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Pathfinder Chronicles: Gazetteer (OGL)

4.60/5 (based on 17 ratings)
Pathfinder Chronicles: Gazetteer (OGL)
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From the frozen wastes of the witch-queen to the scorching deserts of Osirion, explore the world of Pathfinder and the GameMastery Modules like never before. This 64-page full-color gazetteer contains information about all of the major kingdoms and cities of the Pathfinder Chronicles world, including Absalom, Cheliax, Varisia, and much more. A poster map of the world details never-before-revealed locations, and allows readers to put Pathfinder Adventure Paths and GameMastery Modules into a single exciting context. The guide also includes information on deities, races, classes, and monsters unique to the setting. The Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer is compatible with the world’s most popular roleplaying game, but adapts easily to other game systems.

Written by Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn.
Cover Art by Steve Prescott.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-077-3

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscription.

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PZO1105

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A Journey of a Thousand Miles . . .

4/5 —

The Pathfinder Gazetteer was the first attempt by Paizo to provide an overview of the official campaign setting of Golarion. Published in 2008, very little had previously been published about Golarion besides information on Varisia in a couple of the early adventure paths and some scattered descriptions of other lands in early modules and. Because it was early days, it makes sense that the first overview of the setting would be comparatively short: just 64 pages. But there's a lot packed in here!

The red dragon on the cover is amazing, and I think I just realized that Valeros and Seoni are fighting atop the Cyphergate in Riddleport! The inside front cover shows holy symbols for the "Core 20" deities plus Aroden, while the inside back cover is the front cover art sans text. The book comes with a pull-out four-panel map of the Inner Sea; this is doubtless the first published map of the setting, and it's gorgeous. It's surprisingly detailed, and although a few locations have been altered over the years, it's still fun to just sit and imagine all of the adventures to be had in these places, most of which were just names at the time but are now fully-fleshed out thanks to years of supplements. The full-color interior artwork is serviceable but certainly looks primitive compared to modern Paizo products.

The book starts with a two-page introduction. It describes the (in-setting) Pathfinder Society, and implies that most adventuring parties will belong to it. There's also an introduction to Aroden and the premise of the Age of Lost Omens--when even prophecies can no longer be trusted, the future is solely in the hands of the PCs!

Chapter 1 is "Characters" (14 pages). This section describes how all of the standard core races fit into Golarion (with sidebars for the different human ethnicities). It holds up well in terms of accuracy with current conceptions of those races in the game. Although mostly crunch-free (this was written during the D&D 3.5 era), it also discusses the role of the core classes and provides an alternate class feature for each one--some are pretty neat, like allowing Fighters to drop a bonus feat and instead get extra skill points and class skills. The section concludes with a description of uniquely-Golarion languages.

Chapter 2 is "Timeline" (4 pages). Starting with -5293 and the Age of Darkness and progressing all the way to 4708 and the Age of Lost Omens, this timeline fixes important historical events. It also discusses the Golarion calendar. The timeline makes for surprisingly interesting reading (many events have been built on in subsequent products, but not all).

Chapter 3 is "Nations" (36 pages) and is the real meat of the book. The section starts with a brief description of the different continents of Golarion before homing in on the various nations of the Inner Sea region. Each country gets a page or so of description alongside some details like alignment, capital, notable settlements, ruler, government, languages, and religion. I loved the shout-outs to Darkmoon Vale and Scarwall (locations familiar to those who played or ran some early Paizo adventures). There are some occasional sidebars with rules elements, such as on sailing the Eye of Abendego or purchasing the Sun Orchid Elixir. There's obviously no value in my going through each of the countries included, so I'll just say as a package I was pleasantly surprised by how rich of a history the setting has and how well the disparate countries fit together. My very first impression of Golarion years ago was that it was just a "random kitchen sink" of different countries--and although it certainly was designed as a setting where almost any type of D&D could be played, there was in fact a lot of thought given to making it a cohesive whole.

Chapter 4 is "Religion" (6 pages) and provides just a couple of paragraphs on each of the setting's core deities (along with stuff like domains, favored weapons, etc.). It's really only the barest introduction to each faith, but does the job of allowing new players for a cleric to skim over something quickly and pick a faith for their character.

As the product dates from 2008, there have certainly been much more detailed descriptions of the Inner Sea region published subsequently. Hardcover books like the Inner Sea World Guide and Inner Sea Faiths devote multiple pages to topics that the Gazetteer can only touch on, and real lore-junkies can find 64-page books in the Campaign Setting Line on nations that receive only a page of description here. For players in need of a quick overview, the Inner Sea Primer is even more compact. All of that probably means the Gazetteer doesn't really have a modern niche, but it is really interesting to look back to the beginning years of what would become one of the most sprawling fantasy settings in gaming history.

Portuguese - Br

4/5 —

Mesmo hoje em dia ele já estando obsoleto devido a suas versões mais completas, ele ainda é o menor e mais barato livro que dá um panorama geral do cenário para quem apenas quer conhecer (embora uma versão menor para jogadores tenha sido lançada, estamos falando de conhecimento para mestres). Muitas das sua informações continuam valendo, tendo seu conteúdo apenas ampliado e mais detalhado, e tambem possui informações para quem joga com as regras do 3.5E. Seu lado ruim é que faltou uma certa maturidade que só foi alcançada mais tarde e portanto algumas informações não estão bem organizadas ou não possuem espaço suficiente dando uma impressão de que foi feito as pressas (não existe nenhum mapa dentro do livro) . Golarion pode ser um cenário feito apenas para juntar os locais onde se passam as adventures paths, mas é um bom cenário que ainda pode crescer em popularidade embora não possua nenhuma característica única exclusiva (e até cópia vários elementos de outros cenários), mas é bem feito e bem detalhado e dá uma visão mais adulta e madura sobre os velhos chavões da fantasia (sem falar da enorme quantidade de fan-service).

Lots of body, little head.

5/5 —

Sorry this is not a beer review. The only issue I have with this book is the image of the Andoran man on the back cover and at the Andoran nation entry. I just don't get it. Other than the man's tiny head the art in the book is top-shelf.

I find myself going back to this book again and again. It is an excellent introduction to the Inner Sea. I now have the comprehensive Inner Sea World Guide (another great tome), but lugging that book around to game days and conventions is a pain (literally). With the Pathfinder Chronicles: Gazetteer it fits nicely in my book bag and has everything I need to show players what they need to know about the Inner Sea. Class and race descriptions (including the human sub-races), languages, deities, a world map, descriptions of each nation, a time-line of the past 10,000 years. It even has info on the days of the week and months.

This book will certainly tide you over until you can save up for the Inner Sea World Guide. And once you have that massive tome, this book will still serve you well as a traveling companion.

—

was good, could be better

4/5 —

This campaign guide could easily have filled a book three times this size. There is just no way that a setting as complex as Osirion can be covered in 32 pages. What is in these 32 pages will definitely make you want to adventure in the desert. Expanding this setting with the book "Sandstorm" will give your campaign legs.

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Will this gazetteer repeat the content in the Pathfinder adventure paths? I love all the Pathfinder stuff but not as much as to pay for reprinted material... Keep up the great work!

No, it is not reprinted material.

This is coming in May?

What happened to the 15th?
Dark Archive

Noooooooooo!!!
Why has it been delayed, guys? I was sooo looking forward to ordering it.
Liberty's Edge

May!

Now I am a sad elephant.

Awww, damn. May. Oh well, these things happen I guess. I'm just glad I had the forsight to get the UPS delivery option. 1 week Australian delivery FTW!

They have not yet replied!

Evil, evil.

Maybe they're teasing us.
Kruelaid wrote:

This is coming in May?

What happened to the 15th?

ME! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When?
Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
Kruelaid wrote:
When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When?

Word from the chat tonight is that it is in fact delayed til May. At least we have AR2 to keep us busy.

Dark Archive
yoda8myhead wrote:
Kruelaid wrote:
When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When?
Word from the chat tonight is that it is in fact delayed til May. At least we have AR2 to keep us busy.

May is next week... Did they say when in May?

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
Atrocious wrote:
May is next week... Did they say when in May?

James didn't say, but I had forgotten how close to May we are. Perhaps the situation isn't as dire as I originally thought. I can wait a week.

To work in tandem with Kruelaid in the other thread...

HEY VIC!

Get away from those Vegas Poker Tables with Mike S., and tell us when this beast is really going!
yoda8myhead wrote:
I can wait a week.

I can wait a year. CAN.

But I WANT it NOW.

