Out Friday.

I didn’t plan this, I promise.

The proof for Happy Birthday, Little Fears arrived today on my birthday. I have to give it a thorough once- or twice-over but it looks good upon first glance. If it’s good, I’ll sign off on it and I should have physical copies inside a week-and-a-half or so.

Incredibly shoddy photo evidence follows:

Ten years of Little Fears
When I first started work on that little game about kids fighting werewolves, I had no idea it would change my life so much or that it would inspire so many others. If nothing else, Little Fears proved to me that dreams matter and that hard work and passion should never be underestimated. Thank you again, all of you, for the past ten years. Here’s to many, many more.

top l-r: Little Fears (original), Kleine Aengste (German), Little Fears (French), GM Screen (French)

bottom l-r: Janus – Auferstehung (featuring the official Kleine Aengste soundtrack), Little Fears Nightmare Edition, Book 2: Among the Missing (for LFNE), Little Fears (10th Anniversary aka Happy Birthday, Little Fears), Kleine Aengste (Storybook)

If you already purchased and downloaded your copy of Happy Birthday, Little Fears through DriveThruRPG or RPGNow, you may wish to download the file again because I have just updated the PDF with over 20 pages of new old material. In my rush to get the game out, two supplements for the original Little Fears slipped through the cracks but I have corrected that grievous oversight.

If you haven’t already purchased your copy of Happy Birthday, Little Fears, well, I have good news! There are over 20 more reasons to do so! Y’know, if each page counts as a separate reason. Anyway…

You can purchase your own copy of this version of the original game using any of the links found in this post right here. I’m still giving folks the pre-order price but that will change once the hardcopies arrived next week. Order now and save!

(Oh, and yes, these will be in the print edition which I should have ready to ship next week.)

The folks at Retropunk Game Design are hard at work on the Portuguese translation of Little Fears Nightmare Edition! I heard from fans in Brazil for years about wanting an edition in their native tongue and I was excited when Retropunk took on the challenge. I was even more excited when I heard they brought LFNE and HBLF contributor Grumbleputty (Doug Snook) on board, not only for interiors to their edition but to do the cover as well!

Here’s the latest mock-up:

I love this image. This is very reminiscent of the Goosebumps series and other horror books featuring kids as protagonists. It’s still a work in progress, and they’re asking for input from the fans if you want to speak up on the matter, but I think this is great.

I’m really looking forward to this version of the game and I hope it does well for Guilherme and company.

The good folks at Protodimension Magazine have just put out the ninth issue of their PDF periodical that supports some of the finest horror roleplaying game there are. I’m honored they count my own Little Fears in the company of Dark Conspiracy*, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and other genre classics, and even more honored they’ve included a new scenario for Little Fears Nightmare Edition in their latest issue that hit digital shelves just last night.

Tad Kelson’s “Some Yards” begins as a haunted house scenario but soon turns into much more. It all starts when a friend of the group goes missing and ends with, well, that’d be cheating.

The latest issue of Protodimension boasts an impressive 94 pages of horror scenarios, gear, opinion, fiction, poetry—even a standalone RPG! You can grab your own copy right here. The Little Fears scenario begins on page 72 but you’ll want to check out the rest of the magazine after you savor that.

Thanks again to Norm, Lee, Tad, and everyone else involved with Protodimension. Here’s to many more issues!

*And so y’know, Dark Conspiracy 3rd Edition is due out soon!

Mary Downing Hahn knows how to write a Middle Grade thriller, and in her 2004 release The Old Willis Place, she spins one of her best, a ghostly yarn of loss and loneliness about a pair of siblings forced to live under some very strange restrictions.

From the Clarion paperback:

Diana and her little brother, Georgie, have been living in the woods behind the old Willis place, a decaying mansion, for what seems like forever. A strict set of rules won’t allow them to leave the property or even show themselves to anyone.

But when a new caretaker and his young daughter, Lissa, come to live there, Diana is tempted to break the mysterious rules for the first time in hopes of making a new friend. She and George learn quickly, though, that breaking the rules can have deadly consequences…

This book is perfect inspiration for a Little Fears episode (or mini-series of episodes). Its tone, as well as the truth the story slowly reveals, is straight out of the original Little Fears*, but the events have very strong ties to some of the elements found within Book 2: Among the Missing (for Little Fears Nightmare Edition)**. Whichever edition you fancy, The Old Willis Place has something for you.

If you enjoy the book, I highly recommend Ms. Hahn’s other works as well, especially Wait Till Helen Comes. I have another of her books, All the Lovely Bad Ones, on my to-read list as well. She’s one of the few authors whose books I’ll pick up without hesitation.

*The tenth anniversary edition of which just came out in PDF (and will be out in print shortly).

**And, coincidentally, touches on some stuff in the works for the not-yet-announced Little Fears Nightmare Edition Book 3.