The “How to run Horror RPGs” series continues today at Flames Rising with an essay from About C. Harris Lynn from TheWeirding.net.

Horror roleplaying games are among the most difficult tabletop RPG to run for several reasons. The most important of these are the GM’s relationship to the players and characters, and the general hopelessness of the characters’ situation in many scenarios. Horror PCs are outclassed from the start and often remain so to the end, and this can make horror RPG difficult to play as well as run.

But there are a lot of tips for the budding horror GM, as well as the player (though this article does not offer tips for players). You do not have to incorporate all of these into every session or campaign – just being aware of them can help you in your process.

Solaris is delighted to announce that sales of the critically-acclaimed, New York Times bestselling Pantheon series by James Lovegrove have now topped 100,000.

In a remarkable coup for a military-SF series, the killer blend of high-octane action and worlds dominated by ancient religions, including New York Times bestseller Age of Odin, has been a massive hit. The series is now set to continue with three new titles.

The series focuses on the central question of ‘what if the Gods of Mythology were not only real but played a direct role in mankind’s lives?’ Created as alternative histories that can be read as stand-alone novels or enjoyed as a collective, Lovegrove revitalises deities of old with hard-nosed military science fiction and fascinating re-imaginings of our world.

Flames Rising recently put an open call for essays and articles on the topic of “How to run Horror RPGs” and we received several great submissions (hint you can still send yours in too). We’re starting off with this post from Stygian Jim…

Horror is the genre of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the monster lurking just out of sight, fear of the dead rising again with a hunger for human flesh. Fear is very personal, and horror can be as much an internal struggle as a reaction to an external source. Fear is a huge motivator, in gaming it can be a great motivator for heroes and villains alike, but how does one cultivate it at the table? Horror games can be much harder to craft than your standard sword & sorcery delve. Also, it can be difficult to inculcate your players to the kind of thinking that the genre entails, when they’re used to kicking down doors and busting heads. There are some advanced techniques as well that you can use to build a sense of tension in your players, and make the story an even more eerie experience. Lastly of course you can use props, sound effects and lighting to set the mood for your own tales of horror.

“The Blair Witch Project” is one of the most controversial horror movies of recent memory. This is not due to explicit content. The movie was never banned or placed on a parents’ watch list. It is controversial due to its lack of explicit content. There are no CGI monsters or buckets of gore, bucking the trend of most contemporary horror. It derives its scares from its setting, atmosphere, and great performances from the three leads.

“Blair Witch” tells the story of Heather (Heather Donahue), Mike (Michael Williams), and Josh (Joshua Leonard), three student filmmakers who are producing a documentary about the legendary Blair Witch, who is said to reside in the woods outside Burkittsville, Maryland.

Yesterday, White Wolf publishing launched a Kickstarter project for the V20 Companion, which is a supplement to Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition.

Twenty-one years ago, Vampire: the Masquerade hit the tabletop RPG market like a black-clad bolt from Hell itself and changed the way games were played forever. It wasn’t just about playing a game; VtM changed people’s lives and defined a lifestyle. Last year, White Wolf created a deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition to celebrate all that Vampire: the Masquerade has meant to its creators and its fans and the response was astounding. It was clear to us that the players want more classic VtM, so we began work on the V20 Companion.

The Flames Rising crew wants to know more…We think you do, too. Here is your chance to help us interview Rich Thomas and Justin Achilli about the book.

We have an exclusive excerpt from No Quarter: A Roake Heist by John Wick. A combination of dark fantasy and noir adventure, No Quarter is the first volume in the Roake Heist series. It is available now in eBook format at DriveThruFiction.com.

Roake is no hero. He’s a bad man in a bad world. A world of sorcerers, crowded cities, corrupt nobles, eldritch assassins and big payoffs. Someone hired Roake for a simple break in, but the job went sour, and now, Roake is looking for revenge. More than revenge. Roake wants the payoff he was promised. And if anyone gets in his way, they’ll find out what “no quarter” really means.

Once again, GURPS fans will be able to explore the world of Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero. Beginning in February, five titles originally published in physical form by Steve Jackson Games will be re-released in PDF format through its online store, http://e23.sjgames.com.

