Pathfinder: 10 Elan Misconceptions

Much like our post on 10 True Things about Catfolk, we have 10 things about elans. Instead of things that are true, we bring to you misconceptions concerning this adjusted race. Submitted for your enjoyment, 10 Elan Misconceptions.

  1. Elan are not fey. While truly fair in aspect, elan are creatures of pure psionic energy and are not related to the Fey, even if the individual elan’s original form was.
  2. Elan are not a conspiracy. Since elan are often secretive about their abilities they have acquired a reputation in certain quarters for being a secret cabal of unknown aims. They are not a unified conspiracy, they are a separate race that live among us.
  3. Elan do not originate from another world or plane of existence. Despite their otherworldly aspect, the elan race originated here and are natives not only of the prime material plane but also of this world.
  4. Elan are not fallen celestials. Much like the misconception about their connection to the fey, this one is rooted in the appearance of the elan. Elan have no racial connection to any race besides their own. The are self created, not evolved.
  5. It is often thought that being entities of condensed psionic energy means elans cannot use magic. Nothing could be further from the truth. Oracles, wizards, clerics and other casters are often found within the ranks of most elan communities.
  6. Elans are often confused with human psions and wilders. It is usually only those familiar with them personally that are aware the elan are an entirely separate race.
  7. It is believed that all who undergo the rebirth to become an elan emerge perfected, but in reality there is a tiny percentage that suffer a different change. Called “flawed creations” they tend to be more visibly aberrant and unnerving.
  8. Among the few who are familiar with the elan race an often held held misconception is that elan are mortal like the other races. The fact that they usually only die by violence and otherwise rejuvenate themselves psionically is something the elan keep to themselves out of fear of the jealousy of other races.
  9. Among the more evil races it is said that consuming the flesh of an elan with give the being eating it psionic power. It is an assumption that is most often found among neothelid cultists and worshipers of the elder gods.
  10. In some of the more paranoid quarters it is believed that the elans gain their power by devouring the brains of other sentient beings.

Elans are apart of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at the JBE Shop. You can also find it at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Pathfinder: Elan Misconceptions

Much like our post on 10 True Things about Catfolk, we have 10 things about elans. Instead of things that are true, we bring to you misconceptions concerning this adjusted race. Submitted for your enjoyment, 10 Elan Misconceptions.

  1. Elan are not fey. While truly fair in aspect, elan are creatures of pure psionic energy and are not related to the Fey, even if the individual elan’s original form was.
  2. Elan are not a conspiracy. Since elan are often secretive about their abilities they have acquired a reputation in certain quarters for being a secret cabal of unknown aims. They are not a unified conspiracy, they are a separate race that live among us.
  3. Elan do not originate from another world or plane of existence. Despite their otherworldly aspect, the elan race originated here and are natives not only of the prime material plane but also of this world.
  4. Elan are not fallen celestials. Much like the misconception about their connection to the fey, this one is rooted in the appearance of the elan. Elan have no racial connection to any race besides their own. The are self created, not evolved.
  5. It is often thought that being entities of condensed psionic energy means elans cannot use magic. Nothing could be further from the truth. Oracles, wizards, clerics and other casters are often found within the ranks of most elan communities.
  6. Elans are often confused with human psions and wilders. It is usually only those familiar with them personally that are aware the elan are an entirely separate race.
  7. It is believed that all who undergo the rebirth to become an elan emerge perfected, but in reality there is a tiny percentage that suffer a different change. Called “flawed creations” they tend to be more visibly aberrant and unnerving.
  8. Among the few who are familiar with the elan race an often held held misconception is that elan are mortal like the other races. The fact that they usually only die by violence and otherwise rejuvenate themselves psionically is something the elan keep to themselves out of fear of the jealousy of other races.
  9. Among the more evil races it is said that consuming the flesh of an elan with give the being eating it psionic power. It is an assumption that is most often found among neothelid cultists and worshipers of the elder gods.
  10. In some of the more paranoid quarters it is believed that the elans gain their power by devouring the brains of other sentient beings.

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Pathfinder: Assemble The Heroes

Heroes Assemble!

