Discover the world of Golarion, the official campaign setting for the smash-hit Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! A time of lost prophecies grips the world, bringing with it an unending maelstrom, a tear in the fabric of reality, a surge of diabolism, and the endless threat of war. Yet all is not lost, for these dark times provide ample opportunity for adventure and heroism.
Inside this exciting and informative 320-page tome you will find:
Detailed summaries of the player character races native to Golarion, including more than a dozen distinct human ethnicities
Elaborate gazetteers of more than 40 crumbling empires, expansionist kingdoms, independent city-states, and monster-haunted wildlands of Golarion’s adventure-filled Inner Sea region, with locations perfect for nearly any type of fantasy campaign
Cultural information and Pathfinder RPG rules covering the 20 core deities of the Inner Sea, plus entries on other gods, demigods, forgotten deities, weird cults, strange philosophies, and more!
An overview of the Inner Sea’s history, a look at time and space, a discussion of magical artifacts and technological wonders, discussions of important factions and organizations, and hundreds of locations ripe for adventure!
Tons of new options for player characters, including Inner Sea-themed prestige classes, feats, spells, adventuring gear, and magic items!
Nine new monsters, including exotic humanoids of the skies and seas, undead and dragons, and an angry demon lord in exile!
A giant 21.75"x33" poster map that reveals the sweeping landscape of the Inner Sea in all its treacherous glory!
by James Jacobs with Keith Baker, Wolfgang Baur, Clinton J. Boomer, Jason Bulmahn, Joshua J. Frost, Ed Greenwood, Stephen S. Greer, Jeff Grubb, Michael Kortes, Tito Leati, Mike McArtor, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Eric Nelson, Jeff Quick, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Leandra Christine Schneider, David Schwartz, Amber E. Scott, Stan!, Owen K.C. Stephens, Todd Stewart, James L. Sutter, Greg A. Vaughan, Jeremy Walker, and JD Wiker
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-269-2
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First off I have to say that this book is gorgeous. The cover art is great but I really went wow when I opened the book and started flipping through pages. Kudos to whoever did the layout. I haven't found any artwork I don't like either.
As for content I have mixed feelings. I had read the original hardcover front to back but didn't own it. Most of the content is repeated both from the original and from other Golarion books that have come out in the past couple years. The book is about 80% fluff and 20 % crunch. After reading through it again I'm glad I bought the book, its nice having the updated material all in one place instead of spread through all my books and pdfs.
The crunchy section is good although I wish it was a bit larger. The Red Mantis Assassin and the Harrower are very iconic and I'm glad they got an update. I found the Low Templar rather bland and wish another prestige class had taken its place. It also reprints some weapons - most were already in the Armory or APG. Question? Why nerf Exotic weapons. The majority were already not worth the feat. I found many of the feats to have good flavor but not terribly useful. I would have picked a better balance.
Overall, a great book and worth the $50 I paid for it.
Great on big picture, but there are a few things that could use some work; them later. It is great to see the Prestige classes (Harrower, Hellknight, Low Templar and Red Mantis Assassin) from the Chronicles redone. The new Inner Sea feats are nice as well as the details of the Inner Sea factions. The racial breakdown is also very nice which includes regional "hot spots" for some races also - "Hey look mom a Shoanti section!", very cool. Also a cool bonus - what the Holidays are and how they are held/celebrated.
The overview of each country is also very nice with one small issue; why didn't you cover areas on a map that are labeled?!?!?!? Example: Andoran pg. 44 11 locations are lightly covered by the Gazetteer while 30+ are displayed on the map. It would make sense to me if you just covered cities/towns, rivers, forests or ruins; you did not. There is a mix of cities, forests and ruins. The other locations are not covered, some are covered in the Adoran Companion, but there are a number of areas not covered at all. This is just Andoran, not to mention other regions that you cover - Varisa, Karapesh, Osirion, Cheliax, etc. These areas make the Inner Sea World Guide fall short even when adding in area Companions to cover what its name implies Guide for Inner Sea which would be to include named points on a map in said guide.
At last, all the information on Golarion clicks together perfectly. If you, like me, have had the chance to follow through the creative process that detailed Golarion in the past threee years, this book is the final assembly of all the information that's mixed and mashed in your head.
One thing I always liked about Golarion was that it is a whole world, designed and detailed for gamers, by gamers. It's not -like most settings- an "expansion" of an author's mary-sue characters background story.
Whichever system you are running your game on, you should get this book and see how an entire world can be designed part by part to provide any flavor and theme a GM might want; but still not feel like a scramble.
Thank you, for the honest effort and hard-work that you have put into this book, Paizo.
The map of the Great Beyond on page 240 does not show up properly on a Mac or an iPad. Can you please correct the PDF to display this map properly? I really want to see it.
As an aside, this is the very first time I have seen an error like this in one of your products. Everything else displays wonderfully (except the interactive map pack for Rise of the Runelords, of course).
This book was my first Pathfinder purchase (followed quickly by the APG) as I was still clinging to 3.5 and Faerun. It convinced me my clinging was unnecessary as Golarion was a lot more diverse. Also, being a Geography teacher, I LOVED the fact that some of these nations had real-world parallels (examples: Galt=French Revolution, Andoran=America/democratic).
One of my fav Bard spells are in this text: Dirge of the Victorious Knights! Get to summon shadowy Hellknights to deal both cold and arcane damage?! That is just so much thematic fun.
The map of the Great Beyond on page 240 does not show up properly on a Mac or an iPad. Can you please correct the PDF to display this map properly? I really want to see it.
As an aside, this is the very first time I have seen an error like this in one of your products. Everything else displays wonderfully (except the interactive map pack for Rise of the Runelords, of course).
I just downloaded the Inner Sea World Guide as part of the Humble Bundle and was having trouble seeing any of the maps properly on my Mac using Preview. Switched to Acrobat Reader and they all look fine - works on the iPad too. I think it's to do with how the files for this one were created.
