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Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Worlds (PFRPG)

4.60/5 (based on 14 ratings)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Worlds (PFRPG)
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Golarion is the primary world of the Pathfinder campaign setting, but it is not alone. Far beyond its lands and seas, sister worlds revolve around the same sun, their residents connected by magical portals or ships of terrifying magic and technology. Now take your game off-planet and explore these weird new worlds for yourself!

This book offers a detailed introduction to the science-fantasy worlds of Golarion’s solar system, each complete with its own mysterious locations and cultures. Discover how your swords and spells match up against the trench dwellers of the Red Planet or the angelic Sarcesians who soar between asteroids. Research the mysterious origins of the sealed world-ship of Apostae, or hunt vortex sharks in the freezing seas of Kalo-Mahoi. Though strange and new, each of these worlds uses the same Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules as Golarion itself.

    Within this 64-page book, you’ll find:
  • Gazetteers of every planet and major moon in Golarion’s system, from the steamy jungles of Castrovel and the machine-ruled rock of Aballon to post-apocalyptic Eox and divided Verces, where one side is always day and the other night. Plus, uncover information on the residents of the sun, Golarion’s moon, the asteroid belt called the Diaspora, the dark regions beyond mysterious Aucturn, and more!
  • Introductions to the major cultures inhabiting the system. Will you join Castrovel’s beautiful Lashunta, fight beside the four-armed giants of Akiton, study with the hyper-evolved Contemplatives of Ashok, petition the undead Bone Sages of Eox, or face down the insectile legions of the Forever Queen?
  • Easy new rules for adventuring on other planets, including discussions on gravity, temperature, time, vacuum, and traveling between worlds.
  • Adventure hooks for every world, tailored for GMs currently playing on Golarion.
  • Six brand-new alien monsters, from intelligent dragonkin who bond with humanoids to the great oma space-whales and amorphous, blimplike Brethedans.

Distant Worlds 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 James L. Sutter

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-403-0

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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More, please!

5/5 —

I adore how much sci-fi is in Pathfinder, and the delicious sword-and-planet weirdness is my favorite flavor of that. I’m hoping 2e revisits this material as soon as possible - and with a greater eye towards PCs from these places!

Indispensable if Your PCs are Headed to the Stars

4/5 —

Distant Worlds is a 64-page softcover campaign setting book for Pathfinder that's like no other: instead of detailing a particular region of Golarion, this book takes you into space! Well-known as one of the few campaign setting-line books to receive a second printing due to its popularity, the goal of Distant Worlds is to provide an introduction and overview to the planets that share a solar system with Golarion. The Inner Sea is great and planar travel has its appeal, but sometimes a story needs to travel to whole new worlds and encounter strange, alien civilizations: if you're inclined in such a direction, this is the book for you.

The front cover is certainly cool and eye-catching, and evokes the "sword and planet" genre that inspires much of what's inside the book. The artwork is reprinted as the inside back cover, while the inside front cover provides a map of the solar system, showing the order of planets from the sun.

The Introduction (two pages) makes clear that this isn't intended as a brand new campaign setting (much less a brand new game like Starfinder), but is instead a whole new set of locales that heroes from Golarion can travel to and adventure on. Thus, the focus is on what outsiders to these planets will experience, and how they'll survive the journey to get there. I especially like the couple of paragraphs on how the gods of Golarion aren't necessarily known deities on other planets, and that their portfolios may be encompassed by deities completely unheard of to the PCs.