From the seas below to the skies above, from the land to the stars, heroes are all around us, and they come in many different forms. Now you can go beyond the common races and play a member of these 12 imaginative races in your game. Delve into each race’s culture and see the world from their unique point of view. Play a character that you have always dreamed of playing, with all-new specific character options tailored to each race’s flavor. Expand your horizons and your gaming experience with these Advanced Races today!

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium is the essential guide for playing untold numbers of characters. This 254-page supplement features:

  • Racial Traits to play 12 different races, plus 60 Alternate Racial Traits and 49 Character Traits to customize your character for your desired unique play experience
  • 125 New Character Class Options, including archetypes, sorcerer and bloodrager bloodlines, oracle mysteries and shaman spirits, cavalier orders, cleric domains and subdomains, rogue talents, alchemist discoveries, familiars and animal companions, time thief temporal talents, soulknife blade skills, and much more
  • 93 New Feats, including martial arts styles, metamagic feats, combat feats, and feats to enhance your chosen racial traits
  • 84 New Magic Items, Mundane Items, and Technological Items
  • 61 New Spells and Psionic Powers
  • 23 New Deities and Philosophies, reflecting the unique viewpoints and values of each race
  • Details for crafting your unique adventurer, as well as suggestions for GMs on how to incorporate each of these races into your campaign world

Be Heroic With These Advanced Races Today!

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Pathfinder: 10 True Things About Catfolk

I asked some of our authors to write 10 True Things about their race. And with the impending release of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, we thought we’d share them with you. Today we are sharing catfolk. We hope you enjoy them.

10 True Things About Catfolk

  1. Catfolk tend to be quite superstitious, and pick up even more such behavior from people of other races and cultures with whom they associate.
  2. Matriarchs lead catfolk clans, and their followers demonstrate nearly unswerving loyalty to their mistresses.
  3. Humans, dwarves, and elves can’t speak fully fluent Catfolk because they don’t have tails – but kitsune, lizardfolk, and tieflings can.
  4. Clan matriarchs mate with several of the most desirable males among their warriors and diplomats to ensure that their offspring are of the strongest possible stock.
  5. An unarmed catfolk with extensive hand-to-hand combat training is easily the equal of a fully armed and armored human. Their claws give them a distinct edge in battle.
  6. Catfolk look very disfavorably upon thieves, and this is probably why they don’t like tengu very much.
  7. A rare few catfolk sorcerers are descended from a kind of feline fey called the grymalkin. They use their power over shadows, innate understanding of illusions, and breath-stealing magic to fight foes.
  8. Some catfolk collect gods like children collect marbles.
  9. Tree-dwelling catfolk clans produce elite warriors who can walk on branches and leaves as easily as a human can walk down a dirt road.
  10. Catfolk priestesses of Sekhmet make a potent type of magical wine which enhances their healing abilities.

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Pathfinder: A Horde of Races

Tuesday February 14th—Valentine’s Day—sees the launch of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. This has been a work in progress for over two years. So what exactly is inside it?

Well each race has about 16 pages of material, describing the race, their culture, their view on the world, how others of their kind interact, their religions, and of course plenty of Pathfinder gaming stats. Like what? Well we start off with the Racial Traits, follow that up with alternate racial traits, character traits, a veritable horde of archetypes and other class options, mundane equipment specific to their race, and spells and magic item commonly created by members of that race. We finish off each individual section with ideas for you to integrate this race into your game and NPCs so you can us this race in your game right away. As a bonus we threw in favored class options for this race for over 40 different classes. Sure every class in the core rule book is covered here but so are the classes from the Advanced Player’s Guide to the Advanced Class Guide as well as Ultimate Psionics and the Time Thief thrown in for good measure.

You want more? Well how about some racial technology for those that want to play a Pathfinder in Spaaaaaace.

So what races are covered in this book? Glad you asked. We have:
Androids
Catfolk
Changelings
Elans
Gillmen
Lizardfolk
Merfolk
Samsarans
Skinwalkers
Tengus
Wyrwoods
Wyvarans

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Traveller: Its a Rock Monster; It Doesn’t Have Motivation.

