Chaot

It does look pretty cool, does it not? Can't wait to get my grubby paws on it.

Ha! Still! I remember going to a Kinkos back in 2001 or so and having them grill me about ownership and then refusing the job. If they give you a problem, loudly declare that your nom de plume is Steve Perrin, except when you're writing as Gary Gygax. Report back here with the results. There are some online printers as well. I'm not much help here as I really don't print out pdfs.

Indeed. Rather a proper Tolkien film should be a travelogue describing every freakin' shrub and flower the party comes across, blathering about heros who don't appear in the film and spotted with musical numbers. Sixty percent of the audience should be asked to leave after the beginning of The Two Towers. Again, not a fan of Jackson's LotRs but I am of his Hobbit. The inclusion of Azog and Radagast and the framing and plotting of the film was all very well done in a Screenwriting 101 sort of way. I am, however, nothing close to a Tolkien purist. They don't, for the most part. One thought is to allow for masterwork items. Craft:Rope becomes something different at a master level with a critical. Say 80% is mastery. A particular master weaver is has Craft:Rope 230%. 46% of the time they will be criting when crafting their rope and it will act like Sam's elven rope. Maybe add some material components like; fibers gathered from sources in Lorien. Aragorn is has Healing at 180%. 36% of the time he can cure special ailments when he's got a pouch full of Athelas. Much to my chagrin I do not have The Laundry yet. My understanding though is that they handle magic without magic points in it. A summoning is just a mathematical theorem expressed through a software program with whatever other tools might be necessary to manifest the desired results. If one must have a Gandolfian figure, one could do worse than snagging the magic system from Maelstrom. Questbird is a poster here and he's used that system to great effect in his BRP Lankhmar game. It could easily fit Middle Earth, flexibility wise and subtlety wise.

Agreed. Can you give examples of what you are thinking? A weird west setting like Aces High is different than a setting like Mystara which is different than a setting like Jorune. Now, I love digests and stats but the appeal to me is using them as a window into the setting. I say include them if they define your setting or if you play them differently than others but remember that they are a tool to understanding the setting.

The good news is there are two more movies coming out, so you can plan to kick it off at the end of The Hobbit! This is likely heretical, but before my ongoing BRP phase I was a big MERP head. I still love all that material and the slightly gonzo nature of teh Middle Earth adventures we had back then. It's funny but I wasn't a fan of Jackson's Lord of the Rings because I felt his changes didn't add much to the telling of the story. I AM a big fan of The Hobbit (even though it looks a bit too much like a video game) because I felt the changes were both fun and worked for the medium. Which ties back to how I feel about MERPS. The changes are fun and work for the medium. Granted, Fergo's ruleset are hands and above what MERP offers.

I desperately need to pick this up. I've had a moratorium on new rpg purchases for strictly financial reasons but I've been excited about this title since way back when it was announced. Actually, as I sit here typing I'm a bit amazed I don't own it yet.

Byron's active over at RPGNet, so we probably don't have to send the dogs out to track him down.

Have you tried to phone? I did once to follow up on a tardy order and ended up speaking directly to Charlie.

Absolutely. Pan Tang become a bunch of dirty mabden worshipping chaos cults. They're into mutilation and sacrifices that occasionally call something from beyond up. It's more for favor of the DUkes of Hell and to keep them at bay. Melnibone is the heart of a fallen empire, drug addled and ruling by the false threat of dragon attack. Sack the place or keep it as an amorphous distant threat. Take a knife to the setting. I fully endorse it. If you are looking for other places to set Asornok you should consider Nehwon. Questbird is a poster here that has a long running BRP campaign in the setting and could steer you right. It's also an easy one to cut some of the extraneous magic out of. Of course, you may find players who are more familiar with Lankhmar than they are of Melnibone.

