Category Archives: General

General

Magic Life Lesson #11: Gaming Addiction

Magical Life Lessons are short snippets of wisdom learned from playing Magic: the Gathering. It may be a game, but here you’ll find insights learned from slinging cards that you can apply to the game of life.

Let’s get serious for a bit. Gaming addiction is a real thing, and as we swing into the holiday season we’ve got a chance to sit back and take stock of things.

Magic Life Lesson #11: Gaming Addiction

I’ll throw my own definition of gaming addiction your way, but if you’re looking for a more formal definition, from the pros, check out GameQuitters.com’s excellent article on the signs, symptoms, and causes of gaming addiction.

To me, any addiction negatively impacts your life. If you’re lying, stealing, losing sleep, or neglecting work, then you’re probably addicted.

I often struggle to stop playing MTG Arena, saying things like “Just one more game” or “one more win.” That has caused me to lose sleep, which has a knock-on effect on everything else.

How to Combat a Gaming Addiction

I’m no medical professional, so, as a “life gamer,” I can only offer advice based on my own best judgment. Here’s what I’m doing to break my addiction.

Moment of Craving - Gaming AddictionSet Limits

I play every three days, so I can nab those quests. The goal is to end when I’ve cleared the quests, or at bedtime.

Set Priorities

Because I work as a freelancer and for myself, I do a lot of work in the evening. Keeping work as a priority, to do first, has always helped me from blowing the whole evening on Magic: the Gathering. Often, MTG Arena never goes on and I go to bed with a sense of accomplishment.

Be Accountable to Someone

Let other people know you’re playing, and encourage them to pull the plug if you can’t. If they’re someone you trust, let them know about your struggles.

Be warned. Tensions can flare, because you don’t want to stop. Remember why you’ve got a cut off time. Stop while you’re ahead and while the game is still fun, and you’ll remember the old saying “Everything in moderation.”

Looking For Help?

If your concerned, you can take this short survey on GameQuitters.com. They’ve got a host of other resources too.

RPG Blog Carnival

This week’s Magical Life Lesson is brought to you by the RPG Blog Carnival, which is all about the players this month. Roleplaying can be addictive too. Be aware of the signs of a gaming addiction and seek help if you need it.

Our Christmas Sale

Our Christmas sale is now on. Use the coupon code “NOEL2019” at checkout to get 30% off your purchase from our store.



General

Mini Monday #12: Travel Wargaming

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 my travel wargaming solution. Welcome to Mini Monday #12: Travel Wargaming.

Mini Monday Gargoyle

Here’s a trick for getting your wargaming and roleplaying fix while you’re traveling. You can’t always carry your hobby with you, but these minis fit in an Altoids tin.

Mini Monday #12: Travel Wargaming
The trusty old Altoids tin. I’ll happily accept donations of these, any day.

Mini Monday #12: Travel Wargaming

These mini miniatures look cool and are easy to play with, and have bases of a standard size. You can easily adapt this idea for building a roleplaying set too.

Mini Monday #12: Travel Wargaming
LEGO Minifig heads make great travel wargaming miniatures.

Each mini is a LEGO minifig head on a 2×2 inverted dish, with a round 1×1 plate between them to give the figure extra height. You can use different colors to distinguish between different types of units, such as leaders and rank and file troops. I just used whatever I had. These custom LEGO wargaming miniatures work well for skirmish games and roleplaying games.

Mini Monday #12: Travel Wargaming
The battle commences between the Empire and the Rebels.

You could easily build terrain too, since it’s LEGO, or maybe a custom measuring stick—anything you want.

RPG Blog Carnival

This week’s post is brought to you by the RPG Blog Carnival, and the theme “Adventurer, Take This… .”  Rising Phoenix Games is hosting the carnival this month. Using LEGO minifigs in your campaign is a great way to allow your players to customize their representation of their character, without having to paint a new mini each time a player decides to dip into a new class.

Got any travel tips related to tabletop gaming? Have some nifty ideas for carrying your Kill Team? Let us know, in the comments below.


General

Adventurer, Take This… — RPG Blog Carnival

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RPG Blog Carnival

‘Tis the season to be jolly
To deck the halls with boughs of holly
Then loot the corpses for lots of lolly!

