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!

Award-winning graphic novel publisher Archaia Entertainment announced its plans for the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) (www.c2e2.com), which includes a 20’ x 30’ display with a huge selection of product for sale on the show floor; hosting over two dozen creators for free autograph signings, including Chad Michael Murray (Everlast), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Jim McCann and Janet Lee (Return of the Dapper Men), Nate Cosby (Cow Boy), Ramón K. Pérez (Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand), and Royden Lepp (Rust: Visitor in the Field); presenting two panels, one making several exclusive announcements and one to advise aspiring storytellers on proper world-building; and distributing thousands of free giveaways, including single issue comics, mini-posters, and bookmarks.

Spacetime Studios, working closely with Google, is introducing the world’s first MMO to launch simultaneously on mobile and desktop platforms. The mobile MMO Dark Legends is now available exclusively for a two week period on Google Play for Android devices and on the Chrome Web Store for PC, Mac and Linux.

The commercial launch of Dark Legends across both mobile and desktop simultaneously is another industry first by Spacetime Studios and furthers their goal to create a ubiquitous social gaming experience. The company’s Legends series are the only 3D MMOs in the world that allow people to play the same game together on desktop computers, smart phones and tablets.

For more details visit www.darklegends.com.

This steampunk fantasy combo contains the children’s novel Scourge: A Grim Doyle Adventure as well as the short story, Simian’s Lair: A Tale from the Land of Verne!

Also includes the first chapter of the eagerly awaited Choose Your Own Adventure Novel, Billy Bones: Beyond the Grave!

Land of Verne: A Steampunk Fantasy Combo is available now at DriveThruFiction.com!

Romark Entertainment has acquired the film and television rights to the critically acclaimed Role-Playing Game, SLA Industries, from publisher Nightfall Games. As part of the acquisition, Romark and “SLA” creators Dave Allsop and Jared Earle are also announcing a partnership that will see the two sides come together under one banner to focus exclusively on the expansion of the 20-year running series into the comic book, video game and art worlds.

Independently released in 1993, SLA Industries is set in a futuristic dystopia where players, wielding advanced weaponry and arcane abilities, take on the roles of Operatives working for an omnipresent and ruthless corporation hellbent on controlling the universe. In the game, appearance, style and branding are emphasized just as much as combat, politics and subterfuge.

Have you always wanted to include lupus Garou in your Forsaken game? Or perhaps the Hunters in Darkness into your Apocalypse game? This guide will help you translate the feel and core elements from each version of Werewolf into the other game system and background.

The Werewolf Translation Guide includes:

Translations of all of the tribes and auspices between versions of Werewolf
Conversions for the breed rules into the current World of Darkness rules, including lupus and metis
Guidelines for converting Gifts between systems

The Werewolf Translation Guide is now available in PDF and Print editions at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

Bring your best “battitude” to the Wisconsin Bat Festival! Bring the whole family Saturday May 12 from 9 am-5pm to the Warner Park Community Recreation Center in Madison. (On Mother’s Day weekend don’t forget bats are great mothers too!)

– Meet special guest, Brian Lies, author of the children’s books Bats at the Beach, Bats at the Library, and Bats at the Ballgame!

– Meeting a Malayan Flying Fox at the 2011 Bat Festival

– Meet live bats from around the world and visit with Wisconsin’s backyard bats. Come face to face with fruit bats from Africa and Asia, a Vampire Bat, and encounter the largest bat in the world, the gigantic Malayan Flying Fox which has nearly a 6-foot wingspan!

Degenesis is the story of mankind’s struggle in the wake of Earth’s greatest catastrophe: a rain of massive asteroids. Europe and Africa have been cut off from the other continents and battle against each other for control of the known world. In Europe, the people are finally emerging from a dark age that spanned half a millennium, whereas Africa has become complacent and corrupt after centuries of wealth and splendor.

From the ashes of the Eschaton, seven new cultures arose. They span from the frozen northern regions of Europe across the Mediterranean and down into Africa. They are mere children compared to their ancestors and yet they rule over the known world.

A lethal zombie virus will be infecting websites, blogs, forums and social media accounts across the globe from April 16th to celebrate the publication of the first novel in an action-packed new urban fantasy zombie series by Dana Fredsti!

To win a signed copy of Plague Town and the unprecedented chance to have a character named after you in the next novel in the series, Plague Nation, follow the spread of this virtual zombie pandemic by searching for a code hidden across nine articles, interviews and excerpts hosted by a selection of the top fantasy, horror and books sites in UK & US, including none other than Flames Rising!

Monarch Comics’ ongoing comic book series, Witch Hunter, is debuting the title’s letters column in Witch Hunter #9 (“The Scarlet Circle Network”), releasing in print format on April 30th (Monarchcomicslair.com and select stores) and shortly thereafter in digital format on DriveThruComics.com To get the magic word out about the column and generate letters for it, Monarch Comics has announced an ongoing letter-writing contest for Witch Hunter.

Star of The Walking Dead To Participate in Q & A with Fans; Followed by 3-Hour Signing!

