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.
Dark Matter Studios, producer of the well-received fantasy rpg Epic Role Playing, has released its latest offering, the Quick Start Guide in PDF format. A sleek and maneuverable 100 pages, the QSG is a perfect intro for players wanting to know more about the ENnie Award nominated ruleset.
This PDF guide is a down-and-dirty primer to the Epic Role Playing game system. Easily accessible in electronic format, the Quick Start Guide is ready to introduce interested players to the game. As much information as possible has been compressed into this introductory guide book: core rules, character creation process, skills and experience, arcane magic, treasure, teasers from the full game system and more.
In order for indie and small/micro press games to have a chance and a voice at the Ennies, we need every single one of you reading this to get on over there and vote. Please participate! Earlier is better, of course, but you have a week. And please don’t try to vote multiple times. We’d rather have your honest support!
Here’s the “indie-focused” ballot, as posted on the Summer Revolution last week. Show your support! Become a hero of the Revolution!
Contested Ground Studios is delighted to announce the release of an upgraded version of their hit Cold City RPG.
Cold City v1.1 takes all the information from the original book and combines it with the Cold City Companion to create one comprehensive source for Cold City games. In addition to all of that, there’s a new, revised system chapter that offers smoother gameplay and more guidances for participants.
There’s internal artwork by Stuart Beel (SLA Industries, Changeling, Werewolf and many other RPGs and CCGs ) and Paul Bourne (3:16, a|state, Hot War, Piledrivers & Powerbombs), offering a great visual experience.
“InSpectres” is a role-playing game of horror and comedy written by Jared Sorenson and published by Memento-Mori Theatrics. Players take on the roles of supernatural investigators who are part of a franchise, ala “Ghostbusters.” The players control not only their characters, but also the business itself, allow it to grow financially, physically and in terms of contacts and clientele. A game master sets up the story and calls for different die rolls at different times, controlling all of the non-player characters in the game.
Santa’s been drinking too many pina coladas again (as, apparently, have our copywriters), so it’s time once more to get yourselves some really fabulous savings on great game products! For the next couple of days (maybe four, if you’re particularly nice and don’t cry or pout), you can get 25% off selected products all over […]
Publisher to unveil new exclusive comics, special announcements and a host of guests.
Top Cow Productions Inc. announced its schedule today for this week’s San Diego Comic-Con, the nation’s biggest and best comics and pop culture extravaganza to be held at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California from July 23 – 27.
Top Cow will set up shop at Booth #2329 and heads into the convention with exclusives, preview books, free goodies and a long list of guests, headlined by Top Cow CEO and founder Marc Silvestri (Witchblade, The Darkness, Cyberforce), artist J.G. Jones (Wanted) and writer Paul Dini (Madame Mirage).
“Donar’s Hammer” is the first of the smaller supplements for “Godlike” RPG, and provides an introductory scenarios as well as optional rules for your “Godlike” game.
Set in Sicily in 1943, players take on the role of a group of Allied Talents that come face to face with a group of Axis Overmen protecting a talent called Mjollnir, the name of the norse god Thor’s mythic hammer. What begins as a simple seek-and-destroy mission instead becomes a fight for survival and the soul of a small town.
Tachyon Publications is proud to announce the August 2008 release of a new edition of Tim Powers’ classic novel, The Stress of Her Regard.
A novel of secret histories and dark revelations, The Stress of Her Regard is the tale of a terrified young doctor who – after discovering his bride brutally murdered in their wedding bed – allies with the great Romantic poets, Byron, Keats and Shelley in a battle against a malignant apparition seeking her ultimate pleasure in their ravaged bodies and imperiled souls.
This is the second part of the Scion Companion to be released as a PDF, the first having been the Tuatha de Daanan segment and with a couple more to come. It furthers White Wolf’s relatively progressive e-book policy while simultaneously acting almost as a preview for the eventual, finished product and also, probably, cunningly getting people to buy much of the same material twice – can’t really fault them for doing that! This section is all about the powers, the elevated statistics and their consequences, the fields of expertise and the powers within those, additional companions, followers, artifacts, magic and so on.
Gaming Extravaganza Brings Crowds to Indy for the Annual Convention
It’s that time of year again when gamers are gearing up for Gen Con Indy, the original, longest running and best-attended gaming show in North America. With an estimated 27,000 unique attendees converging on the Indianapolis Convention Center, visitors to Gen Con will immerse themselves in the 6,000+ gaming events and more than 250 exhibits over the four day extravaganza that has become the world’s premier game convention. Starting Thursday morning and running round-the-clock attendees can play their hearts out with fellow enthusiasts and by joining in card games, board games, video games, table top and live-action role-playing games, seminars, films, workshops and so much more. Activities range from interactive game play and computer gaming to big money hobby-related tournaments sponsored by industry leaders Upper Deck Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. The event will be held August 14-17, 2008 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.
“Cool stuff, rich language, invented – reinvented — science,” says James Blaylock, a pioneer of steampunk and author of the novel, Lord Kevlin’s Machine. “Steampunk [a sub-genre of science fiction] offers a great deal of what is most flamboyantly, eccentrically, visually, and adventurously interesting about the Victorian era and its curious scientific hopes and speculations.”
The recently-released anthology Steampunk, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, clatters and clinks with gadgets, airships, and forty-foot tall steam-powered men. The thirteen stories and novel excerpts contained in this collection are enhanced by a preface, an introduction, and two essays.
