LAST 24 HOURS FOR NIGHT SHIFT (Elf Lair Games) KICKSTARTER!

[thegreyelf]

[EDIT]
Last 24 hours and LESS THAN $800 to go! Help us get to funding!!!! OSR and OD&D fans will love this rules set!

[OP]
WE ARE LIVE, FOLKS!!!

Please back, follow, discuss, and promote! I don't have a massive mailing list, so I'm counting on folks like you to help me make this happen!

bit.ly/NightShiftVSW

Night Shift is a modern urban fantasy, horror, and supernatural game designed to cover just about any style of game in that genre you like. It uses a new system that mimics the mechanics of OD&D, B/X D&D, and AD&D, but streamlined and smoothed out. I'm calling the new system O.G.R.E.S. just as our original house system was called O.R.C.S. While not a clone of any existing system, the mechanics are close enough to make your classic O/B/X/A games and resources compatible with it.

We're Kickstarting next week, on October 3, and the campaign will run until October 31 at 11:59 P.M. Yes, Halloween.

It's designed by myself and Timothy Brannan. The two of us have worked together on a lot of games over the years, and our names appear in publications such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ghosts of Albion, Doctor Who, Castles & Crusades, Amazing Adventures, and many more.

Also, please consider joining the Elf Lair Games mailing list at mailchi.mp/d3846f2dc618/elflair

[Deleted]

...Congratulations! - Now, this thread doesn't belong to "Announcements", which is the section we reserve for site-related info and news, it belongs to "Classified".

[Deleted]

Good luck with the Kickstarter !

[Finarvyn]

Excited to hear about this. What makes it different from Amazing Adventures? AA (both the C&C and 5E versions) does a great job of emulating Urban Fantasy.

[Deleted]

A new system that mimics D&D but isn't a clone yet is compatible - intriguing !

[thegreyelf]

Sept 26, 2019 3:07:21 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Excited to hear about this. What makes it different from Amazing Adventures? AA (both the C&C and 5E versions) does a great job of emulating Urban Fantasy.

(Son of a b****. Lesson learned: don't click "Preview." There's no way back to fix it. Sigh.)

Okay, here we go again.

So, AA is built to be a multi-genre game in the pulp tradition which can handle any kind of play you can imagine. It also in both its iterations uses pretty definitively modern rules systems (even though both SIEGE and 5e seek to emulate an old school style of play).

Night Shift is very specifically built to emulate a horror/urban fantasy game rooted in things like Buffy, Angel, Forever Knight, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Charmed, Supernatural, Wynona Earp, Van Helsing, Lost Girl, and the like. In Tim's and my mind, it's a replacement for the Buffy RPG, which is no longer (technically) in print. We're including a range of "Night Worlds," or mini-settings to get you started.

The system, also, is what sets it apart. It's based on my blog and thread here about how there were actually 3 systems in old school play. In hashing that out, we've got a system with 3 sub-systems: combat, saves, and ability checks use a d20 system which is a sort of mashup between SIEGE, OD&D, and Target20. Class abilities use percentiles. The GM then uses the Rule of 2 to adjudicate just about everything else.

The system is called O.G.R.E.S., and is meant to replace my original O.R.C.S. system in the second edition of Spellcraft & Swordplay, which I hope to release next.

Here's a bit of a more formal press release about Night Shift:

Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars
Debuting the new Elf Lair Games house system, O.G.R.E.S., Night Shift is an urban fantasy, horror, and dark modern supernatural game that uses old-school mechanics derived from the original, basic, expert, and advanced versions of the World's Most Famous Role Playing Game. It allows you to mimic all the tropes of just about any film, TV series, or novels you like.

All of the following are possible with Night Shift:

• Cheerleaders that are chosen to slay vampires, granted with extranormal powers to accomplish their destiny;
• Sisters imbued with the power of chosen witches;
• Worlds where Fae of all manner battle in the politics of light and dark;
• The great-grandniece of a famous gunslinger inherits the legacy of the demon hunter;
• A world where two brothers armed with knowledge and weapons hunt the supernatural in their father's name;
• And more!

