I was so excited to learn that an RPG treatment of the sanity-blasting horror of H. P. Lovecraft had been made available using the True 20 rules that I went online and bought a copy within days of the discovery. Shadows of Cthulhu, designed by Russell Brown and published by Reality Deviant Publications, is a great way to introduce D&D gamers to a taste of something different without forcing them to learn an entirely new game system. In that vein its important top note that Shadows is not a complete game in itself: a copy of the Green Ronin Publishing’s True 20 Revised Rules will be required in order to play Shadows of Cthulhu.

Raw magic power: the essence of all true fantasy role-playing games. In a world where magic permeates all aspects of daily life, a wizard is the undisputed lord of arcane lore. If you think that a wizard’s only way to express his true might is by casting a mundane fireball, take a look at the QUINTESSENTIAL WIZARD and think again!

In this book you will find a brand-new origins system, over 70 new powers, new rituals, 14 paragon paths, new feats, four new arcane implements, and many magic items specifically designed for arcane casters, including runes. Your wizard will be truly unique and will be able to choose from a wide range of options. This book also features guidelines to play your wizard in combat and non-combat situations, organisations that may help or hinder your efforts, and new rules to build your perfect mansion, a magical tower to keep all your treasures and secrets.

Dog Days gets off to a somewhat awkward start with too much exposition during an action sequence to make the action feel immediate, but as I got accustomed to the voice of Mason, the hero and jazz/magic improvisation master that narrates the book, the world and story both began to come together. As a practitioner, Mason isn’t much good at the actual practice implied by such a title. His real talent is improvisational magic–something that most people never master at all. Other practitioners use spells to control magic, but Mason can pull energy from the surrounding environment, using ideas and archetypes and emotions to craft the effects he desires. He also has Louie: an Ifrit (named after the djinn, though no one is sure if they’re related) who takes the form of a small, mini-doberman like dog.

Review by Alana Abbott

The world is a strange and mysterious place. In Aletheia, each player portrays a member of the Seven Dogs Society. They investigate the anomalous phenomena and impossible occurrences that defy logic and commonsense. This includes conducting eyewitness interviews, on-site analysis and observation, and forming hypotheses – all in an attempt to answer the big questions […]

Tales of the Seven Dogs Society is a collection of three novellas by authors, Matt McElroy, Jim Johnson, and Monica Valentinelli, based on the Aletheia role playing game from Abstract Nova Entertainment.

The basic premise of this book as well as the game is that the Seven Dogs Society is a group of investigators comprised of seven people who possess psychic or paranormal abilities. Based in Seven Dogs, Alaska at a refurbished Victorian mansion with powers of its own, the Society investigates cases involving things such as alien abduction, crop circles, spontaneous combustion, and all other manner of other worldly and supernatural phenomena.

Review by Jason Thorson

Adamant Entertainment’s d20 MasterKit line, which includes such acclaimed products as CORSAIR, HOT PURSUIT and others, will be discontinued and removed from our inventory as of Friday January 1st, 2009. We currently have the entire product line on sale for $1 each, from now until the products are taken down for good. It’s your last […]

An unknown virus spreads across the globe, turning ordinary people into ravenous killers. Only a small population proves to be immune, but most quickly fall prey to the infected. Isolated on the rooftop of a school near the outskirts of Chicago, Bill Thompson and a small band of survivors come to the frightening realization that, without food or water, they will perish quickly under the hot sun. Some wish to migrate to a safer, more plentiful refuge, but the school is surrounded by rampaging murderers.

The Rage Plague is available at the Undead Shopping Extravaganza.

Human assassin Artemis Entreri and his dark elf companion Jarlaxle have come to the demon-haunted wastelands of the frozen north at the request of their dragon patron. It doesn’t take long for them to find themselves caught in the middle of a struggle between powerful forces that would like nothing more than to see them both dead . . . or worse.

But Entreri and Jarlaxle aren’t just any wandering sellswords, and the ancient evils and bitter blood-feuds of the wild Bloodstone Lands may have finally met their match.

The Sellswords Series has my attention. Largely because while it’s not Drizzt, Bruenor, Regis, Cattie-Brie and Wulfgar…but it’s set parallel to those stories.

Review by Jeff Preston

Talisman Studios is celebrating the festive season by previewing a new free feature for Suzerain, our Origins Award Nominee RPG. If you go to our website and click on the vault you’ll find that we’ve launched a beta of our brand new on-line character generator.

Unlike some other companies we could mention, our application is totally free to use and hooks into the master database of character feats. You can look up any feat from any Suzerain setting and then create a character using the ones you want. Save your characters and download them as pre-filled character sheets, ready to print out and take to the gaming table.

Welcome to Darklore Manor, where spirits of the dead do not rest easy, nor do they find release from their eternal suffering… Enter a dark realm of living gargoyles, sinister shadows, diabolical dolls, haunted havens and undead nightmares risen from the grave.

This illustrated anthology contains thirteen tales of terror by Joseph Vargo, Joseph Iorillo and Timothy Bennett, including several stories from Dark Realms Magazine and an original novella based on Nox Arcana’s haunting concept album, Darklore Manor.

