Monster Wrangler

Final Preparations
about 2 years ago – Wed, Dec 14, 2022 at 11:15:10 PM

Here's an update on where things are at and the roadmap going forward!

We are currently tweaking things and making final adjustments as we talk with the manufacturer and get things all finalized for printing. The text edits are all finished, and we used some of the time we spent waiting for our proofreaders to finish up to go back and add a bit more supplemental art to the book.

We will be sending out the surveys soon (and some of you may see them a little bit before everyone else as we run a "smoke test" to make sure that everything is working as intended).  The surveys will collect shipping information and shipping fees if you ordered any physical products. 

Once we've done all of the necessary tweaking of the files as requested by the manufacturer, we will be sending out the PDFs to all of the backers that have them coming, most likely before the end of the month!

We're excited to be nearing one of our big milestones on this project, and we're looking forward to having (digital) copies of the game in everyone's (digital) hands soon!

Status Update (with an Octusion)
over 2 years ago – Fri, Nov 11, 2022 at 10:36:01 PM

Here's a status update on our progress!

We have finished our internal playtests of all the backer-created monsters and are performing one final proofreading pass over the material before sending it off. 

We've been paying special attention to the "How to create your own monster" section, as we've received plenty of messages from people telling us how excited they are about those rules. We were really happy with the framework and guidelines that we laid out for the process, but upon reviewing the example text during the proofreading process,  we decided that the book would be better served by "spicing up" that text a bit more. 

To that end, the example text of the "How to create your own monster" section now walks the reader through the process by creating a brand new monster and going into why we made the choices that we did at each step along the way. This really helped to flesh out the creation guidelines, and as a bonus,  we got a new monster out of it: the Octusion.

Octusions are burrowing Brutes with the Beak and Cold Types. While these monsters have tendrils, they don't actually have the Tendril type, as their wiggly limbs actually deal damage by virtue of being incredibly cold. They gave us a great way to showcase how monsters can be creative with Types, and how Traits can be used to reinforce a monster's body type. For instance, the Octusion has the Writhing Coils Trait, which causes nearby enemies to automatically become pinned to it as they get wrapped up in its tendrils. That's pretty great, but it gets even better in combination with its Cold Conductor Trait, which deals Cold Damage to anyone pinned to the Octusion. 

There's a whole list of "these Traits are good options for these kinds of monsters" options, providing an easy way to guide the reader toward the best traits for pretty monsters, sneaky monsters, and the like. Just like with the Loxabox (or example monster for showing how to read monster stat blocks), the Octusion has a fully playable write-up and stat block showing the finished version, allowing it to be played right from the book. 

We're really looking forward to seeing what sort of monsters people will come up with when they've got the finished book in their hands, and fortunately, we're rapidly approaching that magical time!

The Once and Future Nappen
over 2 years ago – Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 07:43:18 PM

As Richard pointed out in the comments section, there's a monster in our banner that hasn't shown up in the previews lately, so we wanted to tell you a bit more about the strange and wonderful journey of the Nappen.

The Nappen has had the most "eventful" development of all our monsters. Originally, it was a Horn/Psychic Beast, but then one of our playtesters pointed out that we had two Horn/Psychic monsters - the Nappen and the Deluzo. We didn't want to double up on Type combinations so we decided to change the Nappen to a Horn/Slam monster... which was a bit awkward, since the whole concept of these monsters were that they were fairly gentle herd monsters that would sing to put people to sleep. 

The Type change meant that most of the "psychic" abilities of the Nappen turned into Traits: it gained a Trait that let it sing to make everyone around it exhausted, as well as an empathic Trait that let it provide bonuses to nearby characters when they made recovery rolls to remove status effects. Finally, it picked up the Bodyguard Trait, which let it rush in front of attacks meant for its allies. 

That was great... but then the art we had commissioned for it ended up just being a sheep. Like a normal, "Hey, that's a pretty good drawing of a sheep" sheep. XD 

The second art is what you see above - still sheep-like, for sure, but distinct enough that it looks like its own thing. We loved this version so much that we put it in the cover art!

Problem solved, right? 

