Starfinder Core Rulebook by Alien Rope Burn

"This massive 560-page hardcover rulebook is the essential centerpiece of the of the Starfinger Roleplaying Game, with rules for character creation, magic, gear, and more - everything you need to play Starfinger as a either a player or Game Master!"

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Starfinger Core Rules Part #01: "This massive 560-page hardcover rulebook is the essential centerpiece of the of the Starfinger Roleplaying Game, with rules for character creation, magic, gear, and more - everything you need to play Starfinger as a either a player or Game Master!"
_{(Credit: Paizo Store ad copy.)}

So, it's time to return to the fields of Paizo. It's been a half-decade since my Pathfinder Roleplaying Game review, and those familiar with it will remember I found plenty to be critical about. was, frankly, a warmed-over version of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, which itself was a warmed-over version of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. Pathfinder was derivative RPG pablum that ignored most of the design innovations that Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 had made, instead favoring just dialing back the clock from 2009 to 2003. It was not only a rebuttal not only to Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, but to most of the innovative content that had been released under Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. That being said, it was attractively illustrated and laid out, had a very strong marketing pitch, and was very well-supported with adventures, setting material, and enough player options to choke a Tarrasque.

But there was one particular criticism leveled at my review: that Pathfinder Roleplaying Game wasn't just comprised of its two core books - that it was a living game, and to properly evaluate it, I'd need to be familiar with the current Pathfinder "state of the art" and judge it based on that. I reasonably maintain that if you write 904 pages of core material, that stands on its own and can be judged as a game, but they were not convinced. But there was no way I was going to sit down and review thousands of pages of Pathfinder material just to cover what I was already reasonably certain of. But Starfinger was coming. A new slate for Paizo. Certainly, I could go and see the Paizo's best foot put forward, and give them another chance.

To be fair, I poke fun. And hell, do I criticize. But I didn't come into this with a lot of preconceived notions. I expected something average - better than Pathfinder, but not massively groundbreaking. I may not have ever taken it too seriously, but I was hoping for something I could look and take some positive surprise from. I want to be impressed. I don't want to grind my teeth and sigh and cluck my tongue. After all, I don't want Paizo to just be stuck forever reprinting an RPG that will soon reach the age of majority in its home country. I want to see them free to design their own game, to be free of their albatross, to at least tip over some sacred cows. Will Starfinger manage a new, tasty recipe? Or will it just be astronaut ice cream?

Let's have a bit of a taste.




Well, aside from the classes and races available, and your capabilities at a given level, and whether or not you have the right feats... do you have the supplement to play that alien race? Pretty sure that's not out yet. Well, there are limits, and we'll be knocking up against them. They lied to us. (Marketing is like that.)

But first, what isa roleplaying game? Well, we get a pretty decent explanation. And we're ready to get started, because:


Well, it's missing antagonists, unless you build all of your antagonists like PCs. Well, right off the bat, we have a bold untruth (repeated in the ad copy). Marketing is like that. But don't worry. We'll be directed to buy the absolutely necessary Alien Archive much later, but not here in the intro, when we're first deciding to buy the book. Of course, there's other stuff we'll need, which it tells us all about. We'll need dice, though! And pencils! And a map! Wait, where do we get a map?


Ah, yeah, there's the Paizo I know. Remember boxed sets that came with everything you needed? Those were nice. This could use one of those. I suppose it'd be hard to find a box for this 560 page behemoth, though. Once again, why publish a Gamemaster's Guide when you can just bundle it with every Player's Guide? I mean, it makes the book really ridiculously big, but... then you can publish another book, and call it the Gamemaster's Guide, and make that seem essential! Marketing is like that.

As I read this, I'm flashing back to a month ago at GenCon, listening to Paizo publisher Erik Mona talk about how Pathfinder isn't really a game so much as a subscription. We're at the d20 retrospective, in which Ryan Dancey touts the accomplishments of the d20 license, which he was elbow-deep in creating. As for the cost to the industry, well, that's just on the heads of RPG publishers who made the wrong decisions.

Flash back a little further and I'm standing in line for the exhibition hall talking with people, one of which is describing multiple walls he has to dedicate to his Pathfinder collection. Another guy bemoans the fact that he had to cancel getting each case of Pathfinder miniatures because $300 a month was just too much and he couldn't keep up. Another talks about his friend who has a separate apartment just to hold his gaming collection. Not to live in. Just for storage. Not sure if that friend is a Paizo fan as well. These aren't people I sought out. They're not part of any of my game tribes. There's just enough of them that I can run into a few without putting any effort into it.

And we hop back forward to the the talk with Mona, where he mentions when they did Pathfinder Adventure Path #100, he felt like they were just kind of going through the motions, but now that they're doing Starfinger, he feels like Pathfinder Adventure Path #125 is finally a milestone he can be proud of, that they're finally moving things forward.

Let's move forward a little further, and I'm in the Paizo booth. It's huge. There are the Starfinger GM Screens and Flip-Mats in stacks, but the game itself sold out. Lisa Stevens mentioned at a talk that they'd brought 50% more copies of Starfinger in 2017 than they'd brought of Pathfinder in 2009. I feel really unconvinced by the notion that they thought it wouldn't sell out. Certainly she's aware that their player base probably was more than 50% bigger? I figure I'll ask some Paizo employee if the PDF is available, thinking about this potential review, but I'm distracted by a game writer I recognize and walk up to chat with them.

While I'm talking to the writer, they say, "Are you the guy that does those Rifts reviews? Oh my god, you have to send me the link for those!" I'm a bit shocked, but I can't pass on the name. I walk away from the Paizo booth having completely forgotten why I'd come in the first place.

Okay, that's a little off track, but I had to mention it. (I did send the link.)



I feel like there's a more interesting story here than the system or the game and more about the marketing itself. I go to the Paizo site to see what's available and nearly every page mentions a subscription. How did Paizo manage to get gamers to abandon the piecemeal supplement model of years past and get them to sign up for games like a magazine - a really expensive magazine, at that? It mirrors the Pre-Order Season Pass Early Access model we've seen hit videogaming around the same time, of effectively buying big blind boxes of content and trusting a company to make it all worthwhile... or for sunk cost fallacies to convince the customer that they're worthwhile.

I think of Erik Mona staring at a keyboard and thinking "What the fuck do I say about A Song of Silver that I haven't said about the last ninety-nine adventures?" I think of a customer going "Well, I could quit, but that'd mean admitting I was wrong about subscribing to the last hundred Adventure Paths, but fuck that. Someday I'll get to run them all, once the Singularity comes!"

And what is Starfinger, other than a new revenue stream, a new subscription path? I look at the author list for this book to see who I need to look up, to find out who's responsible, and there are over twenty authors this time around. RPG by committee, by any measure, and the usual auteur notions of RPGs are nowhere to be found here. This product belongs to nobody but Paizo. An extruded RPG product, if you will. I'm not saying there wasn't passion put into it, or inspiration. You definitely can feel both from the designers when the excitedly talk about it. But a lot of what fuels a product like this is folks like Mona or Stevens seeing folks cancel their $300 minis subscriptions and seeing buyer fatigue set in. Yes, fandom will keep people pitching money in, but only so far. They needed something that seems new and fresh.

Is Starfinger new and fresh? Well, that's about my limit in trying to analyze the business side of things. Let's find out about the rules.

Next: Roll 4d6... in space!

"I mean, if Pathfinder is chocolate chip ice cream then this is chocolate chip mint ice cream."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Starfinger Core Rules Part #02: "I mean, if Pathfinder is chocolate chip ice cream then this is chocolate chip mint ice cream."
_{(Credit: James Sutter, Starfinger Creative Director, Game Informer interview.)}

Time to get right into the toybox.



We're told to create a concept. So I'm thinking about a froggy space race pilot, and he like, pilots ships using an interface built off of his arboreal race where there are levers everywhere! He has like four eyes (two on either side of its head) and has an advanced set of spatial awareness since they can see in four directions-

Well, no, we can't do that, at least not yet - there are only very specific character races listed. You lied to me, Starfinger. (Marketing'll do that.) Well, here's how it actually breaks down: choose a race package, choose a theme package, choose a class package, work out your ability scores, gain your class benefits, assign skills, choose feats, purchase equipment, choose alignment, and note a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, until you end up with processed character spread. More interestingly, you get a spaceship!... well, your group gets a starship, but we've got seven more chapters to go until we can discuss that part.

Now, I'm going to assume this isn't your first d20 rodeo. If you need a primer, you can find it elsewhere. Like with my Pathfinder Roleplaying Game review! (Coming soon never: Fatal & Friends Flip-Mats.) Instead, I'm just going to talk about the changes here, mostly, such as:

• A form of point buy is the default. You just start with 10 in all abilities, modify by race and theme, then add 10 more points any which way you like. Abilities can't go over 18, even with racial adjustments. There are also "quick picks" where you have an array and... fuck, they still the option of rolling like it's 1974. Well, at least purchasing is now front and center so it's like they've progressed to at least 1994. You get a bump to four different ability scores every five levels now by +2 if they're 16 or lower, or by +1 if they're 17 or higher. Why not just the more elegant solution of one ability bump per level? Well, given we have three means to generate ability scores, I have a feeling rules elegance is going to be in short order around here. The fact it's every four levels doesn't correspond to otherwise "empty" levels at all, either, so it's not that.
  
• You have Hit Points and Stamina points and Resolve Points instead of just Hit Points. Stamina Points are your flesh wounds and grazes, where Hit Points are your serious injuries. SP come from your (class SP + Con bonus) and HP come from your (race HP + class HP), and both are multiplied by your class levels. Resolve Points are half of your level (round down, minimum 1) plus your primary ability mod for your class. They can be used to fuel some class abilities or regain all your SP for 1 RP + 10 minutes of rest. They also can be used to stave off death or keep from falling unconscious. A ongoing issue with RP as we go through the book is that they also activate many class abilities (and some feats and spells), making you have to decide between doing cool stuff and having the RP you need to heal or keep from bleeding out. (Also, though it's rarely confusing, having an abbreviation for a stat be the same as the abbreviation of "RolePlay" might be... well, elegance is in short supply, yes.)
  
• Same alignments as ye olde D&D. Yes, seriously. There's a throwaway note that you can discard alignments if you want. Mostly, it only comes up with some magic is involved. Space magic, I'm sure.
  
• Feats are at every odd-numbered level instead of every three levels.
  
• There is the ability to retrain, but it's tied to an expensive piece of one-shot equipment detailed later, because it's not allowed to just happen, Starfinger needs a little more versimilitude.

And with that out of the way, let's move on to our first big mechanical element. Even though we were told races were first, they're not first in the book. Instead, we have themes.

Themes...

... stink. I hate to jump to being dismissive right off the cuff, but most of these are pretty dull. Back when I did my Pathfinder review, I noted "nickel bonuses" or "dime bonuses", fiddly little bonuses with miniscule impact on gameplay, which mostly just add one more thing to track without significantly impacting gameplay or providing new options. An example would be dwarves getting a +2 bonus on Appraise checks to determine the price of nonmagical goods containing precious metals or gemstones. Or gnomes getting +2 on a single Craft or Profession skill. Well, most themes offer tiny bonuses that are either nickel bonuses or weird situational shit, much like Pathfinder's traits. While Starfinger's traits are more robust than those of its ancestor, they're drip-fed so slowly the difference feels a bit academic.

Most themes offer the following: at 1st level, you get a +1 to an attribute, a reduced DC for checks for knowledge relating to your profession by 5, and +1 to a skill roll or an additional class skill. In addition, they give more stuff at 6th, 12th, and 18th level. The 18th level is almost invariably an additional means to gain 2 extra RP a day under certain circumstances, which is an effect actually legit disappointing to see have locked away only to characters who have almost reached Starfinger's endgame.



And I could cover every one, but they don't have a major impact worth focusing too deeply on. The Bounty Hunter gives you bonuses to tracking... only while on foot... in a space setting. The Icon has what I presume is a typo because it actually makes you worse at making Profession and Culture skill rolls in some situations. It's also got the awful "Celebrity" bonus where people recognize you more easily and might help you out or not, GM's call. The Mercenary gives you a +1 to Strength when working out your carrying capacity, which will be useful in corner cases. An Outlaw can bribe the authorities to get out of legal trouble at a cost that rises based on their level, so the more competent they are, the more they pay. The fuck?

It's not all bad, an Ace Pilot gets to be a more competent pilot by reducing penalties... at 12th level, anyway. The Scholar can reroll knowledge checks every so often. A Xenoseeker can communicate and get improved impressions against unknown races - sometimes. But like most Pathfinder material, the balance is all over the place. Some are really useful, others are... well, the Icon. Fuck playing an Icon unless you're real tired of introducing yourself or something. Yay, people know who the fuck you are! Does it matter? Who the fuck knows?!

_{TBH, the Icon's low-level ability is basically a punishment level for their later ability to reduce costs by 10% - which may not seem like a big deal, but... well, you'll see. It's a big deal to Starfinger.}



Alternatively, you can tell themes to take a hike and just get a "generic" theme that grants an ability bonus, an extra class skill, and extra skill benefits which will be useful, so there's that. Which is nice, because there aren't that many themes and it's easily possible your concept won't neatly slot into them. Mostly, themes seem extremely conservative by d20 standards, as if thinking granting somebody notable benefits outside of a class structure might shatter balance somehow and bring the whole system crashing down. What's more, they tend to reserve their more interesting benefits for level 12+, at which point characters will be getting far cooler stuff from their classes. There's a definite hesitancy in Starfinger, as if the writers are staring warily at charop boards in remembered trauma.

It's not the best start. But things'll get better before they get worse.

Next: No elves! (Until the appendix.)

"Are you going to care about your brother marrying a man when your sister's marrying a sentient jellyfish?"

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Starfinger Core Rules Part #03: "Are you going to care about your brother marrying a man when your sister's marrying a sentient jellyfish?"
_{(James Sutter, Starfinger Creative Director, Game Informer interview.)}



We have are seven core races of the "Pact Worlds" (whatever those are) in Starfinger, but before that, we have languages. So many languages. Everybody speaks... can you guess? Can you guess the language that everybody speaks? Yep, let's give a hand for good ol' Common! The language of the Commonians, I suppose? In any case, you speak your racial tongue if you have one (sorry, humans, you're still indistinct and get nothin') and your planet's language if it has one. And this game has no less than thirty languages, most of them relating either to regional languages we have no frame of reference for or the innummerable racial and planar languages of D&D Pathfinder. Even in the far future, speaking Halfling is still a thing. Halfthing. Something. Language barriers seem to be something the writers seem really keen on.

Unless you just pick up comprehend languages or tongues because you're a spellcaster. No, translator machines aren't a thing. "But maybe I can use the custom computer creation rules to make a translating compu-" No, that doesn't work either, not an option. Computers can only speak one language at a time, as far as I can tell. Go fuck yourself, C-3P0! Unless you're a wizard C-3P0. Then you can translate as much as you like.

It's a little early for us to be squinting at caster shenanigans, though, and there'll be time enough for that. Instead, let's have some people.



Androids (+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha)

These are androids modeled after humans, and only humans, so if you want to be an orcdroid, tough luck. Man, just mentioning that is disappointing, isn't it? Their big deals are being able to survive in space, low-light vision, and being able to install an armor upgrade in their bodies (which I presume they still have to pay for). They apparently were made for labor until they revolted and became independent, though sometimes people still make them unscrupulously for slavery. They're kind of impassive but... deep down, even an android can cry.



Humans (+2 to one ability)

There are no surprises here. Same as they ever was.