It starts with an ill conceived radio show. Megan Chase is a respected psychologist, as well as a psychic who uses her talents to help her patients without their knowledge. In order to stop a colleague whose practices she despises from becoming the psychology voice of radio, Megan takes a job as a radio host, which advertises her as a demon slayer. Understandably enough, the personal demons–small demons that encourage people to make bad choices and commit crimes–are a little threatened by what they view of as a declaration of war. But Megan is unaware of the world of demons, beyond her own psychic abilities, and so when she is approached by a mysterious (and sexy) figure who offers her help, she doesn’t know why she’ll need it, or why she should trust him. As it turns out, mysterious and sexy is Greyson Dante, who is also a demon, but is determined to keep Megan safe, whether she wants his help or not.

Review by Alana Abbott

Jim Butcher, New York Times best selling Fantasy & Science Fiction author has many interests and they all season his fiction. Jim is a multi-discipline martial arts enthusiast, skilled horseman,and enjoys gaming,fencing, singing, and bad Science Fiction movies.

The Dresden Files are about a wizard who works in Chicago solving supernatural crimes and assisting the Special Investigations Unit of the Chicago Police Department. It has large helpings of action, humor, and old fashioned chivalry in a very modern world.

I love Richelle Mead’s stuff, so I was completely ready to be won over by the new series, “Dark Swan,” from the first time she posted an excerpt on her site. Both the excerpt and the novel, Storm Born, begin with shaman Eugenie Markham, also known as Odile Dark Swan, exorcising a shoe. What’s not to like? Eugenie is a lonely heroine working in a sort of mercenary line of demon slaying–taking calls, getting rid of spirits by banishing them either to the Other world or the world of the Dead, and getting paid. She doesn’t make friends easily, and has only her assistant Lara (most often a voice on the phone rather than human contact) and her roommate Timothy “Red Horse” (who masquerades as an “authentic” Native American, despite his Polish heritage).

Review by Alana Abbott

Walk on the Wild Side In the decaying urban wilds, war-torn cityscapes, and cancerous megabarrens of these Feral Cities only one thing is certain – they all harbor singular opportunities for those brave and foolhardy enough to explore their dangerous domains, factions and secrets. * Sprawls where the usual rules and constants of civilized society […]

Dante Valentine’s past comes back to haunt her in Lilith Saintcrow’s Dead Man Rising.

Rigger Hall, a hellish school that damaged much more than it taught its students, was mentioned in the first novel of this series, Working for the Devil. It’d be an interesting (but too much like snuff) setting for a spinoff YA series, but instead it’s the plot for this novel. This futuristic urban fantasy is perfect for readers fed up with cutesy-faff paranormals. Don’t expect to smile and be merry, but do expect to read something of great merit.

TWO DOLLAR SALE! Goodman Games 3.5 d20 products are only $2.00 until December 31, when they go off sale forever. Buy now while you still can! This sale includes: DragonMech Complete Guide Series Xcrawl …and many more d20 titles. Get ’em before they disappear forever, these titles are available at RPGNow.com.

Demimonde, by Justin Achilli, isn’t a pleasant novel to read through. It is coarse, over-wrought, overindulgent in so many ways and unapologetic about all of it. It is Brett Easton Ellis for the 21st century. It is Less Than Zero meets American Psycho, with a dash of Nietzsche, a few sprinkles of Emmanuel Kant and whole lot of King James.

Demimonde refers to the shadowy world of the unvisible, those people gifted with the ability to not be noticed, to be the glimpses on the periphery while feeding their excesses beyond all normal limits. The demimonde is a fae world, where zombies exist because of the faith in their existence but where all-too-human political and religious ideologies rule over both conscious and unconscious thought.

Review by Joe Rixman

Buying books for avid readers is never easy, they often head out and scoop up their favorite authors as soon as new books hit the shelves. So, what do you get them for the holidays? They probably already have the latest Stephen King hardcover or Briane Keene paperback. The trick is to turn them on to new authors and get them hooked on titles they might not see on the shelves at the local bookstore.

Let’s take a look at a few 2008 titles that I think every horror fan should have on their shelves.

Block by Bloody Block is a PDF book for Hunter: The Vigil. It includes:

• Systems to run a Hunter: The Vigil chronicle on a larger scale, reclaiming parts of your city from various supernatural factions

• Eight urban territories, complete with story seeds and Storyteller characters, ready to be dropped into an existing chronicle or modified to your troupe’s tastes

• Storytelling advice on how to create your own territories, as well as running a Block by Bloody Block chronicle

• Links to a Block by Bloody Block online wiki

Block by Bloody Block is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Two reasons to celebrate the season with Postmortem Studios this year!

Today we have published our 100th Clipart Critter so, if you’re a budding – or existing – publisher and are looking for some excellent, cheap artwork to use in your products, or if you are a Game Master looking for something to visualize your scenes and your big baddies, or if you’re a player looking for a character image, now is a great time to bag yourself some excellent artwork by industry veteran Brad McDevitt (Traveller, Nightlife and many more).