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So, with the playtest coming up in April, along with everythign announced in the Galaxy Guide, and the Official release coming this summer. What has NOT be announced for second edition that you are eagerly hoping to see.
For me, Its the Nanocyte class, and the Hologram and SRO ancestries.
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Because SF2e will share the "alternate ancestry boosts" rule with PF2e, any ancestry and class combo should be at least viable (if a little suboptimal). This means that I could play my favorite ancestry and class at the same time--shatori and vanguard, respectively--without nerfing myself into the ground. I'd love to see both adapted to 2e: shatori have enough interesting lore and mechanics to fill out a feat tree, and the vanguard with its entropy point minigame feels like it would function beautifully within the 3-action system.
But that's just my dream character, which doesn't matter to me too much as someone who prefers to GM. So, my biggest hope is for a robust catalog of interesting enemies, especially intelligent humanoids who can fill different combat and narrative roles, such as those found within SF1e's profressional/NPC families and PF2e's NPC Core. Weird alien monsters are cool (and I love how unique they are, compared to how much PF steals from folklore and D&D), but I need to be able to tell my war stories and urban mysteries. And I especially need statblocks across all levels: PF2e has this nasty habit of not printing enough high level material, so all parties get funneled into fighting the same dragons and fiends at high levels unless you're willing to participate in some pretty aggressive homebrew.
Basically, interesting player options mean nothing without equally interesting challenges for those players to face, and I honestly don't care that much for pre-written adventures, far preferring to make my own. I will pay all of the money for the Starfriends to inject six billion stat blocks directly into my veins.
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I really would like some new stuff- for instance, id absolutely love to see the Veskarium get fleshed out and emphasized a lot more. The core rulebook has created a really fascinating trifecta of having Pahtra, Vesk, AND Skittermanders be core.
Id really like to see new stuff about the dynamic between these three species. I wanna hear more about how Pahtra music affects pop culture, or find out about entirely new cities on Pulonis we've never been to.
I'm also very interested in the Pulonis rebellion, I played rebel Pahtra in the playtest. I'm hoping that Pulonis rebellion also backs by or supports the Atuity independence movement.
The Veskarium is already the 2nd most fleshed-out star system in SF1e so not sure how soon Paizo will make a new book to cover the Veskarium in as much detail as we did in Near Space again, but the Pulonis situation is a big change from SF1e so I suspect we will get more on Pulonis in the Galaxy Guide. We do know that the Veskarium will be at war with the Azlanti Star Empire, and we don't have a setting book for the Azlanti Star Empire. Atuity is another location that was set up in Ports of Call for a location for a future proxy war between the Vesk and Azlanti, We saw the start of that in the playtest Empires Devoured. So I'm wondering if we will get a setting book covering the locations involved in the Vesk Azlanti war if so the Veskarium could be covered again in there.
We know both the Pact Worlds and Veskarium will see some change but will mostly be intact so I'm curious how much of the Pact Worlds and Near Space books stay relevant in Sf2e.
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I'm hoping the following will eventually show up in some form or another:
Vanguard
Biohacker
Nanocyte
Evolutionist
SRO
Hologram
Power Armor
Mechs
I also wouldn't mind eventually seeing options related to:
Piloting
Hacking
Media
We know both the Pact Worlds and Veskarium will see some change but will mostly be intact so I'm curious how much of the Pact Worlds and Near Space books stay relevant in Sf2e.
I would not be surprised if the Pact Worlds and Veskarium got their own dedicated books or even setting books fleshing out each planet within them.
I mean, after all, not everyone playing SF2e will be familiar with material from SF1e.|
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I'm hoping we find the shirren home world or at least find where it's located, it's my shirren character's long-term goal to find and retake the shirren home world from the swarm. We got to see swarm space on the galaxy map in Ports of Call, so it seems like a more reasonable goal now, hopefully SF2e fills in some details.
I'm hoping SF2e has a book that covers areas like Swarm Space, the Tabori Cluster, and the Kazmurg's absurdity. You can't name something an absurdity and not expect me to want to find out what that is...
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We know both the Pact Worlds and Veskarium will see some change but will mostly be intact so I'm curious how much of the Pact Worlds and Near Space books stay relevant in Sf2e.I would not be surprised if the Pact Worlds and Veskarium got their own dedicated books or even setting books fleshing out each planet within them.
I mean, after all, not everyone playing SF2e will be familiar with material from SF1e.
