Jeremy L. C. Jones recently had the chance to talk to Monica Valentinelli about her role as editor of HAUNTED: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror, the collection of ghost stories that we published late last year.

Bullet-riddled Etherometers, EMF detectors, tasers, and inconclusive footage of the spooky sort… Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror, edited by Monica Valentinelli, features original stories by Alex Bledsoe, Richard Dansky, Jess Hartley, Jason Sizemore, Chuck Wendig, and six other writers. While there are plenty of ghosts, poltergeists, and the supernatural unknown, the stories in Haunted focus, primarily, on the ghost hunters, chasers, or investigators.

Appropriately enough, the collection kicks off with an overview of ghost hunting (and the culture surrounding it) written by veteran hunter, Jaeson K. Jrakman, who describes the collection as containing “spine-tingling stories of phantom horrors lurking in the shadows of long-forgotten abandonments.”

In her editor’s afterword, Valentinelli aptly compares reading the anthology to “meandering into a haunted mansion,” each story a new thrill, a new corpse or growing puddle of blood.

Monica Valentinelli is a writer and game designer who has worked with Eden Studios, Abstract Nova Entertainment, and White Wolf Publishing, among others. She’s written non-fiction for Apex Magazine and Green Ronin Publishing. She writes regular columns for Geek’s Dream Girl and the How to Write Shop.

Her fiction ranges from short stories to novellas. Publications have appeared (or will appear) in Tales of the Seven Dogs, White Wolf Quarterly, Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas, Daily Bites of Flesh: 365 Days of Flash Fiction, The Zombie Feed, Vol. 1, Apexology: Science Fiction and Fantasy, and New Hero Anthology (forthcoming). Valentinelli’s e-book, The Queen of Crows, is available from DriveThruFiction.com now.

This winter and fall, respectively, Valentinelli edited Slices of Fate: The Collected Works of Eddy Webb and Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror, both from FR Press.

Below, Valentinelli and I talk about editing, ghosts, and what scares her most.

What do you enjoy about editing?

I like to edit from time to time because it forces me to exercise a different part of my brain than I normally would. When I’m writing, I’m down in the trenches trying to meet a set of guidelines or my own expectations for what that story or game should be. When I’m editing, the opposite is the case. Editing reinforces my ability to empathize with people who edit all day, all the time. It’s not easy to comment on someone else’s work.

What sort of editor are you–hands on, hands off, something else all together?

It depends on the project and how it’s set up from the beginning. Some projects require me to be hands on if there are time constraints or strict guidelines that have to be followed. Other times? The onus is on the writer to fit whatever guidelines are on the page. If at all possible, I would prefer to be hands off because I’d rather be a cheerleader than an ogre.

On the page or screen, what sort of ghost story scares you the most?

In recent memory, the scariest ghost stories are the fatalistic tales where there is no chance to “save” the ghost and send them on or the more open-ended constructs where that experience can never end. There are some fantastic films from the Far East that highlight the non-redemptive ghost. Ju-On, Kairo, Dark Water. Most of these have been remade for an American audience and they still hold their appeal for me because the stories are more focused on dealing with the horror than rescuing a spirit.

Are ghosts real?

I’ve had many strange experiences in my life that I can’t rationally explain. This helps me sleep at night because it means there’s another mystery left to explore. My world holds much wonder in it. Is it possible that ghosts exist? Yes. After all, energy cannot be created or destroyed. Am I certain without a cliché shadow of a doubt? No.

How did Haunted come about?

Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror was the brainchild of the publisher Matt M. McElroy. He wanted to do an anthology that was more focused on the people hunting ghosts than the monsters themselves.

Was it open submission or by invitation?

Matt decided to do an invitation only for the anthology because he had a select group of authors in mind he knew would do a fantastic job.

What strategy did you use to organize the stories?

I read them out loud and balanced them based on theme, literary structure, and setting. “What’s the Frequency, Francis?” which was written by Alex Bledsoe opens the anthology because it shifts from present to the distant past and back to the present again. My goal was to keep readers turning the page and to make that happen I wanted the stories to flow from one to the other. Where the story took place was just as important as how it was written.

For example, two stories, “We Need Johnny” by Chuck Wendig and “After Life” Nancy O. Green were written in a more experimental fashion. I decided to put the less-experimental story first to help transition the reader and then followed up with a story by Jason L Blair called “It Happened In The Woods At Night,” which he penned in a three-act structure.

Were there any pleasant surprises in terms of connections between stories?

I was surprised to see that the majority (if not all) of these stories are tried and true Americana. While there are a few tales that introduce the question of mistaken identity (e.g. Is this entity really a ghost?) the majority of the ghost’s origins are Western and all the stories take place in the continental United States.

Have you ever been ghost hunting?

Don’t need to. They usually find me.

How did you meet Jaeson K. Jrakman?

I first met Jaeson at a small convention in Milwaukee several years back where he was giving a talk on ghost hunting. As luck would have it, I sent him a lead on a case someone else had alerted me to. Jaeson is a very rational person. That’s one of the reasons why I think he’s a good representation of a serious ghost hunter who wants to prove ghosts exist using science.

What’s next for you? As an editor? As a writer? As a designer?

Not so much as an editor, but as a line developer — which, in my opinion, employs a very similar skillset to what an editor does. And… that hasn’t been announced yet, so never you mind there.

As a writer? I’ve got a few short stories brewing and I’ll be gearing up for the release of Redwing’s Gambit, a science fiction novella for the Bulldogs! RPG. As a designer, Strange, Dead Love, a paranormal romance sourcebook for Vampire: the Requiem recently debuted and I’m also working on [redacted] for White Wolf, too.

There’s always another story to tell and another setting to explore. It keeps me out of trouble!

Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror and other FR press titles are available now at DriveThruFiction.com.

Related posts:

1. Haunted Reviews and an Award!
2. Haunted: Black Friday Special Offer!
3. New Chapters Available Now at Monica Valentinelli’s Violet War Website!

The design essay series continues with Matthew McFarland telling us about Dust to Dust, a new story supplement for Vampire: the Masquerade from White Wolf. Dust to Dust is a story supplement using the Storytelling Adventure System designed for use with Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, and it acts as a spiritual successor to the classic story Ashes to Ashes.

Dust to Dust: Dirty Secrets

Probably more dramatic than absolutely necessary, but hey. You’re reading it now.

Dust to Dust wasn’t the hardest scenario I’ve ever had to write (that’d be “To Grandmother’s House” for Nights of Prophecy), but it certainly presented some strange challenges. The biggest and most obvious one, of course, was that I hadn’t touched Vampire: The Masquerade since 2004 or so (probably longer, since I think the last Masquerade material I wrote was for the Vampire Players Guide (well, other than the Vampire Translation Guide). The differences between Masquerade and Requiem are real (though much subtler than, say, the differences between the versions of Werewolf or Changeling) and I’d been working with Requiem and the rest of the new World of Darkness for six years. Getting myself back into an old — sorry, “classic” — World of Darkness headspace was harder than I expected.

And, to be honest, I resented that I had to do it at all.

When the 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire was announced, I was thrilled. Not because I wanted to run right out and scoop up a copy — I didn’t have any plans to run Masquerade or any classic World of Darkness game. But I thought it was a cool idea, a great way to mark how far White Wolf had come and rekindle some of the fire that fans felt for such an influential game. Hearing about the Onyx Path, though, kind of annoyed me. I was afraid that White Wolf was backpedaling, like maybe the occasional Internet chatter (“NWoD sucks! OWoD is better! NWoD doesn’t sell — I was totally in my FLGS the other day and there were NO NWOD books at all! I talk mostly in letters!”) was getting to them. And honestly, too much blood, sweat and tears went into the new World of Darkness, in my opinion, for White Wolf to just give up.

But then I had a conversation with Eddy Webb at Origins (I think — maybe GenCon?) that set me straight. Eddy said that, in analyzing the sales, Requiem and Masquerade were selling about equally well. There was a fanbase for both games. They didn’t have compete.

We didn’t have to choose.

I often tell my daughter, “if someone offers you a choice of two things that you like, the correct answer is both.” Vampire just nicely underlined that.

So once I kind of got over myself, working Dust to Dust was a lot easier. At that point, all I had to do was write a Vampire scenario based on a 20-year-old supplement using mechanics, tone and metaplot with which I was largely unfamiliar. As they say on the Internet, facepalm. Dave Martin and the Wrecking Crew were nice enough to give me an outline to work from. The outline was pretty basic; it just suggested keeping Juggler and Modius (and Allicia, whom I wound up cutting), using Sullivan Dane as an antagonist, and raised the possibility of the “jar of ashes that turns out to be an elder Samedi” as a Macguffin, which I thought was just too cool to ignore.

I was thrilled to see Dane mentioned. I love Sullivan Dane. I used him in a lot of my old World of Darkness games, though I don’t remember him ever actually fighting characters, even in Vampire games. He was one of the first in a long series of Storyteller characters who were nominally antagonistic, but were too well-realized and useful to just kill (plus, my players really enjoyed the accent I used when playing him). He shows up in the very first thing I ever wrote for White Wolf (Giovanni Chronicles IV: Nuovo Malattia), just for a cameo, and I knew I wanted him in Dust to Dust in the same capacity I’d always used him: the unspoken threat. The guy had True Faith 8 in his original presentation, for crying out loud, if he wants a vampire dead, it’s dead. Even with the Faith rules cleaned up a bit for V20, Dane is a badass. The suggestion in the outline was for him to become blood-addicted, but that didn’t make any sense (again, True Faith). If Dane had fallen far enough to become a ghoul, the story would have to be about him to make any sense, and I didn’t want to do that.

So at that point I knew I wanted to use Dane, that I really liked the notion of a dormant elder Samedi in ash form, and that I had to make some kind of use of Gary’s political structure as presented in Vampire: The Masquerade and Ashes to Ashes. This isn’t an easy starting point. Political scenarios are hard to write, because they’re boring to read. Heck, opinion is sorely divided, in my experience, as to whether they’re any fun to play (my own opinion is yes, they can be fun to play if you have a group of players that favors dialog and improvises well, but if your players would rather go see supernatural craziness or have bloody brawls in alleys, politics is a poor substitute). And the other problem with political Vampire scenarios is that they’re slow. I needed a sense of immediacy.

From that need was born the theme that Gary is dying, and the characters aren’t fighting over a vibrant city so much as trying to use every part of the beast, so to speak. I tried to think like a vampire — vampires don’t care whether the city thrives, but they do want people to be in the city, so how to get them there? By increasing traffic, and then feeding off that traffic. The actual residents of the city are incidental.

That conflict let me rope in Modius and Juggler, but I needed, I felt, a good way to bring in my dusty old elder Samedi. Plus I wanted something more overtly supernatural. The notion of a city dying made me think of the idea that cities have souls and identities (very true in the World of Darkness, which is kind of animistic), and so if a city has a soul, it can have a ghost and thus be affected by necromancy, right? I have a soft spot for the Giovanni. I ran the first Giovanni Chronicles for my friends when I was in college, and it was a really awesome experience. I know the clan has some wonkiness about it (really, what in Masquerade doesn’t?), but the fusion of the Mafia and necromancy always seemed really cool. So I fused it with a slick, Los Angeles movie producer would be a good front for a Giovanni. I had her working on a zombie movie, complete with a zombie walk, because I wanted to highlight what vampires have become in the 20 years since Masquerade. Interesting, they’ve become something that the Camarilla might like — they’re sympathetic, non-threatening romantic figures. Sure, we get some threatening or dangerous bloodsuckers here and there (Colin Farrell in the recent remake of Fright Night, I thought, was pretty damned creepy, and though I haven’t watched much True Blood, I think there’s some good inspiration there), but for the most part, mention “vampire” to people nowadays and one of the first things that comes to mind is “sparkle.”

So maybe vampires aren’t relevant anymore? Maybe, as a monster, they’ve been usurped by their dumber, lurching cousins, the zombies? I didn’t want to make it an overt theme of Dust to Dust, but I did want the hint there that, perhaps, it’s time for the vampires to pass the torch. (Do note, though, that the scene following the zombie walk is Jean Lisle bursting out of his prison and killing everyone in the area, which I think is my answer to the question of whether vampires aren’t relevant anymore.)

I recognize that Dust to Dust is busy. Going through it again now, I’m thinking maybe I put a bit too much in the stew. But honestly, that was deliberate — Dust to Dust was meant to be, as the outline from the Wrecking Crew said, a sandbox. A troupe isn’t going to get through it in one session, not if they want to experience everything in it (this is why, when run at the Grand Masquerade, certain elements tended to get excised — I think Dane, sadly, was one of them). I’m happy with the way it turned out, though. As I was writing it, I found my mind separating Requiem (which I’d been running for several months at that point) and Masquerade, and thinking back to the games of Masquerade I ran before the end of the original World of Darkness. I think Dust to Dust is pretty representative of Masquerade rather than Requiem, and that, I think, was really the biggest challenge of the assignment.