Night Shift is built to handle just about any sort of urban fantasy you can dream up, using the tropes of classic horror-based television, motion pictures, comics, and novels.

Designed by industry veterans Jason Vey and Timothy Brannan, whose names have appeared in such products as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ghosts of Albion, Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, C.J. Carella's WitchCraft, All Flesh Must be Eaten!, Nightbane, Amazing Adventures, Castles & Crusades and more, this game brings together two noted designers with decades of combined experience.


Within its pages, you'll find:

• Complete character generation using familiar stats
• Major character archetypes, including the Survivor ("I've seen something weird"), Veteran ("I hunt something weird"), Chosen One ("I am the weird thing that other weird things fear"), Theosophist ("I see weird dead things"), Psychic ("I sense and control something weird"), Sage ("I study weird things"), and Witch/Warlock ("I am something weird")
• Complete rules for magic, psychic powers, and necromancy/spirit channeling
• Customizable supernatural character race--play a werewolf, vampire, succubus, or fae
• An optional skills system to expand what your character can do
• A simple rules system comprised of three basic mechanics, designed for fast and intuitive play
• Variant styles and levels of play that modify the system to represent gritty, realistic, and cinematic styles
• A GM section with tips and tricks on creating a series, seasons, and more, as well as guildelines for building custom character classes
• A full bestiary with all of the classic monsters like werewolves, vampires, demons, devils, zombies, mummies, and a few new surprises
• Several complete mini-settings you can use to get up and running right away
• Conversion rules to use the game with Original and B/X, and O.R.C.S (Elf Lair's Spellcraft & Swordplay) systems
• A complete alternate combat system, which hearkens back to the very earliest days of the hobby, before the publication of the first version of the World's Most Famous RPG.

What Is O.G.R.E.S?
O.G.R.E.S. stands for "Oldschool Generic Roleplaying Engine System." It's the new house system for Elf Lair Games, which will run alongside our current O.R.C.S. and Cd8 Systems. It's another step forward in presenting a new approach to the definition of a "unified system" for running just about any kind of game, using mechanics that will be instantly familiar to players of "old school" fantasy games, specifically those that powered the Original, Basic, Expert, and Advanced versions of the World's Most Famous Role Playing Game.

What O.G.R.E.S. does, however, is streamline and codify these mechanics, to remove what many view as arcane and confusing elements, and break the system down into a fast-playing, fun, easy-to-understand, and open presentation, adding a few modern design elements to improve the smooth play.

This also means that the majority of products which are compatible with any of these editions of the game, are also compatible with O.G.R.E.S.

[thegreyelf]

Sept 26, 2019 5:01:01 GMT -6 @seanwills said:

A new system that mimics D&D but isn't a clone yet is compatible - intriguing !

Well I mean I already did it once with Spellcraft & Swordplay, but that one was an accidental creation, so I wondered what could happen if I really put some effort into it?

[thegreyelf]

Sept 25, 2019 9:00:06 GMT -6 @rafael said:

...Congratulations! - Now, this thread doesn't belong to "Announcements", which is the section we reserve for site-related info and news, it belongs to "Classified".

D'OH! Thanks; that was a total accident.

[Deleted]

".... in the second edition of Spellcraft & Swordplay, which I hope to release next."

YES !!

[thegreyelf]

Sept 27, 2019 13:00:45 GMT -6 @seanwills said:

".... in the second edition of Spellcraft & Swordplay, which I hope to release next."

YES !!

I will likely leave the O.R.C.S. version of S&S in print as a PDF and POD as it always has, since the second edition is going to be SO different. It's going to be more explicitly swords and sorcery, with an embedded campaign setting (the Wasted Lands). I'll likely still have elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and the like, but they will be relegated to an optional appendix. Also, its proper release really depends on how well I do with Night Shift, so support one if you want to see the other! I need to know there's demand for it, and the profits from Night Shift will help to build the company to a point where I can release other books.

[Deleted]

After the thought and work you put into Age of Conan I hope S&S gets that 2nd edition.

After that I'll probably pester Mr Brannan about revisiting his 'Black Rose' setting.

