Starfinder Alien Archive

4.10/5 (based on 24 ratings)
Starfinder Alien Archive
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Strange aliens both friendly and fearsome fill this tome of creatures designed for use with the Starfinder Roleplaying Game! From the gravity-manipulating frujais and planet-killing novaspawn to space goblins and security robots, the creatures in this codex will challenge adventurers no matter what strange worlds they're exploring. What's more, player rules for a host of creatures let players not just fight aliens, but be them!

Inside Starfinder Alien Archive, you'll find the following:

  • Over 80 bizarre life-forms both classic and new, from the reptilian ikeshtis and energy-bodied hallajins to robotic anacites and supernatural entities from beyond the realms of mortals.
  • Over 20 species with full player rules, letting you play everything from a winged dragonkin to a hyperevolved floating brain.
  • New alien technology to help give your character an edge, including weapons, armor, magic items, and more.
  • A robust NPC-creation system to let Game Masters build any aliens or creatures they can imagine.
  • New rules for magical monster summoning, quick templates to modify creatures on the fly, and more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-975-2

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Roll20 Virtual Tabletop
SoundSet on Syrinscape
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscription.

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5/5


Pretty much essential to run the game with

5/5

-- if you want to make any of your own NPC's/monsters.


Very good essential book

4/5

Beautifully illustrated, rich with monsters and playable races options. The part about how to create monsters is fantastic and absolutely needed. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that I found a few errors (mostly missing stats) which bring down the polish of this product quite a bit. Furthermore, due to the complexity of the equipment side of this game it makes for a decent amount of cross-referencing the core rule book in order to find what you need, and that sucks.
An F.A.Q./errata is needed, please!


Expensive for size, but Excellent

5/5

The Alien Archive is the first Starfinder "monster book." It includes sixty different creatures. Although GMs would be the natural audience for a book like this, players can get a lot out of it as well because no less than 21 of the creature entries have rules for running them as PCs. In addition, several of the entries introduce new weapons, armor, or other magical items. The book is structured pretty much like you would expect, with a short introduction, a whole bunch of creatures in alphabetical order, and then some (very useful and important) appendices. I'm going to go through each of these sections, but first I want to highlight the overall design and look of the book: it's absolutely gorgeous. The full-colour artwork is uniformly excellent and fits the "feel" of the Starfinder universe perfectly, the intelligently-designed footers and page borders make it very easy to tell where you are in the book at any moment, and the layout of the creature stat blocks and description makes the text very readable. Paizo is one of the best in the business at this part of RPG publishing, and their attention and expertise to detail (not to mention investment in quality artwork) shows here to full effect.

The book starts with a two-page introduction that has a couple of different topics. First, there's an explanation that the aliens given special rules to allow them to be played as PCs have often been scaled back in power from the same aliens when played as NPCs by the GM. This makes sense from a game-design perspective (because otherwise many of the playable alien races would be overpowered), but it can be somewhat disappointing as a reader to stumble on an alien that seems awesome only to realize that, if you want to play one, it's abilities will be significantly nerfed. Second, there's a "How to Read a Stat Block" section that explains each line in a creature stat block. Most of this will be pretty familiar to readers of Pathfinder Bestiaries, with some minor distinctions, like only showing ability score modifiers (not the scores themselves), only showing usable feats (not ones that are "built in" to the statistics), and the disappointing omission of the little one-line description in italics that I used to read out to players when they encountered a new monster. Another minor difference is that instead of having little symbols that define monsters by environment, the Alien Archive has little symbols that identify them as "Combatants", "Experts" (skillwise), or "Spellcasters".

The core of the book (120 pages), of course, is the creature entries. Each entry gets a full two-page spread. The advantage of this is that many entries include multiple stat blocks (such as Space Goblins getting a CR 1/3 "Space Goblin Zaperator" and a CR 2 "Space Goblin Honchohead"), there's room for the aforementioned new items or PC racial traits, and there's a *lot* of description. This last thing is probably one of my favourite things about the book, as the writers could go into much more depth on each creature than if they just had one-page entries. The background/description sections are full of flavour and setting lore, and I saw some great adventure hooks buried within some of them. The obvious drawback of two-page spreads for each entry is that it does limit the overall number of creatures in the book, which is already slim (a topic I'll talk more about below).

