[RPG] Summary of differences between Pathfinder Beginner Box and Core Rules

The systems have very little to do with one another. They are both trad games (as opposed to indie) and are both printed on paper. That's it. You won't be porting anything crunch-based from one game to the other (you can crib plots and characters, just not the stats).

Combat

Pathfinder has a complex D&D/d20-derived combat system with hit-avoiding armor and hit points that go up with level; everything scales sharply with level and there's huge disparity between high and low level PCs. Despite save-or-die stuff, lethality generally goes down with level because you have so many hit points.

Runequest has a skill-based combat system related to BRP, with damage-soaking armor and hit points that don't go up with level; lethality remains, especially if caught at a disadvantage, as characters progress. You never become a superhero like you do at Pathfinder level 10.

Magic

Pathfinder uses the traditional D&D "Vancian" memorize specific spells and cast them system. There's arcane/divine which don't differ all that much.

Runequest uses a spell point system and has spirit, divine, ritual, and sorcery, all of which differ.

Goals

Runequest is always going to be grittier and therefore fits investigation and low fantasy well. Too much combat will get you killed.

Pathfinder is always going to be more amped up - there are variants like E6 (never progress past 6th level!) that try to achieve the same thing but it's tuned as more of a mid-high fantasy game where heroes are low-grade superheroes. You don't have to play it as a combat focused game (I don't) but it has support for that.

I use the d20PFSRD almost exclusively because it adds a bunch of stuff that the official PRD does not. They are similar in timeliness of updates of official Paizo content, but the PFSRD also includes...

1. FAQs and clarifications. On the PFSRD, they look for FAQs and forum posts clarifying twiddly bits about the rules and put them into sidebars on the page and link them to their source. Here, see the Domains & Subdomains page as an example.

2. More content. The PRD only has content from Paizo's hardback rulebook line, but the d20PFSRD has all the softcovers as well.

3. Third party support. PFSRD contains lots of third party Pathfinder content as well, clearly labeled as such.

4. Better organization. Compare the d20PFSRD Elf page to the PRD Elf page. The PFSRD page puts actual relevant info there (random height/weight tables, etc.) while the PRD includes elven equipment and magic items, which are best put in another location. This is way more helpful for most real-play purposes.

5. Tools - The PFSRD has a bunch of random generators, databases, etc. The PRD is just text. Example: Spell Database

6. "Labs" - The PFSRD has places for normal people to put their homebrews or other related info (like Treantmonk's Lab links to his class guides). Oh, and even Hero Lab data files.

7. Better formatting and hyperlinking. The PFSRD does more subheadings and sidebars and stuff, and also takes more care to hyperlink back and forth. Compare Stealth and Stealth.

8. The one minus of the PFSRD are the prominent ads. But, somebody's gotta pay to run the site. I just wish they formatted those in better, they were tacked on later in the design and it shows.

I guess probably they make them use the PRD for Pathfinder Society play because "it's official" or whatnot, but for normal home gaming/GMing I find the PFSRD way, way more helpful and when I traverse a link to the PRD from somewhere I think "Oh, poor guy... He doesn't know about the PFSRD..."

d20PFSRD doesn't put anything that "should be paid for," only legally OGL'ed content. And I don't believe there's any advantage to Paizo to them using their PRD, they don't even have ads on it. If they were super clever they'd be mining the Web analytics on parts frequently accessed to drive clarity/organization in Pathfinder 2 but that's really tangential (and I bet the d20PFSRD guys would hand over their analytics if they asked, because everyone's nice in the Pathfinder community.)