Beadle & Grimm's Comes To Pathfinder — Chaos Ensues

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Today, during Paizo Publisher and Chief Creative Officer Erik Mona’s “Paizo in 2020 and Beyond” seminar from Gen Con Online’s virtual main stage, we announced a partnership with Beadle & Grimm’s, whose high production values on campaign support materials for D&D have been incredibly well-received in recent years. They approached us not about making campaign props and such, but rather for something entirely new that both they and we here at Paizo HQ are incredibly excited about: Complete Character Chronicles! I’ll let the guys from Beadle & Grimm’s explain their vision and plan themselves, but wanted to officially welcome them to the Paizo family and express our enthusiasm about what’s to come.

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy




Over the past year or so, people have become increasingly aware that Beadle and Grimm aren’t just random names we invented for marketing purposes – they were actual characters that we played and loved for many years.

With that awareness came a lot of questions – who were they? Where did they adventure? What heroic feats did they accomplish? And we found ourselves struggling to provide good answers. The passage of time made names and dates hard to remember, and we often found ourselves mixing up one adventuring party with another. What we were missing, we realized, was a book where all of our journeys and exploits were immortalized – a sort of scrapbook for those characters and the lives they lived. And that’s where the Complete Character Chronicle was born.

A mockup of Beadle and Grimm's of the Complete Character Chronicles book

A prototype of the Complete Character Chronicles.

We had always wanted to work with Paizo, so we set up a meeting and pitched them the idea. What if you could have a single book that contained everything about one character, from birth to death? It would need to be part journal, part character record, part scrapbook, and would also need to contain the key reference pages from all the core rulebooks, so that you’d have every rule, feat and spell right there at your fingertips. Would they allow us access to all their rules, all their best art, and all their newest updates, so we could make this the best character book of its kind?

Thankfully, their answer was “Yes”. In fact, it was “Hell yes, and how can we help?” which is about the best thing you can possibly hear. Now we’re working like mad to live up to that promise. We want this to be the best character journal that you’ve ever seen. We want it to be epic. We want it to be Platinum, because that’s what your character deserves.

We’re grateful to Paizo for welcoming us into their family. Please join the mailing list for our Kickstarter this Fall, and let us know what you want to see next. We can’t wait to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Beadle and Grimm's blue distressed text logo


Bill, Charlie, Jon, Matt and Paul

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Tags: Pathfinder Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Pathfinder Second Edition
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In summary: https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=782

Sovereign Court

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Awesome!

Liberty's Edge

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Will they make a 1st Edition version?


5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I'll be honest I was hoping for a platinum treatment of an AP. Fancy character journals never seem to work for me, without fail if I start using one that character dies in the next 2-3 sessions. I've pre-ordered all their 5e things, not because I play 5e, but I love the concept of their extras and wanted to see them bring it to PF. I've really appreciated their
a) handouts
b) art cards

The trinkets/props have been a mix bad for me, but as I haven't played the scenarios I can't say if they picked the right set.

The splitting a hard cover to a collection of softcovers has been an anti-value for me. I tend to prefer hardcovers, but if I was to split a hard-cover I'd want to split it into 'story' ,' maps','bestiary' chunks rather than by chapter -- that way its easy to have all three things I need open at once instead of flipping back and forth.

The art cards are generally well covered by the Bestiary cards, as long as AP specific monsters are supplemented, and possible important NPCs/locations.


MBisonYes!.jpg

Sovereign Court

10 people marked this as a favorite.

Interesting, but personally I tend to dislike books for a single character, especially to write in - seems like sacrilege to do so. Plus, a new character then requires a new book to be bought.


Fantastic news. Beadle & Grimm’s have been producing awesome stuff in the last few years. I’ve never seen something from them I didn’t love.

Can’t wait for this and also can’t wait for a regular stream of: Adventure Path - Platinum Edition products.

Super excited! :)

Shadow Lodge

6 people marked this as a favorite.

Has anyone else never heard of these people before?


5 people marked this as a favorite.
Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Has anyone else never heard of these people before?

They’ve previously mainly made D&D supplements and have only been going for two (maybe 3?) years.

They produce “platinum edition” boxed sets of WotC adventures with the books broken into individually printed chapters, loads of flipmats, minis, handouts, art handouts, campaign-specific DM screens and so on.

