The annual Xmas in July sale is on at DriveThruRPG

This is a perfect time to try out some new game systems without breaking the bank. Here is a list of ten new systems to try for X-Mas in July.

The Scarred Lands Spell Cards for 5e were just released on DriveThruRPG. I had the pleasure of working on these cards as the developer as well as performing layout duties. The process of crafting these cards presented a number of unique challenges, which required a wide array of skills.

There is a massive sale running at the Storytellers Vault, offering 75% off of the 20th Anniversary Edition core rulebooks for each World of Darkness line. In addition to these savings, the sale offers a 25% discount off of all sourcebooks and most of the community content for these lines. While this presents a prime opportunity to catch up on any of the official 20th Anniversary Edition materials you may have missed, I would like to take a moment to call your attention to some of the community content included in the sale. These titles are organized by game line, not listed by any sort of ranking. All twenty of these sourcebooks are very well done and worth every penny. Get them at a discount while you can!

The World of Darkness has been a part of many of our lives for a very long time. The 20th Anniversary editions of the games have been some of the most expansive and innovative additions to the game line in years, giving a new breath of life to a classic. DriveThruRPG and Storytellers Vault is holding a sale currently on the 20th Anniversary game lines and supplements. There are many hidden gems in this sale, so I am going to give you my top picks and why you should add them to your collection. I have these in no particular order.

Hi all, my name is Liz and I’m the owner of Angry Hamster Publishing. In May 2019 our newest game Afterlife: Wandering Souls launches on Kickstarter and the Flames Rising blog was kind enough to let me write a guest post about the game and what horror could mean to player characters.

The premise of Afterlife: Wandering Souls (AWS) is: You die, but you don’t end up where you are meant to go – Heaven, Hell, reincarnation, a great nothingness. Instead, you are transported to the Tenebris – a giant scorching desert reaching into eternity. You travel the Tenebris entering into different Limbos (worlds) in search of memories from your past life and struggling to come to terms with who you were and what you lost.

Flames Rising contributor Monica Valentinelli, best known for her many contributors in the tabletop gaming industry, has teamed up with comics professional Mark Stegbauer to bring you a fun, fiery creative challenge.

In #febrrrary, pick a daily prompt to stat up an antagonist for your favorite game, write a 250-word story, or warm up your creative muscles with a fun sketch! Monica has mentioned on Twitter she plans on using the prompts for a quick, morning warm-up. What about you? Are you planning to draw, write, or stat up characters? Sounds like creating new Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition monsters could be a fun way to deal with freezing cold temps.

We’re Elizabeth Chaipraditkul and Steffie de Vaan, and we wanted to tell you about our newly launched RPG Patreon. We’ve been active in the RPG industry for some years now. Liz was the lead developer for the Crescent Empire book for 7th Sea, author of the Book of Lore for Bluebeard’s Bride, and owns her own Indie company Angry Hamster Publishing which published Witch: Fated Souls. Steffie wrote for the Changeling the Lost 2nd Edition Corebook, Beckett’s Jyhad Diary (Vampire: the Masquerade), and is the developer for Promethean: The Created and the upcoming Legendlore RPG. So you’d think we have lots of creative outlets. And we do. They’re just… still not enough. Hence our Patreon, to finally release our bottled ideas into the world.

Hi all, Matt’s letting me take over the blog today to tell you about my newly released Choice of Games novel 7th Sea: A Pirate’s Pact. I’m Danielle Lauzon, a long-time freelance writer and developer for Onyx Path and a one-time line developer for 7th Sea Second Edition.

If you aren’t familiar with 7th Sea, it’s a game set in an alternate world 17th Century Europe (and the rest of the world as well). It’s a game about romance, high adventure, and sorcery in the vein of Errol Flynn movies, Alexandre Dumas books, The Princess Bride, One Thousand and One Nights…I could go on, but I think you get it. And in all this we feature not quite but just reminiscent characters and situation from a recognizable history in a fantastical world. Magic is real, myths are real, and you play Heroes fighting against evil and corruption.

Hi everyone! I am pleased to announce two exciting things today! I will be at Special Guest at GameHole Con from Thursday, November 8th to Sunday, November 11th. During the show, I’ll be running a playtest of a Ravenloft campaign I’m working on for DMsGuild.com, putting in some booth time for Onyx Path Publishing, attending panels, and playing games.

To help sick kids, I will be playing a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition game that’ll be live-streamed during the show. The fundraiser is called Extra Life, and it allows me to customize rewards for your pledges.

I’m not sure where to start this post, because it was inspired by an interview question. On the surface, the interviewer’s question sounds simple: What would I change in gaming? Well, after several minutes I realized the volume of what I’d want to change would not fit in a paragraph. Instead, I’m writing this post […]

Inspired by Justin Achilli’s Act Charitably, Win V20 I’ve decided to do my own. I have an extra copy of the Grand Masquerade limited edition V20 core book that was released in 2011. I’m seeing these sell for $400 or more on eBay and similar sites. Like Justin, I’d like to give it away to someone looking for something cool. Unfortunately, it is a little late to give this as a X-Mas gift, but maybe someone will kick off the new year with a rare book…

Available from Storytellers Vault

When I was approached about writing up the city I live in as a stretch goal for the Vampire: the Masquerade book Anarchs Unbound, I was thrilled. It was my first chance to contribute — in a meaningful, but small way — to the World of Darkness setting. My write-up was a side-bar, really — only about a thousand words — but the offer was made to me with a very short deadline in mind — less than a week, in fact — from accepting the job to turning over my completed draft. Once completed, I knew that there was more to this story, and I wanted the chance to expand on that very basic summary.

