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.

A New Age of Fantasy Roleplaying

It has been hundreds of years since the last Blight ravaged the world of Thedas. Many believe that it can never happen again, that the Dragon Age will pass without the rise of such evil. They are wrong. Beneath the earth the darkspawn stir. A new archdemon has risen and with it a Blight that will scourge the lands and darken the skies. The nations of Thedas need a new generation of heroes, but who will answer the call?

Fantasy roleplaying goes back to its dark and gritty roots with the Dragon Age RPG, the latest game from the company that brought you A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying and Mutants & Masterminds.

The Dragon Age RPG is available now at DriveThruFantasy.com.

VEINS is a supernatural thriller that combines the fast-paced prose of veteran short story author Lawrence C. Connolly with the soulful character portraits of Star E. Olson.

Fleeing from what should have been a perfect crime, four crooks in a black Mustang race into the Pennsylvania highlands. On the backseat, a briefcase full of cash. On their tail, a tattooed madman who wants them dead.

The driver calls himself Axle. A local boy, he knows the landscape, the coal-hauling roads and steep trails that lead to the perfect hideout: the crater of an abandoned mine. But Axle fears the crater. Terrible things happened there. Things that he has spent years trying to forget.

Enter Kwetis, the nightflyer, a specter from Axle’s ancestral past. Part memory, part nightmare, Kwetis has planned a heist of his own. And soon Axle, his partners in crime, and their pursuer will learn that their arrival at the mine was foretold long ago . . . and that each of them is a piece of a plan devised by the spirits of the Earth.

After years of creating great gaming titles under the name ‘Talisman Studios’, we’ve decided that it’s time our real name… Savage Mojo… became known in its own right. After all, we focus on the Savage Worlds and Mojo Rules! roleplay systems, so it makes sense to use the name we gave the company.

The Talisman Studios name was originally created in 2003 when the company was an art and design studio to the adventure games industry, the brainchild of master artists Jason Engle and Aaron Acevedo. Since then it has expanded, is an Origins Award Winner (for Deadlands Reloaded), and two times Semi-Finalist (for Suzerain and Shaintar). These days Savage Mojo creates more than just roleplaying games, adding the Gamescapes line of gaming accessories, graphical fiction and art prints to our portfolio.

Weird “Haunted Science-Fiction” ongoing comic book series celebrates the end of its beginning by entering the doomed domain of retail pamphlet comics.

Dead Man Holiday, a well-received “Haunted Science-Fiction” ongoing comic book series self published by Colin Panetta, will release its third issue on December 30th, 2009. The series’ plot centers around Thad Planck, a low-rent security guard in a flooded and abandoned neighborhood known as Little Atlantis, where there have been some strange things growing and walking around as of late. The first two issues of Dead Man Holiday can be downloaded for free at the comic book’s website, DeadManHoliday.com. The fittingly aloof blurb for the new issue reads: “Little Atlantis is getting weird. So when a straw (in the form of a falcon carrying a dismembered hand) breaks the camel’s (our man Thad Planck’s, that is) back, the camel decides to strike back and show the weirdness who’s in charge. But not before making a sandwich. Can Thad keep Little Atlantis in check? Not without a little help from his friends. Or maybe just not at all.”

No Door, No Windows by Joe Schreiber is, at its heart, a haunted house story; although it might be more accurate to say it is a haunted character story.

The novel is filled with characters who cannot escape their pasts, or their present, which means that their futures may be in jeopardy. Schreiber’s characters are haunted by guilt, regret, and emotional inertia as much as they are by supernatural forces. Schreiber wields both realistic and otherworldly horrors with deft and subtlety in this suspenseful novel. The plot is centered on Scott Mast, a professional greeting-card writer living in Seattle who is forced to return to his native small-town in New Hampshire for his father’s funeral.

In celebration of the holidays DriveThruComics.com and our publishing partners are offering an additional 10% off on selected products from now until the New Year!

DriveThruComics Holiday Sale

And don’t forget you can add stuff to the accounts of your friends and family members. Click away your shopping list at DriveThruComics.com!

For the complete list of sale items check out DriveThruComics.com today!

