Monstrous Mondays: Aliens, Monsters, and the Unknown in Thirteen Parsecs

Alien girl by Hernán Toro

It's a sci-fi Monstrous Monday and I wanted to talk a little about monsters and aliens in Thirteen Parsecs.

Like our other RPG NIGHT SHIFT, Thirteen Parsecs is a "tool kit" game. That is, we will give all sorts of rules, some sample settings ("Solar Frontiers"), and let you build your own.

Some of our settings will have aliens. Jason has a few he has been working on for his Solar Frontiers. Derek has some others. 

For my Solar Frontiers, aliens are treated very differently.

In "Space Truckers," aliens only add flavor to the game. The eponymous Dixie of Dixie's Truck Stop is described as an "attractive alien girl with blue skin and bug-like antennae."  But otherwise, she is pretty much a human. There are Ursians, bear-like aliens who make up the police force of the "Colony Hyperspace Patrol" or CHyPs. There are Porcines who control most of the Badlands where Space Truckers have their shipping lanes. And finally, there are Lot Lizards, who are lizard people. I have a chimpanzee-like species that are the best engineers on the Frontier and more. But again, these are just for dressing. They still all more or less act human. Maybe exaggerated traits, but human enough to relate to. This is part of the fun of this particular setting. It is meant to feel like a 1970s Trucker movie in space.

"Darker Stars" is very different. 

In this Solar Frontier, humankind has moved out into space and found monsters waiting for them. 

While we will have some monsters in the core rules, my goals here was to re-purpose monsters from both NIGHT SHIFT and Wasted Lands. Indeed this is the source of those monsters. Darker Stars is my "horror in space" setting.

Let's take an example of a typical Darker Stars sort of adventure.

The crew of your starship encounters a derelict spacecraft. You send a landing party to investigate only to be attacked by the crew. The long-dead crew.

Our dead crew, and they could be human or aliens, will use the Zombie stats from NIGHT SHIFT. If you think about it, what are the Borg or even Cybermen but fancy zombies? The commanding officer? A mummy or a lich.

Does this mean there is magic here? Well...I take Arthur C. Clark's view here with his Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." The captain of this ship, knowing his crew was in danger makes a radical adjustment to ship's life support and keeps everyone from not dying. "Not Dying" isn't the same as "Alive" though.

But don't worry. There will be aliens, both as playable races and as creatures to encounter.  

It will be up to you whether your encounter with them is more like Ripley's or Kirk's.

Sci-Fi Month: Thirteen Parsecs is LIVE!

Thirteen Parsecs

http://tinyurl.com/13psignuptim

We want this game to be your sci-fi RPG of choice, so help us make that happen.

This uses the same O.G.R.E.S. as NIGHT SHIFT and Wasted Lands. 

Much like NIGHT SHIFT, there are core rules for playing in all sorts of Sci-Fi genres; Space Opera, Action, Comedy, Horror (of course!), and more.

There will be "Solar Frontiers," mini-settings you can use to start your game (much like the Night Worlds for NIGHT SHIFT). My Solar Frontiers will be "Space Truckers" and the currently titled "Dark Stars," my "aliens and horror in space" setting.

Jason will provide the bulk of the core rules and his two Solar Frontiers, and our long-time collaborator (and demo game GM extraordinaire) Derek Stoelting will also add his Solar Frontiers. We are all working on adding rules and expanding what worked best in NIGHT SHIFT and Wasted Lands. We have over 75 years of game design experience for a couple dozen different companies/publishers.

Speaking of our other games, Thirteen Parsecs is 100% compatible with NIGHT SHIFT and Wasted Lands.  Do you want to play deeper, dark sci-fi horror? NIGHT SHIFT + 13P has you covered. Want to pilot your Time Ship back to after the KT extinction and find a world populated by the proto-human experiments of the Great Old Ones? Wasted Lands + 13P! Or combine all three.

I am planning an epoch-sweeping adventure that takes you from Wasted Lands to NIGHT SHIFT to Thirteen Parsecs, in the vein of one of my favorite books and movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's not exactly the same, of course (I do not liken myself to a Clark or a Kubrick), but it's an echo of a time when I read both 2001 and Lord of the Rings one summer.

