Elf Lair Games is proud to announce the release of the Deluxe Edition of Spellcraft & Swordplay. This 176-page game incorporates all errata to date and includes revised and expanded material, including new Elite Paths, unarmed combat, naval combat, disease, new spells, and more. It is our intent that this will be the final version of S&S to hit the market, barring any true second edition years down the road. The great thing about PoD is the ability to fix errors as you go, but you can only take that so far. So it is our hope that this version of S&S gives our fans and those who have been undecided the game they've always thought and hoped S&S could be. As a final note, if you already own S&S AND Monstrous Mayhem, there's no need to purchase this book--it doesn't have anything that S&S and MM don't already include. The Deluxe Edition is available at our Lulu store, accessible from our web page at http://www.grey-elf.com/ . The hardcover ...

Ashurii is a country that really consists of two smaller city-states and a number of towns and villages between. These two city-states are Babyl in the south, and Qandar in the north. Both share a common racial culture and ancestry, and have similar pantheons of deities. With the preponderance of barbarian activities in the north, and the mad kingdom of Hastur to the east, it made sense for Babyl and Qandar to link together in a common legal and defense system. Thus it was decided that Babyl, the larger of the two cities, would be the capitol, with its Caliph ruling with equal pull as the Caliph of Qandar, and three additional Caliphs being chosen from amongst the smaller towns and villages in the land to give voice to these lesser communities. Decadence and corruption are rampant in Ashurii, but rather than being a quiet rot that takes the country from within, these aspects of Ashurii society are accepted as part of the culture and in the open. This acceptance of open decadence ...

Well, I got a holy crapload of work done this weekend on Twelve Parsecs. The vehicle rules are progressing well, and I think people already familiar with the system will pick them up instantly. As with most stuff powered by O.R.C.S., they can be as complex (if you include the tactical minis stuff) or simple (if you freeform it) as you like. Generally speaking vehicles work just like characters, with the same 6 Ability Scores (though they combine in unusual ways with PC Abilities--a PC, for example, would make an Intellect check to use a ship's FTL drive, but capped by the ship's Strength, which represents its engines). Ship combat works off of Ability Checks rather than weapon vs. armor as does man-to-man combat, but I think it works. Anyway, after I finish with vehicle rules I'll probably get the psychic powers written up--been putting that off. Then I'll decide how detailed I want to get with cybernetics, robotics, and computer hacking systems. After that, ...

So I was just thinking about my Chainmail combat, and I hit a minor snag...sort of. The combat system works just fine, no worries there. Where I run into problems is saving throws. Part of the reason for this little exercise was to remove the use of any dice but d6's from the purview of the players--only the DM will roll % dice, d4, d8, d12, etc., and then only for checking charts and probabilities (surprise, etc.) This leaves us with the problem of the Saving Throw. Saving throws, as laid out in Men and Magic, are made with a d20, with no alternate system referenced. ...at least, not explicitly. But there is, in fact, a saving throw system in Chainmail . On page 31 of Chainmail we see the necessary rolls on 2d6 to "Save" a figure from a Wizard's missiles. Can we, then, extrapolate from this to work out a 2d6 Save system for OD&D? I believe we can. Chainmail has Heroes and Super Heroes being saved on a roll of 9 and 6 or better, respectively. if Heroes a...

Well, folks. Here it is: a preview of the cover art for Twelve Parsecs. Enjoy!

Well, Twelve Parsecs has taken off at breakneck speed the past couple days. I'm well into the vehicle rules, now. With these done it'll be about ready to start playtest, though without Mystics or cybernetics involved (as I've not done psychic powers or cybernetics rules). If you follow this blog and would like to be in on discussions about our games and products or whatever, PLEASE by all means stop by our forums at http://elflairgames.proboards.com/ and contribute! I've just put up a forum for 12P and would love to hear about what people would like to see. Also, I'm pleased to announce that the S&S boxed sets are now OFFICIALLY SOLD OUT. The last four went to my FLGS today. Will we do another run in the future? Depends on a lot of factors, the most important being whether I can find a better, more economical way to do it than sitting at my dining room table for hours ad nauseum stapling booklets by hand and stuffing boxes. Seriously, just doing 30 of th...

