[Starfinder] First-time SF DM seeking advice and thinking out loud

[RavynsLand]

I wasn't sure whether to make this thread or not, but I've been having difficulty finding good chatter and advice about the variables of running a Starfinder game. I'm a pretty ambitious DM and, in a few months or so, will be running the game for the first time at the behest of my usual players (though that group may shake up a bit; we'll see).

First some background, I guess.

Background:

I've been playing D&D since I was a little kid, starting with 2e, moving on to 3e and 3.5, and most recently jumping into 5e. Over the last three years I've been running one massive 5e campaign called the Oblivion Blink with my group, a relatively high-concept game with a single story that spanned many, many, many, many hours of playtime to see to fruition. However, as of a few days ago, the characters hit level 20, underwent their final battles, and the story saw its final, permanent end. I'll miss it dearly, and ending the campaign feels like losing a limb. But it's time to move on from that.

Starfinder:

Some months ago, as things in the old campaign were drawing to what was clearly an inevitable close, it started to be discussed what we'd play next. Everyone agreed that we wanted to move away from a regular fantasy setting in the next game, and many people agreed that Pathfinder looked delightful. I said I'd agree to run it if someone grabbed me the book.

I sit here with it now. Eep.

I'd like to point out that I've never played Starfinder before, nor have I run Pathfinder. As I carefully study the book's rules, I notice many similarities to the rules of 3.5e and a few elements of 5e as well, while the robustness of the equipment rivals a game like Shadowrun in nature. It's becoming clear that I have a lot to learn, but the problem is that I need to learn it all before play actually begins. So I'm looking at creating mock-up characters of various levels, challenge simulations, even mock-up fights... gonna be exhausting. But not as exhausting as--

Making the World:

When I first started reading through the Starfinder book, a lot of it looked really cool to me. Playable androids, the lashunta, the inclusion of various extant worlds and factions, all seemed decently lined up for play, and I was prepared to use the world offered to me.

For a while.

I then remembered why I don't play in any pre-established worlds -- I don't like to feel confined by them, and want room to play around and make things unique. In addition to that, I do have... problems, with the Starfinder world, namely that a number of the factions are cheesy, most of the races are alarmingly unimaginative ("Would you like to play a bug person, a lizard person, or a mouse person?"), and there's absolutely nothing to... you know. Do. Looking through the book I was starved for anything for the players to engage with that wasn't an actual adventure. While I don't expect every game to have the robust downtime-encouragement of Shadowrun, I need more than this.

Hence, I've set my mind to recreating the world from scratch, using the classes and much of the equipment, but changing the existing races, planets, factions, and even some of the metaphysics (it'd be awkward to change everything else but leave the Drift, for instance). And I'm absolutely terrified.

Style of Campaign:

The last campaign was, I feel, too focused on the story (despite being necessary for that specific game) and not focused enough on the characters' individual arcs. My desire for this game is to focus more strongly on establishing backstories and individual goals for the characters, while largely keeping those goals secret from the other players until they're shared through role-play or plot arcs. I want more exploration, more growth, and an overall more grounded experience with more time to breathe (the last campaign was... dark).

The Reason for this Thread:

Now that I've caught everyone up on what my plans are thus far, I'm brought to the reason for this thread. I have no experience with this system and would love to know your thoughts on its rulings, pitfalls, houserules that you might implement, why you implement them, unbalanced aspects, and hidden gems. While I'll be reading the book cover-to-cover, it's hard to suss some of these things out without actually playing the game, and I really prefer to have an extremely concrete knowledge and authority on the system before beginning play.

So, consider this more or less an open forum of advice for a first-time Starfinder showrunner, and hopefully some really cool stuff comes up!

[Gryphonfg]

I'm in a similar boat. I'm about to start dming a Starfinder campaign this Thursday. I have run Pathfinder before. I find it very helpful to discuss character backstories and goals with the players before and during the campaign and then at certain spots including encounters or adjusting encounters to further a character's arc.

