What kind of tone of Starfinder game are you interested in?
Do the Job/Heroic: Do you want something like a Shadowrun game/Traveller game/Firefly episode where you get a morally-ambiguous job from a sketchy person and you do it for money? Or would you rather have a heroic game where you are following cyber-dogs to a child that fell down a well and into the clutches of a group of monsters that made the child their king and are using all their resources to keep you from their king, even if there is no money in it for you?
Lawless/Great Empire: If you shoot a bad guy dead, do you want to get away with it or would you rather have a price on your head and holo-posters with your picture on it?
Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: Do you want a focus on the core races, another dozen or two races (all balanced against humans), or do you want a thousand races (not necessarily all of them balanced against humans)?
Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: Would you rather spend session after session where you engage in talking before shooting or would you rather fight automated systems in a malfunctioning space station?
Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: Do you want something like the 4th seasons of Babylon 5 where you are fighting a normal, average human group (government/organization/etc) that wants to hold onto power or would you rather have genetic laboratories that mesh house cat DNA with a dragon and a jellyfish to make a glowing tabby that spits fireballs?
Obviously the best answer is "All of the above" but I am looking for a general focus. Please share your preference. And if there is something you are looking for that I didn't mention, please share.
Blended, of course.
Do the Job/Heroic: You get a morally ambiguous job from a sketchy person (maybe even a pointy-haired boss) to pay the bills, but then you find that you need to get heroic.
Lawless/Great Empire: Some things end up congratulating you, and some put a price on your head, and before you know it, you find yourself caught in the middle of a war . . . .
Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: Obviously, this is going to have to evolve over time -- for practical purposes, each stage is needed to get to the next.
Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: You engage in talking before shooting with malfunctioning security systems, like in Dark Star . . . .
Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: Actually, Babylon 5 itself had a pretty good mix: fighting humans that were in with some really shady types that had the equivalent of laboratories that could, if they had wanted to, mesh house cat DNA with a dragon and a jellyfish . . . .
Blended, of course.
Your answer is exactly what I mean by the best answer is "All of the Above." But that's not a helpful answer.
Sure every adventure is going to have an element of talking to it and an element of shooting to it, but should I make sure to emphasize the talking or the shooting as a general rule?
Sure there are times when you are going to be on the raggety edge of civilization and shooting someone will be no big deal legally, but the family wants you dead. Other times the law is the authority. But as a general rule, which should I emphasize.
Saying a blend of both is not helpful. The answer is always somewhere in the middle. The question is where in the middle. But to determine that, I need to know which side people prefer. If there's a 50 person-spread prefering shooting to talking, then I know to make sure to emphasize shooting, but I'm still going to have talking. Conversely, if only a 2-person difference on heroic vs paid work, then I know I can make adventures for both and be fine.
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Blended, of course.
Blended, of course.
Please see post just above yours.
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Do the Job/Heroic: I think Star Wars/Pathfinder is probably the best to go for. Assume the PCs aren't evil but that doesn't mean they can't be mercenary. But probably leaning more Heroic end of that spectrum than Do the Job.
Lawless/Great Empire: I expect most of it will be lawless. It's a big galaxy and maintaining control is tricky.
Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: This one should be a progression. Start with the basics and as more gets flesehd out expand. Eventually, I want a variety of not entirely blanced oprtions.
Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: Obviously a mix, but shooting stuff tends to be more usable than talking.
Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: Gonzo. Bring on the killer jelly-kitties.
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I know you don't want blended, but if you prefer kitchen sink settings that is kind of what you want, since I don't see most of those options being mutually exclusive. I would expect big galactic empires AND lawless regions of space, for instance.
That said I want LOTS AND LOTS OF RACES. Mos Eisley Cantina effect in overdrive. so that is one "non-blended" answer I can provide.
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What kind of tone of Starfinder game are you interested in?
I'm definitely a heroic adventure kind of guy, so my answers probably won't be a surprise.
