Fading Suns Bundle of Holding deals!

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Through MONDAY, JULY 22 we present TWO offers featuring FADING SUNS Fourth Edition, the far-future passion-play SFRPG from Ulisses Spiele. “Fading Suns” has starships, blasters, powered armor, alien races, and weird science — but also heroic knights, noble lords, high priests, and headstrong merchants — quests, artifacts, and inscrutable mysteries. And there is horror: monsters and terrifying metaphysical truths. It’s a medieval passion play, where Humanity’s greatest civilization has fallen, bringing a Dark Age to the Known Worlds. The Universal Church of the Celestial Sun (modeled on the historical Byzantine Orthodox Church) pursues cosmic intrigues against the Noble Houses and the Reeves Guild. But even as the stars fade to cinders and the sinful await Final Judgment, a leader has arisen. Emperor Alexius has sworn to unite the worlds again under one banner — to ignite hope once more.

Start with the revived July 2022 FADING SUNS 4E BUNDLE, with all three Fourth Edition core rulebooks and early supplements.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2024FS4

And its companion offer, FADING SUNS 4 LOST WORLDS

Then venture beyond the Phoenix Empire frontier with the all-new companion offer, FADING SUNS 4 LOST WORLDS, a collection of recent supplements that explore the star systems cut off from the Known Worlds a millennium ago:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/FS4LostWorlds

Whether or not Emperor Alexius can save the darkening stars, it won’t be long before these two FADING SUNS offers flicker into nothingness together — specifically MONDAY, JULY 22.

James A. Moore’s Dangerous Toys

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Are you going to be at StokerCon? Come see my live-play RPG session with an incredible group of players/writers — all in remembrance of James A. Moore! Saturday at noon! Here’s the description:

Come watch your fellow StokerCon guests play the KIDS ON BIKES rpg in remembrance of James A. Moore! Jim contributed many horrors to White Wolf’s World of Darkness game lines, including a number of gruesome creations for Werewolf: the Apocalypse. In this live-play game, our players will encounter a few of the sinister children’s toys from Jim’s imagination, as brought to you by the geniuses at the Pentex Corporation. It’s 1993, there are no cell phones, grunge rock is on the radio, and school’s out — time to ride bikes and investigate the strange goings-on in your neighborhood.

Mythogenesis

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I want to tell about an event coming up in March (22nd and 23rd) that is important to me (I am helping to organize it). The Atlanta Jung Society will host Robert Walter and Bradley Olson in a conversation (Friday night) and a “playshop” (Saturday) on the topic of Mythogenesis. Please check out this link for full information and registration.

The Friday conversation (Mar 22, 7:30pm) will be available online and in-person (at The Link Counseling Center near Atlanta), so anyone anywhere can attend. It will be recorded for later viewing, in case you can’t make it that night (but you do need to register before 7:30pm that night).

Saturday is game day! We’ll play Bob’s game, D-PiCT™: The Game of Mythogenesis. This is in-person only — participatory. So if you’re in the Atlanta area, please join us! (Or book your flight now!)

I always love talking with Bob. You can see me blathering on this keynote panel with him at the SIEGE game conference a while back. (Also includes Andrew and Dan Greenberg.) Who is Bob? He was Joseph Campbell’s friend, editor, and literary executor, and the co-founder of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. I had the pleasure of working with him in 2004 and 2006 on the Mythic Journeys Conferences.

Blessed Lux Splendor!

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[Each year, I post a short piece of Fading Suns fiction to celebrate the holidays. For more info on Fading Suns, see the links in the menu.]

From the journals of Guiseppe Alustro, December 24th, 5023, Holy Terra:

As the glowing embers in the nearby grate warm my study and I prepare to record recent events, I am reminded of that pilgrim I encountered those many years ago on Nowhere. We had joined a caravan to journey to the Gargoyle and encountered, late in the evening, a similar caravan returning from that goliath’s site. Among them was an old hesychast named Martina. I could see in her eyes a certain light, which I deduced to be a fervor evoked by an encounter with Urzenkai. I asked to join her by the fire. Young and impertinent, I intruded upon her hospitality by asking what I later learned was considered to be a terribly rude question on Nowhere. I asked her what the Gargoyle had shown her.

She stared at me for a while, judging me. Perhaps my sincerity shone through, as she eventually gave a curt nod and gazed into the fire. “Gifts. So many gifts. We are told that the Pancreator’s grace is tiring, like the light in the dying embers of this fire. We are fools, like children on Lux Splendor who have opened all our presents and complain that there are no more to unwrap. The Pancreator’s creation is endless. Are there not always more presents when Lux Splendor comes around again? So it is with the universe.”

I nodded. It was a heartwarming message, but not the thunderous prophecy I expected from the Gargoyle. As I rose to rejoin my companions, she spoke again. “Worry not, young Alustro. Urzenkai has a message for you.” This halted me. I had not given her my family name, only my first name. I opened my mouth to speak but she had pulled the hood over her head, signaling that she was done speaking.

She spoke truly, of course. The Gargoyle did give my lady and I a vision of great import. Yet, only now, as I think back upon it, do I believe that her message of grace and gifts was the more important one.

Next Up: Monsterama Con!

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I’ll be at Monsterama Con this October 27-29 in Atlanta, at the Hilton Northeast.

My panel schedule:
FRIDAY
6:30pm — Three (Stephen) Kings: The Dead Zone, Christine, and Cujo all released in the same year. [MEDIA room]
9:30pm — Some Kind of Star Trek Panel: Monsters in Star Trek
11pm — Twilight Zone: The Movie — “There’s something on the wing!” [MEDIA room]

SATURDAY
11:30pm — What Makes Horror Games Scary

See you there!