Dead Men (and Women) Walking Fiction Review
By Flames | March 26, 2008
Some of the stories have interesting premises, but sabotage themselves with clunky writing or clumsy execution (the first two stories, Adam and Eve Versus the Human Race by Alexander Zelenyj and Waking Finnegan by Joseph Benton are prime examples of this). Other stories have competent but unremarkable writing but tired, clichéd plots–A New Year’s Tale by Dave Bartlett starts off promising, but quickly turns into something extremely similar to The Hills Have Eyes.
There are a few pieces that are quite good. The two opening poems by Guy Belleranti are atmospheric and effective. Unfortunately, the rest of the poetry included in this anthology doesn’t work quite as well. But, it has to be said, revenants aren’t the most inspiring subjects when it comes to poetry.
Review by Leah Clarke
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Axiom-Man: Of Magic and Men Review
By Flames | March 25, 2008
Axiom-Man is a superhero whose true identity is a bumbling social introvert named Gabriel Garrison. Gabriel works in an office and he’s madly in love with Valerie Vaughn, the gorgeous coworker who predictably won’t give him the time of day. Axiom-Man’s conduit to the rest of the world, especially its seedy underbelly, is Sgt. Jack Gunn, an old school lawman with whom he shares a love-hate-love relationship of mutual necessity. If you’re keeping track, that’s one Superman, a Clark Kent, Lois Lane with a twist of Vicky Vale, and a generous helping of Commissioner Gordon. These clichés don’t exactly stop this story dead, but they certainly don’t make for the most compelling read either.
Review by Jason Thorson
Topics: Comic Book/Graphic Novel Reviews | 1 Comment »
Dragon of the Mangroves Fiction Review
By Flames | March 6, 2008
Dragon of the Mangroves takes place during the Second World War and traces the fate of two Japanese soldiers during the retreat of the Imperial Army from Burma under assault by British forces including the Gurkhas and Indian Army. Second Lieutent Yoshihisi Suma is in charge of a group of ‘tankettes’ about to be committed to a suicidal defence when he gets a sudden reprieve, a special mission to head a rescue mission to retrieve retreating soldiers from a defeat on an island/peninsula surrounded by mangrove swamp. Meanwhile private Minoru Kasuga, a machine gunner, is part of that retreat, forced back by the ferocious British attack the situation for him and the troops around him gets more and more desperate and as they try to escape the troops become prey to a terrible predatory creature of the mangrove swamps, the salt water crocodile.
Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough
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Zombie Fluxx Game Review
By Flames | February 25, 2008
The dead are rising from their graves, so what can you do? Maybe grab a baseball bat and play some Zombie Baseball! Or grab that shotgun and sacrifice yourself for the good of the others. Of course, you can always get in your car and leave your friends in the dust.
Zombie Fluxx is an expanded version of Fluxx, a card game about change. The game changes as you play it, starting with the basic rule of draw one card and play one card. This will,of course, change when new rules are played.
Review by Graveyard Greg
Topics: Other Game Reviews | No Comments »
New Vampire Apocalypse from Derek Gunn
By Matt-M-McElroy | February 4, 2008
Check out the latest news from Derek Gunn and Black Death Books.
Two new Vampire Apocalypse books coming….
Vampire Apocalypse: A World Torn Asunder, is the first book in the Vampire Apocalypse series from Irish author, Derek Gunn (published by KHP Industries, US, under their Black Death Books imprint) and currently available worldwide.
Two new Vampire Apocalypse books are coming: Vampire Apocalypse: Descent into Chaos is with the publishers and should be released late 2008/2009. The third book in the series, Vampire Apocalypse: Fallout is nearing completion.
Vampire Apocalypse: A World Torn Asunder is a bloody vampire tale with plenty of action. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the next book in the series.
Topics: Horror News | No Comments »
Talking to the Dead, an interview with Nathan Tucker
By Matt-M-McElroy | February 1, 2008
Eve of the Dead, a zombie novel by Nathan Tucker, combines the vision of Romero’s post-apocalyptic world with the break-neck pace and action of pulp zombie fiction at its finest to create a story that will leave you begging for more.
I recently had the chance to have short conversation with Nathan about writing Eve of the Dead and the challenges of getting from the idea stage to the final product. I didn’t want to reveal too many spoilers, so this interview is mostly about Nathan’s writing style in regards to the book.
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Myriad: A Universal RPG System Review
By Flames | April 24, 2007
Myriad is described a universal role-playing system and is released under a Creative Commons License which permits readers to make such use of its material as they may wish in their own games and books, so long as various fair use provisions are followed. It would be wrong to describe it as a complete game, as the author declares in the foreword, “Myriad is not a complete RPG in its own right; some assembly is required.
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Dungeon Bash RPG Review
By Flames | February 1, 2007
Dungeon Bash is obtainable via download from RPGNow.com and similar sites. A bundle of PDFs is provided for a cost of US $10, which is far from excessive. Some of the files contain D20 related material which is available elsewhere but is provided here in more user-friendly formats. Dating back to the time of Gary Gygax and Dave Arnesen, the original creators of the game, D&D rules have always combined the sensible and the nonsensical in almost equal balance. This tendency has pretty much continued as the game has grown in complexity and is perhaps inevitable when so many people have been responsible for producing officially sponsored content. Players of course contribute to the problem by gleefully ripping ideas and concepts out of their context in forcing them into their own games, generally in the hope of giving themselves an advantage in the killing-and-looting stakes. Consequently, there exists a market niche for people who can summarize and present pertinent information in a reader-friendly and comprehensive fashion.