Noted actor Steven Yeun, currently starring in the role of Glenn in AMC’s hit original series The Walking Dead, will appear at this year’s Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2). In addition to his starring role in The Walking Dead, Mr. Yeun has also recently starred in an episode of the television series Law & Order: Los Angeles and an episode of Warehouse 13. Steven Yeun, who lived in Chicago where he performed with the Second City Theatre, will appear at C2E2 on Saturday, April 14 where he will conduct a Q & A with fans followed by a free 3-hour signing.

The crew of the delivery ship Haldis is en route to drop off a high-ranking politician on a remote world, but something isn’t right. Someone is sowing mistrust among the crew. The ship has been sabotaged. When Xax, the ship’s young medical intern, disappears, it’s clear the situation is serious. Can Marrl, the security chief with serious anger management issues, and Cass Leary, the cool cyborg captain, get to the bottom of this before it’s too late? Is Xax even still alive? Who’s behind all this, and what do they stand to gain?

This is a novella about conspiracy and paranoia in the space-lanes by Flames Rising‘s own Monica Valentinelli set in the shared science-fiction universe of Bulldogs!

The eBook (including PDF and ePub editions) of Redwing’s Gambit is available now at DriveThruFiction.com!

Mind’s Eye Theatre gives you everything players and Storytellers need to play a live-action game set in the World of Darkness. From setting material and rules for playing mortal characters to Storytelling advice and an innovative challenge resolution system, this book is the cornerstone of a totally new live-action experience. Enter the theatre of the mind and learn the secrets of the night.

For a limited time White Wolf has marked down all of the Mind’s Eye Theatre eBooks, for both Classic and New World of Darkness at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

Investigator Weapons for Call of Cthulhu in the Classic era is a comprehensive collection of weapons available to stalwart investigators of the Cthulhu Mythos and their crazed cultist opponents.

Investigator Weapons covers handguns, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, machine guns, flamethrowers, melee weapons, explosives, and special ammunition; and gathers together all the spot rules for injury, environmental conditions, and firearms combat in one place, as well as introducing many optional rules for enhanced play.

Investigator Weapons – the essential weapons book for Keepers and players of all editions of Call of Cthulhu.

Investigator Weapons is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Moonstone Books, the publishers of the Vampire: the Masquerade and Werewolf: the Apocalypse comic series, are having a fun sale on two of their horror fiction anthologies…

Pagan Publishing is a small but award-winning publisher of role-playing games, specializing in books and supplements for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.

We have completed work on a new collection of five game scenarios entitled “Bumps in the Night.” This collection was written by John H. Crowe III and is set in the classic Call of Cthulhu era in the early part of the 20th Century. All five scenarios use the Call of Cthulhu Basic Role Playing mechanics, but none of them are based on the Cthulhu Mythos. Instead the players will have to face obscure horrors from the world of myth and folklore. At 120 pages, “Bumps in the Night” is beautifully illustrated by Rick Sardinha, Heather Hudson, Samuel Araya and Rhonda Libby. It will be produced as a 8.5″ x 11″ softcover, with glossy color exteriors and grisly grayscale interior artwork.

Zpocalypse is a survival board game set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Two to four players start in a basement/fallout shelter which can lead out to several base locations or even through the tunnels to sewer grates throughout the transformable board. Their survivors are trying to make it day to day in a world torn apart from the walking dead.

As in any survival game one needs food, guns, ammo, and more. Players go out into the wasteland and scavenge for supplies, or perhaps to find a new gun or melee weapon to fend off the next zombie attack.

In addition to gathering supplies, each player forms and controls their own squad. Each squad works to fortify the base(s). However your walls and barbed wire won’t hold the dead for long, and they’re getting hungry.

Anne Rice, the legendary author who has defined vampires for a generation of readers and writers, is the latest addition to the star-studded line up of authors and other guests and talent at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2). Ms. Rice became an international phenomenon in 1976 with the publication of Interview with the Vampire which has become one of the best-selling novels of all time. She has written 31 books including The Vampire Chronicles, Lives of the Mayfair Witches, and The Songs of the Seraphim, among many others. Ms. Rice will be appearing at C2E2 to discuss and sign copies of her new book, The Wolf Gift, on Sunday, April 15. A daring new departure, The Wolf Gift offers a whole new world – modern, sleek, high tech – and at its center, a story as old and compelling as history: the making of a werewolf, reimagined and reinvented as only Anne Rice could create.

DriveThruComics.com has partnered with over 30 comic book publishers to offer a $20 bundle of digital comics for charity. Proceeds of the charity bundle, which has a retail value of $95, will be donated to the Hero Initiative. Participating publishers include: Top Cow Productions, Archaia Entertainment, Moonstone Books, Dork Storm Press, and a number of creator-owned and small press publishers.

Filip Sablik, Top Cow’s publisher says, “Top Cow has been a proud supported of the Hero Initiative from the beginning, with Jim McLauchlin, the current director of the charity being a former editor-in-chief at the Cow. We’re always thrilled to support Hero in any way we can and it’s very cool to see DriveThruComics stepping up to participate in this way!”