Chapter 5: Anachronistic Adventures

The ancestries and heritages from Lost Golarion still exist in the Pact Worlds, especially on Absalom Station, where many of them took refuge in the chaos after the amnesiac Gap. You should be able to use these options with minimal adjustments. If a character is from the Pact Worlds, you should be prepared to describe the character's home world, lifestyle, and culture. You might determine this lore yourself or allow players to collaborate, which can be a great way to build investment in the campaign. Changes to these details might inspire new ancestral weapons, languages, lore skills, or even heritages using those of other ancestries from the same planets or who remain in close contact with the Pathfinder ancestry. As many versatile heritages are created by the influence of interplanar exploration and unique circumstances that vary from character to character, most Pathfinder versatile heritages fit seamlessly into a Starfinder campaign.

Starfinder ancestry feats that modify movement speeds and senses might be initially stronger than Pathfinder options, as these abilities often come online at lower levels and are more easily available in Starfinder using armor upgrades, augmentations, and other equipment. You can discuss adjusting these ancestry feats to match the pace of feats from other existing Starfinder ancestries, but be wary of those with physiological disadvantages that are intended to offset their ability to fly or use special senses. The human ancestry is a good benchmark to compare other ancestries to, and to make sure there are no mitigating circumstances beyond these similar feats. Additional bonuses like a Lore skill proficiency can also help offset ancestry and heritage abilities like darkvision that Starfinder characters can get relatively cheaply as an augmentation or armor upgrade. You can also decide to add darkvision and flight to Pathfinder ancestries, choosing to balance the campaign by empowering all the players rather than taking options away.

While most Pathfinder backgrounds fit in the Starfinder setting, some that specialize in preindustrial skills might need to be updated—assuming the character is from the Starfinder era. This adjustment is especially important for skill feats and Lore skills that might not be relevant to your campaign, and these options should be reviewed as per the guidelines in the feat and skills sections. For characters using archaic methods, consider granting History Lore to reflect a character's knowledge in ancient traditions. When replacing a skill feat that doesn't fit a Starfinder campaign, you should look for other skill feats from the same skill or consider Assurance in one of the skills conferred by the background.

The Pathfinder classes and archetypes both exist and are compatible within the Starfinder setting. When allowing multiclass archetypes between games, you should always be wary of allowing characters to mix Pathfinder and Starfinder class feats from classes that share similar roles. Class feats are balanced under the assumption that no other class in the game has access to these abilities, so neither game is prepared for the influx of similar abilities that could stack in unforeseen ways. Keeping a careful eye on which feats a PC wants to select should prevent game-breaking situations.

Class features that refer to specific types of gear, especially runes and firearms, need to be adjusted to fit Starfinder's technology. Pathfinder classes that use technology with a notable failure effect, such as firearms with a chance to misfire, should apply those rules when using that technology with feats or features balanced around that chance of failure. When using firearms, you'll want these especially risky actions to have a chance of a misfire to offset the increased range and magazine capacity of Starfinder weapons. These risks can be ignored when the character is using the equipment with actions available to a character of any other class.

Gear-dependent classes that Craft their own equipment are much more challenging to use with tech items, such as the alchemist and the inventor. While these characters can still function using Pathfinder gear, they might want to use a Starfinder class with the alchemist or inventor archetypes, after they get a taste of more advanced technology. These classes could easily adjust the theme of their key items as tech items without destabilizing the game. For example, an alchemist's bombs could be a type of grenade, and an inventor's innovation could be considered a suit of experimental technological armor.

Classes with similar roles and features might overlap in ways that make players feel less valuable, for example, in the case of a bard playing with a rhythm connection mystic. Likewise, some classes might synergize in unexpected ways, such as bard, commander, and envoy stacking buffs on the same party. Parties with characters using classes that cover similar niches might find themselves struggling in some encounters, like an operative and a rogue being the primary damage dealers against a creature who's immune to precision damage. Be aware of these overlapping niches when designing campaigns and encounters to make sure they are a challenge without being impossible.

