I love Starfinder. Starfinder kind of sucks.


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BigNorseWolf wrote:
Ixal wrote:
or how everyone is wearing armor all the time.
In starfinder armor can be just clothes with a force field. Peter quill could be/probably was wearing Freebooter armor the entire guardians of the galaxy movie, was that a problem?

Honestly, the only Guardians who *aren't* wearing the equivalent of some form of ( light ) armor are Drax and Groot. In both cases for the same reason- they have Natural AC well above anything available via armor. Which is something that happens regularly in a superhero setting, sometimes powers supplant gear.


Ixal wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Ixal wrote:
or how everyone is wearing armor all the time.
In starfinder armor can be just clothes with a force field. Peter quill could be/probably was wearing Freebooter armor the entire guardians of the galaxy movie, was that a problem?
Some light armor yes. But so far I haven't seen a heavy armor that is just a forcefield.

So the problem is that soldiers are wearing heavy armor whenever you see them doing stuff?


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Squiggit wrote:
Claxon wrote:
But that's more an operative problem. IMO they should have decreased operative skill advantage and gave them something else to compensate.

Only if they fixed the DCs in general. The way skills are set is terrible and I'd say it's less that the operatives are a problem and more that they're the only ones equipped to play the game Paizo created.

Reducing operative skill bonuses wouldn't make trying to play a high mysticism or computers soldier any less obnoxious.

The problem either IS the operative or everyone elses bonuses are too low. An operative that specializes in engineering is a far better engineer than a technomancer (starting with a +3 bonus to the technomancers +0 but leveling out from there)

. Thats... questionable.

But even an operative that DOESN"T specialize in engineering is a better engineer than a technomancer. Their bonus to EVERY skill scales up faster than anyone elses (for most of the game. Mystics don't start coming even or beating them till high level play). Non operatives can't even fix that with skill focus without wasting a feat, since there's no consolation prize for doubling up the insight bonus from skill focus with your class bonus for anyone except operatives (and technically envoys, but that booby prize is so bad it just barely qualifies as technically)(

You shouldn't be better at your hobbies than someone elses primary focus.


BigNorseWolf wrote:
Ixal wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Ixal wrote:
or how everyone is wearing armor all the time.
In starfinder armor can be just clothes with a force field. Peter quill could be/probably was wearing Freebooter armor the entire guardians of the galaxy movie, was that a problem?
Some light armor yes. But so far I haven't seen a heavy armor that is just a forcefield.
So the problem is that soldiers are wearing heavy armor whenever you see them doing stuff?

Turn the question around, soldiers (and vanguards and all characters who were non clothing light armor) can only do stuff when they wear armor? Which, normally, would not be appropriate in a lot of situations. Meaning you either can't use those situations in SF without heavily skewing balance towards certain already very powerful classes *cough*Operative or you ignore it and put it on the pile of "don't think about it, its a game".


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Ixal wrote:
Which, normally, would not be appropriate in a lot of situations. Meaning you either can't use those situations in SF without heavily skewing balance towards certain already very powerful classes *cough*Operative or you ignore it and put it on the pile of "don't think about it, its a game".

Or cultural mores have shifted. Vesk for example consider heavy armor formal wear. Swarm invasions can pop up without little warning, and war footing might have made heavy armor an acceptable fashion statement. Every miles glorious politician looking for veteran support shows up in their old regiment outfit etc...

How often are adventurers being attacked during dinner anyway that its enough to be unbalancing between your classes? (How often do they let you into those places?)


BigNorseWolf wrote:
Ixal wrote:
Which, normally, would not be appropriate in a lot of situations. Meaning you either can't use those situations in SF without heavily skewing balance towards certain already very powerful classes *cough*Operative or you ignore it and put it on the pile of "don't think about it, its a game".

Or cultural mores have shifted. Vesk for example consider heavy armor formal wear. Swarm invasions can pop up without little warning, and war footing might have made heavy armor an acceptable fashion statement. Every miles glorious politician looking for veteran support shows up in their old regiment outfit etc...

How often are adventurers being attacked during dinner anyway that its enough to be unbalancing between your classes? (How often do they let you into those places?)

How often do GMs not run adventures in which the PCs the PCs are attacked during dinner, downtime or have the adventure take place in areas where wearing armor is not appropriate because its not well supported? And why would adventurers not be let in those places?

For what happens when you do it anyway, see Signal of Screams which is very deep in "don't think about it, its a game" territory.

Swarm invasions can not happen suddenly. Even in case they exit the drift (do they even use drift?) unexpected you usually still have hours before actual ground combat happens.
And heavy armor all has armor check penalty and usually reduces your movement speed, thus its rather silly to suggest that those become everyday wear. And uniforms exist, no need to pose in armor.

Sovereign Court

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Ixal wrote:
And heavy armor all has armor check penalty and usually reduces your movement speed, thus its rather silly to suggest that those become everyday wear. And uniforms exist, no need to pose in armor.

Shoes with high heels have armor check penalties and usually reduce your movement speed, thus it's rather silly to suggest those become everyday wear. And sensible pumps exist, no need to increase your height just because it statistically boosts your chances of surviving a dinner party career climbing.


