Pathfinder Campaign Setting: "The Great Beyond" [RPG]

I have to admit that planar cosmology is not one of my strong suits.  Apart from a PFS scenario here or there, I just haven’t run any campaigns that took place in different planes.  Still, I thought it’d be worthwhile to get the classic breakdown of the planar structure of the official Pathfinder campaign setting by reading The Great Beyond: A Guide to the Multiverse.  This is a 64-page entry in what began the campaign setting line, and features glossy pages and full-colour artwork.  The cover art is reproduced in the inside back cover and looks pretty awesome there—probably poster-worthy.  The inside front cover is a visual diagram of how the different planes relate to one another in a “geographical” sense—frankly, I’m not sure how much value there is in something like this because how often do the “borders” between planes come into play?  Anyway, the book is divided into five chapters.

 

CHAPTER ONE: THE GREAT BEYOND (6 pages)

 

This short chapter serves as an introduction and summary of the book.  There are good capsule descriptions of the different planes and their planar traits along with a few interesting additional bits such as the relationship between souls and the undead, and the life-cycle of a soul.  It’s clear that author Todd Stewart—and by extension Paizo—intentionally left a lot of mystery to some facets of planar cosmology, and I think that’s a good thing.  PCs need opportunities for discovery, GMs need opportunities to create, and an exhaustive encyclopedia wouldn’t be practical anyway.

 

CHAPTER TWO: THE INNER SPHERE (14 pages)

 

The “inner sphere” contains the planes that PCs will probably interact with the most: the material plane, the ethereal and shadow planes, and the four elemental planes (it also contains the positive and negative planes).  For the transitive and energy planes, the chapter gives a couple of paragraphs on “notable creatures” and “notable places”, though the elemental planes are covered in greater depth.  It’s just enough to get a rough feel for each plane and perhaps enough to improvise with in a pinch, though I wouldn’t personally feel comfortable running long-form adventures in the planes without more setting info (I know, I know, I’m contradicting myself on the value of mystery).  I really like the description of “Shadow Absalom”.  I should note that the interior artwork isn’t the greatest—this was before Paizo regularly landed some of the best fantasy artists in the business.

 

CHAPTER THREE: THE OUTER SPHERE (26 pages)

 

This is by far the longest chapter in the book, and covers the astral plane and the aligned planes (Heaven, Hell, the Abyss, etc.)  Each of the aligned planes receives a stylized map that includes keys to between ten and twenty locations discussed in the text—pretty good coverage for a book this size!  There are some really interesting locations—Aroden’s Domain in Axis, Nirvana’s Hall of Slumbering Kings, Groetus orbiting the Boneyard, and much more.  I think it’d be fair to say that the “evil” planes receive more coverage than the “good” ones (with Heaven getting barely a page and half, for example).  On the whole though, the chapter gives a nice introduction and overview.

 

CHAPTER FOUR: OTHER DIMENSIONS (6 pages)

 

This is a sort of grab-bag of all sorts of minor planes—prominent demiplanes, the dimension of time, the pit of Gormuz, and more.  There are some awesome concepts here, with some clever little planes that are perfect sites for adventuring parties to explore.  Sometimes starting small and mysterious is good, and this is probably my favourite chapter in the book.

 

CHAPTER FIVE: BESTIARY (10 pages)

 

The book’s bestiary includes five two-page entries of new monsters.  The CR13 astradaemon is a sort of “soul predator”, with cool artwork and an effective description.  The CR 8 axiomite is a LN resident of Axis—they’re not exactly exciting, but it’s probably good to have their nature solidified in case the PCs ever visit there.  The CR 5 lurker in light is one of my favourites—scary fey who thrive in light instead of darkness, and with a special ritual that gives the GM a built in story-hook for introducing them.  The CR 17 keketar protean has some very cool abilities.  The CR 9 vulpinal looks exactly like a kitsune to me; it’s a type of wandering agathion.  I’ve used astrademons, axiomites, and lurkers in light before in games, and I’m happy with the results.  My guess is all of these creatures have been included in various Pathfinder bestiaries over the years, but perhaps in only single-page condensed versions.

 

It's a little challenging to give a verdict on a book that is long out-of-print and that has been supplanted by more authoritative sources like the Planar Adventures hardcover.  Nonetheless, this is where it all starts in a way, and Todd Stewart has made a real contribution to the setting with The Great Beyond.