Starfinder Adventures

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!