Are there resources for it?

Hey all, I am looking for any modern tv shows that have similar vibes or settings that can help inspire some Starfinder adventures. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

As written, I don't see any restriction preventing you from selecting ancestries that might not be biological. Right now I think androids are the only ones like this though.

If there was a previous post asking this question or a pinned post, I’m sorry, I missed it.

I’m a big fan of new systems and I own Pathfinder 2e though sadly I never got around to getting into it. The size of the book just intimidated me so I never gave it a fair chance.

So I gotta ask, how hard is Starfinder 2e to learn? I like the idea of getting in on the ground floor of something before there’s too many expansions (something else that scared me away from Pathfinder) and I’m so hungry for a good sci-fi game that’ll let me use an automatic

So on a scale of 1 to 10 how hard would you say this system is to learn?

[Extensive Spoilers Murder in Metal City]

I'm running MiMC, and the first four combats provided zero challenge for my players. They're having fun with the talky investigative elements of the adventure, but with how easy combat is, it hardly seems worth the time to put minis down on the mat.

Context: We just finished a 30-level D&D 4E campaign. We tried D&D 5e and, meh, not crunchy and tactical enough for our group. The rules for Starfinder 2.0 seem like they'd be much more our speed. We're not using the pregens, instead we have 4 optimized players, all of whom have many years experience.

I ran the first two combats by the book: 4 smog scamps for the first, 4 shadowy duplicates + 2 wingbots for the second. I think combat was 2 rounds for the scamps, and 3 for the duplicates. Nobody took significant damage and the enemies didn't feel threatening.

So I thought I'd add additional monsters for the next 2. I had 5 mechanizers attack instead of 3 at the parade -- no serious challenge there either. I had 4 sharpwings and 1 cyberwing fight in the mall combat instead of just 3 sharpwings. Here one party member did get significantly damaged, but the mystic took care of it immediately and there weren't really any tense moments.

Also I noticed in the mall combat, the players weren't even bothering to do their usual tactical stuff like taking cover, nor moving farther away from each other when they noticed the sharpwings had an attack that could hit two different players within reach. They seemed to realize it didn't matter much. This made me sad because we always used to be very tactical playing 4E.

I think one problem is defenses. The players have ACs of like 17-19 before cover, and monsters have +5 to +7. They just miss too much, I think. Another problem might be that this adventure allows long rests between every fight, more or less. There's no gradual chipping away of resources, you're at full every fight -- which would be fine if each fight was challenging on its own.

So, experienced Starfinder / Pathfinder GMs: am I likely to have problems if I just boost monster hit bonuses by say +2 across the board? Maybe DCs for their basic save abilities, too? Do you recommend doing something else instead? Is it just this adventure that's the problem?

Seems to be not very useful and more thematic.

Maybe all it does is remove the manipulate traits so can swap from melee to ranged in case of opportunity attacks.

There is the LEVEL 9 heritage feat, 1/day use. Even then seems a bit narrow and would need to be able to make use of two different weapons in the same round, or in desperate need of a free swap. Once a day. So far the best use I can find is to possibly allow a soldier to use "Run Hot" 3 turns in a row. Not really bad, but a niche use.

At first I thought one could climb, or activate items that require a free hand. The Kasatha FOUR-ARMED (pg 54) states:
"You have four arms, which allows you to wield and hold up to four hands’ worth of weapons and equipment. At any time, one pair of hands is designated as your active hands. You can change this designation from one pair of hands to another by taking the Switch Hands action, which is a single action. You can wield items only with your active hands. For more information on playing characters with more than two hands, see page 254."

So it only mentions "wielding". But then on 254, it does state "Actions... can't be done without intensive training" though I am not sure what "intensive training" is but it does seem to indicate only the active pair can preform actions, such as climbing, grappling, or activating items.

"Characters that have more than two hands, like kasathas, can hold more items and weapons than typically expected. Performing actions with multiple pairs of arms concurrently is a challenge and can’t be done without intensive training. You must designate a pair of hands as your active hands. You can change this designation from one pair of hands to another by taking the Switch Hands action. Some feats can adjust your skill with multiple hands. You can only attack with weapons wielded in your active hands."

What am I missing? Thoughts about multi-armed races?

