I'm thinking about setting my next game in the official campaign setting of Golarion. I'm a bit intimidated, however; I've never run a game in someone else's world. Whenever a player asks a question about my own world and I don't have an answer, I make it up, and that becomes canon. I can't do that with a published setting like Golarion. How much should I know about Golarion before starting up a campaign set there? Should I read and memorize all the books from cover to cover? Should I read about only one small area and take it from there?
If you dont have it yet youll want to at least pick up a pdf of the inner sea world guide, thats the main campaign setting book. You can also find alot of useful information on the pathfinder wiki.
I would recommend starting small, pick a kingdom that fits the theme of what you want to do. Read up on that area finding all the major players names. I wouldnt worry too much about memorizing everything unless thats something you enjoy. Unless your players will be interacting with the major npcs just make people up. Its not that common that brand new adventurers are going to be working directly for a king, but his unnamed captain of the guards might have some work for them.
Just because youre running a published campaign doesnt mean you cant make things up. Your golarion could vary wildly from someone elses, just be sure to write it down and keep changes consistant.
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Remember that your players may not have a level of knowledge that'd let them catch the inconsistencies between your Golarion and the SAW*, either. I'm running a homebrew game set in Golarion; at one point the Almas harbor lighthouse became important and there wasn't anything about it in the Pathfinder Wiki, so I made up something about it being run by an eccentric family of lighthouse keepers. Several months later I picked up Cities of Golarion and discovered that the lighthouse was magical, operated without human intervention, and everyone left it alone. No one called me on it, though.
*Setting as written
Unless you feel the urgent need to have the PCs gallivanting all over the world ( a trap I often fell in back in the day in the Forgotten Realms ), you only need knowledge of the area your campaign is going to happen in.
Most published APs by Paizo tend to concentrate on keeping the PCs in one nation/area of the game, too.
I agree with you, magnuskn. To the OP: keep your game in one geographical area, and detail it as much as you need for your game. For the rest of the world, just use the Inner Sea World Guide for broad-stroke descriptions.
There are two ways to play it, actually. If you want to keep close to canon, pick an area of the world with a lot of published material, and then acquire and use that material. The area with the most published detail is Varisia. (Four-and-a-half APs, four or five campaign guides, two players guides, several modules, all of Season Four of PFS Scenarios.)
If you want to set it in a somewhat-standard fantasy area that isn't well-detailed, there's Brevoy. It's much more of a blank slate, so there are fewer canonic constraints. The only risk here is that Paizo might publish canon that's contrary to what you wrote. But that's only a problem if you let it be one.
And, if you want to design your own petty kingdom in Golarion, there's always the River Kingdoms.
Good luck!
Actually Brevoy was detailed quite a bit in the first Kingmaker module. It had kind of a slavic Game of Thrones feel.
Also, if your players get intimidated with the amount of material, there's always the Inner Sea Primer (part of the PF Companion line). There's a half-page article on each of the main kingdoms in the region (from the Lands of the Linnorm Kings up north, to the jungles of the Mwangi Expanse in the south). Since it's part of the Companion series, there should be no spoilers for any published APs, modules, scenarios, etc.
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I had similar concerns as the OP. So I grabbed a copy of the ISG and a AP then dove straight in.
That was well over twenty-four game sessions ago, I have had very few questions that have come up that I could not answer.
I highly recommend you read through the ISG but it should not be a big time sink IMO.
Hope you enjoy running Golarion.
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Also, if your players get intimidated with the amount of material, there's always the Inner Sea Primer (part of the PF Companion line). There's a half-page article on each of the main kingdoms in the region (from the Lands of the Linnorm Kings up north, to the jungles of the Mwangi Expanse in the south). Since it's part of the Companion series, there should be no spoilers for any published APs, modules, scenarios, etc.
Yes, I was hoping someone recommended this. I've been prepping for about a month to start running a campaign on Golarion, and the ISP is a great way to know the basics of the world as a GM to start rumors from wandering caravans, traveling performers, and the seeds of a villain's heritage. The ISG should be your Oxford English Dictionary, while the ISP should be your Websters Pocket dictionary. I. E. you should be expected to know most of the 32 pages in the ISP off the top of your head, and be able to quickly reference it as needed, while if you want the full lush background and details you can access it in the ISG on a case by case basis.
If you plan on knowing the full pantheon of gods I also can't recommend the Faiths of XXXX series of companion guides highly enough. Of course this is unnecessary, but as someone running 2 clerics in 2 campaigns those skill points in Knowledge Religion tend to compensate for my meta-game knowledge.
I'm thinking about setting my next game in the official campaign setting of Golarion. I'm a bit intimidated, however; I've never run a game in someone else's world. Whenever a player asks a question about my own world and I don't have an answer, I make it up, and that becomes canon. I can't do that with a published setting like Golarion. How much should I know about Golarion before starting up a campaign set there? Should I read and memorize all the books from cover to cover? Should I read about only one small area and take it from there?
I'm not really arguing the point - I know many people (most even) agree with the bolded. Nonetheless, you can come up with something and run with it. It's a matter of expectations, both yours and your players - is the stuff paizo puts out canon (for you) or is it a starting point? (My golarion has warforged, dragonborn and rappan athuk, for example).
I'd echo the thoughts about starting small - I think the ISWG is excellent but a difficult beginning point. I'd start with a small scale campaign using one of the campaign setting sourcebooks. Get familiar with one area and read the big picture stuff in the background as your campaign develops.