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Pathfinder Campaign Setting
Distant Worlds
Golarion is the primary world of the Pathfinder campaign setting, but it is not alone. Far beyond its lands and seas, sister worlds revolve around the same sun, their residents connected by magical portals or ships of terrifying magic and technology. Now take your game off-planet and explore these weird new worlds for yourself!
This book offers a detailed introduction to the science-fantasy worlds of Golarion’s solar system, each complete with its own mysterious locations and cultures. Discover how your swords and spells match up against the trench dwellers of the Red Planet or the angelic Sarcesians who soar between asteroids. Research the mysterious origins of the sealed world-ship of Apostae, or hunt vortex sharks in the freezing seas of Kalo-Mahoi. Though strange and new, each of these worlds uses the same Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules as Golarion itself.
Within this 64-page book, you’ll find:
- Gazetteers of every planet and major moon in Golarion’s system, from the steamy jungles of Castrovel and the machine-ruled rock of Aballon to post-apocalyptic Eox and divided Verces, where one side is always day and the other night. Plus, uncover information on the residents of the sun, Golarion’s moon, the asteroid belt called the - Diaspora, the dark regions beyond mysterious Aucturn, and more!
- Introductions to the major cultures inhabiting the system. Will you join Castrovel’s beautiful Lashunta, fight beside the four-armed giants of Akiton, study with the hyper-evolved Contemplatives of Ashok, petition the undead Bone Sages of Eox, or face down the insectile legions of the Forever Queen?
- Easy new rules for adventuring on other planets, including discussions on gravity, temperature, time, vacuum, and traveling between worlds.
- Adventure hooks for every world, tailored for GMs currently playing on Golarion.
- Six brand-new alien monsters, from intelligent dragonkin who bond with humanoids to the great oma space-whales and amorphous, blimplike Brethedans.
Cover art by Kerem Beyit
This book offers a detailed introduction to the science-fantasy worlds of Golarion’s solar system, each complete with its own mysterious locations and cultures. Discover how your swords and spells match up against the trench dwellers of the Red Planet or the angelic Sarcesians who soar between asteroids. Research the mysterious origins of the sealed world-ship of Apostae, or hunt vortex sharks in the freezing seas of Kalo-Mahoi. Though strange and new, each of these worlds uses the same Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules as Golarion itself.
Within this 64-page book, you’ll find:
- Gazetteers of every planet and major moon in Golarion’s system, from the steamy jungles of Castrovel and the machine-ruled rock of Aballon to post-apocalyptic Eox and divided Verces, where one side is always day and the other night. Plus, uncover information on the residents of the sun, Golarion’s moon, the asteroid belt called the - Diaspora, the dark regions beyond mysterious Aucturn, and more!
- Introductions to the major cultures inhabiting the system. Will you join Castrovel’s beautiful Lashunta, fight beside the four-armed giants of Akiton, study with the hyper-evolved Contemplatives of Ashok, petition the undead Bone Sages of Eox, or face down the insectile legions of the Forever Queen?
- Easy new rules for adventuring on other planets, including discussions on gravity, temperature, time, vacuum, and traveling between worlds.
- Adventure hooks for every world, tailored for GMs currently playing on Golarion.
- Six brand-new alien monsters, from intelligent dragonkin who bond with humanoids to the great oma space-whales and amorphous, blimplike Brethedans.
