Homecoming is an original four issue miniseries by Patricia Briggs and Francis Tsai

Dabel Brothers Publishing is excited to premiere the first eleven pages of the much-anticipated Dabel Brothers project, Mercy Thompson: Homecoming. Artist Francis Tsai beautifully illustrates all the covers and interior pages to this series, with Briggs herself penning the original story. Place your orders today before the first issue ships this November.

Francis Tsai (Marvel Adventures, Impaler) is one of the few artists who can fully paint his interior pages and his style is a perfect fit for the project. As these first eleven pgs show, he’s done an amazing job and will continue to impress as the series goes on. Author and Mercy creator Patricia Briggs has been absolutely thrilled with the results so far.

Four Heart-Pounding Pulp Adventures for Trail of Cthulhu

The first supplement for Trail of Cthulhu this book has four new adventures written by Rodin D Laws. These pulp-style adventures are a good companion for the core book, helping folks get started with the Gumshoe system from Pelgrane Press. The book itself is 82 pages (including the handouts) and has a cover by the talented Jerome Huguenin. Most of the book’s layout is a three-column format with occasional sidebars and dark black-n-white images that show off some of the scenes for each adventure.

On with the adventures…One of the things I’m going to try to avoid in this review is revealing too many details about the adventures and the mysteries within them. That way, folks will still be surprised when they get the chance to play along. Hopefully I’ll still be able to provide enough information to let you know how useful the book is and whether or it will add to your Trail of Cthulhu game.

Derek Gunn’s Vampire Apocalypse trilogy – second book released.

The second book in the Vampire Apocalypse trilogy from Irish author Derek Gunn, has been released by KHP Industries under their Black Death Books imprint. Descent into Chaos follows A World Torn Asunder, Derek’s debut novel (September 2006) which was widely praised on both sides of the Atlantic and is in development as a movie.

You might remember when I last wrote about one of Rosemary Clement-Moore’s books, I pronounced it the scariest book I’d reviewed for Flames Rising. Since I’m also a fan of “fluffy bunnies” level horror (as I also expressed in that review), I was not disappointed when the sequel, Hell Week, was not as nightmarish. In the sequel, girl-psychic Maggie Quinn does face a whole new level of evil: Rush and sororities. As a college freshman and budding journalist, her plan is to infiltrate her campus’s Greek societies and write scathing exposés. Balance this with an undefined relationship with the cute upperclassman who, in Prom Dates from Hell, helped her defeat a demon; her grandmother’s urging to continue her psychic training; her best friend continuing to study witchcraft against Maggie’s long-distance advice; and freshman year would be tough enough. But evil doesn’t take a break, and there’s something scarily lucky about the Sigma Alpha Xis, who choose Maggie to join their number. When Maggie’s usually helpful dreams disappear and she finds herself on the receiving end of that same good luck–and enhanced sexual attraction–that is the mark of the Sigma Alpha Xis, she suspects something dark at work. On the bright side, evil is always good for investigative journalism, if it doesn’t kill her first.

Review by Alana Abbott

News from Nox Arcana: The German rapper, Anis Mohamed Ferchichi, who calls himself “Bushido” or “Sonny Black” is looking at international copyright infringement charges. Bushido is a rapper who is popular with neo-Nazis, having lyrical content that is banned in his own country. Bushido has also been arrested for disorderly conduct, and says he would […]

As the ancient Seal of Solomon has slowly faded over millennia, more denizens of the Invisible World slip once again into the world of man. Only the gifted ranks of Witch Hunters, amazing mortals that stand against the forces of the Adversary, are equipped to face terrors beyond mortal ken.

This invaluable guide to the fearsome monsters of the Invisible World provides everything needed by the Grand Masters to challenge cadres of intrepid Witch Hunters with the foulest minions of the Adversary.

The Grand Tome of Adversaries is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

YOU DIDN’T SEE THIS ONE COMING! Hide in closets! Throw smoke bombs! Hurl shuriken-like foam objects at your friends! Make not a sound as you ninja about like… well… like a NINJA! Hot on the heels of our piratical sale comes “Quiet Like a Ninja Day,” with 20% off all your favorite ninja stuff (and […]

Zombie Cinema is a storytelling game of the Living Dead. It allows players to explore a world that they create based on the zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. The goal of the game is to tell a compelling story of your characters facing zombies. A compelling story will always win over a character making it out alive at the end of your movie.

The rules of the game are rather simple. There are 3 types of character cards that you choose from, but there is no limit to how many you can choose, as long as your character is compelling. You then flesh out a background for your character, and can go as in depth as you want it to be. Your characters start at their starting point, and the zombie marker starts at its place. A red marker is used to show who the director of the scene is. The director sets the scene and is the decision maker for any non-character conflicts that may arise. The director lets the characters set as much of their scene as they want.

Review by Crystal Mazur

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Eddy Webb, AP developer, and RPGNow have made a new PDF offering available today. This week we are focusing on Mage supplements centered around the places of power, after all – Home is where the Heart is. These materials normally retail for $33.98, but in PDF form for the next seven days, you can acquire them for $15.99.

The Home is Where the Heart Is bundle is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

At the end of the world a handful of survivors banded together in a museum-turned-compound surrounded by the living dead. The community established rituals and rites of passage, customs to keep themselves sane, to help them integrate into their new existence. In a battle against a kingdom of savage prisoners, the survivors lost loved ones, they lost innocence, but still they coped and grew. They even found a strange peace with the undead.

