I really like the Pathfinder setting of Golarion. It provides a large number of different roleplaying styles from high fantasy to swashbuckling pirates to suspenseful horror. Pick an area of the world and your gaming group can try something new for every campaign. As a bonus, the amount of information out there for Golarion either from Paizo, third parties or fans is astounding which makes it quite easy to prepare for a campaign or even a simple adventure set in the world.
That being said, there is one main thing I don't like about Golarion. Most if not all of the sources of information provide mechanics for Pathfinder RPG. I've played plenty of Pathfinder RPG and it certainly has been fun in the past, but the current amount of system bloat makes it very hard to sift through what you need for a campaign and keep it balanced. This has lead me to do some serious thinking as I contemplate my next campaign set in Golarion.
As part of my thinking, I've been running a D&D 5th Edition game for some people where I work. We started out with the Start Set several months ago and play only for an hour twice a week. With this short of a time frame each session, I've been able to see just how efficient the system can be. Also, many guys in the group hadn't played in many years and there was one player who had never played. They all easily grokked the rules and were playing like pros within a couple of sessions.
With a blog entry title "Converting Golarion to D&D 5E", I'm sure you can see where I'm headed. But just in case, I've decided to use D&D 5th Edition for the next campaign set in Golarion. This won't be the game for the guys at work, we still have quite a ways to go (they just finished the starter set adventure and found a message implying someone to the south was pulling the strings). However, I run another game once a week for my kids and some friends which is set in Golarion and uses D&D 4th Edition (ya, I know not the best choice there either). This campaign is around the half-way mark, and well, it is time to start thinking about and doing the initial prep work for the next one.
For the most part D&D 5E will work right out of the box for Golarion. Many of the races and classes fit right in with the world. However, the gods will need to be converted over and there are definitely some mechanics from Pathfinder RPG which beg to be pulled over as part of the overall Golarion experience.
Some of these mechanics are already out there in one form or another. For instance, I really like the Alchemist class which I read from Rich Howard at Tribality, so I plan to utilize that class if someone is interested in playing an Alchemist. ENWorld also has a repository of some interesting classes, archetypes, and backgrounds which may just work out directly. I'm still perusing those, and even if I find something which isn't perfect, a quick tweak here and there and I should have what I need.
There are some basics though which I will use in every campaign. To this end, I will be posting some blog entries which convert some of the Pathfinder RPG mechanics to D&D 5E. I'll be starting with some racial traits specific to Golarion (although I suppose they generic enough they could be used by anyone's campaign world) along with Golarion specific flavored archetypes, feats, etc. that go with the races. None of this has been play tested as of yet, so I will update the entries if there are any changes in the future.
Until next time, Keep Calm and Game On.
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