Captain Phoenix's page

Is there any chance Paizo will do a site-wide update of 3PP PDF prices? Drive Thru did the same recently, and it would be great if we could get something similar here.

Thank you Mika!

This sounds awesome!

Thank you so much for this Paizo!

I found an error on Page 2, near the bottom of the page:

"Others incorporate all-new creatures and places devised by the GM, with strange themes [which] don’t fit in the standard Pathfinder game or world."

mavbor wrote:

The horns IMO makes it that the feat can not be obtained via Adopted Ancestry which greatly reduces its OPness. Which is a good thing IMO.

I read on other threads that Aasimar and Tiefling was supposed to be Heritages that other races can get (supposed a dev mentioned it). Is that still planned (like half orcs and half elfs)?

The consensus based on what was announced at GenCon is that the Advanced Players Guide (new classes playtest beginning in October of this year and releasing next November, I believe) will contain these heritages, and that they will be available to multiple different races.

Have you seen the errata we put up for Heaven & Hell: Aasimar & Tiefling Ancestries? I'm not sure if it is up on Paizo yet, but it is on Drive Thru RPG. We included the following options, which we'll add to the PDF in the future.

Universal Heritages
The following heritages can be taken by a character of any ancestry, at 1st level.

Aasimar
Either one of your parents was an angelic being, or one or both were aasimar. You have near-perfect features that betray your aasimar heritage. You gain the aasimar trait and low-light vision. In addition, you can select aasimar feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

Tiefling
Either one of your parents was a devil, or one or both were tieflings. You have diabolical features, such as horns or cloven hooves that betray your tiefling heritage. You gain the tiefling trait and darkvision. In addition, you can select tiefling feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

The horns IMO makes it that the feat can not be obtained via Adopted Ancestry which greatly reduces its OPness. Which is a good thing IMO.

Sorry, I misunderstood your earlier comment then. Thanks for clarifying.

Can you link it?

Thanks for buying our book and thank you for the feedback. We're putting together an errata file that we'll make available soon.

We're not likely to change Fiendish Resistance at this point, because we feel that the horns only have a real impact for unarmed monks. Of course, you're welcome to cut the horns if you wish.

Supreme Sorcery will be mentioned in the errata, with a rules clarification.

There is also a mistake. One of the 5th level feats has a prerequisite of a higher level feat that has a prerequisite of the lower level one.

Thanks for buying the book and for pointing out the error. We're putting together an errata file, and we'll update the document as soon as we can.

Here's the thread I have the quote from

But you might want to take a look into this thread as well.

Thanks Franz, we'll do our best to look over comments and do what we can.

So, unlike the APG that will have Plane-touched heritages for other ancestries (so you can make an Elf-Aasimar and such), this one actually makes Aasimar and Tieflings their own ancestry with specific heritages?

Yip.

Could you pass on the link for that thread to me, we'd love to fix any issues that pop up. The game's so new we feel like there's still a lot to learn, and digital publishing makes it easy to improve the product.

Wait these are all 5e adventures?

So they are. We're supporting both Pathfinder and 5th edition fantasy with the setting, we're just waiting for 2nd ed to drop before we consider converting our 1-on-1 adventures.

Anaximander's Adventuring Studies

An adventure for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game by Jeffrey Swank, for 1st-level characters.

We are only as strong as we are united, and only as weak as we are divided.
—Arcturius Anaximander

Anaximander’s Adventuring Studies is a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game adventure designed for a party of four 1st-level PCs. This adventure follows the players through three years as they attend the University of Scarthey and branch out into the institution’s new School of Adventuring Studies.

This adventure introduces and takes place in the lands around the University of Scarthey, as revealed in the campaign setting of Welcome to Scarthey published by Rising Phoenix Games, but can be played on a stand-alone basis in any city.

You can find out more on our blog.

Companionable Darkness, the third adventure in our Choose Your Destiny series, is here!

Companionable Darkness is a solo adventure for a 1st—3rd level cleric or paladin, compatible with the fifth edition rules of the world’s oldest roleplaying game. This is our largest adventure yet, clocking in at 64 entries (including the intro and conclusion) over 45 pages, with new player options for the barbarian and bard classes. A successful run should take you around half an hour, if you don’t fall foul of the traps and monsters that lie in wait. The More Adventure section allows you to extend the game far beyond that, as you work to protect the caravan you’re traveling with from the many dangers on the road.

Like our other Choose Your Destiny adventures, Companionable Darkness is set in the world of Scarthey, but you don’t need to be familiar with the setting to play. This adventure continues on from Death Queen and Forest of Secrets, but you don’t need to have played those to enjoy this latest adventure, since a brief synopsis is provided.

