Tag Archives: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game

General

July’s News from Rising Phoenix Games

All the Rising Phoenix Games news, for July, is right here. And some news from June. And maybe May. What can I say, we’ve been busy.

Hello Heroes!

Wow, there’s a lot to be excited for. Personally, I’m very excited about Masters of the Universe: Revelation, coming to Netflix this month. Kevin Smith is an experienced storyteller, and I’m keen to see his take on this franchise that’s about as old as I am.

In RPG land, there always a lot going on, and this month is no exception. Let’s focus on our own slice of the hobby.

On the Blog

We’re making a skirmish wargame, and you’re the designer! us as we take the game design journey, from Jump in with episode 1.

Episode 2 goes into deg the game’s overall structure and activation system. It includes a micro skirmish game that you can play, for free.

Episode 3 is all about movement, and we’ve got a few rules ideas I think will surprise you. The post includes a second prototype, so you can see how concepts are developed and try this young version of the game for yourself.

We’ve got some menacingly maniacal magical items to choose from. All of them give you an extra little something, but at a cost. I’m a big fan of risk and reward mechanics, they’re never boring.

Even more keeping hobby gaming cheap and accessible.

Apothecary Class — New D&D 5e Release

Our newest D&D class is an alternative option for the bard called the Apothecary. This class is all about healing and buffing allies by supplementing cleric spells with healing abilities in the form of potion-like concoctions.

As a special offer, we’re giving away 10 copies of the PDF for free, on condition that you’ll play the class during your next D&D session. Sound good? You can grab the book here.

40 for 40 Sale

I’m turning the big Four Oh this month, and to celebrate we’re running a bunch of sales all month long.

On our store, you can use the coupon code “40for40” to get 40% off your cart’s total value at checkout. You can use the coupon as many times as you like, until the end of the month.

Many of our products are 40%-off on Drive Thru RPG. This includes many titles for fifth edition fantasy, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and stand-alone titles. We also have a few Pathfinder Second Edition and Starfinder Roleplaying Game titles.

On the DMs Guild we’ve got a massive bundle worth over $60 going for less than $16. This bundle includes many of our best-selling titles, so if you’ve bought them already you’ll pay even less to fill out your collection.

Until next time, keep following Rising Phoenix Games, online, here:

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Tips and Tricks

RPG Leveling is Broken — Why Levels Suck

RPG leveling is broken. And yes, I’m looking at you, Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder 1 and 2.

First off, thank you to Plastic Polyhedra for hosting this month’s RPG Blog Carnival, to which this topic relates.

Image by Esteban Sayhueque

The Problem with Levels

Here’s my gripe:

In real life, but even more importantly, in stories, characters grow in ways that have nothing to do with their skills and abilities. Think of most comic book heroes. They generally have a set of skills that don’t improve during the course of their adventures, though they might get better control over their powers over time. There’s not much story in abilities. Rather, characters face personal challenges that grow their personality… their character.

Now, I get that gaining power is fun, but it’s false fun. Gaining an extra attack, just because I’ve reached level 5, doesn’t make my character stand out from other barbarians. Reaching level 15, just so I can kill level 15 monsters, isn’t real growth, it’s just gated content. Bilbo didn’t gain a new feat that enabled him to sneak past Smaug. He had a magical ring for that!

Character Building is not a GM’s Prerogative

The GM can offer chances for a player’s character to grow, but ultimately that isn’t the GM’s job. The GM’s job is to stoke the fires of the furnace that will forge the character’s character, and the player’s the blacksmith.

But the mechanics can help.

A Few Solutions

Leveling up in D&D or Pathfinder type games could, with a few rules tweaks, be more meaningful. We won’t even throw out the core rules, I promise.

Your character should change in a meaningful way during their adventures, such as gaining new flaws, changing alignment, become more set in their current alignment, developing a new phobia, or seeking to accomplish new goals.

A ton of RPG systems already implement mechanics for these. The Mouse Guard RPG and Cortex both used a system similar to 5e’s flaws, ideals, and bonds, but they change very frequently and are linked to how you gain experience. This isn’t a new idea.

Encourage your players to play to their flaws, ideals, and bonds, or to hooks linked to their alignment, and offer them experience for doing so. How much you offer them is your dial; turn up the roleplay by offering more, or turn it down and focus on traditional advancement by offering less. Then, when a character levels up, force them to refine their flaws, ideals, and bonds, or add new ones. Encourage them to be specific.

Get your players more connected to their character’s story, because feat or skill choices aren’t meaningful decisions.

Image by Ubergank

The Grimdark Pamphlet

The Grimdark Pamphlet offers new ideas and rules for taking your Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition game to darker places, where your choices matter and death is a real threat. We update the book from time to time with new rules, so your once-off purchase gets you a growing repository of rules and GMing advice. It also includes information on ing our playtest.