Kasathas (+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Int)

Four-armed coneheads, they get to ignore most terrain penalties and get four arms which lets them... hold more stuff. I mean, sure, they get some dime bonuses but who cares? (Not me.) They're from a desert world and apparently were derived from the "plane-hopping witchwyrds". These witchwyrds, whatever they are, told them to go to a planet and they did. Only they found out it had been already settled! Dammit, witchwyrds, check that shit first before you guide an entire race on a wild goose chase! So many of them emigrated around but a lot of them still survive on their giant colony ship. They're matriarchal and nomadic and prefer stabs to shoots. They have mysterious traditions! Traditions that are so mysterious that they aren't really discussed. And that's that!



Lashuntas (+2 Cha, +2 Str, -2 Wis or +2 Cha, +2 Int, -2 Con)

These are antennaed psychic sorts, and they get some basic mind reading (once a day), mild teke (whenever), daze (whenever), and limited telechat (whenever). They evolve into one of two subspecies depending on their early experiences, either the buff korasha or the smart damaya. Apparently this used to be a gender thing, but modern lashunta are more progressive and develop means to guide one's evolution towards the role one chooses for oneself. They have "natural pheremones" and "almost perfect physical symmetry" which apparently makes them the hotness of the galaxy but the art is not convincing me. Pink antennae on humans still looks weird to my eyes. (Sorry, Mantis, but it's true.) Otherwise, they're kind of generically enlightened and honorable hippie sorts. If there weren't already space elves, these would be space elves.



Shirrens (+2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Cha)

Bug-people that apparently freed themselves from a hive mind called THE SWARM recently. They have blindsense, telechat, and one-a-day reroll when they're near a teammate, and that's most of what defines this race. It's also the first race we see with bonus HP (+2 per level). They have three sexes (female, male, and "hosts" which actually incubate the offspring of the first two), and carry around their baby larva in protective containers. Apparently choice and individuality has a druglike quality for them, and they're generally friendly since they fall back on old hivelike cooperation.

Probably the most interesting sorts I've seen so far.



Vesk (+2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Int)

Big lizard guys, which is of questionable benefit in a setting where people get lasers. They get nightvision and a bunch of garbage bonuses - a nickel armor bonus, a dime fear bonus, and a 1d3 lethal damage claw, be still, my heart. Well, they get an HP bonus, too They're organized and militaristic and aggressive but honorable... okay, they're lizard Klingons. I can just leave it at that, these guys are painfully generic. I like the visual design, but their personality is [insert warlike race here]. They're the kind of race that stole space travel just to make war on other races. But they've chilled out a bit since then.



Ysoki (+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Str)

The only "small" race we get, these rat-guys get... uh... cheek pouches. Seriously, one of their racial benefits is shoving shit in their mouth, and the designers think having a gun in your cheek is pretty rad. Hm. They also get darkvision, stand up really fast, ignore penalties for zero gravity, and get bonuses to run past people. They're kind of ubiquitous and do shitty jobs because they have blue-collar pride, apparently. Scrappy and energetic, they pretty much embody a generic but positive stereotype of rats. Or maybe raccoons? Wait, why did I just think of raccoons? Well, it can't be too important. Also, they love nicknames, like Blackjack. Or Sale. Or Rocket.

Oh, and it's all the way in the back of the book, but we still have dwarves, elves, half-elves, half-orcs, and halflings. There aren't vast changes to them save for their opinions on space (they're in it) and halflings are annoying "where are they?!" snipers now. Most of their statblocks have been adjusted but largely just to adapt them slightly to the new rules. It's all pretty much as you'd expect - dwarves like making shit, drow are still evil, halflings are now a bit redundant with ysoki around, etc. I might cover them a bit more when we get to their section, but for now you can sleep easy knowing that Paizo hasn't taken your elves away. There, there. It's okay. The elves are still there. The elves are still there.

Next: Space Bards and Mecha Rangers.

"People want to be that raccoon!"

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Starfinger Core Rules Part #04: "People want to be that raccoon!"
_{(Credit: James Sutter, Starfinger Creative Director, Game Informer interview.)}



Time for Envoys, for those who want to explore the puddle-deep social mechanics of Starfinger, and Mechanics, for those who want a R2 to pal around with.



Envoys

Did you know asian women have naturally dyed hair? It's true!

(Honestly, it's good to see the general diversity of the humans in this game, but... there's a spunky stereotype stumble here. Also, her dyed streak keeps switching sides.)

That aside, this is mostly a mix of social and skill monkey, Envoys are Starfinger's attempt to do a socially-oriented class, even moreso than Bards. They get an "Expertise" bonus on Sense Motive checks (that for some reason is a 1d6 or a 1d8 + a number depending on your level) that later they can apply as a limited bonus to their other skill checks they've taken (mild punishment feat) Skill Focus for. Their big class thing is that they get an "Improvisation", which are various social and attack tricks they get every 2 levels. Of course, some are listed as language-dependent or mind-affecting, so they might not work on, say, aliens that don't share your language or a robot... unless you spend the Improv tax to overcome those with specific Improvisations. Often you can spend a Resolve point to get a bonus with these or to turn a failure into a success. Sample ones include:

• Clever Feint: Feint at a range if they can sense you, and your feint benefits your allies as well as yourself. Resolve Point lets you turn a failure into a success.
  
• Don't Quit: This lets you supress one status effect on an ally for a single turnbat the cost of a standard action. You don't get to actually remove anything until 12th level - by spending a Resolve Point, but only if it doesn't have permanent duration! If there were any more catches to this, it'd be a baseball game.
  
• Not in the Face: Give a penalty to hitting your if the opponent fails a Will save. Not the best, but you can spend a Resolve Point to make it automatic.
  
• Duck Under: If you make a Full Defense and if they miss you with a melee attack, you get a big bonus to hit them in the following round.
  
• Hurry: Spend a standard action to grant an ally a move action.
  
• Draw Fire: Spend an RP to make all enemies get a penalty to ranged attacks within 100 feet unless they target you.
  
• Expert Attack: Spend 2RP to add your expertise bonus to an attack. Seriously? That's all? Well, at least you won't have this option until 8th level...
  
• Sustained Determination: Spend 2 RP to grant an ally 1 RP that they have to spend within 1 turn or lose it... and you can only do this once per ally until you've both gone through a rest period. Yeesh!

So, some of the basic Improvisations are decent... in certain situations. Each one of these seems to be buried in special catches, though. They can be pretty good if you get some of the "Quick" or "Improved" versions, but even so, they tend towards slight benefits. I mean, Improved Get 'Em requires two Improvisation spends to spend a standard action to grant your allies +2 to hit one enemy for 1 turn... or any enemy with 1 RP. They end up being more flexible than bards, but since a lot of their abilities require standard actions, often they aren't doing much on their own but shouting benefits at party members and debuffs at enemies. And at higher levels, Improvisations are often so expensive you get very limited use of them. And there's the RP costs, which are nice to see as an option but potentially reduce one's lifespan

They also get Expertise Talents every 3 levels, and talents are like feats except... they're class-bound. Examples include:

• Altered Bearing: Do very minor disguises as a move action.
  
• Cultural Savant: Take 20 on Culture checks to recall knowledge even if you don't have access to a computer or research material.
  
• Menacing Gaze: Use Intimidate against a group to demoralize, but it only lasts 1 round no matter what you roll. Mentioning this because you specifically can't use this kind of talent with Intimidation-boosting Improvisations, because that would be too powerful...?
  
• Surgeon: Let's you treat deadly wounds an extra time a day... at a +5 to difficulty and an hour to do so.

Basically they often let you overcome small limitations on skills, but sometimes at a penalty. They compliment well, but speak to the conservative nature of the class design that either most benefits are either A) small or B) large with a major cost. The Envoy may be the Bard of the game, but they lack a lot of wild benefits, presumably because mundane skills and words can't be allowed to do "too much" compared to a Bard's spells. Even worse, a lot of their social stuff will be overridden by spellcasters - particularly the Mystic, who gets to bypass stuff like Sense Motive and just read people's brains or charm them with a rider where people forget they were charmed. The main thing the Envoy is left with is giving party-wide bonuses, something that's been mostly cut from spellcasters' arsenals. The Operative, on the other hand, will drink their milkshake as the premier skill monkeys. While the Envoy is better at specific skills, the Operative is better at all skills, without a feat tax. The Envoy is left being a specialist and a slightly awkward support - which makes them a good fifth wheel, but that's about it. In my opinion, they're clearly the worst of the new classes, which is a problem with them being right up front here. However, being the worst in Starfinger is at least a much better place to be than the worst in Pathfinder.



Mechanic

So, these are the gear monkeys of the game, but only get a 4 + Int skill bonus. Well, who needs skills, anyway?... oh, right. These guys. Well, at least it suggests you specialize in Intelligence. They basically get a choice at first level with their "AI" ability: Drone or Exocortex. A Drone is a buff familiar that acts as a secondary character, while an Exocortex is an implanted cyberbrain that gives you direct boosts. They also get a variety of benefits on Computers and Engineering checks, as well as a more powerful toolkit. As they level up, can attempt to shut down electronic devices as a standard action (for 1 round only), hack at range, buff armor or weapons temporarily, heal ships, stun robots, various hacking bonuses, etc.

Their big thing is Mechanic tricks, which make up a lot of their choices for class abilities .Examples include:

• Energy Shield: Get a modest bonus to Hit Points for a minute, and then this can't be used for another ten minutes. Oh, you haven't run out of Stamina Points? Well, this doesn't matter until that happens. That's a theme you'll see with a lot of force fields - they're just not very good unless you've already been battered about.
  
• Neural Shunt: Ignore a mind-affecting effect, but you have to shut down your exocortex for as long as that effect lasts.
  
• Nightvision Processor: Darkvision doesn't seem like much to get out of a full mechanic trick, especially when you need the Perception-boosting tax trick of Visual Data Processor first. After all, you can buy nightvision goggles, right? Nope. Those don't exist in Starfinger, if you want a Darkvision, you get through cybereyes, racial benefits, or a class bonus like this one. (There are flashlights you can buy, thankfully.)
  
• Overcharge: Do 1d6 extra damage with an energy weapon, but use up three shots instead of one. If the weapon doesn't have an ammo limit, this has no effect.
  
• Quick Repair: Repair a thing in half the time.
  
• Drone Meld: Lets your drone turn into a suit that you wear and get a benefit depending on your drone type. Pretty cool!... but it takes a full-round action to suit up or suit down, so not as useful in a fight.
  
• Holographic Projector: Lets you make a image as per the spell as a standard action.
  
• Mod Tinkerer: Lets you swap around all your mods on a drone or exocortex with 24 hours of uninterrupted work. Better stock up on energy drinks, I guess.
  
• Ultraclocking: Grant haste to your drone for 1 minute as a move action, only usable once between 10-minute rests. The top of the Overlocking > Hyperclocking chain.

Most of these are pretty legit neat, though some are bizarrely situational and not likely to come up often - like the one that grants Energy Resistance if you have an Energy Shield up and only for one type chosen at purchase. Yeah, I'm sure folks will be jumping on that trap.

Drones come in three types: combat, hover, or stealth. If it gets wrecked, you can take a full 24 straight hours to rebuild it. You can also swap out the type or benefits whenever you gain a level with another 24 hours of work. Drones only get to move or do a standard action on their turn, but not both unless you spend a move action to directly control them (this is the only way they can do swift or full actions). The combat one is best suited to melee and takes less damage, the hover one can fly, but is weak, and the sneaky one gets fancy reactive camouflage. Otherwise, they're full characters, and can choose their own feats, level up ability scores, etc., through on a reduced schedule and more limited selection. They also get mods, which serve as their variable benefits, like:

• Camera: Yes, you need a full mod slot to have a remote camera on your drone.
  
• Hardened AI: Bonuses against getting hacked and spells that might control it.
  
• Manipulator Arms: Yes. Arms are extra, too.
  
• Riding Saddle: Yes, this takes a full slot. Granted, since most races are medium and only combat drones are medium, this is mostly only combat drones (though I guess a Ysoki could ride a stealth drone, completely negating its primary function - "Why is that Ysoki sitting in midair?"
  
• Energy Shield: Actually pretty useful, unlike the Mechanic trick, since drones don't get SP, only HP... but you have to be 11th level or higher to get it.
  
• Flight System: Your drone can fly!... for 10 minutes a day... that must be used in 1-minute increments. I guess this space society hasn't worked out how to make things fly longer than that. The hover robots get this for free, but with the same limitation. I understand flight is strong, but this isn't Pathfinder, anybody can buy a flying car as it is.
  
• Medical Subroutine: If you get knocked unconscious, your drone can apply first aid!... but it requires 2 of your RP to actually get you back up with some HP. Oh, you thought the drone might be able to use its own RP to do that, since it does get some? Nope.
  
• Shock Wave: If your drone is knocked below 10 HP, it shuts down and does 1d6 x level damage to everything around it. Yes, that includes you if you happen to be near your own drone.

There's a lot of Mod taxes to make your drone a more useful character - other ones let it climb or swim or carry extra ammo, so there are ones that are straight benefits, but they definitely were playing conservatively again in letting you control two characters, since a lot of them just let the drone overcome being a drone.

An Exocortex, on the other hand, makes you into more of a straightforward fighter, letting you spend a move action to increase your attack bonus to equal your level against a single target. As you level up, you also get bonuses with skills, hack autonomously at a short distance), give yourself some basic drone mods at higher levels. In general, the Exocortex seems more utilitarian unless you really want the multiple attacks and bilocation having the drone grants, though your overall combat bonuses of the drone mechanic are lower over time.

In general the Mechanic seems like a decent class, as long as you can dodge the trap options that will rarely come up. Their skills are limited, though, presumably because they're positioned as a fighter-type, and Starfinger positions classes on the "useful in combat vs. non-combat" as a measure of balance. That's not a design notion I'm thrilled with, and it also means the Envoy or Operative can actually have a higher skill bonus at Engineering or Computers... though the Engineer has more they can potentially do with those skills, at least.

Oh, and these guys are loosely like rangers, given the focus on a companion and being a secondary combat class with environmental tricks.

Next: Unpriests and Star Scoundrels.

"So I wrote up a rules treatment for [druids] - as a specialization within the Mystic class - and presented them to the team, who went: 'Meh.'"

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Starfinger Core Rules Part #05: "So I wrote up a rules treatment for [druids] - as a specialization within the Mystic class - and presented them to the team, who went: 'Meh.'"


Time for the Mystic, aka "somebody better fucking play one of these" because an erzatz Cleric is still a Cleric, and the Operative, the Swiss Army knife of sneaking skills.



Mystic

This is our first spellcasting class, the equivalent of a Cleric or Druid, with spells being based on Wisdom. They also have a lot of psychic flavor, though. Unlike Pathfinder, they only get spells that go from levels 0 to 6 instead of 0 to 9, and it's interesting to see the game try and curb spellcasters somewhat. As they level up and get more spells, they can discard one old spell afor a new spell... of the same level. As a full action, they can basically read magic, because it sucked having to use up a spell slot on that one. In addition, they can heal HP on some once per day by taking 10 minutes to do so, so combat healing isn't a given anymore. However, most Mystics will be taking the mystic cure spell - perhaps the most reliable way to heal HP, making them as essential as Clerics ever were. As they level up, they can talk telepathically and... well, stuff at top level I'm not going to cover because who gets to 19th level before a game ends, anyway? Mostly, they gain spells. We're told the arcane / divine division doesn't exist anymore, but Mystics are functionally indistinguishable from the general concept of a divine casting class, save for the aforementioned psychic flavor - so they get some mind-affecting spells in place of the broader "everybody gets bonuses" sorts of spells, which the Envoy fills in for.

It's worth noting that they don't have to prepare spells, they can just cast anything they know as long as they have a slot to cast it with. Everybody is like sorcerers, more or less.

