Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Realms

I think City of Brass is popular among D&D players or something? It was in Critical Role's campaign at least xD

One is Legacy of Fire's The Impossible Eye, and the other is the PFS two-part scenario Forged in Flame - first part takes place in the city of Zjarra on the Plane of Fire, the second part is CoB straight and center.

Ooo, I'll have to look into those.

City Of Brass is well known among former Planescapers, otherwise it's hardly been covered.

Considering how awesome the previous books in this vein are i can't wait to see what they have.

Planes of Power has info on the City of Brass. I could have sworn the Legacy of Fire AP does as well but I haven't read that one in a long time.

Book 5 has a brief article, I believe. ^_^

I wonder if we will get a city from the maelstrom and if so what such a place would be like.

Dragon78 wrote:

Planes of Power has info on the City of Brass. I could have sworn the Legacy of Fire AP does as well but I haven't read that one in a long time.

Book 5 has a brief article, I believe. ^_^

Indeed it does: Pathfinder #23: The Impossible Eye (Legacy of Fire part 5 of 6), pp. 54-59.

In the past, when I've needed a City of Brass write-up, I've used the version from WotC's Planar Handbook for D&D 3.5. That write-up meshes pretty well with the one from Legacy of Fire, IIRC.

But wasn't legacy of Fire still 3.5 anyway?

Yes, but both WotC's Planar Handbook and Paizo's Golarion campaign setting information are closed-content under the OGL, and are written for independent campaign worlds. That means neither could directly reference the other.

It's been a while since I've read either, but if memory serves me correctly, neither write-up has any information that would significantly contradict the other write-up. Putting them both together gives you more robust setting information, without having to do any real conversion work.

Nice.

By "overdone" you guys mean the fact that the last major City of Brass supplement, the Necromancer Games boxed set, is 10 years old and that there are a total of two Paizo adventures that take place there?

Well, yes, that. And the old 3.5 D&D Planar Handbook. And the material from Planescape and Al-Qadim, before that. Not to mention all other media that use the place as a setting.

You can argue that it's not overused because the number of sourcebooks that address it is not that big, but, relatively speaking, it's by far the most popular planar site on the history of this game, except, maybe, Sigil, but I don't think I need to worry about Paizo using that, do I?

Try to name me any planar settlement, other than Sigil, that has been detailed and used the same amount of times that the City of Brass has been.

Gorbacz wrote:

By "overdone" you guys mean the fact that the last major City of Brass supplement, the Necromancer Games boxed set, is 10 years old and that there are a total of two Paizo adventures that take place there?

Well, yes, that. And the old 3.5 D&D Planar Handbook. And the material from Planescape and Al-Qadim, before that. Not to mention all other media that use the place as a setting.

You can argue that it's not overused because the number of sourcebooks that address it is not that big, but, relatively speaking, it's by far the most popular planar site on the history of this game, except, maybe, Sigil, but I don't think I need to worry about Paizo using that, do I?

Try to name me any planar settlement, other than Sigil, that has been detailed and used the same amount of times that the City of Brass has been.

In Pathfinder?

Gorbacz wrote:

By "overdone" you guys mean the fact that the last major City of Brass supplement, the Necromancer Games boxed set, is 10 years old and that there are a total of two Paizo adventures that take place there?

Well, yes, that. And the old 3.5 D&D Planar Handbook. And the material from Planescape and Al-Qadim, before that. Not to mention all other media that use the place as a setting.

You can argue that it's not overused because the number of sourcebooks that address it is not that big, but, relatively speaking, it's by far the most popular planar site on the history of this game, except, maybe, Sigil, but I don't think I need to worry about Paizo using that, do I?

Try to name me any planar settlement, other than Sigil, that has been detailed and used the same amount of times that the City of Brass has been.

Dis would like to have a word with you. Major information in any book featuring the Nine Hells in all editions. A full adventure (Fires of Dis) from Planescape fleshing the city out. That is a hell (pun!) of a lot more information than ever got published on the City of Brass in D&D or Pathfinder. And yes, it is a layer of a plane, but it is still a city, so it counts.

And when I'm looking at it, in Planescape's "The Inner Planes" and in Al-Qadim's "Secrets of the Lamp," your two primary sources on the Inner Planes in 2e, the City of Brass gets... exactly the same amount as every other genie capital in the Inner Planes. There may be other stuff, I don't have an extensive knowledge of 2e materials outside of Planescape, but my Google Fu seems to be saying there isn't. I've never read the Planar Handbook or Necromancer's Boxed Set, so I can't comment on them.

