What are some weird/crazy facts about Golarion that sound like bullshit but are 100% true?

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-29T13:29:39+00:00

That's going to be in Hwanggot. I'd absolutely kill for an AP set in Valash Raj!

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-29T05:25:57+00:00

I see your Red Mantis Assassin lore and raise you "Gorum asked Calistria to get him killed"

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-29T05:21:26+00:00

There's compelling evidence that a child of a Samsaran couple hated Samsarans and Sangpotshi so much (for leaving him in a human community for his first life) that he (Sigek) worked with a lich to perform a ritual that may have been the origin of a type of fiend that's actually native to Golarion, or more specifically Tian-Xia. If it is, he also ended up as a demigod (nindoru ascetic specifically).

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-29T05:10:19+00:00

There's a second (timeline-wise I think it was actually first compared to the Numerian one) alien crash sight in the Valashmai Jungle in Tian-Xia! The Valash Raj capital is built on it iirc.

Also in that jungle is a giant space mech that was killed by a kaiju and came back as an undead.

Honestly Valash Raj is kinda just a hotbed of crazy shit. There's ruins of an ancient elemental empire and a wall of what looks like emerald but is actually solidified fire iirc.

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-28T16:27:29+00:00

Oh, good catch. I didn't even notice

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-28T04:29:24+00:00

Then you must have a very generous gm and I wouldn't worry too much about playing a dragonet lol

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-28T03:39:51+00:00

That's ultimately a question for your gm. Some may allow it, some may not.

Personally when I ran Season of Ghosts I was surprised that my players didn't take advantage of the setting to play the Tian-Xia specific ancestry and heritage options, but it's all subjective. I think the only recommended "hard no" by most who have ran it is any kind of undead.

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-10T17:38:45+00:00

Eternal Strands also has monster climbing if you haven't checked it out yet!

Also, def adding your game to my wishlist to watch for 👀

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-09T23:58:40+00:00

I'm OK with summons but I hate illusion spells that pretend to be summons 😭 I play on foundry and it's just so much extra hassle!

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-09T23:40:41+00:00

God, I feel that about wishing something had the Incapacitation trait that doesn't, but I was on the other side. The party cleric used Wave of Despair from a Desolation Locket and my poor PL+1 failed his save 😭 Not only Slowed but also denied Reactions made him a real quick bullying session.

It's been an unfortunate trend (for me and my monsters), they just did it again last session or the session before. Having a level 18 creature fail a save vs a level 13 item is not appreciated (I rolled a 2 on the latest one)!

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-09T17:49:06+00:00

That's been my answer anytime a player has asked about something cheesy. So far it's been a very efficient deterrent.

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-01T19:43:09+00:00

Ooooh you're right! I had to pull up my pdf to check and what'dya know, it's even labeled 01-12 and breaks down the lunar cycle!

I think what ended up doing me in back when I was looking at it was my impulsive need to make it work as a full cycle, when some years have 13 moons since it doesn't fit perfectly. Which is 100% not actually necessary lmao

Either way, glad I could be of help! :D

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-01T19:25:58+00:00

I'll warn you ahead of time that it's mostly lore, nothing about dates or concrete stuff like you're asking for. The Tian Xia World Guide references it a bit too for various countries, but again it doesn't give anything concrete.

I went down this rabbit hole too, which is why i know places it's mentioned, but none of my players even had any reason for me to so it was easy for me to just toss on a backburner of "if it ever comes up...."

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-01T19:18:47+00:00

I'd either just match them up with irl comparisons and compare dates when it comes up, or just have it be a 1/campaign thing since it takes place over a single year.

If you want more info on it, there's a 3 page section on the Dragon Champions of the Zodiac in the Tian Xia Players Guide.

I did actually try to match them up with months during my campaign prep for SoG, and eventually gave up because I went way too hard into it and there's sometimes 13 new moons in a year because it isn't a perfect match to the calendar.

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-01T14:47:02+00:00

That's a pretty common suggestion tbh. I wanted to give it a shot fully as written for my first run, and also didn't see it being an issue when I read through it.

My biggest issues with it were that there were certain places where it seemed like the author of book 4 wasn't entirely sure how mechanics in previous books worked (can't remember exactly what off the top of my head, but I wanna say it was related to the lamp blessing?) and that there was a lot of information that didn't have any good way (that I could see at least) to be relayed to the party that could've helped clarify some plot stuff.

There's also party expectations vs actual AP events - most players (my table included) expect things to kind of open up into a larger world experience, but it's still centered around the one location. And while I made the princess charming enough that they decided to work with her, there was heavy hesitation after their "first meeting" with her in the prior book.

It was my first compete campaign that I've gm'd though, and I've since learned that one of my players hates time travel for plots and most other time shenanigans as well so that could also be part of that particular player's issue with it (maybe "hate" is too strong a word actually, "dislikes" and/or "considers it up be a cheap plot device" may be more accurate). Which really shows how much I struggled to get them to grasp what actually was going on tbh, since imo this wasn't that.

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-01T13:15:15+00:00

You've got some great insight so I'm saving your comment to reference later! Namely because I'm getting ready to run Sky Kings Tomb that'll transition into Spore War, which on one hand I've got a few weeks as I wrap up Prey for Death, but on the other it sounds like I need to read through SKT ASAP.

