Being a vampire is inherently trading humanity for power, but most Kindred don’t do it on purpose. Blood sorcery is about wrapping your arms around blood sacrifice or inhuman philosophy and holding it close against your silent heart. As presented in Vampire: The Requiem, sorcery is a series of rituals passed down from hierophant to acolyte, pastor to parishioner. The blood caked on these rituals is dark and dried, and they are ancient and horrible indeed.

That’s what this book is: a gory and grand new exploration of blood sorcery from the powers of the great covenants to the dirty secrets of the street to the figures that lurk in the shadowed history of the Kindred. Blood Sorcery is available now in PDF and Print at DriveThruRPG.com!

In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, you are unlikely heroes in a grim world of perilous adventure. You venture into the dark corners of the Empire and deal with the threats that others cannot or will not face. You’ll probably die alone in some festering hellhole, but maybe, just maybe, you’ll survive foul Mutants, horrible diseases, insidious plots, and sanity-blasting rituals to reap Fate’s rewards.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is a complete game. All you need to play is in this book, some dice, and a group of friends.

The Warhammer Fantasy Role 2nd Edition Core Rulebook is now available in Print on Demand at RPGNow.com!

Both Matt and myself will be at Geek*Kon in Madison, WI this weekend as guests of the show. Geek.Kon is Madison Wisconsin’s very own anime convention, sci-fi convention, and gaming convention all rolled into one!

We have a booth in the Dealer’s Room and will have lots of books for sale including Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror, Redwing’s Gambit, and Tales of the Seven Dogs Society.

We will also have a selection of John Kovalic’s Dork Tower Collected Editions.

Whereas before the player fought against diabolical forces that wished to destroy humanity, in the newly launched DLC levels for ‘Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land’, this is reversed as the player now has to end the world. In the six new levels released today, entitled ‘Kaul’s Diary’, the player instead controls the villainous cult leader from the original game, Docktor Kaul. In a series of encounters set before the events of ‘The Wasted Land’ the player controls Kaul and his minions as they attempt to put his genocidal vision into action. To play the new levels, players need a copy of the original game and simply then select ‘Extra Levels’ and purchase Kaul’s Diary there. The DLC costs $2.99/£1.79/€2.39 from the App Store and more platforms are expected to follow soon.

Hot on the heels of THE DARKNESS II video game release, this introductory-priced volume welcomes the new creative team of DAVID HINE (THE DARKNESS: FOUR HORSEMEN, THE BULLETPROOF COFFIN, Detective Comics) and JEREMY HAUN (ARTIFACTS, Detective Comics)! On the surface, Jackie Estacado has everything he ever wanted – control of the Darkness, a successful career, and happy family life. Only his desire to make his life truly perfect will be his undoing. What will Jackie do when everything begins to slip away?

Featuring a complete cover gallery alongside a host of bonus content and extras, this entry-level priced collection is a must for anyone curious about Top Cow’s REBIRTH!

Darkness Rebirth Volume 1 is available now at DriveThruComics.com for only $5.99!

Arc Dream Publishing is proud to present the first-ever ebook edition of the legendary Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia by Dan Harms.

“…some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” –H.P. Lovecraft, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’

That day is here. The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia explains every mind-blasting facet of the Cthulhu Mythos envisioned by H.P. Lovecraft and expanded by countless horror writers and gamers in the decades since the master’s death.

We have a new guest post from post from Jonathan Creffield, author of the dark fantasy tale Hell’s Door Opens.

Steam Powered eBooks

I want to ask you a question but before we get to it we’ll take a little flight of the imagination.

Let’s pretend you’re in London. It is the latter part of the 1840’s. Smokey chimneys, rakish gents, dowdy harlots, and grubby faced urchins – you get the picture. You are a writer, probably down at heel, penniless, struggling – that is if you’re anything like most writers I know.

Can a Prince command a Priscus?

Can the Harpies declare a boon null?

These questions and more secret details of the Kindred condition have their answers within the V20 Companion. A complementary sourcebook detailing some of the finer points of being undead, this is the first supplement released in support of the 20th anniversary edition of Vampire: The Masquerade.

The V20 Companion is now available in PDF and Full-Color Hardcover editions at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

Our game design essay series continues today with some notes from Monica Valentinelli, author of Falling Scales Chapter Two, a World of Darkness SAS from White Wolf.

Falling Scales Chapter Two is the final, and second installment, for Falling Scales Part I. I started working on this project last Fall under the assumption that this would be a more atmospheric piece to further introduce a global conspiracy. While there were elements I was able to draw upon, the plot was directed, and there were some liberties I was not allowed to take.

Recently were posted some design notes from author Corissa Baker about her novel, The Shadow of Dracula: Harker’s Inheritance. She has also sent us the first chapter of the book, which gives you the opportunity to explore her tale.

The Shadow of Dracula: Harker’s Inheritance Chapter One

This was compiled after such dreadful events as should provoke lunacy and challenge one’s understanding of this modern world of 1935. What follows in these pages may be dismissed as wild and irrational fiction, even unworthy of broader attentions. It will be ridiculed and those named in these accounts risk social stigmata and questions of their mental health. If it weren’t that a doctor of psychology and head of a lunatic asylum was involved I should think that I would have kept this all very much in the dark.

After more than 10 years, GODLIKE: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 now has a PDF edition with a paperback on the way. Editor and publisher, Shane Ivey, tells us what it was like running the Kickstarter and getting the game ready for these new versions.

