An Alien’s Guide to Conquering the Earth

It’s a pseudo-nonfiction, ‘how-to’ military handbook for aliens intending to conquer the Earth. It both looks at how all the elements are handled in SF, and satirizes them, and then brings real-world science, history, and military sciences to show how it should be done.

It goes without saying that any military campaign must be planned in ways depending upon some basic factors: The logistics of where your enemy is in relation to your own forces, environmental factors, and, most importantly, ‘why’ you’re fighting this campaign. This book intends to take these basic factors, and apply them to the purpose of conquering the planet known to the natives as Earth.

For the first time, the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium is offering free professional-level workshops for game and publishing industry professionals. These invite-only workshops will cover building a publicity strategy, running successful Kickstarters, migrating a brand into a new genre/market, and similar topics important to your business. We will not cover the basics, but instead focus […]

In the deepest crimson depths of their being, raw power waits to be brought to the surface. Through their force of will, Kindred can drag this power kicking and screaming into the open to perform miraculous feats and twisted blasphemies. These rituals have been developed to direct and focus this new force, unconstrained by the structure of the known Disciplines. As such, only one word has been seen fit to describe this power that has echoed throughout the ages. Magic.

US Roleplaying Game Publisher Brings Back Classic Horror Game

Growling Door Games, Inc. is proud to announce that they have entered into a licensing agreement with Martin Caron, the owner of the Chill RPG. The agreement gives Growling Door Games the English-language rights to publish the Chill RPG core book and supplementary materials for that game, setting the stage for a new release of a classic property that helped make horror gaming a staple of the RPG landscape.

Matthew McFarland, President of Growling Door Games, said, “We’re thrilled to bring such a classic of horror gaming back to print. Chill has a great history of success in the market. There’s been a lot of enthusiasm for the game even during its long stint out of print, and we hope both those fans and new ones will enjoy our revival of Chill.”

Cursed Necropolis D.C. includes:

– Contextualized discussion of the history and inner workings of the Federal City from the mummy point of view, including the rise of the powerful meret known as the First Chorus and a complete overview of Washington D.C.’s geography and internal currents, political and supernatural alike.
– An array of non-player characters fully integrated into the nome, including both the Arisen who call Washington D.C. home and a few of the mortals who do their secret bidding, willingly or otherwise
– “The Great Hunt” — a complete Mummy story that Storytellers can run alone or as the prelude to a three-part series called The Avarice Chronicle

“My name is John Doe. I’ve been dead for ten years.”

I have no heartbeat, no breath, no smell, just cold, clammy flesh animated by something I don’t understand. So I sell my dead flesh to the highest bidder. If the price is right, I’ll kill for you, steal for you, or save your life for you. There’s no mystery you can’t hire me to solve… apart from this one.

The bent copper torn apart in his flat by something not quite human. The hidden rooms underneath the Tower of London. The hollow-eyed boxer, Morse, and strange, strange Mr Smith with his head full of the future. And the secret they found. The secret of who I am. A secret so big and black and terrible that it changed everything we thought we knew about existence. And now I’m the only person who can stop the end of all life on this planet…

…I, Zombie!

On Wednesday, April 9th, Gen Con has named its 2014 Industry Insider Guests of Honor [IIGoH]. A diverse group spanning the breadth of the game industry, IIGoH members participate in numerous panels, seminars, and discussions on topics in their field of expertise. Selected by a four person Advisory Panel, IIGoH member events provide numerous opportunities […]

RPGNow today announced that its shareholders have approved a definitive agreement for RPGNow to merge with DriveThruRPG. The agreement is a friendly transaction that will create a leading online marketplace in the tabletop gaming industry, outstanding in its ability to deliver ground-breaking products on a superior network while leveraging an international platform to create operating efficiencies and economies of scale.

“The combination of RPGNow and DriveThruRPG creates an exciting opportunity,” said Stephen Wieck, Chief Executive Officer, DriveThruRPG. “In addition to joining our two world-class companies, this is a compelling strategic, accretive transaction for our shareholders. The RPGNow team have created a business that, when combined with DriveThruRPG, has the foundation for remarkable future growth, and it will yield many synergies and benefits. We are looking forward to bringing our teams together to deliver the most innovative products and services and a superior customer experience in the highly competitive and dynamic marketplace within which we operate.”

The Fine Young Capitalists’ begins their first online project allowing any women to have their chance at creating a video game In 2011, the Video Game Industry took in over $16 Billion dollars but despite women representing 45% percent of the game playing audience they directed less than 2% of the Games. In combination with […]

Solaris is very proud to announce the follow-up to Tony Ballantyne’s critically-acclaimed novel, Dream London. “Tony’s Dream London was this poetical, phantasmagorical, satirical, and fantastical mash-up of a book, a real joy to read and a world I didn’t want to leave in a hurry,” said Solaris editor-in-chief Jonathan Oliver. “I’m delighted then that we’re […]

Angels are everywhere.

They are under the everyday world, behind it, beyond it. They are sent by the God-Machine to enact its will through time and space, delivering messages, building infrastructure, protecting some people, killing others. You were one of those angels…

But not anymore.

