Last week Monica filled everyone in on Lavender the Daeva; this week I’m here to tell you about the next member of the coterie: Blake Porter, Ventrue bon-vivant.

Most of this week was taken up in getting a prospective new player up to speed on the setting and situation of our game. As a result, not as much happened as usual this week, but here are some of the highlights:

The Prince held court this week, as is usual for the last Friday of the month. Lavender took her young ward Kyle — also a Daeva — along with us to court, and he was dressed to the nines. Several of the prominent female Kindred at court proclaimed Kyle the “best-dressed man in the room.”

Our Vampire: the Requiem game has been going on for several months now, and a lot has happened to our fair, little crew since our GM’s first post entitled Undead in Chicago, First Meeting. My character’s name is Lavender Ashe, a Daeva who was embraced in the 1920s in New York City. She’s a diva […]

Horror and dark fantasy fans love getting (and giving) gifts just as much as anyone else. However, we certainly can be hard to shop for sometimes.

In this edition of the FlamesRising.com’s Winter Holidays 2009 Gift Guide, we hear from FlamesRising reviewer and horror aficionado Steven Dawes. Steve talks about games, movies and books perfect to give as a gift for the horror fan in your life.

Being a wage slave at a retailer forces me to think a great deal about Black Friday, the holiest of Capitalism’s holy days. Since I’m trapped into pondering it non-stop, I thought I’d pass along the blessings to you all. I’d like to believe, however, that you’ll actually find these shopping guidelines more useful than a 600 count of pink bed sheets (no offense to those of you needed said pink bed sheets). I going to revisit some games I’ve reviewed over the past year (and some I didn’t) for the sole purpose of finding the best of the best. The holidays are afoot, so some of you will have free time over the next month to game. It’s also Winter, the best season for gaming (inmyhumbleopinion).

Being that you’re reading this on a horror-themed site, I’ll try to focus a bit on the Black Evil Darkness that is Black Friday rather than the post-Thanksgiving hooha.

Well, the Holidays are encroaching on us again. Every now and then that obese old prowler who breaks into your home in the middle of the night every December 24th actually manages to leave you with something worth your while.

However, there’s nothing wrong with forcing his jolly hand, so here you go: 5 horror movies that are both relatively new and good, two qualities that when combined are like gold! Here’s hoping you have a pitch black Friday….

It may be the day after Thanksgiving here in the U.S., but to many folk it’s also called Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year.

Whether you’re planning on shopping today or online later, we’ve asked some of our FlamesRising staff to write up some gift ideas for you in our Winter Holidays 2009 Gift Guide.

Throughout the day today, we’re going to offer you some horror movie, tabletop and video game and horror novel recommendations for you to read through.

We hope that FlamesRising.com will help you find “the” perfect gift for the horror fan in your life. Watch for more periodic updates as we cover special winter holiday offers and provide you with a few unusual gift ideas.

As ICC 2009 rolled into its second day of events I had the chance to attend a retrospective panel that featured developers of both Mage and Werewolf games (past and present). On the panel were Ethan Skemp, Bill Bridges, Eddy Webb and Jess Heinig. The panel offered a good look back at some of the design choices and core themes of both games and gave fans a chance to ask some questions about the differences, from the developers point of view what the biggest differences were between the previous World of Darkness editions of the games and the new World of Darkness versions.

Folks, I’m pleased to announce that I have a guest post over at Crackle.com. Every month, Crackle.com offers free movies and webisodes for you to enjoy on the web. As part of their Halloween celebration, they’re offering a ton of free horror movies for fans to watch.

I’m attending International Camarilla Convention 2009 and for the first time, ICC is taking place in Atlanta…White Wolf’s stomping ground.

This year’s ICC has a ton of great looking events going on. Ranging from Requiem, Forsaken, Awakening and Lost LARP games that are part of the current global storyline, to a oWoD Sabbat LARP that is also a charity event raising funds for Get Well Gamers. In addition to the various LARP events there are some interesting panel discussions on the schedule that include several White Wolf staffers and other guests.

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year over at “One Geek to Another”, and so I was thrilled when the great folks at Flames Rising asked me to do a guest blog on etiquette for the spooky holiday this month! From my desk to yours, here’s 13 ways to have an awesome (and polite!) Halloween!

1. Be a Good Ghoul-guest! – If you’re invited to a Halloween party, regardless of the age group, bring a little something for the host. Flowers in a Halloween arrangement are always appropriate, as are small gift baskets (especially things the host can save for after the party!) Bringing something to share at the party can also be fun!

This year’s Madison Horror Film Fest at Market Square Cinema in Madison, WI didn’t go off without a hitch, but it was so much fun it didn’t matter. In only its second year, the festival featured high profile genre greats, up and comers, a variety of horror flicks, and enough vendors to lighten your wallet. The future looks bright for this upstart horror gathering produced by festival director Rich Peterson and Icon Entertainment. Things kicked off on Friday night, October 2^nd with the world premiere of the feature film Incest Death Squad followed by two full days of films and guests that covered Saturday and Sunday.