In addition to spellcasting, they get a "Connection" where they choose a god some force that grants them magical powers. This can be "any entity or concept", so I'm looking forward to my Mystic of Breakfast Cereals. "Behold my O of power, the Cheery O!" However, they have deific recommendations I'm likely to ignore. Connections give you special powers, extra spells, and skill bonuses, more akin to the bonuses Sorcerers got in Pathfinder. They include various benefits as you level up, such as:

• Akashic: Knowledge stuff. Lets you boost skills, see the future, read minds, etc. Gives mostly divination spells.
  
• Empath: Reading brains and ESP stuff. Lets you sense emotions, mindlink, tell lies, etc. Mostly just ESP and mind-reading spells. Man, who needs Envoys when you can have one of these around...? Fucking seriously, Starfinger? They're right there and Sense Motive is their thing. Well, who needs skills when you can just get root access on a failed save?
  
• Healer: Fairly self-explanatory. Lets you heal people in combat by spending RP, take on their damage, sense others' conditions, vampire-drain people's lifeforce by spending RP, etc. Spells mostly center around removing conditions and afflictions.
  
• Mindbreaker: Psychic attacks, mainly. Lets you spend RP to hurt people (no save) when they hurt you, damage people when they save against your spells, inflict conditions by spending RP, nauseate people, etc. They get a number of mental attacks and conditions for their spells. Very much the "fuck you for overcoming my weaknesses as a spellcaster" Connection by letting you screw over anybody that picks on you. Oh, and "Explode Head" if you make it to 19th level that'll insta-kill a foe with 20 HP or less for an RP.
  
• Overlord: The flipside of "who needs an Envoy, again?", letting you control people directly. "Oh," you may guess, "at least the Envoy is subtle and isn't likely to cause as much backlash when people are influenced by skills instead of spells?" Well, no, the 1st-level ability of the Overlord means that people forget that they were magically controlled, no save (they remember what they did, but not the control). Other than that, you can make people become friendly, grant penalties even if they save against your spells, make monsters more friendly, etc.
  
• Star Shaman: Spooky space stuff. Become immune to vacuum, fly in space, glow in a blinding sense, reroll rolls sometimes (because... astrology... or something...), etc. You get a variety of spells from shoot magic missiles shooting stars to darkvision to making people radioactive or not.
  
• Xenodruid: You're a druid!... only more... xeno? You can talk with animals, spend RP to entangle people in plants (whether or not there are plants, so it works on the surface of a spaceship), gain modest shapeshifting benefits, gain energy resistance (of any type you like, fuck Energy Shields). Your spells revolve around helping people survive stuff and random nature shit including reincarnate because why not? Yes, that spell is still in Starfinger, because who doesn't want to become a random gnome? Maybe you can work in some Star Trek III references.

In general spellcasting seems as good as ever - not as good, but still able to step on the toes of a lot of other classes and also unquestionably gets the best healing. Their ability to overcome conditions and afflictions is so unparalleled that they're pretty essential, since otherwise characters are left laid out once a bad save vs. curses, poisons, and diseases roll out. As for the deities, they're mostly are word salad to me so far. Well, except for Nyarlathotep because we can't let Lovecraft just fucking go. I know some people are going to be like "I can be a priest of a racist monster an old racist dreamt of nearly a century ago!" and find it super exciting. I know you're out there!

Uuugh. Anyway, so, yeah, Starfinger is still Pathfinder, only less so. There are also a lot of healing effects only the Mystic gets convenient access to. If your character gets the space plague, loses an arm, or gets chopped in half and thrown down a shaft, you're gonna need a Mystic, pay for a Mystic's services, or... suffer. Suffer a lot. But we'll get to that much later.



Operative

These are the puckish rogues.

This time around, they get an bonus with initiative and skill checks, and choose a Specialization. Each Specialization gives specialty skills and a specific Exploit (this class' flavor of special benefits). They also each get a special power... at 11th level, so I'm not going to worry about covering all of those those. They are: Daredevil, Detective, Explorer, Ghost, Hacker, Spy, or Thief. About the most interesting 11th level power is that of the Thief, which lets you declare a backup plan during a heist to get a single benefit like a specific piece of gear you need or an ally that shows up in the nick of time.... but then it requires a skill roll with skill declared by the GM and a DC adeclared by the GM, and if you fail the roll you just say bye-bye to the RP spent. Pretty neat, but it has to come with a gamble because this is Starfinger, buckos.

Sneak Trick Attacks let you get bonus damage with small weapons but you have to make a social skill check against a difficulty equal to (20 + the CR of the foe), so be prepared to make some extra die rolls whenever you make an attack, but it can add up to big damage... at higher levels (around 5th level or higher). But it slows down the game more than Sneak Attacks, as you make an extra roll against an entirely arbitrary DC you have to check with the GM about. You get Evasion eventually because rogues got that back in Pathfinder, and as you level up you get extra speed, inflict conditions with trick attacks, ignore being flat-footed, and get extra attacks with small weapons (on full attacks only, so forget that extra movement you just got, this is Starfinger).

They also get their choice of Exploits every even level. I'll focus mainly on the ones you'll see based on Specialization:

• Cloaking Field: You can become invisible for 10 rounds; attacking reveals your position but you can hide again the next round. It recharges 1 round per minute.
  
• Glimpse the Truth: Get true seeing by spending 1 RP.
  
• Elusive Hacker: If your hacking attempt would set off a countermeasure, there's a flat 50% chance it doesn't.
  
• Ever Vigilant: You can make Perception checks while asleep or always act during a surprise round, but you always go no sooner than second during the latter.
  
• Holographic Distraction: You can psychically or technologically made a duplicate of yourself that runs off in a different direction, but people can Will save against it. Requires the "Holographic Clone" Exploit despite the fact that this ability is gained by the the Thief for free without it. Whoops.
  
• Master of Disguise: You can disguise yourself as a standard action with bonuses, which lasts up to (10 minutes x level), after which your disguise apparently bubbles and sloughs off like Darkman. It was a movie? The one with the guy with the melting disguises? We were desperate for superhero movies enough back then to watch an off-brand version of The Question, sad to say. If you disguise as a single person, it lasts a number of minutes equal to your level. Is this... really... a Master of Disguise?
  Versatile Movement: You can climb or swim equal to your land speed. Does not synergize with any extra movement abilities... like the one this class gets.

Mind, all those are advanced abilities you have to wait 11+ levels for if you don't get it as a starter. Here are some of the basic ones:

• Field Treatment: Spend an RP to gain back HP, if you have a literal minute.
  
• Inoculation: You get a bonus against poisons and disease! Just what every miscellaneous stack of abilities needs, so you can be like "I hope this comes up!... or maybe not...?"
  
• Nightvision: Because in the far future, you have to spend ability slots to see in the dark.
  
• Uncanny Pilot: Halves penalties to attack while in a vehicle and gets bonuses to certain piloting actions.

That's operatives, they're... more flexible than rogues, but lack their damage until higher levels. They're really good at some stuff like sneaking or hacking, but those are something other classes do too now. It's kind of weird where they're the best at what they focus to do, but they have an extremely loose theme where they're the sneaky class that's social but not too social (because Envoys) and good with tech but not too good with tech (because Engineers) and good at fighting but not too good at fighting (because Soldiers).

Next: Indecisive Jedi and Shooter Guys.

"Dwarf Solarian. His name is Wrothor Ironstar."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Starfinger Core Rules Part #06: "Dwarf Solarian. His name is Wrothor Ironstar."
_{(Credit: Owen K.C. Stephens, Starfinger Design Lead, Diamond Bookshelf interview.)}

This time, we have the Solarian, the attempt to make a monk that isn't a lotus flower filled with a curly turd, and the Soldier, who fights.



Solarian


Yes, because you understand stars real well, you can make magic swords representing, if you will, the light side of stellar bodies and, if I may, their dark side. This is Starfinger's most original class, I have to say, a wholly new concept with no previous precedent in pop culture.

Unlike other magic-themed classes, this is a fighting class, and you can tell because it gets 1 more HP and SP a level than any other class we've seen so far. They can generate a solar armor or a solar weapon. Solar armor, being a cosmic expression of pure might, gives you... +1 to AC. But hey, at 10th level, it's... +2. Starfinger! But at every 5th level, you get Energy Resistance +5 to fire or cold, and can switch it at will. Do other Solarians do fire or cold damage? Oh, lordy no. Solar weapons do 1d6 + Str, 2d6 at 6th level, and +1d6 per 3 levels after that. Weapon crystals are a type of equipment you can get if you want to do more damage, to focus your light weapon in various ways. Clever, I wonder how they came up with that idea? As they level up, they can do faster attack flurries, like Monks.

They can also go into "Graviton Mode" where they get a bonus to reflex saves and gain gravity attunement points, and "Photon Mode" where they add to damage and get photon attunement points, representing the darkness of a black hole and the light of a star, respectively. This novel duality is something they can switch at the start of a turn, though if they have points from either they have to go into an "unattuned" mode for a turn to dump their existing points before switching modes. They can also, as they level up, use these modes outside of combat for bonuses on certain skills, Graviton lets you be sneaky and insightful and Photon lets you be social and in touch with life. They get "Revelations" which are abilities they can only use by powering up these dark and light- er, Graviton and Photon meters.

Examples include, as their level increases:

• Black Hole (graviton): You can pull others a distance closer within a short range, as if by force. No save.
  
• Flare (photon): Create light, and blind somebody for one round unless they save.
  
• Gravity Boost (graviton): Let's you leap and climb and swim around better. Yes, the power of the black hole helps you swim! Because gravity.
  
• Plasma Sheath (photon): Lets you deal fire damage with your light sword. Better hope your Solarian rival didn't pick that. Wait, of course they did! Solarians have no ability to deal cold damage.
  
• Astrologic Sense (photon): Lets you see the future, because "you can sense the movement of all objects influencing you". Astrology was real all along. Sorry, science.
  
• Crush (gravition): Lets you crush the internal organs or workings of a target, like, say, their throat. Staggers people for a round and you can maintain it as a move action as long as they keep failing their save. An RP can also let you stun people.
  
• Gravity Surge (graviton): Lets you disarm or trip at a range, as if by telekinesis. Or pull your weapon from them when you're fully powered up with that disarm.
  
• Hypnotic Glow (photon): Lets you charm people and make them your friend briefly, with the power of... starlight? Twinkle, twinkle.

Top-level lets you end afflictions, go into stealth mode, block attacks, shoot starbolts, get bonus attacks, and there's even more but... hey... wait...

I get it now! These guys are kind of like Monks... but aren't they just Solar and Abyssal exalted from Exalted? I figured you out, Starfinger!



Soldier

Fighters. +1 HP and SP per level tells us that. So, they get bonus feats like Fighters every two levels (meaning they basically get a feat every level with the increased basic feat rate). They also have bonus attacks at high level, and have to choose a "Primary Fighting Style" (you get a second one at 9th level). The styles are:

• Arcane Assailant: You're a wizard, but only where stabbing is concerned. You can make your weapon magical (for ghoststabs), and as you level up you can add elemental damage to your weapon or spend RP to cancel some conditions.
  
• Armor Storm: This focuses on putting on armor and getting ready for some football (in space). You get to punch extra hard when in heavy or powered armor, and as you level up you get proficiency with powered armor for free, can buy an extra upgrade for your armor beyond its normal limitations (because sponsors, it says), and can damage targets if you bull rush them good enough.
  
• Blitz: This boosts your speed and initiative. As you level up, you can make charge attacks without penalties and regain SP by spending RP, which is useful because you just charge headlong into fights all the time, you Scrappy-Doo.
  
• Bombard: The sane bomber sort of soldier. You can throw grenades further and can automatically create a free grenade by taking 10 minutes, but only one extra grenade at a time and if anybody else tries to throw it, it becomes a dud. Oookay. As you level up, you can add yout Strength bonus to ranged attacks (as a full action, because fuuuck soldiers), or inflict conditions along with your attacks by spending an RP.
  
• Guard: This is the bodyguard soldier. You reduce penalties from armor, level up to powered armor proficiency, get the ability to intercede to take half of somebody's damage, and spend RP to temporarily surpress conditions for 10 minutes. (This game really likes puts a price on straight-up ending conditions, presumably because it likes inflicting the extra busywork of tracking sur=pressed conditions?)
  
• Hit-and-Run: The not-running-away-but-tactically-withdrawing sort of soldier. They get Opening Volley (gives a bonus on a melee attack in round two of combat if you shoot them with a ranged on round one, nothing if you miss or don't damage) as a bonus feat. After that as they level onward, they can make half their speed before or after a full attack, and spend an RP to ignore attacks of opportunity from movement or a ranged attack (each time, so if you trigger multiple ones, spend multiple times, so enjoy that as you get your bonus attacks).
  
• Sharpshoot: Sniper, minus keeping your piss in jars. This lets you reduce cover penalties against enemies, unless it's total cover (because that would be too powerful... for a non-spellcaster). As your level goes up, you get reduced penalities when making multiple ranged attacks agains the same creature, or spend an RP to negate cover and reduce concealment when making a shot (unless it's total cover, because of course).

They also get Gear Boosts at 3rd level and every 4 levels afterward, which let them get more out of equipment. Some have minimum level requirements. Examples are:

• Armored Advantage: +1 to Kinetic Armor Class. So, not energy. Yep. An extra 5% defense that only works about half the time takes a whole slot.
  
• Bullet Barrage: +1 to +5 damage with projectile damage depending on level.
  
• Flash Freeze: Reduces the movement of somebody you hit with a cryo weapon (not just cold damage, but specifically one of those). There are a number of these specialty weapon boosts for elemental damage.
  
• Laser Accuracy: +1 to hit with laser weapons. That's all. +1. With lasers only. Yayyy.

Overall, Soldiers have it better than fighters, and they're legit great at doing damage, they're just... dull, mostly, and have to wait for fights to do anything. A lot of people presume the old Fighter problem was that spellcasters could take out enemies better, and that was true, but one of the core "Fighter issues" is that they're often just not relevant in any scene that doesn't involve a gridmap. As such, Soldiers still have similar issues that Fighter classes have in other d20 games, but they're at least better and more interesting damage dealers when the initiative dice go down.

Next: "Do you believe in such a thing as magic?"

"But, why do you want to become a wizard and devote years of your life to learning a light spell when you can just buy a flashlight?"

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Starfinger Core Rules Part #07: "But, why do you want to become a wizard and devote years of your life to learning a light spell when you can just buy a flashlight?"
_{(James Sutter, Starfinger Creative Director, Game Informer interview.)}



Technomancer

Oh, like on Babylon 5...? Wait, I already linked that. How about "Once you become a Technomancer, there's no going back." That'll do for my requisite vapid reference.

So these are wizards with a vague technology theme, based on Intelligence. (You can tell they're wizards because they have 1 less SP and HP per level than other classes.) Spellcasting is their chief thing, and like Mystics, they can swap spells as they level up. They get a special device they lets them cast an additional spell per day of any level they can cast, and as they level up, they get Spell Focus, a bonus on Computers and Mysticism rolls, or be able to have the following spells up for 24 hours (but only one at a time): detect radiation, disguise self, keen senses, or unseen servant. Once again like Mystics, they don't have to prepare spells, they can just cast anything they know as long as they have a slot to cast it with. Though we're told that the arcane / divine divide between spell types doesn't exist, but these are pretty clearly modeled after arcane casters.

They also get "Magic Hacks" every 2 levels, such as:

• Countertech: Expend spell slots to halve damage to you from technological weapons with a successful caster level check.
  
• Energize Spell: You can now get an extra spell slot by eating a battery once a day. Yes, this gives you another top-level spell slot, effectively.
  
• Harmful Spells: Extra damage to your damaging spells. Cost? There's no cost, you're a wizard!
  
• Magic Negation: Spend an RP to negate a spell or magic item for 1d4 rounds... unless the caster level or spell level is greater than yours... and if it's affecting a creature, they get a save.
  
