Nick J.

On 6/18/2018 at 11:15 AM, Thot said:

That's the point. If you are using Magic World in Moorcock's worlds, you are.

I gotta remember that a hint of sarcasm on the internet doesn't always translate. (Yes, of course I remembered Moorcock, but I thought it was a little too on-the-nose to reference his multiverse stories because I assume most people around here are already intimately aware of the origins of Magic World.)

1 hour ago, Thot said:

There is also this British author who wrote about a concept called The Eternal Champion....

Sure, but if I was going to do that, then I'd just run Elric! or Stormbringer.

Interesting question, assuming you wanted to build a world that highlighted MW's biggest subsystems like Seafaring, Allegiances, Advanced Sorcery magical traditions, etc. and not leave anything out. 

1. A range of human cultures/lands from primitive to civilized, and at least a few sapient non-human cultures or creatures.
2. Some in-setting explanation for the divisions between various magical traditions: Deep Magic, Rune Magic, Fey Magic, Sorcery etc.
3. The presence of an "Otherworld" and/or higher and infernal powers; spirits, demons and elementals have to come from somewhere, right?
4. A world large enough to make exploration non-trivial by either ship, or horse
5. Conflict and challenge built around the tension between shadow and light (and whatever those forces represent in your setting): Intrigue, spies, agents, assassins, dark warlords, bastions of knowledge, demon-haunted wastelands, etc. 

For inspiration and tone, think Ralph Bakshi's "Wizards, & "Fire & Ice," or Ridley Scott's "Legend." Also, books like Roger Zelzany's Amber novels, Le Guin's Earthsea stories, or even Jack Vance's Lyonesse novels.

26 minutes ago, Thot said:

Magic World's default setting does not strike me as particularly Moorcock'ish. You?

No, not especially, but the mechanics of Stormbringer/Magic World are pretty flexible. If Chaosium were to revive MW as a line, and they wanted a a more "Moorcockian" setting vs. the Southern Reaches; the idea of a multiverse might be more tightly bound into it and then add in some existential "doom" hanging over the world and you're in the ballpark.

OK, I lied. I guess I'm not done after all.

This is a beta version that probably needs some stress-testing https://www.dropbox.com/s/3hi79ryp8fx88ea/MagicWorld CS (form-fillable)vBETA.2.2.0.pdf?dl=0

The reason it needs testing is that I made it so base skill percentages fluctuate up and down by species (according to the bestiary). It should all work, but undoubtedly one or two things will be wrong. If you're interested in playing around with this and being my defacto editor, send me a PM detailing the bug and I'll fix it before I push out a final update.

There are also some features that differ slightly from the current 2.0 sheet:

• You can use the weapons part of the sheet to more easily track your weapons skills, you can even enter in the type of weapon class (swords, hammers, blunt, bows, etc.) and it should calculate the correct characteristic modifier; you're still on your own to look up the base value and add in your own points.
• Certain fields automatically populate with species' specific features/skills, etc. (dwarf earthsense, halfling thrown rocks, centaur's lore skill, etc.)
• If you put "Lore (XYZ)" in a miscellaneous skill field it will automatically add the intelligence modifier.

EDIT:

New Beta version: I think I squished most of the bugs that were lingering, but it probably needs a few more passes.

And if you want support Mr. Geier http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/101/Misfit-Studios/subcategory/299_19731/Earl-Geier

On 5/23/2018 at 12:59 PM, temnix said:

Thanks to both of you for your replies. Especially to Nick J. for the recommendations of sites. The sub-forum here doesn't have ongoing or starting games in the Young Kingdom setting, that's why I asked. The BRP system is not an obsession of mine, I'm just quite tired of D20s, ubiquitous like winter colds, and don't really see the point of rules elaboration, which is what 1990s-2000s systems went for. Like I said, perks, feats, extra classes, kits and such are better handled with on-the-spot decisions, in my opinion, so learning a whole expanded and advanced system to me would be like pulling on a heavy backpack. I like the Lords of Chaos and the Lords of Law, that setting, though it could as easily be expanded or changed. Many of the countries in the Young Kingdoms world are just standard fantasy stuff, and were at the time Moorcock wrote them up, but he had a light touch with those early stories, and with Corum and Hawkmoon and Erikose. Some actual ideas came through there, which, I think, are still fresh and enjoyable to swim in.