Do the Job/Heroic: Heroic!
Lawless/Great Empire: Lawless, I guess. I'd prefer to have a Justice system I can turn bad guys over to, and not have to worry about it afterwards.
Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: I prefer lots of races, although it's not a necessity.
Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: About half-way in between. I don't want to shoot just for the sake of shooting, but I prefer action to talking in my games.
Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: More gonzo for me. It's more fun to shoot at dangerous space monsters than fellow sapients, especially when moral ambiguity/relativity might be involved.
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Do the Job/Heroic: Do the Job. It lets the acts of heroism shine brighter.
Lawless/Great Empire: Lawless. Lots of minor states allows for more story types than some monolithic central presence.
Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: \It's space. Lots and lots and lots of races.
Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: Political intrigue, but only because it's relatively rare and I like my gun-wielding combat deadly.
Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: Normal sci-fi, so that the gonzo elements really "pop."
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What kind of tone of Starfinder game are you interested in?
Do the Job/Heroic: Do you want something like a Shadowrun game/Traveller game/Firefly episode where you get a morally-ambiguous job from a sketchy person and you do it for money? Or would you rather have a heroic game where you are following cyber-dogs to a child that fell down a well and into the clutches of a group of monsters that made the child their king and are using all their resources to keep you from their king, even if there is no money in it for you?
Lawless/Great Empire: If you shoot a bad guy dead, do you want to get away with it or would you rather have a price on your head and holo-posters with your picture on it?
Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: Do you want a focus on the core races, another dozen or two races (all balanced against humans), or do you want a thousand races (not necessarily all of them balanced against humans)?
Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: Would you rather spend session after session where you engage in talking before shooting or would you rather fight automated systems in a malfunctioning space station?
Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: Do you want something like the 4th seasons of Babylon 5 where you are fighting a normal, average human group (government/organization/etc) that wants to hold onto power or would you rather have genetic laboratories that mesh house cat DNA with a dragon and a jellyfish to make a glowing tabby that spits fireballs?
Obviously the best answer is "All of the above" but I am looking for a general focus. Please share your preference. And if there is something you are looking for that I didn't mention, please share.
Heroic.
Lawless.Core Races.
Shooting Gallery. (Though see below).
Normal Sci-Fi.
In terms of combat-roleplaying (or political intrigue/shooting gallery, as you put it) my preference is actually for a third way - more focussed on exploration of the universe and its' weird places than on its occupants.
I'm also much more interested in interesting plots than either roleplaying or combat. The mix of the last two doesn't matter to me provided they are in service to progressing some overarching story with mysteries to solve and secrets to learn.
Blended, of course.Your answer is exactly what I mean by the best answer is "All of the Above." But that's not a helpful answer.
{. . .}
I did try to give some helpful answers of how to blend the answers . . . .
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Do the Job/Heroic: Heroic.
Lawless/Great Empire: Empire, with lawless areas
Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: Lots - I've always wanted my bars to look like the Cantina is SW.
Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: About halfway- want roleplaying, but lots of contact.
Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: Gonzo - Season 4 of Babylon 5 - having an adviser that is the first being to gain sentience in the galaxy, fighting 2 warring ancient empires that are myths to the culture; and telling them to get the hell out of the galaxy.* :) Farscape is also an acceptable level of gonzo. Lensmen - the phrase "Dual superluminal planets" as a weapon the level of Gonzo I want.
* I know you are talking about the civil war/psi corps, but when I think of B5 season 4, I think of the shadow war, which is complete gonzo.
What kind of tone of Starfinder game are you interested in?
Do the Job/Heroic: Do you want something like a Shadowrun game/Traveller game/Firefly episode where you get a morally-ambiguous job from a sketchy person and you do it for money? Or would you rather have a heroic game where you are following cyber-dogs to a child that fell down a well and into the clutches of a group of monsters that made the child their king and are using all their resources to keep you from their king, even if there is no money in it for you?
