Starfinder: "Alien Archive 2" [RPG]

With the Alien Archive 2, Paizo introduces another 65 species (plus variations) to the Starfinder universe.  The book is very similar in nature to the first Alien Archive.  Each species gets a two-page spread with some gorgeous, full-colour artwork, and many entries include little bonus gameplay elements such as new pieces of technology that PCs might get their hands on.  Because Starfinder stat blocks are relatively short, there’s a lot of room for background and description of each of the species.  Obviously, I can’t go through them all here, but there’s a lot more I found interesting and fun than there were ones I thought needed work.  Things like bodysnatcher slimes, dreamers, glitch gremlins, plupex demons, and velstracs are all worthwhile additions to the game in different ways.  GMs who liked the first Alien Archive will likely be happy with what they find in this one.

Players, of course, will be most interested in the sixteen new playable races.  Ready?  There’s aasimar, bolide, damai, embri, ghoran, hobgoblin, kanabo, orc, osharu, pahtra, phentomite, quorlu, tiefling, trox, uplifted bear, and vlaka.  Some of these are familiar to fantasy fans (aasimars, hobgoblins, orcs, and tieflings), some are brand new concepts (embri, phentomites, etc.), and some are Starfinder versions of “animal people” (pahtras are cat people, uplifted bears are . . . bear people, vlaka are wolf people, etc.).  The last category in particular will thrill a lot of fans, even though it’s not really my thing.

We shouldn’t overlook the appendices, as they help define the characteristics of the different species and give GMs some room to play.  Most of the appendices here reprint and supplement the appendices from the first Alien Archive, but there’s one important new one.  Appendix 3 presents eight pages of rules on polymorphing and introduces it as a spell option at each level for mystics and technomancers.  The rules are very detailed, but I *really* like how the shape has to be predetermined (when the spell is selected by levelling up) so there’s not a ton of recalculation in the middle of a session.

My recommend would be that if you’ve run or played Starfinder for a while and are getting pretty familiar with what it has to offer, buying Alien Archive 2 would be a good way to introduce some fresh characters and threats.  Like the first one, it is pricy for the relatively-slim page count, and that should be a factor to consider.