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Ixal wrote:


How often do GMs not run adventures in which the PCs the PCs are attacked during dinner

Stop.

No.

That the thing happens at all is NOT the same as the thing happens so often that it's a huge consideration. Gear dependent PCs know full well there will be times you don't have your gear.

Quote:
downtime

... you don't need to have your armor in in downtime. It's downtime.

Quote:
And why would adventurers not be let in those places?

The frequency with which adventurers wind up being attacked/attacking people and spewing lead everywhere runs up the mutual of Abadar insurance bill.

Quote:
For what happens when you do it anyway, see Signal of Screams which is very deep in "don't think about it, its a game" territory

I haven't played that one but so far you seem pretty intent on making a mountain out of a molehill.

Quote:
Swarm invasions can not happen suddenly.

Yes. They can. A couple of swarm programmers "hatching" eggs on a planet, station, or ship can spread FAST.

Quote:
And heavy armor all has armor check penalty and usually reduces your movement speed, thus its rather silly to suggest that those become everyday wear.

Except that happened in real life. So you're complaining that reality is unrealistic.

Vesk also specifically do this. So you're also complaining that the setting is against the setting.

Quote:
And uniforms exist, no need to pose in armor.

Need no. Desire...


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When in space, I can see people not batting an eye at everyone wearing armor all the time. It double as your space suit. At that point it's just prudent caution, IMO.

Maybe in certain formal settings it would be frowned upon, and that's what things like the glamer projector are for. Although I'm a bit surprised there's not an armor upgrade that allows for wearing any armor like a disc on your chest and being able to spend a standard action to activate it and have it on in one round. Probably also have a version that automatically does that if it detects harmful changes in the environment.

Honestly, given the level of technology that really seems like it should be a thing.

I mean s&*#, we had folding plate in PF1.


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Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Omnipresent armor stretches my credulity a bit, but what really stretches it is that the Stewards and everyone else are perfectly happy with random visitors on Absalom Station walking around with rocket launchers/hand-held tactical nukes :) [If there was a "only small arms in civilized areas" cultural norm, it'd be far more believable and make those weapons more important for some classes.]


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Jhaeman wrote:
Omnipresent armor stretches my credulity a bit, but what really stretches it is that the Stewards and everyone else are perfectly happy with random visitors on Absalom Station walking around with rocket launchers/hand-held tactical nukes :) [If there was a "only small arms in civilized areas" cultural norm, it'd be far more believable and make those weapons more important for some classes.]

But even that doesn't make a lot of sense when high level small arms are much more damaging than low level rocket launchers.


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Claxon wrote:

When in space, I can see people not batting an eye at everyone wearing armor all the time. It double as your space suit. At that point it's just prudent caution, IMO.

Maybe in certain formal settings it would be frowned upon, and that's what things like the glamer projector are for. Although I'm a bit surprised there's not an armor upgrade that allows for wearing any armor like a disc on your chest and being able to spend a standard action to activate it and have it on in one round. Probably also have a version that automatically does that if it detects harmful changes in the environment.

Honestly, given the level of technology that really seems like it should be a thing.

I mean s**@, we had folding plate in PF1.

There's the third level quicksuit armor upgrade.

Put that in a L bulk suit of light armor and it's probably easy to conceal on your person. 2-3 bulk heavy armor, less so.

Jhaeman wrote:
Omnipresent armor stretches my credulity a bit, but what really stretches it is that the Stewards and everyone else are perfectly happy with random visitors on Absalom Station walking around with rocket launchers/hand-held tactical nukes :) [If there was a "only small arms in civilized areas" cultural norm, it'd be far more believable and make those weapons more important for some classes.]

Even ignoring that such weapons are hard to get a hold of for the average person (level limits on gear), it's going to be pretty hard to enforce people being disarmed when they have that much traffic. You've got null space grips, holoskins, racial natural abilities of a similar power to some heavy weapons, dragon glands, eye lasers, spellcasters, etc. to deal with, and many of those are going to be either difficult to detect, or impossible to disarm without bodily injury.

Honestly, I think starfinder's setting is such that if you want to do business in person, you wear your armor, and you bring a weapon just in case. I'd think telepresence is more common than in person business because of this.

Edit: In addition to casters causing problems with 'disarming' in a public place, there's also basically any vanguard, solarian, or nanocyte on top of that. Plus a lot more augmentations than just the dragon glands and laser eyes I mentioned above.


Jhaeman wrote:
Omnipresent armor stretches my credulity a bit, but what really stretches it is that the Stewards and everyone else are perfectly happy with random visitors on Absalom Station walking around with rocket launchers/hand-held tactical nukes :) [If there was a "only small arms in civilized areas" cultural norm, it'd be far more believable and make those weapons more important for some classes.]

As thejeff points out, high level smalls arms or longarms are much more dangerous than low level heavy weapons.

So while you might have issue with item levels because it's gamist, from a real world implementation perspective if we accept the item level issue then it makes sense that small arms only isn't a thing, because longarms and small arms of high level can be much more dangerous.