The long out-of-print GURPS Classic: Conan, based on the world envisioned by Robert E. Howard, will kick off the five-week-long release schedule on February 9. This supplement details Hyborian history, magic, monsters, religion, geography, and more. Four Hyborian Age adventures will then be released, one a week, in the order they were originally published.

"These titles have been unavailable for nearly 20 years," said e23 Manager Steven Marsh. "Originally designed for GURPS Third Edition, they remain incredible resources for would-be Hyborian heroes."

Jeremy L. C. Jones recently had the chance to talk to Monica Valentinelli about her role as editor of HAUNTED: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror, the collection of ghost stories that we published late last year.

Bullet-riddled Etherometers, EMF detectors, tasers, and inconclusive footage of the spooky sort… Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror, edited by Monica Valentinelli, features original stories by Alex Bledsoe, Richard Dansky, Jess Hartley, Jason Sizemore, Chuck Wendig, and six other writers. While there are plenty of ghosts, poltergeists, and the supernatural unknown, the stories in Haunted focus, primarily, on the ghost hunters, chasers, or investigators.

Appropriately enough, the collection kicks off with an overview of ghost hunting (and the culture surrounding it) written by veteran hunter, Jaeson K. Jrakman, who describes the collection as containing “spine-tingling stories of phantom horrors lurking in the shadows of long-forgotten abandonments.”

MAKESHIFT MIRACLE is the hit comic from UDON Entertainment and creators Jim Zub and Shun Hong Chan! The first eagerly-anticipated collection arrives in May as a beautiful high quality hardcover graphic novel with a durable library-quality binding, perfect for teen readers and manga fans alike!

Makeshift Miracle is a new publishing initiative for UDON, best known for their licensed comics, manga, and art books. A completely original story, Makeshift Miracle has been serialized online at Makeshiftmiracle.com to an audience of more than 30,000 visitors since its launch! A steadily growing audience of fans of the work are building up intense interest for this title’s print release, with a built-in fanbase on the launch day!

ReedPOP, creators and organizers of the New York Comic Con (NYCC), the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), as well as other major events in the popular culture world, and Nerdist Industries, a multi-platform creator of genre and pop culture content, have today announced a continuation and formalization of a relationship that successfully began at NYCC in 2011 with the launch of the exclusive WHITE SPACE B2B conference. This new alliance provides for a wide range of strategic and cross-promotional activities that include Nerdist interviews with ReedPOP guests and a prominent role for Chris Hardwick, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Nerdist Industries, at ReedPOP shows. Hardwick, host of AMC’s Talking Dead as well as Nerdist specials for BBC America, founded Nerdist in 2008 and has nurtured its growth into a multimedia name now spanning blogs, a podcast, television, web-video, live-events and print. Chris will be a leading personality at NYCC, C2E2 and other ReedPOP events.

Merchant princes and trader kings, masters of jade and emperor thieves; salesmen born with the trick of selling fire to the gods; genius tacticians and profiteers, hailed by the Fair Folk for their treachery; the Guild is the greatest roll of mortal merchants the world has ever known. For seven centuries the Guild has dealt in coins, chains, spells, and souls, confounding even the might of the Realm—what will it buy and sell to secure its survival in the Time of Tumult? Will the Exalted become its partners, its masters, or its pawns?

Masters of Jade is available now in PDF and Print formats at DriveThruRPG.com!

The design essay series continues with Matthew McFarland telling us about Dust to Dust, a new story supplement for Vampire: the Masquerade from White Wolf.

Dust to Dust is a story supplement using the Storytelling Adventure System designed for use with Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, and it acts as a spiritual successor to the classic story Ashes to Ashes.

Imagine: A fantasy world, but not one based on Medieval/Dark Ages European culture and myth, but rather on the tropes of the Spaghetti Western and Chinese Wuxia. Add steampunk elements. Mix well.

A fantasy world that mixes the inspirations of Django and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon… The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and House of Flying Daggers… Fistful of Dollars and Fist of Legend.

A fantasy world that’s explored through a book series, a constantly-updated website, a tabletop role-playing game, comics, artwork, webseries and much, much, more.

This is FAR WEST.

Tales of the Far West is the first book in Adamant Entertainment’s Wuxia-Western mash-up, featuring a dozen all-new tales written by critically-acclaimed and award-winning fantasy, science-fiction, horror and adventure authors.

