Recommend your "core" setting books

[Wildfire142]

Apart from the Inner Sea Guide and Inner Sea Gods what four other books do people consider essential to run games set in Golarion?

[Haladir]

This really depends on the adventure you're running.

If you're running a game set in Magnimar, then you would probably find Magnimar: City of Monuments and Varisia: Birthplace of Legends to be essential.

You would not need either of those at all if you were running Mummy's Mask.

[Wildfire142]

So your saying is go with local detail books for the area your going to run in. Okay :)

Thanks :)

[Cpt_kirstov]

Get a general idea in where you want to run. Go to www.pathfinderwiki.com and look up a few facts that you already have nailed down. Look at the references section that lists the books used to write each article. Look. Into books that come up on multiple wiki pages.

[Zhangar]

While not actually essential, The Great Beyond and Distant Stars are among my favorite books in the line.

Inner Sea Magic, Hell Unleashed, The Books of the Damned, the Chronicles of the Righteous, Paths of Prestige, the Pathfinder Society Field Guide, the Technology Guide, Inner Sea Bestiary, and Inner Sea Races all get honorable mentions.

[LazarX]

Wildfire142 wrote:

Apart from the Inner Sea Guide and Inner Sea Gods what four other books do people consider essential to run games set in Golarion?

If you're running printed PFS scenarios or AP, they pretty much have all the information that's needed. You only need the books for building your own.

[Haladir]

LazarX wrote:

Wildfire142 wrote:

Apart from the Inner Sea Guide and Inner Sea Gods what four other books do people consider essential to run games set in Golarion?

If you're running printed PFS scenarios or AP, they pretty much have all the information that's needed. You only need the books for building your own.

This is true. However, the local setting books can add a lot of extra details to play with if/when the PCs go off-script.

[Wildfire142]

It will be a home game not pfs so I have free reign :)

Will look at that wiki as well.

Going to look at the other inner sea books first I think then when I pick a location get the books that cover it.

[Brother Fen]

I don't want to be That Guy, but at my table, anything by Paizo is Core as is anything from Dreamscarred Press. Each week, I bring the long box of books to prove it.

[Wildfire142]

My tags don't show it anymore but I have everything from Burnt Offerings up to last months books, so it more a case of picking what to concentrate on using these days as its getting to be information overload at times.

[Haladir]

Ok. I'll stand by my recommendation to concentrate on the area in which your campaign takes place.

My current campaign is a homebrew set in Korvosa, with occasions excursions elsewhere. The books I rely on most are regional, most of the time. They include anything connected to the current plotline, which is involving...

Spoiler:

...midnight milk, the lost city of Ilvarandin, and an invasion by intellect devourers based on Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

So, the books I lean on most for setting information include Guide to Korvosa, Magnimar: City of Monuments, Lost Cities of Golarion, Edge of Anarchy, Seven Days to the Grave, and Varisia: Birthplace of Legends.

I really don't need to reference books like Technology Guide, Isles of the Shackles, Irrisen: Land of Eternal Winter, or The Worldwound.

Fortunately, I have all of my books on PDF, so I only need to bring my laptop!

[Wildfire142]

Haladir wrote:

Ok. I'll stand by my recommendation to concentrate on the area in which your campaign takes place.

Fortunately, I have all of my books on PDF, so I only need to bring my laptop!

I am so greatful for PDFs as my pathfinder shelf is about 2 meters long and too heavy to take to a game every week. :)

Still deciding n where to set my gMe but thinking of somewhere of the beaten track adventure path wise so I can explore a new region.