Starfinder dropped at Gen Con 50, and what was supposed to last through the weekend sold out in six hours on Thursday. Seriously, Paizo planned for a good reception and printed a lot more than they normally do, and it still flew out of that booth faster than a dragon late for a bison buffet. I am very proud for my friends at Paizo, especially lead designer and good buddy, Owen K.C. Stephens. Thus, the theme for this week, showcasing one of the most prolific and enjoyed writer/designers of the day.
STARFARER'S COMPANION
In honor of the unbelievable 6-hour sell-out of Paizo’s Starfinder core book on Thursday of the convention, I am dedicating this week to my good friend, Owen K.C. Stephens, one of the key architects behind this huge hit. Owen is good people, and I will always be grateful to him for helping me through a dark moment at this year’s show, and for just being a tremendous human being. In honor of him, this will be Owen K.C. Stephens Week here at the SPOD!
Starfarer’s Companion is the perfectly-timed release from Owen’s Rogue Genius Games in conjunction with Starfinder – a set of expanded options for that game from the house that has the official license to craft them!
A Companion to Adventure Across the Stars!
An expansion to the Starfinder Core Rulebook, adding both classic character concepts and brand new options to expand the variety in your fantastic galaxy!
And More! All ready for any campaign, but including the flavor needed to integrate smoothly with RGG’s Blood Space setting, the background flavor in the Starfarer’s Companion can be a stand-alone adventure ground, or just Another Place in the Galaxy of Your Games.
The Starfarer Companion is written by Alex Augunas and Matt Morris, with the assistance of Matt Banach and Owen K.C. Stephens.
FREEPORT BESTIARY
Being Owen K.C. Stephens Week here at the SPOD, let’s go with this gem from Green Ronin, featuring a cast of all-stars including Owen. Bringing the ever-popular pirate city of Freeport to the Pathfinder fans was a great idea, and this one gives them all the monsters and bad guys they need to endless adventures and swashbuckling action there.
The world of Freeport is a perilous one, as any swab can attest. Sailors face monsters like ocean wyrms and sail dragons, explorers must deal with ghost eaters and harpoon crabs, and city dwellers may be surprised by burnlings and flayed men. You’ll find all these creatures and many more in the Freeport Bestiary for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!
This 180-page full color sourcebook includes a wide variety of threats, from classic Freeport adversaries like serpentmen and fire spectres to new monsters like corsair drakes and witch beasts. It’s the perfect complement to Freeport: The City of Adventure and can be used to add spice to any Pathfinder Roleplaying Game campaign.
ANACHRONISTIC ADVENTURES
Owen K.C. Stephens Week continues with a Pick that goes to a different place and time (so to speak). Owen is perhaps the leading expert (certainly in the top five) on wrapping Pathfinder rules around just about anything; this is what made him the perfect choice for leading the Starfinder design.
Here, he tackles pulp-style derring-do for Pathfinder fans.
Prepare for Pulp Adventure!
Want two-fisted action? Dapper heroes with ESP, strong-jawed adventurers who run in, guns blazing, and sophisticated great detectives? Love the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but you’re looking for pulp adventure stories from the late 1700s to the 1940s? Then you want Anachronistic Adventures!
This pulp genre toolbox works seamlessly with the existing Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules, and presents:
MYTHIC HERO'S HANDBOOK
As we’ve been rolling through Owen K.C. Stephens Week here at the Pick, I’ve noticed a lot of folks comment that they own more books featuring his work than that of any other writer or designer in RPGs. It’s impressive as hell, but not hard to believe – if there’s a more prolific creator in RPGs, I don’t know who it is.
Take this Pick for example – from Legendary Games, a book dedicated to taking your Pathfinder games from heroic to legendary to absolutely mythic, and there’s no way they would have tried such a thing without Owen being on board. There’s also a lot of other amazing creators, which is also no surprise; Owen is a master collaborator, among his many talents.
Heroes Ready to Make History!
The Mythic Hero’s Handbook brings you an incredible array of expansions for the mythic rules for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! You’ll find exciting and innovative ideas for existing rules alongside a wealth of all-new material from the authors that know mythic like nobody else. You’ll find options galore to suit any character build and inspiration for new heroic directions to take on your path to immortality, whether your character is a holy hierophant or treacherous trickster, an indomitable champion or inventive genius, a steadfast guardian of others or a steely-eyed stranger ready to launch a roaring rampage of revenge!
