Your (Travel) Guide to Great Authors!

The Lost Omens Travel Guide has been out for a few weeks and we wanted to take a break from all our travels throughout the Inner Sea to highlight the authors who made the book possible. There’s been a lot of love for Travel Guide and we wanted to give these authors a chance to share their excitement for the book, as well as some information about themselves and their projects. If you’ve enjoyed these authors’ work, let them know in the comments below or by following them on social media!

Luis Loza
Senior Developer

Rigby Bendele (they/them)

My contributions to this book consisted of the "What People Know" (page 70) and "Nature and Animals" (page 96) sections. Much of my writing comes from my life, and when I wrote the nature section, I went back to my days as a nature camp counselor and how my relationship with the world around me changed when I was truly immersed in it. While I think that it's easy to get away from the mundane reality of survival in a fantasy game, I hope that this section inspires players and GMs to think about how their characters would interact with the physical world (and that many, many people will enjoy buying pet possums for their characters!).

If you want to hear more from me, you can follow me on Twitter @rigbeesknees or subscribe to my free queer sci-fi and fantasy book review newsletter at Transgenre Books.

Illustration by Sandra Posada

Dana Ebert

I'm Dana Ebert, and I'm always delighted to be back with my Pathfinder family! I wrote the Cuisine chapter (page 38) (including its recipes!) for Travel Guide, and I had so much fun writing it that it may just be my favorite contribution to date. I had the idea early on to make the author somewhat monstrous—simultaneously reveling in the reader's attention while smugly gloating or antagonizing them. The result was Maharajah Lakadbaghasura, a rakshasa of sophistication and renown, and I hope he wins over some fans! Special thanks to everyone in the Pathfinder community who has tried out the recipes. I've been watching your reviews and they're so much fun!

That brings me to some exciting news—I'm in the process of opening Portland's first tabletop roleplaying brewpub with some very talented people! TPK Brewing Co. is a majority queer, women-of-color-owned craft brewery coming to Portland, Oregon, in 2023. Waiting for you there will be an ale for every tale and a staff of full-time professional Game Masters ready to run your favorite games. You can learn more at tpkbrewing.com and sign up for our newsletter to receive ongoing updates!

Dustin Knight

Greetings, Pathfinders! Dustin Knight here, host of Infiknight Reviews! I'm still thrilled to have been assigned the trade section of Travel Guide (page 32). Pre-industrial fantasy armchair economics is my jam, and being able to spend a week completely obsessing over the price of wool in 13th century Europe helped me pin down realistic price points that take into account everything from taxes to spoilage while still accurately reflecting the prices of equipment in Pathfinder Second Edition. I loved being able to scatter a bunch of Easter eggs throughout my section, especially in the art orders, and I can't wait to see if our readers catch them all! If you want a hint for one of the more obscure references you can check out my Pathfinder Society Scenario #2-06: The Crashing Wave! If you like my work feel free to check out, and feel free to contact me on my discord if you want to talk!

Illustration by Mylene Bertrand

Aaron Lascano

I'm Aaron Lascano, a Latino writer, designer, and editor from NYC. I worked on the holiday section in the Travel Guide (page 24), which was a fascinating exercise in thinking about community-building and cultural practices. I really enjoy working on sections like that (you might recognize my name from Monsters of Myth or Grand Bazaar). I'm currently contributing to an indie TTRPG project, and I'm also pushing my own TTRPG system to playtest! If you want to follow my progress on a narrative-forward system that offers dynamic systems for combat, exploration, and social interactions, and that explicitly draws upon Latin American history and culture, I'm @devlascano on Twitter.

Stephanie Lundeen

Hi, I'm Stephanie Lundeen, Ph.D., and I've been a freelance writer and editor for years. The Travel Guide is my favorite Lost Omens book yet. I love world-building—it's my favorite part of writing for Pathfinder. And I love traveling in real life and reading travel guides, so this was a perfect project for me. It turns out that an imaginary travel guide is even better! Plus, to write the Folklore, Mythology, and Religion sections (page 80), I got to do lots of research (no joke here, I love to research) as well as be creative. I'm so excited to have been a part of this great addition to Golarion, truly one of the richest fantasy worlds around.