Like, I won't be broken up if the City of Brass is not included, but if it is I will gleefully steal stuff for my Planescape campaigns if it is. But even if the City is the second most popular planar city (which I doubt), until it has had as much printed about it as the most popular planar city (which is Sigil, bar none, no debate), it doesn't have enough printed material for it. Dis is the only planar city that comes close to that level.

About the only place I could think of that might come close is Dis.

But yea, City of Brass has gotten a ton of attention, in comparison.

Besides, there's a lot of Golarion specific locations I would like to hear about first, before CoB, that aren't covered anywhere else.

Gorbacz wrote:

By "overdone" you guys mean the fact that the last major City of Brass supplement, the Necromancer Games boxed set, is 10 years old and that there are a total of two Paizo adventures that take place there?

Well, yes, that. And the old 3.5 D&D Planar Handbook. And the material from Planescape and Al-Qadim, before that. Not to mention all other media that use the place as a setting.

You can argue that it's not overused because the number of sourcebooks that address it is not that big, but, relatively speaking, it's by far the most popular planar site on the history of this game, except, maybe, Sigil, but I don't think I need to worry about Paizo using that, do I?

Try to name me any planar settlement, other than Sigil, that has been detailed and used the same amount of times that the City of Brass has been.

So? It's Paizo's setting and Paizo's take on the City of Brass AND Sigil is off limits to them. Using an iconic open-source planar location makes perfect sense.

I believe that the amount of Pathfinder-buying people who read every Planescape and Al-Qadim book wasn't that big to begin with ... and most of them flocked back to D&D with the advent of 5e, or at least that's what incidental evidence of my friends is.

I get it, you don't like City of Brass, you're still salty about the amount of pages City of Brass took in a 1986 (or whatever) supplement which you can only buy on eBay these days, but I don't think Paizo should feel limited by this.

Besides, there's a lot of Golarion specific locations I would like to hear about first, before CoB, that aren't covered anywhere else.

Precisely this. Other than Hell and the Abyss, all the planes of the Outer Sphère seriously lack in-depth information (one could argue that Heaven Unleashed gave the same treatment to the title plane, but I am ambivalent). I have nothing against the City of Brass in itself, but considering the limited space available, between seeing Axis or Nirvana get a decent write up, with the possibility of something truly original appearing, and the umpteenth treatment of the bazaars, slaves and byzantine laws of the Efreet capital, I would take the former every time.

It's a matter of diversifying the options available. If I want material on the City of Brass, there's a sleigh of sources to choose from. If I want, say, a city in the Chaotic Good plane, things get more scarce. Is it really that unreasonable to prefer that Paizo uses its limited resources to give us something different instead re-treading the same ash-soaked ground?

I don't believe I have any of those sources, personally. I'm probably not the only one.

I've been getting D&D and Pathfinder stuff consistently for more than twenty years, and I've never seen most of the stuff under discussion.

I've been getting D&D and Pathfinder stuff consistently for more than twenty years, and I've never seen most of the stuff under discussion.

That is my expereince too. The single best D&D source for the City of Brass is Al-Qadim's Secrets of the Lamp. I only know this because I intentionally went searching for 2e sources on genies and the Inner Planes, then only found it a year ago after a good deal of researching. I would never have known about it otherwise.

While the City of Brass has probably received more content than any other planar location with the exception of Sigil or Dis in D&D/Planescape, I don't think it's fair to hold Pathfinder accountable for taking that into account since they can't use any of that content written for D&D.

Given that, I'd be surprised if the CoB doesn't show up in Distant Realms.

Still, my personal preference would be to see an exploration of cities that are Golarion specific (since I created a number of them), but I don't have any insight into what is or isn't in Distant Realms since I didn't contribute on this one. Really looking forward to seeing this book. :)

Still, my personal preference would be to see an exploration of cities that are Golarion specific (since I created a number of them), but I don't have any insight into what is or isn't in Distant Realms since I didn't contribute on this one. Really looking forward to seeing this book. :)

Ditto about preferring Golarion-specific material.

I really like when Paizo can kind of go wild with their own creative inspiration. With some concepts, like demons and devils, they've got decades worth of pre-Paizo stuff kind of broad-outlining things, but with their own creations, like the Proteans and the Psychopomps, they can really cut loose and go outside the lines. Nobody's expecting a 'protean lord' named Jubilex or a 'psychopomp city' named Dis, so instead of adapting ideas from previous editions (or real world mythology), it's open season on fresh new ideas.

MG,

Player Companions since we've had blood of fiends, blood of the elements and blood of angels. Not sure we'll get one for just the planes.

Member that time I said, 'Hey, I bet we'll get a planar player companion' and was told probably not?

VINDICATION!!

