. Now what's my -2 in? I'm bad at this ability? Great. I'm going to pick a class that really needs that ability score, and build something that is whacky and unconventional, even for a rare alien type."

- "This is great. I've got another really cool, really different, incredibly alien character. This game is so awesome. I really love it."

In PF2, the character creation approach is:

- "Meh. Pick a species, and they mostly just feel like a mildly reskinned version of human.."

I shall be sorely disappointed is that is the direction Starfinder is taking. I don't want "Pathfinder in Space". I love that cantina feel of thousands of alien species. A big part of what drives me to play every new scenario and Adventure Path is unlocking rare species. Those are the grand prize chronicles.

Do we ever learn anything ever about Zigvigix's missing "friends"?

Some of my players asked about them, since supposedly they were quite meaningful in the way Ziggy references them, but the adventure includes nothing about names/races/classes etc. I wasn't sure if they were ever mentioned elsewhere so that I could have the adequate info to set up the information, or if they're just gone forever and we can make up whatever.

I am watching like a hawk for any chance to catch an Author's Table on this one.

I have some really, really fun ideas.

As a part of the Scoured Stars metaplot, this is 7-10, while the next two scenarios in the metaplot are 3-6.

Is the Chronology actually referenced in the scenario where it would matter if we play them out of sequence, or do we have to level a second set of characters just to complete this narrative journey in a way that makes sense?

Making a character who is going to run an ongoing narrative of being a local guy (like a Cubs/Bears/Bulls fan living in Chicago), and having him be afraid of travel (like someone in our world might be afraid of flying).

I know of a few Scenarios that take place entirely on Absalom Station.
Commencement
Half-Alive Streets
Hard Reset

I'm hoping that there are some more that people could point me towards so that I could do all his progression without ever leaving home.

While the Metaplot-tagged scenarios do work best narratively if played in order of release, by no means do you have to play every scenario in order. #6-04, for example, isn't tagged as being part of the Fortune's Fall storyline, but is a sequel to #4-09.

I'm close to wrapping my Scoured Stars home campaign, based entirely on SFS scenarios, and have all six seasons mapped out in a workable "narrative" order. I could post that "grand outline" later if there's interest.

I can certainly respect that. I'm running a local SFS Season 1 Scoured Stars arc and taking them from 1-9 while following the key plot mostly worked. It's still dumb that Honorbound Emmissaries 1-29 was part 6 of Scoured Stars and was level 7-10, but parts 7&8 are level 3-6. Even the very first Metaplot could not be played in order.

I'm kind of hoping that later seasons get the Scoured Stars treatment and assembled into a viable Adventure Path to let the meta-plots be played in order by a single team.