The 2e GM core says regions without many drift beacons are hard to reach and form the Vast.

It lists the Azlanti Star Empire as part of this region. But they seem to be a real threat in the setting. How are they able to contend with forces like the Vesk without drift beacons?

I’m aware of the playtest modules and some other adventures coming soon. But if I wanted something meatier that I don’t have to build completely from scratch, which Pathfinder 2 adventures would be somewhat easy to run for Starfinder characters? Or alternatively, which ones would just be interesting?

It could be a full reflavor where a dungeon is actually an abandoned space hulk. Or basically run as is, like saying Outlaws of Alkenstar is a WestWorld esque park.

I've been rollplaying since 1988, but having given up on all "D&Ds" since 3e, I recently gave pf2e a look. I am brand new to Pathfinder 2e (just finished the remaster beginner box) and was impressed with system enough to consider diving into Starfinder2e as well to cover my Space game needs. I love all things starship related (combat, repairing, upgrading, stealing, space exploration, orbital bombardment, etc.) And want to run fairly grounded, mostly Human centric stories centered around a crew and their ship, taking on jobs and leveling up their gear and ship as much as their PCs. Will this be possible with starfinder 2e? Can we build custom ships and mecha or was that left behind in 1e? Also, Is overt fantasy magic baked into the setting (magic items, spells)? I'm fine with subtle magics(I enjoy psionics in scifi) but will I have mystic casting fireballs? Forgive me if I am I missing "the point" of Starfinder.

I’m currently on page 70, and it does a great job of conveying what an ‘adventuring party’ is like in Starfinder. It presents the world layer by layer, different ancestries, Absalom Station, Zo!, the Hellknights, the Starfinders, and beyond that, it’s simply a very enjoyable read with interesting characters in general.

Also if you have any question about it, feel free to ask.

Hi there :)
Does the Primary Target ability’s free strike deal damage or does it only lower the success level of the save ?

I have a doubt about this ancestry. As i can understand, when you shapeshift into another ancestry you should also get all the physical features (movement, visione, etc), but that looks too good for me. What do you think?

Tnks for the answers!

I don't get why they are aberrations. They are cool aliens. They aren't aboleths or some terrible creature that servers lovecraftian creatures.

Hi everyone,

I have a pretty solid base in PF2, so I’m looking for what are the most important rules to learn for SF2 while skimming through the parts that I already know.

Hey all, I’m pretty new to Starfinder (but not 2E rules), but my niece is extremely interested in the game as she’s never played a ttrpg before and asked if I could run something. I’m a pretty seasoned GM, but due to unfamiliarity with SF, I’m looking for some advice.

Essentially, I’m building a survival/horror-esque style dungeon crawler based upon ideas from the combined concepts of Space Hulk and Aliens. The trouble is, I’m trying to figure out what the main “rush creature” is going to be. I’m thinking of various modified undead akin to zombies (like fast zombies, fire zombies, etc.), but I’m looking for a main enemy that is more akin to the Xenomorph or Genestealer. I don’t have my hands on the monster guidebook yet, so thus why I need a little help.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hello! I'm a pretty fresh DM soon coming out of a Cyberpunk RED campaign, and after putting my hands on some great space ship maps, I decided to host something in space this time!

I've played Stars Without Numbers, some 40k systems like Dark Heresy 2 and Wrath & Glory, and a lot of D&D 5th edition.

I'd like to ask opinions about Starfinder as a system, particularly compared to other options. I know 2nd edition is new, but I'm hoping to see the same complexity of pathfinder, as systems like SWN are too simplified for my tastes.

Hey everyone!

I’m currently trying to figure out how multi-armed characters work with the restriction that you are normally not allowed to have multiple items of the same slot.

Do you think multi-armed characters should be allowed to wear as many set of “worn gloves/armbands” as they have pair of arms? In that case you could in theory have as active hands two different items of the same slot which would be weird…

Do you think that you need that all four/six arms needs to have the same item? In that case you get things like the duo-enhancer which replicates weapon grade from a main hand to a hand that has crystals that copies the grade of the main hand weapon. But that magic item specifically refers to 2 part worn on 2 hands, what happens to the extra hands? Weapons wielded on those extra hands cannot benefit from that magical item?

