The Battlezoo Bestiary is the long-awaited effort of the 2020 RPG Superstar contest, in which hundreds of Pathfinder fans and aspiring designers submitted their most creative creature ideas for Pathfinder Second Edition. Following the competition’s extended hiatus, Paizo licensed the maker of the long-running Roll For Combat actual play podcast to run this hallowed contest. Now, after more than a year of developing, editing, illustrating, and designing, the 172-page book based on the winning entries is ready to be released along with two other companion volumes: Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons by Mark Seifter and the Jewel of the Indigo Isles Adventure Path by myself, Ron Lundeen, and Linda Zayas-Palmer!
Along with Roll For Combat’s showrunner Stephen Glicker and Paizo’s own design manager Mark Seifter, I had the great joy of working on this book to expand the contest’s winning entries into an awesome tome of monsters. You can read the full story of how Stephen resurrected the beloved RPG Superstar contest in the Battlezoo Bestiary's introduction, so I’ll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, a lot of love went into this grand effort, and we are all incredibly proud of the final result!
Choosing a favorite monster from the many in this book would be like choosing my favorite horrifying child. From butcher booths (living, breathing, people-eating buildings) to g’mayuns (rainbow-eyed parrot-pirates), the Battlezoo Bestiary boasts enough potential baddies and buddies to populate multiple Pathfinder campaigns. Even with a hundred blog posts, I couldn’t do the magnificent monsters in this bestiary justice. They just have to be seen to be believed.
Only one could reign supreme among the hundreds of monsters submitted to the RPG Superstar contest, however, and this year’s Grand Prize went to the shale spitter, a perhaps unassuming mountain-dwelling critter created by Brant Vallier. Brant’s entry even included a sketch of what he thought the shale spitter might look like—a sketch that I think it’s fair to say artist Sebastian Rodriguez turned up to 11.
We asked Brant to show us what the evolution of shale spitters might look like, and the resulting varieties of this versatile vermin left us astounded. The most impressive specimen is the shale behemoth, a crystal-covered horror of titanic proportions. (This one was so cool that it burst its way onto the book’s cover, as well!)
The Platinum Prize–winning monsters also received expanded entries courtesy of their authors, including the wicked sitebound spirit by Alex G. Friedman, whose constituent critters include the ship-dwelling wispy wayfarer, the pub-haunting dishrag dervish, and the theatre-dooming curtain caller.
As if a boatload of new beasts weren’t enough for this epic volume, the Battlezoo Bestiary also features the brand-new Monster Parts system—a set of rules that Game Masters and players can use to transform loot from their slain foes into custom equipment and gear! Bundled with these new rules are two new archetypes (the vestige hunter and the monster mage), new character backgrounds, and new items, all perfect for those special slayers in your party.
I couldn’t think of anything clever to say about the final piece of art I’d like to share with you. But I think, in this case, the illustration is worth well over a thousand words, so I’ll leave you with just one: parrotbear!
Patrick Renie,
Battlezoo Bestiary Developer
Congratulations to all of the 2020 RPG Superstar winners!
Grand Prize: Brant Vallier
Platinum Prize: Mark T Adkins, Matt Cavanaugh, Kyle Fenwick, Alex G. Friedman
Gold Prize: James Abendroth, Daniel Aznavorian, Ryan Griggs, Chris Harrell, Isaac Kerry, KM Kovalcik, Shawn Pommier, Rodney Sloan, Heine Stick, Nathan Wright
Silver Prize: James Abendroth, Daniel Aznavorian, Clara Barrs, Aaron Bradford, Dave Breitmaier, Justin Cando, Evan Commins, Jeremy Corff, Douglas Edwards, Aoife Ester, Derrick Ferry, William Fischer, Robert Garland, Mitchell German, Chris Harrell, Vadim Hesin, Jon Hewitt, Elizabeth Heyeck, Juho Kattelus, W. Brian Lane, Alexander William Ohtonen, François Potvin Naud, Brian Nowosatka, Michael Robinson, Shane Smallwood, David Walker, Garrick J. Williams
Copper Prize: James Abendroth, David Adams, Jeffrey Anderson, Jason Arendt, Adil Arif, Daniel Aznavorian, Daniel Baker, Lau Bannenberg, William Banner, Rigby Bendele, Nathan Berg, Aaron Bradford, Beth Breitmaier, Dave Breitmaier, Darran Caldemeyer, Matt Cavanaugh, Eren Christenson, Jeremy Corff, Jason Daugherty, Aoife Ester, Derrick Ferry, William Fischer, Chris Harrell, Vadim Hesin, Jon Hewitt, Scott Janke, Juho Kattelus, Bella Kelly, Isaac Kerry, Adam Kessler, Chris L. Kimball, Ryan King, W. Brian Lane, Jesse Lehto, Crunch McDabbles, Benjamin Medrano, François Potvin Naud, Justin Patera, Tayrone Pereira, Ovid "O.J." Pinckert, Michael Robinson, Nathan Ross, Jakeiol Rudd, Lucas Servideo, Eric Sklavos, Andrew P. Sturtevant, Michael Vieths, Nathan Wright