The first and by far largest section (48 pages) of this book is a gazetteer of the bodies that make up Golarion's solar system. Each of the planets receives four pages of coverage made up of statistics (diameter, mass, gravity, atmosphere, and orbit), a general description, a few paragraphs on what adventuring there would be like, a half-page chart of key locations on the planet, a couple of pages of written description of those locations, and then a few brief adventure hooks that GMs can use to draw PCs to that planet. Given that entire worlds are being described in just four pages, readers need to have their expectations in the right place: this is an introduction, not an exhaustive treatment. I found the interior artwork very hit or miss: many of the aliens are very cool and evocative, but some of the other drawings are rather mediocre. Anyway, here's a quick run-down of what's covered:

* The Sun: This is actually just a one-page summary, but it's actually kind of cool--I never thought about setting adventures on the sun! In Pathfinder, there's actually stuff there, including magically-protected "bubble cities" that would make an awesome setting for an adventure.

* Aballon: A rocky world that is the closet planet to the sun, occupied by a vast society of machine intelligences created by mysterious (and now departed) First Ones. There's a really cool cultural divide among the intelligent machines between Those Who Wait (who believe that their creators will someday return and justify their existence) and Those Who Become (who believe that they should leave and seed another world, becoming First Ones themselves). Another location that stands out is Horsethroat, a small settlement of about 50 people from Golarion (and other worlds) who have arrived, quite accidentally, through a portal from their homeworld and are now trapped on Aballon. It's a natural starting point for PCs to begin their adventures amongst the stars (even if the "fall through a portal" adventure hook is overused in the book).

* Castrovel: Home to both the elven nation of Sovyrian (with major story ties to the fate of elves on Golarion) and the lashunta, a humanoid race with major and fixed divisions between the societal roles of the sexes. There's a plethora of awesome stuff on these four pages, including some fascinating hints about a mysterious portal network on the planet, some links of which have become dangerous. The ties between Castrovel and Golarion are so strong, it would be fantastic to see an AP that crosses between the two planets.

* Golarion's Moon: This section is only two pages long, but there are some interesting story elements here, as the moon was once colonized by ancient Azlanti, and there's a demon-infested area called the Moonscar (the subject of a Pathfinder module).

* Akiton: That massive four-armed creature on the book's cover is a Shobhad from the harsh, red desert planet of Akiton. This is a classic "sword and planet" setting, but features two races that we'll be seeing a lot more of in Starfinder: the ysoki (ratfolk) and Contemplatives of Ashok (floating giant brains!). I appreciate that the book's author, James Sutter, took care to insert details of continuity from previous Pathfinder sourcebooks, like noting that there's a strong link between the Contemplatives and an artifact found in the Mwangi Expanse on Golarion that was first detailed in Heart of the Jungle.

* Vercies: A tidal locked planet, with a Darkside and a Fullbright area sandwiching a narrow habitable zone along the equator. There's a great picture on page 22 of one of the three castes of the planetwide Vercite species. This is one of the more "high-tech" planets in the solar system and has a nice SF feel that sets it apart from Golarion's traditional fantasy setting.

* The Diaspora: Millions of asteroids, large and small, form the Diaspora. The asteroid belt has a cool history perhaps linked to the Starstone, and is home to a race called the Sarcesians. There's a ton of great adventure possibilities detailed in these four pages, with the Vacant Halls and the Wailing Stone serving as natural destinations for explorers.

* Eox: What if you built the Death Star on a planet, but the one time it was fired it caused untold destruction of your own world? That's sort of the backstory to Eox, a planet where the survivors of a doomsday weapon have turned to necromancy and undeath in order to survive on a blasted world. Eox is one of the most memorable parts of Distant Worlds, as the resident Bone Sages are cool and creepy at the same time. There's a location on the planet called the Halls of the Living which is mad-genius Sutter at his best.

* Triaxus: Interesting concept of a planet with a long (317 years!) orbit, so generations are either "summer-born" or "winter-born." There's a surprising amount of dragon stuff, which isn't really my cup of tea, but it's done well.

* Liavara: An enormous gas giant with several moons. The moons provide lots of variety and adventure possibilities, and I can't argue with the fantastic depiction of a giant creepy bug called The Forever Queen on p. 39 (just pay attention to the little guy at the bottom left to understand the scale!).

