Tag Archives: Claustrophobia! RPG

Black Friday Specials

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals

Black Friday is practically here—depending on where in the world you are—and Cyber Monday isn’t very far off.
We’ve got some great specials for you.

All Products 17% – 30% off on Drive Thru RPG

 

Claustrophobia! the hilarious game of suicidal garden gnomes on a mission to the depths of the earth.

Claustrophobia Cover

Field Guides — Never leave the tavern without a good guide. Compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Phoenixes | Griffins | Curiosities – All 30% OFF

All Products 17% – 30% off on Drive Thru RPG

Griffins - A Field Guide Chilling Curiosities - A Field Guide

Phoenixes | Griffins | Curiosities – All 30% OFF

Steel Forge Games

Steel Forge Games has a sexy new website, and they’re also offering their titles at 30% off!

Bullet | Might – Both 30% Off

Bullet | Might – Both 30% Off

Gamers for Graaains!

Christmas is coming, but for a lot of people around the world Christmas isn’t a time of happiness and presents. When you’re struggling to feed your family, Christmas is just another day.

But it doesn’t have to be.

This season, we’re calling on gamers to help us collect rice and upper-cut hunger in the face, at least for the season. Our goal is to collect 1 million grains of rice by Christmas, and we can only do it with your help.

To help, join us on FreeRice.com, answer some questions, and boom! You’ve made a difference.

All it takes is a little of your time, and you can leave the game running in a tab, for whenever you’ve got a free moment.

Till next time, Tell Thrilling Tales.
Have a great weekend and a happy Thanksgiving to our US friends.

Rodney Sloan
Rising Phoenix Games

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Fantastic February

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 designing.

January was an excellent month for Claustrophobia!, and so putting aside time to support the game was a natural next step. That’s the thing about this industry; fan support 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 Cover

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. Remember, you can get all the news, every month, by subscribing to our newsletter.

Claustrophobia! Available June 1st!

Claustrophobia!, the game of gnomish insanity, is done, and on June 1st it will go live on Drive Thru RPG.

I couldn’t be more excited (or nervous). Donovan did some amazing work on the layout, art and design, and you’ll finally get to see that, along with added content about the world of garden gnomes and more. We’ve worked hard to polish the game and I’m sure fans old and new will be really pleased with what they see.

Claustrophobia! Lamp

You can keep up to date with all things gnome on our Facebook page. We would certainly appreciate a like if we can get it too.

Claustrophobia Combat Update

An intense round of Claustrophobia play testing is underway and bearing fruit. Today we’ve got new combat rules for you. Instead of team based combat, the new rules let individuals shine and make sphere choices much more intuitive.

 

Combat

 

The steps for combat are:

  1. Choose a sphere.
  2. Determine Advantage
  3. Attack and Defence
  4. Determine Hits and Deal Damage

GrettaComeNGetta

Choose a Sphere

The Sphere you use in combat is determined by what you’re trying to do. You should have a good reason for using the sphere, and the DM always has the final say.

Physical: you’re trying to wrestle, punch or otherwise physically harm your opponent. Use this when fists are flying and your goal is to capture, wound, knock-out or kill your enemy.

Mental: you’re trying to confuse, outwit or mentally outmaneuver your opponent. Use this sphere if you’re engaged in a hacking war, trying to beat your opponent at a puzzle or strategy game, or racing a rival scientist to a breakthrough.

Social: you’re trying to negotiate, intimidate or in some way rise socially above your opponent.

 

Determine Advantage

Choose a sphere secretly with your sphere cards. This does not need to be the same sphere as the sphere you are using for your attack. Every PC and NPC then reveals their sphere card.

Physical: you are using muscle to gain the advantage, such as sprinting to a vantage point, throwing sand to distract your enemy or charging them.

Mental: you are using cunning to gain the upper hand, luring them into a trap, surrounding them in a clever cross-fire or using some other ruse.

Social: you are using social manoeuvring, diplomacy or intimidation to gain the upper hand in the coming fight.

Each character rolls and puts aside any successes. Total the value on these successes to determine the order of advantage (highest advantage goes first). If you get no successes, you go in the total die score order after characters with successes. Ties should dice off separately. Any 1’s rolled to determine advantage don’t count as losses.