Archetypes tend to be more specific and can be more challenging to convert. For example, the eldritch archer could conceivably work with a gun, but it's also possible that certain spell combinations and Starfinder feats might destabilize the archetype in unexpected ways. If players want to choose archetypes like the talisman dabbler that rely on items that don't exist in Starfinder, you will need to convert those items into tech items or use a similar Starfinder equivalent instead. For example, a scroll trickster who got lost in the Dimension of Time and ended up on Absalom Station in the year 325 ag might learn how to use spell gems instead of scrolls for their class abilities.

Many of your favorite Pathfinder deities are still openly worshipped in Starfinder. Some have changed since the time before the Gap, and a character might be viewed with unusual curiosity or suspicion for their outdated views. Most deities still accept these followers, and if they're powerful clerics or the like, a god might even send guides to help their faithful find their way home. For example, Zon-Shelyn still cherishes those followers who refuse to acknowledge their fusion, appearing in their separate forms when answering their prayers. Many deities also have updated their repertoire with tech weapons but still accept followers who use the ancient armaments of their church. Characters who gain proficiency in their deity's favored weapon should choose one or the other. So, a cleric of Besmara can choose to be trained in the breaching gun or the rapier, but not both. Once they do, this decision can only be changed by retraining, and any feats or spells that specify having to use a deity's favored weapon must select one or the other. For an adventure featuring a party that splits their time between eras, you might allow a character to swap their proficiency depending on the time period.

Be wary of items that don't normally exist in Starfinder, especially alchemical items, talismans, and runes. Classes and archetypes that use these archaic items might instead use tech equivalents or not be allowed in the campaign. See Anachronistic Gear for more information.

Most of the skill and general feats from Pathfinder can be used in Starfinder without any challenges. PCs should avoid feats that rely on incompatible equipment that might be difficult to obtain in the Starfinder setting. Alchemy has been supplanted by grenades and pharmaceuticasl, while scrolls and wands have been replaced by spell gems and spell chips, and runes have been replaced by upgrades and the item grade system (commercial, tactical, and so on). Additionally, PCs should be aware of augmentations and tech gear that can make certain feats superfluous, especially those that provide new movement speeds and senses. These feats might still prove useful in campaigns where players don't have reliable access to their technology and for characters who can't spare the slots for additional augmentations and equipment upgrades.

Technology has also made some skill feats less useful. The Legendary Linguist feat still has its uses in campaigns exploring uncontacted worlds, but within the Pact Worlds, most PCs can get by through purchasing a translator app and investing in the lower-level Digital Ambassador skill feat. The theme of the campaign should always be considered. For example, players investing in Survival will appreciate being told beforehand that the campaign will likely not include wilderness adventures but might include some interplanar or urban survival.

Starfinder has two skills not available in Pathfinder: Computers and Piloting. The Piloting skill replaces Driving Lore and Sailing Lore, and any archetypes, equipment, or feats that used these skills should use Piloting instead. While there's no direct analogue to the Computers skill, the GM might allow PCs to use similar skills, such as Occultism or Thievery, to accomplish similar tasks until they have an opportunity to gain proficiency in these skills. A GM should consider finding an opportunity for PCs built using Pathfinder rules to retrain skill proficiency choices into Computers or Piloting. Lore skills should be considered based on the theme of the campaign, and some specific lores players could gain from backgrounds and ancestry feats might not be applicable for use in a Starfinder campaign. Switching those to another vaguely related lore, such as Hellknight Lore instead of Cheliax Lore, or a broader lore, such as Golarion Lore or History Lore instead of Cheliax Lore, can help make the skill more relevant for your campaign.

