Starfinder What's the state of Starfinder?

[Reynard]

I ran a pretty successful Starfinder game a few years ago. I like the setting, thought the rules were pretty well done, and really enjoyed the spaceship combat. But I haven't been following the line at all since then.

So, what's the state of the game? Is it still well supported by Paizo? How about by 3rd parties? Have there been any real stand out adventures, APs or supplements?

 

[gamerprinter]

I purchase the main supplements, not the APs, nor adventures, but I'm third party as Gamer Printshop (obviously) mostly sold at DrivethruRPG. I published several one-shots and a two-shot module, as well as a one-shot anthology. Supplement wise, I've released Starships, Stations and Salvage Guide about 5 years ago, which was the most popular third party Starfinder product for 6 months - it's been superceded to a slight degree by Paizo's Starship Operations Manual, but it's still a useful supplement - new frames, 47 new bays, new weapons, armor, systems, etc. My most recent release is The Planet Builder a 39 page supplement with tables created by an astrophysicist to generate custom, entire scientifically viable star systems and their stat block, with a planet point system allowing you to build resource stations and extra-planetary structures to grow your system over time. I'm currently developing a line of setting guides for my default setting.

I know Legendary Games puts out good supplements and APs - I'm one of their primary freelance cartographers.

 

[Voadam]

Drivethru shows almost 1,000 3rd party Starfinder PDFs for sale.

I have a bunch of Starfinder stuff from Rogue Genius Games, Legendary Games, Little Red Goblin Games, and some other publishers.

I have not run or played a game of it straight but I have used some stuff as resources for my current Iron Gods adventure path game.

 

[Green Onceler]

It was brought to my attention recently that the Starfinder Adventure Path Line had been reduced to bi-monthly releases. One can only assume this is not due to its great success.

I enjoy the Starfinder system. I have found their adventures do fail to grab my interest, though. The Paizo default setting is just too goofy for my tastes.

 

[Porridge]

It was brought to my attention recently that the Starfinder Adventure Path Line had been reduced to bi-monthly releases. One can only assume this is not due to its great success.

FWIW, they've also added bi-monthly stand-alone Starfinder adventure releases. So they're still releasing a Starfinder adventure each month, it just alternates between an AP release and a stand-alone adventure.

 

[Ixal]

Not sure how well Starfinder is doing but judging based on forum activity, PbP advertisments for Starfinder games and the changes in release schedule I don't think its all that successful.
Personally I am a fan of the concept of Starfinder but not its executions. The designers are still stuck in a fantasy mindset and have no clue how to incorporate SciFi elements into it which is why the adventure paths ship you off into unexplored wilderness where the PCs can dungeon crawl without having to worry about things like laws, ect.

From the rules side starship combat was a bust and it seems Paizo quietly tries to remove them with the newer APs not even having starships or just using them once or twice instead of them being a part of the group to be upgraded.

 

[MNblockhead]

I enjoyed playing it at my local gaming convention and I like the Glass Canon podcast's Starfinder liveplay, but I didn't buy it. Don't have a lot of time for a whole new game and for Sci-Fi I like to get away from DnD inspired mechanics and flavor and would rather play The Expanse, Paranoia, or something built with Cortex Prime.

With Spelljammer coming out, I think it will be more difficult for Paizo to attract many new players. Even though Starfinder offers a much more detailed and rich setting and many more options, Spelljammer will let people play DnD in space without buying a new system. And for those interested in space ships, technology, laser guns, etc.--rather than space fantasy--they have The Expanse, Star Trek, Star Wars, and on and on.

 

[Green Onceler]

FWIW, they've also added bi-monthly stand-alone Starfinder adventure releases.

I don't believe the modules are bi-monthly. The next two scheduled releases are for July and October. Seems more like a quarterly schedule like the old PF1 Module line?

Anyway, I do enjoy the Starfinder system, as already stated, but I feel the adventures do let the system down. And, yeah, starship combat is not fun.

 

[Davies]

The modules were intended to be bimonthly, but that didn't work out too well.

 

[Reynard]

And, yeah, starship combat is not fun.

I like the starship combat. It's not overly crunchy and it makes sure to involve all the PCs.