The editors themselves are no strangers to strange fiction. Ann VanderMeer is an editor for Weird Tales and Jeff VanderMeer is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Shriek: an Afterword as well as a collection of linked stories, City of Saints and Madmen, both set in the imaginary world of Ambergris.
“The Zantabulous Zorceror of Zo,” by Chad Underkoffler and Atomic Sock Monkey Press, is a game of adventure and wonder set in a world of fairy tales. But the land of Zo is more than just pixies and knights. The game includes classic story elements from almost every childhood fantasy, from “The Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland” to “Peter Pan” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
The game uses Underkoffler’s Prose Descriptive Qualities (PDQ) system, which is also used in the super-hero RPG “Truth & Justice” and the manic “Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot: the Roleplaying Game.” In PDQ, characters use Qualities to represent their abilities. Qualities can be anything from skills to beliefs to personality quirks.
Descent into Chaos, the follow up novel to A World Torn Asunder (part of the Vampire Apocalypse series written by Irish author, Derek Gunn) is now available to preorder from the publisher and will be released in the Fall. Chapters are now available at the author’s website.
Vampire Apocalypse: A World Torn Asunder (released in September 2006) was Derek’s debut novel. It received rave reviews, was optioned for film by producer/screenwriter Richard Finney. Finney and screenwriter, Franklin Guerrero Jr., recently penned a script based on the book. Their adaptation led to a recent partnership on the project with producer, Robert Lawrence (Die Hard: With a Vengence, Clueless, The Last Castle). Currently the project is being represented by the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) who is packaging the project for the studios.
After reading the first two issues of Marcus Almand’s comic book, Razor Kid, I’m left feeling surprisingly compelled to read more. Razor Kid is as indie as it gets, but this does not belie the effort that Almand and his revolving crew of artists have put forth in giving readers a superior product.
Issue one introduces us to 15-year-old Alexander Tanaka, AKA Razor Kid, as he fights Kevin Michaels in an exercise of initiation into the C.A.P.E. (Citizens Authorized for Protection and Enforcement) program. Alexander is a boy genius who’s developed an armored super suit equipped with an assortment of blades and devices including cybernetic arms that replace his own which have been amputated. Kevin, 18, provides quite a test as he appears to be a full-blown martial arts badass.
3:16 designed by Gregor Hutton (Best Friends) is a winner of a High Ronny Award for Games Design.
Featuring a stunning cover by Paul Bourne (a|state, Cold City, Hot War) and haunting interiors by Gregor Hutton 3:16 is a visual treat.
This high-octane Science-Fiction role-playing game for 2 or more players has your Space Troopers killing bugs all across the Cosmos. You’ll advance in rank, improve your weapons, slay civilization after civilization and find out who you are through an innovative “Flashback” mechanic.
We’re happy to announce three new products will be available at GenCon!
Slipstream: Beyond the black holes lies the Slipstream, a pocket universe of shattered worlds, desperate aliens, and savage monsters. Ruling over the shattered isles is the diabolical Queen Anathraxa, who some say is close to finding a way to escape this interstellar prison. Strap on your rocket pack, charge your ray gun, and prepare to blast off into the the most wild and exotic Savage Setting yet—the Slipstream!
David Drake’s fiction has always been dark. His combat experiences in Vietnam made his fiction even darker and, in many ways, more honest and more horrifying. Earlier this summer Night Shade Books released the paperback edition of a collection of Drake’s “weird and fantastic” stories, Balefires.
The collection is rich with generous commentary from the author and a variety of fantasy, science fiction and horror stories. Shortly after the hardback release, Mr. Drake and I discussed writing and his experiences in Vietnam for an interview that ran in The New York Review of Science Fiction. What follows grew out of that larger conversation.
Brand new original manga-style comic book series, based on the Award-winning screenplay by Malcolm Wong
Dabel Brothers Publishing is excited to announce the manga-style adaptation of Malcolm Wong’s award-winning screenplay, Dog Eaters. Malcolm’s screenplay won three awards at the Screenwriting Expo5 in Los Angeles. The story has been adapted by Sean J. Jordan, and features stunning manga-style pencils from Chilean illustrator, Guillermo A. Angel.
Dog Eaters tells the tale of a world 175 years after the “Die Off” – a catastrophe that occurs when the balance of world economic, political, and ecological systems is upset by an oil crisis that spins out of control, eventually wiping out 90% of the world’s population.
The book is a massive one, totalling out to nearly four hundred pages interspersed with illustrations that are mostly small, so that’s an intimidating amount of text, though most of it is background and plots, and thus optional. It includes the general rules, combat rules, character creation, kung fu, secret techniques and powers and an enormous section of plot and background providing a great many hooks and ideas to players and Games Masters alike. The game is complete in one book but be aware that the PDF I am reviewing from lacked the front cover image, this does make a file smaller but I would have liked it to be there. I have also read the hardcopy version.
The dead are walking and hungry for brains. Shutter the windows, barricade the door and load your shotgun.
Oh, and this round draw three and play two.
“Zombie Fluxx,” a card game from the appropriately-named Looney Labs, is based off the popular and zany “Fluxx,” an ever changing card game that begins simple and ends up insane.
“Zombie Fluxx” takes the base game one shuffling step forward, adding in iconic images from zombie and horror movies and a new kind of card to liven (pardon the pun) up the mix.
Tachyon Publications is proud to announce the August 2008 release of a new edition of Tim Powers’ classic novel, The Stress of Her Regard.
The dead are walking and hungry for brains. Shutter the windows, barricade the door and load your shotgun.