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Hi all! My print copy of Starfinder just turned up at my FLGS today, so now I can get stuck into learning the rules and prepping for a campaign I want to run for some mates.

I'm hoping you can help turn my general campaign idea into a decent execution. My concept is that the PCs are crew of a exploratory vessel under a corporate / Starfinder Society joint venture in the Vast. It's doing double duty providing colonial services to the colony worlds within a given sector of space and checking out new worlds for colonial viability. I want the game to have an Indiana Jones meets Firefly vibe (by way of Lord of the Rings and Mass Effect: Andromeda, with a dash of the good bits of Prometheus).

I'm kind of good at plotting what characters and organisations are up to and how the PCs could run afoul of them, but I'm not so good at coming up with ideas for when the PCs venture out into the Great Unknown. I get the feeling this is something that Pathfinder GMs may be familiar with. How do you create The Wilds in a game and make / keep them interesting for players?

You write 2017 several times in this message. That must be a typo; it's coming out August 2016, and I don't have a whole year to wait, right? Right?

Look, um... Get some friends and / or relatives nearby. You might need a hug once it sinks in.

Hi, all! I couldn’t see a “Newbies” thread so I figured I’d post here.

I’m Rob, and after an on-again, off-again relationship with RPGs for the past decade, I recently splurged on the Pathfinder Humble Bundle and then got the CRB in hardback.

Pathfinder is a little odd for me. I’m normally a sleek-futures and cool-machines kind of guy in my broader fiction tastes, and I've tended to buy (but not wind up playing) rules-light RPGs. But I’ve come to Pathfinder for three things:

1. Watching the Critical Role gang have a ball every week has warmed me to fantasy.
2. Other games don’t seem to have quite the possibilities for Adventure as D&D and Pathfinder. For some odd reason, I keep hearing the Indiana Jones soundtrack when thinking about the sort of game I’d want to play/GM, and Pathfinder seems to best fit the bill (I really like the in-universe idea of the Pathfinder Society).
3. The plethora of open content means I can have a player say something like, “I wanna pay a centaur!” and I’ve got ‘em covered.

Plus it works out a bit cheaper than the Aus$180 I’d need to pay for the D&D core books.

I have some friend willing to give the game a whirl, and we’re planning to meet up via Roll20 once a fortnight. We’re having a little trouble getting together, but it’s giving me a bit more breathing room to work up Session 1. I pitched them my general ideas of going out exploring and general Indiana Jonesness, and they gave me back a human samurai, a tiefling investigator, a gnome crypt breaker and a centaur cleric. I don’t think stats have been done up yet, but the general ideas seemed fun!

This means, of course that this newbie Pathfinder DM is starting out with three level three characters (per the Bestiary rules for groups with monster PCs) and two very mobile characters (the centaur and samurai). So that opens up a few tactical options.

I feel like I want to start out with some sort of big temple structure with artifacts, an opposing group of looters, lots of space for the samurai and centaur to manoeuvre (and some four-legged baddies for them to take on) and some artefact creatures for the crypt breaker to blow up.

Are there any pre-made adventures / encounters that sort of fit that mould?

What are some things I’d need to take into account, especially given I’ve got a bunch of level three PCs out of the gate?

And aside from that, good to meet you all!