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As we get close to the end of 2021, I keep thinking about the evolutionist and what sort of book it might appear in and the questions around that. I definitely have a tendency to read into things too much, but I find it strange that the dark archive book was announced as the playtest classes for it were, and even that was after the evolutionist playtest was over. And now, on the fifth month after the playtest started, we still don't know the book it's coming in (and I assume it will also be a gencon release like dark archive).
I do think the book will be announced soon, likely within the next couple of months. It could be a sort of fallout from drift crisis, or its own thing entirely. And what would it contain?
I personally would love to see a biotech based book, focused around augmentations, PC alien companions, and other class options that fit this theme. Would be cool to fill out what I see is sort of book he core of starfinder - magic, tech, and biological. Maaaaybe cosmic could fit in there too, but it may be too niche.
What sort of book do you see the evolutionist coming out in?
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Either the Nature Operations Manual (NOM) or Biological Operations Manual (BOM).
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Could be a more creature focused book. Like a book focusing on the different alien cultures and races. Sort of like advanced race guide was for PF1e, but with more Starfinder Setting specific info.
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Tech Revolution covered tech; Galactic Magic will cover, well, magic. The evolutionist will appear in an equivalent book about alien cultures, including a section that gives a page, perhaps two, to looks at various notable species.
Wasn't there a survey or the like, asking what races we would like to know more about? I had forgotten about that until you all posted your thoughts
Yeah, that survey + TR and GM's sections on everyday life is the basis of my prediction.
Yeah, that survey + TR and GM's sections on everyday life is the basis of my prediction.
cafe operations manual?
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cafe operations manual?
If this book comes out during the Drift Crisis, it will be the ideal time to introduce the Bistromathic Drive.
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Tech Revolution covered tech; Galactic Magic will cover, well, magic. The evolutionist will appear in an equivalent book about alien cultures, including a section that gives a page, perhaps two, to looks at various notable species.
You could call it "Pact Worlds" or "Near Space" or something like that.
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Just going off of past patterns, the book should be a bit more rules heavy and a little less lore heavy (if it's going to be a gencon release and contain a class), but something like pact worlds or near space but a lot chunkier would be awesome, actually.
Edit - Another factor as to my hopes for a more biotech sort of a book - I would love for the starfinder universe to lean into pillars of bio/magic/tech, it's almost a given with a lot of sci fi settings. Zerg, protoss, terran is sort of what I'm thinking.
The precog has yet to appear as well, so... two classes in the same upcoming book, maybe?
The precog has yet to appear as well, so... two classes in the same upcoming book, maybe?
The Precog is showing up next month, in the Galactic Magic book.
It would make a wierd sort of sense, wouldn't it?
Technology, Magic... hybrid items should be next.
Character Operations Manual 2 Electric Boogaloo
Hybrid would also make sense. I get stuck in the evolutionist = monster/beast mindset but really it can be magic, tech, undead, or beast. So I suppose getting stuck on biotech is something I have to get over. Hybrid would be pretty cool and is as big a part of equipment as tech or magic.
At the same time COM is maybe my favorite starfinder book, a second book like that would be amazing. Full of mechanical goodness.
Whatever we get, I do hope there's a heap more augmentations at least, to make evolutionist even more appealing.
Getting rid of the augmentation stuff would be a start... just pick an iconic monster and add parts of them to the character (specialization) - every other level, pick something from a list of powers (exploits).
These new classes are so overly complicated.
The overly complicated bit was being looked at I'm fairly sure. But more universal monster abilities would be cool to fit onto the evolutionist for sure. They're not all a good fit, some are overly complicated or already easily implemented as regular class features, though there are some gems, especially with out of combat stuff
Do you say that because all starfinder books are great, or did somebody get a chance to contribute to said book?
That's fair! Can't wait for it, whatever it is. Evolutionist alone is worth the price of admission of you ask me
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Biotech book actually does make sense since while biotech does obviously belong in tech category, it is often treated as tech adjacent for some reason :p I guess because organic tech invokes really different image than "electronics and metal". That said alien culture book makes lot of sense as well, sort of like starfinder version of "ancestry guide".
(still hope for that eventual Vast or Planar books)
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why wouldn't it be in Drift Crisis?
Because then the product page for Drift Crisis would mention it, or the playtest would have mentioned it.
There is no Alien Archive 5 coming. They said 4 was the last.
Alien archives being archived makes me feel like there could be a themed book coming, like what 2e has been doing. I could see something focusing on very alien species beyond the galaxy, with new mechanics alongside them (including evolutionist).
I hope we at least eventually get rules for the Pact World, Veskarium, and Azlanti races that have been talked about.
Also a shame if they aren't doing a 5, still beasties mentioned that don't have rules for them.
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why wouldn't it be in Drift Crisis?Because then the product page for Drift Crisis would mention it, or the playtest would have mentioned it.
Just to add on to this: I'm about 99% certain I remember this question was asked during the Twitch panel in which Drift Crisis came up at Gen Con Online 2021, and they confirmed evolutionist isn't coming in the Drift Crisis hardcover, but instead some unannounced future book.
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Just to add on to this: I'm about 99% certain I remember this question was asked during the Twitch panel in which Drift Crisis came up at Gen Con Online 2021, and they confirmed evolutionist isn't coming in the Drift Crisis hardcover, but instead some unannounced future book.why wouldn't it be in Drift Crisis?Because then the product page for Drift Crisis would mention it, or the playtest would have mentioned it.
so ... if the book after Drift Crisis isn't going to be Alien Archive 5 ... what are the thoughts on WHAT that book might be?
Looking at what's been published already... maybe something like 'the Vast'? or ... something more like Legends or Monsters from PF2E?
Do you have a source for this? That’s very upsetting
I told them I was tired of AA's back after 4 was announced and they said that they were going to move in other directions after it was released.
