Starfinder Is the Interstellar Science Fantasy RPG You’ve Always Wanted

Starfinder is, of course, based on Pathfinder, which is itself based on the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons. If you’re familiar with Pathfinder, this is great news, since you’ve got a big head start on knowing how to play the new game. Beginners, on the other hand, might be intimidated by Starfinder’s somewhat dense rules. The core rulebook is, after all, more than 500 pages long. But much of the fun for many RPG players comes from having so much material to devour and master; truly, beginning players only need to tackle a small section of rules covering the most common actions their character is likely to take. You can learn other subsystems at your own pace. There’s a lot here, but it’s easily digestible.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I have done some freelance work for Paizo in the past, but not on Starfinder).
That said, this is not simply Pathfinder with a coat of science-fiction paint. There are some significant, interesting changes, as well as additional systems crucial to role-playing in a different genre. Over the years of Pathfinder’s existence, many optional rules have been introduced, some of them good enough, they’ve become essential for many players. A few of them have been fully incorporated into Starfinder. My favorite is the adoption of Pathfinder’s optional Vigor system, which is how Starfinder handles damage (using the term Stamina instead of Vigor). If you get hurt in combat, you lose Stamina, which represents getting tired or roughed up, but not really harmed. You can shake that off and recover your Stamina points pretty easily. But if all your Stamina is gone and you take damage, you start to lose Hit Points, and those are much harder to recover, since they represent significant injuries. It’s a good system that feels much more interesting than a flat hit points system, but without adding too much complexity.
Another interesting change is the use of Resolve Points. These are points representing your character’s ability to put forth a heroic effort; a last ditch, desperate attack; or an astonishing feat. They can be used to recover Stamina, avoid death, or to “pay” for certain special abilities. A lot of the character classes added to Pathfinder used different variations on this kind of resource system, with points that paid for your most powerful abilities. The concept has just been unified and incorporated into the base rules for Starfinder.

The new systems for computers and starships are solid. The computer stuff is a little thin, but there’s plenty there for you to enjoy playing a computer hacking engineer or science officer. I suspect we’ll see a book dedicated to hacking at some point that will open up all kinds of cyberpunk capabilities. The system for building starships is awesome. I put together a science vessel with a crew of six just to try it out, and there’s a lot of freedom in deciding how you want to design and arm your ship. I went with a lightly armed vessel with heavy shields and powerful thrusters, so it can turtle up and escape instead of fighting it out. It’s awesome that players are assumed to have access to a starship right from the start, so you don’t have to play through several levels until your party can afford one.
The starship combat system I’m not so sure about, although I didn’t have a chance to test it out. It seems too abstract to satisfy those seeking a good tactical starship battle, but complicated enough to feel slow. I think a much more streamlined system would work better, but for now, there are shield regeneration rates and hull damage numbers to track. This is probably my least favorite part of Starfinder.
My favorite part is that Starfinder isn’t just sci-fi—it’s actually science-fantasy. The blend of space opera, planetary exploration, and inexplicable magic and occult effects works really well. Many of the new magic spells are mirrors of Pathfinder magic spells, but there are quite a few that blur the lines between magic and technology, and you can do things like program spells into computer chips or hurl a cloud of magic nanites at someone. Nice.
Starfinder is set in the same solar system as Pathfinder. However, a weird anomaly in the recent past has caused everyone in the system to forget all of history, and caused all evidence of said history to  disappear. This literal timeline reset means the galaxy is what you make of it, and it also gives the players a giant mystery to work toward solving if they’re so inclined. Related to this anomaly is the complete disappearance of Golarion, the planet that provides the setting for Pathfinder. There’s a giant space station floating in its place.
However, a lot of elements of Pathfinder’s world are echoed in Starfinder, like NPC factions that have moved into space. The rulebook includes a great legacy sectionthat allows you to play one of the classic fantasy races in Starfinder if you’re not satisfied with the new alien ones on offer. Space gnomes! Space half-orcs! Space dwarves!
One more great thing about Starfinder: the cargohold’s worth of ancillary products already available or coming soon:

There’s the Starfinder GM Screen, which helps the GM hide all her dastardly secrets and twisted plans, but also has a load of useful charts to cut down on page flipping. The side facing the players is decked out in spectacular art to set the tone for your space adventures.

The Starfinder Player Character Folio is sort of like a GM screen for the players. It’s a deluxe character sheet, with room to store info on your starship, the spells you know, the items you’ve found, and basically anything else you could possibly want to record about your character. Plus, art and charts! If you become as attached to your RPG characters as I do, this is hard to pass up.

The Starfinder Combat Pad isn’t exactly a necessity, but I’ve used similar things in the past and they really do make it easier to keep track of what’s going on in combat. It’s a dry erase board with some included magnets, so you can easily reposition everyone in initiative order, note temporary effects (“The radiation spell wears off in three rounds!”), or write snarky comments about other characters.

Starfinder: Alien Archive is the one I’m personally most excited about. It’s essentially a monster manual for space, with loads of new alien races, beasts from planets across the system, and expanded rules for making the new aliens playable as characters, not just enemies. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Finally, you can download the Syrinscape sound app to access soundscapes and sound effect collections specifically designed for Starfinder. You can either purchase individual soundscapes, or subscribe and gain access to all of them for as long as your subscription lasts. I’ve used Syrinscape quite a bit while running RPGs (I run it on my laptop and connect to a sound bar via Bluetooth), and it’s really cool and easy to use. The smallest bit of audio ambience adds so much atmosphere to your games, whether it’s the sound of a busy tavern, or the beeps and whooshes of a starship bridge. You can click a button to trigger big, splashy effects—firing your quad laser cannons or telewarping your go-team down to the planet. It’s also all highly customizable, so you can import your own sounds and remix soundscapes any way you want.
It’s going to be interesting to see where Starfinder goes. In a lot of ways it’s an evolution of Pathfinder, and the way it blends so many fun sci-fi and fantasy concepts could allow it to expand in unexpected directions. The xenoarchaeologist technomage I rolled for my first character is definitely looking forward to exploring weird alien ruins, and discovering new alien races.
Have you logged your first mission in Starfinder yet?