Status of Golarion in New Edition?


General Discussion

1 to 50 of 116 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | next > last >>

I'm sooo SOOO CURIOUS about the current status of the world of Golarion in the new edition. What nations endured and prospered? What kingdoms and rulers fell into ruin What new powers and individuals rose to glory in the wake of the ending of the Age of Lost Omens? Anyone else getting curious like me? :D


2 people marked this as a favorite.

As someone who is actually very unfamiliar with the canonical Golarion setting, I am interested to see what's going on now but hoping that I won't be too lost not knowing all the 1E stuff. XD


2 people marked this as a favorite.

But I do absolutely LOVE the fact that Doomsday Dawn essentially carries to and picks up at Golarion's present, the end of the 1E AP's. That just feels like an epic concept.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

From what we know all of the APs happened, and there's gonna be something big and earth shaking from the final AP. PROBABLY involving the Whispering Tyrant.


Captain Morgan wrote:
From what we know all of the APs happened, and there's gonna be something big and earth shaking from the final AP. PROBABLY involving the Whispering Tyrant.

Considering we've had a battle with one or more demon lords during the closing of the Worldwound and New Thassilon rising from the ashes with Runelord Sorshen as it's ruler, it would have to be Whispering Tyrant level crisis at the very LEAST. ;) :D


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Aside from the obvious ones where changing the government was the entire point of the AP, Numeria will certainly be different. Iron Gods has the PCs

Spoiler:
Slaughter the organization that defacto rules it including its leaders, remove or free their figurehead ruler, destroy the big behind the scenes manipulator and (optionally, but explicitly happened in Starfinder) create a new deity.

The real interesting one will be Reign of Winter

Spoiler:
Have the PCs dumped any of the tech they got in Russia onto the market? While reverse engineering smokeless powder may be beyond the means of even talented alchemists, bolt actions, box magazines and revolvers (though perhaps not the Nagant's gas seal system) don't require smokeless powder. Guns are just the start of the stuff they might bring.


I think it's pretty safe to assume that no off-world technology will become standard on Golarion after our Reign of Winter heroes return, but the real question is who reigns in Irrisen? Presumably it's not Elvanna, but it could be Anastasia or Cassisoche or someone else.

Any of the ones where there's a change in leadership for a state and there's not a clear option favored by the AP (we have a good idea how War for the Crown ends even if all we read is the player's guide), but we're probably going to need to identify "who rules Irrisen" before we have to name check the Hurricane King/Queen. Of course, there's probably a high turnover among pirates so it could be a person not even named in the AP by the time we revisit the Shackles.

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

What is certain is that Goblins will become more integrated within the society. Talk about rising to power!


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Of course, most of the APs don't change all that much in the setting, because the goal is usually to avert something from happening.
Like the one where Kyonin wasn't squished by a meteor.

It would be fun to have a setting in which the PCs were assumed to have failed every AP, because then the Inner Sea would be chaos!


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Building on what Gorbacz said...

I can just see it now - for ages, Goblins have been the nutty little nuisance critters that drive almost everyone crazy. With no apparent redeeming qualities - they are generally ignored, beaten down, and otherwise aren't much better than vermin in the eyes of many.

Which was a perfect cover.

Because buried deep within the collective Goblin psyche is a weapon. A weapon so powerful, that it had be kept hidden until it was absolutely needed. Hidden within the collective race known as Goblins - where NO ONE would think to look.

It is this weapon that will ultimately defeat the Whispering Tyrant and save Golarion and everyone on it.

And thus, Goblins go from vermin to heroes and become accepted members of society - they saved the planet (well, with some help from some Adventurers in the last of the 1st Ed. AP's).

That's my off-the-wall theory.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Jeven wrote:

Of course, most of the APs don't change all that much in the setting, because the goal is usually to avert something from happening.

Like the one where Kyonin wasn't squished by a meteor.

It would be fun to have a setting in which the PCs were assumed to have failed every AP, because then the Inner Sea would be chaos!

My group has a rule that all of the APs we run are canon to any future APs we run.

