Special Considerations

The following are some basic guidelines for adjudicating rules in play—these are the same principles that Starfinder's game rules are based on. You might want to keep printouts of these guidelines and the DC guidelines for quick reference.

• If you don't know how long a quick task takes, go with 1 action, or 2 actions if a character shouldn't be able to perform it three times per round.
• If you're not sure what action a task uses, look for the most similar basic action. If you don't find one, make up an undefined action and add any necessary traits (usually attack, concentrate, manipulate, or move).
• When two sides are opposed, have one roll against the other's DC. Don't have both sides roll (initiative is the exception to this rule). The character who rolls is usually the one acting (except in the case of saving throws).
• If an effect raises or lowers chances of success, grant a +1 circumstance bonus or a –1 circumstance penalty.
• If you're not sure how difficult a significant challenge should be, use the DC for the party's level.
• If you're making up an effect, creatures should be incapacitated or killed on only a critical success (or for a saving throw, on a critical failure).
• If you don't know what check to use, pick the most appropriate skill. If no other skill applies to a check to Recall Knowledge, use an appropriate Lore skill (usually at an untrained proficiency rank).
• Use the characters' daily preparations as the time to reset anything that lasts roughly a day.
• When a character accomplishes something noteworthy that doesn't have rules for XP, award them XP for an accomplishment (10 to 30 XP, as described in XP Awards).
• When the PCs fail at a task, look for a way they might fail forward, meaning the story moves forward with a negativeconsequence rather than the failure halting progress entirely.

As an arbiter of the rules and the person who's setting the scene for the action, it's in your best interest to appear fair at all times. Your main defense against appearing unfair is consistency in your rulings.

Achieving consistency is as easy as explaining why you're ruling a certain way and comparing this ruling to past rulings you've made in a way that makes sense to your players. For example, you might say something like “When Dae swung from the streetlamp and attacked the skreeling, I required an Athletics check as part of the action and gave a +1 circumstance bonus to the attack roll. Hanging from the catwalk to attack the garaggakal sounds similar, so why don't you roll an Athletics check.” Do this any time it's applicable when you make a ruling, but don't feel compelled to do so for truly new rulings.

Through the course of playing, your previous rulings will form a set of shared preferences and an understanding between you and your group—or even become formalized house rules. Over time, your players will think about these examples when planning their actions, which can improve consistency during play.

Remember that keeping your game moving is more important than being 100% correct. At the same time, it's perfectly acceptable to refer to the rules during a session. However, you don't have to do this alone. If you're leafing through a book or searching an electronic reference, your players are idle. There are a few techniques that make these intervals more palatable for the players. Letting them know that you're looking something up might prompt some players to also read the rule. This can increase the chances of collaboration and sets expectations for the length of the pause. Alerting your players that you're going to take a minute and read the rules also lets them know that it's a good time to tend to away-from-thetable tasks like refilling a drink.

The friends around your game table are perhaps your best tool for achieving quick, fair, and consistent rulings. Sharing the task of remembering the rules makes rules discussions collaborative rather than combative, greatly increases the chances of accurate and comprehensive recall of the written rules and your own past rulings, and is true to the shared storytelling spirit of Starfinder.

Asking if anyone knows how a specific rule rewards those players who have spent time mastering the rules and involves more people in the discussion. It signals to other players that you are willing to hear opinions before making a ruling, and it builds a more collaborative environment. In addition, for groups with access to a large number of sourcebooks or rules resources, you can ask different players to examine separate sources. This can greatly increase the speed and accuracy of a group's rulings.

Approaching the rules as a group problem also means that you should never trivialize player concerns about a rule. You must also think about each player and assess how important the rules actually are to them. Remember, though—while rules recall is a group challenge, making the final decision on the rules interpretation and getting the session moving again falls to you.