I love science fiction. You go to some planet and discover some creature or environment that you previously thought was just downright impossible, and then we have to rethink what we know about science. A thousand or more years ago, when we encountered something we couldn’t explain, we called it magic, a god’s work, demon possessed, or one of a hundred other things that drew a conclusion for even trying to understand it. When I first started writing for Traveller (8 years ago), I wrote a few things that some said, “That’s impossible.” My response has always been, “We just haven’t encountered one case that is possible.” This is one of the reasons why I like to include monsters that just seem like magic in my sci-fi games, because you never know if you will infact find one. In the bestiary in the back of Prelude to War: State of Chaos, I included a giant rock monster for your Traveller games.

Giant Rock Monster

To say that a giant rock monster is impossible belittles the crushed and mangled bodies of those who encountered one and died horribly. Yet every examination of defeated rock monsters reveals them to be made of nothing more than just rock. A few Zhodani scientists believe them to be psionic beings of pure thought that can telekinetically join rocks together to form a body. If this theory is accurate, it would explain the regenerative properties some claim these creatures to possess, since they could simply reform their bodies out of different rocks some time later. They may not have been originally discovered in the Foreven Sector, but somehow these creatures, like humans, have found their way there. Their size varies, but they typically stand as tall as an elephant on two legs.

Animal Giant Rock Monster
Hits 85
Speed 18 m
Skills Athletics (endurance) 1, Melee (unarmed) 1
Attacks Unarmed +1 (5D)
Traits Armour (+6), Large (+4)
Behavior Intermittent

Download the Traveller adventure Prelude to War: State of Chaos today from Jon Brazer Enterprises exclusively at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.com.

Rock Monster
Image by Ryan Sumo

Traveller: Welcome to Rusted Fang Station

Space Station of Last Hopes

Inside an old, rusted-out hull of a Vargr frigate lies the best hope for those with nowhere else to turn. This space station caters to mercenaries and those looking to make their credits through force of arms on the right side of the law. For those in dire need, this battered hulk of a space station looks like a rescuing angel.

This volume of Foreven Worlds details the Rusted Fang Station and includes:

  • Details on the interior layout of the Rusted Fang Station, including a full color, detailed map
  • Descriptions of the various personalities the travellers can meet aboard the ship and the shops that can be found there
  • Three new patrons to get you started on a new adventure that evokes the feel and flavor of this unique station
  • Plenty of ideas for you to create your own adventures

Set your Travellers on a New Adventure!

Download Foreven Worlds: Rusted Fang Station for your Traveller game at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow.com.

Pathfinder: New Unchained Monster for You

With the start of the new year, I am going to try to do a release a new monster or NPC or some other game mechanic or just talk about something for Pathfinder or Traveller on a weekly basis. Who knows, maybe I’ll combine them all at some point. I’d like to kick it off with a new monster for Pathfinder made using the Pathfinder Unchained rules.

HAPHNAX

This green and purple monster is covered with a heavy protective shell and has a long tail ending in a sharp pincer.
HAPHNAX CR/HD 8
Init +0; Perception +13 (blindsight 120 ft.)
Size Medium; Speed 40 ft.; climb 40 ft.

DEFENSES

AC 23, (touch 13, flat-footed 17); Fort +11, Ref +11, Will +7; CMD 26
hp 110; Immune acid, electricity

ATTACKS

Melee tail pincer (reach 15 ft) +17 (3d6+16 plus paralysis poison), 2 claws +12 (2d6+6)
CMB +17

STATISTICS

Str +6, Con +4, Wis +2; Climb +16, Perception +13, Stealth +13
XP 4,800; NE magical beast

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Paralysis Poison (Ex) A successful attack with a haphnax’s tail pincer injects the creature with a paralysis poison. The creature must succeed a DC 16 Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds. This is a poison effect.

The haphnax is a forest dwelling creature that paralyzes its enemies with a poison from its tail pincer before it devours its meal. This deadly monster is difficult to spot since it hides in small trees and paralyzes its dinner whenever it wanders near. It is not uncommon for its victim to die before it can scream in pain.

Check out all of Jon Brazer Enterprises‘ Book of Beasts series at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore, and Paizo.com.

