In the last month, I've been re-reading some of my old 4e books, and I LOVE so much of the fluff and core assumptions (DMG1 pg150). Many things I like are fantastic, turned up to 11. What would it take to alter another setting with some of these assumptions? I'm specifically thinking of the Sandpoint/Magnimar/Kaer Maga area used in 3 of Paizo's APs (Rise of the Runelords, Jade Regent, Shattered Star), but general advice is also appreciated.
Hoping for some discussion and/or advice and opinions on how to put some 4e amazement into the specified setting (or into non-4e settings in general). I've been taking notes and investigating some on my own, but not sure how to actually implement changes, ramping up the core assumptions involved. Here is some of what I'm talking about, organized by 4e core assumption:
The Civilized Races Band Together: Races are considered civilized because they banded together against the surrounding darkness. "Who cares that Bob is 12 feet tall and scary looking? He's a respected member of the town guard, and that's all that's really important. We've had neighbors like him for generations." I've never seen it taken to quite this degree in any other setting, and would love to change settings to be more like this.
The World is Mysterious: Humans are not the only ones in charge, and absolutely anything could be in the next valley over, or even closer. Instead of almost-normal medieval life going on until an invasion of bad-weird-events/monsters show up.
The World is a Fantastic Place: I see weirder things outside my window at home every week than the "normal" before Paizo APs really get started. Sometimes even more than halfway through the AP. Granted, I live in a weird location - people calmly living in houses in long-demolished parts of town nearby, a man threatening to kill his own child to avoid a speeding ticket, parents demanding that their children being allowed to cheat on a test so that the test would be fair, a nurse telling me she had no idea what was wrong with my child (he had a bad cold) because her training didn't cover our ethnicity, bugs for dinner, and on and on and on - hundreds of stories. I thus need more fantastic in my fantasy.
Monsters are Everywhere: Travel in Paizo APs is generally "uneventful", even when traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles. Cities have some variety, but usually not the epic wow stuff of 4e (although Kaer Maga comes close).
The World is Ancient: Layer upon layer of fallen empires. Greater Magnimar only has the one. Would love to see another few layers.
Thank you. I posted this at enworld too, but the people that have responded so far seem less than familiar with Golarion.
The Earthdawn setting, or whatever 4e had, might suit you better than Golarion here. To look right these sort of assumptions need to be baked in from the start IMO.
Edit: To be clear I think it's easier to change the numbers & character builds in a setting than to change the flavour of a setting.
The Civilized Races Band Together
Not particularly difficult. The traditional 'elves and dwarves hate each other' idea isn't a big thing in Golarion. And the Advanced Race Guide is full of options for friendly species.
The World is Mysterious:
Golarion can be pretty weird. Look at a page like Tian Xia
Nearby nations are summarized as "hobgoblin empire", "kraken-ruled swampland", "kingdom of sorcerers", etc.Monsters are Everywhere:
In general, I think it's easier to add something to a campaign setting than remove stuff (since you're not really going to be contradicted by canon in a meaningful way). As such, I think you should be able to get the feel you want without too much trouble. My Golarion has dragonborn and the shadowfell (Was is Gloomwrought? That's my shadowfell version of Korvosa). Making it more cosmopolitan and less human-centric is as simple as reworking the odd NPC here and there (plus adding in some groups/factions or possibly making one of the Inner Sea nations non-human, as well as it's other, canonical properties).
Golarion has a very long timeline - it's easy to have four or five risen and fallen empires between Thassilon and current day Magnimar, if that's what you want. Kaer Maga is from a civilisation even older than that.
In terms of mysterious places with a "points of light" feel, I think Varisia is tailor made for that. However, you could pretty much establish that feel in most places (maybe not Taldor and Cheliax, but even then if the players buy in to it, I think it could work).
I don't really understand the "not fantastic enough" point - it sounds like more of a critique of adventures than the campaign setting. But you could easily add in flying cities, planar rifts, or whatever it is you think is currently missing. I don't think amping up the fantasticness is going to make the rest of the setting feel odd (I already consider it high fantasy, high magic though - so I may well be misunderstanding what you're looking for).
Golarion can be pretty weird. Look at a page like Tian Xia
Nearby nations are summarized as "hobgoblin empire", "kraken-ruled swampland", "kingdom of sorcerers", etc.
Yes, but so far completely undetailed. Plenty of local, Chinese language games that do asian stuff if I needed that in my game anyway - I'm an American that lives in Asia. Hongal being mapless in the AP and designed to make us see how different Asian customs and food are from American customs and food hence doesn't do all that much for me.
Back on topic - yes, there are some amazing places to visit like the world wound, Kaer Maga, and Xin Shalast. It just seems that these magical places are so very far away from where normal people are doing normal human things without a care in the world. Would like my life to be less weird than theirs.