Paizo Announces Starfinder 2nd Edition

As part of the keynote presentation for Gen Con 2023, Paizo announced Starfinder 2nd Edition.

A new edition is coming for Starfinder, making it fully compatible with Pathfinder 2nd Edition and the Remaster Project. The new edition will be published under the ORC License and implements the three-action economy.

“With the finalization of the ORC License, and considering that Starfinder 1st Edition has been evolving since its release in 2017, we felt now was a perfect time to bring the system into the future,” says Starfinder’s Managing Creative Director, Thurston Hillman.

Taking the lessons of Pathfinder’s latest edition and everything they have learned since Starfinder began, Paizo is looking forward to making the next version of Starfinder better. This will be the most open playtest Paizo has ever launched, with deeper looks into the development process.

The roundtable discussion with the Starfinder team highlighted some key elements of the upcoming playtest and new edition:

• Pathfinder 2nd Edition and Starfinder 2nd Edition rulesets will be completely cross-compatible provided your GM allows it. That includes classes, creatures, and more.
• The first four classes announced for the playtest are:
• Mystic, represented by the iconic shirren mystic Chk Chk
• Soldier, represented by the returning iconic vesk soldier Obozaya.
• Envoy, represented by the returning iconic human envoy Navasi
• Solarion, represented by a new iconic pahtra solarian, openining up the feline pahtra as a core ancestry.
• As part of the ‘open playtest’ model, the Starfinder team will be keeping players updated and involved with “Field Tests”- the first of which release today alongside the announcement at stafinderplaytest.com. The first Field Test includes the Soldier Class from levels 1 to 5, new equipment, and new creatures like the Computer Glitch Gremlin and Laser Wolf.

The Starfinder Playtest Rulebook will be available in summer 2024 as a softcover rulebook. Base system rules will not be a part of the playtest as Starfinder 2nd Edition will be using the Pathfinder 2nd Edition ruleset. The playtest will focus on the core elements of gameplay, including new classes, a scaling equipment system, new skills, and more.

 

[Aldarc]

Well, that's you. Its not a coincidence that PF2e is one of the only three D20 derived games I'll bother with.

What are the other two?

 

[thullgrim]

Guess I’ll start completing my SF1e physical collection. I’m currently giving PF2 for third time (not 3rd session, third attempt at a fair shake). I still have the same issues I had the first two times and moving SF to the same systems might kill that for me.

 

[Staffan]

From the PoV of making Starfinder 2 the best Starfinder it can be, I'm not sure slavish adherence to Pathfinder 2's mechanics is the best idea. There will almost certainly be cases where the designers would have a number of options on how to deal with a thing, but have to choose a worse option because that's how Pathfinder does it, or because they don't want a Starfinder option to step on a Pathfinder option's toes. We're already kind of seeing it with the Soldier being niched into being a heavy weapons/AOE martial because they want to make it distinct from the PF2 Fighter, whereas the SF1 Soldier had a lot of very different paths to follow.

It's probably a good idea for the business side of things, though.

 

[thullgrim]

In house game development becomes simpler for them. Single development team moving forward. Lots of business advantages. I can’t blame them.

 

[schneeland]

Well, personally I would be more interested in Savage Starfinder. But I assume if it happens at all, it will be a while after SF 2e is out.

 

[thullgrim]

I'd definitely do Savage Starfinder. For sure. That's a take my money situation.

 

[CommodoreKong]

I wonder if this is going to tank Starfinder Enhanced sales.

I doubt Paizo had high expectations for Enhanced sales, it was probably just something to get a bit more cash out of existing content before 2e.

 

[Thomas Shey]

What are the other two?

Shadow of the Demon Lord (I haven't looked at the Quickstart enough to know how I feel about Shadow of the Weird Wizard) and 13th Age.

 

[Velderan]

Guess I’ll start completing my SF1e physical collection. I’m currently giving PF2 for third time (not 3rd session, third attempt at a fair shake). I still have the same issues I had the first two times and moving SF to the same systems might kill that for me.

I forget if you've mentioned them in another thread, but what were the issues you encountered in it the first couple tries?

 

[Mistwell]

I wonder if Owen K Stephens worked and is working on this?