Battle Cat Wargaming Miniature — MM 52

22 November 2021 Rodney

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week we’re scratch building a Battle Cat wargaming miniature.

Psst, we have a secret coupon code for a new magus book for Pathfinder 1e, hidden in the text. You’ll need to read everything to find it.

Battle Cat is He-Man’s fearless feline friend, who transforms from the cowardly cat Cringer (erm, tiger) into a red-armored fighting fiend. Besides inspiring alliteration, Battle Cat is He-Man’s inseparable companion, with whom he shares the secret of the Sword of Power and also benefits from its transformative powers.

I’m busy working on my own little D&D Masters of the Universe set, so Battle Cat’s an important miniature to have. It’s possible to find him online, but it’s also very easy to kitbash or scratch build your own, which is why you should give it a go. This project is the perfect beginner project for learning how to use green stuff or modeling epoxy, and you can use the same method for all kinds of original mounts too.

Step 1: Obtain Miniature Animal of the Plastic Variety

Find a suitably sized plastic animal, preferably one with a high enough level of detail that it’ll look like an animal when your primer has made it monochrome. I found a great lioness that was the perfect size and easy to convert into a tiger.

Step 2: Snip and Clip, then Putty and Paste

To make the armored saddle and helmet I used Tamiya Epoxy Putty, which is a two-part clay (white and beige) that you mix together before working. I’ve never used green stuff, which most people swear by, but this stuff certainly does the job.

Saddles are the easiest thing to make, but barding (plate for a mount), isn’t much harder. Find a good reference to work from and break down the full shape into its component shapes and you’ll do fine. The rest of the armor, including the helmet, is just an extension of the same process.

To bulk up the shape of Battle Cat’s beard and chest hair I used hairpieces from some third edition Dark Eldar.

Some of my Masters of the Universe minis, from left to right: Battle Cat, Evil-Lyn, Beast Man, Prince Adam, and He-Man

Step 3: Paint and Play

I primed the mini white, then painted his fur orange and the saddle armor red. I then painted green over the fur, to leave exposed stripes. The stripes were a bit tricky, so decide on which direction you want them to run in before painting and you should be fine.

Finally, I dry brushed his beard white, painted his nose and eyes black, and his claws were brown, black, then white. Finally, I gave the fur a black wash and painted the base black. I didn’t texture the base so that other figures can stand on the base, to show they are riding him.

Unleash the Power of the Magus

One of the companies I work for is d20pfsrd.com Publishing, and we just released Art of Magic: Melee and Magic. The book has been doing amazingly well, reaching Copper Seller in under 24 hours. I guess it just proves how popular the magus is.

So, what’s in the book?

New magus archetypes, feats, magus arcana, and spells. Mark Thomas, the writer, did an excellent job of offering a wide variety of builds that should offer something for every magus player.

The book is compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (first edition) and is $2.99 for 24 pages.

Get Your Melee and Magic Here

Psst, we have 5 coupon codes for Melee and Magic, here, good till the end of the month.

Uncategorized

5 Indie TTRPG Gems To Try This Christmas

17 November 2021 Rodney

Christmas is coming up, and as print shortages loom, it’s time to get those print-on-demand (POD) orders in early. Here are 5 indie TTRPG hidden gems you should check out this Christmas, all from South African designers.

Eventide

Eventide features a fully-formed post-apocalyptic setting and fast, streamlined mechanics, all packaged in Frenzy Kitty’s characteristically professional style. The game also includes solo rules, which is one more reason why I love it.

Not many indie publishers bring the level of polish to their games that Frenzy Kitty Games does, which has always inspired me to make better-looking products. Gareth is also a huge fan of the genre, and it shows in the many adventure hooks the setting presents.

Buy Eventide if you love post-apocalyptic games like Fallout and want a deep level of abstraction that lets you tell interesting stories about survival in a post-apocalyptic world.

Nightscape: Red Terrors

This is one of mine, so I’ll just tell you what’s in the game, then you can decide if it’s for you.

Nightscape: Red Terrors is part of the Nightscape franchise, which explores supernatural and cosmic horrors. Red Terrors is set in Russia, after the fall of communism. You and your team from Integrand General are tasked with recovering occult artifacts from a recently-discovered facility, in a race against time and cultists seeking to use those same artifacts for their own purposes.

The game uses D20s, map tiles, and an abstracted rules set that focuses on cinematic roleplaying.

Buy Nightscape: Red Terrors if you and your players want to take on a multi-faceted puzzle involving eldritch horrors, using the tools at the disposal of a team of elite paranormal investigators.

How to Plan a Murder

Although I had a hand in producing it, this one was written by Chris Visser, who has run the system as part of his very successful dinner murder mystery events.

How to Plan a Murder is a LARP, or more specifically, guidelines for running a social event that revolves around a murder mystery, which is run by a coordinator. Each character is defined by several truths and what they know about certain characters, which effectively ties every character, and every guest, into the story that’s about to unfold during the evening.

Personally, I think it’s a fun way to get all your RPG friends together, with some of your RPG-curious buds, and all their significant others, and share an evening of fun telling a memorable story that you get to be deeply involved in (without actually killing anyone). Covid has made this sort of event rare, but one day we’ll be able to enjoy some murder with friends again.

Buy How to Plan a Murder if you want to run a dinner murder mystery for your friends, and your friends are up for an evening of dressing up and playing interesting characters with dark secrets.

Hello, My Name is Death

Full disclosure here, this one, like Nightscape, is also mine.

In Hello, My Name is Death you play the Grim Reaper’s apprentices, trying to knock another soul off this mortal coil and get promoted to COO of Acquisitions, the rider in black himself.

Hello, My Name is Death uses a poker mechanic and comes in zine format. It requires a deck of normal playing cards and is a theater of the mind game. Basically, by winning hands, you get to make things true about the world, or add a truth to what another player has made true.

We think you’ll love Hello, My Name is Death as an alternative to Gloom, or as a great way to improve your group’s collaborative storytelling.

Bullet

Bullet’s full title is Bullet: The Special Forces Role-Playing System and Setting Guideline Manual, which really tells you all you need to know: you get to play spec ops characters, and the book will help you adapt any historic or fictional war setting into a playable campaign.

Play Bullet if you want to recreate a Navy Seals infiltration mission, loved the SWAT 4, ARMA, or Rainbow Six games, or want to play something where the bad guys are human and the bullets are deadly.

November is Indie TTRPG Month

Thanks to the Rat Hole for hosting this month’s RPG Blog Carnival, with the theme of “Going Indie“. To celebrate, all our indie TTRPG titles are half off on Drive Thru.

Tips and Tricks, Write - Design - Program

TTRPG Design Mastery — The Impossible Road

8 November 2021 Kim Frandsen

Welcome to a guest post, here on Rising Phoenix Games. Kim Frandsen is here to talk about the difficult road TTRPG designers have to walk to becoming masters of the craft. Enjoy.

Hi everyone! Rodney asked me to share some thoughts that I’d been having recently about the TTRPG industry.

In most creative industries, such as tabletop roleplaying game publishing, there are — at least to me — seemingly three levels of “achievement” a creator can reach:

Apprentice
Journeyman
Master

The Road to Mastering RPG Design

To give an example of what I mean, let’s compare the TTRPG industry to the film industry. Hollywood’s movie business is well known and has similar requirements to our own, in that it requires a lot of creative input and technical knowledge to achieve a coherent and appealing final product.

So an apprentice within the TTRPG world is someone who is just starting out. They may be self-publishing or they may have a few years of experience working as a freelancer for smaller publishers. In the film world, these are the folks putting out their first films, or who are just out of film school. They may have acquired some technical knowledge along the way, and they may have great creative ideas, but they still need a lot of help executing their ideas to a level where an audience can understand their work.

Masters are of course at the other end of the craft. They’re the ones who do the work that you always hear about. Within the gaming world, they’ll be people like Chris Perkins, Owens KC Stephens, Jason Buhlmann, and Skip Williams. They’re exceptionally capable and experienced designers who have had their hands in hundreds of projects. They not only have creative vision but also the technical know-how to realize that vision.
In the film world, these are people like Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola for direction. They may be the Chris Evanses, Ryan Reynolds, and Scarlett Johansson for actors. They could also be the “invisible” people like John Williams, known for the soundscapes that complete the film experience. These are the creators that everyone has heard of, and who have staying power.

