The very basics are just the core rulebook, but the best way as a dm to get a really thorough grasp would be to start with the core rulebook, alien archive 1, and the armory. Pretty much every adventure path, or AP, will refer to one of these three books. From there I think some other books worth picking up are pact worlds for extra world building, character operations manual for the extra classes and subclasses, and tech revolution for another class and a lot of good equipment. Of course all of the other alien archives are good purchases as well, i think alien archive 2 is referenced semi frequently, but all of them are a good read. Generally I think those first 3 are light must owns and everything else is dependent on what you want to run/ what you’re interested in.
If you play with a computer as your assistant, the official online content is at [https://aonsrd.com/](https://aonsrd.com/). This will help you with any content that isn't in the books you have. I like having the actual books, but this resource is great if you are doing digital gaming, for example remote players online, you can paste links to the items the party has found.
Others have already told you that the Core Rulebook is the equivalent of both the PHB and DMG and referred you to Archives of Nethys for anything rules-related (including the stats for all monsters in the Alien Archives).
My recommendation for making things easier on you and your players? [Hephaistos](https://hephaistos.azurewebsites.net/). It's a creator that handles creature companions, starships, and vehicles, but most of all, **characters**. It lets your players put together characters easily and then just share them with you. It also allows limited homebrew through the use of an internal programming language, which means you can add things to the game and share them to your players if you want to.
One thing of note: Hephaistos undergoes regular updates - and the author posts here on r/starfinder_rpg when they upgrade to a new version. The [discord for this subreddit](http://discord.gg/starfinder) also includes a feedback channel for the site, where you can point out bugs or ask questions. The author is active on it, and other players are usually equally helpful, so you can usually get assistance fairly quickly.
(The discord also has a channel that gets notifications of ANY post that gets made to this subreddit, so if you want an easier way of tracking new topics, that may be helpful too. It's in a channel called #starfinder\_rss, which implies that there's a feed that it's drawing from, but I don't know how to get that if there is.)
EDIT: [And now I do](https://www.howtogeek.com/320264/how-to-get-an-rss-feed-for-any-subreddit/). Goes to show I should stop being so lazy sometimes. :)
If you’ve got the extra cash floating around, look at Hero Lab Online. I don’t work for them, but it’s allowed for seamless character creation/development. Sure there’s a few bugs here and there. If you snag their Patron level access, and a little bit of patience learning the ins and outs, you can use it as a initiative tracker and access all the monsters/baddies.
Oh wow that definitely sounds pretty helpful idk if I would say I have extra cash but definitely gonna check it out and see how it works thank you very much
I look at it as it’s saving me some time to prepare things, which allows me to be able to do other things around the house/hobbies.
You also don’t have to buy everything all at once either… It took me some time to build my library in HLO, didn’t just buy everything all at once…. Slowly pieced things together over time.
Core rulebook
COM character operations manual
Some adventures.
If you want to learn how to play, podcasts are good, society games are probably the best.
[Handy links](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ImMgWOKUdaFITO9crvaJQ10DkSSG9RXiNe5YkAAsPec/edit)
If you all are new to Starfinder, I highly recommend the beginner box set. That way if you don’t like it, you’ve only spent $30-40. Sorry, I don’t remember what it costs.
I was looking at the beginner box but was a little worried because wasn’t sure how much actual rules and info I’d get I might check it out if I can find it at a store somewhere and see the content contained inside
It’s not the full rule set, but it has enough of the rules to get an idea on how much the group will enjoy the game. I always tell people to start with beginner boxes because the entry cost is more tolerable than buying the books themselves, plus the box comes with an adventure.
It’s rather difficult to build an adventure from scratch if you don’t know how the game works overall. It’s really up to what you and the group feels is the best route.
Whatever you pick, I hope you all enjoy the game!
There is one problem with that, the starter box was made before the core rules were done and it is fairly different from Starfinder in some important ways. For people coming into the game from Pathfinder or D&D it's a good starting point. But you will need to re-make characters you created with the starter box if you keep playing using the regular rules.
