Merak Gren

Nothing specific to say but I feel the need to waffle on a little on Stormbringer. My first rpg book was Stormbringer 3rd ed published by Games Workshop in 1987. It was a bright colourful book that incorporated the Stormbringer Companion and at the time, was all I needed to play in one book. Perfect. Or so I thought, until my pages started falling out. In the end, I hole punched the whole lot and stuck it into a ring binder. I was glad when 4th ed came out. SB3 was the first game that I GM'd and I learnt a lot from my novice mistakes. Played a lot and eventually succumbed to burnout that has lasted nearly 20 years. Never the less, and barring the Hawkmoon monograph, I have collected everything published by Chaosium and also bought MRQ1 Elric. One of the reasons for my burnout, came as a result of frustration with how the Young Kingdoms were portrayed in the game books. From everyman and his dog having a bound demon to authors taking liberties with canon (or lack of canon) to make things up. My main frustration is my inability to; a) Have a mechanism to provide my PC's with motivations that are fitting to the novels. I don't want it to be just for money as some of the written scenarios assume. in Moorcock's books characters are motiveted by hate, love, duty, hope, knowledge or are resigned to their fate. In my experience with PC's its been about money and power (in the forms of magic / demons). . Having a mechanism for linking the groups actions to the sway of the balance on the YK. The previous Elan and current Alignment system is a little too personal to the PC. I would have liked to see something for each 'world' which can be affected by the outcome of each game. To allow the players to see how their actions affect say, the use of magic, chaotic events, the attention of Gods etc. Since I have only vague ideas of what I want and no clear way of making it happen, I have been unable to commit to Stormbringer / Elric as much as I would have liked. I have considered using Pendragon to run Stormbringer as it includes Passions and Personality Traits but at least the latter are now in BRP. Right now, I will not run a scenario (either mine or pre written) which I feel will not give you a Moorcockian experience. That is as much down to motivations as well as the PC's general role as Agents (unwitting or not) of the balance. Thanks for reading this. Any comments suggestions appreciated. Damon Edit: Just for clarification. I'm not knocking anyone. I have liked many scenarios and gamebooks over time. Its just that some of them don't fit into my style. I've mined them for ideas where I can, but haven't been able to use 90% of the material.

Here's a thread about BRP in the UKroleplayers forum. There's a few interesting things about why some people are put off BRP. But to have pity on us? http://www.ukroleplayers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=8533&sid=b16bc478afcfb855d59fef208b2561b2&start=15

Really chuffed for you guys. I knew it was a quality product when I first saw it, and now you have the award to go with it. Shame Pathfinder seems to be so popular, but well done! A shame I missed the window for the facebook / skype celebrations.

Ah yes you are right about ghosts. Ghosts have tainted the whole spirit combat thing for me, as they always seem to be TPK traps as designed. I've always wanted to run 'A Tale to Tell' from Shadows in the Borderlands, but that is a seriously 'for experienced RQ players only' kind of game. The pool with the mad head ghosts is a death trap. The average Theist PC is kind of stumped when confronting ghosts / spirits.

With regard to the disease risk, I've always palyed it by the RQ spot rules on diseases. Ie roll you CONx5 if you fail, you roll again until you pass. The number of times failed would give you the severity of the disease. I'm sure there was a Cormac's Saga about it. Handling infected objects is the standard digficulty of CONx5. For wounds I'd go to CON x 3 or thereabouts epending on frequency / severity of wounds. I'd allow a first aid to 'clean" up each wound. Spirit combat. I've never really liked it. Its too dangerous and 'final'. I'd be tempted to allow a 'rematch' after 24 hours to allow the players to regain control and go from dominant possession to covert possession. Without a Shaman in the party or as froendly npc, spirits are a real pain.

I second icebrand. I've been grappled by ju-jitsu and aikido. As soon asthey have a good hold on you and lock your arms, they can comand your body to twist as they want. The human body has a 'way' it likes to bend. Trying to bend it the wrong way, results in your body moving to try and avoid the iminent broken joints. That's how some of the aikido throws work. It uses your strenghth against you. Back to OP. I see it as a feature that once grappled, you can't get out. The only way to escape is for an ally to intervene. This is why brazilian jujitsu, may win ultimate combat fighting matches, but doesn't work in your average street brawl. Once you're down on the ground, some one else will kick your head in.

One thing I have considered is house ruling the Command skill to work with PC's. So when working together supporting a character using a skill or each one doing a separate skill to achive a group success, on a success they will all get a check on the skills used, even if you don't have it. Learning by sharing. Just my two pence worths.

Tremendous news. Here's hoping it goes all the way.

Darran, Thanks for everything. Please pass on my thanks to the Committee for a great con. Cheers Damon

The way I see shields, is that it is a lot easier parrying / blocking with a shield than with a weapon. Right there, I'd say that if you use a shield to parry, you'd be using 2xskill% and chances for crits / specials are doubled. The size of the shield would matter but that is reflected in the base chance. So for example assuming separate attack / parry skills someone allocating 30% skill points to parry would parry at (Skill + base chance) x 2. This makes shields attractive as it is very skill point efficient refecting how easy it is to use relatively speaking. Shield attack would be difficult unless in close combat. I also see the value of the 'slung shield' rule where it is mostly used in a passive capacity, such as in a shield wall or when covering an ally from missile fire. In that case, either prive base chance to parry (no hit locations) or allocate cover to 2 or 3 hit locations (depending on size) and add addtional armour points. Ofcourse, to dodge is always better except when you get hit.