Though all the above are great practices for making good rulings, often the best ruling is the one that keeps the game moving. Avoid getting so bogged down that it takes you several minutes to decide what ruling you'll proceed with. Take what's close enough and keep playing. If necessary, you can tell your group “This is how we're playing it now, but we can have more discussion between sessions.” This gets you back in the action, puts a clear stamp on the fact that this is your decision in the moment, and empowers your players with permission to express their opinions on the ruling at a later time. When in doubt, rule in favor of the player's request, and then review the situation later.

The best time to really go in-depth, possibly putting the group on a short break, is when a situation is life-or-death or has major consequences in a character's story.

When you make a decision you're not sure about, look back over it at the end of a session or between sessions. You might change your mind—there's nothing wrong with that! If you change or clarify your original ruling, inform your players before the next session. No one likes being surprised by a rule change. Even better, include them in a rules conversation just like you might during a session. The guidance on discussing rules with your players still applies between sessions. Unlike at-the-table rules discussions, there's also much more time in these situations to read existing official rulings or sources.

Some of the most memorable moments come from situations that inherently call for a rules interpretation, like when a player wants to do something creative using the environment. The variety of these situations is limited only by the imagination of your players. It's usually better to say “yes” than “no,” within reason. For example, imagine a player wants to do something borderline nonsensical like grabbing an empathnid and squeezing it to force it to use its web attack. But what about a player who wants to use a fire spell to deliberately ignite a barrel of petrol? Surely that should have some effect!

This is where you can use a variant of the well-known improv “Yes, and,” technique: you can say “Yes, but.” With “Yes, but,” you allow the player's creative idea, but tie it into the game rules via some sort of additional consequences, potentially adding the uncertainty of an additional roll. Here are some simple ways you might implement this tool:

• Get a fleeting benefit without a roll. Example: stick a dueling sword into a deep fryer to add 1 fire damage on the next attack against a bloodbrother; coat a battle ribbon with glue to grant it the grapple trait on the next attack before the end of the turn.
• Require a check, then apply a circumstance bonus to the PC's action. Example: swing from a chandelier above a foe; subtly pilfer stylish sunshades and quickly don them to blend in among a crowd and lose pursuers.
• Require a check, then apply a circumstance penalty or condition to a foe. Example: activate a device to surround a foe with holograms; splash slippery grease across a foe's feet and the surrounding floor.
• Require an attack roll or skill check to deal minor damage and gain another benefit. Examples: jump from a billboard down onto a foe for a small amount of damage, potentially knocking the foe prone; spray caustic chemicals in an opponent's eyes.
• Require a directed attack against an object, then allow foes to attempt saving throws against the object's effect at a DC you choose. Example: cast a telekinetic projectile spell at a mine to trigger its explosion; fire an arc pistol at
• a malfunctioning power generator to cause it to overload.

Another powerful tool you can use to help you say “Yes, but” when you're unsure of the game impact is to allow the idea to work just this once, letting your players know that this is part of your decision. For instance, maybe you think a PC's attempt to Grapple an empathnid to aim its web attack at another foe is so fun you have to let them do it, but you're worried that the effect would be so powerful that the PCs would just carry around an empathnid to shoot webs for the rest of the campaign. By making it a one-time effect, you can have fun but don't have to worry about whether you're setting a disruptive precedent for later on.

You and your players will inevitably come across a rule you disagree with or that runs counter to the theme of your game. You might even decide to add a specific rule to an area not covered by the written rules. Collectively, these rulings, changes, and additions are known as house rules. It's a good idea to record them in a place where the group can easily access and refer to them, and where a potential new player could find them. Such record-keeping is a great thing to delegate to a player!

The best rule of thumb in these situations is to be slow to change the written rules and quick to revert a problematic ruling or house rule. The simple reason for this is that sticking to the written rules is the easiest way to remain fair and consistent. However, the more you learn your group's play style, the more often you'll find times where you and your group feel it's correct to institute a house rule of some sort.

Maintaining the players' attention keeps a game moving and leads to memorable moments when everyone's in the same zone. Too many interruptions break the flow. This is fine in moderation. A game is a social gathering, so there's definitely a place for conversation that's not directly related to playing the game. These interruptions become a problem if they're too frequent, or if people are talking over others. If a player repeatedly interrupts you or other people or undercuts every crucial moment of the game with a joke, talk to them about limiting their comments to appropriate times. Often, all you need to do is hold up your hand or otherwise indicate that the player is talking out of turn to delay them until after you or another speaker finishes talking.

