Pathfinder’s Asian-inspired Tian Xia World Guide covers 26 different regions, brought to life by more than 40 authors
Last year’s controversy surrounding the Dungeons & Dragons Open Gaming License not only damaged Wizards of the Coast’s relationship with its biggest fans, but also helped boost sales of competing gaming systems. Chief among them was that of Paizo Scoutwho resold almost a year’s supply in just a few weeks. Now the Washington state-based publisher is throwing serious funding behind its big fantasy role-playing franchise. It’s the next attempt, Pathfinder Lost Omens: Tian Xia World Guide, has a team of more than 40 authors. Polygon spoke with senior designer James Case to learn more.
Tian Xia is a vast Asian inspired continent Scout‘s fictional world of Golarion, home to 26 different nations and kingdoms. To bring them to life, Case said it was important to work with writers who could speak to the Asian experience.
“Almost everyone in the book is Asian, or part Asian, or from the diaspora,” says Case, who is also of Asian descent. “I think a lot of the other tropes in fantasy come from having a very monolithic view of a culture, or a fantasy race, or a time period, and I think it’s clear when you look at some of the work that we have done in recent years. (Pathfinder Second Edition) have really tried to take the point of view from within the nation itself (and ask) how the people would define themselves, rather than these kinds of assumed views that come in from outside.
Case co-authors include the following: Eren Ahn, Jeremy Blum, Alyx Bui, Banana Chan, Connie Chang, Rick Chia, Hans Chun, Theta Chun, Hiromi Cota, Dana Ebert, Basheer Ghouse, John Godek III, Sen HHS, Joan Hong , Michelle Jones, Joshua Kim, Daniel Kwan, Dash Kwiatkowski, Jacky Leung, Jesse J. Leung, Monte Lin, Jessie “Aki” Lo, Luis Loza, Adam Ma, Liane Merciel, Ashley Moni, Kevin Thien Vu Long Nguyen, Andrew Quon , Danita Rambo, K Arsenault Rivera, Christopher Rondeau, Joaquin Kyle “Makapatag” Saavedra, Kienna Shaw, Philip Shen, Tan Shao Han, Mari Tokuda, Ruvaid Virk, Viditya Voleti, Grady Wang, Emma Yasui and Jay Zhang.
That diversity of experience, Case said, paid off in unexpected ways throughout the manuscript — which includes everything from new and updated regional gods to a bestiary chock full of new monsters.
“We have (…) one author who had a lot of experience with traditional Chinese medicine,” Case said, “who gave us a glimpse into how we could look at the medicine skill in the game, and how that could better tie in when sorting medications. of an Asian view of things. We have a number of people with archeology degrees, we have a number of people who live and live abroad (in Asia) who have brought a lot of very nuanced cultural knowledge to the game. And of course, these are also people who are great fantasy writers and like to write about high fantasy conceits like monsters and deities and ghosts and all that.”
In addition to factually grounding each of the twenty-plus countries depicted in the 304-page book within the larger world of Golarion, the writing team also provided more intimate daily stories for the people.
“Instead of just taking one position and saying this is the way all of Tian “If you’re in the far north, where you’re in the desert, versus the far south, where it’s a rainforest, obviously some things are going to be a little different. We have the space here to dive into it with sufficient nuance. We hope that by showcasing a wide variety of experiences and a wide variety of cultural touchstones, we will get the sense that this is a very diverse area.”
The print edition of Pathfinder Lost Omens: Tian Xia World Guide costs $79.99 and pre-orders will ship starting April 24. A PDF version, selling for $29.99, will be available the same day. A related book, Pathfinder Lost Omens: Tian Xia Character Guidewill be available this summer.