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It's the future... in space... with fantasy elements... but what innovations have been discovered and expanded in Starfinder?
Internet? Fast food? Modern/Next-level fashion? Video games? TV shows? Movies? Marketing ploys? Smartpĥones? Music streaming? You know, these kinds of things.
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Internet’s a thing. Though it’s called the infosphere.
With a single point in the right skill and a good enough workshop, you can create military-grade lasers and grenades. You probably downloaded the schematics off of the infosphere.
Smartphones are called Personal Comm Units, and they cost 7 credits.
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You can also insert computer access ports in your brain, Datajacks.
Everyone can be a reality TV star, apparently.
Also, music streaming is the standard. Bands, SMC, rarely put out physical albums.
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So far we have a couple books full of rules, and very little details about the setting. I'm guessing they will eventually come out with the space equivalent of the inner sea world guide to flesh out the universe.
We know they have technology that is a fusion of magic and science. Cybernetics and biotech are common and easily affordable (it's cheaper to get robot legs than it is to buy a car). They have flying police cars (I imagine something like bladerunner style). They have these UPBs that can be made into literally anything. Clothes are super cheap, your everyday street outfit costs the same amount as a fast food meal (or maybe food is expensive).
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So far we have a couple books full of rules, and very little details about the setting. I'm guessing they will eventually come out with the space equivalent of the inner sea world guide to flesh out the universe.
They are releasing a Pact Worlds book in March 2018
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We have some details about the setting in the CRB and more is added with every Dead Suns book.
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It's the future... in space... with fantasy elements... but what innovations have been discovered and expanded in Starfinder?
Internet? Fast food? Modern/Next-level fashion? Video games? TV shows? Movies? Marketing ploys? Smartpĥones? Music streaming? You know, these kinds of things.
I am in the process of creating my homebrew starfinder campaign (our group has 4 rotating DMs, and I just finished, so I have time), and I have been thinking about that. Would it be better to delineate the current technologies of the 'pact worlds', or would it be better to let it be fluid and ambiguous. It seems that starfinder currently uses the latter.
But by perusing the core rule book one finds the following:
FTL travel by drift, and less commonly by other magico-techno means.
Artificial gravity, control of gravity to obtain flight, and for use as a STL drive
Magico-techno extra dimensional spaces
Robotics and artificial intelligence, although true AI is not ubiquitous
Simulated intelligence, which is common
STL communication. FTL communication obtained by sending messages through the drift on space craft
Planetary infospheres (like the Internet), but no interplanetary or interstellar infosphere
Cybernetics
Force fields
Super batteries that can pretty much power anything.
3D printing of any techno-item
UPBs that can under a molecular transformation that turns them into *most* any substance necessary for the creation of a core rule book technological item
Ultra-cheap, environmental force fields that protect against radiation (limited), vacuum, and gases. These seem to be nearly fool proof, and never fail despite any amount of damage to the armor that generates them
Editing a person's mind
Uploading complete personalities to a computer system
Jet packs
Personal Force fields
Psionic enhancement devices
Some things we haven't seen:
Time travel
FTL communication
An interstellar internet
Transporters, or mass transit teleportation devices (teleport booths)
Replicators
Robots as a species (but there are androids)
Universal translators (but the other technologies available indicate that these would exist for at least all known languages).
Only limited 'transhuman' technologies-- sentient starships as a species, one character simultaneously controlling multiple bodies.
Cheap, common, fully autonomous drones that could perform a wide variety of tasks for their master (but other technologies available indicate that these would exist).
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Anacites are autonomous mechanical artificial intelligences. Several are detailed in Alien Archive, but no rules for PC anacites yet.
No mechanical universal translators, but Comprehend Languages and the Share Language spells exist, which basically do the same thing. Starfinder Society has a mechanical translator, but it only allows for the most basic communication.
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Anacites are autonomous mechanical artificial intelligences. Several are detailed in Alien Archive, but no rules for PC anacites yet.
No mechanical universal translators, but Comprehend Languages and the Share Language spells exist, which basically do the same thing. Starfinder Society has a mechanical translator, but it only allows for the most basic communication.
Those spells are useful, but translators would be cheaper, and more readily available. Basically anyone with a com unit would be able to understand any other known language provided their com unit had the software or was connected to an infosphere/another computer with the software. Since we just about have that here on earth, one would imagine that a magico-techno starfaring society with gaggles of languages would have such things.