Phones and other mobile devices are another major source of distraction. Banning them entirely is often impractical— many players use apps to roll dice or manage their character sheets, or they need to answer texts from their partner, check in on a work project, or otherwise stay connected with people who rely on them. However, you can set ground rules against using a device for anything that's not time-sensitive or gamerelated, such as refreshing social media, checking the score of a hockey game, playing a mobile game, or answering a nonurgent text. You can relax these rules for players when their characters are “offstage.” If a player's character isn't in a scene, that might be a good time for the player to use a mobile device.

Most players who cause problems do so unintentionally— perhaps bringing out-of-game issues and stresses to the table. You shouldn't immediately jump on every instance of problematic play—everyone has a bad night on occasion. However, if someone disrupts the game on an ongoing basis, you owe it to all the players to deal with the problem. If you don't, bad feelings, grudges, and even ruined friendships could result.

Handling a problematic player requires tact: making demands in front of the rest of the group is rarely the best way to resolve the problem. Attempt to handle the problem privately away from the game, or call a break to have a private conversation if the situation is really urgent. As with all emotionally charged conversations, email, text messages, and the like can lose the subtlety of speech—it's better to meet the player face-to-face, if possible.

Here are some problematic behaviors that often come up and might require you to intervene.

• Obsessing over the letter of the rules.
• Constantly “helping” other players make the optimal choice on their turn.
• Making their character the center of attention without allowing space for other players.
• Repeatedly including other players' characters in the area of a harmful effect without their permission, such as an Area Fire or Auto-Fire weapon attack or a damaging spell.

Other behaviors are unacceptable and must be dealt with firmly and decisively. These can be severe enough to pause the game in progress. Such actions speak to a deeper problem and require more drastic action to solve.

• Repeatedly arguing with decisions made by other players or the GM.
• Ignoring other players' opinions.
• Deliberately derailing the adventure's plot.
• Purposefully disregarding or subverting the game's agreed upon content expectations and limitations.
• Being deliberately rude or cruel to other players— especially if it's on the basis of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, political or religious affiliation, the color of their skin, appearance, or the like.

You might end up with one PC who outshines everyone else. Perhaps the player is a rules expert with a powerful character, other players are less experienced or more focused on the story of their characters, or there's just a rules combination or item that's stronger than you expected. In any case, this imbalance might mean you have other players who feel ineffective, or the overpowered character's player becomes bored because they aren't challenged during gameplay.

Talk to the player between sessions, and make it clear that no one at the table is to blame in this situation. Most players have no problem making some concessions for the happiness of the group. If the problem results from rules options, offer an easy way to retrain. If the imbalance resulted from an item, come up with a way that item might need to be lost or sacrificed, but in a satisfying way that furthers the narrative—or consider a power up for the whole party! If you meet resistance from the player, listen to their counterpoints. If you're still convinced they need to change, you might need to be more firm.

It's worth stating that players might still have fun, or even enjoy an instance of power imbalance. You don't have to do anything to address it unless it limits fun at your table.

Coming up with ideas for a campaign can sometimes feel overwhelming. This is where your players come in handy! You can solicit direct feedback from them and implement their ideas into the game. This style of narrative control preserves your authority over the game while giving players the chance to incorporate elements into the game you know they want to see.

Plan for a few checkpoints throughout the campaign where you touch base with your players to get their ideas. The most crucial comes at the start of the game. It's best to take this step before you even set to work on crafting the world or plot, so that player input can define what's important in the game world. Later, checkpoints can coincide with major story milestones. For example, if the players launch their starship into space, you might ask where they want their voyage to end and what planets, if any, they'd like to explore along the way.

You might have players develop the stories of some of the regions or NPCs, while your contributions serve as the glue that makes it all work together. This breaks somewhat with traditional RPG structures, in that you might not be the expert on all areas of the setting and plot.

