Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Kickstarter fulfilled!

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Well, folks, we have officially fulfilled our first Kickstarter! Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars has completed shipping (save for a couple local hand deliveries and a few stragglers who haven't paid for shipping). 

Our original target date for release was May. Due to a printer delay (that's the middle of their busy season) we actually released and started fulfilling around late June. I'm given to understand that completing fulfillment within 2 months of the target date may be a Kickstarter record! 

Okay, that's a bit hyperbolic, but still. Given how many companies take 6 months, a year, even longer to fulfill, I'm pretty pleased that our first one was done that quickly. Doing it myself without the help of a fulfillment service was a challenge, but I only really had 3 hiccups where I overlooked increased pledges for extra books--those were corrected immediately by sending out the extra books. 

Next step: complete the few books and works I have in development, Kickstart those, and get some support for Night Shift: VSW rocking in terms of PDF adventure modules and the like. I've spoken to some freelancers and it looks like there's some good options in play to start getting you all adventures and the like. 

If you missed our future plans for Elf Lair Games, check out this blog. 

What Is Night Shift: VSW?

In case you've been out of touch with Elf Lair Games for awhile, Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars is our modern urban fantasy/horror RPG that uses a new system built on streamlining and codifying old school mechanics. We call the system O.G.R.E.S., or the Oldschool Generic Roleplaying Engine System. We just like to be able to say that the game is Powered by O.G.R.E.S. 

With Night Shift: VSW you can play any kind of horror or urban fantasy game you want. Fan of the Evil Dead movies and TV series? you can mock them up with this game. Big into shows about a certain blonde Chosen One fighting vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness? This game was built for it. Looking to tackle the Cthulhu Mythos with an old-school mechanic? You're good to go with this game. 

It comes complete with four mini-settings which we call Night Worlds, to show diverse examples of the types of games you can play. There's also a full bestiary. It's really everything you need to play all between two hardcovers, except dice, pencils, paper, and friends. We can't help you with the friends part, but the other stuff you can grab at your local game store--heck, you can probably find friends to play there as well!

What Are the Rules Like?

The O.G.R.E.S. system has three mechanics, and the mechanic you use lets you know exactly what's going on in the game at any given time. It's an OGL game that will look familiar to fans of the SIEGE Engine. It uses the familiar 6 ability scores. 

Here's how it works, in a nutshell:
  1. Combat, ability checks, and saves: d20 + ability bonus + level bonus + difficulty modifier and try to get a 20 or better. In combat, the difficulty modifier is the enemy's AC. Low AC is better/harder to hit, difficulty ranges generally from 0 (really hard) to 20 (trivial), and ability bonuses are the same B/X progression you see in SIEGE). 1 always fails, 20 always succeeds.
  2. Class abilities: These are a straight percentile roll, modified up and down in increments of 5 based on difficulty of task. ALL class abilities (including spell casting) use this mechanic. To cast a spell the caster rolls against their base chance, modifying up or down by 5% per level of spell. If they fail their casting check, there's a backlash table.
  3. The Rule of 2: if there's something the GM needs to adjudicate but isn't sure what rule to use, pick a die and throw it. ON a 1 or 2, something happens.
If you head to the website there's a link buy the game in hardcover and PDF or to the free quick start rules on DTRPG.

Will Night Shift: VSW be on Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds?

I know these platforms are super popular these days, but at this point it's not likely you'll see our games on them any time soon. You are, of course, welcome to play our game using any platform you like, but I don't know how these platforms work as far as adding mechanics to their databases. I understand it's very time consuming and technical. I also really despise virtual tabletop gaming, from a personal standpoint. To my mind, TTRPGs should be played around a real tabletop. 

That being said, I know everyone's all about VTTs these days, and I understand that VTTs have allowed people to game who otherwise might not be able to, and they certainly have a purpose and place in that regard. So eventually it'll likely happen. It's just on the backburner (at best) right now. I get it if that's a disappointment, but it is what it is. There's a lot for me to think about before diving in. 

Well, folks, I guess that's all for now. If you've supported me already, thanks for the support! If you're thinking about it, grab the quick start and buy your copy today!

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