The Great Beyond—A Guide to the Multiverse

That sounds great. I may buy it to plunder for my 4e game. Did I see you say somewhere up there that you might do some conversion/integration articles for KQ? Maybe a nice 4e one? ;)

I know you aren't really a 4e fan, but this is your chance to help sell a Pathfinder book to some 4e players and get some goodwill along the way!
 

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That sounds great. I may buy it to plunder for my 4e game. Did I see you say somewhere up there that you might do some conversion/integration articles for KQ? Maybe a nice 4e one? ;)

I know you aren't really a 4e fan, but this is your chance to help sell a Pathfinder book to some 4e players and get some goodwill along the way!

*grin* The book is ripe for plundering, regardless of what system you use be it 3.5, Pathfinder, 4e, or even my own frankenstein of 3e, 3.5, and whimsy. ;)

Most of The Great Beyond is fluff, the vast majority actually outside of the bestiary section. I had some more crunchy sections on some planar items and spells, but they were chopped to keep the book under the word limit. Since Golarion's cosmology is intentionally more fluid (and even demiplanes are given a rationale for what they are and why they might appear in the Astral, Ethereal, or other places beyond those two planes) a lot of things can be plugged in pretty much anywhere. A number of concepts were plundered or adapted from my own pretty classical Planescape campaign I run for my own group.

As for KQ, I have an article (3.5) that should be appearing in the summer issue that covers a number of spells, items, and two artifacts linked to the proteans. Gets into a bit of their methods and some of their history and antagonism towards the Abyss as well. I actually talk about what role the proteans might play in different cosmologies versus the niche the slaadi have, and mention a few in particular. Also, I wouldn't be averse for anyone translating it to 4e stats once it's out, but I don't know the 4e system well enough at this point to do so, and I don't know the particulars of how kosher that would be for me to do. That said, I'd be tickled pink if anyone liked some of my concepts/monsters/etc enough to translate any crunch into a different system (be it 4e, Pathfinder, 2e, True20, or even Synnibarr). :)

I do have a second KQ article that I've pitched, and which Paizo and KQ seem cool with, but I haven't finished it to submit yet (it'll cover a trio of non-standard Abyssal fiends). Lots of fluff along with the crunch (at this point I'm probably going to wait till the Pathfinder rules are released and use that system, simply because I'm touching on stuff from Paizo's setting, it seems right to use their new system). Again, I'd be flattered like heck if anyone translated things to other systems.

And if folks happen to like The Great Beyond, Paizo is going to be releasing a planar module Beyond the Vault of Souls which was written by none other than Colin McComb (of Planescape fame, and Birthright, etc). I've read it, it's awesome, and I did one of the monster writeups in its bestiary.

Perhaps I should write up a planar Golarion one-shot game and offer to run it for anyone at GenCon? :)
 

Thanks Shemeska. You have just sold me on your book. It sounds great, with a lot of stuff that can make my 4e cosmology more interesting.

Cheers
 

This product hit my radar as soon as it sprung up on Paizo's website. I have been a long time fan of Planescape so anything that is remotely close to it tends to be a must have for me. After reading your write up Shemeska, I have to say that my intentions were correct. Thanks for replying to the IP's post!
 

This product hit my radar as soon as it sprung up on Paizo's website. I have been a long time fan of Planescape so anything that is remotely close to it tends to be a must have for me. After reading your write up Shemeska, I have to say that my intentions were correct. Thanks for replying to the IP's post!

I hope that you like it. :)

Planescape was a gigantic influence for me on this book, and in general as far as campaign content, themes, play style, etc. Very much a thematic child of that setting, but at the same time, it has some very clear breaks in a few areas (some necessitated by being unable to use classic monsters that are very much WotC IP like Slaadi, gith, and a bunch of proper names like tanar'ri, yugoloth, etc). My influences are likely very apparent, but it's a product and a setting that takes whatever concepts it pays homage to, and really makes them its own. At least that's my intention.

Following in the footsteps of some of Paizo's books like Classic Monsters Revisited, I had the opportunity to rewrite the fluff on a lot of classic planar monsters, given both IP I couldn't use, or needing to change them either to fit within a different cosmology, or to perhaps make their concept a bit more clear. The agathions (formerly guardinals) and angels (formerly aasimon) for instance are now two sides of the same NG coin, one more introspective and focused on defending their natives plane and serving as bodhisattva-like figures to newly arriving souls, while the angels focus outwards, taking a proactive approach to whatever evil (like the Abyss and Abbadon) would threaten those under their watch.

The daemons (formerly yugoloths) don't suffer as a third wheel of evil, stuck between the Abyss and the Hells, as they now represent the concept of death/oblivion, devouring souls like a plague upon the multiverse and envisioning a sterilized and desolate material plane. They care nothing for spiritual corruption, they care nothing for carnage and chaos and destruction, they simply want to snuff out the stars and listen to the final, fading pulse of the last mortal creature - all for reasons they feel but struggle to define, perhaps precisely because they're the only fiendish race exclusively produced from mortal souls. They're almost a selfish, suicidal urge on the part of the cosmos, too sick of its own self to continue, or a flaw in creation. Lots of implications to run with as a DM there.

But it's obscenely late and I'm moving tommorow, so I think I've blabbed enough about the book for the moment. I've posted other comments and such on Paizo's boards, and a while back I had an interview about the book posted over on Planewalker that has some more general comments about the content of the book, etc. :)
 

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