Till next time, Be The Hero!


General

When the Bad Guys Win – Blog Carnival Roundup

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This December, at the end of a year that’ll stand in infamy among years, we looked at “When the Bad Guys Win“. Here’s a roundup of all the articles submitted as part of the carnival, and what a carnival it was!

Image credit: Publisher’s Choice Quality Stock Art © Rick Hershey / Fat Goblin Games

When the Bad Guys Win

Tom Homer of Plastic Polyhedra — the hosts of January 2021’s RPG Blog Carnival — asked (When) is it okay to TPK? He looks at some of the pitfalls of common solutions for rescuing a campaign from a TPK and suggests that TPKs might be unavoidable, but can have negative consequences. Understanding this is an important part of being a great GM.

I want to build stories around the PCs, so what happens if all of those PCs suddenly die?
— Tom of Plastic Polyhedra

Steve Rakner of Roll 4 Network wrote about creating the ultimate boss battle. Steve brings more ways to up the ante in a boss fight, all of which have little to do with power levels or adding buckets of HP to the boss. Follow his advice and your players are sure to the Big Bads of your table for years to come.

Gonz at Codex Anathema wrote about The Darkest Hour — how to deal with a Total Party Kill (TPK). There’s life for your campaign after death, and Gonz reveals how you can go from a TPK to a memorable campaign that builds on the legacy of characters that have come before.

Image credit: Yuri_b

Tony Bro001 at Roleplay-Geek Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. He also looked at a number of well-known movies and stories to highlight the importance of beating down the heroes, and how an NPC can be a useful proxy for the PCs.

Timothy S. Brannan of The Other Side made Skylla, a 7th level witch for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. Pathfinder 1e fans will find a link to her stats for that version of the game, in the post.

Here, at Rising Phoenix Games, I talked about upping the stakes for memorable encounters in When the Bad Guys Beat Christmas. Similar to Steve, we looked at ways you can put the pressure on the player characters to create encounters that they’re invested in.

And that, as they say, is a wrap!

Thank you to everyone who took part, as well as to Scot Newbury of Of Dice and Dragons, who herds cats to keep the RPG Blog Carnival alive and growing. If you’re an RPG blogger, do consider ing us on our adventures.

Rising Phoenix Games is 10!

The last day of the year marks the anniversary of the founding of Rising Phoenix Games. We’re looking forward to bringing you more exciting games in 2021!

Have a Happy New Year and stay safe everyone!


General

What Makes or Breaks an RPG Web Store?

Sometimes a discussion on the Internet is just too important to ignore, and this post, by Owen KC Stephens, concerns you, our customers. Owen asked about previous customers on Paizo’s RPG web store, and his questions concern how you’re able to access our products, as well as those by other great third party publishers of Pathfinder and fifth edition content. If Owen’s post applies to you, we’d love to hear your .

Our own us or drop a comment below. I’ll be keeping an eye on Owen’s thread too, because your opinion matters.

Speaking of online stores, please do check out Rising Phoenix Games on Paizo.com. Buying from our own store is always the best way to us, but our partnerships with companies like Paizo.com, the Open Gaming Store, Drive-Thru RPG, and Itch.IO mean that you can get your favorite Rising Phoenix Games books and supplements at your favorite online store.

The Best Way to RPG Creators

If you’ve ever wondered where your money goes when you buy RPG books online, then hopefully this will shed some light on the subject. The best place to RPG creators, by revenue split is:

  1. The creator’s own website. We get 100% of the profit off each sale made through our store.
  2. The Open Gaming Store.
  3. Paizo.Com
  4. Drive-Thru RPG or other One Bookshelf (OBS) sites. DTRPG and sites like Drive-Thru Cards take a 35% cut of the profit. That said, their tools make promotion and contractor payments far easier, their staff is very helpful, and their library of titles is the largest on the web, so we’ve always been happy to sell through them.
  5. Community creator sites, like the Dungeon Masters Guild. The DMG takes 50% off each sale, which is likely shared between Wizards of the Coast and OBS.

Don’t Miss the Newsletter

I’m busy putting together the final touches for this month’s newsletter, and it’s a whopper. Don’t miss out, subscribe to the Rising Phoenix Games newsletter today. Each monthly issue includes exciting product news, discounts, and free fiction from the Valkyrie: Ragnarok saga. I’ll be posting an excerpt from the story on the blog too, but subscribers get to read more and subscribing is totally free.

 

General

The Phoenix is 9, Get 50% Off Heaven and Hell

It’s our birthday, and we’ll give away discounts if we want to! All subscribers, old and new, will get 50% off Heaven and Hell from our store, with an exclusive discount code going out at midnight (Hawaii time). Subscribe to our newsletter now to get your voucher.