These rules elements can be incorporated into a traditional Pathfinder campaign as well as one using the full mythic rules! While this book is an encyclopedic expansion to the mythic rules, many elements are easily slipped into a standard campaign in the form of lost lore, secret mysteries, and the training techniques of revered and ancient masters. The lost relics of an ancient civilization or the peculiar traditions of distant empires can all be modeled with the mythic rules. Even better, since the mythic rules function like a template overlaid upon a standard character, mythic power can easily be given through divine blessing, mysterious ritual, or the hand of destiny, and then withdrawn after the climactic crisis has passed.
The Mythic Hero’s Handbook includes:
– Over 120 new path abilities for the archmage, champion, guardian, hierophant, and trickster mythic paths and universal path abilities for every mythic character!
– Four brand-new mythic paths – the genius, living saint, overmind, and the vengeful stranger – with over 150 path abilities exclusively for them!
– Mythic class features for over 30 character classes for levels 1 to 20, including every core and base class in the core rules plus 11 more classes from Kobold Press and Rogue Genius Games like the battle scion, dragonrider, time thief, and white necromancer!
– Over 1000 mythic feats, including mythic versions of every feat in the core rules, plus hundreds more from official companion products and the official campaign setting and more!
– An entire chapter devoted to mythic psionics by the experts at Dreamscarred Press, including a new mythic path and 60 psionic path abilities, plus dozens of mythic psionic feats and over 100 mythic psionic powers!
– Over 30 mythic magic items from the blade-eating battleaxe to the midnight beacon, along with expanded rules for legendary items
– A comprehensive mythic skills system, alongside rules for mythic curses and traps, replacing magic items with inherent abilities, and an extensive discussion of the unique challenges of mythic play!
– Extensive hyperlinked referencing for ease of reference in the PDF version.
– and much Much MUCH MORE!
THE GENIUS GUIDE TO THE TALENTED RANGER
Rogue Genius Games is the House that Owen Built, so we’re going back there to close out Owen K.C. Stephens Week. The Genius Guide series covers every square inch of territory related to expanding your gaming experience with Pathfinder. Along with The Genius Guide to More Ranger Talents, the following marks one of Owen’s most popular offerings in this series.
With the popular and proven edge and talent system that has already been applied to many other classes in the Talented Class line of books from Rogue Genius Games, we’ve built a new talented ranger class that can take a wide range of specialties from favored enemies and terrain to bonding to a weapon, gaining a pack of animal companions, and even becoming an ally of magic itself. While these most certainly include a number of things that could be considered forms of woodsman, they also allow for rangers as prowlers of big cities, warriors with a touch of arcane magic, and supernatural hunters who expose the secrets of the demons they hunt.
-----
I've been wondering at what other kinds of themes I can use for the Picks, and I think this idea is a winner. There are a lot of fantastic creators in gaming, so look for many more Theme Weeks where I'll point out the best of us for you to learn more about and enjoy.
And, as always, I am very interested in any ideas you might have for future Themes.
Tonight, it's a return to the Prowlers & Paragons OmniVerse as the Storm Wardens seek to retrieve not one, but two of the Integers of the Hand of God to try and restore reality to what it should be. They face the mysterious Goblin King, David, and his Style Council in order to retrieve the Integer of Creation, and then it's off to face the Rage Wraith of the Destroyer to collect Destruction.
Tomorrow, I'm off to Fort Collins Comic Con (AKA "FoCoCoCo") to help with a panel on being a better Game Master (alongside my Evil Beagle Games partner, Bill Keyes; The Specialists writer and co-conspirator on gaming awesomeness, Shawn Gustafson; and game designer extraordinaire, Darrell Hardy.
Sunday, I'm guest-GMing Ed Doolittle's Prowlers & Paragons: The Epic Age campaign, wherein we deal with the aftermath of the almost-invasion of the Doombringers.
What are you up to?
The Adventure Continues!
Note that I use affiliate links in all my posts as a way to generate additional revenue for my efforts; I make my Picks and other article choices, however, based on the desire to share a wide variety of things with you. Thank you for your support.
Sean Patrick Fannon
Writer & Game Designer: Shaintar, Star Wars, Savage Rifts, much more
Please check out my Patreon and get involved directly with my next projects!
STARFARER'S COMPANION
In honor of the unbelievable 6-hour sell-out of Paizo’s Starfinder core book on Thursday of the convention, I am dedicating this week to my good friend, Owen K.C. Stephens, one of the key architects behind this huge hit. Owen is good people, and I will always be grateful to him for helping me through a dark moment at this year’s show, and for just being a tremendous human being. In honor of him, this will be Owen K.C. Stephens Week here at the SPOD!
