Kobold Press Aims to Expand Pathfinder With Advanced Races Compendium

[StewShearerOld]

Kobold Press Aims to Expand Pathfinder With Advanced Races Compendium

[kickstarter=350683997/advanced-races-compendium-for-pathfinder-roleplayi]
Kobold Press needs $25,000 from <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/kickstarter>Kickstarter to finish and publish its Advanced Races Compendium for Pathfinder.

When it comes to fantasy RPGs, many often tend to fall back on the tried-and-trues when it comes to the races they allow players to play as. You can usually count on there being humans, elves, dwarves and some version of a hobbit. That being the case, there are a more than a few games that go the extra mile to give their players options. Standing among these is Paizo's <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/pathfinder>Pathfinder which, across the pages of its various books, has come up with a hefty collection of races that players and DMs alike can experiment with. Let's say that's not enough for you, however. In that case, you may want to check out <a href=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/350683997/advanced-races-compendium-for-pathfinder-roleplayi>Kobold Press's Kickstarter for its Advanced Races Compendium.

Aimed at expanding on Pathfinder's race options, the Advanced Races Compendium will be "packed with PC racial feats, traits, spells, bloodlines, gear, magic items, archetypes and more" for a collection of 15 new and revised races. These races will include Aasimar, Centaur, Darakhul, Derro, Dragonkin, Gnoll, Gearforged, Lamia, Lizardfolk, Konold, Ravenfolk, Shadow Fey, Tiefling, Tosculi and Werelion. The book is being put together by veteran GM Steven T. Helt, Pathfinder Society Alistair Riggs and famed reviewer Endzeitgeist. Kobold Press is seeking $25,000 to finish and print the book. If the campaign can surpasses that goal the company plans to announce a series of stretch goals which could include "Hero Lab files and several more races" as well as "a few surprises."

As of the moment, the likelihood of that happening is arguably up in the air. The campaign has, just recently, pushed past the halfway point of its funding goal. That being the case, it's also used up more than a third of time. The 19 days it has left could be more than enough to close the gap its goal. That said, if its backer-flow slows down, it could make things difficult. Here's hoping it succeeds.

Source: <a href=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/350683997/advanced-races-compendium-for-pathfinder-roleplayi>Kickstarter





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[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

This is good thing. I always think a lot of fantasy style game focus on the boring races humans, elf , and drawfs . That one of the things I like about wow is it has a lot more variety in the choices of races

 

[Slycne]

This is good thing. I always think a lot of fantasy style game focus on the boring races humans, elf , and drawfs . That one of the things I like about wow is it has a lot more variety in the choices of races

Personally, I'm of an opposite opinion. Granted, if exotic player races help you to escape into fantasy - more power to you, but I've always found the modern trends of eclectic race and classes to be a little odd. What's interesting is the character actions of the character, not that their a sentient and bipedal honey bee-taur. At least in my own experience, I always found weird player races to be a superficial way for players to make their characters unique.

 

[TorchofThanatos]

I love the idea of updating a lot of these old races. Many just were not worth playing and Aasimar was the worst. That was the best race by far and I have a friend who like to break the game to much. That race could use a good nerf.

This is good thing. I always think a lot of fantasy style game focus on the boring races humans, elf , and drawfs . That one of the things I like about wow is it has a lot more variety in the choices of races

Personally, I'm of an opposite opinion. Granted, if exotic player races help you to escape into fantasy - more power to you, but I've always found the modern trends of eclectic race and classes to be a little odd. What's interesting is the character actions of the character, not that their a sentient and bipedal honey bee-taur. At least in my own experience, I always found weird player races to be a superficial way for players to make their characters unique.

I wouldn't call them a superficial way but many games have the same issue that Star Wars has. Human are everywhere and what ever you make your human it has been down before. Sign me up for the super honey bee-taut that sounds interesting. I see boring humans every day, why would I want to play one? Maybe it is also because many of the actions that your party can take are limited. If you are in a good party then you will have the village just like you did in the last campaign. I find that the actions you can take to be very limited so I like the other races to get that sense of uniqueness. Each person is different. I do understand that it is the actions that make to character and not their race.

 

[UberPubert]

At least in my own experience, I always found weird player races to be a superficial way for players to make their characters unique.

Yup, that's pretty much what I've seen too. People seem to like choosing a weird race and then making everything about the character's personality and play style center around that choice.

I think I specifically like different cultures and locations in established settings more than I like just different races, those can be a lot of fun to play around with for every player in the group rather than just the guy who rolled a bee-taur.

 

[Montezuma's Lawyer]

The big question is, will they correct the blatant favoritism towards "Good" races?

Compare Tiefling and Aasimar, and you'll see how biased things have been.

That -2 Charisma is a damned joke.

 

[TheKaiserEcho]

As of the moment, the likelihood of that happening is arguably up in the air. The campaign has, just recently, pushed past the halfway point of its funding goal. That being the case, it's also used up more than a third of time. The 19 days it has left could be more than enough to close the gap its goal. That said, if its backer-flow slows down, it could make things difficult. Here's hoping it succeeds.

Source: <a href=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/350683997/advanced-races-compendium-for-pathfinder-roleplayi>Kickstarter





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Just a headsup, this campaign actually started yesterday. They've hit more than 50% of their goal in less than a day. I think they'll hit it.