This month’s RPG Blog Carnival is all about the players and their characters. The theme is “Adventurer, take this… ,” we hope it will inspire you to join in the fun and post an article on the subject. Here are some ideas to spark your creativity:

  1. An adventure idea based around a magical item, such as an evil ring of invisibility or a magical sword from a lake.
  2. New magical items, gear, weapons, vehicles, or spells.
  3. A look at the role magical and mundane items play in a campaign.
  4. How to deal with overpowered items and the ramifications they can have on your campaign.
  5. An article aimed at the most important people in our games: the players.
  6. A miniature painting tutorial aimed at player character figures.
  7. A devious trap based on a magical item or bit of loot.
  8. A review of a player-focused RPG supplement.
  9. An article appropriate to the season of giving and related to RPG player characters.
  10. A discussion or rules for crafting items or in-game economy.
Adventurer, take this - RPG Blog Carnival
Adventurer, take this…

Be sure to put a link to your post in the comments below. Because of spam moderation and holidays, please allow 48 hours for your post to go live. I’ll post a summary of all the articles at the end of the month, to take us into the new year, on Rising Phoenix Games’ birthday! Let’s end the year with a bang!

If you’re travelling this season, travel safely. Have a Merry Christmas, a happy festive season, and a Happy New year, and we’ll see you next year for more adventures in the worlds inside our heads.

Till next time, play good games!



General

Street Fighter, the Combo Slinging Monk Tradition

The Street Fighter is a combo slinging monk tradition for Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition.

Street Fighter Cover
Rockin’ the retro!

The archetype includes four abilities: Combo, Round Two, Ki Blast, and Signature Move. Let’s break those down:

Street Fighter Phone PDF Sample
The book includes a phone-optimized PDF, for ease of use at the table.

Combo

Combo lets you string unarmed strikes and monk weapon attacks together, turning them even more deadly. The downside is that there are very few ranges attacks that work with this ability, so you’re going to need to get in close and personal to get the most from this ability.

Round Two

Round Two gives you a chance to jump back into the action quickly, with the disadvantage that you’ll be stunned just before gaining the full benefits of this ability. If you can survive that one round without taking damage, then you’ll get your chance to turn the tables.

Ki Blast

Hadouken! Smash your opponents from a distance and string this together with your melee attacks for powerful combos. Of course, you’ll need to tap into your ki to do so, but the added versatility is worth paying for.

Signature Move

Build your own moves from a list of options, which you choose when you gain this ability. Go in close or take another ranged option, then tweak the damage type to fit your character’s concept.

The Street Fighter is a unique take on the monk that leverages the key features of the class to create a close combat combo combatant that’s a lot of fun at the table.

Get the Street Fighter on the Dungeon Masters Guild.

And don’t forget, this brawler tee is available for a limited time only, from our Trophy Room:



General

Faster, Better, Crunchier! More Content for You!

You’re important to us, so we have a few upcoming changes planned to give you more top quality gaming content.

Playtests

Flaming tier Patreon backers have had access to our solo adventure playtests since our Patreon campaign started. Going forward, we’re offering a playtest subscription that will be free to patrons and newsletter subscribers, while the playtests will go for a buck or more on Drive Thru RPG and our store. These playtests will include all of our stand-alone games and anything else we deem suitable for a playtest.

Patreon Changes

I’ll be chatting to our Patreons soon about extending our Patreon campaign to cover more types of products. Initially, we wanted to focus on solo adventures, but sales haven’t justified that focus. While we’ll still be bringing out new solo adventures, we’re looking for a more flexible approach that gives our patrons a better and more regular offering.

Print on Demand is Here!

Heaven & Hell and Anaximander’s Adventuring Studies are now available as Print on Demand titles from Drive Thru RPG! There really is nothing like that new book scent!

Heaven & Hell CoverAnaximanders Adventuring Studies Cover

Forthcoming Releases

Print proofs for our new range of Madness Cards are on their way from America! Here’s what it says on the box:

As sanity slips away, draw Madness Cards to decide your player character’s mental affliction.
This pack contains 60 Madness Cards; two copies of 30 unique cards, each with a short term, long term, and indefinite madness, including afflictions from Arcanaphobia to Vampirism, compatible with the Fifth Edition OGL.

We’ll soon be releasing a new monastic tradition for the fifth edition D&D monk that will bring retro feels back to the gaming table. I’m not giving any hints, but this one’s sure to be a knockout.

Official T-Shirts

Now you can show your support by wearing official Rising Phoenix merchandise from our Trophy Hall. Some designs will only be available for a short time, so don’t wait to grab the tees you like.

Faster Brawler TeeFaster bard tee

Till next time, happy gaming!

General

Keeping It Classy with Kim Frandsen

Kim Frandsen, author of  Heaven & Hell: Aasimar & Tiefling Ancestries for Pathfinder 2, kindly agreed to do a guest post about his Keeping It Classy series, which is available on the DMs Guild. Take it away, Kim!