Gamers have wanted GODLIKE in PDF from the very beginning, and gamers made it possible in the Kickstarter project that we held to raise money to get the ancient layout files converted to a modern format and to commission new cover art. We have sent the PDF to Kickstarter backers. Thank you, everyone who supported the project!

The Stoker-award winning editor of the acclaimed, eclectic anthology The New Dead returns with 21st Century Dead, and an all-new lineup of authors from all corners of the fiction world, shining a dark light on our fascination with tales of death and resurrection… with ZOMBIES!

The stellar stories in this volume includes a tale set in the world of Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse, the first published fiction by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, and a tale of love, family, and resurrection from the legendary Orson Scott Card. This new volume also includes stories also from other award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors, such as: Simon R. Green, Chelsea Cain, Jonathan Maberry, Duane Swiercyznski, Caitlin Kittredge, Brian Keene, Amber Benson, John Skipp, S. G. Browne, Thomas E. Sniegoski, Hollywood screenwriter Stephen Susco, National Book Award nominee Dan Chaon, and more!

Flames Rising is pleased to present an excerpt from this collection by editor Christopher Golden.

Our author design series continues today with a new essay from Corissa Baker, who tells us about her new novel The Shadow of Dracula; Harker’s Inheritance.

When I started the research process for The Shadow of Dracula; Harker’s Inheritance I knew that I had to be thorough and committed to Bram Stoker’s classic. From the beginning, I was writing this book for fans of this long-lasting pillar of literature. I was not, be assured, pinning a plot to the success of Dracula in order to capitalize on it.

Beyond the Wall is Smart Pop Books’ latest essay anthology. This book covers George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (from A Game of Thrones to A Dance with Dragons) and features a foreward by New York Times bestselling author R.A. Salvatore.

Editor, James Lowder is here with his take on the book, and putting together anthologies in general.

Sequart Research & Literacy Organization and Respect! Films are proud to announce that the SDCC panel for their Comics in Focus: The Image Revolution documentary will feature special guest panelist Marc Silvestri!

If you’re a fan of Image Comics and are going to be at the San Diego Comic Con on Thursday evening (July 12th), you won’t want to miss this panel! Moderated by F.J. DeSanto (co-producer of The Spirit), the panel will feature Image Revolution director Patrick Meaney (Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods, Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts), Sequart founder Julian Darius, and of course Marc Silvestri. The hour-long panel will feature over 10 minutes of exclusive footage from the documentary, behind-the-scenes info from Silvestri, and Q&A!

Fabled Environments is proud to announce a PDF Charity Bundle to benefit the Michael Rohan Memorial Fund. 100% of the net proceeds from this bundle will go to The Michael Rohan Memorial Fund. The bundle will be available until August 1st.

Publishers currently included in the bundle are: Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Fat Goblin Games, Silver gryphon Games, ProFantasy, Reality Blurs, Misfit Studios and more!

The Michael Rohan Memorial Fund Charity RPG Bundle is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

In Nightglass, a young boy in the shadowy nation of Nidal is taken from his home and trained by the sadistic magical academy known as the Dusk Hall, transformed into a living weapon in the service of the dark god Zon-Kuthon. Many years later, now grown to manhood, Isiem is sent to Cheliax to help put down a rebellion by the winged, inhuman strix. Yet as he conducts his grisly work, Isiem begins to question his life under the shadow of the Midnight Lord, and wonder who the real monsters are…

Flames Rising is pleased to present an excerpt from this new Pathfinder novel.

It’s 1999 and the world is falling apart at the seams. The sky is afire, the oceans are rising—and mankind is to blame. While the spoils of the 20th Century dwindle, Jack Finnegan lives on the fringes in his decaying mansion, struggling to keep his life afloat and his loved ones safe while battling that most modern of diseases—AIDS.

As the New Millennium approaches, Jack’s former lover, a famous photographer reveling in the world’s decay, gifts him with a mysterious elixir called Fusax, a medicine rumored to cure the incurable AIDS. But soon, the “side effects” of Fusax become more apparent, and Jack gets mixed up with a bizarre entourage of rock stars, Japanese scientists, corporate executives, AIDS victims, and religious terrorists. While these larger players compete to control mankind’s fate in the 21st Century, Jack is forced to choose his own role in the World’s End, and how to live with it.

Originally published in 1997, Glimmering is a visionary mix of fantasy and science fiction about a world in which humanity struggles to cope with the ever-approaching “End of the End.” Flames Rising is pleased to present an excerpt from this new edition of Glimmering.

Our game design essay series continues here at Flames Rising with Dave Cook telling us about his new game Heebie Jeebies, which is in the middle of a Kickstarter run now.

I’ve been making games for Zipwhaa since 2000. People have asked me how I come up with ideas for games. Usually my reply confounds them because it hardly makes much sense to them, let alone me. The short answer is that they just sort of come to me and fall into place like putting the last piece of a puzzle down. The mental picture of the overall game clarifies in how it will play, what the rules should be and how the flow of the game should go. This is exactly what happened when I created Heebie Jeebies.

Anne Rice, the legendary author who has defined vampires for a generation of readers and writers, will be a Spotlight Guest at New York Comic Con (NYCC) in 2012. Show officials note that the announcement of Ms. Rice’s participation at NYCC is just the first of several announcements about author appearances, author programs and book publisher participation at the show that organizers will be making in the coming months. Providing literary distinction at a pop culture event replete with major guests and artists from every part of the pop culture universe, Ms. Rice, who became an international phenomenon in 1976 with the publication of Interview with the Vampire, is certain to attract widespread attention at New York Comic Con among her many fans. Show officials note that other leading celebrity guests from the worlds of comics, entertainment and film will also be announced in the very near future.