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Will Starfinder use Progress Levels similar to those of D20 Future. That was a fun little system they had where some planets had different progress levels. I am just curious if Starfinder will use their own similar system :)
Current Day Golarion just started PL 3: Age of Reason with Alchemists and Gunslingers as an option.
Golarion : PL 3
Earth (Soviet) : PL 4
Starfinder : PL 7?
My group loves technology, and everything that you guys are doing. Especially with the Gap :) Keep up the awesome work. I also loved James Sutter's work concerning Golarions Solar System in "Distant Worlds." Which is what made me really excited about Starfinder!
I love some of the "future" technologies in that book that are now basically every day things. "Display Glasses", multidirectional "Portable Glaw Lamp"s, the energy age "computer card". All the computer card needs is to double as a grenade and you get a note 7.
Though it is more work, I like progress levels to be divided up amongst different fields.
So a highly robotic civilisation might have a high PL in mechanical and computer sciences (as well as probably energy and transportation), while a biological hive species that can alter itself for various tasks might be significantly poorer in those areas but have a staggeringly high bioscience PL.
We could even add a 'society' PL.
Something like:
Pre-Sapient Society (PL 0)
Instinctual communication and organisation.
Stone Age Society (PL 1)
Language, conveyance of meaning, and tribal structure.
Ancient Society (PL 2)
Writing, concepts of ownership and nations.
Classical Society (PL 3)
Beginnings of democracy, citizen rights, and so on...
It's a gross simplification, but hey, we're trying to classify perhaps thousands of alien civilisations with a quick string of numbers. And of course PLs are inclusive; a civilisation may have a government based on principles at any point lower than their current society PL (such as an advanced civilisation being ruled by a totalitarian government). Even then, a society PL 7 dictatorship may use far more sophisticated means of controlling and placating the populace than a medieval king could ever conceive of.
Never played Megatraveller. I should take a look.
I'm really hoping technomancers keep the idea of the "spellbook", but a spellbook is anything that can run a basic word processing program i.e. smartphone/tablet. That already reference "data pads" in pathfinder. I'd love to learn spells through a tablet.
I'm really hoping technomancers keep the idea of the "spellbook", but a spellbook is anything that can run a basic word processing program i.e. smartphone/tablet. That already reference "data pads" in pathfinder. I'd love to learn spells through a tablet.Just make sure that the tablet has enough current in its battery. Books don't need Power Cells. Or, as Al Roker says, ABC - Always Be Charging.
I read somewhere that described the way technomancer spells work thematically as computer programs. It's probably a safe bet that there will be somewhere to store those programs. This or maybe a sonic screwdriver like device. Not thematically of course. More of a mechanical wand that stores computer programs. Would fit w technowizard vibe in my opinion.
What does magical digital writing look like? Can a uPad be booby-trapped by Explosive Runes programmed into the lock screen?
What does magical digital writing look like? Can a uPad be booby-trapped by Explosive Runes programmed into the lock screen?
Maybe it's a sort of language. So, instead of reading the magical runes of a scroll, the code runs a program which fulfills certain material/somatic/verbal components for the spells. The caster is still the caster but the method of casting changes. Maybe when the Gap hit, spellcasters lost most of their spell casting abilities and "ancient magic" became virtually unknown. Basically wizard now require something other than arcane lore and passed down skills. The new wizards or technomancers would learn how to use the language to create activate the effects. My guess would be that this would also cause the way magic works to be a bit different, maybe more well defined. So instead of casting a spell that causes a gust of wind to be forced forward to push an enemy, maybe the caster uses pure force to push the opponent. Or instead of a magic missile trailing magical energy as it flies, magic forms a more refined magic bullet.
What does magical digital writing look like? Can a uPad be booby-trapped by Explosive Runes programmed into the lock screen?
Explosive runes are so medieval!
Modern wizards use Langford Basilisks. :3
What does magical digital writing look like?
C for divine spells, Hex Coding for arcane spells.
Binary for true speech.
And then, there are multiple variations based on specific religions and magic schools.
What does magical digital writing look like? Can a uPad be booby-trapped by Explosive Runes programmed into the lock screen?
Explosive runes are so medieval!
Modern wizards use Langford Basilisks. :3
I had to look that up, but yeah, that plus explosive runes ]:) Although the Langford visual hacks are thematically closer to the various Symbol spells of old; these spells hack the visual system of humanoids to produce a specific emotional state or trigger a physiological reaction.
Pseudoscience and "Fringe" TV series type stuff would be awesome source material for StF spells.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLIT_(short_story)
I'm really hoping technomancers keep the idea of the "spellbook", but a spellbook is anything that can run a basic word processing program i.e. smartphone/tablet. That already reference "data pads" in pathfinder. I'd love to learn spells through a tablet.Just make sure that the tablet has enough current in its battery. Books don't need Power Cells. Or, as Al Roker says, ABC - Always Be Charging.
Well, tablets can already last for quite a while (Especially if you have a normal Kindle instead of a Kindle fire). I think I've had them go a month without charging, and if we are only PL4...just think what a PL7 society could do. Their tablets may never need charging, or perhaps if they did, maybe it's every decade or so or something like that.
Wireless electricity may be a thing, or there may be a 'zero point module' type of battery that taps energy from other planes. These batteries won't run out of power but normal wear and tear occurs even with magic going on the fritz. Batteries may work like stars; smaller weaker ones last longer but if you combine a bunch of them you can get a lot more energy output per time, but over a comparatively shorter total duration.