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Starvessels: Unlike Spelljammer, there won't be open-deck vessels. They will be closed-hull ships that maintain their own individual gravity (via use of gravity generator systems that can be damaged), can have different means of propulsion, armour and shielding, weaponry, hit points that are based on the vessel's mass and are broken down into "breached" and "destroyed" damage categories (depending on your intent). Individual systems can be targeted (at penalty), and crews will be able to scavenge, board, repair and more during travel.
Travel in Starfinder: The basic premise is that any group should be able to traverse the stars, and while that would require magitech in order to accomplish this feat, it should not be completely dependent upon spellcasters to provide the means. To that end, the idea is that there are multiple means of propulsion (which are incompatible with each other); starwind engines, gravity impellers, essence domes and spellforge turbines, for example. There would also be environmental hazards that could affect travel in Starfinder.
- Starwind Engines: This large-array propulsion system requires wing-like stardraws to be mounted on the exterior of the ship that collect solar energy and transfer it to the engine itself. The engine itself has several functions. First, it creates a mass-alteration effect upon the ship, causing it to functionally have half its normal weight, which makes it faster and more maneuverable (typically average maneuverability, depending on the size of the vessel), but also more prone to course alterations due to adverse effects (such as solar tsunamis, knockback and knockdown effects from impact weapons or slipstreams). Secondly, it provides direct-propulsion from the rear of the vessel via multiple force-thrusters. Thirdly, steering is done by manually adjusting the angle and alignment of the stardraws themselves to shift the direction of the ship. However, stardraws are useless without the light of the system's star; ships caught in the umbra of any celestial body's shadow (including other ships) are unable to move. These engines are unable to propel vessels from system to system, as they go dead when further than the outermost planet of any system.
- Gravity Impellers: Through the use of powerful gravity-altering magics, these tube-like engines are mounted on the exterior of the vessel and provide both lift and propulsion. They work best when near to individual worlds, either manipulating the gravity of the ship itself to launch away from the surface of the world, or pulling it closer to the next. They also do not function well for inter-system travel, and are slower at long-distance travel than starwind engines, but are far more reliable and pick up speed close to planetary bodies (including moons and large asteroids). Gravity impellers always have poor maneuverability when further than fifty thousand miles from any celestial body, good maneuverability when within that distance. They can also be used defensively to swiftly retreat from other vessels by pushing against the gravity of the other vessel (the smaller of the two vessels moving further away).
- Essence Domes: These convex devices are approximately three feet across and made of silver. They slowly drain the Constitution of the pilot, converting it to thrust and direct steering. Ships with essence domes have good maneuverability, but are usually quite fast. The Constitution drain of the pilot is only temporary, but recovers quickly, at a rate of 1 per hour when not in contact with the essence dome. Essence domes cannot reduce the Constitution of any pilot below 1; they simply cease to function at that point. They are best used on small vessels for short distance travel.
- Spellforge Turbines: These engines rely upon the power of spellcasters, who cast their spells into the forge of the engine (which is a valid target for any spell that the spellcaster uses, though the spells have no effect), propelling the ship at high speeds with perfect maneuverability. The level of spell cast into the spellforge determines how long or far the ship can travel off of the magical energies. There are spellforge turbines that run off of psionic energies, but they only have average maneuverability. The spellcaster is able to sit at a station before the forge and use various levers and switches to manipulate the turbines in order to steer. Mythic magics are able to provide for considerably longer travel than normal spells of their level.
Ship to ship combat: Weapons have also made magitech advances and there will be a wide variety of armaments to choose from, from steam cannons, spell projectors and to storm ballistae and force spears. However, combat exists in a three-dimensional environment, and so tactics are going to be vitally important (especially range calculations). Armour and shielding also play a defensive role in both damage reduction (for armour) and whether or not your ship gets hit in the first place (for shielding). Maneuverability can also reduce your chances of getting hit (like dexterity-based bonuses to armour class normally work). I think calculating in ship speed would over-complicate space combat, but would remain important for tactical positioning.
Boarding parties would be relevant, once a vessel's breach-damage threshold had been reached. There would be no automatic de-pressurization of vessels provided that certain systems are intact (like the life-support systems); too easy of a kill that spoils the fun, and we want to be able to initiate daring raids on enemy vessels. Gunslingers and firearms would be particularly well-suited to the entire setting.
- Steam Cannons: Standard cannons (firing cannonballs, of course) that are steam-powered.
- Spell Projectors: Crystalline rods that function as gigantic wands capable of firing higher-powered, greater ranged versions of standard attack spells (like magic missile or fireball) that are capable of damaging ships (as normal versions of the spells would have limited effectiveness in damaging vessels).
- Storm Ballistae: These weapons fire lightning rods that, upon impact, generate powerful storms that both obscure vision and damage enemy ships, lingering for several rounds (think a combination effect of obscuring mist and call lightning).
- Force Spears: Weapons that project spears of solid force that can ignore shielding and are primarily used for penetrating hulls to create breaches for boarding.
