Day 23 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge and I elected to use the Starfinder RPG by Paizo. Now I actually participated in a Starfinder campaign in 2021 so I’m familiar with the system. But I didn’t create a character using just the book since we were all playing on Fantasy Grounds. While I will never let Fantasy Grounds soil any of my computers again (another blog post for another day), I did enjoy the game and the company.
I picked up my PDF of Starfinder at a charity bundle sale last year where I also picked up 2nd edition of Pathfinder (which will be used later in the challenge). When I had created the character we used the online tools in the virtual tabletop which did a lot of heavy lifting inserting information from multiple books. But I’m only going to use the core rulebook and follow the steps as written.
The PDF is 531 pages long with the character creation steps (actually listed this way) on page 14. The PDF is bookmarked (thank you). The core book has an ISDN of 9-781601-259561 and…. the cover price isn’t listed on the PDF. The character sheet is two pages long. The D20 core mechanic is based off of the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition, but it is a stand-alone book.
The first step listed is to create a character concept for a science fantasy game. I already know what race I want this character to be, a Vesk. I had been trying to write up the racial Star Trek RPG stats for a reptilian race called the Tarn that came from a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel. But for the longest time I couldn’t find a good image of a sci-fi based reptilian race. There were lots of fantasy based images, but no sci-fi, at least until the Vesk arrived from Starfinder. They met the description of the race that had formed in my minds eye while reading The Forgotten War. So I’m going to give back by making a Vesk character. Looking at the racial description, I’m going to use the name “Sarangari.” Yea he’ll be a mercenary type character who is also a pilot.
Step two, choose a race. See above. I wrote down the stat information for the Vesk.
Next is selecting a theme. This represents a core aspect of the background and possible motivations. Again as mentioned above, Sarangari is going to be a mercenary. Reading the description the character gains an attribute increase and a knowledge skill.
Step four is selecting a class. Well it’s going to have to be soldier. I wrote it down on the character sheet, but they instructed me not to add the other abilities until I get to step six.
Now we finalize the ability scores. Each ability score starts at 10. Adjust for racial and theme adjustments. Then you have 10 more points to spread through out the abilities. I made my selections and wrote down the modifiers.
As mentioned in step four, we will now be applying the class features for the soldier. These include the base attack bonus and savings throws. It also includes the class skills and how many skill ranks I can use at the first level. I tried to make sure that I had everything written down.
And speaking of skill ranks, in step five we allocate the skill points (four) and also select the feats. This character only gets one feat at first level.
Now we are onto purchasing equipment. The book states we have 1,000 credits to start with. And wow, that doesn’t cover very much. I knew that I wasn’t going to get some advanced weaponry and equipment right away, but holy cow some of these prices. I know I went over, but I would have probably come up with some story to the GM how the 95 credit survival knife was a gift/inheritance/found or something. After weapons and armor, there was nothing left over for other equipment. Soooooooo I hope the GM has a good way to get us taken care of.
Final step is the finishing details. Alignment (Neutral Good), Deity (need to look that up) and the like. I filled in what I could.
Afterthoughts:
Because of how many choices there were and my familiarity with the D20 system, I kept trying to stop myself from jumping ahead in the process. I wanted to make sure that I was following the rules as written. Especially with all of the additions that the Starfinder system seems to have in it. I keep hearing it’s so players can make any character they want, but they should just stick to the basics for the core rulebook and add more with the additional books (of which Piazo has a lot). It seemed overwhelming at times in just the core rulebook. But I’ve heard fans of Starfinder and Pathfinder talk about how they liked having all of the different options and choices from the different books. So I can see that appeal if you are into that.
Would I play this game? Well I already have. And I’d play it again at a con or if someone wanted to run a campaign. Would I run this game? Probably not. There are a lot of other Sci-Fi RPG choices that are not overbearing that I REALLY want to try. Would I homebrew for this game? That’s a possible-maybe. If I’m playing in a campaign, perhaps I’d be inspired to homebrew something. But with the amount of stuff already rattling around my head, coming up with stuff just for Starfinder may be at the bottom of the list.
Additional Notes:
There is a participant in the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge who is posting his entries on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server using the handle of Zonrad. This person is using the Power Rangers Roleplaying Game to make ranger characters out of the teenagers from The Breakfast Club. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie, but I’ve never had any interest in Power Rangers. After reading several of these entries, I’m eagerly awaiting the next one. This is the type of creativity that I love seeing from fellow RPG enthusiasts. Keep it up.
Coming Up Next:
Crypts & Things
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