They have really high production values and I’ve had great experience with their customer service too. I think they’ll make an excellent Paizo partner.


Beadle and Grimm has awesome stuff. I don't play 5e but I've watched Matthew Lillard unbox a couple of their products and they look really cool. (With stuff like miniatures, maps, faction pins, coins, and handouts all in one mega-box along with softbacks of the adventure.)

Unfortunately, I don't think I'd have use for individual character chronicle journals even if they were for Pathfinder1e, which is what I play.

I'd still like to have one of their Harper pins as a stand-alone item from their website, but I probably won't just because I think for the listed price it should probably be made of at least sterling silver.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

Love the look of these. Wondering what the cost is going to be considering the quality and they are one time use? Looking forward to the launch


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Wolf Munroe wrote:

Beadle and Grimm has awesome stuff. I don't play 5e but I've watched Matthew Lillard unbox a couple of their products and they look really cool. (With stuff like miniatures, maps, faction pins, coins, and handouts all in one mega-box along with softbacks of the adventure.)

Unfortunately, I don't think I'd have use for individual character chronicle journals even if they were for Pathfinder1e, which is what I play.

I'd still like to have one of their Harper pins as a stand-alone item from their website, but I probably won't just because I think for the listed price it should probably be made of at least sterling silver.

Yoshua wrote:
Love the look of these. Wondering what the cost is going to be considering the quality and they are one time use? Looking forward to the launch

They certainly don’t shy away from producing stuff on the grounds of price (the platinum box sets are $500USD).

Grand Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

Are there any details yet if these will also include Pathfinder Society specifics?
Tracking Boons e.g. would be a great thing, as well as Reputation and Fame (especially spent Fame) and the Schools Training and Items ...


5 people marked this as a favorite.
Ellias Aubec wrote:
Interesting, but personally I tend to dislike books for a single character, especially to write in - seems like sacrilege to do so. Plus, a new character then requires a new book to be bought.

I have to agree. A single book per character? I'd MUCH rather see a treatment of the APs.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Looks really cool!

Dark Archive

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber

Interesting for those who don't use electronic options for characters, like Herolab, etc... Personally, it's not something I would ever use. However, if they ever decide to contract to do conversions of all the 1E Adventure Paths to 2E, and print them as something similar to the Special Deluxe Editions that were done for RotRL and COtCT, I'd fling money at them so fast their head would spin!!

Grand Lodge

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Has anyone else never heard of these people before?

Yep, same as I never heard of Paizo before Dungeon and Dragon.


Syri wrote:
In summary: https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=782

Don't you have to fail the initial save to gain any benefits at all?

(and then fail the second and succeed at the third, in order to maintain those benefits).

And 2E does not allow you to chose to fail voluntarily.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Woot! Love their work!

Sovereign Court

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Has anyone else never heard of these people before?

It's the actor Matthew Lillard & Friend's company.

--I wanna Vrock


2 people marked this as a favorite.

So disposable rulebooks? No way. Hard pass.

Not to mention compilation books that will immediately be out of date, but are not done in a way where you could update them (such as being binder sheets). Second hard pass.

Marketing & Media Manager

TriOmegaZero wrote:
Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Has anyone else never heard of these people before?
Yep, same as I never heard of Paizo before Dungeon and Dragon.

Well, Paizo was created to publish Dungeon and Dragon, back in the day.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
emky wrote:

So disposable rulebooks? No way. Hard pass.

Not to mention compilation books that will immediately be out of date, but are not done in a way where you could update them (such as being binder sheets). Second hard pass.

It’s a character/campaign biography, I wouldn’t call them disposable unless you hate the character/campaign in question.

Shadow Lodge

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The way some people talk about their characters, I find that plausible.


So these are basically individual class guides with some character sheets? I'm still not understanding.

Grand Lodge

4 people marked this as a favorite.

They're deluxe character folios. But hardback.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Huh... that's a thing...

I can't imagine a time I would have ever used such a thing. It sounds neat, but unless it releases in two months it will already be out of date in terms of class content. And I can't imagine it has all the ancestries/ archetypes/ multiclass feats.
Plus, there's something weird about buying a big, fancy hardcover book to write in and destroy.

