Creating new player races for Starfinder?

I've been holding off on running anything for Starfinder until we got a little more material for it. As robust as the base starfinder setting is at the moment, I've been waiting for the tools I need to make my own stuff. Alien Archive looked like it might provide me with the material I need to start fleshing out my own ideas for playable races rather than using those for the pact worlds.

But instead what we got was a system that treats its monsters with a slightly varied system than that of the players, which is fine. I don't dislike the system they have put forth for it's specific purpose, but what I want to do is make things for players to pick up and use. But how?

I might have missed it, if so, I apologize in advance. I want to keep creation of new material as "by the book" as I possibly can, so the idea of just kinda guessing or using pathfinder methods isn't something I want to do. I want a tried and true method of creating new playable races for Starfinder.

Did I miss it in the alien archive? Is there a method to reverse engineer "monster" stat blocks for playable races? Is this just something that hasn't been provided yet? Any input would be helpful as this is more or less the main thing that is preventing me from moving forward with my own game.

Best advice is just be honest and fair when creating a new race. It's pretty standard with the races they normally have +2 in two stats and -2 in one or humans just get plus two in Any stat. Then give them some abilities that make sense or even negative qualities if it fits the race.

I made a robot race not like the androids of starfinder. More like standard sci fi robots. I just have it +2 in charisma. Dark Vision and couple of other bonuses. I find it better to error on the side of caution and not go overboard.

Unless the campaign is going to be a certain type or the whole party is suppose to be over the top in a fun way then you can overpower them a bit. Even just give them a campaign related ability if you know what the game is going to be like.

So it really just depends use your best judgement. Standardizing races is fun but really I would guess how they even come up with the premade races is situational.

Far as stats go for making new races, just make sure they net a +2 (+2 to two and -2 to one, +4 to one and -2 to one, +2 to any... ect.) After point buy, it really all balances out...

Far as your particular desire for a tested method of converting monsters to player races, all I can say is: Compare the races presented in the Alien Archive to their monster entries. Im sure something could be developed for at least weaker monsters. And just because monsters are handled differently doesn't mean their statistics couldn't be plugged into a character sheet.

Far as stats go for making new races, just make sure they net a +2 (+2 to two and -2 to one, +4 to one and -2 to one, +2 to any... ect.) After point buy, it really all balances out...

Far as your particular desire for a tested method of converting monsters to player races, all I can say is: Compare the races presented in the Alien Archive to their monster entries. Im sure something could be developed for at least weaker monsters. And just because monsters are handled differently doesn't mean their statistics couldn't be plugged into a character sheet.

I'm not too worried about the stats, I noticed the net +2 trend as well. What I am worried about is the balancing of other various abilities. Using the Race points system of pathfinder was solid for that game but I was hoping for something like that for Starfinder as well.

^I would NOT call the Race Points system of Pathfinder solid . . . .

One unresolved issue is how many racial hit points to give a homebrew race. I thought I saw a pattern in the core + legacy races in the Starfinder Core Rulebook, but Alien Archive races do not follow any pattern that I can see.

One unresolved issue is how many racial hit points to give a homebrew race. I thought I saw a pattern in the core + legacy races in the Starfinder Core Rulebook, but Alien Archive races do not follow any pattern that I can see.

Yeah that's more or less my issue, I want to make a bunch of my own races for my own setting that have flavor and are interesting but not unbalanced. I do have confidence that if I were to just wing it I wouldn't put out anything unbalanced, I had a few races I'd made for Pathfinder before their RP system that turned out to be within the range I wanted them to be when they were "audited" with the RP system. But still, I'd rather do it right the first time.

I just picked a Race that was close to the one I wanted to use and "adjusted/Tweeked" the abilities to for the new class, NOT TO OVER DO IT- I don't think that would be a fun character to play. I made my dog a character, he's a pit bull/boxer mix. I used the Ysoki Race and modified it to fit him. Instead of "CHEEK POUCHES", I gave him a boost(+2) to Perception and Sense of Movement because of his K9 abilities. Hey, if Han Solo can have a WOOKIE and Star Lord can have a RACOON as a side kick, why can't I have one: My DOG?

Rocket considers Starlord HIS sidekick.

One question that comes to mind is how to account for a race that is dependent upon its technology for its very survival. One iconic example is the Daleks of [i]Doctor Who]/i], who have been engineered by be utterly dependent on their "shells" and don't usually live very long outside them, to the point that the shell is viewed by a lot of people as the Dalek's actual body.

One unresolved issue is how many racial hit points to give a homebrew race. I thought I saw a pattern in the core + legacy races in the Starfinder Core Rulebook, but Alien Archive races do not follow any pattern that I can see.

My general rule with my own working on it is 'If +Con, Large size or otherwise notably tough, 6. If small size AND -2 con, 2. Otherwise 4'. I'm actually having a lot of fun working on some races that play odd with stuff that is rarely touched on because it Feels powerful, even if the mechanics don't so much back it up as being powerful rules-wise.

Rocket considers Starlord HIS sidekick.

One question that comes to mind is how to account for a race that is dependent upon its technology for its very survival. One iconic example is the Daleks of [i]Doctor Who]/i], who have been engineered by be utterly dependent on their "shells" and don't usually live very long outside them, to the point that the shell is viewed by a lot of people as the Dalek's actual body.

Depends on what you mean - if you mean "needs an encounter suit in a human-standard environment", the Kalo fit that bill pretty well. If you mean "only technically alive due to machinations", we'll probably have to wait on the playable undead we've been promised.

