Starfinder

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Coming soon...

Starfinder is an upcoming RPG by Paizo Publishing set to be released in August 2017. It is going to be a future version of Pathfinder set IN SPACE. Not a lot is known thus far, but we do know this:

• There's gonna be ratmen IN SPACE, meaning that Paizo has Skaven IN SPACE before GW has in a playable form.
• There are going to be hardcover books and a Starfinder Adventure Path, much like Pathfinder has.
• FTL travel was revealed by the new deity Triune and is achieved by traveling through a dimension called the Drift. "Drift beacons" randomly appear or are planted by clerics of Triune and reduce the risk of a Drift jump to the beacon's location; the Starstone in Absalom Station is a fuckhuge Drift beacon that also accelerates travel to the station. Whenever a ship enters the Drift, it drags entire segments of reality from elsewhere into the Drift with it. This is not at all ominous, no siree.
• Reworks a lot of core Pathfinder mechanics, the skeleton's still there but there're too many new organs and things to easily smush the two together. Each character now has both hit points, which are hard to replace, and "stamina points," which work like hit points but can be much more easily recovered and are always lost first. Both tie into the Resolve mechanic, which gives you a small pool of points to spend for recovering stamina, stabilizing if you're dying, and getting up if you're stable. In addition to your race and class, you pick a "theme" at character creation, which is basically a 5e archetype. Themes are things like being an Ace Pilot or a Xenoenvoy that give your character some flavor, and a few other abilities that unlock as you level, plus a small stat boost. Also, skills are largely clumped-together in a way that, while not identical to 5e, certainly resembles it much more than Pathfinder: a single Athletics skills rather than separate skills for Climb and Swim, for instance.
  • No charisma-based casters at all (though the solarian fits the niche thematically), and no full casters: the technomancer and the mystic are both half-casters.
  • Most classes that rely on weapon-use get "Weapon Specialization" in their weapons during progression, and all of them can take it as a feat. It adds their character level to damage rolls.
  • Everyone has two kinds of AC: KAC, for kinetic weapons like swords and bullets, and EAC, for energy weapons like lasers and lightsaber-a-likes.
  • Most classes start off scaling a bit slow, then ramp up at about level 11. For instance, a Solarian's energy blade does 1d6 damage at first level, then 2d6 at fifth level, but starts going up much faster at level eleven, and caps out at 12d6.
• Golarion is fucking gone. As in totally gone, nobody can remember what happened to it, it just fucking vanished. The various races have spread out to the other planets in Golarion's system. New ones are there, too. Everyone remembers building a giant space station in orbit around Golarion while it was still definitely around and so can use its construction as a frame of reference to about when the world vanished (within a few hundred years), but no one remembers anything about the planet itself disappearing.
• The Iconic Characters are members of the Starfinder Society from that station, who have the mission of finding out what happened to Golarion.
• Goblins survived and have little space helmets.

• Core classes:
  • Envoys: Use wit and charm to bolster their allies and demoralize or befuddle enemies.
  • Mechanics: Build their own custom drones or rely on an implanted AI to aid them in combat.
  • Mystics: Channel the universe's mysterious energies, often through faith in a god.
  • Operatives: Use stealth and skill to get in and out of dangerous situations.
  • Solarians: Shape the energy of stars and black holes into armor and weapons for themselves. Weirdly, their cosmic-energy weapons do normal kinetic damage (although some of their spells change that). Fluff-wise, they seem like Jedi, being warrior monks who represent a universal force and gain mystical powers from their devotion to that force. The Solarians are attuned to a sort of ill-defined cosmic cycle that's somehow connected to stars. This manifests as a mote of either light or dark that floats around them, which they turn into either a weapon or armor (you pick which at first level and can't change it). Gameplay wise, they're melee spell-combatants who build up energy points by being in combat, then spend these points to set off magical effects. They can choose to build either Graviton or Photon points, which can then trigger associated spells. Graviton tends to be more focused on moving and controlling your enemies, whereas Photon is more about damaging and dazing. They have minor magic effects that they can use basically whenever, but their show-stoppers require them to be fully attuned to the associated force (basically, to have spent three rounds attuning themselves). All in all, they play sort of like a Magus mixed with a Cataclysm-era Druid. It's kind of complicated, but fun to play.
  • Soldiers: Specialize in heavy weapons and armor. They share a fighter's bonus feat selection, but differentiate themselves by picking from combat styles. These range from pretty standard (the defense-focused Guard) to quite strange (there's one called Arcane Assailant that buffs up your guns and blades with magic).
  • Technomancers: The magical version of computer programmers, hacking the laws of physics.
• Every class has a use on foot and in a spaceship, which has its own stats.

• Core Races: Like 2/3rds of these are already available as PC races for Pathfinder, but heavily rejiggered to fit the new system. There are also rules and fluff for the core races of Pathfinder, with some tweaks (like no speed penalty for being Small) to fit the Starfinder rules.
  • Androids: Artificial people. Are generally pissed off about being created as a servitor race, complete with occasional literal slavery, so they intentionally distance themselves from the human cultures they broke away from. They have no gender because they're robots, and Paizo absolutely refuses to shut up about it because you need to check your gender privilege. (So make sure you roll a sex robot when you play at the Paizo table this GenCon.) Have similar social penalties to their Pathfinder counterparts, and retain many of their immunities.
  • Humans: Everybody knows humans.
  • Kasathas: Four-armed aliens from a desert world. Their four arms are unfortunately nerfed such that they can't quad-weapon wield, and the system as a whole makes dual-wielding a rough concept for just about anyone but an Operative anyway.
  • Lashuntas: A race of telepaths. They choose which subrace they get to be at puberty, which mostly determines ability scores and fluff stuff like social standing.
  • Shirrens: Insectile people who recently broke free from a predatory hive mind. Literally addicted to making choices for themselves. Also telepathic.
  • Vesk: Powerful reptilian aliens, with klingon honor-culture. Have natural weapons, armor proficiencies, that kinda deal. Nobody likes them because they only just stopped warring with everyone else.
  • Ysoki: A plucky and hotheaded race, often called "ratfolk". Not actually Skaven in space, but don't let that stop you from rolling Space Thanquol. Enjoy a number of benefits from their Moxie trait, including easily running around underfoot and standing up as a swift action if knocked down.

More news as it comes out. This game is not to be confused with Starjammer, which is Spelljammer for Pathfinder. It's also made by the people maintaining D20PFSRD, aka the place with all the rules for all of Pathfinder and its many 3rd party books.