In addition to writing for—and playing a lot of—Pathfinder, I play Starfinder! I'm part of an actual-play Starfinder podcast, Intrepid Heroes (http://knowdirectionpodcast.com/category/podcasts/intrepid-heroes/). I also co-write a blog devoted to another passion of mine, open adoption, at http://www.ouramazingforeverfamily.com.

Illustration by Sandra Posada

Jessica Redekop (she/they/he)

Hello, everyone! It's me, Jess, here to excitedly point out my work in the Lost Omens Travel Guide. I was responsible for the fashion section (page 44), and as a lover of beautiful things, I was delighted by this opportunity to create something that fits so neatly at the intersection of TTRPG fantasy worldbuilding and fashion. Please use the introduction of the pompadour to Golarion responsibly!

For more fashion content from yours truly, you can find fashion items in the Material Changes shop of Lost Omens Grand Bazaar, and perhaps some fresh content for fabulous Firebrands in the upcoming Lost Omens Firebrands...? To keep up with everything I'm doing, I'm on twitter at @tectonomancer.

Nathan Reinecke

Hello! I'm Nathan Reinecke, purveyor of fine guides and obsessive studier of fictitious magic systems. I wrote about magic in the Inner Sea (page 74), a topic that's been covered a lot but always from the perspectives of ghost kings and runelords and high magical scholars. Writing from the perspective of a dabbling wizard discussing magic as seen by the normal person is probably my favorite freelancing project I've ever done. If you enjoyed my prose and want it in game form, I run PF2 games at https://startplaying.games/gm/fedoraferret, and you can also keep an eye out for an upcoming (yet unnamed) live play podcast from me and my very entertaining friends.

Illustration by Mylene Bertrand

Mikhail Rekun

Здравствуйте, уважаемые читатели! My name is Mikhail Sergeyevich Rekun, and I’m a Russian-speaking Ukrainian-American historian, educator, and author—you might recognize me from the Dark Archive, where my humble name graces the cover.

In the Travel Guide, I wrote the Crime & Law section (page 64), in which our humble hostess, tiefling black marketeer and con woman Kharmione Nyx (“Golarion’s own Saul Goodman”, as one reviewer called her) describes all the ways in which you can get in and out of trouble with the law. Come for the detailed table of legal punishments, stay for the chicken jokes.

If you find my writing appealing, I’m also the creative director for the Luminant Age project, a Weird Swashbuckler set in a world of state inquisitions, profane mechanisms, and a court system where you have to wear giant bird masks. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LuminantA or check out our published products at https://luminant-age.itch.io!

Erin Roberts

Hi, y’all! I’m Erin Roberts, a TTRPG freelancer (and fiction writer) with recent & upcoming work in Lost Omens: Firebrands, Starfinder: Interstellar Species, D&D’s Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, and Hunter: The Reckoning Fifth Edition, among others. For Travel Guide, I had the absolute pleasure of writing two sections – retired assassin Alvinia Lodge’s entry on Time & The Calendar (page 6) and tiefling art reviewer Deraaka’s section on Art & Architecture (page 50).

While there was so much to love about this project, including my browser tabs full of dance styles, water clocks and blackout poetry, my favorite part was thinking about the ways that living in Golarion makes everything from the daily ticking of the clock to the most elaborate expressions of creativity different and special. I also deeply enjoyed exploring the ways that culture and place impact the way different folks in Golarion tell time, create art, and build the structure of their worlds, all through the voices of two people who live there. Truly a dream come true. To see what I’m dreaming up next (and/or yell at me about time & art), you can find me on Twitter at @nirele.

And of course, we also want to thank our other authors for their great work on Travel Guide!

• Katina Davis: Religion (page 88)
• Ron Lundeen: Pastimes (page 58)
• Ianara Natividad: The Stars (page 116)
• Dave Nelson: Weather & Climate (page 106), Rare Events (page 112)
• Simone D. Sallé: The Stars (page 116)
• Diego Valdez: Everyday Life (page 12)