The sheer volume of spells printed in both the Starfinder and Pathfinder Player Core rulebooks represents the timeless nature of magic's universal efficacy. That said, many Pathfinder spells that modify equipment can cause problems in Starfinder, especially those that apply armor and weapon runes, which aren't effective on Starfinder equipment. Furthermore, spellcasters selecting non-damaging spells should spend some time reviewing Starfinder options, as abilities like darkvision, flight, and other utility options might be necessary to compete with the augmentations and other tech items that can affordably replicate these spell effects, or might become less desirable choices because of the existence of such technology.

The difference in technology between the Starfinder and Pathfinder settings creates great opportunities for roleplaying and environmental storytelling. Describing technology without using modern terminology can help facilitate the alien nature of a new world, and many GMs might find it helpful to write out these descriptions in advance to keep the game's pace snappy, even if they improvise when the time comes to explain. While this storytelling technique can be fun for a couple sessions, most technology is engineered to be picked up relatively quickly by end-level consumers, and it shouldn't take long for an anachronistic character to pick up on the cues more tech-savvy characters take for granted. While roleplaying a character who rejects technology can make for some fun story beats, in long-running Starfinder campaigns, this type of character is best avoided or subverted for the sake of giving all PCs access to the advanced tech equipment that creatures and hazards assume everyone has access to and uses. You can find more guidelines on using anachronistic equipment in the Anachronistic Gear section.

Life in a post-scarcity civilization like the Pact Worlds offers many more opportunities for leisure time than life on worlds like our own. While the rules of downtime activities are largely the same in both eras, there are additional innate rewards and risks inherent to these activities in Starfinder that might come as a surprise to an archaic character. Finding specific equipment, information, teachers, translators, and other specialists is significantly easier on the infosphere. This also means that it's easier for others to find information about the PCs, which can make it more challenging to avoid or circumvent the outcomes of certain critical failures, such as being caught stealing or believing a lie on the infosphere that a more experienced browser would've realized was just an attempt at trolling. Options from Pathfinder that provide additional downtime activities should keep these circumstances in mind, and you might consider dropping warnings if a PC attempts to go ahead with an activity without accounting for the perils of technology, such as using the infosphere recklessly or ignoring security cameras.

While both games use similar rules for Crafting, it's faster for a character to Craft items in Starfinder than in Pathfinder. The Fabricator skill feat allows PCs to use creator capsules to 3D print gear in hours instead of days, which is especially useful for characters needing to replenish consumable items like ammunition and grenades. It also gives the party freedom to venture farther from their ports of call since they don't need to sell their loot and upgrade their gear after every caper. While item formulas are still necessary for high-level gear, PCs can access these formulas much more easily using the infosphere. In addition, the maker's app is an affordable tech item that has the formula for any piece of adventuring gear. Alchemical items no longer exist in Starfinder, but many characters interested in those items might consider the Serum Crafting skill feat.

Including Pathfinder characters in a Starfinder adventure might mean having a narrower band of skills until the characters get acclimated to the Starfinder setting. You should double-check your skill encounters and hazards to make sure that there are still ways for the party to progress in the event that no one is trained in skills like Computers and Piloting. A Crafting or Thievery check can sometimes replace a Computers check, especially when the solution involves hardware. For checks involving data, characters might be able to get by using Arcana or Occultism, especially if it involves using logic, such as deciphering computer code. Instead of a Piloting check, you could let multiple PCs attempt the check using Perception and Survival. If you plan on continuing these skill checks in future sessions, you should consider using the narrative to create a sense of risk that encourages your PCs to invest in new skills as soon as possible, or at least hire a hacker or pilot to tag along and help teach them the ropes!

While many of the ancestries who visited the Pact Worlds after the Gap would've been unheard of on ancient Golarion, there is no shortage of opportunities to include your favorite aliens in the Lost Omens setting. From the galaxy-spanning elven aiudara gates to the spacefaring Azlanti Star Empire, having an ancient civilization return from other worlds with other species in tow is just one of the countless ways you can incorporate a species from beyond the stars in your Pathfinder adventures. There are also Starfinder-exclusive heritage options for existing Pathfinder ancestries, but whether using an ancestry or heritage, you should be aware of the nuanced mechanical differences between the two games.

