The countdown has begun and gaming enthusiasts all across the country are planning their annual trek to Indianapolis in anticipation of what gamers everywhere know to be as The Best Four Days in Gaming. With 91,000 turnstile attendees, Gen Con Indy is understandably the place where consumers and the industry come together to see and play all that is gaming. For the sixth year in a row, the event will be held at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, taking place August 14 through 17.

“Blood of the Dead isn’t what you think it is. Sure—it starts out as a zombie jamboree that drags you through Hell on Earth, but then it goes further . . . a lot further . . . and takes you straight to Hell and back again. This is the stuff of nightmares, boys and girls, with some unnerving and frightening action scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat and haunt your dreams.”
– Rick Hautala, author of The Wildman and Occasional Demons

Pre-Order Blood of the Dead at Horror-Mall.com.

The new game by the Origins Award-winning author of Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea!

Ambition. Lust. Revenge. You cannot have one without the others.

Thousands of years ago, the ven ruled the world. They were a passionate people, obsessed with Romance and Revenge, opera and theater, and all the forbidden delights their decadent culture provided. In the end, that which made them beautiful was also the key to their own destruction. Houses of the Blooded is a game about tragic obsession. Set in the fantastic world of ven myth and legend, players take the roles of powerful characters bent on conquering their world, destroying their enemies and possessing all they desire.

The Morningstar Saga continues in Thunder and Ashes…

A lot can change in three months: wars can be decided, nations can be forged… or entire species can be brought to the brink of annihilation. The Morningstar Virus, an incredibly virulent disease, has swept the face of the planet, infecting billions. Its hosts rampage, attacking anything that remains uninfected. Even death can’t stop the virus, which reanimates its victims as cannibalistic shamblers.

Thunder and Ashes is now available at Amazon.com and Horror Mall.

Postmortem Studios is proud to present the latest in the ‘100’ series of generic sourcebooks, ‘100 Dark Places‘.

Following on from 100 Planets, 100 Dark Places details a hundred different horror locations, the terrible things that dwell within each one of them and a handful of adventure seeds to get the Gamesmaster’s mind ticking over. Just what you need to kickstart your imagination or to come up with an adventure or campaign for modern horror on short notice.

Once Upon A Time…

Enter the Realm of Fable, where goblins, elves and sylvan spirits dwell in the deepest shadows of the forest beneath the wicked Witch Queen’s spell of eternal darkness.

Nox Arcana invites you to immerse yourself in a haunting soundscape of bewitching melodies, eerie sound effects and pulse-pounding orchestrations as you explore an enchanted land of dark fairy tales and childhood nightmares.

Pre-Order Grimm Tales at Amazon.com

Lords of Summer is a Character Book for Changeling: The Lost

Swear again your allegiance to your Court
take up your knight’s banner and badge once more
The ties between us shall be renewed, and the old oaths fulfilled
We all stand together in summer, the season of war

The contracts are signed in blood, the sacrifices have been made, and mighty Cthulhu has bestowed his blessings. Reality Deviant Publications is happy to announce we are the newest Chaosium licensee! RDP will focus on support of the True20 game system by bringing fans of all things Cthulhu outstanding game supplements which bring H.P. Lovecraft’s deliciously maddening Mythos to life!

“I am so excited about this agreement with the fine people at Chaosium,” said David Jarvis, president of RDP. “I’ve always wanted the chance to write and develop gaming material based on H.P. Lovecraft’s works. To be officially allowed to add our own pages to his legacy is a privilege, one which we don’t take lightly. Fans of True20 and Call of Cthulhu won’t be dissapointed.”

The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design (AAGAD) and the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) proudly announce the nominees in all categories for the 34th Origins Awards.

Game retailer attendees at last week’s GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas reviewed the list and selected the finalists in each award category. From those finalists, attendees at the Origins Game Fair and members of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design will select the ultimate winners of the 34th Origins Awards.

This year’s winners will be announced during the Origins Awards ceremony at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, June 28, at 8:00 p.m.

Abstract Nova Entertainment produces unique and imaginative role-playing games.

You can now find these great titles at Indie Press Revolution.

Aletheia – Written by Werner Hager, Lee Foster, Monica Valentinelli

Alien abductions. Crop circles. Spontaneous Human Combustion. The Seven Dogs Society investigates the weirdness at the fringes of reality.

Noumenon Written by Darwin Leary, Lee Foster, Monica Valentinelli

Noumenon is a role-playing game of mystery and abstraction. Players control the Sarcophagi, strange insect-like creatures trapped within an otherworldly landscape called the Silhouette Rouge.

Where does inspiration come from? What secrets lie at the heart of an author’s stories and novels? What is written on the invisible ink between the lines of dialogue and description? Most writers will never tell you, will leave you to guess at the connections between their fiction and their lives.

Jack Ketchum gives a rare and intimate look into his world and into some of the people who have influenced his life in this collection of essays. Idols and friends, lovers and strangers are revealed, examined, adored and lamented as only Jack Ketchum can.