Image credit: Pineapple Supply Co

Heaven & Hell: Aasimar & Tiefling Ancestries

Heaven & Hell: Aasimar & Tiefling Ancestries presents two popular races, fully compatible with the second edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. It includes everything you need to create an aasimar & tiefling character:

  • Aasimar and tiefling heritages, including the lawbringer archon and gobmaw barghest heritages
  • Ancestry feats for both ancestries, for 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th level
  • 50 random ancestry features for each ancestry
  • Ancestry equipment
  • Rules for combining these ancestries with any other ancestry in the game. An aasimar gnome or a dwarven tiefling are now all possible.

Buy the book from our store and we’ll send you a redeemable link to add the book to your Drive Thru RPG . Our store accepts PayPal.

Rising Phoenix is 9!

Rising Phoenix Games was born on New Year’s Eve, 2010. Since then we’ve been making content for stand-alone games. Recently we’ve been exploring the depths with our Undersea Sourcebooks, which you’ll see more of in 2020.

We’ll also be releasing free fantasy fiction through our newsletter in 2020, which will be a longer form of the fiction we release on the blog. It’s just one more reason for you to subscribe to our newsletter! You can find the first piece of Valkyrie: Ragnarok fiction, First , here.

Thank you for celebrating this special day with us, and may you have an amazing 2020! There’s a lot to look forward to, and we hope you’ll us for the adventure.

Get 50% Off Heaven and Hell



Uncategorized

Aasimar & Tiefling Ancestries – Pathfinder 2nd Ed

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The second edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game launched this month at GenCon. If you’re eager to include aasimar & tiefling ancestries with the new rules of the game, we’ve got you covered.

Heaven & Hell: Aasimar & Tiefling Ancestries presents two popular races — the tiefling, of diabolic heritage, and the aasimar, descended from angels — fully compatible with the second edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Inside you’ll find:

  • Everything you need to create an aasimar or tiefling character
  • Aasimar & tiefling heritages, including the lawbringer archon heritage and gobmaw barghest heritage
  • Ancestry feats for both ancestries, for 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th level
  • 50 random ancestry features for each ancestry
  • Ancestry equipment
  • Rules for adding either the aasimar or tiefling to another ancestry, as a heritage, are provided in the errata, which will be added to the book in the future.

The artwork conveys the majesty of the aasimar, and recalls the works of the Renaissance masters.

The book was written by the talented Kim Frandsen, with art and layout by Bob Greyvenstein. Bob has given the tiefling and aasimar a classical representation that lends real weight to the book.

Ancestry feats for the tiefling

The new Bestiary includes the aasimar and tiefling as “planar scions”, and doesn’t provide rules for building characters of either type. Paizo will be releasing rules for both ancestries in the future, but don’t be worried about the rules in Heaven & Hell becoming obsolete. There’s plenty here that you’ll be able to use in conjunction with their offering.

Buy Online

You can find Heaven & Hell on the following stores:
When you buy from our store, we offer a 30 day, no questions asked money-back guarantee.

Rodney Sloan
Rising Phoenix Games

Check out our blog, our Facebook page and on Twitter.



Tips and Tricks

Simple Drow Paint Tutorial — Mini Monday, Ep 2

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying table. This week I’ll show you a simple drow paint scheme to have you ready for your next drow encounter in no time.

This paint scheme is perfect for an Underdark campaign and doesn’t take much time at all. I used the drow duellist miniatures from the Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game (Boardgame Geek Link).

“This way!” “No! This way!”

Base Coat

Base coat your drow miniatures with a medium to dark grey. I use this as the skin tone for my drow, since black is a very flat color that pulls in light. Your drow figures are going to be predominantly black, so the grey gives you some variation, and you can always darken it with a wash later.

Any Color as Long as its Black

Paint all the armor, weapons, bases, and gear black. Leave only the skin and hair grey. For variety, you could paint the armor and any cloth dark red or deep purple.



Hair

Drybrush the hair white. This works very well with the grey basecoat, which defines the recesses.

Metals

Pick out metallic parts by dry brushing with a metallic color. I used Mithril Silver from Citadel, which shows how old my paints are. Mithril Silver is a bright metallic, now called Runefang Steel. I painted the swords with the same metallic paint, but might have gone with a darker metallic color, like Leadbulcher, just for more variation.

Done, And…

At this point, the simple drow paint job is done. They’re ready for gaming.

If you have time, you can go back into your simple drow paint scheme and pick out details like eyes, belt straps, wands, or markings. With white, you can highlight the hair, and use greys to highlight the skin. When you’re done, use a dark purple wash to bring out the detail, but leave the hair.

Painting Heroes and Villains

This tutorial works best for rank and file drow, but you can extend these principles for major NPCs and dark elf player characters. I use this technique as my first stage on all my drow figures, then work in more detail for the major minis.

Pro Tip: Us a purple base coat if you want your drow to look like the ones in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Till next time, play good games!

