Starfinder announced

[Xorial]

Starfinder RPG announced. Seeing as this will be a stand-alone RPG, will Hero Lab end up making a separate setting rules set for it?

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Xorial

Starfinder RPG announced. Seeing as this will be a stand-alone RPG, will Hero Lab end up making a separate setting rules set for it?

I almost posted yesterday when this came out.

I see no value in a separate game system. It uses ALL pathfinder rules meaning I can have a normal Half-Orc Wizard in Starfinder. All the same races exist and are usable. Making a separate game system in HL would defeat half the benefit of Starfinder actually as its 100% backwards compatible to Pathfinder rules.

I am pretty excited for this actually especially that the first Starfinder AP will launch next GenCon with the core rule book.

[charlieluce]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

I see no value in a separate game system. It uses ALL pathfinder rules meaning I can have a normal Half-Orc Wizard in Starfinder. All the same races exist and are usable. Making a separate game system in HL would defeat half the benefit of Starfinder actually as its 100% backwards compatible to Pathfinder rules.

According to the developer posting on the blog discussion today, that's not the case. From that description, the Pathfinder -> Starfinder compatibility is going to be more like the "you can convert 3.5 stuff to Pathfinder pretty easily" situation; there are going to be explicit differences (AC has been mentioned).

[rob]

Originally Posted by charlieluce

According to the developer posting on the blog discussion today, that's not the case. From that description, the Pathfinder -> Starfinder compatibility is going to be more like the "you can convert 3.5 stuff to Pathfinder pretty easily" situation; there are going to be explicit differences (AC has been mentioned).

This is the understanding we got out of a short briefing from Paizo. Our expectation is that there will be a lot of similarities, but there will also be some stark differences to better tailor the game to the needs of the SciFi setting. For a sense of the adaptations we're anticipating (we don't know any details at this point), look at some of the changes Wizards and Fantasy Flight made when adapting existing systems to Star Wars. So we are currently expecting that there will be an independent game system within Hero Lab to allow us to optimally support the deviations introduced in StarFinder.

[Xorial]

Originally Posted by rob

This is the understanding we got out of a short briefing from Paizo. Our expectation is that there will be a lot of similarities, but there will also be some stark differences to better tailor the game to the needs of the SciFi setting. For a sense of the adaptations we're anticipating (we don't know any details at this point), look at some of the changes Wizards and Fantasy Flight made when adapting existing systems to Star Wars. So we are currently expecting that there will be an independent game system within Hero Lab to allow us to optimally support the deviations introduced in StarFinder.

This is what I was thinking would have to happen. Personally, I would rather it would be this way. Less hacking of the system to shoe-horn a mechanic into it.

[charlieluce]

Originally Posted by Xorial

This is what I was thinking would have to happen. Personally, I would rather it would be this way. Less hacking of the system to shoe-horn a mechanic into it.

It's possible, I guess, that the changes to Starfinder would be on the order of, say, Pathfinder Unchained in difficulty to add to the existing Pathfinder system, but realistically it's going to be months before Lone Wolf knows for sure.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by rob

This is the understanding we got out of a short briefing from Paizo. Our expectation is that there will be a lot of similarities, but there will also be some stark differences to better tailor the game to the needs of the SciFi setting. For a sense of the adaptations we're anticipating (we don't know any details at this point), look at some of the changes Wizards and Fantasy Flight made when adapting existing systems to Star Wars. So we are currently expecting that there will be an independent game system within Hero Lab to allow us to optimally support the deviations introduced in StarFinder.

I have to totally disagree and hope this is NOT the case at all. I don't see many if any mechanical changes required for Starfinder to work. Its already said to be 100% backwards compatible and Paizo wants to be able to use existing Bestiary books. Paizo is not WotC so I don't see them requiring people to rebuy all new books to support this which is what WotC always did. Paizo had previously said that creating such a rift in the player base is a bad business design that they where not interested in supporting.

Paizo wants to make sure that all the books I have on my shelf are usable out the door. So new skills, new feats, some new class ideas. But the mention of AC as a change could be a total re-write like they did for Ultimate Combat to something as small as a new bonus type that adds to all three AC values. Just because people "want" a rewrite of Pathfinder does not mean that is what they are getting.

We will know more in the future but I honestly see the changes the same as Unchained and Ultimate Combat's "Optional" rules. Those have different AC designs and small tweaks like that can be rolled into HL easily.

Big issues with two different game systems is what happens when I want to use a B1 Monster in Starfinder? Is LW going to require everyone rebuy every Pathfinder book in Starfinder again? I can't see people liking that idea at all even myself. =( So for those that are asking LW to make a new game system it means that your existing .user files and Bestiary Monsters are not usable. All those Encounter Builder tools would no longer have that HUGE list of monsters to pull from. Please keep this in mind when asking LW to make a new game system.

I have to say if I am wrong and this is Pathfinder 2.0 and Starfinder requires a whole new version of HL I mostly likely will never switch to it. My players are too busy and too stuck now to want to learn a new system that is close but has lots of little changes. Oh well...

[DreadKatak]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

I almost posted yesterday when this came out.

I see no value in a separate game system. It uses ALL pathfinder rules meaning I can have a normal Half-Orc Wizard in Starfinder. All the same races exist and are usable. Making a separate game system in HL would defeat half the benefit of Starfinder actually as its 100% backwards compatible to Pathfinder rules.

I am pretty excited for this actually especially that the first Starfinder AP will launch next GenCon with the core rule book.

Late to the show and not caught up yet on this thread, but here goes anyway:

I hope that it does get its own rules block. There are enough differences, just from what I read in the 'The First Contact' primer. Of course, nothing in that first look is guaranteed to be official, but there were enough changes that seemed more like hacks to me.

I feel that it makes sense to make a rules setting specifically for Starfinder that allows Pathfinder content to be imported easily rather than the other way around.

Originally Posted by Colen

We're intending to support Starfinder, although we weren't at PaizoCon, so we know less than the people there at this point.

I came to check the forums specifically hoping that Lone Wolf was looking at Starfinder and I'm glad to hear that they are!

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by DreadKatak

I came to check the forums specifically hoping that Lone Wolf was looking at Starfinder and I'm glad to hear that they are!

It consumes my every waking thought.

[RavenX]

Exalted kind of beat them to the punch on this. Shards of the Exalted Dream did a damn good job taking white wolf's games into space. Scarlett Empress as the head of the Galactic Senate with Darth Vader at her side. I couldn't ask for a better sci fi ruleset.