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"Animal Races" is a product line of playable, animal-themed races with an evolutionary twist.
This upcoming product line presents character options for animal-like humanoids in a way that has never been attempted before. Each product features one of over three-dozen clans of unique, animal-themed races, plus related options for character customization. Unlike playable races drawn from bestiaries, the animal races in this product line are tied together by a detailed family tree with roots in real-world genetics and taxonomy. Each race can be used alone, or as part of a tapestry of animal races that are explicitly related to one another.
If you are a player seeking new animal-themed character options, including new races, feats, and character trait options, "Animal Races" is for you. If you are a GM looking for a diverse group of animal-themed races that share a single, cohesive origin story, "Animal Races" is for you. If you are simply curious to see what high-fantasy variants of real-world evolution might look like, "Animal Races" is for you.
Keep your eyes on this thread for updates as the "Animal Races" product line evolves.
Yes, forgot to say interested when I first saw this. Especially interested if you include sloths, armadillos, thylacines, quolls and (though strictly Vermin in PF) crabs and horseshoe crabs (which are not true crabs in RL). :)
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Oceanshieldwolf wrote: Especially interested if you include sloths, armadillos, thylacines, quolls... I'm even including monotremes. :)
So basically if I understand this right, this is a "what if humanoids evolved from [cats/dogs/bunnies/otters] instead of monkeys"?
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Kaw KAW!
(i'm interested)
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Epic Meepo wrote: Oceanshieldwolf wrote: Especially interested if you include sloths, armadillos, thylacines, quolls... I'm even including monotremes. :) Cool so I can make up a Platypus Barbarian?
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So, if I use Ultimate Combat, I could make, say, a teenage mutant ninja turtle? :)
I think I'll make him a quarterstaff master and name him Donatello!
I'll be keeping my eyes open for this.
Ascalaphus wrote: So basically if I understand this right, this is a "what if humanoids evolved from [cats/dogs/bunnies/otters] instead of monkeys"? This product line asks, "What if all animal-like humanoids were descended from a single ancestral race? What fantasy version of evolution would cause that family tree to follow the same course as real-life evolution?"
In real life, for example, cats, dogs, and hyenas are all descended from a common ancestor. When developing "Animal Races," I asked what sort of creature would produce humanoid offspring that could be divided into Cat, Dog, and Hyena Clans. The answer: a leucrotta-like humanoid. (In mythology, the leucottas combine the features of cats, dogs, and hyenas.)
Each "Animal Races" product introduces you to a mythical ancestor or magical process that adds new animal traits to an ancestral population, transforming it into one or more descendant races. (There are more clans than ancestors, so the genealogy sections of products featuring closely-related clans will overlap to varying degrees. This creates a small amount of redundancy, but allows each product to showcase a larger branch of the "Animal Races" family tree.)
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motteditor wrote: So, if I use Ultimate Combat, I could make, say, a teenage mutant ninja turtle? :)
I think I'll make him a quarterstaff master and name him Donatello!
"Clan of the Turtle" is the fourth title in this product line. It explicitly mentions ninjas. My goal is to release it as close to August 2014 as possible.
"Clan of the Raccoon" is the third title in this product line. This product is also slated for a release as close to August 2014 as possible. :)
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I assume Clan of the Raccoon will explicitly mention gunslingers. :)
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motteditor wrote: I assume Clan of the Raccoon will explicitly mention gunslingers. :) Or maybe even thievius rogues...
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motteditor wrote: I assume Clan of the Raccoon will explicitly mention gunslingers. :) There will be a Gun-Toting Varmint archetype for Raccoon gunslingers (possibly with a different name).
If I can't fit the archetype in the PDF, I will release it as free online bonus content.
This really does sound cool. So it will be a series of releases? Or am I misreading your posts?
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Brutorz Bill wrote: This really does sound cool. So it will be a series of releases? Or am I misreading your posts? "Animal Races" will be a series of (at least) thirty-six products released over the course of the next two years.
If you are on Facebook and would like to receive a notification each time a new "Animal Races" product is released, you can Like and Follow Eric Morton Presents on Facebook.
I will also announce each "Animal Races" product release in this forum, and will investigate additional customer notification options as I go about setting up storefronts for my products.
Also dotting for interest
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I got "Clan of the Dog" back from my alpha readers this weekend, and they all want to play Dogs now (even the cat guy). At their request, I will be adding an option to play Small-sized members of the Dog Clans so players can create anthropomorphic chihuahuas if they so choose.
("Clan of the Cat" will be in the hands of my alpha readers in the next few days, and much of the work is already done on "Clan of the Raccoon" and "Clan of the Turtle." Once I have my first four products done and ready to go, I will start setting up storefronts.)
My alpha readers have finished "Clan of the Cat," and they all want to play Cats, now. Later this week, I hope to convince them that they all want to play Raccoons (or Badgers, Skunks, and Wolverines), instead.