Of course, translators wouldn't work for unknown languages, and they might not work for certain rare, ancient, languages. They might only work in pairs or with certain equipment (telepathy readers for telepathic languages, thermal sensors for body temperature based languages, chem sensors for pheromone based languages, etc.).
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I think not having that one might be a plus - even professional storytellers mess it up more often than not.It's the future... in space... with fantasy elements... but what innovations have been discovered and expanded in Starfinder?
Internet? Fast food? Modern/Next-level fashion? Video games? TV shows? Movies? Marketing ploys? Smartpĥones? Music streaming? You know, these kinds of things.
I am in the process of creating my homebrew starfinder campaign (our group has 4 rotating DMs, and I just finished, so I have time), and I have been thinking about that. Would it be better to delineate the current technologies of the 'pact worlds', or would it be better to let it be fluid and ambiguous. It seems that starfinder currently uses the latter.
Some things we haven't seen:
Time travel
FTL communication
An interstellar internet
Transporters, or mass transit
Please see exhibit "Blizzard "But its not REALLY time travel because, um, oh, look, a new battle pet!" Entertainment
For my own part, I'm trying to keep my game fairly science fantasy, steering away from speculative science fiction, so my game runs under the assumption that technology developed along different lines with different priorities in mind, as well availability and preferred technologies varying from culture to culture within the game world, especially because it leads to a lot of "well, my smart phone can do this, so my comm should be able to as well." I don't spin them as the same thing, at least in my game.
To me, there are probably local planetary internets in addition to the infosphere, but they aren't standardized, and no one has yet made a personal comm that can jack into just any of them. Those that work in any interplanetary capacity often format everything to work on a sort of standard "Pact Worlds" system, but they're part of the interstellar community, which, while large, is not necessarily all-encompassing, and many types of technology simply hasn't caught on in certain cultures and worlds. For example, I'm having Aballon as a planet where EVERYTHING is done with augmented reality displays and with a very advanced internet that is connected to most things, but kasatha in my game, being very traditional, will still have not, as a culture, grown used to the lack of tactile sense, and typically carry something at least the size of a tablet as an info viewing medium, though they'll have a fondness for touch screens. Vesk, meanwhile, will not have gone far in technological luxuries, having high-functioning but very utilitarian devices.
I think that overall, it's a way to make the alien seem more alien, basically saying to players "This thing doesn't exist on this world/outside this world, because, while it's useful to us, these guys have developed in such a different way that there is not enough demand for the technology to be readily available on this planet." Does it make practical sense? Eh, probably not. But I think it's fun.
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Some things we haven't seen:
Time travel
FTL communication
An interstellar internet
Transporters, or mass transit teleportation devices (teleport booths)...
Interstellar communication is done via drift beacons, so two-way communication is impossible, but transmitting a message takes the same amount of time as travelling there.
So...FTL-ish? Still faster than sending the message in real space, but not fast enough for a conversation. More like sending a letter.
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... or posting on a slow message forum...
>.>
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Not sure if it what you mean with your question. Here is my take on it. It's a well thought out science fiction RPG. It will also be well supported. It doesn't have to do anything besides that.
A lot of other sci-fi rpgs are either niche genre or the big name science fiction names from movies or books that put out a some books then the rights get pulled and that whole rpg has to start fresh.
So right now there are only a few books and some info for starfinder but it's already fun and it gives you enough info to play right now. It can only get better with future stuff.
The settings pretty open. A lot of other rpgs in this genre are meant for people that enjoy certain things. I like the space opera type thing and starfinder is well suited for that.
So for me it may not be rewriting science fiction as we know it but that's kind of what and I like about it. It's got a lot of science fiction stuff I do like portrayed in a different and creative way.
It's kind of like rock and roll. Why change a perfectly good formula when it's better to just give us your take on it and put some soul into it.
I know it's in a lot of other rpgs but I have already had all types of fun with the disguise skill. I have just been getting a kick out of it.
From what I can tell with the OP, this seems more a "what innovations are there in-universe" (a la Fast Food Restraunts, Internet, Video Games, and other things mentioned in OP) and less "what is this system going to offer players that no other system has ever had?"
Well it wouldn't be the first time I said misinterpreted something someone wrote or said something dumb on an internet forum
From what I can tell with the OP, this seems more a "what innovations are there in-universe" (a la Fast Food Restraunts, Internet, Video Games, and other things mentioned in OP) and less "what is this system going to offer players that no other system has ever had?"