• Spell Grenade: Spend an RP to put a spell in a grenade for 1 round, which then affects 1 target in its blast radius of your choice with a touch spell.
  
• Diviner's Tap: On a successful Computer check, you can monitor a device's activity for (days = level).
  
• Mental Mark: If an enemy fails a will save agains your spell, it takes a penalty to all saving throws for a round... or if you succeed, it takes a miniscule penalty. Yes, this means you can snowball spells at a big foe more easily this way.
  
• Spellshot: Cast an area spell through a weapon, so you can snipe people with area effects beyond your normal range.
  
• Seeking Shot: I'm just mentioning this because you can spend an RP to ignore total cover. Sorry, sharpshooting Soldiers, Technomancers can snipe what you can't. Oh, there's Phase Shot that ignores all cover and concealment, too...

There are also a number that are like the old metamagic feats, but make you spend RP, so you can put them on your top-level spells now more easily. So, I like the thematic of getting to combine spells with tech - it keeps wizards from just ignoring equipment - but it's kind of funny how hard they lean into just giving Technomancers ways around many of their major limitations. Touch spells? Put them in a grenade. Spell slots? Oh, just drain your ammo instead. Engaged in melee? If you have Flash Teleport, just pop away. Etc. And yeah, they only get up to 6th level spells, but arcane casting is still amazing even if they don't become gods until level 20.

Wizards! Starfinger still loves 'em impiously.



Archetypes

So, you may think, now that the classes are more flexible, there's less of a need for variants. I mean, you have the Operative with its varying Specializations, Soldiers have their Fighting Styles, and each class has a set of abilities it can use to vary its arsenal. Feats are a lot more available than they were before. So there'd be less of a need for class archetypes, alternate classes, or prestige classes, right?

Pfffft. Starfinger knows better. It knows players want the allure of being the special snowflake, of having endless options even if a given choice will only see use in a tiny fraction of the games out there. (Marketing is like that.) So it's time for archetypes, which are variant class features that you can take as soon as their first class feature is available, and replace existing class features to modify your existing class. So if Foozle Fluffer gets its first feature at 3rd level, you can become a Foozle Fluffer at 3rd level. For those familiar with class archetypes from Pathfinder, they're similar to those, but not longer tied to class... which at least is nice in that you don't have to have a specific build to take one, but also have the related issue that they may or may not synergize with your class of choice. You can only have one per class you have, since it modifies a given class you're taking, and you can't double up on the same archetype for multiple classes. Generally speaking, they eat up the varying abilities each class chooses (Mechanic Tricks, Gear Boosts, etc.), though some classes have special considerations and there's a full page of those. We get two Archetypes in this book:

Phrenic Adept

This is the Archetype you take if you want to be a psychic!... but don't want to go full Mystic for whatever reason. You get telepathic chat (or more range if you already have it) and some extra languages. As you level up, you can spend RP to reroll a save against mental effects, reduce the damage and duration of mental effects against you, spend 1 RP to sense mental magic effects and gain blindsense, and then start gaining spells like charm monsters, clairaudience/clairvoyance (couldn't just name it "ESP", could you), and psychokinetic strangulation (like a baby Vader). It's kind of neat but doesn't let you do much overt until you're in mid-levels without dumping feat slots into the Minor Psychic Power feat, and doesn't really synergize with most class abilities - being a half-assed caster is rarely worth it to begin with, and this is more like a... quarter-assed caster. Not nearly enough ass.

Starfinger Forerunner

You're a member of the Starfinger Society, but we've got over 300 pages before we find out more about them. They're apparently into exploring and fingering all those stars. You don't have to take this to be part of the Starfingers, though, it's only for the more dedicated members. They get a shit-ton of tiny bonuses, like getting Culture and Survival as class skills, rerolls with those skills, identifying creatures even if the skill required isn't one they have (it doesn't give you the bonus you need to succeed, only the chance), make Survival checks to get food or endure weather without slowing their overland travel, initiative bonuses, extra information when identifying creatures, never misidentify strange writing (though they can still fail to read it), can always take 20 to identify alien writing, and spend RP to heal their allies' SP by a small amount or take time to automatically repair some HP to a vehicle. Modestly useful stuff if you're the kind of archaeologist archetype, but it's gonna hurt your ability to do anything fighty.

Next: Why learning a profession is just holding you back.

"Everybody on the Serenity has something to do on Firefly. Everybody on Star Trek has a job."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Acrobatics: This lets you keep your balance with a slightly torturous DC calculation with 4 different factors: surface with, obstructions, slipperiness, slope, and surface steadiness. It's important we have that complexity, because falling on your ass constantly is a important feature of the space fantasy genre. Escape lets you escape from bindings or a grapple, with a difficulty based on the grappler's armor, so the the more armored they are, the harder it is to break free? There's rolls for Flying, so you don't Boba Fett into a Sarlacc, and you have to roll over a maneuver, flying in dangerous wind conditions of 51+ MPH or higher, or for hovering. Yep. Hovering requires a roll or you fall (unless you have perfect manuverability). There's a whole chart of wind speed difficulties, so hopefully the GM has the weather forecast. Then there's tumbling through spaces without triggering attacks of opportuniy, and there's some... calculations based the CR of the enemy and how many they are and remember those balance modifiers? You count all those in too. Oy, does anybody bother with that? "Well, you're tumbling past a goblin and a martian, so we take the CR of the martian and add 2 for the goblin, and it was raining, so we add another 2, and there are rocks, so..."
  
• Athletics: Does Climbing involve no less than three to five factors? You bet it does? Cue chart of DC modifiers! Similarly, Swim is a smaller but notable set of charts. There's also Jumping, which... remember those Balance modifiers? They're baaaack. Being physical requires a lot of math, ironically.
  
• Bluff: Thankfully, whether you're on gravel or sand will not affect your ability to talk wise. You can cause Diversions to try and hide even if you don't have cover or concealment or get a bonus on a palming attempt. You can Feint to try and make creatures flat-footed. And, of course, you can lie. There's "The GM may determine that somsome lies are so improbable that it is impossible to convince someone they are true.", no doubt a hedge towards convincing people that you are, in fact, the Moon. And you can use it to pass secret messages in class.
  
• Computers: Mostly hacking, though you can craft computers with this. This lets you also forge electronic documents (cue table of modifiers), repair/destroy/disable/manipulate systems and modules, notice if you've been given fake dummy access, gain root access, and get access to computers you shouldn't. Most of the difficulty depends on the computer's quality (what we'll later call its "Tier"), which ranges from 13 to 43, which runs into the DC issue mentioned earlier. However, with modifiers pushing it up into 63+ to gain full access on some computers, some high-Tier computers are literally unhackable.
  
• Culture: The main advantage and change is that each rank in Culture gives you a new language. It also lets you decipher unfamiliar writing and know stuff about a culture, of course. Mostly it's just filling out that social keyring of 30+ languages, though.
  
• Diplomacy: Mainly used to improve the attitude (in 5 ranks from hostile to helpful) of an NPC or to try and gather information by asking around about stuff. Charts! Not complex ones, though. Social interaction is simple, not like jumping.
  
• Disguise: Make yourself look different! Much better to do with magic like disguise self, which gives you +10 on your rolls, tho.
  
• Engineering: So, if you want to arm explosives, you have to make a roll. This is something that happens in the space future: your space bomb going off in your face because you rolled space bad. Space ouch! You can roll to see if a structure is stable or how better to break it. There's a table for that! This is used to craft devices, and can be used to craft Computers even though there's a skill for that. This lets you disable devices (particularly bombs, traps, and locks, for your space dungeons). It can be used to identify robots, technology and repair things as well. More tables, more formulae.
  
• Intimidate: This can be used to bully people to change their attitude temporarily, after which it worsens, literally making it diplomacy's awful cousin. (Seriously, the DCs are exactly the same, it's just worse.) However, this can be used to give people the shaken state in combat on a successful check. Once again, social is simple, jumps are complex.
  
• Life Science: Mostly for crafting drugs, poisons, and food, as well as identifying creatures and answering science questions. But it has nothing to do with...
  
• Medicine: Let's you put doctor by your name, stabilize patients, triple out of combat healing rates, and treat wounds to grant HP once per day (twice per day with a medical lab). Lastly, you can give treatments that help with saves against disease or poison. But it's up to the will of the patient to survive... and their level... well, mostly their level.
  
• Mysticism: Magic and religion are the same now, as it turns out. Mostly for identifying and talking magic shit, but this lets you craft and repair magic items, and disable magic traps devices.
  
• Perception: Lets you notice things (see the chart), see through disguises (see the chart), or search for things (see the chart).
  
• Physical Science: Physics and earth sciences, in other words. Not actually used for much other than infodumps and making drugs or poisons. Because that's what you learn from astronomy or climatology; pharmaceuticals. Well, I guess they had to give this skill something to do.
  
• Piloting: Science is divided up, and weapons require all sorts of profiencies, but if you know how to pilot one thing, you know them all. You can use this to shoot in lieu of a combat bonus (haha, fuck you, combat classes... in space!), navigate around, or roll to make maneuvers or stunts. The more advanced a vehicle it is, the harder it is to pilot!... which also means the more expensive a vehicle it is, the worse it handles. Starfinger logic! (Well, at least the DC is just increased by the Item level, meaning you can actually get better at it.)
  
• Profession: Hahaha fuuuck whoever left this trap option in, seriously. I wish I could have an extra arm grafted on I would just to give however approved this a threesome of different rude gestures at once. Whoever you are, personally, stop it. Stop writing things like this. Stop it. All it does is let you earn pocket change between adventures. And I mean that - you're making like 5 to 30 or so credits a week in a game (no, it doesn't scale to your actual wealth level at all) in a game where the most basic 1st-level equipment will cost you hundreds. And if you think people don't put ranks in Profession, I was just talking to a new Starfinger player the other day that had maxed it out to fluff out his concept. Because it sounds good on paper, but is near-useless in play.
  
• Sense Motive: This lets you tell if somebody's trying to decieve you or lie. If you do it, it's "part of combat banter" or "otherwise, it's a move action". Wait, huh? How could... what... I mean... huh? If they're not bantering with you, how are they deceiving you? With semaphore? This lets you try and sense secret messages that students are trying to pass in class, or notice mind whammies as well.
  
• Sleight of Hand: Palming and picking pockets, mostly. However, you can put on magic shows, too. I mean, not real magic. Stage magic. Space wizards still pull in higher ticket prices, I imagine. And they're probably smarter than you, because they're Int primary! Stupid space wizards!
  
• Stealth: Lets you hide if you have cover or concealment (we get rules for invisibility here, which gives farcical bonuses to your roll). There's also a rule where you can snipe from concealment, then hide again at a handy -20 roll. Sniping is fucking hard, unless you're a halfling.
  
• Survival: I'm still excited about skills, really, really I am, I just... okay, you can endure weather and live off the land and keep your hunger and thirst meters sated. You can also follow tracks, in case your enemies are too poor for vehicles, and handle and rear animals. You also use this to ride creatures and there are a lot of rules for this that will probably not see use very often given there are no mounts listed in this book. Wait! No! Engineers can ride their drones if they have mounted saddles! But they don't use Survival for that, so...
  

"If you can make a game fun and robust with 150 feats, can you do it with 100?"

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Amplified Glitch: As a standard action, you can hack one target per level and cause their stuff to get hacked with a successful Computers check that might stun them for one or more rounds. You can only nail somebody once a day, though, so you can't stunlock them.
  
• Barricade: You can automatically create improvised cover as a move action, but it only lasts 1d4 rounds once hit. It's kind of neat, until you realize the negative design space filled in by a lot of these feats - can people without this feat kick over a table or drag a vending machine down, or do you have to have this feat to do it? The world may never know.
  
• Dive For Cover: Lets you fall prone to make a reflex save against an area effect attack a second time. Does not actually let you dive for cover, however. Cover is a different mechanic!
  
• Extra Resolve: Gives 2 extra resolve points at 5th level or higher. I imagine most classes will want to take this if you've got the room to, given now many abilities - even other feats - and your outright survivability now hinge on your amount of RP available.
  
• Fast Talk: Lets you make a bluff check at the start of combat to render somebody surprised. You'd think people might catch on, and they do, but only for 24 hours.
  
• Harm Undead: Lets you do damage to undead foes in an area around you by expending Mystic spells, in case you really, really missed Turn Undead. Are there a lot of undead in this setting? Well, there's an undead planet, but it's not total bad guy territory. So YMMV.
  
• Improved Combat Maneuver: Gives you a +4 on one combat maneuver, basically the replacement for Improved Disarm, Improved Sunder, Improved Trip, etc.
  
• Improved Stand Still: Lets you do an attack of opportunity to force people to stop moving at a bonus, but I really brought it up because there isn't many goofier-sound feat names than Improved Stand Still. "I stand still better than you. You don't even know how still I stand."
  
• Minor Psychic Power: Lets you choose one of several 0-level spells as a psychic power. So, uh. Really minor. The regular and major version give you limited access to a number of 1st or 2nd-level divination-related spells; not a lot for a three-feat chain.
  
• Psychic Power: Gives one of several different 1st-level mind-themed spells, once a day, and you have to be 4th level or higher. I feel bad for the folks that go all-in as Phrenic Adepts. Really should just play a Mystic instead.
  
• Pull the Pin: Lets you ask the GM "are they wearing a grenade?" and then pull the pin on a successful disarm. Of course, you have to be in melee to do this in most circumstances, and the grenade goes off at the end of the round, so you best hope your move action gets you out of the half-range blast radius!... if they don't chase you while wearing a live grenade, anyway, or just throw it after you... best hope you go second to use this. (Seriously, how did they overlook that the foe can just throw it after you?)
  
• Skill Synergy: Pick two skills, they become class skills, or if they're already class skills, you get +2 to them instead. Are you excited? I'm excited.
  
• Unfriendly Fire: Make a Bluff check when somebody misses you to try and make them hit somebody else next to you. You'd think they'd learn, and they do!... but only for 24 hours.
  
• Veiled Threat: Lets you intimidate people annd their impression doesn't drop below indifferent. Or you could just take Diplomacy, the unshitty social interaction skill... however, it has the weird effect that if you then bully somebody who's Hostile to you, their reaction improves to Unfriendly when you bully them, then sets to to the fixed result of Indifferent. So it's handy in that one unintended circumstance, giving you a double boost!
  

"... if you bring your barbarian from Pathfinder into [Starfinger] and he's going to run around shirtless with a longsword, he should probably get cut down with an assault rifle."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Radical Space Wizard: I have these three dimensional slice starknives...
  
• Stingy Space Merchant: I'll give you 10%.
  
• Radical Space Wizard: But these are spinning blades wielded by a deadly assassin known throughout the cosmos, made with cutting edge metallurgy and with auras that break the known laws of time and space. Deadlier than a zero-edge doshko or even an advanced baton! 8d12 damage, man!
  
• Stingy Space Merchant: Yeah, but no warranty. What if it breaks? How do I know you didn't do shifty magic stuff to it? Are the screws loose? Did you loose the fuckin' screws, you shitty wizard?!
  
• Radical Space Wizard: Fiiine. But I also have this load of megaopiate...
  
• Stingy Space Merchant: Full market value.
  
• Radical Space Wizard: ... how do you know I didn't mess with the megaopiate?
  
• Stingy Space Merchant: I hope you did! My highs are getting boring!
  

• At 1st level, I start with a longsword. It does 1d8 slashing damage. It costs 375 credits.
  
• My next step is at 7th level, I can now either use a sintered longsword to up my damage to 2d8 slashing damage, and it causes severe bleeding on a crit. Or I can get a tactical skyfire longsword for 2d4 fire damage, but it can set people on fire on a crit. I go with the sintered longsword. It costs 8,420 credits.
  
