The Golarion or not to Golarion? I'm having trouble deciding on a setting.

[Togath]

So after about a 2-3 year long break, I'm finally taking up GMing again... and have come to a bit of a conundrum(probably due to my own self doubt, and due to... well, like, it's been literally years since I ran something).
With my new campaign, set amongst a large chain of islands and that will see my party seeking out the lost treasure of am infamous pirate(after obtaining the first part of a map to it's location) I can't quite decide if I want to use a custom homebrewed setting or something like Golarion. Like, we're playing Pathfinder, so Golarion would save some time for my players and me by having "where [race/tool/etc] comes from?" already written out... but it also seems... I guess a little too defined for my plans? I'm planning to introduce new creatures, myths, and change stuff like the availability of firearms(pirates with pistols and cannons and such sound fun), as well as a large number of custom made islands, and I worry something as defined as Golarion might actually make adding all this custom stuff harder.

So I figured I'd ask here, and see what some other gms and players think. Is the convenience of a premade setting worth it? Or with the amount of stuff I'll be adding, is the freedom of a new one better?

[Florian]

Golarion is a very "rough" setting that has lots and lots of space to add or modify whatever you desire.
Look at the "The Shackles" region, there's enough space there and I think it´s already common to use the firearms rules and Gunslinger class for all things pirate-related.

[BWR]

I don't personally play in Golarion but I know a group of people currently playing the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path (very pirate-y) and having a blast, and regularly play Golarion based APs. The strength of Golarion is that it lends itself to a wide variety of games and places. I'm a big fan of pre-made settings and had I not a ton of Mystara material and a love of that setting, I would quite probably be running a Golarion capaign.
I recommend looking into Mystara for another awesome setting to use, but Golarion and PF are currently supported and more easily available.

You might also want to look at Freeport, a mini-setting built around the eponymous pirate city. Originally 3.0 but with plenty of PF support, including guns, and it can pretty easily be inserted to Golarion as a whole or used as the basis for a stand-alone setting. It has some good adventures set in it.

[Kurald Galain]

I'm planning to introduce new creatures, myths, and change stuff like the availability of firearms(pirates with pistols and cannons and such sound fun), as well as a large number of custom made islands, and I worry something as defined as Golarion might actually make adding all this custom stuff harder.

I'd say Golarion has plenty of space for these. Many adventure paths or PFS modules also introduce new creatures or custom made islands/villages/whatnot, so there's clearly room for that. Golarion canonically already has firearms, too.

What I personally like about Golarion is that it has some unique backstories for races, like dwarves coming from underground or gnomes literally dying of boredom. Aside from that it'd help any campaign if players have some prior knowledge of the world involved.

[Scots Dragon]

I'd say Golarion has plenty of space for these. Many adventure paths or PFS modules also introduce new creatures or custom made islands/villages/whatnot, so there's clearly room for that. Golarion canonically already has firearms, too.

What I personally like about Golarion is that it has some unique backstories for races, like dwarves coming from underground or gnomes literally dying of boredom. Aside from that it'd help any campaign if players have some prior knowledge of the world involved.

All of this.

And if nothing else you can nudge the timeline up a bit and have the changes be explained by it being about fifty to a hundred years later than the established timeline.

[Joe the Rat]

The other thing to keep in mind is that as your home game, it becomes your setting. When discrepancies occur between your decisions and published lore, the lore is wrong.

[Honest Tiefling]

I'd advise against others. Take the bits you like, repackage them and POOF! Setting.

For instance, find a bit of the map you think will work out well for your campaign. Adjust the details as needed, keeping the bits you like and ditching the rest. Write up a basic sketch of the area for your players and tell them that it's influenced by Golarion, but not necessarily the same. Tell them if there is a concept they like from Golarion, you'll consider adding it in. So you can just use the bits that have the backstory, but get rid of the bits you want to adjust.

[Scots Dragon]

The other thing to keep in mind is that as your home game, it becomes your setting. When discrepancies occur between your decisions and published lore, the lore is wrong.

One of my favourite rules in the Forgotten Realms is that all of the lore is from the in-universe perspective of what 'everybody knows', and thus can be completely and utterly wrong, or correct in a weird and unexpected way.

[Pugwampy]

Settings for me are just useful maps . I pretty much decide what happens in so and so town or country.

Sometimes I make my own town on an open map space. One dot of a felt tip marker .

[Togath]

Ended up going for a bit of a mix. As long as it isn't too out of place, most of the backgrounds for stuff in the setting is roughly the standard Pathfinder/Golarion one, though which some deities swapped out(which also seems like it works anyway, since the whole idea is you are far away from the "normal" parts of the setting. The hero god is also a god of fishermen, several deities involve the sea, and so on.).

So far my party is a halfling/changeling sea-witch, a mermaid who uses water magic to move on land, a kobold mage obsessed with dragons and gold, and a mighty bloodrager guy with a fondness for diving!~
Their first quest? Help a possibly slightly mad old peg legged dwarf try to obtain a treasure supposedly hidden on an island that can only be reached during a hurricane.