|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm finding that I'm having difficulty coming up with Starfinder character concepts that AREN'T Solarians or a Solarian disguised as another class. My current Starfinder characters are:
Arcalinte Soter, a half-elf armor Solarion who worships Sarenrae in the Dead Suns AP.
Belmarniss Rycast, a drow who was initially conceptualized as a weapon Solarian with the Star Knight archetype, but was converted to a Technomancer focusing on the junksword spell because the Dawn of Fire party already HAD a weapon Solarian
Rokayla Vonarx, a ferran flare Solarian with the Starfinder Data Jockey archetype for a homebrew campaign.
Bonar "Bravo" Vizetelly, a human soldier with the Starfinder Forerunner archetype, whom I deliberately designed to be as boring as possible, for another homebrew campaign.
And as further supplements like the Character Operations Manual and Near Space have come out, I'm getting more and more ideas for combining Solarian with different themes and archetypes, or playing other classes in a way functionally LIKE a Solarian (such as a mystic with the Solar Manifestation epiphany), while all the other classes really don't inspire me as much, all feeling kind of boring, especially ones that DON'T rely on wacky space magic like the Operative and Soldier (as I said, I deliberately designed the soldier I'm playing to be a boring straight-man to the other, more colorful party members).
I worry that my figurative creativity muscles are shrinking because I'm so hyperfixated on this class and its aesthetic, and I don't know if its because Solarian was billed as the Starfinder equivalent of a Jedi Knight and Star Wars has always been my favorite science-fantasy franchise and primary source of inspiration, or if it's because of my paladin fixation carrying over from Pathfinder or some combination of both or some other factors I'm forgetting in the moment.
How do I start injecting more variety into my characters, and make other classes seem more interesting? How the heck do I conceptualize an Operative that isn't just Solid Snake? Like, I have a really hard time imagining an Operative who ISN'T a grizzled knife-fighter sneaking around in form-fitting camo-gear the same way I imagined rogues as grizzled knife-fighters sneaking around in black leather armor with hooded cloaks. How do I conceptualize an Envoy that isn't just Han Solo with a beard or something? A Soldier that isn't just a reincarnation of the holy trinity of Samus Aran, Master Chief and Doomguy? Am I just bad at roleplaying outside my comfort zone of magical-knight-in-shining-armor-adjacent PCs?
|
There is an infinite number of character ideas and class combos you can have. An operative doesn't need to be the shady halfling in the corner of a space bar, whos only motivations are credits and more credits. A soldier doesn't have to be a no-nonsense grizzled veteran who was this close to retirement.
In my game, one of the players is an SRO operative, who was marooned by an evil corp and now that he is free, he wants to learn everything possible about human life after being treated as less than scrap before. Another player is a drow technomancer with amnesia, who in a previous life was a semi-pro vidgamer and streamer.
You just need to think outside the box, maybe try subverting expectations? Like a lawful good robin hood style operative who worships Abadar, they like money but only steal from evil people for the greater good. I actually really like that one, I might play it.
Or maybe an evil con artist envoy, using their ability to manipulate NPCs to get what they want at any cost. Or lastly, a discredited doctor turned biohacker, using skills gained from underworld surgeries to further his research in war "What better laboratory than the blood-soaked battlefield?"
Something that I legitimately enjoy is rolling completely random characters and just figuring out a way to make it work. I made a table with every available class and race and just rolled once for each. I got a nuar (the minotaur race) operative and he has been my favorite character I've ever made.
On the other hand, however, I really don't see anything wrong with playing a class you enjoy playing. I personally don't like the Solarian, I play a lot of envoys and soldiers. I would still encourage you to not roll up the same character each time because that will get boring for you and everyone you play with. Idk if any of this was helpful, I'm new to forums. I just hope I didn't make it worse >.<
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think your problem is that you're starting with the class and building the character around it as opposed to starting with the character and picking the class that best suits. My suggestion would be that with your next character, focus on the characterization first.
A character's core competencies can handle a lot of the heavy lifting for making them compelling and Solarian has an evocative and interesting set of abilities. Perhaps the simplest way to get around this while reducing your legwork is the classic method of subverting expectations. An operative could just as easily be a game warden or private detective as they could a grizzled knife fighter. Maybe the soldier is actually a cameraman for an embedded war correspondent. Maybe your Envoy isn't slick but manages to be endearing with their bumbling.
Another route is by getting them personally invested in the story. Don't be afraid to offer up things to the GM that might potentially make your character vulnerable. Personal stakes can get you thinking about a character's life outside of adventuring and branch out into interesting ideas and characterizations.
Okay, well you could try a Qi Adept Soldi... er nevermind.
I suppose you could do an Entropy Shield Vangu... ah rats.
I think you just gotta find a weird enough concept to keep your interest.