Matthew McFarland – 2012

Dust to Dust is available now in PDF and Print editions at the Flames Rising Shop.

Related posts:

1. Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition
2. Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead Review
3. Another One Bites the Dust Review

After a year of intensive development, the small indie team of Red Wasp Design have announced that their anticipated title, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land has launched on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The game is a turn-based strategy RPG inspired by the works of cult horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and developed in co-operation with Chaosium, the publishers of the cult horror role playing game, Call of Cthulhu.

The game is now out on iTunes and is a universal iOS app so the same game works for iPhone and iPod Touch both SD & HD and for iPad, and carries graphics optimised for each of those platforms. It is priced $4.99, £2.99 & €3.99 for the full universal app. The game’s designer, Tomas Rawlings said, “We’ve put a vast amount of our time, energy and ideas into this game over the last year. It’s been a long journey for us because we want to get it right. We’re not a huge studio, but I hope that fellow gamers will appreciate what we’ve achieved with The Wasted Land.”

The game features nine 3D levels set in the trenches of World War One. The player controls a team of up to six investigators charged with uncovering a deadly inhuman conspiracy underlying the clash of empires of the Great War. Barbed wire, mustard gas and machines guns will prove to be the least dangerous thing that the investigators will encounter as they venture out into no-man’s land to solve the mystery of the Wasted Land. As the game progresses, the player can build up the skills, weapons and equipment of the team to suit their playing style. As well as the physical danger, the investigators must guard their sanity against the myriad horrors that threaten to destroy it.

To stay in touch with the developers and get updates on the game, help and strategy guides and more you may want to connect to Red Wasp Design on Facebook, Twitter (@redwaspdesign) and on their site at redwaspdesign.com.

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1. Designing Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land
2. Call of Cthulhu Spawns on Mobile
3. [Call of Cthulhu] Snows of an Early Winter is available now!

In the near future, on the western coast city of New Metropolis, an evil that has lain dormant for centuries is about to be awakened to the 21st century. Forces of darkness and magic strive to unleash a horror upon the Earth unlike any mankind can remember. The only forces capable of stopping it are rendered impotent by an age-old fear and hatred. Will humanity set aside their differences and stand as one against the darkness? Or will this be humanity’s Final Twilight?

Trinity, the first series, follows a trio of souls whose fates are intertwined. Mark Jarus, the last classically trained mage, fights the good fight as a vigilante in city overrun by crime! Kerra Neil, a young woman and skilled hunter stalking the shadows for murderers and magic-using blights upon humanity! And the enigmatic Charles Faust, whose cool and calm demeanor belie a centuries old heart of darkness and unnatural lust for power!

Final Twilight is an urban-fantasy expandable card game. In it, players take on the role of characters, modern knights and mages, dueling in the shadows, carrying on a war that has lasted for centuries! Players construct their own decks with characters from the setting, each with their own skills, powers, and tactics, in a wide assortment of cards, competing to take back the night or to claim it for themselves!

Final Twilight is NOT a Collectable Card Game! Each series allows players to select just what they want and not buy another thing! Trinity opens with a 2-player starter kit and from there players can purchase Expansion Packs, containing four copies, the playable limit, of an array of cards suited to that theme. Build any deck you can imagine quickly and easily from your own collection or share your collection and duel with friends!

Game Play

Players construct decks around the major characters featured in Final Twilight’s storylines. These characters determine the powers, abilities, and cards the player can utilize. Game play takes place within the city of New Metropolis with a series of Location cards, set up at the start of the game as a game board. Cards are played at a given Location as both players navigate the city in search of their opponent for a final showdown.

Cards are played using a pair of resources: Money, for “real world” allies, effects, and abilities; and Moren, a mage’s life force, for special powers, supernatural creatures and effects, and more. Players start with a base amount and grow and weaken as they play cards and abilities and win and lose in combat.

Combat is performed with a die roll. Modifiers from weapons, armors, ancient devices, and more influence the outcome. Each player tallies their totals and compares results; the winner is the one who deals damage, not just an “attacker”, making combat risky and uncertain and giving even “weak” characters a fighting chance.

The winner is the last player left standing: players who run out of Moren (life) lose, as do players who exhaust their deck of cards. Additional play-modes allow groups of four to play teams or even allows one player to go solo against an opposing character!

Download an Introduction at RPGNow.com!

Find out more about Final Twilight at Kickstarter.com:

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3. The Final Kill

The author behind Abaddon’s fastest-selling title of 2011 is set to return with a follow-up novella and a brand new series.

Abaddon is delighted to announce that Chuck Wendig has signed up to write an ebook sequel to the popular Double Dead, as well as create a brand new series for Abaddon in 2013.

An October 2011 release from Abaddon, Double Dead was Wendig’s first original novel and became the fastest-selling Abaddon title to date, with a particularly strong showing as an ebook.

The freshest take on the undead for years, Double Dead saw the vampire Coburn awaken during the zombie apocalypse, only to realise that if he wants to survive he has to protect his food source from the undead hordes.

Now Wendig is set to return to the world of Coburn later this year with Double Dead: Bad Blood, an ebook-only novella sequel. It will be released on May 14th on all e-platforms.

Wendig is also working on an exciting new urban fantasy series for Abaddon Books, bringing gods and monsters onto the city streets in a thrilling new-take on classic genre tropes. The first in this new series is due for release in 2013.

With his prominent online presence, including his popular blog TerribleMinds.com on which he is not afraid to give his opinions on the process of writing and the industry at large.

“It’s wonderful to be welcoming Chuck back to the Abaddon team,” said Jon Oliver, editor-in-chief of Abaddon Books. “He’s certainly one of the most exciting new writers around and Chuck is going to build on the success of Double Dead while bringing a brand new series to Abaddon.”

“The vampire Coburn kicked his way out of my skull and onto the pages of Double Dead,” said Wendig, “so it’s great to be revisiting that cantankerous old bloodsucker. And I’m utterly geeked to be working with Abaddon to help birth this brand new series of gods and monsters.”

Related posts:

1. Preview of Chuck Wendig’s Double Dead

The design essay series continue here at Flames Rising with a new entry from author Edward McKeown telling about his novel Was Once a Hero.

Reluctant privateer Robert Fenaday searches the stars for his lost love, Lisa, a naval intelligence officer whose ship disappeared near the end of the Conchirri War . He’s joined by the genetically engineered assassin, Shasti Rainhell, whose cold perfection masks her dark past. Both are blackmailed by government spymaster, Mandela, into a suicidal mission to the doomed planet Enshar. Leading a team of scientists and soldiers, they must unravel the mystery of that planet’s death before an ancient force reaches out to claim their lives.

Was Once a Hero

Once upon a time there was a science-fiction fan who loved Andre Norton, CJ Cherryh, Larry Niven, Mike Resnick, Catherine Asaro and many others. He gathered their adventures to him and traveled the star lanes with their characters. But something was missing, a connection that had not been made. Then he realized what it was, however wonderful their visions were, there were THEIR visions, not his. He wondered if he could bring his visions to life.

Well I’m that fan and from the day I realized that I have been practicing and growing in my craft in the art of writing. I began with a blizzard of short stories from what came to be the Lair of the Lesbian Love Goddess series then the Jeremy Leclerc Knight Templar series.

But the novel beckoned and unlike my other efforts it called out to be a story of deep space, of aliens, starships, artificial intelligences and deadly danger. In short I wanted to do what I thought of as a “Planet Story” creating new cultures, worlds and species.

Too many characters in science-fiction are too heroic, too unafraid, and too matter-of-fact about danger. Those of us who have faced danger and triumphed over it usually did it either with our hearts in our mouths, fighting to overcome fear, or it was over so fast that we didn’t have time for panic. There are surely people of steely nerves and endless reserves of courage (check your local Seal Team) but they are not common. Most of us struggle to find courage and apply it. So I decided that my character would be a man, drawn from a more ordinary life, no Captain Kirk, no Captain Sheridan, but someone more like one of us.

This came out of knowing some World War II vets, genial men in the sunsets of their lives, many who seemed like they would not harm a fly. Yet these were the amtrac gunners at Tarawa, the crew in the B-17 from the mighty Eighth, the marine crouching in the darkness at the edge of Henderson Field when the banzai charges came in. But that geniality masked the fact that we ordinary MEN man are capable of deeds that scar the soul. However gentle and kind we are to friends and family, in the right situation we can be the instruments of immense destruction. So this would be a theme that I would explore in my book.

“Was Once a Hero” was born. I introduced Robert Fenaday, the son of a wealthy merchant family, something of an idle playboy in a family business. My character would be flawed, dealing with a domineering father, having not made anything of himself until he found the love of his life, Lisa Brenton, a Confederate Naval Intelligence Operative. The romance is threatened when the Conchirri, a carnivorous alien species bursts into the hitherto peaceful Confederation of Seven Species. Lisa, now his wife, is called to war and Robert stays to run the family shipping line in a reversal of the usual roles. She is James Bond and he is the one left behind. Then Lisa’s ship is reported missing.

This is the seachange for Robert; he will not accept that the universe can dispose of Lisa. He sells off his family business over much opposition and buys a captured enemy warship he names Sidhe, to become a privateer and search the stars for Lisa. But Fenaday is not fitted to the murky and dangerous world he now inhabits. He survives only because of a chance meeting. In the course of his searches, he rescues Shasti Rainhell, genetically engineered assassin. As cold and beautiful as February moonlight, Shasti is stronger and more perfect than humanly possible. Fascinated by his search for his wife, and hiding from her own past, Shasti serves on Sidhe, keeping the privateer crew in line.

The war ends without any sign of Lisa and Fenaday ends up broke on Mars desperately looking for a commission for his ship to continue his search. It comes in an unusual form. He and Shasti are blackmailed by government operative named “Mandela” into a suicidal mission to the murdered world of Enshar, accompanied by ace fighter pilot, Telisan, and the ancient Enshari scholar, Belwin Duna. Leading their crew of privateers and government soldiers, they struggle to unravel the mystery of a world’s death. In the crucible of battle and terror, Fenaday and Shasti Rainhell are driven across barriers both had set in their lives and into a new and deeper relationship.

Was once a Hero is the first of three novels on Robert Fenaday’s search for his wife, and his companion and sometime lover, Shasti Rainhell’s search for her humanity. The trilogy is written so the reader can pick up any of the three books and have a complete SF adventure in hand, yet all three books form an arc on the overstory of Robert’s search for Lisa and Shasti’s emotional voyage of self-discovery.

In writing what I hoped would be a page-turning adventure novel, things turned out somewhat differently then I envisioned at the beginning. Shasti Rainhell was the chief surprise. I originally created that character because I realized that someone from the “corporate world” wouldn’t last long on his own in the quasi-criminal trade of a privateer. He would need someone to watch his back while he learned this new role. I decided to go with a strong female character because the interactions between men and women are vastly more interesting and complex then those just between men. I wanted my female character to be totally believable in her role. Shasti became a six-foot-nine genetically engineered assassin far stronger than a “standard” human with abilities both mental and physical that made her incredibly formidable.

But Shasti would not stay a sidekick, or merely a hired gun. She was so strong that her past began to sneak into the book, her escape from her creator Jalgren Pard, from her homeworld of Olympia, her emotional scars from her childhood. She saw in Fenaday a determined love and gentleness that she had never experienced before. This fascination became the foundation of their relationship.

Ok you may have noticed that we stopped talking about starships and aliens and began talking about love. While Hero is primarily an adventure story, love too is an adventure.

I populated my book with a crew of characters, always careful to make sure that the secondary characters stayed secondary but interesting. Telisan, the ace-pilot from a species with three genders, the kindly Duna, scientist and scholar of the few remaining Enshari, Kyle Mmok the acerbic robot controller and many others. I wrote with a strong visual sensibility as that’s what I like to read, I need to see the movie play in my head.

So in the end I produced what I feel is a strong adventure where sometimes the air is filled with the flash of energy weapons as deadly enemies close in and sometimes two people cling to each other to banish the universe’s terrors with the strength of their emotions. I hope you will join me for the voyages of Robert Fenaday, Shasti Rainhell and the Sidhe, available through Hellfire Publishing with an introduction by Janet Morris of “Heroes in Hell” fame.

