[Skortched Urf' Studios] Thinking Races: Freeform Anthropomorphica released!

[mcathro]

Why be human?

Why not choose the agility and feral grace of the wolf instead? The sensuality of the cat or the strength and erocity of the warthog? The airborne agility of the hawk, or the impenetrable exoskeleton of the rhino beetle? Anthropomorphic heroes and villains are nothing new to gamers.

Dungeons & Dragons has included animal species from its inception: jackal-like gnolls, warthog faced orcs and ogres, a myraid of cat, spider and birdlike species, and shapeshifting druids that blend human and animal traits.

Whitewolf's Werewolf the Apocalypse put a supernatural spin on eco-terrorism and furry/otherkin culture, pawning a whole generation of lycanthrope heroes and vigilantes. Sci-fi games from Wing Commander to
Robotech include a cat-like race in homage to the Kzin, one of the most recognizable species in science fiction.

Gamers of my generation grew up watching anthropomorphic great-cats battle evil on the Thundercats, watched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles battle the Foot Clan every afternoon. From the camp of Biker Mice from Mars to the exactingly researched samurai epic, Usagi Yojimbo, gamers looking to play anthropomorphic heroes have a wide source of inspiration to draw from.

The Freeform Anthropomorphica system can quickly generate new alien species, demi-human or metahuman races for fantasy gaming, uplifted animals, genetically engineered mutants and animalistic superheroes, as well as magical beasts: magical crossbreeds, even unfortunates like Arachnae, who are cursed with animalistic form by the gods.or metahuman races for fantasy gaming, uplifted animals, genetically engineered mutants and animalistic superheroes, as well as magical beasts: magical crossbreeds, even unfortunates like Arachnae, who
are cursed with animalistic form by the gods.

No matter their origin, Freeform Anthropomorphica is designed to produce a fully customizable nthropomorphic character suitable for use as a PC in both fantasy and future campaigns.

Anthropomorphic characters are invariably bipedal, roughly human-scale and humanoid, and are intelligent enough to communicate with other characters and interact meaningfully with other players. The Freeform Anthropomorphica system produces characters without any Level Adjustment or ECL modifier, making them suitable for easy inclusion in most games. Build an animalistic humanoid superhuman inspired by reality's unparalleled bio-diversity or inspired by your favorite anthropomorphic heroes and villains. Quickly cobble together new player races or alien species before tonight's game.

With over 43,300,000 possible combinations of Orders, Racial Traits and Templates, you can build exactly the creature you've always wanted to play.

Creating an anthropomorphic character is simply an extended version of the character creation process already familiar to gamers. Rather than choosing a starting race, an anthropomorph's player selects an Order, or generic category of animals. An Anthropomorph's Order determines racial ability score modifiers, racial skill bonuses, and the creature's favored class.

Once an Order is chosen, the Anthropomorph begins to take shape. The creature can be further customized by adding a variety of advantages and drawbacks. Some advantages are more common in some Orders than others, and this diversity is reflected in the "Favored Racial Traits" mechanic described within the product..

This volume is fully compatible with the Pathfinder Role Playing Game.

Add some non-human fun to your game!

http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/s/skortchedUrfStudios

http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=402

[Brutorz Bill]

Any reviews on this? Anyone have it??

[lastknightleft]

this sounds really interesting, i'll see about getting it when I get some extra cash. It'd be a real help in my shinning force campaign which includes anthropormorphic birdmen, fox people, armadillo people, and wolfmen. the fact that they can be starting race balanced instead of pulling random creature from the MM is a big help.

[Brutorz Bill]

lastknightleft wrote:

this sounds really interesting, i'll see about getting it when I get some extra cash. It'd be a real help in my shinning force campaign which includes anthropormorphic birdmen, fox people, armadillo people, and wolfmen. the fact that they can be starting race balanced instead of pulling random creature from the MM is a big help.

I'm quite interested as well. The info on it reminds me of Palladium's After the Bomb/TMNT rules, which I always enjoyed.

I was hoping someone who has bought it could post a review or somesuch about it.

[Snorter]

A Redwall campaign?

I remember watching that on TV as a guilty pleasure, and laughing at the utterly ridiculous death toll it had for a supposedly kids' show.

[lastknightleft]

Snorter wrote:

A Redwall campaign?

