This indispensable 136-page guidebook to the world of Pathfinder presents everything you need to know for a lifetime of adventure in the uncertain Age of Lost Omens. The god of humanity is dead and prophecy is broken, leaving adventuring heroes like you to carve their own destinies out of an uncertain future!
This gazetteer features 10 diverse regions packed with thrilling and deadly possibilities and is accompanied by a giant two-sided poster map depicting the heart of the Pathfinder setting.
Written by: Tanya DePass, James Jacobs, Lyz Liddell, Ron Lundeen, Liane Merciel, Erik Mona, Mark Seifter, and James L. Sutter
ISBN: 978-1-64078-172-6
Available Formats
Pathfinder Lost Omens: World Guide is also available as:
This book revisits many of the locations in Avistan and Garund and provides an overview. Nothing goes too into depth which allows DMs and players or an AP to fill in the gaps. I found it great for giving characters an overview of a country we plan to play in and background information without it being as overwhelming as the wiki. Its great for a launching point to build off of for both RP heavy characters and GM hooks. It also includes some options for characters who want to run specific archetypes unique to a region.
Why sell a book about Golarion as a whole, when there's no information that is usable for any form of campaign? The maps have no interesting locations, the sections cover huge swaths of land, combining multiple countries, only giving you a faint idea of what you can run in a specific area. This book gives you a tiny bit of overview that you can get on Pathfinder Wiki or YouTube for free.
The included world map is great, but it has so few locations that it's unusable.
Skip this entirely and wait for the region specific books like the Mwangi Expanse, Absalom or Impossible Lands book. If you want something usable, go for the 1e Inner Sea World Guide.
I'm new to 2nd edition, been playing < 6 months. I have played years of 1st edition, living in custom worlds, so I was pretty excited to switch over to 2nd edition and try using the official cannon for everything. It is my turn to GM, so I bought this book (and pretty much all of the currently available rule books) in hopes of helping me start a campaign set on Starstone Isle. But other than the nice map of the island this book provides, I find this book very lacking (not just with the info on Starstone Isle).
PROS:
-Great individual area maps of the continents, something your players will like to see in order to understand where the campaign takes place.
-Great timelines to get you up to speed with a bit of the history.
-Provides new backgrounds and dedications to choose from.
CONS:
-No maps of any town/city.
-You basically get between a two-paragraph to one-page description of the continents of Golarion, along with descriptions of (some of) their towns, cities, and important locales. The only exception is that it does provide a description of the city of Absalom's various districts; again, most are no more that a paragraph or two though. Nothing to get excited over... I believe the upcoming release of "Absalom, City of Lost Omens" is purpose built for fulfilling that specific need in the future.
-Pretty much all this info can be found via web searches.
So if you are looking for details and specific map references for any town, then this isn't what you are looking for. Without getting something like the beginner's box or campaign "Troubles in Otari", I had difficulty even getting started. At least those resources provided a town map, important NPC's, and location descriptions of Otari to start from. I haven't purchased any of the other Adventure Paths yet, but it looks like the APs are the way to go in order to find that sort of information.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
<blinks> You have access to downloads already?
I think I got that in one or two other products, come to think of it. Maybe I should go back and check to see which ones.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Oliver Veyrac wrote:
:( I don't have it yet sadly :(
Same. For me, it's the downside to having so many subscriptions set to ship at the same time. The savings is nice, but the wait on pdfs (even just a couple days) hurts.
I'm glad this is coming because I had to delay my Rulebook, AP and adventure line to get the 15% discount with 4 lines. SO then it's got to get to NZ, but at least I will have the PDFs soon!
Are there any new ancestries and/or heritages in this book?
I think it's only new thematic Backgrounds for the regions, and a new Archetype for each region.
But in October you'll get the Character Guide, and that's going to be filled with new heritages and four new ancestries and nearly 100 new ancestry feats.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Jorsalheim wrote:
Cruel Illusion wrote:
Are there any new ancestries and/or heritages in this book?
I think it's only new thematic Backgrounds for the regions, and a new Archetype for each region.
But in October you'll get the Character Guide, and that's going to be filled with new heritages and four new ancestries and nearly 100 new ancestry feats.