We know the Pact Worlds is getting covered in both the Player and GM core, one side of the Galaxy Guide map is the Pact Worlds so I'm sure there will be some Pact Worlds info, so hard to tell what more info on the Pact Worlds is needed until we see all 3 of those books, But that should be enough for new players to get up to speed on the Pact Worlds. From the sound of the first 2 adventures we know of it sounds like individual planets within the Pact worlds might get deeper coverage in adventures.
I think we'll see the Veskarium get covered again when the Vesk Azlanti war gets an AP My guess is that war will be a big year-long event like the Drift Crisis was.
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The main class I would want to see again that is not already known to be coming is the biohacker.
I hope they firm up the drift lane stuff a bit more although what they did so far in SF1 helped a lot with the issue of a ton of normal scifi piracy stuff was basically impossible. I hope when they do ships they make it a bit clearer how multiple ships can convoy up and travel together. The old way the drift works every ship in a fleet is potentially coming in at different times potentially days apart unless they were all physically connected when doing the jump.
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Speaking of hacking, I hope that we get a subsystem for exploring cyberspace a la Shadowrun. It's something I expect to show up in an adventure rather than a rules book, but it'd still be fun to run cyberpunk jobs and have a more detailed hacking system for groups who like that kind of stuff.
I think the easiest way would be to use hazards for hacking challenges in virtual reality-type cyberspace where once you are in you can still use normal rules.
One way to make cyberspace feel different than normal play is to have the PCs make new characters or use pre-gens to be their avatar in cyberspace, or use the same character but let them pick new equipment. While in cyberspace the PCs could even be playing at a different level than they are in the real world, or maybe even use the PF2e Mythic character rules when in cyberspace.
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Hack into an older VR Operating system and you have to rebuild your character in Starfinder 1e :D
The opposite works to going from Sf1e to SF2e The newer VR Operating systems are faster which is why you get 3 actions.
Another option is to use PF2e as a VR world or video game in which someone hides secret information that you have to find by playing the game.
I want to see starship combat rules that are actually FUN for everyone at the table. The clunkiness of starship combat has been my biggest complaint with 1E as both a player and a GM. With the exception of a handful of scenarios where the odds were clearly stacked in the PCs' favor, starship combat tends to drag on for far too long, and in most combats, it feels like only the pilot gets to make any meaningful choices.
My home group dislikes starship combat enough that I'm using the narrative starship combat rules while running the Scoured Stars AP. So far (5 out of 12 chapters completed), that's been a far superior experience--combat is much shorter, and everyone at the table feels like they made a meaningful contribution. I hope the 2E rules end up closer to that than to the standard 1E rules.
Of course, the narrative rules aren't available for use in Society play, which is the vast majority of my Starfinder experience. So, with the exception of the occasional con game that I get assigned to run, or a cool-sounding scenario I can't bear to miss out on playing (like the upcoming Final Assessment), I generally avoid Starship-tagged scenarios as much as possible.
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The next SF2e free RPG day adventure looks like it will take place on a starship, Sounds like it involves fighting pirates on the ship while it's also being attacked by the Corps Fleet. Starship rules will likely not be out by then but it could use the new Cinematic Starship Encounter rules. I think it would be interesting if we ended up having to fight aboard the ship and deal with an attacking starship at the same time, that would certainly give everyone something to do.
Recently I was in a Starship combat that went 9 or 10 rounds. We only had one gunner using broadside, which left everyone else with fairly obvious and repetitive actions. This actually made the turns go faster. What ended up happening was that everyone had fun gotting involved in taunting the Corpse Fleet ship to the point that the Corpse Fleet likely has wanted posters for us.
Before the shooting started we had tried to distract the Corps fleet by inviting them over to watch a movie. When our gunner had a great first hit I suggested the sequel to the movie be named after him. That's when I made popcorn in the middle of the battle treating the gunner's turn like I was watching a movie, and got overly excited whenever he hit. Needless to say, the ship was a mess by the end of the battle.
One of the crew suggested getting "I fought the Corpse Fleet and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" t-shirts, so at the start of the next mission, I bought all the crew that t-shirt with a custom quote on the back using one of their taunts. My favorite was from the skittermander in the party whose best taunt was “Eat our shed fur!”
Although I have fun with the SF1e starship rules, I would like to see improved starship rules in SF2e so more people enjoy them, but my shirren character is most concerned with what popcorn options will we have in SF2e...