Pre-Order BOOK OF SOULS by Jack Ketchum (Limited Edition) at Horror Mall.

A message from Aaron Leader at Noble Knight Games:

This week I’m pleased to announce our MEGA MOVING SALE!!!

Thanks to you our valued customers we have outgrown our current facility and will be moving to a better location here in Janesville when our lease is up in a couple of months. Its been almost 2 years since our last sale and with our warehouse move coming up in a couple of months, it?s a great excuse to move out some good, but older, stuff at super low pricing! To put it plainly, we have lowered the prices on literally THOUSANDS of older items and for the next 10 days (or so) you can take an additional 10% off these already lowered prices and ALL items including clearance items, rare items, new releases, etc!!!

Retailers at the GAMA Trade Show will select finalists this week

The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design (AAGAD) and the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) proudly announce the semi-finalists in all categories for the 34th Origins Awards.

“It was a good year for the Origins awards,” said Phil Lacefield Jr., chairman of the AAGAD. “We had plenty of contenders across the board. The jury members did a great job.”

“The Origins Awards give our industry a chance to reward excellence in all facets of gaming,” said Anthony Gallela, GAMA’s executive director. “The award categories recognize games of all types, as well as fiction, non-fiction, magazines, comics, and more.”

EcoBrain is an online digital download store, dedicated to educating people about environmental living options while affording them the opportunity to purchase materials digitally in an effort to radically reduce the impact on the environment. Because eBooks are paper-free, easily storable and transferable electronic files, they give book readers the option of reading on the computer screen, a hand-held device, or printing off only the pages they deem necessary (preferably on recycled paper.) Additionally, because EcoBrain eBooks are delivered and produced electronically, very little energy is used in their creation and no fuel is used in their delivery.

The outbreak began in 2007. It’s now 2112.

The crippled U.S. government is giving up in its fight against an undead plague. Military forces and aid have been withdrawn from the last coastal cities, leaving those who choose to stay in the “badlands” defenseless against hordes of zombified humans and animals.

“A macabre masterpiece of post-apocalyptic zombie goodness. If you have waited until the end of the world for a wonderfully told, well written, and exciting as hell novel … your world has just ended. EMPIRE is that novel.”

–Dr. Pus, Library of the Living Dead Podcast

Empire by David Dunwoody is available at Amazon.com and Horror Mall.

Swarm Press is proud to announce its first official acquisition: a modern tale of superheroes by Matthew Wayne Selznick titled Brave Men Run: A Novel of the Sovereign Era.

Brave Men Run is the story of Nate Charters. Born different, unsure of his origins, he’s an outcast at Abbeque Valley High School, a self-proclaimed “boy freak” with few friends and low self-esteem. When the a flying man announces the existence of superpowered individuals and the Sovereign Era dramatically dawns, Nate finds himself in a quest to discover the truth: is he more than he seems, a misfit in a miraculous and powerful new minority… or something else entirely?

Key Encounters: The Volcanic Shrine combines the writing and imagination of fan favorite Monte Cook with SkeletonKey Games‘ best selling miniatures-scale tiles to bring a detailed encounter to your table top. The Volcanic Shrine is a major encounter for fantasy d20 games that can be built with the 20 brand-new, custom designed miniatures-scale tiles included in the product. The encounter details the link between a massive lake of lava deep underground and the Elemental Plane of Fire itself. This encounter could be used as the center point of an entire adventure involving creatures of flame and the evil plot of a dark elemental creature known as Kaliastrix.

Bestial: Werewolf Apocalypse by William D. Carl pre-order at Horror Mall.

Beneath the dim light of a full moon, the population of Cincinnati mutates into huge, snarling monsters that devour everyone they see, acting upon their most base and bestial desires. Planes fall from the sky. Highways are clogged with abandoned cars, and buildings explode and topple.

The city burns.

In the future, telepathy is no longer a fantasy; it’s a job.

Gina- just Gina- is a woman with no future, trying to make her living along the Street of Eyes, where people go to hire the desperate and the suicidal for their unique services. She is one of the sellers, the new underclass, who use “third eye” or “Spice”- a powerful drug that gives them the ability to read minds- as their way of making ends meet. The drug has only one downside- it drives the user insane.

Street: Empathy is the first volume of the acclaimed online series by Ryan A. Span. Buy it now from Amazon.com.

A Guide to the Knights of the Underworld

Gifted by the Deathlords with the corrupted Essences of Solar Exalts, the Abyssal Exalted are perhaps the greatest extant threat to Creation and its Exalted defenders. Frozen at the brink of death and offered immense power in exchange for servitude to the Neverborn, these so called knights of death ride forth with one shared mission, to drag the world and all that lives into the Void at their masters’ behest. Will the Abyssals succeed at their abhorrent task, or will the faint echo of their lost lot as heroes drive them to redeem themselves and, just maybe, rejoin the ranks of the Sun’s Chosen?