* Bretheda: Purple gas giant with natives that are . . . difficult for outsiders to understand. I found the planet's moons to be the most interesting, many of which are so intriguing I wish they would have had additional pages devoted to them.

* Apostae: This is the classic "world-ship" SF trope, and I'm stoked to see it here. My mind instantly jumped to an AP focussed on how to get to the mysterious "vault" at the center of the planet to understand the creators and purpose of Apostae. Interestingly, each resident of Apostae is biologically significantly different to every other one, so the PCs will likely stand out simply due to their (probably) shared humanoid-bipedal features!

* Aucturn: A cool, mysterious planet at the very edge of the solar system. Unlike all of the others, there are no magical portals to Aucturn, meaning it's a hard place to get to! The write-up shows some intriguing links to the Old Ones and the Dominion of the Black, but there's only two-pages of information on this one.

* Other Worlds: The part ends with a two-page overview of some miscellaneous topics: constellations, Cynosure (Golarion's north star), the Dark Tapestry (the haunted void between the stars), and the Ice Belt. I wasn't particularly impressed with the material here, and would rather have seen it used for something else.

Part Two, Stellar Adventures, is just four pages long but they're an extremely important four pages. It's here we get some insight into ways for PCs to travel to other planets, including portals, spells, and vessels. There are brief discussions on how to handle environmental problems (including vacuum, extremely high and low gravity and temperature, etc.). Last, there are two new spells ("Planetary Adaptation" and "Mass Planetary Adaptation") and a new magical item ("Pressure Suit"), all of which are indispensable. GMs planning a space-based campaign should note that this section sets some very broad rules, but leaves the vast majority of questions that are bound to come up to GM discretion. Again, this is an introductory sketch to an interplanetary campaign, not a full rules system.

Part Three, Aliens, is eight pages long. One of the best parts of this section is a list of the couple of dozen of established Pathfinder "monsters" that are explicitly extraterrestrial in origin or that could logically be found on particular other planets. The list is drawn from Bestiary 1, 2, and 3, so there are probably more recent monsters from volumes 4, 5, and 6 that could be used as well. Last, six new alien creatures are given stat blocks and descriptions: the insectile machine creatures called Aballonians, the dirigible-like Brethedans, the previously-mentioned giant brains called Contemplatives of Ashok, the Dragonkin of Triaxus, giant interplanetary "space whales" (capable of being used as transports) called Oma, and the four-armed giants from Akiton called Shobhad. Interesting, creative ideas executed well.

Distant Worlds is a campaign setting book that will either sit on a shelf gathering dust (if you play purely pre-published materials like APs, PFS scenarios, and modules) or serve as *the* book for a homebrew campaign in which the PCs find themselves on alien worlds. It's thus not a must have for most GMs, but if you have serious plans to integrate Golarion's solar system into your campaign, then it's indispensable. There are a ton of great ideas in the book, and even if it's not quite as spectacular as some of the buzz indicates, it represents a worthy expansion of Pathfinder's core campaign setting.

A great spark for extreme fantasy

5/5 —

Not only does this book give some very unique interplanetary ideas, but is also very good to create earth based areas. That all comes with the fact, however, that this is an idea book like any gazatter.
This book runs through various inhospitable Terrain and the requirements to survive in them. With some clever alterations you can create very alien worlds with them. Those glaciers in real life that bleed red water because of heavy iron? Easily adapted to the Mars setting. Need a compelling volcano? The sun can help. Magic gas filling the area? Look to the gas giants.
Aside from the obvious and welcomed return of fantasy space this will be very much enjoyed by anyone who enjoys the most extreme fantasy setting. Again, this is a gazetteer so don't expect too much to be done for you, it just has the basics. Still the best example of a gazatter I've seen in ages.

Possibilities for the future!

