Community / Paizo Blog
Friday, July 26, 2024
Everyone on the Starfinder team agrees that the setting is our favorite part of the game. As stewards of Starfinder, we’re more interested in preserving and expanding lore than we are in reinventing it, but a new edition is the perfect time to update our beloved setting. Here are a few exciting changes you can look forward to in Starfinder Second Edition!
Aucturn explodes! That’s right, everybody; we’re kicking Starfinder Second Edition off with a bang and blowing up one of the Pact Worlds! For those who weren’t keeping up, Aucturn is the most distant, mysterious planet in the sun’s orbit (kind of like Pluto), except it has a toxic atmosphere and is crawling with monsters like orocorans and carrion wheels. Yikes! To make things worse, most people who live on Aucturn are cultists of eldritch gods. That said, though it was a pretty weird place, nobody expected it to explode!
Many people in the Pact Worlds believed Aucturn was really an egg. There was even a cult dedicated to nurturing the eldritch being inside it, and it’s rumored that the planet’s ruler drank his power from the unborn monstrosity. Well, it turns out they were right—Aucturn is an egg, and it just hatched. As you can imagine, this immediately caused problems in Pact Worlds space and across the whole galaxy. Magic went haywire, planets got knocked out of orbit, people experienced bizarre visions, and a strange new god called the Newborn emerged into cosmic consciousness. The weirdness isn’t going to end anytime soon, but it all starts with the playtest. PlayA Cosmic Birthday, a playtest module for 1st-level characters, if you want to experience the disaster/miracle of the Newborn’s emergence firsthand.
Pulonis declares independence! Pulonis (formerly known as Vesk-6) was defeated and occupied by the Veskarium for a long time, but its war for freedom never truly ended. While Veskarium forces were stretched thin during the Drift Crisis, Pulonis finally achieved independence. Soon after, Pulonis joined the Pact alliance as the first full member not located in the Pact Worlds system. Starfinder Second Edition is celebrating Pulonis by adding pahtras as a core ancestry and Meyel the Dancing Fury (their patron god) as a core deity. Surely this won’t upset the Veskarium, right? Well, speaking of that…
Azlanti Star Empire challenges the Veskarium! It’s the war we’ve all been waiting for—let them fight! The Pact Council must have been feeling pretty smug about the Veskarium getting distracted right after the stunt they pulled with Pulonis, until they realized that an interstellar war has far-reaching consequences even for those who aren’t involved. If you want to be part of Starfinder history and experience the beginning of this war, playEmpires Devoured, a playtest module for 10th-level characters.
New gods join the core pantheon! You’ll notice that old favorites like Oras and Triune have been joined by some new divine faces. We’ve added the patron gods of the Azlanti Star Empire and Pulonis, as well as two completely new deities that emerged after recent cosmic events, to the list of core deities. Now your character can be a rune-scourged follower of Lissala, a graceful warrior of Meyel, study the enigma of the Newborn, or channel pain into art for Zon-Shelyn. You can read more about all the gods, old and new, in theStarfinder Playtest Rulebook.
If you’re still curious about setting updates and want to find out about new Starfinder content, keep an eye on GenCon news next month. Not only will we be launching the first public Starfinder Second Edition playtest, we’ll also have plenty more news to share that you won’t want to miss.—The Starfinder Team
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Tags:StarfinderStarfinder PlaytestStarfinder Roleplaying GameStarfinder Second Edition
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32 comments.
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| VerBeeker | Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 11:44 am |
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Well… thanks to the Azlanti I guess for distracting the Vesk so they didn’t immediately go to war with the Pact Worlds for occupying “their” territory.
Really gotta wonder how that is gonna effect interstate politics going forward.
| Perpdepog | Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 11:59 am |
3 people marked this as a favorite.
BotBrain wrote:
Jonathan Morgantini wrote:
A planet-sized egg. Why did it have to be a planet-sized egg?!A moon sized egg would have just been silly.
And don't even get me started on how tough it is to commission egg-sized planets.
 Thurston Hillman Managing Creative Director (Starfinder) | Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 01:12 pm |
10 people marked this as a favorite.
Erk Ander wrote:
Will the Azlanti humans have their own stats now ? Or are they regular boring humans ?
I love how Paizo isn't afraid of advancing the story. Pulonis joing the PW while Veskarium is at war with the Azlanti is no small amount of drama
There's an Azlanti human heritage in the Playtest Rulebook :)
 Syvis | Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 03:41 pm |
Thurston Hillman wrote:
Erk Ander wrote:
There's an Azlanti human heritage in the Playtest Rulebook :)Will the Azlanti humans have their own stats now ? Or are they regular boring humans ?
I love how Paizo isn't afraid of advancing the story. Pulonis joing the PW while Veskarium is at war with the Azlanti is no small amount of drama
Seriously? That's awesome. I suppose after the numerous unofficial scraps the Starfinders and others have gotten in with the Azlanti (in various adventures and scenarios such as King Xeros of Star Azlant, Liberation of Locus-1 and Against the Aeon Throne), there would be a tiny bit of cultural bleed, despite the Azlanti navy's predilection for going Predator when they are facing defeat.
