Animal Adventures - anyone ever play? Thoughts/feedback?

[Eyes of Nine]

I saw @Charles Dunwoody 's post on recently released games, and the Animal Adventures game caught my eye. The miniature sculpts are "charming" is the word I'd use. I am not a miniature collector nor painter, but I do appreciate nice looking minis. Also I do have one player in one of my games who IS both a minis collector and also I think dreams of having enough time to just spend all day painting minis and playing minis games.

I recently bought Historia, but that's got a much darker tone, and is more "humans with animal heads" instead of actual "4-legged folks" vibe.

Regardless... Has anyone played? Thoughts on this? Would recommend? If so why, if not why?

Thanks in advance!
Here's a link to the game website

Animal Adventures™

Looking for a family friendly introduction to roleplaying games? Or a barnstorming new adventure where you play as loveable animals? Look no further. Create memorable roleplaying adventures with a colourful cast of gorgeous animal miniatures and fully-realised 5e campaign settings. From the...

steamforged.com

 

[Weiley31]

I myself like Animal Adventures a lot. If you are looking for cat/dog pc characters for your 5E games, it is something I would suggest getting alongside Humblewood for your Animal PC needs.

That being said, I was looking forward to the recently released supplement, The Faraway Seas, specifically for its Animal PC options. Unlike the cats and dogs, their natural weapons progress in a very Cantrip like way for scaling after hitting certain Character level thresholds.

Be warned though, the Bear pc option is a bit OP as it legit gets Multi-Attack. So it gets TWO attacks in a single turn. A Faraway Sea Bear Fighter pc can potentially get 16 attacks in one turn with Action Surge shenanigans IIRC. And STR Bear Monks can get up to 2D10 on their Natural Attacks.

Meanwhile, the Faraway Sea Tinker Mage is probably the closest thing to an "accurate" 3.5 Eberron Artificer, complete with a crafting table for magic items that breaks down how many days and how much gold is needed to make a Common/Uncommon/Rare/Legendary item. It has its own version of Infusions and even jacks the 5E Artificer's ability to attune up to six magic items.

Also, the first book, Secrets of Gullet Cove, does a few things like the Class Variant Features concept from UA/Tasha's did where you can swap out certain features of a class for something else. Both Dogs and Cats have their own unique features for classes. (It's not super in depth so just be mindful of that).

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I myself like Animal Adventures a lot. If you are looking for cat/dog pc characters for your 5E games, it is something I would suggest getting alongside Humblewood for your Animal PC needs.

That being said, I was looking forward to the recently released supplement, The Faraway Seas, specifically for its Animal PC options. Unlike the cats and dogs, their natural weapons progress in a very Cantrip like way for scaling after hitting certain Character level thresholds.

Be warned though, the Bear pc option is a bit OP as it legit gets Multi-Attack. So it gets TWO attacks in a single turn. A Faraway Sea Bear Fighter pc can potentially get 16 attacks in one turn with Action Surge shenanigans IIRC. And STR Bear Monks can get up to 2D10 on their Natural Attacks.

Meanwhile, the Faraway Sea Tinker Mage is probably the closest thing to an "accurate" 3.5 Eberron Artificer, complete with a crafting table for magic items that breaks down how many days and how much gold is needed to make a Common/Uncommon/Rare/Legendary item. It has its own version of Infusions and even jacks the 5E Artificer's ability to attune up to six magic items.

Also, the first book, Secrets of Gullet Cove, does a few things like the Class Variant Features concept from UA/Tasha's did where you can swap out certain features of a class for something else. Both Dogs and Cats have their own unique features for classes. (It's not super in depth so just be mindful of that).

Thanks for the review. Is it all mammal animals? Or are there birds and reptiles and amphibians too?

 

[Weiley31]

Thanks for the review. Is it all mammal animals? Or are there birds and reptiles and amphibians too?

So, Secrets of Gullet Cove, the first book, is STRICTLY Cats and Dogs.

Faraway Sea gives more animal options such as the following: Albatross, Fox, Bear, Orangutan, Red Panda, Pig, Goat, Alpaca, Raccoon, Sea Otter, Koala, and Rabbit.

I regret to inform that the Pig is disappointing with its features and does NOT match up with the description that is written about them when going into details about em.

Both books offer their own exclusive subclasses for their player options, such as the Companion Domain (for dog Clerics), Oath of Twilight (Cat Paladins), and even the flipping Witcher (which for legally distinct purposes, are known as Watchers. They are in the Faraway Sea book.) They are Intelligence based Fighters which have spellcasting (ONLY Cantrips), a Favored Enemy style option for certain monster tags, Fighter style Multi Attack, AND can substitute their Intelligence modifier for their attack/damage rolls at level 1.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

So, Secrets of Gullet Cove, the first book, is STRICTLY Cats and Dogs.

Faraway Sea gives more animal options such as the following: Albatross, Fox, Bear, Orangutan, Red Panda, Pig, Goat, Alpaca, Raccoon, Sea Otter, Koala, and Rabbit.

I regret to inform that the Pig is disappointing with its features and does NOT match up with the description that is written about them when going into details about em.

Both books offer their own exclusive subclasses for their player options, such as the Companion Domain (for dog Clerics), Oath of Twilight (Cat Paladins), and even the flipping Witcher (which for legally distinct purposes, are known as Watchers. They are in the Faraway Sea book.) They are Intelligence based Fighters which have spellcasting, ONLY Cantrips, a Favored Enemy style option for certain monster tags, Fighter style Multi Attack, AND can substitute their Intelligence modifier for their attack/damage rolls at level 1.

Nice!

What does an animal PC get when they cast Find Familiar?

 

[Weiley31]

Nice!

What does an animal PC get when they cast Find Familiar?

Still the same thing the spell does in regular 5E. A Fey Spirit that takes the form of an animal or what not.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Thanks for answering all my questions @Weiley31 !

I think these are my last ones: Do they have guidance on how to play the PCs as animals? Like I could see playing them at least 2 different ways: As animal shaped humans - basically have human desires and motivations, but they also have special powers based on the animals bodies they inhabit; or As animals with the same needs and "quirks" as the animals, but with some human motivations mixed in?

 

[Synchronic Roulette]

Hi, resurrecting this old thread... I'm about to run the starter set adventure, but was wondering about how to run awakened animals in general afterwards. Judging by the artwork and also the DND awakened animal descriptions, their paws are still not prehensile so how to they wear armor/clothing? Humans, elves or other creatures that have hands helping them? Also how would they acquire equipment/buy items, do they carry gold? I was wondering if the other books address these kinds of questions? thanks