Krug
Newshound
I’d like to get into the spirit of the Friday Five and Behemoth3’s own Count 5 preview series by giving five answers to each question! I’ll keep them snappy…
1. Give us an overview of your product line(s).
The Masters and Minions series is Behemoth3’s flagship product line. The Stirge, Minotaur, and Remorhaz Horde Books will be released at this year’s Gen Con Indy. Here’s some overview:
a) It’s a celebration of the original roleplaying game. We’re honoring the monsters of Gygax’s original MM by giving them each a Horde of four new creatures that fill in their ecology, round out their challenges, and relate to their concept in plausible and interesting ways.
b) It’s for DMs who want to enrich their game by going deeper instead of further afield. Because the new creatures are extensions of monsters that are already part of most campaigns, it’s easy to slip them in and surprise players who think they know everything there is to know about a classic monster!
c) It’s for players. In addition to new spells, feats, treasures, and adventures, each Horde Book has at least one new race designed to be played as a character, and for powerful creatures like the minotaur, there are monstrous classes that let you start at first level and develop your savage potential as you advance.
d) It’s for every fan of every edition of the world’s most popular RPG. The slogan of our Prismatic logo is “Leave No Gamer Behind,” and we’ll be announcing some ways we’ll fulfill that promise later this year.
e) It’s available as a free SRD, a $5 PDF, and a $12 print and PDF package. We’re not selling the printed book by itself because we feel it’s incomplete without the features we can only deliver with the PDF, like hyperlinks to the SRD and our custom Vorpal utilities.
2. Tell us at length about your most recent project (upcoming or just released).
My own project is Horde Book 1: A Swarm of Stirges. Fortunately for the theme of fives, each horde has five creatures in it…
a) Stirge: I can’t take any credit for this monster or its stunning visual re-interpretation by our illustrator, Sang Lee. However, I added some wrinkles to its ecology and society that I think are pretty cool, and I particularly like the notion of a black market in stirge gallbladder pate.
b) Stirge Swarm: Fighting a thousand stirges is an entirely different experience from swatting one or two. The stirge-taming NPC associated with this monster, Flit Cumbercrickle, is an example of the wing jockey prestige class—a tempting option for any character who wants to get the most out of any flying mount (tiny or not!)
c) Blood Bloat: The next stage in a stirge’s life cycle, this amphibious bloodsucker emerges from a chrysalis to lay the eggs that hatch into stirges. It can be trained to serve as a medicinal leech, and makes a good Improved Familiar for a wizard or sorcerer who learns the new share feeding spell.
d) Hollow Husk: These undead are formed when an evil spirit is attracted by the suffering of a soul that is bled to death; obviously, they are frequently encountered near an active stirge nest. As each one crosses over from the Negative Energy Plane, the barrier between worlds becomes thinner and the chances for an eruption of unlife increase…
e) Ashmalkin: The master of the Stirge Horde is a diminutive stirge-riding fey. Most ashmalkins are brilliant but unwise and convinced that they are immortal. It is true that no ashmalkin has ever been known to die a natural death, but this might simply be due to their love of danger, necromancy, and the kind of alchemical experimentation that makes things go “boom!”
3. What is your main target audience and how much of a spread beyond that do you feel is likely, first for your line(s), then for your most recent?
a) The main target audience for Masters and Minions is the 1.5 million people who play the world’s most popular roleplaying game every month.
b) We’d like to spread beyond that by reaching some of the people who once loved the game but put away their twenty-sided dice for one reason or another. About one-third of the players in my Porttown campaign fall into this category; the 3E/3.5 rules are new to them but they’ve never forgotten the classic monsters.
c) We also want to tap into the big universe of people who’ve encountered these monsters in computer games but never played using their imagination alone. We love computer adventure games and think computers have an important role in all forms of the game, but I think no one here will disagree that there’s more to the game than a program can capture and it’d be great if we can introduce more people to that experience.
d) I think it’s important for every publisher to make an effort to bring new blood into roleplaying. I’m glad to say that another third of the people in my Porttown campaign are playing for the first time, although since none of them have even bought their own PHB yet it’s too soon to consider them as potential customers!
e) Likely? I dunno about likely. I think the idea behind Masters and Minions is a great one, but there are lots of great ideas out there; gaming seems to bring out the creativity in everyone! One of the biggest surprises in becoming a publisher has been getting the view from backstage and seeing that many of the RPG products I admire aren’t reaching more than one-tenth of one percent of target audience a), much less spreading into b), c), and d). I think that’s a damn shame, but if I knew a sure-fire way to overcome it I’d have shared it with y’all already.