As a result, my version of Golarion is one where both Serpent's Skull and Shattered Star were failed, which has resulting in some... dynamic... changes to the setting. :P

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

This is a question I've asked before to the devs, especially James Jacobs, specifically if Golarion was going to suffer a cataclysmic event like The Spellplague in Forgotten Realms to provide a "Watsonian" reason for why the setting's rules changed, and Jacobs' answer was no. So it appears that the Golarion of 2e will basically be the Golarion of 1e.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
So it appears that the Golarion of 2e will basically be the Golarion of 1e.

It's the Golarion of 1e with about 12 years of stuff happening in tumultuous times though. Same setting but the game is going to acknowledge stuff like- the Worldwound is closed, Ravounel is independent, Eutropia rules Taldor, Someone other than Elvanna rules Irrisen, etc.

Back in PF1 we wouldn't acknowledge the events of prior APs for the most part because people might still go back and do them (there are a few exceptions in the Adventurer's Guide and the APs which are sequels to other APs). So I think it's going to feel different just making this change.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
MaxAstro wrote:

My group has a rule that all of the APs we run are canon to any future APs we run.

As a result, my version of Golarion is one where both Serpent's Skull and Shattered Star were failed, which has resulting in some... dynamic... changes to the setting. :P

The failure endings really do create some fascinating possibilities! Both those APs (non-spoilery) would really inject some interesting new power dynamics into Varisia and the Mwangi.

Since Paizo probably haven't written the new campaign setting, perhaps they might consider incorporating a few AP-failures, to create some really unexpected changes.

Personally, I think the canon setting has become a bit stale because of the PF1 philosophy of not advancing or making any major changes to it at all which has made it largely static for 10 years. Even Shattered Star which assumed the success of the previous 3 Varisian APs didn't effect any major changes (new Korvosan government & lost city discovered was about it).


7 people marked this as a favorite.

Our Hell's Vengeance game came to an end when the party collectively realized that every person in the party was working an angle to betray Thrune. So we just decided to assume the bad ending, which in this case was the good ending.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
MaxAstro wrote:
Jeven wrote:

Of course, most of the APs don't change all that much in the setting, because the goal is usually to avert something from happening.

Like the one where Kyonin wasn't squished by a meteor.

It would be fun to have a setting in which the PCs were assumed to have failed every AP, because then the Inner Sea would be chaos!

My group has a rule that all of the APs we run are canon to any future APs we run.

As a result, my version of Golarion is one where both Serpent's Skull and Shattered Star were failed, which has resulting in some... dynamic... changes to the setting. :P

Our group does the same thing (which means our timeline is super non-canonical because Serpent's Skull took place 20 years after Shattered Star in our 'verse. (I wanted to play the son of a Shattered Star character in that one, and things spiraled from there.)

Somebody new is also gonna be on the throne in Korvosa...not sure if they've got a canonical answer for that one, but ours will definitely be different since they're planning to make it a PC.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I wonder if "which APs did you play, which of these outcomes did you arrive at" would be a thing they have data on or would be wanting to collect.


I think your new edition should come with a new campaign setting as well something that set's it apart from everything else out and i have a great idea for a new campaign if anyone in paizo reads this let me know if u interested you wont be disapointed

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

Dracovar wrote:

Building on what Gorbacz said...

I can just see it now - for ages, Goblins have been the nutty little nuisance critters that drive almost everyone crazy. With no apparent redeeming qualities - they are generally ignored, beaten down, and otherwise aren't much better than vermin in the eyes of many.

Which was a perfect cover.

Because buried deep within the collective Goblin psyche is a weapon. A weapon so powerful, that it had be kept hidden until it was absolutely needed. Hidden within the collective race known as Goblins - where NO ONE would think to look.

It is this weapon that will ultimately defeat the Whispering Tyrant and save Golarion and everyone on it.

And thus, Goblins go from vermin to heroes and become accepted members of society - they saved the planet (well, with some help from some Adventurers in the last of the 1st Ed. AP's).

That's my off-the-wall theory.

The Pathfinder: Goblins comic book series had goblins being introduced as novelty house servants in Korvosa. I kind of figured that the trend caught on...especially since the goblin ringleader made it a point of using potions and elixirs to make the goblins smart and charming enough to infiltrate noble society and reap the rewards of blackmail and thievery.

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

8 people marked this as a favorite.
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
[...] So it appears that the Golarion of 2e will basically be the Golarion of 1e.

