Sunday, August 14, 2016

Fursona Fifth Edition!



Around the beginning of this year, a fan and first-time game designer named Keith McBlane approached me with the idea of producing a Fifth Edition conversion for my best-selling Fursona character creation system. After hearing Keith’s proposal, we agreed on some terms and started sharing resources to produce a fairly unique book in Otherverse Games’ history.

Fursona 5E is an unusual book in a couple of ways. First and foremost, it’s our first complete sourcebook for Fifth Edition, and man, it’s a great introduction to the ruleset. All the flexibility and creativity offered by the original Fursona system with the more concise and pithy efficiency of Fifth Edition. Mechanically, Fursona 5E is a pretty impressive work, offering a ton of new character creation options for your 5th Edition campaigns.

Fursona 5E is also unusual in it’s the first Otherverse Games release not written by me. Keith took a working draft for Ultimate Fursona I shared with him, skewed the mechanics to play nicely with 5th Edition, and rebuilt most of the campaign flavor to favor the all-ages, high-fantasy worlds of 5th Edition.

As an author, it’s interesting to see how another writer approaches a familiar topic. I think in this case, by stepping back and letting Keith do his thing, we ended up with a truly excellent product. I think that eventually Fursona 5E will become the most popular iteration of the ruleset, and will probably end up with more sales than my eventual release of Ultimate Fursona for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.  Most of this is due to the tack Keith took with the text. Where I’m more focused on weirdly politicized military sci-fi and pornographic horror campaign settings, and my take on Fursona was frankly more than a little ‘yiffy’, Keith made the probably wise decision to keep Fursona 5E all-ages, and thus accessible to a wider audience.

Cover Art
At top-right we’ve got the cover art work for Fursona 5E, depicting a really attractively designed group of Anthro heroes about to become dragon-chow, by Anthony Cournoyer. Looking at this cover makes me wish, not for the first time, that I had the resources to produce action figures based on some of Otherverse Games’ iconic characters and creatures. These are some kick-ass looking furries! (I love that armored bear dude!)

Meet Keith McBlane
I asked Keith to send me a brief blurb to advertise Fursona 5E and to introduce himself.


Fursona 5E is an update to the series for D&D 5th Edition. It contains converted content from the original Fursona, plus new material exclusive to this sourcebook.

It features a streamlined approach to character creation, so generating an anthro has never been easier. Choose from 21 races and 72 subraces, or create your own creature using a comprehensive list of traits.

Also included are new subclasses, backgrounds, feats, spells, items, and everything else you need for an anthro campaign. Whether you are a player looking to create your perfect furry avatar, or a DM building a vast world with diverse and fantastical residents, Fursona 5E is your definitive source.

The author, Keith McBlane, is a freelance graphic designer, and DM of six years.  He hosts two podcasts, Friendship & Firelight and Dice To Meet You, the latter of which is an Actual Play D&D game, which he runs for a group of complete strangers. This is his first publication in the world of RPGs, and if you don’t buy it, it will be a powerful blow to his self-esteem.



You can also visit Keith’s portfolio at www.keithmcblane.com or listen to some of his podcasts at www.fnfpod.com or www.dicetomeetyou.com.

Dogs & Cats Living Together, Mass Hysteria!
The character creation process in Fursona 5E is a bit different than the Orders of Fursona and the “Gifts of Nature” system that will be introduced in Ultimate Fursona. Keith took advantage of Fifth Edition’s race/subrace paradigm, creating general and fairly generic categories of Anthros, using subraces to distinguish individual species types within this larger genus. It’s a fairly genius conversion idea.

Today, let’s take a look at Canine and Feline Anthros. I’m putting up a free preview of Canines and Felines because they’re pretty much the entry point for furry characters: every setting with Anthros, from Disney’s Robin Hood, to Thundercats to Omaha the Cat Dancer or The Extinctioners, includes these most familiar of animalistic semi-humanoids.

By the way, it’s made clear elsewhere in the text (though not in this excerpt), but 5E Anthros are considered Humanoids with the Anthro tag. And by the way, in case you’re worried, there’s a full chapter about custom building your own furry races in this edition, just in case the already expansive list of animal heroes on deck isn’t complete enough for you.

Canines
Ability Increase: Your Wisdom score increases by 2.
Keen Smell: You gain advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks related to scent.
Natural Weapons: Your unarmed strikes are augmented by sharp fangs. Your bite is
treated as a light finesse weapon, and deals 1d6 piercing damage + the relevant modifier.
Your bite can be used as part of two-weapon fighting. You cannot use your bite attack if
your mouth is full.
Pack Hunting: Your are expert in coordinating attacks with your allies, exposing your enemies’ weak points, and leaving them vulnerable. As a bonus action, select one enemy you can see within melee range. All melee attacks your allies make against this enemy do an additional 2 damage until the start of your next turn.
Subrace: You gain the traits of one of the following subraces.

