Golarion

Golarion is the world I wanted Greyhawk to be.

It is exciting, full of iconic, interesting, different places, and a giant sandbox. Perhaps it is too much of a sandbox and amalgamation of fantasy tropes and cultures - but that is also its charm. It is the ultimate fantasy theme park world Mystara dreamed of many years ago.

Part of me feels the 2e world of Lost Omens lost a little in the translation to the 2e set of rules. It doesn't feel as high fantasy and feels more steampunk, sci-fi, and weird west. It feels much more populated and cosmopolitan. There are airships, guns, androids, walking carts, and steam-tech. It is still a cool place, but I sometimes feel like the world is the fantasy version of Starfinder.

What makes the original version of Golarion so extraordinary and remarkable is the massive amount of adventure paths woven through the lands and history of the world. The sheer amount of epic stories put the few Greyhawk adventures we have - even though they are world-class classics - to shame. There is a literal library of stories and experiences here, enough to repeatedly relive great moments and stories. I love those stories. I wish the AD&D modules were written that way and tied together with narratives and characters we could remember as a good book.

And while there is a high-tech ruin in this world, it is contained in one place and also ignorable. The world as a whole is still a low-tech fantasy setting.

It does make me happy the Savage Worlds fans are getting to see these adventures again for the first time, and I hope that project continues from the first one all the way to the last, with all the great books, bestiaries, spells, classes, expansions, and resources in between.

And I am hopeful I will get used to the 2e Lost Omens world. I just have to find my place in it. My subscriptions are current, and stuff is coming, so I am a supporter. I just don't feel they have what I want yet. My imagination is not here, not yet.

My hesitancy in running a classic Greyhawk campaign comes from the feeling my time is better spent with places currently in development and supported by teams and creators I trust and am a fan of. I had the urge recently to run the original Greyhawk modules using Castles & Crusades rules, and I still may do that for fun.

But the place I dream in and invent new adventures will likely be where a new generation of writers and creators are playing and dreaming.

Or a world of my own.