OSR Review & Commentary Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit By Jason Vey For The Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg

 Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit By Jason Vey is a very well put together OSR starter kit. This kit has everything you need as a DM to start a beer & pentzel one shot adventure or even transfer into a fully fleshed out campaign. This kit teaches you the entire Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg system. What I like about the Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit is that it treats the game as not only a viable system but a system that can be used quickly, effectively, and gives just enough of a taste to get the player's PC's involved in the supernatural action.






 Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg is a highly supported game & it works very well on its OSR merits and does so with surprising speed. The writers & designers continue to really support the Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg and the Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit is the first in a series of tools so that let's you get up to speed with this fantastic system. Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit gives you all of the tools, system, and whole cloth rpg system to get up & running today. 

Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit By Jason Vey Is Available Here. 

Mail Call Before The Nor Easter - Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg By Jason Vey & Tomothy Brannan

  
"We Are the Night Shift...
We alone stand against the vampires, werewolves, and Things that Go Bump in the Night.
We know the things that prowl the shadows, the monsters that feed on the innocent.
We have seen Something Weird.
We control Something Weird
We create Something Weird.
We study Something Weird.
We are the things that Weird Things fear.
We are the Weird.
We are the Night Shift, and we are all that stands between you and the end of all that you know."


With a New England Nor Easter baring down on us named Bailey going out to the mail box today was a pleasant surprise waiting for me. A box containing Elf Games Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg  By Jason Vey & Tomothy Brannan.  This is a nice box not some little flimspy envelop from the United States Post Office.  So what is 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg'? Well according to The Elf Lords' Website;"Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars is an urban fantasy roleplaying game of Chosen Ones, Witches, Survivors, and Something Weird, driven by modern sensibilities with familiar, old-school mechanics."


The long answer is a bit more complex then that, 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg' is actually a dark fantasy horror combination game build on the B/X Dungeons & Dragons mechanics with quite a bit of Vey & Brannan's own spin & design. 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg' takes the material in a very interesting direction. The book itself is a tribue to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, All Flesh Must be Eaten, Doctor Who, Witchcraft, Ghosts of Albion, and Castles & Crusades. And I can't really say that any of those games have crossed my table except Castles & Crusades. 


In point of fact is was Jason Vey's writing on Amazing Adventures that captured our group's attention. So after missing the kickstarter for  'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg'  it was actually my wife that told me that we'd made a terrible mistake. And its a good thing that one listens to his wife. In this case  'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg' tickles the ivories when it comes to a mid point between urban fantasy, dark fantasy, & urban horror with an The OGRES game system coating. 



The classes here are vary modifable & easily able to be customized by the players, the modifiers & game mechanics are a nod to the old school B/X systems. But there are twists & turns here with Vey & Brannan's own rpg design spins. The book as a physical object is well done, the binding solid, and it feels like a nicely made book. The book itself is printed in the U.S.A. which is a nice change up. 



The interior of the book feels like an old school book with the layout simple but easy to read.The type is solid and easy on these old eyes. The rules clearly laid out & its been many months that we've  ere looking for a replacement for White Wolf's World of Darkness & its lines.  'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg' may fill that need. 



Within  'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Rpg'  there are three settings built in & these are just fleshed out enough. The artwork is black & white a combination of Bradley McDevitt's horror art work & some of the artwork from various rpg veteran artists. 



There's an actual table of contents along with  a well thought out index to the game & you have idea how much this helps during game play folks. At the table top level this is a solid addition to the game making it much more professional. 


The beginning fiction is not as tedious as anything that White Wolf did. Nor is it unwelcome in a game such as 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars . The whole game feels a bit like an OSR hybrid from another Earth. But its here & within our possession. 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg isn't a tedious game folks. 



'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars' is a game that sets out with a goal of making an occult but accessible game. Six months ago I reviewed the pay what you want 
Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit by Jason Vey. That particular product kinda felt a bit flat but the main rule book feels much more like a whole game. The main 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars' rpg book works out all of the kinks whist giving a solid ground work to move from for a campaign. 



The rules are concise & easy to follow moving from PC generation strength to strength without an issue. The parts coming together to generate a very nice whole as 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars' brings itself into the players hands easily. 



'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars' takes its campaign cues from both OSR systems such as various editions of  Dungeons & Dragons, Swords & Wizardry, Castles & Crusades, B/X Essentials, and many more OSR games. But its Vey & Brannan's time on Buffy & Supernatural that seem to both inform them & take 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars'  to its next level.


'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars' is its own game & stands on its own merits, setting,& so forth. Its just OSR enough to have its toe within the pond but distinctive enough to stand on its own merits. The occult world settings work, the rules work enough, & on the whole it feels like a complete game unto itself. 



Are there any draw backs to 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars'?! Yes there's a few editing mistakes but those have been caught within the Current Errata (Updated 9/23/2020).
 

'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars' is a game that my players think that we've gotten our money's worth outta of. Now if we can only find the time to dodge between snow flakes to get a campaign off the ground.Want to know more about 'Veterans of the Supernatural Wars'? Visit Elf Lair Publishing Right Over Here. 

Review & Commentary On Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit & Kickstarter

I was asked by Jason Vey the author of the Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit. This is a part of an ongoing kickstarter for the Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg.


What  Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars is a sort of  beer & horror game that is easy to pick up & run with; 

"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.

Over the past couple years, there have been a lot of folks experimenting with different things to do with "old school" rules sets. Many of these have been of the "kids on bikes" variety, but it occurred to us that you could easily use these rules, derived from the earliest forms of tabletop RPGs from the 70s and early 80s, to handle just about any kind of game. We also feel there's a shortage of games on the market dedicated to the kinds of serialized urban fantasy and horror TV shows that are common in what many are calling a Golden Age of TV. Certainly there aren't many licensed games.

Night Shift seeks to fill that gap with a fast, easy-play rules set that gives you old-school style rules which fade into the background and let you focus on archetypal characters and the story at hand. "


The Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit picks up where the Kickstarter drops off in twenty four pages. This is a 'beer & horror ' ease pick up mini game for a night of entertainment & it does this with a clever, fast, action packed adventure in twenty four pages;"This adventure sees a group of diverse and disparate demon hunters join together to stop a doomsday cult intent on summoning a demon from Hell to unleash on the city. As you play through, you will get a feel for how the O.G.R.E.S. (Oldschool Generic Roleplaying Engine System) works in practice. Throughout the adventure, you will see guidelines for how to use the system and play the game. The intent is not to give you a full breakdown of all of the options and rules of the game, but a taste of how it works, and how it plays out. "This game uses a very simple D20 system & the encounters seem well balanced. There's a lot of Tim Brannan of Otherside of the Blog here & there in the product. But mostly this is pure Jason Vey goodness. The encounters play fast & loose, the action is quick with a movie style, & the layout is solidly done.
I'd say this is a great way to start an evening. If you get a chance then by all means take a look. The whole cloth looks like a fun little game & I hope that the Kickstarter moves forward quickly & with solid race for the finishline.
You Can Grab Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit Here. 

If You Want To Support The
Kickstarter Go Here!