So You're At Gen Con & Starfinder Is Sold Out. Now What?
As you may have heard by now, Paizo sold every copy of the new Starfinder Core Rulebook they brought to Gen Con. No, seriously, every copy. On the first day of the con. By 4:00 PM.
Which means that there are likely a lot of fans—possibly some of you reading this right now—who are pretty bummed at this moment.
Don’t be.
You know you’re going to be able to get Starfinder in a few days at your local gaming store. And in the meantime, there’s already another Pathfinder-but-in-space book you can get your hands on right now: the Aethera Campaign Setting.
I asked Robert Brookes, publisher of the Aethera Campaign Setting, to tell me more about the book and the world:
RB: The Aethera Campaign Setting is a science-fantasy dieselpunk setting for Pathfinder! Imagine Starfinder, but with a more low-tech, analog and magic hybrid technology approach. Best of all, you can use all of your Pathfinder products with it! Aethera is a massive 500+ page tome that covers an entire star system, with new races, new classes, new archetypes and support rules for every published class, and fully supports all Pathfinder products from Paizo. So it's like Starfinder, except you already know you like it!
Now, as you all know, the thought of another rulebook makes me shudder with horror. So I asked Robert to give me five things that should make me get excited about the system and the setting. Not being one for following directions, Robert gave me six:
RB: 1: Fully customizable space ships you can pilot with your entire party as bridge crew and gunners.
2: Space-faring cannibal minotaurs who invaded the star system in hollowed out planetoids called Labyrinth Ships.
3: Their enigmatic kyton allies who seek to refine and rebuild life for the sake of the effort.
4: Magic-technology hybrid rules that interface seamlessly with the Pathfinder Campaign Setting Technology Guide.
5: Rules for plant symbionts that your characters can wear and use as unique companions.
6: A unique cosmology without gods, where outsiders are unconstrained by morality and divinity.
There’s nothing worse than walking around a con feeling like you missed out, or going to the book store and finding out that the entire reason you made the trip is gone. (Says the guy who just missed out on an under-$100 copy of the 2e AD&D Night Below box set two weeks ago. Not that I’m bitter.) But Starfinder will still be waiting for you next week. This is a chance to take that $59.99 and get in on the ground floor of an equally fresh space setting you may love in a system you already know.
Also, full disclosure: I’m in no way associated with Aethera or Encounter Table Publishing. I get zero free books or anything for this—I paid into the Kickstarter more than a year ago. And Robert didn’t approach me; I approached him.
In fact, I wasn’t even sure I liked Aethera when I first heard it pitched—I prefer my space fantasy at the Spelljammer (especially in its Shadow of the Spider Moon incarnation) or Distant Worlds technology level. But having written an entire manifesto about how I wanted to see more publishers do new things within Pathfinder, rather than spit out yet another new rules system or OSR clone, I felt like I had to step up and support the Aethera Campaign Setting Kickstarter. Since then, I’ve become impressed with the setting, the layout/design of the book (that pit where most third-party publishers lose me and never get me back), and the people involved. Now I’m at the point where I can’t wait for my copy to arrive in the mail.
If you’re at Gen Con, go find the Aethera folks and check out the Campaign Setting book. If you want to learn more, the website is here. And if you’re not at Gen Con but want to pull the trigger, Legendary Games has you covered.
There are a lot of third-party Pathfinder publishers out there, but nearly all of them tread in the easily marketable safe waters of class splatbooks, monster bestiaries, and spells that go boom. I’m willing to hand over my blog for one night to Aethera because we need more publishers out there willing to take risks, play with setting, commit to serious art and design, and reach for the stars.
(Images © 2016 by Encounter Table Publishing)