If I can avoid unforeseen delays, I should be setting up storefronts for my first product release at the end of July or shortly thereafter. I will continue to post updates about upcoming products in this thread, and will announce each individual product in its own thread as it is released.
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limsk wrote: Ninja Gerbils. [Not d20]
I had a friend who played a ninja elephant once...somehow it actually worked...
Things are going well. This weekend, I'll be putting the finishing touches on the first three Animal Races titles (writing back cover text, bookmarking PDFs, deciding whether and what to hyperlink, that sort of thing.). The fourth Animal Races title should be finished–and the fifth one underway–not too long thereafter.
I plan on contacting several online stores regarding storefronts and consignments within the next few business days. Since this is my first experience getting products I've published listed in online stores, I can't say for sure how long the process will take. If I can have one or more storefronts ready to go by July 25th, the Animal Races product line should be ready for launch at that time.
Thanks for following this thread (and double thanks to everyone who Liked Eric Morton Presents on Facebook; I'll be cross-posting product announcements on that page as my products are released). I hope to have some interesting titles available for you soon.
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Here is a different link to Eric's Facebook page. I couldn't get the other link to work, and I wanted to like the page.
Thanks, Mike a.k.a. Rawr! Your link is, indeed, the correct one.
I flagged my posts with broken links as having a "BBCode markup problem" so those bad links can either be fixed or disabled.
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The Animal Races product line is on track for launch at the end of next week. I have pages in two online stores ready to go live once I upload the relevant files, and I hope to hear back from a third online store in the next few days.
Barring unforeseen delays, I'll be releasing both Clan of the Cat and Clan of the Dog on July 25th. Each will be a fully-illustrated, 11-page PDF (six full pages of game content plus covers, a title page, and some legal text).
I will be uploading Clan of the Cat and Clan of the Dog to DriveThruRPG and the d20pfsrd store some time tomorrow, as planned. As a first-time publisher on both of those sites, it occurs to me there may (or may not) be a few days lag between the time I upload those files and the time they are posted in stores. I'll be sure to provide links once store folks have signed off on my uploads and activated my storefronts.
(I am still waiting to hear back from Paizo about selling PDFs in the Paizo store. I'll poke them about it again when I send copies of my products off to the Compatibility License folks some time next week.)
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I just received an email about selling PDFs through the Paizo store, and will be completing the necessary paperwork soon. I expect to add paizo.com to the list of places where my PDFs will be available in the near future.
(At this point, I'm probably updating this thread more often than is necessary, but I can't help it; I'm much too excited about publishing my own products for the first time ever. Just a short while longer now.)
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Animal Races: Clan of the Cat is now available here!
Animal Races: Clan of the Dog is now available here!
I will be creating a separate thread for each of these products here on this forum. As each of these products goes live in additional online stores, I will make an announcement in that product's dedicated thread.
(I've noticed that the preview tool on store pages linked above does not support the Cambria font, which I used extensively in both of those PDFs. As a result, the text in the store preview isn't as clear as the text in the full PDFs. If end users report a similar problem with unsupported fonts when viewing the full PDFs on their own machines, I will attempt to update both PDFs by embedding the Cambria font.)
Next up:
Animal Races: Clan of the Raccoon, scheduled for mid-August
Animal Races: Clan of the Turtle, scheduled for late August
I feel Ironclaw d20 conversion coming on.
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Bought both dog and cat. Holy crap, the best six pages of PDF I ever bought. If the rest of your line is the same quality as these, I am definitely getting them all and recommending them to people.
BTW, was it planned that you're releasing Raccoons and Turtles at about the same time Guardians Of the Galaxy and TMNT are hitting the theaters? :)
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Zhayne wrote: Bought both dog and cat. Holy crap, the best six pages of PDF I ever bought. If the rest of your line is the same quality as these, I am definitely getting them all and recommending them to people. Thanks for the kind words.
Quote: BTW, was it planned that you're releasing Raccoons and Turtles at about the same time Guardians Of the Galaxy and TMNT are hitting the theaters? :) Instead of answering that question, I'll just say this: Raccoons in campaigns that allow firearms will have access to a new gunslinger archetype, and Turtles in any campaign will have access to a Turtle Clan Mutant feat. ;)
It's official, you are awesome.
The Animal Races products featuring Cats, Dogs, and Raccoons are all available in the Paizo store.
I'll be sending off the files for Animal Races: Clan of the Turtle at the end of the month; it should be available for purchase a few days thereafter.
After that:
Animal Races: Clan of the Pig is slated for release in late September. This will be the first Animal Races product to include racial feats whose prerequisites are met, out of the box, by one of the standard player character races from the core rules.
Animal Races: Clan of the Bat is slated for release on or around Halloween. This Animal Races product will focus on vampires and their descendants. One of the optional racial feats in this book will gradually transform a Bat Clan player character into a playable undead. The other character options in this product will be available to all Bat Clan characters, living and undead.