After a year of intensive development, the small indie team of Red Wasp Design have announced that their anticipated title, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land has launched on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The game is a turn-based strategy RPG inspired by the works of cult horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and developed in co-operation with Chaosium, the publishers of the cult horror role playing game, Call of Cthulhu.

The game is now out on iTunes and is a universal iOS app so the same game works for iPhone and iPod Touch both SD & HD and for iPad, and carries graphics optimised for each of those platforms. It is priced $4.99, £2.99 & €3.99 for the full universal app. The game’s designer, Tomas Rawlings said, “We’ve put a vast amount of our time, energy and ideas into this game over the last year. It’s been a long journey for us because we want to get it right. We’re not a huge studio, but I hope that fellow gamers will appreciate what we’ve achieved with The Wasted Land.”

In the near future, on the western coast city of New Metropolis, an evil that has lain dormant for centuries is about to be awakened to the 21st century. Forces of darkness and magic strive to unleash a horror upon the Earth unlike any mankind can remember. The only forces capable of stopping it are rendered impotent by an age-old fear and hatred. Will humanity set aside their differences and stand as one against the darkness? Or will this be humanity’s Final Twilight?

Trinity, the first series, follows a trio of souls whose fates are intertwined. Mark Jarus, the last classically trained mage, fights the good fight as a vigilante in city overrun by crime! Kerra Neil, a young woman and skilled hunter stalking the shadows for murderers and magic-using blights upon humanity! And the enigmatic Charles Faust, whose cool and calm demeanor belie a centuries old heart of darkness and unnatural lust for power!

Figure the English Civil War is all about dashing Cavaliers and dour Roundheads? Think again…

Solaris is proud to announce it has acquired Gideon’s Angel by Clifford Beal, due for publication in 2013, which takes the seemingly familiar history of the mid 17th Century but introduces an infernal plot that makes this much more than just a history lesson!

Described as The Day of the Jackal meets The Devil Rides Out, this swashbuckling historical fantasy set in the aftermath of the terrible English Civil War sees science and alchemy as strange bedfellows with witchcraft and magic.

The author behind Abaddon’s fastest-selling title of 2011 is set to return with a follow-up novella and a brand new series.

Abaddon is delighted to announce that Chuck Wendig has signed up to write an ebook sequel to the popular Double Dead, as well as create a brand new series for Abaddon in 2013.

An October 2011 release from Abaddon, Double Dead was Wendig’s first original novel and became the fastest-selling Abaddon title to date, with a particularly strong showing as an ebook.

Find out more about SOPA and PIPA: Sopablackout.org/learnmore Fightforthefuture.org/pipa Money.cnn.com/2012/01/16/technology/sopa_wikipedia/index.htm News.yahoo.com/reddit-admins-announce-january-18-blackout-protest-sopa-062713699.html NYTimes.com/2012/01/18/technology/web-wide-protest-over-two-antipiracy-bills.html Flames Rising will resume our regular schedule tomorrow with new Horror & Dark Fantasy Reviews, News and other goodies. In the meantime read more at the links above and spread the word. -Matt M McElroy

The zombie apocalypse is here. This is what happens next.

Zombies walk the earth and a father finds food for his daughter in the wasteland. A gun travels from hand to hand. Teenagers make out in a barn while zombies rise outside, and a woman deals with the most important third-date question. Stories of suspense, horror, adventure, and romance meet in this anthology of short fiction.

Gimme Shelter features all-new fiction from Filamena Young, Jared Axelrod, PJ Schnyder, Christiana Ellis, Peter Woodworth, Tee Morris, Mur Lafferty, Rob Wieland, David A. Hill Jr., Phillipa Ballentine, Chuck Wendig, and JR Blackwell.

The zombies are coming…find shelter where you can…

Gimme Shelter is available now at DriveThruFiction.com.

The design essay series continue here at Flames Rising with a new entry from author Edward McKeown telling about his novel Was Once a Hero.

Reluctant privateer Robert Fenaday searches the stars for his lost love, Lisa, a naval intelligence officer whose ship disappeared near the end of the Conchirri War . He’s joined by the genetically engineered assassin, Shasti Rainhell, whose cold perfection masks her dark past. Both are blackmailed by government spymaster, Mandela, into a suicidal mission to the doomed planet Enshar. Leading a team of scientists and soldiers, they must unravel the mystery of that planet’s death before an ancient force reaches out to claim their lives.