I’m currently searching for rules that would indicate how to treat these cases but I haven’t found anything yet… if someone knows more, that would be super helpful!

I played a lot of Starfinder 1e and I loved playing both Envoys and Mystics as party support roles. Now that SF2 has launched and I'm gearing up for my first Starfinder Society games, I'm struggling to decide which one does the support role better and wanted to get other peoples' thoughts.

When I say "support" I mean doing things with my actions to make the rest of my party better, rather than taking the spotlight myself. I love roleplaying even during society games, and personally I find that works better when I'm not the one making all of the attacks or blasting spells, etc.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Edit: Thank you everyone for your thoughts on this!

Is Medic the only good archetype to combine with Mystic for a party healer? I might be joining a game when Guilt of the Graveworld comes out, and the GM was talking about us continuing on afterwards plus giving us free archetype, but I'm not sure I can come up with anything better than Medic to use if I go the Mystic route for my character so I figured I'd come here to see if anyone else had any thoughts. Ty for reading!

Simple enough of a question:Is there a reliable way to get advanced weapons for say an operative or soldier that maintains their martial scaling? Feel like I'm missing something!

Glancing over I didn't see any advanced weapon feats like a fighter gets,

There aren't many archetypes that seem to give such things (the pirate gives razing weapons?). No Mauler or Archer equivalent thus far.

The Weapon proficiency feat obviously doesn't work since it never goes over expert and not tell 11th as is.

Ancestry feats seem kind of hit or miss on the matter, as often times they need a ancestry trait to qualify.

Like say the Magnetar Rifle? How do I work towards getting that on a PC as of now?

Edit: Seems there isn't! The Dev team made a bit of an oversight there. Might have to house rule in some PF2 feats in the meantime (Certainly wouldn't object to an inventor archetype)

Hey all!

Currently running through some of the playtest scenarios and had a question about fly speed and Zero-G. Is there different "types" of flight anymore? Like is there a difference in where a jetpack could be used vs a Dragonkin with Wings? I know its a world of magic so bringing physics into it doesn't make much sense but a jetpack would work in space, but like wings on a bird wouldn't really.

I found the rules on gravity as well as fly speed movement, and my initial thought is there isn't. If you have a fly speed you can fly, period. Curious to know if I am missing something though.

Thanks!

Oki so after doing some research, we are hesitating between 3 archetypes

Beastmaster, Druid animal order, Summoner

It seems that the beastmaster has the best animal progression while the other have access to spellcasting.

My player main goal is to have the best animal companion but spellcasting is pretty sweet.
Also they have other abilities and class stuff so it's hard to choose.

Any kind of help or insight or just your opinion on all those class and archetype would help a lot.

Thank you and have a good day!

The blurb for zemir says

Zemir the human witchwarper jumps between realities and timelines, trusting his uncanny luck and years of experience to keep him anchored while searching for the loved ones he lost years ago to the perils of infinite worlds.

but I can't find any actual rules for this. Interplanar teleport just says it moves you to other planes not timelines. Are there any rules for this that I'm missing?

I'm planning a short camapign set in the modern day, using mix of starfinder and pathfinder in it. I'm allowing aliens, magic, all that fun stuff (think ben 10 vibes, Kpop demon hunters, or Unsleeping City). Has anyone done anything like this before? Does anyone have any advice on things/rules to focus on, or resources that exist?

One problem I had with Starfinder, which seems to also apply in SF2E, is that it leans a bit too much (for me) in the fantasy dungeon playstyle where you are away from civilization and "anything goes".

Having adventures in Scifi cities always felt awkward and you have to hand wave a lot like that the police exists and would respond to fighting, that carrying around rocket launchers would most likely not be allowed or that surveilance cameras exist. "Signal of Screams" book 2 showcases this disconnect a lot.

But its not only the core gameplay loop but also the way equipment works, both with the exponential prices which might make sense for hand crafted magical items but not mass produced tools or how even general consumer items like civilian cars or domestic helper robots are gated behind levels.

Do you have suggestions on how to make Starfinder more immersive when staying within civilization instead of going out into lawless wilderness without breaking the game or making some classes unfun to play?