Flames Rising is an online resource for fans of Horror and Dark Fantasy entertainment. This horror fanzine offers reviews of Games, Fiction, Movies and more ranging from Top-Selling authors to the coolest Small Press and “indie” publishers. The popular Interviews at Flames Rising include Horror authors, artists and other creators of dark entertainment. Stay tuned to the Flames Rising news feed for the latest news on upcoming products, genre conventions and industry developments.
Flames Rising continues to add new Features and expand the Fiction and Articles sections of the site with topics of interest to Horror and Dark Fantasy fans the world over.
Posted on December 21, 2017 by Flames
Changing Ways is an in-depth look at what it means to be a werewolf, both on a personal level and as part of a pack. It digs deep into what it feels like to have bones re-knit after breaking, the range of senses available across all forms, and the sudden heady rush of the Gifts and Rites bestowed by spirits. It also provides a look at what life is like for lupus and metis werewolves, characters who have had experiences alien to any person. It shows the many ways that werewolves organize in packs, and how those packs are designed as groups of warriors, rather than aligned to the behavior of wolves.
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Posted on November 22, 2017 by Flames
Legacy of Lies is a jumpstart for the Vampire The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Dark Ages Edition corebook. This standalone jumpstart is a taste to whet your vampiric appetite. It includes: • Basic rules for players and Storytellers • Introduction to the V20 Dark Ages setting • Introductory adventure • Characters for players and Storytellers Though […]
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Posted on November 19, 2017 by Flames
Did you know that Steve Jackson Games GURPS corebooks and supplements are now available on DriveThruRPG.com? The publisher has recently uploaded several new titles, and there’s one supplement in particular we were happy to see: GURPS Horror Fourth Edition. GURPS Horror Fourth Edition is the latest incarnation of one of the most popular GURPS supplements […]
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Posted on November 14, 2017 by Flames
There will be dragons and there will be sirens and there will be all the armies of the otherworld sent to bring you back. But you will slay them and you will shun them and you will stand on the battlements of your fortress as they break against your walls of thorn and iron.
You will be free.
You know the stories. The hero leaves his village on a terrifying journey, or the waif finds her way through the cold, dark woods. In the end, they kill the giant or shove the witch in an oven.
But what happens next?
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Posted on October 22, 2017 by Flames
The Tipping Point of the Zombie Craze
The zombie genre, like all trends, waxes and wanes as excellent titles by talented people are drowned out by the cascading wave of others merely attempting to capitalize on the trend. It isn’t exactly difficult to understand why the undead find themselves coming and going through our collective consciousness, the themes and moods lend themselves to horrors and fears that have become all but ingrained into our very being. From the panic of diseases to the mutually assured annihilation of the species, the premise plays on the primal fears of the human experience.
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Posted on October 18, 2017 by Flames
The Cavaliers of Mars Kickstarter is hurtling toward its final hours and we had the chance to catch up with developer Rose Bailey for a few quick questions about this new project as part of Onyx Path Publishing’s Many Worlds. One Path. line-up of excellent RPGs.
Cavaliers of Mars Kickstarter is a swashbuckling adventure setting from Rose Bailey, longtime developer of Vampire: The Requiem and other World of Darkness titles. Cavaliers draws inspiration from pulp fantasy and historical fiction, adding a modern edge and an exotic setting.
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Posted on October 15, 2017 by Flames
As we (that is, Michelle Lyons-McFarland, co-owner of Growling Door Games, and I) started to plan out our proposed sourcebooks for Chill 3rd Edition, I noticed that one thing the 2nd Edition had promised but never produced was a book called The Living Dead. We started thinking about how that might work with our vision of Chill, and we realized that, if you’ll pardon a bit of metaphor, grave dirt is fertile soil for horror.
In planning out the book, though, I realized a couple of very important things, and they both stemmed from the same thought: the undead are ghosts with bodies. Before I get to the two epiphanies I had about outlining and writing the book, let’s unpack that thought a little.
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Posted on September 28, 2017 by Flames
Written in 1967 by Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a historical fiction novel and ghost story set in a girls’ boarding school located in Australia. A critically-acclaimed movie based on the book was made in 1975 by Peter Weir. Now, this literary classic slated to be a reimagining of Picnic at Hanging Rock. In 2018, it will be released as an Amazon mini-series starring Natalie Dormer from HBO’s Game of Thrones.
Penguin Classics has just released a new edition of Picnic at Hanging Rock, with an introduction by novelist Maile Meloy. The story was Joan Lindsay’s debut as a novelist at age 70, and is considered to be one of Australia’s greatest literary works. Set in a Victorian 1900, the plot circles around the disappearance of three girls who attended Appleyard College for Young Ladies. The mystery, deftly told, is only the beginning of the story behind this book, however. Lindsay, who wrote the novel in less than two weeks, blurs the line between fantasy and reality, never revealing whether or not these young ladies were real people who disappeared or if they were figments of her imagination.
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Posted on September 23, 2017 by Flames
Face Madness and Corruption… Alone!
