Starfinder

[DelightfullyMAD]

Just got my preorder of Paizo's new setting, Starfinder!  I figure I'd start this thread to open up a discussion for anyone else who is playing, or planning on playing, this game, and to see what everyones thoughts are on it.

Overall, I like the look of it, and it definitely meets Paizos usual standards of quality.  There are some notable rule changes compared to Pathfinder, but nothing too major, so it shouldn't be too long before I get used to it.  There are a few typos and spelling errors here and there, but that is pretty normal for a newly made first print of a 500+ page book, and it isn't enough to do anything more than just playfully nitpick it.

One thing I really do like that it introduces is that it adds a new part of the character creation process, which is Theme.  Now, in addition to race and class, you also pick a theme for your character which gives you even more cool things you can do as your character levels up.  For example, some of the themes available are Ace Pilot, Bounty Hunter, Icon, Mercenary, Outlaw, Priest, Scholar, Spacefarer, Xenoseeker, and Themeless.  Each is tied to an ability score, and each grants themed abilities every now and then which are thematiclly tied to the theme.  Always loving more options, I loved this new addition, and I look forward to Paizo adding even more themes in the future.  As an obsessive Homebrewer, I know I'll be adding a bunch.

There were fewer races in the core book than I would have liked, but they're all interesting enough.  I am very irritated that goblins weren't available , but I'll live.  Some of the races look pretty fun and interesting, some are a bit less so, but this is my personal opinion.  I do like Ysoki (rat folk), because all I can think about is Skaven in Space, so I will likely make that my first character.

The classes all look pretty fun to play.  Even the straight up fighter type (the Soldier) looks like a lot of fun, and you can tell they put quite a lot of effort into making all the classes feel both distinct and balanced.  Of course, time will tell whether they succeeded or not, but it seems promising.  They also toned down the spellcasting classes a bit, giving them more class features, but reducing the number of spell levels to 6 instead of nine.  Overall I am torn on this.  On the one hand, I love playing wizards and clerics and full-casters, so I was a bit put off by the lack of a full caster class, but on the other hand I do understand.  Who knows, maybe a full caster will come in future supplements, but I don't want one which will break the game.

So, anyone else gotten a copy of this game yet?  If you have, I'd be interested in hearing what your thoughts are.

[wander]

I'm interested, though for me personally pdf isn't an option, so I have to pay full price for the hardback, which at my local bookshop is £65 when the pdf is like £7.50. 

The themes seems a lot like how d20 Modern did things, mildly interested to see how that plays out. Magic can be OP in stuff related to 3.5 builds, so I get why they did that. If they make it themed more towards quantumy/science type shenanigans, that'd be cool.

The secret agent class interested me most from the previews. Would love to see more, as I dig scifi space stuff and I hope it takes off here, as I love my system games. 5e and PF seem popular here, though it's clear they only are like that because of SRD.

[DelightfullyMAD]

Yeah, I can see the d20 Modern comparisons, though I would say that Starfinder does still have more in common with straight up Pathfinder than being a slightly more uniform system like Modern was.  Modern, if my memory serves me, had classes that followed a theme, but were more... generic, and often required prestige classes to later give them a bit more flavor.  I only played Modern a few times, but this is one of things I remember.

Starfinder, from what I can tell, is much more like Star Wars but with even more magic (and hopefully no midichlorians).  Heck, I think Sci Fantasy would be a better descriptor than Sci Fiction.

As for the classes, the Mechanic is actually the one I am looking at the most right now.  I loved the concept of the Summoner from Pathfinder, but it's implementation was not very good.  I am glad to see that they took the eidolon concept and gave that to this class.  One of the major class features is the ability to have a custom built droid, which pretty much follows the eidolon rules from Pathfinder, but the class itself is not a spellcasting one, so I think that it works better overall.  The other class I like, mainly because I like playing wizards, was the Technomage, so that may be the other option I try.  Gonna have to flip a coin on this one.