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While I may eventually dabble in mixing PF content into SF content and vice versa, I'm very much looking forward to enjoying SF2e as its own experience first and foremost. I don't participate in organized play at all, and instead organize tabletop sessions at home and my workplace. A whole bunch of friends are very much looking forward to sinking their teeth into a sci-fi tabletop d20 system, and I'm waiting for Starfinder to be implemented with 2e rules to run those games with them.
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Started playing D&D in 1980 and also played game world, cyberpunk 2020. Also currently playing Star Wars X-wing and Armada, just learning about savage worlds and PBtA games. Took a break from TTRPGs near the end of D&D 3.5 During the break I designed built and programmed games in Second Life including a simple 3D VTT. I got back into TTRPGS right when PF2e came out but then discovered Starfinder and that became my main focus. I'd love to play both in home games but so far have only been able to play either game in organized play.
Will most likely just end up playing SF2e organized play on its own. But for homebrew, I'd love to use PF2e to create sword and planet worlds in the Starfinder setting and timeline. I like the idea of using the Pathfinder2e timeline as the history of Starfinder and being able to find ancient items, or Stafinder magic uses discovering ancient spells. Haven't thought much about using Pathfinder classes in Starfinder other than using the fighter class for someone in Starfinder who practices ancient martial arts. I imagine other PF2e classes would be helpful on a sword and planet world.
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Starfinder is the setting I prefer and I played it for about a year until I saw the PF2e engine. I'm excited to return to the pactworlds with game mechanics that better serve my needs (ease of dming, interlocking mechanics, plenty of Lego bricks for pcs to make their characters within a tight balance curve). Pathfinder will definitely be my side game at that point bc I prefer the narrative opportunities of science fantasy. As far as mixing goes I don't forsee any issues with my future starfinder players using pathfinder stuff. I know my pathfinder players will be ecstatic about envoy. Idk about letting soldier in bc of having a martial with on demand AOE in that system.
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Huh. I remember this thread.
I've personally only managed to get in games of Organized Play PF2, and not all that many of them - limited both by time and personal resources. I'd love to get more (of any game, anywhere on the PF2/SF2 spectrum) but it's not looking all that likely to happen particularly soon.
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My timing in trying out Starfinder was awful. I blame Wizards of the Coast for their OGL crisis causing Paizo to accelerate their timetable.
In summer 2023 as my PF2-converted Ironfang Invasion campaign was wrapping up, I considered our next campaign. I had run two and a half PF1 adventure paths and one PF2 adventure path. I have played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, Call of Cthulu, Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game 4th Edition, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, Traveller, Rifts, and Serenity Roleplaying Game over the decades, and my wife has played three times as many different roleplaying games.
We had a loose thread from our PF1 Iron Gods campaign that the Dominion of the Black would invade Golarion in about 300 years. I considered adapting Starfinder's Attack of the Swarm! adventure path to play out this story 300 years in the future. But first, I needed some practice with Starfinder. We had had a little fun with the Free RPG Day modules A Fistful of Flowers and A Few Flowers More as a break after a long campaign. I decided to run Free RPG Day modules Skitter Shot, Skitter Crash, Skitter Home, and Skitter Warp to practice with Starfinder. We would finish those modules in March and I could start a Starfinder campaign in April.
But the announcement of the upcoming Starfinder 2nd Edition playtest in summer 2024 threw a monkey wrench in that schedule. I like participating in playtests. Would my players and I be willing to pause my Dominion of the Black campaign after 3 months to participate in the playtest? Or should we do something else during those three months?
I proceeded with the Free RPG Day Skitter modules, since those would help both the Dominion of the Black campaign and the Starfinder 2nd Edition playtest. After that, my plans are uncertain.
Building encounters under PF2 rules is easier than building encounters under PF1 rules. If Starfinder 2nd Edition follows that pattern, then running the Dominion of the Black campaign under Starfinder 2nd Edition would be easier. But the official release of Starfinder 2nd Edition would be summer 2025, which is too far away.
Right now my goal is to use my limited experience with Starfinder to encourage Paizo to keep all the fun parts of Starfinder 1st Edition in Starfinder 2nd Edition.