See you around the galaxy,

Edward McKeown – 2012

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Double 2011 Origins Award Winner Licenses Eisner-Nominated Comic Book

Evil Hat Productions, LLC, today announced an agreement to produce, publish, and distribute a role-playing game based on the Eisner-nominated Atomic Robo comic book. The Atomic Robo RPG will be co-written by Atomic Robo scribe Brian Clevinger and Kerberos Club: Fate Edition author Mike Olson, creator of the Strange Fate version of the Fate engine.

“I’m such a big fan of the world Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener create in every page of Atomic Robo,” said Fred Hicks of Evil Hat. “When I found out they were fans of role-playing games—including Evil Hat’s own Spirit of the Century—it was clear we had a giant-sized opportunity that had to be pursued.”

With The Atomic Robo RPG, Evil Hat will build on the legacy of Fate games like Spirit of the Century and The Dresden Files RPG—together with the ideas of Evil Hat’s upcoming Fate Core project and Mike Olson’s Strange Fate work. The stand-alone game will deliver a fast-paced and fast-to-play role-playing experience focused on the themes of Atomic Robo—action-science, robots, angry talking dinosaurs, high weirdness, and more.

“Brian and I are lifelong RPG nerds, I mean enthusiasts, and we could not be more excited to partner with Evil Hat and Mike Olson to bring readers even closer to the world of Atomic Robo,” said Scott Wegener. “There’s over a century of adventure in our comic book, but we can only show you guys slices of the whole picture. This game opens up so many opportunities to play with that world, its history, the weird unexplored corners, and the might-have-beens,” added Brian Clevinger.

The Atomic Robo RPG begins development in late February of 2012. “We’d love to get The Atomic Robo RPG out in 2012, and if everything comes together fast and smooth we might just manage that,” said Hicks. “But as with all licensed projects at Evil Hat, we want to take our time to make sure we serve the license and the fans well. Thankfully, Brian and Scott have the same opinion, here. The Atomic Robo RPG that we release will be the best one we can possibly make, period—and that may take us into 2013.”

For more information about Evil Hat Productions, the Fate system, Spirit of the Century, and the Dresden Files RPG, visit www.evilhat.com. For more information about Atomic Robo, visit www.atomic-robo.com. Atomic Robo is published by Red 5 Comics, available at www.red5comics.com and in comic stores everywhere. Kerberos Club: Fate Edition is published by Arc Dream Publishing, www.arcdream.com.

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1. Evil Hat Productions Brings The World of Harry Dresden To Life With The Dresden Files RPG

Children of the Revolution is a rogue’s gallery of those Embraced “in interesting times,” to use a euphemism. In times of upheaval and turmoil those who join the ranks of the Damned can’t help but be shaped by the chaotic events around them. The transformational disruption that occurs in the world remains indelibly with the Kindred Embraced in that moment, marking him as an agent of change among Kindred society in some capacity.

One example might be the Anarch Tyler from Chicago by Night, Embraced in the throes of active rebellion and forever characterized by her opposition to tyranny. The Lasombra Gratiano, Embraced by his clan’s progenitor, committed diablerie on that sire, forming the Sabbat in the crucible of that betrayal’s aftermath. The inscrutable Inconnu Dracula, playing one sect against the other while defending his homeland against the Turk incursions. All of these are excellent examples of the sorts of Kindred who could be considered “children of the revolution.”

Now it’s your turn. Examine an old chronicle of yours or describe a favored character’s backstory. Show us, in practice, the vampires who emerge from the interesting times of your chronicles or in your consideration of the World of Darkness. Delve into the secret history of Vampire, into the War of Ages and among the bloody annals of the Jyhad. What events in Kindred or mortal history shaped the vampire you propose?

Read more about the project and how to submit your character at WhiteWolfBlogs.com.

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The Shroud of the Ancients D5 Role Playing Game is Dark Tavern Press first game. Created by Randy Miller and Roderick Edwards, it is the product more than 50 years of combined RPG tabletop gaming and over 15 years of combined adventure writing and game design. Dark Tavern’s goal is to continually create the best quality RPGs and gaming accessories possible. It is our aspiration to entice tabletop top gamers looking for an alternative to the status quo with this project and to help us raise enough money to bring the Shroud of the Ancients™ D5 Role Playing Game to tabletop enthusiasts everywhere.

ABOUT THE WORLD OF TERRATH

Ages ago, Terrath’s second moon shattered and fire fell from the heavens. Ancient Empires whose kingdoms had stretched across the known world were no more. A select few of the races and creatures chosen by the gods had been shepherded into sanctuaries and protected by the druidic Order of the Sacred Stone. When the Time of Twilight lifted, those who survived set out to rebuild Terrath, but they soon discovered that its face was forever altered and the tides of Manna had drastically changed, making magic more accessible to those who desired its power. With help and guidance from the Order, they brought the world back from near extinction. New kingdoms and continents forged alliances with old enemies and the survival of mortal kind seemed assured. But soon, the people began to forget that dark time in their past when all hope was nearly lost. And once more, the druids returned to their silent sanctuaries, where they casted their wary eyes towards the heavens and prayed.

Now, with more than a millennium of relative peace, the largest known continent of Terrath, Kathlom, is the stage for a host of escalating conflicts. While, the Alliance of Free City-States and the Empire of Crowns are continually building their armies to resist the threat of one another, the southern mountain ranges of both lands face the ever-present threat of the savage Lowmen, who test the borders daily for a strategic advantage. Sensing the possibility of war, the Barbarian Tribes of the Northlands press for control of the disputed territory that separates them. As treaties are broken and diplomacy fails, war on the northern face of the continent seems imminent.

Meanwhile, at the southern tip of Kathlom, the Seven Princes of the desert kingdom, known as E’binet, face the brunt of the conflict with the Lowmen. With the vast and deadly vortex of the J’Han Rah as their only ally, they are forever watchful for the prophesied Warlord who will march his armies through the forbidden lands to the north and lay siege to their enemies. To the south, pirates from the countries of Avecian and Esvalia continue to travel the waterways and trading lanes plundering what they can from E’binet and the proud nation of Syrania and have done so for many years with impunity… until now. With the discovery of the explosive black powder they call pyrius, the new theocracy of Syrania, with the church of Semperis at its head, promises that these raiders will surrender to the Sacred Land and endure their punishment for their numerous crimes against its people or face immediate execution.

As an adventurer, the skills and distinctions you possess seem to draw you closer to the deadly conflict that engulfs the nation’s borders. But beware, the political and religious internal struggles, deep in the heart of the Free City-States, can be just as perilous. And as always, the Adventurer’s Guild is eager, for a fee, to find a local patron who may need you to lead an expedition into Terrath’s lost cities and forgotten temples on the outskirts of civilization. But as it quoted in the Book of the Exalted Word, “Death awaits those who are unworthy to face the challenge”.

No matter where fate takes you, limitless opportunities lie ahead. Perhaps, with aid from the gods, you may choose to stand against the brutal nature of Low Men or the sinister plans of forbidden cults such as Aden’s Brood and The Disciples of Merrath. Perhaps, you will seek to unlock the hidden mysteries of the Drachanis Stone or attempt to amass fortunes beyond that of the Seven Princes of E’binet. Whichever path you choose, your destiny awaits!

Find out more about Shroud of the Ancients Fantasy Adventure RPG at Kickstarter.com.

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FR Press is pleased to announce the release of Slices of Fate!

Slices of Fate is a unique collection featuring the works of Eddy Webb. Stories within range from the author’s nod to literary tales as in his piece “A Sheepish Trip to Yorkshire” to his more speculative work such as “The Battlefield.”

Essays include a series on two of Webb’s oldest loves: wrestling and Sherlock Holmes. Combined with several pieces of microfiction, this debut collection is an in-depth representation of Eddy’s work over the course of several years.

“Enthusiastic, creative, honest, intelligent.” – Jason L Blair, from the introduction.

Slices of Fate is available now in eBook format at DriveThruFiction.com!

FR Press has had an awesome 2011 and we’d like to celebrate with a big sale on all of our eBooks for the last week of the year!

This sale includes Slices of Fate, as well as Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror, our horror anthology with ghost stories from Chuck Wendig, Rich Dansky, Alex Bledsoe, Jess Hartley, Jason Sizemore and more. Also included in the sale are Monica Valentinelli’s The Queen of Crows and Instant Antagonist: The Creepy Cottontail!

This sale only lasts as long as 2011 does, so check out all of our eBooks at DriveThruFiction.com and DrivethruRPG.com today!

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1. Slices of Fate by Eddy Webb Now in Print!
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3. Happy Halloween from FR Press!

Tad Williams’ new short story collection, A Stark And Wormy Knight, is available now, worldwide, as an ebook, $4.99 (or equivalent) for one month. The following story is published on FlamesRising.com with express permission of the author. Happy Holidays!

THE SUGARPLUM FAVOR (A Christmas Story)

Written by Tad Williams

Danny Mendoza counted his change three times in while the teacher talked about what they were all supposed to bring for the class winter holiday party tomorrow. It was really a Christmas party, at least in Danny’s class, because that’s what all the kids’ families’ celebrated. Danny had his party contribution covered. He had volunteered to bring napkins and paper plates and cups because his family had some left over from his little brother’s birthday party with characters from Gabba Gabba Hey on them. He’d get teased about that, he knew, but he didn’t want to ask his mother to make something because she was so busy with his little brothers and the baby, and now that Danny’s stepfather Luis had lost his job they had a Money Situation. Danny could live with a little teasing.

Danny was going to buy a candy bar for his mother, one of those big ones. That was going to be his Christmas present to her and Danny knew how much she’d like it — he hadn’t just inherited his small size and nimble fingers from her, he’d got her sweet tooth, too. And she had just been talking about the Christmas a few years ago when Luis had a good job with the Sanitation Department and he’d brought her a whole box of See’s chocolates. Danny knew he couldn’t match that, but the last of the money he’d saved up from raking leaves in the neighborhood and walking old Mrs. Rosales’ wheezy little dog should be enough to buy a big old Hershey bar that would make Mama smile. No, what to get wasn’t a problem. The thing that had him thinking so hard as he went down the street at a hurried walk, hands shoved deep into his jacket pockets, was whether he dared to get it now or should wait another day.

In Danny’s San Jose neighborhood the Mercado Estrella was like an African water hole, not only a crucial source of nurture but also the haunt of the most fearsome predator in his 3rd grade world. Any stop at the little market meant he risked running into Hector Villaba, the big, mean fifth-grade kid who haunted Danny’s days and often his nights as well. Danny couldn’t even begin to guess how much candy and other goodies Hector had stolen from him and the other kids over the years, but it was a lot — Hector was the elementary school’s Public Enemy Number One. About half the time his victims got shoved around, too, or even hit, and none of the grown-ups ever did anything about it except to tell their humiliated sons they should learn how to fight back. That was probably because Hector Villaba’s father was a violent, drunken brute who didn’t care what Hector did and everyone in the neighborhood was as scared of him as the kids at school were scared of his son. The last time someone in the neighborhood had called the police on Hector’s dad, all their windows had been broken while they were at church and their car scratched from one end to another.

Danny was still trying to make up his mind whether to risk stopping at the market today or wait for better odds tomorrow (when class ended early because of the holiday) when he saw Mrs. Rosales walking Pinto, her little spotted dog. He almost crossed the street because he knew she’d want to talk to him and he’d spent a lot of time doing that already last week when went to her house to get Pinto nearly every day. He was too close, though, she’d seen him, and Jesus hated being rude to old people almost as much as he hated it when kids lied, or at least that was what his mama always told him. Danny wasn’t expecting much from Santa anyway, but if Jesus got upset things would probably be even worse. He sighed and continued toward her.

“Look who’s here!” Mrs. Rosales said when she saw him. “Look, Pinto mi querida, it’s your friend Danny!” But when he waved and would have passed by she told him, “Hold on a moment, young man, I want to talk to you.”

He stopped, but he was really worried that Hector and his friends might catch up if he stood around too long. “Yes, Mrs. Rosales?”

“I short-changed you the other day.” She took out a little coin purse. It took her a long time to get it open with her knobby old fingers. “I owe you a dollar.”

“Really?” Danny was astonished.

She pulled out a piece of paper that looked like it had been folded and unfolded a hundred times and handed it to him. “I know boys need money this time of year!”

