Trust no one. The very nature of Aegis’ work means that the organization has to work in secret, away from public scrutiny and hidden from the keen surveillance of their enemies. The National Defense Directorate manipulates and schemes in secret bases around the country, plotting and moving pawns in a deadly chess game of deception. A conspiracy against another conspiracy.

Aegis’ secret agenda is the core of a conspiracy, but that conspiracy is built upon an altered and secret history – a conspiracy within a conspiracy. Lies within lies. A conspiracy against their own operatives. When faced with many conspirators, who can you trust?

The Conspiracies Sourcebook is a supplement for the Conspiracy X Roleplaying Game Second Edition.

Bedford and Lamrose. Two sides of the same river. Two sides of the same coin. One, an affluent metropolis teeming with industry and aspiration. The other, a cesspool of crime and vice. Both dirty, both begging for the match that will set this whole city on fire.

Bedford and Lamrose. Locals call this place Bedlam. It’s a fitting name.

Streets of Bedlam: A Savage World of Crime + Corruption is equal parts neo-noir, pulp detective fiction, and a bit of the ol’ ultraviolence thrown into a cement mixer and poured on top a heap of nameless bodies no one will ever miss.

Streets of Bedlam is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

Night’s Black Agents is available as a pre-pre-order to early adopters and patrons from the Pelgrane store.

A new GUMSHOE Game from Kenneth Hite, author of Trail of Cthulhu.

The Cold War is over. Bush’s War is winding down.

You were a shadowy soldier in those fights, trained to move through the secret world: deniable and deadly.

Then you got out, or you got shut out, or you got burned out. You didn’t come in from the cold. Instead, you found your own entrances into Europe’s clandestine networks of power and crime. You did a few ops, and you asked even fewer questions. Who gave you that job in Prague? Who paid for your silence in that Swiss account? You told yourself it didn’t matter.

It turned out to matter a lot. Because it turned out you were working for vampires.

Find links to early Night’s Black Agents reviews, news and pre-order the game at PelgranePress.com!

Victorian Lost: A Maze of Smoke and Hedge is a historical setting for Changeling: The Lost. This book contains information on the late Victorian Era, including both actual history and fanciful imaginings of this time. You’ll find discussions of the occasionally violent tensions between the rich and the masses of the poor who worked in their factories and homes. This book also examines the competing visions of rural and urban life. Some saw the countryside as pure and cities as corrupt, while others viewed rural areas as ignorant and backwards, and cities as centers of progress and invention.

Victorian Lost: A Maze of Smoke and Hedge is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

The direct inspiration for curse the darkness was a song. My brother sent me a link to A Perfect Circle’s cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” some years back. I like the original well enough, but the cover really got my brain moving. I tend to see scenes and characters and stories when I hear music anyway, and when I heard that song (which you can find easily enough on Youtube, if you want to give it a listen before buying it), I saw a man standing on a balcony looking out over the ruined world. The ground was blasted and blackened, and he — whoever he was — stood there thinking, “Yes, this was the right decision. I did the right thing.”

Who was he? What had happened? I didn’t know. I did know that the message of the song felt different with the cover. Instead of “let’s all get along,” it was “get along, and that’s not a request.” I let that sit in my brain for a while, not really knowing what to do with it.

From Hugo Award–winner Tim Pratt comes a new fantastical adventure set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

In City of the Fallen Sky, a young alchemist named Alaeron flees an apprenticeship with the dark scholars of Numeria’s Technic League, only to find himself in trouble once more as a chance encounter sends him and several reluctant companions into the jungles of the Mwangi Expanse. Tracked by a high-tech assassin, and armed only with his inquisitive nature—and a few mysterious artifacts stolen from the Technic League—Alaeron must find the ruins of a legendary flying city, or face the wrath of a cruel crime lord…

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

Twenty years ago, a barmaid in a harbor town fell for a young sailor who turned pirate to make his fortune. But what truly became of Black Edward Tew remains a mystery—one that has just fallen into the lap of freelance sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse.

To find the truth, and earn his twenty-five gold pieces a day, Eddie must take to sea in the company of a former pirate queen in search of the infamous Black Edward Tew…and his even more legendary treasure.

Flames Rising is pleased to present the first chapter of Wake of the Bloody Angel, a new Eddie Lacrosse new novel by Alex Bledsoe.