5/5 —

As many of you have noted, this book provides many hooks, and basic background for these new worlds, but few new rules, items, and monsters. But think of the future Setting books this may spawn! I can easily see at least one book for each of the planets, plus a space-travel/vehicles book, magi-technology book, augmentations book (mystical&technological), etc.. I've already come up with an addition to the dragonkin, the True-blooded (dragonkin with the half-dragon template, with the damage, energy type, and DC of their breath weapon changing to that of their progenitor, along with their fire immunity being replaced with the respective type).

A Good Start

3/5 —

I'm an old school fan of SpellJammer although Spider Moon is growing on me, like a fungus really but I digress. I am a GM that wants to resurrect SpellJammer using Pathfinder rules and this was not enough. But I am aware of 2 more third party books coming down the pike to supplement what little is here so I'll take this book for what it is.

Now keep in mind I like the book as a whole but there were some teasers I found annoying in illustrations of being I would love to have stats for towards the end of the first section. It's a nice solar system model I may steal for my own campaign and there are some nice ideas in here, that I wish had been given more info. And in the intro would it have killed you to list some stories that feed into this, I mean, Heck Planet Stories has a good chunk of them, pimp yourselves!

The space travel is a little too light for my tastes but I had the same problem with the first section of being too short. The one new magic item inspired me to create my own. That said the image that starts the chapter off is just fun.

The last bit was all about Aliens and this too could have been expanded. Great stuff and suggestions of other monsters to add in that you may already have was nice. I love the space whales and living clouds best but there isn't a bad monster in here.

Ultimately this is your primer to fantasy space, if doubling the page count would have upped the price I would have paid the extra gladly. I'm looking forward to what Zombie Sky is putting out and I'm sorry I couldn't put in a bid for that one, but i expect it will supplement this nicely. Clockwork Gnome's book I did help get launched and with my pledge I'm getting a copy to use with this and I hope others will too. If you want interplanetary adventures this will get you started but as I have said, there could have been so much more in here.

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Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
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Dragnmoon wrote:
James Sutter wrote:
Our top folks are working on getting that resolved as we speak.
Who?

Top... folks.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Sutter wrote:
Credit where credit's due: Those astrological symbols are courtesy of Wes Schneider, as they have some ties to the symbology he did for Princes of Darkness. Whenever you need some weird and fake-Kabbalistic symbols at Paizo, Wes is your guy. He and I had a lot of long conversations that would probably make us sound like dangerous crazy people to anyone listening in.

...oooh, that reminds me: just which of the malebranches are assigned to which world? (And yes, now I notice the symbols are the same as on page 51 of the Book of the Damned.)

"Twelve malebranche are known to the peoples of Golarion: one for that world, nine for the worlds seen amid the night’s stars, and, some say, two for the ones that once were."

"Alichino: The jester prince of the Cage, who has a dozen voices, a hundred faces, and seeks to befriend the lords of every land." -- "The Cage" indicates Golarion, and suggests that you guys had already decided on the world's epithet when I was still trying to get Jacobs to admit it had one. :)

"Barbarica: The ancient and wild, who raises an army of his own children mothered by a jungle of evils." Castrovel? The Loving Place on Aucturn?

"Cagnazzo: Hunter of souls, who races across the world bringing murder to those who would impede his conquest."

"Calcabrina: Dreamy mistress of twilight, who dwells within a tower of ether and whose thoughts can cause a man to sleep forever."

"Circiatto: The gluttonous, who devourers all that he encounters, vomiting them forth as unliving slaves."

"Draghignazzo: The devil-dragon of devastation, who sleeps amid a conquest too complete and longs for Hell." "Scarmiglione: Who shares a fractured realm with Draghignazzo and coaxes wanderers close to feed his monstrous sibling." The Diaspora, formerly of the Twins.

"Farafello: The interim ruler, a specter of evil who haunts a land of the dead, his conquest having been delayed by death, but not denied." Eox.

"Graffiacane: The swarm lord, whose face is seen in the eyes of vermin and whose kiss can turn friend into foe."