I remember watching that on TV as a guilty pleasure, and laughing at the utterly ridiculous death toll it had for a supposedly kids' show.

Ooh that's actually a great idea, there was a redwall tv show?

[Yukigono]

Anyone know what the deal with this is? It doesn't seem available at either here or at RPGNow.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

This thread has the details:
[url]http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizo/products/v5748btpy89qp[/url]
Essentially there's an issue with mistaking whether art was publicly available.

[lastknightleft]

SilvercatMoonpaw wrote:

This thread has the details:

linked
Essentially there's an issue with mistaking whether art was publicly available.

[Snorter]

lastknightleft wrote:

Ooh that's actually a great idea, there was a redwall tv show?

Indeed there was; it's at least five years since I saw it, and I don't have a copy, but it was Canadian, I believe. Probably by Nelvana.

[FenrysStar]

I'm going to check it out at some point but may I assume there will be a print version?

[Brutorz Bill]

I picked this up right after it was released (before it got pulled). I've been pleased with it overall. It does need some tidying up and a bit of errata, but I've made up some cool races with it. If the DM allows it to be used for PC's they will have to watch carefully for balance issues. You can easily make some pretty tough races with it.
I've got a Bounty Hunter NPC that I can't wait to unleash on my players!

[Dark_Mistress]

So did the the issue with the art and this product ever get resolved?

[Brutorz Bill]

Dark_Mistress wrote:

So did the the issue with the art and this product ever get resolved?

Last I heard from the author the product is going to be improved upon and re-released at some point.

[mcathro]

Great news everyone! Freeform Anthropomorphica has been re-worked, updated and re-released as Fursona -The Definitive Guide to Creating Anthropomorphic Characters.

The new product can be found here:
http://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/p/pathfinderRPG/skortchedUrfS tudios/v5748btpy8j2r

It's also for sale over at OBS and will soon be released as a print version there as well.

[Hyrum Savage]

mcathro wrote:

Great news everyone! Freeform Anthropomorphica has been re-worked, updated and re-released as Fursona -The Definitive Guide to Creating Anthropomorphic Characters.

The new product can be found here:
http://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/p/pathfinderRPG/skortchedUrfS tudios/v5748btpy8j2r

It's also for sale over at OBS and will soon be released as a print version there as well.

Fixed the link for you.

[Brutorz Bill]

Cool! Is there an ETA on when the print version will be available?

[lonewolf23k]

I just got the product, and while I've only skimmed it so far, I'm liking what I see so far. I really enjoy the way the system is based on a more free-form build system, rather then a collection of somewhat arbitrary race stats. This opens up some interesting ideas for creature design.

Incidentally, the Racial creation system, along with the Templates, could easily be adapted to create non-furry creatures as well. Or Non-Anthro Intelligent Animals, for that matter.

The Earthborn Template is a cute piece of wish-fulfillment fluff, but nothing about it seems exclusive to Furry characters, and it would be interesting to apply it to a Human character, for your classic "Trapped in Another World" character story.

But what was even more interesting, was the section on Campaign Design, discussing the many varied ways of including Anthros in a setting, from unique creations to races with a standing equal with humans and elves, to actually "reskinning" humans, elves, dwarves and others as Furries with various options for each.

While the book -does- mention the occasionally "seedy underside" of Furry Fandom, it does so tastefully enough in my tastes. I don't think Doug Winger needed to be mentioned by name (If you don't know, don't Google it at work), but aside from that, it sticks to "Yes, there's an adult version of Furry Fandom. Let's move on", which is fine for this Furry Fan.

All in all, I would recommend it for Furry fans of Pathfinder. If you're not a Furry, You may want to take a pass.

[joela]

mcathro wrote:

... and will soon be released as a print version there as well.

Not normally into anthropomorphized animals, but good point on gnolls and the like. Willing to check out the print version once it comes out.

[lonewolf23k]

Hey, I've always considered making a "Wolf Man" by taking a Barbarian with the Animal Fury and Lesser Beast Totem Rage Powers, along with the Improved Natural Weapons feat.

But doing so when I can buy Natural Weapons and Bite with Build Points seems redundant. Would it be possible for the Fury and Beast Totem powers to scale up the Natural Weapons like Improved Natural Weapon does?