As far as the mechanics of the Starfinder system, I don't have any experience with it yet.

[lightningcat]

I will give the same advice I give anyone running for the first time.

First, you do not need to know everything. Just know the basics, and where to find the rest of it in the book (or online, in the pdf, etc). If you have played PF or 3.x D&D, then you already know the most basic version of the rules, there are differences, but it is rare that they will come up during the first game.

Second, use some form of group template. Why are the characters together? What is keeping them headed in the same general direction? How are they connected to the bigger plot (if any)? Let the players figure this out, and mine it for ideas.
There are plenty of different ways to do this. Think of how any TV show has its characters connected. In Firefly, they were part of a crew run by one of the team, which is fairly common in scifi. The other common version is they are all working for a larger organization, often a military or paramilitary group, such as Star Trek. In Dark Matter they are working together to solve the mystery of their missing memories, at least to start with. While in Andromada the captain had a mission, and the rest of the crew was using him for their own goals, and possibly hoping he would die so that they could take the ship.
As a side note, what does each character do on the ship? Assuming that they have one. And also what does each character do off of the ship? These do not have to be related to each other, but usually are.

Third, start with a single mission. If it goes somewhere, build on that. Don't build some grand campaign until after the second game. If you have an idea for one, toss in a clue or mention. But worry about getting started before you worry about the end.

Fourth, have fun.

[Doctor Awkward]

I recently started playing in a Starfinder game as an Operative who fills the role of pilot.

I can give you my thoughts as they come to me on my experience so far:

In combat:
Ranged combat, in general, is superior to melee combat. The game seems to be written with the expectation that the most of the time the players will approaching it as a cover-shooter (as in Mass Effect 2 or Gears of War). As such, it is important to litter your environments with objects that both the players and NPC's might use to facilitate this approach. In my first session, the DM had a busy roadway be attacked with explosions causing debris and numerous cars to be abandoned, which served our needs. The Barricade feat is also an excellent low-level choice for range-focused characters this same reason. It allows you to create soft cover in your current square with a move action, and it can be taken at level 1. Particularly for mechanics who probably have few other attractive choices depending on their race.

That said, the highest damager-per-round is going to come from melee-focused solarians and melee-focused soldiers, with the trade-off being they are at much higher risk of getting filled with holes. The operative's Trick Attack is unreliable at low levels (read, below 7), and will see about the same success rate as any other character will on a round in which they make a full-attack. At level 7 when Trick Attack can auto-succeed on any opponent whose CR = the character's level (or even higher depending on the Operative specialization), operatives are only one level away from getting Triple-Attack at 8, at which point full-attack damage will frequently compete with Trick Attack thanks to how Weapon Specialization works in this game. Once they get Quad-Attack at level 13, Trick Attack is utterly blown away and only useful for situations where the operative has to move while maintaining good damage.

Speaking of which, there is no Weapon Finesse feat in Starfinder. It is instead a built-in property of certain weapons, which are tagged with the "operative" property. Any character wielding one of these weapons can substitute their Dex modifer for Strength with melee attack roles. The trade-off is that operative weapons only get half the benefit from Weapon Specialization. This along with other issues relating to mobility creates a situation where operatives are effectively pigeon-holed into small arms if they want to do consistent and reliable damage throughout their careers, as using sniper weapons requires higher-level Exploit's (and likely an envoy sitting next to you feeding you additional actions on your turn).

In general, if you aren't going to be moving from cover-to-cover and relying on ranged attacks, you need to be in heavy armor with a big 2-handed weapon. Heavy Armor Proficiency is likely the first feat a melee solarian should take.

EDIT: Also I forgot to mention: Quick Draw in StarFinder is a trap.
Doing a full attack action requires your entire combat round: swift, standard, and move. And Quick Draw requires your swift action, instead of being free. As you can still draw a weapon as part of a move action if you have +1 BAB or higher, in many cases Quick Draw is worse than just drawing it normally (unless you need your move for something besides moving).
The single-solitary use of Quick Draw is to draw a weapon and attack in the surprise round, as unlike normal D&D you get a swift and one other action. But even this is obviated by simply having your weapon already drawn if you are expecting trouble.

