I'd LOVE something like this as it is so key to Starfinder, I can see that team Starfinder might not want to do this as the station is a key spring board for most anything in the future, but still....
Honestly I'd most like a useable map of the place, or as much as it could be, then adventure seeds and NPC's and specific places unknown til now.
Thoughts ladies and gentlemen?
Thanks
Tom
This has been discussed before. So I'll just summarize my thoughts:
I don't think that Absalom Station is key to Starfinder in the same way it is Pathfinder.
In Pathfinder it was founded by, and then responsible for creating the god of humanity. In Starfinder it's just a beacon.
Would I like to see it in 5 years? Sure. But they haven't even done a splat on The Vast yet, so I'd rather they cover the macro before the micro.
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If it's feasible or even needed, not sure. But there are a few things I'd really like to see more done with on the station. I'd like to see a big post map with a horizontal view on one side and a vertical view on the back of the major mass transit systems on the station, with some basic districts or zoning, mapped out. I’d like to see a double-sided map covering a high-end and low-end commercial/entertainment area of the station. Someplace for when the PCs have downtime and feel like exploring the station more. Not drawn to battle map scale. Could all so be used to run longer chase scenes too.
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For folks dubious that this book is needed or would even serve a purpose, non-spoiler spoiler that Drift Crisis includes outlines for two separate, full adventure paths set entirely on Absalom Station.
I'd probably prefer a book on The Vast or The Planes. But that said, I'd probably buy an Absalom Station book.
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A book I'd like to see that would also include several entries for Absalom Station would be called something like "spaceports and landing zones." A lot of the time your ship is your home base. So knowing more about where you park could be useful and fun. Each entry has a local area map, NPCs, a list of available services and places of interest, and adventure hooks you can pick up talking to the locals.
Absalom Station could have at least 4 entries for spaceports one for the Starfnder society, then 3 public ports one upscale, one common, and one on the Shadyside of things that smugglers and the like use.
could easily get 3 books out of this
"spaceports and landing zones Pact worlds"
"spaceports and landing zones Near space"
"spaceports and landing zones Vast"
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This has been discussed before. So I'll just summarize my thoughts:
I don't think that Absalom Station is key to Starfinder in the same way it is Pathfinder.
In Pathfinder it was founded by, and then responsible for creating the god of humanity. In Starfinder it's just a beacon.
Would I like to see it in 5 years? Sure. But they haven't even done a splat on The Vast yet, so I'd rather they cover the macro before the micro.
While I wouldn't be HYPED about a book on Absalom Station (at least, not before some other topics like The Vast or the Great Beyond), I actually feel the opposite way about the two Absaloms.
I've never once felt a desire to do basically anything with Absalom in Pathfinder, despite its purported importance (I still haven't read the bulk of the Lost Omens Absalom book, and lord knows when/if I will) - a lot of stories and adventures might never so much as brush past it, and there isn't anything about the city itself that appeals to me, narratively or aesthetically - if I want urban adventure, I'd rather go to basically any other city on Golarion.
Meanwhile, unless you're running an adventure that sticks to only a single planet or isolated star system (such as Attack of the Swarm!), you will at least go through Absalom Station (it's literally baked into the game's default space travel mechanic!), it's the closest that humanity and other Golarion-descended species have to a home, and I generally like its function, atmosphere, and aesthetic a lot more. It feels like a much more natural 'central hub' to space adventure to me.
(Also one of the aforementioned Drift Crisis adventure seeds is really cool and I might run it, and one of the campaigns I tried to run was also based out of the station, so add that to the anecdotal evidence.)
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If they want to hype us up for/sell us an Absalom Station book, first they'd need to make it not be boring. With all the planets and species and wonderful awe inspiring locations in Starfinder the bland space station hub doesn't register for most people past it being the hub.
Like the Citadel in ME, you went there cause it was the Hub for the game, not because it was cool.
Case in point, the Absalom hardcover for P2 was a letdown, but the Grand Bazaar book was awesome! It was a much better Absalom book, and actually made it interesting and cultivated ideas.
Not me, no use for more fluff about this setting.
Meanwhile, unless you're running an adventure that sticks to only a single planet or isolated star system (such as Attack of the Swarm!), you will at least go through Absalom Station (it's literally baked into the game's default space travel mechanic!), it's the closest that humanity and other Golarion-descended species have to a home, and I generally like its function, atmosphere, and aesthetic a lot more. It fee
Having played over half of the AP's completely I can confidently say:
1. Attack of the Swarm does not take place on "a single planet or isolated star system". Horizons of the Vast however does.
2. The only two AP's where I visited Absalom Station in any "meaningful" sense were Threefold Conspiracy and Dead Suns*.
*The Devastation Ark is just Dead Suns parts 7-9, change my mind
I could certainly see enjoying a book like this but at the same time I don't know how high on the list of priorities I'd put it.
It's one of the reasons I feel that something approximating the 30-60 page soft cover chronicles/campaign setting line wouldn't be amiss. I suppose that financially it just isn't viable in the current market considering they've mostly discontinued it even for Pathfinder in favor of the world guide hardcovers, but I feel that monthly books of reasonable length would expand the setting better than twice a year, maybe, hardcover books that go into significantly more depth but leave wide swaths of the setting untouched.
Which, I suppose that's a preference issue. Would you rather know about more parts of the setting but less about each individual part, or know more detail about a few specific parts.
It's something I'd avoid. Absalom Station is an absurdly commercially useful place for travel, trade, and communication, while also being a hub of religion and politics. It's also the most constrained sort of real estate, a space station. And yet, the new stuff we learn is things like entire abandoned levels? It's an area where I'd rather go with my own version.
I had missed that! Glad it's not an arbitrary late addition, even if their existence does still bug me.
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There has been hardly any adventure time spent in the ghost levels. After all, Absalom Station has so many fun and vibrant sections to it. There's a lot going on in such a little space! But it makes sense that they would not start using the ghost levels until they had a population explosion on the station. Thank goodness for that limitless energy to feed people and create new construction.
I am ready to throw money at it, just saying.