Way back in September of last year I wrote a review of the print version of Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition.

Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition is a great book that is an easy-to-read manual with straightforward information and lots of options to enhance or run your LARP. There are plenty of photos of players in costume, as well as props and monsters, to give you a visual feel for how the game could be played. These photos help set the mood of the game, and give ideas for “how-to-build” your own stories. If you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft or Live Action Role Playing, it would be worth it to buy this book, get together with some friends, and create some tales of your own.

This is a great book and a great improvement on previous editions. For the last several months you could only get the book in print for $20 or so, say on Amazon.com.

Well, finally available is the eBook edition of the Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition core book. You can get it at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop for only $10.

The Flash Fire Mini-Reviews have awoken once more.

This week we will be taking a look at some of the Games, Books and other creations featuring the big green guy (no, not the Hulk) known as Cthulhu, one of the Great Old Ones in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Cthulhu first appeared in the short story “The Call of Cthulhu” and has made many, many other appearances since in fiction, games, toys and artwork. Today we’re just taking a peek at a few of the Cthulhu-related items I’ve come across in the last few weeks.

12 to Midnight publishes modern horror roleplaying games and accessories.

In this interview Ed Wetterman and Preston DuBose take us on a tour of Pinebox and then they explain a little bit about the design process that went into the new Steamworks d20 fantasy book.

We also get to hear about why 12 to Midnight likes the Savage Worlds system and get some details on the first ever Midnight Charity Project.

The Ghostories Enhancement Pack contains new material for use with the Ghostories Core eBook.

The Pack includes new roles (expressive artist, martial artist, and new age monk), new character and creature gimmicks, a new pursuit (meditation/mystics), new horror classifications (brownies, liches, lost souls, skin walkers, and trolls), a full-length adventure, and six sample characters.

Publisher: Precis Intermedia
Authors: Brett M. Bernstein, Peter C. Spahn and Matt McElroy

The Ghostories Enhancement Pack is available at RPGNow.com.

We’ve talked about Light in Shadows as the theme of Hunter: the Vigil and we’ve looked at one of the Professions featured in the upcoming game.

Yet the question remains…how do they hunt the monsters of the World of Darkness?

Anyone can grab a gun and start blasting away, but is that enough to destroy a vampire or werewolf? What good are bullets against a ghost?

Last week I talked a bit about the theme of Hunter: the Vigil. The theme of the game is Light in Shadows and I talked about how Hunters team up to fight against the things that lurk in the shadows of the world.

I also mentioned that most Hunters have “day jobs” since nobody really gets paid to stake or shoot supernatural creatures. This week we’re going to take a closer look at the “day job” element of Hunter: the Vigil.

In Hunter: the Vigil these “day jobs” are called Professions. They seem to be the everyday “real” careers that “normal” people have in the world. The trick for a Hunter is balancing the demands of the hunt with the realities of the job.

Munchkins have hacked their way through dungeons, kung fu temples, starships, haunted houses, and super-foes. Now they face their greatest challenge – Cthulhu! Will they survive? Will they retain their sanity? Will they . . . level up?

Munchkin Cthulhu combines the zany comedy of the previous Munchkin games with the oddities of the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft and its further developments by other authors and game designers.

When I interviewed Forgotten Realms author Paul S. Kemp recently he gave us the slightest tease regarding the upcoming Shadowrealm novel.

Now, he has offered up a snippet from the book for us to enjoy. Shadowrealm is book three of the Twilight War and is available for pre-order at Amazon.com.

Since we’ve started posting some teasers for the Hunter: the Vigil RPG this week I figured I would keep up with the theme and post about a few of the other monster hunter items that have caught my eye recently…

Comics, games supplements and fiction make up the mix this week…

The folks over at Pelgrane Press have been busy with all kinds of new Trail of Cthulhu updates.

Over at RPGNow you can scoop up the Trail of Cthulhu Player’s Guide for $10.95. This slimmed down volume contains everything you need to play in the game. Of course, your GM should probably have the complete book, which is available at Indie Press Revolution (in a mix of options, including bundle deals) and in eBook format at RPGNow.com.

The theme for White Wolf’s new game, Hunter: the Vigil is “Light in Shadows” and this theme is well presented in the advance materials I’ve seen already…

family, or those driven together by maddening circumstances. They protect
their stretch of forest, their city block, their network of women’s shelters. They don’t know the depth of what’s out there, they only have the meager light of their own candles to light the way.