4. What is the main thing about your company that makes you most proud?
a) Behemoth3 is a corporation formed entirely of my best friends! Brian Stith and I have been playing D&D together since we met in 5th grade, and I’ve been spinning stories with Nat Sims since our first year at Hampshire College in 1988. For years now we’ve been talking about starting a business together, and there’s no business we’d rather be in.
b) I’m especially proud that our illustrator, Sang Lee, has been so inspired by Masters and Minions that he’s been willing to work overtime now to help Behemoth3 become able to pay him later. Unfortunately I think that no matter how successful we become, we’ll never be able to give Sang as much as he’s truly worth!
c) When Brian, Nat, Sang, and I were growing up, our heroes were the people who created the game we loved. So Behemoth3 is proof that D&D teaches you how to become the hero of your choice! Let’s pause for a moment of silence to honor those we had to kill in order to gain enough experience…
d) I’m proud that Behemoth3 will be the first publisher to make its creations freely available to the community through the SwoRD Project. I’ve always felt that Wizards’ release of their own core rules via the Open Game License was a revolutionary and generous gift, and helping to create the “wwwide open SRD” is a great way for us to return the favor.
e) The final thing about Behemoth3 that I’m proud of is that we’re part of such excellent online communities! EN World has been a tremendous resource and source of inspiration for us; it’s where I learned just about everything I know about the 3rd Edition and the d20 landscape. The Forge has also been a major source of support for us in becoming a creator-owned company and in exploring new conceptions about the nature of roleplaying games; and finally, joining the Game Publishers Association has yielded a wealth of good advice and opportunities.
5. Where do you see your company one year from now?
Time to put on my Precognition hat…
a) Behemoth3 will have enough revenue that I’ll be able to make it my second job instead of my third; taking care of my son Javi[/JPG] will still account for 60 hours out of my 80 hour work week.
b) The release of Horde Books 4-6 (Otyugh, Mummy, and Troglodyte) at Gen Con SoCal will have made a splash among the growing legions of Masters and Minions fans.
c) I will have designed the Medusa Horde (Book 7), Brian will be done with the Purple Worm Horde (Book 8), and Nat will also have finished Horde Book 9 -- I don’t know which monster it will be devoted to, but since he’s already told me what he’s planning this is not a failure of my powers of prediction, just my memory!
d) We’ll be getting ready for Gen Con Indy 2005 by playtesting the Second Masters and Minions Tournament; this time players will be able to create their own characters ahead of time, and some will be playing monstrous races from Horde Books 1-6.
e) Behemoth3 will have branched out into other realms of publishing with our first anthology of fiction devoted to the monsters of our Horde Books, featuring the print debuts of writers from EN World’s story hours and other luminaries of our community who will later go on to become household names in fantasy literature.
---
Behemoth3's website: [url]http://www.behemoth3.com/
1. Give us an overview of your product line(s).
The Masters and Minions series is Behemoth3’s flagship product line. The Stirge, Minotaur, and Remorhaz Horde Books will be released at this year’s Gen Con Indy. Here’s some overview:
a) It’s a celebration of the original roleplaying game. We’re honoring the monsters of Gygax’s original MM by giving them each a Horde of four new creatures that fill in their ecology, round out their challenges, and relate to their concept in plausible and interesting ways.
b) It’s for DMs who want to enrich their game by going deeper instead of further afield. Because the new creatures are extensions of monsters that are already part of most campaigns, it’s easy to slip them in and surprise players who think they know everything there is to know about a classic monster!
c) It’s for players. In addition to new spells, feats, treasures, and adventures, each Horde Book has at least one new race designed to be played as a character, and for powerful creatures like the minotaur, there are monstrous classes that let you start at first level and develop your savage potential as you advance.
d) It’s for every fan of every edition of the world’s most popular RPG. The slogan of our Prismatic logo is “Leave No Gamer Behind,” and we’ll be announcing some ways we’ll fulfill that promise later this year.
e) It’s available as a free SRD, a $5 PDF, and a $12 print and PDF package. We’re not selling the printed book by itself because we feel it’s incomplete without the features we can only deliver with the PDF, like hyperlinks to the SRD and our custom Vorpal utilities.
2. Tell us at length about your most recent project (upcoming or just released).
My own project is Horde Book 1: A Swarm of Stirges. Fortunately for the theme of fives, each horde has five creatures in it…
a) Stirge: I can’t take any credit for this monster or its stunning visual re-interpretation by our illustrator, Sang Lee. However, I added some wrinkles to its ecology and society that I think are pretty cool, and I particularly like the notion of a black market in stirge gallbladder pate.
b) Stirge Swarm: Fighting a thousand stirges is an entirely different experience from swatting one or two. The stirge-taming NPC associated with this monster, Flit Cumbercrickle, is an example of the wing jockey prestige class—a tempting option for any character who wants to get the most out of any flying mount (tiny or not!)
c) Blood Bloat: The next stage in a stirge’s life cycle, this amphibious bloodsucker emerges from a chrysalis to lay the eggs that hatch into stirges. It can be trained to serve as a medicinal leech, and makes a good Improved Familiar for a wizard or sorcerer who learns the new share feeding spell.
d) Hollow Husk: These undead are formed when an evil spirit is attracted by the suffering of a soul that is bled to death; obviously, they are frequently encountered near an active stirge nest. As each one crosses over from the Negative Energy Plane, the barrier between worlds becomes thinner and the chances for an eruption of unlife increase…
e) Ashmalkin: The master of the Stirge Horde is a diminutive stirge-riding fey. Most ashmalkins are brilliant but unwise and convinced that they are immortal. It is true that no ashmalkin has ever been known to die a natural death, but this might simply be due to their love of danger, necromancy, and the kind of alchemical experimentation that makes things go “boom!”
