ICON 2017
South Africa’s longest running comics and games convention, ICON, celebrated it’s 25th year this year. We were there running demo games of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, as well as to attend workshops by Paizo’s own James L Sutter, who spoke about the industry and, most importantly, Starfinder. 6q1828
Our Starfinder Plans
We’re not saying much just yet, but we have some cool stuff in the works that will be Starfinder compatible. Watch this space.
New Product — Bullet
Bullet is a faced paced, rules light special forces game by Basil Koufos. If you’ve ever thought playing CS the RPG might be a cool idea, then this game is for you.
New Product — Gear Heart
Gear Heart is an adventure short—an adventure setup, map, and encounter—compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and set in Scarthey, the University of the Arcane. The party is called in to investigate a mysterious tower which appears once every three years on the night of the winter solstice.
In The Works
Besides our Starfinder offering, we’ve begun work on Secrets of Scarthey, our follow up book to Welcome to Scarthey, aimed at GMs. We’ve also got several more adventures in the works, which all tie in with the setting. All of our adventures will either be compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, or the fifth edition SRD, and our setting books will be available in both flavors.
From J. K. Rowling’s Hogwarts to Terry Pratchett’s Unseen University, magic schools and universities abound with fantastic adventures. Now you can the adventure and enroll at Scarthey, University of the Arcane. Live and breathe the magic, wander the halls alongside wise wizards, discover hidden secrets, and battle fearsome foes.
Archchancellor Gwydion Ambrosius
Get it on Paizo, Drive Thru RPG, and Open Gaming Store 1u525z
Welcome to Scarthey — University of the Arcane is the ultimate student’s guide to the University of Scarthey, including everything you need for fantastic adventures in the exciting and unpredictable world of magical studies. Compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, this 66 page book includes:
An exploration of the tumultuous history of the University of Scarthey.
An introduction to the staff and faculties of the University.
A look at the four Houses of Scarthey, including campaign traits for each House.
A map of the University and descriptions of all the major locations around Scarthey’s campus.
A guide to the surrounding town of Scartheyton.
A practical guide to the gruesome sport of cackleball and the competitive sport of dragon boat racing.
Both a Single Page Spread PDFand a Double Page Spread PDF, stunningly illustrated, for your viewing pleasure.
Get that Degree in the Arcane Arts! Enroll Today! 3z483x
Get it on Paizo, Drive Thru RPG, and Open Gaming Store 1u525z
You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter here. Just hit the Subscribe button.
What a month.
I’ve got this personal vendetta against distraction, but March had me against the ropes.
Getting sick is no fun, but I did learn a lot from it.
For one, working in the games industry means I get to help others relax, have fun, and spend time with friends. March showed me just how important that can be — there were some bleak moments when escaping into game and time with gaming friends was very uplifting.
Secondly, I recommitted myself to the three pillars of my work:
Coding
Game design
Writing
Eventually I’d like to be doing what I do for the tabletop for online games. The coding side has been something I haven’t given proper time to of late, but you can expect some interesting things from me in the future.
New Products — Contagion’s Kiss
“O true apothecary, thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” — Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
When the city’s water supply is threatened by extortionists, the heroes are called on to infiltrate the fortress of a powerful outsider. Can they get in, get even, and get out, before it’s too late?
Contagion’s Kiss is an adventure for a party of 4th level characters. It can be used in any fantasy city or town where wells or cisterns are the main source of water. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game GameMastery Guide and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary are required for play. This adventure includes creatures detailed in Chilling Curiosities — A Field Guide.
This adventure includes a full scale, printable poster sized map of the adventure.
We’ve been hard at work on a number of products. Here they are, in no particular order:
Today I handed over the final draft to Bob Greyvenstein for layout for our new setting, Scarthey, which our Field Guides are a part of. More on this soon.
Also for Scarthey we’ve got a bunch of adventures in the works, from both new and experienced writers. I’ll talk about that, too, soon.
We received the final draft for a new, fast paced modern spec ops game by Basil Koufos, designer of Might. We’re very excited to be publishing his latest creation and absolutely love the system and all that it stands for.
The Nightscape RPG for the Nightscape Series and Imperiad Entertainment is off to a good start. We’ve defined much of the core mechanics and have some interesting things we’re looking forward to trying.
Steampunk Musha rolls on with a number of books in and out of editing. As the line editor I’ve been learning a lot from the talented individuals who make up the team at Fat Goblin Games — they’ve got some great stuff in the works.
I did some editing work for best selling Dungeon Master’s Guild author M.T. Black. If you’re a Dungeons and Dragons fan then check out his great collection of adventures, such as the Complete Adventures of M.T. Black Vol. I.
So all in all, a great month.
