Completely. Having to flip through some 30 books trying to find the stats for an animal was always a pain and a compilation was something I had been considering for years. So when I saw someone was not only doing it but had put out a draft I got very interested.
2 Likes
Am glad you approve! I like to make compilations of things for game systems I like, and lately I've taken to also making such compilations look good as well.
Since you are including monstrous versions of non-Supernatural animals, I spotted another one. There are giant eels as variants of the elephant-eating snake listed in the second paragraph of the middle column of page 97 of Lands of the Nile.
1 Like
I'm loving this bestiary and I'm definitively going to use it, but I have a couple of (edit: actually seven) issues with it, because I'm an old, bitter, quirky man.
First of all, the doc file above is the one used to built the final PDF? (this is, is it updated?) I'm asking because having a bestiary supplement of 30 pages is a beautiful thing on itself, but there are 30 more pages to manage, so I'm probably going to end cutting & pasting stuff from there, and doing that from PDFs can be painful (sometimes line breaks are just so persistent).
Also I think this some editing would be nice there. I know in projects like this the page number is something to look proudly upon, but I think some animals would be better grouped together. Look at all these horses and dogs, I think I'd rather have a generic horse and a generic dog, and then ways to customize them by rearranging characteristics points, adjusting size and such, with the explanation on how to do that in each animal's description. I mean, just look at the wolf: we have a regular wolf, and then a large wolf, which have size +1 and a bit boosting on statistics. From the perspective of the players I think a large wolf can be improvised based on the regular sized one (or a giant one, why not). Or sharks: they come in two sizes, large and giant: that's odd, why not just call the large one the default shark?
More things I'd love to see there would be a different way to index the animals, probably by habitat: land, sea, cold climates, flying, reptiles...
Also mythic animals, of course. I'm glad to see that most of the mundane beasts from 4rd Edition Mythic Seas are there, but now I'm missing the Kraken. And then griffins, wyverns... the problem there (though a fun one) would be that there are definitively a lot of them, and anyway is a dangerous line to cross, because it pretty much opens then can that you can get as many of these as you want just by toying around with RoP:M (I lost the count of the dragons I made over the years).
Regarding qualities, I voted against including them when you polled that, mostly because repeating copyrighted material is always dangerous, but also because once you do that you probably would better contextualize them by repeating and sumarizing the methods of building animals mentioned in HoH:MC and that other one (was it RoP:M?). Which would also save a few extra lines because I'd rather have a table with "natural" weapons somewhere (listing bite, claw, large fangs and so on) than then is referred in the combat stats of each animal than the weapons statistics clarification inside each animal's section.
Something else I'm missing is a quick reference table when you just get the stats of each animal and a very brief description on what extra tricks they can try in a fight; that would make combat with animals involved way faster.
And finally lately I was considering doing some random encounter tables, which obviously would include encounters with mundane animals; so some frequencies on how easy or hard is to find each one of these in different locations would be something quite useful (at least for me right now).
Anyway I was being honest on the first line of this reply: most of the stuff I wrote is either just me or stuff I can do on my own. I'm writing it down mostly because if it triggers your interest I could save the time of actually doing it (and because if it doesn't and I end doing it then it might interest you anyway).
2 Likes
Hi,
(Late to the party, but still...) I updated my appendix in HoH:MC in an article for Sub Rosa #18 (page 96-112) where I presented a generic system for the creation of animal stats. This integrated the Training Packages rules developed in Grogs. There's all sorts of goodies in there including movement rates, ageing, special attacks, a reworking of Animal Ken, and more. The idea is that you should be able to produce any animal stats you want with a few easy steps.
Mark
1 Like
Since both Wolf and Large Wolf are from official stats, i thought it best to include both in the volume. That said, in many cases, where a new quality/virtue is added, or taken off, it can have repercussion beyond the basic blurb written in the official books when they give the info.
Some qualities adjust the animal's Abilties, or have effect on the combat stats of said animal. It took me three passes on that file to get the stats correctly.
I tried to group similar animals together. It's not always well executed, but I welcome any opinions on how to better do it.
A different way to index the animals will be worked on. Probably as an index.
When it comes to mythic creatures, I'm loath to mix them with mundane animals. I'd be happy to collaborate with others to create a file of such magical and mythic animals.
