The Pink Carnivean

Here is a metal carnivean I got as part of a job lot. It has a minor conversion with one of its lower legs on a piece of Retribution jack. I went with a lighter shade than my others, which are all dark purple. Not much more to say...

[Commissions] Going to Asia?

When I got my Reaper Bones III last year, I went through and was really very excited to find some of the Asian-inspired creatures therein. Among them, the large samurai-oni lady. Painting these guys was a blast I was able to complete them so quickly. Fun miniatures all around. The "set" of characters includes a Kenku, two Kitsune(fox-people), and a masked human woman.

At first, I had the idea of creating an adventure set in a fantasy Asia. Something akin to Akhamet, but now I am unsure. The idea is still there, still marinating in the back of my mind, but I need additional time to sit down and get it done. So this is one of the things currently on the backburner for FOE. Something you can look forward to find at your gaming tables.

I too am pretty excited about it... but it will wait until Akhamet is out and done.

[Commission] Freeblade miniatures

From the Vault of minis I painted long ago, but am only posting them now.

Last year, I bought myself these miniatures from the FreeBlades range. Putting them together proved to be somewhat of a challenge, but the finished product are very nice. The sculpts are solid and they paint well.

The first two characters are a Dryad and a sorceress/druid. I am particularly fond of the dryad character. She is a surprisingly simple but very effective character. The sorceress was one of my inspiration for the Medusan "iconic". As she holds a snake in hand she is perfect for that role. Expect to see her on the gaming table...

The next pair is an eagle knight and a lion knight. With the recent work I've been doing, the lion-woman will make her way into a game I started putting ideas together...

[5e] Two books on Ancient Greece released

I have been hard at work getting those two book done and out. With my recent sidetracks into the world of Ancient Greece, a multitude of side plots, items, characters, races and stories. These were placed into one of the many, many text files. Eventually, these ideas were grew and grew until I had to make something out of them. That my kids are interested certainly had something to do with this Ancient Greece thing... The other products of the sub-range include: Gostor Olympians, and the adventure A Question of Judgment.

So the first one is Gostor Medusan, presenting a new player-character race of half-medusas. The idea came one day when I was thinking of an adventure for "Greek Villains". And who is one of the top Greek Villainess? Medusa!

This train of thought led me to think of ways to mae a race that could turn people to stone with just a gaze... Then how to make it not so powerful. When I floated the idea to my team, many immediately went "oh no, that's too powerful" but after I explained how it worked they went "it's pretty cool".

Check it out yourself! Worse case scenario, you spring a surprise monster on your players!

The other product also comes from the Gostor line, Gostor Gifts of the Gods is a collection of twenty five new magic items taken from Greek Myths. These includes such classics as Zeus' Thunderbolts, the Caduceus, Hera's Cloak, and the Golden Fleece.

Big shout-out to my good buddy Wesley-O who served as a sounding board for these items and who offered valuable insight that made these items so much better.

This is the first time I am releasing two non-adventure products at the same time. It is also great to release them both on DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, AND the Open Gaming Store.

State of FOE and some of my Yearly Resolution

I have not shared this with a lot of people, but one of my goals for 2018 is to increase both my throughput in terms of products and my sales in number of units and gross. This will allow me to grow, get more art and writing done, offer better pay to both my writers and my artists. I pay my artists and my writers. Granted, I doubt any of them will grow rich on this, but I like to think it helps.

If you don't know: FOE is in the black, everything is currently paid for (minus the final payments for pieces of art currently in the works). Everything else is up to date. Meaning that should I stop producing any content today, I would not lose anything. This is one reason I have kept my operation small and growing organically. Producing content for first the Tyrants of Saggakar, and now for Rhym, Akhamet, and my Ancient Greek side-project is something I do for fun, something I enjoy.

Back to the topic, after years of "just doing it," I looked at my sales and profits and began to wonder how to increase them, how to make more money. So for the first part of this year, I looked at a number of things to achieve my goals.

- Better content This means refining the writing, sharpening and improving my own style. This is one thing I have been working at doing, from polishing the writing, to the editing, to the look of FOE's products. I have been reading, watching and trying quite a few things. From the first products I put out back in 2013 to today, there is a world of difference.

- Better art When I started, I could not care less about the art. I am a writer and the art was little more than "eye candy" to illustrate a character. I have come around on that, going so far as to invest all of FOE's profits into commissioning more and new art. Akhamet is already funded and paid for (minus the cover page, one of the pieces I mention previously). All the unique races of Akhamet will have their own new unique piece of art just for them. I work mostly with two great artists: Irene and Zammy, both of which as great and provide my products with a look that I like. One great thing about it, I had to dust-off my Espanol because Zammy speaks very basic English. Small win. No. Do not expect a spanish version of Tyrants of Saggakar... I began talking to a local artist for some collaboration work.

- More content On the back of better content, I am trying to push out one product a month. These products cover a variety of subjects and settings: from races (such as Olympians, the Medusans), to settings books (Spiderfen) to adventures for Legacies and Setting-less, to magic items collections. I have even more ideas than time to complete them.

