Starfinder’s next rules expansion is getting stranger in a very good way. Paizo has pulled back the curtain on living holograms, one of three tech-focused ancestries coming in Starfinder Tech Core, with hardlight bodies, programmable appearances, and some wonderfully odd character options.
Magic, meanwhile, is headed to New York Comic Con with an early look at Star Trek and a Friday reveal panel. Arena has also started tying digital rewards directly to paper play, which may be the more important change for local stores once the novelty wears off.
Starfinder turns living holograms into a playable ancestry
Paizo’s latest Starfinder Tech Core preview focuses on the living hologram, a playable ancestry whose real body is a floating core that projects a hardlight form around itself. That core also stores the character’s equipment as digital data, letting their gear appear with the rest of the projection.
The fun part is how far the concept stretches beyond simply playing a blue translucent person. Paizo describes living holograms built as digital assistants, cartoon characters, advertising displays, and even former Azlanti whose souls were transferred into aeon stones. Reprogram Appearance and Realistic Appearance can help a character pass as something more ordinary, while other ancestry feats lean into being visibly artificial.
Those stranger options are where the ancestry starts to feel mechanically distinct. 2D in a 3D World lets a hologram flatten itself to reroll a Reflex save, Zoom In, Zoom Out changes its size, and Hardlight Weapon can project a custom unarmed weapon. Paizo’s examples range from a bladed arm and shoulder cannon to an attack that fires sparkling cartoon hearts.
For a science-fantasy RPG, that is exactly the sort of ancestry design that earns its space in a technology book. The concept is broad enough for a serious artificial-intelligence story, a bizarre visual gag, or something in between, without forcing all three characters to play the same way.
Read Paizo’s living hologram preview →
Magic brings Star Trek previews and a reveal panel to New York
Wizards has detailed its plans for New York Comic Con, running October 8–11 at the Javits Center. The biggest draw for card-watchers is Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek: attendees can play with Star Trek Welcome Decks before the set’s official release and pick up a Borg Queen, Perfection Manifest promo while supplies last.
The booth is also carrying Marvel Super Heroes demos, Reality Fracture products, and a convention Secret Lair called Roadshow: So Salty. That drop includes foil versions of Expropriate, Narset, Parter of Veils, Worst Fears, Scrawling Crawler, and Winter Orb.
The part worth watching from home is Friday night’s Magic panel. Wizards is explicitly promising reveals, and with Star Trek arriving in November, NYCC is a natural place for the next meaningful batch of information about the year’s final premier set.
On the calendar: New York Comic Con runs October 8–11. The Magic reveal panel is Friday, October 9 from 7:45–8:45 p.m. ET.
See Wizards’ full NYCC schedule →
Arena now rewards players for walking into a game store
MTG Arena’s new Wizards Play Network integration is live, and it does something the client has rarely done this directly: reward digital players for participating in paper Magic. New evergreen achievements track sanctioned in-person events when the same Wizards account is used for both Arena and the event registration.
The rewards are concrete. Favoriting a store can earn 1,000 gold, attending three in-person Booster Drafts can award a Draft token, and other achievements offer titles, sleeves, avatars, and additional rewards. Events attended before the October 1 launch do not count retroactively.
Arena also now has a Favorite Stores screen, opt-in messages from favorited WPN stores, and event carousels that can surface upcoming local play inside the client. Players can favorite multiple stores and mute individual shops if they do not want their messages.
For local game stores, that last part may matter more than the achievement list. Arena has an enormous audience that does not necessarily check a store’s Discord, Facebook page, or event calendar. Putting sanctioned paper events inside the client gives stores another route to reach players who already play Magic but have not yet made the jump to a local table.
Read Wizards’ WPN integration overview →
Fresh from the Hoard
Not tied to today’s news cycle, but currently available in the shop: Pokémon TCG: Prismatic Evolutions Booster Bundle is $85.96, with one sealed bundle in stock as of publication.
