World of Darkness, the transmedia entertainment brand behind celebrated fantasy horror properties like Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, has announced the hiring of Justin Achilli as Brand Creative Lead. The author and designer of a wide range of World of Darkness games, rulebooks, and supplemental material over the last 23 years, Justin rejoins the World of Darkness team as the brand continues to expand in 2020 and beyond. Martyna “Outstar” Zych, a popular YouTuber, Twitch Streamer, and Vampire: The Masquerade enthusiast, has also recently joined as Brand Community Developer and now broadcasts a weekly livestream show “WoD News.”

Undead & Unbound is a book of fiction celebrating those who have returned from the grave — in all their glory and in whatever form they take. You will find the famous blood-drinkers and flesh eaters here, but also ghosts, patched-together reanimates, fiends of myth and folklore, and some not-so-easily-identifiable creatures from beyond the grave.

Nineteen tales take the undead to their limits. From the distant past to the far-flung future, and to all corners of the Earth, the undead are eternal and everywhere: symbiotes, parasites, monster mash-ups and ghoulish grins, bleak tales of inescapable dread, an ancient evil from a far-away land with unspeakable dietary needs, a boy and his…well, it’s not a dog. History is brought to (un)life. Ghosts, specters, phantoms and haunts of every sort. Not-so-easily-classifiable stories that do new things with the basic premise of what’s alive, what’s dead, and what’s neither.

Explore a wildly re-imagined Caribbean, bursting with magic and mayhem!

Sea of Legends is a narrative-driven, open-world tabletop game for 1 to 4 players. Swashbuckle and swindle your way to victory as one of four unique captains. Raid ports, bury treasure, fall in love, and defeat your nemesis as you compete to become the most legendary pirate on the open sea.

Wizards of the Coast today announced that the company will distribute 2,000 digital kits to schools and libraries in the U.S. and Canada to provide educators and librarians with resources to engage their communities with Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering virtual play while many are practicing social distancing.

Each kit will include a Legendary Bundle for D&D Beyond that unlocks access to all current rules and adventure content for D&D as well as a 15% discount on future D&D Beyond purchases and 30 Magic: The Gathering Arena digital codes, which can be redeemed for three Ikoria booster packs. The kits will also feature tips to help teachers and librarians engage their audiences in a virtual play environment.

The book has been written.
The book has been read.
Now it rewrites you.
Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities.
And you’re in all of them.

The Yellow King RPG is an innovative new GUMSHOE core game written and designed by GUMSHOE creator Robin D. Laws. YKRPG takes you on a brain-bending spiral through multiple selves and timelines.

Inspired by Robert W. Chambers’ influential cycle of short stories, The Yellow King RPG pits the characters against the reality-altering horror of The King in Yellow. This suppressed play, once read, invites madness. Or a visit from its titular character, an alien ruler intent on invading and remolding our world into a colony of their planet, Carcosa.

There is more to death than you know, more than you’ve seen in the scant moments since you’ve come back. Places twisted by grief and despair. Bound who’ve made dark bargains with the Gods Below for power. Faith and memories crafted into tools, and sometimes into weapons.

The Underworld runs deep, lifetimes stacked on stolen lifetimes, all to squeeze us down to fuel, to fodder, for the bastards that built it. Sooner or later, it gets us all. It’s patient. It plays the long game, because it has eternity to wait you out, and it doesn’t believe mayflies like us can make a difference in the end.

That’s why we’re going to win.

Valiant Entertainment has partnered with Nightdive Studios to develop a remastered edition of the classic action-adventure video game SHADOW MAN. The remastered edition will be coming to Windows PC via the Steam and GOG platforms, as well as to the PlayStation, Xbox and Switch consoles. This partnership continues Valiant’s expansion into other mediums in addition to publishing.

Valiant Entertainment is home to the third-largest connected universe in comics, behind Marvel and DC, with over 2,000 characters. Since DMG Entertainment’s acquisition of Valiant in late 2018, the global media and entertainment company has proven its ambitious plans to grow its presence in Hollywood, making its first foray into theaters with “Bloodshot”, starring Vin Diesel, opening #1 worldwide this past weekend.

It’s time for Monsters & Mayhem! Available starting today, Wizards of the Coast is ready to throw down with Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness – the third iteration of Dungeon Mayhem, the easy-to-learn, family-friendly, D&D card game that pits the wits and brawn of a party of adventurers against each other. Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness builds […]

In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon; over 300,000 music lovers flooded into a farm outside Woodstock, NY for the ultimate concert; the Beatles recorded their final album. And crashing to Earth aboard a damaged spacecraft was a refugee from the distant planet Drakulon, whose inhabitants had drunk from rivers of blood-until they ultimately ran dry. A lone survivor of a dead planet who discovered that the sustenance she needed in order to live flowed not in rivers but in the veins of the humans of this strange new world. A huntress named Vampirella!

Created in 1969 by comics publisher James Warren and writer/editor Forrest J Ackerman, Vampirella is the femme fatale from outer space known for fighting monsters while wearing a one-piece swimsuit and a pair of go-go boots, and who celebrated her 50th anniversary last year with the launch of a new series by her current rights owner, Dynamite Entertainment.

The Altered Carbon RPG is the official game based on the hit neo-noir cyberpunk Netflix series and the award-winning novel penned by Richard Morgan. The core edition of Altered Carbon: The Role Playing Game takes place on Sol (Earth) in the year 2384. With the help of a gamemaster (GM), you and your friends can create your own stories and Sleeves in Bay City, the futuristic Californian metropolis that serves as the main setting of the first book and Season 1 of the Netflix series.

