Starfinder

Coming soon...

Starfinder is an RPG by Paizo Publishing released in August 2017. It is going to be a future version of Pathfinder set IN SPACE. Among the things vital to know are:

Overview

• 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.
• 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.

Differences from Pathfinder

Considering that this is Paizo, the goons who made a killing off of resurrecting 3.5E, the rules for this game aren't that far removed from the original PF mechanics. Though you can't get a 1-1 translation of all the classes, you can probably be able port most of your characters over.

• 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. HP is essentially stuck as a hybrid between racial stats (meaning that little spessrats only give 2 HP to a character while burly Vesk and chitinous Shirrens give 6 HP) and class stats (essentially like Hit Die, only with no rolling), while Stamina is given per class level + Constitution Modifier.
• The Resolve mechanic gives you a small pool of points to spend for recovering stamina, stabilizing if you're dying, and getting up if you're stable. These points are keyed off of a single stat your class is dependent on (so Soldiers pick between Str and Dex, Mystics use Wis, so on and so forth). Each class even has special uses for Resolve and backgrounds can give special circumstances for regaining them.
• 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.
• Skills are largely condensed 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, or Mysticism instead of Arcana and Spellcraft.
• No charisma-based casters at all (though the Solarian and Envoy both sort of fit the niche thematically), and no full casters: the technomancer and the mystic are both half-casters. All spellcasting is distinctly 5e-ish, with lower-level spells that can be cast in higher-level slots for boosted effects. (For instance, the primary healing spell is a first-level spell, but it heals more and more as it gets cast in higher level slots, eventually also cleansing various status effects.)
• 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. Unlike with PF where you're stuck trying to remember what armor bonuses add to Flat-Footed or Touch, this allows you to calculate your defenses a bit easier.
• Cybernetics and genetic modding are also a thing.
• 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.
• Weapons take a page out of 4E's book and have items that scale in power alongside player levels...except they don't give them to you, no! You still have to buy these stronger guns and armors!
• Ship-building and combat will be very familiar to those who played Rogue Trader (RPG). Build Points to buy parts for your ship, the need to travel through an alternate dimension that may or may not contain unholy terrors, the whole shebang.
  • The promotional material also promised that each class would totally have mechanics to help them in ship combat. Most of this is false. Not only is a majority of the mechanics keyed off of RANKS in a particular skill (Pilot for all the ship defenses) rather than the character's actual bonus, but several class bonuses are flat-out not allowed to work in a ship. Also damning is the sharply-rising difficulty curve for all your ship actions, which keys itself off of the average party level rather than some other stat. This means that if you level up high enough, your little zippy spaceship that's been extensively customized will be as impossible to maneuver for your veteran crew as a fucking freighter fr a bunch of rookies.
  • Each character has roles during combat, similar to RT. Unlike that game though, the roles are a lot more simplified in number (Captain for leading, Gunner for shootan, Engineer for fixing, Pilot for flying, and Science Officer to manage all computer things) and complexity. All each role does is grant special abilities to use in combat.

