April Bowen's page

Numeria, not Numera (too much Cook over here).

1. More things that can appear on other planets in the solar system.
2. More monsters for the planes
3. More things for Numera (more mechanical things).
4. More fay. Way more fay. Make stuff up.
5. More original, creative monsters. I suggest alcohol and sugar for brain storming.
6. More dragons. You can never have too many dragons.

I need all jelly/slime monsters. I can only hope we get more soon.

Now I just need the rest of the subterranean monsters: Shroom/fungal stuff, cloaker, etc.

I hope we get an angelic themed set and a fae themed set before long. There are lots of figures for those I need.

Elves are from the planet Castrovel, if you haven't you should read the Distant Worlds book.

We really need each planet to get it's own book to develop it.

I want to see more lore/fluff. I love the background lore in the Revisited books, because it makes everything more concrete.

I want to see more cultural variety around the non human races, and would love to see race/culture guides to the advanced races. I'm not a fan of the Humans Are More Awesome Than Everyone trope, and refuse to allow their culture to eat other races cultures.

Still hoping for a pack of rare races based on Pathfinder art. We are in desperate need of more Tieflings, Aasimar, catfolk, tengu, etc. And pathfinder has the best design for these.

I don't know about 5 or 6 of just one race. Too narrow a product, and it won't sell - they've had enough trouble selling the Builder Sets and such. :)

Maybe 2 or 3 of a kind in a set - so 2 tieflings, 2 aasimar, an oread, a sylph, an undine, and an ifrit. Or 2 kitsune, 2 tengu, a catfolk, and a ratfolk.

Other than adjusting the idea for more market appeal, I second this desire. At the very least, more exotic races in the big sets. :)

Don't really want repeat figures, more like 5 or 6 to cover all the basic classes for a single race. You could make several packs like the iconics pack with a focus on class and 5 different races.

I'm just coming to beg for Paizo to put out several sets of miniatures for some of the less common races. Like 5 or 6 minis of the same race in 1 pack for players who want to play races like Tiefling, Aasimar, Catfolk, Tengu, etc. These are races that have almost no representation in miniature form. We're talking things like fins, horns, tails, wings, etc. I can't tell you how fast I'd buy small sets for player characters with these races.

And dear god, can we get more male tieflings. There's been some awesome art that just needs to be made into a mini.

I hear good things about Aquaman, and I'll probably dig in before long. Also, I've been impressed with Wonder Woman. Both of these series got money and good writers this time around.

I'm currently pulling Batman until the end of this arc. After that we'll see how it goes.

My favorite blog post theory: http://exurbe.com/?p=1368

"Perhaps we are to believe he (Loki) was so frustrated that no one noticed the brilliant success of his earlier scheme that this time he has dialed down the subtlety in hopes that at least some of the supposed-genius members of the adversary squad might piece together the logic chain: 'Loki is an unmatched genius. This plan is dumb. Therefore this is not Loki’s plan.'

SURFACE PLAN. GOAL: CONQUER EARTH (USING ALIEN GOONS) & BECOME KING (WA HA HA).

1. Make a badly-thought-through treaty with some unknown aliens where they get the universe but I get Earth.
2. Come to Earth and steal the M’Kran Crystal* from S.H.I.E.L.D.**
3. Set human minions (including co-opted S.H.I.E.L.D. agents) working on using the Ruby of Cyttorak* to make a portal.
4. Get captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.
5. Spend time chilling in boring white cell while making the Avengers cat fight.
6. Smash S.H.I.E.L.D.’s stuff, drop Thor down a hole, drop Hulk down a hole, make no attempt to kill the Avengers members that can actually BE killed, leave. Tony Stark notices that it’s kind-of odd I haven’t killed the Avengers yet.
7. Go to Stark’s house, which is filled with unmatched quantities of awesome technology and data, and ignore said resources completely while waiting around as the Infinity Gems* summon an army of alien goons.
8. Smash New York City a bit. NOTE: this is somehow supposed to result in me being king.
9. Spend more time chilling in Tony Stark’s house. Dum de dum. Dum de dum de dum. Hey, heroes, is anybody going to notice that… Oh, finally, footsteps. “So, mortals, at last you…” What the? The Hulk! I can’t deliver my awesome speech to you! Well, I could try… um… What vocabulary do you know? “Unworthy beast! I am a god, and!..” SMASH! “Ow…”
10. More time waiting in Tony Stark’s House. Less fun now due to Hulk. While the heroes were distracted by goons, some random humans seem to have switched off the Moonstone* and its portal. Huh… a nuke went by… how cute. Dum de dum. Oh, NOW the verbal heroes turn up, now that I’ve got a cracked rib and can’t make speeches. Well, obviously, rather than using my abilities to turn invisible and teleport to, say, escape, I will surrender.

