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Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Dragon Empires Gazetteer (PFRPG)

4.00/5 (based on 9 ratings)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Dragon Empires Gazetteer (PFRPG)
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It is a land where honorable samurai wage war against devious ninja. Where the guardian spirits known as kami stand against the ravages of evil oni. Where the martial artists of a shattered empire strive to maintain their traditions against rising chaos. A land of jade and tea, of pride and treachery, of reincarnation and vengeful ghosts. These are the lands of the Dragon Empires.

Dragon Empires Gazetteer presents the first exploration of the continent of Tian Xia, a vast realm found on the opposite side of the world of Golarion from the Inner Sea region. Inspired by the fascinating myths and rich histories of numerous Asian cultures and traditions, the Dragon Empires can be either an exotic destination for world-traveling heroes from the far side of the world, or they can be the foundation of an entirely new campaign.

    Inside this 64-page book, you will find:
  • Details on over two dozen nations and regions of the vast continent of Tian Xia, including Minkai (a land under the rule of the notorious Jade Regent), Quain (a realm of martial artists and strange spirits), the Wall of Heaven (the world’s largest and most dangerous mountain range), and Xa Hoi (an ancient empire ruled by a dragon king).
  • Rules for five new player character races (the foxlike kitsune, the reptilian nagaji, the spiritual samsarans, the crafty tengus, and the shadowy wayangs).
  • Details on the core 20 deities of the Dragon Empires.
  • A timeline of Tian Xia’s long and eventful history.
  • Information about Dragon Empires society, factions and philosophies, the zodiac, languages, and more!

Dragon Empires Gazetteer is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be used in any fantasy game setting.

by Matthew Goodall, Dave Gross, James Jacobs, Steve Kenson, Michael Kortes, Colin McComb, Rob McCreary, Richard Pett, F. Wesley Schneider, Mike Shel, and Todd Stewart

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-379-8

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscription.

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PZO9240

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An interesting introduction

4/5 —

I loved this book from page one. It is an interesting dip into cultures vastly different from my own and those most commonly found in RPGs. It was simple and fun to read. I especially liked the religions section, because it showed different perspectives on well known Pathfinder gods as well as introducing new ones.

My only problem with the booklet is that it is so short, 64 pages just isn't enough to properly expand on the vast continent that is Tian-Xia. Only a single page for each country and barely a paragraph for each god, it leaves a lot up to the imagination, and though that is also a good thing, I'd really like to know more about Yaezhing, Bachuan, and The Broken Lotus, among others.

Great introduction to the setting

5/5 —

Read my full review on my blog.

The Dragon Empires Gazetteer is an introduction to the continent of Tian Xia, a wonderfully flavourful setting. All the time while reading it, I was constantly getting ideas for new adventures and campaigns I could run in each area. (Alas, too many ideas and too little time to use any of them.) This is the biggest mark in the book’s favour. Any setting book that generates so many ideas has done its job admirably. Another thing I like about the setting is that it takes its influences from more than just Japan and China, but also from Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Tibet, and numerous other Asian countries. All blend together to make a varied and vibrant setting with endless opportunity for adventure.

Excellent read

5/5 —

One of the best RPGs supplements ever. More please from this part of these parts. Only downside was the price.

An interesting start, but barely useful

2/5 —

For starters, I love OA campaigns and was really looking forward to the Dragon Empires material allowing me to run such games in Pathfinder.

So....I made the mistake of paying almost 25 bucks for a print edition of the Dragon Empires Gazeteer (nearly 5 bucks in shipping and handling for this thin little booklet is excessive). Not only is it thinner and (through S&H) more expensive than 2E or 3E softcover supplements were (62 pages of actual content, if I count the inside-cover geographical map, relative to the 127 black-and-white pages of a 2E splatbook or 95 B&W pages of a 3E splatbook), but it contains only the briefest descriptions of each country, a few organizations, some deities, core races, Tian Xia humans, and the five new races.

The timeline (2-1/2 pages) and much of the "Life in the Dragon Empires" chapter are at least reasonably descriptive. But still only a cursory look at the continent of Tian Xia and its history/cultures. For a book whose introduction describes Tian Xia as more than 5 times the size of the Inner Sea region, it suffers rather badly from compressing a continent's worth of info into a few dozen pages of scant overview (roughly a fifth as many pages as the Inner Sea World Guide, and what I've heard about that book leads me to believe it's only slightly better than the DEG in descriptive content).