- More varied content I have been thinking about creating different products to complement products I am already making. A few random things include: NPC cards, and other media products.

- More revenu streams You may have noticed already that some FOE products have shown up on more platforms, such as DM's Guild, and the Open Gaming Store.

- More Appearances I've always been a firm believer that I can talk to people about why I think my setting is awesome, but nothing beats playing. So I plan on attending more events in and around Middle Tennessee. I am having a lot of fun doing so with ActionMan as the two of us get to travel and spend some time doing guy stuff.

Those are just some of what I am trying to make FOE more successful than ever, with an eye on breaking even on my con trips, so I can attend more events in the area. As I write this, I have three products that should be coming out within the next three weeks: Gostor Medusan, Gostor Gifts of the Gods, and a DM's Guild adventure: A Rose By Any Name, which is an update and rework of the classic Legacies Adventure of the same name, now setting-less to conform to the guidelines of the Guild. I will post when they come out...

A Question of Judgment: a Greek adventure for 5e released

I am very happy to announce the release of FOE's latest adventure on DM's Guild, A question of judgment, and adventure set in mythical Greece where the PCs rub elbows with the gods and their brood. This is a simple adventure with the typical twists you now associate with FOE and our products.

I am very happy to publish this adventure. The kids served as play-testers for it and we had a great afternoon together. Dad knows of the many myths, while the kids know of them through young adult literature, such as Percy Jackson. Whatever the case, I was able to run this adventure with them knowing who the major players were. This adventure does not demand copious knowledge of mythology.

I also added the Olympian pre-gens.

Check it out! Let us know what you think. It is available on Drivethru Rpg and RPGNow.

Edit: This was way too setting-specific for DM's Guild so instead of dealing with an endless string of re-writes that would not satisfy them (I've been down that path before, and there is no pleasing them).

FOE (almost) Sold out at Gencon 2018, random thoughts, and ActionMan

FOE nearly completely sold out for Gencon! Within 24h of opening, FOE events have but a single ticket left! Because of my two awesome GMs: Isabelle and J-S, this means there will be two slots throughout Thursday and Friday.

I requested the addition of two tables for the evening of Lost Pyramid of Neferheket. The folks at Gencon should be adding these shortly, so stay tuned to see when they go on sale. Here is a link that will show you all the FOE events on the program.

Musings and Thoughts

I was chatting with a good friend of mine, Chad-N, yesterday night and the question was raised as to why this was. I always like to analyse such things and draw hypotheses as to why that is. And from this, draw lessons and learn. Such reasoning has led to my participation - or lack thereof - in certain events and moving forward with some and not others. The lack of participation in my Pathfinder tables led me to the decision to only offer 5e-based games at public events. And as a businessman, I have to see where the market is going and where my players and customers are, what they want, what they expect, and the reverse questions.

I know, I know, you will say "but JP you cannot use negative logic to define things" and you would be absolutely right however, I am trying to find where to go and where to avoid going. So the reasoning is sound - for you philosophical folk...

To start, I make the following postulate: Poeple want to play 5th edition D&D. Not a big stretch, I know, but it needs to be said. This is validated by looking at the registrations: most tables of 5th edition show Sold Out, and that includes Adventure League, Living Arcanis, FOE Legacies (us, yeah!) and even independent GMs and groups.

I wondered if cost would be prohibitive, but that does not seem to be the case, a 4h Adventure League event is 12$. Playing these events would simply be cost-prohibitive to me, but they have a good reputation and are generally quite solid (even if my own experience with AL at Gencon was not positive that such amount of money is not something I want to spend or risk).

ActionMan at Gencon

ActionMan asked me if he could come to Gencon and I thought about it. He really thought that would be a great thing, and he is 100% right. I'd love to attend Gencon with him. However, the family budget is simply not there to support a four day extravaganza.

There are a few problems with that: he is still too young to participate, I don't have room at my tables for him (remember all sold out), and perhaps the biggest problem: he played almost all of my material already! Anyway, I prefer attending smaller cons with him and Jojo where we can spend more time together.

Poor ActionMan will have to wait a few more years to come to Gencon... and by then he may be a member of my GM team. He expressed interest in GMing some Saggakar...

Treasures: Ten Magic Items released for 5e

Some book come together through hard work and other come together without any effort at all. The latest FOE release to the DM's Guild, was one that was both. Some of the items came naturally and without any work on my part. Some items just wrote themselves and others requires work and many re-writes on my part. With the final stretch in sight, I brought them all together and formatted them. That part was really quick and simple.

The title of this one says it all: Treasures: Ten Magic Items. At first it may seem to be "just" another collection of items. However, after consulting with a few good people, I decided to add more.

Not only does each item include a description and art (a few don't have art), but each has at least two adventure hooks to introduce the items as more than something that was just lying around in a dungeon. With hooks ranging from dungeon to exploration to war to social...

Check it out and let me know what you think.