TRUE PLAN. GOAL: BRING INTERSTELLAR ATTENTION TO EARTH & TRIGGER KREE INVASION.

1. Make treaty with Kree Emperor. Let him think that I don’t know I’m really dealing with the Kree, and that Earth is weak.
2. Come to Earth and steal the AllSpark* from S.H.I.E.L.D.
3. Set human minions (including co-opted S.H.I.E.L.D. agents) working on using the Key to Time* to make a portal. Get important security info from co-opted S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
4. Get captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.
5. Create elaborate diversion in order to buy Tony Stark enough time to hack S.H.I.E.L.D.
6. Escape. Tease Thor a lot. Drop him down a hole. Te he. Make no attempt to actually kill the Avengers. They have other uses.
7. Go to Tony Stark’s house and harvest hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. data plus all his other juicy science.
8. Use alien invasion to bring incontrovertible proof of the existence of alien life before the human media.
9. Avengers assemble, united by a common enemy (me!) and defeat the aliens, thus gaining the respect and attention of the Kree Emperor. Earth has now stepped irrevocably onto the interstellar stage, and invasion is inevitable.
10. Since the Kree Emperor has vowed revenge on me if I lose, allow myself to be “captured” and taken to a safe, comfortable cell in Asgard, within easy reach of the Platohedron*. My well-established and large force of Earthly minions is never mopped up, and continues carrying out my will while I take a holiday.

We are left uncertain about how Loki intends to play the Kree invaders once they come. Will he steal the Dark Crystal* from Asgard at his leisure, and use it to buy favor with the invading Kree, gaining access both to the delights of a worthy war and to the ear of the Emperor which he can comfortably exploit? Or will he play the opposite card and help the Asgardians save Earth? As Earth’s only allied alien world, the Asgardians will certainly make natural leaders in the coming conflict, and as Thor and the other Aesir take the battlefield before the public eye, reinstating awe of the gods in human hearts, Loki would naturally be recruited as the master strategist, and save Earth and Asgard, winning the love and loyalty of all. Or he could join and betray both sides, if that’s more fun."

Can you say Kree-Skrull war?

Freehold DM wrote:

Okay. Thoughts on the movie. Warning. This is very, very long.

** spoiler omitted **...

Freehold, I have to disagree with you about Black Widow. I thought she was by far the best actor in the movie. But I think Loki plays to her ego and gets exactly what he wanted out of her.

As for Loki vs Thor, Loki opens the fight with a bolt. Thor deflects/absorbs it with his hammer. Then they engage in melee.

Personally, I think Loki is playing a long game that goes beyond this movie. Until we see the sequels, we wont really be able to say if he succeeded in his goal or failed. I have seen plenty of arguments showing that he got exactly what he wanted at the end of the movie.

That Widow/Loki conversation was just loaded with stuff.

First Natasha comes in trying to look vulnerable and playing up being female by talking about her relationship to Hawkeye and how she wants to save him. Loki doesn't buy this and calls her bluff.

Then she starts talking about debts and how she had done bad things and wanted to make up for it. This doubles as an invitation to join the Avengers. The loyalty approach would normally be a good one to use with Loki (he's chaotic neutral), but at this point Loki is just tickled she's trying to get one up on him. In fact it looks like he has to start ranting in order to keep from laughing in her face (after all, he needs intelligence lady to sell his plan, and laughing at her won't do that).

Loki casually reveals he knows all about her (and that he has access to some very classified personal info, probably obtained by using the mind gem). This freaks Natasha out because he's basically outclassed her in her own specialty.

He then goes on to theatrically rant about his "plan" like the diehard thespian he is, knowing full well that she'll believe he's bragging over having gotten one up on her.

Natasha just wants out of there and makes an incorrect call on Loki's motivation, while Loki looks confused by her jumping on it (even more hilarious if he didn't expect her to run with his thread bare hinting). She trots off thinking she pulled the wool over his eyes.

