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What is Appendix N? Appendix N is the list of recommended reading in the original DMs Guide for D&D. In it contained the books that would provide inspiration for the first role-playing game. So for Starfinder, I propose we have an Appendix N to round up great books, movies, video games, cartoons, anime, and whatever other medium that can inspire the setting and rules of this game. I have it all on a google doc so that we can access it with ease on the first page.
Here is the link to the Starfinder Appendix N. Tell me what other media items Pathfinder can pull from. It's late so I'm sure I've missed something. I'll probably open it up to more people to edit soon.
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The hyperion cantos by Dan Simmons. Its where my mind immediately ran too upon reading the setting for starfinder
Strata by Terry Pratchett.
Planet of the Apes by whoever directed that. Okay, less of a science fiction but I really want a planet of the apes style planet.
The Martian by Andy Weir. A little too scientifically accurate for a role playing game, but I would love a macgyvering survival game that invokes similar ideas.
I would say Schlock Mercenary, but Howard Tayler's been developing his own RPG based off his comic and it's supposed to be really good.
If you forget the time travel, Doctor Who is a really good one.
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- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG
- Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society
- Appleseed (manga, not the anime/movies)
- Cowboy Bebop
- Farscape
If we're looting other RPGs for ideas:
- Chulhutech
- Eclipse Phase
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Kirby is on the list with FF and Fourth World, but don't forget Thor! Kirby had definite sci-fi inspirations, and Simonson upped the sci-fi ante considerably, including one of my favorite characters, Beta-Ray Bill!
Warhammer 40k.
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Captive Universe (Harry Harrison)
Wall-E (Pixar movie)
The 5th element (movie)
Outland (movie)
Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel)
The Omega Men (DC comics)
Dumarest of Terra (Edwin Charles Tubb)
Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, WH40K, Fading Suns, MEGA (French RPG), Empire Galactique (French RPG), Polaris
French comics :
Valerian et Laureline (Christin)
La caste des Metabarons (Jodorowski)
Many comics from Druillet, Caza, Moebius
Deathstalker series (Simon Green)
Double Solitaire (Wild Cards X, Melinda Snodgrass)
-While the Wild Cards books are set on Earth, this one actually takes place on another planet, and is very space operatic, plus it incorporates the super powers of its parent series
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Once upon a time... Space.
I've changed it so that everyone can edit and add what they want into the file. Easier that me updating it.
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I didn't see He-Man or Thundercats in the thread so I'm saying it now.
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Anything "space" by David Weber...
Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman)
Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato)
Galaxy Express
Silverhawks
Galaxy Rangers
Saber Rider and the Star Sherriffs
Star Gate (anything and everything)
Space Opera has a long and storied history in print and film as well as other forms of media. There is no shortage of inspiration from.
Awesome. If someone wants to update the page real quick, that'd help. Gotta care for a sick gf atm so I can't quite do it myself.
Kirinyaga could be a great inspiration for a Mwangi techno-wizard seeing oneself as a scion of Old Man Jatembe recreating "Mwangi culture" in a space habitat...
The Kris Longknife series by Mike Shepherd. Most of his books read like a RP adventure anyway.
Morag
The Coldfire Trilogy C.S. Friedman
Dangit! Can't believe I forgot this. It's one of my favorite series; I must have reread it at least a half-dozen times. Definitely this, especially in regards to magic.
Kirinyaga could be a great inspiration for a Mwangi techno-wizard seeing oneself as a scion of Old Man Jatembe recreating "Mwangi culture" in a space habitat...
Nah. After all, OMJ went SOMEWHERE, didn't he? Why not out into space?
Never forget the Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson.
The Pern Chronicles.
Romance belongs in space too.
And Of course Isaac Asimov.
Never forget the Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson.I try, but I can't.
The Gap Cycle: For those who thought Thomas Covenant was too sympathetic of a protagonist.
Wow. That's bad.
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I quit Thomas Covenant after two books. Maybe one day I'll reread it, but it's not a high priority.
The Gap Cycle was harsh and a bit too long, but I don't regret reading through it. It's different from the regular heroic space opera, to be sure.
Hammer's Slammers books by David Drake might be worth including on the list. Stuff about mercenaries, not adventurers.
Some slightly lighter material (comics), assuming they are not already on the list:
Sillage by Morvan and Buchet (The Wake, English translation). For both pretty pictures and ideas. First book is set-up, the others have a different tone and stand-alone plots with some overreaching storyline.
Yoko Tsuno by Roger Leloup, particularly the books about Vineans. The later stuff seems stiff and lifeless, but the earlier stories are very dear to me.
Jeff Hawke by various (Sidney Jordan may have been involved with the most). Something old, something odd, something funny.
Farewell Horizontal by K.W.Jeter and Vurt by Jeff Noon. Both have a engaging mix of domestic drama and far future science fantasy that I think an RPG setting would benefit from.
Never forget the Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson.I try, but I can't.
The Gap Cycle: For those who thought Thomas Covenant was too sympathetic of a protagonist.
That's why I love those books.
Never forget the Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson.I try, but I can't.
The Gap Cycle: For those who thought Thomas Covenant was too sympathetic of a protagonist.
I think of Morn as the protagonist, not Angus. Both Angus and Nick are horrible. And this from a Donaldson fan (as my username may indicate).
But how it morphs Norse myth into a SF setting, Gap Sickness, the way cybernetics work... those are all things that could work in Starfinder.
Pretty much anything written by Alistair Reynolds. I will also throw in Peter F. Hamilton as good authors to look for inspiration.
Never forget the Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson.I try, but I can't.
