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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What is that thing coming out of the skittermamder stomach? Is that suppose to be a feeding tube for the infantile stage?


GM Facepalm wrote:
What is that thing coming out of the skittermamder stomach? Is that suppose to be a feeding tube for the infantile stage?

Close, they’re the baby Skittermanders.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Troodos wrote:
Can you give descriptions of the Deh-Nolo, Hesper, and Bryrvath?

Deh-nolo: A brain collecting aberration

Hesper: A radioactive fey

Bryrvath: A light absorbing aberration that drives its victims insane by emitting light of various "impossible" colors.


Any cool stuff on the Aeon Guard and Aeon Specialist ? Fluff on the Azlanti Star Empire (ASE) is welcome.

Grand Lodge

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
GM Facepalm wrote:
What is that thing coming out of the skittermamder stomach? Is that suppose to be a feeding tube for the infantile stage?
Close, they’re the baby Skittermanders.

No, the thing coming out of the baby skittermander is its secondary mouth. Only the developing stage has them. Adult skittermanders lose their secondary mouths.


KingOfPregens wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
GM Facepalm wrote:
What is that thing coming out of the skittermamder stomach? Is that suppose to be a feeding tube for the infantile stage?
Close, they’re the baby Skittermanders.
No, the thing coming out of the baby skittermander is its secondary mouth. Only the developing stage has them. Adult skittermanders lose their secondary mouths.

Oh really? Neat!


2 people marked this as a favorite.

That rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper.

Sovereign Court

The more comments I read, the more I like Starfinder! Still, I intend to get all these books to perform a "reverse legacy" style Pathfinder game.


Dean HS Jones wrote:
Ambrosia Slaad wrote:
Karpomatic wrote:
It really gets old seeing people with their copies and I'm over here "pending." WTF?
Be thankful you don't have to wait until the 18th to get your PDF.

Could be worse.

/eye Doom Patrol

I just think they should release all the subscriber orders at once. This staggered crap is nuts. How can people have the book for weeks and others are still pending. Pack up and hold all the subscriber orders until they are all ready to ship then send them all the same day. If you're a subscriber then your order gets filled first. Normal preorders should start shipping on the release date.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

There's no "staggering", Subscribers get their PDFs as they ship, which they are constantly doing from the first day of shipping.

Holding off and trying to ship ALL the subscriptions, with each shipment made up of different books from different lines, on the same day is ridiculously unfeasible.

Also, if Preorders shipped on street date they wouldn't be Preorders.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I think what he's actually after is releasing all the pdfs at once. This would be doable, but I think it would end up losing a bunch of subscribers, which would badly hurt Paizo's bottom line, since they couldn't release the pdfs to subscribers until the last shipping day.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Karpomatic wrote:
Dean HS Jones wrote:
Ambrosia Slaad wrote:
Karpomatic wrote:
It really gets old seeing people with their copies and I'm over here "pending." WTF?
Be thankful you don't have to wait until the 18th to get your PDF.

Could be worse.

/eye Doom Patrol

I just think they should release all the subscriber orders at once. This staggered crap is nuts. How can people have the book for weeks and others are still pending. Pack up and hold all the subscriber orders until they are all ready to ship then send them all the same day. If you're a subscriber then your order gets filled first. Normal preorders should start shipping on the release date.

As someone that fills online orders I can tell you with a hundred percent certainty it's not that easy.

Patience, your book will come.

My order hasn't shipped yet either, but as a very wise person once told me "it'll get here when it gets here" - my dad, as I waited for my novelty glasses I ordered from the back of a comic book.

So, no worries!

Owner - House of Books and Games LLC

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Yeah. Though the waiting doesn't really get any easier no matter how many years you've been going through it :)


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Some months you get lucky and ship on the first day, and some months your order is last out the door.


I still remember both times I got my shipping notice before Skeld.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Karpomatic wrote:
I just think they should release all the subscriber orders at once. This staggered crap is nuts. How can people have the book for weeks and others are still pending. Pack up and hold all the subscriber orders until they are all ready to ship then send them all the same day.