Cover art by Kerem Beyit
64 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2011
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About the author
James L. Sutter
116 books208 followersJames L. Sutter is a co-creator of the best-selling Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games. He’s the author of the young adult romance novels DARKHEARTS and THE GHOST OF US, as well as the fantasy novels DEATH'S HERETIC and THE REDEMPTION ENGINE. His short stories have appeared in Nightmare, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the #1 Amazon best-seller Machine of Death, and more. James lives in Seattle, where he's performed with musical acts ranging from metalcore to musical theater.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 5, 2016
This is the first Pathfinder Campaign Setting role playing supplement I have ever read and I must say I was impressed. I have looked at a few recently – all soft cover ones so far until this one focusing on monsters – but though sometimes on the thin side, they have so far uniformly been well written, full of interesting ideas, and have excellent illustrations. Also like the others I have looked at recently, the focus is more on adventure ideas, world building, cultures, ecologies of creatures, the feel of various settings, politics, and history rather than page after page of rules or stat blocks for creatures (though this book does introduce some new rules and does have some creatures statted out). Some may like that, some may not, but it does have the virtue of making this a book one could actually sit down and read.
This is basically, for those who remember their 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Spelljammer “done right” (though I always feel people were entirely too harsh on Spelljammer). With a decidedly more science fiction feel than fantasy, author James L. Sutter introduces the gamer to the other planets, moons, and various other bodies (some not natural) of the solar system that includes the planet that is the focus of Pathfinder, Golarion. Each entry gets at least one page (as in the Sun), but most receive 2-4 pages (4 pages being more common), including an overview world map with a few sites of interest marked and then detailed in the accompanying entry, a tour of the world with a discussion of some of its history, politics, fauna, and if relevant flora (i.e. usually because it is either deadly or maybe the only living thing present on that world, though it being a fantasy role playing game, “life” is a rather expansive definition). Just about all of the entries have at least one structure and/or creature illustrated in its entry, with another set of illustrated creatures at the back that are accompanied by fully fleshed out game stats. In the case where the entry is about a gas giant planet and the moons are places where creatures exist and adventures could be had, each moon gets a series of paragraphs within that entry.
The various worlds detailed seem to me to hit the right balance between homage to classic, Golden Age, pulp, almost fantasy versions of our own, “real” Solar System before the Space Age and more realistic views of either the various worlds as they really exist or as depicted in science fiction that was written after the beginning of space exploration and to this day. We get a “Mercury” (Aballon) that is not terribly far off from the real world Mercury, though is populated by either creatures eking out of a living in its sheltered valleys and craters that can maintain fields of ice (again, at least somewhat realistic) or basically sentient robots of various forms, mechanical beings that have long since being abandoned by their creators and continue on (reminding me among other things of the Taloids of _Code of the Lifemaker_ by James P, Hogan).
Aballon is one of several worlds that while magic and say creatures from the elemental planes exist, it has a decidedly more science fiction feel (or I should come out say it, it is science fiction). From the neutral networks, solar energy collectors, and huge robotic diggers maintained by the robotic Aballonians to Skydock, the space elevator of the world Verces, to the orbital defense platform (The Sentinel) that orbits the (un)dead world of Eox, to the worldship of Apostate (a world that simultaneously at least for me recalls two Star Trek original series episodes, The City on the Edge of Forever and For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky) to giant, floating, creatures that inhabit the Jupiter and Saturn-like gas giants of the system, there is science fiction aplenty in the solar system for adventurers from Golarion to interact with but at the same time not really change the more traditional fantasy feel of their home world.
Those DMs or GMs seeking more traditional, fantasy feeling worlds can entirely avoid science fiction-type settings with two of my favorite entries, both steeped in pre-space age views of Mars and Venus, chiefly influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The steamy, lush, jungle and sea covered, dinosaur-haunted (or by creatures that might as well be dinosaurs) world of Venus before we found it what it was really like can be found on Castrovel. I could easily see an entire sourcebook or supplement detailing this planet. Those seeking out the beautiful, warrior women in the mold of Dejah Thoris might want to check out the Lashunta (“the most beautiful humanoids in the solar system”), though sadly only one illustration is included (riding a dinosaur-like creature naturally) and no stats (though I understand that another sourcebook put out by Pathfinder does, I want to say _People of the Stars_ though I haven’t verified this). Interestingly, the story of the elves is closely tied to the world of Castrovel. I found this original.