With about 10 years of AP and PFS scenario resolutions applied.

I really tried to sell the team on applying some of the results of my campaign completions to the canon, but I got a lot of side-eye when I suggested that there should be a luchador king in the River Kingdoms....

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'm honestly super curious which outcome of Reign of Winter was assumed. Most of the other APs are more-or-less predictable, but that's one where things could swing many ways.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I feel like the safe assumptions are:

1) Nothing completely terrible occurred because no heroes were up to the task (world didn't end, etc.)

2) No PCs are canonically in important roles, since Paizo doesn't know who they are, but you are free to change the identity of key NPCs just you always could.

3) APs ended with the good ending up until the point where the goodness of the ending restricts our ability to tell future stories about this place (We can see this with how Hell's Vengeance assumes you did not get the best ending in Council of Thieves).

Spoiler:
For example, in Reign of Winter, one thing the PCs can secure from Baba Yaga is the promise to leave Golarion and never return, which she agrees to. No way this is canonical, or if it is it won't stick because a writer who wants to do something with the scariest witch around will write her a loophole. But in Hell's Rebels we can assume that Ravounel secured fairly stable relationships with its neighbors and is not in *immediate* threat of invasion, since that invasion can easily manifest whenever a writer wants to make it happen (Neither Cheliax nor Nidal is to be trusted). I mean, the list of places Cheliax wants to invade to reclaim former glory was long when Pathfinder *started* and they didn't exactly expand their territory in PF1, even without losing Ravounel.

It's generally fine to put to bed old threats since there's no shortage of major threats or plot hooks from PF1 that have not been addressed yet.


as of 2e we're [before any of that stuff happened], are we not? DD takes place before the very first AP from 1e if memory serves.

also the lore is now very different in practice, as all Great and Powerful Wizard npcs (runelords etc) arent exactly all that great or powerful mechanically (so they can't really back that lore up imo)

and with the maths they are currently...


AndIMustMask wrote:
as of 2e we're [before any of that stuff happened], are we not? DD takes place before the very first AP from 1e if memory serves.

Doomsday Dawn *starts* there but it spans a great number of years. Part 6 takes place in 4718, which is the current year in Golarion reckoning so it's after all of the APs published in previous years. DD is just unique in that it spans many years as it starts in 4707, before Rise of the Runelords.

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Doomsday Dawn actually starts before Rise of the Runelords and ends approximately now-ish in Golarion's timeline, which mirrors real-world time in its progression (one year real world generally equates to one year's passage of time in Golarion). The new campaign will pick up basically right where the current one ends, incorporating the last decade's worth of adventure paths and Pathfinder Society scenarios into the current state of things. There's going to be relatively little that happens "off screen", though there are probably a few transitive states that will need to be resolved (we have a lot of 90-year-old humans who've been 90 for long enough they probably shouldn't still be around when the new campaign kicks off).


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Amusingly, in our canonical AP-Golarion continuity, we resolved the early "how old is Queen Abrogail Thrune?" with having both printed answers correct. As in, the Queen actually has a daughter, at the younger printed age, more or less, and that the official history books are somewhat obfuscated as to what's going on, to protect the heir.

Amusingly, the princess became a PC in our continuity.

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
PossibleCabbage wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
So it appears that the Golarion of 2e will basically be the Golarion of 1e.

It's the Golarion of 1e with about 12 years of stuff happening in tumultuous times though. Same setting but the game is going to acknowledge stuff like- the Worldwound is closed, Ravounel is independent, Eutropia rules Taldor, Someone other than Elvanna rules Irrisen, etc.

Back in PF1 we wouldn't acknowledge the events of prior APs for the most part because people might still go back and do them (there are a few exceptions in the Adventurer's Guide and the APs which are sequels to other APs). So I think it's going to feel different just making this change.

Michael Sayre wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
[...] So it appears that the Golarion of 2e will basically be the Golarion of 1e.

With about 10 years of AP and PFS scenario resolutions applied.

I really tried to sell the team on applying some of the results of my campaign completions to the canon, but I got a lot of side-eye when I suggested that there should be a luchador king in the River Kingdoms....