Help us make this a reality! We are going strong out of the gate but let's hit those stretch goals.

We are exactly the type of publisher these crowdfunding sites are really for: small professionals with grand ideas and the desire and skills to get it done; we just lack the capital for some art and printing costs upfront.

All of our and Jason's crowdfunding has met our goals, and more importantly, we have delivered on time. We are even offering some nice perks for early backers.

So please check us out!

http://tinyurl.com/13psignuptim

alternate link: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/elf-lair-games/thirteen-parsecs-adventures-beyond-the-solar-frontier

 

Gary Con 2024

 I am back from Gary Con 2024! Well...back is an odd word, I drive up from home every day and drive back at night. Just about an hour to get there, not too bad. And I had a GREAT TIME!

I was there with Elf Lair Games, selling copies of NIGHT SHIFT and Wasted Lands. I have to admit, we did really great.  I was going to run some games, but in truth I was so busy at the booth that I never had the chance, but no worries this year we were joined by our long-time writing and collaboration partner from our Eden Studios days, Derek Stoelting, ran all our games. He is particularly good at it, too, and he has written many of our adventures.

The Con itself was fantastic.

New Friends and Old

I got the chance to talk with some really great people. We went in with Pick Up and Go Games for our booth, which was great. They are really fantastic. 

Next to us was Black Oak Workshop, which was selling these great dice sets. Including the 31-Themed Dice set above, which I am going to feature in October. I will open one up a day!

Across from us was The Bewitched Parlor. They were great and had a lot of cool witchy-wear including some rally great hats. Jason bought one for his wife. Plus, they had the coolest looking booth.

Of course, I HAD to stop by Troll Lords Games' booth.

Picked up the only two books they had that I didn't own. We went separate this year from them as an experiment and I say the experiment worked out quite well for us.  But if you missed them, Jason WILL be with the Troll Lords at Gen Con selling copies of his new Troll Lords books. He has a few more coming out with Troll Lords, but I am not 100% sure if they will be ready for Gen Con or not.

I was THRILLED that so many came by to chat, say hi, ask about what we are doing next. There were so many folks I wanted to talk to but didn't get the chance. Manged to chat with Tim Kask for a bit. I found out we hung out at a lot of the same places at our university, except 15-20 years apart. His brother lived in the same dorms I did. I gotta remember I need to get him to sign something next year.  

Speaking of which.

Autographs

I am not an autograph hound, but this year, I wanted to make an effort to get the signatures of some of the people I grew up admiring while I still could.

I got some art from Dave "Diesel" LaForce and had him sign a few of my books, including a cool Eye Monster in my early printing DMG. We talked about how this Con was more like a work reunion for him and how he got to see many old friends and co-workers again.  We talked a bit about Trampier and others no longer with us.

I also got some more art from the ever-wonderful and lovely Darlene. I also got her to sign my DMG as well.  Those Greyhawk map art prints are really great.  I also got a LOT signed by Jeff Easley. He was also fantastic. We sat there and chatted for a bit during one of the infrequent lulls in his booth.

Larry Elmore was there, but I have a lot of things signed by him and I have a lot of his prints since I see him at Gary Con and Gen Con. 

I also got to meet David "Zeb" Cook and that was fantastic. 

Jeff Grubb was there. He even came by to see us at Elf Lair Games, which was really great.

I got him to sign my Manual of the Planes, which is still one of my favorite books.

I waffled back and forth on whether or not to get Luke Gygax to sign my AD&D books. But in the end, I figured he was "Otiluke," and Gary Con exists because of him.  I am glad I did. We talked a long time about the Con, his dad, his little dog "Grogu," and more. Honestly, He was great, but that tracks everything everyone has been saying.

I also brought my Deities & Demigods for everyone to sign too. As you can see I have been at this one for a bit. This was the only thing I got signed by Erol Otus. I think next year, if he is there, I'll bring my B/X books.

So Gary Con was AMAZING! I had a great time and I am looking forward to next year.

