days? Or is it weeks now? It's hard to remember. You've been so busy with... well, whatever it is that's been keeping you awake. Then one night you're walking down the block toward your apartment, when you realize there's a new building on your street. A new building, somehow... in between two buildings that used to be side by side... that's impossible, isn't it? You pause to take a closer look. It's a bar. The sign says "Serious Moonlight", and a bright white moon blinks through the phases from new to full and back again, waxing and waning with the buzz of neon. It's been a stressful week. Or is it month now? It's hard to remember. But you could sure use a drink. So you cross the street and step inside.The citizens of The City welcome you with open arms. After all, you're one of them now. With all the gifts and curses that come with being Awake in a world of sleepers.Just be careful. The Nightmares you've been dodging haven't forgotten about you. They're waiting, just around the corner; waiting for you to nod off- and then they'll have you.They won't wait much longer.Whatever you do... don't rest your head.

    Corruption from without and within has caused the destruction not only of the Garou's environment, but also of their families, friends and culture, which extends in an unbroken line to the very dawn of life. No matter how righteously the Garou hold themselves, no matter how they prey on their destroyers, the corruption spreads.Now the time for reconciliation is past. This grave insult against Gaia can end in only one way: blood, betrayal... and rage.Werewolf: The Wild West is a complete rulebook, containing everything you need to play the Garou of the Savage West, whether Pure One or newcomer, human-born or wolf-blood. Fight the undead parasites who maneuver to control fledgling towns, or tear into the corrupt humans who have gone where nobody should. The frontier is a savage battleground, where both glory and death await you. Welcome to the Wild Times.

    Forever in the line of fire, they have sacrificed their own comfort for the good of all Kindred. Or is this all an empty ruse that excuses their excess and greed? the proud history and black secrets of the clan reveal the truth.Clanbook: Ventrue includes:* The history and practice of the Kindred's most august clan* Hints and tips for making each Ventrue a unique and influential member of vampiric society* New Discipline powers, scandals and luminaries of the Clan of Leadership

    He faces pirates, politics, police, and plots. All he has to do is survive. . .In Master Walk, award-winning science fiction authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller bring a new YA universe to life. Introducing The Advocacy, a rough-and-tumble civilization that has a mix of sentient races and a lot to learn."Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are so good, it's scary." -- S. L. Viehl, author of the StarDoc series"Nobody else in the field combines space opera and comedy of manners with the same deftness and brio as these two." -- Debra Doyle, co-author of the Mageworlds novels". . .classic space adventure. . .is full of action. . . The world building is outstanding. . ." -- Booklist

    This handbook provides everything you need for hours of adventure in the DC Universe, including all the rules of the game, an overview of the original comic-book setting, and details on major heroes and villains, complete with game information.

    Raise armies! Research spells! Spy on your enemies! More than just a set of rules and charts, this book also describes a style of play that assumes your character becomes more interested in influencing the world around them. You’ll still adventure and fight monsters, but this supplement gives you tons of fun things to do during your downtime. It only takes one character building a stronghold to radically change the nature of a campaign and introduce new narrative opportunities for GM and players alike! Huge new story opportunities arise! This book includes tons of examples for GMs to inspire them.

    The station is in a security lockdown and the sole apparent occupant, a Union captain, offers Kieran an entire ship if he can disable the lockdown. Kieran realizes that he’s probably dealing with a criminal, rather than an actual captain, but he’s just desperate enough to accept. He flies out to the nearest station and returns with a slicer and some dangerous-looking backup. As he’s making his approach to the station, Kieran hears a garbled cry for help over the comm. He hopes it’s just his imagination.But it’s not. Half the station’s crew is being held hostage, while the other half appear to be masquerading as Union officers. Kieran and his team disable the lockdown, and to Kieran’s amazement, they are given a ship as promised. As they are leaving the station, they see an entire fleet of Union cruisers pouring out of the newly-reactivated space gate. Kieran is confused. What are so many warships doing on the frontier? The Union isn’t at war.Kieran sets out to investigate, but along the way strange things start happening to him and his crew. At first there seem to be logical explanations, but before long the answers are not so clear. As time goes by, Kieran realizes the horrible truth:He wasn’t the only one trying to escape. . . .

    Beam Piper with active table of contents.Works include:The AnswerThe Cosmic ComputerCrossroads of DestinyDay of the MoronDearestThe Edge of the KnifeFlight From TomorrowFour-Day PlanetGenesisGraveyard of DreamsHe Walked Around the HorsesThe KeeperLast EnemyLittle FuzzyThe MercenariesMinistry of DisturbanceMurder in the GunroomNaudsonceNull-ABCOomphel in the SkyOmnilingualOperation R.S.V.P.PatrolPolice OperationRebel RaiderThe ReturnA Slave is a SlaveSpace VikingTemple TroubleTime and Time AgainTime CrimeUllr Uprising

    Lovecraft's Dreamlands provides everything needed for Call of Cthulhu investigators to travel down the seven hundred steps, through the Gates of Deeper Slumber, and into the realm of dreams. Includes a travelogue of the dreamlands, a huge gazetteer, dreamlands character creation rules, over thirty prominent NPC's, over 60 monsters who dwell within the dreamlands, descriptions of the dreamlands gods and their cults, six adventures to help jump start a dreamlands campaign, and a new fold-out map of the Dreamlands by Andy Hopp.