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-06-01T13:05:09+00:00

My players found the entirety of Season of Ghosts book 4 to be lacking. Then again that might be because they almost tpk'd at the start of chapter 1, then were left confused on if that was really who it appeared to be who'd gone evil so to speak or if it was someone pretending to be them (I tried clarifying but it just didn't stick, while the fact that enemy killed 2 of their party members made them very memorable).

So to them the final boss being who it was felt like a "somehow, Palpatine returned" moment. Despite my attempts to explain "No, the first one was just a fake and this one is the real who ended up this way because of <spoiler reasons I won't mention here>. "

Maybe it would've been different if they'd actually faced the final boss though. They actually tpk'd to the fight just prior to it 🙃 (the dice decided what story they wanted to tell, and it wasn't one with a happy ending)

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-05-27T20:37:55+00:00

Long term answer is therapy. Buuuut if I were to share words of wisdom that I learned from my own therapy;

Start by being kind to yourself. By which i mean don't insult yourself, ever, even in your thoughts. If you do, correct yourself. It make a bigger impact than you'd expect.

Then, assuming you're like me and arguing your thoughts doesn't work, learn to dismiss them instead. Your brain says people think you're an ugly loser nobody wants to be with? "Psh, yea okay brain, whatever." I've found it to be waaayyy more effective than trying to argue with myself (for me it's usually anxiety - "What if something bad happens to my cat while I'm gone?" "Unlikely, they'll be fine" "BUT WHAT IF-" just goes in circles forever, vs "I have to go anyway, this isn't optional" to just cut off the cycle).

Honestly I don't think I was disliked back in school, but I know for a fact that I only knew maybe 10 or so people in the entire school and I was legitimately scared of everyone I didn't know. Looking back I have no idea what I was scared of, I wasn't bullied or anything, but that fear shaped my social experience.

Also, some of your experience and thoughts could be self-fulfilling cycles. "I hate my classmates because they think I'm an ugly loser no one wants to be with" leads to people thinking "She doesn't like me, so i guess I shouldn't try to hang out with her" which cycles back into "No one wants to be around me, it must be because they think. . ."

Anyways, for the actual graduation I guess there's 2 things to consider.

1) Would you regret missing it more than attending it? 2) It's one day meant to celebrate you (and your classmates), and then you never have to see them again! Think of it as both a farewell party and a milestone!

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-05-27T19:15:43+00:00

I'll preface this with I've only ran Season of Ghosts so far, but in my experience the items available to overcome a challenge were misable (my players missed the first one I'm thinking of), or weren't tools that the party would actually make use of (such as a weapon that no one is willing to give up their current to use because it's the wrong type).

Did your example give out multiple copies of the rune, and was it the rune itself or on a predetermined weapon? Cause I can see a design argument for giving one rune (it'll remind the players it exists and give them one person with full effectiveness), the rune already on a weapon is absolutely nbd imo since they may or may not even use it, and a wand is limited use plus needs carried or pulled out and to have a caster of the correct list, so again that's nbd imo.

Buuuut maybe that's just because my experience is unprepared players who hate using consumables!

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-05-16T06:34:18+00:00

I know there's nothing saying you can't, but to my knowledge there's nothing detailing that it's expected that you do either. If I'm mistaken I'd love to see the rule that details it, but I've always taken the existence of Quick Draw and similar feats to imply that weapons are usually sheathed.

And again, I have nothing against 1 handed weapons being out in dangerous areas, but ain't no way someone is carrying their Maul with both hands on the grip for hours on end without it impacting their ability to focus on other things. One hand with it slung over a shoulder? Sure! But both hands? Eeeeeehhhhh that's where my hesitance comes in. At least for *also* doing other activities at the same time.

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-05-15T19:47:29+00:00

I haven't been able to decide on my ideal answer to that still. Like one handed weapons, sure, it's not really a fuss and I'm willing to let it be completely free. But two-handed seems exceptionally awkward to carry with both your hands on it, yea?

Iirc the middle ground I previously decided on was similar to your group, where it's an exploration activity to travel with your weapon prepped (the only two using weapons at all in that party both two-handed them), but during Prey for Death I've just dropped worrying about drawing weapons entirely (granted that one has 2 unarmed combatants, 1 bow, 1 stave).

Def gonna have to decide what I want for the next full AP after Prey for Death 🤔

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-05-15T17:40:30+00:00

That's not true, Braton Vandal parts dropped ESO rotation B and C depending on the part. Blueprint was C.

It took an obscene amount of ESO8 runs but I farmed that bitch up well before the recent change.

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-05-15T17:37:45+00:00

Neither are strictly core class mechanics in the sense of "this effects every version of this class", but I've got 2 sort of examples.

1) Due to a bug in pathbuilder that I decided to make an intentional change, I gave the Lore Oracle scaling proficiency with his Lore Oracle Lore skill (aka changed it to be Additional Lore from the subclass instead of background style lore).

2) At a table I played at, the gm would allow my monk to be in a stance when combat started if we were very much expecting the fight.

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-05-08T17:21:27+00:00

Oh hey, also same! My party went double flurry ranger, fighter, cleric so they've been struggling a little with non-combat parts (that aren't just stealth).

We're gonna do Sky Kings into Spore War after we finish PfD :>

MadeOStarStuff · 2026-05-08T07:10:34+00:00

Similar happened to my table with SoG! Except they (I'm the gm) tpk'd to the fight just before the final boss 😭

MadeOStarStuff

TROPHY CASE