Thank you Vic.

Dragonkin, Spacewhales, and Brethedans sound interesting.

Whatever lives on the sun has to be powerful!!!

Forever Queen has a nice ring to it.

Dragon78 wrote:

How many monsters/creatures are there in this book?

Are there any playable races?

Anything that can be used as an animal companion or familiar?

Do we find out what familiar/known monsters exist on these other planets that live on Golarion?

If I recall correctly, there are 6 fully statted-up monsters, plus dozens more that are described but not statted up. There's also a discussion of familiar monsters from Golarion and their roles on other planets, as well as advice on easy ways to reskin familiar monsters for an interplanetary campaign. The statted-up monsters include one that wouldn't *quite* be an animal companion, but might interest you if you enjoy that sort of character. And while there aren't any playable race write-ups, many of the races described could easily be built using the rules in the forthcoming Advanced Race Guide!

James I have to be honest, this information made me cancel my preorder, and it's the type of thing I'd expect from WotC, but not you guys. Frankly, I was pretty worried when I noticed you omitted the kitsune feats from Dragon Empires Gazetteer (which would have amounted to 3 paragraphs, tops) and this "we didn't stat these alien races out here... BUT YOU CAN TOTALLY DO IT YOURSELF WITH THE UPCOMING 40$ BOOK RELEASED AROUND THE SAME TIME" only confirms my fears.

This is the kind of thing that is killing our hobby, you're not giving us our money's worth. I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd trade the "special thanks" on page 3 of Dragon Empires Gazetteer for the kitsune feats, or that I'd trade a page or two of vague, not at all helpful blips of fluff from obscure moons with no plot relevance for properly statted alien races. Just saying.

James I have to be honest, this information made me cancel my preorder, and it's the type of thing I'd expect from WotC, but not you guys. Frankly, I was pretty worried when I noticed you omitted the kitsune feats from Dragon Empires Gazetteer (which would have amounted to 3 paragraphs, tops) and this "we didn't stat these alien races out here... BUT YOU CAN TOTALLY DO IT YOURSELF WITH THE UPCOMING 40$ BOOK RELEASED AROUND THE SAME TIME" only confirms my fears.

This is the kind of thing that is killing our hobby, you're not giving us our money's worth. I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd trade the "special thanks" on page 3 of Dragon Empires Gazetteer for the kitsune feats, or that I'd trade a page or two of vague, not at all helpful blips of fluff from obscure moons with no plot relevance for properly statted alien races. Just saying.

I don't feel the comparison is fair. The thing I like about these books is that you get .exactly. what it says on the cover.

This is a Campaign Setting gazetteer, after all. It's mostly fluff; notable places, npcs and story hooks. With a book dedicated to races already scheduled to come out, writing more races to put in here would be making you buy both if it's races you are interested in.

I will agree that the argument could go both ways. Personally, I like how each product line focuses on its own thing. When I get the Campaign setting books, I'm hoping for maybe a prestige class or a very world-specific monster. But a race belongs, in my personal opinion, in the Core line.

Blastoguy wrote:

James I have to be honest, this information made me cancel my preorder, and it's the type of thing I'd expect from WotC, but not you guys. Frankly, I was pretty worried when I noticed you omitted the kitsune feats from Dragon Empires Gazetteer (which would have amounted to 3 paragraphs, tops) and this "we didn't stat these alien races out here... BUT YOU CAN TOTALLY DO IT YOURSELF WITH THE UPCOMING 40$ BOOK RELEASED AROUND THE SAME TIME" only confirms my fears.

This is the kind of thing that is killing our hobby, you're not giving us our money's worth. I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd trade the "special thanks" on page 3 of Dragon Empires Gazetteer for the kitsune feats, or that I'd trade a page or two of vague, not at all helpful blips of fluff from obscure moons with no plot relevance for properly statted alien races. Just saying.

I don't feel the comparison is fair. The thing I like about these books is that you get .exactly. what it says on the cover.

This is a Campaign Setting gazetteer, after all. It's mostly fluff; notable places, npcs and story hooks. With a book dedicated to races already scheduled to come out, writing more races to put in here would be making you buy both if it's races you are interested in.

I will agree that the argument could go both ways. Personally, I like how each product line focuses on its own thing. When I get the Campaign setting books, I'm hoping for maybe a prestige class or a very world-specific monster. But a race belongs, in my personal opinion, in the Core line.