Twelve Parsecs is creeping along. A few other things have distracted my attention of late, not the least of which are a major freelance project which I was going to back out of, but which the guy talked me into sticking with, and the fact that I GOT ACCEPTED TO GRADUATE SCHOOL. However, I have just taken steps to license a GORGEOUS piece of art for the cover. Once that's all settled I'll see about posting a preview. We're looking to have a real art and layout budget for T.P. (hopefully it doesn't bite us) and if that works out, you'll see much nicer, higher-end product from us in the future. This includes Eiru and Apotheosis (which has yet to be given its final title). Just a quick update. Not much else to post. Sally forth and battle on!

A few minutes ago I posted a ranger variant...that wasn't meant for here; it was meant for my other blog, The Wasted Lands , which is dedicated to OD&D. Apologies if anyone thought I was posting an S&S Ranger Variant.

Just a note to self: Dragon Magazine #19 (Thule) #16 (Mu/Atlantis), #13 (Lemuria), #12 (Ashurii). Dragon #27 has the African Mythos...perhaps adapt for the southern jungles of the Khemite continent? Some of these may be represented in different forms in Supplement IV or D&DG. Will have to check.

Looks like I'll be adding the Ranger as well, with a couple modifications. First, the class will be re-named "Border Fighter," and being Good (remember, I'm swapping out Lawful and Chaotic) is no longer a requirement. There's nothing inherently "Good" or "Evil" about the skill set of this class, so it seems to me that since I'm not reproducing Tolkien there's no reason to require it. Tracking is not done with percentile dice, but with the roll of a d6: Outdoors the ranger has a 5-in-6 chance of tracking, this chance being reduced by one for every two days old the signs are. Indoors the ranger tracks as follows: Monster's Action Ranger needs to track Goes down a normal passage 1-4 Goes through a door (normal or trap) 1-3 Goes up/down a chimney or shaft 1-2 Goes through a secret door 1 In a city, treat empty streets as normal passages, moderately populated areas as "going through a door," and heavily populated/bustling ar...

Our revenue from Lulu this month was our best yet by THREE TIMES what it's been in the past. That means you guys continue to spread the word about S&S! Keep it going, folks! With your help we're going to have some very slick product on store shelves very soon!

Now that I have acquired copies of all 6 issues of The Strategic Review, I will be allowing the Bard class from therein, albeit with some modifications. Since I am removing %-based thief skills per Philotomy's alternate Thief class, I'm doing the same with the Bard. Thus, instead of a percentage chance to charm people with his song, the Bard's opponents gain a saving throw, as though against spells. This saving throw gains a bonus of +1 for every two levels or hit dice above three the listener is. Likewise, for every 10% of "special" bonus a creature would have in the rules (such as the undead's 10% bonus), the creature gains +1. Likewise, the bard's Lore ability counts as a bonus to a roll of 2d6 (my OD&D is striving to allow players to only use d6's), with a target number of 12. This bonus is equal to +1 per 20% of Lore ability. While jack-of-all-trades entertainers can be found the world over, Bards are common in two areas of the world. Fenn...

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. Nothing really new to report. We're still selling great on Lulu, work continues on Twelve Parsecs, and I've begun to put some notes together for my Swords-and-Sorcery game, while Tim works on Vampire Queen and Eiru. I'm waiting on some in-house playtest comments from a board game I'm developing, then I have to find someone willing to manufacture it, if it's deemed worth manufacturing. The first edition may just be a "do it yourself" set of rules (the board can be drawn on any 1" hex grid, and minis can be used for pawns) on Lulu. The trials and tribulations of trying to become a real publisher when I don't have a real bank account. Heh. That's all for now. Sally forth and battle on!

Click the map to view a larger version

Situated to the northeast of Hyperboria lies the rocky, desolate, gray region of Fennokarelia. The people of Fennokarelia are a hunter-gatherer culture, similar to the Hyperborians, if only slightly less warlike. Where the Hyperborians tend to be stocky and muscular, the Fens tend towards a lankier build, though most still sport well-corded muscles and well-toned bodies. The primary diet of the Fens is meat from mountain goats, elk, and oxen, fish (particularly in the coastal regions) and hardy grains, some of the few edible plants that can be cultivated in the rocky soil of the land. Seal meat is also a delicacy to Fens, as the animals are found in wide varieties along the Northern Coasts. Like the Hyperborians, they trade with hobbit communities to the south, where farmland is richer and night and day are more likely to be stable cycles. While the Fens are slightly less warlike than their Hyperborian neighbors, they do field a fierce warrior culture, and do not hesitate to de...