Just to add on to this: I'm about 99% certain I remember this question was asked during the Twitch panel in which Drift Crisis came up at Gen Con Online 2021, and they confirmed evolutionist isn't coming in the Drift Crisis hardcover, but instead some unannounced future book.why wouldn't it be in Drift Crisis?Because then the product page for Drift Crisis would mention it, or the playtest would have mentioned it.so ... if the book after Drift Crisis isn't going to be Alien Archive 5 ... what are the thoughts on WHAT that book might be?
Looking at what's been published already... maybe something like 'the Vast'? or ... something more like Legends or Monsters from PF2E?
I think we'll get something focused on pesronal augmentation/biotech, to follow up on tech (in all facets) and magic (in all facets). More ways to change yourself or upgrade your body, cloning and life extension, the augmented and Oras more broadly in society, terraforming planets, etc, could all fit.
well, w/ the newly announced Dead Suns hardcover coming out this fall... probably won't be another hardcover this year?
Galactic Magic - Drift Crisis - Dead Suns for 2022?
Wait, Dead Suns is eating up the new book slot? Dang, well I get to save some money this year I guess. I'm not a metaplot or AP person.
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Galactic magic doesn't really count as a this year book, I don't think. It was supposed to come out in November. And dead suns is an ap, not a rules book. We will likely get two more rulebooks this year that have yet to be announced, unless they do slow up a bit on content.
Previous AP compilations on the PF side did not replace normal PF hardcover releases. They were special extra publications added on to the schedule.
Of course Starfinder has a smaller team, so who knows.
Edit: But fairly little work is going into this so I'd be amazed if it replaced a real book. Some people have to mess with layout in the new format, but they're hardly changing the existing content.
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Hardcover reprints aren't considered part of the yearly workflow as far as I know.
That being said, the lack of any roadmap for Starfinder past Drift Crisis is a bit concerning.
I would be pretty surprised if the Evo book wasn't a gencon release. As far as I know as long as starfinder has been out there has been a big gencon release for it.
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I would be pretty surprised if the Evo book wasn't a gencon release. As far as I know as long as starfinder has been out there has been a big gencon release for it.I'm going to guess that hardcover following Drift Crisis is... I have no idea.
Right, lock your tinfoil hats into attack position, and come with me, on a journey of insane speculation...
But - setting that aside for a moment - maybe the post-Drift Crisis book can't be revealed until Drift Crisis has been out for a bit? So: what could explain a book that maybe introduces evolutionists, with a super secret spoiler title? Right, let's do this. Why would Triune 'close' the Drift? Maybe it's because there's some kind of existential threat in there. We know The Drift is indicriminately pulling in bits of other planes: maybe some ship pops into the Drift, and, oops, wouldn't you know it, a piece of Lost Golarion translates into the Drift. But not just any part - it's pulled in a chunk of the Pit of Gormuz, containing a planar gateway to the Dead Vault in it. Disconnected from the rest of the prison's mechanisms, a certain Rough Beast is now able to shuffle out of its prison, into The Drift. Whoopsies.
Now, this isn't necessarily bad for, well, all of existence, since as we know, you can't exit The Drift without technology. So, good ol' Triune hits the big red panic button, which summarily ejects all Drift Engines out of The Drift, so that Rovagug can't just crack open a spaceship and pop into the Material Plane. Now, you add some broth, a potato, and baby? You got a Drift Crisis going! Most of Creation now has to keep insane cultists of The Devourer, Rovagug, and whatever else, from getting a working Drift Engine into the Drift, while somehow, a crack team of commandos PCs needs to help a bunch of actual gods defeat the biggest threat The Great Beyond has ever faced - all while also dealing with the complete turmoil of the Great Drift Ejection, and the biggest method of FTL transportation failing!
So, there's a whole AP, a whole Crisis, and so on. Somehow, by the end, Rovagug is sealed back into some prison. Perhaps some of the new deities take on more of a role to defeat Rovagug this second time. Maybe Oras take the role of jailer, from Asmodeus, or the role of "smiter" from Serenrae, but either way there is a huge galactic surge of uncontrolled organic potential from Oras's work. Maybe the fancy new Dead Vault 2.0 isn't encased in Golarion. Maybe, now that that's resolved, Golarion can pop back to the Pact Worlds, idk. Anyways, at the end, you've got a new planet with a boatload of highly biologically unstable folks re-introduced to the world?
The next book would have to deal with all of that, and reset the galactic Setting. With the second defeat of Rovagug and its imprisonment, Law and Order as ascendant, cosmologically speaking. Maybe axiomites, inevitables, archons, devils, space-Modrons and whatever else all wield more power and influence than before. More Law-aligned native outsiders are born than anyone can remember. But, we know the universe is self-balancing. This is but a momentary upswing, and soon, Law and Order wane from their zenith, as Chaos increases as well. So, we've got: a galactic surge of mutagenic power unleashed from Oras, Chaos is metaphysically rising to meet the challenge of a mildly-Lawful aligned Material Plane, and oh a mythical planet from antiquity full of who knows how many lost species has re-appeared. We've got everything needed for a very mutable, chaotic, biological class to appear in the setting - and now we've got evolutionists.
...anyways, that's why the post-Drift Crisis book is called Space Dead Vault 2: Incarcerated Boogaloo, and why even knowing its title would spoil things. Thank you for coming to my inane ramblings TED Talk :D
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Right, lock your tinfoil hats into attack position, and come with me, on a journey of insane speculation...** spoiler omitted **...I would be pretty surprised if the Evo book wasn't a gencon release. As far as I know as long as starfinder has been out there has been a big gencon release for it.I'm going to guess that hardcover following Drift Crisis is... I have no idea.
okay, let's roll w/ it...