Take the Chaos sign, for instance. The eight arrows around a circle. Moorcock made that up, and where have that emblem been seen widely in the last 30 years? In Warhammer, old games and new. That's the sign of Chaos there, except in that setting Chaos is just absolute evil. Anyone flying that banner in Warhammer is some kind of mutant freak or warped monster. Chaos is not synonymous with evil in Moorcock's books, and it just so happens that humanity or other civilized races require certain physical laws and overall stability to survive, so they have a reincarnating Eternal Champion who pushes back Chaos' endless creativity. But it could as easily be the other way - Chaos needing a champion to repel the subzero deadness of Law. And in play across possible worlds and culture borrowings there is plenty of space for interpretation and fun with these things. So that's the valuable part as far as Stormbringer is concerned, not the person of Elric with his particular doom or the Black Sword, and not really the rules.

I will look in those places you mentioned. But starting a campaign without having played in a world would be too hard, and not satisfying. I have game master experience, for once I'd like to view things from below instead of from above.

If you really like the Elric!/Stormbringer mechanics, but don't necessarily feel comfortable running a game set in Moorcock's multiverse, then my advice would be to look at running Magic World with the Advanced Sorcery supplement sprinkled in to taste . It includes a lightly-detailed sample setting in the back of the book called The Southern Reaches that could easily be adapted or expanded, but it's not based on any corpus of fiction, so you don't have to worry about getting something canonically right. I use Magic World for a couple of reasons: It's still in print and has PDFs available, plus it has all of those mechanics I like. I just plopped it into my own home-brew setting a few years ago with a minimum of tweaking and away I go.

However, if I'm reading this last statement correctly, "for once I'd like to view things from below instead of from above," then it sounds like you are more keen to play than GM. All I will say is good luck; finding a game looking for players, that's not D&D or one of the more fashionable RPGs these days, is going to be a very tough order to fill.

Happy hunting.

Elric/Magic World dull? Only if you have a dull GM I suppose. As for what you are looking for, your best bet might be to scour some of the dedicated PbP forums (Rpol.net, unseenservant.com, Rpg.net, rpgpub.com has a section for play-by-post)

Finding an existing game of Elric!/Stormbringer/Magic World that is looking for players might be a bit tough, but you might have better luck if you volunteered to run a Young Kingdoms game yourself. That's what I did; I've run a Magic World game at an off-site forum for about 3 years, but unfortunately the game is full and has a waiting list.

Anyway, best of luck finding what you are looking for (FYI: There's also a Stormbringer sub-forum here at BRP Central that might be a better place to advertise your wants/needs).

16 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Yes, we do like playing the exceptionalist masters, the destiny-born fantasy heroes or the caped crusaders of the superhero genre. We like to think that our destiny matters more than the life of those hard-working factory orcs providing the Dark Lord with manpower, arms and ammo. We are happy to demonize the opposition when slaughtering them for our perceived greater good (which usually only is good for our own - possibly extended - tribe). We like to claim the underdog role even when dominating the opposition in all but numbers, and we like to enforce our own faction's ethics on all others. We want that teenage wet dream.

All I suggest is to do this consequently, granting the wet dream, and then realize how little different this is from the Confederate slave holder mindset, from the ethnocidal politics of Charlemagne (in whose name a renowned peace award is given out), or from the imperialist mentality even to other (as racist) imperialists, like the invention of concentration camps and their application to the Boers. Wet dream power fantasies sell. Exposing the inherent corruption might be less of a selling point, but should be addressed when published by people upholding a decent morality in real life. (Which might explain why plenty of Hollywood productions have failed to do so in the wake of the #metoo exposure.)

At least that's the standard I would like to hold myself up against when contemplating designing such settings. YMMV.