I was really looking forward to exotic, secular options racewise. :(

Besides, there's really no reason not to include them, and seeing as like the Lashunta for example are the dominant race (barely) on their planet, it's kind of relevant.

I think 'lack of official Paizo psionics rules for Pathfinder' may be one of the major reasons for not including Lashunta stats. The race is psi-focused, and the rules for that aren't out yet (though I hope they eventually come out). This argument doesn't really hold for the other races (unless they also require rules expansions to build), and it would be nice to see stats for them, but I think this book is still going to give lots of awesome info on the various planets.

James I have to be honest, this information made me cancel my preorder, and it's the type of thing I'd expect from WotC, but not you guys. Frankly, I was pretty worried when I noticed you omitted the kitsune feats from Dragon Empires Gazetteer (which would have amounted to 3 paragraphs, tops) and this "we didn't stat these alien races out here... BUT YOU CAN TOTALLY DO IT YOURSELF WITH THE UPCOMING 40$ BOOK RELEASED AROUND THE SAME TIME" only confirms my fears.

This is the kind of thing that is killing our hobby, you're not giving us our money's worth. I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd trade the "special thanks" on page 3 of Dragon Empires Gazetteer for the kitsune feats, or that I'd trade a page or two of vague, not at all helpful blips of fluff from obscure moons with no plot relevance for properly statted alien races. Just saying.

I don't really see how Paizo's contributing to the death of this fine hobby in any way. With the exception of the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting and The Inner Sea World Guide books, all books in the campaign setting line are 64-page books and there's a limit to how much can be squeezed into a 64-page book. When you deal with something as massive as an entire solar system, things are bound to get cut and since this is a gazetteer-style book a la the Gazetteer or the Dragon Empires Gazetteer, I would expect the focus to be on the fluff, not a crunch-heavy book. Had this been a Player Companion book or a Distant Worlds World Guide'ish book, I think your criticism would be valid.

Now, I'm not going to claim to know how Paizo handles the PRD but so far they've been VERY generous with what they put on that section of the site. I'd be VERY surprised if they don't put the race creation rules in the PRD as they have with all other game mechanics in the core line, thus negating the need to purchase that $40 book you mentioned in capital letters if you have no desire to do so. Assuming that Paizo does release the race creation rules on the PRD, you have all the tools you need to spend a day or two creating those races based on the fluff Paizo provides in Distant Worlds.

Just my two cents.

I thought 2E killed the hobby?

Hey I liked 2nd edition.

It is a Gazetteer, so were lucky to get any crunch since that is not what the book is for. It is mostly cultural, environmental, and adventure hook type infornation for GMs.

I'm all for more description and campaign background over yet another "playable" race.

I am just hoping that there are enough people interested in this that they decide to continue the whole solar system and eventually we have a hardcover book like the Inner Sea Guide for the solar system. That would be awesome, and then an AP on the red planet and then an AP on the green planet... And then...

Can't wait for this and everything that comes out after it.

I hope we get previews for this.

I am just hoping that there are enough people interested in this that they decide to continue the whole solar system and eventually we have a hardcover book like the Inner Sea Guide for the solar system. That would be awesome, and then an AP on the red planet and then an AP on the green planet... And then...

Can't wait for this and everything that comes out after it.

Yes, it all depends on interest, measured in sales.

A 64 pg. booklet is the bare-bones outline of such a vast playground. There have been questions about so many settings within Golarion, they'll be developing it for decades.

The Guide to Absalom is a good example. It's a general outline with a small map. The details of the city are quite general, and it's up to the GM to fill them in as he likes. I imagine that someday there will be a bigger book with a big map, more details, etc. And that's just one location of thousands.

If this goes well, there will eventually be more.

I hope it does well enough to warrent more products and more detailed content on this subject.

How many pages do each of the main planets get?

Forgget my question above, I already got that one answered.

James Sutter, were did get/come up with the names of the planets?

Are we getting a preview for this product?

I hope it does well enough to warrent more products and more detailed content on this subject.

How many pages do each of the main planets get?

Most get 4 pages each.

Forgget my question above, I already got that one answered.

James Sutter, were did get/come up with the names of the planets?

Are we getting a preview for this product?

I'm sure there'll be some sort of preview, though that's not necessarily up to me.