Auror's Whole Realms for Fifth Edition

Aurora’s Whole Realms Autumn Catalogue is the second seasonal guide we’ve published, casting true resurrection on Aurora’s Whole Realms Catalogue, that gem from 2nd edition D&D. Our take on the classic offers new items for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, with a focus on flavor and roleplaying rather than mechanics and usefulness in combat — you’re not likely to win a battle wielding mammoth ribs, after all.

The 50-page catalog offers the following sections:

Another Word from Our Founder
Equipment Packs
Fall Fashion
Food and Drink
Games and Toys
Highharvestide Travelling Gear
Household Sundries
Minor Magical Marvels
Scents of Fall
Seasonal Delights
Highharvestide Tools
Cooking Corner

You won’t find anything to improve your character’s damage output, but you’ll find plenty of unique items to add some flavourful fun to your games set in Faerun or anywhere else.

You can find the Autumn Catalogue here, and the older Summer Catalogue here.

First review 5 stars?! Hooray!

Nicely done!

The Upload Downloadable Products or Manage Consignments page, accessed from the Account page, seems to be down. When I attempt to access it I get the following message:

The requested application was not found on this server.

Listing the different levels of success (not just in spells, but in skills particularly) feels like it's taking something away from my agency as a GM. That's obviously not the intention, but as the GM I want a critical success to adapt to the story we're playing at the table. Yes, the mechanics must be standardized, but the descriptions of successes and failures should offer inspiration to the GM, with mechanically appropriate suggested outcomes rather than hard and fast results.

Maybe when I've got a better grip of the rules it'll be easier to interpret mechanics into storytelling, but I'm glad for the simplification.

Awesome! I'm keen to see where this AP is heading.

It seems like Pathfinder 2 will build on Pathfinder and Starfinder, especially Unchained and, to a degree, on D&D 5e and other, newer systems. I'd expect the playtest, then, to showcase a lot of the "weirder" mechanics.

With that in mind, I think Pathfinder 2 has the potential to include everything we love about what has come before, and pave the way forward for 10 more great years of roleplay.

Personally, there are a few things I'd like to see, but I'm going to keep quiet, just in case they don't come to pass and I get the chance to publish those ideas instead.

Well done Bardess!!!

New on the blog:

Who is Rising Phoenix Games
Rodney sat down with Jon Frater to talk about Rising Phoenix Games and our product line.

Roleplaying on the Cheap
Tight budget after the Christmas-spending-spree? No problem. Here's my 3 point plan for buying books on a budget.

Goblin Lugging
The challenging sport of Goblin Lugging, inspired by the real-life sport of Wife Carrying.

Will we get the now obligatory breakdown of tentacle monster submissions?

Well done Kim!

And to everyone else as well. All of the top five were worthy contestants.

Gorviel

Well done Jeremy, an interesting monster.

Fantasy is full of creature mashups, like the girallon, griffon, and chimera, but I think you took a unique approach to your design. At first it seems like it's a bug-monkey, but making it a mobile hive was a nice twist. This aspect of the creature was not front and center in your opening paragraph, so I guess it's designed to be a surprise for the players, once Initiative has been rolled? I had to reread your entry to figure out why it was cool, but I do think it is.

The ability name "Chittering Roar" sounds like an oxymoron to me. In the same way, "hump of bone and chitin" might be stronger if it was just a hump of chitin, but that might just be personal preference. I think an artist could have fun with this.

I would have loved to see a longer description of the appearance of the insects that live within the hive, rather than just the "beetle-like males".

Overall, well done. Good luck.

Grynthak

A great monster, and certainly feels very new and interesting.

I only noticed the "-2 size", which should be an n-dash. This is the Pathfinder standard, but other conventions might be the norm elsewhere. D&D fifth edition, for example, uses the Unicode 2212 minus sign. Very well done.

I like this monster a lot. There is a gross factor here that, at first, I didn't like, but the more I read your write up the more I think it fits. Besides, anyone who doesn't like regurgitating maggots could easily reskin this for their home campaign.

On the blog Tommi commented that "Absorbing stories is quite rarely relevant at all." But I disagree. Every adventurer, by nature, has exciting stories to tell, and you've created a mechanic for playing with those memories. Just imagine what would happen if the players encountered a grynthak and then forgot the encounter that set them off on their current quest! That is pure genius.

Calliope Pachyderm

A really fun monster, well done Aaron.

My only suggestion really is to be careful that your vocabulary doesn't alienate the player. It's a tricky line to follow, especially because you've used some great words in your write up that might be hard to axe.

