Plague of the Dead takes another twist with the zombie genre, showing that the zombies can and cannot be dead at the same time. Z.A Recht, author of the new zombie novel Plague of the Dead brings a new twist to the genre.

Beginning with a strange, if not disturbing, email from a scientist in the army, it tells of the inevitable danger that the new and strange plague may bring. While the scientist tries to warn people about it, it doesn’t do any good, and that means that people are vulnerable. It hits our home of the United States when a medical examiner turns his back for just one moment.

Alright, let’s try this again. Much more slowly than the first time, I attempt to open my eyes. Everything is blurred for a moment, and my stomach heaves, but I swallow hard and blink a few times. The room obligingly comes into focus. First my gaze flickers down and to my left. All I can see is a delicate, bare shoulder under a fine curtain of hair, the strangest silvery-brown color. Squinting painfully against the dim lighting, I notice a small braid, tied with dark blue thread. I smile slightly, though I couldn’t say why. There is something sweet and innocent about that little braid.

An Obsidian: the Age of Judgement story written by Elizabeth Petersen

Schism both builds on this game and subverts it almost completely. In Schism, there are no demons – instead, characters receive extraordinary psychic abilities that are, partly as a result of the accelerating pace of global change and its effect on the tortured human psyche, suddenly prevalent in society. Indeed, the title page uses the term ‘virulent setting.’ However, the virus of psychic abilities does not come without a price and in Schism that price tends to be psychic disorders and physical deformation. Anyone who has played (or perhaps tried to play) the Nephilim game will be familiar with at least this physical aspect. Characters in Schism progressively become more and more removed from basic humanity but have the advantage of being able to bring about powerful effects to further their own ends and those of the cabal (a kind of more or less secret organization) that they wish.

Silas no longer cared if his carefully-sown client was going to do something stupid; his kits were far too valuable and far too difficult to come by to replace. He’d find somebody else, some other paying client to work on. Walking over to the wall, he ripped his sawed-off Nineteen from the wall, and flushed his Boosters. He swore under his breath that he didn’t put on any armor before this appointment. At least he put his shoulder strap on. That strap was like his credbase. He never left home without it.

Daniel spat carefully. Damn the Law. Sure, the crisp uniforms were a necessary evil—they needed him just as much as he needed them. The Law’d get into a nasty situation that involved daemons or some other supernatural creature (even though “officially” there’s no such thing as monsters), and then they’d hire him, Daniel Wayward, to clean it up. Sometimes things were good, real good. One time he managed to keep the acrid blood spatter to a minimum and kill the thing with no casualties. In his line of work, that was a miracle. Being a beastkeeper had its ups and downs. Most times he was lucky to have a day that was in between.

Today was not one of those days.

Third in a three-part series

Mad Max – what a trilogy. Dustbowl landscapes, battered old sedans, Australian accents and stubble. It had them all. Plenty of RPG’s have attempted to capture the post-apocalyptic genre in all its glory and few have fully succeeded. Introducing the latest contender: octaNe. Will it roar off into the healthy radioactive glow of sunset on wheels of fire, or will it get a razor-edged boomerang in the forehead?

By the way, the capital N is all part of the product identity. I thought it was going to stand for Nitro or something similar, but according to the introduction it just looks cool. Go figure. It kinda makes me want to pronounce the word oc-tay-NEH. Given the content of the game though, the odd grammar is well in-theme.

“Are you still insisting on hunting him down? This isn’t what your father would have wanted. He would have wanted you to continue helping humanity defend itself against hell.” Hal knew Ayden wanted her fighting with them. After all, they grew up together, even was in schooling together. When Ayden went off with the Spiritual Essence trainers, she was scared, and sad. That’s when Hal’s father started training her as a Mystic. He was very talented, and she was to carry on his knowledge.

Written by Crystal Mazur

A/State’s setting is post-apocalyptic futurism, but with a few twists. Unlike other post-apocalyptic settings, there are a lot of unknowns. Something happened, something that ripped the fabric of modern-day reality off from civilization’s spoiled body. Technology is limited, identities are a luxury, and survival of the fittest is a way of life—not just a catch phrase. The City, assuredly a conglomeration of some things that “were”, has no name. In this place with no name, you battle against your greatest enemy—yourself.

Tara sat at the edge of the abyss. She glanced briefly around her, wondering if something more menacing than the Law guards were lurking in the earthy shadows. Hours earlier, her team breathed a sigh of relief when the Law’s automated attack vehicles returned from the depths of Zone subsector three without a scratch. The Law then pushed her team forward, forcing them to tread where only machines should have gone.