They are packing thousands of orders of varying size/weight/complexity and they have half a dozen people. Piling all the orders in a corner til they’ve finished everyone’s package would slow things down considerably.

It sucks to be at the end of the queue but a subscriber still gets their book early 99% of the time. I try to focus on the streetdate when my order spawns, rather than the early, lucky people who get their books on day one of the shipping window.

Paizo shift the order of the batched orders around a little, so some months you’ll be early and some months late in the process.

The reason they don’t release preorders later than subscribers is that it would disincentivise purchases. I get preorders and odds and sods orders most months and add them to my subscription. If doing so meant my order was delayed, I’d very likely order less.


I just think it would be super neat if they released all the PDFs at once? Whether that means they charge me before it ships or not. I'm to understand that's not completely as easy as one would think?

But maybe we can steer it back to what this book is about?

Skittermanders.

So people with the book, how do you intend to use Skittermanders in your game?


For those blessed with the book, what's your favorite player possible race not called Skittermander.

What is your favorite non player race or creature.

What is your favorite color of Skittermander.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

are any of the other subscribers like me still waiting on their shipping notifications?


zergtitan wrote:
are any of the other subscribers like me still waiting on their shipping notifications?

I haven't gotten my shipping notice yet either. Hopefully tomorrow!


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Interestingly my copy of the Adventure Path shipped but not my copy of the Archive. I'm wondering if they combined it with my Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription, since I seem to recall combined shipments going out later. Odd, but 1 week before street date vs 2 weeks before street date is hardly a hardhsip.

Paizo Employee CEO

6 people marked this as a favorite.
Luke Spencer wrote:
There's a big back order. To get the book out this early they had to order it before they had a full idea of how popular Starfinder was going to be, which means they weren't able to order enough to fulfill demand. The pdf will be available from the 18th but physical copies will take longer to get a hold of.

There are quite a few copies going into our distribution network to be released on the 18th of October. We are sold out and jumped on a print run back in late July when it was clear we didn't print enough. The reprint will be here in November/December, depending on how the kind the printing and shipping gods are to us. But there are a lot of copies going to friendly local retail stores, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and many other places, so go talk to your retailer of choice and hopefully you can get one on the release date.

-Lisa

Grand Lodge

zergtitan wrote:
are any of the other subscribers like me still waiting on their shipping notifications?

I am, and it happens, no boggy...


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
zergtitan wrote:
are any of the other subscribers like me still waiting on their shipping notifications?

Yeah, it's not that uncommon for it to not ship the first week...even if I would prefer it that way!

Edit: And if it was unclear...still waiting on my subscription.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Luthorne wrote:
zergtitan wrote:
are any of the other subscribers like me still waiting on their shipping notifications?

Yeah, it's not that uncommon for it to not ship the first week...even if I would prefer it that way!

Edit: And if it was unclear...still waiting on my subscription.

From the monthly shipping thread:

Quote:
End Shipping Estimate: Friday, October 13th

So some time this week, you'll have the PDF, in all likelihood.

Dark Archive

Lisa Stevens wrote:
Luke Spencer wrote:
There's a big back order. To get the book out this early they had to order it before they had a full idea of how popular Starfinder was going to be, which means they weren't able to order enough to fulfill demand. The pdf will be available from the 18th but physical copies will take longer to get a hold of.

There are quite a few copies going into our distribution network to be released on the 18th of October. We are sold out and jumped on a print run back in late July when it was clear we didn't print enough. The reprint will be here in November/December, depending on how the kind the printing and shipping gods are to us. But there are a lot of copies going to friendly local retail stores, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and many other places, so go talk to your retailer of choice and hopefully you can get one on the release date.

-Lisa

Thank you for the info, Lisa.

Are the print run numbers going to be higher from the "Pact Worlds" hardcover release (april 2018) onwards or will that decision being made later still (after the first AP is finished in june 2018)?