Children of the Revolution tells the stories of noteworthy or notorious Kindred of the modern nights whose Embraces came intimes of unrest, rebellion, or open revolution. The circumstances of these revolutions might have been mortal or undead, martial or cultural. These Kindred joined the ranks of the Damned under tides of war or cultural upheaval, and their blood bears the mark of change from one paradigm into another. Sometimes they are the agents of change. For others, their revolution drags them in its wake.

The world of the Kindred is always fraught with blood and danger, and Embrace amid the fires of revolution only heightens that fact. Here are Kindred who have risen to guide the Black Hand, who have led the armies of Alexander, who have plumbed the mysteries of the Nictuku, and who have been reborn in the fires of the Arab Spring. Their histories have been forged, but their futures remain to be determined by your troupe.

Visit the Children of the Revolution Kickstarter today.

Our new game, Farewell to Fear, is a dark fantasy game about revolution and enlightenment taking people out of the darkness. Your players choose a thing about the world they want to change, and they set out to change it. As we design Farewell to Fear, I’ve tried to keep this at the front of every effort. I’m tackling this through three main avenues, game mechanics, setting writing, and art direction.

In the game mechanics, revolutions are at the forefront. Change needs to drive advancement. So, our entire system is based on building solutions to massive problems, and using thinking and preparation to tackle otherwise overwhelming problems. As the game progresses, characters grow and evolve through their engagements with change.

In the sands of Thuvia, the atheist Salim Ghadafar must find the stolen soul of a murdered merchant. His search for souls extends throughout the planes and tests his strength to the breaking point. Death’s Heretic by James L. Sutter is a grand tour of the Outer Planes… a tour that balances large-scale awe and wonder with intimate character development.

Indeed, Death’s Heretic is more than “a book about tracking down kidnapped souls and killing monsters.” It’s a novel shot through with mystery, mayhem, and romping good adventure, sure, but it also asks some weighty questions… while killing monsters.

“If we really understood immortality,” asks Sutter, “would we still want it?”

There’s more, of course. What are the power dynamics of faith? The true nature of honor? Of heroism? What lurks within the complexities of human ambivalence? The resulting novel blends intimate knowledge of the Pathfinder setting with compelling characters and a plot that packs the energy of a Byzantine naphtha bomb.

Across the Emerald Empire, the greatest servants of the Emperor make their homes in ancient castles, elaborate courts, impregnable fortresses, venerable dojo, and majestic palaces. Some exist in the wilds of the Empire, while others mark the center of great, sprawling cities. Some are centers of trade and artistry, while others exist far from any other sign of civilization. And yet, despite their many differences, it is in the heart of each of these bold strongholds that the heart of the samurai dwells.

Strongholds of the Empire explores a handful of the many unique cities throughout Rokugan, seeking out those with particular interests for the different Great Clans.

Strongholds of the Empire is available in PDF and Print exclusively at DriveThruRPG.com!

The design essay series here at Flames Rising continues with the first part of a series by game designer Mischa L Thomas. Mischa tells us about the forthcoming Cold & Dark RPG.

Living with Cold & Dark: Part 1

Hi, my name is Mischa L Thomas and I’m the lead designer at Wicked World Games 1.1, a small RPG design company based in Gothenburg Sweden. In a couple of months we’re going to release the gritty space horror science fiction pen and paper RPG Cold & Dark in partnership with Chronicle City. I thought I’d talk a little bit about the inspirational sources and conceptualization method behind the design process which led up to the finished game document. But first a little bit of background.

First Class on the Titanic is exciting in itself but when you are invited to a private viewing of one of the world’s great curiosities, you jump at the chance. The mummy of Hettunaway, Priestess of Amun-Ra, the Unlucky Mummy is being shipped to New York and donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by its owner, Jefferson Shaw. Legend has it that those who look upon her face are doomed. Jefferson Shaw’s intentions are not as philanthropic as they seem. Strange rituals, a device to contact spirits and the awakening of something he cannot control.

The Titanic is on a collision course with an iceberg but will it be the icy water that kills you or the ancient force, finally unleashed?

The Millionaire’s Special is a short adventure for Trail of Cthulhu by Adam Gauntlett (Not So Quiet, Hell Fire). This is to celebrate the centenary year of the Titanic’s tragic sinking.

All proceeds from the sale of this adventure will go to the Heroes in the Dark charity.

RMS Titanic: The Millionaire’s Special is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

It is the Age of Cthulhu, and the cold tentacles of primeval madness reach across the globe!