Example: Two gnomes are fighting a flamingo. Gnome one rolls a 5 and 3 and gnome 2 rolls a 5 and 2. Their total is both 5. In this case gnome 1 goes first. If the flamingo rolled two dice, with a 4 and a 4 (2 successes), it would go first.

 

Attack and Defence

Choose a target for your attack. You may roll as many dice as you have listed in that sphere, or less, but you must roll 1 die. Your opponent must use the same sphere and rolls defence in the same way.

 

Determine Hits and Deal Damage

Roll and compare. You score 1 hit and 1 wound for every success you score over what your enemy scored. Any ties go to the defender. Any ones rolled which are left unmodified are wounds taken by the target of the attack. The winner describes how their attack succeeds.

Distribute the removal of dice randomly between the losers stats, either by rolling dice or by using the sphere cards.

If the defender gets more successes, they score no hits on the attacker.

Combat then moves to the character with the next highest advantage.

 

Join the Claustrophobia Facebook Page to stay in the loop with all things gnome.

Claustrophobia Role Playing Game Ad

2014 Will Be Big

This year I’ve narrowed my scope down to four projects and I thought I’d fill you in on my plans.

I’ll be writing for ICON again this year. If you don’t know, ICON is one of the big role-playing conventions in South Africa. With 10 RPG modules and 2 LARPs scheduled, it promises to be a 3 day role-playing extravaganza. Watch this blog for more!

Continuing with adventure modules, this month I’m doing the Gamers Lifestyle Boot Camp. The goal: publish my first full adventure module on DTRPG. Since I started Rising Phoenix Games three years ago, the goal has always been to publish my modules, making them available to more people. I’ve deliberately held off from publishing for now, but everything will change come August this year or next when my contract ends. So, although you might have to wait, I’ll be toiling away in anticipation. And, to kill two giant eagles with one magic missile, my Boot Camp project is also my ICON module. Yes, sneaky hobbitses indeed.

For a new challenge, I’m helping a friend craft the story for an indie X-Box game. No spoilers yet, but this will be a great chance for me to hone my story telling skills.

Claustrophobia! is getting sleeker. The gnomes are working frantically on page layout and a cover design and I’ve spent some time tightening up the main themes of the game. After a little more simmering I’ll be getting back to you for your opinion. Be sure to join the Facebook group to keep in touch with developments.

Finally, I started working on a Flash game last year.  Why a Flash game? Well, it’s something I learnt in university and hadn’t touched for awhile. I must say, picking it up again was easier than riding a bicycle and a great way to end off 2013. Will Rising Phoenix Games go the route of digital gaming? That remains to be seen. I watched an interesting video recently by Jonathan Blow that has me thinking about what makes a good game and I feel I could deliver something really interesting. So, with two digital projects set for 2014, let’s see where this takes us.

Phew. That’s a load. The quote for yesterday’s Boot Camp was “We overestimate what we can do in a year. But we underestimate what we can do in an hour.” That’s from Yax at www.dungeonmastering.com. It certainly might be the case here, but I have worked hard to lay a good foundation and now it’s just a matter of getting stuck in.

 

The Art of Claustrophobia!

I posted an update to the rules for Claustrophobia! yesterday which includes the following updates:

  • Clarifications of many of the rules and standardization of terms throughout the book.
  • Improved layout of the monster entries to improve readability.
  • Added details about the Claustrophobia! Art Project.
  • Inclusion of a basic Glossary of Terms.
  • Many formatting tweaks.

Be sure to download the latest version of the rules now.

 

The Art Project

The Art Project on RedBubble is a showcase of the final book art for the game. Here I’ll be posting works from time to time, giving you the chance to wet your appetite and tell us what you think about the art. By buying stickers and t-shirts you help us fund more artworks and improve the final edition of the game.

 

Holidays!

Later this month and in early August I’m off on holiday, so I’m not planning any updates until late August. This time will be a chance for me to unwind, regroup and come back stronger than before. If you’re off on holiday I hope you have a great time and safe travels too.