Yes, I've written "should", because it doesn't have to be like that.
For Pathfinder, the regions were MUCH smaller, so a booklet could have been enough to highlight all of the major cities and key landmarks. However, in Starfinder, each planet is the size of Golarion, each with their own regions, provinces, countries and whatnot.
So... should we get one book per planet, so everything from the Pact World is fleshed out?
Should? I don't know. Could, hypothetically? Certainly there's enough depth to the setting. With as many creative & talented people as they have working at Paizo it should be possible to fill out a Pact Worlds-sized book about any given city on any of the pact worlds, let alone entire planets.
Well, okay, probably filling out a book that size about Liavara would be a challenge.
But as a matter of practicality we're talking about 9+ books, depending on whether you want one for each planet or one for each member state and then you have to figure out how to work the Sun & the Diaspora in there.
And Paizo's release schedule for SF has been, one crunch heavy book, one setting heavy book, one alien archive per year. So you'd be talking about these books occupying that setting book space for ten years, leaving the rest of the setting to settle for space in AP volumes.
This is why I wish they'd bring back the campaign setting booklets. There's just so much more of Starfinder to explore & we're getting so much less information.
No. The Pact Worlds are really only intended as a home base, the rest of the uncivilized or unexplored galaxy is where most of the action is supposed to be. Flitting around in your ship to land, do a localized mission, and not care about the what is going on in the rest of the planet is a strong point.
No. The Pact Worlds are really only intended as a home base, the rest of the uncivilized or unexplored galaxy is where most of the action is supposed to be. Flitting around in your ship to land, do a localized mission, and not care about the what is going on in the rest of the planet is a strong point.
Isn't it a bit of a waste if 99% of the planet is left unexplored? Then again, maybe what we currently get as info for each city is enough to weave other scenarios.
I could see a Core book on Absalom Station alone though, if we are going with "home bases". As a comparison point, D&D had a core book for Eberron's major city, Sharn, just like they had a book for Faerun's own Waterdeep.
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I'd settle for an AP on each planet instead.
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That could make incorporating starship combat a bit tricky. The only AP I've seen that comes close is Dawn of Flame, which doesn't leave the Sun, but even then it doesn't spend ALL it's time in the Burning Archipelago. All the other ones give you a whirlwind tour of a planet for a single episode before moving on to another location (presumably with a starship encounter along the way).
Akiton: Dust and Grit
I'd settle for an AP on each planet instead.
This is what they've done for Pathfinder, and each booklet had snippets of the region.
As others have stated, planets are MUCH bigger and harder to cover in a book, leading to only getting specific locations when commanded.
This is why that maybe Absolom Station could get a book, but that's about it.
I think no. Planets are much bigger, but... PCs are much more mobile too.
So, yes, there are a lot of places on each planet to flesh out... no, that's not 8seful information to have.
If this happened, you'd use maybe a half dozen pages of one of these hypothetical books in a given campaign. That sounds super wasteful to me.
Yes, more information would be nice, no, I don't want this information more than I want... well anything else, any other setting. The pact worlds were covered in the eponymous book IMO.
Akiton: Dust and Grit
Cyberpunk and post-apocalypse in a single planet AP...
I think no. Planets are much bigger, but... PCs are much more mobile too.
So, yes, there are a lot of places on each planet to flesh out... no, that's not 8seful information to have.
If this happened, you'd use maybe a half dozen pages of one of these hypothetical books in a given campaign. That sounds super wasteful to me.
Yes, more information would be nice, no, I don't want this information more than I want... well anything else, any other setting. The pact worlds were covered in the eponymous book IMO.
A counter argument might be that if you had deep dive books for each planet, then yes, depending on the parameters of the campaign any given DM running any given campaign might only be using half a dozen pages from said book, but each DM could use a different half dozen pages, where as currently we're all using the same half dozen pages Pact Worlds, give or take extra info in an AP volume.
But like I said I'm not in favor of a full hardcover release for each planet based on practicality alone. I just wish they'd bring back the 60-70 page setting book line to cover things like this.
No. The Pact Worlds are really only intended as a home base, the rest of the uncivilized or unexplored galaxy is where most of the action is supposed to be.
If that was true, the first lore book wouldn't have been 216 pages about the Pact Worlds, replete with scenario hooks - with zero books on the Vast since.
If a GM and their players want to play on the unwritten pages, cool. But there's no "supposed to be." You can use the Deck of Worlds to generate some planets and go from there if that's your bag, sure. Or you can play in the Pact Worlds (or just one of them) or the Veskarium or the Azlant Empire or where ever or all of the above.
To the original question, yeah, I'd like to see more along those lines, but I suspect all we're going to get are gazetteers at the back of APs. At least for the foreseeable future.
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If anything, I'd rather see a 'pact worlds 2' that was just additional info on each world, skipping player options and having more NPCs and plot hooks.
No. The Pact Worlds are really only intended as a home base, the rest of the uncivilized or unexplored galaxy is where most of the action is supposed to be.If that was true, the first lore book wouldn't have been 216 pages about the Pact Worlds, replete with scenario hooks - with zero books on the Vast since.
It is true, and of course the first lore book is going to be about the place where a clear plurality but still minority of the action is expected to occur.
It's explained clearly enough in the opening paragraphs of the Setting chapter in the CRB.
When it comes to Starfinder Society scenarios, you're overall spending about a third of your time in the Pact Worlds.
When it comes to Starfinder Society scenarios, you're overall spending about a third of your time in the Pact Worlds.
But, when it comes to SFS scenarios, most of the background and plot hooks have been taken care of for you.
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I do think it's a fallacy to say as definite fact that the Pact Worlds are only intended as a starting point. I certainly see enough potential depth in that part of the setting to host a full campaign. I see enough depth on several of the individual planets to host a full campaign.
Certainly using the Pact Worlds as a starting point is a valid way of doing it, but so is having the starting point be somewhere in the Vast or Near Space & coming to the Pact Worlds for the end game, or never coming to the Pact Worlds at all, let alone starting in the Pact Worlds(or any other part) and never leaving.
I look at Starfinder as a setting as being intended as a galaxy of infinite possibilities. Not every story told in it needs to involve constant planet hopping. Some can be more focused on a single location.
It's explained clearly enough in the opening paragraphs of the Setting chapter in the CRB.
I think you're misreading the second paragraph, if that's your take.
But if that's how you want to play, awesome. Have fun with it.
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I look at Starfinder as a setting as being intended as a galaxy of infinite possibilities. Not every story told in it needs to involve constant planet hopping. Some can be more focused on a single location.
Yep. There is no wrong way to play Starfinder - so long as the group enjoys it. There is no such thing as wrongfun.