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Chronicles of Ramlar RPG Review
By Flames | December 16, 2006
A soft-cover, perfect-bound book boasting gorgeous full color, wrap-around, Larry Elmore cover art, The Chronicles of Ramlar is a roleplaying game of high fantasy made available by White Silver Publishing, Inc. The book weighs in at a hefty 350 pages (including 19 pages of record sheets and quick references) and contains everything that you will need to run a campaign in the game’s default setting of Eranon, one of two continents on a nameless world (the titular “Ramlar” is the who created the world in question).
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Crossroads of Eternity RPG Review
By Flames | October 27, 2006
The most praise that I have is for the magic system. It reflects the dangerous nature of magic (as well as it’s unpredictability) and the steps needed to advance along your arcane studies. The power of spell casters is minor in the beginning, but just by looking at the math of any mid/high level spells you can tell that they will one day be capable of easily destroying hordes of enemies. In short, magic is taxing, dangerous, and a life long learning process, but well worth the effort in the end.
Topics: Roleplaying Game Reviews | No Comments »
My Life with Master RPG Review
By Flames | September 15, 2006
My Life with Master is a self-contained role playing game of personal horror by Paul Czege of Half Meme Press. It contains innovative ideas and a workable game, albeit one which would work best with creative and probably experienced players willing to enter into a setting and help to create it themselves. The interaction between GM and players is essential both in creating the setting and in forming the style and nature of the game. As the description below will suggest, gameplay can easily veer between a type of romantic desperation with which Vampire lovers will be familiar, to Grand Guignol to something rather less serious and bizarre. Since it can be difficult to maintain an intense style over an extended period of time and because of the very structure of the game, My Life with Master is best run as a single session game or, at most, a small number of sessions building up to a well-defined ending and epilogue
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Man Made Monsters Review
By Matt-M-McElroy | July 6, 2006
“Monsters are Real!” claims the ad copy of this collection of horror stories from Crypto-American Press. Mad Marv tells us about zombies and other monsters created by science and technology throughout the book. Five short stories and a mix of “Recipes” featuring how-to guides for creating golems and other creatures from myth and legend (each with a short story of its own) make up this book.
Topics: Fiction Reviews | No Comments »
Epic Role Playing (Rules Manual)
By Flames | March 5, 2006
Available at Amazon.com Epic Role Playing is a fantasy role playing game system published by Dark Matter Studios and presented in three separate volumes (the Rules Manual, Bestiary, and Book of the Arcane, respectively). Additionally, a setting designed for use with the Epic system is also available in the form of the supplementary Atlas of Eslin (Volume 1). This review deals specifically with the Epic Role Playing Rules Manual, while further reviews will cover the other Epic core books, as well as the Atlas of Eslin setting supplement. Review written by James Hargrove
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Interview with Game Designer Jonathan Ridd
By Flames | February 24, 2006
In this interview John tells us about the design and development of the the Dog Town RPG and a little about how the Split System works.
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Will of the Hunter | Blood Games Fiction
By Flames | October 11, 2005
It was too late for tracking. This close to nightfall it would be tired of running. If he gave it an opening it would charge into the open. Abram made himself sound as panicked as possible, he broke branches, stumbled over roots and force himself to pant. It went against every instinct he had developed over the years of the hunt. Pam was right behind him, mimicking his actions but she wasn’t pretending. Whatever façade of strength she had summoned up to come with him tonight was gone now. There wasn’t time for a pep talk. “In a few minutes it won’t matter anyway,” thought a particularly bitter piece of Abram.
Written for the Blood Games setting by Daniel Potter
Topics: Fiction | No Comments »
Interview game designer Malcolm Craig
By Flames | October 7, 2005
The creator of a|state and Cold City breaks down some of his game design ideas, explore The City and gives us a few hints on some upcoming products.
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Interview with game designer Clash Bowley
By Flames | September 6, 2005
Clash tells us about his company, Flying Mice LLC and the RPGs that he has worked on, including Blood Games, Starcluster and more.
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The Settlement | Cursed Empire Fiction
By Monica Valentinelli | August 3, 2005
The families lived in exile, far removed from Condar, Rodak or Derve. They did not choose to live there, the mountain hand-picked them. They were merchants, traffickers, and traders in luxury goods, foodstuffs and information. All had a story to tell, some worse than others. A rockslide claimed one party, bandits tore apart another. Long have they been grieved for, even longer have they been forgotten. Until the miners came, dwarves with their pickaxes and knowledge of things buried deep within the earth. Tough yet resilient, Ilieva grew into the mountain ever since her husband died last Lokt. So, when the dwarves came offering a mutually-beneficial treaty, how could she refuse?
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Sacrifice: Part V | Conspiracy of Shadows Fiction Series
By Monica Valentinelli | July 12, 2005
Tall, yellow grasses rustled in front of a modest Sarlacchi village, mimicking the movements of a small boy. The child pitched forward, and then rocked backward. He stopped to brace himself against an unseen foe. Something punched him hard in the stomach. Flinging his arms to the sky, the boy grasped his totem necklace and cried out before collapsing to the ground. His mother rushed to the fallen child, clutching him tightly to her breast.
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Desert Dreams RPG Review
By Flames | May 31, 2005
Desert Dreams is the first supplement produced by Sacred Wolf for its Ignotus modern D20 setting. Ignotus is a dark world in which the eponymous supernatural realm poses a grave threat to humanity and its hideous denizens work to undermine society. Shadowy government agencies and vile religious cultists combine to make the real world, beneath the level of consciousness of most people, nasty, brutish and short.
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