You and me both, my dude.
You and me both, my dude.Well it wouldn't be the first time I said misinterpreted something someone wrote or said something dumb on an internet forum
From what I can tell with the OP, this seems more a "what innovations are there in-universe" (a la Fast Food Restraunts, Internet, Video Games, and other things mentioned in OP) and less "what is this system going to offer players that no other system has ever had?"
Ok, yeah, that might have come out as a little... confusing.
Point is that your players, or even you as GMs, might be wondering about innovations, technological advancements and such in Starfinder, because you WILL have a player who will:
- ask for a computer terminal to check his email
- ask to "look on Google"
- ask if there are online newsfeeds
- ask to watch a movie during space travel
- ask to buy and read a digital book "on iTunes"
- ask to play a video game to boast his shooting skills
Players will ask these kinds of questions around the table and it's not like it's weird or that they can't. The "future" is supposed to have some traces of modern technology and Starfinder... kinda doesn't go over all of the basics.
Well, the starship build modules explicitly mentions being able to add a recreation module which could be...
" a trivid den or other comfortable space in which to consume passive entertainment; or a holographic amusement chamber (or HAC), vidgame arcade, or other high-tech interactive entertainment center."
Plus the CRB includes the following on the infospheres:
"An infosphere is a regional (generally planetary) informational database accessible by computer systems. Each of the planets in the Pact Worlds system hosts its own infosphere that is rarely synchronized with each other due to the lag time involved with interplanetary communication. All major Pact World ports host a basic encyclopaedia-like data set on their host planet that can be downloaded by visitors who are not connected to the infosphere."
So the way I've done it in my Dead Suns game is that if they're on a planet or station that has an infosphere then they have all the internet type functionality we are familiar with for that planet or station. However there are non real time copies of planetary infospheres that are able to be accessed but they're imperfect. A lot like the Internet Wayback Machine. It's still good enough for a vlogger to get popular on multiple different planets/stations though.
I personally wouldn't allow a player to boost their shooting skills by playing a videogame or even a HACgame.
I think the setting info in the CRB doesn't go into much detail but all the basics are there for that kind of stuff.
Computer Terminals (and even Cell Pho- er, Personal Comms) are known to be a thing. Even Internet (or Infosphere) is known to be a thing... at least on a Planetary scale. Stuff like Movies, Video Games, and E-Readers I'd personally consider as falling under the "In general, any minor piece of equipment with a real-world equivalent (alarm clock, camera, digital keys for Vehicles you own, timer, watch, and so on) can be purchased with GM approval, costs 5 credits and has light bulk" rule. Unless they want, like, an old-school arcade machine or fancy VR system or such anyways, in which case that's probably getting counted as a Computer and you're paying Computer prices.
Also as far as Movies (and/or TV Shows) go, both "Actor" and "Video Personality" are listed as sample Cha-based Professions, and while Actor could just be Stage Actor, since Cameras are also listed in the "minor piece of equipment list" I suspect it should include TV and Movies.
All that said, maybe the Pact Worlds book, being a setting book, will shed more light on the entertainments of the setting. But the CRB was packed enough without getting into that kind of nitty gritty.
Several recipes on cooking deep space mimic.
The rules on skill checks say that you can access public computer terminals on the local infosphere with a DC 10 computers check and also that you can use said terminals (or your comm unit) to take 20 on a recall knowledge check in 2 minutes. That sounds an awful lot like googling something and reading a wiki page. The CRB also explicitly allows you to do other research using the infosphere, and I've seen a couple mentions of news feeds, esports, and video channels of various types. Ships can also download local 'copies' of an infosphere, so any media you could get from 'the internet' could be potentially downloadable to the ship's computer for use during flight, not including livestreams.
I've been working under the assumption that anything we have/can do today + anything we're thinking is going to happen in the foreseeable tech/biotech future + anything in any sci-fi book that has a hard science basis + anything you can do with PF magic is all possible. There may not be rules or an example for cost yet. But when my players ask, "can I do this obvious thing my iPhone can do" the answer from me is going to be yes.
"It tastes like chicken. It LOOKS like a roasted sofa, but it tastes like chicken."
"Aren't mimics sentient?"
"Not once you roast them."
Tested many recipes on our brief Iron Chef Pact Worlds. And the goblin won.
Why do I have this sudden urge to hail King Torg?