Starfarer’s Companion is the perfectly-timed release from Owen’s Rogue Genius Games in conjunction with Starfinder – a set of expanded options for that game from the house that has the official license to craft them!
A Companion to Adventure Across the Stars!
An expansion to the Starfinder Core Rulebook, adding both classic character concepts and brand new options to expand the variety in your fantastic galaxy!
- Races – Aasimar, Catfolk, Deoxyians, Dhampirs, Grippli, Ifrit, Kitsune, Kobolds, Mechanoi, Nagaji, Oreads, Samsarans, Suli, Sylphs, Tengu, Tieflings, Undine, Vanaras, Vishkanya, and Wayangs!
- Classes – Updated versions of the Bard, Cleric, Magus, Paladin, Ranger, and Wizard!
- Companions – Paladins and rangers have lots of cool companion options.
- Feats – Support feats for the new class options, plus fun possibilities for characters of any race or class!
- Computers – New modules and upgrades, plus tons of pregenerated computers to save GMs and players both considerable effort!
- Starships – More options, and lots of pregenerated Starships to drool over!
- Spells – 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells, plus lots of old favorites brought into the Starfaring Age!
And More! All ready for any campaign, but including the flavor needed to integrate smoothly with RGG’s Blood Space setting, the background flavor in the Starfarer’s Companion can be a stand-alone adventure ground, or just Another Place in the Galaxy of Your Games.
The Starfarer Companion is written by Alex Augunas and Matt Morris, with the assistance of Matt Banach and Owen K.C. Stephens.
FREEPORT BESTIARY
Being Owen K.C. Stephens Week here at the SPOD, let’s go with this gem from Green Ronin, featuring a cast of all-stars including Owen. Bringing the ever-popular pirate city of Freeport to the Pathfinder fans was a great idea, and this one gives them all the monsters and bad guys they need to endless adventures and swashbuckling action there.
The world of Freeport is a perilous one, as any swab can attest. Sailors face monsters like ocean wyrms and sail dragons, explorers must deal with ghost eaters and harpoon crabs, and city dwellers may be surprised by burnlings and flayed men. You’ll find all these creatures and many more in the Freeport Bestiary for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!
This 180-page full color sourcebook includes a wide variety of threats, from classic Freeport adversaries like serpentmen and fire spectres to new monsters like corsair drakes and witch beasts. It’s the perfect complement to Freeport: The City of Adventure and can be used to add spice to any Pathfinder Roleplaying Game campaign.
ANACHRONISTIC ADVENTURES
Owen K.C. Stephens Week continues with a Pick that goes to a different place and time (so to speak). Owen is perhaps the leading expert (certainly in the top five) on wrapping Pathfinder rules around just about anything; this is what made him the perfect choice for leading the Starfinder design.
Here, he tackles pulp-style derring-do for Pathfinder fans.
Prepare for Pulp Adventure!
Want two-fisted action? Dapper heroes with ESP, strong-jawed adventurers who run in, guns blazing, and sophisticated great detectives? Love the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but you’re looking for pulp adventure stories from the late 1700s to the 1940s? Then you want Anachronistic Adventures!
This pulp genre toolbox works seamlessly with the existing Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules, and presents:
- Six new 20-level classes (Cogitator, Daredevil, Enforcer, Luminary, Sensitive, and Tough) representing iconic pulp heroes concepts!
- More than a score of archetypes that let you fine tune unique modern age characters!
- Rules for modern firearms, heroes without armor, low-magic campaigns, and everything else you need to run anachronistic adventures or create your own anachronistic campaign!
MYTHIC HERO'S HANDBOOK
As we’ve been rolling through Owen K.C. Stephens Week here at the Pick, I’ve noticed a lot of folks comment that they own more books featuring his work than that of any other writer or designer in RPGs. It’s impressive as hell, but not hard to believe – if there’s a more prolific creator in RPGs, I don’t know who it is.
Take this Pick for example – from Legendary Games, a book dedicated to taking your Pathfinder games from heroic to legendary to absolutely mythic, and there’s no way they would have tried such a thing without Owen being on board. There’s also a lot of other amazing creators, which is also no surprise; Owen is a master collaborator, among his many talents.
Heroes Ready to Make History!
