You are a pilgrim now, one of the Created. You rose to life from dead flesh or inert matter, under the ministrations of one of your own, or a mad scientist, or perhaps just the power of the Divine Fire. You wander the world, sometimes alone, sometimes in the blessed company of your own kind, driven by memories of events and facts you never knew, all in the service of one Great Work…

…to be human.

Humans don’t make it easy, though. The Divine Fire that animates you burns too bright, blinds people, and scorches the land if you linger too long. It masks your disfigurements and makes you appear human, but that mask slips and people see your hideous, true form. The Pilgrimage is a long, difficult road, but it is yours, and you know, somehow, that the salvation of the New Dawn waits at the end.

Today, FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with a preview of the Eel Hounds, a monster from the Wrath of the River King published by Kobold Press.

Wrath of the River King is a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game adventure for 4th- through 6th-level characters is full of hijinks and trickery, and fits nicely into any campaign setting in which fey are regal. Their courtly plots are dangerous and will test bold adventurers’ skills to the limit!

Today, FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with a preview from Mask of the Other, a Lovecraft-inspired novel written by Greg Stolze. If you like this excerpt, you can also read a chapter preview on Greg’s website, or you can support the author by picking up a copy at DriveThruFiction.com. Excerpt from Mask of the […]

Today, FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with a preview of Punch the Maker-Killer, a monster from Arc Dream Publishing’s Puppetland by John Scott Tynes. The PDF is on sale now, and the hardcover edition will be available in October.

Puppetland is a storytelling game. You play a valiant puppet who speaks aloud every word you say. You speak for your puppet and the Puppetmaster says the rest. You surprise each other at every turn, collaborating moment by inspired moment to unlock your own creativity and find the puppet within. This lavishly illustrated edition of Puppetland has been significantly revised and expanded. It includes a grim storybook fable of the Maker’s foul murder; the true story of the creator’s life in Puppetland; and new Tales ready to be played, written by a brilliant collection of authors.

Jyhad.

–Beckett

When the dead return, hungry for brains, smart folk know that the only way to stay alive is to stick together.

This Cortex Plus ACTION ROLEPLAYING hack focuses on the Player Characters as a team of survivors, thrown together by circumstance and working together to make it in a world overrun by zombies of many different varieties. There are only three things they have to do: (1) scrounge for resources, (2) avoid antagonistic survivors that want to steal their stuff, and (3) when they inevitably run into a horde of zombies…go for a HEAD SHOT!

HEAD SHOT! is not a standalone game! It uses the ACTION ROLEPLAYING flavor of Cortex Plus, found on pages 116-154 of the Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide.

By Blood It Is Done

Bound by their masters’ blood, ghouls serve the undead and fight their battles in the shadows. Dragged, seduced, or forced into the night, ghouls live at the whims of their masters–for better or for worse.

By Blood It Is Made Anew

Revenants are twisted and unique. They have vampiric powers and extended life, as well as a form of the Beast all their own. Crafted by blending ghouls with dark magic, Revenants have become something else altogether.

From the Patriots’ raid on the necromancer Joseph Curwen to the Special Forces’ assault on Leng in 2007, this unique document reveals the secret and terrible struggle between the United States and the supernatural forces of Cthulhu.

In this war, immortal cultists worship other-dimensional entities and plot to raise an army of the dead. Incomprehensible undersea intelligences infiltrate and colonize American seaports, and alien races lurk beneath the ice of Antarctica and high in the mountains of Afghanistan. It is only through constant vigilance and violence that the earth has surived.

Also included are threat reports describing the indescribable – humanity’s deadliest foes serving Cthulhu and the other Great Old Ones. Strange times are upon us, the world is changing, and even death may die – but, until then, the war continues.

Trail of Cthulhu: The Many Deaths of Edward Bigsby

The flamboyant artist Edward Bigsby pays a call to the Investigators on the recommendation of a mutual friend, but dies horrifically before he can tell them what he needs. Soon afterward, the police question the PCs – another corpse matching Bisgby’s description has been found, with their address in his coat pocket. It does not end there; dead Bigsbys are being found all over London.

Follow the trail of Bigsbys through the bohemian streets of crime-filled 1930s Soho, dodging Chinese triads, Dope Kings, and the Metropolitan Police force to find out once and for all who Edward Bigsby is, and why he keeps dying.

The wolf must hunt, but it cannot hunt alone. Your hunts need the talents and instincts of other werewolves to slaughter the most dangerous prey. Your hunting grounds and families need the watching eyes of those with the blood of the Wolf of the spirit of the Moon. Your pack needs grounding in the world, humans who provide their contacts, expertise, and support. A pack is not a pack without a totem, a warden in the world of Spirit that watches over the entire pack.