"Libicocco: The prideful lady of winds, whose mission is not to conquer but to destroy." Possibly Aballon, given the allegedly soulless nature of its robot populace; Hell can't bargain or steal for what doesn't exist.

"Malacoda: The most monstrous of all, who is said to have conquered eight worlds and brought its spoils with it to a new realm." One of the gas giants? How are large inhabited moons classified in the malebranche assignment office, anyway -- under the jurisdiction of the main planet's devil, or to each its own?

"Rubicante: He who grows red, the flameshrouded prince of rust and ruin, who speaks of sense and peace to those who burn in his embrace." Akiton?
James Sutter wrote:

I've just now heard about this business with Amazon "not being able to get" Distant Worlds (which is totally false). Our top folks are working on getting that resolved as we speak. And that cover you see on Amazon is the mock-up cover... it takes a lot of time (and effort) for them to update those.

Thanks for letting us know!

My pre-order of DISTANT WORLDS was cancelled by Amazon as well! :-<

This is the first time I've had that happen with a Paizo product -- what restitution (if any) do we have??

Cheers, JohnH / Wanda
James Sutter wrote:
It's possible that, down the road, we'll go ahead and stat up all the basic planetary races, especially if there continues to be vocal support for it.
deinol wrote:


Clearly a Distant World's Player's Companion needs to be added to the schedule. ;)

What Deinol said ... let me add vocal support behind that ;)

Sketchpad wrote:
James Sutter wrote:
It's possible that, down the road, we'll go ahead and stat up all the basic planetary races, especially if there continues to be vocal support for it.
deinol wrote:


Clearly a Distant World's Player's Companion needs to be added to the schedule. ;)
What Deinol said ... let me add vocal support behind that ;)

Thirded!

Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

And Fourthed... :)
Dark Archive

Sounds like as much as there is in this guide (yippee! :) ), there is just as much missing. I too hope that another guide comes out that fleshes out even more information.

Yeah a player companion would be a no brainer purchase for me as well.
Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
5 people marked this as a favorite.
zagnabbit wrote:
Yeah a player companion would be a no brainer purchase for me as well.

So say we all!

Contributor
15 people marked this as a favorite.

While I can't promise anything, let me just say that the idea of a Distant Worlds player companion has been heard, and is busy percolating... I'll see what I can do....
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
James Sutter wrote:
While I can't promise anything, let me just say that the idea of a Distant Worlds player companion has been heard, and is busy percolating... I'll see what I can do....

Good thing the Player Companion line is going monthly so it has more room for awesome products. ;)

Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

James,

I know I am an outside looking in but it seems to me this book is very successful and I know it is early but from how this has been received do ya'll think we will see more of this flavor of Paizo?

My only complaint is that it names the ant people also known as the Formians..... and no stats for them in the Beastiaries 1 to 3.

or atleast none that I saw.... mind you I could have missed it...
Contributor
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Steelfiredragon wrote:

My only complaint is that it names the ant people also known as the Formians..... and no stats for them in the Beastiaries 1 to 3.

or atleast none that I saw.... mind you I could have missed it...

The fact that formians haven't shown up in a bestiary yet is a known issue, and one that will be addressed soon.

So, it's not a feature, it's a bug (buh-dum PSHT!).
Contributor
Shem wrote:

James,

I know I am an outside looking in but it seems to me this book is very successful and I know it is early but from how this has been received do ya'll think we will see more of this flavor of Paizo?

Hopefully! While I expect 99% of our focus to remain on Golarion and the core continuity, I think that, at the very least, we should see some Easter eggs. But the other planets are something a lot of us are excited to play with, and there are rumblings of further explorations in that arena...

Everyone keeps talking Spelljammer, I was hoping for a retool of Dragonstar. The second darkness adventure path seems rife with Dragon Empire tidbits. The Starmetals from Second Darkness path seem a great foot step tward a technological based starfareing culture. The Abysium or fever stone could be a great way to replace the idea of mages pouring XP into Starcasters to repower them. The Starcasters could run on Abysium, requireing the locating and mining of this rare element.
Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

Awesome James...

