The wedding is next week. Within 2 weeks or so I'll know how badly classes are going to kill me. Best case scenario: I hope to have Twelve Parsecs in playtest by October. Whether we see any releases before that depends on Tim's work on Eldritch Witchery and Vampire Queen. Thanks for your patience, everyone. We're keeping you updated as we have info to post :)

Nah. Just a lot going on these days. I do intend to get back to the Wasted Lands soon. As some of you know, Elf Lair is also on hiatus for the time being. Right now I am up to my eyeballs at work dealing with a training grant renewal, faculty retreat, visiting committee review, and cross training on purchase ordering. In addition, I'm getting married in two weeks, I'm starting grad school next week (and am FAR from ready for that), am working on a novel, another game for Elf Lair, a major freelance project for Cubicle 7 (which is due at the end of September and I still have a good 35,000 words to write--why, oh, why did I let Dave talk me into this one?), waiting to hear on editing notes from Troll Lord Games about Pulp Siege, and running my Unisystem/Conspiracy X Doctor Who game every other week on Sundays. You could say my plate is a bit full and I'm a teensy bit overstressed. But bear with me, True Believers (apologies to Stan Lee), and The Wasted Lands will return...

Well, folks: you asked for it. Here it is: The Hyborian Age. Enjoy. Note that as now this is little more than an "OD&D Hack." There's precious little about the Hyborian Age itself in there--that's for two reasons: 1. I expect anyone interested in gaming in the Hyborian Age already has a good grasp on the setting--in the grand tradition of OD&D, this is not a "how to run a Hyborian Age game" guide, but a set of rules and tweaks that I feel help to mimic the proper mood and grit of a Hyborian Age game. 2. If you want info on the Hyborian Age, it's out there in spades, from Wikipedia to the three Ballantine Conan volumes to TSR's original Conan RPG, to Mongoose's outstanding Road of Kings book. I don't want to step on the toes of the folks who have paid good money for the license. You should support them, if for no other reason than it keeps the Hyborian Age out there and visible. That being said, I may in some future revision (if I d...

A bit more of a detailed update than the one below, since I'm sure some folks are wondering what's going on, or if I'm going to let this grand experiment die off. Elf Lair is (mostly) a one-man operation. Tim gives his input, thoughts, and advice as he can, but he's a busy guy with a lot of expenses of his own (both financial and time-related). I have to call on volunteers to help me edit and proof documents, and that generally isn't conducive to cutting down typos and errors as much as they could be cut down. Add to that the fact that I'm working on a novel (with interest from a potential publisher), a major freelance project, and gearing up to start grad school in the fall...and the grind has worn down on me. I'm not saying I'm quitting. Far from it. What I am saying is that Elf Lair has suffered from its inception from inefficiency that needs to be eliminated. I wrote S&S on a whim, from early experimentation with using Chainmail as a basis for ro...

I started work on the PDF version today.

So...what to do next? Is this relatively complete as it stands, with the Chainmail combat, magic and saves, and the character classes and races set to go? I mean, I can't really post individual writeups of the Hyborian Age societies, kingdoms, countries, etc., without stepping on the toes of some serious license holders. For gods, monsters and magic items, the pre-existing OD&D writeups (See Supplement IV ) hold true. Since we are using Chainmail for combat, mass combat is also well covered. Thoughts? Suggestions? What's missing? I should note I'm unlikely to change anything here because someone doesn't agree with my presentation--if you disagree with something I've done, that's great, and you can change it in your home game. That's what OD&D is all about. This is my take on it. That being said, if there are things in the RULES I've put forth that seem problematic on their face (truthfulness to the setting notwithstanding) feel free to p...

Races of the Hyborian Age Part 2 Hyrkanian: Hyrkanians are a horse culture living on the Steppes of the Eastern Hyborian world, across the Vilayet Sea from Turan. They are roughly analagous to the Huns, Mongols, and Cossacks of history, and are known for their prowess at archery. Hyrkanians can progress as Fighting-Men, Borderers, Thieves, or Assassins. A hardy folk of the plains, Hyrkanians gain +1 to Constitution and -1 to Charisma, as they are not accustomed to the niceties of Western society. In addition, Hyrkanian Fighting-Men gain benefit with bows as follows: Hyrkanian Fighting-Men are always treated as 1 level (Man) higher than their actual level when using the Troop Type system for archery. When a Hyrkanian Fighting-Man hits 10th level, against unarmored or 1/2 armored foes, he instead inflicts an extra die of damage on a successful hit with a bow. When using the Man-to-Man or Fantasy Combat system, Hyrkanian Fighting-Men gain +2 to all attacks with bows. Hyrkanian Fight...