Goodbye, Pathfinder 1e

My Pathfinder 1e books are in storage now.

I tried running a GURPS campaign, but meh. I was fighting the world more than I was having fun. With this much work, I would create an original world and have fun there instead. Dungeon Fantasy needs its own world and setting, which I have and will talk about soon.

Theme park worlds were excellent in the 2010s. Today, it is a cultural appropriation city. I would rather have a dedicated Egypt setting and Fantasy Africa than this. Everywhere you go, a Fantasyland, Adventureland, or other Disney-like little theme park area sits there and says, "Not Ravenloft, not Egypt, not Vikings, not science-fantasy, but close enough!"

Dedicated settings where it is one world, all Norse, with races and cultures that fit in that world, are far more immersive than this messy mix of everything, every culture, every race, and every culture. They end up being buffets of low-quality food but with great choices. At the end of the meal, you end up feeling sick.

Theme park worlds are also a source of the rot within the hobby, inviting in endless expansion books, grift opportunities, and encouraging every player to pick an "alien" background and nothing fits together; no one has to be a part of the culture of the world, and everyone is a special something or another. Pathfinder 1e was going there with the Advanced Race Guide, and there were far too many player races in the game by the end of the edition.

I would rather play in a Norse-themed world, where I have to read about the cultures, understand the diverse peoples, and make some hard choices on who my character is in this world. You play D&D or Pathfinder 2, and you will get the person at the table wanting to be a talking plant or Muppet and be the goofball when everyone else is trying to play seriously.

Theme park worlds invite everyone to be "the outsider," and they just feel touristy. Once you get the tourist, the planar crowd is not far behind, and then everyone is a particular "someone from somewhere else," at that point, I don't care about their characters since the players are not showing any effort to care about the world I am running.

One of the most toxic trends in modern gaming is escapist identity marketing; the game has to support being an anything tourist, and everyone that plays wanders through a theme park.

At this point, most locals look at the PCs like the locals look at tourists who wander through, destroy things, and take all the parking places.

Runequest's Glorantha killed the Pathfinder Golarion theme park for me. There are "elder races" here, but most of the backgrounds are a variety of diverse humans and mixes in between. There is much diversity here; you must read and care about the world to unlock it.

The world has a few themed areas that aren't blatantly "theme parky" like other worlds. These cultures may mirror some on Earth, but they are ultimately their own, with history and plenty of detail and flavor. And there is a ton of history to read. Runequest describes the world in one book, and there is a unique two-volume set if you want to dive deeper.

The Great Wheel and Pathfinder's Golarion have become far too cartoony and childish for my taste. I outgrew them. They are turning into this mass market; look at the cute things, smug heroes with attitudes, and mass market experiences that any 3D Hollywood animated movie for kids is these days. Both feel like Pixar or Dreamworks animated movie games; the worlds are bland, too much steampunk, and uninteresting. Some of the worlds rely too much on the old guard remembering them, and they are currently unsupported and left to decay.

Pathfinder 1e was visually appealing because of the "rule of cool" art. All of that has been erased and feels like a hangover in the setting today, a party the company wants to forget happened. The art can't carry a campaign setting alone, though. It is also dated and a little silly, and I prefer stylistic realism with a more serious tone. Even the remastered art tries too hard, feeling strangely surreal and unrealistic. Final Fantasy swords larger than a body belong in video games for kids. This is fantasy, but I outgrew that style when I gave up my PlayStation 1.

Give me a serious-toned world with history and a defined set of cultures and backgrounds, and let me enjoy digging in deep and being rewarded for my research.

And I was a super fan of Pathfinder 1e, and it all fell apart. I realized I had outgrown it, and there were better things to spend time with. The whole theme park thing made me cringe. I don't want to play in a rip-off of ancient Egypt, and Castles & Crusades has a Fantasy Egypt campaign guide where you can play in the actual setting in a fantasy context. There is far better out there, and a dedicated setting will make players invest in the setting with their background choices rather than play "another Dragonborn."

I am not selling the PF 1e books, but they are stored away and out of my mind.

World Replacements: Mystara, Golarion

This is something I have always felt. The best replacement for Mystara, an ultimate theme park world, is the best theme park world, Pathfinder's Golarion.

