Been brainstorming recently about future campaigns, and various storylines I would be interested in running. This tends to happen whenever the schedule starts to calm down some, and I start to look into additional items to fill the calendar. With the Skirmish league wrapping up, I have that type of opening.
Once concept I have toyed with is a science-fiction based setting. Ever since we played Starfinder for a bit, I actually rather liked the setting itself. The game of Starfinder, completely unusable in my mind – far too many inconsistencies in the rules and the leveling mechanic for gear and powers was very unnatural feeling. The concept of hit points versus level-based weapons made the game feel like a Fantasy game with a blaster skin over the arrows. End result is Starfinder was not for me.
However, with a different mechanics system, the setting could be really good. In particular, I liked the concept of using Shadowrun (specifically Shadowrun 6th World) for the same stories and setting. Much more sci-fi tuned, includes non-human meta types (which can be expanded to the Starfinder cultures), and I think it could work really well.
With Starfinder, we ended up just abandoning the campaign, and never really kicked off the Shadowrun concept. I have been considering reviving it though recently and went thru the effort to check compatibility with Foundry. Functionally, the automation does exist, though my main goal would be really just the usual maps and line of sight. Any real game mechanics would be a bonus.
Not sure if I will stick with the Starfinder setting itself, or go with a more Traveller-based setting, more akin to Aliens or The Expanse. Most likely will avoid the Star Wars high-heroic direction however, that doesn’t work too well with the Shadowrun mechanics, but the other grittier styles do. I could easily see lots of storylines with a band of Runners on an old starship, going port to port hacking their way into various missions.
Not sure if it will end up happening but stay tuned if I end up fitting something like this into the calendar.