One cannot have a tropical jungle world of Venus without a cold, high desert Mars of dying cities and war-like people now can one? Akiton is that world, an interesting blend of the real Mars (there is an Olympus Mons and a Valles Marineris, called on Akiton respectively Ka or Pillar of the Sky and the Edaio Rift or The Scar) and that of Burroughs, complete with four-armed creatures, though the ones featured aren’t the infamous Barsoomian White Apes but the sword-wielding, gray-skinned giants known as Shobhad, and red-skinned humanoids essentially that are almost identical to humans (“exceptionally similar to Golarion’s humans”). Not forgotten though are the scary, cerebral, decidedly alien creatures that are essentially very powerful brains with atrophied bodies, such as creatures seen in several classic Star Trek episodes and perhaps the _Invaders from Mars_ movies for those who want a somewhat more 1950s science fiction feel to their monsters (these creatures, the Contemplative of Ashok, are one of the monsters with entries at the back of the book). Like Castrovel, I could easily see an entire sourcebook for Akiton.
The entries for the most part are just introductions, with several new creatures mentioned in passing, often given a half sentence at best, and many of the great planetary secrets not actually detailed but hinted at with sometimes a list of suggested answers, sometimes not. Occasionally there were things I raised my eyebrow at in their impractically or the lack of necessity for their inclusion (the highly impractical mirrored robes of one world and another world where there were seven genders), for the most part it is good, solid material for a DM or GM wanting to craft a really different adventure. The monsters stated out and illustrated at the end are ready to go (I wish there were more), and a few could be dropped in almost any campaign (such as the Dragonkin) while others, maybe not so much (the enormous, very alien space “whales” called the Oma would be one that would be hard to include in most campaigns).
This is basically, for those who remember their 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Spelljammer “done right” (though I always feel people were entirely too harsh on Spelljammer). With a decidedly more science fiction feel than fantasy, author James L. Sutter introduces the gamer to the other planets, moons, and various other bodies (some not natural) of the solar system that includes the planet that is the focus of Pathfinder, Golarion. Each entry gets at least one page (as in the Sun), but most receive 2-4 pages (4 pages being more common), including an overview world map with a few sites of interest marked and then detailed in the accompanying entry, a tour of the world with a discussion of some of its history, politics, fauna, and if relevant flora (i.e. usually because it is either deadly or maybe the only living thing present on that world, though it being a fantasy role playing game, “life” is a rather expansive definition). Just about all of the entries have at least one structure and/or creature illustrated in its entry, with another set of illustrated creatures at the back that are accompanied by fully fleshed out game stats. In the case where the entry is about a gas giant planet and the moons are places where creatures exist and adventures could be had, each moon gets a series of paragraphs within that entry.
The various worlds detailed seem to me to hit the right balance between homage to classic, Golden Age, pulp, almost fantasy versions of our own, “real” Solar System before the Space Age and more realistic views of either the various worlds as they really exist or as depicted in science fiction that was written after the beginning of space exploration and to this day. We get a “Mercury” (Aballon) that is not terribly far off from the real world Mercury, though is populated by either creatures eking out of a living in its sheltered valleys and craters that can maintain fields of ice (again, at least somewhat realistic) or basically sentient robots of various forms, mechanical beings that have long since being abandoned by their creators and continue on (reminding me among other things of the Taloids of _Code of the Lifemaker_ by James P, Hogan).
Aballon is one of several worlds that while magic and say creatures from the elemental planes exist, it has a decidedly more science fiction feel (or I should come out say it, it is science fiction). From the neutral networks, solar energy collectors, and huge robotic diggers maintained by the robotic Aballonians to Skydock, the space elevator of the world Verces, to the orbital defense platform (The Sentinel) that orbits the (un)dead world of Eox, to the worldship of Apostate (a world that simultaneously at least for me recalls two Star Trek original series episodes, The City on the Edge of Forever and For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky) to giant, floating, creatures that inhabit the Jupiter and Saturn-like gas giants of the system, there is science fiction aplenty in the solar system for adventurers from Golarion to interact with but at the same time not really change the more traditional fantasy feel of their home world.
