Writing a world before launch?

[RollSoul]

Hi! Huge fan of Pathfinder, and I think that as a GM I can do a lot with Starfinder. I love PF and how accessible it is- and I'm wondering if it's a good idea to start writing up a world, conflicts, locations, and people for a campaign to play at launch. I'm wondering just how compatible races in PF will be in Starfinder. I plan on races like gnomes and kobolds to be an important part of the universe, and I was wondering if that was such a good idea. Please leave some feedback and discuss how safe it is to start writing this early/including races on the assumption we can still use them.

[Fardragon]

What exactly are you asking? Gnomes are still part of the official Starfinder universe (and will be detailed as an alternative player race in the core book). There will be conversion rules for converting Pathfinder monsters to Starfinder, and the implication is if it existed in Pathfinder it still exists in Starfinder, which is simply the future of the same universe.

Now, gnomes and kobolds aren't very numerous in the Pact Worlds, but there is no reason not to create a world in another system where gnomes and kobolds are the dominant life forms.

[Macona]

I think the preview in June will have some of the compatibility rules in it; and I don't think it's going to be too complicated.

There's nothing stopping you writing your fluff now though. I would bet that most of us are doing that currently (I know I am)

[Fardragon]

Kobolds are pretty easy to make in any system anyway!

[Tom Kalbfus]

It just so happens that I am working on a campaign world before launch, basically I am taking the setting for the SciFi channels Caprica an projecting it about 150,000 years in the future and what happened to it. I've basically packed up the whole Twelve Colonies System from Battlestar Galactica and ported it over to the Starfinder Galaxy. There are billons of star systems in the Galaxy, and this is one of them, not official of course, but here is a map of Caprica along with an encounter table for the environs of Caprica City 150,000 years after the events of the Battlestar Galactica television show starting in 2003. This world has entered a new stone age and has stayed that way for the last 150,000 years after the Cylons have done their worst.

Here is an Encounter Table I have made, it is a sample of what it would look like when it is completed:
Forest, Temperate
Common and Uncommon Encounters
d%
01-02 Bear, Grizzly
03-04 Bear, Dire
05-06 Bat, Swarm
07-08 Boar
09-10 Boar, Dire
11-12 Cat, Leopard
13-14 Eagle
15-16 Elephant, Mastodon
17-18 Herd Animal, Aurochs
19-20 Herd Animal, Bison
21-22 Rat, Dire
23-24 Rat, Swarm
25-26 Rhinoceros, Woolly
27-28 Snake Venomous
29-30 Spider, Swarm
31-32 Tiger
33-34 Tiger, Dire
35-36 Wasp, Swarm
37-38 Wolf
39-40 Wolf, Dire
41-42 Wolverine
43-44 Wolverine, Dire
45-46 Human
47 Beetle, Fire
48 Bat, Dire
49 Centaur
50 Centipede, Giant
51 Centipede, Swarm
52 Young Green Dragon
53 Young Bronze Dragon
54 Young Silver Dragon
55 Dryad
56 Eagle, Giant
57 Ettercap
58 Ettin
59 Goblin
60 Griffon
61 Hobgoblin
62 Horse
63 Horse, Pony
64 Kobold
65 Lycanthrope, Werewolf
66 Mantis, Giant
67 Minotaur
68 Ogre
69 Orc
70 Owlbear
71 Pegasus
72 Pixie
73 Pseudodragon
74 Satyr
75 Scorpion, Giant
76 Spider, Giant
77 Treant
78 Unicorn
79 Wasp, Giant
80 Worg
81 Worg, Winter Wolf
82 Wyvern
83 Elf
84 Dwarf
85 Halfling
86 Gnome
87-00 Rare and Very Rare Encounters Table

This also serves as a stone age Pathfinder setting, I a using pathfinder statistics from the Bestiary and converting the intelligent tool users to stone age equipment and adjusting the stats accordingly. As we don't know what the equipment list is going to be yet, I am working on the stone age portion right now. My partner is working on a sector map of the surrounding star systems using Traveller T20 rules for generating world information, I am sure most of it can be converted to Starfinder when it comes out.