I'm not entirely sure what was published in the MRQ Elric line. I've read parts of it, but haven't really internalized it. I think you want to expand your search to include Pikarayd and Dorel on the Sourthern Continent. Probably more Dorel than Pikarayd. Remember that the Young Kingdoms, despite it's ancient history, is a changing land that is very much hewn from the stuff of Chaos. It doesn't necessarily make geographic sense. There's also room for you to add if it suits your purposes. As far as arctic climes, there's not much currently written that I know about. Just brainstorming here, but you could borrow from Arflane and Ice Schooner and drop in a place that's icy wasteland, with monstrous migrating landwhales and ships on huge iron iceblade and then mash it with teh Middlemarch from the Von Bek stories. It's a plane with porous boarders to areas of the Young Kingdoms. If you wanted more of a knightly setting with heavy overtones of the presence of Pan Tang sorcery, deadly Clackars and the silent Myrrhyn, you could drop it in northern Tarkesh. If you want a more tribal feel with the Elemental Lords playing a larger role and the civilization of the old Lormyrian Republic on one side and the very boarders of Chaos on the other you could drop it into Dorel. I really like the Young Kingdoms because it's evocative but sketchily defined and it's reality is in a state of flux. The world can change depending upon teh influence of the lords of entropy.

There is another one someplace. It had a nifty fear mechanic. I thought I had an email back and forth with the author a few years ago but a search through my email brings up nothing. Sadly a search through my email is not bringing anything up and I'm not remembering enough of the details to find it online. I kinda have an urge to romp in Middle Earth myself, after seeing The Hobbit.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful christmas and new year. Happy holidays all you other crazy BRPers and remember to keep the Saturn in Saturnalia! And because this is in the BRP section, here's a Candy Cane Warrior Str 1d8+4 Con 1d8+4 Dex 3d8 Siz 1d8+4 Pow 3d8 Int 3d8 Cha 2d8+8 HP 8-9 MP 13-14 Armor: candy coating 1d4 Weapons: peppermint spear 80% 1d8+1+db Skills: Defend Christmas Land 120%, Sing Christmas Song 80%, Taste Delicious 80%

You are not wrong, but there are some differences that I think are important. In Elric!, the summoner gets what they pay for. The summoner constructs their demon with their spending of mp points. In BRP I see no reason for the GM to even let the PC know what their demon looks like stat wise. Demon construction is entirely up to the GM. BRP also does not include Demon Armor and Weapons, which is a real game changer there. As it stands, Demons in BRP are similar to teh Sidekick Superpower. As an aside, if you are looking for more takes on Demon Summoning I will refer you to both Corum and Chronicles of Future Earth, both of which deal with Sorcery summoning. Nephilim touches on the subject as well but uses a very different premiss, closer to CoC in the manner that summoning a given entity is very much a spell by spell basis. But I do agree that summoning is a tricky thing and that it's important for a GM to take a good look at it before introducing it. Personally, I'm fine with it being a powerful thing. A sorcerer willing to traffic with demons should be pretty scary. I also agree that the usefulness of Brazier of Power and especially Chain of Being is limited in teh BRP rules. Brazier of Power is still useful if the sorcerer is going to have to cast a number of spells in a short amount of time, like in defense of his or her lair. Those spells become much sought after again if you allow players to use both Sorcery and Magic.

Good stuff here already. My two groats. First thing I thought of when reading OP was skeleton rules from CoC. Skeletons don't track hit points. Instead, they have a percentage chance to shatter depending on the amount of damage inflicted to them by a modifier of x4. So, if someone lands a blow against a skeleton of 8 points, the skeleton has a 32% chance to shatter. Maybe give the PC a natural armor rating, say 6, that is subtracted from the damage done. So an 8 point hit (minus 6 armor) is two points of damage, which means that the noble has an 8% chance of breaking. I don't normally use hit locations, but I think this character is an excellent candidate for them. For fixes I think I would require a master artisan gaffer to oversee repairs. I'd make the character pretty sturdy though. If he does get shattered, I could see him riding around on another PC as half a face or something. It really depends on what you are trying to model though.

Sounds like you have a strong vision. At really, if you're going to borrow, Stafford is an excellent choice!