Out of combat:
While there are a lot of opportunities for each class to fill a given niche, it frequently relies on the party agreeing ahead of time to step back and leave a given character to the task. Even a modestly competent operative will blow away the DC on nearly every skill check put in front of it, thanks to both their massive list of class skills, and the scaling bonus provided by Operative's Edge. I didn't notice at first, but Skill Focus feat in this game provides an insight bonus to skills, which is the same bonus provided by nearly all class features (but not skill bonuses from Themes). This is apparently intentional, but may create an issue with verisimilitude, as after level 7 every operative in the galaxy is exactly as effective at all skills as every other operative.

The book likes to claim that the classes are malleable and can easily be built to fulfill any role the player wishes. In practice, while this is true, there are obvious roles that some classes will always be better at than other classes. Envoy's are incredibly easy to build as ship captains, and their class skill list seems tailor-made for this role, while a soldier attempting to fill the same role will suffer greatly, likely having to waste a feat on Skill Synergy just to not suck. Operatives are great at stealth and terrible at front-line combat, while the opposite is true for solarians. A mechanic can be a great pilot, especially with the right Exocortex. So can a mystic with the Star Shaman connection. But they will always be statistically inferior in terms of hitting the maneuver DC's to an operative pilot of the same level. And since your gunnery checks use either your BAB or your ranks in the Pilot skill, whichever is higher, an operative can be a gunner, but a soldier will have a much easier time since he has feats to spare for that purpose. The upside is that there are no bad classes. The envoy's crowd control and action-granting abilities are an enormous boon to any group, in the same way that Noble's were great in Star Wars Saga Edition. The mystic's and technomancer's spellcasting is always useful. Nobody puts up bigger overall numbers in combat than soldiers and solarians. Mechanics with the drone option provide all sorts of unique opportunities.

The best approach is probably for everyone to decide what role they want to fill on the ship: captain, pilot, gunner, science officer, and engineer.
You can then have the players build the character's they want to fill that role as they see fit. You should also encourage players to use the overlap in their skills to their advantage. The mechanic in my group and I, for example, frequently tag team any technical problems that arise, alternating which one of us attempts the roll, and which uses Aid Other to assist. This can also lead to good roleplaying opportunities.

Essentially, however, you do not want to deliberately build for your chosen role, since it will only come into play when you are on the ship. You should build the character around excelling at the aspect of your class that you want to excel at, and be incidentally good at your role as a result. In my case, being an Ace Pilot themed operative with max ranks in the pilot skill was more than sufficient. The Uncanny Pilot exploit and the Sky Jockey feat would have been a waste. As an aside, Alien Archive is easily the best exploit an operative can start with. The enhancement bonus to Trick Attack attempts on creatures you successfully identify is invaluable at every level.

So far as world-building, I understand the instinct to feel constrained by the planets as they are presented in the Core book. They very much take the Star Wars approach of having "single-biome planets", with not a lot of interesting variety. It's for that reason I found Verces to be the most suitable for general sandbox play. It's tidally locked, with a single dense metropolis at the equator that rings the entire planet, one side that is a scorched wasteland, and the other side a frozen wasteland, with many gradients in between. Many scattered settlements called the Outlaw Kingdoms manage to live varying distances from the cities, or tunnel underground. In addition, the book states that large portions of the surface near the centers of the two extremes are unexplored, leaving you free to drop whatever plot-relevant items or locations in there you like.

Hopefully that helps.
It's a decent system overall, and most of my complaints about things like lack of modular character design are largely subjective.

[RavynsLand]

Thanks so much for all the advice! I thought this thread was DOA. I'll be continuing to pore over these with a fine-tooth comb as I prepare for the game.