|
When I first started reading Dungeon I got the impression that James Jacobs loved the World of Greyhawk as much as Erik Mona and so I assumed that when he ran a D&D game that was the default setting he used. As I read the Pathfinder blog I was surprised to learn that he used a homebrew setting for his games. I was curious to know more about this homebrew world, as well as why he chose this option as opposed to Greyhawk or whatever.
Creative Director
|
I didn't know about Greyhawk, really, until a few years after I started playing back in 1981 or thereabouts, and by then I was already starting to build my home campaign. More to the point, as much as I love Greyhawk, it's much more satisfying building your own campaign, I think. Especially since no matter what, you're always the top authority about your campaign if you were the one who made it up. I've run one Greyhawk campaign before, but I've run most of my games in Baria, my homebrew world, and have been developing it more or less constantly over the last 25 years or so. Now and then, parts of the campaign snuck into things that I wrote for WotC or Paizo, but until Pathfinder, I kept most of it to myself. With Pathfinder, and with Varisia and the deities especially, though, I figured it was time to put these things to the test and release a fair amount of them into the world as part of the Paizo campaign world. (Also because that really helped cut down on development time for a lot of the stuff, which is on a REALLY aggressive schedule).
So if you're curious about the homebrew world, check out Pathfinder and Varisia. The map of the region is different, but a lot of the themes, deities, locations, and NPCs were lifted whole-cloth from my homebrew world and given tweaks and changes here and there to fix the parts that were lame and goofy.
|
|
I didn't know about Greyhawk, really, until a few years after I started playing back in 1981 or thereabouts, and by then I was already starting to build my home campaign. More to the point, as much as I love Greyhawk, it's much more satisfying building your own campaign, I think. Especially since no matter what, you're always the top authority about your campaign if you were the one who made it up. I've run one Greyhawk campaign before, but I've run most of my games in Baria, my homebrew world, and have been developing it more or less constantly over the last 25 years or so. Now and then, parts of the campaign snuck into things that I wrote for WotC or Paizo, but until Pathfinder, I kept most of it to myself. With Pathfinder, and with Varisia and the deities especially, though, I figured it was time to put these things to the test and release a fair amount of them into the world as part of the Paizo campaign world. (Also because that really helped cut down on development time for a lot of the stuff, which is on a REALLY aggressive schedule).
So if you're curious about the homebrew world, check out Pathfinder and Varisia. The map of the region is different, but a lot of the themes, deities, locations, and NPCs were lifted whole-cloth from my homebrew world and given tweaks and changes here and there to fix the parts that were lame and goofy.
Im definatly going to be checking out Pathfinder!
Do you borrow alot of material from other sources and adapt it to your needs or do you stick to your own creations for the most part? What did you do when 2nd and 3rd edtion came around, it seems like somthing like that would have greatly changed the face of the world?|
Creative Director
|
The majority of Baria was my creation, although I take fairly heavy inspiration from Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, and Fritz Leiber when developing the world. There's a lot of the Greyhawk feel to the world as well, and in many cases classic D&D locations are lifted wholesale. Tamoachan, for example, exists in my world (but it's in the desert). Borrowing elements from D&D adventures and settings is a great way to develop a world actually.
The switch from 1st to 2nd wasn't really that big a change in the rules, so it had no in-game manifestation. The switch from 2nd to 3rd did, though. I wasn't running a campaign at this time in Baria, but in a previous campaign, the PCs stopped Obox-ob from pulilng the world into the Abyss and absorbing it into his realm. Althoguh he was stopped, the attempt damaged the underlying structure and ley lines of the multiverse, and magic started to "die." The first 3rd edition campaign I ran was about the PCs' attempts to fix this damage while they worked up to oppose the draugr (the banished "first creations" of the gods who were taking advantage of the damaged multiverse to strike out at the divine from their prison). Those PCs managed to fix things, and now I'm running Savage Tide for them in Baria.
now I'm running Savage Tide for them in Baria.
Campaign Journal??? ;)
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
now I'm running Savage Tide for them in Baria.Campaign Journal??? ;)
lol.
Yeah, James doesn't need frivolities like sleep and food. I'm sure he can exchange the few hours he sleeps at night to instead create and keep up with another journal.
