You’ve been waiting, and here it is! Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse is out today, coming out hot just before the Strength of Thousands adventure path invites you in for an extended stay. Within these pages you’ll find never-before-revealed secrets and information on the people, history, geography, and major cities of the Expanse, brought to you by a team of exceptional authors. With people wondering what can be found inside the pages of this book, let’s sneak a peek at the table of contents.
Don’t miss the introduction on this book! Written by the stellar Jabari Weathers, you may have seen snippets from this section floating around Twitter and other wilds of the internet. This section offers prompts to consider when building your character—whether you’re a visitor to the Expanse or were born and raised there—as well as advice on how to venture into the setting respectfully if you’re not sure how to approach it. After that we delve into the major social aspects of Mwangi: the history of the land, the people who live in it, and the gods who hold heavy influence over the region.
The Expanse is still a world of adventure, however, and as we move into more specifics, we get into the geography of the region. We’ll trek across mountains, savannahs, and jungles of the Mwangi before finally reaching nine of the region’s greatest nations and cities. Risk pirate havens, explore mysterious cities with dangerous histories, catch fish in the Hurricane Harvest when the tides rush through the streets, or try to find a legendary paradise in the mortal realms! But beware, the final pages of this book contain a bestiary of monsters that lurk, waiting for adventurers to blunder into their lairs!
Art by Valeria Lutfullina
COVID Sucks
About two months before the final drafts for the Mwangi Expanse were due, the COVID shutdown hit the United States in full force. As you can imagine, it wreaked havoc with book production.
I was one of the luckiest ones. I kept my job, my immediate family was safe, and Paizo gracefully pivoted to work from home. Completing the book was still an unmitigated nightmare, one that caused multiple sleepless nights and minor mental breakdowns over the course of the year. For many of the freelancers on the project, it meant sudden financial insecurity, unexpected full-time childcare, family emergencies or deaths, and even worse. The government response at the time was deliberately inadequate and--yes, I will say it--racist, and was combined with the absolute despair of the constant police brutality that was highlighted during this time.
I’m not saying this to invoke pity, encourage token platitudes, or glorify the heroic effort the authors went through to get this book done--even those who had to bow out in the end. It was heroic, but what happened shouldn’t be glorified. I’m saying that so when everyone sees the final product, they understand just how incredible the people who worked on it are.
We Messed Up
No matter how much time and effort we put into developing and editing a book, something wrong always manages to slip through. Some are annoying but mild, like spelling “uncommon” wrong a dozen times in a row. Some are just funny, like the sarcesian in First Contact that dealt 1d810+5 damage with a sniper rifle. And some we can only stare and ask, “how the
did we miss that??” Mwangi has one of those
moments. We fixed the errors in the PDF versions but didn’t spot them in time to alter the printed books. Gripplis have the wrong ancestry bonuses in the printed copies. As a result, they lack the correct ability score boosts (Dexterity, Wisdom, and a Free boost, plus their Strength penalty). The ancestry also has a line noting “others probably assume [gripplis] are savage, simple-minded, or both.” It was meant as a note that such assumptions were flawed but didn’t convey enough context to be appropriate in any sense. Moreover, that language specifically violates our own guidelines on how we talk about people. Our developers and editors know to remove those words on sight to avoid situations like this. However, due to a process issue, this was flagged during production but not actually removed. We’ve instituted new procedures to prevent words like this from ever making it to print.
We’re sorry and will continue trying to do better.
Adventures Ahead!
We’re excited to share the Mwangi Expanse with players and readers of all kinds. Whether you’re a Pathfinder veteran or brand-new player, we think that Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse has exciting and memorable content for everyone. We’re looking forward to hearing about all of the great characters and adventures that this book inspires. Let us know what characters you’re looking to play, locations you’d like your characters to visit, and your favorite bits from the book!
Eleanor Ferron
Pathfinder Developer
Welcome to the Expanse!
Wednesday, July 7, 2021