In addition to the adventures written for Starfinder Society, some other Paizo adventures have been sanctioned (approved) for Organized Play credit. Since these adventures are published for a wider audience than the Starfinder Society campaign, there is typically a downloadable sanctioning document with Chronicles and any special considerations for Organized Play.

Sanctioned Adventures

  • Starfinder Adventure Paths : Multi-volume campaigns that take dozens of game sessions to complete. Many Adventure Paths are sanctioned for use in the Starfinder Society campaign.

  • Starfinder Adventures : Stand-alone adventure books that take one or more sessions to complete. Many Adventures are sanctioned for use in the Starfinder Society campaign.

  • Starfinder Bounties : Short one-hour adventures aimed at introducing new players to the game or representing what characters do between Starfinder missions. Bounties are sanctioned for use in the Starfinder Society campaign.
    • As sanctioned adventures, all Starfinder Bounties are repeatable.
    • As sanctioned adventures, bounties do not grant Downtime.

Modes of Play

The Society rules of play are customized to work with Starfinder Scenarios and Bounties and are not necessarily applicable to other sanctioned adventures. Adventures run using normal rules are referred to as “Society Mode” in the rest of this document.

“Adventure Mode” is used for adventures not specifically designed for Society play. This mode allows the GM more freedom to adapt those adventures, including running the adventure in Starfinder using GM house rules and the ability to alter encounters and statistics found in the adventure.

Character Types

Most Adventure Mode sanctioned products can be played with any character; some products include pregens, and players are encouraged to play those characters for an optimal experience.

Any adventure that can be played with a SFS character can also be played with a SFS-sanctioned pregen. When playing an adventure using a SFS character, the Chronicle must be assigned to that character.

Story Pregens are characters released with an adventure. They often contain ties to the adventure's backstory.

Campaign Characters are characters that are designed according to the GM's house rules.

Ruleset (Mode) / Characters by product:

SFS Characters Only Story Pregens Required Story Pregens Recommended* Campaign Characters
Society Mode Scenario, Quest - - -
Adventure Mode Bounty Free RPG Day Beginner Box, One Shot Adventure, Adventure Path

*To provide the same level of experience, we strongly recommend that GMs who chose to use Campaign Characters work with their players to tie those characters into the adventure backstory.

Sanctioning Documents

Each sanctioned adventure comes with a freely downloadable sanctioning document located on the product’s description page on paizo.com. This document contains the rules for running that adventure, as well as Chronicle Sheets awarded for completion.

Read the sanctioning document carefully, as it might modify the adventure's rewards. Specific information in a particular sanctioning document always takes precedence over the general information presented in this Guide.

Unlike Starfinder Society adventures, Chronicles for sanctioned adventures are assigned at the completion of the adventure.

A group can complete an adventure when it is not sanctioned. If it later becomes sanctioned, the GM is allowed and encouraged to issue Chronicles to all interested players. These Chronicles are applied as if the group had completed the adventure on the date the Chronicle is issued. Such Chronicles must have an accurate issue date (that is, they cannot be backdated) and cannot be applied such that they retroactively affect other Chronicles.