• At 9th level, I can take a microserrated longsword for 2d10 slashing damage and bleeding on crit, or a tactical plasma sword that does 2d8 electricity/fire damage (that is, half the damage is treated as one and half the other) and a severe random wound on crit. Slashing seems practical, because damage is damage and bleeding is more damage. I go with the microserrated longsword for 12,100 credits.
  
• At 13th level, I qualify for a red star plasma sword for 4d8 electricity/fire damage. Seems worthwhile, I'll upgrade for 54,300 credits.
  
• At 14th level, I can buy for a zero-edge longsword, 7d8 slashing, severe wounds, sure. 79,500 credits.
  
• At 15th level, I have access to a yellow star plasma sword, does 5d8 electricity/fire with a severe wound on crit. Nah. Pass.
  
• At 17th level, I can get a molecular rift longsword, and 10d8 slashing seems like enough of an upgrade that I can ignore the fact it has no particular critical effect. I mean, sure, there's an inferno skyfire sword, but 7d8 fire isn't too compelling even with a 4d12 critical burn effect. Cost is 245,200 credits.
  
• At 18th level, I have another choice. There's the white star plasma sword, which does 8d8 electricity/fire with a wounding effect on crit. Or I can get an 8d10 ultraserrated longsword. Well, the ultraserrated does 1 less average damage than the molecular rift longsword, but it does have a severe bleeding crit effect. I have bottomless pockets for this theoretical scenario, so I dump out the 368,100 credits I need to make the upgrade to ultraserrated.
  
• Finally, at 20th level, I have a choice. There's a dimensional slice longsword for 14d8 slashing, no fancy crit effect. Alternately, there's the 10d8 blue star plasma sword with wounding crits. Fuck wounding, does that kill people faster? It usually won't come up, given critical ranges have shrunk compared to Pathfinder. Dimensional slice longsword will put me out 727,300 credits.
  

"If some guy just walks in off the street and says, 'I want a rocket launcher!', most people are going to say, we don't think you're rocket launcher-ready."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Automatic: Automatic fire uses your remaining clip, letting you attack one person per two shots with a cone attack, using a full attack. You can't avoid shooting allies, since it's random, so aim that cone template carefully.
  
• Blast: Another cone effect, this time for shotguns and the like, which lets you do extra attacks at a -2 penalty against targets in the cone from closest to nearest. Hone your arguements to have with your GM about this.
  
• Entangle: Resisted by Acrobatics or Strength, so the tanglefoot effect is alive and well in Starfinger.
  
• Operative: Required to use the trick attack class feature, so what's why your operative is using an advanced baton.
  
• Sniper: This lets you fire farther if you spend a move action to brace it.
  

• Cryo Weapons: These fire supercooled gas in a "containment beam" from pistols, rifles, and cannons, though there is a "cyropike" which is a spear with a freezing blade.
  
• Flame Weapons: Flamethrowers in pistol or rifle configurations, but there are also a "doshko", a "skyfire sword" which is basically just a hollow blade with a bunch of flame jets (seems like it'd break, but this is the future), and... a flare gun.
  
• Grenades: These come in all the elemental types save acid, and there are also flash grenades (blinds on a failed save), smoke grenades, and stickybomb grenades (tanglefoot rides again).
  
• Laser Weapons: Your usual lasers and rifles. Note that invisible targets are immune, despite all the heat created in a laser's path, but invisible force shields aren't. Sure. There's also "autobeam artillery", aka gatling lasers, not to be confused with "artillery lasers", which aren't to be confused with indirect artillery - they're just really big lasers. Clear? Well, not invisible, I mean the the colloquial sense of the word...
  
• Operative Weapons: These are knives and batons used by operatives, because you can't do tricky stabs with big weapons because... that's not what rogues do, okay?! Some of the batons have electric shocks or a generic "pulse", not to be confused with the advanced baton at 19th level, which apparently is just a very well weighted baton.
  
• Plasma Weapons: These are either projected plasma beams or plasma contained in a magnetic field so you can sword with it. There are doshko (here we're told they're "traditional vesk weapons"), and otherwise we have pistols, rifles, swords, and "caster" (which apparently fire orbs instead of coherent lines of plasma for more damage but less area).
  
• Projectile Weapons: Bullets, mainly, but also gyrojet weapons, magnetar rifles (their odd name for rail weapons), acid dart rifles (with "whatever acid the wielder desires"), crossbolter (no relation to bowcasters, I'm sure), stellar cannons (really just cannons), x-gen gun (machine guns with external generators), and reaction cannon (uses "advanced materials and and technology to redirect the recoil of a projectile back into the projectile itself").
  
• Shock Weapons: Arc weapons that fire cones or shots of electrical energy, casters that "fire a blast of electrical energy that explodes when it impacts, creating an electrical storm", and electrified batons. Well, truncheons. If they were batons, that's different!... somehow.
  
• Solarian Weapon Crystals: Graviton, photon, w-boson, or gluon crystals that add damage to your solar weapon. Those are science words!
  
• Sonic Weapons: Generic sound pistols and rifles, "streetsweepers" that fire a "low-intensity 'punch' of sound", screamers that fire cones of energy, or pulse gauntlets that let you sound-punch people.
  

"But from day 1, one of our important goals were, if you are a power armor-wearing knight of Iomedae and you got a plasma cannon, it is important to us that you can have a holy plasma cannon, because when you're facing space imps you want the holy plasma cannon."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Carbon Skin: A bodysuit made of *carbon fibers*, which is pretty much magic material!... even in a setting with magic, I guess.
  
• D-Suit: Your generic Han Starlord casual kind of spacefaring outfit with forcefield helm.
  
• Estex Suit: Flight suits! Maybe? It doesn't really say how this looks. Hm.
  
• Freebooter Armor: Metal plates and a button-down shirt make me think this got rejected from a Pathfinder book. Not sure how a button-down shirt seals you off from the vacuum of space. Maybe they're really good buttons.
  
• Golemforged Plating: A "close-fitting" heavy suit of armor. Nothing to do with golems, though. Probably not even forged.
  
• Kasatha Microcord: A speed-suit with glowing trim, so your enemies can spot you in the dark. But you look cool while you're shot at?
  
• Lashunta Ringwear: Banded chain armor with crystals... that will protect you from space. That must be some tight chain armor.
  
• Vesk Overplate: It's a blunt suit of armor "coated with thermoplastic resin". Science words!
  

• Backup Generator: Lets you build up 1 power charge for every 10 minutes of movement, which means Technomancers with Energize Spell are good with this and a lil' jazzercise or taibo or whatever space exercise is trendy in the fantasy future to get a bonus spell slot.
  
• Deflective Reinforcement: Gives DR 5/-, which seems really good for 7th level when damage values start to kick up, though it doesn't scale at all with the damage increases over time.
  
• Exit Pod: Lets you exit armor as a move action. Those slavering to use this with powered armor should note that entering the armor is still a full action.
  
• Force Field: Conveniently colored from brown (for shit, I presume, 3rd level) to prismatic (20th level). Which means if your enemy looks like a rainbow, you might want to run. Force fields give bonus HP, which means like all such things, they won't keep you from losing SP... mostly. They also have Fast Healing, which means those bonus HP recover after being damaged. High-level ones give a flat % to ignore crits unless they're out of HP. However, they require a standard action to activate, so if a fight breaks out, you have to spend a turn basically just punching a button to activate it. (Having a powered armor with one of these basically means you spend two turns just setting up...)
  
• Haste Circuit: However, activating haste is just a swift action, thankfully.
  
• Phase Shield: A move action gives you +1 EAC and costs you a hand (for usage, you can still hold stuff in it). Worth the sacrifice? Probably not.
  

• Cybernetic Arm: Not what you'd think - these are extra arms, up to two at very high levels. Doesn't give more benefit than readying more equipment, though.
  
• Datajack: Hands-free computing. At mid to high levels you get a nickel or dime bonus on Computing rolls, but really all it does is let you complete a hack while shooting at bads or steering a hovercycle.
  
• Dermal Plating: DR, stacks with armor, but don't forget to get your skin upgraded every three levels! Seriously.
  
• Retinal Reflectors: You've got Riddick eyes. Why didn't you just buy nightvision goggles? Because the far future doesn't have those. Well, maybe in a supplement someday.
  
• Vocal Modulator: I got my entire throat replaced and enhanced and all I got was this lousy Disguise dime bonus.
  
• Adaptive Biochains: Lets you get a cybernetic implant as a biological implant instead? What's the advantage of that? Very little. There's like... uh... I can't find any spells that target cybernetics? Theoretically there are some?
  
• Dragon Gland: Get a breath weapon just like your favorite dragon!... the age category depending on your level, so you need to upgrade twice for the full effect. The damage values are listed, at least. (There are no rules for dragons in this book, either...)
  
• Venom Spur: Really deadly for level 2... and then just diminishes to useless after that.
  
• Wildwise: A throat fungus that lets me talk with animals! Man, glad I didn't get stuck with just a +2 to Disguise checks.
  
• Personal Upgrades: Permanent ability boosters including magic "ability crystals" that download the ability of cooler heroes into you, technological "synaptic accelerators" that enhance your nervous system (and so can make you... stronger, healthier, or more likeable...?), and hybrid magic/tech "synergizing symbiotes". Unlike other upgrades, you can pay the difference between the old and new - it's presumed every character will take these like the old ability-enhancing magic books of D&D and Pathfinder. Only... it never tells you that. Probably should note that in there. And underline it with highlighter... or, nah, let's just rely on players' system mastery.
  

"We’re tweaking the rules around gear and economics and magic. We want to make it a little less bookkeeping and a little more 'sense of wonder.'"

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Control: Stuff that the computer runs, like a turret or a robot or even another computer. It also lists cameras, but cameras were a "basic" function just a paragraph ago, so that's unclear.
  
• Secure Data: Data that has been secured. Only details one topic, and runs a cost from 1 to 1,000 credits depending on how much data you're securing. Because that's how securing data works, as all IT professionals know - it's priced by the gigabyte.
  
• Spell Chips: So, these spell functions that cast spells through spell gems. It's notable that non-spellcasters can't use spell gems, but computers can. So if you're a engineer and you want to cast a spell, you get a computer to do it for you. Sure. Makes sense.
  
• Upgrades: These are several forms of enhancement - examples include AI, which lets your computer use social skills, hardened, which gives it a save bonus against effects that target computers (that aren't the Computers skill), miniaturization, range (lets it control systems from a distance), and security (a minor bump to DCs against intrusion attempts).
  

• Alarm: Warning: the alarm is going off, warning.
  
• Fake Shell: This is a fake system designed to fool hackers.
  
• Feedback: Inflicts a condition / penalty on the system being used to hack on a failed hacking attempt.
  
• Firewall: Makes a module require an extra roll at +2 difficulty to access.
  
• Lockout: As eimplied.
  
• Shock Grid: Can stun or kill hackers, but only when used first-hand by arcing lightning off the keyboard or plug or whatever. No "Black ICE" or anything like that.
  
• Wipe: Wipes information on multiple failed hacking attempts.
  

• Aeon Stones: These don't count against your magic item limit (even with themselves), but the only one that's really notable is the Pearly White Spindle, which increases your spellcaster level by 1 for purposes of spell effects only. As currently written, there's no limit to the number of them and no indication they can't stack, so the best wizards have a planetary ring orbiting their head, apparently.
  
• Charge Cloak: Lets you expend a charge once per day to power a device, another tool for the Energize Spell spellcaster - not by powering their spells, but to fuel their weapons after they've drained them of their power.
  
• Ring of Cosmic Alignment: Gives extra attunement points for Solarians, so they basically want two of these as soon as they can afford them at Level 11.
  
• Rod of Cancellation: Drains items of magical properties, but a lot less useful than it is in a normal Pathfinder game for obvious reasons. (Especially when magic items will often be sealed away under environmental armor.)
  
• Shadow Orb: Dampens light around you and gives you resistance against laser damage... but makes lasers very slightly more likely to hit you because they bend towards the orb. But as per the rules, they never hit the orb, they hit you.
  
• Spell Ampoules: Like magical potions, but with the advantage of being usable on other willing creatures.
  
• Spell Gems: Like magical scrolls, but gems.
  
• Staff of Mystic Healing: Gives an additional healing use for the Mystic.
  

• Mnemonic Editor: Because this is Starfinger, we can't just have character rebuilds. Oh, no. That would be simple. Instead, you need one of these, which basically function as a ticket to undo your last two character levels of advancement, allowing you to redo them. Best hope you remember what you picked, because you have to adhere to it. And if you think you can buy this once and share it with your crew, think again - it burns out and is unusable after one use. If you want to use this more than once, you need to get more expensive, higher-level versions. Ironically, given the minimum level of 5, it's unlikely that you'll have a chance to undo your first three levels - probably when you'd still be learning the system and need it the most.
  
• Null-Space Chamber: There are other weight-saving items like a Glove of Holding or the Efficient Bandolier, but this is a proper Bag of Holding equivalent that creates a dimensional rift designed to hold all your dumb crap.
  
• Starstone Compass: Apparently there's a "Starstone" at "Absalom Station" and having a literal compass that homes in on it helps in astrogation. It's not that interesting, but I figured I should comment on more than two things!
  

"Flintlocks are under most circumstances a terrible idea."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Attacks either target Kinetic Armor Class (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing) or Energy Armor Class (acid, cold. electricity, fire, or sonic) based on their energy type. If they would qualify for both, KAC takes precedence.
  
• You lose Stamina Points before Hit Points. However, unlike other d20 games, you can't go below 0 HP. If you're at 0 HP, you fall unconscious and start dying, and lose 1 RP at the end of each round unless somebody stablized you. If you can't pay the 1 RP, you die. If you have 0 RP when you hit 0 HP, you get a single round to be stabilized or die.
  
• Yes, you can be punished by using your cool abilities too much with straight-up death. It's like they decided Healing Surges from D&D 4e were cool, and then... completely misimplemented them by making them the main currency for class abilities as a whole.
  
• Instant death ("Massive Damage") occurs when you take damage that reduces you to 0 HP (or if you're already at 0 HP) and the remaining damage would be equal to or greater than your HP. Not going to come up too often save with low-level characters and egriguous circumstances (falls, collisions, etc.), but it's another way to easily insta-die at 1st level, at least.
  
• There's notation that enemies can be declared no longer "significant enemies" to PCs, apparently to keep players from milking the benefits of healing combat abilities and to cut combat off before that's an issue, so people can be forced to spend RP to recover. Of course, if RP wasn't tied to to death avoidance and fun powers, that probably wouldn't be something players would be desperate to do...
  
• At level 3, all classes get Weapon Specialization with specific types of weapons according to their class, but can take a feat for other weapons. This means you add your character level in damage when using that type of damage, or one-half that with small arms or operative weapons. You can't specialize in grenades, however.
  
• There are no free actions, just standard / move / swift. Reactions replace immediate actions.
  
• Critical Hits no longer roll for confirmation, if you roll a 20 and would score a hit normally, it's a crit and you double your damage. This may seem like a nice simplification, but it's more punishing for player characters who take more hits and have to deal with attrition, unlike most non-player characters.
  
• Attacks of Opportunity have been reduced down to triggering when somebody moves out of your threatened space without a "Guarded" step or withdraw action, or when somebody attempts a ranged attack, spell, or spell-like ability in melee. Running also always triggers an attack of opportunity. There is no limit to the number of Attack of Opportunities you can make, this time around.
  
