I've been poking around in the setting of Golarion again recently, the Pathfinder setting. I should point out that the only Golarion setting book that I own in physical form is the one that was published prior to the Pathfinder game, however, and it is written to coincide with the 3.5 version of the D&D rules. Or, as Green Ronin calls it with their copy-cat d20 logo, the 3rd Era. I'm sort of familiar with what has happened to the setting since then, however, including some major changes to a few areas. The Worldwound was closed, Tar-Baphon has reappeared and blown up Lastwall, etc. I'll admit; I'm not really a fan of making changes to settings like that, but then again, most of the lands that were changed were ones that I wasn't all that fond of anyway.
I still might do a Golarion Remixed similar to my Eberron Remixed activity. But don't hold your breath. I've got a lot of projects ongoing at any given time in my hobbies, and I don't give myself much in the way of deadlines or formal project management. Unlike Eberron, however, it'll be a bit more difficult to focus. Eberron, while world-sized in scope, didn't really do all that much with more than one continent, and the main setting book settled for simply making offhand references to continents like Sarlona, Argonnessen, or even Xendrik, for that matter. Khorvaire was far and away the focus.
Golarion is quite a bit bigger in scope. While you can blow off some regions as "supplemental" like Tien Xia or Arcadia, or the Crown of the World, etc. there are still two main continents to cover, and each is broken up into at least as many constituent regions as Khorvaire, but mostly more. Many more, in the case of Avistan. Also, in Khorvaire, while you have different constituent regions with a different tone and flavor, they're all meant to work together a little better. Golarion is designed so that each constituent region is almost a mini-setting in its own right, and almost works better if you set an entire game within that region, so you can focus on the tone and feel that it brings. Certainly most of their adventure paths have done so. I don't think either Eberron nor Golarion's approach is a better idea, they simply serve different purposes. Eberron has loads of fast-travel options, and because political intrigue is a major element of the setting, being able to travel across the continent and do stuff in various areas is a defining feature. Golarion is meant to be a setting that has a place for all kinds of different games, stories and tones, depending on the group and adventure path that you're doing, so being broken up into numerous mini-settings works best for how they intended to use it and for it to be used.
Anyway, not all of the constituent elements are created equal. Some got little attention over the years. Some deserved little attention. Some were just weird or esoteric ideas. Some are more playable than others. And some just attract a broader base while some focus on narrow interests that relatively few gamers will have. Some make ideological/political statements of sorts (usually among my least favorite). I'm going to take, for Avistan (and then maybe I'll do it also for Garund if the post doesn't balloon out too big) my three favorite and three least favorite constituent elements and briefly discuss why they work for me or why they don't. Fair warning; I'm among the most opinionated guys on the internet, and I'm only talking about what I like and don't like. You may well disagree with my assessment. Frankly, I don't think I really care. Make your own blog post if you have a different take.
AVISTAN
Top Three Regions
Varisia: Varisia is probably the best developed of all of the regions in Golarion with loads of setting books that focus on portions of it, and by far the most adventure paths set here. It's got a kind of classic D&D frontier region vibe to it that works quite well too; no big states, but rather a handful of minor city-states exerting varying degrees of control over small settlements and wilderness. It's also got a lot of the classic frontier small-town Medieval life, threatened (potentially) by savages or other dangers. Varisia just has more classic adventuring opportunity than any other region. I also like the potential for intrigue and skullduggery between factions loyal to the two major city-states, Magnimar and Korvosa, and the potential that brings. Riddleport is a bit of an nice outlier, offering a more condensed frontier vibe with pirates and relative lawlessness. Kaer Maga, on the other hand, is a stupid idea that was then executed even more poorly, making an already dumb concept even worse. It's best ignored entirely, if you can swing it.
Ustalav: Little wonder that the only region that I've "adapted" so far—for my CULT OF UNDEATH project—was Ustalav. The vibe and tone of this element is meant to be very classic, Transylvanian Gothic horror. Although more limited than Varisia because of its strong tone, that very strong tone is what makes it a potential favorite among fans of implementing that tone. Surprisingly, it seems to have maintained its integrity as a setting element even after the rise of Tar-Baphon (again) from the grave in recent setting developments. Probably because it's one of the better and more popular elements in the setting, I would guess.