Candles give way to torches, to cells who band together in localized compacts. They pool resources. They provide moral support. They present a more unified front against the denizens
of darkness.

And torches give way to raging bonfires as those compacts grow outward globally and backward through time. Ancient groups and modern conspiracies supply their hunters with potent weapons, some of which are so strange that those who use them can only wonder how long they can truly maintain their own humanity.

This theme continues throughout the text. Individual Hunters acting as a point of light, driving back the shadows. Together that light shines brighter, those shadows retreat or are destroyed outright by the fire. Still, those shadows never go quietly and there are always more of them creeping their way into the world.

This week’s Flash Fire Mini-Reviews list is going to be a little different…

We talk about a lot of great Horror & Dark Fantasy books, games and other entertainment on Flames Rising and often have suggestions of where to get these great items. This week we’re going to take a look at a few of these online stores and hit the highlights of what makes each of them work for fans of horror…

Lords of Summer is a Character Book for Changeling: The Lost

Swear again your allegiance to your Court
take up your knight’s banner and badge once more
The ties between us shall be renewed, and the old oaths fulfilled
We all stand together in summer, the season of war

After a short break, the Flash Fire Mini-Reviews are back (from the dead)!

Zombies have always had a following among horror fans. We have several reviews of great zombie games, books and more here on Flames Rising. Among the recent zombie reviews are Plague of the Dead 2, Happy Hour of the Damned and Zombie Fluxx. There are plenty more, including great titles from Permuted Press and Eden Studios.

This week we will be checking out a mix of zombie entertainment. Games, Novels and a Movie will make up the horde…

The folks at White Wolf may be at GTS (GAMA Trade Show) but they still have a few surprises in store for the fans this week… The first one is the new logo for Hunter: The Vigil. Check it out -here-. While the logo is certainly interesting it was the flavor text that got me […]

Chicago Workings is a World of Darkness adventure released under the Storytelling Adventure System from White Wolf Publishing. Written by Will Hindmarch (with a little help from Ken Hite and Bill Bridges) this adventure puts the player characters in the middle of an ongoing conflict between rival architects. At first that doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but what if these two designers had access to mystical writings? These writings allowed them to build geometric grids of power within the city, forever altering the flow of magic and power.

This is book two of series, and admittedly I had not read Touch the Dark. I was hoping that there would be enough context to bring me into the story and setting without feeling lost. Although Ms. Chance does offer a few lines here and there of Cassie talking about past events, I still felt a little lost. Not huge deal though because the book starts off with plenty of action. Even with me not knowing exactly who some of the characters are…things were certainly interesting. Cassie is looking for a little help in her ongoing feud with some of the vampires. She is hanging out at a supernatural brothel and causing a little bit of trouble along the way.

The Ebonacht Trilogy by James Lowder.

Preview the cover (larger image below) with Art by Martin Hanford, and Pre-Order your copy of The Screaming Tower at the Elder Signs Press website.

Superstition shrouds the island of Thran and keeps the fear-plagued inhabitants subservient to the reclusive tyrant, Lord Ebonacht, and the denizens of the unseen Twilight Court. Only Janus, an orphan whose own mysterious past is discussed in frightened whispers, rails against the tales of the Strangerfolk and the other creatures that are rumored to stalk the night. His quest to prove the old stories false will bring him face to face with the prisoner of the Screaming Tower and reveal secrets about the world — and himself — far more terrible than those hinted at in the grimmest of legends.

They Win. They Always Win.

The Ventrue — ancient kings and cutting-edge moguls — have a simple reputation. They win. They always win. They are known as Lords, and across all the World of Darkness, wherever you find vampires, you’ll find Ventrue behind them, pulling the strings.

Ventrue: Lords over the Damned is a clanbook for Vampire: The Requiem.

Some big news over at the Talisman Studios website this week. They have signed on with Studio 2 Publishing for distribution of these great books. First up will be the Shaintar core book, which uses the Savage Worlds system from Pinnacle Entertainment. The Suzerain core book will be the second product to hit distribution and it sounds like supplements for each line will follow.

Customers will also be able to order directly from the Talisman Studios website as well.