Honestly, this is what frustrates and scares me more than anything else about the new edition. The devs have stated several times that there is no advancing metaplot in Pathfinder, but I feel that rings hollow when APs like Shattered Star and Return of the Runelords are effectively sequels of older APs like Rise of the Runelords and Campaign Setting and Player Companion books reference PFS scenarios I haven't played (looking at you, Hao Jin Tapestry!) or novels I haven't read! I feel like I've missed out on half the setting because I thought PFS could be safely ignored! It's part of why I have a hard time getting back into Forgotten Realms after 5e came out, because the amount of novels I have to read to get it effectively doubled!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
PossibleCabbage wrote:
I wonder if "which APs did you play, which of these outcomes did you arrive at" would be a thing they have data on or would be wanting to collect.

That would be a fascinating survey. I'd love to see the results if they do one.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Michael Sayre wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
[...] So it appears that the Golarion of 2e will basically be the Golarion of 1e.

With about 10 years of AP and PFS scenario resolutions applied.

I really tried to sell the team on applying some of the results of my campaign completions to the canon, but I got a lot of side-eye when I suggested that there should be a luchador king in the River Kingdoms....

Sounds legit to me. Although it might be a better fit with the setting if he was a luchador King, who rode a dinosaur. Because dinosaur.

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

11 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm not sure who/when claimed there was no advancing story to the setting, but I know that around the time Strange Aeons was announced there was a lot of talk from people across the company, including James Jacobs, about how Reign of Winter and Strange Aeons actually firmly established the correlation between the flow of time in Golarion and the passage of time in the real world. Pathfinder Society has actively cultivated the advancement of the world through our scenarios for years, including collecting reporting data from our players to determine which NPCs live, die, retire, or get lost between dimensions.
We did hold off on establishing the results of any adventure paths in our setting since many groups play them out of order or are simply coming to them late in the game's lifespan, but all of that will be resolved as we go into the new edition. The good news if you're concerned about that is that we know there will be a lot of players who are new or returning after long absences and I strongly suspect that we will cover all the changes in a product sooner, rather than later. No one is going to expect you to have played every AP and PFS scenario just to know what's going on.

Doktor Weasel wrote:
Michael Sayre wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
[...] So it appears that the Golarion of 2e will basically be the Golarion of 1e.

With about 10 years of AP and PFS scenario resolutions applied.

I really tried to sell the team on applying some of the results of my campaign completions to the canon, but I got a lot of side-eye when I suggested that there should be a luchador king in the River Kingdoms....

Sounds legit to me. Although it might be a better fit with the setting if he was a luchador King, who rode a dinosaur. Because dinosaur.

This quote made realize that the precedent set by the Linnorm kings is that the word that comes before "king" is what you had to kill to be named king. So a luchador king would be some individual with a luchador mask mounted in their hall to display their triumph. Which in some ways is even cooler. A luchador Luchador king and his trusty tyrannosaurus, bringing peace to the River Kingdoms!

....

I might not get invited to creative team meetings anymore if I pitched that.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Honestly, this is what frustrates and scares me more than anything else about the new edition. The devs have stated several times that there is no advancing metaplot in Pathfinder, but I feel that rings hollow when APs like Shattered Star and Return of the Runelords are effectively sequels of older APs like Rise of the Runelords and Campaign Setting and Player Companion books reference PFS scenarios I haven't played (looking at you, Hao Jin Tapestry!) or novels I haven't read! I feel like I've missed out on half the setting because I thought PFS could be safely ignored! It's part of why I have a hard time getting back into Forgotten Realms after 5e came out, because the amount of novels I have to read to get it effectively doubled!

I feel like when they say "there's no advancing metaplot" they don't mean "things don't happen, the setting will remain static" they mean "we're not building towards anything in particular so that you need to play them all to keep track of it." We don't have any particular "Rovagug escapes and the world ends" apocalypse looming in the background, stuff just happens... sometimes it causes other stuff to happen. If the APs which are sequels to each other are any indication it's going to be less "you need to have played read the last one to make sense of this", they will just matter of factly state "this thing happened" insofar as it's necessary for setting the stage. If you played the relevant AP this might mean more to you, but you don't need the whole backstory to make sense of "So-and-So rules X now".

