Player Core
Chapter 1: Introduction
Exploring the Galaxy
Source Player Core pg. 30
While some players prefer to create a character and define them solely through roleplay, other players might wish to tie their character into the world through backstory and motives. Knowing the setting of the world you intend to play in can help flesh out your character, or even give rise to new ideas for a character that you hadn't considered.
The Starfinder Roleplaying Game rules come with their own default setting: the galaxy known as Desna's Path. The galaxy is full of wonder and peril, advanced technology, magic, meddling deities, and countless new worlds to explore. Starfinder's setting combines elements of science fiction with classic fantasy elements while taking inspiration from the modern world. All kinds of characters can find a place in the galaxy, and there are many galactic events, people, and plot hooks that a player can base a character around.
The Starfinder Roleplaying Game rules come with their own default setting: the galaxy known as Desna's Path. The galaxy is full of wonder and peril, advanced technology, magic, meddling deities, and countless new worlds to explore. Starfinder's setting combines elements of science fiction with classic fantasy elements while taking inspiration from the modern world. All kinds of characters can find a place in the galaxy, and there are many galactic events, people, and plot hooks that a player can base a character around.
The Gap
Source Player Core pg. 30
Starfinder occurs in the far future after the Age of Lost Omens, but there's a Gap in the galaxy's history. About 300 years ago, something erased an entire era from memory. Records for this forgotten era simply don't exist. People who lived through the Gap experienced a collective amnesia about its events. Magic can't bridge the broken timeline, and even the gods won't reveal what occurred. During this nebulous time that might have spanned a few years or several centuries, societies changed, the planet Golarion disappeared, and Absalom Station was built with the Starstone at its core. A few years later, Drift travel came to the galaxy, and a new age of interstellar adventure began.
What Does My Character Know?
Source Player Core pg. 30
As someone who lives in a science fantasy universe, your character has a different set of assumptions than someone from modern Earth. The following are some of these setting assumptions to keep in mind as you create your character. For more information on the galaxy and its cultures, see Starfinder Galaxy Guide.
- The galaxy is magical. Proof of people who magically change reality and channel the primeval forces of the universe is everywhere, and people know that it's real. Magic and technology often blend into powerful equipment known as magitech, and the presence of gods and fiends manifests in undeniable ways.
- The galaxy has technology. Tech from computers to starship systems are part of everyday life. Most people learn the basics of how to use tech in school or on the job. People communicate with each other instantaneously using comm units and the infosphere, a virtual network connecting a world or settlement. Inventions like laser guns, cybernetic body augmentations, and medical serums have been commonplace for hundreds of years.
- The galaxy is connected. Adventurers have used magical engines and powerful spells to explore the galaxy since ancient times, but such travel was rare until the god Triune introduced hyperspace travel through the mysterious plane of existence known as the Drift. Triune's devoted followers build magical buoys called Drift beacons that allow ships to navigate hyperspace travel and transmit long distance messages. It takes only days or weeks to travel vast interstellar distances for a ship with a Drift engine. Drift lanes connect major ports, making trips even faster, and journeys to Absalom Station are always swift because of the Starstone.
- The galaxy is diverse. Countless worlds and cultures flourish all over the galaxy (and beyond). Travelers from Near Space often visit the Pact Worlds (and vice versa). Visitors from the Vast are rarer, but such travel is possible.
- The galaxy is dangerous. Among the planets occupied by the allied Pact Worlds to Near Space and the remote Vast, there's usually something causing trouble somewhere. Adventurers are always seeking knowledge, riches, and new homes in this limitless and perilous galaxy!
The Pact Worlds
Source Player Core pg. 30
The Pact Worlds form the core of the Starfinder setting. “The Pact Worlds” is the formal name for the united planets orbiting lost Golarion's sun and their more distant allied worlds, including Pulonis in Near Space. After a short-lived interplanetary war with the Veskarium threatened their home system, the Pact Worlds united by signing the Absalom Pact and creating the Stewards, a mutual defense force dedicated to defending the system from outside threats and enforcing their treaty.
The united worlds are Absalom Station, Aballon, Castrovel, Akiton, Verces, the Diaspora, Eox, Triaxus, Dykon, Kalo-Mahoi, Marata, Liavara, and Bretheda. The Idari—a starship—is counted among their number, as is Pulonis, a planet in the Ghavaniska system that was formerly occupied by the Veskarium.
What's left of Aucturn, a planet destroyed by the birth of a god, floats among the field of ice and haunted space junk ringing the system's outskirts, called the Gelid Edge.
The united worlds are Absalom Station, Aballon, Castrovel, Akiton, Verces, the Diaspora, Eox, Triaxus, Dykon, Kalo-Mahoi, Marata, Liavara, and Bretheda. The Idari—a starship—is counted among their number, as is Pulonis, a planet in the Ghavaniska system that was formerly occupied by the Veskarium.
What's left of Aucturn, a planet destroyed by the birth of a god, floats among the field of ice and haunted space junk ringing the system's outskirts, called the Gelid Edge.
Near Space
Source Player Core pg. 34
Near Space is a term used by people in the galaxy for all worlds whose nearness to Drift beacons make travel swift and relatively safe. Communication, trade, and travel between Near Space planets is common. When new pathways emerged after a recent event known as the Drift Crisis, more remote worlds joined the Near Space trade network.
Near Space regions include the Veskarium, an empire of seven conquered planets and a few dozen colonies ruled by vesk military leaders; the Marixah Republic, a group of allied planets emerging onto the galactic stage; the Gideron Authority, an aggressive regime created by isolated colonists grabbing for power; Kreiholm Freehold, a coalition of peoples from the distant Scoured Stars system who banded together for mutual aid generations ago; and the Szandite Collective, a federation of worlds linked by ancient magic.
Near Space regions include the Veskarium, an empire of seven conquered planets and a few dozen colonies ruled by vesk military leaders; the Marixah Republic, a group of allied planets emerging onto the galactic stage; the Gideron Authority, an aggressive regime created by isolated colonists grabbing for power; Kreiholm Freehold, a coalition of peoples from the distant Scoured Stars system who banded together for mutual aid generations ago; and the Szandite Collective, a federation of worlds linked by ancient magic.
The Vast
Source Player Core pg. 34
The dangerous, infrequently traveled outskirts of the galaxy and the endless sprawl of uncharted space beyond are called the Vast. Only a handful of scattered Drift beacons exist to guide ships through the Vast, and few landmarks are known beyond the galactic rim. Travel to the backwater colonies, remote mining outposts, and isolationist empires of the Vast is perilous and slow.
Regions of the Vast include the Azlanti Star Empire, a vast territory of unknown size controlled by a colonizing regime ruled by the descendants of a human nation from lost Golarion; Kazmurg's Absurdity, a recently opened sector of space fractured by old magic and filled with new possibilities; Lajok, the vlaka home world of mysterious ruins orbiting a reborn sun; and the Scoured Stars, a trinary star system lorded over by the jealous god Kadrical and his jinsul servitors.
Regions of the Vast include the Azlanti Star Empire, a vast territory of unknown size controlled by a colonizing regime ruled by the descendants of a human nation from lost Golarion; Kazmurg's Absurdity, a recently opened sector of space fractured by old magic and filled with new possibilities; Lajok, the vlaka home world of mysterious ruins orbiting a reborn sun; and the Scoured Stars, a trinary star system lorded over by the jealous god Kadrical and his jinsul servitors.