Recently I put out a post regarding two
different beginners sets, Pathfinder and D&D, and to say I got a little feedback
from the post is like saying the Titanic took on a little water...
Overwhelmingly though, the D&D
faithful put forwards two views on the matter.
1 1) They too were
disappointed by the starter set
2) Quite a few (not all by any means, but enough to make
me wonder) believed that Pathfinder were selling a slightly more expensive
product with a lot more production value than their normal offerings, in an
attempt to get more people into their game and thus cheat D&D of their
rightful following.
So, considering that this might indeed by the case and that the Pathfinder
box set may indeed be “Gamer Crack” to get people in before giving them something inferior, I took a look at a few
different pathfinder modules, campaign settings, and general bits. I also put them forwards for the beginners to
take a look at, because at the end of the day, while I may like them or be
willing to read through a million words of text to get to the shiny at the end
of the rainbow, a lot of beginners really aren’t...
Todays
offering is the Inner Sea World Guide, which (reading the introduction) is the
latest incarnation of the world guide to Pathfinder and the third edition of
the same. They note that they’ve made
changes, removed things that people didn’t find interesting or useful, or added
things that people thought were missing.
So, from
the top, Production values are excellent, good hardcover with excellent
binding, full colour throughout with images on almost every page, I found a few
pages that didn’t have artwork, but the key point here is that I had to go
looking to find pages without artwork, so from the point of view that this is
one of the core books that beginners will pick up, the level of art provided
and the production values therein appear to be a constant.
The book
is divided into seven different sections, each of which details a particular
part of the world. Part One is the races
of the world, each with a sample illustration of a member of that race, sample
names, details of cultures and traditions, and enough to get a grasp without
being swamped by details.
Part Two
is the descriptions of the Inner Sea regions themselves, from Absalom to The
Worldwound, again, for the most part a single illustration detailing something
of what you might find in the area, then details on what goes on there, the
races that live there, religions that are practised. It’s not a massive amount
of detail, but it’s enough to give you an idea of what you want to do and where
you want to go.
Part
Three deals with Religion, Deities, Gods, Philosophies and the like. Given that the world is one in which various
gods are seen to grant powers and abilities, this section gives you enough to
get a concept of the gods, but not enough that they seem in any way familiar.
Part Four
is the section on daily life, and interestingly enough, this is the shortest
section in the book. It touches briefly
on currency, day and month cycles, travel and living expenses, but covers each
only in small detail, presumably because most characters will be out
adventuring for the most part, but still...
Part Five
details various factions that exist in the world, from the Aspis Consortium to
the Pathfinders themselves, together with what each faction does, what they are
good with, their allies and enemies, and why you might want to join (or avoid)
each faction. There are ten minor
factions and five Major factions presented, with the full detail going to the
Majors, each of which has worldwide influence in the setting.
Part Six covers
Adventuring, and is more the details of what the characters might need and what
they might come across in day to day travels across the realms. It’s a short section, second only to the Life
Section, and the information is densely packed in for ease of reference.
Part Seven
covers Monsters, new monsters specifically that aren’t covered in the
Bestiaries that form a part of the core set.
Not a long section but colourful and interesting.
Which
brings us to the summation, it’s a worldbook, not a campaign book, so the basic
details of everything about the world are what I was expecting from this
book. It needs the Pathfinder basic
rules to work from and if you’re going to get out there and hit things, you’ll
need one of the Bestiaries as well. It’s
well presented throughout, the amount of art through the book is consistent
with what was found in the beginners set, and the images have clearly been
commissioned with a particular thing in mind, it’s not used multiple times, and
the writing throughout is consistently clear and evocative, which is good for
experienced players, but great for
inexperienced players, giving them a good impression of the world, the good,
the bad, and the ugly within, and the nature of the world that they’re
intending on adventuring within.
The final
part of the book is a massive map enclosed at the rear. While not as detailed as the map found in
offerings like Numenera, it does the job required well and without any issues.
In all, I
can’t say that I found this lacking when it comes to the level of presentation
given, and this is one of the main books for this particular system, I’ll be
reviewing the modules and MRB separately, but this certainly sets a strong precedent that the beginner set does actually have the same production values as the regular products.
