#copperdice

On one hand, I love the idea of writing a novel, or at least a series of short stories. I want to share my stories with loads of people, and have plenty of creative freedom to just make up the rules of my worlds apart from any given system, explore characters in neat, thought out ways.

On the other, it's hard to beat in person atorytelling, and honestly I love playing games with friends. Being a game master for a TTRPG is basically made for me... but then I have to mechanically define all the interactions, and once the story is told, it's just in the minds of my players. Worse still, it's easiest (not best) to make everything conform to an existing game system.

MUST HAVE:

Nothing. All the rules are available for free here. Pazio knows about this site and actively helps them with it. You don't have to buy anything.

STARTER BOOKS:

Player Core Monster Core GM Core

These are all the books that have your basic character options, enough beasties to run just about any campaign you would want to level cap. The GM core is actually good! If you are a GM, I actually recommend not skipping out on it if you can manage. It's the most skippable of the core books, but I still say get it if you can.

MORE OPTIONS:

Player Core 2 (when it releases) Howl of the Wild Rage of Elements

These are all books using the "remastered" ruleset, and work great as is. Player Core 2 is more generic, while the other two have a theme, adding a little bit to everywhere you could want in the game.

OLDER BUT JUST AS GOOD:

Guns and Gears Dark Archive Book of the Dead Secrets of Magic Treasure Vault

These books are REALLY GOOD supplements... with a tiny caveat. Due to some shakeups in the industry, Paizo had to change some of the language they were using in their books. These books use slightly older language, but are trivial to use still - most of the changes are just renames to avoid legal issues. If you need help, this guide explains it all.

NOT NEEDED:

Anything with the words "Lost Omens" in the title - these are always less setting agnostic, and add content to fit Paizo's canon world and story. Core Rulebook - outdated by player, monster, and GM cores. Advanced Player's Guide - outdated by Player Core 2

I really was hopeful we could get rid of "Spell Slots" for good, they really don't fit the genre most the rest of the game seems to be going for. Really feels like we are just hanging on to a mechanic because 5e has it and 4e didn't go so well.