But I would grant you that perhaps on space station they should have much more tightly controlled access to weapons, basically saying that everyone who docks isn't allowed to have weapons on Absalom station...but of course that would mean denying PCs weapons while on Absalom station and canonically I believe there are a few gangs...so weapons do slip through.

And it wouldn't stop spell casters or solarions or armor storm soldiers in heavy armor.

So I can totally see specific places having different kinds of security with respect to what weapons and armor are allowed, I don't see a specific generic rule of only "smalls arms are allowed places" because it doesn't actually make sense.


Garretmander wrote:

Even ignoring that such weapons are hard to get a hold of for the average person (level limits on gear), it's going to be pretty hard to enforce people being disarmed when they have that much traffic. You've got null space grips, holoskins, racial natural abilities of a similar power to some heavy weapons, dragon glands, eye lasers, spellcasters, etc. to deal with, and many of those are going to be either difficult to detect, or impossible to disarm without bodily injury.

Honestly, I think starfinder's setting is such that if you want to do business in person, you wear your armor, and you bring a weapon just in case.

If you apply level limits that way you will get a very strange world where most people are not allowed to use cars or own personal drones.

And all this is more reason to not even allow small arms in cities or only nonlethal weapons.

And just because there are martial arts masters and concealable weapons in the real world doesn't mean that all weapons are allowed everywhere as you can't make totally sure someone doesn't go armed.
Sadly the game assumes that wearing heavy armor and shouldering a rocket launcher everywhere is the norm and that people just roll with it. As I said "Don't think about it, its a game" which I find not very immersive.


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Ixal wrote:

And just because there are martial arts masters and concealable weapons in the real world doesn't mean that all weapons are allowed everywhere as you can't make totally sure someone doesn't go armed.

Sadly the game assumes that wearing heavy armor and shouldering a rocket launcher everywhere is the norm and that people just roll with it. As I said "Don't think about it, its a game" which I find not very immersive.

Pathfinder (both 1 & 2) have this same issue though.

Pretty much no restrictions on weapons or casters are found. In general towns aren't stopping everybody entering a city and searching them for weapons or if they're a spell caster. Now partially that's because most cities don't have walls so they can't easily control the flow of people.

But even in cities that do have walls, it's relatively rare that the guard is stopping people and taking their weapons. Or telling them to hand over their armor, or their spell component pouches, etc.

Why? Because being an adventurer falls apart if you don't have your gear.

It's gamist, but it exist in all 3 games.

Shadow Lodge

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In the order of Starfinder game design importance, fun and mechanical game balance were put near the top while immersion and verisimilitude are down near the bottom. I think a lot of people look at Starfinder and think sci-fi, which is classically all about verisimilitude. Traditional sci-fi is full of plausible sounding explanations for all the implausible stuff that happens in it. However Starfinder was designed more with sword and planet gonzo style adventures in mind. Starfinder is not designed to be a sci-fi setting, they make it pretty clear in the crb that it's a space fantasy game. You're supposed to be too busy shooting your laser guns at the dark lord and his army of undead unicorns to care that none of it makes any sense.


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I think it goes down easier in PF because the pseudo-renaissance fantasy setting primes players to expect certain types of tropes that are reflected in video games, books and movies with a fantasy setting. One of those tropes are that the heroes are always ready for action and go around fully equipped.

OTOH, Starfinder uses modern day society as a starting point. On Absalom Station you can hail an autocab, eat at a fast food joint, browse infosphere sites on your datapad. These kinds of setting details prime players to expect modern society rules and tropes will be followed unless the setting explicitly deviates from those. And one of those modern society rules is that people are not allowed to have rocket launchers at the mall :)


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Everyone wearing armor all the time in Starfinder is more plausible than everyone walking around naked on Mars in the John Carter books, or Leia and Han being able to use a small oxygen mask to breathe in space in Empire Strikes Back.

There are certain conceits that we allow in our entertainment. I'm not saying "don't think about it," but I see no reason to get wound up over it and bring it up in thread after thread. Sure, starfinder armor has some silly elements. Can we move on?


Claxon wrote:

Pathfinder (both 1 & 2) have this same issue though.

Pretty much no restrictions on weapons or casters are found. In general towns aren't stopping everybody entering a city and searching them for weapons or if they're a spell caster. Now partially that's because most cities don't have walls so they can't easily control the flow of people.

But even in cities that do have walls, it's relatively rare that the guard is stopping people and taking their weapons. Or telling them to hand over their armor, or their spell component pouches, etc.

Why? Because being an adventurer falls apart if you don't have your gear.

It's gamist, but it exist in all 3 games.

As I said above Pathfinder has it easier because of its medieval/rennaissance setting. Partly because there was no strong and organized authority to enforce such laws, partly because everyone being potentially armed was indeed normal (although not to the degree usual adventurers are) and also partly because most people don't know much about those times and accept the tropes which support adventurers being armed.

Compared to that, Starfinder has strong and organized governments, police forces and so on. Also the technology to detect and track weapons already exist so in Starfinder that would be possible to.
And lastly because Starfinder is in part science fiction people use current world societies and extrapolate from there and as you know strict gun laws are very common around the globe.
So it is much more obvious that allowing armed PCs everywhere is only for gamist reasons and also much more jarring when PCs do something fully armed which would not be allowed in the real world like going shopping etc.