Lawless/Great Empire: If you shoot a bad guy dead, do you want to get away with it or would you rather have a price on your head and holo-posters with your picture on it?
Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: Do you want a focus on the core races, another dozen or two races (all balanced against humans), or do you want a thousand races (not necessarily all of them balanced against humans)?
Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: Would you rather spend session after session where you engage in talking before shooting or would you rather fight automated systems in a malfunctioning space station?
Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: Do you want something like the 4th seasons of Babylon 5 where you are fighting a normal, average human group (government/organization/etc) that wants to hold onto power or would you rather have genetic laboratories that mesh house cat DNA with a dragon and a jellyfish to make a glowing tabby that spits fireballs?
Obviously the best answer is "All of the above" but I am looking for a general focus. Please share your preference. And if there is something you are looking for that I didn't mention, please share.
The mechanics of the game as a d20 system and the presence of magic will constrain some of what you can do and the way things play out.
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Do the Job/Heroic: DTJ will be more lower level stuff. Heroic happens at middle levels and up.
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Lawless/Great Empires: this will depend on what kinds of technologies drive interstellar politics. Personally I would like to see something like Star Trek: a divided smattering of big empires of political stability on one side of the galaxy (Alpha and Beta Quadrants), and a mostly lawless region on the other side, with only a few very large polities (Borg in Delta, Dominion in Gamma). This patchwork can be condensed down to two quadrants leaving the other half of the galaxy unknown.
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Number of Races: new players can be intimidated by having too many options to look at. (FOBO) For this reason I would prefer at most twenty core races, divided into 'major' and 'minor' categories. All of the core races might be found nearly everywhere in the galaxy. The major races are the most numerous, influential, developed, wealthy. The minor races are just as common but with less clout and collective wealth. They are likely underrepresented in democratic government and might even be discriminated against at times. They are too common to feel 'exotic' to other races, but not so common or powerful enough socially to effect change as a voting bloc. A mega corporation with ties to a minor race is much more likely to be dominated by that one species, whereas most megacorps will be cosmopolitan (while having most employees come from most if not all major races in more or less comparable numbers).
There might be dozens more intelligent species that are PC-ready, but they would all be considered 'regional', limited to a single planet, a single sector, or a single quadrant. These are the truly exotic and mysterious 'alien of the week' type of creatures. Their planets are much more likely to be closed to foreigners, unsullied by galactic pop culture, or simply pristine natural areas with little or no modern civilization aside from the settlements of the dominant race.
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Politics vs. Shooting: this goes hand in hand with the galactic geography lesson above. Big empires and stable societies don't like armed groups making big messes in public. Blowing stuff up, stealing things, flaunting local law enforcement, and in general being a hooligan will quickly get you swamped by overwhelming force to arrest you or to shoot you on sight as a terrorist or anarchist.
Out on the frontier of civilization, on the other hand, law officers are few and far between, if even a recognized government exists at all. So most armed groups are left to their own devices, enforcing corporate policy or personal whims of the leader as they see fit, with little or no outside interference.
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Normal/Gonzo SciFi: The presence of magic creates its own sense of weirdness. If alchemy still exists, I would view it as an admixture of basic chemistry infused with latent ki to generate weird effects that defy conventional science. Beyond known science we could see things like gravity manipulation, vacuum energy, ansibles, FTL travel, antimatter mass production, and so on. I don't think we need "weird science" beyond slightly more advanced alchemy that we see in Ultimate Equipment, because that can just be covered by magic or specialized magic items.
That being said, my ideal setting would have things magic can do that science or alchemy can't, as well as things technology can do that magic can't. I would like to see magic be completely unable to override free will, read minds, or foretell the future. So no enchantment or divination ever. Instead, technology takes over things like brainwashing, mind-reading, technical remote viewing, and so forth.
