Tag Archives: Contests

#ShowYourRPGShelf and Win an RPG!

Show us your RPG shelf and win a print copy of Nightscape: Red Terrors for your collection by entering the #ShowYourRPGShelf RPG contest.

How to Enter

1) Follow us on Twitter and Facebook (and grow the party!)
2) Reply to one of the posts below with a picture of you, holding your favorite character sheet, in front of your shelf of roleplaying books.
3) Share the post you replied to.

Be sure to check out other collections in the comments or by searching for the hashtag #ShowYourRPGShelf.

The T’s and C’s

Entries close November 30th. One entry per person. The winner will be announced in December 2022. The judge goblin’s decision is final. Winners will be determined by dice combat (we’ll roll ’em). Keep those pics family-friendly, please.

You can find out more about Nightscape, here. Get Nightscape: Red Terrors on the Rising Phoenix Games Store.

Good luck!

Enter the Belly of Evil…

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.

Good luck!

Happy Thanksgiving

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 joined my American friends in Japan to celebrate this special holiday before.

Image sourced from http://www.wpclipart.com/
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 support. 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.

Sign Up Here!

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.

Have a great one and tell thrilling tales.

Rodney Sloan
Rising Phoenix Games

Griffins—A Field Guide Banner Ad


RPGSS2015 – Round 4

Voting for round 3 of RPG Superstar 2015 is now over, with 8 contestants left to bust out an encounter for round 4.

RPG Superstar 2015

Did you have any personal monster favourites? I really liked the Geomaw and the Stonevine Stalker, although I think the Stonevine Stalker needed a lot more to make it stand out. Just think about the Womping-Willow from Harry Potter, or Old Man Willow from The Lord of the Rings and Rockbiter from The NeverEnding Story film. They were all interesting in their way, but none of them were show stealers. Nazguls and Dementors, now those were monsters.

Avernos Unearthed
This week the Elves take their place in Avernos. Misunderstood, mistrusted and feared, this reclusive race fights an invisible war with a dark evil.

Read more about the Elves.

The Books of Faces
We’ve set off down the road and into an ancient forest, where we come to a set of stone steps. Read the adventure and make your choice on the Facebook page.

A blow by blow account of the quest is always available at the Adventure Chronicle.

Campaign Journal
Our current Marvel Heroic RP Game is about to kick off it’s third session, with the heroes going in search of Thor’s mighty hammer, Mjolnir. Hopefully a few of the escaped inmates of the Raft will end up back behind bars too. It’s going to be epic.

And while we’re on the topic of comics, my buddy Brent over at Comics League International invited me to recorded a podcast with him about the heroes in a half-shell, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You can take a listen on his site or iTunes.

Rising Phoenix News
Here are some more pictures and a video of our Maze Tiles. I’m really proud with the Print-On-Demand version of the tiles, they look amazing. The tiles fit perfectly with other inch grid maps, which was one of our critical criteria for quality control. This means you can expand on your existing collection of maps and tiles with this set for even more adventure options.

Maze Tiles Detail 1

Maze Tiles - Detail 2

Inspired in Japan
One of the weird things I collect is tenugui, or Japanese hand towels. Here are a couple of modern ones I found on Amazon.

That’s all from me until next Thursday.
Tell Thrilling Tales


Cthulhu Mythos - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Hottest New Book
Ninth World Guidebook
Ninth World Guidebook

RPGSS2015 – Round 3 Voting

Voting for round 3 of RPG Superstar 2015 has begun. Go check out those monsters.

RPG Superstar 2015

Avernos Unearthed & The Book of Faces
Due to a Japanese national holiday, these sections will return next week.

Campaign Journal
My first game of Call of Cthulhu didn’t happen, probably because of a big event that sucked up the player pool. Never the less, dice were rolled and demons fought, so happiness all around. Instead of CoC we played the Legend of Drizzt D&D Adventure Boardgame, which will soon be joined by a new release for the series, the Temple of Elemental Evil, scheduled for release on April 30th. I’m pretty stocked for that!

Drizzt Vs Owl Bear
Photo by AndyC

Also, if you want to play Call of Cthulhu and you only have two interested people, check out Monophobia, A Fear of Solitude. We might give this a try sometime soon.

Rising Phoenix News
Maze Tiles are a simple and effective solution for building a moving, shifting maze. Complete with levers and gears, these tiles work well as a clockwork dungeon, a gnome’s warren or artificers puzzle.

Maze Tiles

The set includes 4 tiles with unique designs on each face, giving you a total of 8 options to build your mazes with. Available as a PDF download and as Print on Demand.

Inspired in Japan
The ninja create perhaps the most evocative of images; that of the skilled, invisible assassin. But what does it really take to be a ninja? Getting whacked a lot, that’s what.

That’s all from me until next Thursday.
Tell Thrilling Tales


Cthulhu Mythos - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Hottest New Book
Ninth World Guidebook
Ninth World Guidebook

RPGSS2015 – Round 3

The top 16 contestants have entered round 3, as RPG Superstar 2015 continues to heat up.

RPG Superstar 2015

Round 3 is all about unleashing new terrors on the world of Golarion.
The judges offered some great monster creation hints on the forum, which are well worth a read, even if you’re just making monsters for your own home game. Mikko Kallio, last years winner, offered these tips, Adam Daigle, a developer at Paizo, offered these, and Eric Hindley (Movie Monster Matinee and Classic Monsters Augmented) posted these tips.
Continue reading RPGSS2015 – Round 3

RPGSS2015 – Round 1 Roundup

Winners of the first round of RPG Superstar 2015 were announced this week, with 32 winning items chosen out of hundreds. It’s a tough competition for sure, with a lot to be learnt.

