Alignment is a hot button issue in modern games. It is a core part of characters in O.G.R.E.S, and indeed, the corruption system for spellcasting does not properly function without it. It is, then, important to look at what alignment is, how it works, and most importantly, what it is not  and how it is constantly misread and misinterpreted by many in the gaming community - particularly those reactionary to traditional old-school gaming tropes. 

 Well, folks, the Elf Lair Crew has gone our separate ways once again (we're scattered across three states) and are back home, settled, and (at least in my case) fighting off the old CON CRUD(TM). The con was an absolute blast, with tons of highlights, and I'm not ashamed to say that in a very real way, it may have saved Elf Lair Games.  Resurrecting the Cabal Back in my Eden Studios days (which I honestly still have strong hopes will come again one day - I would dearly love to work on some more Unisystem stuff in the future), I hooked up with two of the greatest guys and game designers you could ever hope to work with: Timothy S. Brannan and Derek Stoelting. Many of you follow Tim's blog, The Other Side .  My main role at Eden was to work on All Flesh Must Be Eaten! sourcebooks, of which I wrote or co-wrote three. Derek also did most of his work on AFMBE, and he was a convention organizer and GM wrangler for cons. Tim was heavily focused on the cinematic end of the spec...

 I recently asked my Friday gaming group what they wanted to see in a sci-fi game that most games they've played don't address. Universally they said they wanted to see some sort of mechanic that reflects just how "f***ing terrifying" traveling in space is. As they put it, it's so much more than just space battles. You can get clobbered by an asteroid that you didn't see coming. You can have an explosive decompression from a hairline fault in the hull that nobody saw. Your computers could blue screen and life support goes out while you're in hypersleep.  Space travel is, indeed, scary just at its basic concept. Hell, in the space of twenty years, the United States saw two space shuttles explode from random malfunctions or faults that were overlooked on inspections. Now think about what happens when you're out there for years! So I started thinking how to mimic that idea in an RPG, and what happened was, I completely overhauled the starship rules in Thi...

 The time approaches, folks! With Wasted Lands not only in the bag but now officially in distribution, we at Elf Lair Games are turning towards our next project, hoping to keep some momentum going. This one will be our science fiction RPG and will complete our trilogy of fantasy, modern, and sci-fi games that allow you to play any game you want in any genre and any style, all with a single system.  Coming in May, all of your games can be Powered by O.G.R.E.S.   So let's look at what Thirteen Parsecs: Beyond the Solar Frontier has to offer.  Thirteen Parsecs: Advetures Beyond the Solar Frontier is a tabletop roleplaying game of adventure and excitement in the wild realms of science fiction. Whether it's a pair of FBI agents battling a clandestine alien invasion in the modern day, a far future war between heroic rebels and evil interstellar empires, a gritty cyberpunk dystopia, or a hard science exploration of the nature of humanity, this came can cover it all! The ...

  Good morning, faithful Elf Lair Supporters! We are  entering our final 24 Hours . It's crunch time! As always, stick with us - you have nothing to lose by letting your pledge ride, but a fantastic new game to gain when we fund at the end of this thing. If you're already in, please put the word out and get others in! We need a street team to make this happen; it's CROWD funding, after all! Get your gaming groups in. Get your friends in. Hit all your social media channels. If you haven't backed yet, this is a final call for it. We need your help! You're in on our newsletter because you're a fan of Elf Lair Games. Help us to keep producing the quality games you love.  Cheers to all our backers! Art by Bradley K. McDevitt Why Back Wasted Lands? Our first Powered by O.G.R.E.S. game, Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars, is a celebrated take on modern urban fantasy and horror, which is rated 4.7 stars on DriveThruRPG (and sat at 5 stars...

Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age With so much attention on the  Wasted Lands Kickstarter  it's been a minute since we've touched on a behind the curtain for the O.G.R.E.S. System. Fear not, though; we're not done with these behind-the-curtain peeks at how the game works and the design decisions herein. This time we're going to look at the ways you can customize the levels of grit in your game.  Before we move forward, however, here are the prior blogs in the 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 in Wasted Lands A Completely Customizable System Levels of Grit in O.G.R.E.S. The O.G.R.E.S. system has three different "levels of grit," that you can mix and match to build exactly the style of play you like. These three levels are "Realistic", the standard or normal assumption for play; Gritty...

Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age Here we go, folks! The  Wasted Lands Kickstarter has launched ! Fear not, though; we're not done with these behind-the-curtain peeks at how the game works and the design decisions herein. Stay tuned for more behind the curtain looks as the campaign progresses, and in the meantime, head over to the Kickstarter and support the effort! Here are the prior blogs in the 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 in Wasted Lands A Completely Customizable System What Is This "Wasted Lands" Thing??? In case you've missed out so far, Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age is a game of swords and sorcery in a savage lost epoch, set millions of years ago. Instead of playing adventurers tied to the service of mythological deities, you play the all-too-mortal, protohuman origins of the gods of cla...

Here we go, folks! The final blog before the Wasted Lands Kickstarter launches ! Stay tuned for more behind the curtain looks as the campaign progresses, but this one completes the big lead-up!  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 in Wasted Lands For some time now we've been pushing "Your Game, Your Way" as a slogan for Powered by O.G.R.E.S. games , and many wonder what kind of meaning that carries. After all, everyone claims that their game is the one you've been looking for, and the concept of a universal game system has been around almost as long as RPGs themselves. Even the earliest versions of D&D had sci-fi elements and the first edition DMG discussed melding the system with a range of genres.  So what do we mean exactly when we talk about O.G.R.E.S. as a customizable s...

 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...

 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 ab...

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...