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Recently I was in a Starship combat that went 9 or 10 rounds. We only had one gunner using broadside, which left everyone else with fairly obvious and repetitive actions. This actually made the turns go faster. What ended up happening was that everyone had fun gotting involved in taunting the Corpse Fleet ship to the point that the Corpse Fleet likely has wanted posters for us...
I was that gunner! :D
I will say that the PbP format did make that combat more fun than most of my in-person experiences. When there is a stricter time limit, it just feeds into the players' frustration that the combat is dragging, because it's taking time away from doing more fun stuff.
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Recently I was in a Starship combat that went 9 or 10 rounds. We only had one gunner using broadside, which left everyone else with fairly obvious and repetitive actions. This actually made the turns go faster. What ended up happening was that everyone had fun gotting involved in taunting the Corpse Fleet ship to the point that the Corpse Fleet likely has wanted posters for us...I was that gunner! :D
I will say that the PbP format did make that combat more fun than most of my in-person experiences. When there is a stricter time limit, it just feeds into the players' frustration that the combat is dragging, because it's taking time away from doing more fun stuff.
Qimok attacks!
That's a great point about PbP vs in-person. I haven't had a chance to play Starfinder in-person yet, but I did play some Pathfinder Society person in which we were frequently racing against the clock to finish games before the store closed. There's no way I'd have time to make custom t-shirts for the whole party in an in-person game. To make the t-shirts I had to reread the entire ship combat several times looking for the best quotes from everyone.
It sounds like for SF2e all scenarios will be 2-3 hours long that's helps with the time pressure, but if Starship combat doesn't play faster it could take up most the time of a scenario. Cinematic Starship Encounter rules being similar to complex hazards sounds promising, I'm also hoping the full starship combat rules end up being closer to the normal combat rules.
I still start to laugh every time I read “Eat our shed fur!” one of the best lines ever!
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I've said it before, but I hope there's an archetype dedicated to the hacking subsystem to get that net runner feel and a build-a-bear drone archetype so anybody can have their R2D2 type buddy. Scifi archetypes are my most anticipated part of SF2E
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I wish to see science-fiction-based character options. Ones that we don't have to wait 4+ years and purchase 4+ hardbacks just to scavenge for bits to assemble into a slightly scifi concept. The core classes so far are the least scifi of the bunch and "play a Pathfinder class" doesn't help here.
I wish to finally be allowed to play a medical doctor who uses actual [in-world] science and advanced tech, flesh-reassembling nanobots, something _non_magical_, to Stabilize and heal HP and poisonings, in an amount that matters during play. A doctor who _mostly_ uses science and technology instead of prayer or magic potions, who focuses on science instead of it being a single useless skill on the character sheet of an Envoy or Mystic.
That's a pretty basic, common scifi concept and pretty much impossible for most of SF1's run.
How is it that people find ways to communicate with the Devs? Do they ever read these threads?
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How is it that people find ways to communicate with the Devs? Do they ever read these threads?
There was a public playtest with a feedback form you could've submitted to. There will be another during the upcoming tech classes playtest.
I think you're going to love the Medicine skill in the SF2 engine.
I didn't have the chance to join the playtest tho. I've been seriously ill off and on for 2+ years. I feel like you're assuming I playtested and just didn't bother to use the form. :(
Is that the only option? I thought they used to read some of the subforums but I don't know which ones.
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Yeah, leaving aside that what you really want doesn't seem to be 'I wish to see science-fiction-based character options' so much as 'I wish to see medicine focused science-fiction-based character options' the medicine skill is definitely a lot more viable a method of healing than it was in previous editions of the game. On top of that, the medical items in the 2e playtest are all already non-magical and seem to fit the concepts you want. The only shortcoming so far sees to be that a version of biohacker is not immediately available.
Anyone with experience in PF2e will tell you that being a skill/science based medic and being pretty much the primary healer of your party is entirely possible and I would not be surprised if there was some sort of option in SF2e to swap wisdom for intelligence with the skill in some capacity.
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Also, yes, the devs do sometimes read the forums and often do respond. There is no magic wand to summon them. They have deadlines and timelines they have to stick to so feedback cannot be open forever. Your best bet to be heard will be as part of the feedback for the upcoming Tech Core Playtest.
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Honestly, what I want is a generic "Alien" ancestry.
Kind of a do-it-yourself species with access to several generic Ancestry feats. This frees up the chance for players to roughly recreate their favorite species for 2E right at launch, instead of this strange lack of new alien recruits that occurs with us suddenly getting this incredibly less diverse Society as though hundreds of races just got kicked out of the Starfinder Society and no longer get recruited.