Keeping It Classy

Today, I’m here to talk about fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, and more specifically a series of books that I’ve been releasing, called Keeping It Classy.

So far these have been released for the barbarian, bard, and cleric, with more to come in the following months. Each book is 40–50 pages long and jam-packed with content for that class.

A Series is Born…

So what prompted these books? Well, it was a series of conversations with fifth edition players and people who’d been having a sniff at Pathfinder (this all started before Pathfinder Second Edition came out). And the one thing that seemed to connect all of these experienced players (most had been playing for a few years) was that they felt tied down to the options given in the Player’s Handbook. For example, the barbarian only has two standard options in the PHB: Path of the Berserker and Path of the Totem Warrior.

When I started toying with the idea of various characters from fiction and myth, it struck me that it was a very limited view of what the barbarian could be. So, one evening, I sat down and started brainstorming — to see which fictional characters would fulfill the criteria of a barbarian, but who wouldn’t necessarily fit within those two paths. Rather quickly I had a long list of characters ranging from Conan (the classic barbarian, who you could, at a squeeze, fit into the Berserker, but who was really more of the “noble savage” type), Achilles (the warrior who could not be damaged), all the way over to more esoteric characters like Mr. Hyde (from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) or He-Man.

The idea of more barbarian paths was born, and I set a few goals for these. There had to be something new and unique to each path (this wasn’t so much of an issue for the Barbarian and Bard, but we’ll get to the Cleric), and I wanted there to be a plethora of options. So, my shortlist ended up being 15 different, and new, paths, all with new and unique powers.

That got me wondering: where do these people come from? Again, there are a number of backgrounds in the Player’s Handbook, but some of the character tropes that you typically see for barbarians weren’t covered, so the book ended up with 5 new backgrounds too. Of course, that got me thinking about races and equipment, until I eventually had a full book on my hands.

When The Barbarian was released, one of the first questions I got was “So, what other classes are you doing? Can I have X?” While I’d originally intended The Barbarian to be a once-off thing, I started digging into various classes and found that a lot of them had the same issue that the barbarian did, that there simply wasn’t that much choice to be had in how you made your character (the bard for example, also only has two options in the PHB, the College of Lore and the College of Valor). I realized that all of the classes, in one form or another, are a bit underserved with the options in the core books.

Now you’ll see that I’ve specifically mentioned the amount of paths/colleges available to the barbarian and bard, but that was not the issue facing the cleric. The cleric has 7 domains to choose from, but you’ll notice that a LOT of the powers are recycled or reskinned versions of each other — and DAMMIT, I want my character to be unique, not just a copy-paste of another domain. It bothered me a lot (and The Cleric took me a lot longer to write than The Barbarian and The Bard) as I wanted each domain to not only have unique powers but also to feel like they belong in a fantasy setting. This gave birth to The Cleric, and it’s 15 new domains, all tied to mythology and the existing pantheons in D&D, and all with unique powers that only they have.

In essence, I want to give you, the player, the option to make the character YOU want to make, not just the one intended by the writers of the Player’s Handbook, while maintaining the accessibility of fifth edition.

You can find The Barbarian, The Bard, and The Cleric, on the DMs Guild.

General, Mini Monday, Tips and Tricks

Mini Monday #8: Expanding Your Toolbox

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying table. This week we’ll look at expanding your literal and figurative toolboxes, so that you can achieve more with your miniature projects.

The Figurative Toolbox

As you tackle and complete more hobby projects, you’ll learn and practice skills, building your repertoire. The important thing is to keep challenging yourself and learn new things. Find better ways to paint or scratch build, find out what doesn’t work, and master useful skills. That will build your figurative toolbox, allowing you to achieve a much wider range of things with the hobby.

The Literal Toolbox

This includes all the tools you use to work with miniatures, like paint, brushes, cutting boards, files, hobby knives, glues, and everything else you use to cut, shave, sand, or paint a miniature. Collecting these tools can prove expensive, but you can build your collection of tools up over time. This gives you a chance to learn how to use those tools before you become inundated with stuff.

When I got started, I bought a Citadel Colour Paint Set (which I still use), and an extra brush. I got some hobby knives for a birthday and an old emery board (nail file) from my mom. That was enough to get me started with cleaning and painting minis. Later I got more brushes and spray cans, which stepped things up a notch. I kept collecting tools and built up the collection I now have.

Here are some of the most essential tools you’ll need to get started:

Cutting Tools

A variety of cutting tools is useful for tackling different jobs. Extra blades and a clean, tough cutting board is essential. Sharp blades make a big difference, and don’t forget to cut away from yourself.

