Tomorrow my gaming group is starting a four to five session horror themed game using the Starfinder RPG system. We are starting at level 6 to get a feel for the game as our group will likely run Starfinder for our next major game. So this blog will cover my experiences when creating a character in Starfinder.
Fitting your Character Concept
The core book suggests starting with a character concept first which is where I began. I settled on a smart character that is working with a mix of technology and magic. Luckily this system has both classes and themes. The themes are a way to add flavor to your character as well as supplying you with some abilities. The Technomancer class fit the character concept very well, combine that with the Scholar theme and I have a character design that is already pretty similar to my rough concept. For the race almost any would have worked but I liked the idea of the Android for the character. It led me down the path of having my character concerned about his own origins as part of his overall backstory.
Ability Scores
My group went with the standard method of generating ability scores. In Starfinder this is very similar to standard point buy with some key exceptions. The first is all racial (and theme) modifiers are applied before points are spent. The second is all point purchases are 1 to 1. And lastly, you cannot reduce a stat to gain more points to spend. Playing around with this method of ability scores was fun. I liked how it made characters that were at a consistent power level (like point buy) but the race chosen is less important when determining your ability scores. Picking an unusual race for your class no longer means starting with a worse key ability score. Likewise picking a race that fits your class isn’t that large of an advantage. This does mean however, that it is impossible to start with a 20 in an ability score. Which has been possible in similar gaming systems. Overall, I like the change since it shifts the focus from maximizing the power of your race class combination to picking a race and class that fit your character concept.
Picking Character Options
The Technomancer class seems like an intelligence based Sorcerer from Pathfinder or 3.5. The class gets spells known and spells per day based on their Intelligence ability score. What is different from the other systems is the addition of Magic Hacks and the Spell Cache. The Spell Cache functions like a wizard’s spell book for role playing purposes but it allows you to also cast one spell from it every day regardless of whether you have any slots remaining (always a plus). As you progress the Spell Cache also grants 24 hour versions of a limited set of the Technomancer spells. I like this feature although the spells are very limited since decisions made about the spell cast only happen once. For example, if you used it to cast 24 hour Disguise Self you get to choose your appearance once. Magic hacks are a little like Rogue Tricks in Pathfinder. They are a collection of abilities that give the class more options. I personally went with ones to help with damage and to charge items since most technology in the game (much like real life) relies on power. I’m interested to see how the class plays but after character creation I don’t think the class will have enough versatility.
Other Details
One of the things that stood out for me while building my character was the equipment. Characters are not just limited by how much money the can spend on equipment but also the level of items they may buy. At first glance it didn’t seem to do much since a money limit is already pretty much the same as a level limit. But as I started reading item descriptions I can see that it is designed to replace enchanting items that other game systems have. There is still armor and weapon customization in Starfinder but a player only needs to buy gear that is near their level in order to be effective.
Final Thoughts
The character creation process was about as hard as Pathfinder in terms of looking up how parts of your character interact and what Ability Score adds to what. I like the flavor of the system and look forward to playing it. It is different enough to get me interested yet similar enough that I don’t feel like I have to learn a ton of new things in order to play. However, I am a little concerned that because it is so similar to other gaming systems that I am going make assumptions that will result in bad things happening to the party. I would recommend reviewing the rules section for any new player. That is what I am doing before we play tomorrow.