Luke, no worries. I am more than happy with pendragon as a system and would be tempted to use the mechanics over BRP for simplicity. However, BRP has plenty ro make it work too.

I've kept out of this discussion as it has a been a bit too deep for me. I just wanted to add that there is little point in reinventing the wheel as regards a system for Arthur. Sure BRP would work but I think Pendragon works fine. The default starting year in 5th edition is 485. This is the last 10 years of Uthers reign. The emphasis is on Dark ages, pot helms and chainmail are the best armours available and they are very expensive. So much so, that only a knight can afford it. That is a warrior with a landholding. I sympathize about the wish to avoid chivalry and 14cent armour during the dark ages. I am a bit pedentic about details like that. However, when I play Pendragon I suspend my disbelief in the same way as I do when I watch Star Wars. If you want gritty 'historical' dark ages, Pendragon can do it. BRP can do it. Hell even Cthulhu can do it. Was Arthur real? Who cares. To me, he is as real as Corum, Elric and Heracles. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy it. I'd be interested in participating in such a project. Cheers Damon

Have you seen the 'Gods of Law' monograph by our very own Charles Green? Check out the downloads section and soon to be up on www.stormbringerrpg.com

I would say that the YK or even the 15 planes are defined in any way by a long shot. You don't have to go with canon. Hell I encourage you not to. Just make it your own. I find that many of my players have not read as much Moorcock as I have and some won't even have heard of Elric, Hawkmoon or Corum. They then feel intimidated as they do not think theyl fit in. It doesn't matter, just fly with your own version of the world and play as if it was a sand box you just made up.

I GM'd Stormbringer for my group and we played a lot of plane hopping stuff in my homebrew campaign. It was fun but not very Moorcockian. The last thing we played was about 3/4 of the Rogue Mistress campaign. I was becoming disheartened by the published scenarios. I can live with the 'unbalanced' chargen as it makes interesting characters and npc. The one thing I think is missing, is some sort of Chaos v Law highlevel minigame to see how the outcome of scenarios affects the fate of the world. I see the Multiverse as a near infinite chess game between Law & Chaos. Agents of the Balance have a hand in skewing the results evenly too. I would have liked to see a scenario design element where endings are ipen ended and depending on the outcome, scores are adjusted either way. Maybe just me then. When I ran the YK's Elric will just be another weak emperor of Melnibone, although I set my games in Sadric's time. My players are the real powers in the world and the embodiment of the EC. That way, no clash with dogma and no 'we're all doomed anyway' thing that some critic's raise. I love it, but right now, I've got writers block. Saying that, I did run it last year as I was designing a one shot. The system is simple and fast. I loved it.

I naturally voted BRP. I am surprised as there are always enough people there to complain about BRP and how every other darling there will so something better than BRP.

Yes. Survival skill. I never saw why to get so upset about it. If I need one, I'd just pencil one in. That is, if the game was one where suervival was the key theme, otherwise, a simple Knowledge: Outdoors / Camping / Boy Scouts / Military / Natural History etc will do. I've always seen the skill list in BRP as 'recomendations' rather than anything rigid. Pendragon uses 'Hunting' for all outdoor, survival, orienteering, etc. I don't think its a big deal that survival is missing. I prefer to have a tighter number of loosly defined skills, than a long list of highly specialised skills. That's why I like BRP

Nice review. I also found this review after linked to yours. http://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&client=mv-google&hl=en-GB&v=7FZCid7D9Ak&rl=yes Someone needs to invite this guy to a BRP game. More complex than D&D3.5? I think he needs to watch your review and start with the quickstart as you suggest. Cheers Damon

No freeforms for me this year. However, I'll be running BRP Jorune and King Arthur Pendragon. Maybe a little of 3:16 too.

Please don't tell me more :-O Sanity check!

My understanding from another interested party was that these should have been up last Friday. However, I haven't checked the website.

Without Chaosiums direct support; comissioning, publishing and marketing new BRP books, things will be difficult. For now, they are relying on what is effectively its fanbase to submit books to them. Chaosium may not have the resources to push BRP as much as we would like. For me, the reason BRP is seen as old fashioned is the lack of fresh new perspectives and books aimed at a new generation. This is maybe one reason why we love it so much? I don't know. I want it to suceed, but it never generates the hype and talk of post 2000 systems.

BRP has always been my favourite game and without Chaosium, I would have probably not stayed in the hobby. However, even sometimes BRP is not enough for me. I can see why people call it 'boring', 'old fashioned' or complain about the lack of balance. From reading books like Burning wheel and HeroQuest I am more interested in defining 'Who' the character is, rather than by 'What' they can do. In many cases, I don't care how good their jump skill is or if their spot is better than their listen. I've been toying with the idea of deriving broad skill groups from a characters goals and personal beliefs. Anything else just rolls off Attributes. Something similar to HeroQuest, but one that plays like BRP.

Trif Are you going to be running some D100 games at Continuum? Cheers Damon

In the eraly days some of us were afraid that BRP might end up as vapourware and it helpful to know who had what and how many had been sold. I don't have many collectors editions, but BRP Zero, warts and all is one I am proud of.