I mean, he's only doing about a thousand things right now. He shouldn't have a problem with one more eensy weensy thing on his plate. Right?
;)
|
now I'm running Savage Tide for them in Baria.Campaign Journal??? ;)
The man is working on Pathfinder, Dungeon, and a slew of other products, then he posts (fairly frequently) on the boards answering any and all questions that people have for him on a myriad of topics.
Cut the man some slack!.
.
.
.
But a campaign journal would be cool!
;p
FH
|
Creative Director
|
Although one of my players does keep a journal of the Savage Tide campaign I'm running... it's offline, and somedays he writes it by hand, and somedays he doesn't do one at all. It is, in any event, not safe for work. And I already can't keep up on Tyralandi's posts from Erik's Age of Worms campaign.
All great reasons why there won't be a campaign journal posted for my Savage Tide game. :-)
I would of actually preferred the name Baria for the Pathfinder world that Golarion. As much as I think Golarion's okay and all I like campaign worlds that have shorter names (like Toril, Oerth, Athas, etc.). Was there any reason Baria wasn't considered for the name of the Pathfinder world? And if it was considered, were you at all cut up that they rejected it for a different name? I mean Baria's a great name. It's simple but memorable (for me anyhow) and Golarion doesn't roll of the tongue as well (again, my perspective).
|
Creative Director
|
I would of actually preferred the name Baria for the Pathfinder world that Golarion. As much as I think Golarion's okay and all I like campaign worlds that have shorter names (like Toril, Oerth, Athas, etc.). Was there any reason Baria wasn't considered for the name of the Pathfinder world? And if it was considered, were you at all cut up that they rejected it for a different name? I mean Baria's a great name. It's simple but memorable (for me anyhow) and Golarion doesn't roll of the tongue as well (again, my perspective).
It wasn't considered because I didn't offer it up, to be honest. Some things I want to keep for myself. Of coruse... the name "Baria" refers to the main continent, not the planet (my planet's name is "Droffa") so there may still be time for me to worm that name in as the continent name. But I kinda don't want to.
|
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
I do like the name Baria, but I can understand wanting to keep some things for yourself.
I wouldn't mind if the Pathfinder world were referred to as Varisia (like how Greyhawk is, well, Greyhawk and not Oerth.)
But, as I understand it, Varisia is just one continent (and a wild/rustic one at that).
Ah well, if the only complaint I have is that I'm not crazy about the name "Golarion", things will be a-ok indeed.
|
|
Your world sounds cool James!
Man! I would give up a lot of stuff to be able to play in (in my opinon)some of the great ones campaigns of d&d. Im mean the Erik Monas, James Jacobs, Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, and the list goes on...I mean to be at the source of the printed content, that would be cool.
Where are you at with your STAP James and how diffrent has it been from the actual printed AP, being that its in your own world in all?
|
Creative Director
|
Your world sounds cool James!
Man! I would give up a lot of stuff to be able to play in (in my opinon)some of the great ones campaigns of d&d. Im mean the Erik Monas, James Jacobs, Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, and the list goes on...I mean to be at the source of the printed content, that would be cool.
Where are you at with your STAP James and how diffrent has it been from the actual printed AP, being that its in your own world in all?
We're most of the way through Tides of Dread; the PCs got distracted by the Troglodytes inland from Farshore, and kind of stumbled into "Lost Temple of Demogorgo" from Dungeon #120 as a result. I reckon that next session we'll end with the attack on Farshore wrapping up. There's been a fair amount of wandering monster encounters that sort of turned into mini adventrues of their own, as well.
As for differences between the printed version and the Baria version... not many, actually. I'm more or less running them exactly as written, but punching up the NPC interaction a bit here and there. I suppose the big change is that I'm adding in a "treasure" subplot for each PC; there's a set of magic items/treasures for each of them to track down during the course of the game that'll help them deal with what's coming later on and tricks them into being more interested in some minor parts of the storyline.
But for the most part, the version I'm running is right out of the magazine with very little changes apart from swapping out proper names for deities now and then.
|
|
We're most of the way through Tides of Dread; the PCs got distracted by the Troglodytes inland from Farshore, and kind of stumbled into "Lost Temple of Demogorgo" from Dungeon #120 as a result. I reckon that next session we'll end with the attack on Farshore wrapping up. There's been a fair amount of wandering monster encounters that sort of turned into mini adventrues of their own, as well.
