New GM about to run campaign for non tabletop-background friends: any advice?

[Basarin]

Newcomer here! My friends and I have been wanting to actually try a pen and paper campaign. Originally it was going to be 5ed, but my local Barnes and Noble had the 2e Beginner Box, so tomorrow I'm about to give it a try with what looks like a three player party who want to make their own characters rather than use the premade ones. Excited to try it, but was just wondering if anyone here has any advice for a first time GM who's also never played PF2e before.

Conditions: I'm someone who's never really had the chance to play tabletop despite always wanting to until recently. At first it was boardgames (See: Battlestar Galactica and its expansions, Lords of Waterdeep, Sentinels of the Multiverse, etc) and tentatively pen and paper RPGs (Mekton Zeta, about a six session campaign of 5ed, and PF1e though I didn't have a great experience from the GM running it). Otherwise the most experience I've had with Pathfinder was the 1e rules via the Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous games (which I still need to actually finish either of at this point).

Somehow, I also became the 'rules guy' of my friend group. Anytime there's an uncertainty of the rules, they just shove the manual and say 'help.' Being GM was just a logical conclusion of that, I guess ^_^;

Preparations: Having never played Pathfinder, I've binge watched a lot of videos on youtube (such as Nonat1s and How It's Played). But I also just spent the last two hours reading through the box's Player Handbook and having a go at character creation myself, which then led into a binge read through the whole book. Fun fact: at first I just skimmed the book and didn't pick up much from it, but when I was actually invested in the whole process of character creation and then how my dwarf cleric might actually function if I got to be a player (one day...one day...), it made a lot more sense. I'm sure I'm going to miss a few rules here and there come go-time, but I feel a little better about how the rules are supposed to function.

My question to you all is: any general advice for players who have never played a tabletop RPG in their lives? I'm hoping to turn my friends into pen and paper fans and try out more Pathfinder and other RPG rulebooks in the future, and I'll happily take any advice you all offer. Thank you!

(And also a general rules question. I read on the Fighter's Sudden Strike rule that they can basically use their movement action twice, and then attack someone if they manage to get adjacent to them. Is that attack a free action, or are they spending their last remaining action to make that attack?)

[Perpdepog]

The big piece of advice I can think of is mostly to all be patient with and forgive yourselves for any rules issues that do come up. With everyone being so new things are almost certainly going to be kind of herky jerky, and that's totally fine as long as everybody's having a good time.
For something specifically mechanical I'd suggest you tell your players to try thinking as much like a team as possible. Some games, 1E, 3.5 before it, maaaaaaaybe 5E give you the ability to play the big-darn hero if you want and your build is correct, but 2E really relies on teamwork to make the dream work, so to speak. (Honestly thinking like a team is good for roleplay, too; cooperative rather than competitive storytelling and all that.)

As to your question about Sudden Charge, they're not really making a Free Action or taking an action. The character spends two of their three actions as a two-action activity, which then becomes Sudden Charge. They would have one more action afterward.
A lot of class feats, especially martial class feats, are like that. They let you squeeze more more effects out of your actions, like trading 2 actions for 3 actions' worth of benefit, or they'll let you do a couple specific actions together without their associated cost, or let you do an action at a different time.

[breithauptclan]

The first and most important thing to remember is that having fun is more important than following the rules.

The next thing to know is that the game is fairly forgiving for being off by a bit on the math. Also, it is really hard to create a character that doesn't work. The difference between a character made by a powergaming rules expert and a noob picking things because they sound cool and thematic - is pretty small.

Basarin wrote:

I read on the Fighter's Sudden Strike rule that they can basically use their movement action twice, and then attack someone if they manage to get adjacent to them. Is that attack a free action, or are they spending their last remaining action to make that attack?

For this specific question: Subordinate actions.

Some complex things - such as Flurry of Blows, Sudden Charge, Twin Takedown, and a bunch of other named actions have what are called Subordinate Actions. The complex action is created from smaller standard actions. Such as Sudden Charge that is two Stride actions and a Strike action.

When you have a complex action, you only pay the complex action's action cost. Sudden Charge costs the player two of their actions for the round. The Subordinate Actions are all free - their cost is paid for by the complex outer action.

So when a character uses Sudden Charge, they pay two actions. Then they take up to two Stride Actions and a Strike action as Subordinate Actions. After that, they still have one action left for the turn that they can spend on anything else that they want to do and can afford with one action.

[Basarin]

Much appreciated! I'm focusing today on walking them through character creation and setting expectations for the campaign ahead (with maybe the initial encounter of the box set if we still have time afterwards). Hopefully it goes well!

I'm also thankful that the system is more forgiving from what I've seen. I personally lean more towards what I think is cool or trying to play out a specific idea rather than what's necessarily efficient in these games, and I have a feeling my players are going to do the same.

And thanks for clarifying that bit on Sudden Strike and other multi-action abilities that work like that. That was going to drive me nuts today if I walked in not knowing that one.