Some of my weirdos:
Stellifera Drone Mechanic (she rides a hover drone)
Uplifted Bear Marked For Death Ghost Operative Battleflower
Nuar Blitz Soldier/Biohacker (for melee drug dispensation)
Izalguun Armor Storm Soldier... I mean, you can make these guys BEASTS.
I have choice paralysis on characters. Aside from leaning hard towards the non-core races (too many years of playing on the most boring races). After that, there's so many themes, and beyond the classes, build choices within them, and then there's archetypes... And that's without even considering multiclass possibilities.
Operatives can be any sort of spy, master-of-all-trades, dirty fighter, anything with widely varied skills. Could easily argue for Han Solo as an Operative. He's a terrific pilot, engineer (Millenium Falcon has multiple flaky redundancies, it's bizarrely tough for it's size, but flaky because it's tuned past it's limits on everything and only runs because it's crew are as good mechanics as pilots according to some interpretations), gunslinger (especially in the Brian Daley novels), good at almost anything he attempts.
Envoys are anything from Firefly Companions, diplomats, executives, vloggers, spies, to commanding officers. I haven't looked closely enough at them to pick out any less obvious possibilities or subversions.
Usually there are ways to do similar things with multiple classes. Classes don't have to be a stereotype, especially in personality/appearance. A spy who always wears camo is more likely to get noticed than not. I'd lean more towards second skin with environmental-protective (everything but radiation, as that is redundant with armor) reconfigurable clothing over it, so a move action changes the clothing part of your disguise. Formal suit, party clothes, street clothes, uniform, travel clothes. Also worth a look for Magical Girl cosplayers.
Pick something to focus on that Solarians are bad at. Play a healer, for example. Or a sniper. Or a skill monkey. An engineer with a drone...
Trying to be the best healer you can be (or to have the coolest drone you can think of) will naturally push you away from what solarians are good at.
"Hi I'm Quasar...and Proton and Zappy and Lightstick and Captain Absolom and Goldfinger and I'm a solariholic
"Hi Quasar and Proton and Zappy and Lightstick and Captain Absolom and Goldfinger
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I enjoy making weird class choices for my mock ups. For example,I made Batman using the Envoy. The Idea was to make a justice league version and Batman is very team centric in JL. Martian manhunter was a mystic with all the polymorph spells, Green lantern was a mystic 1 solarian 19 with all manifestations. By pushing a concept in a class that seemed counter intuitive I have found some concepts I have loved.
|
|
I think your problem is that you're starting with the class and building the character around it as opposed to starting with the character and picking the class that best suits. My suggestion would be that with your next character, focus on the characterization first.
I've tried doing that, but I often find when I actually DO that I end up creating a character that's redundant to another entrant in the play-by-post audition, and I then get anxiety that I won't be picked. That happened with the Dawn of Flame character: I started with a characterization base of "Good-guy Darth Vader" and drew inspiration for her from the info in Pact Worlds about the Eclipse Academy on Apostae, known for its grueling, sometimes fatal methods producing some of the finest solarians, mystics and technomancers in the Pact Worlds, and she was initially written as a solarian, but first there were two other solarian submissions, so I turned her into a Star Shaman Mystic, but then someone ELSE submitted a Mystic, so I changed her into a Technomancer and since I still wanted her to have SOME connection to stars as a narrative choice I changed her theme from Ace Pilot to Solar Disciple, which kind of removed some of the "Darth Vader-y" elements I started with.
A character's core competencies can handle a lot of the heavy lifting for making them compelling and Solarian has an evocative and interesting set of abilities. Perhaps the simplest way to get around this while reducing your legwork is the classic method of subverting expectations. An operative could just as easily be a game warden or private detective as they could a grizzled knife fighter. Maybe the soldier is actually a cameraman for an embedded war correspondent. Maybe your Envoy isn't slick but manages to be endearing with their bumbling.
Can a soldier BE a good cameraman? They don't get very many skill ranks in the first place, and priority has to go to essential skills like Perception and Athletics. That's a problem I find I'm running into with my Solarian in Dead Suns: I keep running into checks I can't make because Solarians get a lot of class skills and nowhere near enough skill ranks to go around. What kind of stargazing-Jedi-archaeologist doesn't have ranks in Mysticism and Physical Science?!
Another route is by getting them personally invested in the story. Don't be afraid to offer up things to the GM that might potentially make your character vulnerable. Personal stakes can get you thinking about a character's life outside of adventuring and branch out into interesting ideas and characterizations.
While I feel that this is excellent advice for roleplaying in general, it's a little hard to be invested personally in the story before the story's even started and I'm designing the character to audition for a play-by-post. With the APs I've been able to "cheat" a little by reading them ahead of time and trying to come up with a character that will resonate with whatever themes and concepts that AP's narrative is discussing, especially since the 2 APs I'm currently playing through, Dead Suns and Dawn of Flame, are both heavily centered around stars and what they mean to the galaxy's various peoples. A solarian's practically REQUIRED for them, and I only got away with converting my Dawn of Flame character to a Technomancer by giving them the Solar Disciple Theme so they had SOME connection to stars, for the reasons I described above.