To say nothing of the state of the main character page after an entire 1-10 level campaign while modifying the sheet and its numbers.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Pretty neat! I'd have to see a price tag first but this'd be a cool little way to canonize a character at the end of a campaign.

Liberty's Edge

Jester David wrote:

Huh... that's a thing...

I can't imagine a time I would have ever used such a thing. It sounds neat, but unless it releases in two months it will already be out of date in terms of class content. And I can't imagine it has all the ancestries/ archetypes/ multiclass feats.
Plus, there's something weird about buying a big, fancy hardcover book to write in and destroy.

To say nothing of the state of the main character page after an entire 1-10 level campaign while modifying the sheet and its numbers.

On that last point, the obvious solution is to have a main page for each level.

I am interested in knowing more about this product when the Kickstarter launches.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Has anyone else never heard of these people before?
Yep, same as I never heard of Paizo before Dungeon and Dragon.

That's not really comparable, Paizo were created to publish Dungeon and Dragon. Beadle and Grimm's were not created to produce these books.

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Plenty of people still haven’t.

“What’s that from?”

“Pathfinder!”

*blank stare*

“... it’s like Dungeons and Dragons.”

“Ah!”

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Ampersandrew wrote:
That's not really comparable

The f%~% it isn't.

You wanna insult this company for never being heard of, you insult Paizo just the same. Plenty of people never heard of Paizo before Pathfinder.

Has anyone heard of these people? is a question, not an insult. Not even my question as it happens.

I don't play 5th edition and don't pay attention to what's happening in that sphere. I had vaguely heard of Beadle & Grimm, a couple of years ago I saw that Matthew Lilliard and a few friends were doing something with D&D.

When I saw Paizo announce they were doing something, it had a picture of Matthew and I thought, oh that's probably that thing he was doing, is that still going. I wonder what they do and I went to look.

Maybe you think "hey some random Irish gamer has never heard of you", is the gravest of insults. I have a different opinion.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Ampersandrew wrote:
Has anyone heard of these people? is a question, not an insult. Not even my question as it happens.

I have. They do some really neat stuff for D&D. I'm looking forward to seeing how these look. I use Hero Lab and may not have a lot of use for them, but I'll probably still buy one and try it out.


I must admit that I had never heard of this company, and it would seem that I am in their target market -- a gamer with few practical limits to my gaming budget.

But even I have no plans to splurge on these Complete Character Chronicles or on the life size goblin figure that Eric Mona showed off in the initial panel. (For the record, I didn't go for any of the special edition hardbacks either.)

And from looking at their Kickstarter page, I think I can see why I never heard of them. Their specialty seems to be in making "deluxe" editions of products with little to no practical value added to the original.

On second thought, maybe I am not in their target market after all.

Lantern Lodge Customer Service & Community Manager

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Removed some posts and replies, let's move the conversation along please.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
David knott 242 wrote:

Their specialty seems to be in making "deluxe" editions of products with little to no practical value added to the original.

On second thought, maybe I am not in their target market after all.

I'd disagree that they add no practical value. But if you weren't enticed by the hardcover editions, yes, you probably aren't their target market.

They jazz up modules, and add what look like very nice battle maps, handouts, and some props, alongside the additional module and some extra encounters. All in all, I think it's a pretty nice addition to in-person games.

If they'd made those for Pathfinder, I'd probably be interested. I'm glad they're dipping their toes into the Pathfinder market. But I'm a weirdo who will definitely buy that goblin, have purchased every version of Rise of the Runelords, and several of the other special edition releases.


So they are adding actual crunchy content to their products? I guess I will have to take a closer look at the reviews when they come out then.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
David knott 242 wrote:


So they are adding actual crunchy content to their products? I guess I will have to take a closer look at the reviews when they come out then.

I don’t know anything yet about these character folios, of course. But the platinum/gold/silver editions are definitely more than just deluxe versions for the books (they reproduce the book, generally broken into booklets of individual chapters, but that isn’t the main point).

They also include minis, battle mats from the modules, “in-character” handouts, artwork, monster stand ups with a picture on the player side and stats on the DM side, additional sidequests/encounters, props.... They are very high quality too, in my opinion. Similar to the RotRL Anniversary Edition but dialled up several levels.

I can’t speak highly enough of them, to be frank. I’ll admit that a big part of why I’ll be backing this hard is that I want to see a regular stream of AP Platinum editions (though I’m skeptical there’s the market for them, I was proved wrong in D&D’s case!)