FlamesRising.com took a peek at a preview of the upcoming game to see what was under the hood. Developed and designed by Christopher J. De La Rosa, the Altered Carbon RPG crystallizes the setting by presenting a timeline of events and key setting details necessary to roleplay in a futuristic San Francisco where bodies are meat and your soul is reduced to data. The system is “in house” and has been customized for the Altered Carbon RPG.

The Vampire: The Masquerade – New Blood Starter Pack is a print & play PDF bundle that embraces you into the World of Darkness and Vampire: The Masquerade.

Designed with new Storytellers and players in mind, it features a new story that teaches you to play this new edition of the roleplaying game, a rules reference guide, printable enemy and victim cards, 7 player characters, and a relationship map.

You wake up in a meat locker with vague memories of what happened last night. Something about you is not quite right. As you come to your senses, you realize that you have a hunger you’d never experienced before. Gradually, you’ll come to realize that you’ve been Embraced into the world of Kindred – or vampires to those not in the know.

This story takes you through your very first steps in Vampire: The Masquerade. Whether you will be the Storyteller running this, or a player participating in the story, this product doesn’t require any previous knowledge of or experience with the game.

When Critical Role debuted in March 2015, no one predicted the success of a Dungeons & Dragons liveplay show starring prominent voice actors. Not only has the show inspired a vast fan community of “Critters” to create fan art, cosplay, and even musicals based on Critical Role’s adventures, but the stories crafted by Matthew Mercer and his friends have encouraged droves of new players to try D&D for the first time. The D&D Team at Wizards of the Coast is excited to officially collaborate with Mercer by publishing a brand new tabletop roleplaying book detailing the continent explored in the second campaign of Critical Role, complete with player options such as subclasses, magic items, and more. Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount will be available in stores everywhere on March 17, 2020!

Explore the realms!

Wizards of the Coast once again is presenting new dice and miscellany for the world’s greatest roleplaying game. Forgotten Realms Laeral Silverhand Explorer’s Kit builds on the success of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Forgotten Realms Laeral Silverhand Explorer’s Kit will be available in stores everywhere on March 17, 2020!

When you have already experienced death, why have faith?
If you accept that you and everyone like you is cursed by God, why cling to His word?
When you return from the other side as a blood-drinking monster, what purpose serves belief?

Cults of the Blood Gods is a new style of sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition from Onyx Path Publishing that introduces the pernicious horror of twisted beliefs. Currently funding on Kickstarter.com, we managed to get a few questions to some of the design team during the holiday break.

It’s time for Monsters & Mayhem!

Wizards of the Coast is once again getting ready to throw down, this time with the third iteration of Dungeon Mayhem, the easy-to-learn, family-friendly, D&D card game that pits the wits and brawn of a party of adventurers against each other.

Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness builds on the success of the original game and its expansion, Battle for Baldur’s Gate, with each player embodying one of six epic Dungeons & Dragons monsters. Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness will be available in stores everywhere on February 14, 2020, just in time for a romantic battle royal!

It’s been five years since Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition launched, and the explosion of D&D’s popularity since then has been a wonder to behold! Now fans can celebrate D&D through the D&D Sapphire Anniversary Dice Set, available directly from Wizards of the Coast starting at 11a.m. (PT) on November 21, 2019. The set commemorates both #5yearsof5e AND forty-five years since D&D’s first publication in 1974.

“When the D&D team realized the sapphire is the traditional anniversary stone for both five years and forty-five years, and that adding a laboratory-created sapphire to a twenty-sided die wouldn’t jeopardize the integrity of a roll, we couldn’t pass up the chance to make something really cool to celebrate the milestones” said Nathan Stewart, VP of the D&D Franchise at Wizards of the Coast. “The team put together a fun product for our fans that includes art and newly updated stats for sapphire dragons, making these classic dragons ready for play in your next D&D session.”

DriveThruRPG.com announced today that the Phone PDF, a new format designed specifically for handheld mobile devices, is now available. At the RPG gaming table, while game masters are likely to have a laptop or tablet nearby, an increasingly large number of gamers use their phones for quick reference.

Typical game manuals and comic books in standard PDF format use the same page size and pagination as printed hard copy editions. That format works well on tablets and monitors, but normal PDFs are not well suited to phone-sized screens.

In early 2019, DriveThruRPG worked closely with Onyx Path Publishing to create the Pugmire Phone PDF–which you can download FREE today! FlamesRising.com contributor Monica Valentinelli downloaded the Pugmire PDF via her iPhone’s browser to see how it works; the phone PDF format is 720 pages long and includes quick links on every page for ease of use. In addition to the Table of Contents, for example, added section menus allow for ways to reference rules and other important information necessary to play the game.

What’s next for Dungeons and Dragons? Descend into Avernus with three new releases!

Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus Dice & Miscellany

From the streets of Baldur’s Gate to the front lines of the Blood War, the dice you cast might be your last. The Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus Dice & Miscellany set includes 11 dice, a dice tray/box, 20 double-sided cards with exclusive content, a foldout map of Avernus, and even a sizing chart for the demons and devils of the Blood War!

Unleash Your Imagination!

Everything you need to create characters and play the new adventures in this introduction to the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

Dungeons & Dragons is a cooperative storytelling game that harnesses your imagination and invites you to explore a fantastic world of adventure, where heroes battle monsters, find treasures, and overcome quests. The D&D Essentials Kit is a new introductory product meant to bring D&D to audiences interested in jumping into a fantasy story.

This box contains the essentials you need to run a D&D game with one Dungeon Master and one to five adventurers. A newly designed rulebook on-boards players by teaching them how to make characters, and the included adventure, Dragon of Icespire Peak, introduces a new 1-on-1 rules variant.