• Combat Maneuvers no longer trigger Attacks of Opportunity. This is a good change! In general, they've been simplified, requiring a successful roll against the target's (KAC + 8)... so unfortunately the good change is balanced by making them vastly less effective. (The feat Improved Combat Maneuver gives +4 on the, basically reducing it to KAC +4 instead.) Dirty Trick, a combat manuever from the Advanced Player's Guide that lets you inflict a 1-turn condition, makes a reappearance. It can now be done at range with a penalty with the GM's discretion (presumably for things like a rock to the jimmy). Disarm and Sunder are now ridiculously good at mid-to-high levels against armed enemies if you can hit, due to the dependence on weapons to deal effective damage. Trip can send people tumbling in zero-G.
  
• Covering fire is a new action where you can do an attack that does zero damage, but grants +2 to an ally's AC for one turn. Really, only one ally? Okay... there's also Harrying Fire, which is similar, but grants a single ally +2 to hit a target.
  
• Guarded Step is a "new" move action that moves you 5', but ignores Attacks of Opportunity for movement.
  
• The only things counted under swift actions are changing a weapon from one-handed to two-handed (or vice versa) or dropping prone.
  
• Multiple attacks are still done with the full attack, but now basically you can make two attacks a round with a penalty of -4 to both attacks at any level, unless you have an "unwieldy" weapon. Combat-focused classes (like the Solarian or Soldier) get a third attack at later levels, taking a -5 or -6 to all said attacks. The Operative gets a third and fourth attack at -4, but only with Operative-approved weapons (which do lower damage as a rule).
  
• You can spend RP equal to one-quarter your maximum (minimum 1, maximum 3) to Stablize yourself. There's no timing listed on this, so I presume you can do it any point. You can also spend 1 RP to regain 1 HP (but no more than that) if you're stable at 0 HP. If you're stablized at 0 HP and there's nobody around to help you recover, you roll a straight Con check. If you roll 20 or higher, you regain 1 HP and consciousness. If you roll 10 or higher, you remain stable. Less than 10? Well, you die. Ah, saves vs. death in 2017. And it's not even level-based! You can die this way at level 20, no bonuses save what you've invested in Constitution.
  
• You still only recover 1 or 2 HP per character level per day, so the tougher you are, the slower you heal. This isn't new, but it still amuses me. Well, at least SP is easily regained now.
  
• Size now only seems to affect a creature's reach and miniature size, it's not brought up under attack or defense or referenced much. Technically, it's now possible for a ysoki to grapple an elephant - strength permitting. Presumably, the statblocks of large creatures will cover that sort of thing, but it's not clear yet.
  
• I'm halfway through the book now, ~hooray~.
  

• Burning: You're on fire, and take X damage each turn (or 1d6 if unspecified), but you can make a Reflex roll to smother it (+4 if you stop, drop, and roll) or automatically end it if you drive in water or the like. (No mention of vacuum, which apparently does not stop fire. Ooops.)
  
• Encumbered: Covers carrying too much, giving a penalty to speed, Dexterity and Strength checks, and limits your Dex bonus to AC.
  
• Off-Kilter: This is the condition for being disoriented in zero G. You can't take most move actions, are flat-footed, and have a penalty to attacks until you can either use a method of propulsion to right yourself or steady yourself against a surface.
  
• Off-Target: A small penalty to attacks.
  
• Overburdened: The worse version of encumbered, which only occurs under special conditions as noted way earlier.
  

"We don't have anything designed to be a Gundam, again because that's just not a Core Rulebook issue, just like we don't have howdahs in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• I'm in a future car, specifically an "Urban Cruiser". It has a top speed of 55 MPH. That's right. Future car is slower than your modern car. Whatever car you own, it is almost certainly faster than this.
  
• Future car, however, can accelerate from a dead stop to 55 MPH in 6 seconds. Well, technically, in 0 seconds, because it happens before you take any actions. But I have to make a Piloting check at DC 17. If I don't make it, the car stalls and does not move at all. If I don't want to risk that, I can start by moving its drive speed, instead. The drive speed is 2-8 MPH, slower than your average character's movement. In order to accelerate from 2 MPH to 55 MPH, I have to make a Drive roll at DC 12, or I lose control and perform a random 45 or 90 degree swerve. In case you're wondering if there's a way for me to take it slow, no. Either I'm going 2 MPH or 55 MPH.
  
• Once again, the drive speed is 2 MPH. Maybe 8 MPH, if I'm allowed to "run" as a vehicular action. Not sure about that. 4 MPH seems more accurate. Either way, not fast.
  
• But, after stalling once or twice, I'm up and running and driving 55 MPH. Blazin' in my six second car. But I've got a small problem. I can't turn. I can lane shift, but at this speed I'm not allowed to change my direction. I can't turn.
  
• Which is a problem, because I've got a 30 degree turn coming up. So I shift down to my move speed and all but stop the vehicle. Then, at 4 MPH, I crawl through the turn like a turtle on 'ludes. Then, I accelerate back up to 55 MPH and I'm on my way!
  
• ... or at least, so I think, until one of these turns where I fail my Pilot check, turn 90 degrees, and fly off the road at 55 MPH. Due to the timing involved in braking, I cannot stop at that point. I will crash. Also, I may be a comedy sketch cat.
  

"I actually went in thinking: 'Oh yeah, starships are just how you get from Place A to Place B.'"

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Eoxian Ship Styles: These are ships of bone and other dead-themed stuff piloted by "elebrians and other undead". Apparently, they don't need protection from the radiation or space. Apparently there is also a "rogue Corpse Fleet" that attacks people of the Pact Worlds as well. The ships listed are the "Death's Head Necroglider", a small interceptor that looks like a coffin, the "Blackwind Sepulcher", a rib-like transport, and the "Thaumtech Omenbringer", a battleship themed after a dead whale. I wonder if these guys will be our friends?
  
• Kasathan Ship Styles: So, these are generally new ships produced by the "government of the Idari" (kasathans), which are golden ships that look sleek but with a lil' chub to them. Just a lil' chub. They supposedly have magnetic sections that can split apart in a modular fashion, but there are no rules for that, so fuck. We get the "Voidrunner", a small racer, the "Vanserai", which is a well-armed freighter, and the "Millennia", which is a carrier designed after a bird skull.
  
• Pact Worlds Ship Styles: So human / elf / dwarf / etc. Larger ships are big blocky humans-from-Babylon 5-styled-meet-the-Yamato affairs while the smaller ones are jet fighters. They're intentionally generic! There's the "Ringworks Wanderer", a small shuttle sometimes armed up for combat, the "Kevolari Venture", an exploration vessel on a whatever-year mission, and the "Atech Immortal", a big fuckoff ship which has tiny fins for some reason.
  
• Shirren Ship Styles: Bulbous organic ships, but ones that have incorporated more traditional technology over time. Apparently the largest manufacturer is a group of pacifists that have software that lock down all weapons unless the ship has taken damage, but apparently everybody deletes the software and the manufacturer gives no further fucks. Quite the firm moral stance, there. We have a "Starhive Drone Mk III" which is a small bug-looking freighter, a "Uie Hiveguard" which a fishbulb-looking destroyer, and the ""Hivonyx Titan Hauler", which is supposed to be "beetle-like" but looks like another fishbulb to me.
  
• Veskarium Ship Styles: Since the vesk are generic military guys, they get generic military ships in army green, all the better to blend into the darkness of space. Apparently baddies and grey-area types like their ships but good guys would never disrepect them by using their ships or something something... anyway. We have the "BMC Mauler", a small and tough fighter, the "Norikama Dropship", because I guess the vesk are part Japanese, and the "Vindicas Tyrant", a giant baby born from a C-130 and a battleship.
  

"And there's going to be, at the very high levels, it'll be more or less some of the small ships against giant capital ships are going to be fantastic battles that'll probably be told around your gaming table for a while."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Pilots get roll modifiers based on speed - going slow gives bonuses, going fast gives penalities.
  
• Every ship has a maneuverability rating (like old d20 flying creatures do). This determines how many hexes they have to travel between 60 degree turns (one hex facing). It also gives a piloting check modifier as well (penalties for a bad rating, bonuses for good).
  
• However, pilots can do various stunts, like "Back Off", which lets you go in reverse, "Barrel Roll", which switches your port and starboard sides for around, "Flip and Burn" that lets you turn 180, and "Slide" which is radical spaceship drifting, amongst others. All of these require a Pilot checks, and often give penalities when failed.
  
• Ships have four firing arcs: fore (front), aft (rear), starboard (right), and port (left) that weapons are mounted in. Gunners can use either their (base attack bonus or Piloting ranks) + Dexterity + bonuses to try and shoot enemies, trying to match or beat the target's AC or TL, depending on the weapon. Now, tracking weapons (the sort that target TL, i.e. missiles) have their own movement and counters as they try and track. If they don't have enough movement to hit the target right off, they have to roll again. Granted, with their speed they generally don't have to roll more than once or twice, but it's a potential drawback. In return, tracking weapons usually have a higher damage for their BP cost.
  
• Shields are location-based (same arcs) but the hull is universal, so damage that gets through shields is applied to its HP (hull points, not hit points, get it). Some ships have a Damage Threshold, which is a number you need to exceed to do damage (though it doesn't reduce damage). A ship with HP of 0 is disabled and can't do anything, though life support is considered to remain up indefinitely. Being reduced to -HP destroys a ship's life support as well.
  
• Ships have a Critical Threshold, and damage in excess of that to HP or any Critical Hit to the hull does a Critical Damage effect. How the CT is figured is a little confusing - each ship type has a fixed CT listed, but elsewhere we're told it's 1/5 of their HP. Presumably the former is only for tier 1 ships, but it could stand to be more clear. Critical Damage effects penalize one of the five crew roles, and can stack, starting at a small penalty and ending with a system being disabled entirely, except for the power core (the engineer's station), which just penalizes other systems the more it becomes damage.
  

• Captains can give small buffs to their own crew or penalties to an enemy crew, and at higher levels can spend RP to grant an extra bonus action or rerolls. They're basically the lazylords of the crew.
  
• Engineers can boost a ship's speed, give bonuses to the science officer, or boost shield or weapons. (Even missile launchers can benefit from more power - somehow.) They can also temporarily cancel out some Critical Damage for 1 round or do a more lasting repair on Critical Damage with multiple turns of work. Higher-level engineers can spend RP to grant multiple buffs or do a quick, temporary repair on Critical Damage that will last for the fight.
  
• Gunners can shoot, do two attacks at -4 (just like normal combat). High-level gunners can spend an RP to fire all the weapons mounted on an arc or automatically inflict Critical Damage (if damaging the hull).
  
• Pilots can roll to improve the maneuverability of their craft or do the aforementioned stunts. High-level pilots can spend an RP to move further or do a special stunt that lets them move through enemy hexes unaccosted and change to any direction.
  
• Science Officers can restribute SP (shield points, not stamina points, because... well, okay, that makes enough sense) between shields, scan ships to learn more about them, and improve the crit range for weapons from 20 to 19-20. High-level science officers can spend an RP to boost attack rolls or a round or force enemy ships to reroll attacks.
  

"We want magic to augment what your character does, we don't want your character to only be able to do magic."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Charm Person: Fuck Envoys.
  
• Detect Thoughts: No, seriously, fuck Envoys.
  
• Mystic Cure: Healing SP is now simple, but healing HP quick is still largely a spellcaster-exclusive province.
  
• Reflecting Armor: When you take damage, you automatically reflect up to 10 points of it back to the attacker, then the spell is expended. No save. Why would there be a save?
  

• Augury: Requires an RP and can't see more than 30 minutes into the future. Otherwise, same is it ever was.
  
• Zone of Truth: Lawl, fuck Envoys so much.
  

• Bestow Curse: A permanent problem a Mystic can inflict on somebody...
  
• Remove Affliction:... which can only be solved by another Mystic. That hasn't changed.
  
• Psychokinetic Strangulation: In case you were worried you couldn't tekechoke because you're a Mystic and not a Solarian. Nope! Mystics get it too. Hm. I feel like I've seen this gimmick before somewhere, but where...?
  
• Speak with Dead: Murder mysteries? Not in this game! Go back to Gumshoe, you!
  

• Discern Lies: Have we suggested: fuck Envoys?
  
• Mind Probe: And let's fuck Envoys again.
  
• Reincarnate: Hahaha... you're serious? So, it's like Star Trek III, only this time Spock comes back as a gnome.
  

• Crush Skull: So, what's the damage of the biggest gun at 13th level? Like, a 4d12 X-Gen gun? Or a 6d6 frag grenade? Because this does 18d8 on a failed save for you imitating a Kids in the Hall skit... or 4d8 on a failed save.
  
• Modify Memory: Have I mentioned: Fuck Envoys?
  
• Raise Dead: Or "why everybody needs a Mystic in their party".
  
• Synaptic Pulse, Greater: Either Stun everybody in a 20' radius around you for for 1d4 rounds, or sicken then for 1 round on a successful save. I imagine some high-level party having their Mystic just charge enemies and stun / sickenlock foes with repeated castings while they gun down enemies and just turn most encounters into clownshoe affairs.
  

• Gravitational Singularity: Create a mini-black hole that pulls targets towards it within 30' and does 12d6 damage and effectively grapples anything that comes in contact with it each round.
  
• Flesh to Stone: Because we had to have a save-or-die somewhere...
  
• Snuff Life: ... but why not just have another?
  
• Subjective Reality: Lets you disbelieve in somebody's existence so hard they basically can't do anything to you save for non-damaging magic (only 50% chance), and you can't do anything to them. Your friends, charmed enemies, and summoned creatures can still beat the hell out of them, though. No save.
  
• Telepathic Jaunt: The Mystic can set up a telepathic link, and then teleport themselves and allies to somebody they've linked to, regardless of distance. (Try not to leave your spaceship behind?)
  

• Darkvision: You might wonder how necessary this is, and then you once again remember you're in a future where nightvision goggles were seemingly never invented.
  

• Clairaudience/Claivoyance: "I could hack their cameras and find out, I just need to get root access, then break the security on the camer-" "Or I could just view them invisibly with no chance of failure and no saving throw unless they have a high-level caster who knows one specific spell and has the foresight to cast it-" "FINE. Cast your stupid spell!"
  
• Haste: Now just grants an extra move action and extra movement. The days of bonus attacks are over.
  
• Tongues: Remember all the damned languages and a whole skill about interpreting unknown ones? Fuck all that, from 7th level on, your spellcaster has you covered.
  

• Animate Dead: You can raise the dead! But there are no rules for animated dead. "Yes, but they'll be in the Bestiary.", some might point out, at which point I quote "This book contains all the information you need to play Starfinger, whether you're a player or a Game Master." Not part of the information. All of it. But it doesn't actually, of course.
  
• Planar Binding: Bind an extraplanar creature and get it to do what you want if your GM decides you've roleplayed well enough, or have it break free and fuck up your shit if you A) fail the spell resistance, B) dimensional travel powers, or C) a special Charisma check. It can try A-C once a day. What can you summon? Well, there's no Bestiary yet, so-
  

• Control Gravity: Turning an area into Zero-G isn't as bad as it sounds, given characters are a lot more likely to be prepared for that in this setting. However, high gravity is utterly crippling as far as save-or-suck effects go, since it instantly hits people with massive encumbrance penalties.
  

• Erase: Lets you erase a book! Or a computer!... only apparently computers keep backups on a round-by-round basis. So it basically gives a computer just a 1-round bout of amnesia.
  
• Grease: 1st-level slapstick shenanigans remain largely unchanged.
  
• Magic Missile: ... now needs a full-round around to fire three missiles instead of two. Caster problems solved!
  
• Supercharge Weapon: Cast in advance, have your weapon do +2d6 or +4d6 damage with your first shot. Bear in mind you're using this when weapons top out at 1d8. And you can cast this on a friendly Soldier's weapon if you gotta. You can even supercharge a normal sword! It's charged with... charging... ness?
  

