Starfinder Core Rulebook

Called it XD

"Of all the Starfinder classes, the solarian is the one hardest to explain in 10 words or less."

It is the Starfinder version of Pathfinder's Kineticist.

What do I win :P ?

Ok, I know that it's a mix between the kineticist and D&D's soulknife, but... come on, the similarities with the Occult class are obvious :P

Does not the Pre-order include the PDF?

Free PDFs are a subscription perk. If you preordered the CRB you can add a subscription to the RPG now and ask them to retrospectively mark your preorder as a subscription copy (which will net you the PDF).

You'll need to start a thread in the Customer Service Forum to do that - and they're a little short staffed with GenCon, so it might take until next week before it's actioned.

what size is this PDF? (searched for MB in the thread with no results) just wanna get an idea if ppl wanted to dl it today how long that'd take - currently dl'ing the pregens at approx 12-20KBps

294MB. Yeah it's going to take while

149.6MB :)

I would love to have an idea of just how many people have downloaded it today, my download has been running about three hours so far and still not quite finished! Not complaining, just amazed!

Edit: Well that's interesting, I'm downloading the single file version and mine is currently showing up as 149.6MB... O.o

Yeah the "one file per chapter" is 294MB. An hour in, about 1/6 of the file....

Download connection keeps cutting out on me. I get small bits and pieces, largest was 27 MB.

Going to have to ninja in during the dead of night I suppose.

Woo, download is finished, book looks pretty so far, just reading through it at the moment! Thanks guys and gals :)

Yep download said would take around 3 hours but had to go to work. Was hoping to take a look at it inbetween jobs at work but that does not look like it is going to be available to do that. Now just hoping that it is done when I get home and did not error out.

I ordered the core book a few days ago. Shouldn't I be able to download the PDF today?

What gives? Book hasn't even shipped???

Only subscribers get the PDF free. If you ordered the book without subscribing, you need to buy the pdf if you want it.

The Free PDF is only for subscriptions, not preorders.

Also ordering it this close to street date means it'll probably take awhile to arrive.

Any alternate character sheet designs? The current one looks a bit crowded/busy to me, and it's weird having full-color headers on a black and white sheet. I'd prefer a black and white sheet with a simpler design.

Core Rulebook is completely sold out at Gen Con. On Thursday afternoon.

"Holy cow, #gencon50! We brought more Starfinder CRB than any product ever, and you bought it *all* the first day!" – James Sutter on Twitter

Pretty awesome. Yay, Paizo! :)

With AP#1, the Starfield Flip-Mat & the GM Screen sold out on paizo.com, how long before the CRB sells out too? :-0

With AP#1, the Starfield Flip-Mat & the GM Screen sold out on paizo.com, how long before the CRB sells out too? :-0

It looks like it has already happened.

Marco Massoudi wrote:

With AP#1, the Starfield Flip-Mat & the GM Screen sold out on paizo.com, how long before the CRB sells out too? :-0

It looks like it has already happened.

Look at the top of the page, it hasn´t.

Oops -- I misread.

You can still order the core rulebook on this site.

But it has sold out at Gen Con.

We sold more Starfinder Core Rulebooks in a few hours at its first Gen Con than we sold Pathfinder Core Rulebooks during its entire first Gen Con.

• An awesome thing that's obvious: Starfinder is popular! When you launch something new like this, you really can't know how it's going to do. We came up with a worst case and a best case, and then we tried to come up with a plan that would allow us to reach the best case, but that wouldn't sink us if the worst case were realized. But Starfinder has outperformed our best scenarios in pretty much every regard. I attribute that mostly to the Starfinder team making a great product, and to Erik for convincing us that it was a good idea. Our marketing and PR efforts certainly helped too, as did our awesome and enthusiastic community.

• An awesome thing that's less obvious: Even last year, it simply wouldn't have been possible for us to process that many Gen Con sales in that amount of time. I attribute this partly to the tech team, which put a lot of effort into improving our point-of-sale system to handle that sort of throughput, but largely to our convention team—especially Jeff, who came up with some really outside-the-box solutions to serve so many customers so quickly.

I just wish we weren't going to disappoint so many Gen Con attendees who haven't even arrived at the show yet.

Yay!

Except for the attendees who haven't arrived yet...

I downloaded my copy. So far, it's right there. I even had set up an interest check for the game. I'm still reading it, and I'm impressed with it.

