FOE releases... The Fiend FOELio!

Since FOE was formed in 2013, I have ran several multi-year campaigns, one-shots, and the Legacies campaign that still runs yearly at Gencon and at other smaller events through the year.

These many events resulted in the creation of several different, new, and unique opponents. These stat blocks languished in various documents, and adventures, forgotten or ignored. Some were on roll20 where I created them. A few were on pictures of a scan of a partial stat block.

Over the past two years or so, I have been collecting these stat blocks in one location. Several of them needed new coats of paints: tightening the wording, creating new art, and bringing things in line with hour we create our stat blocks now.

I added some new art, from the usual artists I work with, and a several pieces using AI. This is capped by The British Shark's awesome cover inspired by X-Men 135 by John Byrne (one of my favorite comic of all time).

The book contains:
- Over 250 fully-statted creatures and NPCs to use as allies or opponents and seven major characters from the Legacies campaign over the years.
- Unique characters from Akhamet, Olympia, Ozaka, Rhym, Tarsyn, the Truskan Empire, and even fully-statted First Ones.
- New creatures from FOE settings, presented with notes on how to adapt them to other worlds.
- Updated creatures from older FOE products. Giving a little love to these creatures after years of playtesting. Cleaning and bringing them in line with more modern standards.
- Dozens of Book of Lairs-style encounters provide immediate adventure ideas for your table.
- Though written for the worlds of FOE, most of the material contained within can be used for any campaign setting.

This is a book that took over a decade to create!

It is available on:
- Amazon for physical books.
- DriveThruRPG for PDFs.

Rhym Certified Silver Bestseller

With the sad news of JD's passing earlier this month, I put all Rhym product on sale for 50% off until May 14th as a way to get out the word.

Well.. it seems JD was just a little too late to see Rhym get certified as a silver bestseller on DrivethruRPG.

Rhym is a great setting that is the most traditional of FOE's setting, thus it occupies a unique location in the FOEniverse. It is where you can encounter elves, dwarves, and orcs! However, they are given unique tweaks. The elves are reclusive. The mountain dwarves are seen as servants of the dragons. The dragons were beaten and exiled.

Congrats JD, you are a bestselling author!

Farewell JD Conrad

It is with a heavy heart that I learned of the passing of my friend JD Conrad. JD, you will remember was the mind behind Rhym.

I met JD at Imaginareum in late 2016, after a panel I gave called "How to get your stuff published" He approached me asking for clarifications. So we got to talking...

... and talking ...

Our first conversation ended with him telling me about the campaign world he created, wrote, and ran games in. I was intrigued and quite excited by the unique elements: the religion, the history.

We left each other with JD promising to send me what he had. I was excited but based on previous experience, I expected either getting nothing OR four pages of indecypherable material.

Oh how little I knew JD at that time...

A few weeks later, he sent me a zip file (which I still have) in mid-December (told you I still had the file).

Wow.

The material was more than just a few pages of scattered notes. It was a full-fledged setting 160+ pages of material. The years of games he put in showed, from 1e/2e to 5e. True, many elements in there were personal GM notes that were not useful for a book or product. So I sat down, went through it and gave it a rough round of editing and told him to distill the core of each nation and the history. A major rework to be fair, but one that would allow a prospective reader to get information needed to create a character or run an adventure.

Finally, Rhym came out in 2017.

I since published a few extra products to round out and add more as JD and I spoke about creating more material that was never completed.

I could talk more about our relation, the flow of idea, and our meetings at the Chinese restaurant he loved. We hadn't spoken as often these past few years with Covid but still I thought we would be doing more.

That hope will not be realized.

So it is with a heavy but grateful heart that I bid JD farewell as he travels on the Great Wheel and looks down upon us from the Bridge of Stars.

Farewell my friend. And thank you.

Princesses Save Pemrose

So on Black Friday, I ran a new adventure called "Wine with a Succubus" where the players took on the roles of our iconic Princesses characters. The princesses are a collection of playable PC races inspired by the characters we all know. I took a screenshot of part of the action with our girls fighting goblins in the streets.

The pregens are pretty interesting when played, and running a group of them creates a fun dynamic.

I had originally planned to have a second game but I had cancellations... So I had to call it off. I will try to re-run it.

Princesses is available on the DM's Guild now. It is the product of a collaboration between myself and Ibsen Zayas who drew many of the characters.

A big thank you to most of my Friday night group: ActionMan, Ava, Kitty, and Tommy.

FOE at GameholeCon Nov 5-7

On November 5-7, I will be attending GameHoleCon online this year and I have three events on the tickets. Two for Akhamet and one for Rhym. These adventures were originally scheduled for Gencon but... Well... Things happened. So I plan on offering these adventures at other cons, building up to Gencon 2021...