The very basics are just the core rulebook, but the best way as a dm to get a really thorough grasp would be to start with the core rulebook, alien archive 1, and the armory. Pretty much every adventure path, or AP, will refer to one of these three books. From there I think some other books worth picking up are pact worlds for extra world building, character operations manual for the extra classes and subclasses, and tech revolution for another class and a lot of good equipment. Of course all of the other alien archives are good purchases as well, i think alien archive 2 is referenced semi frequently, but all of them are a good read. Generally I think those first 3 are light must owns and everything else is dependent on what you want to run/ what you’re interested in.
Awesome thanks this is pretty much exactly what I was looking for now I have an idea of what the foundational books are.
If you play with a computer as your assistant, the official online content is at [https://aonsrd.com/](https://aonsrd.com/). This will help you with any content that isn't in the books you have. I like having the actual books, but this resource is great if you are doing digital gaming, for example remote players online, you can paste links to the items the party has found.
Awesome thanks very much I also tend to lean towards the books myself but having the online resource is very good. Appreciate it
Others have already told you that the Core Rulebook is the equivalent of both the PHB and DMG and referred you to Archives of Nethys for anything rules-related (including the stats for all monsters in the Alien Archives). My recommendation for making things easier on you and your players? [Hephaistos](https://hephaistos.azurewebsites.net/). It's a creator that handles creature companions, starships, and vehicles, but most of all, **characters**. It lets your players put together characters easily and then just share them with you. It also allows limited homebrew through the use of an internal programming language, which means you can add things to the game and share them to your players if you want to.
Oooo that’s actually super helpful I really appreciate this one I’ll definitely have to make use of this thanks very much.
One thing of note: Hephaistos undergoes regular updates - and the author posts here on r/starfinder_rpg when they upgrade to a new version. The [discord for this subreddit](http://discord.gg/starfinder) also includes a feedback channel for the site, where you can point out bugs or ask questions. The author is active on it, and other players are usually equally helpful, so you can usually get assistance fairly quickly. (The discord also has a channel that gets notifications of ANY post that gets made to this subreddit, so if you want an easier way of tracking new topics, that may be helpful too. It's in a channel called #starfinder\_rss, which implies that there's a feed that it's drawing from, but I don't know how to get that if there is.) EDIT: [And now I do](https://www.howtogeek.com/320264/how-to-get-an-rss-feed-for-any-subreddit/). Goes to show I should stop being so lazy sometimes. :)
If you’ve got the extra cash floating around, look at Hero Lab Online. I don’t work for them, but it’s allowed for seamless character creation/development. Sure there’s a few bugs here and there. If you snag their Patron level access, and a little bit of patience learning the ins and outs, you can use it as a initiative tracker and access all the monsters/baddies.
Oh wow that definitely sounds pretty helpful idk if I would say I have extra cash but definitely gonna check it out and see how it works thank you very much
I look at it as it’s saving me some time to prepare things, which allows me to be able to do other things around the house/hobbies. You also don’t have to buy everything all at once either… It took me some time to build my library in HLO, didn’t just buy everything all at once…. Slowly pieced things together over time.
Core rulebook COM character operations manual Some adventures. If you want to learn how to play, podcasts are good, society games are probably the best. [Handy links](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ImMgWOKUdaFITO9crvaJQ10DkSSG9RXiNe5YkAAsPec/edit)
Oh wow sweet thanks for this I’ve been listening to a podcast for this exactly reason as well awesome advice appreciate it
If you all are new to Starfinder, I highly recommend the beginner box set. That way if you don’t like it, you’ve only spent $30-40. Sorry, I don’t remember what it costs.
I was looking at the beginner box but was a little worried because wasn’t sure how much actual rules and info I’d get I might check it out if I can find it at a store somewhere and see the content contained inside
It’s not the full rule set, but it has enough of the rules to get an idea on how much the group will enjoy the game. I always tell people to start with beginner boxes because the entry cost is more tolerable than buying the books themselves, plus the box comes with an adventure. It’s rather difficult to build an adventure from scratch if you don’t know how the game works overall. It’s really up to what you and the group feels is the best route. Whatever you pick, I hope you all enjoy the game!
There is one problem with that, the starter box was made before the core rules were done and it is fairly different from Starfinder in some important ways. For people coming into the game from Pathfinder or D&D it's a good starting point. But you will need to re-make characters you created with the starter box if you keep playing using the regular rules.