Age of Cthulhu 6: A Dream of Japan is now in stores and at RPGNow.com. A search for a missing socialite leads to the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji. Eerily quiet, strangely lifeless, and infinitely desolate, this mysterious forest hosts more suicides than any other location in the world — and, as the investigators will discover, is home to an alien intelligence far beyond our comprehension!

Look for AOC6: A Dream of Japan in your local game store or download at RPGNow.com!

Visionary Comics and Pinnacle Entertainment Group are proud to present Deadlands, the critically acclaimed and fan favorite new comic series, now available at DriveThruComics.com. The work of masters such as Jeff Mariotte (Desperados), Brook Turner (Golly!), Ron Marz (Artifacts), Bart Sears (Conan), Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (Jonah Hex), Lee Moder (Shinku), David Gallaher, and Steve Ellis (High Moon) brings the Weird Western World of the Role Playing Game to the world of comics with style.

This collaboration of industry all-stars has created four brand new stories that delve deeply into the mystery and mayhem of Deadlands. Set against a backdrop of the Old West gone slightly weird, these stories range from the mad invention of The Devil’s Six Gun to the masterful horror of Death Was Silent. We are also excited to bring you, for the first time in one complete issue, The Kid: Origins; the backup story that ran through all four print editions of Deadlands from Visionary Creators C. Edward Sellner, Oscar Capristo, and Ale Aragon now collected together under an exclusive new cover. Telling the origin of the fearsome werewolf stalker Billy the Kid, this story sets the stage for the upcoming mini-series.

Down a lonely alleyway, under a starless sky, lies a city that never was, yet is: the Mad City, where nightmares walk the streets, and a good night’s sleep can get you killed.

Here, then, is a book from that place. Within these recovered pages are the tales of the Awake, insomniacs who’ve walked those perilous streets, bringing a bit of the power of dream with them to fight back the night—always at a terrible cost.

For many, it will not end well. For a few, they might just become heroes—or at least find their way back home.

For you, a choice. Turn away. Don’t read this book. And maybe you’ll continue to rest easy. Or open the cover and enter a world unlike any you’ve ever dared to imagine…

Pre-Order the softcover edition at EvilHat.com today.

A zombie virus of guest articles, Q&As and excerpts from new urban fantasy novel, Plague Town, will be infecting websites, blogs and social media accounts across the globe to offer readers the chance to win a signed copy of Plague Town and have a character named after them in the next novel in the series!

Flames Rising is the 8th stop on the ‘Plague Town Pandemic Tour’.

Collect the 8th word hidden in CAPS at the end of this article along with a sequence of eight others on blogs and websites outlined in the link below; tweet the sentence you’ve discovered to @TitanBooks and @zhadi1 with #PlagueTown before April 23rd.

Happy Hunting.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and RPGNow.com has partnered with several publishers to raise funds for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Check out the NCMEC Bundle with over $146 worth of RPG PDFs for only $25

A number of publishers including White Wolf, FunSizedGames, Skirmisher Publishing, Troll in the Corner, Tricky Owlbear Publishing, Melior Via and more have each donated some very cool products to this collection with all proceeds for the Bundle going to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. This special fundraiser Bundle will only be available this month, so be sure to scoop up this great deal and support a cause while you get the chance.

At last the stars are almost right!

Soon Nyarlathotep’s plans will come to fruition. Then the world will be changed irrevocably — but not quite yet. Pesky human investigators have learned much. Now they must survive long enough to make sense of what they know, and take resolute action.

Masks of Nyarlathotep is a Lovecraftian exercise in horror and mystery. This Call of Cthulhu roleplaying classic is a series of linked adventures forming one long and unforgettable campaign. Horrifying deeds and dangerous sorcery dog those who dare attempt to unravel the fate of the Carlyle Expedition.

Writer Ron Marz has revitalized Witchblade and is the architect behind the acclaimed First Born and Broken Trinity crossover events. Now, joined by artist Lee Moder (First Born: Aftermath, Painkiller Jane), Marz debuts Dragon Prince, a five-part modern fantasy with equal doses of magic and martial arts mayhem.

Like a lot of teenagers, Aaron Chiang feels he’s never fit in, though he’s never known why. But all that changes when he learns the truth of his heritage: He is the Dragon Prince, last of his kind and heir to the bloodline of all dragons. Hunted to the brink of extinction by a secret society of wizards, dragonkind’s survival is now in Aaron’s hands.

The Dragon Prince series is now available at DriveThruComics.com!