I put info about the games and the time slots in which they are running. The time slots are links to GHC's site.

Legacies: The Half-Crazed Mummy Everything was fine until a half-insane mummy walked out of the desert. A 3rd-level 5th edition adventure set in the Egypt-inspired setting of Akhamet. Part of the Legacies Campaign.

- Friday 8am-1pm
- Sunday 8am-1pm

Legacies: Royal Scepter of Alarian A rich aristocrat wants a scepter no one heard about for centuries, surely it will be easy to find. A 3rd-level 5th edition adventure set in the Rhym Campaign Setting. Part of the Legacies Campaign.

- Friday 2pm-7pm

Iconics: Farahn and Awelara

For years, I used different miniatures to represent the cleric of War from Rhym and the warlock from Saggakar. But I did not like either of them. When I received my latest lot of Reaper Bones, I marked those two minis to replace the ones I had.

Both are tiefling or related to tieflings, so I took them together!

RHYM: Great for intro to D&D

I have been introducing a lot of children/ teens (including mine) to the game and they all seem to have taken a shine to it. I wanted to keep thing simple, so I chose to set the campaign in Rhym. With deceptive simplicity, running games in Rhym present a variety of places, cultures, and conflict types. I concur with others of the parallel with Greyhawk.

I never set a full campaign in Rhym and after running a few games, I dig JD's world even more than I did before. It is rich with cultures and filled with adventure potential. The more I prepare and set up, the more I like it.

Beyond my own geeking over the content, the PLAYERS are enjoying the game and its elements. They are beginning to see some of the faction in my Tarani Empire campaign and wonder which is "the least worst one".

Great work, JD!

Rhym - County of Pemrose Released

For many months now, I have been toying with this setting idea of two strong factions somewhat deadlocked with a third in the wings. While the third faction does not have the legitimacy or the power of the other two, it was stable enough to serve as the kingmaker, as the one that would determine the fate of the nation... I was thinking of writing this for Tyrants of Saggakar but the ideas did not gel together: I had to set up too many elements to make it believable. It just was not what I wanted.

At the same time, I was toying with a few random ideas for Rhym. I was working on an adventure that would follow "Come to the Hills" (an adventure that got completely changed into something different so you know). I was toying with ideas for encounters and situations, a lot of "what would the PCs do if..." sorta questioning.

Inspiration struck suddenly and without warning as it is wont to do. I think it was 5PM when I was at work and should've been working, or just about to head on home when all the pieces fell together. The original idea and the situations fell into place like dominoes. After months of this not going anywhere, I suddenly had everything I wanted.

This is one of the things I love about Rhym: it is SO versatile. You can quite simply adapt any idea you have to it. It is the "Greyhawk" or our settings and for that reason perhaps the most approachable for new players, much moreso than Saggakar.

The random semi-formed ideas that would become the County of Pemrose fell into place. I finished the book then let it sit for a few weeks as I finished and published Akhamet and focused on Gencon. For the month after Gencon, I coasted. I must admit. The big push done, I needed time to myself to do other things: run games, paint and just enjoy myself.

So here is the official blurb for the book.

On the verge of civil unrest, the County of Pemrose is stuck between the power of the five noble houses, a growing bourgeoisie, and an order of knights made of goblins. The County is beset by threats, some overt like the Black Knights, some simmering like rebellion in the commoners' hearts, or the potential of a takeover by militarized goblins. This book details the rich and detailed history of the County, its social structure with its five great houses, details about the threats facing the County, plot hooks, and stat blocks The County is part of the Kingdom of Therland on the Rhym Campaign Setting but can easily be included into your own campaign setting. This book is compatible with 5th Edition.

You can find the book on DriveThru RPG or RPGNow.

[Rhym] Lord of the desert released

One of the things I love about Rhym is that it allows me to write adventures I cannot in Saggakar. This includes desert-based adventure such as this one.

Following the success of Black Sails, I was inspired to write a follow-up adventure. This adventure picks up where Black Sails leaves off, but they can be enjoyed independently. Leaving pirates, ships, and naval puns behind for the heat of the desert, in an adventure that harks to old classics adventures.

This 5e adventure premiered at Imaginarium 2017.

You can get it through DriveThru RPG or RPGNow.

[Campaign Report] The disagreeable wife (with art)

Today, I ran another of our family's home game starring three PCs. The kids taking their roles once again.

- Awelara, the apothecary (cambion warlock 4, played by Jojo)
- Nightshade, the urchin (darkling monk 4, played by Kitty)
- Zombie-Slinger, the soldier (anuka fighter 4, played by ActionMan).