Honestly, if you like hit locations I say keep supplying them. I know a lot of other BRPers are probably really grateful to see them supported and it's easy for me to just sub major wounds and random armor. It's been a while since I read the book and I couldn't remember if you had created some sort of unholy amalgam of the two. Something like doubling hit point locations but having a major wound when total hit points lost equaled half the character's Con or something like that. Isn't it great? When I get around to that Freeport game I want to run, The Green is in, no doubt. If I end up running Magic World before then, The Green is STILL in, no doubt.

I have been thinking and your post let me put past gameplay in perspective. I'd be interested in seeing what you eventually put together. For myself, I view allegiance as a means of both opening up opportunity and inviting obligations. As players adventure and make choices they invite the attention of those who might appeal to their disposition. This is somewhat guided by the forces of the multiverse because the PCs are important and the multiverse ensnares important people as a rule. The eternal question is whether the PCs are independent agents or pawns in a larger game. When one is aligned with Chaos, well chaos is the tempter, the rebel, the creative destroyer, change. Chaos offers gifts and opportunities to the individual. It offers cheats, escapes, easy routes to power. These gifts lead to unexpected and unwanted consequences but when the recipient of Chaos’ affections balks, Chaos softly coos, “I just gave you what you asked for. Don’t worry, if you do this minor favor for me I will help you fix your mistake.” The Chaos penitent continues to bargain until they find themselves trapped in a twisted web of obligation and destruction. Law is the builder, the disciplined, the community, stability. Law rewards those who are focused and driven. Through perfecting one’s self, one becomes closer to Law. As one excels, one’s fame grows. The Lawful acolyte finds themselves the subject of esteem, even adulation. They are looked to for guidance and help and the more they provide, the further they are tied to the community surrounding them. As one progresses though, the decisions one faces become more complex. One driven by the tenants of Law eventual find themselves trapped in a twisted web of obligation and destruction. The Balance is the zen of autonomy. It is both living within and apart. It is stillness, acceptance and tranquility in the face of devastation. Those who give themselves to the Balance receive only the endurance to weather the present and the promise of peace at the end of their struggle. Perhaps also the hope that their journey has somehow made possible, in some way, a world free of the excesses of Law and Chaos. Which is all well and good but is not very mechanically driven. But there’s an interesting mechanic we can snag from the Corum book. In Corum, when a PC has a Chaos Allegiance higher than their Law or Balance they start rolling for the chance of developing a Chaotic Feature. The change is the difference between Chaos and the next higher Allegiance score. So if Burgo Jark, Scourge of Kral’ak, has Chaos 32, Balance 3, Law 17, he has a 15% chance of developing a Chaotic Feature (32-17+15). This is triggered whenever Burgo gains another point of Chaos. If we extend that to Law and swap out ‘Chaotic Feature’ for ‘complicates PC’s life’ then we have a pretty nifty mechanic. The forces of Law should be just as selfish and vindictive as the forces of Chaos. It’s just that they have different approaches. Also, triggering this isn’t always a punishment. It’s a complication and complications can be fun. I do Allegiance a little different than written. I might award a few points during gameplay depending on actions but at the end of play I ask the players to honestly assess where they think their characters fell that session in regards to Law, Chaos and the Balance, and to defend their answer. Then I let them increase whatever they choose by 1d4.

I plan on doing this as well. Have you seen the work done on the Magic system in Classic Fantasy? Rod has gone a long way in broadening the range of abilities that Magic brings to the table.

Nice. Something I missed through the Green read through. You use Major Wounds and Hit Locations. Mind talking about how that shakes out? I've never done that before.

I tend not to use skill modifiers as I actually like how stats and skills are divided entities. One thing that I have done is calculate an over all skill category number for the raising skills over 100. So, in Elric! to raise a skill over 100 you need to roll 100-INT. I opened it up so that skills that fall under the Knowledge grouping use INT, those that fall under a Manipulation category might use (Str+Dex)/2 and those that fall under Agility might use (Con+Dex)/2. Problem is, when you average stats, you get pretty average numbers.