Note that the Envoy gets all the skills, 8+int modifier. That's more than the operative.
Edit: I was wrong, the operative also gets 8+int modifer in skills.

• An awesome thing that's less obvious: Even last year, it simply wouldn't have been possible for us to process that many Gen Con sales in that amount of time. I attribute this partly to the tech team, which put a lot of effort into improving our point-of-sale system to handle that sort of throughput, but largely to our convention team—especially Jeff, who came up with some really outside-the-box solutions to serve so many customers so quickly.

I also have to credit Gen Con, who allowed us to set up a special Starfinder sales kiosk outside of the dealer hall, near the Organized Play area... and, who, I believe, have made this the biggest Gen Con ever.

One key to running a good business is hiring good people. You and Lisa have done well there, Vic.

I downloaded my copy. So far, it's right there. I even had set up an interest check for the game. I'm still reading it, and I'm impressed with it.

Note that the Envoy gets all the skills, 8+int modifier. That's more than the operative.
Edit: I was wrong, the operative also gets 8+int modifer in skills.

The operative actually gets more skills, as they get free ranks in their specialisation's associated skills

Just read the first half, liking this very much. Need to convince my fantasy centric player group to try it out though. Also makes me think pathfinder 2.0 is a feasible option now, would need to tweak weapon damage so it's class/level based not equipment based but I really like the streamlined feel. Well done peoples of paizo!

Just read the first half, liking this very much. Need to convince my fantasy centric player group to try it out though. Also makes me think pathfinder 2.0 is a feasible option now, would need to tweak weapon damage so it's class/level based not equipment based but I really like the streamlined feel. Well done peoples of paizo!

Spells/powers/abilities = equipment scaling per Starfinder - gobbles up GP to improve, suppressible/destructible/repairable ... sounds promising.

10% resale value of goods? Seriously? I guess this is a pretty strong indicator that you're supposed to play society only, as that wrecks the playability of a campaign.

10% resale value of goods? Seriously? I guess this is a pretty strong indicator that you're supposed to play society only, as that wrecks the playability of a campaign.

You can always change that. Personally, that's what I will do.

Howard197 wrote:

10% resale value of goods? Seriously? I guess this is a pretty strong indicator that you're supposed to play society only, as that wrecks the playability of a campaign.

You can always change that. Personally, that's what I will do.

Not so sure about that. It seems likely that far more gear-based loot is to be expected in Starfinder's space-opera than Pathfinder's high fantasy. Part of what you can do with just skill ranks is build all of your own gear to spec. Part of what you should be able to do (in theory) is sell non-obliterated ships for scrap except in Society.

Also, and most importantly, it is made clear that a sizable chunk of da phat lootz is expected to be derived from "story based awards" of credits and UBPs (the stuff you make all your phat lootz with). Cash awards are deliberately de-emphasized as a result.

You are meant to be paid for jobs as well as loot from badies taken as direct upgrades. The entire economy is based around selling thins for 10% value as legitimate vendors wont want the hassel of dealing with potential legal issues of buying things from questionable sources when things are mass produced and guaranteed by huge mega corps.

If you house rule anything be prepared for further headaches of having to deal with power & economic imbalances as players will have access to things much more powerful than intended for their lvl

You might have a point, and it will be something to take into consideration. But still, I find that 10% is way too low. That means that I would be better to sell the loot for its weight in material than in finished product.

You might have a point, and it will be something to take into consideration. But still, I find that 10% is way too low. That means that I would be better to sell the loot for its weight in material than in finished product.

Which is probably about 10% as well. Keep it simple. ;)

Rannik wrote:

Howard197 wrote:

10% resale value of goods? Seriously? I guess this is a pretty strong indicator that you're supposed to play society only, as that wrecks the playability of a campaign.

You can always change that. Personally, that's what I will do.

Not so sure about that. It seems likely that far more gear-based loot is to be expected in Starfinder's space-opera than Pathfinder's high fantasy. Part of what you can do with just skill ranks is build all of your own gear to spec. Part of what you should be able to do (in theory) is sell non-obliterated ships for scrap except in Society.

Also, and most importantly, it is made clear that a sizable chunk of da phat lootz is expected to be derived from "story based awards" of credits and UBPs (the stuff you make all your phat lootz with). Cash awards are deliberately de-emphasized as a result.

