New GM, looking for "essentials" reference.

[HauntedFolly]

Hi, I'm new to GMing and I'm trying to find a reference of both core game concepts and world lore that GMs in the community would consider the essential foundation of knowledge for a GM to know.
Stuff that would be important most of the time.
Things like how to quickly throw together an NPC's stats if I don't have any pre-made, or what some of the most notable (in-world) locations and events are. The type that most people in the setting would find as common knowledge.

Pre-made reference materials or lists would be appreciated, but I'm also fine with book recommendations and page numbers of important information.

Thanks in advance!

[The Raven Black]

For the setting, I would say the Lost Omens World Guide book.

For rules, Archives of Nethys (AoN) is the free official website with all the rules.

Key parts that come to my mind (I likely forget many) :

Encounters budget
Creating NPCs/Monsters
Hazards
Level-based DCs (DCs in general)
All the creatures stats in AoN
The list of Conditions
Description of deities and especially their anathema

[The Raven Black]

Note that a new Remastered version of PF2 will come soon with some significant changes (like a big list of errata and much renaming and some cool new things). And the Remaster Core Player book will include a PC-level description of the setting IIRC.

[Dancing Wind]

As The Raven Black said, the new Pathfinder guide for gamemasters will be available on November 15, either as a PDF for $20, or in hardcover.
GM Core

Although all the information is available for free on Archives of Nethys, I personally find it much easier to understand ideas and concepts when I read through them as a whole chapter, rather than bits and pieces on separate web pages.

Same goes for the new Player Core rulebook, also available on November 15.
Player Core

Those two books will answer almost all of the questions you asked. The Player Core will have a basic overview of the setting, and if you need more details, grab the Lost Omens World Guide.

[HauntedFolly]

The Raven Black wrote:

Note that a new Remastered version of PF2 will come soon with some significant changes (like a big list of errata and much renaming and some cool new things). And the Remaster Core Player book will include a PC-level description of the setting IIRC.

Dancing Wind wrote:

As The Raven Black said, the new Pathfinder guide for gamemasters will be available on November 15, either as a PDF for $20, or in hardcover.

GM Core

Although all the information is available for free on Archives of Nethys, I personally find it much easier to understand ideas and concepts when I read through them as a whole chapter, rather than bits and pieces on separate web pages.

Same goes for the new Player Core rulebook, also available on November 15.
Player Core

Those two books will answer almost all of the questions you asked. The Player Core will have a basic overview of the setting, and if you need more details, grab the Lost Omens World Guide.

Thank you both! I actually own the core rulebook on Demiplane, so I should get the Player Core for free when it releases, if I understand that right. I'll need to buy the GM Core and the World Guide next.

I made the mistake of buying the Lost Omens Travel Guide. While it's neat, I was disappointed with the actual amount of usable information in it.
Still cool to have in my collection, though.

[Dancing Wind]

I would double check with Demiplane.

As far as I know, Player Core is an entirely new product, and owning any other product will not give you a free copy, either in hardback or in PDF.

The current Core Rulebook is not at all the same as Player Core, which is the remastered ruleset. That said, the changes to the current ruleset are primarily clarifications, errata, and changes required by shifting from the Open Gaming License (OGL) to the Open RPG Creative (ORC) license.

If you need to space out your purchases, you might wait to take a look at Player Core when it comes out, and see if the changes justify buying it right away.

[breithauptclan]

Dancing Wind wrote:

The current Core Rulebook is not at all the same as Player Core, which is the remastered ruleset.

I think that is a bit of hyperbole. The Remastered rules are mostly equivalent to the current rules. The conversion document was only a couple of pages as far as rules and terminology changes. The rest of the space on that was new spells, items, and heritage options.

But yes, the new Remastered books are considered separate from the existing books as far as getting new versions of pdfs and such.

[HauntedFolly]

There was a whole page I looked at a while back about the remaster program.

https://resources.demiplane.com/nexus/pathfinder/general/remaster-program

I'm just not certain if I'll get it, as I already owned the rulebook before this went up. So I'm not sure if I need to do anything extra, or if it will automatically be added to my account when it releases.

[Tactical Drongo]

Pf2.tools has a nice collection of stuff to help Players and gms
Among other things a Tool to make the process Of building custom Monsters easier

[Ascalaphus]

Right now we have the Core Rulebook (CRB), and the Gamemaster Guide (GMG). The CRB actually covers a lot of GM-relevant material like how to build encounters. But the GMG goes further into how to build monsters/NPCs.

In the remaster, some material from the CRB is gonna be moved together with the material from the GMG so that the new Player Core is really player-facing, and the GM core is one single book that has all the GM stuff in it.

So the total topics covered don't wildly change, but they're split differently across two books.

[HauntedFolly]

I really appreciate all the help. Thank you. :D