Tome of Beasts II Kickstarter campaign has passed halfway and it’s having a huge success. We decided to have a talk about the book and the process of creating rpg monsters with one of the authors, Wolfgang Baur.
Wolfgang Baur, “Kobold in Chief” for Kobold Press, has been writing, editing, and designing professionally since 1991. He was editor at Dragon magazine and an assistant at Dungeon magazine. His work appeared in many places, including the Al-Qadim setting for TSR and the Alternity science fiction RPG for Wizards of the Coast. During the d20 era, he contributed to Frostburn, The Book of Roguish Luck and the Age of Worms adventure path, among others. He was co-author of Iron Kingdoms: Five Fingers Port of Deceit, which won a silver ENnie in 2007. Ten years ago he started Open Design, which would later become Kobold Press. As publisher, Kobold Press won readers and accolades.
There are still several days to go until the end of the campaign and you are in an excellent position to try beating the record of supporters, perhaps breaking the 4500. Did you expect this success and in general an escalation of this kind in your latest projects?
Honestly, we always hope for a big success, and yet for this one we expected something more on the scale of the prior projects: Empire of the Ghouls or a bit bigger. Having done about 23 crowdfunded projects, I know some projects, especially sequels, are just naturally not as huge. However, D&D has grown tremendously since the first Tome of Beasts was released in 2016, so perhaps we should not be surprised! The Kobold Army has grown, and I am grateful to every one of the backers who has pledged support to the project.
Speaking of bestiaries, what do you most attribute the reason for your success? The skill in creating interesting creatures, the ability to balance and blend them in the system, the physical and graphic quality of the materials or something else?
Some of it is experience; our developer Steve Winter and editor Meagan Maricle are both experts with a keen eye for monster design. And Steve has done a lot of D&D design and development at both TSR and Wizards of the Coast. Some of it is the ability to fill gaps in the official creature list, or do strange and wonderful flavors of monsters, like the alliumite or the beer golem or the darakhul. Our expansions to the feys, to desert creatures, and to demons and the undeads all make it easier to challenge players with something new. And finally, a lot of it is due to the playtesting we do. Creatures that go through actual play always wind up becoming more interesting (or get booted from the book!), and any issues of confusing descriptions or abilities can be fixed before the book is public.
What is the most difficult part of creating a creature entry? Or its habitat?
A good, resonant name can be surprisingly difficult. So can be the special ability, power, or reaction that makes the creature stand out in combat or in a roleplaying encounter, like the beholder’s anti-magic or a doppleganger’s shapeshifting or a mind flayer’s brain eating. All the elements need to reinforce each other: the mechanics should align with the flavor and look, the name should sound great, and the art must be compelling as well. Not easy! A single monster has multiple creative minds working on it, from design to development to art, and if all of them nail it, you *sometimes* get a classic monster.
Is DnD5e a good game to make monsters? How do you feel with the numerical component and their insertion in the system? Are the rules for creating monsters exhaustive or do you always need a little personal touch?
D&D 5th Edition is a great game to make monsters! Kobold Press is fortunate to have worked on three official D&D books – Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Rise of Tiamat, and Ghosts of Saltmarsh -so we are quite familiar with the intricacies of the numerical side of attacks and powers. The public rules for monster creation are a good start, but the Tome of Beasts series has always had a personal touch derived from our talented designers and from playtester reports. Over time, you develop a feel for the numbers and the strength of various standard abilities or defenses.
I’d also recommend the in-depth numerical analysis published here, by Steve Winter: Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3, Overall Philosophy .
Let’s start with Tome of Beasts I, which monster gave you the idea of being the most appreciated by supporters based on their feedback? And which is your favorite?
I think either the void dragon (which sees a LOT of table time) or the swolbold (with that art by Bryan Syme!) are the fan favorite. One is completely high-level oriented, the other is a fun variant on the classic kobold, so I can see arguments favoring both of them.
My own favorite from Tome of Beasts I is tough to choose! Probably the Moonlit King or the lunar devil, as tragic figures that have a role in the Courts of the Shadow Fey adventure. Although I’m also quite a fan of the Herald of Blood.
Moving on to a Tome of Beasts II question, which monster from the second book is your favorite?
It’s hard to pick one, because we have hundreds designed, and some monsters will inevitably be cut after playtest or for space. And a huge number (at least 50) are still to come from backers, who often propose the wildest, most interesting ideas!
However, if I have to choose… Of the monsters revealed so far, the Otterfolk are the cutest and the Angelic Enforcer is the one I most want to add to an existing storyline. My favorite, though, is an arch-devil I will be designing later this month, based on lore from the Warlock: Eleven Hells supplement. I have story hooks and Legendary actions in my notes, and I cannot wait to start running numbers and brewing up the flavor elements.
How did the experience of the first volume change in creating the second? What are the main differences between the two?
We certainly learned a lot on the first volume, both about what monsters people loved (bearfolk! tougher monsters!) and what they felt was missing or not entirely on-target (various mechanical elements like exhaustion or innate casting). In addition, we learned a lot about bringing monsters to virtual tabletops (VTT) such as Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, plus we learned a lot about how to produce the heavy-duty cardboard pawns.
The Tome of Beasts II is tighter from start to finish because of those lessons, and I know will be full of new possibilities for every DM’s table. And of course, our artists have honed their craft as well; there’s some inspiring art in this new book.
Are there any monsters proposed by the backers that for some reason you have been forced to censor or vary?
No, that’s not an issue. Because we always get far more monster submissions than we could publish, the monsters that are either wildly inappropriate or that feature obscure text simply are not selected by the judges. Even the monsters that are selected go through development, playtest, and editing! For many designers, this is their first paid publication, but sometimes it is the first of many.
Can you already tell us if there will be a Tome of Beasts III? For players, monsters are like dice, the more the better!
The kobolds are very, very focused on getting Tome of Beasts II out the door this year, so a third volume seems like an impossible dream right now. Ask me again in 2023 and you might get a much more detailed answer! Or keep an eye on the Kobold Press blog, Twitter, or newsletter: we try to let everyone know when a rampaging horde of monsters arrives in our corner of the world.