Kickstart your Future! Thirteen Parsecs

It's the end of the week, the end of the month and the end of the year. So lets look to the future!

Thirteen Parsecs

https://tinyurl.com/13psignup

Thirteen Parsecs: Adventures Beyond the Solar Frontier is the latest tabletop role-playing game project from Elf Lair Games, producers of Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars and Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age. It forms the third of our trilogy of core games - we've given you modern and fantasy, and now we bring sci-fi to the forefront with the same rules, completely customizable and ready for you to build exactly the type of science fiction gaming you want. As always, it's your game your way when it's Powered by O.G.R.E.S.!

I am so excited for this.  I have been dying to work on a solid sci-fi game since forever.

What is Thirteen Parsecs?

Like our other games, NIGHT SHIFT and Wasted Lands, Thirteen Parsecs is an O.G.R.E.S.-powered game. So if you have played a classic RPG then you know how to play this one already.

Also like NIGHT SHIFT, Thirteen Parsecs will be a "toolbox game."  We are going to give you the basic rules and structure for all sorts of Science Fiction style role-playing. So whether you want to play heroic characters in an epic space opera, explore strange new world with a group of explorers, battle alien threats, deal with a post-apocalyptic hellscape, or tackle humankind's first leap to the stars, then this game is for you.

BUT that is not all. Like NIGHT SHIFT we will encourage you to make your own worlds and setting to make it the sci-fi game YOU want. 

I have been talking for years, decades even, on how there has not been a sci-fi game that connects with me. Thirteen Parsecs will change that for me. Here are the worlds I am planning to bring you as my contribution in one form or another.

Space Truckers

This one began as a bit of joke and I have tried in different systems. It is "Smokey and the Bandit" meets "Blake's 7" with a dash of "Red Dwarf" and "Quark."  It is supposed to be silly fun about the lives of long-haul "truckers" on the edge of the Solar Frontier. The Colonies need their light beer too. I am planning on designing this to work with any of the other settings we have.

Dark Star (formerly BlackStar)

I have talked about this one a lot, my "Star Trek meets Cthulhu." The deal here is that Jason also has one he wants to do and so does our other member Derek. So it is very likely they will all get combined somehow into something new and better.  The basic idea here is "In Space, the stars are always right."

Völlig Losgelöst

My love letter to 80s sci-fi horror. This one might appear later due to space (heh) issues. If you enjoyed movies like "Lifeforce," "Galaxy of Terror," and "Xtro" then you will find a lot to love here. This one is explicitly a NIGHT SHIFT/Thirteen Parsecs crossover game, so I might wait until after the core rules are published. Essentially I want to create the future as we saw it from the mid-1980s. 

I have more ideas and these are only mine. Jason and Derek have a ton as well. 

So please sign up and watch for more details!

https://tinyurl.com/13psignup

Want to know more? Just ask!

Coming in 2024: Thirteen Parsecs

 You know how I have lamented how I never have found the perfect sci-fi RPG?  Well. That all might be changing.

Thirteen Parsecs

https://tinyurl.com/13psignup

Thirteen Parsecs: Adventures Beyond the Solar Frontier is the latest tabletop role-playing game project from Elf Lair Games, producers of Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars and Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age. It forms the third of our trilogy of core games - we've given you modern and fantasy, and now we bring sci-fi to the forefront with the same rules, completely customizable and ready for you to build exactly the type of science fiction gaming you want. As always, it's your game your way when it's Powered by O.G.R.E.S.!

I am so excited for this.  I have been dying to work on a solid sci-fi game since forever.

A bit of background, I think I have mentioned in the past that prior to switching gears to become a psychologist I had actually started out in physics, and astrophysics in particular. I got to a point in calculus where I just stopped understanding it, so I had to switch. BTW this makes my former Actuary (with degrees in math) wife laugh her ass off all the time. 

So it will be wonderful to put all this knowledge I have about astronomy, space, and science to good use.

Launch is not till later in the year, but Jason is already working out all sorts of great things. I hope to resurrect Space Truckers, get some more mileage out of Dark Star (formerly BlackStar), and more.