There's a very basic geographical map of Tian Xia and a geopolitical map that only really shows the capitols and borders. No zoomed-in maps of the individual countries/regions and their features, and no cities or the like beyond capitols. Each country/region of Tian Xia gets a 1-page description or less, with nice but useless illustrations stealing space away from some of those pages. Only a few actually show leaders or locations within the country/region described on the page. Others show monsters that must be detailed in other books like the Bestiaries. They're interesting places but still terribly lacking in detail for an actual campaign in any of these regions.

There are a few pages of scant description for major deities of Tian Xia, such as Daikitsu the Lady of Foxes, including a few Golarion deities like Irori and Shelyn with notes regarding their worship on Tian Xia. Each deity gets hardly a paragraph, with a few useful bits of info beside their holy symbol and domains. The Moon subdomain is given a sidebar, but nowhere is the Moonstruck spell described; you need the Advanced Player's Guide for it. There's 1-1/2 pages describing philosophies and 1-1/2 pages describing some factions in the Dragon Empires. The 5 races get a page each (1/4th illustration, 3/4ths description). For some reason, you need the Dragon Empires Primer (not free) in order to view the kitsune's 3 or 4 measely racial feats (1 for fox form, 2-3 related feats). Core races get a paragraph each regarding their place in Tian Xia (generally as solo wanderers), while human ethnic groups get 2-1/2 pages total.

All in all, I'm not even sure if this is enough to run the Jade Regent AP well, let alone make my own campaigns in the Dragon Empires.

Land of the Rising Fun

5/5 —

I alsways like my fantasy game worlds to have many different cultures because lets face it every land being like eruope is boring. So thanks to Paizo we get some nice info on an asian style continent and not just Japanes and Chinese ether. This book has interesting places such as a huge mountain range with a portal Leng, a steamy jungle with anciemt ruins build by 15ft tall lizard people, a kingdom run my a dragon, a land ruled Oni, an underdark with undead clockwork creatures and so much more. My only regret is we didn't get a big hardcover book for this (and the other continents) but maybe one day we will.

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Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
4 people marked this as a favorite.

Announced for November!

The product image is a mockup, and will change prior to publication.
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Ooooohhh..
Scarab Sages

Sweet!
Jon Brazer Enterprises

Where's the like button?
1 person marked this as a favorite.

28 seconds ago? Now that's timing!

Yay!

Does that preorder note mean I can't even preorder until November?

Sigh.

Normally I don't get Gazetters, I have my own homebrew world. But I can't resist this. One sale guaranteed here.

edit: and three other folks posted while I dithered...

;-)

Hobgoblins, back where they belong. I love it!
Dark Archive

Do want.
2 people marked this as a favorite.

At the risk of mortgaging today's textspace for tomorrows...

Could you please not waste post-count with simple "Oooohs", "Aaahs", "Gimme!", "Like-button" and similar when a new release is posted? Please. It doesn't add to the conversation nor is it incentive for me to buy the product. To the contrary, if the post-count gets too high, it isn't a wise use of my time to try to get up to date with the thread.

Instead, perhaps you could nudge the publisher to release more details.
Or perhaps you could sway final editing with your wish list for inclusion. Whatever you choose, please be considerate of those of us who must wade through afterwards to get to the crux of the conversation.

Thank you.

[Reposted to general forum.]
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Looks pretty cool, yeah I know the cover is a mock up but nice cover too.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Spiral_Ninja wrote:
Does that preorder note mean I can't even preorder until November?

You can preorder now—it just won't be available until November. (And we won't charge your card until it ships.)

Dark Archive

Dear Paizo,
You are my heroes. That is all.
Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Ooh, shiny.
Shadow Lodge
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

WANT
Liberty's Edge

Does the inclusion of the new player races mean that the traditional races (elf/dwarf/halfling) are much less common on these continents?
Dark Archive

Nerdgasm

Geez, talk about a ton of content for a 64-page book. Two dozen countries, more than 12 gods, and 5 new races? Crikey. I'm guessing that means most countries will only have a paragraph or two of information, but oh well - that's how the old Pathfinder Chronicles Gazeteer was.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
spamhammer wrote:
Does the inclusion of the new player races mean that the traditional races (elf/dwarf/halfling) are much less common on these continents?