I can't wait until my comments on this game can be something more than "I can't wait to get it into my grubby little paws." I'm excited to read a bit more about the fey in the book. Really though, just waiting for 2013.

Don't get me wrong, your Demon Summoning rules were part of what made me fall in love with Elric! all those sixteen or so years ago when I first found it. I'm glad you kept them as summoning rules. I outlined the nightmare scenario but there are some simple tweaks. For manifest demons -Substitute Pact rules for Demon Negotiations so that having a demon on call doesn't cost permanent POW but does take up INT and have a Pact price -When not item binding, let the initial spell cost provide 2d8 to all Stats instead of 1d8 (except POW which remains at 3d8) -When not item binding, allow MP to increase skill categories instead of skills -If sorcerer does Bind demon instead of Pacting with the demon, she spends a permanent point of POW and no longer has to pay Pact price but does have to provide for Demon Needs For items -Double the point buy for result on Roll Table for Demons and Elementals -Instead of buying broad skill categories, narrow them to buying specific skills (like it is currently done) -Consider an additional point of permanent POW for the Demon Weapon/Armor/Shield demon ability. -Insert Chaos Creatures as is and use as the poor sorcerer's down and dirty demon Some of the Demon Abilities could stand some tweaking, but I've found the above changes go a long way in smoothing Demon Summoning out. I think an item enchantment system would be the bee's knees. I'm glad this was kept as summoning and would rather see something like Contrivances reworked and expanded. Instead of Quality, Mechanics and Plan Shift it would be great to have something that juggles aspect enhancements, skill enhancements and effects under different titles. This is totally doable and there can be some overlap between the two traditions as well. Two unrelated things I need to bring attention to. I got my brain wires mixed on skills. The skill break down is not 100/50/50, but is 50/30/30. These skills can be improved at 10% per 1 mp. Also, Chaos Critters are generally combinations of animal types; avian, equine, etc. Pick two types, mix them together and you get their looks and basic abilities. They also only come with a limited amount of selectable skills to enhance. These are very simple, physical skills. When you want a thinking minion, you go demon. That's pretty much how I felt when I read it the first time. It's a really neat book. Corum describes the Pact costs as the 'item' of a 'victim' which I think is pretty fair. The ear of a blacksmith, the eye of a tailor's son, the little toe of a maiden. Pretty standard. Then when you move up in power you get things like hearts, kidneys whole dead bodies, whole living bodies and the victims become princesses, barons, mighty warriors , sorcerers or kings. I keep it simple for Chaos Creatures and start getting fancy for pacts with powerful demons. I also like to open the bargaining up. While the poor PC who is planning on summoning put their ideas together, I ask them a couple of times how much they're willing to pay for it. I use the first summoning as a chance to hammer out the details. Often, the summoned entity begins with a ridiculous demand and the PC presents a counter offer. They land someplace in the middle. If an accord is not reached, that's when things start to get ugly. It's not strictly by the book, but it works for my group. Also, I will allow a Bargain roll to give the sorcerer a small advantage (or disadvantage if they roll poorly). If down the line I decide that the struck bargain is a bit too advantageous I might have the pacted entity press for renegotiations. The PC doesn't have to and the pacted entity is still bound within the original pact, but it becomes disgruntled and only acts to the extent commanded. If down the line the PC decides that the asking price for the pact is too much but they want to keep the Critter or the Demon on payroll, they can try to Bind them. Once bound, the Pact price shifts to being a demon need. Anyway, that's kind of how I've been running it. For whatever it's worth.

Looks like a great deal of fun! Love the map.