Langston Wright is an African-American war veteran and scholar in WW2-era Washington, DC. Vivian Sinclair is The New York Herald’s most determined scoop-hound in 1930s NYC. And Dex Raymond is a hard-boiled private detective with a nose for trouble in 1930s Los Angeles.
Each is a lone investigator, equipped with smarts, fists, and just maybe a code of honor, uncovering their town’s secret truths. But what happens when you scratch the veneer of human malfeasance to reveal an eternal evil—the malign, cosmic indifference of HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos?
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Posted on September 20, 2017 by Flames
Return now to dying Mars in its last age of glory. A planet of flashing swords and choking sands, of winking courtesans and lantern-lit canal cities.
Mars, where fortune and heartbreak are two sides of the same obsidian chit, where lost cities and dry oceans stretch between the last bastions of civilization. Where the First Martians, the monument-builders, are but a haunted memory. Where the Red Martians become decadent and reckless in their last days. Where the Pale Martians rule the wastes, remembering a history whose weight would crush a lesser people.
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Posted on August 11, 2017 by Flames
For over twenty-five years, World of Darkness fans have aspired to bring their own unique creations to the masses. Today, White Wolf Entertainment announced, in conjunction with DriveThruRPG, the debut of a new creator content program called Storytellers Vault. Beginning with Vampire: The Masquerade, writers, artists, and game designers can publish their non-canonical tabletop RPG […]
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Posted on July 20, 2017 by Flames
Today, FlamesRising.com is pleased to share a preview of Dagger of Spiragos for Scarred Lands. Artifacts from the fallen titan Spiragos have been recovered, and forces are at work that would see them used for ill. The Dagger of Spiragos and the Ring of Spiragos are now in the player characters’ hands — and they […]
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Posted on July 18, 2017 by Flames
Wildside Press has many excellent Cthulhu Mythos collections as well as a number of Weird Tales offerings. Today they launched H. P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West by Mythos scholar S. T. Joshi in eBook formats at DriveThruFiction.com.
The author writes:
This book began as an expansion of my essay, “H. P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West,” in The Weird Tale, but very quickly became something quite different, to the degree that the two works have little save the title in common. I have always been interested in Lovecraft the philosopher, and in my Starmont Reader’s Guide to Lovecraft (1982) I attempted a very compressed account of his philosophical views.
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Posted on July 8, 2017 by Flames
We have shared the world with monsters for millennia…
Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2 starts out presenting a chapter for each of six historical eras; each of which features two Chronicles of Darkness game lines which include Vampire: The Requiem, Mage: The Awakening, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Lost, and more! The rules in this book are compatible with second edition Chronicles of Darkness.
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Posted on June 21, 2017 by Flames
It’s difficult to imagine a fresh take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Over the years there have been radio and stage plays, movies, comics, collectible and illustrated editions. These transformative works are both a testimony to the power of the original story and its form as an epistolary novel. Now, because Dracula is the public domain, […]
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Posted on June 8, 2017 by Flames
FlamesRising.com contributor, Monica Valentinelli, dropped by WisCon 41 recently and spoke with Bill Campbell from Rosarium Publishing to learn about an upcoming anthology called TROUBLE THE WATERS: Tales from the Deep Blue. This collection of water-themed short stories spans a range of genres–including horror–and is planned to incorporate deities such as Mami Wata, Sedna, Coventina, […]
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Posted on June 1, 2017 by Flames
Torg Eternity is a table-top roleplaying game based on the original 1990 version of Torg created by West End Games. It has been re-imagined and updated for the Near Now. Now, you can play a Storm Knight in this RPG published by Ulisses Spiele in today’s setting. The Torg Eternity Kickstarter has already funded! Now, […]
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Posted on May 31, 2017 by Flames
FlamesRising.com is pleased to present an excerpt from Haven, Kansas. This YA horror novel, written by Aletheia Kontis, takes place in the spooky town of Haven filled with secrets, mystery, and dread. Interested in this latest novel from Kontis? Here’s more information about the book, to help set the mood as you read chapter one. […]
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Posted on May 24, 2017 by Flames
A new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay will be launched by Cubicle 7 Entertainment later this year. The new edition will return players to Warhammer’s grim world of perilous adventure, and takes its direction from the first and second editions of the game.
Cubicle 7 CEO Dominic McDowall said, “Like so many gamers I grew up on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It’s an iconic setting and I’m thrilled to be working on this new edition of the game. Our team have a huge breadth of experience with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and I’m excited to be able to bring the Cubicle 7 approach to the Old World. We’ll be revealing more of our plans in the coming months, so subscribe to our newsletter and keep an eye on our website!”
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Posted on May 22, 2017 by Flames
Today, FlamesRising.com is pleased to host a special preview from Monarchies of Mau, an upcoming game published by Pugsteady and Onyx Path Publishing. Monarchies of Mau uses a customized version of the 5th Edition rules from the world’s most popular fantasy RPG. It’s been redesigned for streamlined play, with an emphasis on cooperation and action […]
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