    You will explore untracked wilds, fight desperate battles, forge bonds with isolated communities, and reveal the secrets of this harsh land.Are you ready to swear iron vows and see them fulfilled—no matter the cost?

    Whether you're designing your own monstrous helpers as an enigmatic summoner, brewing up trouble with a grimy urban alchemist, or simply teaching an old rogue a new trick, this book has everything you need to make your heroes more heroic.The Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.The 336-page Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide includes:- Six new base classes: the monster-hunting inquisitor, the explosive alchemist, the noble cavalier, the prophecy-haunted oracle, the monster-crafting summoner, and the hex-weaving witch.- More than a hundred innovative new feats and combat abilities for characters of all classes, including Steal, Point-Blank Master, and Bouncing Spell.- Variant class abilities, rules subsystems, and thematic archetypes for all 11 core classes, such as the antipaladin, the hungry ghost monk, and the urban ranger- Hundreds of new spells and magic items, from phantasmal revenge to the Storm King's Cloud Castle.- A wealth of fantastic equipment, such as fireblast rods and fortune-tellers' cards.- New prestige classes like the Master Chymist and the Battle Herald.... and much, much more!Cover art by Wayne Reynolds

    It took startling leaps of imagination as well as careful thought and planning to create places like these: places that readers and players want to come back to again and again.Now, eleven of adventure gaming's top designers come together to share their insights into building worlds that gamers will never forget. Learn the secrets of designing a pantheon, creating a setting that provokes conflict, determining which historical details are necessary, and so much more.Take that creative leap, and create dazzling worlds of your own!Essays by Wolfgang Baur, Keith Baker, Monte Cook, Jeff Grubb, Scott Hungerford, David "Zeb" Cook, Chris Pramas, Jonathan Roberts, Michael A. Stackpole, Steve Winter, with an introduction by Ken Scholes.

    From a vast survey of primary sources ranging from eighteenth-century strategists to modern hobbyists, Playing at the World distills the story of how gamers first decided fictional battles with boards and dice, and how they moved from simulating wars to simulating people. The invention of role-playing games serves as a touchstone for exploring the ways that the literary concept of character, the lure of fantastic adventure and the principles of gaming combined into the signature cultural innovation of the late twentieth century.

    In “Vortex,” by Gregory Benford, astronauts find a once thriving microbial lifeform that carpets the caves of Mars dying off. A code monkey tracks down the vain creator of a pernicious software virus that people jack cerebrally in “RedKing,” by Craig DeLancey. In “Number Nine Moon,” by Alex Irvine, illicit scavengers on Mars are on a rescue mission to save themselves after one of their team members dies. A young girl’s thirst for vengeance becomes a struggle for survival when she is swallowed by a gigantic sea creature on an alien planet in “Of the Beast in the Belly,” by C.W. Johnson. In “The Seventh Gamer,” by Gwyneth Jones, a writer immerses herself into a MMORPG community to search for characters being played by real aliens from other worlds. A woman armed with a rifle stalks a herd of cloned wooly mammoths in British Columbia in “Chasing Ivory,” by Ted Kosmatka. In “Fieldwork,” by Shariann Lewitt, a volcanologist struggles with her research on Europa where both her mother and grandmother suffered dire consequences. A daughter pays homage to her mother with mega-engineering projects to deal with climate change over eons in “Seven Birthdays,” by Ken Liu. In “The Visitor from Taured,” by Ian R. MacLeod, a cosmologist in the near future is obsessed with proving his theory of multiverses. The citizens of a small town on a “Jackaroo” planet object to a corporation placing a radio telescope near local alien artifacts in “Something Happened Here, But We’re Not Quite Sure What It Was,” by Paul McAuley. And finally, in “Sixteen Questions for Kamala Chatterjee,” by Alastair Reynolds, a graduate student defends her dissertation on a solar anomaly that threatens humanity.

    You spend hours setting up the perfect encounter, your players are out for blood, the swords are drawn—and then you realize that you've forgotten to build statistics for the enemy characters. Or perhaps your players go left when you expect them to go right, leaving you without any encounters prepared.Such problems are a thing of the past with the NPC Codex. Inside this tome, you'll find hundreds of ready-made stat blocks for nonplayer characters of every level, from a lowly forest poacher to the most majestic knight or ancient spellcaster. Whether you're planning out future adventures or throwing together encounters right at the table, this book does the work so you can focus on playing the game.Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. This imaginative tabletop game builds on more than 10 years of system development and open playtests featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.The 320-page Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex includes:- Statistics for more than 300 characters, including at least one for every level of every class in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook.- Tactical suggestions for every character, ensuring that you get the most out of each individual's gear and abilities in a fight.- Tons of flavorful names and backgrounds to give characters personality, plus ideas for using them in both combat and roleplaying situations.- Statistics for characters with lower-powered NPC classes to help populate your world with ordinary people, as well as characters with specialized prestige classes.- Animal companion statistics for druids and rangers, from level 1 through level 20.- Multiple versions of each Pathfinder iconic character, perfect for pregenerated player characters.- Encounter groups for conveniently crafting battles on the fly.... and much, much more!Cover art by Wayne Reynolds