Pathfinder 1E What we want in our Golarion...

[Votan]

I agree with you. If there is a defined Test of the Starstone then soon it could become the end goal of a majority adventuring parties in Golarion. I think this is best left to a DM to use their imagination and tailor as they see fit as they have characters that want to attempt the test.

As you mentioned if it gets written down and published then people will start to craft their ways through the challenges at the meta game level. If we leave it to the craftiness of the DMs the test can be whatever the DM sees fit. The unknown of the test can make it mean that much more to PCs in various campaigns.

It might be cool if it is very deadly and different for every person who enters. That way you can't learn your way through and would need to try the hard way (via destructive testing). The result would be a good thing, in my opinion, in making players think twice before entering.

One of my favorite things in the Pathfinder core rulebook was the recommendation not to do epic. The math for 3/3.5/PF works adequetely for 20 levels but begins to suffer issues after that! Godhood would be even worse.

That being said, if done correctly, it might be intriguing. BECMI had immortals rules and they looked very fun (never did get to use them).

 

[SoldierBlue]

Golarion isn't intended to be 100% perfect for every gamer. The design goal/philosophy was to include enough variety, from strange to expected, from human to monster, from high magic to low, from classic to fringe, and so on so that every gamer interested in the genre would be able to find at least 1 place he/she loved. Hopefully, it skews more toward 1 place (or less) that the gamer hates. The modular way the Inner Sea region is built makes it pretty easy to ignore the regions one doesn't like and focus on the ones you do like.

It's only us at Paizo who have to love every region, since we have to live with what we create. ;-)

James,

In all these design goals, you've succeeded. I started this thread out of love, not out of overall criticism. The way the Inner Sea and the general creation myth fit together are great.

I, and many of the other posters, are part of a rapid fan base that has dropped a few hundred dollars on Paizo products, and regret none of them. That the product editors deign to discuss design philosophies in this and the Paizo forum, and encourage/engage in useful discussion, only increases that brand loyalty.

Oh, and I'm extremely against three-cornered hats in Andoran...

 

[Bigkilla]

My only complaint about pathfinder is the products are released to slowly for me I mean common I need more books. (no this is not a joke, I just learned of pathfinder in april and now I own every book)

 

[SoldierBlue]

Last post should read, "rabid", not "rapid"....

Must learn to edit more thoroughly....

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Currently my problem (at least, the one that wouldn't radically alter the setting and thus make very many people mad at me) is that it's too well-defined. All the places have names and information and only have unknown within their regions. For me that's not fantasy, that's pulp adventure, and Golarion doesn't have to technology or kind of states for it to work like that for me.

What I'd like to see is a big region where they don't put more than a few names and snippits of rumors on it. Give me one central place and then slap everything else with "Here be fabulous stuff". In essence give me an unlabeled map with no region information which I can fill in myself.

Also get producing stuff on those other planets, I need something weirder than "Earth culture expy #43".

 

[LoneWolf23]

What do I want in my Golarion? More Beast-Men races!

I'm dead serious, actually. Wolf-Men, Tiger-Men, Rat-Men, Bear-Men, etc.

Maybe also playable "Noble" minotaurs, smaller, but smarter then the ones in the Beastiary...

 

[Mempter]

Sorry to be contrary, but this is one thing I definitely DO NOT want.

Once it's codified & on paper, it's only a matter of time before the Game Mechanics Wonks & Min-Maxers come out of the woodwork to beat it. I detest the mindset of the PC power-curve that must culminate in PC-godhood.

If such a thing ever were to see print, it should be written for a single PC (no adventuring parties may enter together) and it should make Tomb of Horrors look like Keep on the Borderlands. In other words, it better be designed to kill players with abandon and achieving godhood should be as much a combination of luck as it is a sign of mastery over the game.

Just my 2 coppers.

This is my feeling also. The sense I get is that the test is supposed to be different for each individual because even in game the details could be leaked out by those few who failed, yet survived. But I would not be opposed to seeing a successfully completed Test of the Starstone in print (Iomedae's or Norgorber's for example) to serve as template for DMs to build their own tests upon.

One other thing I would like is for the designers to pick just one city to be there flagship city (Absalom would be a good choice, or Korvosa) and revisit that city periodically, detailing a little more with each new supplement (much in the same way it was done with Greyhawk and Waterdeep).