Pathfinder Adventures

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.