Those DMs or GMs seeking more traditional, fantasy feeling worlds can entirely avoid science fiction-type settings with two of my favorite entries, both steeped in pre-space age views of Mars and Venus, chiefly influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The steamy, lush, jungle and sea covered, dinosaur-haunted (or by creatures that might as well be dinosaurs) world of Venus before we found it what it was really like can be found on Castrovel. I could easily see an entire sourcebook or supplement detailing this planet. Those seeking out the beautiful, warrior women in the mold of Dejah Thoris might want to check out the Lashunta (“the most beautiful humanoids in the solar system”), though sadly only one illustration is included (riding a dinosaur-like creature naturally) and no stats (though I understand that another sourcebook put out by Pathfinder does, I want to say _People of the Stars_ though I haven’t verified this). Interestingly, the story of the elves is closely tied to the world of Castrovel. I found this original.
One cannot have a tropical jungle world of Venus without a cold, high desert Mars of dying cities and war-like people now can one? Akiton is that world, an interesting blend of the real Mars (there is an Olympus Mons and a Valles Marineris, called on Akiton respectively Ka or Pillar of the Sky and the Edaio Rift or The Scar) and that of Burroughs, complete with four-armed creatures, though the ones featured aren’t the infamous Barsoomian White Apes but the sword-wielding, gray-skinned giants known as Shobhad, and red-skinned humanoids essentially that are almost identical to humans (“exceptionally similar to Golarion’s humans”). Not forgotten though are the scary, cerebral, decidedly alien creatures that are essentially very powerful brains with atrophied bodies, such as creatures seen in several classic Star Trek episodes and perhaps the _Invaders from Mars_ movies for those who want a somewhat more 1950s science fiction feel to their monsters (these creatures, the Contemplative of Ashok, are one of the monsters with entries at the back of the book). Like Castrovel, I could easily see an entire sourcebook for Akiton.
The entries for the most part are just introductions, with several new creatures mentioned in passing, often given a half sentence at best, and many of the great planetary secrets not actually detailed but hinted at with sometimes a list of suggested answers, sometimes not. Occasionally there were things I raised my eyebrow at in their impractically or the lack of necessity for their inclusion (the highly impractical mirrored robes of one world and another world where there were seven genders), for the most part it is good, solid material for a DM or GM wanting to craft a really different adventure. The monsters stated out and illustrated at the end are ready to go (I wish there were more), and a few could be dropped in almost any campaign (such as the Dragonkin) while others, maybe not so much (the enormous, very alien space “whales” called the Oma would be one that would be hard to include in most campaigns).
January 14, 2016
Why take your characters to other planes of existence when you can take them to another world IN SPACE?
Distant Worlds details the 11 planets that exist in the solar system of Golarion, the Pathfinder Campaign Setting's main world. Each planet has a distinct and interesting history, and are really flavorful places to take your PCs if they happen to step in the wrong portal or upset the wrong wizard.
Distant Worlds details the 11 planets that exist in the solar system of Golarion, the Pathfinder Campaign Setting's main world. Each planet has a distinct and interesting history, and are really flavorful places to take your PCs if they happen to step in the wrong portal or upset the wrong wizard.
April 6, 2012
This book is my new favorite RPG book. It combined two of my favorite things (outer space and Pathfinder) scientifically and well. I really can't wait to see what effect this has on the game itself.
And also--one of the planets in Golarion's solar system is actually a world ship! How is that not awesome?
And also--one of the planets in Golarion's solar system is actually a world ship! How is that not awesome?
October 26, 2013
Nicely done, but more teaser mysteries than answered questions. Still, essential for any Golarian-set game that's going to hit the rest of its solar system
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews