Questions about Pathfinder's setting

[Jon]

For reasons which will probably start arguments and therefore I will not go into here, I dislike 3.5 and by extension any variants of 3.5 which lack a standardized power system. This appears to include Pathfinder's 3.75ish system. However, I like D&D 4E (and FATE), and a friend of mine has asked me to run a short D&D 4E campaign while he's in town.

This means I need a relatively simple campaign setting; there's not enough time for the complexities of Eberron or Forgotten Realms to pay off (and I kind of dislike FR anyway). On the other hand, the default 'Nentir Vale / Points of Light' setting is not fleshed out enough for me. After talking with several people, I found my way to Pathfinder's Golarion setting. I grabbed a copy of the PDF of the setting book and it looks well-done, with a couple of relatively simple areas to start a short campaign in.

Some questions for anyone with Pathfinder books on hand or more knowledge of Golarion:

• How hard is it to fit the following 4E races into the setting: tieflings, dragonborn (half-dragons, basically), drow, genasi, githzerai, shifters (have lycanthrope heritage and can basically 'hulk out'), shardminds (sentient psionic crystals), deva (aasimar, except they reproduce through reincarnation and can reincarnate as rakshasa if they're evil enough), or changelings? (I assume I shouldn't even bother with warforged or kalshtar.)
• What room is there for psionic classes/races in Golarion?
• Any particular region that would be good for a short campaign around 6th level, with about 2/3 beating dudes up and 1/3 generally being awesome around civilians?
• Any books I should look at for racial fluff (or minor mechanics, like bonuses for subraces/ethnicities) besides the one I linked above?

[Brian]

This deserves a more fleshed out response, but my initial suggestion is to take the Pathfinder setting and make it your own.  No room for those things?  _Make_ room for them.  Go ahead and take your current understanding of the setting, and then modify it in ways that suit you.

I think most of your players should be receptive to the idea that it's a modification of a known setting, as long as you're up front and say so.

[Jon]

This deserves a more fleshed out response, but my initial suggestion is to take the Pathfinder setting and make it your own.  No room for those things?  _Make_ room for them.  Go ahead and take your current understanding of the setting, and then modify it in ways that suit you.

Well, sure. But I'm a bit obsessive about doing it "properly" (which is half the reason Nentir Vale isn't fleshed out enough for my tastes). Doesn't matter if anyone else can see the seams where I've pasted two things together; if I can see them, I've got a problem.

[Brian]

Between these two possibilities, which satisfies you more:

I) Creating the perfect setting, which will never be played.

II) Creating an enjoyable game with an imperfect setting.

Admittedly, you need to find a balance between these two things.  But worrying too much about your setting being just so will keep you from ever getting a game off the ground.

Perhaps a good compromise would be to see how well your setting works under playtest and then revising at some point?

[Jon]

I know it's irrational! That doesn't mean I can ignore it!

Anyway, any comments on 2-4?

[Brian]

Pathfinder core book and advanced players guide are actually the extend of my infoz on Pathfinder WRT racial mods etc. >_>;;

[Dracos]

You need more?

Monk McSuperStat successfully died at level 1 with those. :P

Anyhow, teasing aside, I'd first ask: what are your players playing?  Certainly you can force room into them, but get a quick interest assessment and use that to guide it.  Unless you really want all those guys being real attendees on the setting.