Vampire: The Masquerade exploded into hobby games in 1991 and inspired a generation of fans of which the game industry had never seen before or since. The cultural significance Vampire left on not just the gaming world but on modern vampire-related pop culture can be seen and felt at virtually every turn and in every medium today. Vampire: The Masquerade – 20th Anniversary Edition brings the entire World of Darkness experience full circle and will serve as the perfect anniversary milestone to celebrate two decades of gaming after dark. This is the original Masquerade in all its glory, and our way of saying thank you and welcome home.

The Vampire: 20th Anniversary Edition eBook is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

Earlier, White Wolf publishing announced an upcoming paranormal romance sourcebook for Vampire: the Requiem entitled “Strange, Dead Love.”

Developers Russell Bailey and Eddy Webb guided a trio of writers on the project. Jess Hartley, Filamena Hill and Monica Valentinelli lent their expertise and their voices to dive into the steamier side of Requiem where vampires and mortals fall hopelessly in love and lust.

In honor of this sexy new book, FlamesRising.com wants Russell Bailey and Eddy Webb to spill all the supplement’s dirty secrets. We think you do, too. That’s why we need your help.

Find out more by clicking through to the rest of the post.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Vampire: the Masquerade, Flamesrising.com is hosting an open call for new essays detailing memories and experiences of the property first published by White Wolf in 1991. The title of this series is the Vampire: the Masquerade Retrospective.

For more details on where to submit and what FlamesRising.com is looking for, please review the Vampire: the Masquerade Retrospective Submission Guidelines.

Setting books are a tough sell in most role playing games. For one thing, if the game master opts to set the adventures of the characters in a different city then those offered – or the players’ characters find themselves drawn in another direction entirely – setting books become less than completely useful. Also, since they will only sell – for the most part – to game masters, more than three-quarters of the potential audience is already uninterested in purchasing it.

Such is the problem with city guides for the World of Darkness; despite aiming for fascinating cities with a great many points of interest besides vampires, werewolves and the like, they just haven’t sold well enough to justify others in the line. However, they are well worth a GM’s time and cash outlay to obtain; besides a wealth of interesting NPCs that might show up in one’s own game, the city books are filled with fantastic plot hooks and useful information that is easily adapted to any chronicler’s setting.

Dave Martin, founder of the Wrecking Crew Demo Team, is here to tell us a little more about his organization and their role at White Wolf’s Grand Masquerade event next month.

The Wrecking Crew

The Wrecking Crew was created by Dave Martin and his gaming group in 1996, and went on to become one of the official demo teams for White Wolf and the World of Darkness table-top games in 2000. Their years of devotion were rewarded in 2009 when White Wolf elevated the Wrecking Crew to the rank of Senior Demo Team. Due to this status, The Wrecking Crew has had the honor of running a number of developer release events including the upcoming Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition. Though the organization began as a local group in Arizona, it has grown into a national association with members in several states.

Flames Rising is pleased to present the web version of the new release list that White Wolf is handing out at Gen Con Indy 2011. Several members of the White Wolf crew are on-site at Gen Con talking to fans about new and classic World of Darkness games. This is a look ahead at what new products are on the way and some news about the ongoing Now in Print program at DriveThruRPG.com.

The world is a dark and dangerous place.

It is filled with enigmas that do not fit neatly into boxes built by scientists or occultists. That doesn’t stop us from trying to find an explanation for everything. It is human nature to compartmentalize, to label and identify the things that frighten them – a thing named is a thing neutered. But some things refuse to be categorized neatly. Some mysteries evade explanation. Some monsters reject the classifications we attempt to brand them with. These are the seeds of fear and wonder, the exceptions whose only proven rule is that there are no rules that cannot be broken. These are the unexpected plots, the stories which pull player and character alike into situations where their wits, skills and strengths will be challenged.

These are glimpses into the true potential of the World of Darkness.

Glimpses of the Unknown is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Players can try something different with the newest SAS from White Wolf. In “Into the Void,” ($6.99 at RPGNow.com), players kick off an adventure with killing the Prince of their city. The Prince, in all truth, is a secret hording problem that a good Final Death solves.

Or does it?

This is one of the better SAS releases that I’ve read. While certain NPCs are named, there is no reason why the Prince can’t become the Prince of established characters’ city along with the key movers and shakers detailed.

White Wolf invites you to join them in celebrating a milestone in vampire mythology that changed modern vampire pop culture forever.

Since its 1991 debut, the cultural significance of Vampire: The Masquerade can be seen and felt at virtually every turn and in every medium today, not only on the gaming world but also on modern vampire mythos. The Vampire franchise has since grown into an unparalleled worldwide phenomenon that has inspired thousands of trading cards, hundreds of role playing game supplements, dozens of novels, two award-winning video games, and a cult television series.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with an in-depth look at Paths of Storytelling, White Wolf Publishing’s latest release for Vampire: the Masquerade.