Yes. They're still there (and in at least one case, there's a nation of Inner Sea races within the Dragon Empires), but for the most part, elves and dwarves and gnomes and halflings and half-elves and half-orcs are as common in Tian Xia as kitsune and tengus and samsarans and wayang and nagaji are in the Inner Sea region. That is to say... not all that common. PCs, of course, can break this rule, but that's only about 4 people in all, so it hardly breaks commonality.

Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

And like that old Gazeteer I hope it is eventually followed up by a hardcover World Guide...
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Generic Villain wrote:
Geez, talk about a ton of content for a 64-page book. Two dozen countries, more than 12 gods, and 5 new races? Crikey. I'm guessing that means most countries will only have a paragraph or two of information, but oh well - that's how the old Pathfinder Chronicles Gazeteer was.

Comparing this book to the original Inner Sea Gazetter is very apt—because we're taking the same tack in developing Tian Xia as we did with the Inner Sea. And since Tian Xia is several times larger in size than the Inner Sea... taking it slow and steady like this is really the only sane option we have.

Paizo Employee Creative Director
Shem wrote:

And like that old Gazeteer I hope it is eventually followed up by a hardcover World Guide...

If folks are excited enough by Tian Xia and what we do with this book and some other stuff, a hardcover expansion would certainly be a possibility. Although one of the things we learned last time around was to NOT rush the production of said hardcover--I wouldn't expect us to do a hardcover expansion to the Dragon Empires anytime soon as a result... especially since we'll want to base the start-time for the year-long (or longer) process of creating a book like that at some point a few months AFTER this 64 page book is published and folks have had a chance to tell us what they think of it...

James Jacobs wrote:
especially since we'll want to base the start-time for the year-long (or longer) process of creating a book like that at some point a few months AFTER this 64 page book is published and folks have had a chance to tell us what they think of it...

And buy it without holding out for the hardcover. :)

can i preorder the hardcover now?
Dark Archive

PSST, you got Ninjas in my fantasy!!!
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

I would expect them to do a few more 64 page books on more specific sections of Tian Xia before contemplating a hardcover. Like "Cities of Tian Xia" or specific nation books. I do want to see a "Tengu of Golarion" as well.

SEITEKI HAI !
bigkilla wrote:
PSST, you got Ninjas in my fantasy!!!

But...but...I *like* ninjas in my fantasy.

Ooh. Asian kraken.
Liberty's Edge

So we'll have player races. Ultimate Combat will finish giving us the necessary classes. The gazeteer will handle the setting info as well. That means there's only one thing left....

...MONSTERS.

(Edited because we don't use races for classes anymore.)

Minor typo fix:

Spoiler:
reincarnted > reincarnated

Paizo Employee Creative Director
Shisumo wrote:

So we'll have player races. Ultimate Combat will finish giving us the necessary races. The gazeteer will handle the setting info as well. That means there's only one thing left....

...MONSTERS.

Hmm. If only we had some sort of way to provide folks with monsters in, say, Adventure Paths or hardcovers. We'll look into it!

Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
We'll look into it!

Good! I want my dozen types of oni and pennagolans and jiangshi and baku and hsiao and orang pendaks, dangit!

A small, Tian-Xia (oriental)-themed book with oriental monsters sounds like the easiest and fastest way to go. I, too, feel an oriental-themed setting is deserving of a healthy chunk of oriental-themed monsters to go along with it (outside of the APs, that is)

How common are these races in the Inner Sea region? I was under the impression that tengu enclaves could be found in all the major cities.

I like tengu as they remind me very much of Dark Sun elves which are a race I miss in Golarion. I realise I could just houserule it and say in my version of Golarion tengu are very common. But I'd like to stick to the established fluff as much as possible as I do enjoy it.

