A little over a year ago I backed the Aethera campaign setting, a science-fantasy campaign setting for Pathfinder, on Kickstarter after reading an enthusiastic preview article on io9. Earlier this year our group had a weekend of tabletop gaming to celebrate 20 years of gaming together and the fine folks at Encounter Table Publishing were kind enough to send over a preview of the system, in the form of one of the adventures they’ve been using at conventions, for us to play.
My group and I really enjoyed the setting, despite initial reservations about using the Pathfinder mechanics again, and we all left the weekend looking forward to playing in the Aethera setting in future.
Unfortunately the Aethera Campaign Setting isn’t out yet, though it seems to be imminent, so I’ve decided to try and re-familiarise myself with the Pathfinder mechanics by running the Hell’s Rebels adventure path, of which I have the first three books from my purchase of the Humble RPG Book Bundle: Pathfinder, for my next campaign. This gives me a well reviewed adventure to re-learn the Pathfinder mechanics without having to design adventures, which I’ve struggled with in the past, and think up a compelling tale.
Hopefully by the time the Aethera hardback arrives on my doorstep I’ll have the core mechanics down and will have been able to learn some more about encounter design by running several encounters designed by the system’s creators.
One of the things that delayed the Aethera work was Paizo’s announcement of Starfinder. Whilst Aethera took the decision to continue as a Pathfinder compatible campaign setting, rather than waiting for Starfinder I’m still personally very much looking forward to Starfinder.
I’m curious to read about the mechanics; how they streamline Pathfinder, how their starship mechanics differ from Aethera and how their sci-fantasy core classes compare to using fantasy classes with sci-fantasy archetypes.
I’m also very excited by the flavour which feels like it’s taking inspiration from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.
I’m hoping that by the time Starfinder is released towards the end of 2017 I’ll have several games of Aethera under my belt and will be able to make an objective comparison of the two systems. I fully expect to pick up the streamlined Starfinder rules, but whether I also pick up the Starfinder campaign setting or continue to tell stories in the Aethera setting remains to be seen. Either way, 2017 is likely to be a science-fantasy heavy year for me as a GM.