RPG Superstar 2015

In my spare time I’ve been reading the Paizo forums and found a wealth of tips, tricks and loads of encouragement for aspiring game designers. I recommend you check it out, even if you’re not a Pathfinder player/GM.

Here are four things I’ve learnt from voting in round 1.

1. Make Many, Submit One

I had a few ideas, but only one that I fleshed out. Next time I’d try create a list of 10 ideas, flesh out 4 and then have my friends and mentors give some feedback before I submit the best of the lot.

2. Awesomeness Rules

There were some really fun items I got to vote on, items that I want to bring to the table both as a player and as a GM. What makes an item fun? It’s subjective and hard to nail down, but the item needs to get people excited to win this contest.

3. Every Word Counts

Anything you put down in the item description needs to make sense. There were a number or “unexpectedly light” items that I came across. Fine. They’re magical. I can go with that. But it has to make sense with regard to the items theme, not just be a random feature. And at the same time, don’t eat up word count repeating things or trying to be verbose. Shorter entries often grabbed my attention over longer entries.

4. Invincible

I saw many items that made the wielder immune to certain attacks or effects. Invincibility is only fun for the guy who’s invincible, and only for a little while. Look at any item you create from the perspective of all the players and the GM. If everyone’s going to have fun, you’ve got a keeper.

For more lessons learned this year, check out the forum. Enjoy Round 2!

Avernos Unearthed
The Avernos Wiki grows a little more every week. Hey, if I keep it up I’ll have 52 new entries by the end of the year.

This week we add dragons to the mix, Elder Dragons to be exact. These ancient beasts are responsible for much of the land as it is today.

I do like dragons, and I wanted to use chromatic and metallic dragons (such as in D&D/Pathfinder), but tie them into the creation legends of Avernos in a meaningful way. Last week I spoke about darkness on the doorstep and so it was important to have examples of evil having been beaten at great cost in the history of Avernos. Now chromatic dragons are set up as a force of evil, and you can be sure that someone will try and resurrect one of them to cause all kinds of havoc.

The Books of Faces
Don’t forget to checkout and like the Book of Faces Facebook page. You can check out the adventure history over at the Adventure Chronicle.

Rising Phoenix News
Here’s an awesome interior art preview for the pages of the final version of Claustrophobia! from my bro, illustrator Donovan Sloan.

IMG_7429.PNG

I’ve also restarted going through Johnn Four’s Gamers Lifestyle course, with a view to smoothing out operations and getting more stuff published in the future. Wish me luck, I’ll be hitting the books hard this year.

Inspired in Japan
The #TRPG hashtag on Twitter is worth a browse. TRPG means “Table-talk RPG” and in Japan refers specifically to pen and paper RPGs. There’s plenty to inspire, and surprise (sometimes even shock), even if you can’t read Japanese. #DnDj will get you Japanese Dungeons and Dragons related posts.

That’s all from me until next Thursday.
Tell Thrilling Tales

Zombies! - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Hottest New Book
The End Of The World: Zombie Apocalypse
The End Of The World: Zombie Apocalypse

Punchy Printouts

Today I’ve got some tips on making modern player handouts with more punch as well as updates on our current news.

SHIELD Secret Brief

Avernos Unearthed
Avernos is all about the darkness on the doorstep, the growing evil at the edge of vision. So it’s high time we took a look at the Abyss, this weeks newest addition to the wiki.

The Abyss is a massive hole in the ground, surrounded by the Jaws mountains and leading directly into the depths of hell. Not a place you want to go, unless you’re, say, a witch hunter, monster slayer or questing paladin.

This is one area that will probably see many more entries this year as we travel deeper into the dark. I hope your sword is sharp and your torch bright.

The Books of Faces
Last week I mentioned my big plans for the Book of Faces adventure. But what is it really all about?

The Book of Faces is content that I’m creating while players from all over the Internet are giving their feedback, deciding where the adventure goes. While that’s happening, I’m busy writing more content and drawing concept sketches for a final book version. I call it crowd-questing.

You can follow the history of the quest at the Adventure Chronicle or take part on Facebook.

Campaign Journal
Handouts are a great way to hook players in and say “hey, this information is important.” I made this secret SHIELD Brief for ACT 2 of Breakout for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

It’s easy to put something like this together in a text editor like Word.

  1. Write out your text. Use formal language to make it sound official and important.
  2. Use a font like Stencil for the header and Courier for the main body. A font like Freestyle Script is good for hand written parts, such as notes scribbled by NPCs or their signatures.
  3. Add logos harvested from the web. A grey scale version of the logo makes a great watermark if it’s in the background.
  4. As with logos, you can find stamp marks on the web. Better still, stamp them with a real stamp and red ink. Yet another option is to use the shape tool to create your own stamp, using a thick border and the Stencil font, all in red, to get it as close to the real thing as you can.
  5. To make your document more intriguing for the players, use a black marker pen or white-out to hide important facts. You can also use this trick to create red herrings.

Rising Phoenix News

Rising Phoenix Games is 4! In all the commotion of the holidays I forgot that we’ve been working towards our goals since the very last day of 2010. For sure, it has been a great ride, and the best is still to come, with so many exciting projects itching to go live.
You can check out our publications for the past four years on DriveThruRPG.

Voting for RPG Superstar 2015 ended a day or so ago, but next week the round 1 winners will be announced over at Paizo.com.

Inspired in Japan

I’m not sure who the two people carved on this stone are, but my guess is they were a couple who lived in the area. Perhaps their descendants commissioned the carving after they passed away. What do the statues and carvings your players come across tell them about your world?

Carved Stone. Photo by R Sloan

That’s all from me until next Thursday.
Tell Thrilling Tales

Old School RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com