Get ready for the latest upgrade to the acclaimed science-fantasy Starfinder Roleplaying Game!
The Starfinder Playtest Rulebook brings Starfinder into a new age of compatibility, as Starfinder switches to using the same rules engine that powers the popular Second Edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Inside this playtest for the new edition, you’ll find six new classes, 10 ancestries, new skills, new feats, futuristic equipment including augmentations and upgrades, new science-fantasy spells, and more!
You can directly shape the future of Starfinder by participating in a fun and rigorous playtest using one of several playtest adventures released throughout the playest period, or by trying out the new rules in your own games. If you’ve ever wanted to fire a gatling gun into a horde of onrushing aliens while laughing menacingly, battle robots in a derelict starship as a solar knight, or hack computer systems with plants as a mystical xenodruid, then the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook has you covered!
This 264-page softcover playtest rulebook is packed with new content that lets you build a science-fantasy character from level 1 to 20. Create a character to participate in the Starfinder Playtest or see how this new content might work in your Pathfinder campaign. The future is yours to shape! (You’ll need a copy of Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core to use this product.)
Written by: Jessica Catalan, Thurston Hillman, Jenny Jarzabski, Mike Kimmel, and Dustin Knight.
After reading through the rules and taking a look at the new tables its left a very sour taste in my mouth, no offence to the creators, I myself have never designed a TTRPG but the simplification of bonuses to something more akin to DND 5E and Pathfinder 2E just seems like a massive downside alongside the abilities it just feels bland. Although this is a playtest book so far second edition feels more like a Sci Fi supplement to Pathfinder 2E rather than that of its own thing.
Art wise (excluding a few very obnoxious designs) its pretty good and in my opinion suits the setting fairly well, that's pretty much all there is to say about that though. I cant find much else i like that much, spells going over 5th level is pretty cool i guess. Although its sad and it will probably stop getting books soon i think I'm just going to have to stick with 1E it just feels like the cooler changes are not worth the negatives it brings.
TL; DR- Want to play some Pathfinder in space? 95%
Basics- Pathfinder 2nd ed IN SPACE! Ok, let’s look deep into this deep space RPG.
Base Mechanics- Do you remember pathfinder 2nd Ed? If you are proficient in a thing, it's proficiency bonus (trained, expert, master, or legendary) + ability modifier + level + d20. Not proficient? D20 + ability modifier. This is versus AC or some static number from another character. That’s it! If you love Pathfinder 2nd Ed, you can instantly play this one.
This is a full RPG, but honestly if you have the Pathfinder basics down, then you are ready to go! Let’s look at my thoughts.
Mechanics or Crunch- I love Pathfinder 2nd Ed, so this is perfect. This feels a bit better balanced from small things like cantrips doing damage based on level. The changes that were imposed to make the 3.5 to Pathfinder 2nd ed transfer are solid, like Aim for the Operative class making them equivalent Pathfinder 2nd Ed ranged rogues. All the new changes from the standard Pathfinder 2nd ed formula work well adapted to the space opera of Starfinder. It’s what I expected, but still enjoyable. 5/5
Theme or Fluff- This is solid, but things are missing. We have the basics of the world, but some things are lost and have to be lost. A big one for me is the notion of stamina. I loved stamina and hit points being different. Now, you just have hit points. That changes the flavor a bit. It needed to go for Starfinder to work in Pathfinder 2nd Ed’s mechanics, but it's a change that loses some of the originality of Starfinder. Other things work well like the mystic, Starfinder’s cleric-ish character, having a giant pool of hit points that it can use to heal any character in the group. This feels like a fun new addition to the Pathfinder system. The changes are good, but some flavor is lost in the transition. 4.5/5
Execution- Starfinder 2nd ed is well done, but I feel I want a few changes. The layout and PDF is well done. Also, given this book is free it is instantly amazing. You can easily speed read through any section and skim to find the information you need. But I want more summary tables. Skill feats have nice tables, giving summaries of each of the different feats and the full feat is below with its full write up. Class feats are not written that way. Archive of Nethys does this better; it has all class feats in nice tables that you can read via hyperlink. Make those tables for each class to make it easier to read! Also, this may be a bit petty, but Pathfinder 2nd Ed started using titles in their PDF files. This document does not. PLEASE DO THAT. I don't want to have to memorize long strings of digits to know what files I need to open for game night! And last but not least, missing are the major rules I was hoping for: space ships. Ship combat in Starfinder was fun, BUT you had to want it. And most players did not, based on how the adventures are written. This book does not have spaceship combat. I know Paizo knows how to make Pathfinder 2nd Ed work. They do fantastic jobs on Pathfinder 2nd Ed, but I don't know how they plan to handle space ships. The absence of these rules is something experienced Starfinders will feel. 4.75/5
Summary- Go get this PDF! It’s free, so I need to tell everyone to check this out. I love Pathfinder 2nd Ed, and I watched Star Wars Ewok adventures on VHS so many times as a child I broke the video tape. Starfinder is the system that was built for the Starfinder game, but saw a few issues. Starfinder 2nd Ed is a solid progression of the Starfinder brand. There are issues, and some of those will be fixed when the full rules come out and others are just growing pains of the system. Others are just CHANGE HOW YOU NAME THINGS! But, even with a few small issues, this game is a solid RPG that you should check out. 95%
Pathfinder Adventure, LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Aaron Shanks wrote:
Ravien999 wrote:
Preorder... July!?