He thanked her, petted Pinto (who growled despite all their time together, because Pinto was a spoiled brat) and hurried toward the market. Another dollar! It was like one of those Christmas miracles on a television show – like the Grinch’s heart growing so much it made the x-ray machine go sproing! This changed everything. He could not only buy his mom’s present, he could buy something for himself, too. He briefly considered blowing the whole dollar on a Butterfinger, his very favorite, but he knew hard candies would be a better investment — he could share them with his younger brothers, and it was Christmas-time, after all. But whatever he got, he didn’t want to wait for tomorrow, not now that he had something to spend on himself. Danny Mendoza had been candy-starved for days. Nothing sweeter than the baby’s butterscotch pudding had passed his lips that week, and the pudding hadn’t been by his own choice. (His baby sister had discovered that if she waved her spoon things flew and splattered, and she liked that new trick a lot.) If he hurried to the market he should still get there long before Hector and his friends, who had many children to harass and humiliate on their way home. It was a risk, of course, but with an unexpected dollar in his pocket Danny felt strangely confident. There had to be such a thing as Christmas luck, didn’t there? After all, it was a whole holiday about Jesus getting born, and Jesus was kind to everybody. Although it sure hadn’t seemed like a lucky Christmas when Luis, Danny’s stepfather, had lost his job in the first week of December. But maybe things were going to get better now — maybe, as his mama sometimes said, the Mendoza family’s luck was going to change.

He was even more willing to believe in miracles when he saw no sign of Hector and his friends at the market. As he walked in Christmas music was playing loudly on the radio, that “Joy to the World” song sung by some smooth television star. Tia Marisol, the little old lady who ran the place on her own since her husband died, was trying to hang some lights above the cigarettes behind the cash register. She wasn’t his real aunt, of course. Everybody in the neighbohood just called her “Tia.”

“Oye, little man,” she called when she turned around and saw him. “How’s your mama?”

“Fine, Tia Marisol. I’m getting her a present.” He made his way past the postres to the long candy rack. So many colors, so many kinds! It almost seemed to glow, like in one of those cartoons where children found a treasure-cave. When Danny was little, it was what he had imagined when the minister at the church talked about Heaven. The only better thing he had ever seen in his whole life was the huge piñata at one of his school friends’ birthday party, years and years ago. When the birthday boy knocked the piñata open and candy came showering out and all the kids could jump in and take what they want – that had been amazing. Like winning a game show on television. Danny still dreamed about it sometimes.

Danny realized that he was staring like a dummy at the rack of candy when every second the danger that Hector and his friends would arrive kept growing. He quickly examined the big Hershey bars until he found one with a perfect wrapper, a massive candy bar that looked as if it had been made special for a commercial. He would have loved to spend more time browsing — how often did he have a whole dollar to spend just on candy? — but he knew time was short, so he grabbed a good-sized handful of hard, sour candies for sucking, took several different colors of candy ropes; then, as worry grew inside him, as uncomfortable as needing to pee, he finally snatched up a handful of bubble gum and ran to the front counter.

“What’s your hurry, m’hijo?” Tia Marisol asked.

“Mom needs me,” he said, which he hoped was not enough of a lie to ruin Jesus’ upcoming celebration. After all, Mom did always need his help, especially by this time in the day when she’d been on her own with the baby and the littlest brother since morning, and had just walked the other brother home from preschool. He pulled the three dollars worth of much-counted change out of one pocket and mounded it in front of Tia Marisol, then put the Hershey bar and his own handful of candy down beside it before digging out the crumpled dollar Mrs. Rosales had given him. She slid her glasses a little way down her nose while she looked at it all.

“Where’d you get so much money, Danny?”

“Raking lawns. Taking Mrs. Rosales dog for walks.”

Tia Marisol smiled, handed him back twenty-three cents, and put everything into a paper bag. “You’re a good boy. You and your family have a happy Christmas. Tell your mama I said hello, would you?”

“Sure.” He was already halfway through the door, heart beating.

The Christmas miracle continued outside: other than a couple of young mothers with strollers and bundled-up babies, and the old men who sat on the bus bench across the street drinking from bottles in paper bags, the area around the store was still clear. Danny began to walk toward home as fast as he could without running, because he had the bag under his coat now and he didn’t want to melt Mama’s candy bar. Still, he was almost skipping, he was so happy. Joy to the world, the Lord is come…!

“Hey, Mendoza,” someone shouted in a hoarse voice. “What’s in the bag, maricon?”

Danny stopped, frozen for a moment like a cornered animal, but then he began to walk again, faster and faster until he was running. There was no question whose voice that was. Pretty much every kid in his school knew it and feared it.

“Hold up, Mendoza, or I’ll kick your ass good!” The voice was getting closer. He could hear the whir of bike tires on the sidewalk coming up behind him fast. He looked back and saw that Hector Villaba and his big, stupid friends Rojo and Chuy were bearing down on him on their bikes, and in another second or two would ride him down. He lunged to the side just as Hector stuck out his foot and shoved him, sending Danny crashing into the low wire fence of the house he was passing. He bounced off and tumbled painfully to the sidewalk as Hector and his gang stopped just a few yards ahead, now blocking the sidewalk that led Danny home. The hard candies had fallen out of his bag and were scattered across the sidewalk. He got down on his knees, hurrying to pick them up, doing everything he could to avoid eye contact with Hector and the others, but when he reached for the last one Hector’s big, stupid basketball-shoe was on top of it. The older boy leaned over and picked it up. “Jolly Rancher, huh? Not bad. Not great, but not bad.” He waved it in Danny’s face, making him look up from all fours like a dog at its master. “I asked you what’s in the bag, Mendoza?”

“Nothing! It’s for my mama.”

“For your mama? Oh, iddn’t dat sweet?” Hector’s fingers hooked under Danny’s chin and lifted. Danny didn’t fight — he knew it wasn’t going to help — but he still flinched when he saw Hector’s round, sweaty face so close, the angry, pale yellow-brown eyes. Hector Villaba even had the beginnings of a real mustache, a hairy smudge on his upper lip. It was one of the things that made him so scary, one of the reasons why even bigger twelve year olds like Chuy and Rojo let him lead them — a fifth-grader with a mustache!

“C’mon, open it up,” Hector told him. “Let’s see what you got for your mama.” When Danny still didn’t offer up the bag, Hector’s friend Chuy put a foot on Danny’s back and pushed down so hard that Danny had to brace himself to keep from being shoved against the sidewalk. “I said show me, maricon,” said Hector. “Chuy gonna break your spine. He knows karate.”

Danny handed Hector the bag, biting his lip, determined not to cry. Hector pulled out the big Hershey Bar. “Hijole!” he said. “Look at that! Something for your mama, shit — you were going to eat that all by yourself. Not even share none with us. That’s cold, man.”

“It is for my mother! It is!” Danny pushed up against Chuy’s heavy hiking boot trying to reach the candy bar, which didn’t look anywhere near so huge clamped in Hector Villaba’s plump, dirty fingers. Chuy took his weight off for a moment, then kicked Danny in the ribs hard enough to make him drop to the concrete and hug himself in pain.

“If you try any more shit, we’ll hurt you good,” said Hector, laughing as he unwrapped the candy bar. He tossed a piece to Chuy, then another to Rojo, who grabbed it out of the air and shoved it in his mouth like a starving dog, then licked his fingers. Hector leaned down and gave Danny another shove, hard enough to crash him against the fence again. “Don’t you ever try to hide anything from me. I know where you live, dude. I’ll come over and slap the bitch out of you and your mama both.” He pointed to the hard candies still clutched in Danny’s hands. “Get that other shit, too, yo,” Hector told Rojo, and the big, freckled kid bent Danny’s fingers back until he surrendered it all.

The Christmas chocolate bar, looking sad and naked with half its foil peeled away, was still clutched in Hector’s hand as he and his friends rode away laughing, sharing the hard candy out of the bag.

For a while Danny just sat on the cold sidewalk and wished he had a knife or even a gun and he could kill Hector Villaba, even if it made Jesus unhappy for weeks. At that moment Danny almost felt like he could do it. The rotten, mean bastard had taken his mom’s present!

At last Danny wiped his eyes and continued home. It was starting to get dark and the wind was suddenly cold, which made his scratched-up hands ache. When he reached the apartment he let himself in, dropped his book bag by the door, then called a greeting to his mama feeding Danny’s baby sister in the kitchen as he hurried on to the bathroom so he could clean up his scratches and tear-stained face and do his best to hide the damage to the knees of his pants before she saw him up close. It wouldn’t do any good to tell her what had happened – she couldn’t do anything and it would make her very sad. Danny was used to keeping quiet about what went on between home and school, school and home.

After a while he went out and sat at the table and watched as his mother fed green goop to the baby. Even her smile for Danny looked tired. Mama worked so hard to keep them all fed and dressed, hardly ever yelled, and even sang old songs from Mexico for Danny and his brothers when she wasn’t too tired…
And now that cabron Hector had stolen her present, and he didn’t have any money left to get her something else.

Later that night, when the house was quiet and everyone was asleep, Danny found himself crying again. It was so unfair! What had happened to the Christmas luck? Or did that kind of thing only happen to other kids, other families?

“Please, Jesus,” he prayed quietly. “I just have to get Mama something for Christmas – something Hector can’t take. If that’s a miracle, okay – I mean, I know you can’t do them all the time, but if you got one…an extra one…”

Something woke him up – a strange noise in the living room. For a moment he lay in bed wondering if Santa Claus might have come, but then he remembered it was still three days until Christmas. Still, he could definitely hear something moving, a kind of quiet fluttery sound. His brothers were both sprawled in boneless, little-boy sleep across the mattress they shared, so he climbed carefully over them and made his way out to the living room. At first he saw nothing more unusual than the small Christmas tree on top of the coffee table, but as he stared, his eyes trying to get used to the dark, he saw the tree was…moving? Yes, moving, the top of the pine wagging like a dog’s tail.

Danny had never heard of a Christmas tree coming to life, not even in a TV movie, and it scared him. He picked up the tennis racket with the missing strings Luis kept promising to fix, then crawled toward the scraggly tree with its ornaments of foil and cut paper.

As he got closer he could see that something small was caught in the tree’s topmost branch, trying to fly away but not succeeding. He could hear its wings beating so fast they almost buzzed. A bird, trapped in the apartment? A really big moth?

Danny looked for one of the baby’s bowls to trap it, then had a better idea and crept to the kitchen cabinet where his mom kept the washed jars. He picked a big one that had held sandwich spread and slithered commando-style back to the living room. Whatever the thing was, it was really stuck, tugging and thrashing as it tried to free itself from the pine needles. He dropped the jar over it and pulled carefully on the branch until the thing could finally get free, then Danny clapped the lid on the jar to keep it from escaping.

The thing inside the jar went crazy now, flying against the glass, the wings going so fast that it made it hard for him to see for certain what it was. The strange thing was, it actually looked like a person — a tiny, tiny little person no bigger than a sparrow. That was crazy. Danny knew it was crazy. He knew he had to be dreaming.

“What are you doing?” the thing said in a tiny, rasping voice. It didn’t sound happy at all. “Let me go!”

Danny was so startled to hear it talk that he nearly dropped the jar. He held it up to the light coming in from the street lamp to get a better look. The prisoner in the jar was a little lady — a lady with wings! A real, honest-to-goodness Christmas miracle! “Are you…an angel?” he asked.

“Let me out, young man, and we’ll talk about it.” She didn’t sound much like an angel. Actually, she sounded a lot like that scratchy-voiced nanny on that TV show his mama watched sometimes. Her hair was yellow and kind of wild and sticky-uppy, and she wore a funny little dancing dress. She was also carrying a bag over her shoulder like Santa did, except that hers wasn’t much bigger than Danny’s thumb .

“P-Promise you won’t fly away?” he asked this strange small person. “If I let you out?”

She had her tiny hands pressed up against the inside of the jar. She shook her head so hard her little sparkly crown almost fell off. “Promise. But hurry up — I don’t like enclosed places. Honest, it makes me want to scream. Let me out, please.”

“Okay. But no cheating.” He unscrewed the lid on the jar and slowly turned it over. The tiny lady rose up, fluttering into the light that streamed through the living room window.

“Oh, that’s so much better,” she said. “I got stuck in a panoramic Easter egg once, wedged between a frosting bunny and a cardboard flower pot. Thought I was going to lose my mind.”

“Wow,” he said. “Who are you? What are you?”

She carefully landed on the floor near his knee. “I’m a sugarplum fairy,” she said. “Like in that ballet.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Look, thanks for getting me loose from that tree.” She turned herself around trying to look down at herself. “Rats! Ripped my skirt. I hate conifers.” She turned back to Danny. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I was just passing through the neighborhood when I felt somebody thinking candy thoughts — real serious candy thoughts. I mean, it was like someone shouting. Anyway, that’s what we do, us sugarplum fairies — we handle the candy action, especially at Christmas time. So I thought I should come and check it out. Was it you? Because if it was, you’ve got the fever bad, kid.” She reached into her bag and produced a lollypop bigger than she was, something that couldn’t possibly have fit in there. “Here, have one on me. You look like you need it.”

