Review will follow, once I find the time. #Pathfinder #Golarion #ttrpg
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Jürgen Hubert finished reading Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide (P2) by Paizo Staff
Jürgen Hubert quoted Pathfinder Player Core by Logan Bonner
Some deities sanctify their clerics and similarly devoted followers. This gives the follower the holy or unholy trait. The holy trait (page 456) indicates a powerful devotion to altruism, helping others, and battling against unholy forces like fiends and undead. The unholy trait (page 462), in turn, shows devotion to victimizing others, inflicting harm, and battling celestial powers. Deities that list “must choose” mandate gaining the trait and those that list “can choose” give the devotee the option to choose the trait or not. You can have the holy trait, unholy trait, or neither, but can never have both the holy and unholy traits.
— Pathfinder Player Core by Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Mark Seifter, and 1 other
As the #Pathfinder 2E #ttrpg no longer uses alignments, the "holy" and "unholy" traits are the closest substitute (since blasting demons with "holy power" is just too much fun).
But I wonder about the social and religious context for religions where the clerics can choose to have these traits. Is a cleric of Sarenrae who doesn't become sanctified as "holy" seen as insufficient committed to the cause? And what about priests of Abadar? They can choose to be "holy", "unholy", or neither. Does this correspond to different factions in the temple hierarchy, and if so how do they view each other?
I'm not criticizing here - I am genuinely curious how this works out from an in-setting perspective. #worldbuilding
Jürgen Hubert quoted Pathfinder Player Core by Logan Bonner
Erik: You descend into a 30-foot-wide mining tunnel, with wooden beams reinforcing the walls and ceilings. You don’t see any traps, but a reptilian face with large eyes peeks out from behind a mine cart. At a closer look, it’s a kobold in a leather miner jacket.
Valeros (Luis): I’ll follow Merisiel down the ladder.
Kyra (Jessica): Me too.
Erik: As the sound of your footsteps on the iron ladder echoes through the mine, the kobold jumps out in panic! She takes a few steps further into the mine, then stops, as if she’s more frightened of whatever is deeper in than of you.
Kyra (Jessica): Oh no! Poor kobold!
Merisiel (Shay): Can someone calm her down? I’m terrible with people!
Valeros (Luis): I have a +3 Diplomacy. I’ll call out to her.
Erik: What do you say?
Valeros (Luis): “Hello friend! Don’t be scared, we’re here to help!” I rolled a 15 on my Diplomacy check.
Erik: Okay! The kobold seems startled, but then runs to you for safety. “Oh! Thank Torag you’re here!”
— Pathfinder Player Core by Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Mark Seifter, and 1 other
I realize hardly any veteran #ttrpg player reads "Examples of Play" anymore, but I am impressed here. The authors nicely set a tone of: "People who look different are people, too!" - even people who would have been designated cannon fodder in earlier editions of #DnD and #Pathfinder .
Well done, Paizo. Well done. The "evil races" whom it was okay to kill on sight was always highly problematic, and I am glad that this game is moving away from it.
Jürgen Hubert commented on Pathfinder Player Core by Logan Bonner
Now that I am slowly getting back into #ttrpg #worldbuilding , I should probably read the latest edition of the game the world will be designed around.
Jürgen Hubert commented on The Mwangi Expanse by Eleanor Ferron (Pathfinder Lost Omens)
Vibrant and Boundless
South of the forbidding Barrier Wall mountains lies a land of illustrious …
It's fair to say that this sourcebook on the "Mwangi Expanse" - the "not-Africa" region of Golarion, the setting of the #Pathfinder #ttrpg - is much better than the portrayal in the previous edition of Pathfinder, which drew upon lots of unfortunate "Dark Continent" tropes (including "Apartheit-era not-South Africa").
What I particularly liked that each region had its own cultural narrative - a story that served as its "founding myth" of sorts. This not only served as a cool bit of flavor, but also distinguished it from the more "conventional" regions north of the Inner Sea.