• Inject Nanobots: So, it's really confusing as to how technomancer shit works. Do they use technology to enhance magic? Or vice versa? I mean, this lets you inject nanobots into somebody to confuse them and do 4d8 damage (and this specifically ignores triggering attacks of opportunity). Do you like, have to prepare your nanobot components in advance? Or are they conjured from the Elemental Plane of Nanotech? The world may never know.
  
• Invisibility: Still only 2nd level!
  
• Knock: Still only 2nd level!
  
• Mirror Image: Still only... you get the idea.
  
• Recharge: Combine with Energize Spell, and use a 2nd-Level spell to reuse your higher-level spell slots, though it will cost you an RP, and 20% of the time the battery will blow up in your face instead. Is breaking the spell economy worth the risk?
  

• Arcing Surge: What's the biggest gun you can use at 7th level? Like a 2d10 Reaction Cannon, maybe with another 1d6 from some Fusion? Well, this does 10d6 in a line. Suck it, soldiers.
  
• Displacement: Soldier: "At this level, I can get a +11 armor bonus, meaning it's 55% harder to hit me!" Technomancer: "I can cast a spell that gives a flat 50% penalty to hit me!" Soldier: "Ha! Sucker!" Technomancer: "... oh, and I can wear armor that makes it 45% harder to hit me too." Soldier: "Oh. Aw."
  
• Explosive Blast: I know they give warnings about used batteries, but inflicting 9d6 damage with one feels like a bit of an exaggeration regarding the dangers.
  
• Instant Virus: Give a robot the cyber-flu.
  
• Probability Prediction: Gives a reroll in a system that almost never gives them, though you have to discharge it before you roll.
  

• Corrosive Haze: You create acid-resistant naites that convert water in the water into... acid. It'll damage unattended objects but not attended objects, so if you want to save your favorite mug, just hold on to it.
  
• Creation: "Cast as a 4th level spell, you can only create an object out made of vegetable matter." "How much pot can I make, man?" "... enough for everybody, I'm pretty sure."
  
• Dimension Door: "I could hack their door and get us in, I just need to get root access, then break the security on the door-" "Or I could just teleport us past the door instantly." "FINE. Cast your stupid spell!"
  
• Overload Systems: No attacks of opportunity when inflicting this save-or-suck 50% chance of losing an action every round you're under its effect. Works on robots and humans alike. Yes, you can overload a human's systems. Sure. Why not?
  
• Rewire Flesh: "... you manipulate the target's DNA to painfully rewire that target's biological functions to mimic the cold and rigid processes of a robot..." which does ongoing damage and debuff and eerily mimics the fantasies of ASFR fetishists.
  
• Rewire Flesh, Mass: Granted, I also remember seeing this effect in a CYOA book I had when I was a kid and I got nightmares out of it. Now a new generation can too!
  

• Control Machines: Step back, engineers. No hacks required.
  
• Passwall: "So, I'm going to distract the guards while you hack the door, and he shuts off the security guns, and you hack the door-" "Or I could-" "You have a spell, don't you?" "Yeah, I can just make a hole in the wall over here." "Fuuuuu- cast your stupid fucking spell again."
  
• Prying Eyes: "I'll send my drone in to scout out ahead." "Hey." "What?" "Nameless engineer." "What?" "I'll just cast this spell that lets me scatter around 20 tiny spies and scan the whole complex." "Why am I even here? Your spells do everything I do." "I charmed you earlier today." "FFfffff- friend."
  
• Synapse Overload: 18d8 damage. Save? The save is to resist being staggered. The damage occurs on touch. Why no, it doesn't trigger an attack of opportunity! Why would it? (And for the record, if you cast a touch spell and miss, you don't lose the spell. If you take damage, you don't lose the spell. Essentially nothing can actually disrupt a spell like this other than running away.)
  
• Unwilling Guardian: Specifically makes somebody into a bullet shield for you and makes them fight anybody that attacks you, because Charm spells weren't enough.
  

• Discharge, Greater: I bet you though it was worth spending a half-million credits on that laser gun? Well, now all your ammo is dead because you failed a save. Eat an unwholesome pie.
  
• Disintegrate: Or "how to rid enemies of all their utterly necessary equipment they utterly rely on at this level". A failed save means their midnight sunstone bazooka only takes 4d20 damage?
  
• Interplanetary Teleport: Well, it's certainly one fix to spaceship DCs being broken at this level. Doing interstellar travel requires RP equal to the number of days that would take. You may note that the amount of days is random; so if the roll is higher than your RP, you lose all your RP and the spell fails.
  
• Shadowy Fleet: You create an illusionary space fleet bombarding a 60-foot area. What if somebody successfully disbelieves? Half damage, because this is Starfinger.
  
• Terraform: Lets you kinda-sorta terraform a planet!... well, 100 feet of it, anyway. You may wonder why this is in the Technomancer's wheelhouse, given it has to do with life and not tech? Well, I don't know either! It seems way more in the Mystic's thematics, but Technomancers have to pee in everybody's cheerios since they're wizards and can vary from theme whenever the writers like, I suppose. Granted, Xenodruid Mystics get it as an available spell, but they're the only Mystics who do.
  

"So if you want to play an Ursula K. Le Guin style science fantasy, or C.J. Cherryh, who whoever it is that you're into, you can do that in our system."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

"There are a ton of different styles of science fiction and science fantasy being blended together in [Starfinger]—everything from space horror like Alien or Event Horizon to Firefly-esque comedic escapades to the political drama of The Expanse—but at its heart, this game is really about exploration, seeing worlds no one’s ever seen before."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• 01: A space station over Aballon (?) infected by a virus called "Bureaucratic Syndrome" that caused all local machines to become subject to complex "hierarchy and ritual". While mechanical organisms are quarantined here, there hasn't been an attempt to quarantine it due to the "strange discoveries" and technology it produces.
  
• Estuar: A community created to farm water from a melting ice cap to sell to the desert dwellers of Akiton. A generic scum / villainy producer.
  

• Pure Adamantine: Like found in Pathfinder. Or D&D. Or Wolverine. About hardness 50.
  
• Polycarbon Plate: Polycarbon is used to make bulletproof glass, certainly. It's tough stuff! For some reason, though, the Starfinger version is tougher than steel or adamantine alloys. I guess words like "polymer" sound futuristic even if the substance being described is laughably mundane.
  
• Nanocarbon: Tubes are magic! They're hardness 35.
  
• Adamantine Alloy: The impure version of adamantine, and it loses 20 hardness as a result, down to hardness 30.
  
• Transparent Aluminum: For some reason Starfinger erroneously states it's made of aluminum, oxygen, and nitrogen, when the formula actually was hydrogen, accurentum, and aluminum. Hardness 10.
  

"The [Starfinger] Adventure Path, the first volume of which will come out in August at the same time as the Core Rulebook, will also have a Bestiary section just like the Pathfinder Adventure Path does, so right out of month 1 you'll have some new monsters, and every volume of the AP will have a selection of new monsters and new aliens and such."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Curse of Lethargy: This slows the accursed, requiring you to run four continuous hours a day for a week to break the curse.
  
• Curse of the Miser: Makes you lose 10% of your "net worth" each week, whatever that might entail. You can only break it by spending 20% of your "net worth" selflessly... which seems to break the equipment treadmill, or at least make your GM scramble to appropriately maintain your wealth levels.
  
• Curse of the Ravenous: You treat each hour as a day for purposes of starvation, which means you'll likely starve to some extent whenever you sleep. This can only be broken by drinking water and eating gruel for a month.
  
• Curse of the Vainglorious: Failing a check will give you minor penalties for a minute to whatever roll was performed, and prevents you from taking 20. You have to "apprentice to a master" for 1 month to break this curse.
  
• Curse of the Zealous: Whenever you would make your first hostile action in a combat, you're confused for 1d4 actions. To break this- "The victim must take no hostile actions for 1 month of active adventuring." No, really.
  

• Blinding Sickness: True to its name, if you fail two saves without recovering, you go blind.
  
• Demon Fever: The weakening this inflicts is permanent after one failed save.
  
• Mummy Rot: This has no normal cure, inflicts the effects of both types of diseases, and can only be cured by a successful double dose of remove affiliction spells cast back-to-back.
  
• Slimy Doom: Two failed saves leaves you permanently impaired.
  

• Dreamshiver (2,500 cr / dose: Get a huge bonus against fear or fall asleep - it's literally a coin flip between the two and there's no way to influence it. Pass.
  
• Hyperleaf (95 cr / dose): Space pot, gives a minor bonus against mind-affecting effects. (Say 'mind-affecting effects five times fast'.)
  
• Megaopiate (22,000 cr / dose): With a bonus to saves against pain and Damage Reduction 5/-, space heroin verges on being useful.
  
• Transdimensional Pesh (14,000 cr / dose): The urban legend version of PCP, now in space. A bonus against fear and +2 SP per level.
  

"Musically, [Starfinger] is basically a Coheed & Cambria album."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

"We didn’t try to make a fantasy that was so unique and bizarre that you’d never run into it before."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

"As is always the case, I got super excited by all these ethical quandaries and was keen to put them in the game."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Cynosure: Apparently once the polestar of Golarion, this is supposedly home to the goddess Desna (who?) and her servants known as the Spheres (what?).
  
• Ironstar: A massive Dwarven space station equipped with a Drift engine, this travels through the galaxy looking for a mythological promised land for dwarves.
  
• Kasath: The home planet of the kasathas, this is a desert planet being irradiated and overheated by its sun, which is an expanding red giant. There are some karathas that remain here stubbornly because fuck the sun, seriously.
  
• Lausill: A water planet with water people who don't go into space because legends.
  
• Taru Seco: A binary system with ruins left behind by ruin-leavers.
  
• Xio: A space station in deep space that broadcasts distress signals in an unknown language, but nobody who has gone there has ever returned ooooo..
  

• Arquand: A self-aware planet that shapes itself to the needs of its animal inhabitants. With sentient visitors, though, it brings their dreams and wishes true in the usual GM-screwy way and drives pepole dead or insane, but people travel there to try and use this ability to their advantage (it doesn't work out).
  
• Azlanti Star Empire: Apparently formed from an interstellar outpost created by a former Golarian Empire of humans, they apparently became magically and technologically advanced, and have been busy conquering star systems ever since. It has a variety of barely-described alien races as well as android slaves.
  
• Daegox 4: A super-prison in a nearby system run by Daegox Corporation which is run by the appropriately-named Daegox, a "mysterious humanoid race", doubly mysterious in that they're given no description. Nobody has ever escaped!... except for one person who probably has?
  
• Daimalko: Populated by the "gray-skinned Daimalkans", this planet apparently was wracked by war until colossi awoke, which were apparently also called "kaiju", because sure, why not, may as well call then titans while you're at it. In any case, people had to retreat underground until mysterious "Guardians" showed up with magic orbs that could direct the colossi, and the people have started to repopulate the surface, but there are still various dangers and blah blah blah why would you go here I dunno.
  
• Embroi: A sea planet run by "regal mollusks", headed up by the Embri, who are masked and follow proscribed roles, having quashed out all freethinking. However, few realize that this is apparently a fiefdom of Hell, with the demons apparently being homebodies- sorry, "exist only in the planet's shadows", which I'd interpret as living in your parent's basement. They have plans and a small bowl of word salad that isn't explained.
  
• Lothun: So, a big metal planet settle by the group called the Prospectors (who?), they tried to use nanotech that went haywire and though there's some wandering pockets of atmosphere now, the Protectors can no longer be contacted, and it could be a target for those looking to gain their terraforming tech either for good or eeevil.
  
• Orikolai: A halo- er, toroid-shaped plent, the odd shape creates long seasons that local life has adapted to. Some spectuate this was some kind of lab or experiment by a long-vanished race (with a moon at the center), but apparently there's a a race against time to study it, as it's about to collapse! Well, in centuries, anyway. But it's immediate!
  
• Orry: Once a technomagical utopia, well they fucked up and blowed it up. Of course they did. Never once have I heard the word "utopia" in a game without the sound of a train crash or diving plane immediatley following it. In any case, is is now 10 swaths of land that float in the same atmosphere, and they don't collide despite at times crossing close enough for people to grapple hook between them. Also there are mysterious artifacts that prevent planes and teleportation from working, so better work on that swingin' arm. A land of contrivance.
  
• Preluria: An acidic gas giant inhabited mainly by "psychic gas oozes", but there are a number of settlements on its 23 (mostly) inhabitable moons for those seeking extreeeeme isolation, from the rich to the criminal. There are a variety of factions that struggle for control, though I'm not sure why you'd bother so much, given there's nary a mention of valuable resources or really any reason to stick around.
  
• Riven Shroud: A damaged... ruin... of a Dyson Sphere, though much is still inhabitable. There's a variety of named but totally undescribed races, and it's also got defenses that engage approaching ships from time to time. However, it's seemingly using ruined ships to try and repair itself. But what happened to the crews? Spooky stuff, no doubt.
  
• Shadari: We just had the "Riven Shroud" and this is entitled "A Shrouded Confederacy". There must have been a 2-for-1 shroud sale. In any case, this is a system where Shadari is the largest world, and it's a space pirate and outlaw refuge dominated by an "entropic religion" where the worshippers "bear the mystic Eye of Enlightenment". Not sure if that's a literal eye or what. Supposedly they have a weapon called the "Unmaker" which could blow up the universe, which is certainly a not the best plan, but they're just evil and generic enough to do it!
  
• Tabori Cluster: A number of stars around a now-collapsed supergiant, the resulting nebula caused a mining rush for rare "siccatite" deposits, whatever those are. However, some people here have been stranded by "interference destroyed their vessel's engines", which certainly is some interfering. Others just like living on a rustic shithole with a pretty sky.
  
• The Veskarium: This is a large solar system that the Vesk conquered prior to Drift technology, and they have a variety of client races, including "stone-faced squidfolk", "feline humanoid barbarians", and "pacifist frost behemoths". It's run by vesk autocrats obsessed with honor, but are ruthless and see non-vesk as inferior.
  

• Efreet
  
• Salamanders
  
• Anacites
  
• Formians
  
• Shobhads
  
• Ashok
  
• Ikeshti Lizardfolk
  
• Verthani
  
• Sarcesians
  
• Elebrians
  
• Ryphorians
  
• Dragons
  
• Dragonkin
  
• Dreamers / Barathu
  
• Kalo
  
• Maraquoi
  
• Urogs
  
• Drow
  
• Orcs
  
• Orocorans
  
• Neskinti
  
• Vilderaro
  
• Neskinti
  
• Daegox
  
• Daimalkans
  
• Embri
  
• Devil (malebranche)
  
• Orrians
  
• Draeliks
  
• Skrell
  
• Balrodds
  
• Haan
  

"That is known as the Drift, and when you go into the Drift, sometimes you pull stuff from other planes with you, whether that be a small chunk of Heaven or a tiny part of Hell or maybe a bit of the Maelstrom, etc. etc., and sometimes that comes with, you know, a bunch of angels minding their own business singing hallelujahs and suddenly they're in another dimension."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• The Drift: The aforementioned plane used for FTL travel.
  
• Elemental Planes: Four of them, Air, Earth, Fire, and Water - the usual.
  
• Ethereal Plane: Kind of redundant with The Drift around, huh? A spooky mist place that's a way to travel between planes!... somehow.
  
• The First World: A "rough draft for the Material Plane" abandoned by the gods and dominated by fey.
  
• Negative and Positive Energy Planes: Planes of unlife and life energy, respectively. We're told both are equally deadly! But I'll just add the "fun" murphy's rule that you can just stab yourself repeatedly on the Positive Energy Plane to keep from exploding.
  
• Shadow Plane: Scarytown
  

• Abaddon (neutral evil): Daemonvania.
  
• Abyss (chaotic evil): Demonville.
  
• Axis (lawful neutral): Inevitabland.
  
• Boneyard (neutral): Pharasma's Judgement Park.
  
