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[Fantasy Week] Pathfinder Chronicles: Gazetteer
The Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetter is a 64 page overview of Golarion, the default setting of Paizo's Pathfinder Adventurer Paths, modules, and upcoming Pathfinder role-playing game. For those who are not aware, Paizo was the publisher of the Dungeon and Dragon magazines for Wizard of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition role-playing system. Though it was developed to be used with that game, the gazetter is primarily "fluff", or setting information, and usable with other fantasy role-playing games.
Physically, the gazetteer is a beautiful piece of production. All art is in color, from the religious symbols inside the front cover, text boxes highlighting important information, to building, settings, and characters. The paper is slick and the attached map is of frameable quality.
The Introduction section starts by describing the Pathfinder Society, an association of explorers, seekers, and less reputable types like adventurers, who scour the world for knowledge. Headquartered in Absalom, the "City at the Center of the World", we're briefly introduced to our first major plot element, the Decemvirate, the leaders of the Society. After a brief discussion on how to use the Society in game, the Introduction concludes with the death/disappearance of the first ascended human Aroden which shattered human society and is one origin of all current troubles in the world.
The only appearance of "crunch", or game mechanics, is found in the next section, Characters. The seven major races are given half a page each, briefly covering their history, their current status in the world, physical description, and mental outlook. The gnomes, for example, are closely associated with their fey ancestry. This leads to explain many of their inexplicable actions as they deal with the mortal world. And unlike most fantasy worlds, the elves of Golarion are taller than humans and half-orcs.
There is no single entry for the human race. Instead, the eleven major cultures are given a couple of paragraphs each. They include the now long-vanished Azlanti, the original human race; the lawful and arrogant Chelaxians; savage Kellids; the isolationistic Tians; and the wandering Varisians.
Classes are covered after the races. Each one receives setting-specific rules: bards, for example, replace bardic knowledge with Specialized Training while sorcerers can continue to cast spells after using up their spell slots if they're willing to suffer fatigue or even exhaustion as a consequence. The section then ends with a description of the various Golarion languages.
Time, The Cosmos, and the Great Beyond starts by briefly describing the Golarion star system. Two worlds are named: Castrovel, the Green World, and the red planet Akiton. A timeline of the Five Ages makes up the rest of the section. The current year is 4708 AR (Absalom Reckoning).
The fourth section of the supplement, the Gazetteer of Nations, makes up the bulk of the book at 36 pages. Each nation or area is given approximately three-quarters of a page which covers basic information like its capital, if any; government type; alignment, location, history, and current situation. I found the nicknames evocative ("The Kingdom of Man", "Bazaar of the Bizarre", "City at the Center of the World", etc.) and each description contained a plot hook to send player characters to their doom...er...resolve.
Religion rounds out the Gazetteer. Twenty deities are described, all unique to the setting (i.e., none are found in OGL Players Handbook).
So what's my overall view? I like Pathfinder Chronicles: Gazetteer. Golarion is a world on the brink of disaster, with every nation looking for trouble with its neighbors, is in trouble, or both. And unlike fantasy worlds like Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms, major forces of good are few and far between. I like the sense of horror pervading throughout the area, with the Eye of Abendego -- a massive, supernatural storm -- off the coast; Asmodeus as a major deity of the Chelexians and a threat to everyone else; to such nations as Galt ("Eternal Revolution") whose populace beheads its leadership every few years.
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