Also we've got tengu stats in the bestiary. Will these PC stats differ from the bestiary ones? Or will they be reprinted simply to get them in the hands of players rather than DMs?
Paizo Employee Creative Director
1 person marked this as a favorite.
John Lynch 106 wrote:

How common are these races in the Inner Sea region? I was under the impression that tengu enclaves could be found in all the major cities.

I like tengu as they remind me very much of Dark Sun elves which are a race I miss in Golarion. I realise I could just houserule it and say in my version of Golarion tengu are very common. But I'd like to stick to the established fluff as much as possible as I do enjoy it.

Also we've got tengu stats in the bestiary. Will these PC stats differ from the bestiary ones? Or will they be reprinted simply to get them in the hands of players rather than DMs?

All shall be made clear later this year! :)

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Kitsune- as a player race I like it but at the same time i was hoping for a CR 15+ version for the nine tail fox

Tengus- cool, but can they fly?

Nagaji-please tell me they are good looking women with the lower part of there body a snake.

Samsarans- ?

Wayang-?

I like the sound of this book a lot.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Dragon78 wrote:

Kitsune- as a player race I like it but at the same time i was hoping for a CR 15+ version for the nine tail fox

Tengus- cool, but can they fly?

Nagaji-please tell me they are good looking women with the lower part of there body a snake.

Samsarans- ?

Wayang-?

I like the sound of this book a lot.

The nine-tail fox can still be a monster; it'd be different than the kitsune though.

Tengus can't fly (see Pathfinder Bestiary)

Nagaji: Nope; that's Warcraft. We're doing something different.

Samsarans: Still semi-top secret.

Wayang: Check out this link to Wikipedia for a hint to where we're going with these guys.
James Jacobs wrote:
All shall be made clear later this year! :)
Fair enough. Although to help stoke the fires of speculation here is the quote I remembered from this thread.
James Jacobs wrote:
Actually, of the "looks too weird" races, Tengus are at the top of the list of "ones that are cool enough to fit in." Furthermore... they already have a place in the Inner Sea region—pirates of the Shackles use them as mascots, thinking that they "soak up" the bad luck. Also, many cities have tengus living in them as well. This, and the fact that there's not an in-world history of tengus waging war or killing humans (such as you get with goblinoids, gnolls, and most other savage humanoid races) actually makes them great PCs.
Contributor

And now it's on the product schedule :D

This was my guess for the top secret "Never discussed" product at the Preview Banquet.

Now I'm stumped.

Very cool!

And now the samsarans have me intrigued...
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 4
deinol wrote:
I would expect them to do a few more 64 page books on more specific sections of Tian Xia before contemplating a hardcover. Like "Cities of Tian Xia" or specific nation books. I do want to see a "Tengu of Golarion" as well.

More tengu love. Excellent.

PC Kitsune!!! I loved and still love Dog Souls Kitsunemori campaign setting. Can't wait to get this as part of my [upcoming] subscription.

Is "by James Jacobs" a placeholder ?
Owner - House of Books and Games LLC
Watcher wrote:

This was my guess for the top secret "Never discussed" product at the Preview Banquet.

Now I'm stumped.

Epic Level Handbook!

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Hobgoblin nation?

*prays for Hobgoblin Mongols*

Ooops, I might have created a misunderstanding. A "secret product" is mentioned in the 3-Day PaizoCon product description, but it might be the announcement of the next AP, after Jade Regent.

I don't want to create false excitement that folks get disappointed about. That would be unfair to Paizo.

I have asked James about it in his thread in the off-topic area.

We should return this thread back to discussing *this* product, which is also cool and not a secret.

Thanks!

Squeee!!!

<nerdgasm>
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
gbonehead wrote:
Watcher wrote:

This was my guess for the top secret "Never discussed" product at the Preview Banquet.

Now I'm stumped.

Epic Level Handbook!

I would guess Bestiary 3 actually.

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I think shapechanger PC races are a bad idea. Ah, well. And furries on top of ninja and Samurai... *sigh*
Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Zaister wrote:
I think shapechanger PC races are a bad idea. Ah, well. And furries on top of ninja and Samurai... *sigh*

Just curious, why do you think shapeshifters are bad? Changlings (Eberron) are fun to play for me.

And is it possible to have an anthropomorphic race you'd not call a 'furry'?
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