The game pits two to four players against each other in a bloodsoaked fury of monsters, cultists, and magic, as teams of backwoods abominations compete for the ultimate prize: the fabled Necronomicon, a book of strange magical power.

"Well gaw-lee!" exclaimed publisher and co-designer John Tynes, himself a Tennessee native. "If this ain't the dag-blastedest game I ever set three eyes and six toes on!" (Tynes is the co-creator of Delta Green^TM and Unknown Armies,^TM as well as the card game Creatures & Cultists.^TM)

"Shucky dang darn!" concurred co-designer Jesper Myrfors, incongruously enough a native of Sweden. "Bork bork bork!" (Myrfors is the original art director & graphic designer of Magic: The Gathering,^TM and served as game designer for the early M:TG expansion The Dark.^TM)

The Hills Rise Wild! is designed for gamers looking for a simple, fun miniatures game without tons of rules or a huge price tag. It's played on a game board made from 18 swappable tiles, with 32 cards, 24 cardstock miniatures (plus 24 grisly corpses to mark dead characters), and the much-feared Hats: folding markers you hang jauntily on injured characters to mark their status. All components are printed in glorious SquamouScope Color, with character art by Dennis Detwiller and cover art by Richard Pace. Also included are army sheets, a twenty-sided die, a pocket tape measure for rapid rulings, and the awe-inspiring Brutal Damage Table, where bad things happen to those you love.

$39.95.

The premise is so simple it's almost ignorant: Old Wizard Whateley has died and left behind his fabled copy of the Necronomicon, an ancient tome of blasphemous evil. You've got to ransack the ramshackle shacks of Dunwich and locate the lost Whateley Seal, with which you can open up the magically-warded Whateley Manor and find the Necronomicon. Then you take it back to your Summoning Circle, summon the dark god of your choice, and win the game. Of course, the other players aren't going to sit back and watch you win . . . you've got to fight them tooth and claw, strategically using your various characters to their best advantage. Players take the roles of four teams of six characters each:

The Marsh Clan, led by the fearsome Captain Obed Marsh. These half-man, half-frog monstrosities have bubbled up from Innsmouth looking for trouble.

The Whateley Clan, led by Wilbur Whateley with his pants full of tentacles. Old Wizard cut his no-account kinfolk out of the will, and they're out to claim their bloodright.

The DeGhoule Clan, led by the always-hungry Angela DeGhoule. Burrowing up from the cemeteries of Arkham, the DeGhoules are a group of corpse-eating city-folk making a rare foray into rural Massachusetts.

The Cult of Ezekiel, led by the mysterious Father Darke. Are they not men? They are not men! This sinister group of robed weirdos has landed from distant shores with a trunkload of trouble.