Glossary

Definitions

A-H

Additional Resources

This has been renamed Character Options.

Adventure

Adventures collectively refer to One-Shots, Starfinder Society scenarios, standalone Starfinder Adventures, and sanctioned Adventure Paths.

Average Party Level (APL)

APL represents the average level of all PCs participating in the adventure; this number determines which level range to use when playing a scenario. See GM Basics for details on calculating and applying APL.

Boon

A boon is an in-game reward other than XP, credits, Fame, or standard item access. Boons appear on Chronicle Sheets, typically earned as part of an adventure or when attending conventions or other special events.

Character

An individual with in-game agency; a participant in the world of the game. See Player Character, Non-Player Character.

Character Options

The Character Options page lists what classes, feats, items, spells, and other character options are legal from books published by Paizo, Inc. To use such an option, you must have a legal source in which it appears, as well as a copy of the current version of the Character Options list.

Character Versus Character (aka PVP)

Character-versus-character conflict occurs when one PC attempts, of his or her own volition, to harm, kill, or otherwise contribute to the injury of another PC. Player-versus-player conflict is strictly prohibited in Starfinder Society play. See Community Standards for more information.

Companion

See Pawn.

Chronicle Sheet

This is a record of adventures that a character has completed, recording XP, credits, Reputation, boons, and item access the character earned. Some Chronicle Sheets grant special rewards that are not associated with an adventure, earned for attending conventions or participating in special events. These records allow a player to play their character at any Starfinder Society event of the appropriate level anywhere in the world.

Core Sources

The Core Sources are Starfinder rulebooks which do not require ownership to use character options within them. See the Character Options page for a current list of Core Sources.

Day Job

Your PC may utilize Downtime in order to attempt a trained Profession check—often referred to as a Day Job check—to earn additional credits. See Player Basics for more information.

Downtime

After each XP-granting adventure, a PC gains a period of Downtime before their next mission, which they can use in one of three ways per adventure: crafting, a day job, or other pursuits unlocked by boons. See Player Basics for more information.

Evergreen Scenario

Another name for a repeatable scenario.

Evil Act

An evil act represents an action that, on its own or as part of a pattern, would push your character’s alignment toward evil. An individual evil act may or may not result in the acquisition of Infamy.

Exclusive

An exclusive is an adventure that requires a GM to meet certain criteria to run—typically having earned a certain number of GM novas. See also Scenario Tag, Player Basics.

Faction

The Starfinder Society is comprised of five primary factions and various minor factions. The factions that your character chooses to represent define your PC’s secondary loyalties in the campaign. See Factions in this Guide and the Starfinder Society page on paizo.com for more information on the primary factions and their goals.

Fame (retired)

Fame was a currency gained by successfully completing adventures during Seasons 1-3. It was eliminated from Organized Play as of January 1, 2022. Fame represented your character’s social currency within the Starfinder Society and was used to purchase boons and services from the Society or its various Factions.

Game Master (GM)

A GM adjudicates the rules and controls the elements of the story and galaxy that the players explore, providing a fair and fun game. In the Starfinder Society, a GM must also help players accurately fill out their paperwork and report the results of each game to the event coordinator or on the GM/Event Coordinator tab on paizo.com (My Organized Play ).

GM Novas

GM novas are a measure of how many Starfinder Society games an individual has run, ranging from 10 sessions (one nova) to over 100 sessions (four novas). GM novas grant access to exclusive content and grant a bonus on rerolls gained via boons. A fifth nova can be earned by meeting several additional criteria; see the Organized Play GM rubric for more information.

I-Q

Infamy

Infamy represents a character’s slide into evil, typically accrued by a character performing intentionally evil or suitably callous criminal actions during an adventure. The consequences of Infamy vary from limits on purchases to forced retirement of a character from the Starfinder Society.

Legal Source

A legal source is a physical copy of a book, name-watermarked PDF of the book, a printout of one or more pages from a name-watermarked PDF, or a printout of the rules from the SFRD accompanied by a proof of purchase for the product in which those rules appear. In order to use a character option from outside the Core Sources, you must own and have at the table a legal source that contains that option. See the Character Options page for more information.

Level (Adventure)

Listed on the cover of scenarios, an adventure’s Level describes which character levels the adventure is written for. Characters can only play in adventures which include their character level.

Level Range

A division of the adventure’s Level into smaller bands to facilitate scaling the adventure for different Average Party Levels. For example, a Level 1–4 adventure has level ranges 1–2 and 3–4. (Formerly subtier.)

Non-Player Character (NPC)

A character controlled by the GM rather than the players.

Nova (GM)

See GM Novas.

