Battlezoo Bestiary Pathfinder Second Edition PDF Is Out in the Wild!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 03, 2021 at 12:13:29 AM

Woot! The Battlezoo Bestiary Pathfinder Second Edition PDF has just been sent out to backers! It was a long road, but we finally finished the book and can't wait for people to play with the award-winning monsters and the amazing Monster Parts system!

And for those of you who ordered the 5e version, don't worry as we are finalizing that book as well! We had a few major breakthroughs over the past few weeks and we are cranking away on finishing that book and getting it to everyone as quickly as possible!

We are also working on finalizing the print version of both books and will have a few surprises in store for those who ordered the physical copy of the book!

Thanks again to everyone who supported the Kickstarter and this book, and look forward to the many more books we have coming out in the next months!

Battlezoo Bestiary Pathfinder Second Edition PDF Ready to Send!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 02, 2021 at 12:37:01 PM

For this week's update, we will focus primarily on the Battlezoo Bestiary for Pathfinder Second Edition as the PDF is just about ready to send! We are performing our very final proofing and then we will package up the PDF and make it available to everyone who ordered this book. 

However, a few very important notes are below, make sure you read these if you have ordered this book.

• Rather than release the PDF on a Friday before a holiday weekend, we plan to release the book next week, Tuesday, November 2nd. This will ensure if there are any issues we can address them quickly.
• If you have ordered the Battlezoo Bestiary for Pathfinder Second Edition PDF, you will only get access to this book if you have completed the BackerKit survey and have finalized your order. Once again, if you haven't done this yet, you can go here https://battlezoo-bestiary.backerkit.com/ to lock your order.
• Before we send out the PDF, we will need to lock your order and charge your credit cards ONLY TO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE RECEIVING THE BATTLEZOO BESTIARY PDF FOR PATHFINDER. If you are receiving the 5th Edition version of this book, you will NOT be charged next week. 
•  This will happen automatically next Tuesday, November 2, unless you specifically write us and tell us not to do so. If you only ordered electronic products (such as PDFs and VTTs) you most likely won't have any additional fees needed to be charged. However, if you ordered any physical books, then you will be charged for the shipping now in order to receive your PDF.
• Again, if you do not wish to be charged early next week and have your order locked, please contact us ASAP so that we can remove you from this list.
•  Again, if you are not receiving this PDF or ordered 5th edition materials, you will NOT be charged next week. 
• When the PDF is released next week, you will be able to download it directly from your BackerKit account.

If anyone has any questions about this please let me know. A few other small updates.

Battlezoo Bestiary for 5th Editon — Once the Pathfinder version is sent out, we will start to provide additional details on this edition, but development picked up pace significantly last week and we're currently moving along with the conversation at an accelerated pace. Stay tuned for more details next week!

Battlezoo Bestiary VTTs — With the release of the Battlezoo Bestiary Pathfinder Second Edition PDF we are also looking at finalizing the release of the VTT elements as well. The Foundry VTT is near completion and should undergo testing in the next few weeks. The creation of the Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds modules are further behind as each requires different functionality to work, but they are also in the process of being created. We should have additional information on their status next week.

Sneak Peek — Battlezoo Bestiary Endsheets!

We wanted to create something special for the print version of each book, something that you couldn't get from a digital PDF. The "endsheets" are the thicker, colored paper that connects the cover to the pages within the book itself. If you look inside any hardcover book you will notice them right away. Normally these endsheets are simply a single color, but in "the olden days" these endsheets would often have complex designs and something that caught your eye as soon as you opened the book.

You might have noticed that we have mixed both "old school" and "new school" RPG designs in our books. The layout on the pages themselves is very modern, but the page border is straight from 1st edition, with black and white line art and heavy crosshatching.

With this in mind, we wanted something special when you first opened the book, so we went back to our old-school roots and this is the image that will greet you when you first open the book!

We will also have a different, unique design for the Special Edition version of the book, stay tuned for a sneak peek at that design as well!

Backer Surveys Have Been Sent Out!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 11:50:43 PM

Woot, the Backerkit Surveys were just sent out, so be on the lookout for those in your email!

Backer Surveys

As mentioned above, we just sent out the Backer Survey to everyone. Within the survey, you can select the edition of books you wish to receive, add additional items to your order, and finalize your shipping. Make sure to fill out your survey as quickly as possible to ensure that you also receive the PDFs as they are completed!