Bear with me: this post is going to of necessity assume familiarity with Chainmail and OD&D...and it will rehash and act as further defense for a position I've already defended. There's been a HUGE amount of discussion recently--some of it initiated by yours truly--about the use of Chainmail with OD&D, "as intended." Now, luminaries of those early days (Mike Mornard in particular) have come out to say that the original campaigns never used Chainmail, that the "Alternate System," which became the standard d20-based combat of later editions, was always the system of choice. Still, grognards are grognards, and we are scholars of the games we love. This leads to a lot of debate about just how to use Chainmail with OD&D, as it's not 100% clear in the rule books. Personally, I've noted a lot of these discussions try to shoehorn the whole thing into one of the three combat systems in Chainmail (the "Troop Type," as I call it, the Man...

A number of people, on hearing that I plan to use the original AD&D Deities and Demigods in my OD&D Wasted Lands game have given me guff. "If you're bringing AD&D stuff in, it ain't OD&D anymore!" they cry. Well, folks, I humbly disagree, at least in this case. Using supplemental material from AD&D--D&DG or even Manual of the Planes doesn't alter the essence of the game. The writeups for the gods in D&DG are quite similar to those in Supplement IV, and in many cases simply better and more detailed. This is all ignoring the fact that once you use all four supplements, OD&D looks a lot like AD&D. In any case, my use of D&DG is for reference and informational purposes. See, it comes down to how exactly you look at gods in D&D. Some people think they're there to be killed; that's why they have stats. Some people think that's ludicrous, you can't kill a god. I'm somewhere in the middle, I gue...

Just like the Cylons, we have a plan. Unlike the Cylons, we know what our plan is. For now, for the time being, Spellcraft & Swordplay will remain in print-on-demand through Lulu. We are still going ahead with the expanded version of S&S--I will divide the store into separate pages for various product lines, these being Basic S&S and Expanded S&S right now. It has been brought to our attention that the wide use of public domain art will hurt S&S's chances on game store shelves, and after some careful soul-searching, I tend to agree. S&S is my baby and I love it--as, I'm gathering, do most of you. But presentation matters a LOT in game stores. So here's the plan. S&S stays PoD for the time being. Fear not, however: we will continue to support it, and Tim Brannan is currently working on our first adventure module. He's also got a second sourcebook in the works. We will be using all the profits from S&S for a real art and layout budget ...

Khem is a proto-Egyptian society. Its deities should have equivalents in Supplement IV. (Also, apologies to Geoff McKinney, and a disclaimer: I've had Carcosa in here for a long time, and it's in no way the same as his world of Carcosa--Mine is simply a city in the Kingdom of Hastur. Simply assume the same source material--the writings of Robert W. Chambers--and nothing else.) Khem Separated from the northern Yellow Kingdom of Hastur and the Ashurii Empire by a sea and situated around the north-flowing River Khemyx, the Empire of Khem nominally occupies an entire continent, though the southern tip, approximately 1/3 of the southern portion of the continent, is still controlled by savage barbarian tribes, and the Empty Space to the west is largely overrun with the Race of Yig. It is a powerful and mysterious region whose people are obsessed with the rites, rituals, and practices of death and funerals, and of what happens to the soul after one dies. Their society is a c...

I hope to get a world map together soon to present, but for now, let's just work out the realms of the Wasted Lands. Hyperborea Situated to the northwest of the Great Continent lies the vast realm of Hyperborea. Hyperborea is a cold, gray, unforgiving land where it is dark for six months out of the year, and dimly daylight the other six months. The clouds rarely lift in Hyperborea, and the cold wind that sweeps through the rocky hills and mountains strikes all who journey there like a thousand daggers. This land is home to a race of men as hard and unforgiving as the land over which they stride. It should be noted that dwarves and humans share the realm of Hyperborea, the men striding the surface lands and the dwarves roaming the underworld, but the two species intermingle freely, and all refer to themselves as a single race: Hyperboreans. The inhabitants of this realm place cultural pride above matters of simple biology. The Hyperboreans are a hardy, warrior race. They ...