Your collaboration will depend on the interests of you and the other players. Maybe one draws a city map, another makes the stats and personality for an NPC, another controls some monsters in combat, and a fourth doesn't want to do anything beyond playing their character. There's a trade-off here, because while you'll be off-loading some of your work, you'll also need to ensure consistency across these multiple sources of ideas. It can really help to keep a log of which player is in charge of each part of your setting. If you expect one of a player's specialties to appear in an upcoming session, let them know ahead of time so they can prepare or discuss their ideas in advance with you.

What if you want to go all the way and completely break down the walls between the GM and other players? What if you want to preside over a game in which anyone can speak for any of the NPCs, and when someone tries to determine what's down the next hallway, it's just as likely to come from another player as from you? In this approach, one of your biggest jobs is asking questions or giving prompts. “When the airlock opens, what's beyond?” “How does the general react to Obozaya's taunt?” You can direct your questions to individual players, leave them open to all, and put forth your own suggestions.

This approach works best when players are comfortable with one another and willing to both take responsibility in building the story and accept that some of their ideas will go unused. It's well suited for shorter campaigns, or ones in which players take turns in the GM's seat.

The largest risk of putting narrative control in multiple people's hands is losing a cohesive story. When multiple people have conflicting ideas about the tone of the game or particulars of the setting, you can end up with something that doesn't satisfy anyone. One of your tasks as GM is to recap events to clarify and reinforce the shared narrative.

Shared narrative control also complicates planning ahead. The group might need to improvise an encounter, take a break while you (and maybe other players) prep to go in a new direction, or even revise their plans. It helps to limit yourself to creatures that you can quickly find stats for in Alien Core or another monster book to avoid spending hours of work on creatures you won't use.

Also, don't lose sight of your own enjoyment! You shouldn't sacrifice how much fun you have for others.

If you prefer, you can give players a number of Story Points at the start of each session (typically 2 or 3). They can expend these to determine what happens next in the story. Having a currency like this means you stay in the captain's chair while allowing other players to interject when it's important to them. For most groups, a Story Point should allow the player to suggest a plot twist that can be resolved quickly or to establish a relevant fact or NPC, attitude. It can't determine the outcome of an entire scene or vastly alter the reality of the setting.

The Starfinder Society Organized Play campaign is a thriving, worldwide organization of players and GMs. While most home campaigns provide long-running stories with a consistent group, Starfinder Society provides adventures designed to be completed in a single game session, so that players can continue their characters' stories whenever and wherever works best for them.

To allow this flexibility while maintaining a fair experience, the Starfinder Society campaign handles some tasks that are normally in the GM's purview, such as selecting which rules options are available to PCs. Starfinder Society GMs are encouraged to allow players to apply creative solutions to the situations they face. For example, PCs may be able to use holograms, magic, bribery, or social skills to bypass a challenge that is presented in the scenario as a combat encounter. For more information about playing, running, and organizing games for Starfinder Society Organized Play, visit StarfinderSociety.club.

The standard group size for Starfinder assumes four players and a GM. Some additional changes to your GMing strategy might be useful for groups with dramatically fewer or greater players.

Sometimes, making your game accessible and fun for everyone at the table requires making some adjustments to your typical GMing style or player setup. The first step is open communication so you can learn what the players need, what accommodations would be helpful, and what type of assistance players do and don't want to receive.

Players may have differences in the way that they process sensory information, as well as which senses they use. For players who are hard of hearing or who struggle to process large amounts of sensory information at once, selecting a quiet gaming venue and establishing ground rules about table talk (such as asking players not to interrupt each other) can make the game more accessible. Such players can also often benefit from handouts they can consult during the session. Keep in mind the way your players perceive the world when describing locations. For example, if you have a blind or visually impaired player at the table, instead of simply describing what a location looks like, describe how it sounds and smells, the temperature of the room, the feeling of the breeze, and other aspects of the scene that they can identify with.