Pre-Order Store

For those who missed the original Kickstarter, you can still pre-order your Battlezoo books at the newly opened pre-order store. You can find it here: https://battlezoo-bestiary.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

RPG Superstar 2021, Enter Today!

As most of you know, all of the monsters from the Battlezoo Bestiary were winners of the RPG Superstar 2020 contest. Each monster was submitted to the contest and then selected through a mixture of professional RPG developers and public voting. All of the winners were gathered into the Battlezoo Bestiary, professionally edited by Paizo developers, and now appear in the book, with full credit given to the author.

Well, we are already planning next year's Battlezoo Bestiary and we have opened up the contest once again. Only this time it's bigger, there are more prizes, and we have a theme!

You can enter up to three monsters, but hurry, as you only have until December 7th to enter your creatures!

And for those of you new to Pathfinder Second Edition, don't worry. The monster creation tool on the site will walk you through most of the process and automatically format your monster. And learning the rules of Pathfinder is quite simple! Nearly everything you need can be found online for free if you wish!

Check out this handy Introduction Guide to teach you everything you need to know about Pathfinder!

Status of the Books

Here is a general overview of each book's current state:

Battlezoo Bestiary for Pathfinder Second Edition — as I mentioned last week we decided to update this book after additional testing and feedback. In turn, Mark wrote four new imbuement properties to the Monster Parts system — poison, negative, force, and mental. Mark finished his work last week and we have added them into the book and they fit into the existing layout no problem.

We are also adding a new appendix section that will list out all of the monster parts that can be harvested from each monster. Creating this list was a massive amount of work and easily prone to error. Hence, we have several volunteers reviewing each monster to ensure this list is correct. Feedback is going along well, but they are continuing to find small issues with the list. Until the list comes back "clean" from the proofreaders we will continue to review this list to ensure it's accurate and complete (this is not something that we want to be rushed and/or contain errors). Here is a little sneak peek as to what it looks like for each monster:

CREATURE NAME  LEVEL

Monster Parts value light variant/hybrid variant/full variant 

Eligible Refinements Suggested refinements from the creature are listed here. You might determine the creature has additional refinements available or lacks any of these refinements.

Eligible Imbued Properties Suggested imbued properties from the creature are listed here. You might determine the creature has additional imbued properties available or lacks any of these imbued properties.

Blood mouse  1

Monster Parts 3.5/7/13 gp

Eligible Refinements weapons (piercing), armor (light), perception item, skill items (Acrobatics, Stealth, Survival)

Eligible Imbued Properties bane, charisma, dexterity, energy resistant (positive), sensory (Darkvision), wild

We also mentioned last week that the book is going to get larger because of these additions. Currently, we are looking at around 10-12 additional pages, we should know the final count shortly.

As for the status of the PDF and getting that out to everyone who ordered this book, here is the current status/process:

• As soon as we are happy with the new appendix, we will update the layout of the book and enter the new appendix.
• One more round of proofreading and reviewing.
• We will finalize the PDF.
• Anyone who has ordered the Battlezoo Bestiary for Pathfinder 2nd Edition AND finalized their order via the survey link above will get the PDF sent to them.

Again, we are shooting to have this done by Haloween and it will be close, but we are trying to honor that date.

Battlezoo Bestiary for 5th Editon — Nearly all the monsters have been successfully converted to 5e and we have started working on the Monster Parts system. Since Pathfinder and 5e handle monster abilities, magic items, and... well, everything really, so differently we expect the systems to be very similar in terms of execution but different in terms of results. The essence of the system and how we expect PCs to kill monsters, scavenge their parts, and then make custom gear we expect to work in the same matter for both systems. The big difference will be the functionality of the gear as it has to be customized for each rules system. 

For those who are interested in seeing how this might function you can pick up a copy of the Battlezoo Bestiary for Pathfinder Second Edition (trust me, it's a great game and easy to learn! :) ), and you'll get a good overview of how the system will be executed for 5th Edition.

Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons — Work is continuing, nothing huge to report right now as most of our effort was into finishing up the Battlezoo Bestiary and getting the surveys out.

As with the other books, the 5e version will be converted once the Pathfinder second edition version is complete.