{. . .}
Number of Races: new players can be intimidated by having too many options to look at. (FOBO) For this reason I would prefer at most twenty core races, divided into 'major' and 'minor' categories. All of the core races might be found nearly everywhere in the galaxy. The major races are the most numerous, influential, developed, wealthy. The minor races are just as common but with less clout and collective wealth. They are likely underrepresented in democratic government and might even be discriminated against at times. They are too common to feel 'exotic' to other races, but not so common or powerful enough socially to effect change as a voting bloc. {. . .}
And that's assuming that they get to vote, and even if so, that their votes get counted. Who or what is counting the votes? (Cue maniacal laughter of megacorporate tycoons somewhere in the distance . . . .)
Politics vs. Shooting: this goes hand in hand with the galactic geography lesson above. Big empires and stable societies don't like armed groups making big messes in public. Blowing stuff up, stealing things, flaunting local law enforcement, and in general being a hooligan will quickly get you swamped by overwhelming force to arrest you or to shoot you on sight as a terrorist or anarchist.
On the other hand, the less savory societies (including big empires) may want their own armed groups doing dirty work. This has happened many times on Earth, and Ancient Rome itself had quite the lot of assassinations; the practice has continued into modern times in many places, but is not new.
Out on the frontier of civilization, on the other hand, law officers are few and far between, if even a recognized government exists at all. So most armed groups are left to their own devices, enforcing corporate policy or personal whims of the leader as they see fit, with little or no outside interference.
Even not on the frontiers, corruption of law enforcement may be institutionalized. Examples can be found in multiple nations on Earth.
Normal/Gonzo SciFi: {. . .}
That being said, my ideal setting would have things magic can do that science or alchemy can't, as well as things technology can do that magic can't. I would like to see magic be completely unable to override free will, read minds, or foretell the future. So no enchantment or divination ever. Instead, technology takes over things like brainwashing, mind-reading, technical remote viewing, and so forth.
Why would magic lose the ability to do things it was once able to do? I could see it being less commonly used for these purposes if the technological means were more easily available, but I wouldn't expect that part of it to disappear.
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Politics vs. Shooting: this goes hand in hand with the galactic geography lesson above. Big empires and stable societies don't like armed groups making big messes in public. Blowing stuff up, stealing things, flaunting local law enforcement, and in general being a hooligan will quickly get you swamped by overwhelming force to arrest you or to shoot you on sight as a terrorist or anarchist.On the other hand, the less savory societies (including big empires) may want their own armed groups doing dirty work. This has happened many times on Earth, and Ancient Rome itself had quite the lot of assassinations; the practice has continued into modern times in many places, but is not new.
Sure. Big empires aren't monolithic. There could be high-up people (or shadow governments) who may have hired guns, cleaners, fixers, etc. on retainer to take out political rivals or people 'too dangerous to live'.
Out on the frontier of civilization, on the other hand, law officers are few and far between, if even a recognized government exists at all. So most armed groups are left to their own devices, enforcing corporate policy or personal whims of the leader as they see fit, with little or no outside interference.Even not on the frontiers, corruption of law enforcement may be institutionalized. Examples can be found in multiple nations on Earth.
That's true too.
Why would magic lose the ability to do things it was once able to do? I could see it being less commonly used for these purposes if the technological means were more easily available, but I wouldn't expect that part of it to disappear.Normal/Gonzo SciFi: {. . .}
That being said, my ideal setting would have things magic can do that science or alchemy can't, as well as things technology can do that magic can't. I would like to see magic be completely unable to override free will, read minds, or foretell the future. So no enchantment or divination ever. Instead, technology takes over things like brainwashing, mind-reading, technical remote viewing, and so forth.
I know they'd never weaken or gut how magic works in the Golarionverse without a good in-universe explanation. Unfortunately I can't think of one other than something really bad happened during The Gap that made magic not work anymore the way that it used to. Maybe The Gap was created to either hide the truth of who did what and how, or to protect the rest of us from that truth. Maybe all the gods contributed to The Gap events and then decided to make the universe 'forget' everything in order to preserve their power and the faithful worship of their followers.