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Ixal wrote:


And lastly because Starfinder is in part science fiction people use current world societies and extrapolate from there and as you know strict gun laws are very common around the globe.

Yeah, but a lot of us are Americans. We don't talk politics on these boards, but suffice to say, a lot of us do walk around armed and armored, to varying levels of rationale, effect, or media attention.

The Pact Worlds, having evolved from Golarion's adventurer-based economy, is still very much a Wild West sort of setting. Individual locations and settlements may have their own laws, but most acknowledge that it is nigh impossible to enforce them when literally everyone relies on roving bands of murderhobos to solve local problems.


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Ixal wrote:

If you apply level limits that way you will get a very strange world where most people are not allowed to use cars or own personal drones.
And all this is more reason to not even allow small arms in cities or only nonlethal weapons.

Or, level limits are what you can purchase easily with existing 'licenses' and what not. The average NPC can still buy a level 5 magic boardgame, it just takes a while. Or you can ignore level limits on basic equipment, but not armor weapons and augments. Level limits aren't an yes/no switch when applying what the game mechanic might mean in the 'real' world.

Ixal wrote:

And just because there are martial arts masters and concealable weapons in the real world doesn't mean that all weapons are allowed everywhere as you can't make totally sure someone doesn't go armed.

Sadly the game assumes that wearing heavy armor and shouldering a rocket launcher everywhere is the norm and that people just roll with it. As I said "Don't think about it, its a game" which I find not very immersive.

The real world martial artist doesn't have an anti-tank punch that beats out missile launchers for vehicular damage.

The real world doesn't have literal dragons walking around with flamethrowers built into their biology. It doesn't have half-dollar coins that unfold into plasma cannons.

The real world also doesn't have heavy armor and force fields that can protect you from any of those things.

Now, in starfinder, the extreme ease of concealing weapons, or just having them on demand, means any attempt at saying 'you can't have weapons here' is going to be ignored by/unenforced on some subset of the population. If you then follow that up with 'you can't wear heavy armor here', I'd bet a lot of people just stop visiting that place.

Yes, there are definitely going to be places that don't want to see citizens walking around with a pistol, or anymore than basic light armor for enviroprotections. Based on what has been written about the setting so far? Those places are very, very rare in the pact worlds.

So as a result, the default assumption of the setting is that station security gives you an extra talking to if you have a rocket launcher out in the open over your shoulder as you walk in the airlock. They have to assume you're thinking of using it in the short term.

They probably don't give a damn if you have a pistol holstered on your vesk troop plate, or a rifle slung over your shoulder, or a pocket full of spell gems, or if you are a haan, or if one of your eyes is a different color. The reason they don't give a damn, is because everyone on the station is wearing armor that can protect them from some of that.

Now, does this mean the adventure should never visit someplace where this default assumption is not in place? No, separated/on limited gear is a great trope for part of the adventure.

Does the setting fall apart because a lot of people are walking around in heavy armor and have heavy weapons withing arms reach? Also no, but it does mean the setting is a lot more dangerous than our safe modern lives, and that checks out from what we've seen in various adventures.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Quote:
For what happens when you do it anyway, see Signal of Screams which is very deep in "don't think about it, its a game" territory

I don't understand ehat this one is supposed to mean. When I played Signal of Screams, and people weren't wearing armor until after things went south, it played just fine.


HammerJack wrote:
Quote:
For what happens when you do it anyway, see Signal of Screams which is very deep in "don't think about it, its a game" territory
I don't understand ehat this one is supposed to mean. When I played Signal of Screams, and people weren't wearing armor until after things went south, it played just fine.

I mean mainly book 2, not 1.


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And that book does have some problems with shootouts in a downtown metropolis resulting in a lethargic/uncaring police response rather than a rapid one. At least one of those shootouts occurs in the nicer areas of the metropolis where you would expect the PCs to be questioned extensively, and have some sort of warrant/bounty if they slip away and leave behind a pile of bodies.

That said, the handful of civilians you run into tend to have high powered sidearms and burly bodyguards wearing heavy armor and rifles even in the nicer areas of the city. Several of the combats happen in the 'shade' which is basically the slums and criminal hangout. Assuming the shootout only lasts a minute or two, it might not even get reported to the police forces.


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Ixal wrote:

Compared to that, Starfinder has strong and organized governments, police forces and so on. Also the technology to detect and track weapons already exist so in Starfinder that would be possible to.

And lastly because Starfinder is in part science fiction people use current world societies and extrapolate from there and as you know strict gun laws are very common around the globe.
So it is much more obvious that allowing armed PCs everywhere is only for gamist reasons and also much more jarring when PCs do something fully armed which would not be allowed in the real world like going shopping etc.

Starfidner is science fantasy, not science fiction. They're similar, but science fantasy forgoes a lot of "why" in favor of "wouldn't it be cool if" or "this works better mechanically/is more enjoyable for players".

This isn't a hard scifi game (hard scifi as in the genre).

