Spellcraft & Swordplay Revised & Wasted Lands

[thegreyelf]

So I had a brainstorm in the shower this morning, and I hope it will be well-received.

For quite some time now I have been promising that an updated revised Spellcraft & Swordplay was in the pipeline, and that it would be getting a proper treatment.

That time is now.

Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age will have not one, but TWO rules chapters. Chapter Four will be entitled "Powered by O.G.R.E.S." and will present the O.G.R.E.S. system with which you're now familiar from Night Shift: VSW and which is our current house system moving forward. Chapter Five will be entitled "Powered by O.R.C.S." and will include the full revised O.R.C.S. rules - essentially making Wasted Lands also function as Spellcraft & Swordplay revised. You will be able to choose seamlessly which rules system you want to use.

Elements of the game that are suited to either system will be found in the O.G.R.E.S. chapter, as that's our house system moving forward. You will be surprised (or you might not) at just how compatible the two systems are - they use many of the same underlying assumptions and ranges - ability scores, for example, use the exact same bonuses in both systems. Even the core resolution is the same, just with different numbers (O.G.R.E.S uses 1d20 + bonuses vs. TN 20; O.R.C.S. uses 2d6 + bonuses vs. TN 14).

This seemed the best way to continue the legacy of Spellcraft & Swordplay without the need to support two completely separate game lines, which in the end aren't all that different, and without the added expense of additional core books (which require extra art, layout, editing, and printing, and which divide the fanbase). It streamlines company operations, gives everyone the game they want, and allows for a single line of support materials, unifying Elf Lair Games. I'm excited to see what everyone thinks of the grand experiment. I think you'll enjoy it, and it further cements Elf Lair's slogans of The New Class of Old School, and Your Game, Your Way.

[thegreyelf]

Well, this has been an adventure. It turned out to be serendipitous because it pointed out some GLARING holes in the O.G.R.E.S. rules that I had to address, such as mounted combat, travel times on foot, combat circumstances such as concealment, cover, and prone, and other things that come up in fantasy way more than they do in modern games. The good news is I'm full speed ahead back on Wasted Lands, now.

[tdenmark]

How is this going?

[thegreyelf]

Mar 8, 2023 23:33:25 GMT -6 tdenmark said:

How is this going?

Like the guy who fell off the building said as he passed each floor on the way down...so far, so good.

'course that guy's dead, now...

In all seriousness, again, it's coming along steadily but slower than I'd like because I have day job and Troll Lord work swamping me. It is, however, coming along and I'm pleased with how it's coming out.

Detailing all of the Divine Touchstones is going to be the most grueling part. There's a LOT of them to work out and balance. Then I'll need to complete playtests on them to be sure it all works as it should. Basically where I am is as follows:

Chapter 1: Character creation - Complete.
Chapter 2: Gearing up for War (Equipment) - in progress. This will go quickly because it's drawing from dozens of other sources. Lists of weapons and gear, economy and costs.
Chapter 3: The Black Arts - rules complete, spells complete, divine touchstones in progress.
Chapter 4: Powered by O.G.R.E.S. - Standard rules 98% done (just adding some things I overlooked the first draft)
Chapter 5: Powered by O.R.C.S. - Spellcraft & Swordplay revised rules ~98% done
Chapter 6: Tales of the Wasted Lands (GM chapter) - ~50% done.
Chapter 7: Denizens of the Deeper Dark (bestiary) - ~90% done.
Chapter 8: The Dreaming Age (gazetteer) - tons of notes to collate and get in order
Appendix A: Traditional Fantasy - Not started (things like classic demihuman races and divorcing setting from rules for high fantasy)
Appendix B: Optional Rules - 95% complete (things like converting to unified mechanics and such)

Taken together I expect to have a playable base game quite soon, and for the most part since it's the same rules as Night Shift: VSW, it's already been well playtested. Most of what is unfinished is setting and special rules.

My HOPE is to Kickstart this by early summer if not earlier. One of the hardest parts is going to be art - specifically, cover art and getting a proper world map done. I am NOT a cartographer, and I expect I'm going to have to raise a few grand on top of normal printing costs to get maps and cover art done. That's going to be a stumbling block to overcome.

I also have some stuff in the pipes for Night Shift that I want to get out there. I appreciate everyone's patience what with me being a one-man operation, here, and working three jobs!

[thegreyelf]

Here is a mockup of the world map. This is EXTREMELY rough, heavily modified from a map I picked up from a "what the world looked like in prehistoric times" site. I need to find a pro to render it in original format.



The vast majority of adventuring - the Cradle of Civilization, as it were - will be in what today is North Africa and Eurasia. Most of the detail of kingdoms will be for those regions, with very brief writeups of the other areas, which may get more detailed writeups later.

I will look at Atlantis and Thule in detail, as their war leads to the cataclysm that sends the world into the Ice Age and wipes civilization off the map, to be reborn in our own real world prehistory.