Now you are one of the Unchained, a fallen angel who defected to the human race. Yours is a world of false identities and clockwork conspiracies, stolen faces and hidden works of the Machine.

You cannot — will not — return to the sterile embrace of Heaven.

All you can do is reign in Hell.

Since 2003, FlamesRising.com has supported first-time novelists and veteran authors through our interviews, reviews, and excerpts. Our chapter previews, which are hosted with permission, are one of the most popular features of our website.

If you’re an author (or publisher) seeking an outlet to host your horror, dark fantasy, or dark science fiction excerpt, we invite you to join FlamesRising.com. Since we are a website, it’d would be helpful if you saved your excerpt in a format conducive to the web. To add your preview to this feature on our site, please review our Submission Guidelines and use the Contact Us page.

To coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, this anthology celebrates the depth and diversity of one of the most important figures in literature. Compiled by multi-award winning editor, Ellen Datlow, it presents some of the foremost talents of the genre, who have come together to reimagine tales inspired by Poe.

Sharyn McCrumb, Lucius Shepard, Pat Cadigan, M. Rickert, and more, have lent their craft to this anthology, retelling such classics as “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of the Red Death,” exploring the very fringes of the genre.

It’s sold more than 150,000 copies worldwide since 2009 and spawned its own genre of ‘Godpunk’; now the best-selling Pantheon series draws to a close with James Lovegrove’s Age of Shiva!

The latest stand-alone title in this action-packed military SF series brings you a world where the multitude of Hindu gods hold sway and a simple comic book artist finds himself trapped in the middle! Zachary Bramwell, better known as the comics artist Zak Zap, is pushing forty and wondering why his life isn’t as exciting as the lives of the superheroes he draws. Then he’s shanghaied by black-suited goons and flown to Mount Meru, a vast complex built atop an island in the Maldives. There, Zak meets a trio of billionaire businessmen who put him to work designing costumes for a team of godlike super-powered beings based on the ten avatars of Vishnu from Hindu mythology. The Ten Avatars battle demons and aliens and seem to be the saviours of a world teetering on collapse. But their presence is itself a harbinger of apocalypse. The Vedic “fourth age” of civilisation, Kali Yuga, is coming to an end, and Zak has a ringside seat for the final, all-out war that threatens the destruction of Earth.

Don’t embrace the darkness. Fear it.

The Gothic is the most enduring literary tradition in history, but in recent years friendly ghosts and vegetarian vampires threaten its foundations.

The New Gothic is a collection of short stories which revisits the core archetypes of the Gothic – the rambling, secret-filled building, the stranger seeking answers, the black-hearted tyrant – and reminds us not to embrace, but to fear the darkness.

A dozen tales of terror fill this anthology including an original, never-before-seen story from the godfather of modern horror, Ramsey Campbell.

New Vampire: the Masquerade fiction available now!

Most mortals turn away from the darkness that preys upon them, going about their lives in despair of the Damned and the evils they visit upon the world. But a precious few wage a personal war to shine light on those shadows and diminish them, like solitary candles shining in the night. The path of the hunter is lonely and fraught with danger, at once beset by the monsters they hunt and looked upon with suspicion by their fellow mortals they thanklessly seek to protect.

Nine new short stories chronicling the hunters’ trials of the night, including original works by Richard Dansky, Bill Bridges, Jess Hartley, Natasha Bryant-Raible, Jason Andrew, Sarah Roark, Alan Alexander, Matthew McFarland, and Edward Austin Hall.

Twentieth Century Fox and Hasbro, Inc. have joined forces to make a series of films based upon Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast’s fantasy-adventure property, MAGIC: THE GATHERING. Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past), whose Genre Films banner is based on the Fox Lot, will serve as the franchise’s creative steward and produce in close […]

A small group of American soldiers in WWII, lead by General Patton must stop the Nazis from weaponizing supernatural creatures of myth.

Operation Penumbra: Vol. 1 takes place in North Africa in March of 1943. The U.S. Army has just suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel and the German Afrika Korps during the Battle Of Kasserine Pass. Following the defeat, General George S. Patton (“Ol’ Blood and Guts”) was brought in to turn the Army around and make it the world class fighting force it once was.

The third and final book in Tim Hawken’s Hellbound Trilogy is set for release this December, amid development of a film franchise for the series. Titled Deicide, the novel concludes the epic story, which depicts a world of Hell never seen before.

Early critical acclaim and a strong cult following for Hellbound meant Hawken’s work captured the attention of Hollywood right from the start. The author has recently signed partnerships with both Luber Roklin Entertainment and Savela/Kabatoff Productions to help bring his vision to the silver screen. In addition, actor Charlie Bewley (Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Hammer of the Gods) has been attached to play the lead character of Michael in the films.

DriveThruRPG has launched a huge Black Friday Sale on some very cool RPG core books in digital formats! The PDF versions of Vampire: the Requiem, RuneQuest 6th Edition, Broken Shield, Mechanical Dream, HELLAS 2nd Edition & the Midgard Campaign Setting are on sale for only $4.99 each!

Six RPG Corebook PDFs. $4.99 each. One Day Only.

Click here to buy now on the DriveThruRPG Black Friday Sale Page!