Author | Flames

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.

Gilded Cage (Vampire) Review

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Vampire the Masquerade is made up of a variety of elements that are integrated through both gaming skills and storytelling. A player oftentimes becomes strictly focused on the fighting or “battle” aspect of a game and neglects to take advantage of the other elements of the game. I’m not denying the fact that it’s fun to defeat a challenge using brute force, but I feel the more creatively I can defeat an opponent, the more gratification I receive. If you’re planning on taking a different route from simply ripping your enemies head off, you may consider corrupting his/her small corporation with your influence, or even bankrupting all of his/her bank account. In that case, Gilded Cage is the sourcebook for you.

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Ghost Stories: Horror Mystery Adventures Review

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Ghost Stories: Horror Mystery Adventures is a slim volume (36 pages) that aims to provide an entire horror gaming system for players and referee to use with the minimum of delay. The system is necessarily very light in terms of details and examples and there will be some who consider the lack of artwork as a problem. A straightforward trait and die roll system is provided to resolve tasks of various sorts. Players can play such character types as occultists, demon stalkers, clergymen, archaeologists and similar staples of popular ghost stories. Additional sections briefly cover sorcery, combat, skills and backgrounds.

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Mystery Codex RPG Review

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The first supplement available for Witchcraft, Mystery Codex provides all the information needed to keep your Witchcraft tabletop role-playing game fresh.

First off, time is taken to update anyone still using an older version of Witchcraft to the current version, as published in Eden Studio’s CJ Carella’s Witchcraft. With this information, you DO NOT need to buy the latest version of the main book if you own the previous version of Witchcraft published by Myrmidon Press.

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For A Few Dead Guys More (Deadlands) Review

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The combination of Horror and Westerns does take a little getting used to. The Foreword to this volume, written by Joe Lansdale, explains the appeal of both genres and how they might work when mixed together. Deadlands explores these themes, mixing elements from TV shows, movies and comic books in a bizarre, but workable, adventure. The fiction in this volume explores the living and the dead, good and evil, drama and humor.

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Faith and Fire LARP Review

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Faith and Fire also brings to the reader a sense of character through its writing. MET’s writers did a tremendous job clearly expressing how to play in the Dark Ages by using a second person voice. You will feel drawn into the medieval world as a player, before you have the chance to pick up your character sheet. While the Clan text was extremely intriguing and well-written, you will find yourself distracted by the artwork. However, the writing is straightforward, and definitely worthy of a careful read. Overall, Faith and Fire’s text was edited well, and intriguing throughout.

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Seventh Seal RPG Review

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The Seventh Seal: Roleplaying Game of Prophetic Revelations is a modern day conspiracy/horror game. In it the player characters take on the role of the Chosen Elect, men and women who have been contacted by an Archangel and charged with the task of defending humanity from the forces of darkness. Unlike other games dealing with this subject matter, this one takes place before open war breaks out between the Heavenly Host and the Rebel Angels. The players must survive in a familiar world, while investigating, hunting and hiding from the Infernal Enemy.

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Sentinels Bible RPG Review

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I recently ran across The Seventh Seal: Roleplaying Game of Prophetic Revelations at a local game convention. With all the other games about the end of the world out, or coming out, I wanted to know what made this game stand apart. Initially it appeared that the setting was the major difference. This game did not take place after the apocalypse, or even during the final epic battle between good and evil. Instead this game takes place during the events that lead up to that war. The result is a game that has more in common with our own world, and, therefore, places it firmly in the Modern Horror genre.

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InSpectres Review

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InSpectres is described as a “fast, simple and fun game that mixes horror and comedy” and it lives up to that description throughout the entire book. The author has blended the mystery of X-Files and the humor of Ghostbusters and Men in Black. It features an easy system to learn that doesn’t get in the way of a fun night of gaming. No one should expect InSpectres to replace more serious investigation/hunter games like Call of Cthulhu or Orpheus, because that really isn’t the point of this game. InSpectres is about fun, it is full of jokes, one-liners and offers everyone a chance to cut loose for an evening of entertainment.

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All Flesh Must Be Eaten (Revised) Review

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There are 232 pages. There are six chapters, a section of Archetypes, a Forward, an Appendix, and an Index. The first chapter explains to you what you’ll find in the book. The second chapter describes character generation. A list of well-thought out Archetypes are given – with good artwork to go with them. The third chapter goes over game mechanics. Equipment is discussed in chapter four. The fifth chapter explains zombies, how to create them, and how to use them. Chapter six discusses different Deadworlds that you can use for your settings.

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Cthulhu Live 2nd Edition LARP Review

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Cthulhu Live is set in the universe of eldritch horror created by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Cthulhu Live is a theater-gaming experience of horror, action and suspense. The participants are both actors and audience. The game is a full evening’s worth of fun every time it is played.

LARP (Live Action Role Playing) offers players a chance to get into costume, test their acting skills and interact with many more characters than the standard tabletop game usually entails. Several different LARP games are available; Cthulhu Live remains one of the most widely played in several countries.

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Interview with Ron Edwards

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How did you get into gaming? I’ll restrict “gaming” to mean role-playing in my case, because other activities under that label have meant very little to me. I like board games and card games as well as anyone who’s not a gamer likes them, and I regard wargaming with a kind of bemused shock. In […]

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Interview with Shane Hensley

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How did you get into gaming? The Dungeons and Dragons Marvel Comics ads are what hooked me. I was intrigued, and ordered my first D&D books through the Sears catalog (this is about 1983 or so). I grew up in a small coal-mining town, so game stores weren’t something that existed (in fact, the nearest […]

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2001 Maniacs Film Review

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Available at Amazon.com Directed by Tim Sullivan Starring Robert Englund Review by Brian LeTendre The South will rise again! “2001 Maniacs” is a remake of goremeister Herschell Gordon Lewis’ 1964 film “Two Thousand Maniacs”. Robert Englund plays the mayor of a southern town that was destroyed during the Civil War, where the residents come back […]

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Interview with Jason L Blair

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How did you get into gaming? My brother dragged me into it, actually. He tried to get me to play a couple different games but it was Starchilde’s second edition of “Justifiers” that finally lured me in. That was in ’92, ’93. My first actual group was made up of some friends of mine. Occasionally […]

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Interview with Monte Cook

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How did you get into gaming? I started gaming when I was about 10. I heard about it in, of all places, Sunday School. Some people were talking about it and I played with them a little. Eventually, I got some D&D books of my own and started my own group. Besides D&D, we played […]

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Interview with Micah Skaritka

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Micah tells us the origins of the Obsidian: the Age of Judgement RPG and what some of his future plans are with the game. He also lets us know just what he is up to with the band Cruciform Injection.

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Interview with Kraig Blackwelder

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Kraig tells us about his work on Orpheus, Time of Judgement and other World of Darkness books. He also talks horror gaming and some of his upcoming fiction projects.

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