It's good stuff. Of course, it's got a very solid foundation on which to build. Note that I’m conflating Chaos Critters with Demons a bit here. Chaos Creatures are like lesser Demons, but the PC has a different relationship with them under the Corum rules than they do with lesser Demons under the Elric! rules. Chaos Critters also do not have as wide a range of special tricks that are found in Demon Abilities. With Chaos Creatures though, the GM is ultimately the one who determines the abilities, so some special powers can be introduced if desired. Now, the problem with Elric! summoning is that it highly encourages a summoner to bind their demon into a weapon or armor. Let’s use Froderick the Megalomaniacal for example. Froderick is a sorcerer with a Pow of 18. He’s got a problem with authority figures, is more than a bit paranoid and has decided that in order to fulfill his life’s goals he needs to leave behind him a body count. He decides to summon a demon lackey. Let’s break it down so that we have examples of our standard demon, a demon weapon and then standard demon and demon weapon when Brazier of Power is introduced into the mix. SUMMONING A STANDARD DEMON Froderick summons a demon. It’s going to take him 1d8 hours. He’s going to bind it, because he wants this demon’s services as needed. He casts the spell, costing 1 mp for Summon and 8 mp to set the demon’s attributes. This gives him 1d8 for all of the Stats except for Pow which is 3d8. Froderick is down to 9 mp. He’s going to want to keep 1 mp in reserve so that he stays conscious through this whole summoning, leaving him 8 mp to play with. Froderick wants a body guard. Something that will do some damage in combat. If he a demon ability like Claw or Gore or Gout Fire the demon will be impressive but will do a fixed amount of damage; 1d8+db, 1d8+2+db and 1d8 fire damage per round/1d3 scorching outside of radius. But Froderick knows his demon is tiny, not very strong and fragile at 1d8 Siz, Str, and Con. He decides to divide his 8 mp between offense and defense. Because this is a minor demon, he can’t increase his Stats higher than 3d8. He can invest in his Stats and hopes he rolls high or he can invest in Abilities, which is more of a sure thing. Froderick goes with Abilities. He gives his little fellow 4 points of Carapace, giving the guy a 1d8 in armor. He then debates on whether to invest in Bite or Vomit Acid, because they scale with magic points invested, but he only has 4 mp left to invest, which will give his demon an attack of 40% and 1d8 damage. His demon is not going to have a positive damage bonus, so Froderick decides his best bet is Gout Flame. Now Froderick has his little buddy and he can dismiss him and call him whenever he wants at no mp cost. It just takes one combat round. Or the little pyro can ride around of Froderick’s shoulder or something. He is effective in combat but not very versatile. Froderick now has a Pow of 17. SUMMONING AN ITEM BOUND DEMON Froderick wants to be a combat monster, either untouchable or doing enormous amounts of damage, or both. He decides to bind demons into weapons and/or armor, let’s say a dagger and leather armor. 1 mp for the spell, 8 to set the Stats, 1d8 for everything except Pow at 3d8. 1 mp to stay conscious, leaving 8 mp to invest. He says to himself, “To live and fight another day is optimal,” and drops those 8 points in Demon Armor, giving him Soft Leather armor that will protect him for 1d6-1+1d10+1d6 points of damage and leaving him at 17 Pow. He then summons and binds again, giving him 7 mp to play with. He binds a Demon Dagger that does 1d4+1+db+1d10+1d4, leaving him with a Pow of 16. Froderick can still cast spells and is a terror in combat. THE BRAZIER OF POWER STANDARD DEMON EDITION Now with Brazier of Power things get scarier. Froderick has a Pow of 17 and a magic point reserve of 35. That means that Froderick has 26 points to play with instead of 8 when defining his demon. He can bump up stats now, but let’s say he sticks with improving abilities. If he puts 1 more point into Pow he’s got a greater demon and 25 mp to play with. The average of 3d8 is 14 and 4d8 is 18, which he eventually has to beat in a Pow : Pow contest. Froderick has to keep this in mind when he’s rolling up a demon. If he goes with a greater demon he can select Vomit Acid and Carapace. If he’s happy with his demon’s 1d8 armor he can up Vomit Acid to a ridiculous level. 4d10+1d2 points of damage at 210% skill. Even if Froderick keeps the demon at lesser status, he can create on with a 2d10 point Carapace and a Vomit Acid 100%, 2d10 damage and still have points left over to spend. Finally, a respectable demon but still not versatile at all. ITEM BOUND DEMON But say I’m Froderick, Pow 17, mp 35, and I’m going with weapon and armor. At lesser demon level I’m getting Soft Leather 1d6-1+2d10 and 15 magic points to invest in Abilities. Then I get my dagger 1d4+1+db+2d10 and 14 magic points to invest in Abilities. At that point, my Pow is 15 and I can’t cast spells anymore until I can raise my Pow up to 16 again. But really, Froderick is doing just fine decked out in gear without his spells. If Froderick gambles on greater demons and actually succeeds, things get really crazy. Now in Elric! a demon can be summoned and negotiated with to perform one task. It doesn’t cost Pow as it’s not a binding, but it does take 1d8 hours and it’s a one time deal. CORUM Corum is incredibly friendly to the concept of a ‘demon’ as an agent. These take the form of Chaos Creatures. There’s no defined spell to summon. A sorcerer just spends 6 mp and performs a ‘summoning ritual.’ Heck, a sorcerer who rolls two fumbles in a row might accidentally summon a critter. (If a chaos creature is accidently summoned it drains 3d8 mp from the unfortunate sorcerer and the GM gets to define it). When summoned, the chaos critter comes along with 3d8 in all stats, one skill at 100% and two skills at 50%. Magic points may be invested to define these further as well as to impart new skills. Here’s where the important difference come in though. When summoned, a chaos creature enters into a pact with the summoner and expects it’s pact price. The first time summoned, there’s a bit of a time allowance for coming up with the price, as the summoner doesn’t necessarily know before hand what the price is going to be. From that point on though, all the summoner needs to do is spend a round, expend a single magic point and have her pact price ready and the critter will show up. There’s no Pow expenditure for bindings. However, if the sorcerer wants to bind the chaos creature into an item the cost is 3 Pow. In a binding like this, there are no abilities like Demon Armor or Demon Weapon. Rather, someone in possession of the item is able to call forth the Chaos Creature. It still requires a pact price to do it caller’s bidding. Froderick under the Corum rules can amass a retinue of ‘helpers’ who, while are generally focused in abilities, are accessible, varied individually, and have a significant game costs when called upon, but are not heavy investitures of Froderick’s Pow. There are other considerations. In Corum, a fellow with a Chaos Allegiance higher than Balance or Law starts to run into the possibility of trouble. Brazier of Power also works differently, but points in Chaos bump up the PC’s magic point total too. Pacted Chaos Creatures take up two points of INT in Corum where as Bound demons in Elric! take up one. The summoning process in Corum encourages a lot of the decisions on how the final critter turns out on the GM whereas Elric!’s emphasis is ‘you get what you ask for.’

