Supernatural Attacks in O.G.R.E.S. Art by Bradley K. McDevitt. Used under license. Some questions have come up recently (even in my own gaming group) that highlight something about supernatural attack, about which I was apparently not clear enough in the rules. That, or it's there and just easily overlooked. So here it is. 

 It's Tuesday and that means time to see what new release has caught my eye, and today's is close to home. Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age Fate Deck Wasted Lands is on its way to becoming my Fantasy RPG of choice. One of the things I love about it is the Fate Point system. Well, Elf Lair Games just released a new set of Fate Cards as a supplement to the game.  From the DriveThruRPG page: This deck of Tarot-sized cards includes 72 special effect cards designed for the Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age RPG, but intuitive to use with almost any RPG, especially those designed for OSR or the World's Most Famous RPG. Also included are two double-sided cards with guidelines on using the deck, how it can complement or replace Fate Points or other Player Agency mechanics in your game. Add some dynamic excitement and surprise to your game with the Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age Fate Deck!  This deck is also 100% compatible with other Powered by O.G.R.E.S. games, including Night Shif...

 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...

  Civilization in the Dreaming Age Cities, Towns, and Villages Welcome to what I hope will be a regular series of blogs breaking down the Dreaming Age campaign setting, which may in the future be compiled and expanded to form one or more new sourcebooks for the Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age Role Playing Game. This first section will look at the nature of cities, towns, and villages.  It is a mistake to think about civilization in the Dreaming Age as the same as other typical fantasy (and even swords and sorcery) settings. While the descriptions of the regions-cum-kingdoms do mention rulers and major settlements, they are absolutely not true kingdoms or empires in the sense that we think of these things. Nor are there many true cities throughout the world - quite frankly, there are simply not enough proto-humans to support such things as metropolises.  The vast majority of settlements in the Dreaming Age are villages and hamlets with potentially hundreds of miles of unta...

 So this week on social media, we at Elf Lair have been doing a series of "But How Do I...?" posts regarding some popular settings, things to which we don't have a license and cannot provide official rules, but for which most of what you need is already there.  The question, then, remains, "how do I take those encyclopedias of text and flavor, and use them with the O.G.R.E.S. rules?" It's deceptively simple, and it all starts with the basics. Let's break down how you can turn the flavor text and setting material in your favorite video game, novel, television series, or movie into a swords and sorcery, high fantasy, urban fantasy, or gritty horror game using the Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars or Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age Rules. Start with the Basics Starting with the basics means looking at what you've got in front of you. For the most part, you'll need very little new  to use your favorite settings. A warrior character, for e...

  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...