Also, as an American living in a red state there are plenty of people walking around with guns on a daily basis and are within their legal right to do so. Personally I wish it was vastly more stringent and difficult to be able to carry a firearm but I don't have control over that. I will admit that it's not common in the city to see people with pistol or rifles in public, but I do see it from time to time. What I probably don't see is the many people who carry concealed firearms on a daily basis in cities, which is probably more common than you would expect.

If I go to the rural areas of my state it is very common to see people open carrying pistols, and not uncommon to see rifles.


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Ixal wrote:
Claxon wrote:

Pathfinder (both 1 & 2) have this same issue though.

Pretty much no restrictions on weapons or casters are found. In general towns aren't stopping everybody entering a city and searching them for weapons or if they're a spell caster. Now partially that's because most cities don't have walls so they can't easily control the flow of people.

But even in cities that do have walls, it's relatively rare that the guard is stopping people and taking their weapons. Or telling them to hand over their armor, or their spell component pouches, etc.

Why? Because being an adventurer falls apart if you don't have your gear.

It's gamist, but it exist in all 3 games.

As I said above Pathfinder has it easier because of its medieval/rennaissance setting. Partly because there was no strong and organized authority to enforce such laws, partly because everyone being potentially armed was indeed normal (although not to the degree usual adventurers are) and also partly because most people don't know much about those times and accept the tropes which support adventurers being armed.

Compared to that, Starfinder has strong and organized governments, police forces and so on. Also the technology to detect and track weapons already exist so in Starfinder that would be possible to.
And lastly because Starfinder is in part science fiction people use current world societies and extrapolate from there and as you know strict gun laws are very common around the globe.
So it is much more obvious that allowing armed PCs everywhere is only for gamist reasons and also much more jarring when PCs do something fully armed which would not be allowed in the real world like going shopping etc.

More I think because people don't know much about those times and because genre tropes never really paid much attention to historical realities. Historically banning weapons was quite common, often for anyone except the elites. That's one reason some common tools got turned into weapons.


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thejeff wrote:
More I think because people don't know much about those times and because genre tropes never really paid much attention to historical realities. Historically banning weapons was quite common, often for anyone except the elites. That's one reason some common tools got turned into weapons.

I am by no means an expert, but I recall that in Japan commoners were not allowed to have weapons (under certain shogunate and governments), they were reserved for Samurai except in times of war, when everyone would conscript lots of peasants.

This is why many weapons people might have had were basically farm implements, because they were still allowed and were just as able to kill someone as a dedicated weapon.

I'm not sure that is completely accurate, but something I remember reading.

Shadow Lodge

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Swords in particular in a number of medieval societies were a symbol of the aristocracy. To the point that it was a capitol offence for anyone who wasn't a lord to use one. If we were going to do a historically accurate game, then it was also a capitol offence for a woman to wield a weapon of any kind. Adventurers would pretty much all be outlaws.

But we want to have fun exciting stories, not reenact a time of prejudice, oppression, and hate. So we tell our fantasy stories using modern morality projected onto imagined settings.


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Claxon wrote:
thejeff wrote:
More I think because people don't know much about those times and because genre tropes never really paid much attention to historical realities. Historically banning weapons was quite common, often for anyone except the elites. That's one reason some common tools got turned into weapons.

I am by no means an expert, but I recall that in Japan commoners were not allowed to have weapons (under certain shogunate and governments), they were reserved for Samurai except in times of war, when everyone would conscript lots of peasants.

This is why many weapons people might have had were basically farm implements, because they were still allowed and were just as able to kill someone as a dedicated weapon.

I'm not sure that is completely accurate, but something I remember reading.

Swords were indeed forbidden for commoners, but that only came rather late with the 16th century. Before that swords were available to everyone.

Also while there were laws against certain weapons in many places, Japan was one of the only countries that worked because it was one of the most stable and well developed countries in the world, thus could enforce the law. Maybe China had something similar but that I do not know.
In other places the ban on weapons was more theoretical and often ignored, for example the papal ban of bows and crossbows.

And even in Japan the ban was only on one type of weapons because they were reserved for the samurai caste. Other weapons were available, simply because even in Japan there was banditry with no nation wide police force to respond to it and because many weapons were also tools (bows for hunting).

The problem is in Starfinder, even when you go heavily into fantasy and not science, this is not an issue. Every halfway stable society would have the means to enforce a ban. And in modern times in nearly all places and societies there is a general ban on what we consider weapons unless you can prof that you need it. And the use of said weapon is restricted to that specific function and it has to be locked away otherwise.


The papal ban on crossbows was intended to apply to everyone - keeping kings and armies from using them because they were too cruel. That was never going to fly.

Keeping your oppressed peasantry from having effective weapons on the other hand was often to the advantage of the local lords. Even bows in some places. Hunting was for the nobles. Remember your Robin Hood - poaching the king's deer? (Though England did rely on peasants training themselves with longbows.)

Not everywhere or at all times of course and probably hard to strictly enforce, but easy enough to punish a serf if caught with a weapon he wasn't allowed.

Tools could be repurposed as weapons, but generally the tool versions weren't very effective as such. A wood cutting ax will hurt, but it isn't designed as a battle ax.