For a second complication, an old friend in Maryland talked me into running a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition campaign via Roll20 for his Maryland group. I have never played D&D 5th Edition. I purchased Battlezoo's Jewel of the Indigo Isles adventure path and have run one session of it already.
Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
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Well, my plan is to do a mix of GM content, and keep the player content focused on SF tools with some options available from PF. A good example, would be that I'll allow the core PF ancestries for anyone who wants to grab one.
On the GM side, taking Monster Core entries is a no-brainer, and some simple adjustments can allow for us to do things like "ogre with a breaching cannon" or the like, to run for my playtest campaigns. It also means the campaign's official launch will just have way more options available for use than what exists in the core set.
Of course, I'll also homebrew a bunch of content because I'm silly like that. :)
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Differently for different campaigns-- it's all going to be our home setting "Children of the Wind" the planet itself will be magitech meets high fantasy-- Pathfinder style adventuring featuring people using both traditional fantasy combat (turned up to 11, shōnen fighting anime esque due to how saturated magic everything is) and magitech starfinder-statted classes and equipment (mainly the laser guns and stuff.)
That will be a mixed meta of Soldiers with Rotary Laser Cannons, meeting Giant Barbarians with fantasy great weapons, and of course Triggerbrands with their gunblades, and Wizards doing their things as always, all in a big mash with free archetype... I'm already considering ways to add simple ranged options to more pathfinder monsters, which will also reflect our higher magic setting, like easy slap ons of appropriately damaging cantrips, and we might make flight easier to attain to match what the Starfinder ancestries can do. My players are huge on JRPG magitech stuff like you see in Xenoblade, Final Fantasy, and so on, so we're THRILLED to be mixing things. Nevermind that the Envoy is pretty much geared up to be a Warlord Class (just based off, like, the PAX Unplugged Playtest), something we've wanted back in our gaming since 4e.
But we also want to run some full on Starfinder stuff, featuring ships and what not-- outside the wards that keep "the profanity" out of the dream, I've decided it's a post apocalyptic space opera type set up.
Refugees from across the stars gathering on the outskirts of the local star system, trading their aid in fighting back Profane incursions for the magic that so saturates Zydeir or for sanctuary in their new home, their worlds devoured by the profanity, ships burning across the stars via manathyst warp cores (not sure about how we'll use the drift, or modify that convention yet) to gather new allies to fight back who haven't yet been consumed, others bring the fight to the profanity, or hide in the vastness of the void in hidden citadels floating in space.
Manathyst and Magic are both precious resources out there, and magitech is required for basic survival, and to match the output people in the fantasy section can perform with training, mages and batteries bath in the glow of their ship or station's core, refreshing their spell slots and magazines. If we must mix in Pathfinder classe by player demand, they will either have to use Magitech (e.g. a Fighter as an alternate Soldier, type deal) or be from the planet where they're a living piece of powerful magitech.
Separately from me, two of my players appear to be planning to use Starfinder 2e to run a Mass Effect Campaign I'll likely play in, stripping away some of the fantasy elements for a more basic sci-fi take.
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What's going to define a SF2 vs PF2 game at our table is going to be almost entirely setting. Pact Worlds vibes vs Golarion vibes. I plan to be very permissive about ancestries and classes. Futuristic item access will be extremely limited for Pathfinder games, however.
Our group played heaps of PF1, then a bunch of Starfinder as PF1 was winding down, then when PF2 came out we almost immediately dropped Starfinder for PF2.
With both Starfinder and Pathfinder on the same engine, we'll be doing somewhere around 50-50 of each.
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For my part, I'll try to run purely SF2 on the player side for the start of the playtest, provided my players find something cool they want to play. Mostly for feedback reasons, but also to encourage them to look at the game with fresh eyes, rather than just continue things from PF2. If one of them doesn't like any of the classes - I highly doubt that - then I'm sure we'll work something out, but that isn't the point I'd like to start at.
On the GM side, I'll absolutely steal everything cool that isn't nailed down. Probably spice up many of the monsters to include ranged options, unless the environment makes that unnecessary.
After the playtest, I'll see. It'll most likely depend on how well the two systems work together balance-wise after we have finished converting what we want. And ofc, what type of setting we want. I for one am pretty full-up on fantasy for a bit, I'd appreciate a change of scenery.