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Steve Geddes wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:


So they are adding actual crunchy content to their products? I guess I will have to take a closer look at the reviews when they come out then.

I don’t know anything yet about these character folios, of course. But the platinum/gold/silver editions are definitely more than just deluxe versions for the books (they reproduce the book, generally broken into booklets of individual chapters, but that isn’t the main point).

They also include minis, battle mats from the modules, “in-character” handouts, artwork, monster stand ups with a picture on the player side and stats on the DM side, additional sidequests/encounters, props.... They are very high quality too, in my opinion. Similar to the RotRL Anniversary Edition but dialled up several levels.

I can’t speak highly enough of them, to be frank. I’ll admit that a big part of why I’ll be backing this hard is that I want to see a regular stream of AP Platinum editions (though I’m skeptical there’s the market for them, I was proved wrong in D&D’s case!)

Yes, they have custom DM screens with new artwork and info panels, and artwork and monster cards (tent-style) that you can hang on them for you to see the stats on one side and the players can see the artwork on the other. Plus, the in-world handouts are AMAZING!! I have the Saltmarsh silver box and even in the least expensive set, there are tons of great things that I find make it well worth the price. Instead of reading a note that your characters find, you can actually HAND them the note. And each prop is in different writing, with different types of paper. It’s all very cool. I heartily suggest checking out some videos about the box sets.

As the forever DM, I’ll probably never have need for a character folio, but I might check it out anyway, depending on price.


David knott 242 wrote:


So they are adding actual crunchy content to their products? I guess I will have to take a closer look at the reviews when they come out then.

Look at it this way: Paizo usually releases quite a bit of supplemental material with their adventure paths. Things like pawn collections, flip mats that match the theme, and such. They used to do more, with things like "face cards" or item cards and so on.

That's basically what B&G does, except in the form of a deluxe product instead of as add-ons. From what I've seen, the value for money seems OK if you want what's included. If you don't want all the bling, it's not the product for you.


Jrhyne1976 wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:


So they are adding actual crunchy content to their products? I guess I will have to take a closer look at the reviews when they come out then.

I don’t know anything yet about these character folios, of course. But the platinum/gold/silver editions are definitely more than just deluxe versions for the books (they reproduce the book, generally broken into booklets of individual chapters, but that isn’t the main point).

They also include minis, battle mats from the modules, “in-character” handouts, artwork, monster stand ups with a picture on the player side and stats on the DM side, additional sidequests/encounters, props.... They are very high quality too, in my opinion. Similar to the RotRL Anniversary Edition but dialled up several levels.

I can’t speak highly enough of them, to be frank. I’ll admit that a big part of why I’ll be backing this hard is that I want to see a regular stream of AP Platinum editions (though I’m skeptical there’s the market for them, I was proved wrong in D&D’s case!)

Yes, they have custom DM screens with new artwork and info panels, and artwork and monster cards (tent-style) that you can hang on them for you to see the stats on one side and the players can see the artwork on the other. Plus, the in-world handouts are AMAZING!! I have the Saltmarsh silver box and even in the least expensive set, there are tons of great things that I find make it well worth the price. Instead of reading a note that your characters find, you can actually HAND them the note. And each prop is in different writing, with different types of paper. It’s all very cool. I heartily suggest checking out some videos about the box sets.

As the forever DM, I’ll probably never have need for a character folio, but I might check it out anyway, depending on price.

I forgot to mention the campaign-specific DM screens!

Those are cool too.


I like Mathew, but I can’t support these products. The products are not worth near at all what they cost. Maybe I’m too frugal as a gamer, but to each their own.

Shadow Lodge

Honestly, we’re just not the target market. And that’s okay. For those who are, I hope they get good use out of them.

Grand Archive

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I'm exactly the target for these books, but the Adventure stuff they make for D&D, well, making these handouts myself is the main FUN I get GMing, and I always customize them for my players.


That's going to be a hard pass for me.

Paizo Employee

I usually like writing my own, but I'm tempted to pick one up. I wish they had books with page holders for chronicles and nine-card binder holders for cards but...I guess that's why I have binders.

These still do look really impressive and I'm glad to see more merch!


 Wow l,maybe good stuff!

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