Hey so im super new to all of this. Long story short my friend convinced me to be in his group where they are playing incident on absolam station ( i chose to play as the pre-made vesk because soldier seams like "space fighter"). It seamed easy, until i bought the book and realized that they did a lot of hand holding rules wise with me. Ive played a fair bit of 5E DND. But its a bit of "culture shock" going from sword and sorcery to Science fiction. Does anyone have any pointers?
relax, you'll get it.
Shock from the fantasy -> scifi, or shock from 5E -> Starfinder rules?
But BNW is right, relax and it'll come to you.
relax, you'll get it.
Thank you. I've been reading the book and i think im getting regular mechanics, but i looked at star ship and vehicle combat and i think i get it, but if/when i ever have to do that ill have to have the book open lol. also vehicle stats are weird. Like most of it makes sense, but they seam to go kind of slow
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There are going to be whole swaths of rules, even in the Core Rulebook, that most Characters will never in their career interact with.
Vehicle/Chase Rules are one such instance. Starship Combat, while important, are not the kind of thing a Player needs to memorize- focus on trying to learn the rules for whatever starship role you think you're going to play.
Lastly, there are some really REALLY good YouTube videos out there to help teach people about Starfinder Rules.
relax, you'll get it.Thank you. I've been reading the book and i think im getting regular mechanics, but i looked at star ship and vehicle combat and i think i get it, but if/when i ever have to do that ill have to have the book open lol. also vehicle stats are weird. Like most of it makes sense, but they seam to go kind of slow
I don't think i've seen two people do vehicle combat/chases the same way.
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Starship combat is actually pretty simple as a player. It gets to be complicated as a GM who needs to know every role as intended and use them all within a minute or two. As a player, it tends to just be a skill check.
Vehicles on the other hand... I'll say this, it's nice to have some guidelines in the rulebook... Don't bother looking at them as a player. That's GM territory.
As a player, you'll really need to know more about the character creation and leveling up stuff.
A lot of other stuff is mostly for the GM to worry about and they...will worry a whole lot.
Character creation (and advancement) and actions are really important things to understand and differ significantly between Starfinder and D&D 5e. You'll have a lot of trouble playing if you don't know how to create a character or use actions. After that it's details. It's worth going over how attacks of opportunity work since it's much easier to provoke in Starfinder than in D&D 5e. Like in 5e managing threatened squares can be a major part of a martial character's job.
When I switched my game from 5e to Starfinder I included these tutorial videos from the Basics4Gamers channel in the reorientation packet:
Actions work differently in Starfinder than in 5e. Make sure to read pages 244-249. This video covers essentially the same information https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7VapCH2-z0
It is much easier to provoke opportunity attacks in Starfinder. See page 248-249 for details. This video is also helpful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-mvDv0Rrik
In Starfinder’s high tech setting most intelligent enemies have ranged weapons and accordingly cover is of greater importance in this game. See page 253-254 for details. Ignore the diagram at the bottom of page 253. It conflicts with the rules text. You might also wish to view this video, which describes clearly how it all works with good examples. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlCzJGDvkT0
If you want to make starship combat easy just don't be the pilot or the science offcier. Everyone else has a really straightforward job.
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The issue you are having is 5E while a neat system is very simplified from previous D&D Systems. Starfinder is based on Pathfinder, which is based on D%D 3.5. D&D 3.5 is more complicated and math and rules heavy compared to D&D 5E.
It is kind of like playing Stratego and jumping to Axis and Allies.
That being said, you can do this, many of the concept in 5E are similar concept to Pathfinder/Starfinder.
Make sure you have notes and cheat sheets if you need them.
For new players, I always make cheat sheets, combat ones, what you players powers are, etc, etc, etc
What we're all trying to say Rebecca is...you got this and we're here for you.
Or...as here for you as a group of internet randos can be.
Hey so im super new to all of this. Long story short my friend convinced me to be in his group where they are playing incident on absolam station ( i chose to play as the pre-made vesk because soldier seams like "space fighter"). It seamed easy, until i bought the book and realized that they did a lot of hand holding rules wise with me. Ive played a fair bit of 5E DND. But its a bit of "culture shock" going from sword and sorcery to Science fiction. Does anyone have any pointers?
I think you'll have a lot of fun. I've yet to actually play a game of Starfinder (Trying to find willing participants, I may have to GM btw.. who knows..) but I'm hopeful that at least somebody near me will have the same interest. I used to play lot's of AD&D, Gamma World and Traveller back in the day (early/mid 1980's), and then took a long hiatus until recently got back into playing D&D (3.5 mind you, our DM prefers that edition) and I stumbled upon Starfinder.. so now I'm gearing up to go that direction..
But I think you'll do fine.. at least you're a step ahead of me.. ;-)
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I always say, the main thing is it's storytelling. Just imagine you are your character and you're in that situation, and describe what you want to do. The GM will tell you what mechanics that equates to and what to roll.
Over time, you can help him/her more as you become familiar with your own powers and how they work. Just focus on what you can do at your level and don't try to take it all in at once :)
Have fun!