Unless there is a Lore reason why hundreds of species are no longer working as Field Agents, it feels highly inappropriate for hundreds of species to become non-playable. A generic package Alien as a placeholder, accompanied with a "You can retrain out of this ancestry once, to accommodate changes should your Ancestry get a more in-depth release", could fix the problem in the meanwhile.
Choose extra limb and climb speed from a list of options, and here is the budget Maraquoi. Choose Large size and natural weapons, and here is your Uplifted Bear. Choose Large size with extra limb, and you've got an Izalguun.
The lack of diversity is the number one off-putting thing of SF2. I have never seen this many humans before in Starfinder games. The world just got a whole lot more generic, and that definitely needs addressed sooner rather than later.
I have to hard disagree to this suggestion (though not sentiment). Working on balancing a satisfying Build-An-Ancestry would take immense effort and a lot of time, everything fro heritages to feats to probably additional types of trait choosing would need to be incredibly more expansive than we've seen from these systems, at least I'd argue even more than Awakened Animal. This would divert attention from other important areas such as, say, delivering all the fan-favorite alien species people want back from 1e. We're seemingly already getting a greater flow of them than Pathfinder. Six more from Galaxy Guide, one more from Murder in Metal City, an unknown but probably non-zero amount from the recently confirmed Tech Core, and god only knows how much more they have in the oven already. Starfinder won't be barren for that much longer, and build-an-ancestry would only delay that further.
Community & Social Media Specialist
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Also, yes, the devs do sometimes read the forums and often do respond. There is no magic wand to summon them. They have deadlines and timelines they have to stick to so feedback cannot be open forever. Your best bet to be heard will be as part of the feedback for the upcoming Tech Core Playtest.
To expand upon this so it's clear for everyone, the devs mostly read the forums to detect anything that could apply for possible errata. As you said, their schedules prevent them from responding very regularly, but that's where I come in! If there's ever a pressing question that isn't about the rules (since rules questions end up either being added to the errata or just being intentional), I bring them to the team and bring answers back to you here. In general, the best way to ask a dev a question and get an answer from the directly and quickly is joining Q&A's like during our monthly live streams, additional special live streams we offer during the month, or events like PaizoCon Online coming up in May. Apart from that, I'm the official champion of making sure your questions get to them, and I try my best to get them all!
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I didn't have the chance to join the playtest tho. I've been seriously ill off and on for 2+ years. I feel like you're assuming I playtested and just didn't bother to use the form. :(
Is that the only option? I thought they used to read some of the subforums but I don't know which ones.
Those forms are just as open to people who only read the (free, still available to the public) playtest PDFs, not just those who actually played playtest sessions, and are the only guaranteed way to get your words in front of the devs.
SF2 being PF2-compatible also does mean you can rope an Alchemist or Medicine-focused Investigator into things, too!
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Is that the only option? I thought they used to read some of the subforums but I don't know which ones.
There is a whole set of sub-forums set up for the playtest. I would think that would be the best place to leave late playtest comments. Second Edition Playtest.
If you were not able to keep up with the Play Test comments, reading this blog post might help you catch up to the latest state of the Play Test we know about when it ended.
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So does anyone have any thoughts about how the Biohacker might turn out? If it will remain separate from Alchemist, or be a class archetype for it? The PF2e Alchemist is very close to what the SF1e Biohacker was, as far as I know.
Anyone who played a Biohacker, let me know, I'm curious how it would work, especially since we had someone higher up express a desire for a class just like this.
[?????] The name "alchemist" suggests magical potions. The alchemy page on Pathfinder Wiki says alchemy is "not magic". It's described like chemistry but with magical-sounding words like "elixir" and "potion". However, the page on the alchemist class is all about magic and doesn't mention the words "science", "heal", or "medicine". This is confusing. [/?????]
If it feels like magic and mysticism instead of futuristic science, it'll be like playing a mystic again. I called it "nanobots" in game but I knew I was just casting a mystic cure spell. Likewise, if it feels like an envoy pep talk it won't feel like medical science.
I'm really looking for the experience of playing a field biologist, or medical doctor, or physics engineer, or scientific archaeologist, in a way that feels distinct from magic and contributes in a distinct way. Applying scientific methods in a universe that also contains magic. The investigator [as described on Pathfinder Wiki] covers murder mystery forensics and might kindof cover archaeology? Not sure. Any class features that refer to medieval tech and magic would need to be swapped out, tho. Shooting people with serum darts optional, but it's a good way to deliver medicines and nanobots at range. Being able to debuff instead of kill also fit the character concept I had.