Presumably all sorts of places change who's in charge "offscreen" all the time. Like it's probably a biweekly occurrence in Galt.

Plus I mean ignorance of setting details is a fine thing to have in character so if you personally have them then that's super easy to RP, there's not an internet (nor telegraph system) on Golarion so if your character is unaware that Ravounel is now independent from Cheliax, that's fine unless you're literally from Ravounel (Cheliax probably suppresses the news, and "general ignorance" is probably the safest way to be in Nidal.)

I confess I didn't have any idea the Hao Jin tapestry was a thing from a PFS scenario when I read about it in Planar Adventures, but it still made sense when I read about it.

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
PossibleCabbage wrote:
I confess I didn't have any idea the Hao Jin tapestry was a thing from a PFS scenario when I read about it in Planar Adventures, but it still made sense when I read about it.

That's also a Ruby Phoenix Tournament tie-in! Canonically, members of the Pathfinder Society won the Ruby Phoenix Tournament and claimed the tapestry as their prize. The tapestry has shown up across several PFS seasons and is a major part of this season's storyline. It's even the location for December's upcoming scenario, The Hao Jin Hierophant.

But as you also noted, none of that information is necessary to think that the Hao Jin Tapestry is cool or add it to your campaign. It's entirely usable based solely on its entry in Planar Adventures. If you do want to explore the tapestry and don't have the time or inclination to write up an adventure around it, you can also always pick up one of the scenarios it's featured in and add that to your game as a single session entry.

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
PossibleCabbage wrote:

I feel like when they say "there's no advancing metaplot" they don't mean "things don't happen, the setting will remain static" they mean "we're not building towards anything in particular so that you need to play them all to keep track of it." We don't have any particular "Rovagug escapes and the world ends" apocalypse looming in the background, stuff just happens... sometimes it causes other stuff to happen. If the APs which are sequels to each other are any indication it's going to be less "you need to have played read the last one to make sense of this", they will just matter of factly state "this thing happened" insofar as it's necessary for setting the stage. If you played the relevant AP this might mean more to you, but you don't need the whole backstory to make sense of "So-and-So rules X now".

Presumably all sorts of places change who's in charge "offscreen" all the time. Like it's probably a biweekly occurrence in Galt.

Plus I mean ignorance of setting details is a fine thing to have in character so if you personally have them then that's super easy to RP, there's not an internet (nor telegraph system) on Golarion so if your character is unaware that Ravounel is now independent from Cheliax, that's fine unless you're literally from Ravounel (Cheliax probably suppresses the news, and "general ignorance" is probably the safest way to be in Nidal.)

But that makes it harder to write backstories for your characters conflict with the canon. I don't want to write something like "My Hell's Vengeance magus' black blade is the Hellfire Redeemer from Empire of Devils" only for someone to reply "But the Pathfinders find the Hellfire Redeemer in PFS Scenario #46!" Then I have to start all over! D:<

And I want to do a whole "expanded universe" thing where all the AP play-by-posts I'm in are all happening in the same timeline, and that means needing to know as much canon as possible so I can keep the games run by different GMs from conflicting with each other!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Captain Morgan wrote:
From what we know all of the APs happened, and there's gonna be something big and earth shaking from the final AP. PROBABLY involving the Whispering Tyrant.

So standard Realms world shattering event then. That's a shame.


Well, the Whispering Tyrant probably comes back at the beginning of the AP. As with all APs, the heroes probably manage to make the bad thing much less bad through their heroism by the end. I figure they just want a "big scary death zone" around that part of the map, and since the Worldwound is closed...


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
PossibleCabbage wrote:

I feel like when they say "there's no advancing metaplot" they don't mean "things don't happen, the setting will remain static" they mean "we're not building towards anything in particular so that you need to play them all to keep track of it." We don't have any particular "Rovagug escapes and the world ends" apocalypse looming in the background, stuff just happens... sometimes it causes other stuff to happen. If the APs which are sequels to each other are any indication it's going to be less "you need to have played read the last one to make sense of this", they will just matter of factly state "this thing happened" insofar as it's necessary for setting the stage. If you played the relevant AP this might mean more to you, but you don't need the whole backstory to make sense of "So-and-So rules X now".

