Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder Chronicles setting: what does it offer?

[EATherrian]

This would be pretty funny.... if it weren't for the fact that most of the cultural regions are lifted straight out of our own world's past. Was there some overarching metaplot to earth when the Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Mayans, Aztecs, Romans, Egyptians, Persians, Zulu, Goths and Vandals were cohabitating the planet all at the same time?

Sounds like an awesome Civ game! I personally have been trying to figure out how to put all the things I love into a setting and I'll admit Paizo has done it better than I would have.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

I'd say one of the defining differences is the sense of otherness in Golarion.

Golarion elves have less to do with Tolkien and more to do with the old tales. They're mercurial, they can be petty, their primary deity is the goddess of lust and revenge. Drow aren't a subrace but more a external manifestation of going to the dark side (not just being evil, but comppletely and totally embracing evil). Gnomes are more tied ot the world, goblins are crazy, ogres are terrifying, oger-kin are sickening (and part of why ogres are terrifying). The red and green planets have been pulled from Barsoom and Venus. The underdark is the begining of the dangerous scary places under the workd (there's two more below that, each weirder and more dangerous).

Now you see, this is what I'm looking for. This describes how the elements are different from other settings, and now I can look at those elements and think about how'd they feel when I hold them in my mind.

And on a different note: this doesn't make Golarion sound at all fresh. Darkness is being done by everyone these days, especially dark fey. It's become stale already.

 

[Odhanan]

I really like Golarion's flavor, as a generic setting where pretty much anything may go, depending on the area you choose as your campaign base.

The background is interesting, but here's the issue to me: I would run Pathfinder using the setting book, maybe a tidbit from this or that supplement, but I would never try to even think in terms of "canon" with it.

There's already WAY too much information published about the setting for my tastes. It's like in a matter of a couple of years it managed to become a 2nd edition AD&D setting already. In this, this is definitely not an "old school setting". Some people will absolutely love that. I don't.

Now, fortunately, all the APs, all the modules are pretty much independent. With or without just the setting book, I'm all set, I can run them, relocate them in my own setting, or just make Golarion my own. That's cool, and I'm a customer of these products. The setting stuff? Way too much detail for my taste already.

 

[JeffB]

Excellent description except that, to me, it does come across as a hodge-podge or crazy-quilt setting....
Its not Greyhawk. Its not the Realms. Its closer to Mystara, where each country had a distinct character - Arabland, Vikingland, Magicuserland etc.
.

I very nearly just plunked down my cash after seeing it on the shelf, but after browsing through the setting book at the store for a whil,e thats the same (disappointing) conclusion I came to: kind of like latter day kitchen sink Mystara when I was under the impression from a thread over at the Paizo boards it was more like early GH or OGB Realms.

AFAIC, the 3E D&D Gaz (32 pager), the OGB Realms, or even the few pages in the back of the C/M Expert book and X1 do a better job at that type of thing (generic D&D setting built around the rules) than Golarion, but of course thats all IMO, YMMV,etc.

 

[Krensky]

And on a different note: this doesn't make Golarion sound at all fresh. Darkness is being done by everyone these days, especially dark fey. It's become stale already.

In all honesty, I have never seen ogres presented as crazed mutant mountain folk ala Deliverance or The Hills Have Eyes before. Elves aren't dark, they're borderline uncanny.

If you want a good view of the world, get the player's handout, er, I mean the gazetteer. The PDF's something like $13.

 

[Twowolves]

Depends who you ask, and those cultures span a very long period, many of them were not around at the same time. The Zulu and the Central Americans, for instance. Japan in the time of the Roman empire is largely unrecognizable to modern eyes.

Most of those cultures wouldn't be very recognizable to "modern" eyes. My point is that our own world had vastly different cultures and ethnicities during it's past, all concurrent and not at all "overarcing" nor "cohesive". Why should a campaign setting for a role-playing game be seen in a poor light for mimicing that reality?

That said, a campaign world doesn't have to make sense. The real world doesn't. Then again, the difference between the two is that fiction needs to be believable.

Wait a minute, FICTION about a FANTASY world needs to be BELIEVABLE?? Internally consistant maybe, but believability...

Otherwise I agree with you. A campaign world doesn't have to make perfect sense at all. Just enough to not make suspension of disbelief a burden.

 

[Twowolves]

If you want a good view of the world, get the player's handout, er, I mean the gazetteer. The PDF's something like $13.

Or the free PDFs of the first two Adventure Paths, Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne. That and the Pathfinder Society Organized Play Guide. It has a nice bit of flavor and basic info about the 5 nation/factions around Absolom.