Nova (tag)

The Nova tag applied to an adventure means it can only be run by GMs who have earned the required number of novas (specified by the particular adventure). For the purposes of the Nova tag, Venture-Lieutenants are considered to have 1 additional Nova; Venture-Captains are considered to have 2 additional Novas.

Organized Play Manager (OPM)

The organized play manager administers organized play campaigns, including the Pathfinder Society, Starfinder Society, and Pathfinder Adventure Card Society. They are assisted in these duties by the Organized Play Associate.

Organized Play Number

Each participant in Paizo’s organized play programs is provided an organized play number. The number is often hyphenated; the first, longer number represents your player number, and the second number represents your individual character (e.g. # 123456–702 refers to player number 123456 and her second PC in Starfinder Society). This number is used when reporting completed adventures and should appear on each Chronicle Sheet and any Inventory Tracking Sheets associated with your PCs.

Pawn

A pawn is a representation of a creature during combat, typically a Paizo pawn, a miniature, or a virtual tabletop token. See Player Basics for more information.

Player Character (PC)

These are characters controlled by the players rather than the GM. PCs are the protagonists in the game's story and can directly interact with the objects, characters, and events within the adventure.

Pregenerated Character

These are premade characters of levels 1, 4, and 8 designed for quick use by players who may not have a character of their own or want to try a new character class. Some exclusive events also provide special pregenerated characters.

Quest

Quests are short adventures designed to last about 1 hour. They typically are published as a Quest Pack including four or more quests.

R-Z

Rebuilding

The process of replacing one or more of your character features as directed by campaign rules, typically without cost. The most common type of rebuilding is a 1st-level character rebuild, which you may do freely any time before playing an adventure at 2nd level or higher. See Rebuilding Your Character for more information.

Regional Venture-Coordinator

Regional venture-coordinators, under the guidance of the Organized Play Manager, supervise a large section of the world and support venture-captains and venture-lieutenants in their duties.

Replay

A player replays a scenario when she plays it more than once. Starfinder Society allows only limited forms of replay. See Player Basics for the limited replay rules.

Repeatable Scenario

A scenario with the repeatable tag. This scenario includes rules for being played more than once by a single player (but never more than once with a single character).

Reputation

Reputation represents your character’s current standing with a faction. A character can have multiple Reputation scores, each with different factions. The higher a Reputation score, the more resources are available for purchase from the associated faction. See Factions and Reputation for more information.

Sanctioned

Sanctioned material is that which has been approved for use within Starfinder Society.

Sanctioned Adventure

These are adventures for which characters can receive credit. They include Starfinder Society Scenarios as well as Starfinder Adventure Paths, Adventures, One-Shots, and Free RPG Day modules. The list of adventures sanctioned for Starfinder Society play appears on the Character Options page, where you can download each adventure’s Chronicle Sheet and special rules.

Scenario

These are adventures that typically take 4–5 hours to complete, written specifically for the Starfinder Society. Most adventures in the campaign are scenarios.

Scenario Tag

A Scenario tag is a label applied to a Starfinder Society scenario to indicate something about the contents of the scenario. See Scenario Tags under Player Basics for more information.

Season

A season is a year-long period that typically begins during summer in North America (June-August). Most seasons have a unifying theme and around 24 scenarios, typically released two per month.

Special

This is a catch-all term used to refer to exclusives and scenarios with other unusual formats.

Starfinder Reference Document (SFRD)

This is a free online version of all the rules contained within the Starfinder Core Rulebook and other RPG hardcover books, available at aonsrd.com. The SFRD is not a legal source for players to reference rules or PC building purposes except for the Core Sources (see the Character Options page). GMs can reference the SFRD as they wish for ease of preparing and running an adventure.

Subtier

Prior to Year 3, this term was used for level range.

Tag

See Scenario Tag.

Tier

For Reputation tiers, see Reputation. Scenarios prior to Year 3 use the term Tier to refer to the adventure’s Level.

Venture-Agent

Venture-agents are dedicated volunteer coordinators who direct operations at one venue.

Venture-Captain (VC) (In-Game)

Rather than travel widely, some Starfinders establish lodges where they can coordinate local agents, store regional lore, and provide a safe refuge for their colleagues. In scenarios, venture captains are often the NPCs who brief the PCs on their next mission or opportunity.

Venture-Captain (VC) (Real-World)

Named after the in-game veterans of the Starfinder Society, venture-captains are the many dedicated volunteer coordinators who oversee large geographic regions that contain a large number of players.

Venture-Lieutenant

Venture-lieutenants are dedicated volunteer coordinators who assist the venture-captains in their efforts.

Year (scenarios)

See Season.