As for the names of the planets--most of the proper names came out of my head, and I just liked the sound of them. The appellations, however--things like "Aballon the Horse" and "Apostae the Messenger," etc.--all have specific meanings that are explained in the book. :)

Hey James Sutter, what made the people at Paizo to decide to have any info about the other planets(AP#14) in the first place?

What else have you worked on for Paizo/Pathfinder?

Do you have a favorite planet? What is your favorite alien race that you can reveal?

Hey James Sutter, what made the people at Paizo to decide to have any info about the other planets(AP#14) in the first place?

What else have you worked on for Paizo/Pathfinder?

Do you have a favorite planet? What is your favorite alien race that you can reveal?

Really, I think the main reasons we did a book about space is:

1) "What's the rest of the solar system like?" is a pretty basic question for a setting.

2) I really, REALLY wanted to do an aliens-on-other-planets book.

As for other things I've worked on, I've been on the Pathfinder design team since before their was a Pathfinder, but some of my favorite things I've written include my PF Tales novel Death's Heretic and the campaign setting book City of Strangers.

And as for which planets and aliens are my favorite... I'll never tell. It would make the other ones jealous. :)

What Planet, moon, etc. are the Dragon-kin from? and what do you mean bond with humaniods? like animal companions, cohorts, symbiots?

What Planet, moon, etc. are the Dragon-kin from? and what do you mean bond with humaniods? like animal companions, cohorts, symbiots?

Triaxus. And as for the nature of the bond--I have to save SOME things for the book! :)

Thanks for the info James.

Triaxus is an interesting choice, I would have thought it would be Verces or Castrovel.

Please tell me the Dragon-kin aren't anything like the dragonspawn from D&D!!!!

Anyway this looks like a cool book, I will buy it for sure!

I really doubt that the dragonkin has anything to do with the dragonspawn in any way.

I still wish there was a section devoted to radiation, gamma rays, etc.

Maybe we'll have to wait for the Distant Worlds Primer before getting the real nuts n bolts for this setting.

"ships of terrifying magic and technology" Puhleeze don't be spelljammers.

Power draining helms?

Worst.
Idea.
Ever.

Maybe we'll have to wait for the Distant Worlds Primer before getting the real nuts n bolts for this setting.

"ships of terrifying magic and technology" Puhleeze don't be spelljammers.

Power draining helms?

Worst.
Idea.
Ever.

Not even close to the worst RPG idea ever. I hope there are spelljammers, but I would suspect that due to copyright and such, there won't be.

I like the cover.

+1, I don't think this is gonna stay on the shelves for long.

Maybe we'll have to wait for the Distant Worlds Primer before getting the real nuts n bolts for this setting.

"ships of terrifying magic and technology" Puhleeze don't be spelljammers.

Power draining helms?

Worst.
Idea.
Ever.

-1 I'm buying this because I want to have SpellJammer back. I liked how it was done in 2E although bits of how they were done in 3E are growing on me. Like a fungus really...

Were the planets named by the people of Golarion or the inhabbitants of those planets or both?

Holy crap this book is awesome.

-1 I'm buying this because I want to have SpellJammer back. I liked how it was done in 2E although bits of how they were done in 3E are growing on me. Like a fungus really...

I really liked Spelljammer and the magic-draining helms. The setting was awe-inspiring, but a lot of it was too silly for my taste.

Thanks again for all the kind words, everybody! And rest assured, this book trades the whimsical tone of Spelljammer for a more serious science fantasy flavor, but should also give those spelljamming folks who like to go bouncing around between bizarre worlds plenty of material to work with. (Though if you want to play an honest-to-goodness SpellJammer game using our planets as settings, that's okay by me! Paizo's still got love for the space hippos.)

While you can never please all the people all of the time, I'm hoping that this book serves both sides of the SpellJammer debate equally well. :)

I thought 2E killed the hobby?

I thought that was Chainmail... oh wait that's what killed miniature games. :)

I did like the book, just enough to give tidbits to be useful and still leaving a lot unexplored. At least when Paizo gets around to doing other "settings" they can tie them in this way. So those that want to combine stuff can and those that don't can ignore what they don't like.