2016 in Review

With little over a week left in the year, I thought I would do some analysis on the company. How’d we do? Well, we released a total of 11 new products this year (plus 4 d66 lists, but we’ll talk about that later). In previous years, we tried to release one product every two weeks but sometime during the year that changed to one per month. We feel that that is a more sustainable release rate for us, especially considering we are trying to release larger products.

So what did we produce? What I could consider to be JBE’s key releases for the have been finishing up the the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Series and the Book of Magic: Patron Hexes for Pathfinder and the start of the Prelude to War Adventure Path and the D66 Compendium 2 for Traveller. Why were these so key? Because fans like you requested them. I’ve been hearing requests for the D66 Compendium 2 since the release of its predecessor. Patron Hexes started off as a forum thread where fans of the Pathfinder witch requested more hexes. And the Prelude to War Adventure Path and Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Series is the request of me just posting a thread asking people what they wanted. So if there is something you want us to tackle, please ask. We listen.

systemWhat was the result (click on the pie charts for larger images)? Well, as you can see from the graph, Pathfinder represented 55% of the company while Traveller made up about 30%. Oddly enough, our single best seller was Book of Heroic Races: Player Races 1 for D&D 5e. That’s right, that red area is almost entirely one book, and that was released last year. I hate to admit it but we did not do nearly enough with 5e this past year. We will be doing much more for D&D next year.

Traveller was a major comeback this year. Aside from d66 lists we released 1 (yes, one) product for it last year. This year, this year it was 4 and even then, we didn’t finish up a 5th by the end of the year or there would have been one more. We have two more adventures in the Prelude to War Adventure Path we are finishing up. Then we will probably do a few stand alone adventures for those that like to make their own campaigns. We’re also working on ships, space stations, and some more locations. Oh and we still have a sector to finish detailing. Look for these in the coming year. 2017 is going to a massive year for Traveller from us. Strap in!

pathfinder-locationIt is kind of hard for Pathfinder to not dominate our sales considering how many books we have written for it in the past. Unfortunately, our individual Pathfinder releases have slowed to where few products actually make back their cost to produce them. Having said that, we are still creating Pathfinder material because some of our ideas are just too damn cool not to do!!! Like one Deadly Delve adventure we have coming up next year has the players into the heart of a volcano. The best part is that 5e and 13th Age fans can look forward to seeing this converted to their game systems at some point as well. And that is how we are targeting Pathfinder products these days when you don’t ask explicitly ask for them: what can we convert over to another system. Because if we just want to do it bad enough, we’ll find a way to make it work.

As you can see from the chart, Pathfinder is pretty evenly split between Paizo and the OpenGamingStore for the whole year. However, this is far from representative for the year. Throughout the year, OGS has gained ground on Paizo and has overtaken Paizo in recent months as our #1 Pathfinder retailer. DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, on the other hand, has stayed a constant #3 and has never been a great retailer for Pathfinder for us. Will OGS continue to increase over Paizo in terms of Pathfinder sales? We shall see.

locationThat last chart is only for Pathfinder. For all of our sales, DriveThruRPG/RPGNow dominates but that is mostly because our D&D 5e and 13th Age sales do not sell nearly as much as outside of DriveThruRPG, and Second Edition of Mongoose Traveller is exclusive to that same site.

All of these leaves a number of questions for us. Chief among them is: how is Starfinder going to shake this up? What kind of releases do we have in mind for Starfinder? Well for the time being, here is everything I can say about Starfinder: I am under a Non-Disclosure Agreement concerning Starfinder as part of the closed Playtest. Any more than that and one of the Paizo team will have me summoned to Seattle where lawyers will … lets just say … do this to me. Expect me to talk more when I am allowed to talk more, not before.

So aside from that, what can you expect to see us do in 2017? Well I mentioned the volcano adventure. It is written by Joel Flank. He turned it in a month ago. I am still reading it over and damn does it look fun. I can’t wait to hand it off to the editors and start working on the 5e conversion. The Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium will be out early next year and you can expect to see more races from that in 5e soon after hopefully in 13th Age not long after that. We have a product that has been top secret for over a year at this point and we hope to have ready next year.

All in all JBE is doing great. We have had a great year and we expect 2017 to be even better.

EDIT: On Dec 27, I updated the graphs and some of the text after discovering an error in my spreadsheet.