Likewise, I wish to try playing an alien being. I appreciate that they will still include aliens in the Player Core and Galaxy Guide. I really hope that Galaxy Guide and Tech book count as "core" for a new-ish player in Society play.
I also wish/hope that the Player Core and Tech book will include a variety of cyber and biotech augmentation options that anyone can get. I really like to see a positive and flexible depiction of augmentation in fiction, hopefully even a bit more flexible than the SF1 design.
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The investigator [as described on Pathfinder Wiki] covers murder mystery forensics and might kindof cover archaeology? Not sure. Any class features that refer to medieval tech and magic would need to be swapped out, tho. Shooting people with serum darts optional, but it's a good way to deliver medicines and nanobots at range. Being able to debuff instead of kill also fit the character concept I had.
It's actually trivially easy to play an investigator in SF2. There's nothing you have to do to make it work mechanically, and flavor-wise I can't find anything that doesn't transfer over (not that you need to be over-worried about flavor).
Already seen one in play in SF2 and it was great.
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The alchemist is explicitly non-magical. and "Potions" are out of their realm of ability as those are magic. But Elixers, tinctures, tonics, bombs, and poisons are all things they can do VERY well. Their subclasses are their "Methodologies" either a bomber, a mutagenist, a poisoner, or a chirurgeon (healer). And their abilities are all intelligence based, including making medicine checks (if you're a chirurgeon).
HOWEVER all that said, I actually agree, I would want something made for SF2e to be a non-magical healer. That's why I brought up the Biohacker. They covered a very similar niche and I thought it would be fun to brain storm how they could be made into a 2e class that doesn't overlap with the Alchemist.
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So does anyone have any thoughts about how the Biohacker might turn out? If it will remain separate from Alchemist, or be a class archetype for it? The PF2e Alchemist is very close to what the SF1e Biohacker was, as far as I know.
Anyone who played a Biohacker, let me know, I'm curious how it would work, especially since we had someone higher up express a desire for a class just like this.
An Alchemist who drinks too much of their own creations can't remove their own liver and replace it with an upgrade, a Biohacker could. An alchemist likely has no clue of the molecular structure of something they mix up, a Biohacker would.
Inventors and Mechanics are similarly different. Would you want an Inventor fixing a starship reactor core with a chance it explodes? (Great option for a space goblin crew.) Inventors somehow make something new, it just works even if it defies logic and physics. Mechanics know why something works and how to fix it, if they make something new it follows the laws of physics and engineering.
Biohacker also kind of ties into Evolunist, at least as a way to explain why someone is evolving faster or as a way to control or guide that evolution, but the 2 classes function very differently that they wouldn't combine well, but using class archetypes to add one to the other could work well.
Nanocite I could easily see becoming a niche for the Evolunist.
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Well I'm very glad to learn that non-magical medicine is more viable in 2e. :) I guess the Pathfinder Wiki isn't always entirely accurate.
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Just to add my two credits (is a credit a cent? Idk) I really hope we get vanguard and especially evolutionist asap. Evolutionist didn't get much time to be expanded in 1e and maybe wasn't received super well (I loved it so, so much) and I hope it comes quick and early to 2e.
The other main thing I hope comes early is as many options as possible for augments and ways to install weapons in your character (ie gun arms, integrated trait in 1e).
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Chalk might cost a credit on Absalom Station because it has to be imported from a planet or very large moon, and is denser than food. So toothpaste it is!
I agree the evolutionists are a cool concept. Is anyone hoping for additional evolutionist niches? There are two others on Starfinder Infinite (Draconic and Warped). I don't know what the latter is. I could imagine hybrid/magitech machine, or elemental, or trying to cross a sci-fi style singularity (distinct from ascending to godhood). Or attempting to transcend the limits of linear time (but that might better fit precogs/witchwarpers). Or trying to inhabit a swarm of bodies linked together by one mind and soul. Or gradually replacing your body with a different type of matter (dark matter? starmetal?) What about an android or SRO wanting to become biological, would that be Vital or a new niche?
I could imagine biohackers being modified alchemists, but where those are chemists, biohackers are biologists. An alchemist gives you a pharmaceutical pill that alters your biochemistry. A biohacker injects you with gene therapy to alter your genome. But being a biologist, and being proficient with injection weapons, could be separate alternate class features so alchemists can shoot pharma-darts(TM).