“Wow. Wow!” He suddenly realized he was talking out loud and dropped his voice, worried that he would wake up his mama and Luis. He reached out for the lollypop. “You’re really a fairy. Do you know Jesus?”

She shrugged. “I think he’s in another department. What’s your name? It’s Danny, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “Yeah.” It suddenly struck him. “You know my name…?”

“I’ve got it all written down somewhere.” She started riffling through her bag again, then pulled out something that looked like a tiny phone book. She took out an equally small pair of glasses, opened the book and began reading. “For some reason you fell off the list here, Danny. No wonder you’re so desperate — you haven’t had a sugarplum delivery in quite a while! Well, that at least I can do something about.” She frowned as she took a pen out of the apparently bottomless bag and made a correction. “Of course, they may not process the new order until early next year, and I’m not scheduled back in this area until Valentines Day.” She frowned. “Doesn’t seem fair…” A moment later her tiny face brightened. “Hey, since you saved me from that tree branch I think I’m allowed to give you a wish. Would you like that?”

“Really? A wish?”

“Yes. I can do that.”

“You’ll give me a wish? Like magic? A wish?”

She frowned again. “Come on, kid, I know you’ve been shorted on candy the last couple of years but is your blood sugar really that low? I just very clearly said I will give you a wish. We’re allowed to when someone helps us out.”

He was so excited he could barely sit still. It was a Christmas miracle after all, a real one! “Could I wish for, like, a million dollars?” Then even if Luis didn’t find another job for a while, the family would be okay. More than okay.

She shook her head. “Sorry, kid, no. I only do candy-related wishes. You want one of those extra big gummy bears? I hear those are popular this year. I could bend some rules and get it to you by Christmas.”

He was tempted — he’d seen an ad on television — but now it was his turn to shake his head. “Could I just get a big Hershey bar? One of those extra-big ones? For my mother?”

The little woman tilted her head up so she could see him better from where she stood down on the ground. “Truly? Is that all you want? Gee, kid, I could feel the desperation coming off this house like weird off an elf. You sure you don’t want something a little more…substantial? A pile of candy, maybe? A year’s supply of gumdrops or something? As long as it’s candy-related, I can probably get it done for you, but you better decide quick.” She pulled quite a large pocket watch on a chain out of her bag, then put on her glasses again. “After midnight, and I’ve still got half my rounds to go.” She looked up at him. “You seem like a nice kid, Danny, and it doesn’t look like you guys are exactly swimming in presents and stuff. How about a nice pile of candy, assorted types? Or if you’d rather just concentrate on — what did you say, Hershey Bars? — I could probably arrange a shopping bag of those or something…”

For a moment his head swam at the prospect of a grocery bag full of giant chocolate bars, more than Hector the Butt-head Villaba could ever dream of having now matter how much he stole…but then another idea came floating up from deep down in Danny’s thoughts – a strange, dark idea.

“Can you do all kinds of wishes? Really all kinds?”

“Yeah, but just one. And it definitely has to be candy-related. I’m not a miracle worker or anything.”

“Okay. Then I’ll tell you what I want.” Danny could suddenly see it all in his imagination, and it was very, very good.

The school holiday party was nice. Danny and his classmates played games and sang songs and had a snack of fruit and cheese and crackers. Nobody brought Chips Ahoy cookies, but one of the mothers did indeed bring cupcakes, delicious chocolate ones with silver, green and red sprinkles for Christmas. There were even enough left over that although Danny had finished his long ago despite making it last as long as possible, he was allowed to take home the last two for his little brothers. He suspected that the teacher knew his family didn’t have much money, but for this one day it didn’t embarrass him at all.

After the bell rang Danny followed the other third-graders toward the school gate, holding one cupcake carefully in each hand, his book bag draped over his shoulder. He was watching his feet so carefully that he didn’t see what made the other children suddenly scatter to either side, but as soon as he heard the voice he knew the reason.

“Look at that, it’s Maricon Mendoza, yo,” said Hector Villaba. “What’d you bring us for Christmas, kid?” Danny looked up. The mustached monster was sitting astride his bike just a few yards down the sidewalk, flanked by Rojo and Chuy. “Oh, yeah, dude — cupcakes!” said Hector. “You remembered our Christmas presents.” He scooted his bike forward until he stood directly over Danny, then reached out for the cupcakes. Danny couldn’t help it — he jerked back when Hector tried to take them, even though he knew it would probably earn him another bruising.

“Punch the little chulo’s face in,” Rojo suggested.

Hector dropped his bike with a clatter. The other kids from school who had stopped to stare in horrified fascination jumped out of his way as he strode forward and grabbed the cupcakes out of Danny’s hands. He peeled the paper off one and shoved the whole cupcake in his mouth, then tossed the other to Chuy. “You two split that,” he said through a mouthful of devil’s food, then turned his attention back to Danny, who was so scared and excited that he felt like electricity was running through him. “Next time, you better remember to bring one for each of us, Mendoza. You only bring two, that’s going to get your ass kicked.”

Danny backed away. It was hard to look into those yellow-brown eyes and not run crying, let alone keep thinking clearly, but Danny did his best. He dropped his book bag to the ground and out fell the stringless tennis racket that he had brought from home. Hector hooted with angry laughter as Danny snatched it up and held it before him as if it was a cross and Hector was a vampire.

“Que? You going to try to hit me, little boy?” Hector laughed again, but he didn’t sound happy. He didn’t like it when people stood up to him. “I’ll take that away from you and beat your ass black and blue, Mendoza.” The bully took a step nearer and held out his hand. “Give it to me or I’ll break your fingers.”

“No.” Danny wasn’t going to step back any farther. He lifted the racket, waved it around like a baseball bat. It was old and flimsy, but he had come to school determined today. “You can’t have it…you fat asshole.”

Behind Hector, Rojo let out a surprised chortle, but Hector Villaba didn’t think it was funny at all.

“That’s it,” he said, curling his hands into fists. “After I kick your ass, I’m gonna rub your face in dog shit. Then I’m gonna kick your ass again. You’re gonna spend Christmas in the hospital.” Without warning, he charged toward Danny.

Danny stepped to the side and swung the racket as hard as he could, hitting Hector right in the stomach. With a whoop of surprise and pain Hector bent double, but when he looked up he didn’t look hurt, just really, really mad, his eyes staring like a crazy dog’s eyes.

“That’s…it. I’m…going…to…get…you…Mendoza…” he said, then sucked in air and stood up straight, but even as he did so a funny expression crossed his face and he looked down at where he was holding his belly. Hector’s hands were suddenly full of crackling, cellophane-wrapped hard candies, so many of them that they cascaded over his fingers and onto the ground. He lifted his hands in disbelief to look and dozens more of the candies slid out of the front of his open jacket — candy bars, too, fun-size and even regular ones, Snickers bars, Mounds, Tootsie Rolls, lollipops, candy canes, even spicy tamarindos. The other children from the school stared in horrified fascination, guessing that Danny had broken a bag that Hector had been carrying under his coat. They were so scared of Hector that they didn’t move an inch toward any of the candy that was still slithering out of the big boy’s coat and pooling on the ground at his feet.

“Oh, man,” one of the other third graders said in a hoarse whisper, “Mendoza’s going to get beat up so bad…!”

But even more candy was pouring out of Hector’s belly now, as if someone had turned on a candy-faucet, a great river of sweets running out of the place where Danny had knocked him open with his old tennis racket.

“What the…?” Then Hector Villaba looked down at himself and began to scream in terror. Candy was showering out of him faster and faster onto the sidewalk, already piled as high as the cuffs of his pants and still coming.

“Hijole, dude!” said Rojo. “You’re a piñata!”

Hector looked at him, eyes rolling with fear, then he turned sprinted away down the street squealing like a kindergartner, a flood of candy still pouring from him, Crunch Bars, M&Ms, (plain and peanut) as well as boxes of gumdrops and wax-wrapped pieces of taffy, all raining onto the street around the bully’s legs and feet, bouncing and rolling.

Rojo and Chuy watched Hector run for a moment, then turned to stare at Danny with a mixture of apprehension and confusion. Then turned from him to look at each other, came to some kind of agreement, and threw themselves down on their knees to start scooping up the candy that had fallen out of Hector Villaba. Within a few seconds the other school kids were all scrambling across the ground beside them, everybody shoveling candy into their pockets as fast as they could.

Danny waited until he wasn’t breathing so hard, then started for home, following the clear trail of candy that had gushed from Hector Villaba as he ran. He didn’t bother to pick up everything, since for once in his life he could afford to be selective. He stuffed one pocket of his jacket with candy for his brothers, then filled the other just with Butterfinger Bars, at least six or seven, but kept walking with his head down until he spotted a nice, big Hershey Bar in good condition which he zipped in his book bag so it would stay safe for his mother. The rest of the way home he picked up whatever looked interesting and threw it into the book bag too, until by the time he reached home he was staggering with its weight up the apartment building walkway. For once, Hector Villaba had been the one who had run home crying.

He didn’t feel sorry for Hector, either, not at all. Scared as the fifth-grader was now, he would be all right when he reached home. Danny had made that a part of the wish and the fairy had said she thought it was a good idea. Jesus didn’t want even mean kids to die from having their guts really fall out, Danny felt pretty sure, so he had done his best not to spoil the Lord’s birthday. Of course Hector Villaba probably wouldn’t have a very merry Christmas, but Danny had decided that Jesus could probably live with that.

A Stark And Wormy Knight is available now on the Amazon Kindle.

Tad Williams – 2011

Related posts:

1. Review of Shadowheart by Tad Williams
2. Preview of Shadowrise by Tad Williams
3. Interview with Fantasy Author Tad Williams

Coming January 2012: A Collection of the Award-Winning Cthulhu Mythos Horror Fiction of John Scott Tynes

“This is pure evil, pure destruction. This is the apocalypse.” And it’s just getting started. In January 2012, Arc Dream Publishing will release “Delta Green: Strange Authorities,” a collection of the award-winning Cthulhu Mythos horror fiction of John Scott Tynes. It will be available in trade paperback from Amazon.com and Ingram Book Company, and in ebook for Kindle, Nook, iBooks and other devices.

“Delta Green: Strange Authorities” features the complete fiction of John Scott Tynes in the “Delta Green” setting, which explores the cosmic horrors of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos in a modern world of deadly conspiracies and personal apocalypse. “Delta Green: Strange Authorities” includes the short stories “The Corn King,” “Final Report,” “My Father’s Son,” and “The Dark Above,” and the Origins Award-winning novel “The Rules of Engagement.”

Shane Ivey, editor and president of Arc Dream Publishing, says: “John Scott Tynes’ stories of ‘Delta Green’ are obsidian splinters of fear and beauty. John brings a sense of humanity, of its love and confusion and despair, to the mind-bending terror of the Cthulhu Mythos. These stories have been too hard to find for far too long and I am thrilled to make them available to new readers.”

ABOUT JOHN SCOTT TYNES: John Scott Tynes is a game designer and writer in Seattle. He currently designs Xbox 360 videogames for Microsoft Studios. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Pagan Publishing and Armitage House and his best-known projects include “Unknown Armies,” “Puppetland,” “Delta Green,” “The Unspeakable Oath,” and “Call of Cthulhu D20.” His film “The Yellow Sign” is available on DVD from Lurker Films.

ABOUT ARC DREAM PUBLISHING: Arc Dream Publishing produces novels and tabletop roleplaying games that have won awards and wide acclaim. Its product lines include “Delta Green,” “The Unspeakable Oath,” “Monsters and Other Childish Things,” “Wild Talents,” and “Godlike.” In 2011 Arc Dream Publishing released the novel “Delta Green: Through a Glass, Darkly,” which continues the tale that began with the stories in “Delta Green: Strange Authorities.”

ABOUT DELTA GREEN: “Delta Green” is a modern setting for H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Delta Green itself is a conspiracy of federal agents, soldiers, intelligence officers, and “friendlies” who secretly and without sanction use the resources of the U.S. government to thwart supernatural horrors that no legitimate agency could face. Delta Green agents slip through the system, manipulating the federal bureaucracy while pushing the darkness back for another day — but often at a shattering personal cost.

Related posts:

1. Delta Green: Through a Glass, Darkly eBook Available Now!
2. Preview of Delta Green: Intelligences
3. Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present an interview with the developers of Atari’s Heroes of Neverwinter Facebook game and a giveaway! We would like to thank Peter Banks, the Director of Product Marketing for Atari, for sponsoring several Explorer Packs for fans of this game set in the Forgotten Realms and for providing us with this great interview!

What is Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter about?

Why did you release a Beta version of the game on Facebook?

