When coming up with new concepts for setting, it helps to see what other people have done. This can get your creative juices going on what is possible in your setting. An interesting concept from another setting can become a springboard for new and interesting ideas within your own world. Just be careful not to lift ideas whole cloth from someone else’s work. Reading should inspire, inform, and enhance your creativity, not replace it.

Periodically, I want to discuss different fantasy books and settings on my blog. This will be a sporadic series as I read fantasy books, whether they’re novels, games, or roleplaying settings. As with most things on my blog, I will focus on the worldbuilding and setting. I will also delve into how I might use what I’ve seen in my own world. With these reviews, I want to go over the things I like, the things I didn’t, and inspirations I want to incorporate into my own worldbuilding.

The first book I want to do is The Age of Lost Omens World Guide from Paizo. It’s written for the 2nd Edition Pathfinder roleplaying game. It is hardbound, 136 pages long, and full color.

There are a lot of things to like about this book. The pullout map is fantastic. It is double sided, with different styles to the graphics. They are depicting the same things, so use whichever one you like. The book itself has some inset maps as well.

The best part is how well they’ve incorporated magic and the fantastical into the world. There is a country ruled by an undead aristrocracy. One country has a royal family who made a pact with devils and now have them walking the streets looking to make deals for people’s souls. In the northern areas, people who wish to rule must kill a Linnorm, a type of primitive dragon. There’s even a culture where people share in the wealth of an ancient dragon as long as they submit to his every order, including breeding programs and the possibility of exile if you are no longer elite enough to meet their exacting standards.

There are a lot of different feels to the cultures, from areas focused on survival in the harsh north to war oriented Nex to court intrigues in Chelliax to exploration in the vast Mwangi Expanse. There are enough different areas to run any type of game you and your players would like.

The main issue with the setting is the lack of detail. There are mentions of towns that are not shown on any map. Land features such as mountains and rivers are unidentified or are mentioned in the text, but not indicated on the maps. The maps are very nice, but they simply need to have more information on them.

Under the area descriptions, they have a list of languages spoken, but these areas can be huge, encompassing many different countries. There is nothing indicating what languages are spoken where. They also have no indication as to what people’s names are other than the important people section.

Finally, they mention political or physical issues that are occurring in the area, but give no detail as to what those are. An example is that a queen is implementing policies that the aristocracy find objectionable. What policies those are is never stated. A major issue in the world is the rise of the Whispering Tyrant and the cult who follow the Whispering Way. There is basically no information on what they want, their motives, or their tenets in this book or the primary Pathfinder book other than they venerate undead and want to become undead. While there needs to be enough room in a setting for GM’s to run their games their way, such basic information really needs to be in the primary setting book.

There are several items that I want to use in my own worldbuilding. The first is the premise of an openly fantastical creature or creatures ruling a country. Undead, dragons, fae, shapeshifters. The possibilities are intriguing. I’ve used these as the power behind the throne, but this is definitely something that I want to do in my world. The second is to avoid some of the pitfalls I mentioned above. Walking the line between providing enough information and too much can be a challenge, but reading published settings like this helps find where that line is.

I hope this was helpful. Let me know in the comments. See you next week!