Too much politics in Pathfinder?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

Silver Crusade

My knowledge is limited to what I have read, which is not a whole lot, so i may be wrong, but it seems to that who ever is doing the writing for Pathfinder seems to favor political intrigue and such.

The inner sea primer is one example. Almost every description of each country has more about the countries politics than about the the physical country or its inhabitants.

I just don't seem to find much of the old fashioned, Big bad monsters are invading the land and you need to kill them.

Dark Archive

You might want to check Lastwall. Or Mendev. There is little reason to repeat a theme that's already present in the setting over and over again.


Triga wrote:


I just don't seem to find much of the old fashioned, Big bad monsters are invading the land and you need to kill them.

Well, there's a reason for that: That stuff is easy. Flip open the Bestiary of your choice at random, pick whatever you find, and tell the players that this critter is overrunning their home in hordes and legions.

They don't need to go all elaborate about that sort of thing.

There are parts of Golarion that contain hordes of things just waiting to overrun civilisation (except those who are doing it right now), but a world where every nation is under constant attack by invading hordes of monsters would be quite boring.

Examples for hordes of critters that will satisfy your need for mass murder (and then some) are the orc hordes of Belkzen and the countless demon hordes of the Worldwound (where the Abyss itself is encroaching on the realms of sanity and normalcy).

And get into the Mwangi Expanse and face feral apes that are too smart for our good. Ustalav is like a big amusement park with a horror theme, except that the rides will kill you or do worse stuff to you. Every kind of undead, werewolves and probably other therianthropes, too, Frankenstainian creations stalking the city's night streets... you name it.

And if all that stuff is too tame for you, leave the sun-lit world behind and enter the Darklands. Greedy grey dwarves and black-hearted dark elves are actually among the most harmless things that await you in realms where you'll find intellect devourers eating your brain and replacing it, and whole nations of ghouls looking for fresh food. Not to mention caverns that are greater than most nations housing entities that sanity just can't endure. Adventure - more that you ever hoped for - could be mere miles away, if your direction is straight down.


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KaeYoss wrote:
stellar stuff

..sounds lovely, do you have a brochure?

*shakes fist*


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

The Pathfinder RPG has no politics.

Golarion has a fair amount of politics. It's just right for me. The APs vary in their level of politics. The level of politics in your game is up to you (well, the GM).


We demand more political intrigue and cultural clashes!


BenignFacist wrote:

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..sounds lovely, do you have a brochure?

Of course, of course. Here at Planar Safari, we'll cater to your every Monster Mass Murdering need - and at reasonable prices!

Disclaimer: All safaris must be paid up front. No refund in case of death, insanity, dismemberment, mental domination, bodily domination, fleshwarping, torture, violation by unspeakable horrors, transformation, polymorph, transmogrification, petrification, vitrification, curses, diseases, poisons, parasites, imprisonment, incarceration, capture, equipment stolen, equipment lost, equipment eaten by monsters, equip destroyed, equipment confiscated by corrupt local government, being stalked by natives, being robbed by natives, being insulted by natives, being shunned by natives, being attacked by natives, being shown horrible things by natives, being conned by natives, being drafted by natives, being forced to fight in a blood arena for the natives' amusement, thirst, starvation, being forced to eat randomly selected safary member, becoming addicted to strage drugs, or Mrs. Greensmith.

Pictures in the brochure are examples only. We cannot guarantee that the destination will look the same as (or anything like) the locations shown on the picture.

Ask us about local laws, customs, planar traits.


And here I was hoping for a rant on how PFRPG has turned D&D into a PC (not the party) communistic fascistoid game system that turns our kids into raging anarchists.

Disaaappoiiinteeeeed


KaeyYoss wrote:
Disclaimer: All safaris must be paid up front. No refund in case of death, insanity, dismemberment, mental domination, bodily domination, fleshwarping, torture, violation by unspeakable horrors, transformation, polymorph, transmogrification, petrification, vitrification, curses, diseases, poisons, parasites, imprisonment, incarceration, capture, equipment stolen, equipment lost, equipment eaten by monsters, equip destroyed, equipment confiscated by corrupt local government, being stalked by natives, being robbed by natives, being insulted by natives, being shunned by natives, being attacked by natives, being shown horrible things by natives, being conned by natives, being drafted by natives, being forced to fight in a blood arena for the natives' amusement, thirst, starvation, being forced to eat randomly selected safary member, becoming addicted to strage drugs, or Mrs. Greensmith.

So you refund in case of equipment being confiscated by noncorrupt government and refund in case of being forced to eat safari member selected by means different than random?

stringburka wrote:
And here I was hoping for a rant on how PFRPG has turned D&D into a PC (not the party) communistic fascistoid game system that turns our kids into raging anarchists.

Don't count on it. They were anarchists before PF.


Triga wrote:

My knowledge is limited to what I have read, which is not a whole lot, so i may be wrong, but it seems to that who ever is doing the writing for Pathfinder seems to favor political intrigue and such.

The inner sea primer is one example. Almost every description of each country has more about the countries politics than about the the physical country or its inhabitants.

I just don't seem to find much of the old fashioned, Big bad monsters are invading the land and you need to kill them.

You can always look at the politicians as big bad invading mosters that need killing...though that might just too close to RL.


Drejk wrote:
stringburka wrote:
And here I was hoping for a rant on how PFRPG has turned D&D into a PC (not the party) communistic fascistoid game system that turns our kids into raging anarchists.

Don't count on it. They were anarchists before PF.

Sorry, but no. I'm working my ass off to get them to join the fray, but they're to lazy to read and my attempts to Raise Dead on Emma Goldman has failed. :-(

I would've hoped PFRPG would convert my kids to The Dark Side, but it won't work. Guess I'll have to take to the serious artillery, and get them to listen to hard rock. I've heard those Black Sabbath are really good at subverting the youth.


Drejk wrote:


So you refund in case of equipment being confiscated by noncorrupt government

A what? This is not fantasy story, sir!

Drejk wrote:


and refund in case of being forced to eat safari member selected by means different than random?

Yes, but only to the eaten safari member, and that member has to file a personal complaint.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I removed a dismissive post.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Triga wrote:

My knowledge is limited to what I have read, which is not a whole lot, so i may be wrong, but it seems to that who ever is doing the writing for Pathfinder seems to favor political intrigue and such.

The inner sea primer is one example. Almost every description of each country has more about the countries politics than about the the physical country or its inhabitants.

I just don't seem to find much of the old fashioned, Big bad monsters are invading the land and you need to kill them.

The place we put the majority of our monsters are our adventures... but I do sort of agree, the previous Campaign Setting did skew STRONGLY toward historical and political content when it came to discussing the various regions of the Inner Sea. Part of that is because we only gave ourselves 2 pages to talk about those regions.

That has hopefully been corrected in the upcoming "Inner Sea World Guide." We've expanded every region entry to be four pages long, have added maps for nearly all of them, and when I was developing/expanding each section I tried really hard to make at least half of each one filled with gazetteer type information—lists of cities and adventure sites and wilderness regions filled with adventure opportunities. There's also a lot more rules content in this edition of the campaign setting, which should also help make the game world feel more like a game world.


James Jacobs wrote:
That has hopefully been corrected in the upcoming "Inner Sea World Guide." We've expanded every region entry to be four pages long, have added maps for nearly all of them, and when I was developing/expanding each section I tried really hard to make at least half of each one filled with gazetteer type information—lists of cities and adventure sites and wilderness regions filled with adventure opportunities.

I like the sound of that (especially the maps). Can I say I am really looking forward to seeing it when it is released?

Liberty's Edge

Why do you mean TOO MUCH politics ?

Are you a revisionist, or worse a noble agent ? In beautiful Galt, the Council have promulgated laws against that.

Read our brochures and find out who is traitor next !

PS : We hire Alchemists. Alchemists welcome. We offer doiscounts on our lottery for alchemists.

Sovereign Court

Otherwise, I agree with Kaeyoss.

Besides, if you look at the map, there is PLENTY of space between cities to populate with your favourite critters.

Sovereign Court

On a side note, I stumbled upon Numeria in the Campaign Setting book the other day. Are there any published adventures or other materials which provide more info on this area? It sounds like a fun place!

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