-Marco


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Franz Lunzer wrote:
Luthorne wrote:
zergtitan wrote:
are any of the other subscribers like me still waiting on their shipping notifications?

Yeah, it's not that uncommon for it to not ship the first week...even if I would prefer it that way!

Edit: And if it was unclear...still waiting on my subscription.

From the monthly shipping thread:

Quote:
End Shipping Estimate: Friday, October 13th
So some time this week, you'll have the PDF, in all likelihood.

I am aware, yes, usually it's a two week shipping window, though I think there's been a three week one a time or two if I recall correctly...? Anyways, it's nice when it ships the first week, but can hardly be expected! Unless you're Skeld, I suppose.


Luthorne wrote:


I am aware, yes, usually it's a two week shipping window, though I think there's been a three week one a time or two if I recall correctly...? Anyways, it's nice when it ships the first week, but can hardly be expected! Unless you're Skeld, I suppose.

Sorry, that was directed at zergtitan, not at you Luthorne. :D

The Exchange

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, PF Special Edition Subscriber

The big problem here isn't that we are waiting on the physical copy to ship but that subscribers aren't even getting access to the PDF while we wait. It is insane that some subscribers are getting access to the PDFs while others are not. It does make you rethink the subscriptions.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Not really, I'm still getting my books possibly before street date, and a free PDF.

Getting it early is a boon, it's the free PDF that makes me a subscriber.

The Exchange

Pathfinder LO Special Edition, PF Special Edition Subscriber

Ah let me add, for me and I know a few others as well.

It makes zero sense for some subscribers to get the PDF access before others. Shipping is a logistical nightmare on this scale but PDF access is not.


6 people marked this as a favorite.
Agent Eclipse wrote:
The big problem here isn't that we are waiting on the physical copy to ship but that subscribers aren't even getting access to the PDF while we wait. It is insane that some subscribers are getting access to the PDFs while others are not. It does make you rethink the subscriptions.

There are many reasons they do this. One is a perk of subscribing to get it for free not necessarily to get it early. Two the system doesnt release the PDF until the account is actually charged. IF they changed it so everyone got the PDF at the same time then no one would get it until all the orders had shipped which would be a huge downer and a pretty big ding to the whole perk to begin with. If they released the PDF before the book actually shipped this simply opens up a window for disreputable people to cancel their order once they had the PDF and lead to loss of sales.

However honestly if your playing online through a app like roll20 like myself then the free PDF is the pay off here as its necessary for me anyway but I prefer to read and collect the real book.


I'm sorry the subscriptions aren't shaping up to be what you had hoped, but getting your stuff early has never been an advertised perk of getting a subscription just to point out.

Edit: ninjaed by Vexies


For those pending, are subscribers guaranteed a copy by the release date?


GM Facepalm wrote:
For those pending, are subscribers guaranteed a copy by the release date?

The last shipments go out on the 13th and the Street Date is the 18th. So you'll get your PDF before the Street Date. For the physical book? *shrugs*

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
GM Facepalm wrote:
For those pending, are subscribers guaranteed a copy by the release date?

No. It's highly likely but not guaranteed. We have had orders where the release date had happened by the time a small percentage of the subscriber base got their orders shipped. As the shipping process is essentially random, it is unlikely to happen twice in a row, but it still is frustrating when it happens to you.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

The issue is that they give pdf access as soon as your order can't be cancelled. They would lose more subscriptions if people couldn't cancel orders before they shipped because they already had pdf access. So the only way to give pdf access at the same time for everyone is to not grant any of them until all subscriptions have shipped.


I subscribe for the fun package that arrives in the mail every month, that and the pathfinder advantage. :-)

The PDF is nice, but I hardly use them.

Acquisitives

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
KingOfNinjas wrote:

Some months you get lucky and ship on the first day, and some months your order is last out the door.

i guess it's a subtle encouragement to subscribe to more product lines.

;-P


Agent Eclipse wrote:

Ah let me add, for me and I know a few others as well.