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Ixal wrote:
The problem is in Starfinder, even when you go heavily into fantasy and not science, this is not an issue. Every halfway stable society would have the means to enforce a ban. And in modern times in nearly all places and societies there is a general ban on what we consider weapons unless you can prof that you need it. And the use of said...

I disagree with you very strongly. I would consider the US halfway stable, maybe not by much but halfway, and you could never enforce a ban here. It's too big. Too many people already have them. There's no centralized database of the existing weapons and who has them.

These are problems that would afflict futuristic societies too. Short of space stations that tightly control access of everyone on and off the station someone is going to sneak through with weapons, illegal or not.

The question isn't will there be weapons, the question is who will have them and how many will there be.


Claxon wrote:


I disagree with you very strongly. I would consider the US halfway stable, maybe not by much but halfway, and you could never enforce a ban here. It's too big. Too many people already have them. There's no centralized database of the existing weapons and who has them.

These are problems that would afflict futuristic societies too. Short of space stations that tightly control access of everyone on and off the station someone is going to sneak through with weapons, illegal or not.

The question isn't will there be weapons, the question is who will have them and how many will there be.

Even in the US a ban can be enforced if they wanted to. It would take a few decades before the gun supply dries up, but its doable. And even with many guns in circulation its still rather easy to implement controls that people can't openly walk around with longarms or worse like people in Starfinder do. That is already the case for many US states.


Ixal wrote:
Claxon wrote:


I disagree with you very strongly. I would consider the US halfway stable, maybe not by much but halfway, and you could never enforce a ban here. It's too big. Too many people already have them. There's no centralized database of the existing weapons and who has them.

These are problems that would afflict futuristic societies too. Short of space stations that tightly control access of everyone on and off the station someone is going to sneak through with weapons, illegal or not.

The question isn't will there be weapons, the question is who will have them and how many will there be.

Even in the US a ban can be enforced if they wanted to. It would take a few decades before the gun supply dries up, but its doable. And even with many guns in circulation its still rather easy to implement controls that people can't openly walk around with longarms or worse like people in Starfinder do. That is already the case for many US states.

In starfinder, you can print a heavy weapon off of your 3D printer. And then a null space stock, and then a dragongland, then sneak into... well practically anywhere.

Maybe, it might be reasonable to have the massive magical and technological security systems needed to prevent people from doing that in their space ships then just walking in.

What sound more reasonable to me though, is that they just let their citizens wear nice and effective armor instead of wasting resources in an escalating magical arms race between disguises and detection. Some places may well question you on carrying longarms and heavy weapons. Basically no where in the pact worlds will question you on heavy armor or small arms... and that's not even getting into melee weapons.

When every Tom, Dick, and Harry has access to so, so many options of either building weapons in their basement, or sneaking them through customs, well, it turns out that every Tom, Dick, and Harry has a weapon on them. From there, logically everyone else is wearing armor when they leave the house.


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After a certain point, the only defense the Pact Worlds has is the Bill & Ted mantra: "Be Excellent to Each Other."

And it largely works! Unless there is a Starfinder Society operation or an Adventure Path happening nearby.


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Ixal wrote:
Claxon wrote:


I disagree with you very strongly. I would consider the US halfway stable, maybe not by much but halfway, and you could never enforce a ban here. It's too big. Too many people already have them. There's no centralized database of the existing weapons and who has them.

These are problems that would afflict futuristic societies too. Short of space stations that tightly control access of everyone on and off the station someone is going to sneak through with weapons, illegal or not.

The question isn't will there be weapons, the question is who will have them and how many will there be.

Even in the US a ban can be enforced if they wanted to. It would take a few decades before the gun supply dries up, but its doable. And even with many guns in circulation its still rather easy to implement controls that people can't openly walk around with longarms or worse like people in Starfinder do. That is already the case for many US states.

No, I don't think so.

Firearms don't just disappear. Rarely do good quality firearms break in a way that isn't merely a jam or otherwise ammo related, especially when not discharged on a daily basis.

Firearms aren't going to suddenly disappear or be out of reach, even if banned. Although getting one would be more challenging and expensive, but that's the same thing with illegal drugs.

The easiest thing to control would be ammo, since a majority of people don't reload. Although for you ban to be meaningful you'd have to shutdown sales of ammo and the parts that make ammo.

Sure, you can make things more challenging for people to just walk around with weapons. But in Starfinder that's meaningless, there are lots of ways to store a weapon so that it's not visually detectable. And there's plenty of space for a asteroid facility to manufacture weapons and ammo, not everyone is going to play by the rules. Getting anywhere in the Pact Worlds is like a weeks travel.

You cannot stop people from having weapons. You can only make the barrier of entry higher.

You can also go the opposite direction and lower of the barrier of entry and make sure everyone has them.

Which seems like the direction Starfinder and the pact worlds went.

If you want to have cities or space stations that don't allow weapons then I can believe that. But unless you have very tightly controlled access into and out of place you can't get rid of weapons.

Also, for what it's worth in the US there are no places that I know of that have bans on long guns, though many did have bans of pistols (because they can be concealed more easily) which has been ruled unconstitutional.