What design challenges did you face translating tabletop gameplay to a shorter, online play style?

There are a lot of fun items, monsters, and places to explore in this game. Which ones are your favorites and why?

Where can we go to find updates, news, and add comments for the developers?

Giveaway! Comment Below for a free Explorer Pack!

Want to win a *free* Explorer Bundle to buff up your character in Heroes of Neverwinter Nights on Facebook? We have several codes to giveaway, so we’ll make it easy for you.

Tell us what your favorite Dungeons & Dragons villain or monster is by midnight CST on Friday, December 22nd. Make sure you leave a valid e-mail in the appropriate comment field so we can contact you! Winners will be chosen at random. We’ll be sending out the e-mails to redeem your free code by Christmas.

What are you waiting for? Comment away!

Related posts:

1. Dungeons and Dungeons: Heroes of Neverwinter on Facebook

Here’s the idea… What if the characters of Renfield and Igor were a pair of down-on-their-luck buddies in a world filled with monsters from classic horror lore BEFORE they worked for their respective legendary employers?

RENFIELD AND IGOR MEET DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE is a “buddy story” similar to the likes of Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello, told in the tradition of the great “road pictures” of Bing & Hope.

Reinfield and Igor are two down-on-their-luck, not so bright, unemployed common workers in Victoria London who both have a crush on “working girl” Ivy Pearson. They are in danger of losing their flat when Reinfield is approached by Dr. Jekyll to run an errand to acquire ingredients for a new formula. Elsewhere, Igor is approached by Mr. Hyde to run the same errand. Reinfield and Igor realize that they have both been hired for the same job, but they are not bright enough to figure out that both Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. They plot to go ahead and do the job for both men in order to be paid twice—and their adventures begin…

RENFIELD AND IGOR MEET DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE will be a 32-page full color comic book written by Dan Taylor (Hero Happy Hour, Pirat Tales: Legend of the Cat O’ Nine Tails, Armauraders) and art by Gavin Spence (Hero Happy Hour webcomic). This title is the first of a planned five-part series that features Renfield and Igor on a series of adventures where they encounter iconic monsters of the classic horror genre. The plan of RENFIELD AND IGOR MEET DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE is to be published and distributed with the goal of bringing all five RENFIELD AND IGOR comic book issues to fruition.

You can follow RENFIELD AND IGOR on Facebook and Twitter. Please visit the RENFIELD AND IGOR BLOG for production news, background information, additional art, and more…

No related posts.

“No God commands me, yet I answer to a higher law than yours. My heart does not beat, yet it still feels. Only her word rules me, and only her smile warms my blood.” – J. Carlton, Nosferatu Harpy of Baltimore

Strange, Dead Love is a new supplement for White Wolf’s Vampire: the Requiem RPG. It is guide to the themes and props of paranormal romance, custom-fit for the World of Darkness, specifically Vampire: the Requiem. This book features a collection of world shards, ready-made chronicles with their own plot hooks and rules. As well as advice for storytelling romance, including guidance on games for two.

Strange, Dead Love was written by Jess Hartley, Monica Valentinelli and Filamena Young. You can read the Flames Rising interview with the developers Russell Bailey and Eddy Webb from October where we took fan questions about the book.

Flames Rising has an exclusive sneak preview of this new book with an excerpt called A Plague for a Dowry.

A Plague for a Dowry

Pitch

This is a shard about sex, politics, repression, and maybe even a little bit of love. You’ll be playing rising stars in a city of Kindred who have a long history of making as many deals in the bedrooms as in Elysium. Now the Prince has, for whatever reason, declared that love, sex, and romance are illegal and punishable by death. Your Requiem is about to get tricky.

Mood and Theme

Secrecy, lust, and the thrill of illicit love should be the hallmarks of this chronicle. After all, one little law and the threat of death is hardly enough to make a city full of Kindred suddenly change the way they operate. Now it’s just a matter of being sneaker about it. It’s business as usual, just behind locked doors. The ever-present threat of blackmail makes everything that much more dangerous, and that much sexier.

Description

A year ago, a Sanctified zealot with some crazy ideas about humanity and the cleaving of Kindred from human behavior entered the city. He declared that any sort of contact between Kindred that wasn’t a demonstration of power or devotion was a blasphemy. The Bishop found him overly zealous, but harmless.

It’s also long been known the Prince is heartbroken. No one can say exactly what caused it, but the wounds have been apparent in the lines of her face for nearly a century. Something shattered her, and she’s an empty shell most of the time. Despite the Bishop’s declaration, the Prince seems to have taken an interest in the zealot’s teachings. After a number of private meetings and confessions, the Prince made this strange belief city law:

“For the betterment of the city, any and all romantic or sexual behavior between Kindred is to be forbidden. There is nothing but suffering in the Kindred experience, and the mimicry of human blessings such as love and pleasure are a slight in God’s plan. Therefore, there shall be no more love, no more pleasure, and no more marriages.”

Now the city is in a quiet panic. Clearly they can’t ignore the way they’ve been doing things forever. The indignity of the new law is second only to the very real threat of death should they not follow it. Any liberties must now be taken in secret.

Character Considerations

A number of characters would fit nicely into this chronicle, but here are a few ideas to really spice things up.

The Pretty Face: Before the law, she was arm candy. Just a pretty thing Embraced for her looks and passed around between Kindred of power in a fashion that bordered on humiliation. Now, though, she’s got something she didn’t have before: power. With the new law on the books and her old benefactors addicted to her attentions (and possibly her blood), she’s got leverage over them. After all, she can expose any and all of them as law breakers. While she too is guilty, being able to point fingers goes a long way with tyrants.

The Childe: The Prince is his sire. He was Embraced long after the heartbreak, and doesn’t know the cause of it, but he is desperate to ease that pain in his sire’s soul. Worse, thanks to the influence of that zealot, the Prince has spiraled further into self-loathing and depression. No else is close enough to try and change things, and any real gestures could get him killed under the new law. That’s probably not enough to stop him, though — after all, a childe’s love is sacrosanct.

The Penitent: She knows something about the zealot that would shock the Prince and the city. It’s something so terrible and so twisted that it would cast into doubt everything he’s said and done to influence this city. The problem is that she’s under conditioning that prevents her from even hinting at what she knows. She must find a way to expose the zealot for what he is without ever telling anyone else what she knows or what they should be looking for — no easy task.

Allies and Antagonists

Aside from the Prince and the Sanctified zealot, the city should be alive with freedom-loving, political, erotically-open Storyteller characters. Taking care of business was a business of its own, and while not everyone in the city should be a sex addict, a majority of the city’s vampires should be at least insulted that such a limitation would be forced on them.

Clandestine meetings supported by local Carthians intent on resisting the laws happen in many places throughout the city every night. The Circle of the Crone use Crúac to hide their blood bonds and emotions. The Ordo Dracul, limited in any research they might be doing on Kindred-to-Kindred social interaction, are up in arms. Even members of the Lancea Sanctum question the wisdom of forcing this sort of dogma on a city that might strain their covenant’s standing.

Stories

Blood Disease: Something is slowly killing the Kindred in the city: some sort of mystical disease that is passed by blood contact from one Kindred to another. Ghouls can’t suffer from it, and humans don’t carry it. The only way for it to be spread is by illegal sexual interactions between Kindred, so tracking down its spread and source is going to be next to impossible for city officials. It will be up to the coterie, working outside the law, to garner enough Kindred trust to stop the spread of the plague.

The Ties that Bind: Maybe most Kindred don’t realize the sheer number of “criminals” this city has due to the new law. Perhaps if there were a way to illustrate just how many members in good standing are at risk for death by the law, the Prince could be bullied into changing her mind. One answer is to trace the blood ties and bonds, and rumor has it that there are certain Crúac rituals or strange alchemies that can follow the lines of blood. The coterie must find the rituals, trace the complicated network of blood ties, and hope for the best.

Owner of a Broken Heart: As if things weren’t bad enough, the zealot starts preaching against nomads and shortly after, the Prince declares an open blood hunt on any foreigners attempting to make contact with the city court. Could it have anything to do with that long lonely look in her eyes? It might be worth asking some of the local Gangrel, but is it safe to ask?

You Can Pick Your Family

In this shard, characters can opt to join or leave blood lineages for the purposes of Blood Ties, Blood Sympathy, and the Taste of Family rules (Vampire: the Requiem, pp. 162-164). This shard also uses slightly stronger forms of those rules. Using these rules changes, a character may be part of multiple lineages.

To leave a lineage, a character must spend a dot of Willpower, and shed at least one point of Vitae. Immediately, all relevant characters may make Blood Sympathy rolls to know this occurred.

To join a lineage, a character must spend a dot of Willpower and ingest one point of Vitae from a member of the lineage in question (subject to normal Vinculums and addiction rules, as in Vampire, pp. 161-162). The member of the lineage whose blood is shared must spend a point of Willpower.

Blood Sympathy no longer carries the fifty-mile limit; characters may experience one another’s most potent moments from any distance. In addition, family members need not spend Willpower to force sympathy. The social bonus for Vinculums becomes +4. When using Taste of Family, a single success can identify blood from a known lineage.

Strange, Dead Love will be available in both eBook and Print formats at DriveThruRPG.com.

Related posts:

1. Strange Dead Love Now Available For Vampire: the Requiem!
2. Into the Void SAS Review
3. Vampire The Danse Macabre Preview

Streets of Bedlam is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game in which you play characters with histories, who’ve done bad things, who may do a few more, but who have a code they stick to, fuzzy though it may be, that guides them through life and allows them to make a difference. Everybody in this town wants something but your characters are aiming higher than most and maybe, just maybe, they’ll do some good. At the very least, maybe they’ll stop some bad from happening.

Written and designed by critically-acclaimed game writer Jason L Blair, the man behind Little Fears, Streets of Bedlam will be built around the award-winning Savage Worlds ruleset published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group.

In this interview I ask Jason for details about the inspirations he drew from and the characters that you play in Streets of Bedlam.

What is this game about?

Ultimately, Streets of Bedlam is about desperation. It’s about what people do when they’re backed into a corner, how they fight their way out, how they overcome the impulse to sin in a world where everything is permitted (at least implicitly). It’s about crime and corruption.

It’s also about big dudes ramming their fists through some punk’s face, and S&M vigilantes who keep the citizens safe from scumbags.

What were your sources of inspiration?

Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novels, definitely. The Boondock Saints films, Pulp Fiction, Miller’s Crossing, the Max Payne video games, every film noir I’ve ever seen. I’m pulling from a lot but not to make this a kitchen sink-setting. I’m editing to make sure things are cohesive.

What makes it a good fit for Savage Worlds?

Looking through what was available, I didn’t see anything like Streets of Bedlam available for Savage Worlds. That, and my personal affection for the system, pushed me to see what I could do with the Savage Worlds system to make it fit an ultraviolent neo-noir setting.

The two came together very well. I like Savage Worlds’ level of abstraction, the quick and easy flow of gameplay. Also, the system is very inspiring so it’s easy to write for. I love it.

One big thing though was finding ways to inject more story-focused bits into Savage Worlds, which was designed around combat. I wanted a system that could handle a street fight or highway shoot-out easily but also a system perfect for interrogation, following a trail of clues, and other detective/crime-focused systems. Savage Worlds Deluxe touches on those systems and Streets of Bedlam adds to them.

What types of characters will be in this game?

This is a neo-noir crime setting about people who do bad things. What makes the player characters different from the bad guys is the PCs do bad things for good reasons. Well, at least with good intentions.

You play criminals, ex-criminals, cops, ex-cops, ex-cops who are currently criminals. You play those marginalized by society: veterans who come home only good at war; streetwalkers who have to do whatever they can to survive; people who have been thrown out and have to carve their own way. But you also play people in power, people honestly trying to do good even if they work for a corrupt and unjust system.

Are there any heroes in this setting?

Absolutely, though they’re not your typical heroes. I’m hesitant to use the term “anti-hero” but those trying to do good in Streets of Bedlam are far from Boy Scouts. Everybody in Streets of Bedlam has a past, some darker than others, and part of the drama comes from overcoming that past.

The way I like to explain it is, the good guys and bad guys have different goals but use a lot of the same methods.

What can you tell us about the new character types?

The archetypes each explore some facet of crime and/or corruption. You have Monsters who are just brutal justice-getting machines. These are the guys who walk through doors and a storm of bullets to get their man or rescue a child from the clutches of her heinous kidnapper. Vigilantes patrol the streets, watching out for murderers, rapists, muggers, and all the other scum who prey on the innocent. Dogfaces are fixers, know-it-alls, who are go-tos if you need to find out about deals going down or some two-bit jagoff who just made bail and is walking free on the streets. You can play as cops, private dicks, reporters, anyone who is sets out on a trail to unearth corruption and expose the city’s dark underbelly.

