Outlaw Starfinder
Ok kids you can have magic this time, Tao magic and Caster shells. I’m still in the middle of a rewatch so this page is going to be updated.
Races: We meet Humans, Ctarl-Ctarl, Corbanites, Cyborgs, Androids in Outlaw Star. The Ctarl-Ctarl are referred to as a cross between humans and tigers with a lycanthrope like strength based on the phases of a planet’s moon.
- Bio-Android. An artificially created Human. Starfinder Androids would be an easy conversion.
- Corbanites. An industrious race of frog-like amphibians.
- Ctarl-Ctarl. A cat-like alien race. The Ctarl-Ctarl have superior senses of hearing, smell and sight.
- Lorgans. A secretive and distrusting people.
- Saurians. A bio-engineered race of reptiles created by Terrans by combining different strains of dinosaur DNA.
- Silgrians. A peaceful race of anthropomorphic birds.
- Sith. An insectoid race so alien that a relationship with them is impossible.
- Tenrei Aliens. Small, furry, rabbit like creatures.
- Terrans. Referred to as “Commons” in the Japanese version, this is what many space creatures call humans.
- Un-named Cactus like race. These beings use psychic control over other organisms.
Classes: Although Outlaw Star is a low magic setting (Caster shells were from when there was still Mana in the universe), Gee and the crew of the Outlaw Star seems to encounter Tao magic practitioners on the regular. So you could run with just the mundane classes or add Mystics and Technomancers. Suzuka could easily be a Solarian and some of the mundane classes lose class abilities. Only the Envoy is unscathed. A drone Mechanic wouldn’t be too outrageous as we’ve seen drones and an Exocortex mechanic would probably be ok, though possibly illegal.
Envoy
The presence of absence of magic in the setting does not affect the Envoy’s class features.
Mechanic
The presence of absence of magic in the setting does not affect the Mechanic’s class features.
Operative
The presence of magic in the setting does not affect most of the Operative’s class features.
Soldiers
The presence of magic in the setting does not affect most of the Soldier’s class features.
Skills: All normal skills.
Feats: All normal feats.
Equipment: Outlaw Star has some guns and gear going on, but it’s not necessarily a twenty item level treadmill.
The guns of Outlaw Star can be covered by basic semi-auto pistols, breech loading double barrel pistols, single and double shot caster pistols, a holdout pistol and a grenade launcher. Silencer/Suppressors, Extended Magazines, Combat Rifles, Sniper rifle, Pump shotguns, Grenade Launcher, Hand Grenades, Flame Thrower, Minigun, Heavy Machine Guns on vehicles and spaceships.
So if it’s not a big bunch of guns and armor, what do we have? Silver is the only Special Material from the Core Book that exists, Poison and Paralytic weapons are pretty prominent in the setting. Weapon Fusions shouldn’t exist, but you might see special ammo that emulates some of the properties they give you. Durable would just be for hardy weapons, but there are real cases for ammo emulating Flaming, Knockdown, rubber bullets might emulate Merciful, Shock are already in the works in the Ghost Guns book.
Caster Shells could easily be emulated with Spellstrike Ammunition.or Spell Gem
https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=167
Caster Shells from Lord Ark, Urt, Hadoun all require a catalyst to operate, since Resolve Points can be used to save a character’s life, I suggest a character need to spend an RP to energize the shells.
The #3 CS produces a powerful red beam
The #4 CS created by Url produces a black hole that swallows the target could be a Disintegrate spell put into a Type VI shell costing 36,650 cr.
The #5 CS produces a trio of blue beams that countered a powerful summoned creature.
The #9 CS created by Hadoun produces a black hole that knocks the opponent back. Cosmic Eddy 3,700 cr.
The #10 CS produces a powerful red beam that can obliterate an opponent but casters can nullify or deflect the beam.
The #11 CS produces a red burst that can obliterate an opponent but casters can nullify or deflect the beam.
The #12 CS produces a burst of blue energy that knocked Aisha on her butt, but didn’t kill her. It could be a Jolting Surge, 140cr
The #13 CS created by Ark produces a more potent electrical blast that could be Arcing Surge, 1,400cr.
The #19 CS produces no effect when Gene fired it, let’s assume his GM used a fumble chart that included fizzling shells.
The unnumbered CS produced a large blue beam, Chain Surge 36,650 cr.