I regularly play with second language English speakers, many of whom are very well read, with vast vocabularies. Still, I think they might have had to hold onto their dictionaries with this one.

It's also important to remember that Pathfinder is played all over the world, so keeping your language accessible is very important.

Otherwise, a great monster that I'd love to include in an encounter.

Captain Phoenix wrote:

I've seen a few judges mention the "3 odd and 3 even" ability score spread. I'm wondering, where's that from? It makes sense to me as a way to balance out buffs, but otherwise does it make much of a difference? Looking through the Bestiary there certainly are plenty of monsters that have the 3/3 spread, but also those who don't, like the Aasimar.

Unfortunately, there are many unwritten rules and poorly explained rules in PF monster design that may seem a bit arbitrary. If I'm not terribly wrong, it's because monsters get the 11, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10 array (which is probably only implied, not explained in the rules). Racial bonuses to ability scores are always divisible by 2, so you end up with 3 odd, 3 even. Racial HD doesn't increase ability scores like class levels do. (Unless it's "additional" racial HD, in other words, added to an existing monster! That, of course, doesn't affect our contest because all monsters should be new.) So even a high-HD monster should have 3 odd, 3 even.

The aasimar is a 0 HD creature with 1 cleric level, which means it gets the elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) + racial bonuses, which is why it has 4 even ability scores. If it had racial HD before it added class levels, it'd get +4 +4 +2 +2 +0 -2 instead.

Confusing, huh? :-D It is what it is, but if a contestant manages to get all those details right, we certainly appreciate it. (And I'm sure Adam can attest to that Paizo developers also very much appreciate it when freelancers know/remember all those obscure rules.) That said, creativity is king, and those little details usually don't affect our top 5 selection unless there are lots of those little mistakes.

Thankfully, Starfinder monster design is much, much more straightforward, and there aren't (quite so many) unwritten rules. :)

Thanks for taking the time to explain that Mikko.

Despoiler
Well done Jeff. I like the despoiler and could see myself using it.

The judges have already noted your use of long sentences and places where you should use n-dashes and so on. Otherwise your formatting was pretty tight and what I'd expect to see. An editor wouldn't have a hard time cleaning up the rest.

Skills and feats made a lot of sense. The gorilla image is very strong and I can see this guy in a fun forest encounter. Not sure why you didn't make his environment forests though.

Over all a fun monster that plays nicely with the theme.

I'm not sure that my comments are working on the A Sword for Hire Blog, so reposting them here:

Gravestone Dryad

Good work Kim. This is a great monster design that fits the theme well.

Sometimes little things really stand out in a design, and in this it was your inclusion of Craft (sculpture) +11. As a GM I can just imagine the gravestone dryad surrounded by dirt sculptures, dead adventurers entombed within. The synergy of this skill with the main ability is very strong and makes for good roleplay. It also shows that there is reason behind all your skill choices, which reflects strong design. Well done.

Swapping the word order in the description makes it read better: "this once-beautiful clawed female..." Otherwise the description is evocative and well done.

With formatting, don't end a line with a semi-colon. That would have solved 90% of your formatting issues. Otherwise there are a few other little dings, but really, this is at the level I'd expect. An editor would catch the rest.

Overall, a very strong submission.

Well done top five! Very cool to see what you all came up with.

I've seen a few judges mention the "3 odd and 3 even" ability score spread. I'm wondering, where's that from? It makes sense to me as a way to balance out buffs, but otherwise does it make much of a difference? Looking through the Bestiary there certainly are plenty of monsters that have the 3/3 spread, but also those who don't, like the Aasimar.

That said, it's an easy enough thing to fix, so it would be good to understand the principle behind it.

Thanks Rick!

This is a fun series, it's cool to see it growing.

Cool concept. Always been a fan of dwarves, and this fits nicely.

I now want to play a

"We be goblins...IN SPACE!"

This!!! So much this!!!

Suggested title "We Be Goblins 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Blast Off"

Rising Phoenix Games is looking for a line developer / writer / game designer to join our team and take our Starfinder line to the stars and beyond.

Responsibilities

• Develop compelling Starfinder Roleplaying Game compatible supplements.
  
• Maintain the high quality of our products, including adhering to house and industry style guides.
  
• Help maintain a visible and accessible web presence, including blogging and interacting with interest groups on Facebook, Google+, and elsewhere.
  
• Coordinating with play testers and the Rising Phoenix Games team.
  
• Conduct market research (i.e.: play and read lots of Starfinder)
  

Requirements

• A minimum of 2 years’ experience working within the industry creating content for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
  
• A passion for creating amazing content, writing well, designing accessible mechanics, and inspiring great journeys of the imagination in others.
  
