Starfinder 2e is now available for playtesting — and it shows off just how flexible Paizo’s Pathfinder 2e rules can be

If you’re tired of the same old fantasy games, it may be time to give Starfinder a try. This space opera-themed TTRPG by Paizo just started playtesting, and is expected to launch in summer 2025. This might be the most significant playtest of the last few years, even more than One D&D, which was supposed to be a major release celebrating the game’s 50th anniversary. But the latest D&D edition essentially just refined existing D&D 5e rules, while Starfinder 2e is a major change to how the game works — and it’s also part of a broader movement by Paizo to create its own flexible, setting-agnostic rule system.

Starfinder now runs on the recently revised Pathfinder 2e rules, an open system released under Paizo’s ORC license. Starfinder 2e will be the first game released entirely under that license since Paizo debuted it, and it could have widespread implications on the rest of the tabletop industry.

But Starfinder is also just a great game, giving the standard fantasy rules a sci-fi twist. The Starfinder 2e rules will major revisions to classes to help distinguish them from their fantasy counterparts. The result will, hopefully, lead to a game that fully embraces the sci-fi feeling — while still being flexible enough to take it in your own direction.

With Starfinder 2e, Paizo is building a flexible TTRPG system for any game

Starfinder is a space setting that — if you want it to — continues the essential campaign setting storyline of Paizo’s Pathfinder fantasy setting. It asks the question what if your current fantasy RPG campaign, but in space with robots and spaceships and glowing space magic people. Ever since the first edition, Starfinder has been the most interesting thing around.

In second edition, Starfinder is more of a setting than a standalone game, running on Pathfinder 2e rules, which limits the barrier to entry. Now, if you know how to play Pathfinder, you pretty much know how to play Starfinder. It also means that converting Pathfinder content to use in Starfinder (and vice versa) is simple: they’re fully compatible, and you can freely use content from either. You can pick up any Pathfinder 2e book, select a random monster, and give it a heavy repeating blaster if you want to. This also unlocks a lot of content for the latest Starfinder edition. You can take entire Pathfinder modules and use them in Starfinder — all you have to do is give the descriptions a sci-fi coat of paint to suit the setting.

By making Starfinder 2e compatible with Pathfinder 2e, both games escape the gravitational pull of D&D on the TTRPG space. Hasbro did a lot of that itself with its attempt to change the OGL last year, which alienated creators and seems to have pushed Paizo into making these changes. Between the revision of Pathfinder 2e and the upcoming Starfinder 2e, Paizo has taken what was a great D&D alternative and made it a potential alternative to everything.

The Pathfinder rules easily adapt to fantasy or sci-fi settings, and that suggests you could use them to run pretty much anything. What’s stopping you from using Starfinder 2e to run games themed on Mass Effect, Star Wars, or Mobile Suit Gundam? Not much, and considering the ORC license it’s tempting for independent developers to use this framework to make products and release them — something that helped make D&D very popular, but could now steal D&D’s marketplace momentum.

Ancestries in Starfinder 2e

The playtest includes 10 Ancestries:

• Android — Think Klyten from Red Dwarf, Mr. Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, or the Vision from the MCU. You, my friend, are a machine.
• Barathu — If you have always wanted to play a talking, floating gas filled jellyfish, the Barathu are that. If you haven’t? Well, they’re still that.
• Human — I assume everyone reading this is Human, but just in case, think troublesome primates who are intensely good at getting into trouble.
• Kasatha — Every setting needs at least one ancestry that’s just a touch weird without getting into full out zaniness. Enter the Kasatha – they’ve got gigantic heads, four arms, and all talk like extras from a Kung Fu movie.
• Lashunta — Answering the musical question what if Humans but with telepathic powers that everybody who ever played Mass Effect or saw Star Trek knew was coming.
• Pahtra — They’re cats with big swords and laser guns. Look up to the start of this section of the post, look at the adorable cat person. That’s a Pahtra.
• Shirren — It was true in Dark Sun, it was true in Star Frontiers, and we all remember the Rachni, right? The Shirren are Starfinder’s own bug people, they wear purple skirts and have turned their backs on their own relatives to protect other sapient species.
• Skittermanders — Somehow, you thought the Pahtra weren’t cute enough. You maniac, now look what you’ve done! The Skittermanders are ADHD in cute critter form, and they’re here to be adorable and astonishingly dangerous.
• Vesk — Finally, an ancestry that doesn’t confuse us by looking adorable. The Vesk are as dangerous as Humans, Pahtra, Skittermanders, or even Ysoki, but they at least have the decency to look as dangerous as they are. Think if Crocodiles could carry extremely big guns and you’ve got a good idea what the Vesk are.
• Ysoki — Personally, I was wondering when Mickey Mouse was going to show up and murder me with a chainsaw sword that’s on fire. The Ysoki would like us all to know that the answer is right now.