 

[CaptainMidlands]

The question is will they be more or less broken than a kitsune fey-blood sorceror with SF:Enchantment. Seriously though, I rolled that one for flavor text and ended up breaking Kingmaker

I had a player roll this up and try and cheese his way through our campaign. Skeletal Warriors soon forced him to reconsider and take some actual spells and not just "lol enchantment". It's a specialized build that is good at what it does but weak at other things, a good GM will balance the encounters (even the official ones like Kingmaker should all ways be adapted to match the party) to suit

Saying it's broken though would be like me saying my Anti Magic Barbarian is broken, sure he is powerful but only against magic users, stick him against a couple of archers or flying units and he is next to useless.

It's very good at what it does but it has weaknesses

 

[MDSnowman]

You know Pathfinder actually released more or less this exact book already?
The Advanced Race guide
37 Races
New racial feats, spells, magic items, equipment, bloodlines, archetypes, alternate racial traits for more established races, and the like.
Comprehensive rules on constructing your own race and keeping it well balanced.

I'm not saying there isn't a market for a 3rd party book that does similiar, but I could never see donating money when I could just go out and buy a book that does the same thing and already exists (and has since 2012).

 

[Czann]

I'm surprised it didn't already blew up the target amount.

What are players waiting for?

 

[waderockett]

As of the moment, the likelihood of that happening is arguably up in the air. The campaign has, just recently, pushed past the halfway point of its funding goal. That being the case, it's also used up more than a third of time. The 19 days it has left could be more than enough to close the gap its goal. That said, if its backer-flow slows down, it could make things difficult. Here's hoping it succeeds.

Source: <a href=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/350683997/advanced-races-compendium-for-pathfinder-roleplayi>Kickstarter





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Just a headsup, this campaign actually started yesterday. They've hit more than 50% of their goal in less than a day. I think they'll hit it.

Yep -- we're running a 20-day Kickstarter for this one.

Lamia? The actual serpentine lamia or that weird arse stuff D&D claimed were lamia?

The actual serpentine lamia!

 

[FirstNameLastName]

This is good thing. I always think a lot of fantasy style game focus on the boring races humans, elf , and drawfs . That one of the things I like about wow is it has a lot more variety in the choices of races

Personally, I'm of an opposite opinion. Granted, if exotic player races help you to escape into fantasy - more power to you, but I've always found the modern trends of eclectic race and classes to be a little odd. What's interesting is the character actions of the character, not that their a sentient and bipedal honey bee-taur. At least in my own experience, I always found weird player races to be a superficial way for players to make their characters unique.

My issue with this line of thinking is that if you are going to add non human races, then why add the least interesting ones (elves, dwarves, etc)? If it's actions and cultures that are interesting, then why add anything other than humans? It just seems rather silly when people decide that their fantasy setting can't be carried by humans alone, so they proceed to add the two least original races in fiction.

What's more, my main issue with elves and dwarves is how unoriginal their personalities and cultures often are; it's partly what sapped my interest in Dragon Age: Origins. After finishing the Mass Effect series, I was in the mood for a similar game, and Dragon Age seemed like the fantasy version of Mass Effect. However, whereas Mass Effect felt like I was exploring an entirely new universe with unique species, cultures and ideasYes, I know most of these ideas were probably ripped from other sci-fi, but it was new to me., Dragon Age felt like I was exploring the same world I've explored in every other fantasy game.

Oh, so there are humans, elves and dwarves?
Since there are humans, what are the chances they are a boring standard pseudo-medieval European clone like so many other fantasy stories?
What are the chances the elves are slender, intelligent, magical focused and have a high reverence for nature? What are the chances they primarily use bows or knives to fight, and wear light (usually sexy) armour?
Maximum eye rolling occurred when I reached the dwarven city, whatever it was called. I mean, come on. When your dwarves are a bunch of uncouth blacksmiths/miners who braid their beards, drink heavily and fight in heavy plate armour with battle axes, and whose city is deep underground with large statues, rivers of molten lava running through it and everything carved in stone with a thick, angular design, then you just aren't trying to be original.
While Dragon Age has plenty of interesting and well written lore, the generic core it is built around prevents me from feeling like I'm indulging in a new world, rather than another iteration of the same fantasy world people have been spewing out for far too long.

At least with strange bird-men the designer is forced to sit down and decide what culture and personality to give them, rather than simply say "they're elves, so they need an elven culture. And by that I mean, someone fetch me my copy of Lord of the Rings."

 

[Doomedpaladin]

Probably due to sheer inertia from both being part of norse myths and Tolkiens popularization of them in his work in the 1900s. Leading them to vastly overshadow things such as the Sidhe and the like which is more fitting for some of the more common themes I see elves get plastered with. That said I tend to like elves as a concept even if I might not like the implementation, but that might just be cultural bias on my part I suppose.

As for why some decide their setting can't be carried by humans alone? I dunno. Might be because humans are boring, because they'd like to explore non-humans or just want something with a different aesthetical appearance than the bog standard human one. Or many other reasons I can't think of in a hurry.

If you'd prefer to play as a Sidhe the project has got you covered. Kobold Press calls them Shadow Fey and they are already one of the 15 looking to be expanded upon in the book. Wonderful work has been done with them and their fae kin already in books like <a href=http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82368/Courts-of-the-Shadow-Fey>Courts of the Shadow Fey and <a href=http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/119001/Dark-Fey-Pathfinder-RPG?term=fey&manufacturers_id=2189>Dark Fey.

I personally have always found playing a human to be pretty boring. In D&D/PF it always seems more of a tactical choice with the flexible Ability Modifier, Bonus Feat, and Bonus Skill Points. I'm more concerned with RP and I often feel that I can better grow in that as a non-human character. My Roachling rogue in 4th Ed. was able to bluff his way into keeping a huge gem in one game by convincing guards that he had laid his "Egg" recently and would very much like it back. I doubt I ever would have had the opportunity for that playing as a hum-drum human.