As for differences between the printed version and the Baria version... not many, actually. I'm more or less running them exactly as written, but punching up the NPC interaction a bit here and there. I suppose the big change is that I'm adding in a "treasure" subplot for each PC; there's a set of magic items/treasures for each of them to track down during the course of the game that'll help them deal with what's coming later on and tricks them into being more interested in some minor parts of the storyline.
As far as these mini adventures are concerned what has happened with the random encounters that have spured them in the first place?
This treasure sub plot sounds interesting can you provide more details?
|
Creative Director
|
As far as these mini adventures are concerned what has happened with the random encounters that have spured them in the first place?
This treasure sub plot sounds interesting can you provide more details?
By "mini-adventures," I basically mean that whenever I rolled a wandering monster, I tried to set it up as it's own encounter. For example, I rolled a retriever while the PCs were repairing the Sea Wyvern, and turned it into a "forset shaking, monster coming, a bunch of terror birds running in terrror" type thing, similar to a scene out of the first episode of Lost (but without the terror birds). After the fight, the examination of the dead spider monster allowed me to drop in some foreshadowing about demons and Demogorgon's influence on the isle.
As for the treasure subplot... it's mostly in my head still at this point, and since some of my players read these boards now and then... I'll have to keep that secret for now. ;)
Aren't you a little worried about losing the control of the creative material if you place in Pathfinder? At what point does the hard-earned/ well-loved designed material no longer become that of James Jacobs?
|
Creative Director
|
Aren't you a little worried about losing the control of the creative material if you place in Pathfinder? At what point does the hard-earned/ well-loved designed material no longer become that of James Jacobs?
At this point, I'm pretty much in charge of the creative control of Pathfinder, so I'm not that worried at all. But at the same time, having let loose plenty of other things from my campaign world into Wizards of the Cost books before (such as Obox-ob or the ulgurstasta or Lascer, and so on), got me ready for it. You can't really work in the RPG industry without being able to let others take what you've done and do things of their own to it. For example, I believe that Monster Manual V will be printing the first obyrith that isn't a James Jacobs creation... whcih is at the same time cool and weird.
Hi James. I've recently been working on the gods for my new homebrew world (a work endlessly in progress) and I recalled reading that your homebrew has literally hundreds of pages of details about gods. I was wondering, were a lot of them created over the course of campaigns when the need arose for a particular new god? And how many gods does your world actually have, anyway?
|
Creative Director
|
Hi James. I've recently been working on the gods for my new homebrew world (a work endlessly in progress) and I recalled reading that your homebrew has literally hundreds of pages of details about gods. I was wondering, were a lot of them created over the course of campaigns when the need arose for a particular new god? And how many gods does your world actually have, anyway?
I created most of the deities of my campaign world in advance of any campaigns I ran, using the gods of Greyhawk and the 1st edition Deities and Demigods as my initial blueprints. Later, the Forgotten Realms stepped in with more inspiration (especially Faiths & Avatars; possibly the best 2nd edition product ever). A few of the deities got invented as I found myself needing a specific deity, but most of them were created in one of several long periods of campaign developments I've been through.
In all, my campaign world has about 55 or so deities. For those playing along at home, the gods of the Pathfinder world that were donated from my world include: Erastil, Sarenrae, Desna, Abadar, Pharasma (although she had a name change), Gorum, Zon-Kuthon, Urgathoa, Norgorber, Lamashtu, and Rovagug.
Cool, thanks for the reply. It's pretty awesome that over half the core pantheon is from your homebrew :)
I like what I've seen so far, and it's great that Pharasma's clerics can choose Death or Repose and that Healing's in there too. I'm all for the non-evil death gods, and it should make for some good rivalries within the church. Interesting that she's the goddess of birth too.
Domains and portfolios can only tell so much, though. I can't wait to read more about the Pathfinder gods, especially the Lawful Evil ones, as I find it a very interesting alignment. That, and I'm excited to see your take on Asmodeus.
Varisia's actually just a region on a continet. The continent itself doesn't have a name yet.
I think it should be called "Kireo." :D
LOL--Nice!