Cutting Tools for Miniatures and Kit Bashing
Snip snip.

Filing Tools

Different grits and types of sanding tools, like files and sandpaper, give you more control over how you finish a surface. You can glue sandpaper to a popsicle stick to make your own sanding sticks.

Sanding tools for miniatures and kit bashing.

Painting Tools

Paint, brushes, and a pot for water rounds out the collection. I recommend getting a starter set unless you have a very good idea of what you’ll be painting. Even though you might never use all the colors in the set, it’s good to have a wide range of colors to pick from. Don’t worry about getting an ultra-fine brush; go for two cheap, medium-sized brushes and build your collection from there.

Citadel Colour Paints
My 20-Year-Old Paint Box

If you’re just starting out, then you’re in for a great journey. Take your time, enjoy it, and you’ll learn loads. It’s a very rewarding hobby.

Rodney Sloan
Rising Phoenix Games

Check out our store, subscribe to our newsletter for monthly updates, and visit us on our blog, our Facebook page and on Twitter.



General, Mini Monday

Quick Terrain Projects — Mini Monday Ep 6

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying table. This week we take on two quick terrain projects, which you can bang out in an evening.

Quick Terrain Projects of a stalagmite and road sign.

The first project is a stalagmite, those naturally forming spikes of rock that you find at the bottom of caves.

For mine, I used paper clay, but any type of clay should work. I drilled a hole through it and threaded a bit of chain through the hole to create some visual interest. I dripped super glue down the chain, which keeps it stiff. To paint the stalagmite, paint with a dark gray then dry brush with a lighter gray on the raised edges. The chain is painted black and then painted with a metallic color. Done!

The road sign is a bit of chopstick and popsicle stick, shaped and stuck together with wood glue. I used paper clay for the base, and you need something that is heavy enough to keep the sign upright. I then painted it brown and edge-highlighted it with a tan brown. I didn’t paint a name onto the sign, because I wanted to be able to add names to photos with Photoshop, as I’ve done above.

Both of these projects are simple and quick enough that you could turn out several in an evening, and they’re great projects for beginners. Besides being cheap, you can get a lot of reuse out of each bit of scenery. My little stalagmite has appeared in every prison and dungeon I’ve run since making it, and fills an inch square nicely.

Is there anything you’d like to see me paint or build? Let me know in the comments below.

Rodney Sloan
Rising Phoenix Games

Check out our store, subscribe to our newsletter for monthly updates, and visit us on our blog, our Facebook page and on Twitter.


General, Magic Life Lessons

Magical Life Lesson #3 — Know Your Goal

Magical Life Lessons are short snippets of wisdom learned from playing Magic the Gathering. It may be a game, but here you’ll find insights learned from slinging cards that you can apply to the game of life.

Magic the Gathering is a great game, and it has plenty to teach about life. Today I want to talk about goals.

You win a game of Magic by getting your opponent’s life total to 0. Nothing new about that. There are other ways to win, such as if your opponent has to draw a card from an empty deck, but, for the most part, it’s all about that magical number, 0.

It’s easy to miss the point here. You can play to “beat” your opponent, forgetting that you’ve got everything set up for a lethal play. Taking your opponent down to 0 is the goal, any distraction from that goal is an opportunity for your opponent to win. Strong decks and strong players keep this in mind.

You’ll see people forgetting this in MTG Arena often. When your opponent has a significant advantage, but doesn’t go for the win, then they’ve forgotten the win condition. That can buy you time for a life-saving or game-winning play.

Knowing your goals will get you ahead, in Magic, and in life.


GOALMagical Life Lesson #3 by MaxieLindo on DeviantArt

Magic Life Lesson #3 — Know Your Goal

By figuring out your goals, you can eliminate anything that distracts you or stops you from achieving it.

As an example, I’ve been wanting to do regular posts here again, and blog about Magic, but I didn’t want to kill my productivity. I figured that short, 300-word posts would give me a chance to achieve my blogging goal without taking too much time away from writing RPG content. My priority — my number 1 goal — is to write new RPG books. Knowing this goal helps me manage my time and gauge how well I’m doing, so I budget time for blogging appropriately.

We’re halfway through 2019, so it’s a great time to look back at the year’s goals and see how you’re doing. Cut any goals that aren’t working out, create new goals where needed, prioritize them, and the rest of the year’s your chance to shine.

Rodney Sloan
Rising Phoenix Games

Check out our store, subscribe to our newsletter for monthly updates, and visit us on our blog, our Facebook page and on Twitter.