Okay, well you could try a Qi Adept Soldi... er nevermind.
I actually just thought of a similar concept just the other day before having the exact same reaction. I wanna do something like that sometime, but I don't know WHAT to do it in, especially since Soldiers are a dime a dozen.
I suppose you could do an Entropy Shield Vangu... ah rats.
I thought of this one too. Great minds think alike I guess?
I think you just gotta find a weird enough concept to keep your interest.
Some of my weirdos:
Stellifera Drone Mechanic (she rides a hover drone)
Uplifted Bear Marked For Death Ghost Operative Battleflower
Nuar Blitz Soldier/Biohacker (for melee drug dispensation)
Izalguun Armor Storm Soldier... I mean, you can make these guys BEASTS.
It's a weird dichotomy. Part of me feels like I have to play more "normal" characters to narratively balance out characters like these in things like APs. The aforementioned drow technomancer was initially pitched as being the "unusual outsider" new to the Burning Archipelago, but then the rest of the party turned out to be made up of an ifrit, an oread and a sylph along with a human and I feel like I either should have made an undine to complete the set or played one of the core species like a shirren or something. I enjoy playing the character, but a lot of times I kind of feel like a third wheel in the group, since the solarian is more charming than me, the mystic is more spiritual than me and the sylph is a mechanic, so she has most of our tech needs covered.
Pick something to focus on that Solarians are bad at. Play a healer, for example. Or a sniper. Or a skill monkey. An engineer with a drone...
Trying to be the best healer you can be (or to have the coolest drone you can think of) will naturally push you away from what solarians are good at.
A good idea, but the problem I usually brush up against there is someone else submits a healer or an engineer with a drone. One thing that surprises me with the auditions for Starfinder Play-by-Posts on this board is how many people actually WANT to play Mystics, so much so that Technomancers feel weirdly ignored (part of why my Drow is one).
"Hi I'm Quasar...and Proton and Zappy and Lightstick and Captain Absolom and Goldfinger and I'm a solariholic
"Hi Quasar and Proton and Zappy and Lightstick and Captain Absolom and Goldfinger
Pretty much, yeah.
To the OP, play concepts that excite/interest you. If that happens to be 100% solarians, so be it. I would assume that eventually you will run out of solarian ideas. Until that day comes, play solarians.
The purpose of this game is to have fun after all.
No arguments there, but what I worry about is basically my ability to be a creative and flexible roleplayer atrophying. Falling victim to "tabletop-typecasting" so to speak, meaning that if a game HAS a better Solarian or Solarian-like character already, I'm out of luck for joining that game as I can't create a compelling character with a different class, and then I wouldn't have a chance to have fun at all!
I've tried doing that, but I often find when I actually DO that I end up creating a character that's redundant to another entrant in the play-by-post audition, and I then get anxiety that I won't be picked.
My only advice here is to stop worrying so much about that, which I know is not terribly helpful. In all my years of PBP, I can tell you that the best thing to keep a player committed to a game is when they are playing the character they really want to play as opposed to the character they feel they had to play. It's the GM's job to decide whether to prioritize character concept over mechanical party balance.
Personally, I always prioritize character concepts and balancing those before I start worrying about whether a party of five operatives is traditionally balanced from a mechanical standpoint.
Can a soldier BE a good cameraman? They don't get very many skill ranks in the first place, and priority has to go to essential skills like Perception and Athletics. That's a problem I find I'm running into with my Solarian in Dead Suns: I keep running into checks I can't make because Solarians get a lot of class skills and nowhere near enough skill ranks to go around. What kind of stargazing-Jedi-archaeologist doesn't have ranks in Mysticism and Physical Science?!
Here's the other half of what Pantshandshake mentioned. They don't have to be the best cameraman, they just have to be good enough and survive doing it. This is something that crops up regularly with any system that uses skill ranks like Pathfinder or Starfinder. It is good to have some skill specializations that you put max ranks in but there are also skills you can afford to only put a few ranks in. You don't always have to be the best, sometimes you can be good enough.
I'll agree Perception is essential but unless I'm playing a character that is specifically specialized a certain way, Athletics, Acrobatics, Sense Motive, Survival, Stealth, and a few others just get a few ranks here or there. My goal is to not be excellent at everything but to have a slight edge and be able to complete basic tasks competently...
...And never again die to a DC 10 jump (I was on top of a train, it was a whole thing).
