‍So you want to play Starfinder on StartPlaying, but you want to know how to make a character sheet first? I was about to lie and say it’s simple, but Starfinder 1e, much like Dungeons & Dragons, is on the crunchier (mechanics-heavy) side of tabletop roleplaying games, so there is a bunch of stuff to go over, but I’m here to help!

A Starfinder 1e character is comprised of five elements: a core concept, race, theme, feat, and class, and within those elements, there are so many choices, but let's break them down bit by bit. When trying to figure out what your core concept will be, there are some questions to ask yourself: What kind of science fantasy hero do you want to be? What are some personality traits that jump to mind right now? What happened in your character's past? Why are they out in the wide world instead of at home somewhere? All these questions can help you start to shape who you’re going to play and make the rest of the elements easier to tackle. 

Ability Scores

Before we dive into the mechanical side of things, we need to talk about Ability scores. There are six abilities in the game. Strength, which measures muscle and physical power. Dexterity, which measures agility, balance, and reflexes. Constitution, which represents your character’s health. Intelligence, which represents how well your character learns and reasons. Wisdom, which describes a character’s common sense, intuition, and willpower. And finally Charisma, which measures a character’s personality, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and appearance.

There are three distinct ways to determine Starfinder ability scores. Before choosing one, make sure to check in with your game master about which ones they are allowing. The first one is a point system. Each of your abilities starts at 10. You then choose your race and theme, adding or subtracting the ability points listed. After you’ve gotten an accurate baseline, you get 10 points to spend, increasing your scores as you see fit. The highest you can get your scores starting out is an 18, but otherwise, anything goes. 

The second option is choosing an ability score array. An array is a predetermined set of numbers that can be placed in any of your abilities. Standard Starfinder has three different arrays depending on what you’re going for: Focused (18, 14, 11, 10, 10,10), Split (16, 16, 11, 10, 10, 10), and Versatile (14, 14, 14, 11, 10, 10).

The third final way involves 4d6 six times and dropping the lowest and then placing your scores wherever you want. For example, I rolled 20 (3, 5, 6, 6), 13 (1, 3, 3, 6), 14 (2, 3, 4, 5), 14 (2, 3, 3, 6), 13 (1, 2, 5, 5), and 8 (1, 1, 3, 3). When I drop the lowest die roll for each of the sets, the 20 becomes a 17, the two 13s and two 14s become a 12, and the 8 becomes a 7. 

Once you’ve figured out which way you’re going to determine your ability scores and have arranged them the way you want, you’ll compare the number to the Ability Score and Modifier table. The modifiers are what you use when determining how good you are at a skill tied to your ability or a saving throw.  

Races

There are 61 races to pick from in Starfinder. 49 are aliens that you would expect to find in a science fantasy game, and the other twelve are legacy races like humans, elves, orcs, etc. Each race will give you adjustments to your Ability scores, some hit points (your character’s health), information on your size and type, and several traits that are unique to that race. 

Themes

A Theme represents a core aspect of a character's background and motivations. There are sixty-one themes ranging from Ace Pilot to Xenoseeker (someone who strives to make contact with alien life forms). Each one is unique to help round out who you want to be. On top of that, each one increases an Ability Score depending on its concept. They also give you different abilities as you level up. The Xenoseeker gets a +1 to Charisma at first level and Theme Knowledge, which makes it easier to identify rare creatures when you use Life Science. You gain additional abilities from your theme at levels 6, 12, and 18.

Feats

Feats represent a talent or area of expertise that grants your character special abilities. Everyone gets a general feat at first level. General feats do not have prerequisites, while others can, and if you lose the prerequisite, you can’t use the feat until you regain the prerequisite. 

Classes

Starfinder 1e has 13 classes. The Mechanic, Operative, Solarian, Envoy, Mystic, Technomancer, Precog, Witchwarper, Biohacker, Nanocyte, Reaver, Vanguard, and Specter. Now, this is the meat of a character. This is where your stamina points, consistent hit points, skills points, saving throws, weapon and armor proficiencies, and, of course, your class abilities are. 

Hit Points measure how robust and healthy you are; when your hit points are reduced, it represents physical wounds and impairments. By contrast, Stamina points measure your readiness and energy and are easily replenished. When you take damage from any source, you reduce your Stamina first and then Hit Points if there’s anything left over. Stamina is meant to represent how well you can take a punch and shake it off. 

Your hit points are based primarily on your class, but as mentioned before, your race gives you a one-time bonus. At each level, you increase your HP by the number listed in your class. Stamina differs slightly. You still get the number from your class, but you also add your Constitution modifier, minimum of 0. 

Each skill is going to have some type of number next to it based on the ability score it's tied to. Acrobatics and Stealth are tied to Dexterity, so if you have an 18 in Dexterity, your modifier is +4, which means before you make any adjustments, you have a +4 to those skills. Each class has class skills, things that you are good at because of the class you picked. You get a +3 bonus to those skills on top of the original modifiers. Now, skill points are used to show what you’re particularly good at. At each level, you get a number of skill points determined by your class + your Intelligence modifier. The Mechanic gives 4 skill points at each level. 

These points increase your skills in a 1:1 ratio. So if you’re a Mechanic and you have a 20 in Intelligence, that means you have 9 skill points because a 20 has a +5 modifier. You could put all 9 points into your +4 Stealth, making it +13. 

There are three saving throws: Fortitude, Reflex, and Will. Fortitude is tied to Constitution. These saves measure your ability to stand up to physical punishment or attacks against your vitality and health. Reflex is tied to Dexterity. You’ll make this kind of save when you need to dodge area attacks or respond to unexpected situations. And finally, Will is tied to Wisdom. Will saves are made when you’re trying to resist mental influence and magical effects. Your ability scores are not the only thing that increases your saving throws. The classes also increase your saves as you level up. The saving throw progression is the same for every class. 

Armor and Weapons

While your class will tell you what type of weapons you can use and what type of armor you can wear, you don’t automatically get those things when you take the class. You have to buy them for the most part. Some classes do come with abilities that let you summon weapons or armor. At 1st level, you start with 1,000 credits to spend on any weapons, armor, and other equipment. 

Now, to break down armor and weapons a little bit more. You have two types of armor classes. Energy Armor Class (EAC) which protects you from laser weapons and plasma cannons, and Kinetic Armor Class (KAS) which protects you from projectiles, most melee weapons and other solid objects. Luckily, they get calculated the same so it's 10 + Armor bonus (EAC or KAS) + your Dexterity modifier. Depending on the armor, you might not add your entire Dexterity modifier. 

Weapons are more straightforward. They’re typically tied to your Strength or Dexterity modifier, you’ll be told which one, and they have a set amount of damage and damage type. Some weapons will deal energy damage, such as acid, cold, etc. while others deal bludgeoning, piercing or slashing. 

Last but not least, class abilities. Now, there’s not enough room for me to break down every single class ability, even in just one class, so I’ll say this. Each class has unique abilities that fulfill the class's fantasy. 

And that’s it. Venture forth into the great unknown!

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V.J. Harris (they/he/something funny) is a professional TTRG designer and full-time game master. Play with V.J. here.