Inspiring Fear: Among the Sleep

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Jason L Blair

While the protagonist is too young to be a Little Fears character, Krillbite Studios’ Among the Sleep is a deeply intriguing concept. Currently in development for Mac and PC, this first-person game casts you in the role of a two-year old child who, after being put to bed one night, discovers some mysterious things afoot in his house. Sadly, I don’t know much more than that but I’ll be watching this one closely. You can check out Krillbite’s dev blog, the official Among the Sleep website, as well as watch their reveal trailer below.

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Grab STRANGE FORCES #1 free for Kindle

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Jason L Blair

I’m a little late in posting this, as the deal ends tonight, but you can grab Strange Forces #1 for free right now for Kindle. If you don’t have a Kindle device, you can download the app for PC, Mac, and iOS for the big old cost of nothing.

Fans may remember me extolling the virtues of Strange Force’s predecessor series, Strange Matters, a while back. If you’re not familiar with the series, check out the authors’ website for info.

You can grab your free copy of Strange Forces 1 by clicking this sentence. If you dig the book, please consider checking out Book 2, Book 3, and the newly-released Book 4 as well.

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Little Fears Custom Dice Pre-Order

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Jason L Blair

I am proud to announce I’m adding a new product to the Little Fears family. If you’ve paid attention to the previous updates, you’ve already guessed but:


Little Fears Custom Six-Sided Dice!

These black and gold beauties feature five pipped sides with the iconic butterfly image on the 6. These will be sold in groups of 10, perfect for use in any Little Fears game, whether you prefer original or Nightmare Edition. These dice will be officially released in June but you can save money by securing your sets now.

Pre-Order Little Fears Custom Dice—get a free werewolf*!

Pre-order now to get 10 custom Little Fears d6s for $15. As a pre-order bonus, I’ll throw in a PDF of Campfire Tales #7: Camp Howling Wolf which will kick off the summer season of spooky stories. (The PDF will be sent via DriveThruRPG so please include an email address for that.)


Email for PDF code delivery:



Thank you all for your feedback and enthusiasm on this. Please help spread the word!

ATTENTION THOSE ORDERING MULTIPLE SETS!
I’ve yet to figure out the proper way to make an exception for these dice through Paypal so if you’d like to order multiple sets of these, please email me at jasonlblair@gmail.com to avoid overpaying for shipping. If you’d only like one set, this button is the best way to process your order.

*Not really, sorry.

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Campfire Tales: Summer Season and Price Change

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Jason L Blair

The Campfire Tales Summer Season is set to launch next month, and I’m kicking off the new series with a hairy tale called “Camp Howling Wolf” that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

Now I love writing the Campfire Tales. They’re good fun, great writing practice, and allow me the chance to explore the world of Little Fears Nightmare Edition without committing to a big release. So that’s the upside. Because of my love of them and my wanting to provide you all with great value, I’ve always listed the Campfire Tales for just $2 each. As much as I love the fact they’re so cheap for you guys, that low price point is not without its drawbacks. As my plans for the Little Fears line become grander, I need the products I do release to bring in more cash. This is especially true as I look ahead to the costs of bringing Book 3 to market this fall.

So, starting with the release of “Camp Howling Wolf”, the price of all the Campfire Tales will increase to $5 each. I think that’s still a great value, and I hope you do too. The price increase will allow me to make even more big books as well as some other products I have planned.

But that price increase doesn’t go into effect until I release the next episode of Campfire Tales. Until then, you can still grab the first six Campfire Tales for just $2 a piece. If you’ve been thinking about trying them, or have gaps in your collection, now is the time to snag them. You can visit the FunSizedGames page on DriveThruRPG here or click any of the cover images below to go their respective purchase pages.

Thank you for your understanding and support in this. I hope you stick with me as I work to make and do more with my favorite game about kids fighting monsters.

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Little Sixes Flutter By

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Jason L Blair

So, something like this?

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Tossed to the Wind

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Jason L Blair

As I look at the schedule for both Streets of Bedlam and Little Fears Nightmare Edition for the coming year (*gulp*), I’m thinking about what sorts of other products you all might like to see.

I’m curious if enough folks would be interested in custom Little Fears dice to make them worthwhile. I’m thinking about a pack of 10d6 with five standard sides and a custom graphic on the 6. You could use them for whichever flavor of Little Fears you prefer.

Is this a product you would buy? I’d probably run a pre-order (as I do) and include some exclusive goods along with them. Anyway, if you’d be seriously interested, please let me know in the comments.

