Okay. I’m idly browsing character background options for Starfinder 2e on Archives of Nethys, and there are … There’s two, right, and they are so evocative to me? They just immediately make me want to jump into the world. I mean, there’s lots, actually, there’s so many cool options in here, but these two just LEAP at me?
First, Skyrigger: “You're a worker on a massive, floating rig mining precious gases on Bretheda, Liavara, or some other gas giant. You've adapted to your dangerous work with grace.” (Galaxy Guide)
Just. Guess whose first space love was Lando Calrissian and Cloud City? I just. Gas Giants are so cool, and floating cities and mining rigs dangling in the clouds are just. Such an image? And it is just such an immediate way to feel like a science fiction universe. ‘What did you use to do, huh?’ ‘Oh, I used to work on the mining rigs on Liavara. I was dangling off the underside one time, doing maintenance down there, and I swear I saw the Old Hulk rise up out of the clouds beneath me. Just for a second.’ I love it.
And then there’s Salvager: “You're part of a salvage crew trawling for wrecks in the Diaspora, sailing the mercurial Drift or somewhere out in the Vast.” (Galaxy Guide)
I want that campaign, never mind that background. That is exactly what I want from a Starfinder campaign. I want to crew a ship out in space looking for wrecks. I want an episodic, ‘derelict of the week’, ‘monster of the week’ sort of campaign that’s a series of one-to-four-shots strung together on a theme of space horror and space mystery, where we just get (under)paid to fly around finding abandoned laboratory stations, and floating ship’s graveyards full of space undead, and strange vessels that got flung out of the Drift in decaying orbits around distant moons, and corporate vessels that went silent and they need somebody to go out and look at it, ‘here have this corporate spy to accompany you’, and derelict ships on a weirdly consistent headings with no lifesigns aboard, and ... I want a campaign that is just an excuse for every B-movie sci-fi horror plot in existence. We’ve got a crew, we’ve got a ship, and we’re out here looking for all the cool and interesting ways that space travel can and has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Starfinder, at least 1e, I haven’t read the 2e bestiaries yet, but Starfinder has so many awesome space undead. And space fairies. And space flora and fauna. And space anomalies. Literally all I want in this universe is to have a spaceship and an excuse to go trawling around for space weirdness. Like. Just pick one cool monster per job and showcase the heck out of them. The energy-eating star oozes (Plasma Ooze). The black hole ghosts (Vorthuul). The invisible radioactive space fairies that hide in the light (Lurker in Light). The angry space plants that hate Drift travel (Shipkiller Bulbs). The yellow serial-killing lamprey monster that phases onto ships in the Drift (Garaggakal). Pick your favourite of the week, put it on an abandoned station or a derelict ship, and have our crew suit up and head out and have to figure it out. Like, I want that campaign. I want it so bad.
I do love this universe. It’s so, so, so cool. And I love these character backgrounds, for letting you plug yourself into all the cool worldbuilding in this universe.
I think I definitely gotta pick up Galaxy Guide for 2e. And the Alien Core. Heh.