So please sign up and watch for more details!

Wasted Lands: Don't be the Hero, Be the God.

Busy time. I have not written anything in over two weeks, but I am hardly idle.  On my plate this week?  Playtesting the newest game from Elf Lair Games.

Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age

This is a new Swords and Sorcery RPG set in a savage lost epoch, millions of years ago. A time lost to current humanity.  Players will take on the roles of human (near human) characters struggling against the remains of the Old Ones, ancient gods and alien threats. 

These characters will fight, and struggle and eventually, they will become the Gods we know today. 

This game uses the same rule system as NIGHT SHIFT: Veteran of the Supernatural Wars.

Playtest is now underway.

I am hoping to use some of the material I have created for my own One Man's God posts in my Wasted Lands game.  In particular, I will use this to flesh out my Roman-Norse Pantheon, actually play out the legends that would later become these gods.  And of course, because I have a rep to maintain, expect to see some gods/goddesses of magic and witchcraft.

I am quite excited about this game and I hope to get you all excited about it as well. 

New Playtest...What is Elf Lair Games Doing?

 No game this weekend. Which is fine, but I have new play-test material to read up on.  So what is new from Elf-Lair Games?

This is going to be a blast.

Elf Lair Games Doomsday Sale

This issue with the OGL is changing all the time now. I suppose there will be some sort of announcement about the OGL 2.0 today (yes we are on the 2.0 now).

But until then, we have decided to have a big sale on all Elf Lair Games products, including NIGHT SHIFT.

https://www.elflair.com/

For products on our website, use the code DOOMSDAY40 at checkout to get 40% off your sale. 

For our products on DriveThruRPG, all are on sale for 25% off, no code needed.

Again, NIGHT SHIFT and our upcoming new fantasy RPG "Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age" will break free of the OGL and will be powered by our in-house O.G.R.E.S. 

Interesting times ahead!  Let's all have some fun together and get back to what we have always felt was our #1 job; make fun games for people to enjoy.

Guest Blog: Using The Witch and Eldritch Witchery as a NIGHT SHIFT Resource

I am over on the Elf Lair Games blog today to talk about how you can use my OSR books The Witch and Eldritch Witchery to expand on your NIGHT SHIFT games. 

With this, you can add new spells, new Arcane Powers, and Traditions like The Aquarian Order, The Cult of the Magna Matter, The Hermetic Lodges, and the Masters of the Invisible College. 

https://elflairgames.blogspot.com/2022/03/guest-blog-using-witch-and-eldritch.html

New NIGHT SHIFT Content from Elf Lair Games

My *other* publisher, Elf Lair Games, has been putting out some great free content for all of February in support of the new Night Companion and I would be remiss if I didn't share or point some of it out to you all.

Click on the links below for more information.

The Order of the Dragon

This is a holy order of knights set to defend Christianity from Muslim incursions.  Vlad Dracul was a member, but when he became a vampire the order shifted focus to destruction of all vampires and hunting of the supernatural. 

The Divine Order of the Sisters of Orleans  

A sister organization to the Order of the Dragon created by and in the name of Jeanne d’Arc.  They have also survived to the modern day to fight supernatural threats.

Folk Horror

Jason gives some advice on adding Folk Horror to your NIGHT SHIFT games.  This part was left out of the core rules. 

The Mandragora Book Store

Our old friend from the Eden days Derek Stoelting has been part of NIGHT SHIFT from the start.  He is up with more information on the location mentioned in the Quick Start Kit. 

Supers

A couple of good posts on Supers including how to create street-level supers in NIGHT SHIFT using the Inventor class.  Followed up by adding supers to a fantasy style RPG, with NIGHT SHIFT as the translator.

This naturally branched out to and from the next two topics.

Cyberpunk and how NIGHT SHIFT, or more accurately O.G.R.E.S. is a great Rosetta Stone for all sorts of old-school play. 

Finally we get some discussion on the Fighter class.

I also have more NIGHT SHIFT goodness for you all coming up including some more weirdness from Valhalla, AK and a new feature I am working on called From the Editor to support my Weirdly World News NIGHT WORLD from the Night Companion, and GenHEX from the NIGHT SHIFT Core Rules.

