Starfinder

[Guest]

Picked up the core book for starfinder.

Not bad, paizo. Rules are complex, yet well explained. Lots of things that create RPG balance issues were simplified. Not bad.

Don't think it's amazing, but for a generic sci-fi rpg ruleset, I think the made a solid game.

For criticisms, main issue is that it reminds me a lot of 4th ed D&D. Like a halfway point between that and pathfinder with a sci-fi setting.

 

[Raindog]

Is it not magic heavy?

[Guest]

17 hours ago, Raindog said:

Is it not magic heavy?

Think of Shadowrun. It can be magic heavy, but you could certainly have a functional party that didn't use or rely on magic. Like pathfinder, there will be certain opponents that require "magic" attacks to defeat, but like pathfinder there are many non-spellcasting ways to accomplish this. The GM could easily ban magic from Starfinder without having major balance issues.

I do think that compared to Pathfinder, Starfinder characters are a bit overpowered. They have an alternate HP system that reminds me of Halo 2's regenerating shields - characters have HP and Stamina Points in Starfinder, with Stamina being much easier to replenish without assistance. I don't think Starfinder requires a dedicated healer as much as other RPGs do (having a dedicated healer is still an option, especially if the group is wreckless). Other things too, but many are subtle boosts that should make the average Starfinder character more capable than an average Pathfinder one of the same level. 

Regarding 40k/Fallout/alternate setting tie ins, Starfinder does have have good Power Armor rules and would be easy to tie in with 40k or fallout. Shadowrun's setting should fit seemlessly with mechanics. They also have rules for spaceships and spaceship combat, which I haven't tried, but are supposed to be very well done (so well done that some have talked about making a board game of just Starfinder Spaceship combat). 

It has pretty solid generaric ruleset, one which a GM could easily slash out components of (like magic, or ranged weapons) and still have a very functional game. 

[scotthartman]

Any interest in starting a game? I'd be down to play.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, scotthartman said:

Any interest in starting a game? I'd be down to play.

You mean me running it as GM? I think it would be a mistake at this time. But I'll think about it for the future. If you want to run a game, I may be interested. 

[scotthartman]

20 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

You mean me running it as GM? I think it would be a mistake at this time. But I'll think about it for the future. If you want to run a game, I may be interested. 

I might be able to do that. I'll look at the books and see if I can piece something together.

[Guest]

If not, Guardian Games has a Starfinder Society group going. I'll be playing that this friday. A good way to learn the rules. 

[Guest]

On January 14, 2018 at 11:00 PM, Raindog said:

Is it not magic heavy?

Oh, just an extra on this, as per the core rulebook, the max spell level is 6 (Pathfinder's max is 9) and all spellcasters are sponanteous (like sorcerers they have to Known the spells, and can't easily acquire new ones). There's also a feat that grants +2 to saves vs spells, which can be taken at first level, so while magic is a thing in pathfinder, I don't think it will be dominating until they release classes will stronger spellcasting ability. Starfinder also capped the max starting stat at 18, which prevents players from using racial bonuses to get better casting stats (which in turn lowers the potential save DC of spells).

So I don't see spell casting being particularly dominating in Starfinder. Of the 7 classes in the core rulebook, only 2 cast spells. There are feat options to learn very limited spells without being a spellcaster, though. There's also a level 1 obtainable feat that allows in-combat healing via a non-spellcaster (it's weak by comparison, but again, I don't see healing being as demanded as it is in pathfinder). 

Additionally, with grenades and energy weapons being both common and easy to obtain, I don't see magic being as needed in an offensive role. I think spellcasting will lean towards party support/utility, which is really how it should be in my opinion. 

[Raindog]

Thank you Pax!

[Guest]

Got a Starfinder Society game in tonight. Definitely like this game. 

I ran an Android (Race) Mystic (class) character which was one-dimensionally focused on healing. While the healing helped, I think the class would have been more useful killing enemies faster, rather than regaining lost health. The character was useful outside of combat to a certain degree, but was found useless during starship combat (which is apparently a key part of most SRS scenarios). 

My party had two other Mystics. The Mystic is one of two spellcasting classes. As mentioned, the DC is pretty tough to raise in Starfinder, so of the other two Mystic players, those that used offensive spells found that rather ineffective. My character didn't have any offensive spells. Party also featured a Mechanic (kinda a cross between a dedicated fighter and a dedicated skill focused character), a Soldier (dedicated combatant), and a Operative (kinda a rogue). Our Soldier was playing one of the Pregenerated characters, so wasn't very effective (Paizo purposesly makes mediocre pregenerated characters).

Session was very silly, especially when we managed to accidentally provoke really big fights, well beyond the size the GM had expected (we basically fought 3 encounters at once because of a series of really bad diplomacy rolls). Was a lot of fun. 

[InfestedKerrigan]

Working on a character. Currently thinking about a floating brain solarian.

[pretre]

I don't play, but I do enjoy listening to this podcast which is a Starfinder game https://glasscannonpodcast.com/podcasts/androidsandaliens/

[Ish]

I got Starfinder right when it was released and liked it quite a bit. It reminds me a lot of Dragonstar a third-party setting for D&D 3.x, which remains one of my favorite D&D settings... I think Dragonstar had a better setting and metaplot, but given the success of Starfinder, I might be in the minority.

Mechanically, it has some quirks that are caused by it being a first edition game. Nothing major, just your typical ambiguous wording of a few rules, some interactions between this rule and that rule resulting in outrageous combinations, some class abilities being monstrously better for their level than they should be... 

I’s be happy to join a campaign, if one started.

[InfestedKerrigan]

We're in Meddy, sorry, buddy.

[InfestedKerrigan]

I went with the floating brain, mechanic. Ship combat was fun, I stayed on ship during the second part of the mission. I think we are playing one of the Modules.

[Ish]

I played a Not-Skaven Operator/Mechanic hacker engineer in a couple of “let’s try this out” games with some friends back in Michigan when it debuted. It’s been my experience in sci-fi games that hacking is too often either utterly boring “Roll your Computers skill. Okay, you passed.” or painfully overly complex “Okay, I access the LTG then try to hack on to the RTG, then the next LTG, scan for the GPC, USB, GPU. How much ICE is on the TLA?”

Hacking in Starfinder was actually quite a lot of fun. Without becoming just a boring yes/no skill check, a complicated mini-game like early Shadowrun, and not some thinly veiled rehash of a spell-casting system. It was also equally useful in social/investigative scenes, face-to-face firefights, and starship combat. 

Plus, I was an chainsmoking, foul-mouthed anthropomorphic rat with a Scottish accent. Always fun.

[Guest]

Been playing in a group that does 2 hour sessions, once every 2 weeks. It's kinda nice to not have to commit much, but there's very little that we accomplish. 

Started with an Elven Mechanic. My second level was in Technomancer because we had a reduntant number of mechanics and no magic users. Party is weird, we're like a Neutral Good party of super paranoid/cowardly adventurers. We don't trust the quest givers, and although we want to help, we're also afraid of getting hurt. Found the classic abandoned ship with a distress beacon, and there much debate on if morality required us to investigate...we did, but it was a debate.

[andozane]

Sounds like you were coerced 🙂