I don't even own the CS, but from reading the first two APs and the PDFs mentioned above, I have a pretty good feel for what I like and what I don't about the setting.

 

[Krensky]

Wait a minute, FICTION about a FANTASY world needs to be BELIEVABLE?? Internally consistant maybe, but believability...

It's an old chesnut of advice to a novice writer. Probably even a cliche. I can't remember who said it, but the quote is something like this:

"The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction needs to be believable; reality obviously operates under no such restraints."

I want to say MarK Twain or Walt Whitman.. Emmerson? Roy Rogers? Anyway. It's true.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

In all honesty, I have never seen ogres presented as crazed mutant mountain folk ala Deliverance or The Hills Have Eyes before.

You didn't say that in the paragraph I quoted, only that they were terrifying, which many others have done in the name of "making the world scary again".

Elves aren't dark, they're borderline uncanny.

If it's presented as something that's supposed to make you feel scared it's dark. If it's just supposed to make you feel odd then it's not dark, but its still something that too many people are doing with their elves these days for anyone to claim that it's fresh.

If you want a good view of the world, get the player's handout, er, I mean the gazetteer. The PDF's something like $13.

I don't think a good summary should have to cost anything. I'm not asking for the entire contents of the gazeteer for free, I'm just asking for a short paragraph on how specific things are done for the Golarion world that aren't done for similar settings when people write their reviews.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Or the free PDFs of the first two Adventure Paths...

Where are these? I couldn't find them.

 

[Twowolves]

Where are these? I couldn't find them.

Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide PDF:http://paizo.com/download/pathfinder/RiseOfTheRunelordsPlayersGuide.zip

Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide PDF:
http://paizo.com/download/pathfinder/PZO9000-2E.zip

Pathfinder Organized Play Guide PDF:
http://paizo.com/store/v5748btpy84k4

They moved away from the Player's Guide format for their APs and now have an installment of their Companion (or is it Chronicles, I confuse the two) series coincide with the launch of each new AP. For example, the forthcoming Council of Thieves AP will have a short regional book set in Cheliax (where the AP unfolds) that can be used as a player's guide and as a regional sourcebook. Most of these are only around 32 pages long, so it's not a huge investment in time for players.

 

[Krensky]

The PaizoCon magazine might give you a feel too.

http://paizo.com/store/downloads/paizoFansUnited/v5748btpy88vh

 

[Twowolves]

The PaizoCon magazine might give you a feel too.

http://paizo.com/store/downloads/paizoFansUnited/v5748btpy88vh

Doh! You beat me to it!

I guess I could mention the two free modules they have on their website, but I'm so miffed about being scooped, I don't think I feel like linking to them! Nyahh!!

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

Ok on the darklands I am goiing off menmry here but, It was made long ago by something called vault builders. And much like earth the deeper you go the hotter it gets. There is also radiations to deal with in spots.

On the drow, well ya see in the age of darkness when the big rock stuck the world elves kinda left, went elsewhere. The drow staied went deep became more corrupt more evil and "turned" ya see drow are not just evil they are twisted evil each city worships a Demon lord and the there are no good drow. In fact and elf can be come so corrupt so vile twisted and pure evil he can change into a drow.

On gnomes gods I love the PF gnomes. They are fey , or used to be anyhow. They do not age as most races they"blech" become pale and age like that. They always are living life to the fullest, learning new things joking having hobby's they obbsess over one thing as if they start to settle start to not have new experiences they die. You louck a gnome away and he dies "of old age" in a year.

Gnomes's can smile and move there face muscles in ways other races can not has the structer is not the same. It can distrube some folks. They can have skin and hair and eye any color found in natue and is not limited to the partents coloring. They had no language when they came from the first world but made up there own by taking words from other languages that they enjoyed the sounds for and assigning it to something. . I mean the Gnome word for tree could be the old azlant word for shoe. The words for Mug, beer and shirt could have been elven words for sword, pants and tree


thats just 2 small things they changed , just 2 things that make it a world you know, but you do not know

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Ok on the darklands I am goiing off menmry here but, It was made long ago by something called vault builders. And much like earth the deeper you go the hotter it gets. There is also radiations to deal with in spots.

On the drow, well ya see in the age of darkness when the big rock stuck the world elves kinda left, went elsewhere. The drow staied went deep became more corrupt more evil and "turned" ya see drow are not just evil they are twisted evil each city worships a Demon lord and the there are no good drow. In fact and elf can be come so corrupt so vile twisted and pure evil he can change into a drow.