Darkvision and other forms of special senses are much more common in Starfinder than Pathfinder. While some GMs might wish to incorporate items from Starfinder to make up the difference, you might want to adjust the Starfinder ancestries and ancestry feats that confer special forms of vision by lowering the range or raising the level of the feat that confers the special sense. You should also be wary of special movement speeds, such as climbing and flight, that become available at a much lower level in Starfinder. While some Pathfinder adventures might not mind the low-level access to these speeds, you might want to adjust by instead using the progression of movement speed–related ancestry feats presented to other ancestries in Pathfinder.

Most backgrounds from Starfinder Player Core work fine with minimal flavor adjustment in Pathfinder. Some offer feats that won't serve any purpose in your setting, such as the Augmented Body feat in a game with no augmentations. Others have contemporary narratives that make them inappropriate for high-fantasy games, such as electrician or hacker. Backgrounds like brutaris player, dream prophet, and icon might just need some minor thematic adjustments to fit your setting, while those like diplomat and smuggler should work fine with no adjustments.

While Starfinder classes are rules compatible with Pathfinder, you might make minor thematic or even mechanical adjustments depending on the themes of your specific campaign. All the classes could have minor adjustments to existing flavor, including the names of feats that reference technology, without mechanical impact on the abilities themselves.

Envoys are easy to use in a Pathfinder campaign with minimal adjustments. They make for great support characters without the use of magic and can help support a martial party with directives and bonuses whether they're using firearms or swords. You may run into unforeseen issues with stacking bonuses and penalties if there's a commander, bard, or similar support class in the party. The hotshot and infosphere director leadership styles require the use of vehicles and computers, which can be a bit complicated.

Mystics are easy to use in a Pathfinder campaign with minimal adjustments. This class is ideal for characters wanting to play spontaneous support casters, especially in a party with only one or two undead PCs, as the mystic can use their vitality network to heal them as well. Some campaigns might want to limit the telepathy of the mystic, especially survival horror and intrigue campaigns where this ability could cause disruptions. Review spells for more information about potentially conflicting mechanics, many of which might be conferred by mystic feats and features.

Operatives can be used in a Pathfinder campaign with some minor adjustments. These consistent damage dealers can utilize high mobility to fight at ideal distances with a multitude of ranged weapons. Which Pathfinder weapons qualify as a gun should be discussed with the player and depend on the operative's specialization. In an anachronistic adventure, consider allowing operatives to use Aim and other class features with all ranged weapons, even if they don't have the analog or tech trait. Operatives perform best with modern guns. Archaic firearms have a chance to misfire and take longer to reload, but they often have powerful traits like fatal to make up for it. The presence of an operative in a party might skew encounters in the direction of ranged combat, and GMs could consider giving their creatures enhancements for movement speed or ranged options if the party begins to exploit this preference of fighting at a distance. Many operatives also rely on being able to shoot multiple times before having to reload, and allowing them access to rare multi-magazine firearms using the statistics of those from Starfinder might be necessary for them to keep up with other damage dealers in the party.

Solarians are easy to use in a Pathfinder campaign with no adjustments. Channeling the power of the cosmos is a classic high-fantasy theme, and many players will enjoy being able to play a supernatural warrior who constructs their own weapons on the fly. You might consider adjusting specific movement abilities until these options would normally be available to spellcasters in your game. Channeling the cosmos and maintaining spiritual balance are timeless themes that can be freely explored using archaic characters without any major concerns.

Soldiers can present certain challenges in Pathfinder campaigns and might require some adjustments. Whether scavenged from an ancient alien ship, taken with you from the future, or ancient relics repurposed by an inventor, allowing your soldier access to area weapons addresses most of these concerns. Groups not looking to employ scrap launchers or alchemical flamethrowers might want to limit a soldier to using the Whirling Swipe feat as their source of area attacks. Soldiers with ranged area attacks in a Pathfinder game might be a little oppressive against melee-heavy creatures, and you might want to toggle the suppressed condition to only reduce the enemy's Speeds by 5 feet at earlier levels, perhaps increasing it to 10 feet when the soldier gets weapon specialization.