I find it amusing that this book (like other Pathfinder campaign setting books) says it's "suitable for play in any fantasy world" considering its focus. :)

I find it amusing that this book (like other Pathfinder campaign setting books) says it's "suitable for play in any fantasy world" considering its focus. :)

Except you could, you can replace Golarion with Faerun with out to much trouble. Just ignore a few pages and use the planets and what not in Faerun's setting fairly easily.

Chris Nehren wrote:

I find it amusing that this book (like other Pathfinder campaign setting books) says it's "suitable for play in any fantasy world" considering its focus. :)

Except you could, you can replace Golarion with Faerun with out to much trouble. Just ignore a few pages and use the planets and what not in Faerun's setting fairly easily.

You could plop the Golarion solar system into any Spelljammer-esque game. Just another system to explore, like any other.

Chris Nehren wrote:

I find it amusing that this book (like other Pathfinder campaign setting books) says it's "suitable for play in any fantasy world" considering its focus. :)

Except you could, you can replace Golarion with Faerun with out to much trouble. Just ignore a few pages and use the planets and what not in Faerun's setting fairly easily.

I'm standing by the argument that spelljamming will never work in Faerun again, as there will no longer be a goddess of arcane magic, nor an arcane weave. In an absurdly Monty Python-esque series of sackings, there are no applicants remaining to fill the post, as they sure to be murdered within a cat's lifetime. So much for being an eternal deity...

Faerun really needs the soap opera cliffhanger, where it wakes up, everything is back to 137x DR, and it realizes that Ao never existed, and that WotC was just a bad dream.

But anyhoo, I'm really looking forward to this book. I love everything that Paizo has been doing with Pathfinder. My only chagrin is that this book is only 64 pages...

So far just wow! Excellent book at least through Castrovel.

What are the other three monsters not mentioned in the book's description?

Mechanical Aballonians, Contemplatives of Ashok from Akiton, and Shobad, Akiton's four-armed giants.

From an initial look-over, this book seems very good.

Aballonians, Contemplative of Ashok, and Shobhad

Ok, I have to throw this out there. There is a picture of Kyra in the door of a ship and reaching out towards a flumph. I know it is a flumph, but with her being a cleric and all, it just makes me think she is changing deities and has been touched by his noodley appendage.

Flying Spaghetti Monster

I just downloaded my copy and it is very good. I am hoping that we see a sword and planet style AP at some point.

Except you could, you can replace Golarion with Faerun with out to much trouble. Just ignore a few pages and use the planets and what not in Faerun's setting fairly easily.

I already had that idea two hours ago. ;)

I'm standing by the argument that spelljamming will never work in Faerun again, as there will no longer be a goddess of arcane magic, nor an arcane weave. In an absurdly Monty Python-esque series of sackings, there are no applicants remaining to fill the post, as they sure to be murdered within a cat's lifetime. So much for being an eternal deity...

Faerun really needs the soap opera cliffhanger, where it wakes up, everything is back to 137x DR, and it realizes that Ao never existed, and that WotC was just a bad dream.

You know, there are games exactly like that...

Chris Nehren wrote:

I find it amusing that this book (like other Pathfinder campaign setting books) says it's "suitable for play in any fantasy world" considering its focus. :)

Except you could, you can replace Golarion with Faerun with out to much trouble. Just ignore a few pages and use the planets and what not in Faerun's setting fairly easily.

Given the fact that the book's content don't rely heavily on any Golarion-specific stuff (except the Golarion chapter, and then again it's mostly about its moon) this is perhaps *the* most setting-neutral CS book out there.

Seems like a pretty interesting book...!

What do the mechanical Aballonians, the Contemplatives of Ashok and the Brethedans look like?

And who or what is the Forever Queen?

And, last question, any information about Aucturn, the Dark Tapestry or the Dominions of the Black to share?

Thanks for the information!

Awesome book!

Well, Lamashtu's Flower from the Osirion book finally got a contestant in the "DO NOT WANT TO VISIT" category: The Loving Place. Seriously, keep your distance.

Like others, I was hoping for more info on Golarion-psionics atmosphere. Reading Castrovel now.

Edit: The moon is interesting. Question, didn't the Worldwound's appearance coincide with Aroden's death?

Edit II: Redskinned humans, 12' tall grey skinned giants? Ah Akiton, you seem so familiar and loved. (and free from Disney).

Gorbacz wrote:

I thought 2E killed the hobby?

I thought that was Chainmail... oh wait that's what killed miniature games. :)

Tell that to Games Workshop.