On gnomes gods I love the PF gnomes. They are fey , or used to be anyhow. They do not age as most races they"blech" become pale and age like that. They always are living life to the fullest, learning new things joking having hobby's they obbsess over one thing as if they start to settle start to not have new experiences they die. You louck a gnome away and he dies "of old age" in a year.

Gnomes's can smile and move there face muscles in ways other races can not has the structer is not the same. It can distrube some folks. They can have skin and hair and eye any color found in natue and is not limited to the partents coloring. They had no language when they came from the first world but made up there own by taking words from other languages that they enjoyed the sounds for and assigning it to something. . I mean the Gnome word for tree could be the old azlant word for shoe. The words for Mug, beer and shirt could have been elven words for sword, pants and tree

Now you see this is what I'm talking about: these two elements, actually described and not loaded with praise, are just there, and I can make up my own mind about them.

And I actually think these sound interesting. If I hadn't been told these I wouldn't have thought Golarion worth my time. If I had just left everything at praising reviews I never would have considered the idea.

 

[James Jacobs]

- Paizo publishing tons of novels based in Golarion, where a lot of stuff from these novels end up becoming "canon".
- More and more of the Pathfinder adventure paths and modules end up being perceived as "canon".
- With more and more "canon" proliferating, eventually Golarion "canon lawyers" may possibly become numerous enough to ruin the setting.

These are concerns for me as well. For the Adventure Paths, we've been taking care so that even if one takes place in the same area as another (as in the case of the first three APs), the actual locations don't cross over. And while we throw in easter eggs now and then, we also try to keep each Adventure Path relatively self-contained. It's not good business to set them up so you can only really play them in order, or so that in order to understand AP #54 you have to be familiar with the 53 that come before. As a result, any of the APs can be played in any order with minimal or no adjusting between them. Eventually, we might do an AP that takes place after a previous one, but if we do we'll make sure that AP will have everything someone needs to run it without assuming they have run or read the previous AP.

As for novels... we'll likely be doing Golarion novels eventually, but the goal there is for the novels and the game lines to not really interact. At least, not like they do for Dragonlance and FR. Novels and game products are different creatures with different needs, after all.

As for canon... here at Paizo we do take pains to adhere to it, but at the same point we try to keep shifting our focus around so that we don't get bogged down by it. Campaign canon is good for continuity, but bad for it as well. Keeping it detailed but manageable is something we're constantly working on.

 

[James Jacobs]

They moved away from the Player's Guide format for their APs and now have an installment of their Companion (or is it Chronicles, I confuse the two) series coincide with the launch of each new AP. For example, the forthcoming Council of Thieves AP will have a short regional book set in Cheliax (where the AP unfolds) that can be used as a player's guide and as a regional sourcebook. Most of these are only around 32 pages long, so it's not a huge investment in time for players.

With Council of Thieves, though, we're moving back to the old Player's Guide format sort of. We'll have a free PDF Player's Guide to Council of Thieves available at about Gen Con o'clock.

 

[Twowolves]

With Council of Thieves, though, we're moving back to the old Player's Guide format sort of. We'll have a free PDF Player's Guide to Council of Thieves available at about Gen Con o'clock.

Just one more reason why I'm finally going to a Gen Con, and you guys are working overtime to make sure it'll be fantastic! Thanks!!

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

Now you see this is what I'm talking about: these two elements, actually described and not loaded with praise, are just there, and I can make up my own mind about them.

And I actually think these sound interesting. If I hadn't been told these I wouldn't have thought Golarion worth my time. If I had just left everything at praising reviews I never would have considered the idea.

While I do love the setting I was tying to be unbiased. So if you will let me know what you want to know about I'll try my best to give ya some info. I do not own everything but there is a wiki some folks have put togather. All you NEED is the setting book. Every thing is is just gravy

 

[Dark Mistress]

SilvercatMoonpaw2 part of the problem is what you are asking and yes I get what you are wanting to know. The problem is there is just so much in the little details that make the world what it is. To really do that would take someone likely to write up a 10 page overview of all the little things that make it stand out.

Like the elves which to me come off as a lot more alien and other worldly than in most settings.

Or the goblins, gnomes and ogres already discussed by others. Some stuff is fairly common and or been done before. But a lot of stuff while has been done before, paizo has given them a new interesting twist that sets them apart.

But there is 39 detailed region/countries, that have a range some already gave examples from. To really give them the detail they deserve and explain what makes them stand out and what their own little twists are ect. Would take about a paragraph each. Needless to say thats a lot of writing. Plus that doesn't take into account the differences in monsters, races or the varies human cultures in the book.

So unless you ask a specific question not sure you will ever get the answer you want. It is just a vast and interesting setting, to much so to just summarize in a short post.