Presumably all sorts of places change who's in charge "offscreen" all the time. Like it's probably a biweekly occurrence in Galt.

Plus I mean ignorance of setting details is a fine thing to have in character so if you personally have them then that's super easy to RP, there's not an internet (nor telegraph system) on Golarion so if your character is unaware that Ravounel is now independent from Cheliax, that's fine unless you're literally from Ravounel (Cheliax probably suppresses the news, and "general ignorance" is probably the safest way to be in Nidal.)

But that makes it harder to write backstories for your characters conflict with the canon. I don't want to write something like "My Hell's Vengeance magus' black blade is the Hellfire Redeemer from Empire of Devils" only for someone to reply "But the Pathfinders find the Hellfire Redeemer in PFS Scenario #46!" Then I have to start all over! D:<

And I want to do a whole "expanded universe" thing where all the AP play-by-posts I'm in are all happening in the same timeline, and that means needing to know as much canon as possible so I can keep the games run by different GMs from conflicting with each other!

I don't think anyone, including the creators, expect most tables to be anywhere near as concerned as canon as you seem to be.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Michael Sayre wrote:
I really tried to sell the team on applying some of the results of my campaign completions to the canon, but I got a lot of side-eye when I suggested that there should be a luchador king in the River Kingdoms....

EEELLLLLLLLLL DDDDIIIIIAAAAAABBBBLLLLLOOOOOO!

...and his trusty Tyrannosaurus mount "MUFFINS"! ;) :D


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Jeven wrote:

Of course, most of the APs don't change all that much in the setting, because the goal is usually to avert something from happening.

Like the one where Kyonin wasn't squished by a meteor.

It would be fun to have a setting in which the PCs were assumed to have failed every AP, because then the Inner Sea would be chaos!

Thread for you.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Michael Sayre wrote:
This quote made realize that the precedent set by the Linnorm kings is that the word that comes before "king" is what you had to kill to be named king. So a luchador king would be some individual with a luchador mask mounted in their hall to display their triumph. Which in some ways is even cooler. A luchador Luchador king and his trusty tyrannosaurus, bringing peace to the River Kingdoms!

Or The Luchador King is King of all luchadors. His main hall has the walls lined with the masks of his defeated foes. So many luchadors fell to his acrobatic prowess that all of them now bow before him, in a kingdom full of luchadors. His successor will be the one who can defeat him, preferably with some impressive off-the-top-rope maneuvers.

And maybe the dinosaur is also a luchador. That would be a truly impressive mask.

Michael Sayre wrote:
I might not get invited to creative team meetings anymore if I pitched that.

Or you might get promoted for your great ideas. There's only one way to find out.


MaxAstro wrote:

My group has a rule that all of the APs we run are canon to any future APs we run.

As a result, my version of Golarion is one where both Serpent's Skull and Shattered Star were failed, which has resulting in some... dynamic... changes to the setting. :P

We do something similar, although only started with our Wrath of the Righteous campaign. WotR also serves as the backbone of our "Pathfinder Cinematic Universe." Due to the the world-shaking abilities of Level 20, Mythic Tier 10 characters. They've become major movers and shakers in the world, to the point that we invented our own mythology to keep things in check.

Spoiler:
There's also the fact that one (my character) became the new Herald of Iomedae, and another is the son of Desna and asserting his own demi-godhood. In fact, the whole party took Divine Source to start moving on their way to godhood, but he's kind of got a head start with his pedigree. So they're making noise world-wide.

It was ruled that once you get a significant amount of mythic, you're tied to a location, and aren't really able to fully use your mythic abilities elsewhere. This is to keep these mythic heroes from basically knocking over every big-bad in the world. They're also considered to be part-way to gods, and if they do too much mythic shenanigans, they need to leave the mortal world behind and ascend to godhood, in which the various agreements between the gods apply to them, limiting the ability to directly effect the world.


Gorbacz wrote:
What is certain is that Goblins will become more integrated within the society. Talk about rising to power!

I, for one, welcome our new Goblin overlords.

Radiant Oath

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
MMCJawa wrote:
I don't think anyone, including the creators, expect most tables to be anywhere near as concerned as canon as you seem to be.