What can you tell us about Four-Story Drop?

Four-Story Drop is the first supplement for Streets of Bedlam and it’ll include four standalone episodes that groups can use to get up and running through the setting right away. They’ll be structured similar to the Campfire Tales supplements for Little Fears Nightmare Edition. Each will be broken into scenes and will include all the major NPCs for that story.

Now that the Kickstarter is funded, why should people back this project?

Exclusives! Everyone who pledges gets thanked in the corebook and those who pledge $5 or more get turned into NPCs as well. I have a whole city to populate!

Backers at certain levels can influence future episodes, get turned into a major player in the world, get character archetypes exclusive to Kickstarter pledges, get some free dice, and more.

If the Kickstarter continues to do well, I have ideas for more backer exclusives as well so the more funds that are raised, the more things get unlocked.

Where can people find out more?

I have the basics up on the Kickstarter page along with ways gamers can secure their own copies of Streets of Bedlam, get some exclusive goods, and even help shape the world. They can also check out StreetsOfBedlam.com for updates, previews, and more as we get closer to the April 2012 release date.

Related posts:

1. Streets of Bedlam: One Day Left, New Milestone, Soundtrack?
2. Streets of Bedlam: A Savage World of Crime + Corruption Kickstarter

Top Cow Productions and Image Comics announced today a premiere launch event at Meltdown in Los Angeles for the Pilot Season 2011 voting period. The Pilot Season “Take Control” party invites Los Angeles fans to meet the various creative teams involved in 2011′s Pilot Season competition, get their books signed, and get the details on how they can determine the winning series this year. The event is co-sponsored by Chipotle Mexican Grill, through arrangement with marketing firm Bonfire Agency.

Since 2007, Pilot Season has become the leading fan-driven comic event, allowing creators to compete with brand-new original properties for fan votes. This year, Top Cow released eight unique pilot issues by eight creative teams ranging from established industry pros to up-and-coming talent to screenwriters and even one NFL All Star. With all eight books in stores, voting will begin on Monday, December 5th at topcow.com, where fans can also find additional information on each title.

To kick off the highly contested month of voting, Top Cow and Image Comics have partnered with Meltdown Comics to host a “Take Control” launch party on Wednesday, December 7th from 7:00-9:00pm. Fans will have the opportunity to mingle with the creative teams, get their Pilot Season issues signed, receive free comics from Top Cow, and enjoy free food and drinks furnished by Chipotle Mexican Grill. Confirmed guests include Joshua Hale Fialkov, Rahsan Ekedal, Morgan Davis Foehl, Dennis Calero, Brad Keene, Matt Hawkins, Filip Sablik, Nick Nantell,Dan Casey, and Troy Peteri. All fans in attendance will also receive “Buy One, Get One Free” certificates for future visits to Meltdown’s neighborhood Chipotle at 7660 Sunset Blvd. Meltdown Comics, one of Los Angeles’ premiere comic shops, is located at 7522 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046 and can be reached at (323) 851-7223.

This year’s voting process has evolved from previous years. From December 5th to December 18th, fans will be able to vote as often as they would like for their favorite series. On December 19th, the four highest vote-getters will continue to the second round. Until December 25th, fans will be able to vote once per day for their favorite series, with the highest two vote-getters continuing to the final round of competition on December 26th. The final winning series will be determined when voting closes on December 31st and will be announced in early January 2012.

“Pilot Season is one of the highlights of the year for all of us at Top Cow and we’re thrilled to kick off the voting in style at Meltdown,” commented Top Cow Publisher, Filip Sablik, “Rather than just do a standard signing event, we thought it’d be fun to have a party and celebrate all these great new books! I wouldn’t be surprised if we had a couple impromptu campaign speeches on December 7th.”

“We’re thrilled to have Chipotle on board for this leg of the Pilot Season program,” added Steve Rotterdam, Bonfire Co-Founder and Partner. “It makes the event all the more celebratory.”

For more information on Pilot Season, go to topcow.com. Pilot Season comics are available in digital format at DriveThruComics.com.

Related posts:

1. Darkness II: Confession on Free Comic Book Day
2. Opposing Top Cow Teams Collide: Cyberforce/Hunter-Killer #1

Matt M McElroy, Publisher of FR Press, announced today that Slices of Fate, the collected works of author Eddy Webb, will debut early December 2011.

“Slices of Fate is a collection that spans the depth and breadth of Webb’s work,” said editor Monica Valentinelli. “Arranged chronologically, this is a beautiful representation of the stories and voices Webb has to offer his readers.”

Stories range from the author’s nod to literary tales like “A Sheepish Trip to Yorkshire” to more speculative works like “The Battlefield.” Essays include a series on two of Webb’s loves: wrestling and Sherlock Holmes. Combined with several pieces of microfiction, the collection is an in-depth representation of the author’s work thus far.

Both digital and print editions of the collection will be available through online retailers like DriveThruFiction.com in early December 2011.

About Eddy Webb: Eddy Webb (with a “y,” thank you) is a writer, podcaster, game designer, and transmedia developer. Hired on with CCP/White Wolf in late 2007, he currently designs content for the World of Darkness MMO. He lives a sitcom life with his wife, his roommate, a supervillain cat, and two pug dogs.

On the web: EddyFate.com

Twitter: @eddyfate

About Monica Valentinelli: Monica Valentinelli is an author and game designer who lurks in the dark. Her work has been published by several companies ranging from Crackle.com to Eden Studios. Her editing credits include Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror and Ninja Burger 2nd Edition.

On the web: MLVWrites.com

Twitter: @mlvalentine

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Monica-Valentinelli

Related posts:

1. Slices of Fate by Eddy Webb Now in Print!
2. New Book and End of the Year FR Press Sale!
3. Happy Halloween from FR Press!

All zombies are created equal. All zombie stories are not.

From its humble beginnings as an indie comic book, The Walking Dead has become a pop culture juggernaut boasting New York Times–bestselling trade paperbacks, a hit television series, and enough fans to successfully take on any zombie uprising.

Triumph of The Walking Dead explores the intriguing characters, stunning plot twists, and spectacular violence that make Robert Kirkman’s epic the most famous work of the Zombie Renaissance.

Flames Rising is proud to present an exclusive excerpt from this book. The Walking Dead novels’ co-author Jay Bonansinga provides the inside story on translating the comics into prose.

A Novelist and a Zombie Walk into a Bar

A dear friend, who also happens to be a Hollywood talent manager, rings me up one day last summer and babbles into the phone: “Some people I know are shopping for a novelist to help write a book based on a comic that’s being developed into a TV series. You with me so far?”

I mumble something like, “Um . . . I think so.”

“Anyway,” he goes on, “you would be working with the guy who created the comic, who is somewhat of a big shot, and you know, this deal could very possibly open many doors across the southern region of California. And when I heard they were looking for some author with horror chops who can play nice with others and has a really sick, disgusting imagination and is somewhat morally challenged . . . I naturally thought of you.”

“Uh huh,” I say. “And may I be so impertinent as to ask the name of the comic?”

“Ever hear of The Walking Dead?”

“The Norman Mailer book?”

“That’s The Naked and the Dead . . . and I said comic.”

“There aren’t any naked people in this?”

“Are you on something right now?”

“I’m kidding.” I take a deep breath. “Of course I’ve heard of The Walking Dead . . . cripes! Who do you think I am, your dad? It won the Eisner Award and it’s like a marathon of great, lost Romero movies all strung together . . . but better . . . it’s like the picture George Romero would make in heaven on acid with God as his cinematographer.”

After a long, exasperated pause, my buddy says, “Shall I take that as a Yes, you’re interested?”

Robert Kirkman’s epic survival saga The Walking Dead lives in its own graphic stratosphere—a rarefied yet austere visual canvas that screams out for translation into other media. Among the iconic roster of superstars who have rushed in to decode Kirkman’s muscular visual universe are Hollywood luminaries Frank Darabont and Gale Anne Hurd, whose basic-cable phenomenon of the same name pulls off a major coup: it captures the human drama beneath all the rotting flesh and ultimately channels the power of Kirkman’s two-dimensional frames into the bland, parochial world of the small screen.

Producers of the mega-smash AMC TV series have made two important discoveries: 1) the spiritual center of the comic series—a human story playing out amid all the gore—translates well to the intimate confines of television; and 2) the ingenious way Kirkman builds big cliffhanger moments into splash pages that end each issue works like gangbusters on the tube. After a fleeting first season of only six episodes—an introduction to the Kirkman universe so ephemeral it almost seems like a freak accident—viewers were hungrier than reanimated corpses for more red meat.

Now we come to the second re-imagining of The Walking Dead, a trilogy of all-original novels based on Kirkman’s mythos, which take readers deeper into the narrative waters and all the rich tributaries branching out of the central story. Commissioned to coincide with the highly anticipated second season of the AMC series—premiering on Halloween 2011—the books are the latest milestone in the media crossover sensation.

In some ways I feel as though I was born to collaborate with Mr. Kirkman. A film school brat, I was weaned on EC comics—Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, et al.—and after graduating, I spent years writing short horror stories for magazines such as Grue, Cemetery Dance, and Weird Tales.

After publishing my first novel, The Black Mariah, in 1994, I had the absolute sublime pleasure of working with George Romero on the film adaptation of said book. I will never forget landing at the Fort Myers airport for a story meeting at George’s house in Florida and seeing this big, burly grizzly bear of a man loping toward me with a huge smile. “Let me carry that,” he said, eyeing my suitcase. I was aghast and euphoric in equal parts. The thought of my childhood hero schlepping my luggage was my first lesson in a strange dichotomy: those who create the darkest, nastiest, harshest fictions are in true life the biggest pussycats.

Robert Kirkman is no exception. After working with him on the first installment in this triptych, I am stunned by how gracious, humble, and down-to-earth the man is. But the more I think about it, the more I conclude that this kind of unexpected sweetness—as is the case with George Romero—is Kirkman’s secret weapon.

This decency and plainspoken nature is actually what has enabled Robert Kirkman to reinvent an entire genre in comic book form.

After encountering the Walking Dead comics, no reader will ever be able to watch a zombie film, or read a zombie story, or just generally think of zombies in quite the same way. Without spoiling the main narrative for anyone living under the proverbial rock, suffice it to say that the comic paints a familiar picture with unfamiliar colors and tones. In the early issues, a small ragtag band of everypeople find themselves struggling to survive an inexplicable plague of cannibalistic, reanimated corpses. But the thing that instantly sinks a hook into readers—and is probably responsible for turning the comic into a milestone of the genre—is an unexpected humanity.

The characters of The Walking Dead are not mere characters; they are people. They are terrified, and they are morally sickened, and they long for deliverance, and they love their children, and they will do anything to protect their families. In other words, unlike the marionettes of most zombie books and movies, these people act like . . . well . . . real people.

“So . . . you got a name?” the lonely main character, Rick Grimes, whimsically asked a horse on which he rode through a desolate landscape in an early issue. The former police officer had just awakened from a coma after being shot in the line of duty, and now he was frantically searching the apocalyptic byways for his family. “I held her hand the whole time,” Grimes later recounted for the uncomprehending animal, describing his wife’s labor and the subsequent birth of his son. “There were some complications . . . and she had to get a cesarean. I was really worried . . .” Grimes eventually chokes on the words and can’t go on . . . but in a way he discovers right then why he must go on . . . and why we the readers must turn the page!

This is the keystone of The Walking Dead’s power: an unexpected tenderness in the characters. Because of this, the stakes of this story are raised incrementally with each page. You care a little bit more. You empathize. And, perhaps most importantly, you realize that this empathy is what makes the next eruption of trademark zombie-splatter all the more horrific.

Kirkman and his team of artists keep the visual strategy of the comic simple and linear. The style brings to mind the kitchensink realism of Bernie Wrightson of Swamp Thing and Warren horror comics fame. Both literary and filmic devices are put to good use. As is silence: characters brood and ruminate wordlessly in many of the panels, often captioned by a simple and inscrutable ellipsis. At other points, the comic’s mise-en-scène of epic filmmaking conjures memories of Sergio Leone and David Lean. Intimate close-ups widen out to panoramic landscapes of vast prison yards and urban outskirts. Huge empty skies are stitched with Hitchcockian crows.

The Walking Dead begs comparison to both EC horror and end-of-the-world epics such as Earth Abides, The Stand, and I Am Legend, but, more than anything else, it is the character-driven pathos that truly elevates the series into transcendent territory. It is also the thing that fuels the adaptation Robert and I tackled in the early months of 2011.