The Pip System is a roleplaying system published by Third Eye Games and used in games such as Mermaid Adventures, Infestation: An RPG of Bugs and Heroes, and Camp Myth.

It was just recently released on Kickstarter, and I cannot be more excited. I had the opportunity to be on the writing staff for the book, and it was my first opportunity to work in a group writing format. I wanted to share with you some of the highlights for the Pip System and talk about my experiences with this amazing writing staff.

The Midgard Campaign Setting for 5th Edition and Pathfinder RPG is a 300+ page volume describing the Midgard regions, from the Northlands to the Western Wastes, and from the Southlands to the Crossroads. With detailed locations, cities, rulers, heraldry, plots, and adventure hooks galore, plus full details of the various pantheons, masked gods, and dark gods, there’s enough here to fuel years of adventuring!

Five years have passed since the original release and now Kobold Press is updating the Midgard Campaign Setting, with even more magic, monsters, and expanded content! Wolfgang Baur is here today with a guest post about this ambitious project.

Hi all, Hannah here! 2016 was a big year for John Wick Presents. The biggest event of the year, and the one you’ve probably heard all about, was the Kickstarter campaign for 7th Sea: 2nd Edition.

A high-adventure game of swashbuckling and intrigue, 7th Sea has maintained a devoted fan base since its first release in 1999. When John decided it was time to bring 7th Sea back to the gaming table, the response surpassed everyone’s wildest expectations. The Kickstarter campaign ended with 11,483 backers from around the world and over $1.3 million dollars. Not only was it an amazing show of support from existing fans, but thousands of new gamers would be welcomed to the world of 7th Sea for the first time.

Born out of both my personal experiences and the knowledge that oppression tends to crush the artistic spirit on a cellular level, I have created a Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge for those who need it. This challenge, which came together from inspiration to draft guidelines, is designed to be flexible to work with […]

We’re wrapping up our 2016 Year in Review guest blog series with a last minute entry from Rachel Ventura and Jason Nelson from Legendary Games. Legendary has been extremely busy this past year and it doesn’t look like they have any plans to slow down for the new year…but let’s let them tell you all about it.

A Legendary 2016

This was an exciting year for the Legendary Games team, as we continued to broaden our reach and our product offerings. We published a total of 135 products, including 39 for 5th Edition and the remainder for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Some of these products were short PDFs and free supplements, but we still created over 100 full-size supplements, offering most in print as well as PDF, with a growing selection of our products available on virtual tabletops like d20Pro and Fantasy Grounds as well as on HeroLab! Legendary Games has published a huge array of products in the past year, including adventures, bestiaries, magic items, class supplements, setting material, and more, from 3-page Mythic Minis to the 300+ page Trail of the Apprentice Adventure Saga for Pathfinder and 5E.

We’re continuing our series of 2016 in Review guest blog posts with one of Flames Rising’s oldest friends in the RPG business, Pelgrane Press! This year was quite busy for Pelgrane and Cat Tobin is here to tell us all about it. Not only that, they are running a special sale on every title they released in 2016, for a limited time you can save 16% on PDFs at the Flames Rising Shop!

2016 has been a tumultuous year all around the globe, and these giant waves of change have even reached the dizzying heights of the Pelgrane’s Nest.

Early in the year, our focus was on 13th Age, with new releases including the popular GM’s Screen and Resource Guide, the first of our collection of Battle Scenes (High Magic and Low Cunning: Battle Scenes for Five Icons, and accompanying Map Folio in its full-colour glory) and the second volume of the 13th Age Monthly subscription product. We also released some adventures for Trail of Cthulhu (The Many Deaths of Edward Bigsby), and Night’s Black Agents (The Dubai Reckoning).

2016: Downs and Ups and More of Both

2016? It was a year of ups and downs, with the ups very, very up but some of the downs pretty far down, as well. It was a year in which a lot of personal heroes passed on, including my older brother Michael. It was a year in which a turbulent election roiled a lot of uncomfortable currents around my country.

On the other hand, there were definite high points, worthy of celebration, and that’s what I’ll focus on here, in more-or-less chronological order.

Savage Worlds in ’16: the Year in Review

It’s safe to say 2016 has been a banner year for Pinnacle Entertainment Group. With more than 20 years under our belt going through cycles of highs (and lows) that’s not a statement we make lightly.

This year we continued the story of Weird Wars with Weird War I, brought new fans to our award-winning Savage Worlds system with our partnership to produce (and we’re shipping now!) Rifts® for Savage Worlds with Palladium Books, Inc., and we’ve celebrated the 20th year anniversary of Deadlands Classic and released the fourth and final Servitor campaign for Deadlands Reloaded: Good Intentions. We also shipped Kickstarter rewards for our campaigns Rippers Resurrected and Deadlands: The Cackler graphic novel. Another Deadlands novel released through Tor Books. And several companies licensing Savage Worlds released product in different languages and/or for settings of their own–frankly brilliant—creations.