In between these two, you find the journeyman level. For films, these are the people who can live off their work but haven’t become famous. They might be the supporting actors on big-budget films, they may be the camera or sound crews, or they may be the director that does documentaries for the BBC — people that those in the business have potentially heard of, but who aren’t well known to the public.

And here comes the question: where is the journeyman level in the TTRPG Industry?

Making a living off your work in this business, even if you have multiple years of experience and projects behind you, is tough. In my case, I started in 2016 and at this point, I have more than 100 projects behind me as both author and editor, and I’ve started dabbling in layout, but I cannot make a living off what I do — even though I’d love to. (Editors Note: Kim has multiple credits for Paizo, including Pathfinder and Starfinder work. He was also an alternate in the top 32 for RPG Superstar, Season 9. Kim also wrote Heaven & Hell for Pathfinder Second Edition.)

The figure that you need to take home to live (please note I said “live”, not “survive” — there is a difference) varies by where you live of course. Generally, if you live in the West, things cost more. That’s just how it is.

But how big does the RPG industry have to be to support the Journeyman level folks? Nobody knows how much money is in the business, and the few who have an insight into that are really not interested in sharing that information. The fact is though that there are only a few companies out there that are big enough to supply more than a handful (5) employees full-time. This includes the juggernaut Wizards of the Coast and all the way down to smaller companies with permanent staff. Even just finding out who belongs in that category is difficult. (Truth be told, the industry really isn’t doing itself any favors on this, by being so opaque, but I digress).
Unfortunately, until we know what the business is worth in total, and where it has been in the past, it’ll be difficult to say where the “break” point in size is for the RPG industry, but there is one factor that we can comment on.
We’d like to see more people make a living by making TTRPGs, wouldn’t we? After all, it allows us to see more people progress to the master level, so we’ll eventually enjoy the stuff they put out. And it’d allow others who have the skill and knowledge to live off their earnings from roleplaying games too.

Do I have a personal stake in this? Yes. Of course, I do, and I’m obviously one who’d like to reach the Journeyman level. But more than that: I’d like to see my friends remain in the business. I started at a time where I was connected with something like 20 or 30 other people. Today, only 2 of them are left, with a 3rd on hiatus and a 4th mostly being too busy with his day job to work away at game design. So many people have fallen by the wayside that I know had the ability to make it, if there had been a future for them. For all of us, it wears us down. And while those who survive the first 3-4 years tend to stick around, I’d really like to see more of the talented newcomers staying with us.

Thanks for listening to my rant.
Catch you on the flip side.

Kim Frandsen

You can find Kim on Beyond the Horizon.

General

Steam Foil Cards Suck

25 October 2021 Rodney

You can’t eat Steam foil cards. They’re not even actually foil. Are they really just a crash grab on Valve’s part?

PC games have borrowed a lot from tabletop gaming. Take most PC RPGs, which borrow heavily from conventions established by Dungeons & Dragons. Foil cards were made popular with games like Magic: the Gathering and Pokémon.

Sometimes the borrowing makes sense, sometimes it just doesn’t work. In Steam’s case, the “foil” cards are just rarer and have a boring grey border. Considering how easy it would be to add an animation to the art assets, this feels lazy. It also doesn’t add any real benefit to the collector.

I have a bunch of great foil cards for Magic, which usually go straight into my favourite decks. They’re a status symbol, but also a nice way that WotC has rewarded me for all that money I’ve thrown their way. I feel no need to collect them, but I enjoy the ones I have for what they are. I have no such feelings for Steam’s foil cards.

MTG Arena has animated “foil” cards, by the way, some of which are very appealing.

It’s not all that hard to add an animation to a card. You could make an animated shine layer that goes over the image, or add an animated sheen to the border. There are tons of great animation examples on the web that are only as complicated as a gif. Here are a few cheesy ones:

They’re pretty bad, but they’re not tough to make or run in Steam’s client, and would be a huge improvement on the static image their foil cards have now.

