Pathfinder 1E Setting: Pathfinder's Golarion

[MerrikCale]

To many that's a feature, not a problem.

I get that. Its more of a personal opinion. I like my Cormyrs and Dales along with my Thays

I'm not sure where the D&D fascination with having "good" and "evil" states comes from

Probably comes from the fact that D&D is at its base a "good vs evil" game. That may be simplistic but many like to play that angle.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

To many that's a feature, not a problem. It's a lot like Earth during the Renaissance... When there were zero "good aligned states." There are a lot of states that think they are, but others would beg to differ.

I'm not sure where the D&D fascination with having "good" and "evil" states comes from - not from most good fantasy novels, or most anime, or most... Anything else. It's a simplistic view that only the most trivial of fictions adhere to.

In a world where Angels are as likely as Devils to be walking around and there is a core class that requires a LG alignment doesnt it make sense that there will be pure good as well as pure evil governents?

 

[MerrikCale]

I read the Pathfinder Campaign book and was rather meh in the end. Its just a Faerun of a different color.

To me, that is not a bad thing at all. I liked faerun before it was destroyed in 4E. It used to be a very good and very popular setting. I think if Paizo is going for a new "Faerun" they could do a heck of a lot worse

 

[JacktheRabbit]

To me, that is not a bad thing at all. I liked faerun before it was destroyed in 4E. It used to be a very good and very popular setting. I think if Paizo is going for a new "Faerun" they could do a heck of a lot worse

I dont mind Faerun, but do we need a look-a-like? Faerun does the potluck setting just fine, though I have no read enough to know what was done with it in 4E since I do not play that version.

 

[MerrikCale]

I dont mind Faerun, but do we need a look-a-like? Faerun does the potluck setting just fine, though I have no read enough to know what was done with it in 4E since I do not play that version.

In a nutshell, they utterly destroyed the flavor and beauty of the setting in order to shoehorn it into the Points of Light ideal

Golarion, in many ways, is the spiritual successor of the now dead realms

 

[ProfessorCirno]

The Accidental God is the best deity in any setting, ever.

Also I like their goblins

 

[Desdichado]

the only problem with the setting is that there seems to be a low number of good-aligned states

That actually seems to be the opposite of a problem. I have no idea what to do with a setting that's got too many good aligned states.

 

[mxyzplk]

In a world where Angels are as likely as Devils to be walking around and there is a core class that requires a LG alignment doesnt it make sense that there will be pure good as well as pure evil governents?

No.

 

[Desdichado]

In a nutshell, they utterly destroyed the flavor and beauty of the setting in order to shoehorn it into the Points of Light ideal

Golarion, in many ways, is the spiritual successor of the now dead realms

Let me rephrase that for you, if I may. "In a nutshell, they utterly returned the flavor to something that more closely resembled what it initially launched as, but had completely lost sight of over the years.

Golarion, in many ways, has some similarities to the revitalized Realms."

 

[Desdichado]

I dont mind Faerun, but do we need a look-a-like? Faerun does the potluck setting just fine, though I have no read enough to know what was done with it in 4E since I do not play that version.

Faerun and Golarion draw on very different influences, though, IMO. Golarion has a very wild and wooly pulp feel; the influences are guys like Leiber, Howard, Burroughs, and stuff like that. There are vast swathes of stuff that feels like Arabian Nights.

True; they threw in a lot of cliches on purpose: the French Revolution country, the Trannsylvannia look-alike, the Vikings, the Ice Age lost world country, Byzantium, Egypt, etc. But they did it with a fun, familiar pulp flair.

Forgotten Realms, on the other hand, doesn't feel like pulp fiction. It feels like mass market high fantasy, of the type Terry Brooks or David Eddings writes. Salvatore and Forgotten Realms have grown together symbiotically into the same style.

I'm not trying to make a value judgement here (or rather; I'm trying not to ) but clearly the feel of sword & sorcery pulp and high fantasy novel series is quite different. Both are "potluck" as you say, but that doesn't mean that you get the same stuff at all.