A Tale of The Darkness!

Go back to the turn of the 20th Century and read a tale of lost love, the depravity of man and powers beyond our understanding in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft!

Salvador Gomes is a broken man. He has lost his beautiful wife and young daughter in a fire and now spends restless days and sleepless nights looking for solace. In desperation, he makes a bargain with “The Shadow God,” but every bargain has its price…

Flames Rising is pleased to offer our readers a five page preview of The Darkness: Shadows & Flame one-shot, which will arrive in stores this Wednesday, January 20.

Dark Matter Studios, producer of the well-received fantasy rpg Epic Role Playing, has released its latest offering, Audhüm, The Southern Reach of Vanier. Audhüm throws players into a cold and unforgiving bronze age world, a place for heroes of ferocity, mettle and ambition. Audhüm is completely compatible with Dark Matter Studios ENnie Award nominated Epic RPG system (Best Rules, 2008).

This original fantasy setting allows players and GM’s the opportunity to take the chariot reins of a harsh, adolescent milieu. Audhüm is a land that has just entered the Bronze Age, whose races are founding the first great civilizations. Heroes in single combat decide the fate of city-states. The gods speak to their anointed. Written language is less than 300 years old. This is the dawn of history.

The Dead Matter movie to be released on July 30th. Midnight Syndicate gives filmmakers chance to have their work featured on The Dead Matter DVD and win prizes with their 13th Anniversary Video Contest.

Midnight Syndicate Films has announced that The Dead Matter movie and soundtrack will be released on July 30th. Production on an interactive website that allows fans to delve deeper into the world and characters they will encounter in the movie is underway. A set of three new trailers, the first of which will be released in February is also in production along with a mini-documentary produced by Smudgeline Productions and other behind-the-scenes featurettes. All of these items and more special features to be announced soon will be included on the DVD release.

First published in 1999, This is My Blood is David Niall Wilson’s first and most important novel. It is a retelling of the gospel from a very different perspective. When jesus goes into the desert and is tempted by the devil, there is one temptation added. One of the fallen is raised as a woman to tempt him with the flesh. Instead, the woman, named Mary, falls in love with Jesus and his promise of returning her to Heaven.

Cursed to follow him and drink the blood of his followers, Mary walks a fine line between her desire to love and support the Christ, and her burning need to return to Heaven. This novel takes the world of faith, which was the world of men, and of the apostles, and shows it through the eyes of a fallen angel – one who has, in her own words, walked the roads of both Heaven, and Hell. She doesn’t believe there is a God…she knows.

Flames Rising is pleased to offer our readers an excerpt from this dark tale. This is My Blood is available now at DriveThruHorror.com.

VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE will be a 140-page full-color graphic novel based on the critically acclaimed Vampire Apocalypse book series written by Derek Gunn. New Baby Productions licensed the graphic novel rights to the novels.

This new graphic novel adaptation will be scripted by CJ Hurtt, an eclectic writer whose work has run the gamut from mainstream to horror to slipstream to political drama. Federico Combi, a visionary artist from Argentina with a comprehensive fine arts education, provides a realistic painted style that fits the dark tone of VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE perfectly.

New Baby Productions has launched a Kickstarter page to raise initial funds for marketing and pre-production costs for this graphic novel. Supporters of this project get access to behind-the-scene updates, previews and other exclusive materials.

I recently spoke with A.P. Fuchs of Coscom Entertainment about the mix of comics and fiction available for fans of zombies, super-heroes and other dark, twisted tales.

Call you tell us a little about Axiom-Man?

Again, this will have to be another “long story short.” Axiom-man–the concept, anyway–was a superhero I invented while delivering newspapers as a kid, something to keep my mind busy while I went door to door. I’d daydream adventures, create story arcs, etc. Then, I created the version you know in high school. In 2005, I was inspired by the surge of independent superhero fiction being published and in January of 2006 began work on the first installment in the series. Here we are, three years later and the character has four books and one comic to his credit with more to come.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with the first chapter of a book entitled THE MERMAID’S MADNESS, which was written by acclaimed author Jim C. Hines.

THE MERMAID’S MADNESS is the second in the series, and features a trip to the land of the mermen and mermaids.

The Mermaid’s Madness is available now at Amazon.com and DriveThruFantasy.com.

To help you kick off this auspicious New Year right, we’ve got twenty of the biggest and best RPG products on our site on sale for just $10! These are all “big ticket” books that normally sell for at least $20 or more (some for a LOT more), but we all want to jump start the gamer economy here at the start of the year, and you can help us by taking advantage of this unique and amazing sale!

“Hey, wait… there’s more than twenty products on this list!”

Well, yeah. You got us. The publishers thought this was such an amazingly cool idea, they committed more books than we asked for, and we just didn’t have the heart to choose. So you’re really getting “Twenty-Plus for $10!” Do us a favor and don’t tell the bosses, OK?

Twenty for $10 RPG Sale at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Fantasy Flight Games’ Dark Heresy and Warhammer Fantasy

Now Available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

Just in time for the New Year, two excellent sourcebooks for Fantasy Flight Games’ Dark Heresy RPG – Purge the Unclean (a trilogy of action, adventure, and horror in service to the Imperial Inquisition) and the Game Master’s Kit (featuring poisons and toxins rules, a xenos generator, quick reference charts, and a full adventure).

Broken Frontier proudly presents the winners of its sixth annual Broken Frontier Awards!

For its 2009 edition, BF opened up its voting process to fans, creators and industry professionals after our staff had compiled four nominees each over a series of ten categories.

As such, the creators and projects that came out on top are the winners as determined by our voting public.

Have your players been good boys and girls?