The Gap Cycle: For those who thought Thomas Covenant was too sympathetic of a protagonist.
The first book...ugh...That one deserves to burn. It's some guy's perverted and destructive erotic fantasy...and completely disgusts me.
The second one is slightly better, but still is somewhat disturbing.
The series slowly gets better as it moves along, with books 4 and 5 actually being decent.
But that first book...that one is perhaps one of the only books I might support someone actually burning.
On the actual topic.
As SF has roots from PF and is basically the same universe, but a LOOOONG time after when PF is happening...
I'd say your list absolutely needs to include H.P. Lovecraft.
With Asimov you have the Foundation series, which is pretty good inspiration, but I feel Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth really jive with the entire feel of a missing planet of origin.
Honor harrington is awesome good stuff, particularly for space battles and cultural clashing in places.
There is an even better series, but I can't seem to remember the name right now. Basically sci-fi with magic and psionics. There are a number of "identical" worlds, connected via great big rifts. Well, a primarily magic group eventually discover a world with over half a dozen rifts, an unprecedented number, but they discover it at the same time as a primarily psionic group. So of course there is war and stuff. I only got to read the second book so far, but it seems really neat. Wish I could remember what it is called.
I'm still more curious what the folks at Paizo are thinking about as they work on this. What they're using as inspiration.
Most of the suggestions I've seen here are pretty much straight science fiction. There may be handwavy technobabble kinds of things that push it into science fantasy for some and the occasional cosmic powered alien, but very little in the way of the kind of PC casting magic + tech I'd expect from something kind of PF compatible & from what they've said about it.
Honestly aside from a few star wars novels when I was much younger and the occasional pulp story (or homage to a pulp story), I haven't read a whole lot of fiction that combines magic + standard science fiction tropes. Either it is very "magic lite" (e.g. The Force, telepaths from B5, etc) or it's largely a fantasy setting but set in a post apocalyptic setting with the science fiction elements consisting of ancient relics and the occasional aliens (Book of the New Sun, Dying Earth, etc).
I assume Starfinder is somewhere between those extremes, so I am kind of bereft of ideas for any specific settings that I have read that exist in that middle ground.
Someone beat me to this, so I'll put it here, too. Thankfully (or not), little of it has already been mentioned. For Anime, most of this has already been translated/dubbed and released in the US.
Literature
Stephen Cowley -- Terran Trade Authority series
Keith Laumer -- Bolos series
Sandy Mitchell -- Ciaphas Cain series
Fred Perry -- Gold Digger
Dynamite Comics -- Flash Gordon
Jim Butcher -- The Dresden Files
Television
Aldnoah Zero
Exosquad
Firefly
Gravion
The King of Braves Gao Gai Gar
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's/StrikerS
Space Battleship Yamato 2199
Space Knight Tekkaman Blade/Teknoman
Ultraman
Visionaries
Voltron: Legendary Defender
Video Games
- Arc System Works
-- BlazBlue
-- Guilty Gear
- Blizzard Entertaiment
-- Starcraft
-- Overwatch
- Capcom
-- Armored Warriors
-- Captain Commando
-- Cyberbots: Full metal Madness
-- Devil May Cry
-- Forgotten Worlds
-- Mega Man(Original/X/Zero/ZX, Battle Network, Star Force)
-- Monster Hunter
-- Street Fighter
-- Strider
- Irem
-- R-Type
- Konami
-- Castlevania
-- Gradius
-- Metal Gear
-- Twinbee
- Midway
-- Strike Force
- Monolith Soft
-- Xeno series (Xenosaga, Xenoblade Chronicles
- Namco Bandai
-- God(s) Eater (Burst)
-- Super Robot Wars(Endless Frontier, Lord of Elemental)
-- Tales series (of Symphonia, of the Abyss, etc...)
- Nintendo
-- Bayonetta
-- Custom Robo
-- Drill Dozer
-- F Zero
-- Golden Sun
-- Kid Icarus Uprising
-- Metroid
-- Pokemon
-- Splatoon
-- Star Fox
-- Startropics
-- Super Mario (Galaxy)
-- The Wonderful 101
- Nippon Ichi
-- Disgaea
-- Makai Kingodm
-- Phantom Brave
- SEGA
-- Altered Beast
-- Burning Rangers
-- Ecco the Dolphin
-- Gain Ground
-- Panzer Dragoon
-- Phantasy Star/Online/Universe
-- Sakura Wars
-- Skies of Arcadia
-- Sonic The Hedgehog
-- Valkyria Chronicles
-- Vectorman
-- Virtual On
- SNK
-- Blue's Journey
-- The King of Fighters
-- Metal Slug
- Square Enix
-- Einhander
-- Final Fantasy(VII, VIII, X, XII)
-- Front Mission
-- Kingdom Hearts
-- The World Ends Wtih You
- Sunsoft
-- Blaster Master
-- Galaxy Fight
- Taito
-- The Ninja Warriors(Again)
-- Psychic Force
-- RayForce
- Treasure
-- Guardian Heroes
-- Gunstar Heroes
- WayForward
-- A Boy and His Blob
-- Shantae
-- Sigma Star Saga
- Westwood
-- Command & Conquer
- Other
-- Raiden (The shooter, not the dude from Motral Kombat... Or Metal Gear)
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I just added "The Lensman Chronicles" by E.E. "Doc" Smith.
Just reread them (free epubs) and would love to have the ability to have a L1 Lensman on a ship with a small crew searching for a Boskone cabal. Or a L2 Unattached Lensman in his super-undetectable speedster having a mission.
-- david
the irresponsible captain taylor