Skill Checks

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.