New license for Mind’s Eye Theatre returns the World of Darkness to Live-Action Roleplaying

By Night Entertainment, LLC, has signed an exclusive worldwide license with CCP Games to produce a new product line for popular live action game franchise Mind’s Eye Theatre.

White Wolf’s Mind’s Eye Theatre debuted in 1993, helping to usher in an entirely new era of immersive and interactive entertainment, and adding a vibrant, interactive dimension to the roleplaying game hobby. Legions of Mind’s Eye Theatre fans around the world have been waiting patiently for an updated version of their favorite Live Action game – and now they’ll get it. A wealth of defining material from over two decades of the iconic World of Darkness game setting will be used as the basis for a new line of Mind’s Eye Theatre products.

Book three of the internationally bestselling urban fantasy series by the author of EYES TO SEE and BY THE BLOOD OF HEROES.

When Knight Commander Cade Williams discovers that his wife, Gabrielle, is not truly dead, but held in some kind of arcane stasis between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead, he vows that nothing will stop him from freeing her soul from the prison surrounding her.

But his vow is tested right from the start when an old friend calls on him to help protect the city of Boston from the ancient scourge that threatens to destroy it, leaving Cade with a heart-breaking choice: Do his duty and save the innocent lives he has sworn to protect or forsake them all in order to rescue the one for whom he would brave the walls of hell itself?

A Tear in the Sky is available now in eBook formats at DriveThruFiction.com!

For years, fans have enjoyed games powered by Margaret Weis Productions’ award-winning Cortex Plus system. From the embroiled teenaged drama powered by Smallville to the high-tech heist hijinks of Leverage, and the comic book action of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, the community has embraced these games and made them their own. Many have taken the rules from each licensed game and adapted them to a wide variety of settings, genres, and play styles.

In the spring of 2010, MWP sent out a call to its growing community for the best “hacks” of the Cortex Plus system. They asked creators, amateurs, and professionals alike to share new mechanics, settings, and entirely new games from the bones of existing games. Over 20 different authors contributed their own ideas to the project, which was dubbed the Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide.

The character of Stompadon was invented by performance artist Kelsey Wailes as part of a competition called Super Art Fight. Wearing a massive mask, gloves and a tail, Wailes became the bug-eyed dinosaur that drew, creating mad-cap murals in a 25-minute time limit.

Stompadon is now taking on a life of its own, with a plush toy. Plus… truly fancy pieces of art and a weapons-grade adorable children’s book, written by Stompadon’s dad and illustrated by Stompadon.

Find out more info about Stompadon and back this project on Kickstarter.com!

New Orleans, 1935. Whoever called this “the Big Easy” sure got that one wrong. Things are tough all over. Honest work is hard to find, and even dishonest jobs are getting scarce. The one thing that’s not in short supply is trouble. From shady thugs to crooked cops to Mafia soldiers, there’s plenty of characters out there looking to give an honest Joe a hard time.

And that’s not the worst of it.

There are stories going round about things that go bump in the night. Things you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley on a darker night. And those stories aren’t just coming from rummies or saps who read that Epitaph rag.

Deadlands Noir is now available in PDF format at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

We Are Dust is a collection of short stories inspired by Our Last Best Hope, an RPG published by Magpie Games. In the game, players work together to try to save Humanity from a terrible Crisis…

When the world ends, how will we feel?
Will the apocalypse come like a thief in the night, leaving us blind and alone, struggling against the darkness? Or will we greet the end of humanity like noble warriors, striving to forestall our doom no matter the cost?
Will we survive? Will we triumph? Will we matter?
Within these pages are tales with answers to these questions, stories from the edge of humanity, the end of existence: time travelers jetting back to save the Earth before it was born, lonely scientists unmaking the disaster summoned by their own hubris, and college kids who love and fight as the Earth gets ready to die.
Look closely, and we might just see ourselves…

We Are Dust is available now in eBook formats at DriveThruFiction.com.