• A positive and self-driven attitude with the ability to collaborate in a team environment.
  
• Excellent knowledge of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. You should be actively running your own campaign.
  
• Strong written and verbal communications skills. You habitually note spelling and grammar errors in anything you read, swearing to exact vengeance for all slights against the English language.
  

Bonuses

• A stable day job and plenty of free time to write.
  
• Available between 8:30 am and 3 pm, South African Standard Time.
  
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
  
• Creative writing background.
  
• Deep knowledge and passion for mecha related franchises.
  

Required Application Materials

• Resume
  
• Cover letter including your sci-fi related gaming experience.
  
• A 1st level human Starfinder character. The character should be your closest approximation of a mecha crewman (do indicate what sort of role the character usually fills). Format the character as a stat block (no character sheets please).
  
• All application material should be in .PDF format and include your name and email address.
  
• Submit application material to contact@risingphoenixgames.com
  

Thanks Rick!

I like the PFS tiers and think it lends itself to explaining the thought process that went into designing this. That is, if the APL is 3, you're going to be choosing between an easier or harder fight.

Don't forget Shadows over Vathak either, our sister setting already in publication on DriveThruRPG & on Paizo, and on the shared world of Antikthon!

We actually put out a basic primer on playing Vathak races in Steampunk Musha: here, here, and here.

And thanks Endz, you made my day :-)

Konnichiwa traveler.

Rosuto-Shima, a place torn between honoring the old traditions and embracing the new, onrushing age of steam.

Take up your katana and enter the world of Steampunk Musha, an East Asian inspired Steampunk setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

The release of the first book, Steampunk Musha - Explorer's Guide to Rosuto-Shima, is drawing nearer. If you haven't heard about the world we're creating yet, you can find out more here:

Steampunk Musha Official Blog
Steampunk Musha Facebook Page
Steampunk Musha on Google Plus
Fat Goblin Games on Twitter

Our bi-weekly dev blog has plenty of spoilers and some tantalizing flash fiction.

• Episode 1 - Kicking things off.
  
• Episode 2 - Serbian Irish Bands! No, really!
  
• Episode 3 - More about Serbian Irish Bands?!
  
• Episode 4 - More about the Explorer's Guide.
  
• Episode 5 - Some inspiration.
  
• Episode 6 - A sneak peek.
  
• Episode 7 - Why Pathfinder?
  
• Episode 8 - Sticking it to the man.
  
• Episode 9 - Outsiders
  
• Episode 10 - Quick and Dirty Steampunk Weaponry
  
• Episode 11 - Gaijin.
  
• Episode 12 - More gaijin.
  
• Episode 13 - Even more gaijin.
  
• Episode 14 - Collects the Shattered Vows flash fiction.
  
• Episode 15 - Don't trust cats.
  

I'll be posting updates here, so watch this space!

Speaking on behalf of Fat Goblin Games, we have plans to show the unchained monk some support when we begin releasing Steampunk Musha content.

We're starting work on the follow up book to Welcome to Scarthey, a GM focused book entitled Secrets of Scarthey. What sort of content would you like to see as we delve deeper into the University of the Arcane?

Looks great!

So much great news. Well done Paizo!

I tested the download to make sure you get both the Single Page Spread PDF and a Double Page Spread PDF and it works fine, both are zipped into one file.

Thanks Rick!

Rising Phoenix Games is looking for freelance writers.

Project Length: 3,750 words
...

Thank you to everyone who responded to our call! We'll be going through the pitches today and should be able to get back to successful applicants within a week or so.

Rising Phoenix Games is looking for freelance writers.

Project Length: 3,750 words
Pay Rate: A 25% cut of sales.
Additional details: ...
We are looking for 3 writers for this assignment.
Respond to: contact@risingphoenixgames.com
Respond by: February 17th, 2017
Assignment Deadline: To be discussed. We'd like to release 1 adventure every 2 months beginning early April.

Just a few days left on this. We've had some excellent pitches from both well established and new writers. I'd love to read some more pitches, the time is now!

We've updated the adventure to add new text and a map tile to play out the encounters with.

Thank you for your support!

Captain Phoenix wrote:

Well done everyone!

Any chance of some feedback if we didn't make the cut? Or a hug?

In the past, I have given feedback and gotten very angry and argumentative responses. This, of course, soured me to the whole thing...enough so that I generally decline from giving feedback on rejected articles.

However, if you send an email request, I will consider it.

Sorry. Best I can do.

Tim

Thanks Timitius, I appreciate it.

Well done everyone!

Any chance of some feedback if we didn't make the cut? Or a hug?