At the end of the last episode, they managed to stop the dimensional web from destroying Saggakar. However, Zombie-Slinger was lost when he played with the device before it was turned off. So this adventure started as the girls arrived in a cave filled with Mists not remembering where they came from...

The two found a wanted poster in their pack. Yes, the following poster:

They had no idea who this Zombie-Slinger or Ramis of House Ougozar were... They headed to the nearby town of Pemrose in Therland where they found Zombie-Slinger working as a city guard there.

The Anuka has a treasure map where ancient orc chiefs were buried.

Having cleared out the whole caves, they found only large spiders, dead bodies, a pre-looted crypt, and a wedding locket. Flush with victory and wanting to buy more stuff, they returned to town to sell the equipment they found and buy new stuff.

The locket it turns out got them involved in an affair of a missing wife. So they began looking for the missing woman, which finally led them to a ruined keep nearby where a band of warriors kept the woman. They stormed the castle, fighting off wave after wave of reinforcements, including a magical snake, and the leader of the plot.

In the end, they found the woman which sounded a lot like their mother. And hillarity ensued... In the end, they were victorious and had lined their pockets.

Kitty colored Irene's work because she wanted her character to be colorful!

---

On a personal note, I think the maps for this part of the adventure was pretty nice and snazzy. I used the dungeon section as a way to bring the PCs into the story. They kept looking for "but there has to be a secret passage", "Are you sure we did not miss anything?", and my favorite "But there is no treasure here!"

The massive battle at the end was pretty cool, with reinforcements serving as a rechargeable lair action! (Yes, I had a maximum number of soldiers to send against them)

Black Sails for Rhym released

Yarrr!!!

After a lot of time and poking around with them, touching and tweaking them over and over, I decided it was time to stop and get these adventures out.

Many of you have played "Black Sails", my tale of pirates, scholars, dragons, and intrigue. It is an adventure I longed to write for so long, one I was very happy to get to write. Since Saggakar plays in Faremh, which is landlocked it was not really the best place to set a nautical adventure.

You can get it here on Drivethru RPG or RPGNow

I am really happy to release this adventure, let me know what you think of it!

Yarrr!!!

Edit: Fixed the links

[Rhym] The Awakening a One-Shot Campaign

This past weekend, I ran my first home game in a very long time. I had an interesting idea to bring together a very hodge-podge group of characters. Both as characters and in-person.

After our original plan for Labor Day feel through, I was really bummed, but I bucked up and talking to my players, I visited some local groups and recruited new people. As with any such gathering, you never know who will show up and whether the party will gel together.

Well... Things went really well from the time they woke up in their cells... The players were awesome and they really got into the madness of the story (which married a dungeon crawl with more intrigue).

The characters were:
- Sister Atusa, A human life cleric (Order of the Eye)
- Belladonus/Belladona, A Haver bard
- Hyree, An Amazon Ranger
- Keevin, A Ptahn Monk
- Om-za, A Kynean sorcerer
- Togg, A Hareen (feral halfling) fighter

I created these characters to both showcase FOE products, but also cover a wide variety of character types. Each character had different abilities than the other iconics from either Saggakar or Rhym.

Ashe drew the following character, who plays Sister Atusa cleric of Knowledge. The awesome drawing depict Sister Atusa hiding behind the large Amazon, Hyree. It seems that she has a growing phobia of the written word. Whenever she hears "There is something written", she now hides... Or they send the illiterate hareen ahead of them. Funny what a few glyphs can do..

Here are a few action pics.

New art and Rhym surprises

I teased you all about Irene's latest work for a while now... but here it is!

You will recognize two of Rhym's iconic characters: Nightshade the Darkling Monk and Fahran the Tiefling cleric.

In other great news, JD was invited as a guest to the Imaginareum convention in Louisville, KY! I will be there running some Rhym material, including some new adventures. If you are in the Louisville area, stop by and say hello to us!.

You can get the Rhym Campaign Setting through Amazon.Com (softcover) or the PDF at DriveThruRPG or RPGNow

[Humor] Recommendations from Amazon

This one has a fair bit of humor attached to it. Earlier this week, I received an email from Amazon listing a number of products I might be interested in. Guess which is the only one that came in as part of that List?

This is the link to the Rhym Campaign Setting.

Blog dedicated to Rhym

this is actually pretty cool news, JD (the mad man behind Rhym) has started a blog dedicated to all things Rhym. His blog will have inspiration, notes, stories, and fiction about Rhym. He has a good story about how much of a jerk I was to him...

What? Don't believe me? Have a look at his blog!

Click here to go to the Rhym Talk Blog.