Second in a three-part series

The cover continues the usage of a stark white background, which stands out on the FLGS shelving. On which the picture of the back of a rough looking sort with his back covered in tattoos stands. The cover is made of (and I don’t know the technical term) Shiny thick paper or thin cardboard. (I’m sure someone will inform me).

Aiken watched the gun. The muzzle was drifting to and fro, but always covering him, cutting down his options. He was trying hard to sober up. The little man was talking away in his fast, clipped voice, but Aiken was having difficulty concentrating on the words. Before the pair had arrived he had been busy drinking himself unconscious, but now that was a distant memory. The big one had come in first, the muscle, waving his vicious-looking sparklock languidly about, indicating to the clientele of this particular dive that they would be better off not getting involved.

A tale for the a/state setting from Contested Ground Studios, written by Greg Saunders.

It couldn’t remember how it was borne. Was it male? Was it female? It had given itself a name, one that only it knew. Pool.

Pieces of memory gnawed at Pool’s mind. What was home? What did it used to be? Now it was nothing more than a land of yellowing bone and black rock. Fires burned throughout the landscape. It couldn’t have been that way always. Before Pool left its Circle with the others, they poured over books documenting the stories of how things came to be. Shapes of letters appeared before him, describing the velvety touch of a thing called a “flower.” There were no flowers in its Circle. Pool closed its eyes, remembering the smell of sulfur and the feel of spikes crushing beneath its razor-skinned feet.

Part One of a Three Part Fiction Series

Beyond the Veil is the second English book released from Seventh Circle for the Kult RPG line. The first was a players guide called Rumours that came out over a year ago. Originally this book was to be the GMs guide but with the delay of its release it appears that they have instead turned it into a core rulebook for the game. Which is fine by me.

src=”http://www.nobleknight.com/imagecode/resize.asp?filename=APO0102.jpg&width=157&height=203″ />
Available at Noble Knight Games

The Orion Corporation had only good intentions. However, when it sent the relays into the wastelands to explore and record the hostile territories, unspeakable horrors were uncovered and legendary secrets revealed…

Legends: the Orion Project is a supplement fiction to Obsidian: Age of Judgment. It introduces several new characters, as well as showing ways to have characters be multiple Ethos. Further then character information, they also have several new Daemon types, abilities, and convocations, new Mystic Rituals, and Kultist Convokations and weapons. The story itself is the first of a promised series of supplements about the Orion Corporation and of Callarius Montague, a Spiritual Essence Kultist.

To play within the Zone, players must first understand the design of the setting. Inside the Zone does a great job of describing its highly efficient structure. But the book does more than describe its physical setting. Layers of religions, Kults and politics intertwine with one another throughout the book. It is almost as if you are a god watching the inner workings of Zone society. The book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to play in the Zone.

So Obsidian begins its underlying premise, written as if it were a great, literary work. The philosophy is blunt and unrepentant. Humans are born as parasites in the universe of “The Sheol.” Daemons, pre-humanity, originate as harmless creatures. Greed, perversion, hate and corruption, all byproducts of human evolution, warp a delicate balance of co-existence within the “The Sheol.” These negative energies turn the daemons into the archetypes we think of today. God, or “The Divinity” in Obsidian’s universe, then separates the warped plane from Earth into nine Circles in an attempt to prevent the darkness from spreading.

Micah tells us the origins of the Obsidian: the Age of Judgement RPG and what some of his future plans are with the game. He also lets us know just what he is up to with the band Cruciform Injection.

Robert Baxter tells us about his work on the Seventh Seal RPG from Creative Illusions and gives us a few ideas about some upcoming work.

Game designer and horror author Dav Harnish tells us about his work on the Post-Apocalyptic RPG Obsidian: the Age of Judgement in this interview.

I woke for no reason from strangely blissful dreams, my eyes adjusting quickly to the dark of our room. Michael slept against me, his huge arm around my waist, one hand splayed across my belly. He should have woken to any disturbance before I did. Yet of the two of us, I woke, not to sound or movement or anything I could understand, but more to a pressure in the air. A feeling, growing from my abdomen under Michael’s palm and spreading up my veins with the shock of the purest Liquid Silver, disturbed my dreams and lifted my head. The feeling told of an unwelcome darkness.

Written by 2003 Fiction Contest Winner, Elizabeth Petersen