"Pathfinder 2e, but with plasma rifles, drift drives, and a mystic in a spacesuit."
Starfinder Second Edition (August 2025) is Paizo's full rebuild of their space d20 system on the Pathfinder 2e Remastered chassis. Same 3-action economy, same tactical crunch, but in a far-future setting: classes like envoy, mystic, soldier, operative, witchwarper, mechanic, and solarian; ancestries from androids to kasatha; and — crucially — full cross-compatibility with PF2e. Your Pathfinder paladin can step onto a starship, and the rules just work.
The Pact Worlds — a confederation of planets around a binary star, held together by a peace treaty between wildly different species. Ships cross the void via the Drift, a plasma-subspace dimension carved out by the goddess Triune after the Gap — a galaxy-wide century of erased memory. Nobody remembers what came before the Gap, and that mystery is the setting's hook. Tech and magic share the table: a solarian wields a gravity blade beside a mechanic and her drone companion.
3-action economy
Same engine as PF2e Remastered: three actions + a reaction per turn. Move-Strike-Strike, or Cast-Aim-Fire, or something exotic. Decisions land fast.
Starship as a character
Your ship is its own "character" with crew roles: pilot, gunner, engineer, captain, science officer. Each gets a turn, their own checks, their own crits. Space combat is a tight mini-game.
Full PF2e compatibility
Ancestries, classes, spells, feats — they cross over both ways. You can run mixed campaigns: a fantasy hero crash-lands in space, or a solarian peeks into Golarion.
Magic meets tech
Mystic and witchwarper cast spells. Mechanic repairs a drone. Solarian draws power from stars. Operative hacks terminals. Every school sits at the same table — none is filler.
Open in Session Zero to let every player vote and see the results.