Witchwarpers are easy to use in a Pathfinder campaign with minimal adjustments. Many players enjoy being able to manipulate the battlefield while playing a high-mobility caster. The analyst anchor and precog need new paradox skills depending on the background of the individual character and the source of their power in your campaign. Check the spells section for more information about potentially conflicting mechanics, many of which might be conferred by witchwarper feats and features.

Most deities from Starfinder were still active prior to the Gap, although those who are too distant from Golarion to interfere directly might be ideal for time-traveling PCs for continuity's sake. Those with deities who undergo significant changes in the future might find themselves without access to their original deity, instead drawing powers from an unknown patron who might be using the PC for their own purposes. In some cases, even the patron deity might not understand why they're drawn to the mortal until everything is said and done.

Without access to advanced technology, many Starfinder classes have to rely on Pathfinder equivalents to properly function. In the Lost Omens setting, players might need to rely on technology from specific niche sources like alien technology from Numeria, relics from the Jistka Imperium, and experimental weapons forged in Alkenstar. Alchemical and magical solutions might also exist, but the item's traits would need some adjustment. Groups looking for a challenge might want to deny their players access to solar charging stations and might demand that players spend downtime to maintain or recharge their gear, or else incur the glitching condition on a critical failure. While many of Starfinder's items aren't easily integrated into most Pathfinder campaigns, there are opportunities to use this alien technology in your game without having to convert everything into a magic item equivalent, guidelines for which can be found in Anachronistic Gear.

Early on in a campaign, time-traveling characters might struggle to make ends meet, unless they happen to be antique coin collectors. The balance on a credstick is meaningless in a civilization without computers, but even the most mundane tech gear could be worth a king's ransom to collectors. A spare firearm, jet pack, or even datapad is likely worth many times more than what it would be in Starfinder, assuming you can find the right buyer. This kind of exchange can be especially helpful if a Starfinder character is being introduced to a Pathfinder campaign above 1st level, but the player wants the character to be completely out of their element. It can also serve as a fun narrative device when an eccentric noble finds their toy running low on battery power and demands a refund from the hapless time traveler!

Most of the skill and general feats from Starfinder can be used in Pathfinder without any adjustment. Feats that refer to specific technology that might not exist in your setting might not be appropriate for your campaign, including Augmented Body, and many of the Crafting and Computers skill feats. Feats that rely on comm units or the infosphere, such as Master Troll or Digital Ambassador, would be applicable only if a magic item were introduced with similar features specifically for that feat. Piloting skill feats would require using Driving Lore or adjusting the vehicle rules in your game and should only be accessible if you plan on making vehicles a major component of your campaign. Feats that deal with technology might still be appropriate for a Pathfinder campaign with some adjustments, especially those that heavily feature alien technology or constructs.

Most Pathfinder adventures won't include the Computers or Piloting skills, making options that rely on these skills superfluous on the surface. Options that grant training or boosts in these skills should instead use other related skills, such as Driving Lore, Sailing Lore, or Survival for Piloting and Crafting, Mathematics Lore, and Thievery for Computers. Allowing your characters to use Piloting to Drive any kind of vehicle might help simplify games that heavily feature vehicles, but be cautious about encouraging the Piloting skill if you don't plan on featuring vehicles in your campaign.

Spells that require the use of technology, such as motivating ringtone, might be challenging to use in a Pathfinder campaign if you don't also allow the associated technology itself. Magic items can help bridge the divide and work as replacements, such as a special wayfinder that can play music instead of a comm unit. Spells that refer to robots might refer to constructs instead if your campaign doesn't include robotic foes as part of its theme. Depending on your group's preference, your players might appreciate picking new names for spells that use contemporary or futuristic names. Alternatively, you could justify the names by claiming they're rough translations of spells developed on other worlds, such as by the elves of Castrovel or elementals on the Plane of Metal.