In terms of converting monsters to playable races, one of the most maddeningly confusing examples I've encountered so far are the Urog, whose personalities I consider fantastic. I have no idea how to account for the fact that NPC Urogs are immune to poisons, but PC Urogs are not. Starfinder already has deeply, deeply suspicious poisons that work on more or less everything (you'd have to, to work on Barathu!), so I buy the race not having immunity, of course, but it's pretty clearly not an age thing, either, so it's challenging to hand-wave away.

^I would NOT call the Race Points system of Pathfinder solid . . . .

Well actually it is pretty solid. After reading and comparing the books for a couple months I came up with a conversion guide that I posted on reddit. It's not a science but I think it's pretty close. Check it out here, Conversion Guide.

I don't know why the Urog is a playable race. It's a large magical beast that seems pretty boring. It seems they added a bunch racial abilities to balance it, but most of them make me scratch my head.

The Urogs are great. One of the genuinely wacky creations in the Alien Archive and they look like they would actually be quite fun to use as a player race -- the Tactless Scientist married to a tank-like physical form -- though their "Blunt" base persona might be hard to pull off with the right balance. The "electrolocation" ability is a pretty interesting variant on blindsense.

Presumably they have poison immunity in "monster" form as an outgrowth of their being silicone-based life, but not in playable form because aside from being a tad overpowered it would also eliminate too many interesting narrative possibilities as a PC. Most differences between the "monster" and PC versions of creatures seem to be driven by considerations like that.

(I am less certain why "monster" Urogs need Darkvision, though. This is one ancestral feature of Starfinder that puzzles me, that it still hands out Darkvision and Low-light Vision like candy at a fair. It doesn't really make a huge amount of sense in a game that's no longer about torches and dungeons crawls.)

I like the Urog, but it looks like I'm in the minority there. I've got a player who I know is going to try to play the weirdest, most alien thing he can find, so I pretty much know right now that he's likely to play an Urog, Contemplative, or Barathu.

Personally, I think the game's real strength right now is in racial options. Between the SRD, the SFC, the AA, the AP's, and the CRB, I counted something like 50 race options. What I personally think the game really needs right now is more classes (seriously, 7? total???).

That being said, if I were going to create a bunch of new races for my games, I'd start by combining existing races. Make something that is a mix (certainly not the best) of two races racial abilities. Do that a few times and compare the results to other races and see how they seem to look. That's just to get a feel for what's important and what not. Then I'd make a few from scratch and compare them to several other races.

Everything should end up with something like:
Net +2 in stat boosts
One or Two (or 3) nice abilities (ER or Darkvision or Proficiency or Bonus Feat or decent sla, et cetera)
Big Beefy Races should get 6 hitpoints, Small Weak ones 2, everyone else 4.
One to four weakish abilities (low-light vision, +2 to a skill or two, crappy spell likes, et cetera)
If they have a lot of abilities, they should have a weakness to compensate (weakness to poison, strict environmental requirements, or light blindness, et cetera)

Personally, I think the game's real strength right now is in racial options. Between the SRD, the SFC, the AA, the AP's, and the CRB, I counted something like 50 race options. What I personally think the game really needs right now is more classes (seriously, 7? total???).

The way I see the class is each one is multiples in one and play pretty different. Like the Drone Mechanic is different from the Exo Mechanic.

Only class lacking for me is the Solarian. You basically have to pick certain powers or you get punished.

To me is more the race seems like a monster rather than a playable race. In my mind it would be like letting a player pick a griffin as a playable race. At least the Wrikreechee have finger. Urogs are just giant electric bugs. The picture shows long claws and no fingers. How does it wear armor or hold a weapon?

Presumably their "multiple sets of articulated limbs" include smaller ones that can manipulate things. Anyway, a big part of the point of space opera is that sentient beings don't have to look human and can in fact look like what would be "monsters" in a fantasy setting. Barathu, Urogs, Contemplatives are all examples.

Presumably their "multiple sets of articulated limbs" include smaller ones that can manipulate things. Anyway, a big part of the point of space opera is that sentient beings don't have to look human and can in fact look like what would be "monsters" in a fantasy setting. Barathu, Urogs, Contemplatives are all examples.

Oh yeah definitely. Great example of cool space alien is in the fifth element movie. Those slow moving guardians or whatever. Great story characters but I would keep them as that. Not playable characters. They don't play out well as protagonist. I maybe wrong though. Could you name a time where that worked in a movie or story? Some human adventuring with some sentient bug creature? Now I'm curious...

Could you name a time where that worked in a movie or story? Some human adventuring with some sentient bug creature? Now I'm curious...

SF novels have it easier for this because they don't have to worry about actors or effects. By far the best example for my money are the skroderiders in A Fire Upon the Deep who are both mentally and physically very, very alien -- basically sentient potted plants.

For television, Farscape had some extremely non-human characters in the crew, most notably Pilot who was grafted directly to their ship. Andromeda -- kind of up and down as a show but it had its moment -- included a character named Rev Bem whose surname was literally drawn from "bug-eyed monster."

(Come to think of it, Rev Bem may have inspired the Shirrens. Like them he was a good-natured fugitive from a Swarm-like race who went around wiping out civilizations and turning planets into husks. Like him, the Shirrens are essentially Bug-Eyed Monsters with benevolent leanings.)

The Mass Effect games also have several non-humanoid species, notably the Hanar and Elcor. I don't think you ever got to play as them, but they were just as active of civilizations as anyone else.