This app was mentioned in 32 comments, with an average of 2.19 upvotes
Can't believe nobody's mentioned Masterwork Tools. It's free and has everything on the PRD. With it you can search the PRD and make collections of bookmarks. I have collections for each of my characters, one for alchemical items, and another for often referenced rulies. It's a great app.
Besides the stuff other people are saying (using an online reference or something similar - I use an android app) I would suggest running a published module or adventure path. There are threads for most of them on Paizo's site so you can see what other GMs have done and you will have a limited set of creatures to worry about.
Explain to him that:
Paizo has multiple official product lines, including Core Rules, Player Companions, Campaign Setting, and even the modules and adventure paths. All of them are official content, not homebrew at all. Masterwork Tools only has some content from the Core Rules product line.
Masterwork Tools was made by scraping the old Pathfinder SRD website (see the store page). So, technically, Masterwork Tools violates his "No Internet" rule.
Paizo has announced multiple times that Archives of Nethys is the official online source for the rules. Heck, they even gave AoN early access to 2E material.
I don't GM much, but I can recommend this phone/tablet app (Masterwork Tools). It doesn't include all the Paizo books, but it includes a lot of them; you can type the name of a spell in the search box and it gives you a full writeup of the spell. It's a bit like using d20pfsrd, but without having to wait for the page to load (and it doesn't include quite everything).
As for campaign-specific stuff, notecards is probably the best way to go. One notecard per notable NPC or quest hook.
Also, read ahead in the adventure path, and don't be afraid to nudge them using things not in the book - make a few notes for yourself about what's going on in the background, and glance at them occasionally.
I mainly use an Android app called Masterwork Tools. It doesn't have all the books, but it's nonetheless a super helpful reference - plus, I don't have to wait for pages to load.
If you got an android device, use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference it has most content I rarely need to switch to google, and If I do. I'll just google "PFSRD spell I'm looking for"
I'd suggest starting simple. A full on character creator is going to be tough, but a reference app such as you see in other systems would not only be useful, but feasible given the fact that Eclipse Phase is released with a Creative Commons license.
> I get most knowledge from the SRD, but at the table leafing through a book is usually quicker
You say that, but I swear by this app for quick, on-the-fly referencing
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference&hl=en
And if you want almost all that content put concisely into an app (only on android unfortunately) give this app a try. The search feature is so useful.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference
I think some reviews of Pathfinder Pocket Edition do say that some of the tables and charts are harder to read. Though since Paizo makes 1e PDFs free to download and there's also the open reference app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference) you could theoretically have the pocket edition CRB and use the PDFs and use the apps and/or PDFs to check tables and stuff
Not to mention in the case of some OGL games like Pathfinder 1e some of the PDFs are available for free, or you can use apps like this one, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference
It would be nice if we could get something like the Pathfinder Open Reference Android app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference). I remember before we switched to 5e we used that, as well as the Pathbuilder app, a lot.
Use THIS.
It won't track your spells per day, but you can apply filters to the lists, and you can make different categories of bookmarks, in case you have multiple characters, or a large spellbook.
Do you mean this? Because the Pathfinder Open Reference app is from Masterwork Tools.
The Psychic in my group has been using this one. Currently the table for Spells Known is off as it shifted all the spell levels over to the left, because the formatter/creator of the table on the app didn't include 0 level spells. Over the past year and a half its been consistently wrong on a number of things.
You might want to try pinging the guy who makes Masterwork Tool for Android. He's either found an API to query Paizo's PRD or has come up with a script that queries it and pulls the information out of it. So he might be able to point you in the right direction.
Ask your players to keep their devices down. our table ususally has laptops and phones out, but only for RPG needs. a great app ive used for android is Pathfinder open reference. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference&hl=en) and its great for looking up anything in game you could need.
If they have herolab, let them use it as long as they need it to function. my wife just doesn't get gaming, and so hero lab actually makes her excited to play because all of her bonuses to rolls and detailed spell descriptions are there, and she wont forget to use an ability she has if she sees it there without leafing through pages of abilities each round.
If they get distracted, then tell them that if they are distracted during gameplay, that you will give them negatives to rolls at your discretion and it could end up killing them if they are distracted enough.
These are awesome free Android apps:
Masterwork Tools: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference
Spell Book: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.be.jonsson.pathfinder.compendium
If you're using an android telephone or tablet you also might wanna check out Pathfinder Open Reference
Masterworks tools works great(if you're on an android device) for Rules Reference at a glance. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference
Syrinscape: for Sound Effects https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ixc.Syrinscape
d20pfsrd.com is another treasure trove, but alas no app.
Combat Manager is nice, as other said.
Hero Labs is another brilliant tool Yes, you can make your characters or monsters here. But you can also use them "in play" for effects, buffs, debuffs, hp loss, and a ton of other things. http://www.wolflair.com/legacy/index.php?context=hero_lab&page=pathfinder_roleplaying_game
Hope these help.
