Narno the Necromancer's page

Wow! That was quick! Thanks a lot, James, I sincerely believe Golarion is much, much more than your regular fantasy setting. I've been trying to run a Golarion campaign from some time now, and I'm about to start Curse of the Crimson Throne AND Jade Regent, so wish me luck!

Best regards,

ZOOROOS

Hi there!

I'm looking to convert the Iconics (ALL of them) to another system and use them as pregens-a-la-carte, but I'd need a wee bit more info on some of them to finish their complete write-ups.

• Ezren, Alahazra, Feiya, Reiko, Hayato: Which human ethnicity do they belong to?
  
• Where are the write-ups and background info on Imrijka and Balazar?

Thanks in advance!

Wow! Thanks for the quick answers! :D

As a clarification, the system doesn't really matter to me, since I'm using a heaviliy modified conversion of the PF rules, so that's ok.

In summary:

- The first two chapters of Second Darkness
- The Savage Tide AP, at least the first parts
- Treasure of Chimera Cove
- Anything Freeport, yay! (I already have Freeport located North from the Arch of Aroden :))
- The first chapter of Serpent's Skull
- The Hydra Fang Incident, a PFSS
- No Plunder No Pay, another PFSS I've just found

I haven't found anything about Nick Logue or that Penumbra thing. It's a really nice list overall... Anything else I may have missed?

Thanks again!

Hi, I've just started a Pathfinder campaign and the players decided they would like to play daring pirates looking for adventures and lost treasures. Can you recommend me any Pathfinder module, adventure path, pathfinder society scenario, etc., that deals with piracy, pirates or adventuring in the sea?

Thanks in advance!

The Eastern Roman Empire analogy makes a lot of sense, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks a lot, folks!

Also, is there any information in the published material about the World's End Mountains? Some monsters, humanoid tribes, etc.?

Thanks again :D

When you look at a map of the Roman Empire, you'll notice it expanded in every direction. Now why didn't Taldor expanded freely to the East? I know there is the World's Edge Mountains or something, but the Romans had the Alps up North, and they eventually crossed them in order to conquer Helvetia (present-day Switzerland).

I also know the OOC explanation: "Taldor is at the edge of the map so we didn't want to show anything East of that". However, I was hoping anyone had thought of this already, and what conclussion you guys have arrived.

Thanks in advance!

ZOOROOS

Wow! That was quick, thanks!

I'm sold then! I love the great mix of high-adventure, sword-and-sorcery and pulp-action the setting provides. And the APs are a great sell too, especially all the useful articles and setting chapters they contain. The only problem is which to pick first, I like almost all of them :D

Saludos!

Hi!

I've not read the whole thread, but I'd like to know how much use this book could be for someone who really likes the setting but who has no interest in running it with the Pathfinder/D&D/d20 rules system. Is it worth the investment if one is looking solely for setting material (so little to no crunch)?

Thanks in advance!

Yeah, so some customers will complain. EVERY business gets complaints. But people who complain about something like THAT will find some excuse to complain anyway, no matter what.

+1

Very true. Eventually, one has to move on. Also, there's always E-bay.

JAVIER

Hi,

Here's my present situation. I'm trying to slightly adapt the Golarion setting with the D&D4E/Exalted cosmology and add some other options for my players. I'm planning to use Savage Worlds instead of D&D/d20/PFRPG systems.

Now so far I've added origin stories and cultural background for several other races, like tieflings, shadar-kai, firbolg, goliath, shifters, etc. The thing is, I'm stuck with Aasimar/Devas.

Both Aasimar and Devas fill the same cosmological and thematic "niche" in the setting, but they are really very different, and besides I find both lacking. The former is born from human parents with celestial blood, and basically he's just a human with striking looks and a few spell-like abilities; to me that doesn't justify a whole "race". The latter are immortal souls reencarnating over and over again in adult human bodies, with a limited knowledge of his past lives and a very distinctive look; they don't really seem like an interesting concept to play though, since it is never clear how other people see them or what role do they play in the world. Neither of them really have flaws, foibles or defects, which is the heart of any good story.

So I'm looking for inspiration, ideas or advice on how to modify, fussion, eliminate or promote one or the other.

Thanks in advance,

Javier

As for doing a secret revision or something, do you think we would release a campaign setting revision and use art from Pathfinder #3 for the cover? If you recognize the art, it is a mock-up. :)

-Lisa

Could I ask for a just reinvindication of poor Shoanti people? They were left out of the human ethnicities descriptions.

