The ''Starfinder Roleplaying Game'' is a

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...

science fantasy Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scientif ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

published by

Paizo Publishing Paizo Inc. (originally Paizo Publishing.) is an American role-playing game publishing company based in Redmond, Washington, best known for the tabletop role-playing game ''Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder''. The company's name is derived ...

. It is built on Paizo's previous game, the ''

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game The ''Pathfinder Roleplaying Game'' is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) that was published in 2009 by Paizo Publishing. The first edition extends and modifies the System Reference Document (SRD) based on the revised 3rd edition ''Dungeons & ...

'', both in its

game mechanics In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-shap ...

and

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...

, but adapted to a more futuristic style than its

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

predecessor; game content is intended to be easily convertible between the two systems. Like its predecessor, the ''Starfinder RPG'' supports

adventure path An Adventure Path is a series of interlinked adventures (campaign) for tabletop role-playing games which can be played in succession and lead characters to advance from lower to higher levels, through a particular path of events. While campaign ...

s and other material written by Paizo and third party publishers.

Background

''Starfinder'' draws inspiration from many other

and

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and soci ...

franchises, including ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'', ''Alien'', ''

Guardians of the Galaxy The Guardians of the Galaxy is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It may more specifically refer to: Comic book teams * Guardians of the Galaxy (1969 team), the original 31st-century team fr ...

'', and ''

Warhammer 40,000 ''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, ...

''. Paizo first released a science-fiction product in 2012, with the ''Distant Worlds'' supplement to ''Pathfinder''. After the success of ''Distant Worlds'', Paizo decided to create the new system, using it as a base. The ''Starfinder RPG'' was announced in May 2016 on Paizo's website and officially released at

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

in August 2017.

Design

''Starfinder'' is based on Paizo's previous game, ''Pathfinder'', and like its predecessor uses the d20 system created by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...

for ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

''. ''Starfinder'' shares its

setting Setting may refer to: * A location (geography) where something is set * Set construction in theatrical scenery * Setting (narrative), the place and time in a work of narrative, especially fiction * Setting up to fail a manipulative technique to eng ...

with ''Pathfinder'', set in its far future after Golarion, the planet that ''Pathfinder'' was set on, had mysteriously disappeared in an event called "The Gap". The history of the planet during the disappearance is lost to all races, preventing players from returning and interfering with previous events in the ''Pathfinder'' timeline, while also acting as the foundation of ''Starfinders own timeline. Because ''Starfinder'' shares its past with ''Pathfinder'', races and monsters of the ''Pathfinder'' setting persist in the ''Starfinder'' universe alongside new alien races from other worlds. Magic remains a part of the game's mechanics, often intertwined with high-level technology. In the time since the Gap, allied races formed an alliance called the Pact Worlds for diplomacy, trade, and technological sharing, with Absalom Station as their focal point for these activities. An organization called the Starfinder Society, based on Absalom Station and other planets, was established to seek out pre-Gap technology and any information that may have explained what happened prior to that event. Similar to ''Pathfinder'', the game features personal combat using weapons and magic, though these systems have been simplified and adjusted to the futuristic setting. In addition, ''Starfinder'' also has rules regarding starships,

space combat Space warfare is hypothetical combat in which one or more belligerents are situated in outer space. The scope of space warfare therefore includes ''ground-to-space warfare'', such as attacking satellites from the Earth; ''space-to-space warfare ...

, and

faster-than-light travel Faster-than-light (also FTL, superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...

. ''Starfinder'' retains the traditional

fantasy races There are a number of lists of fictional species: Extraterrestrial *List of fictional extraterrestrials (by media type) *Lists of fictional alien species: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, ...

as choices for players (for example,

elves An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

, dwarves, and

orcs An Orc (or Ork) is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin. Orcs were brought into modern usage by the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially ''The Lord of the Rings''. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutish, aggressive, ugly, ...

), but offers a different set of races as the standard, including the reptilian vesk and rat-like ysoki, while also offering several non-traditional choices such as a "seven-armed starfish". ''Starfinder'' also introduces a new array of seven character classes for players to choose from, which can be further customized, and body augmentations which can give different abilities. ''Starfinder'' is designed so that content from ''Pathfinder'' can be easily converted to ''Starfinder'' and vice versa; the game has guidelines on converting characters and monsters between the two systems.

Reception

Early reviews praised ''Starfinder'' for its streamlined rules and expansive, flexible setting. The new starship combat rules also received praise, though some criticism was pointed at its repetitiveness and lack of options. ''Starfinder'' won the 2018

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 aw ...

for Fan Favorite Role-Playing Game.

Supplementary material and related products

Paizo and audio app developer Syrinscape partnered to create an official set of

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

for ''Starfinder'', and Paizo licensed design studio

Ninja Division A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 2 ...

to create plastic miniatures. These were released alongside the general launch of the game in August 2017. Paizo along with

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or rush ...

created a ''Starfinder'' Alexa skill adventure pilot episode "Scoundrels in the Spike" released in December 2019. The pilot was considered successful, leading Amazon to have Paizo and Audible create a full six-episode adventure based on the "Dead Suns" campaign, which was first released in August 2020. The adventure, including the pilot, includes voice acting from

Nathan Fillion Nathan Fillion (; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on '' Firefly'' and its film continuation '' Serenity'', and Richard Castle on '' Castle''. , he was starring as J ...

and

Laura Bailey Laura Bailey is an American voice actress. She made her anime debut as Kid Trunks in the Funimation dub of ''Dragon Ball Z''. Her other anime credits include Emily / Glitter Lucky in ''Glitter Force'', Tohru Honda in ''Fruits Basket'', Lust in ...

along with eleven others. According to Bailey, the voice acting for the newer episodes were done from home studios due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

though working together online when characters interacted with each other. Within the skill, the user is able to select one of five main characters, and then make certain decisions that can affect the outcome of the story, as well as initiate the game's skill checks and determine how combat progresses; the rules have been simplified from the tabletop version to adapt to voice commands. The skill's pilot episode and first episode of the new campaign were available for free with the remaining episodes available to purchase.

References

External links