As for the creatures themselves, I guess it's not really practical for me to go through all sixty of them. Some general observations: 1) They struck a reasonable balance between (re)introducing some Pathfinder creatures into the new setting (like Dragons, Drow, Elementals, and Goblins) without turning the book into just an updated Bestiary. The vast majority of creatures in the book are new. 2) Despite being an "alien" book, most of the creatures are roughly two arm/two leg/one head humanoids. There are definitely some exceptions, such as my beloved barathu (floating jellyfish-like creatures, one of which I'm running through Dead Suns), skittermanders (six-armed over-helpful little creatures that have become Starfinder's break-out hit), and exotic threats like the tech-devouring "assembly ooze" (cooler in theory than in practice). 3) Even with a relatively small spread of creatures, some entries are pretty unimaginative and fall flat: I'm looking at you Formians (generic ant creatures), Grays (generic mysterious aliens), Mountain eels (eels . . . on mountains!), surnoch (forgettable giant worms), and the Swarm (generic bug monsters). 4) The book somehow manages to handle, incredibly concisely, some entries for creature types that should take up several pages: all of the chromatic dragons, for example, are included into a single two-page spread (through the use of templates), and all four of the basic elemental types and sizes are summarised through similar means in just two pages. I admire the economy of space, though I worry the templates don't include enough special features to make a white dragon play significantly differently than a blue dragon (for example) or for a water elemental to really seem different than an air elemental. 5) A few of the creatures are large enough to post a threat to entire starships, and have been given additional stat blocks for starship combat. 6) The creatures are heavily skewed to the low to middle levels of gameplay. There's only one or two creatures each for CRs of 13 or above.

Appendix 1 weighs in at a hefty 17 pages and provides a GM with instructions for creating custom monsters and NPCs. There's a nine-step process which includes selecting an ability score array, creature type, special abilities, etc. The process is designed to be quick and painless, and operates on the premise that what's important from a player-facing perspective is what cool things a creature can do during an encounter rather than whether it has precisely the right amount of skill points or one too many feats. This was a conscious decision by the Starfinder designers, and is a big break with the D&D 3.5/Pathfinder model which operated under the premise that monsters/NPCs couldn't "cheat" (so a Level 5 Wizard NPC couldn't have more spells than a Level 5 Wizard PC "just because"). The choice has led to criticism from a lot of GMs who prefer the Pathfinder way. I almost exclusively run pre-made adventures these days so I haven't used the monster/NPC creation rules in the Alien Archive myself. Perhaps the only problem I've noticed is that monsters and NPCs can seem very "samey" because they're not built organically with real strengths and weaknesses (there's never a Level 6 creature running around with a 10 KAC because it's slow and doesn't wear armor, for example--it'll have a fixed KAC of 18, 19, or 20 depending on which array is chosen).

Appendix 2 (five pages) provides the rules for summoning creatures in Starfinder. It introduces the Summon Creature spell and the associated tables for what exactly can be summoned for each level of the spell. One of the differences from Pathfinder is that a spellcaster must decide, ahead of time, which four creatures they're familiar enough with to summon (instead of being able to summon anything on the table). In addition, there are some alignment and class restrictions on what can be summoned, which is an intelligent limitation. I personally hate summoned creatures, animal companions, and familiars, so anything that can be done to curb the abuse we see in Pathfinder is welcome as far as I'm concerned.

Appendix 3 (two pages) provides 16 new templates (called "Grafts" here) that can be applied to creatures to change them up a little. A couple of these are familiar from Pathfinder (like Celestial, fiendish, and Giant), but most of the others are new for Starfinder (like Cybernetic, Synthetic, Miniature, and Two-Headed).

Appendix 4 (7 pages) is the most important of the appendices, as it contains what every GM will need to reference frequently: universe creature rules. When a stat block says a monster has Blindsense, Grab, or Undead Immunities, they'll need to turn here to figure out exactly what that means in mechanical terms. Some of these rules will be very familiar to Pathfinder GMs, but there are enough little differences that it's worth reading the entries carefully.