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NCMEC Charity Bundle at DriveThruRPG

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Jason L Blair

A few months ago, I mentioned to DriveThruRPG’s Matt McElroy (also of Flames Rising) about doing something for National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Matt was immediately amenable to the idea and went about rounding up participants for a charity bundle.

Here it is now, officially launched, and what a bundle it is!

I donated my own Little Fears Nightmare Edition Book 2: Among the Missing. It sits alongside:

World of Darkness: Innocents
KidWorld
Teenagers from Outer Space
The Play’s the Thing
BASH! Ultimate Edition
Adventures in Wonderland
Adventures in Oz Character Pack
…and much more!

All for just $25, which goes to one of the best causes out there: helping the innocent. I hope you’ll consider making a donation and helping out a cause very close to my heart.

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New Edition to the Family

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Jason L Blair

Back in 2002, Oliver and Oliver at Feder und Schwert turned out one heckuva great-looking translation of the original Little Fears. Now, ten years later, they’ve done it again with the German version of Little Fears Nightmare Edition.

My comp copies of Kleine Aengste: Alptraum-Edition arrived today, and I am floored. This book is beautiful—I dare say it looks even better than their first edition.

I present these shoddy camera phone photos as evidence:


Huge thanks to Oliver and Oliver and everyone at Feder und Schwert for the great job. To those interested in a German version of LFNE, check out the official product page.

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Inspiring Fear: Strange Matter

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Jason L Blair

And I thought I was up on these things.

Despite the fact I have every book in both the Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Eerie, Indiana tie-in fiction lines, am well familiar with the many varieties (and hundreds of volumes) of Goosebumps books, and have numerous other Middle Grade selections (including some obscure series such as Fiendly Corners and Scream Shop), I somehow was completely unaware of the Strange Matter line until Little Fears fan RandolphC posted about it on the Yahoo!Group.

I am, quite frankly, ashamed of myself. And I should be, because the books sound great.

Published in the mid-to-late-90s, at the height of the “let’s frighten children” era, Strange Matter saw 30 books written alternately by Marty M. Engle and Johnny Ray Barnes, Jr. The line also spun off a four-book series called Strange Forces.

The series takes place in and around the city of Fairfield, and features tween protagonists encountering and battling supernatural threats that range from werewolves to undead athletes to plants masquerading as regular folks. Each book is a new situation, featuring sometimes-new/sometimes-recurring characters.

Kids fighting monsters. Sounds great.

Sadly, the original line is out of print but the authors are looking to bring it back in ebook format in the near future. Three of the four spin-offs are already out for Kindle (see here: 1, 2, 3). I’ll be sitting down with those soon and I look forward to picking up the originals as they’re released. I recommend you do too, as they seem prime inspiration for the game of childhood terror.

You can keep tabs on the series at the authors’ official site, and I’ll be sure to drop notices here as well. My best to the authors in their relaunch. I can’t wait to see what I missed.

(Big thanks to Little Fears Yahoo!Group member RandolphC for the heads up on this intriguing series.)

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Inspiring Fear: Monster House

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Jason L Blair

Some films are such obvious resources for Little Fears that I forget I haven’t already covered them. 2006’s animated tale Monster House is one such film, and I’d like to correct that omission right now.


(pictured, foreground left to right: Chowder, DJ, Jenny; background: evil demon-possessed single-family bi-level with full basement)

Monster House probably sounds like a typical haunted house story but what could be a by-the-numbers tale of a bunch of kids battling dark suburban forces soon becomes something much greater and with a lot more heart at its core than you might expect. The film centers on DJ, a kinda-weird kid with a kinda-even-weirder best friend named Chowder. Rounding out the major characters is newcomer Jenny who is soon dragged into DJ’s crazy idea that something seriously strange is wrong with the house across the street. As an attempt to find out more about the residence, the trio accidentally endangers the life of its resident, Old Man Nebbercracker. With its occupant gone, no one is around to contain the evil entity that does in fact live in the house and soon the entire neighborhood is in some serious trouble.

The supporting cast features Maggie Gyllenhaal as DJ’s babysitter Zee, Jason Lee as her dim-witted boyfriend Bones, Kevin James and Nick Cannon as a pair of bumbling cops, and Jon Heder as Skull, a video game-obsessed authority on the paranormal.

A haunted house is as classic a horror setting as you can get but Monster House adds enough new twists that it doesn’t feel played. Despite some places where it stumbles, I really enjoy Monster House and it’s a perfect fit for a Little Fears game. I highly recommend checking it out.

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