While I feel that this is excellent advice for roleplaying in general, it's a little hard to be invested personally in the story before the story's even started and I'm designing the character to audition for a play-by-post. With the APs I've been able to "cheat" a little by reading them ahead of time and trying to come up with a character that will resonate with whatever themes and concepts that AP's narrative is discussing, especially since the 2 APs I'm currently playing through, Dead Suns and Dawn of Flame, are both heavily centered around stars and what they mean to the galaxy's various peoples. A solarian's practically REQUIRED for them, and I only got away with converting my Dawn of Flame character to a Technomancer by giving them the Solar Disciple Theme so they had SOME connection to stars, for the reasons I described above.
You're not wrong and this is kind of a struggle with PBP. It is part of the reason I rarely audition for games unless I feel an immediate spark of inspiration. The best you can really do is try to engage with the GM, ask questions, and try to fill in the blanks yourself. Most often, hopefully your potential GM will respond and start engaging with you.
Dead Suns is less directly tied to the stars than you might think, it is more an evocative title. You could get just as much mileage out of putting together a scholar, explorer, priest, or mystic of some kind. Dedicated archaeologists also fit very well.
Dawn of Flames I know less about but it sounds like you already found a nice middle ground. Having connections to the stars does not inherently mean being a solarian. This is a setting where science is as powerful as magic. You could be an engineer, a physicist, a xenobiologist. Try thinking about what weird, niche services those living on a sun might need and try building from there.
|
|
I'll address two points:
Can soldiers be good cameramen.Yes they can.
Not at first, at low level.
But once you start hitting stat increase levels, and having feats to burn, even a soldier can have a few very good skills and several that are passable.My soldier has the expected high Athletics and Acrobatics skills, but he's also the best pilot in our group. He's got double digits in medicine, engineering, and perception. And as long you turn the volume way, way up, he's an awesome guitarist.
And:
What kind of stargazing-Jedi-archaeologist doesn't have ranks in Mysticism and Physical Science?!You mentioned you're in Dead Suns, I presume you're lowish level. If not, ignore this part.
But, that's three things you're trying to be good at (again, presumably at low level.) You're not a level 1 character with a couple PhD's, you know? At level 1, even in this setting, you're still a person that was living with his mother on their farm last week. (sure, ok. Space Mother and Space Farm.) Treat your worth with skills the same as any other class feature: Not great at level 1. Really great at level 20. Of variable greatness between 2 and 19.
He's not really low level, he's 7th level at this point and we're working our way through the fourth book of the AP.
He started out with an 11 INT and so I put my ranks in Athletics, Perception, Diplomacy and Stealth, and then when I was able to put a +2 into INT and raise it to 13, I put ranks into Culture so I was able to speak more alien languages, but in order to keep making those checks I can't put any ranks in skills that it would make sense for a man of faith to have like Mysticism or Physical Science to take advantage of his Scholar theme. I couldn't make Survival checks in the second book either...also, his space mom died of a disease that blew through their town when he was twelve. But he HAS reunited with his space elf dad on surprisingly good terms. Though his elf step-sister doesn't really like him (his dad remarried and his new spouse already had a kid).
|
|
Kind of got off track, sorry.
I'm just not sure how to think outside the box when it comes to designing characters lately...I've read the intros to Attack of the Swarm!, Against the Aeon Throne and The Threefold Conspiracy, but nothing's just "sparking," at least nothing new. My soldier, Bravo, would be perfect in AotS, but I'm already playing him somewhere else, so I don't want to just make a clone of him for AotS...
I want to make characters that fit these APs, but aren't identical to what I'm already playing, as I want to be a more flexible roleplayer...The only thing I've got right now is an Envoy for the upcoming Fly Free or Die AP, but that's something I've had percolating for over a year.
|
I think that your concern for "flexibility" is only a personal one. As long as similar characters don't stagnate rp, just play what strikes you....until it doesn't or you get bored. The flexibility you are thinking of completely depends on inspiration and can't be forced. If you don't have inspiration elsewhere, wait until you do.
This could mean that you are a little burned out of rgps in general and might consider taking a brief hiatus to recharge the creative juices.
Usually I stop what I'm doing and play Minecraft for a while
|
|
While I do understand the conundrum, that doesn't change the possible burnout situation.
I recently started listening to audio books of the Dresden Files. Great books! That has started my relief. Another option may be to GM instead of play. (Note: I said instead, not in addition to)
In the end you are your own person and will recharge in your own way. I encourage you to address burnout (if you are a little burned out) because this is a multi person game. Everyone playing is entrusted with each other's fun. I, personally, want to be someone that is fun to play with. Burnout can really hinder that.
You do you.
How do you recover from burnout when the stuff you do to relieve burnout is what's burning you out?
If gaming is burning you out then stop for a while and pick up another hobby for a bit. Go fishing, cook something you've never eaten before and get good at it, start meditating, read a book well outside your normal habits or something else completely out of the ordinary for you. (I've done all of those for that exact reason, BTW.)