The most commonly heard complaint about the Alien Archive is that it's just too short for its price. It's $ 39.99 for just 159 pages, while a hardcover Pathfinder Bestiary is 328 pages and a $ 44.99 retail price. I think the criticism is fair, and I wouldn't blame people for choosing to instead get the $ 9.99 PDF. Apart from its length/price, however, this is a really strong book full of gorgeous artwork, strong writing, and a good array of various creatures. It's definitely worth picking up in one format or another.


A must for Starfinder fans

5/5

The first "Bestiary" is just amazing, plenty of alien creatures, new races that players can choose for their characters (this is one of the most amazing features of Starfinder), simple and easy rules to create your own alien species. An amazing book, people complain that is not as big as the Pathfinder Bestiaries, but hey, they are giving us Alien Archives every couple of mothns (third is on the way). In that sense, I prefer "smaller" books, that arrive more often. Very happy with this!


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1 person marked this as a favorite.

Any chance space catfolk are statted (or even mentioned in another creature's description) here?


5 people marked this as a favorite.
Timbo8705 wrote:
Why am I paying for a service if it's a coin toss that it's even providing what I'm paying for?

As the others on this thread have stated, you are not paying to get it early. In fact, you're not paying anything extra for a subscription at all, you're paying for the Hardcover, same price as everyone else, and you're getting the PDF for free.

It's really disheartening to see all these "If I don't get it early no one should" mindsets.

Liberty's Edge

Armenius wrote:
Any chance space catfolk are statted (or even mentioned in another creature's description) here?

Unfortunately no. I am hoping that Pact Worlds will include them.

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Does Paizo's new Starfinder Alien Archive live up to the hype? Check out our extensive review!

http://rollforcombat.com/blog/the-starfinder-alien-archive-were-not-in-gola rion-anymore


Redelia wrote:
What you are paying for is the hardcover book. Even if yours is the last copy to ship, you are getting what you are paying for (the hard copy of the book) and a free bonus (the pdf). On top of that, you are getting the pdf before it can be purchased.

Except others are getting the PDF weeks ahead of time and we're apparently paying the price. That's MY issue. I get that I'm getting the book in hardcover, I get that I'm getting a free copy of the PDF, something that frankly should come with the hardcover copy anyway when purchased from the publisher directly as I am. I have no issue with that. I have an issue with some of the people who pay for the service I am paying for already getting their product when I haven't. If it's an issue with order processing I get that, I'm fine with that, but then don't send out ANY of the PDFs before the last order processes. In an effort of fairness, that seems like the fair thing to do.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Maybe we can talk about the book in this thread instead of arguing over the inherent fairness/unfairness of Paizo's shipping and fulfillment process?

(For the record, I think that the system, while imperfect, is as fair as it can be given the constraints of physical reality.)


Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:
Why am I paying for a service if it's a coin toss that it's even providing what I'm paying for?

As the others on this thread have stated, you are not paying to get it early. In fact, you're not paying anything extra for a subscription at all, you're paying for the Hardcover, same price as everyone else, and you're getting the PDF for free.

It's really disheartening to see all these "If I don't get it early no one should" mindsets.

What's really disheartening is that you don't seem to get that it's pretty messed that you and I are paying the same price for the same product and yet you already have the product (in this case the digital download PDF) and I (as well as quite a few others it seems) do not. If you truly believe the only thing you get with your subscription is the hardcover copy of the book and the free pdf you should have no issue with not having it early since that's not part of what you're paying for.


Ross Byers wrote:

Maybe we can talk about the book in this thread instead of arguing over the inherent fairness/unfairness of Paizo's shipping and fulfillment process?

(For the record, I think that the system, while imperfect, is as fair as it can be given the constraints of physical reality.)

I would love to discuss the book. Please do go into explicit detail over every square inch of each page cover to cover for me. I ask you to do this since I don't have a copy of the book to be able to comment on the contents myself.

As I don't have the book to discuss the contents I am stuck talking about the aspect of the book that I can discuss, the lack of it.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Timbo8705 wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:
Why am I paying for a service if it's a coin toss that it's even providing what I'm paying for?

As the others on this thread have stated, you are not paying to get it early. In fact, you're not paying anything extra for a subscription at all, you're paying for the Hardcover, same price as everyone else, and you're getting the PDF for free.

It's really disheartening to see all these "If I don't get it early no one should" mindsets.