Jewel of the Indigo Isles — Writing is being done and artwork is coming in. We also started working on the Players Guide and outlining all of the features within that guide. It's going to be quite large.

Other items — As I am typing this out the stickers arrived! And... damn, a box of several thousand vinyl stickers is incredibly heavy! The final sticker sheet came out fantastic, even better than I expected. All of the stickers are colorful, bright, easy to read, and the vinyl itself is clear and very strong. These are some serious stickers! Next, we'll start on the custom pins!

Sneak Peek — New Familiar!

As you know one of the Stretch Goals was the creation of new families to be written by Linda Zayas-Palmer. We just finished the artwork for one of the unannounced familiars, the Astroloptera! Here is the overview from Linda:

Astroloptera 

Cute, bat-like creatures with large ears, black fur, and starry wings. They sense and read subtle cosmic vibrations to divine predictions of the future, granting their masters a minor fortune effect. They are also known for engaging in cryptic musings and claiming retroactively that they knew certain events would come to pass. Favored by occult spellcasters.

We Increased the Size of the Battlezoo Bestiary!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Oct 16, 2021 at 05:23:04 AM

Another week and more progress has been made! Here are the latest updates.

Backerkit Survey

The survey is ready and we are just putting it through testing and review. Expect to receive your survey next week.

Pre-Order Store

For those who missed the original Kickstarter you can still pre-order your Battlezoo books at the newly opened pre-order store. You can find it here: https://battlezoo-bestiary.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Status of the Books

Here is a general overview of each book's current state:

Battlezoo Bestiary for Pathfinder Second Edition — we have some good news and some bad news. First the good news, we were reviewing the monster parts system and decided that we needed a few more imbuement properties!

Currently, we have the following imbuement properties — acid, bane, chaotic, charisma, cold, constitution, dexterity, energy resistant (acid, cold, electricity, fire, force, negative, positive, sonic), evil, fire, fortification, good, intelligence, lawful, positive, sensory (low-light, darkvision, scent, greater darkvision, true seeing), sonic, spell, strength, sturdy, wild, winged, and wisdom. After some additional testing, we realized that we missed a few and have decided to add poison, negative, force, and mental. Mark is going to work on these updates over the weekend and we should have them added to the book by next week. 

We are also adding a new appendix section that will list out all of the monster parts that can be harvested from each monster. Creating this list is ... a lot of work, but we felt that this extra work would help out GMs and players to such an extent that it was worth the time and effort.

This also means that the book is going to get larger! We aren't sure how many additional pages this will add to the book, but we expect approximately 8-10 pages or so.

So now the bad news, this will slightly delay getting the PDF to everyone who ordered it. We still expect to get this out to everyone by the end of the month, but it will be tight. Hopefully, the layout goes well and Mark finishes the new rules by the weekend and we get the final PDF to everyone who ordered it by Halloween at the latest!

Battlezoo Bestiary for 5th Editon — We are on the last batch of monsters to be converted to 5e and expect all to be complete by the end of the month. Next, we'll move to the Monster Parts system and conversion to 5e.

Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons — Since the last update artwork for 10 more dragons has been completed,  which brings the total artwork up to 26 of the 45 dragons completed. Mark has finished the lore for 20 of the 45 dragons, 12 pages of dragon ancestries, and completed the 2-page hoard section that was unlocked as a Stretch Goal. So approximately 35% of the book has been completed to date.

As with the other books, the 5e version will be converted once the Pathfinder second edition version is complete. 

Jewel of the Indigo Isles — Work is progressing smoothly. All of the outlines for the three adventures have been complete and core writing has begun. The first adventure should be complete by the end of November with the other two following up shortly thereafter. 

The artwork for the adventure is flying along with approximately 20 pieces of art being completed per week (with several hundred final pieces in the final book).

We also started on the Stretch Goals with the new familiars being worked on and the outline of Old Woddy being started on as well.

Other items — The stickers have been approved and are being printed as we speak. The galtzagorri female sorcerer mini has been completed (so 2 out of 8 minis have been completed). VTT work is moving along for all three platforms — Foundry, Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds. The enamel pins are ready to be printed, just waiting on final numbers so we know how many to print. And lots more!

Sneak Peek — New Mini!

As you know we partnered with Cult Miniatures in creating and printing the miniatures and they are coming out great. The G’mauyn pirate thief was completed first, and now they have finished the galtzagorri female sorcerer.  