Is it ready yet?
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

It has safely arrived in the warehouse now, but Pathfinder 9 is about to appear as well, so they'll be shipping together next week.
Silver Crusade

Yup, just got my email confirm regarding both this & Pf #9.

Sweet!!

RM

How soon will there be a pdf version available?

About the same time that it's avaiable in stores - in another week or so...
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Just flipped through the PDF. Very cool stuff!

Will the poster map be a separate download as with the Guide to Korvosa?

I Don't see a map in the PDF - is there a map with this product??
Seams like a Gazetteer should contain a map...
JM wrote:

I Don't see a map in the PDF - is there a map with this product??

Seams like a Gazetteer should contain a map...

I expect that Paizo will have this corrected shortly. Yes?

Liberty's Edge

D1.5 Revenge of the Kobold king? Interesting reference.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Robert Maughan wrote:
D1.5 Revenge of the Kobold king? Interesting reference.

Ooooh... good catch!

EDIT: I'm hazarding a guess: Free RPG Day 2008.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Riley wrote:
JM wrote:

I Don't see a map in the PDF - is there a map with this product??

Seams like a Gazetteer should contain a map...
I expect that Paizo will have this corrected shortly. Yes?

Already did! Repersonalize and redownload, if you didn't get the map first time. (Sorry!)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Zaister wrote:
Robert Maughan wrote:
D1.5 Revenge of the Kobold king? Interesting reference.

Ooooh... good catch!

EDIT: I'm hazarding a guess: Free RPG Day 2008.

An excellent hazarding!

Is there any way to get the MAP pdf if you are not a Chronicles subscriber? I've bought the product and I don't want to subscribe to everything in Chronicles. But the pdf map sounds very useful.

Any chance?
Dark Archive Contributor
BryonD wrote:

Is there any way to get the MAP pdf if you are not a Chronicles subscriber? I've bought the product and I don't want to subscribe to everything in Chronicles. But the pdf map sounds very useful.

Any chance?

You cannot get a Map PDF separate from the whole shebang. However, once the Gaz hits its street date you can purchase the PDF with the map in it. As a subscriber you get 15% off the PDF once it hits.

There ya have it!
Sovereign Court
Jacob Burgess wrote:

You cannot get a Map PDF separate from the whole shebang. However, once the Gaz hits its street date you can purchase the PDF with the map in it. As a subscriber you get 15% off the PDF once it hits.

There ya have it!

I'm disappointed, you didn't harumph or anything! ;)

Got mine in the post today. It'll take a while to digest, but so far quite interesting.
Jacob Burgess wrote:

However, once the Gaz hits its street date you can purchase the PDF with the map in it. As a subscriber you get 15% off the PDF once it hits.

There ya have it!

What is the street date?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
BryonD wrote:
Jacob Burgess wrote:

However, once the Gaz hits its street date you can purchase the PDF with the map in it. As a subscriber you get 15% off the PDF once it hits.

There ya have it!

What is the street date?

May 14.

Thanks
Sovereign Court

I have to say that the Gazetteer is definitely worth it. It took me about two days to read through it. Read most of it on Thursday and finished it up today. It was too bad I was running RotRL on Saturday cause I would have had it finished yesterday ;)

The map is awesome as is the races section, the class mods, and deities section.

Great work Erik & Jason!

Trent Slabaugh
Infinet Media & Design
DigitalDungeonCast.com
Sovereign Court

I agree. Totally worth it. If fact, you might want get more than one, as this if perfect for passing out to your players. It's a great overview of the worth.

Trent [the other one]
Sovereign Court
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

What is the symbol on p41 please?

Also, am I right to think the flags on p30 and 53 are Cheliax & Shackles, respectively and the picture on p37 is a representation of Sovyrian Stone?

Cheers

Jason
Grand Lodge

How big is the pull out poster? Want to get an idea of how much space I need to make on my wall! ;)

Just read through my copy this weekend, and can't say enough (good things) about it! Wonderful. Echoes of Greyhawk/Oerth, echoes of Earth, and lots of other fine stuff thrown in there to encompass different play styles, different types of fantasy, etc. Considering this covers only most of 1 hemisphere (as far as I can tell from the map and book's descriptions) of Golarion--not to mention the tantalizing hints about the 2 nearby planets--and you've got the campaign setting of a lifetime.

