Previous blogs in this series: Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age is Imminent! Will Wasted Lands be a Retroclone? What Are Divine Touchstones? Races (Species) and Cultural Backgrounds How Do Tiered Abilities Work?   Class Abilities - Powered by O.G.R.E.S. In previous blogs we've looked behind the curtain at what  the O.G.R.E.S. system  brings to the table for your fantasy game, whether it is a retroclone or something different, and how features such as Divine Touchstones, nonhuman Species and cultural backgrounds, and Tiered Attributes work in the game. The most recent blog with Tiered Attributes took a look at the ability check mechanic, which functions by rolling a d20, adding applicable bonuses and trying to get a 20 or better.  This blog will look at how class abilities work in the O.G.R.E.S. system. For those who are familiar with old-school gaming, it should look quite familiar, though with a few twists to better codify and unify the mechanic across the board. For those who are

 First things first: If you're new to the blog and are curious about other "deep dives" into the Wasted Lands, O.G.R.E.S., and how it all works, check out our other blogs in this series (or just click on one of the label tags):  Races (Species) in Wasted Lands What are Divine Touchstones? Will Wasted Lands Be a Retroclone? Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age is Imminent! Tiered Abilities in Wasted Lands Wasted Lands is Powered by O.G.R.E.S., the house system for  Elf Lair Games . It uses three base mechanics on the backend: the Check mechanic, the percentile Class Ability mechanic, and the Rule of 2. The most common of these is the straight-up d20 attribute check and combat mechanic, and that is the focus of this blog. This mechanic covers everything from save checks to sneaking, searching for clues in a setting, and anything else that is not covered by a class ability, while also serving as a  backup  for class abilities.  That is to say, if you have a class ability - say, a

It's time for another peek behind the curtain in Wasted Lands. In case you've missed our past posts, we have already covered what type of game Wasted Lands will be , and how Divine Touchstones work in game. This time we'll look at nonhuman species and cultural backgrounds. These things in the O.G.R.E.S. system work a bit differently than some of our old-school (and even new-school) players may be used to seeing, but at the same time will have a degree of familiarity. Let's dive in.  Why "Species?" First things first: why "species" and not "race?" The use of the term "species" goes back to Night Shift: VSW .  We chose the term species for a couple reasons (and we did it long before those Wizards decided to pretend it's some sort of socially relevant term). First, it's flat-out more accurate: elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and the like are quite literally a different species from humanity. Races occur within the same sp

  (This blog cross-posted from elflairgames.blogspot.com . Follow us over there as well!) Peoples and Culture of the Dreaming Age The core conceit behind  Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age  is that you play the origins of the gods of old. You are not actually  playing  gods - in fact, you're not even  playing  modern humans. You are playing "proto-humans" who were created by the Great Old Ones experimenting on native creatures. Thus, while every "human" has the same game stats, one might look more avian, one may appear reptilian, another simian, one rodentian, etc.  Similarly, the cultures in the Dreaming Age are sort of proto-versions of later ancient world cultures. The game is set 54 million years ago, between the time of the K/T Extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs (and sent the Old Ones into their eternal slumber), and a second great cataclysm that wipes all the remaining traces of the Old Ones' civilizations from the world. During this time, the

  (This blog is cross-posted from our Elf Lair Games blog. Please follow us there as well!) I have spent a good deal of time on this blog talking about what O.G.R.E.S. brings to the table for role playing, how it codifies the original system for fantasy role playing (the original, B/X, and advanced versions) to make it clear how intuitive they are to use, and balances out the results to unify the mechanics across the board - making spell casting, for example, work the same as every other class ability by changing it to a percentile instead of Vancian.  A number of fans across the board have been waiting to see our fantasy take on the system (and it has been TOO long coming - we honestly should've had this done a year ago, but I'm solo on this one. Tim and Derek have been supporting me all the way, helping with proofing, ideas, and critiques, but Elf Lair needed a game that would support the company without the need for royalties.  We are now coming very close to the launch of

Now that we have the multiverse officially in place with the MCU, that makes pretty much every single media property throughout the history of the company part of the MCU. In case anyone was wondering, and just for fun, I’ve put together the correct chronological order of ALL of the Marvel films across the entire Multiverse, including all theatrical films since the 1990s. Here they are. All 64 of them so far, should you want to watch them in chronological order. I did not include the TV series in here because let’s be realistic.  I have also added Earth designations from the official Marvel database, modified with additional designations where crossovers may theoretically exist. It is possible, for example, that the Deadpool movies take place in the X-Men universe, but by no means certain, and it is likely that the intent of Logan is to present an endgame for the Earth-10005 timeline, but it was given its own designation "just in case".) According to the Marvel Database, real