March 21st
On a more sombre note, March 21st is Human Rights Day in South Africa, a day of remembrance for the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and the suffering caused during the Apartheid era.
To me, the most important thing is ing that we all share this planet. We all have a right to life, dignity, and respect. Let us all strive for mutual understanding — therein lies peace and happiness for all.
Lots has been going on, so stick with me for all the Hot News. We’ve got some great offers to tell you about that you don’t want to miss.
When Flamingos Attack is the first official adventure for Claustrophobia!, and the perfect introduction to the game. It’s more than that though, as it sets the scene for a larger campaign I’m deg.
January was an excellent month for Claustrophobia!, and so putting aside time to the game was a natural next step. That’s the thing about this industry; fan is vital to the growth of any game, so I deeply thank you for getting behind us on this.
We’re just putting the finishing touches on a new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game compatible adventure too. Contagion’s Kiss is a location based adventure, with the PCs needing to break into a defended keep to solve the mystery of the poisoning of the town’s wells. We have some fun surprises hidden within!
Contagion’s Kiss will be available by the end of the month.
We previously released our 2016 PDF bundle, and this month we’ve release a Pre-2016 bundle, which includes the updated Lunatic Labyrinth solo and 1-on-1 adventure.
We’re not the only ones with a great bundle out. Legendary Games has a massive sale on Pathfinder Roleplaying Game compatible books: 60 books for $30. You can grab yours on DriveThruRPG.
The last bit of news is that we’ve signed the compatibility license for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, since it will lend itself nicely to something we’ve been chipping away at.
That’s it for this month. , you can get all the news, every month, by subscribing to our newsletter.
To all our fans, friends and family in roleplaying, a very Merry Christmas!
2016 has been quite a year, and 2017 promises to be even better. We couldn’t have done it without you, so to say thank you, here’s a copy of Baleful Strix, a beautiful Field Guide illustrated by Bob Greyvenstein and written by Rodney Sloan.
Belly of Rot, from our friends at Wayward Rogues Publishing and written by Rodney Sloan, is out now on RPGNow. To celebrate, we’re running a little contest. To win a free copy of the book, tell us your scariest RPG encounter ever. It doesn’t matter if you were a GM or a Player, if you were playing Mouse Guard or Monsters and Mazes, but it must be scary. The scariest entry will win. You’ve got until the 1st of January 2017 to deliver your best horror story, in the comments below.
This time we’re covering a bunch of new, low level monsters instead of the standard fantasy monsters like we’ve done before. I’m interested to see how well this does compared to Griffins and Phoenixes. Also, we’re trying the horror angle, so we’ll see if that’s a hit or not.
Some of the monsters are really fun too. We’ve got an eye in a jar, an ooze that gets more powerful when you attack it and a dream-haunting apparition. As always, Bob did excellent work on bringing the stats to life, and the layout is equally chilling.
I really want to recommend this to GMs who are running a low level (lvl 1–6) campaign, particularly a horror one. I think the new monsters will test your players in new ways, that’s exactly what I designed them to do!
We’d like to wish all our US and Canadian customers a very special Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not a custom where I’m from, but I’m blessed to have ed my American friends in Japan to celebrate this special holiday before.
Image sourced from http://www.wpclipart.com/
Personally, I’m thankful that I’m running Rising Phoenix Games full-time now, and that wouldn’t be possible without your . Some of our customers have come back again and again, some have written sterling reviews on Drive Thru RPG, and many have picked up one of our products and enjoyed them with friends, and at the end of the day, that’s a big part of what this hobby is all about.
Our newest line is our Field Guide series of monster books, which includes Griffins—A Field Guide and Phoenixes—A Field Guide. The series is illustrated by the talented Mr. Bob Greyvenstein and written by myself. We have several more Field Guides in the works, covering fantasy staples as well as new creatures and races. Now, if you sign up for our newsletter, you’ll receive a copy of Baleful Strix—A Free Field Guide.
We’ve also put out a new 1-on-1 adventure, Dying Dead, which is compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. We’re offering you a chance to win a copy by guessing what monsters we’ll be covering next in our Field Guide series. More details on the blog. But hurry, the contest ends on the 30th of November.
Rising Phoenix Games and The Figment Factory have brought you the second publication in our Field Guide series.
I could not be more proud of our work on this. And phoenixes! Man! Those birds have a place in my heart. Getting to do not 1 but 7 of them was a sweet challenge.
Of all the birds in this book, I think I’m most proud of the Japanese inspired houou, partly because I just haven’t found them in the core books, but also because they remind me of holidays in Japan, visiting ancient temples or checking out works of art by greats like Hokusai.
Oh, and wow, speaking of art, the art in this is top notch. I think Bob Greyvenstein is going to need to offer his illustrations as printed posters, they’re amazing.
