A Bestiary for more than the DFRPG: Nordlond Enemies Book

[DaosusLeghki]

Originally Posted by SID

Who's painting for this book? Have we seen stuff from the artist(s) before?

If it's anything like other Gaming Ballistic stuff, it should be quite nice.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

But in order to get there, I really probably need about 1,000 backers. Maybe a bit more if no one buys any of the back catalog, a bit less if there are some "I wasn't doing this until a bestiary existed, but now I Want It All."

I'm likely going to order one or two items in the back catalog, but not all of it. Can't afford all of it.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by SID

This is awesome.

Who's painting for this book? Have we seen stuff from the artist(s) before?

I like to reward consistency. The artists who have done work on my prior DFRPG books plus one new team member.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Maybe of piñatas. I would say I have a plethora of piñatas.

Suggested stretch goals: Gaming Ballistic-branded stick and blindfold.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Maybe of piñatas. I would say I have a plethora of piñatas.

Add the terrifying plethorasaurus?

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Add the terrifying plethorasaurus?

If we get so far, there will be compys. So a plethora of them.

And you really never run out of awesome dinosaurs.

I also realized I have a dearth (heh: typo darth) of Elder Things, so there's always bad news for party members there

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by SID

This is awesome.

Who's painting for this book? Have we seen stuff from the artist(s) before?

Right now, I'm confirmed for Juan Ochoa, Billy Blue, Rick Troula, and smaller contributions from Brooklyn Smith and a new artist (not contracted yet, so no names). I've also got a few others who haven't responded to "do you have time in your calendar for monsters?"

But other than the one new person, I'll be tapping the shoulders of those I've worked with before.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

The Nordlond Bestiary was accepted on Kickstarter today!

This enables the pre-launch page, which notifies people when the campaign launches.

To do it like the monstrous, um, manual I think we've always wanted for Powered by GURPS and the Dungeon Fantasy RPG (mockup on the right!) rather than small thematic volumes, this project will need a lot of support. Almost all of that support is for artwork.

More Details for the Curious

Whether riffing off Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, or the more genre-appropriate Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, there’s no question that a giant book of creatures is a boon to gamemasters wanting to keep their campaigns fresh and exciting. For a long time, the classic big books of monsters have been hard to come by as a fully supported work for Powered by GURPS games.

No longer.

The Dungeon Fantasy RPG is purposefully generic: It is Powered by GURPS, after all. The Norðlond setting is not generic, borrowing from the literary tradition of the Viking culture. The sagas of looting, pillaging, and raiding for wealth and fame made a natural match for a game with a tag-line of “Smash Evil for Fun and Profit.”

Even with that in mind, the monsters here can be—and should be—repurposed and transplanted to other campaigns. Many of them are thinly disguised transplants from other cosmologies anyway: The nautamaðr is clearly based on the Minotaur; the Blóðughúfa, or “bloody hat” is the redcap, a fixture of Northumbrian folklore, perhaps derived or parallel to the Irish fear dearg, meaning “red man,” said to wear a red coat and cap. Animals—normal, giant, and dire—don’t require any work to move between campaigns. Much as the player characters pillage loot, GMs should pillage the worked examples here to make their lives easier when running games in any campaign.

That's what I hope to bring to the Dungeon Fantasy RPG through a Norðlond lens. Oh, and many of the creatures correspond 1:1 with creatures from That Other Game. So if you just want to pick up a module or adventure path and run it, referring to this book for instant stats?

That's one of the things I hope to enable here.

I am curious on how this differs from what already exists ie

1) Raw stats of Classic: Bestiary (available from the online preview and can be basically as is used with Dodge +3)
2) Natural Encyclopedia by Kevin A. Muñoz (27 July 2009): 660 Total Entries: 437 Converted from Classic, 247 Referenced from 4e, 21 Inspired by other Sources, 55 Originals by the Author
3) It Came from the Forums by KMunoz (3 August 2009): A Community Bestiary with 160 Entries
4) GURPS Repository's Monster list (29 July 2015): 200+ creatures
5) Anon's Animal Album (July 2nd 2021): Has 400+ 4e entries.

All of which are free?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by maximara

I am curious on how this differs from what already exists ie

1) Raw stats of Classic: Bestiary (available from the online preview and can be basically as is used with Dodge +3)
2) Natural Encyclopedia by Kevin A. Muñoz (27 July 2009): 660 Total Entries: 437 Converted from Classic, 247 Referenced from 4e, 21 Inspired by other Sources, 55 Originals by the Author
3) It Came from the Forums by KMunoz (3 August 2009): A Community Bestiary with 160 Entries
4) GURPS Repository's Monster list (29 July 2015): 200+ creatures
5) Anon's Animal Album (July 2nd 2021): Has 400+ 4e entries.

All of which are free?

Well those are all online and not a print copy, many still prefer print.
Also this project will increase visibility of GURPS, at least iuf promoted well - and especially if some go to retailers.
Finally, I fully expect some differences in stats and a few new monsters.

[DaosusLeghki]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Well those are all online and not a print copy, many still prefer print.
Also this project will increase visibility of GURPS, at least iuf promoted well - and especially if some go to retailers.
Finally, I fully expect some differences in stats and a few new monsters.

As a subset of this, it indirectly addresses the "there's no GURPS bestiary" complaint many have.