Happy day of the Hatchling!

Rob Heinsoo had a few minutes to spare before it was time to feed the miniature koru behemoths who migrate ceaselessly through his back yard, and shared some insights on the new 13th Age Bestiary and 13 True Ways:

The 13th Age Bestiary is now available for pre-order and pre-publication playtesting! Like the Escalation Edition for the original 13th Age book, purchase of this Hatchling Edition of the Bestiary from the Pelgrane Press store gets you a PDF, updates whenever they’re available, and then the final printed book and PDF. Unlike the Escalation Edition’s many long moons, this pre-order Bestiary is already nearly finished and publishing is going to be a quick process. Simon expects to have the final book out early in 2014.

Now that the Bestiary is on its way, I’m switching back to full work on 13 True Ways with Jonathan. One of the curious effects of the Bestiary is that it’s going to change the way we approach monsters in 13 True Ways. Originally we were sticking to the just-the-facts approach of the core book, very short stat-based entries. But the Bestiary shows how we can present full entries on monsters and stick with the game’s half-designed-world that leaves important decisions up to each campaign. So the monster entries in 13 True Ways are going to use the full approach from the Bestiary wherever it’s warranted.

But enough about the future. Check out the Pelgrane Press Hatchling Edition announcement page that charmingly lists the names of all the monsters in the book. You might have to buy the PDF to figure out what some of the base entries are, others will be clear. We’ve chosen not to call out which authors were principally responsible for individual entries, so I figured for this introduction blog post I’d go ahead and list one monster that made a special impression on me from each of the other authors. Let’s take it in alphabetical order by designer’s first name.

ASH LAW did a lot of great work in the book. Her chuul entry gets the CREEPY INNOVATOR prize for adding something to an existing monster that makes a lot of sense and opens up all manner of story ideas.

Cal Moore improved every monster as an editor, many monsters as a developer, and Kevin Kulp’s whispering prophet and others as a mechanical designer.

Ken Hite made the original monster selection and assignments. Ordinarily I’d have to credit his catastrophic (to PCs) tarrasque, but I *love* the arch tone and precise language of Ken’s entry for the manticore, so sorry tarrasque, you just got beat by a manticore.

You may have already seen Kevin Kulp’s redcap’s first appearance on EN World. I’m also pretty fond of the lammasu as epic tier creatures that may be a touch too overworldly for the PC’s good.

Rich Longmore didn’t design any monsters but he’s doing all the art and gave us the wonderful little hatchling above so hey, he gets thanked and mentioned.

Rob Watkins wrote a psychologically insightful story for some new white dragons who are entangled with the Lich King and then did some great mechanics to back the story up.

Rob Wieland did something elegant with the story of the lich that seems likely to get a lot of use in 13th Age games and storylines. He’s also got the monster that ends with z, the zorigami, and I think they’re cool enough that I broke the rules again and mentioned two of his critters.

Ryven Cedrylle got a tough assignment, the intellect devourer, and, well, yikes. There are a couple surprising wrinkles in this one. Campaign impact entirely possible.

Steve Townshend has a 5th level warp beast wedged within the madness of rather larger elder beasts; I love the warp beast’s shifting impact on each battle and the fact that it makes sense for all sorts of warpage.

Have fun with the Hatchling Edition and send us playtest comments as indicated in the file!