Another Solution

Calling them “foil” cards is really just based on a tabletop convention, so why doesn’t Valve create their own convention? As far as I can tell, Steam cards don’t have any level of rarity, so call them “gold” cards or rares. Call them “Steam-Os” for all we care.

Just don’t call them foil cards.

General

The Umbrella Academy is a Hammy Cheese-Fest

20 October 2021 Rodney

Do you like ham and cheese? I hope you do. I love ham and cheese. The hammier and cheezier, the better. The Umbrella Academy has both, in equal measure, and it’s a tasty feast… if that’s your sort of thing. Let’s check out the first collection, We dive into The Apocalypse Suite.

Let me explain, because I might be losing you already. The comic has a murderous Eiffel Tower, a character with a monocle called (you guessed it) The Monocle, and a Murder Bot set to “Careless Brutality”. And that’s why this comic is brilliant.

The Great

The Umbrella Academy manages to poke fun at superhero comics, while being a part of the family. It never feels like a rip-off of X-Men, even though it’s a hilarious fun-house mirror-image of super-mutant hero teams. That humour is the hammy, cheesy goodness. You’re either going to love it or hate it.

The story’s pace and the depth of the characters were other high points for me. Because most of the story happens after the main characters have passed their prime, the story just wouldn’t have worked if they’d not been well developed. Essentially, you’re getting a story that feels like it exists in a much bigger one, and that the characters have plenty of history left to explore.

More Great Stuff

Gabriel Ba’s art is perfect for The Umbrella Academy because it works with the hammy cheesiness at the soul of this comic. Ba’s art is also grim when it needs to be, sombre when needed, and never confusing. Ba tells a better visual story than many artists who’ve worked for Marvel or DC.

The Not so Great

It’s a bit of a weird thing about the comic, but you don’t learn each hero’s power until the mini-comics at the end of this six-comic anthology. Their powers are in the main comic, but Gerard’s subtlety might mean you miss it. Is that a good thing? Does it really matter? Probably not. Maybe that’s there to tell you what kind of story this really is? You decide.

Overall, a great read if you like clever shlock or you’re a fan of the comic book medium. Four out of five Cheeky Cthulhus!

General

Guitar Wire for Mini Converting Victory! — MM 51

18 October 2021 Rodney

It’s Mini Monday, and this week I’m going to introduce you to my new favourite kitbashing and converting substance: guitar wire.

Metal guitar wire, as far as I understand, comes in six thicknesses: thin, thicker… well, you get the picture. What matters is that it has many great properties that make it perfect for miniature conversion and kitbashing work:

It’s wire, so you can bend it and cut it like wire!
It’s tightly wound and won’t uncoil like a spring might.
It’s the perfect thickness for detail work and comes in a variety of thicknesses, so you can use whichever size works best for the job you’re doing.
One string goes a very long way.
Once bent, guitar wire maintains its shape fairly well.
Musicians throw it away when they’re done with it. That’s right, it’s literally free if you know somebody who plays the guitar.

Ask Not What You Can Do For Guitar Wire…

Guitar wire gets used for pipes and cables mostly (first mini, above), but here are a few more ideas:

Guts! Check out mini number 2, above!
Arms! Mini number 3 had her arm rebuilt with thick guitar wire and modelling epoxy. The original arm was hopelessly too short, but the bendable wire made this an easy fix. I like the ribbed detailing it gives her arm where I left the wire exposed.
Handles! He-Man (yes, he’s finally here!) has an all-new axe with a handle made from our wonder material. This detail alone brings the axe much closer to the toy axe I got with my action figure. Watch out, Beast Man!
Coins! Because they’re so tightly wound, you could use guitar wire to make miniature-size stacks of coins.
Armature Wire! Because it retains its shape after bending, I figure it’ll work well as armature wire — the wire used as a skeleton for modelling clay when making figures.
Joints! Laid horizontally, you could fill gaps in knees or elbows to simulate more complex joints.
Toast! I’ll bet guitar wire makes great toast. Ah, guitar wire…

That’s it. That’s all I have to say. Go get yourself some and give it a try if you’ve never played with it. I promise… this stuff rocks…

General

Captain Nemo’s Scimitar, a D&D 5e Artifact

8 October 2021 Rodney

Captain Nemo’s scimitar is a powerful artifact that you can add to your undersea Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign.