I like the cut of your jib. Granted, the downside is mentally juggling the associated rules but I've found it manageable in the past. I actually had a Ravenloft game planned for this past October that fell through because of life getting in the way where I plan on making available several different magic systems. I agree that it gives flavor to different magic disciplines. That's it. Looks lovely, yes? No idea on how far along it is. Those are some heavy hitters there. For the Unknown East I would recommend taking a look at Seljos' house rules. Sailing on the Seas of Fate offer some really great ship rules. The original ship rules were found in White Wolf( I think) which also contains write ups for a Lawful, Chaotic and a Fire Elemental temple and includes the adventure Yellow Hell. White Wolf (again, I need to check, but I think) is really gonzo but has a bunch of ideas to mine. Pan Tang, Isle of the Purple Towns, Melnibone, Rogue Mistress, all of these are great reads. None of them pertinent to your immediate magic systems question though. However, if you haven't done so yet, you should go over to stormbringerrpg and read Gods of Law for the Virtues system. The settings good, but the real draw is Pacts, Chaotic Melds, and the Lawful Constructs. Elemental Tattoos, Fetishes and such are icing. Different people have different issues with Elric! Summoning. My only issues with it are that 1) it's biased towards binding demons into weapons and armor and 2) it's out there without a correspondingly powerful magic system to contrast against. Virtues and Lawful Constructs go a long way for issue number two. I think Corum's Pact system completely solves issue number one. The best thing is, it's just tweaks on the Elric! system. I'll give you a run down tonight or tomorrow.