Paizo Playtest: Nanite Swarms And Giant Mechs Incoming For Starfinder
Paizo has announced a new playtest for fans of Starfinder, coming in July: a new class that uses nanomachines, and mechs for one and all. Check it out.
If there’s one thing you can say about a sci-fi game, it’s that it’s better with Mechs. If there are two things you can say about a sci-fi game, it’s “get in the mech already we’re waiting on you to get in your awesome robot.” It’s why games like Lancer have won so many awards (and if you’re looking for a sci-fi game that is pretty much exclusively about piloting giant mechs, then you should check it out), but today we’re here to talk about Paizo’s take on Mechs for Starfinder, as well as their new class, the Nanocyte, both of which feature in next month’s public playtest. Check it out!
via Paizo
First things first: the new class:
As a guiding philosophy when designing new classes, the Starfinder team is always pushing to expand innovative ideas and territory: the biohacker brings a new spin to the scientist trope, the vanguard weaponizes the multiverse’s fundamental energies to redirect damaging forces, and witchwarper takes a fresh approach to magic, superimposing alternate realities to create supernatural effects. Naturally, an additional class we’d make would want to meet or exceed those standards for conceptual novelty, visual wow-factor, and fun at the game table. It’s a high bar!
Enter the nanocyte.
The nanocyte’s body houses nanites in untold numbers, granting them impossible strength, transforming into tools, and coursing between obstacles to overwhelm their foes. The same nanites can reshape the nanocyte’s body to avoid harm as easily as they reconfigure features to conceal their presence or mask a lie, making the nanocyte an adept combatant and infiltrator able to manifest weaponry at a moment’s notice. Whether their powers stem from excruciating experiments, accidental infection, or voluntary symbiosis, the nanocyte’s nanites grow stronger by the day as the character evolves into a being more machine than mortal.
That already sounds pretty cool. But speaking of being more machine than mortal, what about playing a mech? Well, starting in July, Starfinder will open up with new mech rules, including options for jump-jets, massive mech combat, and more.
Mech combat is designed to use most of the familiar tactical rules and 5-foot squares you already use in your games, making mechs a feature you can as easily drop into a single encounter as you can build entire campaigns around them. And as you would expect, mechs represent a significant power boost, allowing PCs to take on far greater challenges than they might on their own—just what you’d expect from a system that lets you customize your mechs’ frames, limbs, armaments, power cores, and more!
So there you have it. Two Starfinder playtests to look forward to.
Happy Adventuring!