Nemo’s Scimitar

Weapon (scimitar), artifact (requires attunement)

The legendary Captain Nemo was a consummate gentleman and an amicable diplomat who made many friends, both above and below the waves. It is said that he counted sphinxes and phoenixes among his closest advisors, and that it is they who helped him build the vessel his name is synonymous with: the Nautilus (see Undersea Sourcebook: Feats and Equipment).

While the Nautilus was being completed, a companion blade was forged, a scimitar linked to the vessel by powerful magic. The scimitar would serve as a mark of rank and ownership, while its arcane link to the great vessel would be able to bring the Nautilus back from disaster if their planned journey to the ocean depths ever became too perilous.

Although the scimitar is not required to command or pilot the Nautilus, it is a common misconception that the scimitar is its key, and that the Nautilus would be powerless without it. This misinformation has inspired many of Nemo’s rivals to steal the sword, though none have yet succeeded.

While attuned to the scimitar, you can breathe air or water, have a swimming speed of 30-feet if you don’t have a better swimming speed, and are immune to the effects of extreme cold.

Call the Nautilus. If you are holding the scimitar and are within 120 feet of a body of water big enough to hold it, you can, as an action, call the Nautilus (Underwater Sourcebook: Feats & Equipment). The vessel teleports to your location if it is on the same plane. If the Nautilus has been destroyed, it appears with 1 Hit Point remaining for each of its components. You can’t use this property again until 3 days have passed.

Captain’s Gate. If you are holding the scimitar, you can use your action to cast gate, linking a spot you can see to the captain’s quarters within the Nautilus. You can’t use this ability again until after a long rest.

Conjure Shield Guardian. If you are holding the scimitar, you can use your action to conjure a shield guardian. You can conjure it within 30 feet of you or within the Nautilus. In either case, it is bound to the scimitar, which acts as the shield guardian’s bound amulet. The shield guardian dissipates after 1 hour. You can’t use this ability again until dawn.

Destroying the Scimitar. The only way to destroy the scimitar is to melt it down within an underwater volcano, alongside a power crystal from the Nautilus.

Tips and Tricks

Wanna be a Great GM? Get an Education!

28 September 2021 Rodney

So, you want to impress the boys at your local with your masterful storytelling? Figure you’ll show the ladies a good time with dice and an epic quest? Looking to put “Professional GM” on your CV? Well then, if you want to be a great GM (or DM, or Storyteller), then you need to get an education.

What kind of education? I’m not talking about school — stay in school kids — I’m talking about life experiences.

Why?

Rules are great. Acting skills are useful. Improv skills are even better. Knowing and understanding all the tools available to you, that’s the road to being really great.

But all of this isn’t very useful without some real experiences. Some fuel for the creative fire.

Go ride a horse. Practice martial arts. Write with a quill pen. Hike up a mountain. Go camping. Gut a fish. Travel.

Real experiences always beat book learning. What you’ve lived through becomes a part of you in a way clinical understanding never can.

Have you ever noticed that many writers, those brave souls who battle with pen and paper their whole lives, struggle to sell a good novel, while non-writers (usually sportspeople and explorers) seem to create best-selling books without much effort? There are exceptions, but I’ll bet that the key ingredient here is substance. Those with real experiences have something meaty to offer.

A poorly-researched example, as Exhibit A: Stephen King cited being hit by a car as inspiration for many of his books. I’m not sure which, but my Google-fu tells me it’s a bunch. Sorry, Stephen, you’re free to pipe up in the comments.

Your experiences are beautiful pigments for painting truly memorable images at the table. Your fantasy games will be so much more real when you embellish them with realistic details drawn from your experiences.

So look, listen, and learn. I promise it’ll be worth it.

Thanks to The Five Foot Square for hosting this month’s RPG Blog Carnival. Do go check them out and join in the fun.

While you’re here, please check out our store or our Drive-Thru RPG page. We have loads of publications for D&D 5e, Pathfinder, and unique systems we know you’ll love.