I’m going to assume the Caster Pistol Gene carries is a single shot like the Bravo from Armory that’s slow to reload and capable of firing any shells you have regardless of item level.
Armor, we see a lot of plain clothes characters and then some folks in full assault gear, so we should probably allow 5 item levels of Light and Heavy Armor with an additional bonus equal to character level to EAC and KAC. The Kei pirates use some kind of power armor that could be a mecha or vehicle, Suzuka defeats one with her wooden sword, Gene picks off the other two with Outlaw Star’s grappler arms.
Armor Upgrades, what upgrades exist might be their own equipment such as Infrared Sensors doubling as Night Vision goggles. Radiation Buffer or Jet Pack, Automated Loader is probably better described like a belt fed backpack full of ammo. Gene and Suzuka both have light shields (force fields). The rest is just too fantastic for our little bounty hunter setting.
Androids and Cyborgs have all kinds of Cybernetic replacement parts and enhancements over Basics. Jim is able to detect a Cyborg’s weak points using his tablet and tell Gene where to strike.
I will have to review the Biotech category because the setting makes some use of it, Hilda and Melfina had Biological components.
Computers, there are no Spell Chips in the setting. Ship AIs like Horus and Gilliam exist.
Technological Item, a Regeneration Table seems only a little more advanced than the tissue regenerating device we see our heroes use. Unlimited comm unit are probably part and parcel with ships and stations sending bounty notices from world to world.
- Jim’s tablet is the only thing like a portable computer we see, people use landline phones and radio comms between Kei pirates and Gene’s ear stud comms allow him to communicate with Gilliam. Unlimited range comms probably exist for talking between star systems as well as system wide and planetary comms.
Magic Items, beyond the rare Caster Shells, don’t exist in the setting.
Hybrid Items, don’t exist in the setting. If your GM wants to let you rework your character, queue up the training montage music.
Vehicles, Starfinder vehicles are SO SLOW to keep characters competitive. Outlaw Star seems to stick to homogenous vehicle/starship combats or people ambushing vehicles.
Starships: We have ubiquitous interplanetary travel and Ether drives built into the starships themselves. Horus could travel 40 light years in 3-4 jumps.
At Gen Con in 2017 Jason Keely said that the grappling arms of a spaceship could be emulated by using a gravity gun. I assume this would mean no shields, but I’ll have to check. I’m going to say the Outlaw Star is at least a Medium sized ship capable of mounting heavy weapons because we’re going to use a reskinned Gravity Gun for the Grappling Arms. I don’t really see starship scale shields in Outlaw Star only the light shields in character scale. So a Gravity Gun simulates 2+4 Grappler Arms, and combat between two grappler ships would be contested Gunnery checks. Using Gunnery checks we can accommodate both hotshot pilots like McDougal and street brawlers like Gene.
The grappler arms on Fighter sized craft would have to be less powerful than the Gravity Gun. Fighters and Vehicles with Grappler Arms need to be able to grapple other craft their size. The first Gravity Gun we see is a Heavy Weapon, scaling the PCU and BP cost down for a Light Weapon we get;
Grappling Arms Short Range 3d6, 15 PCU and 12 BP, Grapple is like Tractor Beam you can hold a ship or damage it
Like any of the 4 armed races in Starfinder having more grappler arms wouldn’t grant you anymore abilities in combat than 2 grappler arms, however 4 grappler arms might enable you to carry off stolen cargo which still shooting down incoming missiles.
The McDougall brothers ships launched about 30 missiles at the Outlaw Star before being depleted to about 24% so about 20 missiles each? They could also have 5 shots like every missile in Starfinder and just reskin them as salvoes, the most satisfying version might be a pair of linked missile launchers on each ship with 5 salvoes that can selectively fire one launcher for 3 and both for 5-6 missiles in one shot, but still be down to 1-2 salvoes on each ship towards the end of the battle.
The external camera drone only had so much cable to allow it to be remotely piloted through sensor interference.
Magic and spells: Exist in the setting.
Game Mastery I would copy the bounty rules I wrote for Bounty Boards or Personas and then convert credits to Wong. The initial bounty rules were based on the credits per encounter table from the Core Rules. I’m going to be updating Bounty Boards with some random tables designed to help the GM with the kinds of questions that a Bounty Hunter or Investigator might ask.
Gene and Suzuka both had light shields, Gene’s appear to be in his gauntlets. They stopped Suzuka’s sword and a shot from Genes double pistol.
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