Venture-Captain, Massachusetts—Central & West
|
Oh yeah! One of the best resources is the Inner Sea World Guide, that gives a brief overview of several countries that make up the Inner Sea region of Golarion. It also provides player options such as feats and equipment!
|
Hi, brand you PFS player.
Looking to develop a bit of background for my character. Is there somewhere I can read about the world PFS is set in, spoiler free, so that I can try to place my character in this world?
Heyo, welcome to the asy.. wonderful world of organized play
Your character is a member of a group of murderho..erm.. adventurer archeologists known as the pathfinder society. Their tenants are report, explore, cooperate. They are sent out to recover artifacts, survey historical sites, conduct research, as well as various ancillary activities necessary for said bits of dungeon crawling, such as support and fund raiser dinners.
While there is certainly more than enough danger to justify hiring a fair number of "me smash stuff" characters if thats what you want to make for a character, you should have some reason for them to be working with the society, or at the very least no huge opposition to working with them.
The inner sea world guide would be the best place to get an overview. If you're flush with cash i'd get the book/pdf.
There's also a few websites Googling golarion, inner sea, or any of the individual countries should give you a good idea.
You can also pick a real world analog and golarion probably has one. The setting is VERY kitchen sink in that it has just about everything, somewhere.
Is this the way things are usually done, or do most simply develop their characters as time goes by and they experience the world?
Popular methods include
1) Ooo! mechanical bonus x. I'm from where? Sign me up.
2) Map of Golarion + Dart board
3) We're starting where? Ok, I'm from there.
Whenever I have done campaigns, the first thing we do is set our characters up as living people in the world, then go on to the actual adventuring later.
Good! There's a "10 questions to make your role playing blossom" thread you should see.
Keep in mind that unless you have the same DM repeatedly, your character background isn't going to come to the forefront easily. Subtly doesn't work very well.
|
You might also check out Pathfinder Society.net They have several blogs about the stories for each season, different countries and how they relate and a host of other very useful blog posts.
|
The world of Golarion is INCREDIBLY rich and diverse, and this is only with information on about 3 continents (Inner Sea, Tian Xia, Azlant(I guess?)).
What I always tell new people when they show up, is look at the nations presented as factions and choose one of those. As you play through Pathfinder Society Scenarios, you will be introduced to new lands and cultures. When one of them sparks your interest, go do some research. There are plenty of websites out there, or after the scenario ask your GM about the location. In every PFS Scenario there is a blurb about the land your in.
The Inner Sea World Guide is also a great source for background. It gives culture, traditions, history, and lore of each nation and the inner sea in general.
I had a friend who knew NOTHING about Golarion. He created a fighter from Almas in Andoran because he just read the guide ot organized play, saw that city, saw Andoran and liked the ideals. He made a very generic background that could fit into any setting, he was a baker, who worked part time with the society. He traveled the world with Society collecting new recipes and ingredients and actually did that a lot in game. Trading spices, or his recipes for goods or other knowledge. This small, and easy to conjure background helped him to become more interested in the culture and people of the places he went to.
My fiancee and I own a massive library of pathfinder books, having read many of them twice over over the last 4 years, and we STILL find new stories and histories of the Inner Sea. Just have fun exploring and learning.