Almost all tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPG) have a unique vocabulary, mechanics, rules, and statistics. Pathfinder is very similar to the 3.5 edition of Dungeons and Dragons. This may not be helpful reference to those who have never played a TTRPG, but hang in there.
These are my reference notes for constructing a Play by Post (PBP) Pathfinder Game (Campaign)
Player Characters
Players are you (hopefully), who run a character. It's good to keep the distinction between yourself and the character's persona. You may shy and brilliant, your character may be loud and boisterous and a bit dim. He may be heroic, noble, or cunning and ruthless. Play by post (PBP) can make this a bit easier to manifest as you can pause and then write out what you think your character would do and how they would act, which may be wildly different from what you would do when faced with peril. Playing a character you are an actor and a writer.
Common Terms and Concepts
Games like Pathfinder use ability scores or "stats' as some games call them are used to assign a value to the character. Pathfinder has six: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
Combat: Turns, Rounds, and Actions - during the game the player character may and will enter into combat, contesting with villains, monsters, and perhaps even the environment. Combat is divided into rounds which represent about six (6) seconds of time. Think about what you could do in six seconds: throw a punch or two, dash across a room, gulp from a flask - you probably couldn't recite the Gettysburg address though! Each participant in that combat round has a turn, in which they can perform an actions or a series of actions. There are categories of actions, move-actions, free-actions, standard-actions (casting spells or fighting) and even full-round actions. Well come back to that later but the idea to retain is that every thing your character does takes some time, and you can do a lot of cool stuff in a turn, but you cant do ALL THE COOL STUFF in one round.
Character Class:
Think about heroic archetypes - Conan, Robin Hood, Merlin or Gandalf, broadly Pathfinder has classes to play characters who excel at physical combat, casting spells, burglary and stealth, offers some variations and then has sort of in between classes. Each player will choose a class for his his character and adjust the ability scores (stats) to match the class. Looking at the names you can probably imagine what each class might excel at: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk ("I know Kung-Fu"), Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Wizard. These are the base classes of a Pathfinder game, and allow for substantial variation in characters.
A party is a group of player characters - who hopefully excel at complimentary skills. Games and campaigns are not only about combat! Non-combat skills can be vital for getting information, getting a discount by persuasion or by pilfering, and an almost unlimited range of possible interactions with the people and creatures your character will meet in your adventures.
Thoughts on Where to Begin
I've been floating some ideas past @ecoinstant who is chomping at the bit to play a "Weird Wizard" which is a bit of a magician with a musical bent. I think simpler may be better, Eco - thinks we should jump in a possible character creation contest. From having run dozens in campaign with dozens of different rulesets, there is no perfect, there will be mistakes, and every group of players is different. I'm some what inclined to jump in and learn by doing.
How much interest is there in playing an RPG by posts here on Hive? The good thing at starting at the beginning is you don't have to be a roleplaying game expert - but you should have an hour or two a week and occasionally more to create a character, and then choose and describe your characters actions by posting.
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