Now I just need to survive until August to see the massive hardback campaign setting, and all this wonderful material fleshed out even more.

Thank you Erik, Jason, and all the Paizo crew who worked on this.

I'm very pleased with the gazetteer and am going to use it when I start my 4E campaign this summer. I posted this question in the thread gazetteer thread below but no one's answered; how do you pronounce Cheliax? Is it Chel-e-ax, CHEL-e-aa, or Chel-e-az?

Regards,

V
Sczarni

SO I was reading through the #pathfinder thread again and I came across Eric saying if a certain number of gazeteers sold, he would entertain the Idea of a globe.... did enough sell?
Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
Cpt_kirstov wrote:

SO I was reading through the #pathfinder thread again and I came across Eric saying if a certain number of gazeteers sold, he would entertain the Idea of a globe.... did enough sell?

If not, sign me up for a few more. A globe of Golarion is top on my list of dream products.

Dark Archive Contributor
Fleanetha wrote:
What is the symbol on p41 please?

That is a medallion given to those who serve in Mendev against the demons of the Worldwound.

Fleanetha wrote:
Also, am I right to think the flags on p30 and 53 are Cheliax & Shackles, respectively and the picture on p37 is a representation of Sovyrian Stone?

Cheliax and the Sodden Lands. Page 37 is an elf gate.

Hsuperman wrote:
How big is the pull out poster? Want to get an idea of how much space I need to make on my wall! ;)

It's a four-panel poster (meaning it's the size of four 8-1/2 x 11 sheets).

Oh Wow! I've been buying Pathfinder products since they first started arriving at the game/book store where I work! This one is well above anything I've seen like it in years...The closest sourcebook that I have sampled was the original Kalamar atlas, and that was a while ago: Version 3.0 if that says anything! The Gazetteer reminds me of the old Gazetteers from Basic D&D rules fame. For those of you who remember, I still wish I could find them somewhere, but Pathfinder feels like I'm back home! I hope you folks can keep it coming! My group is really enjoying the first adventure path, although they're taking their good old time completeing anything! (it seems to me they're having too much fun with the encounters in Sandpoint to leave on adventure!)

This world has everything! I fully intend to start writing a campaign for the River Kingdoms/Ustalav ending up most likely in the Worldwound or Belkzan! That region feels like a good home for me, so if there are any towns/city maps out there for those regions, I'd love to see them!

Above and beyond Folks!!!!!!! Thank You!

Our distributor still doesn't have this title. Is there a problem with the book or is this just a glitch somewhere downstream of you guys?
Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Who is your distributor? The book has been out for a while, now.

We get Paizo product from Ingram Book Company. Other retailers have had the book on the shelf for a while, but Ingram hasn't even received it yet.
Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Near as I can tell from checking Diamond's database, Diamond (from whom Ingram orders the books) has more than 500 in stock, and has for some time. It does appear that Ingram has an "invoice pending" for 30 copies, which I think means that the fulfillment of that order is in progress.

I know for a fact that Diamond has the books in stock, so you should be able to get them from Ingram shortly, if not immediately.
Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
Mike McArtor wrote:


Fleanetha wrote:
Also, am I right to think the flags on p30 and 53 are Cheliax & Shackles, respectively and the picture on p37 is a representation of Sovyrian Stone?

Cheliax and the Sodden Lands. Page 37 is an elf gate.

In fact, the flag is supposed to be the pirate flag of the Shackles (at least according to the art order), but Mike, dread editor of the hardcover, may have pulled a switcheroo.

The Sodden Lands doesn't so much need a flag, as it is a couple of nations that basically no longer exist.

But YMMV.
Mark Rennick wrote:

... The Gazetteer reminds me of the old Gazetteers from Basic D&D rules fame...That region feels like a good home for me, so if there are any towns/city maps out there for those regions, I'd love to see them!

Above and beyond Folks!!!!!!! Thank You!

Heheh it seems you read my mind!! I know theres a gazetteer of Korvosa, but is it likely that thre will be gazetteers of each individual nation (Can't wait for Geb if there is!) I'm sure there is that plan in the long term butI was also curious if theres a rough timeline for publishing these? Like maybe one every 6 months or something??

EDIT:
Scratch that! I've just taken another look at the products page and ity appears to be roughly every other month.

And how does the distribution work with Amazon.com?
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