Pathfinder 2e Roleplaying Game

Introduction

Pathfinder Core Rulebook (Second Edition), page 7

Chapter 1: Introduction

Pathfinder is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) where you and a group of friends gather to tell a tale of brave heroes and cunning villains in a world filled with terrifying monsters and amazing treasures. More importantly, Pathfinder is a game where your character’s choices determine how the story unfolds.

Pathfinder adventures take place in the Age of Lost Omens, a perilous fantasy world rife with ancient empires; sprawling city-states; and countless tombs, dungeons, and monster lairs packed with plunder. A Pathfinder character’s adventures might take them to forsaken underwater ruins, haunted gothic crypts, or magical universities in jungle cities. A world of endless adventure awaits!

In this section

  • What Is a Roleplaying Game? A roleplaying game is an interactive story where one player, the Game Master (GM), sets the scene and presents challenges, while other players take the roles of player characters (PCs) and attempt to overcome those…
  • Basics of Play Before creating your first character or adventure, you should understand a number of basic concepts used in the game.
  • Playing the Game In a Pathfinder game, three modes of play determine the pacing of each scene in the story.
  • Example of Play The following example is presented to give you a better idea of how the game of Pathfinder is played. In this adventure, Erik is the GM.
  • Using This Book While this chapter is here to teach you the basics of Pathfinder, the rest of this rulebook serves as a reference manual during play, and it is organized to make finding the rule you need as easy as possible.
  • Format of Rules Elements Throughout this rulebook, you will see formatting standards that might look a bit unusual at first. Specifically, the game’s rules are set apart in this text using specialized capitalization and italicization.
  • Character Creation Unless you’re the GM, the first thing you need to do when playing Pathfinder is create your character.
  • Leveling Up The world of Pathfinder is a dangerous place, and your character will face terrifying beasts and deadly traps on their journey into legend.