What's really disheartening is that you don't seem to get that it's pretty messed that you and I are paying the same price for the same product and yet you already have the product (in this case the digital download PDF) and I (as well as quite a few others it seems) do not. If you truly believe the only thing you get with your subscription is the hardcover copy of the book and the free pdf you should have no issue with not having it early since that's not part of what you're paying for.

I do not have the product yet, in any form, and you are right, I have no problem not getting it early. I'm perfectly fine with others getting it before me.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:
Why am I paying for a service if it's a coin toss that it's even providing what I'm paying for?

As the others on this thread have stated, you are not paying to get it early. In fact, you're not paying anything extra for a subscription at all, you're paying for the Hardcover, same price as everyone else, and you're getting the PDF for free.

It's really disheartening to see all these "If I don't get it early no one should" mindsets.

What's really disheartening is that you don't seem to get that it's pretty messed that you and I are paying the same price for the same product and yet you already have the product (in this case the digital download PDF) and I (as well as quite a few others it seems) do not. If you truly believe the only thing you get with your subscription is the hardcover copy of the book and the free pdf you should have no issue with not having it early since that's not part of what you're paying for.
I do not have the product yet, in any form, and you are right, I have no problem not getting it early. I'm perfectly fine with others getting it before me.

I also have not had my subscription ship yet, and I also think that it's a ridiculous thing to get hung up about. The notion that no one else should ever get it before me seems ridiculous. And also like it would invite the website going down as a large chunk of the subscribers all try to download their product at the same time.


Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:
Why am I paying for a service if it's a coin toss that it's even providing what I'm paying for?

As the others on this thread have stated, you are not paying to get it early. In fact, you're not paying anything extra for a subscription at all, you're paying for the Hardcover, same price as everyone else, and you're getting the PDF for free.

It's really disheartening to see all these "If I don't get it early no one should" mindsets.

What's really disheartening is that you don't seem to get that it's pretty messed that you and I are paying the same price for the same product and yet you already have the product (in this case the digital download PDF) and I (as well as quite a few others it seems) do not. If you truly believe the only thing you get with your subscription is the hardcover copy of the book and the free pdf you should have no issue with not having it early since that's not part of what you're paying for.
I do not have the product yet, in any form, and you are right, I have no problem not getting it early. I'm perfectly fine with others getting it before me.

My mistake, having read one of your previous posts it made it seem like you had the pdf already, I misread. I understand you're not upset by not getting the same product that everyone is paying for at the same time. Great, more power to you. That is your opinion and you are entitled to it, that doesn't make it fair, and that doesn't make it right. People are paying the same price and some of us are getting preferential treatment by getting a boon of having the product earlier when they aren't paying more than anyone else.

If no one else were getting it early I can understand people brushing this sentiment off as some petulant child tantrum screaming "It's mine and I want it now". This isn't, however. This is an irate 30 year old saying "I paid the same price as everyone else, why am I not getting the same treatment?"


Luthorne wrote:


I also have not had my subscription ship yet, and I also think that it's a ridiculous thing to get hung up about. The notion that no one else should ever get it before me seems ridiculous. And also like it would invite the website going down as a large chunk of the subscribers all try to download their product at the same time.

Large chunks of subscribers can download the product at the same time any time. That's not a good enough reason to give access to some people earlier than others.

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.

The other thing you're missing is that most of us are looking long term. It's not the same people each month who get the pdf's first; I believe they've told us that they purposely randomize the algorithm for what orders to fill first. Some months I get my pdf's near the start, others I get them near the end, and often sometimes in between.


5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Timbo8705 wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:
Why am I paying for a service if it's a coin toss that it's even providing what I'm paying for?

As the others on this thread have stated, you are not paying to get it early. In fact, you're not paying anything extra for a subscription at all, you're paying for the Hardcover, same price as everyone else, and you're getting the PDF for free.

It's really disheartening to see all these "If I don't get it early no one should" mindsets.

What's really disheartening is that you don't seem to get that it's pretty messed that you and I are paying the same price for the same product and yet you already have the product (in this case the digital download PDF) and I (as well as quite a few others it seems) do not. If you truly believe the only thing you get with your subscription is the hardcover copy of the book and the free pdf you should have no issue with not having it early since that's not part of what you're paying for.
I do not have the product yet, in any form, and you are right, I have no problem not getting it early. I'm perfectly fine with others getting it before me.