It's not uncommon for people to struggle to maintain their attention for hours on end, especially for young players. If keeping attention is an issue at your table, add breaks to the game. Whether you're just taking a break to stretch and chat or enjoying a full meal in the middle of the game, switching up the context helps players refresh their focus.

Some players remain more engaged if they have something else to do while playing, such as doodling, pacing, stacking dice, or fiddling with a tangible object, sensory gadget, or fidget tool. Work with your players to identify which preferred behaviors satisfy these players without distracting the rest of the group and to ensure everyone's needs are met. Some players might prefer to take on extra tasks at the gaming table, such as tracking initiative during combat or managing background music to help them stay focused on the game.

Maintaining attention can be particularly challenging for some players when their character is not engaged, such as when the party splits or when they have just finished their turn in a large combat. You can allow players to engage in other activities during the session, such as texting, reading, or playing other games, and then draw them back into the game when their character is active.

A blind character can't detect anything using vision, critically fails Perception checks requiring sight, is immune to visual effects, and can't be blinded or dazzled. You might give this character the Blind-Fight feat for free.

A character with impaired vision might take a –2 to –4 penalty to vision-based Perception checks. Spectacles or other corrective devices and augmentations might reduce or remove this. Such devices are commonplace and accessible throughout the universe and can be found in most settlements or created on demand at UPB printing kiosks. They usually cost 5 credits and are available in a variety of forms. If the device is an augmentation, it doesn't count toward a character's implant limit. Likewise, if it's an armor upgrade, it doesn't occupy an upgrade slot.

A deaf character can't detect anything using hearing, critically fails Perception checks that require hearing, and is immune to auditory effects. These disabilities typically don't restrict their ability cast spells or use magic items, but if they perform an action they're not accustomed to that involves auditory elements, they must succeed at a DC 5 flat check or the action is lost. It's best to give them the Sign Language feat for free, and you might give them Read Lips as well. You might give one or more other characters in the group Sign Language for free as well.

A hard-of-hearing character might take a –2 to –4 penalty to Perception checks that are hearing-based. Like spectacles, corrective devices and augmentations for hearing are commonplace and accessible across the universe and can be found in most settlements or created on demand at UPB printing kiosks. Such corrective devices usually cost 5 credits and are available in a variety of forms. If the device is an augmentation, it doesn't count toward a character's implant limit. Likewise, if it's an armor upgrade, it doesn't occupy an upgrade slot.

Characters in Starfinder have a wide variety of body types and appendages. While rare, some items require certain limbs or other body parts to function or wield. It's important to allow these items to work for all characters. You're encouraged to create an alternative form of such items whenever desired, turning boots into wristbands for a character without legs, for example.

A character with a missing hand or arm might need to spend 2 actions to Interact with an item that requires two hands, or otherwise compensate. Using a two-handed weapon is not possible. Someone missing a foot or leg might take a small penalty to Speed, and if they have no legs or are unable to walk, they might use a wheelchair, hoverchair, vehicle, jetpack, flight magic, or other items, armor upgrades, and augmentations. Prosthetics are common and come in many different materials, styles, and sizes. Characters can acquire prosthetics in most settlements across the universe or create them on demand at UPB printing kiosks. Prosthetic limbs are an augmentation that cost 5 credits, and don't count toward a character's implant limit.

Let's first review the default usage for the four rarities in the game and how these already start to tell a story about your universe.

• Common elements are prevalent enough, at least among adventurers, that a player is assumed to be able to access them provided they meet the prerequisites (if any).
• Uncommon elements are difficult to access or regionally specific, but a PC can usually find them eventually with enough effort, potentially by choosing a specific character option or spending substantial downtime tracking them down.
• Rare elements are lost technology, ancient magic, cutting edge biotech, and other options that PCs can access only if you specifically make them available.
• Unique elements are one of a kind, like a specific magical artifact, one-of-a-kind prototype, or a named creature. You have full control over whether PCs can access them. Named NPCs are unique creatures, though that doesn't mean their base creature type is unique. For instance, a shirren named Zazi is unique, but that doesn't mean it would be any harder for a PC encountering her to tell she's a shirren—just to discern specific information about her.