Mr Sutter, do the Lashunta age like humans, elves, or somewhere inbetween?

The red skin "humans" of Akiton, are they human(with human subtype) like the book inplies or are actually a different enough to be stated up as a seperate race?

Are there any Fey on Castrovel, Verces, Triaxus, or any of the other planets or moons?
Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

James, I have been thinking since reading your post and I understand keeping the focus on Golarion and I completely agree. So, I propose a book a year on an individual planet. Starting with The Red Planet and then the Green Planet and then where ever your little heart takes you. That will keep you busy for several years.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Sutter wrote:
Steelfiredragon wrote:

My only complaint is that it names the ant people also known as the Formians..... and no stats for them in the Beastiaries 1 to 3.

or atleast none that I saw.... mind you I could have missed it...

The fact that formians haven't shown up in a bestiary yet is a known issue, and one that will be addressed soon.

So, it's not a feature, it's a bug (buh-dum PSHT!).

I hope that Paizo will use the formians from Tricky Owlbear's Forgotten Foes, rather than writing their own.

I like that Paizo uses other companies' Open Game Content, but it'd be nice of them to go beyond just Green Ronin and Necromancer/Frog God Games.

(As a side note, the formians of Castrovel would likely be native outsiders, rather than extraplanar ones.)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I would expect the Formians to follow this more closely.
Contributor
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Justin Franklin wrote:

I would expect the Formians to follow this more closely.

I'm sure Erik "Pulpmaster" Mona would agree with you. :D

Contributor
Dragon78 wrote:

Mr Sutter, do the Lashunta age like humans, elves, or somewhere inbetween?

The red skin "humans" of Akiton, are they human(with human subtype) like the book inplies or are actually a different enough to be stated up as a seperate race?

Are there any Fey on Castrovel, Verces, Triaxus, or any of the other planets or moons?

For the first two questions--I honestly haven't decided. :) I imagine the Lashunta are probably closer to the human end of the scale in terms of lifespan, but I don't want to pin anything down officially just yet.

As for the latter, there are definitely fey on other planets. As mentioned in the First World article in Pathfinder #36, the First World extends behind the Material Plane as a whole, not just Golarion. So while the fey probably aren't identical to Golarion's--regional differences and all--the First World is no farther from other planets than it is from Golarion.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

This book should now be buyable at Amazon again.
Silver Crusade
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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Am I the only person who feels that this side project has eclipsed the much-hyped and cross-promoted Dragon Empires in popularity? I mean, Distant Worlds is in Amazon top 20 RPG books, I can't recall a Paizo softcover hanging around there with big boys such as PF hardcovers and 4E stuff.

I really hope this does spark some creative flames at Paizo, because this is one of the best sourcebooks I've read of late.
Gorbacz wrote:

Am I the only person who feels that this side project has eclipsed the much-hyped and cross-promoted Dragon Empires in popularity? I mean, Distant Worlds is in Amazon top 20 RPG books, I can't recall a Paizo softcover hanging around there with big boys such as PF hardcovers and 4E stuff.

I really hope this does spark some creative flames at Paizo, because this is one of the best sourcebooks I've read of late.

I love this book, more like it would be awesome!

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Gorbacz wrote:

Am I the only person who feels that this side project has eclipsed the much-hyped and cross-promoted Dragon Empires in popularity? I mean, Distant Worlds is in Amazon top 20 RPG books, I can't recall a Paizo softcover hanging around there with big boys such as PF hardcovers and 4E stuff.

I really hope this does spark some creative flames at Paizo, because this is one of the best sourcebooks I've read of late.

I think there are 2 things going on here, one no one has done a book like this for a D&D fantasy Campaign Setting before (except maybe Spelljammer, but that was different). 2nd, we only got 64 pages of info on the planets, as opposed to 416 pages + a novel and a few PFS adventures. And there is more ways to expand the solar system then a continent.