About a decade ago, White Wolf released a game called Mummy: The Resurrection as the core offering for its Year of the Scarab. When the Time of Judgment rolled around, that game and its continuity were put to rest, along with the other classic World of Darkness lines; but endings breed new beginnings, and in the course of developing the end of that game, a vision for a new mummy-focused roleplaying experience began to take shape. It would be a decade before that vision could come to life, but here we are at last.

Welcome to Mummy: The Curse, a new World of Darkness roleplaying game.

Twenty-five years ago, Rokugan fought a terrible battle against an invading gaijin army known as the Destroyers. Although the noble samurai of the Emerald Empire were victorious, the conflict was devastating beyond all others, and the lands of the Great Clans were left in ruins by the fighting. To spare her people the threat of further war, war which would surely lead to the death of an Empire, the Divine Empress sued for peace with the forces of darkness, and then dispatched her vassals to claim the empty lands left behind in the wake of the Destroyers.

A generation later, the untimely death of a prominent magistrate in Rokugan suddenly elevates a group of simple samurai to a position of authority, but the magistrate’s unfinished business sends them to the Second City to see it to completion. There, influential samurai from the Empire have almost limitless potential, but the distractions from duty are numerous.

The Second City Boxed Set (PDF edition) is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

While many are pointing at 12/21/12, some people interpret the Mayan calendar to predict this Wednesday, 12/12/12, to spell the end of the world as we know it. But, David Lapham feels fine.

The Eisner Award-winning author has three of his own personal series hitting comic shops this Wednesday, all published by Avatar Press. In addition to the debut of Caligula: Heart of Rome – the sequel to his supernatural horror tale set in ancient Rome – Wednesday will also premiere the trade collection of his original Ferals werewolf crime/horror comic series, and the most recent issue of his gonzo detective series, Dan The Unharmable #8.

In the labyrinthian maze of endless corridors, annexes, and wings of the enormous medical complex known as the Castle prowls a grief-stricken man determined to redeem himself and bring justice for those victims incapable of doing it for themselves.

During the four months that his son lay dying, ex-con Kasteel lost his job, his wife, and nearly his mind. He became a fixture at the Castle, a phantom prowling the halls in the deep night, a shadow of his former self until he faded from sight and was forgotten altogether.

Now, without any life to return to, he takes it upon himself to become the Castle’s guardian. He lives off the grid hiding among the hundreds of miles of twisting passages, rooms, offices, and underground parking structures. Despair, confusion, and terror are the natural state and trade of any hospital: Not only must the patients endure disease and infirmity, but others are victims of physical and sexual abuse from the outside world or from cruel security guards.

No one would suspect that Ariadne, the cold and deadly “Silent Knife” of Prince Liliane, was once a sensitive college girl who preferred books to blades. But that life ended when her lover Andre cast her aside, into the waiting fangs of an unknown Sire who fled after the Embrace.

Re-shaped by her Prince’s cruel tutelage, Ariadne has fought hard to earn her place in Liliane’s court. Now that court is threatened from all sides: Liliane’s former Seneschal is staging a rebellion, wielding deadly magics that threaten Kindred and humans alike.

Silent Knife is now available in eBook and Print formats at DriveThruFiction.com!

OneBookShelf, Inc., the parent company of DriveThruRPG.com and DriveThruComics.com, announced today that their advocacy event “Teach Your Kids To Game Week” (rpg.drivethrustuff.com/rpg_teachkids.php) will begin on Monday, December 3rd and end on Friday, December 7th.

While DriveThruRPG is the largest digital RPG distributor on the web, the retailer also advocates the positive benefits of gaming with kids.
Teach Your Kids To Game Week is a program designed to reach out to the community and will feature articles, tips, and advice to do just that.

Somewhere, It Burns…

The sands of time slip through the hourglass. The New Earth Government mounts a desperate initiative against the Migou’s seat of power. Those that police the ar- cane underground face an invisible foe. The Disciples of the Rapine Storm descend through the ashes to assault the Land Down Under. A deadly plague suddenly grips the citizens of the New Earth Government. And an unexpected ally returns from the void, a light in the darkness.

The end carries on. Welcome to 2087.

CthulhuTech: Burning Horizon is available now in PDF and Print formats at DriveThruRPG.com!