And despite being someone who owns firearms, I don't actually like that so many people go about with them in public, but it is what it is.


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I always kinda thought that low level Starfinder weapons were such garbage as a sort of stealth gun control initiative. Like, a tactical semi-auto pistol does 1d6 damage, which can theoretically kill a CR 1/3 goblin in one shot if and only if it rolls max damage. Meanwhile people in the real world get killed by glocks all the time and projectile guns are considered very lethal.

So some clever priest of Abadar stumbled on the idea of solving the economy and violence at the same time by making the cheap guns that are easy to get extremely wimpy. People who want something other than a pea shooter have to get licenses or connections and pay multiples or exponentials of the original gun's cost.


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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

In Starfinder, actual gods provably exist, and everyone knows there's an afterlife. A deity telling people to be excellent to one another has a bit more likelihood of working in such a setting.

Shadow Lodge

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Dracomicron wrote:
I always kinda thought that low level Starfinder weapons were such garbage as a sort of stealth gun control initiative. Like, a tactical semi-auto pistol does 1d6 damage, which can theoretically kill a CR 1/3 goblin in one shot if and only if it rolls max damage.

I justify it as everyone is wearing armor all the time. That 1d6 is the damage you take after much of the force is absorbed by your protective gear. Otherwise low level weapons are the equivalent of bb guns and "frag grenades" are firecrackers.


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WatersLethe wrote:

In Starfinder, actual gods provably exist, and everyone knows there's an afterlife. A deity telling people to be excellent to one another has a bit more likelihood of working in such a setting.

Well, there are also deities saying take what you can from others and murdarate them painfully because its fun.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Did anybody mention how prices of Starfinder don't make gameplay sense?

Like in 1e the bag of holding I & II have these differences:

Type I 15 lbs. 250 lbs. 30 cubic ft. 2,500 gp
Type II 25 lbs. 500 lbs. 70 cubic ft. 5,000 gp

So type II is twice as expensive as first one, but holds twice as much weight and more than twice of space while also being more heavy but not double.

Meanwhile in starfinder nullspace mk 1 and 2

Level 5; Price 3,050; Bulk L
Description
You can close up to 25 bulk in this device’s pocket space, a 3-foot cube. It can hold enough air for one Medium creature or two Small creatures for 10 minutes.

Level 9; Price 12,250; Bulk L
Description
You can close up to 50 bulk in this device’s pocket space, a 6-foot cube. It can hold enough air for one Medium creature or two Small creatures for 2 hours.

Nullspace chamber MK 2 holds twice as much bulk, so unless price is because of 2 hours of air its much more efficient to buy 4 mk 1 nullspace chambers instead :P You would NEVER buy nullspace chamber mk 2 unless you know you are going to carry a single item that is more than 25 bulk by itself.

Starfinder's economy is all built around prices being average by level wealth gates and most of correct level equipment being found on foes of same cr, so buying things is absolutely bad idea. You barely get credits back from selling stuff and you never have anything else to buy besides consumables, armor upgrades and personal upgrades because you don't really REALLY don't want to use 6000k to get knife with one more d4 in it.

Shadow Lodge

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Yup, Starfinder prices are 100% game mechanics. Just leave it at that. Trying to make any logical sense of it only leads to madness.


It's not like PF2e has sensible pricing either. Both just make up the numbers pretty arbitarily.


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Milo v3 wrote:
It's not like PF2e has sensible pricing either. Both just make up the numbers pretty arbitarily.

But again its much worse in Starfinder than in Pathfinder.

In Starfinder this exceptional pricing is not only applied to magical items, but also to mundane things. And that in a setting which has mass production which would keep prices low. And even worse, things also have an item level which are a purely metagame concept with no explanation how item level can be described in game. Especially as level restrictions apply to all items. Normal people can't buy board games, household drones or decent cars, simply because they are not high level enough. And they would need to be filthy rich to own things even we in the real world consider to be common items.
Even when you only apply it to PCs, there is still no way to explain in-game why a PC would be denied when he tries to buy a valet drone or civilian car above his level if he had the credits or how his level is even checked.

And on the other side having so many leveled items also creates very strange and unimmersive situations. For example why do armies and other forces use so many different weapons and armor to cover all levels? Why do they not have standartized equipment like level 8 or so weapons for everyone, even the recruits so that they are trained on the weapons they will actually use?
You can see some of the effects in Attack of the Swarm where the police force on the colony is actually stronger than soldiers on the main planet, simply because they appeared later and thus have a higher level, including equipment.


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I agree that non-combat items have been mistakenly assigned high item levels that are impractical in terms of the game worlds economy.

I would consider those mistakes of the items.

As to why higher level enemies always have higher level equipment....Starfinder is gamist and makes very little attempts at simulation and isn't very concerned about versimilitude.

I understand that upsets you, but that isn't really a problem with the game. It's a problem with expectations. Starfinder might not be the game for you.

Have you tried Hackmaster? From what I understand there's a table for everything, including being dismembered when you're attacked. You can be instantly killed by almost any attack (from what I understand) if the rolls go poorly.

At a certain point abstraction is necessary to make a game fun. I don't think Starfinder got everything right, but the things they get wrong don't hurt my ability to enjoy the game.