Races: There isn't a huge need for additional races in Starfinder, as the Advanced Race Guide has already provided a plethora of races that could be used. However, I have always had a soft-spot in my heart for the Scro, so they would probably influence at least one new race for Starfinder. I could see the standard seven (Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, Halflings and Humans) sharing the limelight with both featured races like Catfolk and Tengus (and all the rest) as well as uncommon races like Nagaji and Strix.
I don't see too many monsters making an appearance as antagonists that have their own ships out there. No illithid fleets or beholder warships are really needed, but some monsters could definitely be found out there on ships crewed by other races. It wouldn't be out-of-line to find a cacodaemon being kept on board an enemy vessel as an engine-room guardian if you so desired. Encountering a swarm of them attacking the hull of your ship could be rather interesting, if your story took you there.
Races (Continued): I could see some of the more organized/structured/regimented races maintaining fleets in space. This would include races like Drow (possibly), Duergar, Dwarves, Half-Orcs, Hobgoblins, and Orcs () would be prime candidates for forming such fleets. Some other races would likely be unsuited to large-scale fleets (barring extenuating circumstances) due to their more peaceable natures or a general avoidance of technologies. Elves, Gnomes, and Halflings, while not specifically forbidden from traveling the stars, would likely not maintain fleets for anything other than exploration (or perhaps colonisation) purposes. Some races that are dependent upon elemental forces, like Gillmen, Ifrits, Merfolk, Oreads, Sylphs, and Undines might be less comfortable being far from their elements (though not necessarily so) and be less inclined to travel between worlds via spacefaring vessels.
Certain races that favor darkness, like Duergar or Strix, might be particularly well-suited to the vast darkness of space and might take to the stars far more often than other races, even if they do not maintain fleets. They might make for good marauders or space pirates.
New (Prestige) Classes and Factions: There would be room for new classes of spacefaring adventurers (though they would likely be prestige classes), filling certain roles for shipboard life, like an exploratory prestige class that has navigation and survival abilities that are geared toward space travel, an artificer class that creates and repairs shipboard systems like magitech engines and weaponry (and perhaps systems that repel enemy boarders), space gypsies, expert starfaring vessel pilots (that could perhaps include ship-to-ship fighter pilots), and more.
Various factions could include trans-racial fleet organizations, pirate guilds, gypsy tribes and possibly even deep-space explorers.
Vessels: These would need to be structured and classified in order to give some guidance on exactly what sort of ship you're on and what it's capable of. There would be a necessary template for spacefaring vessels, but that could be taken and modified from existing vehicle templates to provide exactly what you need for spacefaring ships. Armour plating has now been altered to [i]hardness[/b] and shielding directly applies to armour class.
Speed will be broken down into range increments of 750,000 feet per round (or 125,000 feet per second; which is rating 1, which is about as fast as our space shuttles now fly). From there, you can figure out the relative distance in range increments between planets; let's say, for the sake of argument that it's a distance of 116,000,000 miles from Golarion to Akiton (which is about right assuming that Golarion is 93,000,000 miles from the sun with a 365 day orbit; Akiton's orbit is twice that long), and we'll say that the distance is covered in about a month (otherwise spacefaring voyages would be ridiculously long). You'd need to travel at approximately 160,000 miles per hour (or approx. 234,666 feet per second) to make the voyage in time. I get that that's significantly faster than what we can accomplish now, but hey... It's magic! So, basically, they're going really fast. A vessel with a maximum speed of 2 can make this journey in about the right amount of time.
I have provided an example vessel here to give you an idea of what I'm talking about (though it's not been tested yet):
Colossal air vehicle
Squares 6000 (100 ft. by 60 ft.); Cost 2,500,000 gp
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Defense
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AC 5 (+2 Maneuverability); Hardness 6
HP 1020
Base Save +0
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Offense
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Maximum Speed 2; Acceleration .5
CMB +10; CMD 22
Ramming Damage 5d8+50
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Description
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(Enter ship's description here.)
Propulsion Starwind Engines
Driving Check Knowledge (arcana) +5 to the DC
Forward Facing The ship's forward
Driving Device Rigging
Driving Space a single 5-ft.-by-5-ft. square that contains the levers and reins that serve as the starwind engines driving harness; this system is located in the rear center of the piloting room.
Crew 1
Decks 2
Weapons Up to 6 Large direct-fire steam cannons in banks of 3 positioned on the port and starboard sides of the airship. The siege engines may only fire out the sides of the ship they are positioned on. They cannot be swiveled to fire toward the forward or aft sides of the ship.
Planet of the Gnolls. They have an advanced civilization powered by necromantic engines. Their dynamos consist of a circle of severed heads wired in sequence. The heads are enchanted with create undead, and they convert negative energy into negative direct current. Other races will trade corpses to them for engines to run their spaceships. An Orc battlecruser will often have a Gnoll necromancer as an engineer. If they need more power, he or she could add a head to the dynamo.
Evolved Gnolls will be as disgusted by humans wasting their dead relatives as humans will be at the Gnolls necromantic practices. I've long had this idea for a truly alien civilization.