You'd be right, and rationally I know you're right, but that doesn't stop the voice in my head from going "DON'T YOU DARE DESECRATE THE LABOR AND CREATIVE TALENT THE DEVELOPERS HAVE PUT INTO THIS MATERIAL BY ROLEPLAYING IT WRONG, OR NO ONE WILL EVER WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU AND THE MONEY YOU'VE SPENT ON ALL THESE BOOKS WILL HAVE BEEN WASTED!"


6 people marked this as a favorite.

I feel like when "work it out with the GM in advance" is not an option, in terms of working in some backstory concept into the wider setting, we can hedge our backstories by relying on the fact that every person is an unreliable narrator about their own lives.

So instead of "My black blade is the Hellfire Redeemer" go with "My black blade told me it was the Hellfire Redeemer" (these things have agendas, and you might have been suitably impressed that you didn't bother to find out if it was lying.)

Instead of "My character is the lost true heir to [wherever]" have "you are the lost true heir" to be a thing your character believes, was told, or just tells people in order to impress them.

Unless the campaign is specifically about those things, you're not likely to be contradicted but in case you are then you have an out with an in-character "I guess I was wrong, then."

I mean IRL people all walk around believing all sorts of factually incorrect things (e.g. in Medieval Europe it was actually very rare to marry at a young age, most examples were of people being married off for political alliances, almost all the rest of people got married at age 19 or later), so it's okay and in fact probably more realistic if our fantasy characters are just wrong about stuff.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
MMCJawa wrote:
I don't think anyone, including the creators, expect most tables to be anywhere near as concerned as canon as you seem to be.
You'd be right, and rationally I know you're right, but that doesn't stop the voice in my head from going "DON'T YOU DARE DESECRATE THE LABOR AND CREATIVE TALENT THE DEVELOPERS HAVE PUT INTO THIS MATERIAL BY ROLEPLAYING IT WRONG, OR NO ONE WILL EVER WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU AND THE MONEY YOU'VE SPENT ON ALL THESE BOOKS WILL HAVE BEEN WASTED!"

If you find the snooze button on that voice let me know.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Meraki wrote:

SNIP

Somebody new is also gonna be on the throne in Korvosa...not sure if they've got a canonical answer for that one, but ours will definitely be different since they're planning to make it a PC.

Korvosa ruler:
According to the information in the opening of the current Return of the Runelords AP Neolandus Kalepopolis survived and is 2nd in command and Cressida Kroft has been made queen of Korvosa.

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Or just decide that your canon is the canon at your table regardless of what the official one is. I mean, I don't expect Paizo to say in 2E that Queen Galfrey is married to Razvan Nemoianu, inquisitor

Spoiler:
and Desna's son,

but that's true in our Golarion regardless. It might cause a problem if you say you're the lost heir to so-and-so and Paizo then puts out an AP about the lost heir to so-and-so...but otherwise you can pretty safely just nudge official canon to the side as needed.

(I guess this assumes you have a consistent group, though--but if you don't, you probably can't keep much of a multi-AP continuity anyway.)


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Nicolas Paradise wrote:
Meraki wrote:

SNIP

Somebody new is also gonna be on the throne in Korvosa...not sure if they've got a canonical answer for that one, but ours will definitely be different since they're planning to make it a PC.
** spoiler omitted **

Huh, neat. That's definitely not how our game is looking like it'll end up, haha.

Spoiler:
It's pretty likely if things shake out how the PCs are planning that the PC aasimar will be Queen and Vencarlo Orisini will be King--a decision made of a romance between the two, but also pretty politically advantageous given their respective positions. They actually considered Cressida, but given that she was mentioned in her bio as being a practical sort who really kind of misses adventuring, I didn't figure she'd be all that interested in ruling unless there was no one else willing to take it up.


5 people marked this as a favorite.

So they did finally officially reveal that Aroden reincarnated as a Goblin?
I've been holding my tongue, what with the official NDA and all.... >;-D


4 people marked this as a favorite.

^ . . . And later accidentally burned up Golarion, leading for the need for the Gap to cover up the embarrassing accident.

1 to 50 of 116 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Archive / Pathfinder / Playtests & Prerelease Discussions / Pathfinder Playtest / Pathfinder Playtest General Discussion / Status of Golarion in New Edition? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.