I wish I could say we labored with Sisyphean effort to translate the panel-bound world of the Walking Dead comic into the ethereal, cerebral, non-linear world of prose. I wish I could say we ingeniously contorted the visual details of the comic book into exotic allegories and literary equivalents. But the truth is, the mythos of The Walking Dead made the leap to fiction with the ease of a bullet passing through the rotten gray matter of an animated corpse. Maybe this was due to the relentless forward motion of Kirkman’s narrative. Perhaps it was because of the meticulous simplicity of the plot—every twist, every turn, every shift in point of view, every “money shot” completely, utterly motivated.

Technically a comic book’s closest cousin is the feature film. In a movie, a story is told with pictures and dialogue. Things happen, and people react to those things . . . and everything occurs in the here and now, with minimal, if any, use of devices such as flashback (a staple of prose). Of course, there are movies that employ voice-over narration—think of Philip Marlowe recalling how dark and stormy the night was when that crazy dame walked through his door—but, again, such devices are actually quite rare. Even in the case of movies with a narrator, the main body of the story unfolds in the present tense.

Such is also the case with the comic book medium. Granted, there are occasional thought bubbles, as well as boxes and sidebars containing Godlike, omniscient narration, but for the most part, comics—especially modern comics—show rather than tell. Instead of revealing a character’s thoughts (or providing clunky, whimsical narration in the style of the Crypt-Keeper), the modern comic shows you internal life through external action.

The Walking Dead abides by this axiom with almost religious fervor. Nobody pauses to think . . . they just do. They love, they hate, they struggle, they dream, they plot, they screw up, they live, they die, they kick zombie ass, they get devoured . . . all of it in real time.

Here’s the kicker: Despite the inherent differences between comics and prose, Kirkman and I found the act of rendering The Walking Dead into a novel fascinatingly expedient. The way the visual flow of the comic is organized cries out for analogous organization in a book. The cliffhanger splash pages suggest twist endings to chapters. The density of panoramic landscapes leads to cinematic scene-setting. The gruesome detail of cadaverous faces and all the vivid carnage demands visceral description. And Kirkman’s lean, straightforward way with dialogue looks and sounds terrific on the printed page—a mixture of Cormac McCarthy and Martin Scorsese.

Conventional wisdom says that novels—unlike movies, television, comics, or theater—are internal. You get inside the thoughts and motives of the characters. In novels you are free to present your story in non-linear fashion, jumping back and forth in time and point of view. Novels are digital rather than analog. They are everywhere all at once. They are impressionistic rather than structural. To put it another way, a novel is inside-out instead of outside-in. You tell your story from inside the characters, and the power comes from an accumulation of detail.

Even the action-oriented adventure books of yesteryear—beginning with the turn-of-the-century penny dreadfuls and continuing through the pulps of the 1950s—told their stories through the steely nervous systems of their lantern-jawed heroes. Granted, the internal stream-of-consciousness of a Doc Savage or a Conan the Barbarian were not exactly grist for Freudian analysis. But the form itself necessitated that the reader feel the sting of a poison-tipped spear from inside the synapses of the hero.

On a deeper level, the novel can also be about something else altogether. In this chaotic age of the internet, gaming, and social networking, the novel—more than ever—is the most interactive of all media. It is about getting inside the thoughts and motives of the reader. Subtly, insidiously, sensually, sneakily, the novel is all about touching off the flames of the imagination.

As William Burroughs said, “Language is a virus from outer space.” And what a good novel does is infect the inner space of a reader with images, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures.

Happily, the universe of The Walking Dead is not only born out of a very direct, linear approach to narrative, but is also evocative of myriad sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures—most of which are latent, hiding within the panels, alluded to in the dialogue, suggested by the narrative.

The fictional version teases these sensory details into the foreground. A reader is spared nothing. The senses are assaulted by the side effects of the plague. Explanations are eschewed in favor of a constant triangulation of sensory input. A floor is sticky with gore, giving off an oily black aroma as the characters investigate a deserted room buzzing with the vibrations of bluebottle flies and the echo of something moaning in the basement.

This profusion of sensory detail ultimately dictated the stylistic approach that Kirkman and I adopted for the novels.

Not only do the Walking Dead novels move with the inertia of a fever dream—all told in the present tense, jumping from one point of view to another with the quick-cut velocity of a movie montage—but the sensory details suggested in the panels of the comic are amplified, intensified, enriched. Like particles charged with radioactive half-lives, the flies on a corpse lead to internal trauma among eyewitnesses, which leads to madness, which leads to the slaughter of more corpses and the geometric population growth of flies. The world now has flies on it, the core of civilization rotting from the inside, personified by the internal atrophy of the characters. And always at the center of the action is the single most important symbol, the engine powering the conflict from the inside as well as the outside, the moldering, festering raison d’e^tre around which everything revolves, the key to the whole damn thing . . .

The zombie.

As a novelist, I cut my teeth during the horror boom of the 1980s—that heady time when anything with a lurid foil cover and the words “evil” or “phantom” in the title ruled the bestseller list with the consistency of death and taxes. I learned to write by gobbling up Stephen King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Joe Lansdale, David Schow, and Skipp & Spector. And I started getting published at the cusp of the splatter-punk bubble, when guys like Edward Lee and Rex Miller were pushing the envelope of anatomically incorrect gore. But I think the greatest influences on my writing were the archetypes of supernatural horror: ghosts, vampires, werewolves, demons, and manmade monsters of all makes and models.

Popularized first in the classic Universal Studios films of the 1930s and 1940s, these mythological beings have been cash cows for nearly a century. But historically, their origins go back all the way to the nineteenth century, springing from the quill pens and genteel sensibilities of Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker.

On the page, the archetypes have aged well because they have deeper meanings than mere bogeymen. The vampire—a potent symbol of repressed human sexuality—finds new and romantic iterations in teenybopper romances such as Twilight. The devil and his minions—those pesky personifications of our baser instincts—are alive and well in works such as William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist. Ghosts—our stubborn, guilty past consuming the present—continue to haunt literature, both highbrow and low. But what about the lowly, hapless zombie? How does this archetype fit in? What does a zombie represent culturally? Why hasn’t it enjoyed more days in the literary sun? One is hard pressed to name a zombie classic in book form. Stephen King’s Cell? Max Brooks’ World War Z? These are fine books, but I’m not sure we have yet seen a literary zombie masterpiece . . . and the reason may be as simple as the problem of comparing oranges to rotten apples.

The zombie is the coin of the visual realm—a conceit of movies and comic books. By design, the archetype has no “there” there—zombies are eating machines, dead inside and out, with no purpose other than devouring the living and multiplying. Even their appearance has a sort of uniform, machine-stamped quality—albeit a gruesome one—that brings to mind the way death makes us all the same. Namely . . . gross and inert.

Keep in mind that I’m not referring here to the gothic voodoo wraith as depicted in subtle cinema such as Val Lewton’s I Walked with a Zombie. I’m talking about George Romero’s lurid concoction first unleashed on the war-weary, turbulent, paranoid society of the late 1960s. The rainbow coalition of shambling, slow-moving, cannibal roamers in Night of the Living Dead resonated deeply in the American imagination over the next four decades . . . and they resonated for a reason.

Romero’s zombies represent the wolves at our doors. They represent your mortgage, your car payments, your pending divorce, the suspicious lump under your skin—the things that just keep coming at you and will not stop until you are toast. Xenophobia, the collapse of society, your toilet backing up— these are the dream symbols personified by the undead.

Robert Kirkman knows this well. In his comics he constructs a human underground fighting to retain its humanity in the face of the wolf pack—and the moldering beasts just keep on coming and coming, as inexhaustible as cancer cells. The depiction of the zombies in The Walking Dead are lavish, Grand Guignol works of art. The sunken faces are lovingly rendered, the hollow cheeks and blank eyes carefully delineated to distinguish one monster from another. It’s like a nightmarish catalogue of exotic fighting fish.

And this is the key to our translation.

Until Robert Kirkman decides to include scratch-and-sniff panels on his comics, the non-visual senses will be the stars of their prose counterpart. Through meticulously calibrated description, we layer the smells and sounds and textures. This is how we translate something that is purely visual, by writing it in “odorama”—getting inside the senses of the readers. In other words, in the purely visual world of the comic, we must see Rick Grimes reacting to an odor—“Phew!”—in order for us to smell that odor. In the novels, we go straight for the nose.

Have you ever wondered what a warehouse filled with hundreds of upright cadavers would really smell like? Or have you thought about what a chorus of thousands of zombies all moaning at the same time would sound like? Maybe you’ve ruminated about what the exact texture of brain matter is like after getting sprayed across the inside of a windshield.

Doesn’t everybody wonder about these things?

The best part of this sensory feast, however, is for those who hunger to go deeper into The Walking Dead backstories. The trilogy—the first installment of which is available from St. Martin’s Press—is no mere tie-in. These are not standard novelizations that follow a screenplay or comic note for note. Our books—courtesy of the endless well of Kirkman’s fecund imagination—explore the origins of mysterious characters and the tantalizing secrets and relationships only alluded to or fleetingly glimpsed in the comics.

As a novelist, I could not ask for a more exciting thrill ride. Six months after that original call from my Hollywood friend in which he floated the idea of going on this amazing journey with Robert Kirkman, my pal calls me back. “Hey, Boopie,” he says. “How’s the zombie business?”

“We’re killing ’em in Poughkeepsie,” I tell him.

“What stage are you at?”

“I’m close to writing ‘The End,’” I say. “Right now I’m in a warehouse full of dead people.”

“What’s it smell like in there?” he asks.

“You don’t want to know.”

“C’mon, I can take it.”

“Okay. It smells like a combination of human feces and bacon cooked in pus.”

After a long pause—during which I can hear a faint gagging noise—he says, “God, I hate you . . . I have a lunch meeting today at Greenblatt’s Deli, and had planned on the chicken liver.”

“You asked.”

“I’ll have that smell in my schnoz for weeks.”

He cannot see me smiling. “That’s the idea, my friend . . . that’s the idea.”

Jay Bonansinga – 2011

Jay Bonansinga is a national bestselling author, screenwriter, and filmmaker, whose directorial debut, Stash, premiered in 2010. His 2005 novel, Frozen, is in development as a major motion picture, and his latest book, Perfect Victim, is an alternate title for Book-of-the-Month Club. He has worked with George Romero and has won major film festival awards, including a Gold Remi at the Houston International WorldFest and a “Best Comedy Feature” at the Iowa City Landlocked Film Festival. Jay’s 2004 nonfiction debut, The Sinking of the Eastland, won the Certificate of Merit from the Illinois State Historical Society, and his forthcoming nonfiction Civil War thriller, Pinkerton’s War, is due out from Lyons Press in late 2011. Online at jaybonansinga.com.

Related posts:

1. Triumph of The Walking Dead at ComicCon
2. The Walking Dead Season Finale Review
3. Zombie Week: Walking Dead Episode 5 Review

Terrors lurk in the darkness, subvert the souls, and corrupt the mind. Secret detachments of psychics remotely view our every move. Powerful occultists perform secret rituals in hidden locations, manipulating our world to their ends. Mysterious forces invade our very souls, twisting and distorting the weak into strong and violent predators. Creatures flee from humanity’s encroachment on their territories, then strike out when prying eyes get too close. Spirits haunt the edges of our silent fears.

This is the paranormal side of the world of Conspiracy X. Operatives struggle to uncover secret occult cabals, exorcise dangerous spirits, investigate the creatures of myth, and project their minds into future. The threat of alien invasion may loom, but the corruption of humanity by paranormal forces lurks behind every mission. Can you truly say you are prepared for the direst of humankind’s imaginings? The ageless battle against the paranormal continues.

The Paranormal Sourcebook is a supplement for the Conspiracy X Second Edition roleplaying game. In it, you will find:

• Details on the history of psychic, occult, and cryptozoological phenomena.
• Rules for a complete range of psychic abilities, including remote viewing, precognition, and even teleportation.
• A comprehensive list of rituals from simple curses and blessings to weather control and immortality.
• An in-depth discussion of the Seepage phenomena, the paranormal encountered at Loci and Pools, and their effects.
• Details of the horrific effects of corruption, and sample archetypes such as vampires, werewolves, stalkers, prophets, and adepts.
• Cryptozoological creatures from myth and legend, such as the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, Chubacabra, and the mysterious Pilosi.
• New organizations that can be used in any campaign as antagonists, aides, or infiltrators.
• Compatible with All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Armageddon, Terra Primate, CJ Carella’s Witchcraft and other Unisystem games.

Visit the The Paranormal Sourcebook Kickstarter page for more information about the project.

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