Pathfinder NWP: Building a New World

If I could ever redo the Pathfinder world, publish my own, the entire goal of the world would be to make sense of the shelf full of books that I have. What do I consider core? The following, with the additional five add-on books in italics:

• Pathfinder Core Rulebook
• Ultimate Magic
• Ultimate Combat
• Ultimate Equipment
• Ultimate Campaign
• Mythic Adventures
• Advanced Race Guide
• Advanced Player's Guide
• Advanced Class Guide
• Pathfinder Bestiary 1 thru 4
• Gamemastery Guide
• Tome of Horrors Complete
• Deep Magic
• 1001 Spells
• Secrets of Adventuring
• New Paths Compendium

It's a huge list, and just sitting there trying to make sense of it in one world is a giant headache. So the goal of the New World Project (NWP) is to stratify and organize the core books to start, and present optional add-on areas for the optional third party content. Why? Because the two magic books are so damn cool, and Tome of Horrors rocks in an old-school Greyhawk style that I can't escape from. I would probably leave room in the add-on area for mega-dungeons like Rappan Athuk and the other incredibly fun places published for the game.

The goal is to make the world unique, and as borrow-friendly as possible - but keeping each area organized and with a unique flavor and feeling. Do we need a new world? Yes, we need a new world because it's fun. The flavor and design of this world will also be very different than what you'd expect, and have some interesting twists. First off, we need some factions!

How cool would it be to play in a world divided into two main camps, the Alliance of Order, and the Horde of Chaos? For short, we will call the sides The Order and Chaos, and separate the races of the world into two main camps. The major races of each side would be something like this:

The Order

• Humans
• Dwarves
• High Elves/Half Elves
• Halflings/Gnomes

Chaos

• Orcs
• Drow
• Vampires/Dhampirs
• Goblins/Hobgoblins

I like how this is looking. Let's keep every race as a playable PC race, just for fun. This is sort of your classic MMO style division, with two major factions, and plenty of strange alliances on the Chaos side to make things interesting. I dare say Chaos looks more fun to play at this point, so let's keep each side away from an inherent "evil" or "good" leaning, and make each side see itself as "right."

There can be evil factions of humans and elves for more good-oriented Chaos players to fight, along with evil factions on the Chaos side for the Alliance to battle. You can pick either side, be good, and have plenty of evil forces to fight. Of course, each side is at war with itself, and the evil and good factions constantly battle for control, so there is plenty of internal politics and treachery to have fun with.

It's sort of a Pathfinder meets World of Warcraft feeling (the original, cool and violent Warcraft world, not the nightmare from Farmville), and I can see the vampires and their half-human ilk being a blast to play here. Standing alongside the drow in the same army? Priceless. It has this addictive anime feeling of dark forces united that just gives me chills, and I love it.

The orcs would be their normal warlike selves, but we will have to find a place for the goblins and hobgoblins to fit in without being a copy of the orcs. The goblins can be their usual zany selves, and let's keep the hobgoblins their Bestiary 1 selves (smart, reproduce fast, attack in mass, use siege engines). It's a step up for hobgoblins in the Pathfinder scheme of things, so this is a change. Since Pathfinder orcs have light sensitivity, they prefer to fight at night with the fewer drow and vampire forces, while the hobgoblins and goblins fight during the day. Orcs and hobgoblins fight for overall army control, so there is tension there, with the orcs gaining the upper hand since they are more diplomatic and "big" thinkers.

I will also make the orcs use necromancy as their preferred arcane art, and hobgoblins will use demonology. This will create an even bigger rift as undead lord and demon prince fight for control of the largest army in the world. Of course this will also place the vampires on the orc's side more often than not, and the drow get along with demons better so they frequently side with the hobgoblins. It's not set in stone, but there is enough internal tension there to create some awesome infighting.

On the Order's side, let's make the humans tend towards divine magic, and the elves arcane. Evil humans shall trend necromancy and demonology with equal skill, though dark dwarven demonologists driven by greed and mining deeper could be an interesting subfaction. Gnomes give us a link to the fey and are naturally closer to elves, while halflings are steadfast friends of humans.

Well, there's the start of my new world, and I hope it is interesting to you. I certainly want to develop it further, and I feel this one is different enough and unique enough that it captures your imagination. It is also different enough from the main Pathfinder setting to be different enough that there really isn't a place for this large of an idea in the default Golarion world.

Who know, maybe at this time next year we will have a book to sell with this cool new world laid out for you to play in? We shall see. If you want to see something like this, let us know.