Moments later, she's got everyone being herded into proximity of the gem, while hyping the paranoia the gem is giving off. Like a good Unwitting Pawn.

God of Mischief and Lies, 1
Avengers, 0

Okay. Thoughts on the movie. Warning. This is very, very long.

** spoiler omitted **...

I felt the same way about Loki until I realized Loki wasn't a chump; this has all been a Xanatos Gambit. Loki actually got what he wanted: access to Asgard and to the gauntlet in Odin's vault. Thanos might even have helped him set this game up and the heroes fell for it; they think they won. And yes, he played Natasha like a violin. He wanted her to know part of the plan because Hulk was the weakest point for the group, and he wanted them busy fighting each other. Hench the smirk we see when Loki hears them fighting. In the end everyone didn't worry about what Loki's real motives were. Big mistake. Thanos might not know about the gauntlet, but Loki does.

Check this out: http://maskofreason.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/very-good-writing-why-loki-won -in-the-avengers/

Like a stage magician, Loki spent the movie obfuscating everything with paper thin lies, and our heroes were too dumb to question him suddenly trying to take over earth (except for Tony whom Loki immediately distracted when his line of questioning got close to the truth). Coulson and some of the others (Tony) gave hints they realized Loki wasn't serious or something fishy was up, but no one tried to find out what that was. Thor should have realized something was up, but he didn't.

Loki is Marvel's consummate Xanatos Gambler. When he's wandering around acting all vulnerable, it's usually a lie. He's not known as the god of lies for no reason. He lies most of the time. Nothing he said was his goal was really his goal in this film.

April Bowen wrote:

Jal Dorak wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

Now, I disagree that she guessed it right. I notice everyone assumes that, but...

** spoiler omitted **

Loki's not a sucker, he's just overconfident. And in the middle of break down.** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

One of the things I like about this movie is that 2 people can come away from it with completely valid interpretations that are significantly different. It didn't spend the time to explain it all to you, just show you enough to let you draw your own conclusions.

Loki is known for setting up win/win scenarios, so yeah.

Plan A

Plan B

Spoiler:

that she was able to dupe Loki - the GOD OF MISCHIEF - into revealing his plans. The problem with that scene is the dialogue. There is no reason for the conversation to go that way. Even if Loki was furious, arrogant, and desperate, his response to her final comment is a total non sequitur to artifically make BW look awesome and useful. And BW's lead-up to it only makes sense if she already suspects his plan, in which case she doesn't need to wait for the response (except for dramatic tension).

Now, I disagree that she guessed it right. I notice everyone assumes that, but...

Loki's not a sucker, he's just overconfident. And in the middle of break down.

Dragon78 wrote:

So will they have art for each aasimar variant(angel, azata, etc.)?

Both Blood of Fiends AND Blood of Angels will have portraits of ALL the variants, as well as a few full-body illustrations of variants mixed in with the typical aasimars and tieflings.

I want reaper minis! There is a serious shortage of aasimar and tiefling minis!

The only thing I disagree about is the size of the set. I'll always want more choice rather than less. H&M was too small, for my purposes, so I ended up with too many multiple figures....

But the thing was, you got most of what was in the set at a reasonable price. Almost all the minis were highly reusable monsters that would hit the table a lot. Also, repeats didn't hurt since many of the monsters were things you'd fight in a group.

More individuals will buy bricks than cases for this new set. Which means they'll have to hit the secondary market or risk buying a second, third or fourth brick with a rising chance they're going to get repeat figures they don't want. If folks mostly go to the secondary market, expect to see single prices akin to the D&D large/huge dragons in a very short time.

April Bowen wrote:

When I get priced out of something, I'm more likely to consider it snobbery and just stop even looking at the items, especially if it's not something I would be able to use regularly. There's plenty out there that wants my money and is within my budget.

Yes, shame on you Paizo for making something so expensive that I can't purchase it as an impulse buy. Instead, you have forced me to become responsible and organize my budget for the next six months, setting aside a little bit of money each week to make this expensive purchase in a calculated and planned manner. Furthermore, you should feel additional shame in knowing that with this budget you have forced upon me, my wife and I will have started a nice little savings for a down payment on a house. How dare you set a price for what some apparently feel entitled to receive for much, much less.