Gorbacz wrote:

Am I the only person who feels that this side project has eclipsed the much-hyped and cross-promoted Dragon Empires in popularity? I mean, Distant Worlds is in Amazon top 20 RPG books, I can't recall a Paizo softcover hanging around there with big boys such as PF hardcovers and 4E stuff.

I really hope this does spark some creative flames at Paizo, because this is one of the best sourcebooks I've read of late.

No, and my "must have factor" was through the roof when it was announced vs. the "might be cool to get for reference" of Dragon Empires. Multiply that by a re-read of my Planet Stories: "The Swordsman of Mars", a viewing of "John Carter", and with "Princess of Mars" waiting in the queue, and it went through the roof!

I'd be totally down with a Distant Worlds AP! (Heck, I'd even allow firearms & Gunslingers!)
Scarab Sages
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

Barsoom....
Justin Franklin wrote:
I think there are 2 things going on here, one no one has done a book like this for a D&D fantasy Campaign Setting before (except maybe Spelljammer, but that was different).

Spelljammer did do three solar system books (Greyspace, Realmspace, Krynnspace).

But they were... let's be generous and say "not as good as Distant Worlds."

Really generous.

(A planet inhabited by millions of tarrasques? WTF?)

Wasn´t this Astromundi-Cluster-Thing also a solar system book ? But anyway...let's be generous and say "not as good as Distant Worlds." :D
The only weak point about Distant Worlds, I found so far, is its length. This booklet is faaaar to short. ;). I would have loved to read more about the moons of Liavara and Bretheda or about the various asteroids of the Diaspora. But maybe, we will get a more detailed, Solar-System-Hardcover someday. :D
Grand Lodge

Awesome Review by Steel_Wind on EnWorld!

Nice work James!
Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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James Sutter wrote:
Justin Franklin wrote:

I would expect the Formians to follow this more closely.

I'm sure Erik "Pulpmaster" Mona would agree with you. :D

Yes, this is the main reason they haven't shown up yet. I want to make sure they accurately model formians as Ralph Milne Farley created them, and I'm currently working my way through his series.

Waldi wrote:
Wasn´t this Astromundi-Cluster-Thing also a solar system book ? But anyway...let's be generous and say "not as good as Distant Worlds." :D

Astromundi was what Spelljammer should have been from the start. Much of the Spelljammer material was focused on using it as a way to travel from FR to GH to DL and back, and that created weird problems for those settings (why bother with ocean-going vessels when you can buy a spelljamming vessel at only three times the cost of a galleon, and the spelljamming ship flies at speeds 130x as fast even with a complete novice at the helm and isn't limited by the availability of water?) At the same time, given how large a planet is, most people would be happy using the ship to hop around there instead of going into space, and if you do want to go to other settings altogether it's probably more convenient to use Plane Shift.

Astromundi fixed both those issues, by not having any ties to established settings, and by having tons of little asteroids instead of large planets, creating a feel similar to having an archipelago full of small islands to visit rather than having a whole continent. That allowed Spelljammer to be its own thing, rather than something attached to the other settings.

At least they learned their lesson with Planescape later, which definitely focused more on the planes themselves and places like Sigil, as opposed to using the planes as a way of getting from A to B (more often, Planescape would be having A as a base and then going to both B, C, D, and E).

I just finished reading my copy of Distant Worlds this morning, and I must say this book was a remarkable product from start to finish. You took a lot of risks during the creation, but it is clear you pulled it off.

I liked the The Loving Place, because it represented one of you biggest gambits. Sexual themes, even ones tied specifically to horror, don't get the attention they deserve in roleplaying games. (And when they do, its often as a spoof or plagued by poor choices.) It makes me glad that you were able to take the subject, as well as all the other themes in the book, and treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

James, you and the rest of the design team really pulled off a winner here. On behalf of myself and my gaming group: thank you.