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I really want to play a few of Starfinder 1e adventures with the new mechanics, especially since I know a lot of players that know Pf2e and not a single one that knows Starfinder well to fix my mistakes. Sf2e will be close mechanically to Pf2e so switch should be easier
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I really want to play a few of Starfinder 1e adventures with the new mechanics, especially since I know a lot of players that know Pf2e and not a single one that knows Starfinder well to fix my mistakes. Sf2e will be close mechanically to Pf2e so switch should be easier
That sounds like a great idea. To the people who actually know SF1 APs/adventures, which one(s) would you highly recommend?
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I really want to play a few of Starfinder 1e adventures with the new mechanics, especially since I know a lot of players that know Pf2e and not a single one that knows Starfinder well to fix my mistakes. Sf2e will be close mechanically to Pf2e so switch should be easierThat sounds like a great idea. To the people who actually know SF1 APs/adventures, which one(s) would you highly recommend?
The first module of the first SF2 adventure path will be published at the same time as the new Starfinder 2nd Edition rulebook. That adventure path will be the easiest choice.
Converting a SF1 adventure path to play under SF2 rules is extra work. I did that with my first PF2 campaign. The plot of the first PF2 adventure path, Age of Ashes, was not the kind of campaign my players liked, so I decided to convert a PF1 adventure path to PF2 rules.
When talking with my players about which adventure path, one suggested picking one with most of its creatures already in the PF2 Bestiary. Thus, we played Ironfang Invasion in which the combat was against hobgoblins armies and wild animals. Hobgoblin Soldier and many animals were in the PF2 Bestiary. My first creature conversions required advice from other people on the Paizo forums. By the time the PCs regularly fought less common opponents, I had mastered converting PF1 creatures to PF2 rules by myself.
But if any GM decides to convert a SF1 adventure to SF2, the conversion will probably be similar to converting PF1 to PF2. My experience should come in handy, and I will write up a guide if anyone wants one.
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The first module of the first SF2 adventure path will be published at the same time as the new Starfinder 2nd Edition rulebook. That adventure path will be the easiest choice.I really want to play a few of Starfinder 1e adventures with the new mechanics, especially since I know a lot of players that know Pf2e and not a single one that knows Starfinder well to fix my mistakes. Sf2e will be close mechanically to Pf2e so switch should be easierThat sounds like a great idea. To the people who actually know SF1 APs/adventures, which one(s) would you highly recommend?
I know ^^. I'm thinking of the time of the playtest. As I understand it Paizo usually release a playtest adventure? We have a good year or so to fill and it's very possible that that single adventure won't last my group that long.
Converting a SF1 adventure path to play under SF2 rules is extra work. I did that with my first PF2 campaign. The plot of the first PF2 adventure path, Age of Ashes, was not the kind of campaign my players liked, so I decided to convert a PF1 adventure path to PF2 rules.
And that is the other potential problem. A lesser concern, as I'm pretty sure my group would love to play a "tour de Pact Worlds" - styled AP, as the starter ones usually are.
When talking with my players about which adventure path, one suggested picking one with most of its creatures already in the PF2 Bestiary. Thus, we played Ironfang Invasion in which the combat was against hobgoblins armies and wild animals. Hobgoblin Soldier and many animals were in the PF2 Bestiary. My first creature conversions required advice from other people on the Paizo forums. By the time the PCs regularly fought less common opponents, I had mastered converting PF1 creatures to PF2 rules by myself.
But if any GM decides to convert a SF1 adventure to SF2, the conversion will probably be similar to converting PF1 to PF2. My experience should come in handy, and I will write up a guide if anyone wants one.
The GM for my PF2 game went with a Curse of the Crimson Throne conversion, so we had a good mix of originals and (modified) bestiary monsters throughout. For a lot less work we both found replacing non-critical monsters with appropriate alternatives that you have "blueprints" for to be working very well. So I've got someone to help me already ^^
But that guide sounds like a good idea in any case. I don't know how similar the SF1 conversion will be to the PF1, but I'm pretty sure any aspiring converters would be thankful for any amount of help you can provide. If no-one else, then the PF1->PF2 conversion discord server would likely be very thankful.
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I know ^^. I'm thinking of the time of the playtest. As I understand it Paizo usually release a playtest adventure? We have a good year or so to fill and it's very possible that that single adventure won't last my group that long.
