Archive | May, 2012

Rachel Rising Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death Review

Posted on May 31, 2012 by

“Rachel Beck wakes in a shallow grave and claws her way free as a mysterious woman watches from a bluff. With no memory of the night before, Rachel enlists the help of Aunt Johnny, the town mortician, to find her killer. But when repeated attacks send her to the morgue, Rachel’s ability to wake from death again and again prove to be a blessing and a curse, and the eerie town of Manson will never be the same! Collects issues #1-6.”

Oh Terry Moore, you wow me on all levels. Rachel Rising was a title in which I did not know what to expect when it came out, and honestly I still don’t know what to expect because it is such a mystery. Within the pages of Volume 1, I was treated to GORE-Geous artwork and a story that left me needing more!

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Exploring The Red House with Kat Sheridan

Posted on May 30, 2012 by

We have a new interview with actress and filmmaker Kat Sheridan today. Kat is here to tell us a little about her role in The Red House, an independent horror film.

Tell us a little about your background as an actress.

    I’ve been acting since the age of six. For a long time I focused only on stage acting, classical theatre, Shakespeare, Checkov, that sort of thing, but after receiving my B.A. in Performance Arts I decided to try to branch out into the film and TV industry. My first professional acting gig was a promo for a Showtime reality series called “Lock N’ Load”. Since then I worked on a few student films, a short film, a music video, a couple low budget features still in post, and then had the good fortune of being cast in the Red House. I also have some other great projects on the horizon…

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    The Resurrectionists Collection Review

    Posted on May 30, 2012 by

    The thing about being a Storyteller is you always need more stories for your players. How often you need new material depends on how efficient your players are at having their characters conclude business from night to night. There are plenty of adventures out there, but few are so nicely tailored to dropping into any campaign like those from The Resurrectionists Collection.

    The first adventure, “The Resurrectionists”, involves the PCs in plot to resurrect a torpid elder – a scenario that will likely result in more questions than answers by the end.

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    Devil of Dark Wood (Pathfinder) Review

    Posted on May 29, 2012 by

    If you go down to the woods today… the surprise will not be teddy bears eating al fresco! Whilst the introduction tells an intriguing and innovative backstory as to who really is there for the GM’s eyes, the characters will first be approached by a worried village mayor who is concerned by the absence of a local hunter who was hired by a shepherd who feared that a bold wolf has been snacking on his sheep…

    The village has had other problems, the sage’s house was broken into and books and alchemical equipment stolen. It seems that something is afoot, and the characters, as passing adventurers, are asked to help. Assuming that they do, a trail will be found that leads into the Dark Wood and whatever it is that lies in wait for them there.

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    Achtung! Cthulhu – Zero Point Part 1 – Three Kings Available Now!

    Posted on May 28, 2012 by

    Achtung! Cthulhu brings you a two-fisted wartime CALL OF CTHULHU roleplaying game setting packed full of fiendish Nazis, terrifying ancient mysteries, legendary war machines, and enough writhing tentacles to fill ten Reichstags!

    Three Kings is the first in a series of standalone adventure supplements in the globe-spanning Zero Point campaign for Achtung! Cthulhu written by Sarah Newton. Join a band of heroic soldiers, agents, and partisans behind enemy lines on the eve of World War Two, as they discover the unspeakable horrors of Castle Karlstein in occupied Czechoslovakia!

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    Deadworld: War of the Dead #1 Review

    Posted on May 28, 2012 by

    The zombies have over run the Earth! A small outpost, remnants of a twisted scientists’ scheme to defeat the plague holds out against the army of King Zombie. Their secret weapon are the Lepers-victims of a bizarre experiment that left them with dead flesh in breathing husks with skin that even zombies won’t touch. This new series of Deadworld is perfect for new readers to join in the frenzy of what has been called the “grand-daddy” of all zombie comics.

    Welcome back my old friend. It is about damn time that we meet again. The last time we saw this cast of characters in Deadworld, was with the highly praised Slaughterhouse OGN. The events that will unfold in this series are picking up around one year after that.

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    Chuck Wendig’s astonishing sequel to Double Dead!

    Posted on May 27, 2012 by

    San Francisco after the zombie apocalypse. The vampire turned shepherd-with-a-shotgun Coburn is on the trail of his vampire sire. There’s bad blood between them and scores to be settled.

    But just out in the Bay in the abandoned fortress prison of Alcatraz, a ketamine-snorting cult of New age weirdoes who eat the flesh of the zombie as some kind of grotesque communion bring a new threat to Coburn’s continuing existence – super zombies!

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    Creating curse the darkness

    Posted on May 26, 2012 by

    The direct inspiration for curse the darkness was a song. My brother sent me a link to A Perfect Circle’s cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” some years back. I like the original well enough, but the cover really got my brain moving. I tend to see scenes and characters and stories when I hear music anyway, and when I heard that song (which you can find easily enough on Youtube, if you want to give it a listen before buying it), I saw a man standing on a balcony looking out over the ruined world. The ground was blasted and blackened, and he — whoever he was — stood there thinking, “Yes, this was the right decision. I did the right thing.”