Classes in Starfinder 2e

Starfinder classes are actually somewhat more boiled down than Pathfinder, because in the far future of the setting distinctions like Ranger or Fighter have been erased or compressed. The playtest includes six classes:

• Envoy: Diplomats, representatives, and just plain old smooth talking (or thinking, or clicking) sorts who adventure the known universe getting into and out of trouble using their quick wit and boundless capacity to sell you the farm you’re already living on. Think Han Solo, Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica, or Harcourt Fenton Mudd.
• Mystic: So Starfinder doesn’t just have one weird thing, like Biotics in Mass Effect or the Force in Star Wars — instead, cosmic power, magic, reality warping weirdness all coexist, if less than peacefully. The Mystic is what you get when someone wants to do magic and doesn’t really care how or where or what it is.
• Operative: Professionals who specialize in all sorts of dangerous and dirty business. Think Rogues from D&D, or Bounty Hunters from Star Wars or Cowboy Bebop, or even James Bond or Miles Vorkosigan, although Miles took some levels in Envoy.
• Solarian: Lensmen, or Jedi, or Green Lanterns, take your pick — these cosmic crusaders tap into the might of stars for their powerful abilities. Summoning weapons made of stellar energy, impervious graviton armor, and flinging around blasts of energy drawn from the hearts of stars, you play a Solarian when you want to have a good time being a space paladin.
• Soldier: Commander Shepard. Master Chief. Clone Troopers from Star Wars. Everybody with more neck than sense in the Gears of War series. The cast of books like Starship Troopers or Armor. They like guns, swords, armor, and killing a lot of stuff while not dying.
• Witchwarper: At some point, these folks came into contact with the weird, irrational, or impossible parts of space and survived when reality itself did not. Now they can bring that same chaos as a personal reality warping magic all their own. Think every villain in every Lovecraft story, the protagonist of most of Tim Powers’ books (especially Earthquake Weather or Last Call) or Dr. Strange specifically in his MCU movie.

Fans of the Mechanic and Technomancer, don’t fear, because those classes will be available in a future playtest in early 2025.

How to playtest Starfinder 2e

But the real proof of this particular pudding is in how it plays, and fortunately it’s easy — and free — to get the Starfinder 2e playtest rules. You can download the playtest rulebook for Starfinder 2e for free from Paizo’s site. There’s also a demo adventure that was tested at GenCon 2024. If you prefer a paper version, you can buy a hardcover rulebook, but it will cost you $50.

If you’re looking for help with character creation, the Starfinder 2e playtest is also on Demiplane, so you can make test characters with ease. The site also has the complete playtest document as well as the Second Contact monster book. But if you just want to dive in and get started with Starfinder 2e, Paizo has an assortment of premade 1st and 5th level characters for you to use

If Paizo keeps supporting Starfinder 2e the way it has Starfinder’s first edition, in a few years we could end up talking about both Pathfinder and Starfinder as part of an expanded, setting-agnostic system that lets you play as James Bondian superspies, intelligent robots that transform into household appliances, or even costumed people with robot dinosaurs.

The sky is the potential limit, and in Starfinder 2e that’s where you’re already spending most of your time. I’m very excited for the possibilities.