JP

Rhym Campaign Setting released

For those of you who have been following this blog, you know that I have been working with JD Conrad at putting the finishing touches to Rhym. Well the wait is FINALLY OVER!

I can finally announce that the Rhym Campaign setting for 5th Edition is finally released! This new setting presents new twists on familiar tropes in a setting that is consistent yet open, simple yet complex, and familiar yet different.

Consistent Rhym is a land of history where empire rose and fell over the course of its long history. Empires are expansive through either mercantile, military, or servile means, while others are being invaded or strong enough to keep to themselves.

Open Rhym was designed to provide you with enough information to capture the spirit of our thought, yet allow you to leave your own mark upon the world. Rhym needs heroes and adventurers to change it. For better or worse is up to you.

Familiar Humans form the largest concentrated population and the core of the cultures of Rhym. The core races (dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, etc) are all present on Rhym. There is a pantheon of gods representing simple concepts of the world.

Different Two rings (the Bridge of Heaven and the River of Stars) that dominate the sky day and night, bathing the land in a soft glow day and night. Known races are given interesting twist: the mountain dwarves of Kadin-kar are ostracized, outcast and besieged, the elves of Mythrym segregate themselve from lesser races, the drow dominate the realms below, the Deep Realms guided by a divine prophetess, the half-breed of Zhakur serve as mercenaries.

Simple The dragons used to control the world until their empire was overthrown, their empire is now but a shell of what it was as their former slaves rose against them and established kingdoms

Complex Although at first Rhym is simple, once you scratch the surface, the interactions between nations are steeped in history and filled with layers of nuances.

A large portion of the book presents the setting itself: its nations, its people, its organizations, its languages, its religions, filling with adventure and campaign ideas.

This book includes a brand new race: the Darkling. Darklings are half-demonic offspring of drow with fiendish or undead creatures. One of our iconic characters, Nightshade, is of that race and I had a lot of fun running him.

It also includes a number of new options for your class, such as new archetypes, new backgrounds, new feats, and new spells.

You can find the book at either: DriveThruRPG or RPGnow. If you get it now, you will benefit from FOE's 40% off sale!

If you prefer a physical book, well they too are available! You can get them from your choice of Amazon or CreateSpace

Also, for those of you who want to know, YES, Rhym material will be available in the Legacies Organized Play campaign.

Rhym Megamap Preview

I have sent to Vistaprint for a vinyl map of Rhym. People really enjoyed my NeoExodus map and it really was an important tool to show people where things happens. This will be particularly useful in my own adventure "Black Sails". I added some extra information in the form of the Wheel and the symbol of the gods...

I will have more surprises to post for both Black Sails and the Rhym book.

Writing update: Milestones reached

The Rhym first draft is completed. More than that, I have just completed the first pass of editing. It's long, hard but the results are there. Now I have to do some of the rewrites and get JD to provide me with some additional material to fill in the holes. The final book will clock around 160 pages!

I will admit that it took a lot longer on my part to edit this, and that it is completely my fault. I procrastinated. A lot. I mean, instead of getting this done, I watched anime, I watched movies, I took some classes, I attended game days, I went to hockey games, anything not to do what I am supposed to do, but I finally got it all done.

Finally.

This book is so different than the Tyrants of Saggakar one. It's a full campaign setting, so the biggest piece of work was done on the nations and fluff-based elements things. Fun but requiring a lot of work for internal consistency.

This was a short update for you all.

JP

Art: Final Rhym Cover

I was playing L5R last night when I received an email from Irene. She had completed the art for the cover of Rhym! I could barely contain my joy as I opened the illustration... She hit it on the head with the final minor tweaks I asked her to do. I am playing with a few things... As the first cover I completely commissioned, this is a big step for FOE.

Rhym is becoming a real thing too: both JD and I are working on introductory adventures we will unveil at Conglomeration. My adventure is called "Black Sails Over the Horizon" and has a nautical theme. I plan to use some of the terrain pieces I have for it! Most of it is material that has not appeared on this blog yet. Maybe as terrain in a Frostgrave game or two...

JP

Meet the Iconics: Nightshade the darkling

Here is the sixth and final member of the party.

Nightshade

Male darkling (abyssal) monk urchin

From the Bondi Plateau

Nightshade grew up on the streets of a tiny settlement in the Bondi Plateau, descendants of escaped slaves from the Dragonlands. His parents gave him up to train with an ancient hermit martial artist where he learned the ways of the ninja. He now travels the world seeking adventure, fame, and riches.

Rhym Concepts The darkling are a race of people descended from the drow and fiends. Nightshade has the abyssal heritage meaning he can channel the rage of his demonic blood.