Well, when we went through the monsters to give them a final check-up during the campaign, we noticed that the Nappen was a Beast... i.e., the category set aside for predators. Obviously, that didn't get too terribly well with the concept, so we changed it to a Brute, which felt more appropriate. Unfortunately, we had already done the Brute preview, so the Nappen didn't get shown!

Long story short (too late), the Nappen is a quasi-psychic monster that loves humans and spends a good deal of time around them. They make excellent bodyguards and nannies to small children, as their natural protective instincts help to keep the kid safe, while their ability to literally sing people to sleep ensures that the entire household gets some well-deserved rest.  And, of course, it can still headbutt and kick enemies in combat, if needed.

So that's the Nappen and the story of its winding development. Hopefully you enjoyed this brief "peek under the hood!"

Kleeth and Seeanaga
over 2 years ago – Thu, Oct 20, 2022 at 07:21:48 PM

We have two more backer monsters to show off!

First up is the Kleeth, a Fang/Light Vermin monster that uses pulses of different-colored light to lure its prey into biting range. Mechanically, this is represented by the Mesmerize Trait, which lets it move its opponents closer. To capitalize upon this forced movement, Kleeth also have Lie in Wait, which lets them make free melee attacks against anything that ends a movement in Melee range with it. 

Defensively, this thing is so bright that anyone attacking it becomes blinded afterwards, which provides it with some very handy passive defense. A Kleeth can suppress its bioluminescence with effort, but doing so is unpleasant, so they generally tend to be pretty glowy. 

When not actively feeding, Kleeth are pretty lazy, so they're not all that difficult to train, especially once they realize that their Wrangler will just give them food for biting certain things.  They might not be the smartest or most cuddly of monsters, but at least they'll help you save on your light bill!

Our second monster of the evening is the Seeanaga, a Poison/Tendril Plant. These lovely predators anchor themselves down in high-up places, such as ledges and trees, and wait for prey to pass underneath them. When it does, the sticky tendrils lash out, grab the unfortunate soon-to-be-a-meal, and yank it upwards. The poisonous slime on the tendrils then goes to work digesting its struggling meal. 

Seeanaga are very much in the "grab something and wait" classification of monster, and their long tendrils give them the unique ability to grapple other creatures at range. Furthermore, anyone stuck to a Seeanaga ends up getting poisoned each round, in addition to whatever other attacks the hungry plant throws their way. Their strong roots also make them pretty resistant to being knocked over, though, as one might expect, they're not exactly the fastest monsters in the region. 

Currently, we're wrapping up the last parts of the playtest period for all these new monsters. The backer-created monsters definitely took us into some weird new places, and the game definitely more diverse for it!

The Magnox!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Oct 11, 2022 at 10:04:57 PM

Here's a glimpse at the newest backer-created monster: the Magnox!

These chonky Electric/Horn Brutes are pretty common in the Chosu Region. They're relatively docile monsters that also happen to be naturally magnetic, and they can control the strength of the magnetic fields surrounding them with a simple thought. This is most exemplified when a Magnoxen herd is threatened; all of a sudden, all the young Magnoxen are yanked through the air toward the nearest adult, where they stick until the herd has dealt with the threat. 

This magnetic property comes into play on the battlefield with some unique interactions with Constructs and items; Constructs near a Magnoxen find themselves slowly being pulled in toward the beast, and those that get too close find themselves unable to easily move away. A few Magnoxen even have the impressive Electromagnet Secondary Trait, which forces enemies that try to use an item near them to make a Strength roll... and on a failure, the item is yanked out of their hands and becomes stuck to the Magnox!

In addition to being magnetic, a Magnox also has a very large electrified horn. It can spear its opponents with this horn, or the Magnox can use it to channel a powerful blasts of electricity. Doing so causes its hair to stand up on end, which - given how hairy these brutes can get - makes it look even larger, which only helps in discouraging predators. 

Magnox are one of the few monsters that have been pretty thoroughly domesticated by humans. Magnox burgers are quite delicious, but their meat never quite loses its magnetic properties, so anyone with metal tooth fillings who bites into one probably isn't going to have those fillings for very long.   >_>