Joining us today is the developer of this product, Eddy Webb, along with the trio of authors: Jess Hartley, Kelley Barnes and Monica Valentinelli.

Paths of Storytelling, offered as a free download today on RPGNow.com, is the latest product for the Vampire: the Masquerade line. According to this White Wolf announcement, it’s a long-forgotten manuscript that was rejected — and with good reason. Sure, on the heels of the Vampire: the Masquerade twentieth anniversary announcement we can understand why they’d want to keep up the buzz, but we all know not all V:tM fiction has been good fiction. Which is part of the reason why we were hoping they’d post a little more crunch. A new Giovanni adventure? Yet another awesome Bloodline?

White Wolf is making a 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade and we want your help!

Why are we? Vampire: The Masquerade changed everything! Exploding into hobby games in 1991, it evoked and inspired a generation of fans of which the game industry had never seen before or since. The gothic and punk subcultures from which it drew, previously unseen in the gaming world, created an unparalleled worldwide phenomenon that spanned novels, TCG’s, LARPs, video games, and television. But it all started with one RPG. The cultural significance Vampire left on not just the gaming world but on modern vampire-related pop culture can be seen and felt at virtually every turn and in every medium today. This combined with the unwavering sheer dedication of an unparalleled fan base is the reason this book is being published. Vampire: The Masquerade – 20th Anniversary Edition brings the entire World of Darkness experience full circle and will serve as the perfect anniversary milestone to celebrate two decades of gaming after dark.

The latest supplement for Mage: the Awakening debuted today at RPGNow.com. Dubbed Mage Noir, this new World of Darkness supplement offers a fresh historical feel. Set in the 1940s, the book covers a mage’s perspective in America. Writers include Matt McFarland and Filamena Young.

Mage Noir is an eighty page PDF, and is available at RPGNow.com for a retail price of $8.99.

Since releasing one of the first enhanced e-books entitled The Queen of Crows, I’ve been pursuing publication of short stories and other works over the past year. I’d like to share some exciting news with you here. In honor of Read an e-book Week, links will primarily point to the digital version.

Hope you take the time to read the post and check out my new short stories and games.

Dance ‘Til Sunrise

The definitive companion to Vampire: The Requiem.

Flames Rising is pleased to present an exclusive excerpt from this new Vampire: the Requiem sourcebook from White Wolf. Danse Macabre is available at Amazon.com and RPGNow.com.

The traditional print run of Mage: the Awakening ends with my favorite kind of supplement–the advice book. Although gaming advice is merely a click away today, some of the first useful gaming advice I gleaned came from the original White Wolf lines. Rather than rehash decades old thoughts on gaming, the focus instead turns to new ground. This book tweaks the core principles–setting, magic mechanics, and character–before setting loose some ideas on actual Mage chronicles. I’ll try to go chapter-by-chapter once I get the artwork out of the way. Before I do, one pointer: there is never a reason to quote Ayn Rand. Ever. Seriously.

For me, the book’s artwork isn’t very special. I do like the cover art by Imaginary Friends Studio; however, the interior art wasn’t engaging. It did tie directly to the fiction, which earned it a step up.

Fallen is Babylon is part of White Wolf’s Storytelling Adventure System, a series of well-tailored games that can be picked up for one-shots or slipped (most of the time) into a campaign. This particular setting makes no specific claim to line. It instead provides a town with a curse of sorts. The appearance is that the supernatural isn’t welcome. Vampires cannot sire here, Will-Workers find their abilities bleeding away the longer they stay, and, well, you get the idea. Of course, a mystery like this needs to be investigated.

Enter the players.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with an inside look at the design process for Scenes of the Embrace, a brand new toolkit released from White Wolf Publishing to be used with its Vampire: the Requiem role-playing game.

This exclusive article is broken up into two parts. First, we give you an overview of the design process for this product, which was inspired by Will Hindmarch’s design from Scenes of Frenzy. After you read Eddy Webb and Monica Valentinelli’s exchange, stick around for an exclusive preview from this new e-book.

Scenes of the Embrace is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

2010 is just about over, where did the time go?

This was a pretty big year for me all around, with my expanded role at OneBookShelf (the company behind DriveThruRPG, DriveThruComics and related sites). If you don’t already know, I’m the Publisher Relations and Marketing Manager for OneBookShelf. I had the chance to work some awesome publishers and travel to quite a few conventions across the country. Recently, we got a print program up and running where folks can order print editions of titles like Descended From Darkness from Apex Book Company, Laws of the Night from White Wolf and King Arthur Pendragon from Nocturnal just to name a few. This has been a busy and detailed process working with some great publishers to get this program up and running and I’m looking forward to seeing it further develop in the new year.

Before you grab your shotgun and blast 2010 away, you might want to check out our hot news today. We’ve got fiery new releases, a few announcements and more hot, hot links to usher in the New Year.

Got something you want to throw on the fire next time? Send your dark and delectable links to via our contact the editors at FlamesRising.com page.