Search Results for: Starfinder

Modular: A First Look at Starfinder 1: “OMG! All Your Trope Are Belong To Us”

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“Dad, we can’t get the Starfinder combat system working…” “Look, Son, it’s a D20 system, so Armor Class reduces the chance of being hit, rather than absorbs damage.” “OK. I get it now! You’re the best, Dad!” (Tousles hair) “That’s what Dad’s are for, Son.” OK it didn’t quite go like that. For a start, I did not in fact tousle my 13-year-old son’s hair since (a) it’s shoulder length and he gets cross if you tangle it, and (b) he’s…

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Modular: Black Gate Exclusive – Two New Starfinder Starships

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I’ve been looking forward to seeing what Paizo ends up putting together for their upcoming space fantasy game, Starfinder RPG, blending the worlds of science and magic to create a cosmic-scale adventure setting and game system. I’ve spoken with Starfinder Creative Director James L. Sutter a couple of times (available here and here) about the project, and his sincere enthusiasm for the project is certainly contagious. Black Gate has been fortunate enough to acquire information on two new starships that will…

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Modular: James Sutter Fields Some Starfinder RPG Questions

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Paizo Publishing is a major force in the fantasy gaming industry, having taken the core mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons edition 3.5 and transforming it into the Pathfinder RPG, an impressive stand-alone game system in its own right. Beyond the core tabletop roleplaying game, Pathfinder has also diversified out into the Pathfinder Tales series of novels, the various versions of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (including a digital edition), audio dramas, comic books, and ever-expanding other platforms and formats. But…

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GenCon: The Pathfinder Post (featuring Starfinder)

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For years, the publisher Paizo has been one of the major presences at GenCon. I still remember years ago (2009, I believe) coming upon their booth and seeing a pile of hardcover books for their new (at the time) Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook (now available in paperback, as well). I didn’t realize at the time that it was transforming the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons into a completely new and improved system of mechanics, and how many hours I would spend…

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Reading the Avon Fantasy Reader — Issue 1: What Defines a Classic?

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Avon Fantasy Reader #1 (Avon Books, February 1947). Cover artist unknown On the occasion of this year’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention — my fifth — I resolved to learn from past mistakes and come armed with a specific list of items needed to plug holes in my considerable collection of science fiction and fantasy paperbacks and pulps. This year, I came looking to complete my set of all 18 volumes of Donald A. Wollheim’s Avon Fantasy Reader, a…

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Vintage Treasures: Poseidonis by Clark Ashton Smith

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Poseidonis (Ballantine Adult Fantasy #59, July 1973). Cover by Gervasio Gallardo I’ve been collecting Clark Ashton Smith recently, and I keep coming back to the wonderful Ballantine Adult Fantasy editions edited by Lin Carter in the early 70s. It’s not nostalgia (well, maybe it’s a little nostalgia). And it’s certainly not that the stories aren’t available in other editions — Smith’s work has been annotated and collected by more than half a dozen publishers this century alone, including Night Shade,…

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Guns and Gears in Pathfinder Second Edition

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I recently covered Pathfinder‘s exploration of the magical arts in my review of their Secrets of Magic rulebook. At the more physical end of the spectrum, the Guns and Gears supplement explores the role of firearms, clockwork devices, and other forms of impressive technology from the Pathfinder world, including the introduction of rarer classes into Pathfinder Second Edition: the Inventor and an update on the Pathfinder classic Gunslinger class. With this book, they’ve definitely recognized that these two mechanical systems…

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Diving Deeper into Pathfinder‘s Secrets of Magic

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Magic is the cornerstone of a fantasy roleplaying game (although a good strong sword and armor usually helps). While over the years since it’s release Pathfinder Second Edition has had no shortage of emphasis on magic, from the classes, spells, and items contained in the Core Rulebook to those in the Gods & Magic supplement and the Advanced Player’s Guide, their release of Secrets of Magic really represents the most significant exploration of magical systems within Second Edition Pathfinder to…

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Vintage Treasures: The City of the Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith

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The City of the Singing Flame (Timescape, 1981). Cover by Rowena Morrill We’ve written a lot about Clark Ashton Smith at Black Gate. Like, a lot. Over two dozen articles over the last decade or so by my count, by many of our top writers, including Brian Murphy, Matthew David Surridge, Fletcher Vredenburgh, Thomas Parker, James Maliszewski, M Harold Page, Steven H Silver, John R. Fultz — and especially Ryan Harvey, who’s penned a third of our coverage all on…

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The Cold and Encroaching Doom of Death in Space

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Player and gamemasters (GMs) of tabletop roleplaying games often refer to “crunch.” This is in reference to how the mechanics of the game work, and generally (though I suspect some folks will fight me on this), a crunchier game has more context-based rules. For example, the least crunchiest game is someone roles a 20-sided die and no matter what, if it rolls above 10, it is always a success. You start adding crunch to it when the rules start to…

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