Backer Survey & Pre-Order Store Information
over 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 09:19:11 PM

As we said before, we will try to do a weekly update to keep everyone up-to-date with the project and its status at all times. With that said, onto the first update!

Backerkit Survey

For those familiar with Kickstarters, the next step is that you will receive an invitation to fill out a survey finalizing your information. Here you will:

• Select either 5th Edition D&D or Pathfinder 2nd Edition for the various books you ordered.
• Finalize your tier and order.
• Add any additional "add-ons" or other items to your order.
• Finalize your shipping address.
• Pay for shipping and any other additional items you ordered.

We should hope to get the Survey ready and sent out within the next two weeks to everyone.

Once you complete your survey, we can send out the Battlezoo Bestiary for Pathfinder Second Edition shortly after to everyone who finalizes their order. The 5th Edition version is being converted and should hopefully be ready by the end of the year. But as the books are ready and the PDFs are ready we will be sending them out to the backers.

Pre-Order Store

For people who missed the Kickstarter and who have been asking about a late pledge option, we have good news! We are working hard on finalizing the pre-order store, which will allow people to order the same products featured in the Kickstarter and receive your products at the same time as the Kickstarters. We expect this store to be open by next week and it will allow anyone to pre-order these books and add-ons as they become available. Look for the store next week!

Fantasy Grounds Support & Other VTTs

As many people have asked about Fantasy Grounds being supported for the Battlezoo products, we have good news. We have officially started the conversion of the Battlezoo Bestiary book to Fantasy Grounds. Although you will not be able to pre-order the Fantasy Grounds modules, we will alert everyone as soon as they are available at the online store and expect pricing to be similar to the other VTT options. 

Speaking of the "other" VTT options, work on Battlezoo Bestiary on Foundry VTT for Pathfinder Second Edition is moving along quickly, with nearly all of the monsters entered into the system. Next up is the Monster Parts system, so expect to be using the Battlezoo Bestiary and Monster Parts system in Foundry within the next few weeks!

For those curious here is the order of work being done for each book here is the high-level overview:

• Each book is written, designed, proofed, and finalized for Pathfinder Second Edition.
• During editing, the books are converted to 5th Edition by our team who are specialists in performing this exact work.
• As the books approach final editing, they are submitted to the teams who convert the books to the various VTT platforms. First, we start with the Pathfinder Second Edition conversion as that book is finished first.
• Next, as the 5th Edition version of each book is finalized, we then have our team convert those rules to the various VTT platforms.
• As each book is finalized, we create the PDF for each book and send it out to all backers.
• We also work with the printing house for each book at the same time and will have all the books and shipped at the same time to our fulfillment center in Portland. Having all the books and other physical materials shipped at the same time will save significant savings for all backers. 

Status of the Books

The books are going swimmingly and significant work has been completed on the books to date. Here is a general overview of each book's current state:

•  Battlezoo Bestiary for Pathfinder Second Edition — final edits and proofing. PDF should be available within the next few weeks.
•  Battlezoo Bestiary for 5th Editon — Most monsters have been converted to 5e. Expect to move to the Monster Parts system for full conversion by the end of the month.
•  Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons — The artist creating the dragon illustrations is flying, creating around 5 full dragons per week (which is insane). Overall art is probably around 30% done but is well on track. Mark has finished the lore for 20 of the 45 dragons and working on the intro and feats for all the dragons.
•  Jewel of the Indigo Isles — This book is a beast with several hundred illustrations, 20+ new monsters, level 1-11 adventure path, new ancestries, magic items, lore, history, gazetteers, 15 new dragon stat blocks, and much more. The outline for the adventure is complete, and two of the three adventures are well on their way to being finished (the first two). Since all of the adventures are linked with one another, we are writing the adventures in "order" to allow for the connections to the adventures to work, but there is still a lot of overlap during the writing process. We expect all adventures to be complete by the end of the year. And although we have hundreds of pieces of artwork, I have a small army of artists working on this and they are cranking out new illustrations on a daily basis. It's hard to put an exact percentage of how "done" this book is at the moment, but we are moving along at a steady pace and so far so good.

Sneak Peek — Stickers!

I will provide plenty of art previews in the near future, don't you worry. But for now, we are finalizing the sticker sheet and about to get that printed. Here is what to expect to see on the final sheet!