    Who was he? What had happened? I didn’t know. I did know that the message of the song felt different with the cover. Instead of “let’s all get along,” it was “get along, and that’s not a request.” I let that sit in my brain for a while, not really knowing what to do with it.

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    Chicks Dig Comics Review

    Posted on May 25, 2012 by

    If someone had handed me a copy of Chicks Dig Comics when I was younger I would not have known what to do with it. Growing up as a comic book nut during the 80s and 90s I never saw girls reading comics so the title alone would have thrown me for a loop. While my brother and I devoured stories about the X-Men, Captain America and Superman my sister wanted nothing to do with them. I spent a lot of time in my local comic book shop and I cannot recall ever seeing a woman in that little hole in the wall.

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    Throne of the Crescent Moon Review

    Posted on May 24, 2012 by

    Fantasy as a genre is rife with rich worlds, dense descriptions, and complex cultures. As a reader (and a writer) I’ve always been fascinated with how other authors explore cultures within the context of the genre. Sometimes, a culture is revealed through a character’s actions or speech patterns; other times, through the way a particular town or setting is described.

    In my experiences, the majority of the books I’ve read keep diverse cultures at the background of the story instead of the forefront. Intellectually, I understand why this is. Often, there’s a lot of world to explore and, in the fantasies I’ve read, that means the story matches that as well. Still, I’ve often found my reading has been bereft of the richness of contemporary stories that were firmly rooted in “a” non-European culture in “this” genre. Is that a fault of the industry? No, it just means there’s been a gap in my library that this picky reader hasn’t been able to fill since I first read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho many years ago.

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    Pathfinder Tales: City of the Fallen Sky Excerpt

    Posted on May 23, 2012 by

    From Hugo Award–winner Tim Pratt comes a new fantastical adventure set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

    In City of the Fallen Sky, a young alchemist named Alaeron flees an apprenticeship with the dark scholars of Numeria’s Technic League, only to find himself in trouble once more as a chance encounter sends him and several reluctant companions into the jungles of the Mwangi Expanse. Tracked by a high-tech assassin, and armed only with his inquisitive nature—and a few mysterious artifacts stolen from the Technic League—Alaeron must find the ruins of a legendary flying city, or face the wrath of a cruel crime lord…

    Flames Rising is pleased to present an excerpt from this new novel.

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    Dear Creature Graphic Novel Review

    Posted on May 23, 2012 by

    “Deep beneath the waves, a creature named Grue broods. He no longer wants to eat lusty beachgoers, no matter how their hormones call to him. A chorus of crabs urges him to reconsider. After all, people are delicious! But this monster has changed. Grue found Shakespeare’s plays in cola bottles and, through them, a new heart. Now he yearns to join the world above.

    Rising from a brine of drive-in pulp and gentle poetry, Jonathan Case’s debut graphic novel Dear Creature is the love story you never imagined!”

    How in the world did I miss this book when it came out? Inside of the covers of this book, lies a story that blew me away and artwork that melted my eyes out of their sockets. The visuals were so GORE-Geous, and they were only presented in black and white. The real kicker though was the way that Case was able to show expression through facial features and body movements.

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    Trail of Cthulhu: Flying Coffins Available Now!

    Posted on May 22, 2012 by

    Enemy planes are not the only things hunting in the sky…

    Early winter, 1918. You are members of the Royal Flying Corps stationed near the Front and rumour has it, the next big push is about to begin. The squadron’s being worked to death, and its champion ace is on the verge of cracking up. Meanwhile the new Hun Circus is racking up kill after kill – but is it the enemy or something else that’s to blame?

    A sortie into Hunland to tackle an observation balloon ends in a fierce scrap with Jasta 32. Great winged beasts, agents of Death itself, are glimpsed flying in and out of the clouds. On the ground, flying ace MacMurdo knows more than he’s letting on but he is on the edge. Reporting it to Command won’t do any good, but talking to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, military journalist, might. Combat takes its toll, and the date of the Push draws near. It’s up to you to make the skies safe and not just from the German planes.

    Trail of Cthulhu: Flying Coffins is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

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    Investigator Weapons: Volume One (Call of Cthulhu) Review

    Posted on May 22, 2012 by

    When I first got this assignment, I was underwhelmed. Why on Earth would I care about guns from a century ago? I’m not the manliest guy in my gaming group. I zone out when people start talking weapons and cars. Tell me you’re shooting at the red convertible with your rifle and I’m good. I know for the Purists out there that is a lot more to it than that, but that’s your game, not mine. I’ll research a little out of love for my gamers, but I’ll be researching the occult side of the horror game quite a bit more.

