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.

 

[Velderan]

Yeah. It's safe to say something like "I'd build such a better smart phone" or "I'd run such a better restaurant." But the cost to to design a D&D killer? Your time. Of course it costs money to print and publish, but if it's that good surely you'll crowdfund whatever you need.

And the fun thing you'd likely learn? There were design choices you made that maybe would be better if you did them a different way. And it won't just be one thing. Eventually you'll get enough feedback from people playing your game that are requesting you to make changes. Then sales start to slip because people are trying other games that handle things better. If only you could spur a sales increase and fix some of those design mistakes.

 

[GeekofLegend]

But don't you just hate how your books spontaneously burst into flames when a new edition is announced? So annoying!

You know that you can keep playing whatever edition you like, right?

 

[Retreater]

Can't believe Paizo fell to the wayside like WotC did. Never trusting another TTRPG again.

Now both sides are just churning out new editions far too fast. Editions should last 15-20 years. Wish I owned my own TTRPG, I'd blow both of them out the water in quality and sales.

Hey, I'm just now this weekend purchasing Starfinder 1 stuff. I figure I have around 2 years before the new books come out. That's plenty of time for a couple campaigns with the pacing I run. Even purchasing the books today, I'll be able to get my money's worth out of them - even with the assumption that I throw them away when SF2 releases Summer 2025 (which I doubt I will).
The converse of releasing new editions means the game gets stale and bloated, sales bottom out without new editions to excite the fanbase, and companies lay off designers who don't have work to do. I'd prefer to see new editions every 5 or so years than risk those fates to games I enjoy.

 

[Kaodi]

I mostly lost interest in Starfinder when PF2 came out and I have been "praying" for a SF2 based on PF2 ever since. The fact that they are not only making a SF2 but making it fully cross-compatible with PF2 is the best thing that could possibly have happened. And I am really excited to see whether systems made for the Starfinder setting can easily be ported into usable forms in the Pathfinder setting, like ship building and mecha.

For the folks who are disappointed that soldier has to be differentiated from fighter now, I mean, the good news is that you should just be able to play the fighter class in Starfinder and have it function perfectly well.

 

[Staffan]

For the folks who are disappointed that soldier has to be differentiated from fighter now, I mean, the good news is that you should just be able to play the fighter class in Starfinder and have it function perfectly well.

The potential problem with that is that it makes Starfinder an incomplete game. You shouldn't need to go to Pathfinder to find the class you want to play. SF1 Soldiers could be melee specialists, snipers, blitzers, and even incorporate some magic stuff. SF2's soldier is a person with heavy armor wielding a big machine gun/grenade launcher.

Now, admittedly we're only touching a very tiny part of the elephant here. It's possible that some of the other classes cover other niches that were previously on Soldier territory, and that's fine. But if Starfinder doesn't have any place for Ka D'Argo, Aeryn Sun, Jayne Cobb, or Drax, something has gone seriously wrong.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The potential problem with that is that it makes Starfinder an incomplete game. You shouldn't need to go to Pathfinder to find the class you want to play. SF1 Soldiers could be melee specialists, snipers, blitzers, and even incorporate some magic stuff. SF2's soldier is a person with heavy armor wielding a big machine gun/grenade launcher.

I just looked at the quickstart, and it supports three different modes as listed, and that's only one of them. They're doing the same sort of thing they did with PF2e fighters where the sword and board/two hander/two weapon types had different routes.

Or are you talking about something different?

 

[Staffan]

I just looked at the quickstart, and it supports three different modes as listed, and that's only one of them. They're doing the same sort of thing they did with PF2e fighters where the sword and board/two hander/two weapon types had different routes.

Or are you talking about something different?

The three styles shown in the field test are:

• Armor storm: lets you use AOE weapons on yourself and gives you resistance to attacks from suppressed foes. You suppress foes by making AOE/autofire attacks.
• Bombard: Reduce friendly fire from AOE/autofire and suppress enemies that succeed on their save vs your AOE/autofire.
• Close Quarters: Get punitive strike with 2H weapons (with the strong expectation that you'll use your boomstick as long as the target's over there, and switch to a painstick once it gets close).

So that's two out of three with a direct focus on Big Guns. In addition, the class abilities from the class are about suppressive fire (from AOE/autofire), the ability to target someone within an AOE/autofire with an attack instead of having them save, making it easier to wear heavy armor and adding carrying capacity (letting you carry your Big Guns), using Con instead of Cha to Intimidate, and getting critical specialization with AOE/autofire weapons. 7 out of 10 listed class feats deal with AOE/autofire or suppressed targets. Oh, and there's all the text about how they wanted to make it different from the fighter by having it focus on AOE/autofire weapons and facetanking.

It's possible that melee will primarily be a thing Solarians do, and long-range combat might be a job for Operatives. But those things are definitely not the Soldier's job in SF2.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I won't comment on the latter part of your post, but that first one says "grenades and assault rifles" not heavy weapons to me.

 

[Staffan]

I won't comment on the latter part of your post, but that first one says "grenades and assault rifles" not heavy weapons to me.

"Your armor is like an extension of your skin (or other appropriate surface layer), and you’re able to leverage it alongside the heavy weapons you employ."

Also, autofire covers a cone, so it by definition never includes yourself, so it's mostly useful for weapons with "Area (burst)". And even so, it's clearly an ability designed for close-in fighting, not for long range.

 

[Thomas Shey]

"Your armor is like an extension of your skin (or other appropriate surface layer), and you’re able to leverage it alongside the heavy weapons you employ."

For some values, grenades are heavy weapons.

Also, autofire covers a cone, so it by definition never includes yourself, so it's mostly useful for weapons with "Area (burst)". And even so, it's clearly an ability designed for close-in fighting, not for long range.

Which kind of supports my opinion here.