I've got a long history of doing open source things for the gaming community. In roughly 2002 or so I wrote an initiative tracker called "Initiative" that got merged into an open source character creator PCGen. I worked on that for about 5 years, including the years we got ennies (2005 and 2004 if I recall).
I took a long period off, and then in about 2011 I wrote an open source android app for pathfinder: Pathfinder Open Reference which now has something like 300k installs.
I got a 3d printer in 2014, right around the same time Dwarven Forge released their first kickstarter. When I received the tiles I knew I wanted to make additional pieces, so I started to teach myself 3d modeling.
Point of all of this is that as a person who makes things for the gaming community, the greatest feeling is to have people using your stuff, and the easiest way to get a lot of people to use it is to make it free. There are a lot of other benefits to free. It does give you credibility, because people know you care about the community. It also makes doing this stuff a fair bit easier, because people in the community are willing to help out here and there, answering questions, publishing remixes and such.
I have a full time job and two kids. I couldn't manage a business doing this stuff in the free time I have. I would need to manage a store, do a bunch of tax stuff, advertise, etc. Also because people are paying for your products, they expect a level of support that I just can't offer (for example, I have meetings and stuff during the day, so if someone needed support, they could be waiting hours). There's no way I can swing all that.
Patreon is a good middle ground. People who appreciate me can support me, and I really appreciate them for it, it makes the many hours I put into the models much easier to justify, and it means the costs that I incur for doing this like server costs, filament, paint, printer parts, etc are covered.
By making it open source, I can focus on the part I really enjoy, the creation.
As for if I have any other models for sale: the pace I'm producing stuff for a release once a week, with modeling, printing, painting, photoing and then publishing, OpenForge consumes a pretty significant chunk of my free time, so there really isn't bandwidth left to make other models that are for sale. A release every week means that I don't have much margin for error. Many designs take hours and hours to print, so I have to have something ready generally by EoD Sunday if there's any chance I'll get it released later that week.
And of course:
Pathfinder: The community's reaction to 4th edition. Pathfinder is easiest to get into because Paizo publishes all the rules for free on their website. Pathfinder is basically 3.5 but simplified a little bit.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/
Was there a rule in an obscure book you didn't know about? Well, double check the rule on the website.
The physical copies of books are still very useful for pictures, artwork, and storylines. All the "stories" of Pathfinder are copyrighted, but all of the rules are available free online. Furthermore, Paizo allows websites to copy the rules. So you've got...
The key difference in choosing Pathfinder vs 5th edition for my recent run is because a ton of my friends don't own the books. But the online references to Pathfinder are complete.
EDIT: It should be noted that 3rd edition and 3.5 edition have similar free online references all over the place. But frankly, Pathfinder is just better than 3.5 (fewer rules, simpler advanced mechanics like "grapple").
As for as Paizo, their business plan really revolves around the adventure paths they publish. They probably don't make any money on the rulebooks (although they're lovely books)... Paizo makes money on storylines and worlds like [Rise of the Runelords(http://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Adventure-Path-Runelords-Anniversary/dp/1601254369).
So the very lazy DM can just grab an adventure path and start leading everyone else down the path. Or you know, you can make up your own story as you go along. Pathfinder has a lot of choice and 3rd party support.
5th edition is "too new" for this sort of stuff. But if 5th edition gets some community support, it looks like a good baseline. But my group and I will continue to use Pathfinder for the years to come.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference
This app is my go to
Pretty sure it's this one. I have it and it's great!! So useful to be able to search what you need.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference
Sounds like your GM got it under control. : ]
For your app question. I use Pathfinder Open Reference and Spellz for android and PCgen for character generation on the computer. These are mostly useful for the full version of the pathfinder rules.
Pathfinder is a slooow game. Instead of rolling their dice, I would use some accesories that could speed the game up. For instance, you can use these free initiative cards that, at the same time are reduced character sheets.
Also, you can use this spell card generator to ease the spell casting during combat.
Also, you can use this Android app, that is quite handy when you need to search the books for information.
And finally, if you're using minis, consider not using them. In my opinion they are evil (and they slow the game) .
The link you provided doesn't work for me. To download the latest version I inserted this link
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference
in evozi's apk downloader
I'm just curious, between d20pfsrd, Archives of Nethys, Masterwork Tools, and the pathfinder wiki/wikia almost all the rules (probably all the rules) are available for free online, is there a reason those aren't sufficient to get started?
edit: If you have a decent phone or tablet you can also download free apps.
For a great app, I recommend
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference&hl=en
Paizo is in the middle of updating Pathfinder to 2nd edition. You should download the play test for 2nd if you want to stay on the pulse of Pathfinder rules. If you want to check out the current rules download the Masterwork Tools on the play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.evilsoft.pathfinder.reference