Core classes

• Envoys: Use wit and charm to bolster their allies and demoralize or befuddle enemies. They also get a lot of skillmonkey powers, including "expertise" in a number of skills in a way similar to the Investigator. They have a selection of talents to select to use in order to distract enemies, but they all require an enemy to either see or hear them, which can hamstring them in specific situations.
• Mechanics: Mechanical geniuses. The class as a whole has a lot of tricks for fiddling with computers and disabling or taking over machines, and can do fun things like turning any piece of mechanical gear into a makeshift grenade or overclock their drone or cortex to put themselves in the Matrix.
  • Drones are one of their choices for class themes. It's pretty obvious - it's a fucking drone, with purpose of either being a gun-rig, a scout, or a hoverdrone. Drones are always fun to use with customizable parts to work with.
  • Exocortex is the other choice. Rather than a pet drone, this allows for a Mechanic to use additional weaponry as well as a free Skill Focus feat. It also can help with hacking a bit and can target enemies for guaranteed hits.
• Mystics: Channel the universe's mysterious energies, often through faith in a god. They're a sort of cross between Sorcerer and Cleric in that they have a special theme in them with bonus thematic spells and talents as well as the ability to heal.
  • Akashic is a rather skill-focused connection. Bonuses on skill checks, the ability to re-roll with more ranks on the skill, and the power to (eventually) cast any spell you want at the cost of a higher spell-slot.
  • Empath is, obviously, focused on magical empathy. The ability to read emotions.
  • Healer is rather obvious. You're a medic. You keep tabs on everyone, top them off on HP when you can and eventually learn to siphon health from your enemies and cheat death itself.
  • Mindbreaker allows you to commit literal mindfuckery. Your powers are focused upon inflicting as much pain as inhumanly possible, with the capstone power being able to EXPLODE HEADS.
  • Overlord is also about mindfuckery, but on a more subtle scale. This allows you to brainwash people, break their resistances slowly, and eventually exert absolute control over someone.
  • Star Shaman is the most spacey one. You can pilot ships good, walk in space without a suit, and turn into a star-being. The capstone for this allows you to teleport between planets.
  • Xenodruid is the remnants of the Druid. Plant shenanigans, the power to talk to and transform into an animal, and even the eventual ability to reincarnate.
• Operatives: Use stealth and skill to get in and out of dangerous situations. They get a shitload of attacks with weak weapons, like a monk, and a special sneak attack trick like a Rogue, and they can pick a number of specializations to refine what kind of sneaky guy they want to be. Among all the classes, these guys are especially notorious for how powerful they are.
  • Daredevil allows you to be very mobile, with the eventual ability to gain a natural swim and climb speed for more maneuverability.
  • Detective gives you the ability to investigate a bit better, with the ability to eventually cast Divination to find answers when you're at a dead end.
  • Explorer is the sort used to exploring all sorts of different worlds. They can explore around with special benefits and are especially familiar with places far from home.
  • Ghost is probably the one people use the most for having a serious boost to Stealth (a skill they'll already have high scores on by virtue of a high Dex), making it neigh-impossible to fail. They can turn invisible and eventually even phase through walls.
  • Hacker is in a similar field to the Mechanic, with the power to distract with computers. They're more focused on hacking than anything else though.
  • Spy allows you to pull of any sort of disguise, eventually being able to even feed any thought-reader false information.
  • Thief is more like a traditional thief. Their special ability allows them to build a contingency plan JUST when something goes wrong and derail the DM's plans to bust your asses if it goes right.
• 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 that alter how they work and a not-shit save and skill progression. They also learn "gear tricks" to boost up their weapons and armor in ways most other classes can't.
  • Arcane Assailant allows you to punch through resistances and corporeality before anyone else and imbue weapons with special effects like they were magical.
  • Armor Storm focuses on wearing heavy armor and making sure you're not hamstrung by it. You naturally gain proficiency in powered armor (literal walking tanks) and giving you the full mileage and then some from your suit.
  • Blitz is about aggression. You intend to rush in head-first, learning how to ignore pain and throw everything into an attack.
  • Bombard makes you a mix between Demolitions Expert and Heavy Weapons Guy. You can make your own grenades, you can punch harder with heavy guns, and make explosions get more boomy.
  • Guard is the defensive style. Extra comfort in the armor is the start, and the end is ignoring conditions and being such a walking tank that you can make yourself a wall to your buds.
  • Hit and Run is switch-hitting: the class. Run in, lay a few blows, and hop out before they hit you.
  • Sharpshoot is for snipers. You aim so well that you can ignore cover and hit them in their weak points for maximum damage.
• Technomancers: The magical version of computer programmers, hacking the laws of physics. They're essentially techno-Wizards, with an electronic bound item (and no familiar) and a bunch of special talents allowing them to mess with equipment and spells to their liking. They eventually even have the ability to fuse spellslots together to cast bigger spells.

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. The only difference here is that they can use an armor upgrade even when they don't wear any. Because machines.
• 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 without multiple attacks, and they didn't get much else to replace it.
• Lashuntas: A race of telepaths. They choose which subrace they get to be at puberty, which mostly determines ability scores and fluff like social standing. There's a whole mess about SJWs as well compared to their original representation in PF, but that's not for here.
• Shirrens: Insectoid 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. Fit the half-orc niche of the excellent bruiser race.
• 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. Also they have fucking cheek pouches able to store small objects like ammo and bombs.

More news as it comes out. This game is not to be confused with Starjammer, which is Spelljammer for Pathfinder (though it is compatible with Starfinder). 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.