Suppose Rovagug finally got let out by a cabal of evil deities convinced they could control it or reimprison it after it killed all the cabal's enemies. Naturally Rovagug would start its campaign to unmake all creation. All the other gods, faced with imminent universal destruction, might consider sacrificing the entire material plane to stop Rovagug; if they could rip out the entire plane and send it beyond the multiverse altogether before Rovagug got off the plane, it would be dealt with permanently and the rest of the multiverse would be safe.
Eventually the material plane could be rebuilt or 'big banged' from scratch, but trillions of mortal souls would be lost even to the afterlife. Therefore we could also assume that none of those alive in that moment would be forced to go with Rovagug except for its true worshippers and any mortals directly involved in the conspiracy; everyone else would probably be raptured to the Boneyard on the spot (and the Groetus Protocol would be enacted). While grotesque, this would be a choice perhaps even a LG deity would make, if confronted with the potential for mass deicide. If Rovagug was going to destroy all the mortals anyway, it would be a mercy to snatch them away to the afterlife before Rovagug could have its way with them.
As a mortal, can one imagine all the gods being willing to sacrifice every mortal being like this? throwing everyone under the wagon to save themselves? What would this do to Average Joe's and Jane's reverence for the deities?
But of course it didn't come to that. In the final hour, Rovagug was stopped, but not before "Plan B" became common knowledge. Maybe the material plane saw a huge resurgence in atheistic bad feelings toward the gods.
So the deities (or whoever was left over) initiated The Gap, the multiverse's greatest cover up, to preserve divine rule and worship. Everyone just forgot about the whole thing, even the gods themselves (as far as we know), all records erased, and even The Cage was hidden away somewhere so that no one could ever discover that Rovagug was not in the Dead Vault anymore.
So Golarion got sent away, and all of Golarion's mortal refugees were transported to Absalom Station (perhaps constructed just for this purpose) to begin new lives after the effects of the Gap Amnesia subsided.
As a side effect of this, the whole magic apparatus that makes it work in the Golarionverse could have been adjusted to make sure no one can undo the effects of the gap. Magic can go far beyond technology, break the rules of nature, so certain schools of magic might be made "off-limits" to discourage or hinder people from trying to investigate the cover up for as long as possible.
The main reason I like the idea of splitting things up is "separation of powers" or checks and balances. If you want to do X, you need magic. If you want to do Y, you need technology. It does create a problem where none existed before, but it also empowers technology collectively so that no one can simply use magic as a golden hammer for every obstacle that comes up. It means your party caster could flash-bang the guards or erect walls of force, but if you need to really interrogate someone, you'd better bring in the psyker who can use his cyber implants to pull the info he wants out of your prisoner's mind.
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Do the Job/Heroic: Core setting should probably assume the Heroic Mercenaries/Adventurers end of the spectrum, same as Pathfinder. The characters can choose to care about morality or not, but there shouldn't be a downside to being "the good guys".
Lawless/Great Empire: Not lawless, but fragmented. Different factions controlling different systems/sectors/galaxies each with their own laws and alignments.
Core Races/Some Races/Lots of Races: At least to start with anything over a dozen races gets really hard to learn the system. There could be more NPC races but only a handful of playable races to start.
Balancing against Humans is good, but if you want to subvert the trope you could designate an alien race as the dominant race in the galaxy and balance humans and everyone else against them. It would really drive home the idea that humans are just one race of many, not the dominant species in the universe, if that is the feel you want to go with.
Political Intrigue/Shooting Gallery: There needs to be robust systems for both because every group falls in a different point on that spectrum.
Normal Sci-Fi/Gonzo Sci-Fi: Gonzo, or at least space opera. Corrupt governments are all well and good, but they're way better with cat-jelly-dragon hybrid monsters grown in a secret laboratory on Pluto.