Quick Facts
Age range: 8 and up
Play time: 30-60 to set up, 2-6 hours to play
# of Players: 4-8
Price point: $39.99
We started playing Starfinder at the invitation of a friend. He was running a group at one of our friendly local game stores, and he needed a couple more players.
The science fiction roleplaying setting sounded interesting, so we gave it a go. Long story short, we’re hooked.
That’s why we were so excited about the prospects for Armory, Paizo’s latest addition to the Starfinder line. We’re happy to report that the book is all that we hoped and more, giving players and game masters the equipment, background material, and class options they need to add depth and texture to their sessions.
Here are the top five things you need to know about Starfinder Armory.
Lots of New Armaments#
No surprises here, especially given the book’s name. But even so there’s a tremendous amount of content guaranteed to make anyone happy. Weapons, background explanations, new properties, and new fusions take up about 60 pages of the book.
Every category and weapon level gets some love, but everything stays balanced with the weapons in the core rules. These options let you add flavor to your characters rather than giving them superpowers.
Plenty of Armor and Upgrades#
Light and heavy armor get about 50 new items total at all levels. Like the weapons, the new armor gives players and game masters many more ways to express specific character personalities or environmental hazards.
Several of the items carry lore that frames them in the Starfinder universe story, giving players a feeling of connection with the game’s “history.” Lashunta Mind Mail, Night Plate, and Vesk Brigandine offer great examples of this.
New Character Options#
Like the other books in the line, Armory expands a little on its primary theme to give players a new archetype along with options for the primary character classes.
The new Augmented archetype focuses on personal upgrades and enhancements. This gives players an opportunity to push the boundaries of upgrades. Class features like Nested Augmentations and Overclocked Systems promise some very interesting character designs and story lines in the future.
All character classes gain new options, but the solarians seem to come out the best. Between new stellar revelations, weapon crystals, and the soulfire fusion (adds your Charisma bonus to your solar weapon’s damage), we anticipate seeing more solarians in the player character pool.
Expanded Augmentations, Tech, and Magic#
Of course, the new Augmented archetype need toys to play with. The Armory delivers several pages of augmentations to satisfy any need, including biotech, cybernetic, magitech, and necrograft forms.
The book also expands on the many “normal” things characters need for life, ranging from simple musical instruments to the level 18 weightless footlocker. You can even have your characters play a strategy game to earn a boost for intelligence skill checks.
Magic items, artifacts, and hybrid items round out the equipment selection. GMs will find many fun and dangerous items to throw at PCs (sometimes literally). Our favorite in this section was the level 10 wonder grenade, which requires a percentile roll after activating to determine what happens. And just about anything can happen.
Using Armory in Starfinder Society Play#
The contents of the Armory book are legal for Starfinder Society play, with some notable exceptions and adjustments.
Make sure you review the details on the Paizo web site at paizo.com/starfindersociety/additional before getting too excited about any particular item (like someone at our house did when he read the description for enervating hand and immediately tried to give it to a Society character).
The Verdict#
If you’re serious about your Starfinder play, whether at a home game, in a game store campaign, or in Society play, you’ll find a lot to love in Armory.
As with the other Starfinder expansion books, pay close attention to the Armory’s exhaustive item notes. Read through the exclusions list for Society play, too, because you don’t want to proudly carry something into battle only to have the game master rule that it actually doesn’t exist.
Have fun exploring the various options for your existing characters. Armory gives you the tools to take what you imagine in your mind’s eye, and then create a unique and perfect representation of it that you can play in the game.