A. You assume it will still be available at the same price it is now in six months. August is only four months away. I fully expect price jumps as the line sells out. The longer it takes to scrape together the money, the greater the chance the price will go up.

B. Considering they set the price for the Champions of Evil Encounter Pack, it's not "much, much less". It's just not a room full of minis at one time.

C. It's pretty obvious this set was meant for shops rather than customers. Other than shop owners, how many individuals are going to fork out almost $700 for a case of minis?

April Bowen wrote:

Deanoth wrote:

You will have my thanks for that not to mention causing the value of the individual mini to go up because you are buying singles too and making the seller some money to buy more of them.

I wouldn't bet on them buying many at these prices; the secondary market is a joke when it comes to pricing minis. I've heard of these minis shattering when they hit a hard floor, so I'd rather just wait and buy metal from Reaper. More expensive, but easier to shoulder the price and get something much more durable. The prices right now for certain monsters in the first set are just ridiculous. I'd rather buy a game for my phone or comics.

When I get priced out of something, I'm more likely to consider it snobbery and just stop even looking at the items, especially if it's not something I would be able to use regularly. There's plenty out there that wants my money and is within my budget.

Do you think $16 for a randomized pack of one large and three nonlarge figures is cheap/reasonable/expensive?

It depends a lot on the size of the set and my likely-hood in getting repeats that aren't useful. Randomize sets of 60 are always a better deal than randomized sets of 100+, provided I can be assured repeats of useful minis only. Repeat NPCs minis are utterly useless unless you're planning a mystery twin in a campaign. Guess how much you'll be doing that? Nothing sucks worse than opening a bunch of minis and getting little of what you wanted.

Frankly the new Champions of Evil Encounters Pack has the right idea, I think. The price is low enough for an impulse buy, and the non-random format prevents me from worrying about my money being wasted (I know what I'm going to get). 3 zombies are useful in a lot of situations. The cleric I don't give a rip about (NPC), the succubus is insanely overpriced in the first set as a single, so it's obvious the market wants more of it. The gargoyle, while in need of repainting (Red? Really?), is a useful mini also. So 3 commons, an uncommon (or two) and a rare/large/whatever is a smarter way to get the minis into people's hands.

With the global economy in the crapper, people are going to be more and more risk adverse, and randomization is risky. It feels too much like gambling. Plus if I just needed one extra zombie, I'd have no problem buying this set and getting the other minis at this price. I don't see why the NPCs aren't being removed from the monsters and sold as a single non-random set anyway; I can always use two monsters, but not two specific NPCs. Also, I don't understand why the huges aren't just being sold as non-random singles, or in several packs of two non-randoms. I don't think it saves that much money to make a random box of huges in the first place.

I think $16 for a randomized pack of one large and three non-large figures is a good deal, provided I know I'm not going to have to turn around and buy another set to get what I really wanted.

Don't get me wrong, if you can pony up money for the case, the pricing isn't bad. The issue is that a set with this many minis is just too much to afford in one go. It's a turn off for the casual gaming market that doesn't have that much spare cash and doesn't play regularly (or only semi-regularly).

You will have my thanks for that not to mention causing the value of the individual mini to go up because you are buying singles too and making the seller some money to buy more of them.

I wouldn't bet on them buying many at these prices; the secondary market is a joke when it comes to pricing minis. I've heard of these minis shattering when they hit a hard floor, so I'd rather just wait and buy metal from Reaper. More expensive, but easier to shoulder the price and get something much more durable. The prices right now for certain monsters in the first set are just ridiculous. I'd rather buy a game for my phone or comics.

When I get priced out of something, I'm more likely to consider it snobbery and just stop even looking at the items, especially if it's not something I would be able to use regularly. There's plenty out there that wants my money and is within my budget.

There are huges in the standard case sets right? Is there an overlap between the huge case and the standard case? No, I'm guessing?

At these prices pre-ordering and getting charged upfront isn't going to happen. It's going to take me a lot longer to save up enough money. I hope production realizes this set will have a longer tail than the last one... Regular folks are going to have to buy slowly, say only getting a few bricks at a time or just grabbing the huge case and waiting until they get enough for the others.

I'm starting to get concerned about the ratio of human NPC minis to monsters. I'm hoping for more monsters and less everything else. I can get most of these NPCs from Reaper already, so I don't want them in Battles. I'm in it for the monsters.