Definitely going to make it easier to recreate the character I made that was trying to figure out if his Strong Absalom Movement parents had more than just garden variety xenophobia to them.
| Syvis | Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 03:45 pm |
3 people marked this as a favorite.
phaeton_nz wrote:
So, how long is it between the end of First Edition and the beginning of Second in Game Years?
From what I can see, it seems to transition seamlessly. SF1 has a Society Scenario where the Starfinders send a team to Aucturn as its hatching to find out what is happening. The SF2 playtest has an Adventure where your players deal with the psychic waves of the cosmic birthing causing chaos on Absalom Station.
At most, I'm presuming a year of time past if at all.
| Vanvakaris | Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 11:25 pm |
The change that I'm most curious would be Apostae and their rulers, the Drow. Now that there seems to be no Drows on neither Pathfinder nor Starfinder, what would be the explanation in-game for the change?? Or ar the Starfinder Drows going to be change into something else??
| qwerty3werty | Sat, Jul 27, 2024, 02:16 am |
1 person marked this as a favorite.
I've been told by others that Starfinder drow is safe to keep compared to Pathfinder drow. The "meat" of SF drow is a unique thing and they only need to remove/adjust the matriarchal spider worshiping "topping" off them. While PF drow is nearly 1:1 to DnD drow.
 CorvusMask | Sat, Jul 27, 2024, 07:25 am |
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
I'mma still looking forward to see Starfinder 1e ap effects on canon :O Like Eloritu runes being discovered and stuff xD
But come to think of it, which gods got demoted from sf2e core 20?
(bit sad that Great Old One Aucturn (see Doomsday Dawn) isn't a thing anymore, but everything surrounding Newborn is cool xD)
| Master Han Del of the Web | Sat, Jul 27, 2024, 10:23 am |
TCat wrote:
I'm pleasantly surprised this setting update didn't include Apostae being sucked into a black hole or something because of "Drow being problematic".
Don't get too comfortable with that, I remember them being a subject of concern towards the tail end of the OGL debacle. PF2e had to ditch them and we might see some alterations to the Pact Worlds' favorite arms dealers.
 Elfteiroh | Sat, Jul 27, 2024, 02:04 pm |
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Vanvakaris wrote:
The change that I'm most curious would be Apostae and their rulers, the Drow. Now that there seems to be no Drows on neither Pathfinder nor Starfinder, what would be the explanation in-game for the change?? Or ar the Starfinder Drows going to be change into something else??
qwerty3werty wrote:
I've been told by others that Starfinder drow is safe to keep compared to Pathfinder drow. The "meat" of SF drow is a unique thing and they only need to remove/adjust the matriarchal spider worshiping "topping" off them. While PF drow is nearly 1:1 to DnD drow.
They already said in a stream that the Drows will be changed to "Void Elves". There might be some reshuffling of their lore, but we have been told their non-OGL stuff should stay the same.
| Vanvakaris | Sun, Jul 28, 2024, 12:09 am |
Elfteiroh wrote:
They already said in a stream that the Drows will be changed to "Void Elves". There might be some reshuffling of their lore, but we have been told their non-OGL stuff should stay the same.
Cool, thanks for the insights!! Can't wait to see what the Void Elfs could bring to the Starfinder table!
| Nairne | Sun, Jul 28, 2024, 01:13 pm |
Perpdepog wrote:
BotBrain wrote:
And don't even get me started on how tough it is to commission egg-sized planets.Jonathan Morgantini wrote:
A planet-sized egg. Why did it have to be a planet-sized egg?!A moon sized egg would have just been silly.
I'm more interested in what kind of "chicken" can lay those... must be quite the size...
| UnArcaneElection | Sun, Jul 28, 2024, 10:48 pm |
Elfteiroh wrote:
Vanvakaris wrote:
The change that I'm most curious would be Apostae and their rulers, the Drow. Now that there seems to be no Drows on neither Pathfinder nor Starfinder, what would be the explanation in-game for the change?? Or ar the Starfinder Drows going to be change into something else??qwerty3werty wrote:
I've been told by others that Starfinder drow is safe to keep compared to Pathfinder drow. The "meat" of SF drow is a unique thing and they only need to remove/adjust the matriarchal spider worshiping "topping" off them. While PF drow is nearly 1:1 to DnD drow.They already said in a stream that the Drows will be changed to "Void Elves". There might be some reshuffling of their lore, but we have been told their non-OGL stuff should stay the same.
Couldn't they do the same thing for Pathfinder Drow? After all, the Void is a thing in Pathfinder time as well.
| qwerty3werty | Mon, Jul 29, 2024, 02:02 am |
3 people marked this as a favorite.
UnArcaneElection wrote:
Couldn't they do the same thing for Pathfinder Drow? After all, the Void is a thing in Pathfinder time as well.
Removing the 'OGL Part' of PF drow means basically remaking them from scratch since demon worship, spider imagery, matriarchal structure, sad*stic tendencies, underground dwelling all together are the OGL elements.
SF Drow has their corporation and arms dealing going on with them.
 wolaberry | Monday, 08:57 am |
Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:
Egg-citing!
Will we get an update on what has been happening with the Starfinder iconics, Zemir, Navasi, Iseph and Obozaya? I'd like to know about the adventures between editions.
I know we have art for some of them. It would be nice to see what happened to them in the meantime.
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