Thinking of playing some Pathfinder 2, last played AD&D 2nd ed - what should I know?

[Algeh]

I'm headed to a small SF con next weekend (Westercon), and it looks like the filk programming and panel programming will be light enough that I can actually join some TTRPG games for a change (wish I'd thought of that in time to sign up to run something - oh well). Looks like there are several newbie-friendly Pathfinder 2 games offered, so I'll probably go for that.

I last played anything in the D&D "ecosystem" in the 90s, when I was in a long-running AD&D 2nd campaign. Otherwise, I mostly just played and ran GURPS, which was the dominant system at my particular middle and high school and I continued running things in once I escaped into the wider community, while playing in various one-shots or short adventures in whatever systems other people felt like running. Then life happened, and I haven't had a chance to play TTRPGS of any kind for probably 5-10 years now.

Anyway, that makes me the worst kind of newbie - the kind who knows a lot of stuff that's almost, but not quite, relevant to the situation at hand.

What are the biggest assumptions that are going to trip up someone coming from old-school AD&D trying to join a newbie-friendly Pathfinder game?

Also, what should I bring? I'm assuming dice, but do people still bring graph paper and such for mapping? They'll be offering pregen characters for people who are new to the system, so I assume I don't need to bring an appropriate mini or anything.

[Kurald Galain]

What are the biggest assumptions that are going to trip up someone coming from old-school AD&D trying to join a newbie-friendly Pathfinder game?
Those two games are so very much apart that I'm not sure how to answer that.


Also, what should I bring? I'm assuming dice, but do people still bring graph paper and such for mapping? They'll be offering pregen characters for people who are new to the system, so I assume I don't need to bring an appropriate mini or anything.
Dice, yes. Graph paper, no; I haven't seen mapping in any convention (or shared campaign) in the past decade. There will be pregens, but you can change the name and personality of your pregen if you want (but not the mechanics) so it may be nice to bring a miniature to make it more personal to you. The standard pregens are available online, so you can decide on one in advance, if you want.

[Eldest]

What are the biggest assumptions that are going to trip up someone coming from old-school AD&D trying to join a newbie-friendly Pathfinder game?

So the cool thing about Pathfinder is all the rules are online. (https://2e.aonprd.com/PlayersGuide.aspx) They're fairly well organized, so if you want to look up something on your sheet or an action, you can search it and it'll probably be there.

As for things I can think of that might trip you up (note I haven't played more than a tiny bit of 2e, so I could totally be wrong here):


THAC0 doesn't exist anymore, it's now just an attack bonus added onto a d20 against an armor class, where higher armor class is better.
You get three actions a turn. Moving costs an action, you can spend two or three on moving if you want to move really far. Reloading a crossbow can cost an action. Swinging your sword multiple times takes an action each time and will probably penalize the swings after the first. Some things you might do, like casting complex spells, might take multiple actions.
This is the most guesswork one, but the focus on the game has shifted from dungeoncrawling to adventuring. Mapping the dungeon and bypassing traps is less of a focus, and amassing loot and power is a side effect to adventuring rather than the reason you go out to do it? Your milage will vary, people will still play characters that are purely in it for the money or power, and I could easily be misjudging how 2e generally got played.