General

Paint Minis While the Sun Shines — MM 50

27 September 2021 Rodney

It’s funny how some things affect others. Take the weather, for instance. Here in South Africa, in the Highveld where Rising Phoenix Games is based, we have dry, hot summers and dry, cool winters. When it rains, painting is magic.

When it’s dry, which is most of the time, paint doesn’t last long unless you’re using a wet palette. Spray paint, on the other hand, flows well and drys quickly (which is great for second and third coats).

Paint Minis — Have you ever primed with gold? These minis, predominantly from Wrath of Ashardalon, are ready for my next painting session.

The point of this rambly post is simple: make the most of what you’ve got.

Is it raining and great for painting? Then paint. Is it hot and sunny? Maybe spray some minis or build terrain in the shade.

Think about your momentum. Don’t let the weather be an excuse. Don’t let anything be an excuse. Paint what you can, when you can. Adapt and prosper. When life gives you lemons…

You’re bright and intelligent, you don’t need me to mother you, so I’ll stop there and switch to anecdote mode. Draw up a chair, my dears, and listen…

A Tale of Trial and Tribulation

In the last few years, just before Covid, I was painting like a madman. I’d managed to get through loads of Orks and Gretchin, as well as many fantasy miniatures. I’d jumped into the hobby again and was loving it, learning, and gaining huge confidence.

Then Covid threw its proverbial in the proverbial and I had very little time for minis. Chalk this one up to life experiences and learning to appreciate the time you have! But you can’t sweat the small things. If anything, the pandemic took away but also gave. Mini painting became the way to enjoy the hobby, and there were fewer distractions (no kid’s parties, family engagements, or going to the mall to waste time).

So, we’re back here again, at the point. Do what you can with what you have. And that’s not just with painting minis.

General

Hawk and Dove: Countdown (#7, Dec ’89)

24 September 2021 Rodney

Hawk and Dove: Countdown (#7, Dec ’89) is written by Barbara and Karl Kesel, with Greg Guler penciling and Scott Hanna inking. This one is worth a look.

I think DC just made a new fan!

(Honestly, I never thought I’d say that. Make mine Marvel! Okay, okay, make mine Marvel and Dove. It’s just one exception. Oh, and Mouse Guard. Fine. Make mine Marvel, Mice, and Dove.)

The Good

Hawk and Dove #7 was written by wife and husband team Barbara and Karl Kesel, and they represent the titular guy and gal duo perfectly. This issue opens with Dawn Granger (Dove) being chased through a spooky house by its occultish occupants and their pet tigers. Despite the danger, Dawn doesn’t swoon at the first sign of trouble or kick butt with abandon; she feels real enough, which helps the suspense build without the damsel-in-distress vibes we dudes are so fond of writing.

Dawn is the perfect partner for the brash Hank Hall (Hawk), who we meet next. He’s the muscle, she’s the brains. It might seem simple, but the tension in their relationship works and keeps the story flowing.

There’s no romantic twist to the story, at least not yet, which helps the team stand out from other comic teams. This isn’t Scott Summers and Jean Grey, or Peter Parker and Felicia Hardy, and I appreciate that. (I still love you guys!)

Overall, it’s a well-written comic.

Notable Points
Action on every page, drama, great art, monsters, mysterious villains, esoteric magic, this issue delivers all of that in spades.

Also, the fashion represented in this issue is far more tasteful, while still sexy, than anything I’ve seen in other DC comics from this era. No cringy 80’s music video vibes, and that’s worth a star all by itself!

Seek This Out
I’ll be looking for more Hawk and Dove for sure. They might not be as well known as Superman, Batman, or the Flash, but this team has something worthy of your attention.

4 out of 5 Cheeky Cthulhus!

Step 1: Obtain Miniature Animal of the Plastic Variety

Step 2: Snip and Clip, then Putty and Paste

Step 3: Paint and Play

Unleash the Power of the Magus

Eventide

Nightscape: Red Terrors

How to Plan a Murder

Hello, My Name is Death

Bullet

November is Indie TTRPG Month

The Road to Mastering RPG Design

Another Solution

The Great

More Great Stuff

The Not so Great

Ask Not What You Can Do For Guitar Wire…

Nemo’s Scimitar

A Tale of Trial and Tribulation

The Good

Be the Hero