A pack is family and gang and club and cult, but some werewolves go further. Tragedy drives werewolves apart, leaving the Wolf-Blooded to hold the pack together and herd the surviving Uratha in service to the Siskur-Dah. A pack cannot hunt without knowledge of the broader
supernatural world, so accepts a mystic into their ranks. Packs form protectorates & fragile alliances, cemented in rituals of honor or arranged marriage. A packmate joins a Lodge, a
mystery-cult that teaches dangerous secrets that empower their whole pack on the hunt.

A Man Without A Past Cipher is a monk: a master of the Deadly Arts, able to dismantle enemies using his bare hands. He is immune to lies, and can see volumes of information in the smallest detail. Unfortunately, that’s all he knows. His real name, his history – all stolen by an unknown foe. […]

IDW returns to the popular world of Dungeons & Dragons!

MINSC AND BOO ARE BACK!

And things have never looked more dire, as mysterious forces draw the legendary ranger and his crew of adventurers to RAVENLOFT, the Realm of Terror… where they find themselves face to face with undead horrors in the land of eternal night!

Written by Jim Zub
Art by Nelson Daniel and Max Dunbar

Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows of the Vampire #1 is available now at DriveThruComics.com!

Celebrate Friday the 13th with a sale on all 13th Age RPG eBooks and Soundtracks from Pelgrane Press!

13th Age combines the best parts of traditional d20-rolling fantasy gaming with new story-focused rules, designed so you can run the kind of game you most want to play with your group. Created by Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet, 13th Age gives you all the tools you need to make unique characters who are immediately embedded in the setting in important ways; quickly prepare adventures based on the PCs’ backgrounds and goals; create your own monsters; fight exciting battles; and focus on what’s always been cool and fun about fantasy adventure gaming!

This is the tale of a forgotten age before the seas were bent, when the world was flat and floated atop a sea of chaos. This is the tale of a decadent empire raised up on the bones of the fallen Golden Age, whose splendor it faintly echoed but could not match. This is a tale of primal frontiers, of the restless dead, of jeweled cities ruled openly by spirits in defiance of Heaven’s law. This is a tale of glorious heroes blessed by the gods, and of their passions and the wars they waged in the final era of legends.

This is your tale. This is Exalted. What legends will they tell of your deeds?

Exalted 3rd Edition depicts both a revitalized and expanded Creation, and the triumphant return of the Solar Exalted—but whether their rebirth will herald the salvation or destruction of the world, none can say. The system redesign takes the best parts of the previous editions and streamlines the mechanics for maximum playability.

Rosariumpublishing.com, which was established in 2013, recently launched an IndieGoGo campaign to help cover printing costs for their books, comics, and graphic novels. In today’s interview, Monica Valentinelli sits down with founder Bill Campbell to ask him about his small press publishing house.

Almost 13 years after releasing the first official roleplaying soundtrack to the iconic Dungeons & Dragons® game, award-winning composers and dark music pioneers Midnight Syndicate have teamed up with premier horror game designer Twilight Creations to produce a soundtrack album for the zombie apocalypse-themed Zombies!!! board game. The dark instrumental album, which will feature new […]

Codex Infernus: The Savage Guide to Hell After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the Codex Infernus: The Savage Guide to Hell is now available for the Savage Worlds system. A holy warrior fighting back infernal beasts on the precipice of a fiery pit. Cloaked figures chanting an incantation to bring forth a nameless beast. A man […]

Margaret Weis Productions has announced a partnership with DriveThruRPG to launch the Cortex Plus Creator Studio this Spring. This will give Cortex Plus fans the opportunity to create and sell Cortex Plus RPG supplements through DriveThruRPG.com. Similar to Wizards of the Coast’s DMsGuild.com (also managed by DriveThruRPG) and Monte Cook Games’ just announced Cypher System Creator program, Margaret Weis Productions will allow publishers and fans to offer Cortex Plus RPG supplements for sale on DriveThruRPG.com.

Recently, Monica Valentinelli and Jaym Gates launched a Kickstarter to fund an anthology titled Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling. Today, in an exclusive update for FlamesRising.com, one of the collection’s contributors, Haralambi Markov, is here to share with you his insights into tropes and cliches. For more about the author, visit: haralambimarkov.com For more about the anthology, visit Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling on Kickstarter–and be sure to read our updates!

When the DMsGuild website launched the Adventurer’s League Storyline was set in the Forgotten Realms and that was the only official D&D setting creators could explore with their PDF releases. Admittedly, DMG creators could also upload setting neutral 5e content and many did.

With the release of the new Curse of Strahd hardcover and a new season of Adventurer’s League game play to go along with it…Ravenloft has become the first setting expansion for DMG creators.

Wizards of the Coast has created a free Themes and Moods document to help creators dive into the Mists.