Tim Pratt has done it again. They have taken a TTRPG setting and turned it into a fun adventure. This book has a similar framing device as the previous one - in the present Dae and Chk Chk are reading the journal of Tyrcell the Android which takes place about 20 years before. The past portions of the book take place about 3-4 years after the events of the first book. Things have calmed down a bit since the events of The Gap and The Society (what eventually becomes the Starfinder Society) has been formed. The main portion of that story has to do with an attack on Absalom Station by Eox, a planet of undead.

Our Game

How did things go?

Before heading to Archive 404, Jaedana wanted to go visit the temple of the deity she worships: Zon-Sheylin. The temple was painted in a rainbow color on the outside and experimental jazz was playing inside. A Pahtra accolyte, dressed as an anime character (with fake human ears on a head band) welcomed her in and invited her to do sacred coloring and then sacred paintball to center herself.

I’ve read a few GM guides (including for D&D and Tales of the Valient) and this one was the one that gelled most with the way my mind works. While it is strongly tied to Starfinder 2e, it has quite a few universal lessons to teach. Along with the others I’ve read, I think this is a good book to revisit now and again as I gain more experience.

Our Game

How did things go?

The Trio was contacted once again to do a job for the city. This time they had to go to Theology Channel for the parade of all the religions. Nitpick was given the task of setting up speakers, Vorza had to setup security bollards, and Jadeana had to do some of the organizing of the event. Vorza was suspicious and set up one of his bombs hidden in a jackfruit at a certain location. A little after the parade started, some mechanizers started shooting into the crowd and at the party. The group was unable to successfully disperse the crowd so they panicked and fled, trampling Jadaena during their escape. Eventually they were able to kill the attackers and, a short while later, anacite protectors arrived - having been sent to the wrong location. Investigations of the mechanizer comms paired with this information from the anacite protectors made the party much more suspicious.

Our Game

How did things go?

The party started off by trying to hack into the charging station from the lobby. There weren’t really any ports there for them to interface with. They then wanted to go up the elevator, but the warning about the effects of the Aballon Sun up there deterred them. Satisfied that they had taken all the precations possible, they entered the main area. There they were greeted by Shalalamula (a seksevariak) artist who enjoys using mind-altering substances to enhance his worship of Triune. Nitpick, the hacker witchwarper of the group attempted to cobble together an interface between his comm unit and the professor’s plinth, but it was unsuccessful. He went outside and bought a dongle to convert the different interfaces. Nitpick’s hacking skills failed him and Jadaena was able to help gain access. From there the party was able to learn about Tierny’s suspicions and the fact that someone else had attempted to gain access to his backups. After that, Nitpick opened the chamber and they discovered Tierny’s body and note. After distributing the contents of the commercial null chamber, they did some more investigating. Nitpick tried to hack into the cameras in the room and once again needed Jadaena’s help. They were able to see Tierny enter, but after that the image was glitched.

Our Game

How did things go?

The party started off by going to the vending area and buying some food and medical items. They also found a credstick used for unlimited food from the university’s cafeteria. They then went to the clinic and got some free mods.

Afterwards it was time to head to Club Magenta. The group realized they couldn’t get into the VIP area to see Vazylyza, whom they had a had a lead on as someone who’s spoken to Professor Tierny about First Ones relics. There Jaedana went to the small stakes tables to try and win enough money to play at the high stakes table to perhaps get a chance to impress Vazylyza. Jaedana did a great job and attracted the attention of Lucky Compilation of Numbers, who related that he lost his job after gambling away some First Ones relics in a game with Vazylyza. Eventually, Nitpick hacked the casino systems to make it seem like Jaedana had enough money for a bet at the large stakes table. There he won big and was admitted into the VIP area.

For the last 6 or so months I’ve been saying all over the internet (this blog, enworld, Blue Sky) that the Cosmere TTRPG’s use of the 3 action economy had piqued my curiosity in Paizo’s 2e *finder systems. This last Friday, I FINALLY got to run the Starfinder adventure that I’ve been dying to run for my Cosmere group for the past few months - Murder in Metal City. (Buy it directly from Paizo if you are part of Paizo Plus and want the points OR want to bundle it with the PDF or Buy it directly from FoundryVTT’s marketplace). I have to say that I was not disappointed.

Usually I do these review videos completely off the cuff. (With maybe an outline to go off of) This time I actually wrote a script so you can read the script below the video if you’d rather do than than watch the video. I did go off script here and there to elaborate on things, so it’s not verbatim what I said, but it’s pretty close.

Introduction

Up to this point, if you’ve seen any of my TTRPG videos, you’ve mostly seen me talking about D&D or Tales of the Valiant. However, Cosmere’s 3 action economy combined with a desire to get back to my Science Fiction roots led me to check out Starfinder second edition.

While this book is not structured in the best possible way to teach a newbie how to play Starfinder Second Edition, the fact of the matter is that this is a reference book. One might use it one time to learn how to play or, perhaps more likely, one will learn from YouTube videos, a Beginner’s Box product or being taught by friends around the table.

As a reference book, the Player Core is very well organized. It has the most likely stuff that the player would look up (character creation) up front. Based on how I’ve consulted the Player books for Tales of the Valiant and D&D, this is the most likely use for the book.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. It’s based on a TTRPG. Would it be like the novelization of a movie or some of the books from the Star Trek or Star Wars universes? Would it be cheesy or great? Well, it turned out to be way better than I expected. There were a few things that came through a little bit game-y, but they were few and far between. The two examples that stood out to me were a character who created a psychic bond with her companions allowing them to speak to each other a “battle mind”

I believe this was the first book released for Starfinder Second Edition. As such it had to serve as an introduction to the system as well as what had changed in the solar system since the first edition. Unlike many TTRPG companies, Paizo likes to advance the story of the world and change things up as time goes on.

However, the best part of the way this book is organized is that the first few chapters are based on the types of campaigns you might run - horror, science fiction, fantasy, weird, and so on. For each type of campaign, the writer suggests planets the GM might go to and some campaign starters whether it’s for a one-shot or a long campaign. Just this section alone is worth getting this book.

2025 was the year I leveled up my TTRPG skills (no pun intended). It started off with my participation in New Game Master Month in February. Kobold Press was a sponsor and had a coupon for the core books so I moved off the free rules and onto the main, published rules. I consumed lots of TTRPG content on YouTube, reddit, and enworld - lots of it focused on being a better GM or a more creative GM. This may have come out already if I published the other end of year blog posts before this one, but TTRPGs ended up eating up a lot of free time and reducing the time I spent on reading, video games, and programming as the year progressed.

I grew up in the days of Nintendo vs Sega. But that’s not the only rivalry I’ve been around. There was also Emacs vs Vi/Vim. And Windows vs Linux vs Mac. Basically, anywhere there’s a choice, a huge swath of humanity takes the stance that whatever they’ve chosen is the only good choice and every other choice is bad or dumb. But not everyone! Time and age have taught me that whenever there’s a bifurcated choice like that, it’s often because each is catering to a different need or way of thinking that appeals to enough people to sustain an alternative. With that in mind, as I’ve moved beyond my original TTRPG (D&D) and explored other options, I’ve seen that each publisher seems to have certain strengths. In the spirit of putting something positive out there in the world, here is what I think each publisher does best: