5 Reasons You Should Give ‘Starfinder’ a Chance

Many tabletop groups around the world have had the chance to experience Paizo’s fantasy role-playing game Pathfinder, and now the company is giving you the chance to leap into space.

You’ll explore the universe in its new role-playing game Starfinder, which builds upon the mechanics and imagination that Paizo’s delivered to the world of fantasy for years. If you’ve been waiting for a science fiction adventure with streamlined and easy-to-manage mechanics, Starfinder might just be for you.

Before we get into the standout features of the game, let’s explain exactly what Starfinder is. The game is set in the same universe as Pathfinder, but, as we’ll cover later, differs in some pretty substantial ways. You’ll have a chance to become a captain of your own ship as you explore the galaxy for new planets, mine for wealth and popularity, sabotage those who would deem themselves better than you, or solve perplexing mysteries.

In short, you can do whatever you want, and that’s really the point, isn’t it?

You can find the official description of Starfinder below:

“Blast off into a galaxy of adventure with the Starfinder Roleplaying Game! Step into your powered armor and grab your magic-infused laser rifle as you investigate the mysteries of a weird universe with your bold starship crew.”

Whether you’re making first contact with new cultures on uncharted worlds or fighting to survive in the neon-lit back alleys of Absalom Station, you and your team will need all your wits, combat skill, and magic to make it through. But most of all, you’ll need each other.”

All right, now that the basics are out of the way let’s get to the cool stuff. There’s no way to cover everything in the Starfinder Core Rulebook — it is 528 pages after all — but here are five big reasons why you should give this new sci-fi role-playing game a chance!

It’s ‘Pathfinder’ in Space

This one’s a bit obvious, but that doesn’t mean it is any less cool.

Pathfinder explored the world of Golarion, filled with orcs, wizards, magic, and monsters. It did so exceptionally well, but now it’s time to venture into the cosmos. However, you don’t lose any of the fantastic Paizo mechanics, art, and lore in the process.

The great thing is that everything you did (and continue to do) in Pathfinder still exists. Starfinder is simply eons in the future.

In fact, Golarion factors into Starfinder‘s central mystery. Players discover that the planet suddenly vanished 300 years ago, and no one can remember how or why. Absalom Station now sits where Golarion once resided, and players can dive further into that mystery if they so choose.

There’s even more that the space setting allows, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Brand New Races

Half the fun of any role-playing game is creating your character, and Starfinder offers some delightful choices.

One new option are Androids, who initially served humankind but overcame their masters to form their own society. Speaking of humans, you can also choose a regular human to play as, which allows you to customize a bit more but they also don’t necessarily have any built-in strong suits.

You can choose to play as the Ysoki, a rat-like race that has some truly unique abilities — cheek pouches anyone? — and specializes in technology. If rats aren’t your bag, you can choose to play as the Vesk, a reptile-like race that caters to characters who like combat.

You could also choose to play as Shirren, an insect-looking race that broke free of their hive mind and specializes in telepathy. If you want some flexibility, the Lashuntas might be the pick for you, a race that has access to psychic abilities.

Last but not least is the Kasathas, an intellectual race that has four arms, giving you interesting strategic options in and out of battle.

Critical Hits Unleashed

It can be quite frustrating to get a critical, only to completely whiff on it when confirming it. In Starfinder, those days are long gone.

As long as the entire roll qualifies as a hit against the enemy, that 20 automatically makes it a critical hit. You’ll do double damage plus any bonus damage from abilities, resulting in a brutal attack that will be the talk of the session.

Well, maybe not actually, since others will be getting more criticals as well. Still, better to have a few additional crits than that depressing feeling you get when you roll a 3 to confirm your 20.

Starships!

Something the fantasy setting of Pathfinder didn’t allow for was spaceships, but they are at the heart of Starfinder.

That’s because as opposed to Pathfinder, where vehicles aren’t central to your adventures, you’ll need a spaceship to navigate the universe. The good news is that every crew will automatically start with a ship, so your first adventure won’t simply be, “hey, find a ship!” Well, so long as you’re not playing the better-defined adventure path scenario.

The ships are treated as extra characters, so they level with the players as they move through the story. You can upgrade and customize them of course, but that isn’t done with money. Rather, you’ll upgrade or add compartments with Starship Build Points, so feel free to use that money you gain for something else entirely.

The group will also have a specific role to serve on the ship, both in combat and during normal flight time. You can choose from a captain, a pilot, a gunner, an engineer, and a science officer, but only one of you can be the first two at any time.

You’ll need all hands on deck to survive the hexagon-based space battles, so you might want to give that handbook a second look.

You Can Still Use ‘Pathfinder’ Monsters

Pathfinder isn’t going anywhere, but if you do want to take a trek into space, you can still bring over some of your favorite beasties.

Monsters from Pathfinder will not have a difficult time at all converting over to Starfinder, but you will need to make a few tweaks if you want to get the most out of it. The good news is that spells can be used as written, as can feats, but don’t forget to give it an updated weapon. That mace might not be as effective as the new laser pistol after all.

You can also convert your monster’s AC into KAC (Kinetic Armor Class) and EAC (Energy Armor Class) to make sure they can go toe-to-toe with your new heroes.

You can also carry over characters as well, but due to the changes in the combat system, some will be more beneficial than others. In any case, don’t be afraid to bring your favorite character into some new adventures!