The reason I didn't want to include the rules for building animals, is because i ddin't want to infringe too much. I will add a note at the beginning of the Qualities section that the rules for building animals can be found on page 38 of the HoH:MC book, and leave it at that, but having the Qualities themselves explained, allows those using the document to understand some of the mechanical differences between similar animals.
As for making a table of all animal stats, I might do that further down the line.
If you have the time, and willing to invest the effort in making such random encounter tables, i'd be more than happy to include them, and to give you credit for them.
2 Likes
Oh, hi Mark!
You can't be late to the party... we've been waiting for you to truly start it...
I saw your article, but I haven't tried using it, to see if it produces results that would be similar enough to the HoH:MC system, to consider including it, if I would get your permission, but I did see that there are some base stats for a few more animals, and wanted to know whether I can snag those into my document. While giving you another credit for them.
Three passes must be like a dozen less that the ones I always needed. In the end I just ended throwing them away and making things up. Which is why I'm really loving this thing you are doing, tacking these little monsters so I don't need to.
Sooner than later I'll start tackling these encounter tables for sure. I'll get back with them as soon as I get a first draft.
Well, take into account that the file I posted is just a first draft. i am working on adding more animals to it.
2 Likes
Which many of us are grateful for and ready to snatch up the moment it drops.
1 Like
I had started writing an article for Sub Rosa way back and just never got through it. I did collect a list of every real-world raptor in or around Europe along with a mix of information. I have more information, but I just never got around to finishing. I can send that to you if you'd like. It might help for adding animals. In the case of raptors, it would be mostly adapting what is already present.
Separately, I think I had some of the same problems as Mark, that there is nothing consistent in canon. My biggest problem is the use of V&F. Everything should have been done with Size, baseline Characteristics, and Mundane Qualities. The shifting to, from, or between animal forms would have worked fantastically and much more simply than it does now. Also, I would have presented a Quality <-> Virtue value for creating player animals or for use with magical/faerie animals and have all animal forms use Mundane Qualities.
Whatever you wrote, am sure it would prove useful when i decide to stat more raptors.
Well, I wanted to update y'all. My Animals of Mythic Europe file, and its cover, was given a stamp of approval by Justin Alexander, as long as it is limited to mundane animal stats.
4 Likes
Yay!
For the New Year, I have uploaded a new version, with credit to authors of the Ars magica line, and a list of where official stats can be found in the books, and I've added more animals, some I created myself, and some created by others.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17dYx3Vw-OR7C0oan34gvyiUkgp_hxnOc/view?usp=sharing
11 Likes
A few minor updates:
- Am still working on adding further animals to the file. But if any of you has done work to whip up stats for mundane animals, feel free to share, and I'll add them, and give you credit.
- Lachlan Hayes, one of the writers/freelancers of Ars Magica, has given me permission to add a few mundane animals he posted on his website. And I have to recommend his website. it's got great material, so if you're unfamiliar with it, it's time you do (https://jarkmanpages.wordpress.com/)
- If anyone would like to help making a list of animals by terrain, let me know. I would love the help, and you can get a credit in the PDF.
Edit: Am getting close to having the ToC spread to a second page.
The boar's Fatigue and Wounds will be updated properly on the next update. And I just realized that some birds get Com 0 for no real reason. Will update that too. Thanks for catching that.
I suspect those birds have one of two Qualities:
Mimicry: The creature is capable of mimicking other noises, such as a human voice. Raise Communication to 0 (if negative) or increase it by 1. It does not understand the meaning of the sounds it makes, unless the creature has Intelligence rather than Cunning, in which case the creature acquires Living Language 3. Note that a magus shapechanged into a creature with this Quality cannot form the precise and complex sounds required for spellcasting.
Vocal: The creature can produce impressive vocalizations, such as a powerful roar or howl, beautiful birdsong, or the like. Communication is raised to 0 (if negative) or increased by 1: gain Music 3. This Quality may be taken twice for particularly impressive vocal ability, increasing Music to 5.
Except none of them have been given said quality.
Great work, and it will be very useful to have so all the animal stats collected in one place.
One question though - which owl species is the Owl entry based on?
There is quite a bit of difference in size between for example the little owl (Athene noctua) (average weight around 180g), the common barn owl (Tyto alba) (average weight around 500g), and the eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) (average weight around 3kg), and that is just a couple of the owl species commonly encountered in Europe.
Reason I am asking specifically about the owl is because I have been thinking of creating a Bjornaer maga with an owl heartbeast, so it was looking for the stats of one.