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.

Monsterhearts should come with two warning stickers. The first is “Warning: This is a game for mature gamers and deals with adult themes.” It doesn’t have this because that sort of warning fits the Book of Erotic Fantasy rather than a genuinely mature take on the subject matter. It has lead to some of the most intense and immersive experiences I’ve ever had roleplaying, but I refuse to play it with my main tabletop roleplaying group.

The second is “Warning: This game can go into uncomfortable territory. Discuss expectations and respect boundaries.” It doesn’t have this, and Monsterhearts is the only game I’ve played that’s imploded when it has become clear that one player doesn’t know the meaning of the word “consent”. Better there than in real life.

So what is Monsterhearts? Monsterhearts is based on the Apocalypse World rules and claims to be about “The messy lives of teenage monsters”.

R.A. Salvatore’s New York Times best-selling saga continues as Drizzt Do’Urden and the Companions of the Hall join forces in an adventure filled with drow intrigue, the likes of which have not been seen in Salvatore’s work since the hugely successful the War of the Spider Queen series.

With faithful friends by his side once again, Drizzt Do’Urden returns to Gauntlgrym, to find and turn Pwent, Bruenor’s loyal shield dwarf, from vampire back to mortal once again. But not only do he and his cohorts face a perilous journey through the Underdark and the dangers of the undead that lie within, but in order to do so, they must face a colony of drow and their leader, who would like nothing better than to see Drizzt Do’Urden dead.

Flames Rising is pleased to offer a short excerpt from this new Forgotten Realms novel from Wizards of the Coast.

Dreams of the Red Wizards

Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle chronicled the efforts of the Red Wizards to unlock the power of elemental nodes located in an abandoned temple dedicated to the Princes of Elemental Evil. A gate to the Nine Hells lay open for some time, spewing devils and smoke. The heroes who closed the gate could not know it then, but amid the chaos of battle, another threat emerged.

Dreams of the Red Wizards: Scourge of the Sword Coast, by Tito Leati, Matt Sernett, and Chris Sims, is the adventure for Season 17 of Encounters.

Tear down the tyrants!
Paint the streets with the blood of Princes and Archbishops!

With Anarch domains increasing their hold over new territories every night, the vampiric Kindred can no longer afford to consider the Movement an unruly mob of wayward childer. As the doomed tactics of the past have made way for a sleeker, wiser Anarch Movement, the nights are numbered for outmoded elder vampires and their weak blooded lackeys.

Anarchs Unbound takes the bomb-tossing, rabble-rousing vampire revolutionaries of the Anarch Movement and updates them as one of the most energetic and fast-growing sects, gaining ground as they use technologies and mortal agents to advance their agendas in the modern nights. With the Movement revitalized, the time is right to tell the stories of the Anarchs as they topple the old regimes and seize praxis with a promise of egalitarian rule and an end to the oppression of centuries best forgotten.

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.

You’ve got a time machine, high-powered weapons and a whole lot of history to save. Welcome to TimeWatch!

The air smells like death, and 100,000 rotted skulls are piled up in a mountain before you. “I think this is where 13th century Paris used to be,” you say. “The mongols never stopped at the gates of Vienna. No wonder history changed; they’re still riding across Europe and pretty much destroying every city who doesn’t submit.”

Your partner draws her pistol, checks the historical record on her holographic tether, and frowns. “Looks like the Khan never died of alcoholism,” she says, “Let’s find whoever decided to save his life. We head back five years to Karakorum, in 1241?” You nod and fire up your autochron. Purple chronal energy snaps into shape around you, and once again you’re whirling through time, headed back to save history and the future of humanity.

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.

A is for Azathoth, Who listens to flutes
B is for Blighted, Gardner’s farm, leaf to root
C’s for Cthulhu, Mile-high and squishy
D is for Deep Ones, Who smell mildly fishy…

An artist and lifelong fan of Lovecraftian literature, Ben Mund teaches the alphabet and important concepts of the Mythos in one fell swoop. From Azathoth to Zhan you’ll experience the ABCs in a maddening new way!

The Lovecraftian ABC’s features full-color illustrations by Ben Mund in the style of The Very Hungry Cthulhupillar, for adults to enjoy themselves or to read to their children*.

We’re Lillian Cohen-Moore and Ryan Macklin, a couple in Seattle who love to play with horror. You might know us from our work on the recent Mage: the Ascension books that focused on factions within the Technocratic Union. What you might not know, though, is that we met and bonded over playing another horror game: Don’t Rest Your Head. Horror and dark fantasy is near and dear to our hearts, and Flames Rising wanted to give us a moment to talk about our time working as a couple in horror gaming.

