Big News From Paizo

There's some exciting news for Starfinder fans. Two new setting books and a combined adventure path are coming soon. Let's dive into what to expect from these upcoming releases.

Honorable Mention: Deck of Endless NPCs

Before we talk about the new setting books, let's first talk about the Deck of Endless NPCs. Paizo has released many fantastic GM tools, such as the Rules Cards, which make learning the system a bit like a flash game. There's also a tool for ship combat and planet building, and now we're getting something for creating NPCs. The Deck of Endless NPCs is a package with 104 NPC cards spread out among 12 of the most popular races within Starfinder. There are character portraits on the back of the cards, and it will be available on March 29th, 2023. If you've struggled to come up with an NPC on the spot because your players are inquisitive and ask questions like, "What's this character's name?" then this tool will help you as a GM fill in the gaps for NPCs and create interesting characters on the fly.

Ports of Call

One of the major releases for Starfinder in 2023 is Ports of Call. This may not appeal to everyone, but it definitely has a strong place in the Starfinder releases. With Ports of Call, there will be ten highly detailed space ports that you can pull out from the module and plug into your games anywhere you want. Some places are already established within the Starfinder lore, such as Drifter's End and Isa Damar, which is included in the Scoured Stars Adventure Path. There's also some information around a theme park world called Glorion World.

In addition, this supplement includes something that has been lacking from Starfinder: a star map of all the places in the Starfinder universe, at least the big ones. There will also be new rules for faster drift travel and hyperlane travel, a new phenomenon that's come out of the Drift Crisis event that's been happening. The supplement also features four new playable races, one of which is the Xulgath. There will be expanded rules for ship downtime, new ship jobs, and a cargo mechanic subsystem. If you want to be a cargo hauler, this supplement is perfect for you. It's coming out in May 2023.

Scoured Stars Adventure Path

The Scoured Stars Adventure Path is getting the royal treatment from Paizo. All of the individual Adventure Paths are being combined into one book, and if you want to get it in a special edition, you can do that too. The adventure itself has also been reworked and re-optimized, so playing it at home should be a lot easier. The adventure will be over 250 pages, making it a chunky boy. The complete campaign will run your characters from level 1 up to 15.

Starfinder Enhanced

This is one of the biggest announcements from Paizo regarding the Starfinder setting. Some people have taken this as a sign that a new version of Starfinder is coming, but it's not. Paizo themselves have said that it's comparable to what they did with Pathfinder Unchained ten years ago in the Pathfinder 1e setting.

What Starfinder Enhanced aims to do is rework some of the original classes so they're a little bit more balanced and effective. Included in this book is a revision to Starship combat rules, which many players love or hate. It's interesting to see what Paizo is changing and how it will be reintegrated into more games.

But that's not all: "Starfinder Enhanced" will also introduce new options and features for every class in the game, as well as new archetypes, spells, and a whopping 90 new feats. There will also be rules for scalable equipment, which means that players won't have to trade out their favorite weapons anymore - they can just grow with their characters.

Paizo is also introducing more narrative subsystems for Starship combat and expanding the rules for creature Companions. The latter has been a popular feature of the game, but it was a bit clunky and required a lot of reading. With the new rules, players will have more ways to spend their resolve points if they were struggling to find uses for them.

Another exciting feature of "Starfinder Enhanced" is the addition of 12 new races, including the Kitsune, a popular choice among anime fans and furries alike. The announcement even teased a new race that looks like a dying Sun Fireball Planet thing - a quirky addition that is sure to pique players' interest.

Overall, "Starfinder Enhanced" promises to bring significant changes and improvements to the game. Paizo has a track record of listening to their fans, and it's clear that they have taken players' feedback into account in creating this new release. For fans of the game, it's an exciting time, and we can't wait to see what else Paizo has in store.

And if you're curious about other news from Paizo, keep an eye out for "Project Black Flag". We can't wait to see what that's all about either.