Best of the Chronicles?

[Mercurius]

I am not a Pathfinder player (although have the book on order) but enjoy the Golarion setting, agreeing with what someone said in this forum that it is rather similar to old school Forgotten Realms as a well-done "vanilla fantasy" setting, with enough flavor and richness to bring it to life in a manner all its own.

I own the campaign book and the Absalom supplement but am unsure where to proceed next. Searching through the Paizo catalog, I found a bunch of Chronicles supplements that spark my interest, both available now and forthcoming. Given that it is obviously a subjective question and dependent upon what I want (which is mainly reading pleasure and idea-mining), what are the best of the Chronicles? I am looking for a sales pitch--what book(s) do you like in particular and why? How do they bring the setting to life?

Thanks!

 

[TheSleepyKing]

I’ll take a shot:

My favourites so far have been two of the first: Guide to Korvosa and Guide to Darkmoon Vale. (Incidentally, I actually think the Absalom one was the weakest of all the Chronicles so far, and about the only Chronicles product I’ve been disappointed in. I suspect in part that’s because Absalom is far too big to detail in 64 pages).

Korvosa is a city guide, and you could easily move Korvosa to a homebrew world. It’s one of the most organic, realistic feeling cities I’ve ever seen detailed in an RPG. It’s also got tons of plot hooks and a host of colourful characters and plenty of unique locations to explore. I should note that it’s the setting for the second adventure path (Crimson Throne), and it does get a little trashed during the course of that adventure.

Guide to Darkmoon Vale is a kind of a mini-campaign setting, going into depth on the northern part of the nation of Andoran. Again, it’s very organic with a lot of plot hooks, including werewolf packs, faerie queens, dragon kings and a Sopranos-esque logging consortium. It’s probably best suited to low-ish level characters, and a number of Paizo’s GameMastery modules are actually set in the vale.

I’m also a big fan of The Great Beyond, which is a wonderful source of inspiration for planar, extraterrestrial and other adventures set in wacky environs.

A lot of people are also fans of the Classic X Revisited series, especially the first one (Monsters). They’re not really that Golarion-specific, though. You might want to also check out some of the Pathfinder Companion line – Taldor, Osirion and Qadira in particular. Although they’re technically in a different product line, these are very similar to the Chronicles products, detailing an area of Golarion. They’re cheaper than the Chronicles, but only half the length (32 pages instead of 64).

 

[MerrikCale]

The Guide to Darkmoon Vale is great, IMO. The flavor of the area is nice. A frontier civilzation with Lots of druids and lots and lots of werewolves. The art is terrific if that means anything to you

 

[MerrikCale]

By the way, I agree that the Revisited line is good. And get the Compainions as well. I liked Elves of Golarion and Taldor

Also, for your campaign, Gods & Magic (which details the Golarion pantheon) is a must

 

[Mercurius]

Ah, I didn't even notice the Companion line. I suppose they are similar to the Chronicles but just a shorter treatment?

So far I'm veering towards getting Korvosa, the Great Beyond, and maybe Gods and Magic. If I like them the others (Darkmoon, Darklands, Elves, etc) may come later.

 

[NiTessine]

Ah, I didn't even notice the Companion line. I suppose they are similar to the Chronicles but just a shorter treatment?

Essentially, yes. They also seem to have a bit more in the way of rules items, though not much.

There isn't a single Chronicles or Companion volume that I didn't like, but I'd single out Classic Monsters Revisited as the best of the lot. It really livens up the monsters and makes goblins and ogres more than just sword fodder again. Up there are also The Great Beyond and Gods and Magic. I'd also recommend Into the Darklands, for the local take on the Underdark, filtered through the Cthulhu Mythos and pulp fantasy and science fiction.

Of the Companions, my favourite is Cheliax: Empire of Devils, which is a pretty nifty evil empire for a player character to call home.

The Gazetteer is also pretty good, but if you've got the Campaign Setting, you won't need it.

 

[Mikaze]

Ah, I didn't even notice the Companion line. I suppose they are similar to the Chronicles but just a shorter treatment?

So far I'm veering towards getting Korvosa, the Great Beyond, and maybe Gods and Magic. If I like them the others (Darkmoon, Darklands, Elves, etc) may come later.

Think of the Companions as completely player-safe. Stuff to get them invested in the setting and such. The player's guides for the Adventure Paths actually went into this line for a while(with Second Darkness and Legacy of Fire only, before they switched to free pdf form only). The only companion you might have to be careful with is the Osirion companion, which actually does feature some stuff you might not want the players to know. It was the first of the big "country companions" so they were still working them out at the time.

As for suggestions, damn dude. That's a bit difficult.

What flavors, themes, and elements are you looking for? Without knowing, I'd lean towards:

If you're looking for frontier adventure, Guide to Darkmoon Vale. A series of modules are set there as well(the Kobold adventures and @#$%ing Carnival of Tears)

Guide to Korvosa provides a great urban sandbox, and I really think it's a stronger book than Absalom. It was written as a supplement for the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP, but most of the book is independent of that campaign path.

Classic Monsters Revisited - Most memorable goblins I've seen in a long time. Also, ogres straight out of Deliverence and The Hills Have Eyes.

Gods and Magic - A well put together pantheon, with a two-page spread for each of the 20 major gods and a lot of minor deities.

The individual Adventure Paths feature a lot of setting articles as well not reprinted elsewhere as well.

 

[Shemeska]

The only companion you might have to be careful with is the Osirion companion, which actually does feature some stuff you might not want the players to know. It was the first of the big "country companions" so they were still working them out at the time.

There actually wasn't a defined structure for that type of companion when I worked on it. There were certain points from the gaz and campaign setting that needed to be included, but otherwise the fluff that was included was entirely on me to decide what to go into detail on. So I'll take credit or fault for that, depending on your perspective and all. My apologies if folks didn't like the inclusion of certain levels of detail on places/history/etc.

I did have fun writing it though, and a lot of random stuff didn't make it to print and still languishes on my desktop.

 

[Mikaze]

There actually wasn't a defined structure for that type of companion when I worked on it. There were certain points from the gaz and campaign setting that needed to be included, but otherwise the fluff that was included was entirely on me to decide what to go into detail on. So I'll take credit or fault for that, depending on your perspective and all. My apologies if folks didn't like the inclusion of certain levels of detail on places/history/etc.

Truly you are a monster.

(

Spoiler

I loved it, personally. Throw in a Nefertiti reference to balance out the Akhenaten one next time though, a'ight?

)

Oh, and OP. Great Beyond is a good read too. I heard some guy from these forums had a hand in it or something! (It really is. If you're looking for a planar book, this one hits the mark better than Planar Handbook for 3.x did, but then I'm a Planescape fan so I'm biased towards a certain approach)

 

[Shemeska]

For the stuff under the spoiler tag, that's not mine actually. It's the result of a name change on the map at some point, and a duplication of the ruins on both sides of that particular river. One side has the ruins of a former provincial capital (linked to the section on the haunted, lost fortress which is inspired somewhat by a real life site in western Egypt), the other side wasn't supposed to have something, but wires got crossed, so we now have another cool location to think up plot hooks for.

On a larger level, totally tangent to this thread, regarding what's in a book or not and how they're received: if anyone ever notices anything about stuff of mine as a trend that they like or really don't like, please tell me. I'm still new at this, and if any stylistic trends are good or bad, I'd love to hear opinions.