Javier

I'm just awed. Really. I wouldn't know where to start. Could Tim or some other enlightened individual give us some tips on map drawing? That would be awesome, and an excelent topic for a post.

Javier

Also, I think of Aroden as the "last Azlanti" in the same way the numenoreans who conquered the common men from the Middle Earth. And I also figured he became a legendary figure who lived hundreds of years and acquired divinity on Golarion, not unlike Warhammer Fantasy' Sigmar.

Ha! Quoting myself, I also added the Empire of Nerath (from D&D4E) as the last human empire which desintegrated itself with the Aroden fiasco and the start of the Age of Lost Omens. The three main provinces of Nerath where Absalom, Taldor and Cheliax, but their influence reached far. During the last Gnoll wars the empire fell, and soon Absalom isolated itself, Cheliax fell to infernalism and Taldor... well, Taldor entered into a slow death.

I really like the Points of Light concept with my settings, and I think both Warhammer and D&D4E half-setting can add a lot of spice and mood to Golarion history.

Regards,

ZOOROOS

P.S.: I'm sorry if this last bit was off-topic.

Adding more ideas to the mix, I really like my Azlanti as Melniboneans, that is, as a more culturally advanced pre-human race of decadent nobles who mastered psionic and divine powers and where later seduced by the discovery of Arcane magic (of which Xin was a pioneer who was ironically exiled for initially trying to promote sorcery in Azlanti society). Not happy with that, they used their psionic talents to contact cthonic entities from the Far Realm in order to strike a pact for more arcane power (this is where Kalashtar initially come from). But they grew so hubristic and vain that they forsook the pact, and the cthonic primordial ordered the Aboleths to summon the Starfall, which put an end to old Azlant.

Also, I think of Aroden as the "last Azlanti" in the same way the numenoreans who conquered the common men from the Middle Earth. And I also figured he became a legendary figure who lived hundreds of years and acquired divinity on Golarion, not unlike Warhammer Fantasy' Sigmar.

On the subjecto of Warforged, maybe connecting them with the lost kingdom of Shory and their floating cities? Ancient mechanical beings torporing in the ruins of the floating cities, I think it could be pretty cool.

Regards,

ZOOROOS

I'm planning on using Golarion with D&D4E/Exalted cosmology. I really like the idea of Kalashtar as Azlanti slaves used for psionic experiments in order to contact with aberrant entities from the Far Realm.

For shifters, my idea is tied with lycanthropy. Lycanthropy used to be a curse levied by this powerful Fae on humans who dared to cross into the Feywild. But the curse spread like a disease, and soon you could find were-beasts everywhere, eventually even siring offspring that could be either completely animalistic (like dire-wolves and worgs) or more sentient (the shifter's progenitors). One shifter in particular, tired of the tiranny of their lycanthropic forefathers and hoping to end the curse of savagery, entered deep into the Feywild searching for a cure. There he/she stroke a pact with the Fae who devised the original curse and learned the secret to control the change.

A vicious war on three fronts followed: an alliance of men and elves, the were-beasts army and the rebelling shifters who undertook a secret ritual to 'fix' their form. The werewolves army was crushed and almost completely destroyed, and the shifters won their freedom.

Nowaday shifters live in nomadic tribes which revere the moon-goddess and their totemic patrons, but they have also spread far and wide and can be seen in most large cities too.

Where was this big war fought? I think somewhere NE from lake Encarthan.

Regards,

ZOOROOS

Because the people who write the game are human, and the people who play the game are human. By focusing the game setting on humanity, we give the game a stronger connection to known values, and thus when we DO introduce the fantastic, be it an elven tree city or a mountain sized dwarf city or a fire breathing dragon, it actually FEELS fantastic and magical.

Furthermore, we the creators of Golarion are steeped in fantasy fiction that focuses on the humanity. Look at Appendix 3 of the PRPG for examples; the majority of the books there are about humans in fantastic settings. Personally, my favorite fantasy settings are VERY light on demihuman type elements; Robert E. Howard's "Conan" stories, Raymond Feist's stories, Ramsey Campbell's (relatively obscure but still awesome) fantasy stories, Fritz Leiber, George R. R. Martin, Clark Ashton Smith, etc.

In fact, you can probably lay the elf/dwarf/halfling element of things more or less on Tolkein's doorstep, since it seems to me that one of the REALLY imaginative and groundbreaking and innovative elements of his stories is the fact that there a lot of non-human characters in major roles. Before him, this wasn't as much the case. I suspect that, in fact, this...

I'm saving this post in my pc. I love when developers and authors 'open the hood' for a while in order to let us see the whys and hows of some design choices. Nice!