Bloodrayne the movie is an offshoot of the original console game. Upon seeing some of the trailers and hearing of the actors that were cast in this movie, it was a decision of mine and several friends to spend the $6.50 to see an afternoon showing of this movie. This was the worst $6.50 I spent this entire year.

The author of the Women of the Otherworld series tells about her writing, tells us why she likes werewolves and hands out a little advice for other authors.

It was too late for tracking. This close to nightfall it would be tired of running. If he gave it an opening it would charge into the open. Abram made himself sound as panicked as possible, he broke branches, stumbled over roots and force himself to pant. It went against every instinct he had developed over the years of the hunt. Pam was right behind him, mimicking his actions but she wasn’t pretending. Whatever façade of strength she had summoned up to come with him tonight was gone now. There wasn’t time for a pep talk. “In a few minutes it won’t matter anyway,” thought a particularly bitter piece of Abram.

Written for the Blood Games setting by Daniel Potter

Clash tells us about his company, Flying Mice LLC and the RPGs that he has worked on, including Blood Games, Starcluster and more.

Dracula’s Revenge is an adventure-style board game, the first in the Gothica line of games from Human Head Studios. Set in Victorian England, Dracula’s Revenge takes you into the heart of the conflict between vampire hunter and hunter.

The first fiction novel for Vampire: The Requiem, a game line produced by White Wolf, A Hunger Like Fire sets the tone for some colorful characters and intriguing plot twists.

Written by Greg Stolze, the novel begins with a character narration by Bruce, a newly-changed vampire. New to being an undead, but not authorized by the Prince of Chicago, Prince Maxwell. After reading the first two pages, I felt compelled to read further. While first person narration can get tricky, Stolze handles it well by adding some interesting character quirks. For example, the undead Bruce Miner has an attachment to his dog, Peaches. Of course, he has to use his special vampiric ability to get close to animals, but nonetheless it’s a good tie-in between game mechanics and a fictional character.

Without even reading a word of text, this book is gorgeous. Crimson red cover, portraying a hand dipping into blood, with red rose petals drifting atop; it’s easily one of White Wolf’s best. Internally, the art is the usual Gothic fair. Some of the art is more mature in nature, which is becoming a trend, even in mainstream Wizards of the Coast books.

The book is mostly black and white, with a touch of red here and there, which technically makes this a full-color book. That being the case, $34.95 for 302 color pages is not a bad deal. The presentation for this book is great, and I could recommend it on a completely separate aesthetic level.

Review by David Akers

In this interview we talk to artist Ken Meyer Jr. about his work on a vareity or projects throughout the gaming industry. He also tells us a bit about working with comic books and calendars.

How did you get into gaming? Way back when, my dad got me interested in comic books. This was back in grade school. He’d pick them up for me or let me read the ones he got for himself and then I’d pore over them. Eventually I graduated to fantasy and science fiction novels.I made […]

On the surface it’s pretty interesting. Thirteen novels, each exploring one of the clans in detail. A few plotlines streaming from book to book, some great characters – hell this could have been something really special. Heck, the Dark Ages clan novel series is everything this series should have been. Each novel features an in-depth exploration into a different clan, along with well-written characters. And while there are plots that go from book to book and connect the series, each book stands on its own.

Chaos Bleeds is a story based on the second Buffy computer game, written by Christopher Golden and Thomas J. Sniegoski. Buffy fans will recognize the telltale attributes of the Buffy universe in this book, written by James A. Moore.

Hands down, this book is the best gaming fiction I’ve read in a long time. Moore brilliantly use third person narration to accurately depict the Chaos Bleeds’ team of Xander, Willow, Spike, Anya, Faith and Buffy. While the combat was hard to follow due to the fast pace of the book, the material reads well. So well in fact, that you quickly lose yourself in the story.

The structure of the book is surprising, in that the prose is heavily footnoted. Told from a vampiric scholar’s point of view, the research for the book is both entertaining and curious. One can almost feel Aristotle’s frustration as he cross-references words from crumbling parchments. One can also hear the voices of the ancients, as they live again through prophetic parables and historic prose. The footnotes are written in character and contain curious references to other characters in the game. This adds to the potential for the book to be used as a prop or a mood-setting item.

So in my opinion “Dark Ages: Tremere” is a brilliant book full of surprises with only a handful of boring pages. A great way to approach the Tremere. Absolutely recommendable, maybe the best of the Dark Ages Clan Novels.

“The Age of Romance and Gothic Elegance” proclaims the first line on the back of Vampire by Gaslight, and the Victorian era certainly seems tailored to be the Age of the Vampire. No other period in human history seems to suit the proclivities of the Kindred more than the end of the nineteenth century, and so the expansion of White Wolf’s Minds Eye Theatre into this complex and rich historical period is both welcome and daunting.

Jürgens armies under the sign of the Black Cross march out to conquer the east. Against them stand the vile Tzimisce ruled by the Voivode of all Voivodes: Count Vladimir Rustovitch.

But not only those stand in the way of Jürgens men, between their home and the Voivodat lies Livonia, a fierce, primal territory ruled by Quarakh the Untamed and his horde of Gangrel. By his side there is Deverra, High-Priest of Telyavel and Tremere renegade.

When writing a book based on a hit television series, one has to ensure that the characters are accurately portrayed through action and dialogue. Angel: Haunted, written by Jeff Mariotte, sets out to bring the characters from the cult hit “Angel” to life.

Written as one in a series of books, Angel: Haunted had a beginning that was both awkward and difficult to follow. The first few pages were cumbersome due to the language and descriptions. As one reads further, the pacing and language improves dramatically. Instead of reading the words a character speaks, one hears a believable representation of an “Angel” character’s dialogue. The further along in the story, the less noticeable the writing style becomes. This is one sign of an experienced writer who can successfully translate television to print.

This is E.E. Knight’s first book, and I can definitely see it taking off as a very long series indeed, but one which I will be eagerly anticipating each new arrival. The setting is of a near future, starting around 2065, but with the events leading up to that current frame only happening in the next few years that we have to look forward to. Granted, this book is entitled Vampire Earth, and it does have to do with vampires, only not in the traditional sense.

This book had much in the way of promise for a good science fiction romp through the horror of Dracula. Unfortunately, it’s promise falls onto it’s face about halfway through.
We meet Joe Bodenland, who is a un-renowned scientist, working on a type of time machine that will suspend an item indefinitely at one moment in time. His goal, to use this for storing Nuclear Waste. His wife, Mina, isn’t as enthusiastic about it as he seems to be, in fact, we find that Joe is so absorbed in his project he even misses his son’s wedding.

In the far future, monstrous creatures have once again risen from the depths at which they lay, vile, evil creatures, from Vampires to Werewolves, to Zombies, to gelatinous blobs that descend upon you from the sky and rend the flesh from your bones in a matter of seconds. Here, Vampires are lords and masters, ruling over these minions of the dark, and terrorizing villagers wherever they decide to settle. One man rides alone, one man to stand against this tide of evil, one man to fight. And fight he does.

Let’s walk through the book, and examine the contents as we go. After a brief introductory story which is continued in series throughout the rest of the book, Blood Games launches immediately into their version of the secret history of the world. Here we find that a universal savior of sorts (known alternately as Norandon, Prometheus, etc.) has given humanity the ability to fight back the “Creatures of Night”, such as werewolves, vampires, demons, etc. Think “Warlock: The Armageddon” with its hidden society of witches. All in all, the introduction lays out a limited groundwork for the nature of games, including basics of how magic is used and constrained.