C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 56

Interview with Matthew Davenport about Chicago by Night 5E

 Hey folks,

I am one of the biggest fans of Chicago by Night 1st Edition that exists. For those who wonder what the hell I'm talking about, it is a supplement created in 1992 for the tabletop role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade. The premise was the city of Chicago was secretly controlled by vampires ranging from the beautiful Annabelle to the unliving Al Capone. Further figures like Critias of Athens, Helen of Troy, and Meneleus were also undead inhabiting the Windy City. You, as ne...

Halloween (2018) review

    This is the third time the Halloween series has been rebooted and the second time with Jaime Lee Curtis coming back to take on the role of Laurie Strode. The first time when Halloween H20, which, honestly, I kind of like better. The ending to that film was ruined by the execrable Halloween: Resurrection but said more or less everything that needed to be said. That's going to be an unpopular opinion on this film, that it's good but not great but I really loved H20. Michael d...

20 Recommended Indie Fantasy and Sci-Fi

 Hey folks,

    One of the things I struggle with as both a fantasy and sci-fi reviewer as well as a fan is the fact I want to support independent authors but can't really wade through it all. In this age of digital publication, there's tens of millions of titles available on Amazon.com but no way to say "This one is really good" and "this one is really bad" save reviews. However, no one wants to wade through hundreds of reviews either. Also, what if a new book hasn't gotte...

New novels out - Predestiny and Blackest Knights

Hey folks,

I know everybody is waiting for me to release THE TOURNAMENT OF SUPERVILLAINY and I'm extra excited about that. However, in the meantime, I've got two new releases which I hope people will check out.

PREDESTINY 

By. C.T. Phipps and Frank Martin

Robbie Stone thought he was on the right side of history. He wanted to make a difference by protesting Butterfly, a megacorporation slowly taking over the United States in the near feature. But after he’s attacked by a group of assassins, R...

This is my Blood by David Niall Wilson

Warning - The following book deals with religion and vampirism in a serious way. I know David Niall Wilson from previous collaborators but this review has been conducted with no bias.

    Jesus gets a lot of vampire jokes made about him. I say this with dead seriousness. "JESUS THE VAMPIRE: Jesus gave his blood, now he wants it back - coming to a theater near you" is a T-shirt I've seen before. This is a in part because the 19th century vampire (and later Hammer Horror's depicti...

Sunglasses after Dark (Sonja Blue #1) by Nancy A. Collins

    SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK by Nancy A. Collins is the first of the Sonja Blue novels that I have been recommended multiple times but haven't gotten around to reading until now. I actually know Nancy Collins, first, from her Vampirella comics that were quite entertaining and sadly cut short. I also knew her to be an author who had briefly put her characters in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe but I had never read her signature Sonja Blue series.

    The premise...

Beckett's Jyhad Diary (Vampire: The Masquerade) review

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE remains the most influential of all tabletop roleplaying games in my life and is pretty much under DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS for influence on the world as a whole. The Blade Trilogy, Underworld, True Blood, Dark, Vampyr, and a huge number of other works were all influenced by it. Recently, Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition came out and electrified the fanbase. However, 5E didn't cover what a lot of people most remember about the game: the metaplot.

Metaplot for those unfam...

Straight Outta Fangton excerpt

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Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition review

    VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE 5TH EDITION is a book I never expected to see. I was a huge fan of Vampire: The Masquerade in the nineties. I was about as big a Gothic Punk as a tabletop roleplaying gamer could be in the South with no Goths around him, no black clothing in his wardrobe, and a restrictive Catholic high school. I loved pretending to be 8th generation Elder Lord Sirrius of the Ventrue and Erasmus Von Prague the Tremere Knight. It was a game inspired by INTERVIEW WITH...

Kings of Paradise (Ash and Sand #1) review

    KINGS OF PARADISE by Richard Nell is one of the favorites to win the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (#SPFBO). It is a story which has been recommended to me over and over again. I was surprised by this because the fantasy fans I hang around with are a very cynical bunch. If one liked THE POPPY WARS, then the next disliked it. I was a huge fan of 1000 SCARS but others were iffy about it. Here? Just about everyone who read this novel had nothing but praise for it. They said...