LITTLE FEARS NIGHTMARE EDITION BOOK 2: AMONG THE MISSING IS OUT NOW IN PDF

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.

Book 2: Among the Missing is an expansion to the Little Fears Nightmare Edition game. In it, we talk about what missing children mean in the world of Little Fears, how kids become missing, what happens to them next, how they can help in the fight against monsters, and how they can be saved. Includes expanded GMC rules, new monsters, information about the World In-Between, and a full-length episode titled “The Long Way Home.”

If you pre-ordered a copy of the PDF, you should already have your code. If you don’t, email me using the contact form above or at jason at this domain. If you didn’t pre-order the PDF, you can grab a copy now for $10 from the good folks at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

I’m going to send the files to the printer next week for those waiting on a physical book. In the mean time, if you notice any errors or find something that could use a dose of clarity, now’s the time to let me know!

With the PDF launch just two days away, let’s dig a little deeper into Book 2: Among the Missing by taking a look at the rarest type of missing: those who fall into the gaps between Closetland and the real world, those who are suddenly displaced, those whose very existence becomes questioned, whose families suddenly don’t know them, and whose entire foundation shatters in a heartbeat.

Click below for a PDF preview of Chapter Five: Through the Cracks, a look at the forgotten.

I wanted to get this up earlier but the week before a book’s release is always a maddening (and fun! But oh-so-maddening) time.

I plan to do at least one more sneak peek before the book hits digital shelves on Wednesday, and then a couple more as the print edition gets closer to launch.

Click the image below for a PDF preview of Chapter Two: By Inhuman Hands. It takes a look at the Stolen, those taken by monsters. I hope you enjoy the preview and let me know what you think in the comments below!

I am very happy to announce that Retropunk will be publishing a Portuguese-language version of Little Fears Nightmare Edition!

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Retropunk, they are the Brazil-based publisher behind the Portuguese-language versions of such titles as Trail of Cthulhu from Pelgrane Press, 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars from BoxNinja, and Triple Ace’s Daring Tales line of Savage Worlds supplements.

When Retropunk is ready to release more information (schedule, line-up, etc) and previews, I’ll do my best to share it with you all.

With two weeks until its May 25th release, I figured now was a good time to show off some of Book 2: Among the Missing. The past month has been a blur of writing, art direction, and layout as that big idea I had a while back solidifies as an actual, honest-to-goodness product. And the pre-orders have served as great motivation to keep my head down and going forward as more and more people put their money where my mouth is.

I have a great art team on this book. Veronica V. Jones and Doug Snook (Grumbleputty) return from the main book and I’ve added George Cotronis and Jeff Preston to the mix as well, doing the considerable number of chapter intro images.

I’ll post a couple PDF excerpts as we get closer to launch but, for now, take a look at two of the characters Grumbleputty did for the book. First is a member of the Army of St. Nicholas called Walter Highways. The second is called simply The Cat and it’s one feisty feline you don’t want to cross your path.

I hope you dig these peeks at the art and come back for more previews in the coming weeks.

Book 2: Among the Missing is on track for PDF release on May 25th with print to follow soon after. The pre-order ends tonight but you’ll be still be able to order the physical book after, and pick up the PDF anytime once it hits DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

I’m a bit late shining a light on this one, admittedly, but R.L. Stine’s new series The Haunting Hour is perfect inspiration for any Little Fears game. An anthology series, the show introduces new protagonists and concepts every week, much like Twilight Zone or Tales from the Darkside, but the episodes always center on kids and teens and feature some strange, evil, and/or mystical foe or presence.

I first heard of this new anthology series, based on the R.L. Stine’s story collection of the same name, back in October. The show had a bit of an odd start. A two-parter aired on Halloween weekend, announcing the series, and another duo of episodes (this time, unconnected) showed on Christmas. The series kicked off proper in early January with new episodes every week since then. The first season is almost over (told you I was late) but it’s been renewed for a second and I’m hoping dearly for a DVD set release (unlike Goosebumps’s mini-sets and themed two-to-four episode collections).

It’s airing on The Hub here in the States, which is a great channel all around, at 8p Eastern every Saturday. If you get a chance to catch it or record it, I highly recommend it. I’m a big fan of the old Goosebumps show as well as Are You Afraid of the Dark? (I’m a big fan of anthology television, period) and this has some great stories that you can easily adapt to your own Little Fears or Little Fears Nightmare Edition series.

(A TV movie based on the books, The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It starring Emily Osment and Tobin Bell, came out in 2007. You can find it on DVD every Halloween at your local mass-market retailer.)

You read that right.

An outfit called Regret Games runs a series they call “saga games” at conventions and this year they’re running steampunk variants of a bunch of games, including Dogs in the Vineyard and Misspent Youth. My own 2001 release Little Fears is included in that batch. Here’s a snippet of the event description:

The child-engineers of the Undercity agree that the Overcity must be falling apart, what with all the broken pipes, ruptured valves and, worst of all, the coal lines exploding at random. Any Undercity kid can tell you the stories – the warnings – that if you don’t clean your face before you sleep, especially around your eyes, they will take you. If you’re lucky, you’ll come back in a day or two, walking like a zombie and seeing the Undercity through new, coal-blackened eyes, and you won’t remember anything you once were. If you’re unlucky, well… that’s a story best left untold.

All the games take place inside the same world but are standalone adventures. So you can play event to hear one part of the story, or play all to get the big picture.

Sounds like fun to me.

If you’re going to be at GenCon 2011, check out their event schedule here.

A huge thanks to everyone who pre-ordered Book 2: Among the Missing throughout the month of April. Not only did your orders help validate the past couple months of hard work but you helped raise $75 for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. I tallied the orders Sunday morning and made the donation immediately after through the NCMEC’s online donation form. Here’s a screen-cap of the online receipt:

I also put a note that the donation was in honor of the Little Fears Nightmare Edition Book 2 Pre-Order Customers but that didn’t copy over to the receipt. Alas!

If you didn’t get your pre-order in yet, don’t worry! You have until May 11th to pre-order the book in print and/or PDF and save some money in the process. See this post for details.

Thank you again to all those who helped raise money for this incredibly important cause. I hope you all enjoy Book 2 when it hits virtual shelves on May 25th (and physical ones soon after).