3. What is your main target audience and how much of a spread beyond that do you feel is likely, first for your line(s), then for your most recent?
a) The main target audience for Masters and Minions is the 1.5 million people who play the world’s most popular roleplaying game every month.
b) We’d like to spread beyond that by reaching some of the people who once loved the game but put away their twenty-sided dice for one reason or another. About one-third of the players in my Porttown campaign fall into this category; the 3E/3.5 rules are new to them but they’ve never forgotten the classic monsters.
c) We also want to tap into the big universe of people who’ve encountered these monsters in computer games but never played using their imagination alone. We love computer adventure games and think computers have an important role in all forms of the game, but I think no one here will disagree that there’s more to the game than a program can capture and it’d be great if we can introduce more people to that experience.
d) I think it’s important for every publisher to make an effort to bring new blood into roleplaying. I’m glad to say that another third of the people in my Porttown campaign are playing for the first time, although since none of them have even bought their own PHB yet it’s too soon to consider them as potential customers!
e) Likely? I dunno about likely. I think the idea behind Masters and Minions is a great one, but there are lots of great ideas out there; gaming seems to bring out the creativity in everyone! One of the biggest surprises in becoming a publisher has been getting the view from backstage and seeing that many of the RPG products I admire aren’t reaching more than one-tenth of one percent of target audience a), much less spreading into b), c), and d). I think that’s a damn shame, but if I knew a sure-fire way to overcome it I’d have shared it with y’all already.
4. What is the main thing about your company that makes you most proud?
a) Behemoth3 is a corporation formed entirely of my best friends! Brian Stith and I have been playing D&D together since we met in 5th grade, and I’ve been spinning stories with Nat Sims since our first year at Hampshire College in 1988. For years now we’ve been talking about starting a business together, and there’s no business we’d rather be in.
b) I’m especially proud that our illustrator, Sang Lee, has been so inspired by Masters and Minions that he’s been willing to work overtime now to help Behemoth3 become able to pay him later. Unfortunately I think that no matter how successful we become, we’ll never be able to give Sang as much as he’s truly worth!
c) When Brian, Nat, Sang, and I were growing up, our heroes were the people who created the game we loved. So Behemoth3 is proof that D&D teaches you how to become the hero of your choice! Let’s pause for a moment of silence to honor those we had to kill in order to gain enough experience…
d) I’m proud that Behemoth3 will be the first publisher to make its creations freely available to the community through the SwoRD Project. I’ve always felt that Wizards’ release of their own core rules via the Open Game License was a revolutionary and generous gift, and helping to create the “wwwide open SRD” is a great way for us to return the favor.
e) The final thing about Behemoth3 that I’m proud of is that we’re part of such excellent online communities! EN World has been a tremendous resource and source of inspiration for us; it’s where I learned just about everything I know about the 3rd Edition and the d20 landscape. The Forge has also been a major source of support for us in becoming a creator-owned company and in exploring new conceptions about the nature of roleplaying games; and finally, joining the Game Publishers Association has yielded a wealth of good advice and opportunities.
5. Where do you see your company one year from now?
Time to put on my Precognition hat…
a) Behemoth3 will have enough revenue that I’ll be able to make it my second job instead of my third; taking care of my son Javi[/JPG] will still account for 60 hours out of my 80 hour work week.
b) The release of Horde Books 4-6 (Otyugh, Mummy, and Troglodyte) at Gen Con SoCal will have made a splash among the growing legions of Masters and Minions fans.
c) I will have designed the Medusa Horde (Book 7), Brian will be done with the Purple Worm Horde (Book 8), and Nat will also have finished Horde Book 9 -- I don’t know which monster it will be devoted to, but since he’s already told me what he’s planning this is not a failure of my powers of prediction, just my memory!
d) We’ll be getting ready for Gen Con Indy 2005 by playtesting the Second Masters and Minions Tournament; this time players will be able to create their own characters ahead of time, and some will be playing monstrous races from Horde Books 1-6.
e) Behemoth3 will have branched out into other realms of publishing with our first anthology of fiction devoted to the monsters of our Horde Books, featuring the print debuts of writers from EN World’s story hours and other luminaries of our community who will later go on to become household names in fantasy literature.
---
Behemoth3's website: [url]http://www.behemoth3.com/
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