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, […]

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, […]

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, […]

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. […]

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!”

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 […]

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present an interview with twice-nominated BAFTA writer Lucien Soulban, who works for Ubisoft Montreal. Fans of tabletop RPGs will remember Lucien from his contributions to games like Vampire: The Masquerade and Dungeons & Dragons. Additionally, he’s also written novels for Warhammer 40K and Dragonlance, as well as short stories for various […]

The Dungeons & Dragons team drops by FlamesRising.com today with a special announcement for D&D fans. Check it out! Dungeons & Dragons loves the amazing video streams produced by our fans. This community-generated live-play highlights what’s fantastic about D&D—sitting down together with your friends to tell a grand story! To celebrate, we’ve invited a bunch […]

One of the signs that settings can go beyond their original purpose, is the ability to take a world and dive into a new medium The Fae Noir setting is one such property; in addition to the RPG, Justin Bow is funding a comic on Kickstarter. Set in the world of the Fae Noir RPG, […]

FlamesRising.com contributor Crystal Mazur recently sat down with Christopher Mihm to ask him a few questions about his films. Enjoy this fun interview with a B-movie aficionado! Christopher Mihm is the writer, director, and producer of a series of 1950’s B-horror movies that all take place in the “Mihmiverse”. He has won several awards and […]

Always Another Secret

The Chronicles of Darkness stretch back to the beginning of human civilization, and perhaps further. When people fearfully peered into the darkness past their campfires, the Begotten were looking back. When they opened their mouths and spoke, attaching sound to meaning, the Awakened bound those words in power and light. When humanity was forming tribes, werewolves were communing with their totem spirits. When the first cities arose, the undead licked their lips in hunger.

And through it all, forces larger and more dangerous than the whole of humanity worked their dire machinations. Even these forces, though, are subject to the tides of history.

The Clans are not the only vampires that strut, if I might steal from the Bard, upon this great stage of fools. There are the errant Kindred inaccurately collected under the sobriquet of “bloodlines.” While their role in the eternal conflict between the childer of Caine is small, it is often incredibly impactful.

As such, I provide this corollary to my original study. It would be the work of several lifetimes to find and document every tiny aberration or fleeting dead end that constitutes a variation from one of the thirteen. Instead, I have focused on nine that I know for certain have an impact in our little culture war of the dead. From the brain-washed abominations of Tremere magic to vampires twisted by demonic will to the remnants of Clans long thought dead, each of these so-called “bloodlines” have their place in society. There is no larger picture for them — for us — to be a part of. Here on the fringes, each vampire’s experience is unique.

We are free to create our own truths amidst the lies.

Catalyst Game Labs—publisher of the seminal BattleTech and Shadowrun games—is exceptionally excited and honored to publish Dragonfire, a cooperative deckbuilder game based on the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.

Dragonfire combines the vast lore of the D&D universe with the fast play of a deckbuilding game. Players choose from several classic fantasy races, from dwarf to elf, half-orc to human, and assume one of the quintessential roles of cleric, rogue, fighter, or wizard. Equipped with weapons, spells, and magic items, players begin their adventure along the famed Sword Coast, then journey to other Forgotten Realms locales, such as Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter, and Waterdeep, in future expansions. Along the way, they can level up their characters, find additional equipment, learn new feats, and much more

Holmes and Watson are introduced to an impossible crime; a killing by a mythological creature; the dreaded Chimera, part lion, part scorpion, part goat!

But even if the death is some sort of sick hoax, it still means a hideous murder has taken place, which Holmes must solve. However dark forces swirl about the case, and an unsuspecting Holmes, besieged by doubts, has yet to contend directly with the most dramatic of those forces: Professor James Moriarty! A must for any Sherlock Holmes fan’s library collection. Released on newsstands in Australia, this will be the first time it is available outside of the country.

Described by writer Christopher Sequeira as Hammer Horror meets Holmes, the Dark Detective series has received numerous accolades from many Holmesian followers.

Decades of GMing Experience at Your Fingertips!

“Kobold Press builds on its excellent track record with another great release—new and provocative.”
—Mike Mearls

Whether it’s advice from grognards who were running games at the dawn of RPGs, or suggestions from the new generation of game designers, these 21 essays by experts are here to help you improve your GMing skills and create fun, amazing, memorable campaigns that’ll be talked about for years.

In this book, master GMs and storytellers give you advice about solo campaigns, shy players, cell phones, and making rulings on the fly. Are you unprepared for the game you’re running half an hour from now? Did you accidentally kill all the PCs? Do you want to run a game for kids? Did the plot take a sudden turn and the PCs have gone into uncharted territory? We’ve got you covered.

Dark Eras: Beneath the Skin

There is a face beneath this mask, but it isn’t me. I’m no more that face than I am the muscles beneath it, or the bones beneath that.

—Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

Ahuitzotl sits on the throne at the height of the Aztec Empire, overseeing his sorcerer-priests’ sacrifices and the endless flower wars his jaguar and eagle warriors carry out in his name to keep the altars well-supplied with victims. The gears of the Aztec Empire turn smoothly and inexorably, but not everything is what it pretends to be. Skinchangers take the shapes of animals to run the wilds or bring down human prey, the Unchained cobble together identities from stolen lives, and stranger things still lurk in the deserts and jungles beyond the walls of Tenochtitlan.

I’ve never sailed the Amazon, I’ve never reached Brazil, But the Don and Magdalena, they can go there when they will! Unless I go to Rio, these wonders to behold Oh, I’d love to roll to Rio, some day before I’m old! — Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories The Marvelous City Beneath the splendor of […]

The Pip System is a roleplaying system published by Third Eye Games and used in games such as Mermaid Adventures, Infestation: An RPG of Bugs and Heroes, and Camp Myth.

It was just recently released on Kickstarter, and I cannot be more excited. I had the opportunity to be on the writing staff for the book, and it was my first opportunity to work in a group writing format. I wanted to share with you some of the highlights for the Pip System and talk about my experiences with this amazing writing staff.

Unknown Armies is an occult game about broken people conspiring to fix the world. It’s about humanity, and how those among us who are the most obsessed have the power to alter reality until it aligns with their fevered desires. It’s about getting what you want despite others trying to keep it from you.

Unknown Armies presents magick as it might exist in a world co-created by Tim Powers and James Ellroy, as twisting wrinkles in reality created by greater and greater risk, sacrifice, and obsession. In Unknown Armies we ask, what would you risk to change the world? Your friends? Your family? Your health? Your sanity? Magick finds a way to ask the very most from you, until you achieve what you want or you are left with nothing.

Prince’s Gambit is a casual card game where each player is a vampire called to the court of the vampiric Prince of the city. Players must cooperate to gain the favor of the Prince while deducing who among them are secretly the traitorous Sabbat infiltrators.

Designed by long-time Vampire: the Masquerade tabletop RPG developer Justin Achilli, Prince’s Gambit is a fast-paced social deduction game set within the world of Vampire, but which requires no special knowledge to play. Neophytes and experienced fans of Vampire both can jump right in.