Two points here.

At my table background NPCs have items equivalent to there background and occupational success.

So an NPC bartender at a dive bar, probably doesn't have a car and rents a dingy efficiency apartment, while the head bartender at the main bar in the Intergalactic Ritz Carlton most likely has a nice car and goes home to a nice multiple room apartment or condo.

Don't ever let the rules prevent you from fleshing out an NPC and his environment.

Tell your story, rules be damned.

Second point: grab a critical hit deck. This will allow every critical hit to potentially be lethal with the right card draw.

Example: We are playing Against the Aeon Throne and are on the final book. The L5 operative in our group is using a L1 skip shot pistol that she deals 1d4 +2 damage.

She was left alone with Grasilex with the party waiting just outside Hassachir's complex.

The operative won initiative, rolled a natural 20, drew a card with the extreme piercing heart shot on it. That crit is a save or die crit. Grasilex failed the save roll and died.

Far from being a rare event as this same character did the same thing when they first got to Outpost Zed in book 2.

She killed a Draelick the exact same way.

The two soldiers in the group now call her "Heart Stopper" much to her chagrin.

Point being the game can be as immersive as the GM and the players want it to be. It all depends on how much work the GM wishes to do.


gnoams wrote:
Dracomicron wrote:
I always kinda thought that low level Starfinder weapons were such garbage as a sort of stealth gun control initiative. Like, a tactical semi-auto pistol does 1d6 damage, which can theoretically kill a CR 1/3 goblin in one shot if and only if it rolls max damage.
I justify it as everyone is wearing armor all the time. That 1d6 is the damage you take after much of the force is absorbed by your protective gear. Otherwise low level weapons are the equivalent of bb guns and "frag grenades" are firecrackers.

I mean a round's worth of damage from a 1st level pistol is 2d6 against a CR 1/2 civilian's 10hp. It doesn't really need more than that, tbh.


CorvusMask wrote:

Did anybody mention how prices of Starfinder don't make gameplay sense?

This has been known for ages and it's a lost battle at this point. Everyone has issues with the economy, both for character progression and Starship progression (that has been revamped, but only tweaked numbers, not the actual problem of dealing with abstract gamey points that rub some people off).


thejeff wrote:
Jhaeman wrote:
Omnipresent armor stretches my credulity a bit, but what really stretches it is that the Stewards and everyone else are perfectly happy with random visitors on Absalom Station walking around with rocket launchers/hand-held tactical nukes :) [If there was a "only small arms in civilized areas" cultural norm, it'd be far more believable and make those weapons more important for some classes.]
But even that doesn't make a lot of sense when high level small arms are much more damaging than low level rocket launchers.

More importantly, there is no particular point in restricting longarms/heavy weapons, when the other guy standing next to them can do as much or more damage in a speedo, because they have spellcasting, psychic powers, innate racial abilities, or whatnot.


Sauce987654321 wrote:
gnoams wrote:
Dracomicron wrote:
I always kinda thought that low level Starfinder weapons were such garbage as a sort of stealth gun control initiative. Like, a tactical semi-auto pistol does 1d6 damage, which can theoretically kill a CR 1/3 goblin in one shot if and only if it rolls max damage.
I justify it as everyone is wearing armor all the time. That 1d6 is the damage you take after much of the force is absorbed by your protective gear. Otherwise low level weapons are the equivalent of bb guns and "frag grenades" are firecrackers.
I mean a round's worth of damage from a 1st level pistol is 2d6 against a CR 1/2 civilian's 10hp. It doesn't really need more than that, tbh.

Keep in mind, a "CR 1/2 civilian" is still a CR 1/2 character. They are low level, sure, but CR 1/2 NPCs include quite a few low level criminals, conscript grunts, and such. They may be weaker than a Level 1 PC, but they aren't helpless; if they were, they wouldn't be CR 1/2, they'd be even lower. And the system does not distinguish between a CR 1/2 "combatant" vs "civilian". CR 1/2 is CR 1/2, if the character is a 'civilian', they still have enough awareness and courage to be a challenging opponent at the CR 1/2 level.


Lightning Raven wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:

Did anybody mention how prices of Starfinder don't make gameplay sense?

This has been known for ages and it's a lost battle at this point. Everyone has issues with the economy, both for character progression and Starship progression (that has been revamped, but only tweaked numbers, not the actual problem of dealing with abstract gamey points that rub some people off).

"Everyone"? That seems a little presumptuous. Everyone is certainly aware that there are people with issues with it. That is not the same as everyone *agreeing* that there are actual issues with the economy, or that these issues rise above the trivial level.

Note: I consider them largely trivial not because they are insignificant and minuscule. . . but because any issues or problems with a system only exists in comparison with other alternatives. *All* systems are flawed, the question is whether the particular flaws in a system are worth it compared to other, different flaws. And I've yet to see a convincing case presented for why the flaws in the Starfinder economy are intolerable, that doesn't boil down to some variation on "I want the entire system to have been rebuilt from the ground up with completely different, incompatible design axioms". Or, as I like to summarize: if you want to play GURPS Space, why aren't you playing GURPS Space?

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