Just three new ancestries: Hobgoblin, Leshy, and Lizardfolk.
Are there any new ancestries and/or heritages in this book?
I think it's only new thematic Backgrounds for the regions, and a new Archetype for each region.
But in October you'll get the Character Guide, and that's going to be filled with new heritages and four new ancestries and nearly 100 new ancestry feats.
Just three new ancestries: Hobgoblin, Leshy, and Lizardfolk.
My bad, I don't know where I had the four from. Multitasking can be a hard feat to master. :)
I'm glad this is coming because I had to delay my Rulebook, AP and adventure line to get the 15% discount with 4 lines. SO then it's got to get to NZ, but at least I will have the PDFs soon!
Just warning you, even with the 15% discount you are paying more thanks to the shipping costs than if you bought the book online and bought the pdf from the site. (although you do get pdfs earlier)
Not that I don't want to support Paizo, just that I have found that their products get to me a lot later and cost a huge amount to ship from this site (even compared to smaller indie rpg teams).
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
What do you mean by "redone"?
Maps in the adventure:
Spoiler:
The inside front cover has a map of the tree city of Akrivel. There's a half page hex map for exploration of a 100-mile wide region of the Mwangi Jungle around Akrivel with an accompanying full page map of 6 encounter areas. Finally, there are full page maps for a mine entrance and the stronghold of the Scarlet Triad. All of these maps are new.
I'm glad this is coming because I had to delay my Rulebook, AP and adventure line to get the 15% discount with 4 lines. SO then it's got to get to NZ, but at least I will have the PDFs soon!
Just warning you, even with the 15% discount you are paying more thanks to the shipping costs than if you bought the book online and bought the pdf from the site. (although you do get pdfs earlier)
Not that I don't want to support Paizo, just that I have found that their products get to me a lot later and cost a huge amount to ship from this site (even compared to smaller indie rpg teams).
thanks, but yeah I know, trying to support Paizo. I'll be switching to ad hoc Amazon purchases once the flow of products means I won't be keeping up. Even the reduced PF2 rate of publication will be to much for me, eventually
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Are there any maps that give more detail outside of the Inner Sea region? In particular -- Do we have anything better than the maps on page 418 of the Core Rulebook?
I don't see any maps outside of the Inner Sea, unfortunately.
James Jacobs wrote:
We WILL finally have a detailed global map though, which I'm very excited and relieved about! :P
James mentioned there would be a global map of Golarion in there, and reconfirmed this at Gen Con, as I remember. Maybe the map just isn’t accessible in one file per chapter format for whatever reason?
The original intent was to reproduce the global map featured in the Core Rulebook, but the book just had too much awesome stuff going in, so we couldn't fit it in.
The original intent was to reproduce the global map featured in the Core Rulebook, but the book just had too much awesome stuff going in, so we couldn't fit it in.
Oh, okay. Unfortunate, but understandable. Will there be a big version of Golarion’s global map floating around anytime soon then, that was originally planned for this book? I’d totally be willing to buy a poster map of that separately, and I’m sure I’m not alone.
And someone already made before release a review about how they didn't like how assumed AP endings include options they didn't like :P
Like seriously, even if you dislike that aspect that much, there are middle options like 2 or 3. In general I prefer giving reviews based on quality of book and content rather than pure personal preference. The "Art is book and setting is good" doesn't really sound like its worth one star out of five.
If the parts you think offend 1e veterans affect the enjoyment of book that much, give it at least 2 stars if you think its still good for newbies. Otherwise you are essentially saying good parts of the book or archetypes aren't worth anything
We should accept that folks will have differing views on what this book represents. It is their opinion. Others will look at it differently, we cant all just mindlessly cheerlead everything the company puts out or call for Brigading a negative review. Going that route will end up giving us substandard products which helps no one - consumer or company. If the review is critical so be it. If your review is positive so be it.
I personally felt deceived when the world map did not come out. I know that was one of the major reasons I purchased the book and a lot of folks were pumped about that detailed world map. I don't even know when the correction was made in the product page, but Paizo new before hand and should have said something, which they only chimed in after folks noticed it in their pdf and posted on it.