The temporary discriptive text makes it sound like we'll get one city in hell, one in heaven and one on the shadow plane, but i guess that could just be ecamples.

Won't the biggest cities (capitals) be in the "Planar Adventures" hardcover, now that it's Pathfinder setting specific?

Planar Adventures won't have a lot of space to treat cities in detail. It will have only six pages of space per entire plane (only five pages after you deduct two half-page images), so if a given city is detailed in PA, it will probably get 1-2 pages there, tops. Could be just a single paragraph.

In Distant Realms, you get ten pages of treatment for a single city, so DR can expand vastly on a place mentioned in PA.

I'm desperately hoping for good info on the Shadow Plane and Shadow Absalom since I really want to set a campaign there. . .

Do we even have a campaign setting book that focuses on regular Absalom?

Yes?

I mean an updated one?

So you want them to put out a book with reprinted content rather than something that hasn't been done yet?

That is a 3.5 book and I am sure there are changes by now so it would not be that bad. Besides I never owned that one so it would be new to me:) Though there are places I am more interested in getting a campaign setting book.

Well, at least you can pick it up for five bucks until they put an update on the schedule. :)

That is a 3.5 book and I am sure there are changes by now so it would not be that bad. Besides I never owned that one so it would be new to me:) Though there are places I am more interested in getting a campaign setting book.

There is next to zero rules content in the Guide To Absalom so everything in it should still be relevant (and it's a great book to boot!).

To be fair, Guide to Korvosa, an another book with barely any rules that won't get update, has a lot of things never referred to in any pathfinder material after it <_< Basically there has been a lot of abandoned concepts after 3.5 transfer

Any examples of those abandoned concepts you are sad didn't make the transfer?

Eh, not much I guess, though Darklight Sisterhood(Cheliax sponsored counterpart to Pathfinder Society) seemed like interesting concept

Sweet. Extraplanar cities!

I'd love to see Shadow Absalom get some love!

Planes of Power already offered up a city for each of the elemental planes. So I'd expect and hope that this book will focus on other planes instead.

Hope that the Shadow plane mention means more detail on Shadow Absalom.

I'll take anything from any plane. I'm easy.

Planes of Power already offered up a city for each of the elemental planes. So I'd expect and hope that this book will focus on other planes instead.

Hope that the Shadow plane mention means more detail on Shadow Absalom.

That is such a good book!

Creature Stats?

So, the planes we already know are going to show up are Heaven (LG), Hell (LE), and the Shadow Plane (Neutral, but heavily influenced by both the Negative Energy Plane and Zon-Kuthon). Each of these planes have an obvious choice of what metropolis to detail, with Shadow Absalom for the Plane of Shadow, Dis for Hell, and Heaven's Shore for Heaven, seeing as all of these are bustling trade cities with a high amount of planeswalkers and non-natives to keep things varied. It's no sure thing, but I would be shocked if none of these cities were chosen.

Now, the only real question is 'which of the remaining planes will have a city statted up?' My guess is we'll get settlements in both Elysium and the Abyss (city is to strong a word to describe places where chaotic outsiders make their homes), in order to balance the presence of their lawful equivalents, leaving us with just the shadow plane needing a contrasting plane to balance it all out. The obvious suggestion would be something from The First World, seeing as it is the bright and vibrant counterpart to the Prime Material Plane, just as the Shadow Plane is it's dark and dingy twin, but that may be bit too on the nose. Instead, I predict that the last city will be in the Positive Energy Plane, seeing as it is a historically underutilized place, and that it would be interesting to see how the two primary inhabitants of that plane (the manasputra and jyoti) interact with each other, something that has not adequately been addressed.

Of course, since I'm purely guessing here, I am probably wrong, but I may be right.

The City of Brass has a loooong history in the D&D family of games. Heck the cover of the original Dungeon Master's Guide from 1979 featured adventureres fighting an efreeti, with the City of Brass in the background!

Updated with final product description and cover image!

Basrakal, where fundamentalist PC beliefs of good and evil go to die. And the freindly well endowed postman could be a reformed sex offender or a demoted paragon of virtue.

Or a lawyer could be a social worker instead. ;)

Basrakal is my favorite new place. If for no other reason than kicking alignment in the teeth.

Nice cover art.

*prefers to kick astradaemons in the teeth* I'm interested but not sure I'm THAT interested.

Basrakal is my favorite new place. If for no other reason than kicking alignment in the teeth.

It was quite a fun place to work on. Given the city's "different" nature, it also felt right that it needed two authors working together... so get ready to see what John Compton and I can come up with when unleashed on a project together! :P

*goes back to read it further*