Absalom: Absalom is the quintessential urban setting for a D&D game; glittering and fanciful on the surface, but just underneath, a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Absalom also has a strong tone; an urban tone, which tends to gravitate towards political infighting, intrigue, skullduggery, and crime. But it's also got its moments of glory, if you will, and some of the most iconic elements of the setting are located here, like the Pathfinder Society headquarters, etc. Sadly, as soon as you get out of the city (and often while still in it) you get lambasted with quirky (and not in a good way) D&Disms, like odd dungeons lurking right off the beaten path, and stuff like that. But that stuff is usually left as offhand references that can easily be ignored.
Bottom Three Regions
Druma: Like most of my least-favorite regions, Druma is dominated by a cultural high concept that poisons its usefulness. The cultural high concept—that everyone is obsessed with trade and greed—is so strong, that it begs the question of what any normal person would ever do or see in the nation in the first place, and why they would ever be there, including the PCs themselves. It also makes dealing with anyone from Druma a particularly tedious one-note bore.
Razmiran: Also ruined by a high concept too narrow to be of much use, Razmiran is obsessed with a cult to a guy who is pretending to be a god but isn't. It seems like some anti-religious SJW nutjob came up with this idea, and tried to push it into being, when it just isn't organic enough to be self-sustaining. Not only that, if true, it's insulting to normal people everywhere. You do want to give individual regions something that sets them apart and makes them feel different than other regions, but if that is just an obsessive cult-like ideology of everybody which defines literally everything about the region and screws it up, that's not very useful for gaming, or very fun.
Numeria: This one is a little different; it's a primitive, barbaric land that has a crashed spaceship in the middle of it. It's a strange concept, and I know why they did it (because Eric Mona was a big fan of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, basically) but it's too narrow and esoteric a concept to be appealing to most, I think. Me included; I don't like weird space opera elements in my sword & sorcery very much.
Three Regions That Could be Great or Terrible
Lastwall: For the most part, these regions never really had much development; no full adventure paths were set there, and they didn't, therefore, really materialize. They have the potential to be good, or to flop hard, depending on what the development with them would end up looking like. Laswall (and Mendev) probably just had too narrow of a concept to actually be worth spending time there. They were almost placeholder high concepts. It's to little surprise that Lastwall was blown up and turned into the Gravelands, or whatever they're calling it, and as the Worldwound was closed, Mendev also ceased to have a reason to exist and just kind of dispersed.
Andoran: Given that Andoran is kind of supposed to be an America-like setting in terms of ideology, it has the potential to be pretty cool. However, from what little I've seen of it, the writers don't actually understand what America is and were way too heavy-handed with the liberal SJW nonsense, and like SJWs everywhere, they turned all of the inhabitants into Karen-cultists who run around telling everyone else what to do and trying to make everyone else govern themselves the way that they do. I'd suggest that this was on its way towards quickly becoming one of the worst three, but they just never got around to actually making it so. And it could, in fact, be salvaged pretty easily because they didn't do enough with it to spike it too badly to be redeemable.
Galt: Another nation that's probably too focused on too narrow of a concept to really be very useful, Galt is the French Revolution, except that inexplicably it has lasted for literally generations now. Ironically and laughably, the SJWs who now run Paizo are lacking enough self-awareness to recognize that the horrors of the French Revolution are the inevitable result of their ideology, which is basically the same as that of the Revolutionary French. But I honestly just have no idea what to do with Galt. If it were a more recent revolution that was still playing out, that'd be one thing, but after fifty years; c'mon—its not sustainable that mass mob murder would go on that long without running out of steam... not to mention people to murder.
GARUND
Top Three Regions
Osirion: Much of Garund is saddled with political commentary on colonialism, which is the latest fad of the haters of Western Civilization. My own viewpoint on "colonization" by Western civilization is similar to that in The Life of Brian routine: "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" Brought peace." "Peace? Shut up!" That said, the vibe isn't as strong with Osirion, because it's deliberately trying to be Ancient Egypt brought up to date. There's also a strong Raiders of the Lost Ark theme to it too.
Katapesh: Katapesh has that same kind of lawless "wretched hive" feel of Riddleport or Absalom, with both city and wilderness, but with a strong Orientalism vibe to make it more exotic, rather than more familiar pirates and brigands of Medieval Europe. I don't know that it's truly unique, but it's still pretty cool and one of my favorite elements of Garund.
Sargava: Sargava is meant to be seen as the bad-guy Colonials, imposing themselves on the poor innocent natives, but it comes across more as a beacon of light in a vast cloud of savagery and darkness all around them (see the Life of Brian reference just above, too). The Serpent's Skull adventure path gives some more info on this area, on top of the slim book that came out some years ago, and although pruning of the ideological ax-grinding elements still needs to be done, it does show how Sargava could be a great place, actually, and a base camp into an exotic wilderness area.
Bottom Three Regions
Rahadoum: Yet another cultural high concept that sees this nation in the grips of a cult; in this case, an anti-cult; religion of any kind of outlawed, and everyone is a rebel who refuses to worship even gods that they acknowledge exist. Non serviam. While what little information there is on this land is presented as somewhat positive, this is outright Satanic in nature, even more so than Cheliax, if less on-the-nose in some ways, and I have no interest in it.
Jalmeray: Not only does this location offer little opportunity for adventure, but I personally just have little interest in a place who's only schtick is "it's fantasy/mythical India! Sorta." It almost deliberately has little to no ties to the rest of the setting, and there's no reason to go there except site-seeing, which isn't all that interesting when it's just verbal description anyway.
Shackles: The Shackles is a region that I had great hopes for, but because their interpretation of it was a patchwork of completely unconnected and in fact disparate concepts all thrown in willy-nilly, its one that ultimately greatly disappointed me. None of the ideas were necessarily bad, although most were very derivative, but they should have focused on a few of them instead of the spray and pray approach of throwing everything and hoping gamers would at least find something to like.
Three Regions That Could be Great or Terrible
Sodden Lands: There could have been something really interesting going on here, but they just didn't get around to doing anything other than referring in offhand fashion to various weird exotic alien lizard and amphibian races. I still think that a storm-lashed jungle has some great potential, but it seems to have been mostly ignored, and what little has been done with it has been thus far uninspired.
Mwangi Expanse: The Mwangi Expanse actually does have a fair bit of development, but the ideas in it are pretty hit and miss. Some of them are fantastic, exotic, and fascinating. Some of them are banal, or ax-grindy with anti-Western Civilization hatred and insults. It can be great if you focus on the good elements and completely ignore or excise the bad elements.
The South: This is just an extremely high level overview, with little to no development yet. There's some ideas that look reasonably good, I guess. It's hard to say, because there's not much to go on.
In general, even doing this small quick-n-dirty survey, has convinced me that if I do a Golarion Remixed similar to my Eberron Remixed, it will require that I cut a bunch of areas. I may not literally cut them, just merge some of the areas that I don't like in to neighboring areas, and downplay the strange high concept one-notes that are too strong to be useable. A cult of anti-religious Satanists is fine, but a whole nation defined by that cult? No. Rahadoum therefore becomes some hinterlands to Osirion, and a place where such a cult lingers either underground or in the wilderness.
And so on and so forth.
There's also more that needs to be developed. This wasn't entirely untrue for Eberron; I'm in particular thinking of Valenar and Q'Barra as undeveloped places, but there are more of them here. Maybe that's OK; maybe such places should be left deliberately blank or high level to be filled in as needed and not before. Schrödinger's setting elements, if you will. You want to know what's there? Go there and find out.
Anyway, the point is that a Golarion Remixed project seems like it might have to be a bit bigger than an Eberron Remixed project. Especially if I do something like I did for Eberron Remixed, and adapt it out of the D&D races into the Dark Fantasy X races. Curiously, although Eberron is a D&D setting and technically Golarion is not (technically), the reality is that Golarion is much more D&Dish than Eberron. One of the main reasons I remixed Eberron in the first place is that I felt like its concept was being held back by its attachment to the D&D system and the D&D paradigm. Golarion, on the other hand, is way too steeped in it to make the Remix anything other than an odd interpretation.
Doesn't mean it won't be fun to do, but I'd really rather finish by 5x5s before delving too deeply in to it anyway.
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