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.

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

Making Starfinder a totally compatible source of PF2 game material was a smart move, and will give the game new legs.

Also, props for adding LASER WOLVES!

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

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.

Good taste.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Good taste.

Well, truth is, I'm not a big D20-verse guy (among other things I'm not a fan of classes and levels), but those three have features that will make me to some extent tolerate it.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

Taking your Pathfinder game into Space is a rather interesting thought, if your GM allows for it.

First Edition touched on that, a fair bit:

paizo.com - Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Worlds (PFRPG) Print Edition

paizo.com - Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Technology Guide (PFRPG)

 

[dave2008]

This seemed inevitable, but I am surprised (pleasantly) that it comes so soon after Starfinder Enhanced.

 

[Reynard]

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

Plus it almost guarantees sales increases for both lines if they are 100% compatible.

 

[Nilbog]

Really looking forward to this, if they nail starship combat I'm in.

I fully understand the cutesy tags that are thrown at SF and PF2E but I think they can easily be overlooked, both systems are pretty kitchen sink and allow for many styles of game, if you want a party of talking bears and plant people , you can, if you want full on cosmic horror that's also there.
The group sets the tone and I like that. As a DM it makes my life easier being able to exclude content then having to create things for the style of game I want to play.

 

[Lojaan]

I wonder if they will have starship crew free "archetypes" so everyone can do something in ship to ship combat. Could be fun.

 

[ngenius]

I wish I could like this because I really want "fantasy Sci Fi" but they did everything wrong in the Starfinder setting from my preference POV.

I wanted fantasy in space - they gave us all new sciFi ancestries, not tied to any 'fictional IP' I have an attachment to nor even any 'mythos' to inspire. Not even 'people in funny costumes' to feel relatedness to.

Then they had all the fantasy ones 'go into hiding or become rare'. Elves even went into a pocket dimension and said 'nope' to existence.

I wanted galactic space exploration. We're locked to one solar system with no warp drive. That's what I prefer in 'hard science science fiction', but not 'fantasy sci fi' where I want exploration.

So then I want "futuristic Glorantha" - so they zapped the planet out of existence.

I would have preferred something like Shadowrun did - fantasy brought into a sciFi genre.

Now I'm just hoping I'm wrong about most of that or the setting gets major updates.

Glorantha is Chaosium's RuneQuest setting.

I suspect you meant Paizo's Golarion instead.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Starfinders mechanics is not for me, while Pathfinder 2e is an amazing system. So a PF2 compatible SF2 could be amazing. I will definitely follow the development.