During our time with the Technocratic Union, horror was a subtle constant throughout the books. Since we live together, we could turn around in our desk chairs to propose ideas for how to keep the horror elements in the Technocracy from becoming cartoonish, like some of the early material for them.

Creatures of the Wild

The Garou are not the only changing creatures to stalk the world. Other shapeshifters hunt in places where wolves do not tread, from sun-lost seas to the darkest jungles, or seek out hidden truths, using the secrets they uncover in the battle against the Wyrm. Shapeshifting spiders spin webs as deftly as they manipulate those around them. Bloody-handed serpents kill swiftly, and then vanish into shadow and myth. The Changing Breeds have their own crucial parts to play in these End these End Times, and must work together or Gaia will surely fall.

A Menagerie of Gaia’s Children

This book brings the Changing Breeds right up to date, giving both players and Storytellers all of the tools needed to integrate shapeshifters other than werewolves into the World of Darkness. Eleven extant Changing Breeds are described in detail, along with three long-extinct Lost Breeds.

With all the Conspiracies, the intrigue, the danger, it’s hard to know what exactly is and isn’t on your side. When every shadow from the back alleys of Bucharest to the back benches of the parliament could hide an inhuman enemy, it’s hard to tell what solid ground you can stand on. What can you depend on? Can you make a difference? Trust no one and nothing except the silver bullets in your Glock. To make a difference, aim true.

Even then, sometimes that first shot isn’t a killer. Sometimes you need a double tap.

Night’s Black Agents: Double Tap is available now in PDF format at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

Windows into the fantastic, from crypts to cobras, swords to submarines, rubies to railroads, heaven to hell and places stranger still. Heroes, horrors, and hijinks–both original to this collection and reprinted from a variety of sources–from the mind of Ari Marmell, author of The Conqueror’s Shadow, The Goblin Corps, Darksiders: the Abomination Vault, the Widdershins Adventures series, and more.

In Strange New Words, let Ari Marmell guide you through over a dozen windows into the fantastic.

It’s a new night!

Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade is a new edition of a classic game that draws on more than two decades’ worth of material from the iconic World of Darkness setting. The rules are designed and adapted specifically for the Live Action Roleplay environment, while maintaining the fidelity of the original game. Whether you’re a veteran player or discovering live-action roleplaying for the first time, this book contains everything you need to create and play a vampire character or create your own live-action chronicle.

All the clans. All the bloodlines. All the disciplines. This is a complete game, containing everything you need to enjoy Vampire The Masquerade in one of its most thrilling formats. A streamlined character creation system that is quick, yet comprehensive.

The new Chronicle Core book for Vampire: The Requiem.

Tonight, you become one of the Kindred, the beautiful and the damned who hide behind our ordinary world. Driven by a hunger like fire, you will struggle to maintain your humanity while immersed in a vicious society of monsters.

But the sharks you swim with aren’t the only ones out there. Your Kindred are the smart, sexy vampires of pop culture, but you are haunted by the Strix — the grisly, demon-possessed corpses of folklore. They slaughtered the Night-Senate of Rome, drowned the tombs of the Princes of Alexandria, and warred with the Plague Lords of Transylvania.

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.

A stand-alone roleplaying game by Robin D Laws

You are elite investigators combating the plots of the Esoterrorists, a loose affiliation of occult terrorists intent on tearing the fabric of the world. The Esoterrorists 2nd Edition introduces the GUMSHOE rules system, which revolutionizes investigative scenarios by ensuring that players are never deprived of the crucial clues they need to move the story forward.

Incorporating years of advice, actual play experience, and design evolution, The Esoterrorists Enhanced Edition includes all the rules you need to play the game that revolutionized investigative roleplaying. Dripping with ichor and jammed with content, this is the heftier, meatier, definitive tome gamers have been crying out for ever since they laid their paws on the original.

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!

Book two of The Heaven’s Gate Trilogy. A weird western, a gun-toting, cigarrillo-chewing fantasy built from hangman’s rope and spent bullets. The west has never been wilder. A Steampunk-Western-Fantasy from Guy Adams.

“Heaven? Hell? There’s no difference. Angels, demons, we’re all a bit of both. This could be the most wondrous place you ever experience or so terrifying it makes you pray for death. Not that death would help you of course, there’s no escape from here…”

Wormwood has appeared and for twenty four hours the gateway to the afterlife is wide open. But just because a door is open doesn’t mean you should step through it…

Those who have travelled to reach the town are realising that the challenges they’ve already faced were nothing compared to what lies ahead. The afterlife has an agenda of its own and with scheming on both sides of reality, the revelations to come may change the world forever.

Once Upon a Time in Hell is available for pre-order at Amazon.com!