Twelve years later the community has reclaimed more of the city and has settled into a fairly secure life in their compound. Zoey is a girl coming of age in this undead world, learning new roles–new sacrifices. But even bigger surprises lay in wait, for some of the walking dead are beginning to remember who they are, who they’ve lost, and, even worse, what they’ve done.

Horror’s not so scary in this humorous horror anthology presented by the Horror Writers Association, and edited by Kevin J. Anderson.

Let’s not deny it: anthologies are often a mixed bag containing mostly so-so stories, with a few outstanding contributions. Blood Lite is no different in that respect.

Here’s the story breakdown:

There are two other Shadowrealm Previews (Riven & Cael and Abelar Corrinthal) here on Flames Rising. We also have an interview with Paul S. Kemp that tells us a bit about the novel. Shadowrealm is book three of the Twilight War and is available for pre-order at Amazon.com.

Today we have another snippet from Paul Kemp for our readers to explore. This snippet Cale, Riven, Mags, and…someone else…

The name of the Wind is the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicles. The story revolves around an owner of a backwoods tavern named Kote. He is a man previously known as Kvothe, and for the most part he just wants to be left alone. Yet, Kvothe is a man of mystery and legend. A man that if some people knew where he was, would be killed. A man that has does extraordinary things. A man tracks him down and for the first time, Kvothe is willing to have his story told.

This is one of the better fantasy novels I have ever read and definitely the best I have read in quite some time. I can barely believe this is his first novel, since some people can go years and never write something this well. From the moment it started I was hooked into the story and the he told it. I am normally not a huge fan of stories told in first person, but this was masterfully done.

Review by Stacey Chancellor

Seemingly overnight the world transforms into a barren wasteland ravaged by plague and overrun by hordes of flesh-eating zombies. A small band of desperate men and women stand their ground in a fortified compound in what had been Queens, New York. They’ve named their sanctuary Eden.

Harris–the unusual honest man in this dead world–races against time to solve a murder while maintaining his own humanity. Because the danger posed by the dead and diseased mass clawing at Eden’s walls pales in comparison to the deceit and treachery Harris faces within.

Eden by Tony Monchinski is available at Amazon.com.

Alara was whole once. But that was millennia ago. Where once there was a plane, now there are five: the Shards. The plane of Alara was a world rich with mana, a world in balance… until the Sundering. In a cataclysm of unimaginable proportions, Alara was rent asunder into five separate worlds, each a refraction of the others.

We can’t tell you everything about the Shards of Alara set yet, but keep watching magicthegathering.com for more information as we release it, including three weeks of official card previews beginning Monday, September 8. In the meantime, keep checking the Visual Spoiler to see all of the Shards of Alara cards officially previewed anywhere.

From the very depths of the blackest hell we’ve come to parlay with ye about International Talk Like a Pirate Day. All that it requires, is that ye talk like a pirate, for certain. But why stop there?

You see, mateys, after ye watch the Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, to study up on the lingo, ye might find yerself in a strange predicament. One that involves dice, your fortuitous pirate accent and a night with your fellow pirate friends.

White Wolf has made a new PDF bundle offer. This week we celebrate our ENnie-award winning “Product of the Year”, Changeling: The Lost and it’s companion SAS, The Fearmaker’s Promise, which won the silver ENnie for best electronic book.

A Storytelling Game of Beautiful Madness – Taken from your home, transformed by the power of Faerie, kept as the Others’ slave or pet — but you never forgot where you came from. Now you have found your way back through the Thorns, to a home that is no longer yours. You are Lost. Find yourself.

The Changeling Bundle is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

SLA Industries is somewhat different. It posits, in the typically dour, rain-swept and pessimistic style it has achieved, a contest between the players and the monsters – er, a series of psychopathic serial killers – which may or may not be equal or fair in nature. The conceit is that the players take the role of quasi-official operatives who may accept contracts to eliminate undesirable presences on the mean city streets, returning if successful with evidence of the kill (ears, perhaps, in the Mongolian style or some other previously agreed token). There are twenty such ‘Hunter Sheets’ provided in this supplement, which runs to a length of 77 pages in a PDF item. As well as initial and concluding fluff – sorry, intensely-wrought and crafted flavour pieces (there is a reason why publishers are so reluctant to pay for fluff) – the twenty serial killers are presented one at a time, first with information for players and then the same for the GM. The first would be presented to the player group, depending on how much choice the GM is prepared to offer them, while the second is reserved for subsequent use. Some clues are presented for working the individual killers into play but, inevitably, too many of these in a row will make game play feel a little repetitive. Perhaps they may be reserved for occasional interludes when a campaign reaches a natural break or when an impromptu game breaks out for one reason or another.

Review by John Walsh

Noble Knight Games Update

This week we have new D&D 4th Edition – Adventurer’s Vault – Arms & Equipment and the Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide. Also from WotC is the Force Unleashed Campaign Guide. Other hot items include Clanbook Gangrel for Vampire and several new Goodman Games modules. The long awaited Conflict of Heroes – Awakening the Bear wargame is in from Academy Games.

The mystical is also believable in Jes Battis’s ace début novel.

An Occult Special Investigator for Vancouver’s Mystical Crime Lab, Tess Corday arrives at a crime scene where a vampire is dead. A note and photo on the vamp lead Tess to Mia Polanski, a thirteen-year-old in danger but whom also possesses great power, and Lucian Agrado, a necromancer who’s liaison to the vampire community. And the action heats up as the investigation deepens…

Vancouver is a welcome diversion from the seemingly endless stream of American cities in urban fantasy. Jes Battis gives a right good dose of Canadian flavour that makes the setting all the more enjoyable.

Review by Tez Miller