Campfire Tales #1: Beggars Night has been released! Just (barely) in time for your Halloween festivities, this first entry in the monthly Campfire Tales series is set on the scariest night of the year and features one of the strangest (and most versatile) monsters in the world of Little Fears Nightmare Edition.

Product description:

Tonight is Halloween or, as it was once known, “Beggars Night”–a time for all kids to dress up, gorge on candy, and play a harmless prank or two. But perhaps some little monsters are taking the night’s traditions a bit too far. Tricks can be fun but when children start disappearing, things get serious real quick. Can your kids get to the bottom of things and stop some mischief makers before it’s too late?

“Beggars Night” is the first in the CAMPFIRE TALES series of monthly standalone episodes for use with Little Fears Nightmare Edition.

Just $2 for twenty pages of monster-hunting fun with more to come next month. Enjoy and let me know what you think of the first Campfire Tales!

(NOTE: Folks who pre-ordered have been sent codes for their PDF copies. If you pre-ordered Little Fears Nightmare Edition and have not received a code, please let me know and I will correct this as soon as I can.)

You were a normal kid once with a normal life and a normal family.
Then things changed. There was a moment when your life
took a sudden turn and you stopped being a normal kid.
You became a headline, a statistic,
a picture on the grocery store window.
A warning for other children.

Maybe you were taken, stolen by a monster,
or maybe you simply disappeared.

Whatever happened, at that moment,
you became one of the missing.

Every child has a story.

What’s yours?

In development.

A series of seemingly unrelated events in the same suburban homestead opens a demonic portal, unleashing pint-sized demons looking to gank some humans. They’re not hunting for sport though; they’re looking to summon their Antediluvian god to enslave mankind so they can rule the earth once again. Three young heroes stand between us and oblivion: pre-teens Glen and Terry and Glen’s big sister Al.

The Gate is pure Little Fears. You could run this as an episode without changing a thing, it’s that good. You have random freakiness, hostile teens, some only-in-the-80s lore, and a great batch of monsters whose final means of disposal is a textbook example of the subtler power of Belief. There are some surprising moments as well dealing with parental loss, friendship, the death of a beloved pet, and brother-sister bonding.

Dated though some of the effects may be, The Gate holds up very well. I’m interested to see what stays and what goes when the remake is finished but no matter what the new version does, the original will remain a classic.

Little Fears Nightmare Edition, the reboot of my very first roleplaying game, officially released one year ago today. I’m proud of the new game and am happy it’s done as well as it has. I wasn’t expecting anyone to care that I’d revamped a nine-year old game about kids fighting monsters so when you all showed, I was humbled by the response. You’ve supported me and cheered for me all along the way, and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.

Thing is, though, I’ve let you down. I had big plans for Nightmare Edition, plans that never happened. Some of it was because I had landed some (very much needed and appreciated) paying work that took my attention and my time and some of it was because, well, it’s hard to put into words.

But I hope to make good on some promises I made last year, even if not exactly in the way I promised. I don’t expect anyone to take this on faith; I need to earn your trust again. I hope you’ll give me the chance.

Happy birthday, Nightmare Edition. Now make a wish.

I’d planned on changing and updating the look of the site in the near future but unforeseen circumstances pushed that up the calendar a bit. Everything appears to be working but if you find something strange, missing, or possessed by monsters, email me and let me know, okay?

Trust me on this.

In 1693 Salem, three sisters plan to live forever by using a spell that steals the life force from children. While successful, they are soon rounded up and hanged but not before head witch-sister Winnie gets off a final gotcha: Should a virgin ever light their black flame candle, the three sisters will live again–if only for a night. Fast forward 300 years later, where California ex-pat, reluctant older brother, and—yes—virgin, Max is having some trouble fitting into his new home in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, Max ends up bringing back those three sisters putting his sister’s life and the rest of the town’s children in danger as the three sisters attempt to cast their spell again, ensuring they’ll live forever.

Yes, this is a family-friendly comedy but it is overflowing with cool stuff to pilfer for your own Little Fears Nightmare Edition games. First off are the sisters who are perfect out of the box for a lighthearted episode but could easily be darkened a bit if you want something more horrific. C’mon, family film though this may be, they are out to kill children. In addition, you have a kid who has been transformed into a cat, a reanimated corpse, a quasi-sentient book (complete with an eyeball inset on the cover) and three great character types (even if Max and his love interest are older than LF characters. Bump them down to 11 or 12 year olds and you’re golden). Anyone who has ever played a strong-willed young girl in an LF game should take notes from Thora Birch’s 8-year old Dani. Absolutely fantastic.

If you’re dismissive of this film as episode fodder, I understand, but I urge you to put your skepticism aside and check it out.

I had been meaning to watch this movie for years. I remember seeing previews of it on HBO as far back as the 80s and I was intrigued by this strange bearded man with tattoos of children on his hand. But I never sat down and watched it until last night.

Y’know, it’s pretty good.

Adapted by Ray Bradbury himself (with whom I share a birthday), the film differs greatly from the book in some regards but it’s all still rich and meaty fodder for your own Little Fears Nightmare Edition episodes. In the film, two young boys struggle with parental issues while idling in a small American town, bored and making trouble for want of something better to do. The midnight arrival of a carnival train is too intriguing to pass up and the boys are soon drawn into the magic of the place. What they don’t know is that the carnival preys on the wants and dreams of those who visit its strange attractions. What the carnival giveth, the carnival taketh away.

Carnivals, supernatural or not, are classic settings for horror with their twisting mazes, varied oddities, and general sense of dread, danger, and beauty. They have the distinction of being places that draw you to them while making you aware of how much an outsider you are. An apt description of how adult life must seem to a child, I’d say.

The carnival’s proprietor, the delightfully name Mr. Dark, brims with quiet creepiness. Mr. Dark, along with the conniving rousty Mr. Cooger and the exotic and dangerous Dust Witch, run the carnival and pose the primary threat. Any of them alone would make a great bad guy but together they form a trifecta of brilliant monsters.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a rare film that pulls you into its story with pitch-perfect pacing and mood and walks you along its darkened tracks with as much charm as threat. While portions are dated now (it is 27 years old), Bradbury’s script holds up well and the two young leads give solid performances. Predictably, Jonathan Pryce’s Mr. Dark steals the show, the blueprint for cunning snakes everywhere.