    I mention all of this because this book seemed to be akin to the ultra-horrible World of Darkness: Combat book or some lame D&D PDF for an arrowhead. As much as my ego forbids me to say this, I will: I was wrong about this book.

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    Doctor Spektor Archives Volume 4 Review

    Posted on May 21, 2012 by

    “Confronting supernatural threats and vengeful monsters, Dr. Spektor travels from Scottish lochs to cursed swamplands–and from the surreal dreamscape of the Egyptian afterlife to New York City’s Chinatown! Collecting issues #19 to #25 of The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor and a Spektor tale from Gold Key Spotlight #8, plus notes from Spektor’s secret files, including a piece on Dr. Solar!”

    Believe it or not review reader, I have never had a chance to check out Doctor Spektor comics before. Sure I have heard of them, but it was not until Dark Horse supplied me with this great volume that I had my first chance to really check this cast out. The artwork in this volume by Santos is fantastic. He does a great job of keeping the cast consistent from panel to panel.

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    Preview of Wake of the Bloody Angel by Alex Bledsoe

    Posted on May 21, 2012 by

    Twenty years ago, a barmaid in a harbor town fell for a young sailor who turned pirate to make his fortune. But what truly became of Black Edward Tew remains a mystery—one that has just fallen into the lap of freelance sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse.

    For years, Eddie has kept his office above Angelina’s tavern, so when Angelina herself asks him to find out what happened to the dashing pirate who stole her heart, he can hardly say no—even though the trail is two decades old. Some say Black Edward and his ship, The Bloody Angel, went to bottom of the sea, taking with it a king’s fortune in treasure. Others say he rules a wealthy, secret pirate kingdom. And a few believe he still sails under a ghostly flag with a crew of the damned.

    To find the truth, and earn his twenty-five gold pieces a day, Eddie must take to sea in the company of a former pirate queen in search of the infamous Black Edward Tew…and his even more legendary treasure.

    Flames Rising is pleased to present the first chapter of Wake of the Bloody Angel, a new Eddie Lacrosse new novel by Alex Bledsoe.

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    Matt Forbeck’s Dangerous Games Novels Kickstarter

    Posted on May 19, 2012 by

    The Dangerous Games Trilogy

    Once a year, the greatest tabletop gamers in the world descend upon Indianapolis for Gen Con, the Best Four Days in Gaming, to play games, see friends, and have fun. They play things like D&D, Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer 40,000, Settlers of Catan, Munchkin, and everything else they can get their hands on. Mostly the competition is friendly.

    Sometimes it is not.

    When a world-famous game designer turns up murdered at the convention, a group of gamers makes it their quest to figure out who killed him, and why. As they dig deeper, they start to question everything they thought they knew about the man: who he is, why someone hated him enough to kill him — and if he’s really dead. In the end, they must figure out who’s playing whom or risk not only losing this most dangerous game but their lives.

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    Northlands (Pathfinder) Review

    Posted on May 18, 2012 by

    Alright, my first real RPG book review. Bear with me folks.

    Today I’ll be talking about Northlands, the Norse themed sourcebook for the northern realms of the Midgard world. From what I gather Midgard is a homebrew setting writ large. Created with help from a proto-Kickstarter system called Patronage through Kobold Quarterly, fans can chip in to the design process and get special supplements. This is one of the first books to explore outside the Free City of Zobeck that is the heart of the Midgard Campaign Setting.

    Overall this was a very well put together book. The maps are good, the art is very nice black and white and the content is engaging and well designed.

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    Pandemonium Graphic Novel Review

    Posted on May 17, 2012 by

    “In 1951, a mother and her young daughter entered one of America’s most prestigious institutions for the treatment of Tuberculosis, The Waverly Hills Sanatorium. The events that befell them shortly thereafter, both of a supernatural and criminal nature, were some of the most sordid of the times. Based on real events. A true tale of horror, literally!”

    It’s always funny to me how things happen in 3?s. Take this book for example, at the time I read this, I had also just seen a movie involving an asylum and I am in the middle of reading a horror novel about one too. I think that those outside factors easily played into why this book was so great.

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    Children of the Revolution Deluxe Kickstarter

    Posted on May 16, 2012 by

    Children of the Revolution tells the stories of noteworthy or notorious Kindred of the modern nights whose Embraces came intimes of unrest, rebellion, or open revolution. The circumstances of these revolutions might have been mortal or undead, martial or cultural. These Kindred joined the ranks of the Damned under tides of war or cultural upheaval, and their blood bears the mark of change from one paradigm into another. Sometimes they are the agents of change. For others, their revolution drags them in its wake.

    The world of the Kindred is always fraught with blood and danger, and Embrace amid the fires of revolution only heightens that fact. Here are Kindred who have risen to guide the Black Hand, who have led the armies of Alexander, who have plumbed the mysteries of the Nictuku, and who have been reborn in the fires of the Arab Spring. Their histories have been forged, but their futures remain to be determined by your troupe.

    Visit the Children of the Revolution Kickstarter today.

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