Right, that's part of the problem. I understand they wanted to give GMs the option of giving all their mooks fancy gear without worrying about it upsetting player WBL, this is choosing between giving GMs lots of freedom in NPC gear and giving players lots of freedom in customizing their gear later on, and as in many other places the designers decided to come down HARD in favor of giving GMs more freedom and restricting player freedom.

If the WBL guidelines are set up around players expected to have 10% of the total wealth of NPC gear they could have theoretically looted from enemies, then that's perfectly fine and I have no problem. However, if they are built around treating the gear as 100% value because some monster with 3 requisite feats has an exotic heavy weapon that players are thene expected to make use of themselves, then we have a very SERIOUS problem.

Crafting rules are interesting, and the fact that they don't require feats anymore is cool. But the fact that breaking down gear still only gets you 10% of value for crafting means you have the exact same problem.

"However, if they are built around treating the gear as 100% value because some monster with 3 requisite feats has an exotic heavy weapon that players are thene expected to make use of themselves, then we have a very SERIOUS problem."

Well no we don't since weapons don't work that way in Starfinder. Weapon Profiencies are in groups, not individual weapons. And a Soldier is proficient with all of them.

I was surprised by the 10% sell rate too, but it's really nice to have a character that is rich because they're a famous celebrity, and who can turn to fans to raise funds for a brand new level-plus-two sniper rifle. Characters feel like a bigger deal when they're not relying on making their money by looting bodies of people they just killed.

You are meant to be paid for jobs as well as loot from badies taken as direct upgrades. The entire economy is based around selling thins for 10% value as legitimate vendors wont want the hassel of dealing with potential legal issues of buying things from questionable sources when things are mass produced and guaranteed by huge mega corps.

If you house rule anything be prepared for further headaches of having to deal with power & economic imbalances as players will have access to things much more powerful than intended for their lvl

That's a really good point. One nice thing I'm seeing here is much more of an emphasis on story awards then looting-based economics, which might make the whole thing much less of a barrier to fun play. If 80% of your expected WBL is coming from credit sticks from AbadarCorp or crafting materials, then the sell rate on looted gear is much less important.

"However, if they are built around treating the gear as 100% value because some monster with 3 requisite feats has an exotic heavy weapon that players are thene expected to make use of themselves, then we have a very SERIOUS problem."

Well no we don't since weapons don't work that way in Starfinder. Weapon Profiencies are in groups, not individual weapons. And a Soldier is proficient with all of them.

That's nice for the soldier, but not for anyone else who isn't proficient in heavy weapons/has the strength to wield them properly, etc. Counting full value of looted weapons isn't viable unless you're running a really carefully managed home-brew campaign.

That said, a shift to story-based rewards is a positive sign that may make this moot.

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

"However, if they are built around treating the gear as 100% value because some monster with 3 requisite feats has an exotic heavy weapon that players are thene expected to make use of themselves, then we have a very SERIOUS problem."

Well no we don't since weapons don't work that way in Starfinder. Weapon Profiencies are in groups, not individual weapons. And a Soldier is proficient with all of them.

That's nice for the soldier, but not for anyone else who isn't proficient in heavy weapons/has the strength to wield them properly, etc. Counting full value of looted weapons isn't viable unless you're running a really carefully managed home-brew campaign.

That said, a shift to story-based rewards is a positive sign that may make this moot.

At things stand right now my expectations are that the lion's share of the character swag-by-level will be upheld by story awards with some consumables, ammunition and petty cash coming from the corpses of one's enemies. Which is great as it permits a more fluid pace instead of the usual "rip up everything that we can't tear out with power tools" approach. ;)

I noticed that the Solarian's 6th level stellar revelations are unbalanced, there are five photon revelations, but only four graviton. A minor nitpick, but it's somewhat glaring (and oddly funny) for a class whose main theme is the balance between light and darkness, energy and entropy.

Grabbed the PDF and it's so awesome! You guys and gals did an amazing job on the book! Now, just want some of my gaming group to get back from Gen Con so we start playing! Rolled up a ratfolk (yoshki?) Mechanic bounty Hunter.

I picture it as you are actually getting 50%....but you only keep 10% due to taxes....;)

Anyone know if there are any plans for a big poster of the pactworld system?

The PDF has them a bit awkwardly placed over 2 different pages, and I want to get it printed and laminated on A1 format and I don't know how well it'll scale.