So keep an eye out here and on the Elf Lair Games blog for more material for Jason, Derek and myself.

#FollowFriday: Elf Lair Games

Ok. Today's #FollowFriday might be seen as a little self-serving...and it is.  But that does not negate the fact that there are a lot of great things brewing over at Elf Lair Games!

Elf Lair publishes my original Witch class for Basic-era games and Eldritch Witchery for Spellcraft & Swordplay.   But most importantly They publish my newest pride and joy NIGHT SHIFT: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars.

There are a lot of great things coming from ELG so now is a great time to give them, well...us, a follow!

Elf Lair Games

• Website and Storefront
• The Grey Elf website
• Elf Lair Blog
• The Wasted Lands Blog, for Jason's home campaign
• Facebook Group
• Instagram
• Discord
• Twitter
• DriveThruRPG site
• Studio2 Publishing 
• Discussion Boards
• https://elflairgames.proboards.com/
• https://odd74.proboards.com/board/82/elf-lair-games

So be sure to check out all these sites and follow them on social media.

Elf Lair Games is at Gary Con!

Forwarding from Jason Vey of Elf Lair Games:

Elf Lair Games is at Gary Con!

Hey, folks, Elf Lair Games is at Ethereal Gary Con XIII, and yours truly is a convention special guest. Of course, I'm also still a Troll Lord Games guy so I'm involved with their stuff as well. Check the graphic below to see all of our events. I am involved with running 2 of our events and will be a guest on the following panels:

GM Tricks of the Trade - Thursday at 4 PM CST

Greyhawk DM's Round Table - Thursday at 7 PM CST

TLG Selling Games, Now and Then - Friday at noon CST

We're also happy to announce that all of our PDF items on DriveThruRPG and both print and PDF in our online store are now available at 50% off throughout the weekend in celebration of the con! Grab your copy of Spellcraft & Swordplay, Chutzpah!, The Witch, or our urban fantasy/horror old school hit Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars! 

Visit us online at https://www.elflair.com/products.html for more information and to grab your copy today!

Click to enlarge

--

We still have a couple of openings left in Dancing in the Ruins session 1 and session 2.

Introducing Night Shift

I had something planned for today, but it will have to wait till later.  Busy day at work.  So here is something I have been working on.

So folks, to coincide with Halloween, I will be Kickstarting the newest core RPG from Elf Lair Games this October! I'm still working out the exact details (getting quotes for printing costs in particular) so I know what to set my goal, but it's planned as a hardcover B&W release. Please spread the word and keep your eyes out! Here's some more about the game:

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 a brand new system of old-school mechanics inspired by and 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
• 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!

Jason and I have been working together for years.  We worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG together.  I playtested Jason's AFMBE games and his Amazing Adventures books, he playtested my Ghosts of Albion.  He published my first OSR Witch book.  We have over 80 years of game playing and nearly 50 years of professional game design combined.

This game is going to be so much fun.  And perfectly suited to the cinematic style games I love.

Hoping to get you all some previews and character write-ups throughout October.

Elf Lair Games on Google+

Just a quick note today before gaming.

Elf Lair Games has a new Community on G+.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/117818905017605352455

Come by to discuss Spellcraft & Swordplay, The Witch or Eldritch Witchery.  Or hear about new products they are working on.

It should be fun and they would love to hear from you.

New post over at Elf Lair Games

New post discussing Eldritch Witchery over at my publisher's site.
http://elflairgames.blogspot.com/2013/11/eldritch-witchery-now-in-print.html

I have to say I am floored by the response EW has been getting.
It is has been selling great, far better than expectations, and the feedback is equally as positive.

Jason and I had a long conversation about the future of ELG and we are convinced that there is a little life in S&S and ELG after all!

Not sure what we want to do yet.  I have tons of material on my hard-drive.  But hopefully we will get some more things out to you soon.

Eldritch Witchery in Print

You can now get Eldritch Witchery in softcover print format.

Get it in print at DriveThruRPG.