Gah! I was going to say I wanted all the decks on ios. It's just better than paper, which wears out and takes up room.

I especially want the plot twist and flashback decks.

1. Repeated information from another pathfinder supplement. I don't like paying for the same info twice. Just reference the other material.
The idea that Companion books are "spoiler free" version of the campaign setting books makes this worse.

2. Subject was unsuited to making a player companion in the first place. Let's face it, only things immediately relevant to starting players need to be in a player companion. Things like equipment, race info,etc. Location info is something the DM is going to fill the players in on. Or just let them see parts of the campaign setting books.

And the info for things like races needs to be not Tolkien/D&D to justify having a race book in the first place. The reason the Gnome book did so well was because Pathfinder gnomes aren't like D&D gnomes, so people wanted more info. The elf book doesn't really depart from Tolkien/D&D enough to justify it's existence. Same for humans.

3. Writing style is just boring more often than not.

4. Lack of cohesive formula/format for each book. Let's face it, too many pathfinder books in a grouped type (player companion, campaign setting, etc.) vary in the material they offer between books *of the same subject matter*. Take the Linnorm Kings campaign setting and contrast it with Rule of Fear or Heart of the Jungle. We get part of a bestiary at the end of that one as well as local people of importance. Both of those things are missing from Heart of the Jungle. Rule of Fear has the people of importance, but no bestiary section. These are books covering areas/kingdoms with the CS type of book, yet what you get in each book varies a lot.

IS it just me, or has Pathfinder Battles slowed the release of Pathfinder Minis from Reaper? They don't seem to be coming out at the speed they did last year, and they aren't releasing monsters as much as they were originally.

Displacer Beast might not be, but Coeurls is really the proper name for tentacle cats. They were created for Voyage of the Space Beagle.

That Aasimar look like mostly normal humans. Of course, this bugged me in D&D also. You get a nice shot of planetouched and everyone looks like they have non human blood except the Aasimar.

Been wanting aasimar heritage options ever since the tiefling options came out. Here's hoping they cover a wide range. They totally got robbed of their potential weirdness in 3.x.

Yeah, I've always thought it was odd that Tieflings get weird appendages/tails/horns, but Aasimar were just...normal looking baring odd coloration. Actually their coloration isn't even that odd. They should have odd physical characteristics to, like feather hair, wings on their feet/head, or something.

The pic for this one is up on Reaper's site.

Most of Galt is part of Taldor. The rest is part of the River Kingdoms.

A land where France is occupied by England....oh my.

Some minor rules to curb technology via magic:

That which is most combustible is most likely to spontaneously combust.
I.e. refined fuels and gunpowder just tend to go BOOM in worlds with magic. THe mana wastes can use this stuff because the level of magic is so low. This really cuts down on chemical development and munitions.

Electricity does not always follow the path of least resistance.
This naturally makes higher technology and electronics impossible. The superscience of Numeria can't work right/develop because this rule makes even the most advanced nanotech completely unpredictable.

You play with steam, you play with fire.
This rule is that in chaining fire, you eventually are going to attract elemental attention because of the concentrated opposed forces you're messing with. Having a fire or water elemental attracted by the activity pop up in your boiler tends to get messy.

Mechanisms are axiomatic
Any sufficiently advanced use of mechanical/geartech tends to spontaneously animate as it achieves harmony with axiomatic principles. Having your pet gearlion suddenly animate on its own with intelligence tends to be fatal to many gear crafters. This tends to cut down radically on improved engineering and mechanization/factory processes, as factories spontaneous animate and start processing those who work in them. Accordingly, nobody makes factories! Luddites are VERY wise people!

Life is power, power is Life
If you want to make people effective, you level them, you don't give them better technology. Make your commoners level 3 instead of level 2, don't improve agricultural tech, that gets you nowhere! Higher level people can do more, work more, accomplish more, and survive more. Power is in people, not more paved roads.

==Aelryinth

I really love this. It's almost enough to make me allow guns. I plan on allowing higher tech certain other planes/planets, but not Golarion.

Overly negative post for a negative topic.

-Numeria. I haven't met anyone who likes this nation. This gets the most eye-rolling from folks who don't know the Inner Sea in my experience. I've seen art that I thought was a joke, then seen it published in the books. It straight out doesn't work. No UFOs in my fantasy please.

