Humble Bundle read order for person new to Pathfinder

[Bakamonoda]

As someone who has always liked the idea of P&P RPGs but never having to opportunity to find other players, this Humble deal was a great opportunity to get some books I could get started with. Having said that, I can't help but be a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume.
The current heavy site load doesn't help matters when it prevents me from downloading multiple files at decent rate (which is understandable). So I was wondering, are there any suggestions in what order reading things would make sense? I assume the core rulebook is a good place to start and things with 2 in the name come after the first version, but outside of that...

[Joana]

The Strategy Guide is actually geared toward newbies, explaining how to use the Core Rulebook to create different kinds of characters. Its layout is a lot more newbie-friendly, as the organization of the CRB isn't always very intuitive. I'd read it first, or alongside the Core Rulebook.

Every word of the Core Rulebook isn't necessary right away, either. Some of it is for Game Masters; if you want to start out as a player, while the more you know about the game, the more confident you'll be, you shouldn't feel like you need to know everything in the Rulebook. Just aim to know everything about your PC; as your characters get higher-level, you'll naturally start to learn more advanced concepts.

The Beginner Box player's guide (Hero Handbook, I think?) is even more basic. The GameMastery Guide is really geared toward GMs. Advanced Player's Guide, Advanced Class Guide, and the Ultimate series basically offer more options.

The Inner Sea World Guide is all about Paizo's campaign setting of Golarion. It has fewer rules and more background information about the world, if you choose to play in it.

[Nohwear]

I would say that you should start with the Core book in order to the basics of the rules. After that, the Strategy Guide should help you to understand everything. Next, the Advanced Player's Guide establishes archetypes and traits, which I think really sets Pathfinder apart from 3.x. Everything after that focuses on another aspect of the game.

[Feros]

My suggestion? Start with the Beginner Box. That will cover the basics and even comes with a Transition Guide to help you move on to the Core Rulebook (also referred to as the CRB).

If you got a bundle with the Strategy Guide, move on to it next as it really helps with understanding the CRB. In fact, it is a guide to helping read the CRB, so they can be used at the same time. If you don't have the strategy guide, then hit the CRB and use it as it was meant to be used: a reference manual. It's pretty massive, so don't sweat it if you don't remember every rule or option. Very few people do.

After that, everything Joana says works. The books did come out in a specific order, so they often built on what the last one introduced. That publishing order (for the books available in the Bundle) is:

Game Mastery Guide (only needed for GMs)
Advanced Players Guide
Ultimate Magic
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Equipment
Ultimate Campaign
Advanced Class Guide

The remaining books can be read in pretty much any order, as they are either adventures to be run by a GM, Game Aids, Bestiaries, or Campaign Setting material.

[PathlessBeth]

Start with the Beginner's Box. It has "beginner" in the name for a reason:)

After that you'll want to look at the Core Rulebook and Bestiary. The tricky thing that not everyone catches at first is that the Core Rulebook and Bestiary are set up to work together as a package. The Core Rulebook assumes you have knowledge of the Bestiary (for example, the CRB introduces summoning and calling spells, but you can't use them without looking up the stats for the creatures you are summoning in the Bestiary). The Bestiary likewise assumes knowledge of the Core Rulebook. In some sense it is better to think of the CRB+Bestiary as one book that was published in two volumes because putting them together would make it too big to print.

I'd actually suggest that you avoid the Strategy Guide. A lot of the information in it is either misleading or not explained as well as in the Core Rulebook. The basic concepts are explained better in the Beginner's Box, and what wasn't in the Beginner's Box is explained best in the Core Rulebook. If you got through the BB and CRB, you don't need the strategy guide.

The Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Magic, and Ultimate Combat should be read in that order, as each one makes significant references to the previous one (and they all reference the Core Rulebook and Bestiary).

After that, you can go in pretty much any order. The Gamemastery Guide was actually released between the Bestiary and Advanced Player's Guide, but the GMG is rarely referenced by later books, making it almost completely optional. Ultimate Campaign is my personal favorite thing Paizo has put out, and can be read any time after the Advanced Player's Guide->UMagic->UCombat trilogy. I should warn you, though, that Ultimate Campaign seems to have gotten a polarizing reaction from the fan base (some people, like me, really like it, while some die-hard Paizo fans hate it for one reason or another).

[Cyrad]

Start with the beginner box stuff first. Much of the core rulebook assumes you played D&D 3.5e.

[Anguish]

Bakamonoda wrote:

I assume the core rulebook is a good place to start and things with 2 in the name come after the first version, but outside of that...

I'm going to suggest something a little different...

I'd say start by downloading the first Hell's Rebels book. That will give you a decent feel for what a Pathfinder adventure looks like. You'll see the style, and how challenges are presented. You won't know how combats are run, but you'll have a good idea what abilities low-level characters are expected to have.

THEN you can take a look at either the beginner box or the Core Rulebook. If you've played D&D 3.5e or even 4th, you can probably skip the box. If you're new to tabletop RPG, the beginner box will get you up to speed on the basics.

Know that a bunch of rules are removed from the box. It's basically like a low-resolution version of the game. You get the fundamentals of what the heart of the game is, but less detail. Core is... huge.