My mistake, having read one of your previous posts it made it seem like you had the pdf already, I misread. I understand you're not upset by not getting the same product that everyone is paying for at the same time. Great, more power to you. That is your opinion and you are entitled to it, that doesn't make it fair, and that doesn't make it right. People are paying the same price and some of us are getting preferential treatment by getting a boon of having the product earlier when they aren't paying more than anyone else.

If no one else were getting it early I can understand people brushing this sentiment off as some petulant child tantrum screaming "It's mine and I want it now". This isn't, however. This is an irate 30 year old saying "I paid the same price as everyone...

That's the thing though, it's not preferential. Shipping orders are randomized each month. You are paying for the same service - to be on a random list in a shipping queue. It's like paying to attend a banquet, and you realize there's a line for the food. Why are there people in line before me even though we are paying the same price? Alternatively, you could have Paizo confirm everyone's orders and then release the pdfs, but that would just mean everyone waits longer, and people would just start complaining they have already paid money, Paizo already has the pdfs - why can't they just have access to it already? I think we've already got the best situation possible here.


5 people marked this as a favorite.

You haven't paid anything yet, otherwise your books would be shipped and you would have access to the PDF. No one is getting preferential treatment, they are getting charged, and thus access to the PDFs, when their books are shipped, to which there is no preferential treatment, it's literally when the label is made and the books are boxed up, there is no rhyme or reason to who gets their books sent out first.

In that way you are getting exactly the same treatment as absolutely everyone else, the moment you charged, you get the PDFs.

People getting it early is nice, but it's not a boon, and it costs me nothing that they get it earlier. It doesn't mean I get mine later, there's absolutely no negative repercussions to me or anyone else that some people get their's earlier.

Edit: ninjaed more eloquently above.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Timbo8705 wrote:
This is an irate 30 year old saying "I paid the same price as everyone...

Just a note, but you haven't paid yet. The funds may be authorized, but you aren't charged until the shipping label is printed. You'll get access to the pdf as soon as you've paid for it.

Edit: I really like Opsylum's banquet analogy.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Timbo8705 wrote:
Luthorne wrote:


I also have not had my subscription ship yet, and I also think that it's a ridiculous thing to get hung up about. The notion that no one else should ever get it before me seems ridiculous. And also like it would invite the website going down as a large chunk of the subscribers all try to download their product at the same time.
Large chunks of subscribers can download the product at the same time any time. That's not a good enough reason to give access to some people earlier than others.

Seeing as it seems we have to clarify this.. I do not have mine either. I would very much like to have it but that is the way the system works and im fine with that. When the original release hit I got mine very early like the first couple days of shipping this time around im back of the pack and that's ok for me. I get that its just a byproduct of how their system is programed and a probably (I am assuming because I don't work there) also a policy because holding off to batch process all those PDFs until each and every person gets there order processed also has, as others have pointed out, legal and customer service issues all their own.

For instance I dont really want to have to wait, again I dont have mine either, but I like that I get it when it ships and I am ok with the current system. Plenty of others are as well so as a company if the ONLY issue was perceived value and customer service they are still going to aggravate a portion of their customer base. Add to this the fact that their are probably legal issues as well as opening them up to all sorts of headaches of having to create a whole new system to process these orders and insure that indeed each and every order that is getting a PDF was shipped probably makes it a not cost effective thing for them to do.

Its a perk not something we are entitled to. Their are plenty of other ways to purchase their products and no service they offer is going to completely satisfy everyone. You have to do what makes most sense for you.


I understand there's a large demand for this product, there's not 2 weeks worth of back subscriptions demand. If they're going to wait till they can send the book they might have to wait till November, does that mean I'll have wait till November? If you're not paying to get it earlier than anyone else at anytime no mater the "random order" your processed in, than you should have no problem waiting till a finite date to get your copy.

It's nice that I haven't been charged yet for a product I don't have. It's nice that they say they randomize the order in which they process so the same people aren't last to get it every time. It doesn't negate the point that they shouldn't be giving out the product when everyone who pays the same amount hasn't had the opportunity.

You want to relate it to a food line. We're not all in a food line. We are the subscribers, the people who paid to go through the line first. Then comes the online preorders, then comes the direct retail order, then comes the late orders.