Anyone know if there are any plans for a big poster of the pactworld system?

The PDF has them a bit awkwardly placed over 2 different pages, and I want to get it printed and laminated on A1 format and I don't know how well it'll scale.

I definitely want this too. I'm expecting that the march release on the pact worlds will include a poster map.

Howard197 wrote:

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

"However, if they are built around treating the gear as 100% value because some monster with 3 requisite feats has an exotic heavy weapon that players are thene expected to make use of themselves, then we have a very SERIOUS problem."

Well no we don't since weapons don't work that way in Starfinder. Weapon Profiencies are in groups, not individual weapons. And a Soldier is proficient with all of them.

That's nice for the soldier, but not for anyone else who isn't proficient in heavy weapons/has the strength to wield them properly, etc. Counting full value of looted weapons isn't viable unless you're running a really carefully managed home-brew campaign.

That said, a shift to story-based rewards is a positive sign that may make this moot.

At things stand right now my expectations are that the lion's share of the character swag-by-level will be upheld by story awards with some consumables, ammunition and petty cash coming from the corpses of one's enemies. Which is great as it permits a more fluid pace instead of the usual "rip up everything that we can't tear out with power tools" approach. ;)

You have a good point. It would be nice to just grab credsticks, batteries and ammo, and just write off IDing enemy armor and weapons and spend all that time figuring out their worth, how we're going to carry them back to town, etc.

The Mad Comrade wrote:

Howard197 wrote:

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

"However, if they are built around treating the gear as 100% value because some monster with 3 requisite feats has an exotic heavy weapon that players are thene expected to make use of themselves, then we have a very SERIOUS problem."

Well no we don't since weapons don't work that way in Starfinder. Weapon Profiencies are in groups, not individual weapons. And a Soldier is proficient with all of them.

That's nice for the soldier, but not for anyone else who isn't proficient in heavy weapons/has the strength to wield them properly, etc. Counting full value of looted weapons isn't viable unless you're running a really carefully managed home-brew campaign.

That said, a shift to story-based rewards is a positive sign that may make this moot.

At things stand right now my expectations are that the lion's share of the character swag-by-level will be upheld by story awards with some consumables, ammunition and petty cash coming from the corpses of one's enemies. Which is great as it permits a more fluid pace instead of the usual "rip up everything that we can't tear out with power tools" approach. ;)

You have a good point. It would be nice to just grab credsticks, batteries and ammo, and just write off IDing enemy armor and weapons and spend all that time figuring out their worth, how we're going to carry them back to town, etc.

Looks a mite odd trailing wagon trains of gory armor, notched weapons and bundles of ammunition after a while just to eke out WBL. ;)

I'm liking the "rifle their pockets for loose change and ammo, we have bad guys to deal with" approach.

Here's another thought: The balance of defense and offense in Starfinder seems tilted significantly more towards defense than offense compared to Pathfinder, i.e. combat will probably many rounds several rounds longer in Starfinder than in Pathfinder. Yes, even with combat being simplified and fewer choices, combat is still going to last longer in real time.
That's good for a lot of reasons, including letting players feel like they contributed more no matter what their build.

But I hope they are decreasing the number of combats in Starfinder Society Scenarios, since we were already running way over the time limit with Pathfinder Society Scenarios. If there needs to be some skill checks, diplomacy or a chase scene, they need to have a total of 2 combats, maybe 3 if its a dungeon crawl instead.

I wanted Pathfinder in space, not Star Wars Revised Core Unchained. Very unhappy.

If it bothers you, then you can choose to pull the races from starfinder into pathfinder, and then convert it across from there. That or go with starjammer, which is third party pathfinder in space.

Either that or edit the rules. If you are GMing, running the game and altering the rules is kind of part of it.

Or wait for more material to be made... This is only the first book. Other material will come along, and then.

I personally like the ideas in this. And as for the sell value locked to 10%, remember that there are numerous ways to make money other than selling second-hand weapons and gear. Like bounty hunting, exploration jobs, colony establishing, or more general fantasy sci fi employment options.

That and unofficial channels and illegal sales can drastically improve the sale rate.
If risking a little criminal activity.

EDIT:Then again I GM quite a lot. So having players not break the bank or themselves in terms of power is something I enjoy.

There is a Misprint!: There is a page misprint on my copy pg 285 some pages are missing. Is mine just a fluke?