I like Starfinder 1e, and I played some of that and its throwback 3.5E science fiction. The combats were fun, and the adventures were memorable and enjoyable. I also liked the concept of "space fantasy," with classic fantasy races in a futuristic world. I liked the space drow, the star elves, the space orcs, the goblins, and all the other classic Pathfinder races "in space," and it felt cool.
Seeing Traveller 5E announced got me thinking about getting the new version of Starfinder, but I hesitated. For one, I bounced off of Pathfinder 2E pretty hard, and that game is in storage. Going back to one would mean I pull out the other. Also, the classic ancestries are no longer central to Starfinder, and I know the games are cross-compatible, but the universe feels different.
The core Starfinder races are what the settings and adventures will be about. I am free to put everything from Pathfinder 2E in there, and even the OGL version, but again, that is a lot of work for a game I am not really into. Pathfinder 2E is a good game, just not for me. Things are not the same.
It looked cool, but I didn't think I would play it much. I had the store pages open, but did not add the books to my cart. I read a few mixed reviews about it, saying the writing wasn't up to the standard of the original. So I backed off, and I will likely read up more on this. If the writing isn't there, I will skip this edition. Excellent writing is something I look for in a game, especially its adventures.
Some have expressed disappointment that the game wasn't taken further from Pathfinder 2E, like it was in the playtest versions. Compatibility with Pathfinder 2E ultimately won out, which is a smart business move, but the game lost some of its identity and feels more like an expansion. Others say the "ranged meta" won, and DEX is your most important stat, and melee feels secondary. I liked melee being important in Starfinder 1E, which made the game hit differently for me. The best way to do considerable damage was up close and personal.
What I want is gonzo, anything goes, science fiction plus fantasy. I want melee strikers to be on par with ranged attackers. I want the rules to have depth and substance. I want an anything-goes science fiction world.
That game is Rifts.
Rifts backs me up, too, letting magic inflict MDC damage, so my elven arcane caster can throw up an MDC shield and blast away at power armor with MDC fire bolts. This is good stuff, and puts them on par with the armored powerhouses of the setting, and elevates magic as an equivalent force in this world. Get a rune weapon, some magic armor, and you are close to becoming a minor god at this point.
You can stand toe-to-toe with MDC armored foes in Rifts with magic.
You can also adopt a melee style and absolutely slay up close with MDC melee weapons, and beat the heck out of power armor with a rune weapon or your fists. That's cool.
The next best option is to keep everything on the hit point scale and use White Star, with fantasy races pulled from BX. This is also a viable option that works well, and I have White Star on my most-played shelves. However, this is not as flat-out cool as Rifts. My proposed game will be a mod, magic is relatively low-powered, and it feels derivative.
Another option is a science fiction campaign using Stars Without Number, incorporating the magical classes from Worlds Without Number and importing fantasy races from BX. The magic in this system is better than BX, and allows for magical casting that recharges after a scene, so magic-using classes are not "one spell and the day is done." Still, this is another mod, and it does not feel right.
But if I am going to DIY fantasy science fiction in those games, I can DIY it just as easily in Rifts, and have tons of cool monsters and enemies to battle. Plus, since Palladium games are by their nature "make your own game with this," I can drop in a group of elves, an elven faction, a kingdom of elves, or a whole planet of them anywhere I want, for any reason I want.
Dark elves? They can be in the setting. I will just mod the Palladium Fantasy Elf and port them in from somewhere in the multiverse. Anything I want is here, and it fits in. If I want a planet of them and a few gods for them, fine, go ahead.
In Rifts, anything goes.
In Starfinder, I will usually need to wait for the book. Why am I buying into this again?
DIY games are superior to those that ship with default assumptions. Rifts are so open that anything I can imagine can be here. It may sound silly, but all Palladium games are supposed to be wide open, and it supports many power levels and campaign types. There is no "this game is made for dungeons, and everything is balanced against each other" feeling. Every class is overpowered in what it does.
I don't mind MDC armor either. Nobody in D&D complains about having to wear armor. Mostly, they just ignore it and take the AC value. The MDC system simplifies Palladium combat greatly, eliminating AR, and you are either hit or not. Don't subject the players to cheap shots, and you will be fine.
Not wearing armor is not advised, and primitive weapons are useless. But this is science fiction, like Heavy Metal, where the energies and forces you are dealing with are so powerful you need special forms of protection, either tech or magic. Some miss the lower-powered science fantasy. I don't mind it since you are slugging it out with mech suits as a caster, and that is awesome.
With most other games, I feel guilty for breaking the game or playing it not as it is supposed to be played. I get this with Starfinder 2E and Pathfinder 2E, now that the OGL content has been removed. I don't see the classic Pathfinder Dark Elves anymore, and I know they will never appear in adventures, so a piece of the world feels missing.
But a part of me misses the old Starfinder, as flawed and broken as it was, with the massive weapon lists that turned into run-on sentences and felt like something out of a video game. There was a ton of 3.5E cheese in this game, too, and some classes felt utterly powerless. But the mixed science fantasy world was fun, which was the best part of the game. This is a game where most of what you put up with is for the sake of the setting. Even 3.5E was okay, I didn't mind it, but I knew how to break the system.
Removing alignment in 2E, I did mind, and the entire aspect of playing chaotic or evil characters is now an afterthought and gone from the game. Rifts and Palladium? It has the best alignment system in the industry, and playing anything is on the table.
A lot of people love Starfinder 2E, so there is something here.
But I almost bought Starfinder 2E today. It is a game I miss. But I need to learn more before I make a purchase, especially these days. It is on my radar, but I have other games taking up my time currently.
I don't find much enjoyment in sifting through rules. Let a computer game do that for me. I want story and easier character builds and powers. I don't play a tabletop game to slowly work my way through a few hundred pages of rules to simulate a combat. If I do want that, GURPS gives me a better end result, and there are far fewer rules to follow if you follow them all.
Most of GURPS' rules are optional. Few of Starfinder 2E's are.
People like the "-Finder" systems, and I bounced off hard after trying them. Pathfinder 2E was not for me, despite how hard I tried. I may give it another chance. I may grab the PDFs and skip the books.
We shall see.