I took part in Saturday’s depravity and my day went as follows:

Entering the fest was hassle free. I walked in and immediately spotted a sign directing me to a booth where I could check my name off the media list and get my tickets. Honestly, the sign was unnecessary as several vendors’ booths were set up in a cluster and surrounded by people who were unmistakably there to revel in terror.

This week, to celebrate Crackle.com’s Zombiefest, I decided to check out a few zombie-licious movies. One of the movies is called “FLESH EATER.” Now normally, I don’t really like a lot of cheese with my zombies, but this was just…too horrifying to watch without cracking up.

The recent headline from the NYTimes reads:

Bloggers Must Disclose Payments for Reviews

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday took steps to make product information and online reviews more accurate for consumers, regulating blogging for the first time and mandating that testimonials reflect typical results.

The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The commission also said advertisers featuring testimonials that claim dramatic results cannot hide behind disclaimers that the results aren’t typical.

In the mid-1980s, a dark science fiction television show entitled “V” aired first as two, separate mini-series, then as a weekly show.

Imagine living in a well populated city, only to stare in amazement when a spaceship hovers right above you. Instead of blasting humans into oblivion, these aliens (which were dubbed “Visitors”) extend a hand in friendship. They’re having a hard time surviving without certain resources, but if you help them…they’ll help you.

Wearing sunglasses, the Visitors seem to fool pretty much everyone with their pleasantries and reassurances. That is, until people wind up missing.

Here at FlamesRising.com, even though we usually enjoy reading about the fires of hell or burning zombies, there’s one thing we don’t like reading about — lighting books on fire. From September 26th through October 3rd 2009, the American Library Association (ALA) is featuring Banned Books Week, which celebrates the Freedom to Read within the United States.

Instead of lighting a candle to commemorate this year’s holiday, FlamesRising.com recommends either buying or checking out some of these fine books that have been banned for one reason or another. Remember, this is only a small sampling of the 513 books that were challenged in 2008 within the United States. Here is a PDF download of the books challenged in 2007/2008 from the ALA.

Folks have been talking a bit here and there about the rumored, then confirmed efforts of DriveThruRPG.com to enter the Print-on-Demand field of retail for some time. Already the largest retailer of eBook versions of our favorite games (a some fiction, comics and magazines), with tons of great publishers big and small on board, DriveThruRPG offers a ton of new current titles and plenty of old out-of-print options for gamers to scoop up.

Not everyone is as big a fan of eBooks as I am, and some of the “collector market” prices on long out-of-print games are way, way too high. So, a lot of people have been looking forward to some information on the potential PoD efforts of DriveThruRPG. Well today we got some interesting news from Sean Patrick Fannon, Publisher Services Manager of DriveThruRPG:

From pretty girls in high heels to the well-toned ladies that kick butt, there is no shortage of female characters in horror, science fiction and dark fantasy. Girls of Gore is a column intended to highlight the feminine side of these genres. For each column, I’ll be picking a different female character to sit in the spotlight, regardless of whether or not she was created by a male or female. Some of these feminine characters I’m sure you’ll recognize right off the bat, some you might not.

While there are countless female characters to choose from, I’d like to kick this series off right by letting the world’s “first” female, Eve, take the spotlight. As the first female character in the Bible, many series have been inspired to offer their interpretation of the mother of all humanity.

For many years, I existed in a shadowy realm that bordered on true darkness: I lived the life of a non-gamer. This world of strategy, role-playing, plotting and power unfolded in my adult years when I started to date a gamer.

It was only natural that I would look to combine this newfound lifestyle with my other passion, editing. And while you might snigger about the editing, other obsessive-compulsive grammar serfs will understand.

A ROAD TO FREELANCING
How do people land a freelancing job inside the game industry? For me, the answer was a whole lot of luck and a decent amount of editing skill.

I have a degree in journalism and have spent about a decade editing professionally. I read grammar books compulsively when I’m not working on a project. Thus, I had enough confidence and experience to bolster my resolve to walk into new waters.

GenCon Indy has wrapped up for another year and I’m making an attempt to get back into the work groove this week, which honestly isn’t easy this time around. I had a a great time at the convention, even though I over scheduled myself more than once. Several productive meetings and some good conversations later I’m already looking forward to next year.

Enough about that. A few highlights from the show. One of my first stops was the Pelgrane Press booth to check out the new Gumshoe books. The Esoterror Fact Book and Arkham Detective Tales are the only two I’ve managed to dig into at all so far, but Arcane Majicks and Hard Helix both look very cool as well.

GenCon this year was a world of difference from last year, partially because instead of running a booth I was on several panels at the Writer’s Symposium. This selection of panels, organized by Jean Rabe was structured so that budding writers and game designers could get the help that they needed on a variety of topics ranging from world-building to their careers. In my opinion, even with my late evenings, I thought that the panels went really well because they were focused and pragmatic. Some of the panelists included authors like: Anton Strout, Pat Rothfuss, Mike Stackpole, John Helfers and Kerrie Hughes, Jean Rabe, Paul Genesse, Jennifer Brozek, Kelly Swails, Chris Pierson and more!