Physical Purchase question


General Discussion


Alright, I've bought the Starfinder crb at a local game shop, is there a place to put in the isbn or something to get the pdf?


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Nope. If you want the PDF too, you will have to buy it separately. The only way to get a free PDF with your physical book is via a subscription, but it is way too late to start the Starfinder Rulebooks subscription with the Core Rulebook.


I was about to get pretty pissed off before i remembered of the existence of the srd, cheers


Also, the PDF is only an extra ten bucks (less if you wait for a sale).


Where I am from $10 is the same price for a cheese burger and fries. Instead of buying lunch for a day I'd rather buy the CRB in PDF form. I live by this reasoning.


I have nothing against the price of the pdf as a standalone but i will not pay for the same information twice. The srd solves that issue handily, i just needed some way for my players to see the rules so that we are not all trying to use the same physical copy for character creation, in-game rule lookup, in-game class feature lookup etc.

Liberty's Edge

Do be careful and check the SRD to make sure it is accurate be using it.


Yeah, the low cost of the PDF took the sting out of having to "buy twice."

It's worth it to me too have a portable version of the rules for my tablet.

Second Seekers (Jadnura)

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Are you allowed to play SFS if you don't have a physical or PDF copy and just use the SRD? Or are you limited to just home games? Just wondering as I am looking to get a group going and though I have hard copy a lot of newbies won't.

Liberty's Edge

You are required to own all resources for your characters if you play Society games. This is the same requirement as Pathfinder Society has.

Owning means the physical book for a watermarked PDF copy.

For newbies, a lot of people give wiggle room but if a player shows up for 3 straight adventures, I would start looking for a book or asking about a PDF, especially if I was the GM.

Liberty's Edge

The "you have to own it" restriction appears to only apply to non-core books, of which there is currently only one for Pathfinder and most of it is banned anyway.


Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Dustin Heaton wrote:
The "you have to own it" restriction appears to only apply to non-core books, of which there is currently only one for Pathfinder and most of it is banned anyway.

It applies to any book other than the core rule book that you are drawing from for your character.


Starfinder Charter Superscriber

On page 5 of the guide, it states: "The Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild requires all members to have the Starfinder Core Rulebook and the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide (this document)." Then, if you want to use stuff beyond the Core Rulebook, you need to own those as well.

Obviously, I would use some discretion and if a complete newbie sits at the table for the first time, I'm not going to kick them out for not owning the Core Rulebook. But if someone is playing regularly, I would expect them to own a copy.


Also worth noting that there are limited exceptions to the 'every person must own a copy of every book' rule, per the Organized Play FAQ:

"If family members, significant others, or other members of the same household living together (such as roommates) are playing at the same table, they may share the same resources instead of having duplicates of the same resource at the same table. A group of friends that always plays together at the same table fulfills the requirement, as long as there is at least one sourcebook that covers each rule for every character at the table. However, if they are playing at different tables, each of them must each supply the necessary materials to their table."

(Source: http://paizo.com/paizo/organizedplay/faq#v5748eaic9vgq)


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Smart way, use a Pad or small laptop and put the PDF's on it. This way the players and the GM/DM can look at all the books with out having to have 5 copy's of every thing on the table. the DM should have his or her own copy in book form or PDF. So they don't have to wait to use one.

Community / Forums / Starfinder / Starfinder General Discussion / Physical Purchase question All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Starfinder General Discussion