It makes zero sense for some subscribers to get the PDF access before others. Shipping is a logistical nightmare on this scale but PDF access is not.

My guess is it's a legal or customer service issue, either via the Uniform Commercial Code or hypothetical litigation and customer service complaints/gamesmanship they don't want to deal with under contractual terms they introduce to lock people in upon delivery of the free pdf. There's really nothing to keep someone from trying to cancel (and tell their credit card company to reverse the charges) if they receive a free pdf and then cancel their physical order immediately after.

Paizo also does a lot of international business. Do you know the EU regulations governing this sort of two tier shipping and hypothetic bonus free good delivered in advance if someone cancels after the first "free" part is delivered? Do you think Paizo wants to spend money trying to find out or deal with it?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

There are other potential avenues to get the Starfinder product. In the end its a choice of what makes most sense to you. Im sure Paizo is pleased that you purchase it not so much where. For them Subscriptions give them a steady stream of income that they can measure and reasonably count on. This helps them gauge interest and plan future releases as well as project budget.

The rest is just incentives to entice the customer to buy direct and support the company. Some get it early but all of us should get the PDF earlier than non-subscribers anyway and the added lottery of when will it ship this month kind of adds to the excitement (for me anyway) even when Im on the tail end of it like this month..

Hoping to see that notification today. :)


Yakman wrote:
KingOfNinjas wrote:

Some months you get lucky and ship on the first day, and some months your order is last out the door.

i guess it's a subtle encouragement to subscribe to more product lines.

;-P

The algorithm is arcane and not easy to reverse engineer, but having a lot of subscriptions doesn’t seem to be a significant factor, as far as I can tell. I’m sometimes early and sometimes late in the queue (one year I even received my September shipment before my August one had arrived).


5 people marked this as a favorite.

It’s probably better for us to take discussion of the subscription itself to the product page of the subscription rather than this specific book. That will at least help potential new subscribers understand the various issues - they’re unlikely to see information here, once this book drops off the front page.


4 people marked this as a favorite.

I'd like to know how many Skittermanders you can graft onto a dragon.


Im most interested in the monster creation rules. I almost never do stock anything and like to keep my players guessing so im hoping I like what I see in this section. What I hear so far is encouraging as its one of the aspects of the game I really enjoy. Tinkering with stuff behind the scenes.


Vexies wrote:
Agent Eclipse wrote:
The big problem here isn't that we are waiting on the physical copy to ship but that subscribers aren't even getting access to the PDF while we wait. It is insane that some subscribers are getting access to the PDFs while others are not. It does make you rethink the subscriptions.

There are many reasons they do this. One is a perk of subscribing to get it for free not necessarily to get it early. Two the system doesnt release the PDF until the account is actually charged. IF they changed it so everyone got the PDF at the same time then no one would get it until all the orders had shipped which would be a huge downer and a pretty big ding to the whole perk to begin with. If they released the PDF before the book actually shipped this simply opens up a window for disreputable people to cancel their order once they had the PDF and lead to loss of sales.

However honestly if your playing online through a app like roll20 like myself then the free PDF is the pay off here as its necessary for me anyway but I prefer to read and collect the real book.

It's a pretty big ding to the whole perk being one of the only people who doesn't have access to it despite being a subscriber. If early access isn't part of the perk, it shouldn't be part of the perk for everyone, not just a select few whose orders processed slower. There is no understandable reason for anyone to have the PDF already if everyone doesn't have it. If that means they have to wait until the 18th when the street copies go live to unlock the downloads then so be it, but it's not right some people have now and others don't, despite having the same subscription. Why am I paying for a service if it's a coin toss that it's even providing what I'm paying for?


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As specified in the October shipping thread EVERY subscriber WILL have their PDF BEFORE the street date of October 18th, as they plan on having wrapped up shipping subscriptions no later than October 13th, so no worries there. :-)

Calm down and be patient. :-)

Silver Crusade

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

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.

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