Banner image artist Randy Musseau

I love, love, love beastmen. There's jsut something so awesome about centaurs, minotaurs, and lionmen. The Compleat Beastman is a zine dedicated to bringing MORE BEASTMEN to the table.

Every issue has at least one full character class, compatible with the various OSR rules systems, Multiple generic NPCs, one or more named NPCs with adventure hooks, history, culture, and societal notes to make these species come to life in your games.

Each issue is a small, black and white zine that also contains pin up art pieces of different varieties of the highlighted species. Here's something awesome that you don't get with other zines- every backer gets FREE ART with a commercial license to use in your own products!

Additionally, I'm releasing them with 100% open content. Use this stuff in your own books. ALL OF IT!

The material is setting- and even genre- neutral. Each of the beastmen societies gets presented as a a living culture, with notes not only on traditional fantasy themes, but also notes on how they colonize and fight in space. Yes, fantasy and sci-fi gonzo goodness.

How the Project Stands

The first issue of The Compleat Beastman is pretty much ready to go. I just have to format it and get the artwork. Because they're the iconic "taur" species, the firs issue is all about centaurs. It also includes features on "near-centaur" such as bisontaurs, cameltaurs, donkeytaurs, and zebrataurs. 

The initial funding goal is for a few pieces of art, but I'd like to be able to give you all two pieces from each species; one that embraces the animal nature, and one that embraces the human nature of the creatures.

Should we continue to meet stretch goals, I'll add extra issues to this order. And you all get to decide the cycles after that. I have traditional and largely unexplored beastmen species. Here's a small list:

-Apemen

-Armadillomen

-Batmen

-Catmen

-Cheetahmen

-Constrictormen

-Crocodilemen

-Elephantmen

-Meroctopodes

-Mersharks

-Monkeymen

-Plantmen

-Platypusmen

-Raptormen

-Rodentmen

-Tapirtaurs

-Tortoise/Turtlemen

-Vipermen

-Wolfmen

I've got an outline for even MORE issues. This includes an issue on shapeshifters and werecreatures, one on chimeric creatures, plus prehistoric and titan variants, and even microbemen!

The Zine

In keeping with the rules and spirit of this challenge, we're producing The Compleat Beastman as a 5.5" x 8.5" book. Depending on if we hit our first stretch goal or not, we're looking at a page count of between 40 and 48 per issue.

Minis!

We're also going to produce tabletop miniatures of the spotlight species from each issue. I'm going to include printable versions of the minis in the zine. In addition, we're going to produce acrylic miniatures to accompany every issue. Backers at the $25 level get a discount on all the minis from this campaign, no matter how many thy ever choose to order.

These plastic minis are printed on sheets of 1/8" acrylic. You slot them into the 1/4" sturdy round bases. They're very durable and easy to store away when you're done.

What You Get

The basic $10 pledge includes a PDF of every issue that we produce from this campaign, as well as stock art. The @25 level gets you the discount print code for each issue, as well as discounted minis.

The Master of Beasts $100 pledge level gets you the stuff from previous reward tiers, plus you get to customize one of the art pieces to your specifications (with exceptions for illegal content and the like).

Add-Ons

This zine is going to be pretty. We've got multiple, talented artists attached. If you want a tangible piece of art from the project, you can order a print as an add-on. 

These mini posters measure 11" x 14", and are suitable for framing. They're printed on acid-free premium recycled matte paper with acid-free ink. This makes them archival quality. The material that they're printed on is very stiff and sturdy 130# weight cover stock.

Each print is a $25 add-on. If you want one, just increase your pledge by that amount. We have a space on the backer survey where you can indicate which items you want. Right now the price of these prints includes shipping in the United States. We'll have more information on international shipping soon.

Currently, this is the list of available prints:

-Centaur Kurgan by Randy Musseau. This is the awesome scene that's in the banner at the top of the page. It's incredibly detailed. THe more I look at this picture, the more I appreciate it.

Funding Goals

At our basic level of $500 we produce the first issue, it contains two pieces of artwork that you all get for free. And we make both printable and acrylic versions of the minis available.

First Stretch Goal $1000

At this level we can add eight more art pieces to the first issue, and create more minis to go along with them.

Second Stretch Goal $2000

Here we produce the second issue. And the best part is that you, the backers, get to decide which species/set of species to cover in it! We could do anything from the list above, or even from backer suggestions. Or if you want more centaurs, we could do more centaurs.

Third Stretch Goal $3000

You probably guessed, but this is the third issue of The Compleat Beastman. Once again, you get to choose the theme of it.

More to come!