Them having a large quantity of orders to place doesn't mean that some people should get it earlier. That is a BOON even if you don't believe it is. Someone got the product that we are all paying for two weeks earlier than the rest of us.


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Somewhat unrelated to the above discussion, but I really wish the book containing the actual encounters for the game had been published alongside the CRB instead of 2 months down the line. I guess the Pathfinder CRB did the same thing, but at least then you could use the existing 3.5 monsters without having to put them through a whole conversion process.

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Timbo8705 wrote:


You want to relate it to a food line. We're not all in a food line. We are the subscribers, the people who paid to go through the line first. Then comes the online preorders, then comes the direct retail order, then comes the late orders.

By your analogy, this is a huge banquet. The subscribers are those with 'early admission tickets.' They let everyone with those tickets in first. There is still going to be a line among those people.


Vexies wrote:

Seeing as it seems we have to clarify this.. I do not have mine either. I would very much like to have it but that is the way the system works and im fine with that. When the original release hit I got mine very early like the first couple days of shipping this time around im back of the pack and that's ok for me. I get that its just a byproduct of how their system is programed and a probably (I am assuming because I don't work there) also a policy because holding off to batch process all those PDFs until each and every person gets there order processed also has, as others have pointed out, legal and customer service issues all their own.

For instance I dont really want to have to wait, again I dont have mine either, but I like that I get it when it ships and I am ok with the current system. Plenty of others are as well so as a company if the ONLY issue was perceived value and customer service they are still going to aggravate a portion of their customer base. Add to this the fact that their are probably legal issues as well as opening them up to all sorts of headaches of having to create a whole new system to process these orders and insure that indeed each and every order that is getting a PDF was shipped probably makes it a not cost effective thing for them to do.

Its a perk not something we are entitled to. Their are plenty of other ways to purchase their products and no service they offer is going to completely satisfy everyone. You have to do what...

Here's the thing, the PDF advertises it launches on the 18th. There is no legal action you can take against the company unless you pay for it and the 18th comes around you still don't have it. As long as they make it available by that day they are covered in all legal aspects. You can process a payment a month in advance, but you don't have to deliver the product until it's advertised. If they had said all subscribers will get the PDF by the 13th, but orders will process starting the 28th then it'd be fine. The way they are handling it, however, is the problem.

Even better they can charge the cover price of the book now, give access to the PDF with the understanding that the physical copy will be shipped at the earliest possible time. There are several ways better to handle this situation than what they are doing.


Alchemaic wrote:
Somewhat unrelated to the above discussion, but I really wish the book containing the actual encounters for the game had been published alongside the CRB instead of 2 months down the line. I guess the Pathfinder CRB did the same thing, but at least then you could use the existing 3.5 monsters without having to put them through a whole conversion process.

Honestly this was almost what put me off from buying Starfinder at all. The idea that in today's gaming world you can release a "core rulebook" with pages and pages of splat about a campaign setting (which is still coming out in a book later anyway) but have nothing as far as encounters, npcs, monsters, or anything was too much. I spent several hours making npcs of the classes for levels 3, 5, and 7 just to have some base line until I found the free download with single monsters in WIDE CR range gaps.

As a DM I nearly always build my own setting, even with Starfinder I have done, and so the splat did nothing but take up paper and ink for me. Monsters would have added something. Well, monsters besides a CR 20 Goblin I should say.


Redelia wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:


You want to relate it to a food line. We're not all in a food line. We are the subscribers, the people who paid to go through the line first. Then comes the online preorders, then comes the direct retail order, then comes the late orders.
By your analogy, this is a huge banquet. The subscribers are those with 'early admission tickets.' They let everyone with those tickets in first. There is still going to be a line among those people.

It actually wasn't analogy, it was from a previous post. Here's the problem, we're not at a banquet. We're talking about a company that is taking money for a product and processing orders in a way that gives the product to people early for no reason. If they say the book won't ship until the 18th, but subscribers get the PDF unlocked on the 13th you can still charge the subscription price without giving early access to anyone.