Well now ... I know a couple of players who will find the Bat Clan (nananananananaBATCLAN) very, very interesting.
Will these all be compiled into a single product at some point?
Got the Raccoon supplement. Not too bad at all; I did love the way their 'trickster god' never actually gets away with anything. "See kids, this is what happens when you mess with the wrong people ... YOU DIE."
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Are you planning to release 'Clan of the Bear'?
Brutorz Bill wrote: Will these all be compiled into a single product at some point? I don't plan on compiling the Animal Races titles into one product. At some point in time, I may offer a few product bundles to encourage bulk purchases, and I may reprint some of the Open Game Content from existing titles in future products (since anyone can reprint that specific content using the OGL anyway), but the majority of the content in each Animal Races product will be exclusive to that one product.
Barong wrote: Are you planning to release 'Clan of the Bear'? I don't have a release date yet, but I've already started work on Clan of the Bear. In fact, folks who've read Animal Races: Clan of the Dog and Animal Races: Clan of the Raccoon already know a bit about the genealogy of the Bear Clans.
With this product series, have you looked at the old Red Steel/Savage Coast campaign setting for inspiration?
Is there some of a wish to bring forward some of those animorphic races (Rakasta, Lupin, Toitle, Aranean) onto the Pathfinder era?
Do you plan on writing a campaign setting book to wrap around the Animal Races series to supplement, maybe to flesh out the background material that will already exist for each clan?
Matthew Shelton wrote: With this product series, have you looked at the old Red Steel/Savage Coast campaign setting for inspiration? I'm only passingly familiar with the Red Steel campaign setting. My primary inspirations for this product line were animated films, with a few novels thrown in for good measure. I wanted to create an ecosystem of playable animal races diverse enough to recreate all of the characters from the The King Lion or The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Matthew Shelton wrote: Do you plan on writing a campaign setting book to wrap around the Animal Races series to supplement, maybe to flesh out the background material that will already exist for each clan? Creating a campaign setting book would require more resources than the entire Animal Races product line. My ability to make such a product will depend entirely upon my ability to raise funds selling smaller products. (You can think of the Animal Races product line as a Kickstarter for a campaign setting book; any Animal Races products you purchase are your Kickstarter rewards for funding this hypothetical campaign setting.)
Readers of the product line will definitely see hints of campaign setting elements lurking in the background. My first three releases, for example, have already mentioned the Academy of the Lynx, the Zodiac Council, and a pantheon of deities. My next release includes a passing reference to floating cities on the Elemental Plane of Water. Future products will mention such topics as Dragon Gates, the Great and Terrible Lizard Empire, and high magic realms versus low magic realms.
If I can generate enough sales to justify the production cost of a campaign setting product, that book would compile and expand upon all of the setting elements mentioned in passing in Animal Races products. Conversely, much of the information contained in the Animal Races products would only be mentioned in passing in this hypothetical setting book. The campaign setting might, for example, provide a brief overview of the Cat Clans plus bare bones rules for playing a Cat, but Animal Races: Clan of the Cat has a wealth of background information and character options that will never be reprinted in any campaign setting book.
Epic Meepo wrote: Barong wrote: Are you planning to release 'Clan of the Bear'? I don't have a release date yet, but I've already started work on Clan of the Bear. In fact, folks who've read Animal Races: Clan of the Dog and Animal Races: Clan of the Raccoon already know a bit about the genealogy of the Bear Clans.
Oh, that's great! I'd been resigned to having to make my own bear race. It'll be great to see your take on them! I haven't picked up Clan of Dog or Raccoon yet but I hope to soon.
I highly recommend them. I've already determined that I'll be buying the all of these. :)
I just discovered this and am very interested, however, every time I try to like his page I get "Sorry, we can't process this request right now. Please try again.".
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I recently interviewed Eric about Animal Races and publishing. Link.
Thanks for the interview, Eric!
Yes, a fantastic interview Eric!!!
*** Your summary of the manifold ways people play the game and also interact with the mechanical rules, and sometimes both at the same time or separately and individually or as a group storytelling endeavour is easily the most clear and concise illustration of something I definitely feel and have seen. Unlike what I just wrote. ;) Nor have I been able to express what I feel and have seen playing the game as clearly or as concisely. Thank you.
I definitely get a buzz from creating narrative possibilities from inspirations birthed from mechanic-wrangling and examination.
*** Your thoughts on how to manage your business (develop product lines and establish back catalog) is simple wisdom. I am a student at your table, and have put some of these things into play already in my own production schedule.
Epic Meepo wrote:
Animal Races: Clan of the Pig is slated for release in late September. This will be the first Animal Races product to include racial feats whose prerequisites are met, out of the box, by one of the standard player character races from the core rules.
Now that the ACG is out, with that picture, you should have a feat or archtype that goes after antipaladins.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
