Starfinder Second Edition Announced, Will Be Fully Compatible With Pathfinder 2E

Starfinder is getting a new edition, this time fully compatible with Second Edition. During Paizo's keynote address that coincided with the start of Gen Con, Paizo officially announced that they would be launching a second edition of Starfinder, the sci-fi "cousin" to Pathfinder. This new edition will be fully compatible with Pathfinder Second Edition, meaning that all content made for either game will be compatible with each other. This means that a player could hypothetically send their Pathfinder character into the distant future or fling their Starfinder character into Golarion, the world of Pathfinder whose disappearance is actually one of the main hooks of the lore of Starfinder.

Paizo will launch a full playtest in Summer 2024. However, a Starfinder Field Test, a preview document showing what the Starfinder development team is working on, was released last weekend and shows off the first five levels of the Soldier, a new base class for Starfinder Second Edition. Other classes confirmed for Starfinder's playtest next year includes the Mystic, Envoy and the Solarian. The Mystic, of course, was a Pathfinder class who has yet to appear in Second Edition.

Starfinder was originally launched in 2017 and used a radically overhauled version of Pathfinder's 3.5E inspired game engine as its core. However, the game featured rules for ship combat and faster-than-light travel and also allowed players to customize their loadouts and ships within the game. While Starfinder was technically compatible with Pathfinder, characters required some conversion, which now no longer will be the case as the game moves to its second edition. Pathfinder similarly received a second edition back in 2019, with a remastered version coming later this year that serves to refresh and update game rules and overhaul its lore to move it away from D&D OGL material.

The first Starfinder Field Test is available to download now.