Starfinder is the latest roleplaying game offering from Paizo. But what is it really? Fans hoping for Spelljammer or fantasy Pathfinder in space with dwarves and elves will be highly disappointed. This is not the book for you. Honestly, you may be better served by looking at Starjammer (d20pfsrd) instead. So what is Starfinder? Let’s take a look.
First off, Starfinder is much more of a hard-core science fiction game with some fantasy elements blended in. Character creation is much like any familiar process with the addition of themes, core aspects of a character’s background and motivations. In addition to reflecting a certain background, a theme provides benefits to an appropriate skill and ability scores.
The races to choose from are all completely new except for human. Androids needs no explanation. Kasatha are a four-armed race from a distant desert world with a highly traditional culture.
(Almost sounds like the Dark Sun Thri-Keen with the serial numbers filed off, doesn’t it?) Lashunta are a charismatic and telepathic race of scholars with 2 subspecies, one tall and lean, the other short and muscular. The Shirren are an insectoid race that broke away from a locustlike hive, community-minded but addicted to individual choice. The Vesk are a warlike reptilian race that recently declared a truce with the rest of the other races – for now. Lastly, you have the Ysoki, also known as the ratfolk, who are short, furry scavengers that make up for their short size with big personalities.
The classes you can pick from provide considerable flavors yet maintain a strong sci-fi feel. The Envoy is your diplomat who is good at a wide range of skills and inspires allies to accomplish great heroic feats. The Mechanic is a master of machine and technology whose tinkering produces a drone companion (Shiny!) or a powerful brain implant. The Mystic is a magic user (yes, magic – I did say there were some fantasy aspects) whose mysterious connection to a powerful force grants him abilities that break the laws of the universe. The Operative is your standard sneaky-type class. The Solarian is a disciplined warrior who mastery of the stars grants him either a weapon or armor made of stellar power. The Soldier is your basic combat party fighter/tank. That role really never changes. Lastly, the Technomancer is a magic user who preternaturally attuned to technology and can use it to unlock powerful effects. (I kept calling this class a Techno-mage in my head 90% of the time.)
Resolve Points are another new addition. Essentially, they are used to activate class features and regain resources. Some abilities require you to spend points but are active only as long as you leave a minimum number of points available to you. For example, an Envoy with at least 1 RP remaining in his pool can use her expertise class feature to roll an extra die on Sense Motive checks without spending the point. Resolve Points can also be used for regaining stamina points (I’ll talk about those in a minute), stabilizing and staying in the fight (healing 1hp to go from unconscious to conscious).
Instead of sticking with the traditional hit point system as a way of tracking wounds and health, Starfinder implements a combination system of stamina points and hit points. Hit Points (HP) serve as a measure of health. Reduction in those points represent physical wounds/damage, illness, or other serous physical impairment. Stamina Points (SP) measure your readiness and energy. They also replenish much faster than hit points. When you take damage from an attack, spell disease, etc. – it reduces your pool of SP first with any damage beyond that extending into your HP. You can of SP like your ability to shake off a hard impact. It’s fairly easy to get up after the first one or two, but eventually they add up and wear you down and start to seriously to hurt you.
Let’s talk about space travel and starships. In the world of Starfinder, travel time between planets within the same solar system using standard thrusters can be measured in days. However, if you want to travel between star systems, it would take decades. It requires a certain technology and navigation of the hyperspace area known as the Drift to make the trip much quicker. (More on the Drift later.)
Starships are a key component to Starfinder. In fact, it fact, it would be hard to run a campaign in Starfinder without starships. Right away, you get in in-depth explanation on how to read a starship stat block. This is followed by rules on how to build a starship. This is a 7-step process consisting of:
1. Conceptualization.
2. Determination of tier and build points.
3. Selecting ship frame.
4. Selecting a power core.
5. Selecting thrusters.
6. Fill out remaining systems.
7. Add remaining details.
If you don’t want to build a starship on your own or lack the time before running a game, several sample starships are provided. The Eoxian ship styles remind me of ships the Chaos faction in Warhammer Gothic. My personal favorite is the Vindicas Tyrant from the Veskarium ship styles. Granted, it’s a tier 16 Colossal dreadnought, but man, can she shell out the damage.
Starship combat takes a bit of getting used to but gets everyone involved which is good. Combat is dependent upon the role that each of the PCs assume when they board ship. These roles determine when the PCs act in combat. Players choose from Captain, Engineer, Gunner, Pilot, and Science Officer.
Starship combat is typically represented on a hex grid with some object used to signify the ship (miniature, pawn, coin, candy, etc.). Each ship occupies 1 hex unless otherwise specified. Combat occurs overs a series of rounds until it reaches conclusion. Each round is divided into 3 phases, resolved in order. Each character aboard a starship typically acts in only one of these phases, dependent upon his role.
1. Engineering – engineers each take an action to repair ship systems or to give them a boost.
2. Helm – each pilot attempts a Piloting check to move the ship. This is repeated each round the Helm phase. Also, during this phase science officers can scan for other vessels or target foes.
3. Gunnery – fire all weapons.
If combat is not resolved, a new round begins, and everything goes back to step 1. A Captain mact during any phase of combat. His options, however, depend on his character level. He may Demand, Encourage, Taunt, Order (6th level), or give a Moving Speech (12th level).
Starfinder contains a chapter on Game Mastering. If you are strictly a player, you can skip or skim the chapter. However, if you plan on running a Starfinder game, I suggest you read it. If you don’t have a lot of experience being a GM, you had better set aside some time to study this chapter! I’ve been a GM for over 30 years and even I found nuggets of good information here.
Now, let’s talk about the actual setting. In Starfinder, characters adventure among the Pact World, a densely inhabited solar system. One of the great mysteries is that all historical records go back a few centuries and then go blank or end. Or become completely contradictory. There is a period of time referred to as the Gap where history is just missing. It was during this time that the planet of Golarion simply vanished. No one knows why. In its place lies a vast space station known as Absalom Station.
The Drift is a hyperspace dimension reachable only via technology and allowing faster travel between stars. One of the problems with how Drift engines work, though, is they bring a chunk of a random plane into the Drift each time a jump is made. The longer the jump, the larger the piece of planar material that gets dragged in and left floating endlessly in the Drift. Sometimes this chunk appears right next to the ship which, if it happens to be a rock from Hell filled with devils, could be big trouble.
So remember what I said in the beginning of this review about not using Pathfinder races in Starfinder? Well, I kind of lied. The final chapter contains information on how to convert Pathfinder to Starfinder. Paizo warns you up front that such conversions can require a lot of work, but they do give you some tools to work with.
Overall, Starfinder is a very interesting beast of an RPG. While not true hard science fiction like Traveller, it’s not fantasy in space like Spelljammer either. It represents a good blend of both – mostly sci-fi with a touch of fantasy sprinkled in. If you are familiar with how the mechanics of 3rd edition D&D or Pathfinder works, then Starfinder will be a no brainer. If you are coming from a different gaming system, you will find it an easy learning curve. It’s a good game.
Score: 137/150