Actually, I like Numeria. To me it's so far beyond the tech level of the world that it actually works without disrupting things. But then I like the Mammoth Lords, so...

What I dislike/change:

1. No guns *on Golarion*. They're too much of a disruptive tech jump that will obliterate traditional classes since *my* campaign world is moving forward in time even if the setting isn't.

2. The gods just lack something. They just feel...thin and shallow in a bad way. I think basing gods around virtues/vices makes more sense and has more flavor than putting them over, say, baking or warfare.

3. The humancentricness is annoying, but I do like that we're going to have other worlds/planes where humans *won't* be the majority. Human-centric worlds are just...blah. I think it's high time for humans to be the minority, possibly on the verge of extinction for the blah-ness. All hail the jellyfish overlords!

4. I've tweaked the elves, giving them the colorful hair and skin from Faerun. I'm also stealing some underlying ideas from Ebberon. There *is* a plane/homeworld inhabited primarily by elves. The same goes for each non-human race with the exception of gnomes. Pathfinder gnomes rock!

5. No silly uniforms for Andoran.

6. Galt is on another planet/plane where it can take it's concept full tilt without disrupting the other Golarion nations. There *are* guns in this place.

Over all I do like the setting, I just hope that we get development of the planets and planes.

Gorbacz wrote:

Mikaze, just let it go and ask for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic supplement. I'd buy one! ;-)

I want to do the Nightmare Moon writeup! ;)

I'm going to be seriously disappointed if at some point we don't get magical ponies in our bestiary. The MLP jokes have a been around so long now it just has to be addressed....

We're going to get a 64 page planetary sourcebook, so I'd love to see a planet-hopping AP one of these days.

I'd also like to see more of Golarion. We're already starting to do so, and that is awesome, but I'd love to see even more.

I'd love to see each planet get a separate sourcebook. The same for each of the planes and possibly some cities/locations on each plane.

I really hope Paizo gets Reaper to make the brine and cloud dragons. And the black dragon. Aw, crud, you just can't have too many large/huge dragons.

Second, I think I understand something about Empeze's argument. My response to him is: Golarion isn't the same kind of setting as the world of REH's Conan stories, or even as Dragonlance's Krynn. Krynn was set up to tell a specific type of D&D stories. Weis and Hickman went so far as to say that Krynn was unreachable through Spelljamming ships, because they didn't want that kind of cultural polution.

The lands of Ravenloft, and Athas, the world of Dark Sun, were the same. These were campaign worlds with one specific product line and a focus on one theme. If you were playing in Athas and wanted to do some wha-hoo dungeon explorations, or if you were in Krynn and wanted to explore the ramifications of plentiful psionics, you had to find your way to another material plane.

In Golarion, you need to pack your horse and travel. Golarion is a patch-work world, as people have said, and --here's the important part-- where flavorful setting features are more localized than you should expect. Yes, Numeria is a "Barrier Peaks"-like super-science setting, but the entire campaign world is not awash in high-tech artifacts, like you might expect. Galt, to use another good example, worries Andoran, provides fuel for some of the machinations in the River Kingdoms, and impacts Cheliax. But its influence doesn't go beyond that.

That's an important aspect of Golarion, and it's counter-intuitive.

Just my two cents,

As someone who doesn't own the campaign setting books, this is actually where Golarion makes me hesitate to get into the setting. As a single world it looses me because the cultural pollution is going to force a *rapid* forward movement in the entire world's tech level (guns being the biggest issue). While it's fine and dandy that there won't be any official advancement of the timeline, there certainly *will* be in my campaigns.

Faerun had city states rather than nations because the number of monsters kept moving armies from being feasible; for Golarion, this doesn't appear to be a problem. After all, they've formed nations, which puts them ahead of Faerun already. There's a pathfinder society, so travel can't be that dangerous. Thus tech should spread like wildfire, and it should only take a few years for guns to replace all melee and ranged weapons, thus making most of the classes obsolete. You can't tell me there's a government out there doesn't want to get its hands on guns.

If you get rid of guns, then Galt and Andora are going to have real problems since their military appears to take little interest in armor... Possibly this could be explained away with magic armor, but I'm not sure how plentiful enchanters are in Golarion.

Honestly, to me it feels like Golarion should be a collection of planes rather than a single planet due to how modular it is.