• Elysium (chaotic good): Hippiezone.
  
• Heaven (lawful good): Archonia
  
• Hell (lawful evil): Devilburg.
  
• Maelstrom (chaotic neutral): CHAOS CONTROOOOL.
  
• Nirvana (neutral good): Sounds really monastic for a place monks can't end up.
  

• Abadarcorp: The largest corporation and Church of Abadar, god of Civilization + Commerce + Wealth. Basically they Wal-Mart up everything and are effectively the Pact Worlds governmental bank. People are uncomfortable about this but there's no indication Abadarcorp is anything but straightforward.
  
• Android Abolitionist Front: So, this is a covert organization that goes around liberating androids, which is cool! Also they're super-secretive, which is weirder given that... enslaving androids is illegal in the Pact Worlds and they're really just busting up criminals. I mean, that cloak and dagger stuff makes sense if slavery is the cultural norm, but not so much when it's clearly not allowed. However, there's an extremist, violent minority that believes anything that seems to be sentient needs to be liberated, and go around gunning down ship crews to liberate their AIs. (Because I guess we just can't have liberating slaves as a straightforward good cause... or something...)
  
• Augmented: This is mostly a social movement that thinks self-augmentation is rad, yo. They're mainly based out of Verces and has a lot of people who just plug in to the net and tune out, man. Most are open-minded sorts who are just pushing for understanding, but of course you have the extreeeme faction who wants to just forcibly augment people with nanos or surgery, and the two groups have a "shadow war" going.
  
• Free Captains: So, this is a sort of space pirate brotherhood run by pirate lords. They have a code - don't attack fellow members, respect ships that pay protection fees, stand by your word, and crews have to fight for their commander unto death - but can leave at any port. This is basically to prevent infighting, but exactly why is... vague. It's not like they seem to be united against lawkeepers or anything, but I guess it makes it harder on space cops, but there's no actual rule again ratting people out. Probably should add that in.
  
• Hellknights: Oh hey, Mercykillers, haven't seen you since Planescape. 'Sup?
  
  
  
  I guess I should say a little more. These are guys that go around enforcing law irregardless of the morality involved. What law? Y'know... law... that thing everybody agrees on... that isn't subjective... anyway, they're basically like a bunch of Vaders and Fetts who go around bounty hunting or acting as evil ruthless right hands. Though it says they don't champion evil, they hero-worship devils, wear black spiky armor, and will burn a baby if it would preserve order, so you can make a your own call there. Kind of Mercykillers join the Space Marines while cosplaying as Sith Lords.
  
• Knights of Golarion: Primarily united under the faith of Iomedae, these are, uh, psuedo-religious fanatics that hold up religious law good as the highest virtue and go around protecting the innocent and killing devils or the undead. But sometimes the devils go "I have diplomatic immunity!" So the Pact Worlds government tries to point space paladin Riggs and Murdock at less political targets to keep them from upsetting the apple cart with their antics. They're exceedingly generic paladin types that conflict a bit with the attempts in this book to sell a more conflicted morality to the Pact Worlds (what with Eox the skeletor planet). Vut the Paizo management doesn't really let the writers lean into that as mentioned in interviews, and it's pretty half-assed as a result.
  
• Starfinger Society: Explorers that go around to trying to uncover history and artifacts for the greater good, and sell or publish the results. Generally they're supposed to not go around outright stealing or exploiting but given they only just "frown" on that sort of thing, presumably it still happens.
  
• Spectres Stewards: These are "warrior-diplomats" tasked with maintaining the Pact Worlds alliance through policing, negotiations, or preventing wars. They're based out of Absalom Station and work with the council but aren't beholden to them. However, their jurisdiction is limited to the system itself, so baddies can escape them by just jumping out of the system... but they still have a lot of leeway to pull shenanigans.
  
• Xenowardens: These are druids that go around trying to keep newly discovered planets and try and make sure that their ecology isn't ruined. They have "arkships" which apparently are made from organic tech "to reduce reliance on nonrenewable technologies", whatever that means in the infinity of space. Also their leader, the Greenspeaker, has a crowd of space mice that follow them around that can answer questions about the future but don't actually understand language themselves. Sure. Okay.
  

"Lots of considerations went into choosing the gods for [Starfinger]: how many old gods to keep vs. how many new ones to introduce, what kind of stories we wanted to tell, what gods already had a connection to space, how many alien gods vs. Pact Worlds gods, gender balance, alignment balance, an obvious god for every core race, etc."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Abadar: Commerce, law, and hard work and pullin' yerself up by the bootstraps. Some day he created civiliztion for us. Also he has a vault with a bunch of platonic ideals of things, which is weird, because he's not really like Plato? May as well give him the Hammer of Thor as long as you're looking for random analogues.
  
• Besmara: A nautical goddess that now oversees pirates, strife, and space monsters. She is "brash, fickle, greedy, and lusty" and is generally a patron of pirates and smugglers, and apparently disdains meaningless klling. Apparently she has a ship called the Starwraith that sails around space and would be a really problematic random encounter.
  
• Damoritosh: A vesk deity of conquest, obedience, and is worshipped to champion the strong over the weak and honorable surrender. He's just as generic as the vesk themselves are. Well, at least they can be like "by Damoritosh!" or something.
  
• Desna: What do luck, stars, dreams, and travel have in common? Desna, I guess. She champions impulsiveness as the manic pixie dream girl of gods, and prefers worshippers avoid conflict. Apparently a lot of ships have a small shrine or idol of her and casual prayers to her are common.
  
• Devourer: The Devourer embodies the destruction of the universe and "it largely ignores the pleas and prayers of even its most devout worshipers", which is no doubt why the Mystic class notes it twice as a possible patron. Some think that the Devourer will give birth to a new universe but those who worship it "know" that the Devourer will only leave behind nothingness. Why do they worship it, then? Well, I guess when life hands you lemons, you embrace generic, psychopathic nihilism.
  
• Eloritu: A mysterious deity of mysteries, Eloritu's worship has migrated to the Pact Worlds from multiple extrasolar cultures. The god of magic and history, it hails from some mysterious place called Gemmenad and may have had something to do with Gap or Golarion vanishing, but it's not saying.
  
• Halax: The god of the Shirrens that apparently predated them becoming the Swarm and has returned to them since then, not being in for the whole all-consuming hive-mind deal. Hylax is a god of friendship and peace, and is mainly followed by bug-people and various diplomatic sorts. Though she mainly oversees hive cultures, she prizes individuality, because... she does, shut up.
  
• Ibra: Because Eloritu wasn't enough god of mysteries, let's have another! Well, this is the god of cosmic mysteries, or something. Sure. It has mysterious origins and tries to encourage astronomy and science. It's pretty redundant, basically being the science-flavored Eloritu.
  
• Iomedae: A mortal human who ascended to become a god... somehow, and is the goddess of humanity with a paladin's thematics, all about honor and swording and goodery. Oversees the Knights of Golarion, and is really... I can't just keep calling these gods generic, let's see the thesaurus... derivative? We'll go with derivative.
  
• Lao Shu Po: A rat who apparently ate part of a dead god, it then became a rat-god of the night!... and then became the rat-god of sneaky, merciless sorts and Han shooting first. She's apparently a patron of the Ysoki, but most just pray to avoid her notice. Her followers are often persecuted for obvious reasons, those reason being "We like to stab." and "Yes, that includes you." Slightly curious that the only obviously Asian organization is criminal and the only obviously Asian-named god is also a patron of criminals. Not that I'm saying anything. Wait, shit, I just said it. Also, "Ning", I've got my eye on you.
  
• Nyarlathotep: Meh.
  
• Oras: A god of evolution in the scientific sense, this is mainly a god for biologists and druids. It doesn't any personality beyond "evolution is good for life". I guess evolution was just a religion all along...
  
• Pharasma: A goddess of birth, death, and fate, Pharasma assigns you to your death bin and apparently knows if you've been bad or good. She's fine with resurrection spells, but not so much with undeath. Apparently every culture has some worship of her which I guess makes her the biggest deal, god-wise.
  
• Saranae: Generic sun healing god wait no shit not generic, I mean iconic.
  
• Talavet: God of the kasathas that champions tradition with a storytelling theme on the side. She's about both community and self-reliance which seems kind of contradictory, but whatever. Also she has a feud with Nyarlathotep because apparently the gnarliest of the Hoteps tells evil stories. Sure, whatever.
  
• Triune: A fusion of Brigh (goddess of clockwork and invention), Epoch (an AI god created by Aballon), and Casandalee (an android "Iron God"?), Triune oversees computers, robots, and the Drift. Mostly been covered previously.
  
• Urgathoa: A god of disease and undeath and breaking taboos. She sounds a lot like the god of teenagers in black t-shirts saying fuck you, dad or mom which sounds rad but I guess she's evil because undeath and corruption of the natural order and one of these deities was almost interesting for a moment and they they got boring. Fuck you, mom or dad!
  
• Weydan: A god of equality and exploration, Weydan often takes mortal form to to explore the universe as avatars, and "believes in every sentient species' right to freedom" which I'm pretty sure was Optimus Prime's line. Apparently this puts him at odds with Abadar who is suddenly oppressive now. Oookay. He's a god of rebels and the Starfinger Society and stuff like that.
  
• Yaraesa: A lanshuntan scientist who ascended to a god of knowledge and scienc, and rejects faith - that is, she apparently grants spells in "consistent and predictable ways that can be taught like a science" but does not make clear what that could be. Well, at least she lets you have atheist priests but not atheists actually. Ultimately, though, I'm pretty tired of reading about gods with personalities that are "yep, they like their portfolio".
  
• Zon-Kuton: Evil sadistic god of darkness and pain and slavery and torture and more pain and loss and envy and also pain. But it's okay. He has a medical condition, apparently.
  

• The Aspis Constortium: Remember the Weyland-Yutani Corporation from Aliens? Let's get it out of the way: these guys are aspholes. There, done. So, this is basically the rival to the Starfinger Society that goes around being imperialist dicks, exploiting or exterminating native cultures, and hanging around with criminals but never quite getting arrested. They're like the bad guys from Avatar, too. The one with the aliens, not the benders? I'm pretty sure like that one. I've never seen it. They're pretty much every bad space corporation ever.
  
• Azlanti Star Empire: Remember the Empire from Star Wars? This is made up of eeevil humans who gun down Pact World representatives because they bad and conquer stuff but haven't conquered the Pact Worlds even though they're several times its size because... um... also they're human supremacists (specifically, Azlanti supremacists) and they're space Nazis, or the First Order, or the Empire.
  
• Cult of the Devourer: Remember the Reavers from Serenity? Starfinger does too, so they throw them in, but forgot to give them an origin story. "Let's worship the apocalypse and take the bad drugs and drive spikes into our skulls because it's Sunday and there's nothing else to do!"
  
• Dominion of the Black: Remember the Shadows from Babylon 5? Yeah, these are mystery biologically-themed, ancient, evil monsters who have names like "The-Whispers-of-the-Void-Have-Eyes". I guess we're are actually supposed to take them seriously and not conclude they're just space fourteen-year old teens who just discovered L'Oreal's Feria in Blue Black.
  
• The Swarm: Remember the bugs from Starship Troopers? These are evil conquering interstellar bugs that expand and devour because they tried it once and got hooked. The shirren are a "freak mutation" that broke off from them.
  
• The Hidden: Remember the colonists from The X-Files? These are evil greys and shapeshifters that may be hiding amongst people and they've been visiting since even before the Gap and the government censors stuff about them because shut up they do.
  

"In the same way we did with Pathfinder, we’re trying to be all things to all people, which is normally a recipe for disaster."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

• Dwarves: Generally found on space stations, big dwarven ships, or mining colonies, dwarves apparently are traditionalists that focus on older but reliable technology. Apparently they once sought to emigrate to the surface, and while some of them think this as been achieved long ago, some interpret it as a quest to find a particular world which will serve as a new dwarven land. They're still trained to notice "unusual stonework" even though that seems to be of limited use in most of the environments they'll be in. They're also still trained to fight goblinoids and orcs as well, even thought they don't really seem to have the same constant war going with them. The only really new trait they have is proficiency and speciality with all weapons, which is nice... but things like the stonework and training to fight goblins for dwarves that may have lived on a spaceship or space station all their lives rings of a lazy, conservative conversion.
  
• Elves: We're reminded that Golarion elves slowly take on the color of their surroundings, but how does this work on a spaceship? Well, that'll be a mystery, as is the big mystery that the elves have figured out they were betrayed during the Gap! You may wonder what sort of betrayal is being referred to, and I do too, but it doesn't say. Apparently just the notion that they were betrayed (somehow) was enough to get most elves to retreat to the xenophobic seclusion of their nation (Sovyrian) on Castrovel. Those who don't are known as the "Forlorn" because the elves are now huge racists. This is followed by them making attacks on their drow brethren to "cleanse the corruption". But the Pact Worlds defend the drow, because apparently running a demon-controlled apartheid society is a-okay as long as you don't rock the boat. As far their traits go, they've traded in their proficiency with bows for a general bonus on Mysticism checks.
  
• Gnomes: So gnomes have divided into two ethnicities: feychildren and bleachlings. Feychildren are anime-colored and whismical and seek adventure. Bleachlings are "monochromatic" and are believed to come from a plague that drains the color out of gnomes who don't seek out enough adventure (no seriously you guys this is serious), and have a "half-deserved" reputation for dourness. While bleachlings are the minority, apparently their strain is dominant and gnome researchers are trying to figure out what really caused them during the Gap (not the store). Also, have we mentioned gnomes are totes wacky and très obnoxious? Well, they are. In any case, gnomes are the most altered of the races so far, with a bonus to Culture, a bonus against fear effects, and a very limited reroll ability. They still have several spell-like abilities, but can't chat with animals anymore.
  
• Half-Elves: Elves and humans, despite racism on the former's part, still get to boning. However, a good number of half-elves are just children of other half-elf pairings these days. They can settle in Sovyrian but it's implied that they're second-class citizens there. Howver, it notes that half-elves avoid most of the prejudices past because bug-people couldn't give two shits if a human's ears are a little pointy. Mechanically, they're essentially identical to their Pathfinder counterparts. (Also, you think they'd have gotten a better name over the centuries than "half-elves".)
  
• Half-Orcs: Most half-orcs these days are now the children of other half-orcs, but people are still racist against them, and many are second-class citizens on Apostae. Some turn to augmentation because fuck it, they can't be any less accepted, while others try and seek out new worlds away from the garbage opinions of the Pact Worlds. Why half-orcs would still face such prejudice when there are races like ysoki, shirren, or vesk that have zero reason to care, I'm not so sure. They now get a dime bonus to Survival checks, which still doesn't offset that they probably get the worst mechanical bonuses in Pathfinder or Starfinger. (And yes, despite having their own complete communities, they're still just "half-orcs".)
  
• Halfling: Just too many halves by half. Halflings were apparently part of the original space explorers due to their adventuring spirit. It notes that they're rivals with the Ysoki, but less mechanically inclined. Finally, we can have the ultimate Marvel crossover, Rocket v Pip, Whose Side Are You On? They also dislike cybernetics because they have biological pride like they just stepped out of Rifts, and in general there's a lot of rah rah aren't tiny humans cool? Their main big change is that they have lessened penalties for moving while sneaking (by 5), or to hide after sniping (by 10), which is one of the few non-dime bonuses I've seen a race get - hell, it's practically a whole dollar.
  

"If we could do for space opera what Shadowrun did for cyberpunk, I’d be thrilled."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

"If we terminate the License due to breach, you have to immediately stop selling products that use the Compatibility Logo and you must destroy all of your inventory of those products (including all marketing material)."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

"So take home a deck of [Starfinger] Condition Cards—and all its space goblins—today. Please."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post