Options of higher rarities aren't necessarily more powerful than common ones, but they might have unusual capabilities with large ramifications for the campaign setting or the types of narrative moments common in a science fantasy game. For instance, the raise dead spell is uncommon, since Starfinder's default setting assumes that the death of important characters, like the leaders of galactic federations or powerful villains, shouldn't be easily reversed by any common doctor or mystic, only those who have specialized knowledge in these complex fields.

Just because something is common or uncommon in one context doesn't necessarily mean it's the same in others. This is specifically true when comparing the commonality of a creature and an ancestry. For instance, while orocorans are a relatively common foe for adventurers to encounter in the Gelid Edge and are thus a common creature, in most settings they're still far less prevalent than humans or ysoki and would be an uncommon ancestry.

Because uncommon elements are available in certain circumstances, they often vary by locale, even within the same solar system. For instance, weapons wielded by soldiers of the Azlanti Star Empire, such as the aeon rifle might be uncommon in the Pact Worlds, but in the Azlanti Star Empire, an aeon rifle would be common and some Pact Worlds weapons, perhaps the aucturnite chakram, might be uncommon. Similarly, in the Veskarium, uncommon vesk weapons like the doshakari might be common. Some items are uncommon everywhere, such as the quasar solarian crystal.

The same is true of many ancestries and alien creatures. While ijtikri and talphi are common in the Veskarium, they're less often encountered in the Pact Worlds. This is particularly noticeable for ancestries who live primarily on a single planet, such as copaxis, or who lack access to Drift travel. Likewise, khefaks are common creatures on Akiton but are uncommonly encountered on Castrovel and are rarely encountered on Vesk-8, though they've infested many desert worlds, industrial parks, and junkyards near and far. Creatures that are native to a specific place are more likely to be found in other places with similar environments.

Similarly, technology levels can be a factor in rarity. Civilizations with industrial levels of technology probably lack access to starships but likely still have machine guns and shock truncheons, while civilizations with medieval levels of technology might treat all Starfinder items as rare or unique and instead use items from Pathfinder in their place. Conversely, PCs accustomed to Pact Worlds level technology who suddenly find themselves on a technologically advanced world will encounter rare and unique items that are common in this new region. Using rarity in this way can help differentiate technology levels for adventures that occur on isolated planets, alternate realities, or in other time periods.

Elements like ancestries, backgrounds, classes, and heritages that a player must select at character creation can still be uncommon or rare. Obviously, there's no opportunity for the player character to search for them during play, but these rarities still indicate the prevalence of adventurers with those elements in the world. You can decide to allow them on a case-by-case basis depending on the campaign and the story your group wants to tell. For instance, a game set in the Szandite Collective might have fonqugon as a common ancestry, while the typical common ancestries are less common. An official player's guide for a Starfinder Adventure might have uncommon backgrounds that you can access by playing the adventure.

You might craft a quest involving an uncommon or rare subject. For instance, players might encounter a force field that requires a rare spell to deactivate and have to travel to a distant planet to learn it. If a player has their heart set on an option that's not common, look for ways to build a story in which their character acquires that option.

With the rarities at your fingertips, you and your group can start building a unique world using rarity as a tool. Imagine a world where one or more of the core classes are rare. Maybe the natural forces of the universe are out of balance, and a PC solarian is one of the only solarians in the galaxy. Perhaps witchwarpers are rare and are hunted by bounty hunters, police, and pirates across the galaxy. For a grittier feel, you could make abilities that can remove afflictions uncommon or rare. You could even create a lowmagic sci-fi setting where all spells and magic items are uncommon or rare.

You can add, remove, or alter Access entries to fit your universe. For instance, if in your universe the creator god is really an immortal fungal colony, you might add an Access entry to raise dead and resurrection for characters who were infected by divine spores. In a campaign where everyone's a lab-grown clone, you might limit Access to one ancestry to start. These are just a few ideas to help get you started. The number of ways you can vary rarities to adjust your setting, story, and game are nearly unlimited.