Small Dog
Includes small breeds of dogs and smaller foxes. Small dogs are small in size only.
They are often the first to be heard in conversation, and the first to attempt a
challenging task, whether or not they have any chance of succeeding. They often make themselves the center of attention, which can be both endearing and annoying to those
around them.
Size: Your size is small.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Ability Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Clever Learning: You gain two skill proficiencies of your choice.

Medium Dog
Includes medium sized breeds of dogs, larger foxes, coyotes, and jackals. Friendly, loyal,
and protective, medium dogs make great companions in almost any endeavor. They
are widely adaptable, and are seen in many roles, from domestic homemakers, to soldiers, guards, scouts, and trackers.
Size: Your size is medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Ability Increase: Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Tenacious Loyalty: When an ally you can see within melee range is hit by an attack,
you can use your reaction to intercept it, causing it to strike you instead. You have resistance to all nonmagical damage from attacks you intercept.

Big Dog
Includes wolves and large breeds of dogs. Big dogs are typically either severe and predatory, or overwhelmingly affectionate. They have a close connection with their primal roots, and have a strong intuitive understanding of pack mentality. Big dogs can
usually be found around many others of their kind, but the subrace has its share of
loners.
Size: Your size is medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Ability Increase: Your Strength score increases by 1.
Demoralizing Cry: As an action, you let out a frightful howl. All enemies within 100 feet that can see and hear you must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your Charisma
modifier + your proficiency bonus) or become frightened until the end of your next turn.
You must finish a short or long rest before using this trait again.

Felines
Ability Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
Darkvision: You can see through dim light for 60 feet as if it were bright light, and treat
darkness as if it were dim light.
Lethargic: You are a serious napper, and frequently require numerous short rests throughout the day. You may only spend one hit die to recover hit points during a short rest. This does not prevent you from benefiting from effects that grant bonus hit dice, such as the Huddler theme.
(Themes are a new concept explained elsewhere in the text, and are a 5E homage to the many templates and origin stories available to Anthros in my version of Fursona.)

You also have disadvantage on saving throws to resist sleep, and when you are targeted by a sleep effect that affects you based on your current hit points, such as the Sleep spell, you are treated as though you have only half of your current hit points (round down).
Expert Leaper: You may use Dexterity instead of Strength to determine your jumping
distance. Your standing jump distance is not halved. You add a number of feet equal to
your proficiency bonus to your high jump distance, and thrice that number of feet to
 your long jump. You may use a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check instead of a Strength
(Athletics) check to attempt to jump beyond your normal distance.
Natural Weapons: Your unarmed strikes are augmented by sharp claws and fangs.
Your natural weapons are treated as light finesse weapons, and deal 1d6
damage + the relevant modifier. They can be used as part of two-weapon fighting. Your claws deal slashing damage, and your bite deals piercing damage. You may not use your claws if both your hands are full, and you may not use your bite if your mouth is full.
Subrace: You gain the traits of one of the following subraces.

Small Cat
Includes housecats. Small cats are playful and affectionate. Though many have predatory
instincts, they are often poorly expressed, resulting in small cats attacking inanimate
objects, or their own tails. Most, however, are content as long as they are able to eat well
and take long naps.
Size: Your size is small.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Ability Increase: Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Scurry: When an enemy misses you with a melee attack, you may use your reaction
to Disengage. Until the end of your next turn, your movement does not provoke
opportunity attacks.

Medium Cat
Sometimes called ‘warrior cats’, this diverse subrace includes larger housecats and smaller non-domestic species, such as lynxes and pumas. Warrior cats are highly competent combatants, particularly monks, who use their incredible mobility to run circles around their enemies. They share some of the habits of their smaller cousins, however, and can easily lose focus when matters become too serious for their taste.
Size: Your size is medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 35 feet.
Ability Increase: Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Adrenaline Surge: On your turn, you may activate your adrenaline surge (no action required). For one minute, you gain advantage on all Strength and Dexterity checks and saving throws, and your speed increases by 10 feet. You must complete a long rest before this trait can be used again.

Big Cat
Includes the largest jungle cats, such as lions, tigers, and panthers. Fierce and intense,
big cats are among the most feared anthro predators. Their grace and physical strength
lend to quiet confidence, and an attitude of unflappable nobility.
Size: Your size is medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 35 feet.
Ability Increase: Your Strength score increases by 1.
Pounce: If you move at least 20 feet and attack an enemy with a natural weapon, that enemy must make a Strength saving throw to avoid being knocked prone (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier). If they fail, you may use a bonus action to make one additional attack on that enemy with the same natural weapon

Dropping Soon
You can expect this deep character-creation sourcebook within a few days, for sale at www.RPGnow.com.

CHRIS

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