My group tapped me to run Starfinder so they could get the feel of it. And I'm not getting the hang of the important aspects of the gamemastering quite fast enough. Worldbuilding is fine; I could do that all day (and like to, in fact; would you like to know more?).
The issue is making the combats properly challenging for the group. Because I'm working with a small group, they're effectively fighting at APL-1 unless a few of the maybe-players show up. One and two 3rd level characters get the exact same encounter budget, and adding in a third character at lower level decreases the APL (not enough to affect the final score through rounding, though).
I'm also looking at future leveling up, which involves getting them enough experience to, you know, level up, and with the numbers looking the way they are now, that doesn't look easy. I'll have to throw a lot of cheese at them to sharpen their swords.
I'm sure I'm missing a whole lot of detail and nuance on the topic. The math doesn't scare me, but I'm apparently not crunching the numbers in the right way for this all to make sense.
I'm also sure this topic has been talked to death on the boards already, but I am a very new poster here, much as I haven't been running Starfinder very long, and I don't know where that content is.
Can anyone point this snarfhocker in the right direction, please?