Timeshifted 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!