It seems more than coincidence that this book came out around the same time as John Carter. Now we know that Joh Carter is a colossal flop, will that effect any future products? If the movie was a massive hit would there have been maybe a Spelljammer AP for example
MerrikCale wrote:
It seems more than coincidence that this book came out around the same time as John Carter. Now we know that Joh Carter is a colossal flop, will that effect any future products? If the movie was a massive hit would there have been maybe a Spelljammer AP for example

Although it was a flop it was still a good movie, and will likely end up with a cult following.

Contributor

Thanks, everyone! And don't worry--the fact that this book coincided with John Carter was a nice bonus, but this book was conceived long before any of us knew that movie was in the works. :) More products about Golarion's solar system will depend entirely on fan demand...
James Sutter wrote:
Thanks, everyone! And don't worry--the fact that this book coincided with John Carter was a nice bonus, but this book was conceived long before any of us knew that movie was in the works. :) More products about Golarion's solar system will depend entirely on fan demand...

DEMAND!

(all caps to accentuate "demandy-ness")
Shadow Lodge
James Sutter wrote:
Thanks, everyone! And don't worry--the fact that this book coincided with John Carter was a nice bonus, but this book was conceived long before any of us knew that movie was in the works. :) More products about Golarion's solar system will depend entirely on fan demand...

As a fan, I DEMAND it. DEMAND, I say, DEMAND ! ! !

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:
(A planet inhabited by millions of tarrasques? WTF?)

Falx was not from Practical Planetology, and not Realmspace, Greyspace, or Krynnspace.

Also, I thought The Astromundi Cluster was sorta okay, but seemed like a campaign setting-wannabe that, as written, didn't deserve its own boxed set. I'd rather have seen it busted down to a thirty-two or sixty-four page accessory, and have had the much more epic Under the Dark Fist bumped up to being a boxed set.
Vic Wertz wrote:
Dragnmoon wrote:
James Sutter wrote:
Our top folks are working on getting that resolved as we speak.
Who?
Top... folks.

Love some Indiana Jones misquotes. :P

1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Sutter wrote:
Thanks, everyone! And don't worry--the fact that this book coincided with John Carter was a nice bonus, but this book was conceived long before any of us knew that movie was in the works. :) More products about Golarion's solar system will depend entirely on fan demand...

GIEEEEEEEEEEEVV MOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AS A FAN I DEMAND IT!!!

Please Sir, Can We Have More?
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I think I've demanded enough ... okay ... maybe not ... I would like to see much more ;)

But mind you ... I'd also like to see a Pathfinderized sci-fi game ... so ... y'know ;)

I dont want or demand ay more.

but will take whatever I like.

read tha area on the loving place.... twisted
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
MerrikCale wrote:
It seems more than coincidence that this book came out around the same time as John Carter. Now we know that Joh Carter is a colossal flop, will that effect any future products? If the movie was a massive hit would there have been maybe a Spelljammer AP for example

It was a flop in America, but it has been a big hit overseas. It is breaking box office records in Russia and has been in the number one spot in Australia (according to what I read on the internet...). Also, I think that it is still a good movie even though it didn't do well here in the states.

Back on topic... I, too, demand more Distant Worlds material.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Sad to see the movie under-performing here. The media latched on to the story of an expensive domestic flop of colossal proportions in the news cycle and it doesn't matter if the international receipts puts it closer to even.

I saw it this weekend and thought it decent enough. It certainly deserves a sequel more so than many other movies that became franchises.

Top of my head, Clash of the Titans was terrible, in my opinion, although I'll have to admit Wrath is looking much more interesting if just for the titans and what they can do. Sorry, getting off topic.
Shadow Lodge

John Carter seems to have been marketed with failure specifically in mind.
Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
Kthulhu wrote:
John Carter seems to have been marketed with failure specifically in mind.

Quoted for Truth.

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