The Mythic Hero’s Handbook brings you an incredible array of expansions for the mythic rules for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! You’ll find exciting and innovative ideas for existing rules alongside a wealth of all-new material from the authors that know mythic like nobody else. You’ll find options galore to suit any character build and inspiration for new heroic directions to take on your path to immortality, whether your character is a holy hierophant or treacherous trickster, an indomitable champion or inventive genius, a steadfast guardian of others or a steely-eyed stranger ready to launch a roaring rampage of revenge!
These rules elements can be incorporated into a traditional Pathfinder campaign as well as one using the full mythic rules! While this book is an encyclopedic expansion to the mythic rules, many elements are easily slipped into a standard campaign in the form of lost lore, secret mysteries, and the training techniques of revered and ancient masters. The lost relics of an ancient civilization or the peculiar traditions of distant empires can all be modeled with the mythic rules. Even better, since the mythic rules function like a template overlaid upon a standard character, mythic power can easily be given through divine blessing, mysterious ritual, or the hand of destiny, and then withdrawn after the climactic crisis has passed.
The Mythic Hero’s Handbook includes:
– Over 120 new path abilities for the archmage, champion, guardian, hierophant, and trickster mythic paths and universal path abilities for every mythic character!
– Four brand-new mythic paths – the genius, living saint, overmind, and the vengeful stranger – with over 150 path abilities exclusively for them!
– Mythic class features for over 30 character classes for levels 1 to 20, including every core and base class in the core rules plus 11 more classes from Kobold Press and Rogue Genius Games like the battle scion, dragonrider, time thief, and white necromancer!
– Over 1000 mythic feats, including mythic versions of every feat in the core rules, plus hundreds more from official companion products and the official campaign setting and more!
– An entire chapter devoted to mythic psionics by the experts at Dreamscarred Press, including a new mythic path and 60 psionic path abilities, plus dozens of mythic psionic feats and over 100 mythic psionic powers!
– Over 30 mythic magic items from the blade-eating battleaxe to the midnight beacon, along with expanded rules for legendary items
– A comprehensive mythic skills system, alongside rules for mythic curses and traps, replacing magic items with inherent abilities, and an extensive discussion of the unique challenges of mythic play!
– Extensive hyperlinked referencing for ease of reference in the PDF version.
– and much Much MUCH MORE!
THE GENIUS GUIDE TO THE TALENTED RANGER
Rogue Genius Games is the House that Owen Built, so we’re going back there to close out Owen K.C. Stephens Week. The Genius Guide series covers every square inch of territory related to expanding your gaming experience with Pathfinder. Along with The Genius Guide to More Ranger Talents, the following marks one of Owen’s most popular offerings in this series.
With the popular and proven edge and talent system that has already been applied to many other classes in the Talented Class line of books from Rogue Genius Games, we’ve built a new talented ranger class that can take a wide range of specialties from favored enemies and terrain to bonding to a weapon, gaining a pack of animal companions, and even becoming an ally of magic itself. While these most certainly include a number of things that could be considered forms of woodsman, they also allow for rangers as prowlers of big cities, warriors with a touch of arcane magic, and supernatural hunters who expose the secrets of the demons they hunt.
-----
I've been wondering at what other kinds of themes I can use for the Picks, and I think this idea is a winner. There are a lot of fantastic creators in gaming, so look for many more Theme Weeks where I'll point out the best of us for you to learn more about and enjoy.
And, as always, I am very interested in any ideas you might have for future Themes.
Tonight, it's a return to the Prowlers & Paragons OmniVerse as the Storm Wardens seek to retrieve not one, but two of the Integers of the Hand of God to try and restore reality to what it should be. They face the mysterious Goblin King, David, and his Style Council in order to retrieve the Integer of Creation, and then it's off to face the Rage Wraith of the Destroyer to collect Destruction.
Tomorrow, I'm off to Fort Collins Comic Con (AKA "FoCoCoCo") to help with a panel on being a better Game Master (alongside my Evil Beagle Games partner, Bill Keyes; The Specialists writer and co-conspirator on gaming awesomeness, Shawn Gustafson; and game designer extraordinaire, Darrell Hardy.
Sunday, I'm guest-GMing Ed Doolittle's Prowlers & Paragons: The Epic Age campaign, wherein we deal with the aftermath of the almost-invasion of the Doombringers.
What are you up to?
The Adventure Continues!
Note that I use affiliate links in all my posts as a way to generate additional revenue for my efforts; I make my Picks and other article choices, however, based on the desire to share a wide variety of things with you. Thank you for your support.
Sean Patrick Fannon
Writer & Game Designer: Shaintar, Star Wars, Savage Rifts, much more
Please check out my Patreon and get involved directly with my next projects!