I was going to ask about pickups at Gencon, but it seems we'll have it a month ahead of time?
July products are late July, aka Gen Con releases. As last year, no Gen Con Subscriber pickup. They will on sale in the booth and worldwide.
I believe last year there was a bit of an early push for shipping to make GenCon if I recall (unfortunately, my RoE showed up hours after I left for the convention) - Should we expect the same? I'd very much appreciate being able to have a physical book as a subscriber for the convention.
Will this follow the same principle as the Pathfinder 2 playtest (and the OG Pathfinder playtest before it): PDF available for free, but professionally printed book available for those who want it?
Pathfinder Adventure, LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Staffan Johansson wrote:
Will this follow the same principle as the Pathfinder 2 playtest (and the OG Pathfinder playtest before it): PDF available for free, but professionally printed book available for those who want it?
From the Starfinder Discord:
Jenny Jarzabski (she/her) — 01/25/2024 11:23 AM wrote:
There will be a physical rulebook as well as a PDF/free version, yes.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Noven wrote:
I don't have the Player Core, so will the original 2E Core Rules be alright?
Archives of Nethys should be updated with the remastered Core well before then, and if not there's a free PDF from Paizo that goes through the major mid-edition changes. Download here: https://downloads.paizo.com/RemasterCorePreview.pdf
There appears to be something wrong with the image. As far as I can tell there's no technomancer character on it
Nothing wrong with it, actually. The 6 classes that'll be playtested for Starfinder Second Edition's Playtest Rulebook will be the Soldier, Mystic, Envoy, Solarion, Operative, and the Witchwarper. First Edition's Technomancer and Mechanic are not slated yet to be playtested at this time.
Mayhaps they'll show up later in a different book? Only time will tell.
I hope it is also available in PDF as the shipping fees are killing me
*points up*
Not only as a PDF, but a free PDF. It is a playtest, after all. The hard copy book is just available because some people prefer a physical copy of the rules.
Also, as someone who has the PF2 playtest books, it feels pretty great to have a physical reminder that you were there and contributed to the new thing!
QUITE excitexx for this and all my groups are as well to see how this pans out and how different and how the same for PF II. I am sure Paizo learned there lesson from the PF II Playtest and made more than a few adjustments, but thats more for the Playtest adventures rather than the rules one might think.
Come on GENCON, it seems so far away but getting ever closer!!
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
You can always cancel a sub for a book you don't want and come back later. But it makes sense that this book is part of the subscription as iirc the PF2 playtest was also part of that line.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Yrrej86 wrote:
(You’ll need a copy of Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core to use this product.)
Is the playtest not going to include the basic rules of the game? What could we expect in the playtest?
The basic rules/math have already been playtested with Pathfinder 2nd edition. They will be playtesting the "content" that use these rules, so:
Product Description wrote:
Inside this playtest for the new edition, you’ll find six new classes, 10 ancestries, new skills, new feats, futuristic equipment including augmentations and upgrades, new science-fantasy spells, and more!
I would also expect some changes to advice sections concerning those rules. For example, the cover rules work decently well in PF2. But in SF2, the advice section on cover would be rather inadequate and in some cases (peeking) straight-up bad.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
I'm LOVING the cover art and the new logo, its giving like 80s space anime and I'm super into it. I can't wait to learn more about the new Solarion as well, Pahtra being in core and as one of our iconics has me super excited!
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Thrawn82 wrote:
Question: Is it just the playtest the requires player core and gm core, or is this being pitches as more of a setting book for PF2e?
This is special for the Playtest, cause they don't need people to test the basics of the system. So they will include only what they feel need testing.
So how long is the actual playtest window expected to be? Obviously, they need time to finalize and print the new book after feedback like they did with PF2. iirc, it was about 6 months for PF2. should we expect about the same for this one?