[thegreyelf]

TOMORROW, folks! If you haven't clicked the link in the OP to follow us, please do so!

[thegreyelf]

Kickstarter is LIVE!!! bit.ly/NightShiftVSW

[thegreyelf]

We had a strong first day yesterday, but I need to get funded...the longer she goes without crossing the threshold, the less attention she will get. Hoping I can get folks to rally. Please share this around, spread the word, and back if you can!

[Finarvyn]

I know you are a one-man show, Jason, but when my sister first heard about it her first comment was, "Where are the goodies? If there were minis and maps this would be great."

A line of minis would be really hard (and expensive) but I'll bet there are some other things like maps or handouts that might be easy to produce. Just a thought.

[thegreyelf]

Oct 5, 2019 5:47:33 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I know you are a one-man show, Jason, but when my sister first heard about it her first comment was, "Where are the goodies? If there were minis and maps this would be great."

A line of minis would be really hard (and expensive) but I'll bet there are some other things like maps or handouts that might be easy to produce. Just a thought.

Sadly, people demand way too much from Kickstarters. They forget that the idea is so I can afford to publish the game. That stuff, as you say, is very expensive to produce, and the more you offer, the less money goes into producing the game. MANY a Kickstarter has bankrupted companies because they offer all kinds of fancy extras. It's a surefire ticket to not fulfilling your kickstarter. I'd rather not promise what I'm not 100% positive I can deliver.

Since it's a generic game, I don't know what kinds of maps I could offer...and another thing folks don't consider, is that artists charge hundreds of dollars (or more) to produce full-size maps, so offering those, even in PDF, is still expensive. My pledge levels are quite affordable, and we are offering a leatherbound corebook...part of the reason for this Kickstarter is so we can AFFORD good artwork for the book.

We're about to release a free PDF quick start kit today (or tomorrow, depending on whether I can get it all proofed and laid out) that will allow people to sample the game.

[Finarvyn]

All good points. The game looks fantastic, by the way!

[thegreyelf]

Oct 7, 2019 16:32:08 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

All good points. The game looks fantastic, by the way!

Thank you, Sir! I released the Quick Start kit yesterday for people to download and experience the game.

[thegreyelf]

If anyone is interested to know more about the game, my co-author Tim Brannan and I will be in Dan Davenport's Randomworlds Chat this Thursday, October 17, at 7:30PM CST (8:30 EST/6:40 PST). Hope to see some folks there! The URL is:

tinyurl.com/randomworlds-chat

[countingwizard]

How do you gain experience points in this ruleset?

[thegreyelf]

Oct 22, 2019 8:53:23 GMT -6 countingwizard said:

How do you gain experience points in this ruleset?

Hey, SO sorry for the delayed response. Life has been crazy busy of late and my message board viewing has fallen by the wayside.

There are actually several systems listed for XP awards. The default is by defeating monsters and overcoming obstacles, in the same way as in OD&D or B/X. There's also a freeform system wherein XP is awarded by the GM's estimation of how difficult a challenge the scenario presented, role playing, heroic actions, etc. There's also a "plot point" system, wherein the GM can award XP for reaching certain story benchmarks. In the end the XP system, like the rest of the game, is designed to allow the GM and players to adapt it to their style of running and playing the game, so we present multiple options.

Incidentally folks, we're well into our last 72 hours, and starting to see the totals climb! We haven't exactly lit Kickstarter on fire (which was a bit of a disappointment, as Tim and I are super proud of this ruleset and think people will really dig it if we can get it into their hands) but it is looking good to fund if things keep climbing. Hope you all will consider backing!

[Finarvyn]

Oct 29, 2019 9:25:12 GMT -6 thegreyelf said:

Tim and I are super proud of this ruleset and think people will really dig it if we can get it into their hands) but it is looking good to fund if things keep climbing. Hope you all will consider backing!

I'm a slacker but finally got my pledge in.

[thegreyelf]

Thanks, Marv!

[thegreyelf]

Last 24 hours and LESS THAN $800 to go! Help us get to funding!!!! OSR and OD&D fans will love this rules set!