Rodney Sloan
Rising Phoenix Games

Check out our blog, our Facebook page and on Twitter.

General

Anaximander’s Adventuring Studies Wants You!

There is a place where magic lives, were witches and warlocks study the arcane arts, and where adventure dwells behind every corner.

Welcome to Scarthey, the University of the Arcane!

Anaximander’s Adventuring Studies is a new adventure for 1st level characters, which takes them through three years at the school, through 3rd level. The adventure is written by Jeffrey Swank, a frequent collaborator at Paizo, and comes in at 75 pages.

Anaximander’s Adventuring Studies Cover

Here’s the back cover text:

We are only as strong as we are united, and only as weak as we are divided.
—Arcturius Anaximander

Anaximander’s Adventuring Studies is a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game adventure designed for a party of four 1st-level PCs. This adventure follows the players through three years as they attend the University of Scarthey and branch out into the institution’s new School of Adventuring Studies.

This adventure introduces and takes place in the lands around the University of Scarthey, as revealed in the campaign setting of Welcome to Scarthey published by Rising Phoenix Games, but can be played on a stand-alone basis in any city.

What’s Inside Anaximander’s Adventuring Studies

You’ll find maps of Scarthey, the Undervaults, and several adventure locations. Major NPCs are detailed in full, and there are certificates and handouts you can print for your players — yes, you can now get your Adventuring  Studies certification from the University of Scarthey. I think that’s a nice touch.

For the price, this is going to give you plenty of material to throw at your players and to inspire future adventures set in the Arcane University.

You can find the adventure on Drive Thru RPG.

Till next time, play good games!

Rodney Sloan
Rising Phoenix Games

Check out our blog, our Facebook page and on Twitter. Or come play some HearthStone with me and chat about game design.

Uncategorized

RPG Bundle is 66% Off. Just $12

We’ve put together a big RPG bundle of our games, adventures, monster books and setting books worth over $35. Now you can get all of it for only $12, which is an insane saving!

Welcome to Scarthey, one of our top titles, is in the bundle.

Get the RPG Bundle on Drive Thru RPG

The bundle includes the following titles:

Welcome to Scarthey is your gateway to the University of the Arcane. You’ll find a detailed history of the University, a map of the grounds, a description of major faculty and of the four houses. Your adventures in the magical world of arcane academia are about to begin.
Both a Pathfinder and D&D 5e compatible version is included in the bundle.

Bullet and Might, by Steelforge Games, are complete RPGs that deal with special ops warfare and fantasy adventures respectively.

Death Queen and Forest of Secrets are the first two of our Choose Your Destiny solo adventures for 5th edition D&D. We’ve got another in layout, by the way, so be sure to subscribe to our newsletter or Patreon for updates.

Mecha – A Field Guide, for Starfinder, is another best seller of ours. Ever wanted to drive a mech in your Starfinder games? Now you can.

Where Heroes Stand, for Pathfinder, is an adventure set in mythical Japan, which includes 6 pregenerated characters: “The peaceful village of Yamamura has had a good summer; the rice stores are full to bursting and even lord Honda looks pleased for once. So, as the momiji leaves turn to yellows and reds, the villagers gather for their annual autumn festival.”

General

RPG Christmas Stocking Fillers

Ho, (and a ho, ho, ho), Adventurer!

We’ve got four Christmas stocking fillers for the players and GM in your life this festive season.

Aurora’s Whole Realms Summer Catalogue

For D&D fifth edition, which some of you might from AD&D. The book’s 50 pages include loads of interesting, flavourful, summer-themed items that won’t break your game. And yes, we know it’s probably winter where you are, but here in Africa we’re melting.

Griffins – A Field Guide (D&D)

We’ve also got Griffins – A Field Guide, which offers 6 subspecies of griffin, a new paladin archetype, and rules for griffin animal companions and familiars. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout and would make a stunning player aid for a party of griffin riders. The book is $2 off until Christmas.

Tentacles of the Deep

Tentacles of the Deep is a PWYW title with statistics for tentacles that act as individual monsters but are connected to a larger creature deep below the ocean’s surface. Grab it free, and if you like it, you can always leave a tip in the tip jar, or a review.

Steampunk Musha: Races of Rosuto-Shima

Lastly, for Pathfinder this time, and not from us but from our friends at Fat Goblin Games, is Steampunk Musha: The Races of Rosuto-Shima. The book introduces several East Asian inspired races, such as the tanuki, pandajin, jinteki oni, and kappa, as well as steampunk inspired races such as the clockwork ronin.

These Christmas stocking fillers are a great way to show your appreciation for a year of great gaming.

We’ll be back next week with more exciting content, but if we miss you, have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Rodney Sloan
Rising Phoenix Games

Check out our blog, our Facebook page and on Twitter.