Makes for a great Christmas gift!

Eldritch Witchery Print Proof

Got a preliminary print proof of Eldritch Witchery.

It's not the final proof yet, but it is close! And I am pleased as hell with it.

EW with the Spellcraft & Swordplay core rules.

Core rules and boxed set.

Eldritch Witchery and The Witch

Eldritch Witchery with some of my other favorite old-school games.  No indication of compatibility is implied.

And my two most recent games.  No indication of compatibility is implied here either, but they are awfully fun together!

I hope to get the print versions out to you very, very soon.

Eldritch Witchery is LIVE!

Eldritch Witchery is now live!

Here is the official press release:

ELF LAIR GAMES PRESS RELEASE 10/21/2013

Elf Lair Games is pleased to announce that our long-awaited second sourcebook for Spellcraft & Swordplay, entitled Eldritch Witchery, is now available for purchase as an ebook! The print edition will follow soon.

A Return to the New Class of Old School!

Witches & Warlocks.
Monsters, demons and devils. What horrors await you in dark caves and passages forgotten by mortal-kind? What eldritch secrets await in the dark? Will they be yours to claim or will you be claimed by them?

Eldritch Witchery takes you back to the roots of fantasy role playing, back to a time when witches cast mighty spells and demons were new to the lands. Inside this book you will find:

- Two new elite paths, the Witch and the Warlock
- Hundreds of new spells
- New monsters, such as the vile Hags
- Demons, including the vile Calabim, the rageful Shedim, the seductive Lilim, and the Baalseraph, the rulers of the Nine Hells, amongst others.
- New magic items and treasure
- Complete guidelines for running witch-centric adventures or incorporating these spellcasters into your existing game
- And more!

Everything you need to add witches, warlocks, and demons to your Spellcraft & Swordplay game is here...what are you waiting for? Eldritch Witchery awaits...

Due to the nature and content of this book, as well as to some of the artwork involved, we are marking it as an adult product. User discretion is advised.

Get your eBook/PDF copy now.  Print book on the way.

What is 'Eldritch Witchery'?

I rather enjoy writing about Witches.

You might have noticed that.

After all the books and blog posts I have written over the last few years, this should be obvious.  What isn’t obvious is how much more I learn and enjoy with each book.

Eldritch Witchery is something of a homecoming for me.  Like many, I started out playing the “Basic” set of the late 70s-early 80’s and then moved on to the “Advanced” version of the world’s most popular role-playing game.  At some point I learned of this “other” version, an original version.  It came in little brown books with names like Men and Magic.  One day, I was going through the mail-order hobby catalog I used to get and saw a copy of this game.  It was, of course, beyond my means to get at the time, but there was a supplement called Eldritch Wizardry and I knew I had to get it.

Eldritch Wizardry introduced demons, the druids and psionics to the Original game, and to my 12-13 year old self heavily into all things paranormal this sounded like a treasure trove.  Well the book I got was not what I expected, but I was still so glad to have it.

Eldritch Witchery, then, is my chance to write the book that my 13 year old self wanted to buy.  There are some obvious parallels with that original book; this book features Witches naturally, but also some demons and things that I think made the late 70s and early 80s an interesting time in gaming.

To fully capture what I want, I am writing this for the Spellcraft & Swordplay rules.  S&S is a great little game that is a prime example of economy of rules, just like I pictured the Original Rules were.  Plus it has given me the chance to work with Jason Vey, creator of the game.

Eldritch Witchery is written to help recapture that sense of wonder of the unknown.  Designed to be both familiar and yet brand new at the same time.

While the book covers a lot of the same ground as does The Witch, there are some new traditions, a handful of new spells, and of course a bunch of new demons, devils and the like.  Plus there is an entire Warlock class and the warlock lodges.  Some of what was going to go into some other books I had planned and have shelved for now also made it in.  

It should be out here in the next few days (maybe Halloween!) depending on how long it takes me to build the files.

I hope you all enjoy it.

Layout

No post today.  Sorry.

Doing Eldritch Witchery layout.  Going a lot better than expected.  But I'll know more once I get more art in place.