You should pay special attention to the inclusion of spells that grant special senses and movement speeds, such as polymorph spells, skyfire wings, and wild bond. You might want to adjust spells that grant these abilities to be a rank higher to account for the mobility assumptions of Pathfinder encounter design. Spells that modify gravity, radiation, and other Starfinder environmental effects might also be unwieldy in Pathfinder campaigns when other creatures and player characters don't have access to the same feats, gear, resistances, and spells that help them navigate and survive these environments. If you're playing a low-tech game, spells that engage virtual reality, such as new game, might instead function using illusions, dreams, interplanar travel, or mindscapes and will need adjustments, such as additional traits or requirements, to properly function

Starfinder player characters are assumed to have unfettered access to advanced technology. Many of the challenges in Pathfinder adventures assume your characters don't have access to this technology, and those abilities will either need to be adjusted, restricted, or the technology brought forward into your Pathfinder game. Make sure to inform your players in advance if you plan on setting firm limits on the use of the technology, such as batteries that need charging or the need to Craft your own ammunition. Maintaining tech gear is going to take a significant amount of time and effort, and the frustration of trying to make do with archaic equipment might be why the PC adventures in the first place. For more information on how Starfinder characters can use Pathfinder gear, see Anachronistic Gear.

Starfinder PCs who spend their leisure time playing vidgames and checking out local clubs might find it challenging to adapt to life in a preindustrial setting. Fortunately, there's so much a timeshifted character would need to do to adapt to life in the past that they might not have the time to think about it! Some players might love the opportunity to roleplay a stranger in a strange land, perhaps even wanting to spend some downtime learning local languages and customs. Cooking, crafting, healing, and shopping can all become substantially more time-consuming without the use of scientifically advanced technology, and the frustration of not having access to the magic that could emulate that technology can be a great motivator!

A Starfinder character might want to spend a significant portion of their downtime crafting. This can mean repairing and maintaining their futuristic gear, such as making ammunition and using archaic tools like waterwheels to recharge their batteries. It can also mean figuring out how to upgrade their gear without access to AbadarCorp's free online shipping and many convenient locations. Doing so could require finding an NPC who can do the actual checks behind the scenes while the PC is off on adventures, especially if the PC doesn't have ranks in Crafting. It could also mean working alongside another PC, perhaps allowing the Starfinder PC to help the NPC Craft by teaching them the basics of the advanced technology. You might even find yourself limiting a player's access to higher-level tech gear by forcing them to find necessary materials, from rare minerals to Numerian artifacts, that require specific adventures to acquire!

Characters from a time or world with more pervasive high-technology solutions to everyday problems might find it challenging to adapt to life in a more agrarian setting. Capturing that struggle with extraneous skill challenges could enhance the verisimilitude of your game, but over time, most characters should be able to adapt to how things are done in the pre-modern world. You should avoid trying to unduly punish players for wanting to play characters with themes, instead using the story to help explain how a PC failed or critically failed a check rather than giving them a numerical penalty to the check itself. For example, if a time-displaced Zemir rolled a 1 on his check to Influence a local celebrity with a Diplomacy check, the GM could explain that he confused the diva by asking for their social media contacts.

You should inform your characters in advance whether or not the Computers and Piloting skills are appropriate in your game. Pathfinder games that use a lot of vehicles might appreciate having a universal skill rather than having to rely on different Lore skills to Drive. Computers and other Lore skills that might be less applicable to a Pathfinder game should be adjusted on a one-for-one basis with some thought given to the nature of the adventure. Backgrounds are often a great source of inspiration for finding equivalent Lore skills. If you need some ideas, many published adventures have guides that include lists of useful skills as well as backgrounds that include Lore skills often used in those campaigns and campaigns set in the same region of Golarion.