Timbo8705 wrote:
Redelia wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:


You want to relate it to a food line. We're not all in a food line. We are the subscribers, the people who paid to go through the line first. Then comes the online preorders, then comes the direct retail order, then comes the late orders.
By your analogy, this is a huge banquet. The subscribers are those with 'early admission tickets.' They let everyone with those tickets in first. There is still going to be a line among those people.
It actually wasn't analogy, it was from a previous post. Here's the problem, we're not at a banquet. We're talking about a company that is taking money for a product and processing orders in a way that gives the product to people early for no reason. If they say the book won't ship until the 18th, but subscribers get the PDF unlocked on the 13th you can still charge the subscription price without giving early access to anyone.

Except Paizo is not doing that. You are charged and get your PDFS when your books are shipped, the same as absolutely everyone else.

Sovereign Court

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Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Timbo8705 wrote:
Redelia wrote:
Timbo8705 wrote:


You want to relate it to a food line. We're not all in a food line. We are the subscribers, the people who paid to go through the line first. Then comes the online preorders, then comes the direct retail order, then comes the late orders.
By your analogy, this is a huge banquet. The subscribers are those with 'early admission tickets.' They let everyone with those tickets in first. There is still going to be a line among those people.
It actually wasn't analogy, it was from a previous post. Here's the problem, we're not at a banquet. We're talking about a company that is taking money for a product and processing orders in a way that gives the product to people early for no reason. If they say the book won't ship until the 18th, but subscribers get the PDF unlocked on the 13th you can still charge the subscription price without giving early access to anyone.

Just because you don't know the reason, doesn't mean there isn't one. If you have a problem, make a thread in the Customer Service forum. Otherwise, accept that there is a line and everyone has their place in it. Next month, you might get an earlier spot in the line.


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Did I mention how I beat Skeld in line, twice.


What are groups of Skittermanders called.


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captain yesterday wrote:
What are groups of Skittermanders called.

A scatter?


Prof. Ginkgo wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:
What are groups of Skittermanders called.
A scatter?

I really, really, really hope this is true.


So, a scatter of scatting Skittermanders.


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captain yesterday wrote:
What are groups of Skittermanders called.

Asked Google for help.

A band of salamanders
A congress of salamanders
A maelstrom of salamanders

These seem stealable, especially as you go down the list.


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Something helpful, but infuriating.

A siri of skittermanders?


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I have yet to have my subscription shipped as well, and I’m a little upset because I’m eager to go through it. But, damn, Paizo sure has to deal with a lot of BS from people that complain a lot.


KingOfNinjas wrote:

Something helpful, but infuriating.

A siri of skittermanders?

A Siri is the one currently designated at spearheading help and relief efforts at the time.


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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I've got the notice! downloading now. good luck to everyone! :)

Grand Lodge

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At this point I would like to just cheer on the folks at the warehouse getting shipments out. There are a lot of us getting products ordered and their more than likely breaking their backs trying to get it out the door to all the various shippers that deliver it to all of us.

So tot he folks in Customer Service, the Warehouse staff and all the fine folks who staff the Web Store, keep up the good work.


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Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

A group of skittermanders are called a nest.


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Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

... or was it pest?


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No, a pest is what you would call a lone skittermander. Something stronger is needed for a large number of them.


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captain yesterday wrote:
What are groups of Skittermanders called.

Skittermander, oddly enough. You'd say, "I have a skittermander of skittermanders"


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A murder of skittermander.

A conspiracy of skittermander.

A romp of skittermander.

Collective animal names.


A charity of Skittermanders.

Grand Lodge

A maelstrom of Skittermanders?


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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Any avian/bird-like aliens in here? Chozo-esque?

Oh, and, um, how 'bout a sklitter?


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Many of the creatures in this book can fly. None of them are remotely avian/bird-like.

Grand Lodge

Well I guess the good news is that we can now focus on the product at hand. So what are the impressions of the rules to create NPCs?

Community & Digital Content Director

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Removed a couple posts referencing illegal downloads, as well as a baiting/personally abusive post. Product discussion threads need to be focused on the specific product they are attached to. If you have feedback about a specific subscription, you can post it to the discussion thread attached to that particular subscription. If you have feedback about our fulfillment or subscription order process, you can provide that to Customer Service in their own subforum or by sending it to customer.service@paizo.com.

For those who are asking about our subscription process, you may find this FAQ section helpful.

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