Not the new Golarion, mind you, classic Golarion minus all the steampunk. If I wanted a steampunk game, I would have bought one, and I do not want guns in my fantasy unless this is pirates. No robots, automation, robot companions, android characters, walking cars, trains, airships, no, I am sorry, no steampunk in Golarion. Save it for Starfinder. Sometimes I can't tell Pathfinder 2E and Starfinder apart, which feels wrong.

Fantasy is fantasy - no guns, no cowboys, and no robots.

There are times I feel Pathfinder 2e leans too heavily into steampunk and gonzo sci-fi, and the world suffers as a result. I do not want androids walking around my fantasy world, nor do I want robot companions. I do not walk mecha-cars, trains, motorized thrones, or airships. The original Golarion world is very cool, a really strong fantasy setting with just a touch of sci-fi - but this can ultimately be ignored or replaced by "alien magic "if you wish. The 2e world has so many crazy species and ancestries running around it feels like Mos Eisley at times or some anime TV show where every living thing has to talk and have stereotypical human emotions.

On the other side, as the D&D Gazetteer line went on, the setting books got more humorous and way out there. The Thar supplement leans into the humor and really does a good job. And they started breaking immersion and introducing flying ships and all sorts of crazy technology by the last few additions to the line. At times I felt the designers were either bored, unsupervised, or TSR did not really care much about the world by the end and told them, "anything goes, do what you want."

Both worlds have a few huge problems, but Golarion 1e has the fewest, Golarion 2e has the most, and Mystara sits in the middle.

With Savage Pathfinder, I get all of it back in style, though I have to admit, Castles & Crusades is ruling my fantasy needs at the moment. I am waiting for the second Savage Pathfinder set to come, and then I will dive in with the Advanced Player's Guide. I love the classic world feel of the Pathfinder 1e world, and it is much more mature and confident, sort of like a fantasy book written for mature readers and older audiences. The new 2e world is incredible, but it feels more like a "for all audiences" game that includes kids; the tone has changed substantially, and I do not feel the world is written for me anymore.

But I always felt the Pathfinder world was a better Mystara, and it hits many of the excellent theme park notes with dedicated areas with flavor and fun. You have a Norse area, Ravenloft area, undead kingdom, lost continent, pirate place, your typical demon kingdom, demon invasion area, Kingmaker sandbox, the adventure kingdom, and many other classics. Anything you want is here.

I have to admit, finding these exact theme park locations in Swords & Wizardry with Lost Lands was surprising, and they are done a touch better here with full campaign support. They are not as integrated into the larger world as well, however, but that is a good thing and a bad thing. In Lost Lands, the theme park areas are almost standalone campaigns, and if I wanted to run them that way, it is an option. With Pathfinder, if I wanted to run one of the areas as a standalone, it would be very hard to pull the rest of the world out.

Mystara has a few issues, like a lack of an evil kingdom and a few tone-deaf areas, which seemed okay at the time but, in hindsight, made me raise an eyebrow. A kingdom that bans religion and gives clerics the death penalty? An Arabian Knights area that sounds fun but is way too small and shoved in there. A lack of an evil kingdom. The continent felt too settled and divided, like a Renaissance Europe, with little room for exploration and discovery. And some of the later iconic areas, like a spooky Ravenloft-style area, missing. The continent also feels small when I would love it expansive and with room for evil to lurk and heroes to settle unexplored lands.

Golarion is similarly divided up, but the scale feels much larger, and most areas in a kingdom's border feel all dangerous outside settled areas. Golarion has decades of hindsight on what is fun and what gamers want. It can deliver areas that support iconic experiences, and it does.

This was an easy one since it just fits so well. Plus Golarion has the adventure paths in style and those more than make up for the loss of the Mystara gazetteers.

The only problem is the rules. The Pathfinder rules are very different than OGL, so I am playing this with non-OGL or B/X systems, such as Pathfinder 1e, 2e, or Savage Worlds. The latter will likely be my pick since it is easier to manage than the other two.

If I want an OGL hit, I will stick to Lost Lands (Greyhawk) or Aihrde (Realms) and the C&C rules.

When I want that pulp Mystara adventure with a Pathfinder flair, I will dive into Savage Pathfinder.