It's possible that Spellcraft & Swordplay may not see distribution. I've advice from someone whose opinion I trust greatly that visually speaking, the game isn't up to store standards, though he says it is a great game that he has no doubt is perfect for PoD and will build a strong fan base. This makes sense--I had NO art budget and the layout is modest at best. It was distressing to hear, but not unexpected. So what does this mean for Elf Lair? It doesn't mean we're giving up, I'll tell you that much. There are other avenues I have yet to examine--one or two direct-sale fulfillment houses who may be amicable to working with us. We'll still be re-examining our sales model on Lulu to tighten it up a bit. We have three other core games planned, two of which are fantasy games powered by O.R.C.S. We may well end up keeping S&S as a PoD and direct sale generic system, while trying to adopt a higher production value for the upcoming games, so they c...

Due to a number of requests from fans, I've set up a cafepress store where you can get tote bags, journals, travel mugs and stickers for S&S and Elf Lair. I also have a Zazzle store where you can buy T-shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, beer steins, hats, and mouse pads (with more products coming). In any case, the stores are here: http://www.cafepress.com/elflairgames http://www.zazzle.com/thegreyelf I'll likely update the designs periodically as we become more advanced in terms of art and layout. For now both stores are open for business, though as Zazzle adds more options I'll be gradually moving away from Cafepress, which is just too limited in what I can do and how I get paid. Plus, you can buy from the Zazzle store right at the top of my blog, and there's something to be said for that.

I seem to be getting adept at accidentally writing games. Now it's a board game that is reminiscent of Blood Bowl, but again has its own flavor and strategy and is a lot less complicated than BB was. Best of all, the game can interface with S&S or just about any other class-and-level-based fantasy RPG. The gist of it (sans game mechanics) is posted over at my Wasted Lands blog as "Orcball!" but I'm now calling it Skull-Smasher. I've just put it into playtest. We'll see if it merits selling. In other news, I'd like to clarify something. It's been brought to my attention that I've referenced all of our different "editions" of S&S without clarifying what the difference was. I've assumed too much knowledge out of the gate, and it's true, I shouldn't do that. So, just to clarify...there's no textual difference between the editions of S&S. Our strategy (which seems to have worked) was to put S&S out in a bunc...

Orcball is a wildly popular sport in the border towns and less civilized areas of the Wasted Lands. A sport originally enjoyed only by the brutal humanoid races, Orcball has been catching on amongst seedier human, elf, and dwarf communities and is quickly becoming a wildly popular spectator sport. This is of great concern to those of a goodlier bent, as broken limbs, permanent disfiguration and death are often part and parcel of the game. In Orcball, the idea is to put a skull into a hole at the far end of the field (though in an effort to "clean up" the game, human, elf, and dwarf leagues often use oblong balls that are vaguely shaped like animal skulls). This hole is exactly large enough to stuff the skull into--with some force applied--and thus the skull cannot be hurled, but must be physically jammed into the hole at the source. The Orcball Team Only one person on the team--the Runner --is allowed to touch the skull with his hands, and only the Runner may place the sku...

or, "Why You Won't See the Old School Edition in Stores Any Time Soon." The Old School Renaissance is a great and amazing thing. I've been a booster for it, and involved with it since shortly after OSRIC first came out. I was involved with the development of ZeFRS, a lesser-known retro clone of the old TSR Conan rules (done with the blessing of its original creator, Dave "Zeb" Cook.) I love Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, and OSRIC. This is a movement of which I am proud to be a part and with which I'm thrilled to be associated. That being said, as a burgeoning RPG publisher, I have to tread with great care. Being associated with a movement like this is a great thing--it's something to be proud of. And yet, a publisher involved with such a movement needs to ensure his product has legs beyond the movement if he wishes to expand his venture, like I want to with Elf Lair Games. I think that, while the Old School Movement has been great for t...

When dealing with a world in which you've established a creation myth--no matter how loose said myth is--you have to justify everything. I've given rationale for humans, elves, dwarves, and hobbits. Hobbits are the eldest race, a failed attempt at creating an all-purpose slave and pleasure race, but their penchant for cultivation made them useful. Humans were an improvement on hobbits, but while they were jacks of all trades, they were masters of none, and the Ancient Ones needed (or wanted) grand structures and crafts dedicated to them. So they fashioned the dwarves out of stone, to mine and create, and like the underworld in which they live, dwarves are as cold and hard as stone on the outside, but burn with the angry fires of the earth within. Eventually, the humans staged an uprising against the Ancient Ones, and their malcontent threatened the largely defenseless hobbits. To ferret out the leaders of the human rebels, the Ancient Ones created the elves, dark, myster...