The playtest adventure for PF2 was called Doomsday Dawn. I participated in it. As an adventure, it is weak. The individual chapters were designed to test an aspect of character design or gameplay. Thus, they are biased toward an awkward theme and not as entertaining as the Paizo modules written for entertainment. It drove me to rant once: Mathmuse on Chamber of the Sunken Stones at Pale Mountain.
(Curious. I have been harping in another Starfinder thread that Starfinder 2nd Edition should not copy Pathfinder 2nd Edition in treating humanoid form as the default. In that ancient playtest rant, one of my complaints is about a fish-shaped water elemental, asking what it can do when its form lacks hands? That PF2 assumption about humanoid form has been bothering me for a long time.)
But that guide sounds like a good idea in any case. I don't know how similar the SF1 conversion will be to the PF1, but I'm pretty sure any aspiring converters would be thankful for any amount of help you can provide. If no-one else, then the PF1->PF2 conversion discord server would likely be very thankful.
That PF1->PF2 conversion discord server would be Ediwir's A Series of Dice-Based Events, right? I joined it but have never been active in it.
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My hope is to have a PF2e & SF2e crossover game (I’ve been considering this for years, since SF1e came out). But now that the 2 games will use the same mechanics, I truly hope my dream of a crossover is finally in reach.
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When I'm done running Mechageddon!, I'm going to mostly GM Starfinder 2 with some PF2 pieces mixed in there. Maybe get wild and throw my players through a portal or something. I might even homebrew mech rules and run those until I can convince Thursty to let me put them in the official game. ;)
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When I'm done running Mechageddon!, I'm going to mostly GM Starfinder 2 with some PF2 pieces mixed in there. Maybe get wild and throw my players through a portal or something. I might even homebrew mech rules and run those until I can convince Thursty to let me put them in the official game. ;)
I would hope that people like yourself start converting the 1E APs to 2E =)
When I'm done running Mechageddon!, I'm going to mostly GM Starfinder 2 with some PF2 pieces mixed in there. Maybe get wild and throw my players through a portal or something. I might even homebrew mech rules and run those until I can convince Thursty to let me put them in the official game. ;)I would hope that people like yourself start converting the 1E APs to 2E =)
My understanding is that with very few exceptions they haven't produced official Paizo conversions for the PF1 adventures into PF2. My guess is that the interest level isn't worth the effort. I suspect that SF1->SF2 will be similar.
I fully intend to swap almost completely over to SF2 once the full release hits, which gives me a year and a half to wrap up my active PF2 campaigns. Before that, I want to participate as much as I can in the playtest, because that sounds like a really neat way to find community and learn about game design.
Thing is, while I love PF2's engine, I don't like traditional fantasy as a genre all that much. And while I love SF1 conceptually, I bounced hard off the 3.5-derived ruleset. SF2 will hopefully be the game I've been waiting for: a genre-bending, broad-scope, space-age romp with satisfying tactical crunch.
So, the better question for me is, how much of PF2 am I gonna put in my SF2? Answer: most of the ancestries, and maybe a handful of classes and archetypes depending on how the meta turns out. Many of PF2's ancestries are already alien enough to fit right into SF's wild cantina, and the ones that aren't are either furries or spicy humans. SF1 already has the former in abundance (otters, wolves, walruses, cuttlefish, etc), and the latter are a common enough trope in pop sci-fi that nobody's gonna bat an eye at their inclusion. As for classes, their inclusion will depend on how well they gel with a high-tech environment and abundant ranged combat. Basically, if it works, it's allowed.
As for what SF2 itself offers, I am most excited about classes and creatures. Every new class in the 2e engine so far has genuinely surprised me with how it managed to do something different with the mechanics, and basically everything in SF1's roster looks like a blast conceptually. But as a Forever GM, the creatures are gonna be where it's at. My dream is to have a diverse enough stable to handle any adventure subgenre at any level bracket, WITHOUT having to draw from PF2 unless I specifically need a traditional fantasy creature, like a demon or a dragon.
The fact that the Swarm and the Azlanti are such important perennial antagonists has me hopeful that we'll see plenty of infantry-type enemies across the level spectrum. I really wanna do a proper space opera war campaign.