If not, the perchta is waiting for them! In need of some wintery foes to throw at your Pathfinder players?

Then look no further, Mythic Menagerie: Winter Ravagers is here!

Winter Ravagers is the first in Super Genius Games’ new Mythic Menagerie line of monster products. The plan is for every Mythic Menagerie to offer a set of monsters that match a theme, with full write-ups, simple index card style summaries for use at the game table, and printable standee figures for every monster. But while future versions will feature typical fantasy adventure themes-fiends and cultists, dark fey, creatures from the subterranean kingdoms – Winter Ravagers is focused on a less common trope.

As the official source for information regarding the development and eventual production of a feature film based on Eclipse Phase, MoreNachos Entertainment is pleased to announce that EclipsePhaseMovie.com is now online.

Fans of the role-playing game and those anticipating the film, may now find updates on the script and
production status – and soon read blog entries from the producers and writers as well as casting choices. A forum is dedicated to discussing everything about the film and game. Additional areas are dedicated to the roleplaying game, about the production staff and more features to come.

THE GAME’S AFOOT, WATSON. LET’S CRACK THESE ROTTERS IN THE SKULL! – SHERLOCK HOLMES!

“It’s the master detective like you’ve never seen him before, and anyone underestimating Watson will pay dearly for it. Don’t miss Warner Brother’s extraordinary new take on Sherlock Holmes on December 25th, and our Movie Mayhem sale all Christmas Weekend.

Sherlock Holmes Movie Mayhem Sale at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop

Don’t forget the check out the Sherlock Holmes collection from Caliber Comics available now at DriveThruComics.com.

People often say that there are no such things as monsters. They are wrong. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other un-namable horrors co-exist with us. Watching us. Using us. Preying upon us.

Welcome to Pinebox, a sleepy little East Texas town with a lot more than its share of trouble. Whether it’s the haunted diner luring weary travelers, the unexplained ‘alligator attacks”, or the crone who just might be hexing neighborhood kids, trouble always seems to be hidden just below the surface. Buried, but not forgotten.

In Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas, a dozen horror authors and game designers have gotten together to write tales set in Pinebox, Texas. This sleepy little East Texas town definitely has a lot more going on than the occasional bar fight.

The e-book version of Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas is available now at DriveThruHorror.com and the paperback version is available through Amazon.com.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present a preview of a few stories in this horror anthology.

Sin-Eaters know that their strange existence is a complicated one. They stand at the crossroads between life and death and endure all the complications of both. But there are others, desperate for something to believe in, who believe that a Sin-Eater’s bond with her geist is a blessed state of unification and a triumph over the limitations of the human form.

These souls make up the brethren of the Glorious Church of the Unified Spirit. They have been told that their path lies not in life or death, but in a divine state somewhere in between. Those who have only experienced one life cannot achieve true enlightenment. The sacred symbiosis of spirit and flesh must be achieved to take the next step. Sin-Eaters are their saints, their bodhisattvas. The brethren are told that they must step through the black gate to reach their potential. They are told that this is humanity’s next step – humanity’s destiny.

They are misled.

A story in the Storytelling Adventure System for Geist: The Sin-Eaters.

Through the Ebon Gate is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Combining Archaia’s longstanding commitment to producing high-quality hardcover graphic novels and Roddenberry’s goal to produce sophisticated, intelligent and entertaining science fiction in the tradition of Star Trek, the companies announced today they will publish a deluxe Days Missing hardcover that collects all five issues of the critically acclaimed mini-series plus a host of extra features, available in February 2010.

The Days Missing hardcover is available for pre-order now through comic retailers and online outlets like Amazon.com (ISBN 1-932386-84-X).

It’s Halloween in an election year. New Yorkers prepare to celebrate with masked revels and parades, while the city’s powerful hold fund raisers and give speeches. Business as usual in the Modern Gomorrah, but when someone or something hunts New York’s streets, eviscerating stray animals, slaying the homeless where they huddle, and stealing women from shelters – it threatens a councilwoman’s reelection bid.

Snows of an Early Winter is a stand-alone Call of Cthulhu adventure set in modern day New York City. It contains everything a group needs for two or three evenings of investigation and horror, including the scenario, pre-generated characters, and hand outs. It is the latest in the innovative line of officially licensed Call of Cthulhu scenarios and supplements from Super Genius Games.

Get it today at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

I’m going to assume you’ve never been here before. It’s all right, that’s to be expected. Not many people have, you know? I mean… not many people like yourself. People with heartbeats. Everybody else, though – they all come here. A lot of them are still around. You know how some people day the best way to deal with an enemy is to outlive him? That’s good advice most of the time. But right about now you should probably be hoping that all your worst enemies are still alive. – Rio Fletcher, Sin-Eater

World of Darkness: Book of the Dead is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

No other story has touched as many hearts and endeared itself into the American fabric as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Often toted as America’s First Fairy Tale, this heartwarming classic has been made and remade again and again across every medium known to man. The themes are timeless, the characters themselves beloved.

But like all fairy tales, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has one foot planted in the fantastic, and the other foot planted in blood. Explore the darker side of Oz…the parts too terrifying or obscene to be told as bedtime stories.

Shadows of the Emerald City is now available at DriveThruHorror.com.

In his introduction to “Michael H. Hanson’s Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse” author Mike Resnick sates that is “not quite a round-robin novel by its many authors, but is somehow more than an anthology.”

That statement is an accurate one. This book has a total of ten separate stories, and ten additional short “interludes” between each story written by Michael H. Hanson. Hanson wrote one of the ten stories, as did editor Edward McKeown. The remaining eight stories are written by eight separate authors. Each story is connected, however, by one over-arching theme and one or more re-occurring characters.