Fans of the meme-monster Cthulhu and other creations of cult horror novelist H.P. Lovecraft can get a little extra help in counting down to Christmas, thanks to a new mobile advent calendar app. Titled ‘Cthulhu Christmas Calendar‘, it features 25 original pieces of artwork – one for each day in December until Christmas Day. Each image presents a fun mashup of festive icons like Santa into the Cyclopean world of the great Cthulhu, the malevolent Mi-Go and the dark god Nyarlathotep. Normally priced at $0.99, the app will be free for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch on the 1st December only, to celebrate our collective descent into Yuletide madness.

Heroes of Reality

The proud men and women who serve the New World Order are the paragons and saviors of humanity. These Enlightened minds have the thankless job of being our shepherd, leading us to ultimate Empowerment and protecting us from utter chaos: the misguided Traditionalists, corrupted Technocrats, vile creates, and ourselves.

The Order oversees the Technocratic Union through its unrivaled academic might, omnipresent surveillance, and unparalleled advances in psychology. But even as the Technocracy is winning so many hearts and minds, NWO must keep the Union from turning on itself.

A Truly New World

Convention Book: New World Order is available in PDF and Print formats at DriveThruRPG.com!

Author Craig Saunders tells us about his novel A Stranger’s Grave, published by Grand Mal Press, in this new design essay.

All right, Genesis may be a little high-falutin for what I do. I’m a straight forward, bash it out writer. I’m not a ‘literary’ writer, and anyone who calls my work literary is apt to get an earful. David Gemmell once whispered in my shell-like that he’d wasn’t the type of writer to go to the ends of the Earth for a paragraph; write 1K a day, and you’ll get there.

Nothing is more horrifying to us than fighting hordes of shoppers to get that last book or spooky comic sitting on the shelf. While we specialize in bringing you atmospheric scares, today we’re going to save you from the madness, by bringing you a round-up of deals from sites like DriveThruRPG, DriveThruComics, Noble Knight Games, and more!

Want to get on Santa’s naughty nice list? If you find a good deal, add the link to the comments section for your fellow FlamesRising.com readers to get in on the savings…

What is the God-Machine?

You hold in your hands the book that might answer that question…or might simply complicate it. The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology contains new fiction by Justin Achilli, Eddy Webb, Stew Wilson, David A Hill Jr, and many others, as well as previously published stories by Chuck Wendig, Ray Fawkes, Rick Chillot and Matthew McFarland. All of these tales feature encounters with the God-Machine, and serve to pave the way for the God-Machine Chronicle itself.

What rises may fall. What has fallen may rise again.

The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology is available in eBook and Print formats at DriveThruFiction.com!

The Littlest Shoggoth is a children’s story written and illustrated by longtime game industry veteran, Stan! It was originally released for free on the website StoryTimeWithStan.com and was subsequently published in a very limited print run by Super Genius Games. Since that edition went out of print, the book has been unavailable (though the story can still be read online).

For a long time we’ve wanted to bring the book back into print in a premium edition, and now with your help, we hope to do just that.

If we can raise just $5,000 in pledges, we can bring The Littlest Shoggoth back into print with a high-quality print run that will allow it to reach a broader audience and become the quirky holiday tradition that it deserves to be.

Find out more information and support this project at Kickstarter.com!

New Tales of the Yellow Sign by Robin D. Laws is a collection of eight short stories that invokes and draws inspiration from The King in Yellow, the 1895 psychological horror collection of Robert W. Chambers. In writing New Tales, Laws undertakes what is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult projects for an author—writing a short story collection built around a core concept or a small number of central themes. The challenge in doing this is that whether readers are trying to or not, they tend to judge each short story on its own, instead of how it fits into the collection’s overarching concept and themes. In composition, I see a collection like New Tales to be akin to concept albums. Each has “core tracks” that advance the concept. Each may include “voice breaks” where the audience is addressed directly as a way to make the message more explicit to the audience. Each often contains a “cover song” or a selection that pays homage to a past artist that the overall work is drawing inspiration from.