November 2009 has seen the release of one of the most well thought out and put together magazines for Sci-fi and Fantasy Wargaming ever. ‘The Ancible’ is the dream and creation of Kenny Robb, Managing Director of the magazine. At first glance the cover alone is enough to inspire purchase with a magnificent painted miniature by Adrian Walters. The magazine, from the time you open it to the last page, is a visual masterpiece designed with thought, purpose and function. Phil Cunningham is the man to thank for that. This is not a magazine designed by beginners or ‘fly by night’ fans. Every article and piece of artwork is well thought out and placed for visual appeasement. The usual overabundance of retail advertisements and promotional material is not present; having just enough to wet the consumers’ appetite.

CCP, one of the world’s leading independent game developers, today launched EVE Online: Dominion, the 12th free expansion for the highly successful sci-fi MMO, EVE Online. The battlefields of the universe will be gorged with wrecks as the player alliances of EVE, some over five thousand pilots strong, adapt to the new way in which territory is conquered and held. EVE Online: Dominion is designed to catalyze player relationships, whether brief and antagonistic, protracted and mutually beneficial or anywhere along the spectrum—bringing the greatest opponents ever created, other players, into closer conflict.

Flames Rising is pleased to present you with another exciting fiction preview for the dark fantasy novel DARK KNOWLEDGE. Written by Keith Pyeatt, this dark fantasy e-book is about a struggle between good and evil.

Chapter One

You are my punishment.

The memory stood clear and complete, beautiful in its sharp definition against the fog of Wesley’s mind. He waited for it to dissolve, like memories always did, but this one remained solid.

Wesley’s body tingled as if particles of energy raced through him. He’d braved this journey inside himself many times recently, certain something wonderful waited behind the swirling fog but unable to catch even a glimpse. Now his greatest desire–a clear thought–offered itself. He absorbed his prize quickly, hungrily.

Those “Black Friday” shoppers are punks! The REAL action is RIGHT HERE!

It’s CYBER MONDAY at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop, and there are literally THOUSANDS of products on sale today! No lines, no crowds, no waiting. Click and save 10% on everything from our participating publishers!

And don’t forget you can add stuff to the accounts of your friends and family members. Click away your Christmas shopping list at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

The Holiday Sales Guide Is Up and Running… All Season Long!

It may be the day after Thanksgiving here in the U.S., but to many folk it’s also called Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year.

Whether you’re planning on shopping today or online later, we’ve asked some of our FlamesRising staff to write up some gift ideas for you in our Winter Holidays 2009 Gift Guide.

Throughout the day today, we’re going to offer you some horror movie, tabletop and video game and horror novel recommendations for you to read through.

We hope that FlamesRising.com will help you find “the” perfect gift for the horror fan in your life. Watch for more periodic updates as we cover special winter holiday offers and provide you with a few unusual gift ideas.

Larry Hama, the legendary mastermind behind G.I. JOE, makes his debut at Archaia! In this standalone tale presented in a graphic novella format, renowned treasure hunters Alaric Moebius and Basil Fox embark on an adventure that takes them from the deepest jungles of New Guinea to the deserts of Libya in search of a mysterious hidden pyramid that contains the power to end the world!

Featuring breathtaking art by Adam Archer (Spooks) and Lizzy John (Rest, Halloween), this unforgettable one-shot introduces readers to a terrifying, exciting new world created by Ryan Schifrin (Spooks)!

INSTANT ANTAGONISTS are systemless creatures or beings designed for use in modern supernatural/horror games. Many will be supernatural in nature; some will be (at least nominally) human. Some are truly evil, others simply selfish or immoral, others may be victims themselves.

Perfect for modern horror gaming that might need a new twist on old legends. The INSTANT ANTAGONISTS line offers details on each monsters origins, powers and plenty of story hooks to include them in your modern horror games.

The Selfish Succubus is available today at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

The Hero Initiative and Wizard World Comic Con will partner in 2010 to maximize the reach to fans for this important comic industry charity organization, Gareb Shamus, CEO of New York-based Wizard Entertainment and producer of Wizard World Comic Con tour, announces today.

“It’s important to support The Hero Initiative since they support so many of the folks in our industry. Without this industry support many artists wouldn’t be able to keep producing the wonderful work we love,” said Shamus.

The Hero Initiative will have a booth at Toronto Comic Con and Chicago Comic Con in 2010 to raise awareness among fans of the importance of their continued industry support.