Well I guess we, unwashed plebes will have to just make do with our silly unsophisticated elf-games and power-fantasies.

8 minutes ago, Joerg said:

In a fantasy setting with rather different ethics and morality (and negotiable value on human lives and dignity) I see no reason at all to assume a "war on drugs" mindset. Yes, this is fascism and racism/exceptionalism turned up to eleven and even higher, like playing Gloranthan ogres. I think it is quite healthy to have a game that lets you fall into the trap of perceived necessity and disregard of non-tribal life, to fall into the mindset that led to the failings that were justly prosecuted in the Nuremberg trials. It is healthy to acknowledge these demons in your potential, and it helps to get the perspective on those characters who ordered entire villages of vastly inferior military potential massacred for new land, or to establish a colonial nightmare regime with arbitrary punishments for minor failings and utter ruthlessness in the face of real resistance, as in the Belgian Kongo, the Herero uprising, or the Indian wars outside of the then United States. It could be healthy to experience how evil can lie in perceiving yourself and your objectively reprehensile actions as being the "good guys" in a conflict, as long as you include an element of reflection or moments of jarring recognition what your characters just did. There is of course always the danger that some people don't get the complete message, but that's no different from political reality these days.

You completely missed the meaning in the bit that you quoted. "What's not to like?" is another way of saying, "Of course we like it!"

First post updated. In a nutshell, I combined the two sheets into one and you can now toggle back and forth between standard hit points and heroic. I'm not sure why I didn't do this in the first place, but I blame my neophyte javascript skills when I started working on this a couple of years ago.

This is about as done as I can make it. I'll probably spend my time fiddling with my NPC sheet and add more critters from the bestiary to hopefully be useful to any GMs that are still playing Magic World (or Stormbringer/Elric!)

Sláinte

Watch Matt Easton's videos if you ever have a question about swords

 

I loved the Eternal Champion novels, but utterly missed Elric!/Stormbringer (played a lot of D&D in high school, then graduated and put gaming in the rear-view mirror for more than a decade).

Magic World wasnt the first D100 game I looked at (Mythras and OpenQuest) but it was the first one I fully grokked. It felt like a revelation; hitting a sweet spot of complexity and flexibility. It's an incredibly easy game to teach and it runs fast at the table and I can pull in things from other D100 games with ease.

My only complaint is that MW is kind of an ugly book when it comes to layout and reference at the table. Elric! on the other hand is an exemplar of design and ease of use, and I tend to use it when I need to look something up.

Magic World (which is printed after BRP and partly derived from it) mentions a -1 or -2 MOV penalty for being heavily burdened which is set by the GM. In chases, burdened characters in pursuit, or pursued, by less burdened characters with the same MOV, have to make CONx3 rolls to keep up, keep away.

I don't have access to my copy of BRP close at hand, so I can't compare, but maybe that will give you a workable solution?

 

Another update.

Why the change? My Major Wound calculation wasn't bugged after all, I was. Also, why the hell not?

List of changes

• went back to the old Major Wound calculation. Turns out I was crazy and spent too much time reading the BRP Big Gold Book, and realized that I had it right the first time (greater than half HPs in MW. Half or greater than HPs in BRP)
• Cleaned up a few more typos, and added more tool-tips.
• Added a couple of widgets: One rolls characteristics as per the standard method (3D6, save 2D6+6 for SIZ and INT), a widget to reset rolled characteristics, and two buttons to clear tick marks, one for lost HPs, the other for used MPs. These buttons are invisible if/when you print the sheet on paper.

 

Well, there's always something I guess. I did a bit more testing and I found a bug: Major Wound level was being calculated incorrectly (fixed in the new version).

Beyond that I added some quality of life fixes, and some additional fields that I always forget about until I need them.

• Separate fields for tracking current and original characteristics -- useful for characters that burn POW for Fey Magic, or get temporary boosts/banes from spells, etc.
• A field for temporary hit points (for things like Quick Heal, or whatever other effects might temporarily boost HPs)
• fields for tracking spell levels in memory and free INT (for you demoniac summoners)
• A field for tracking temporary Magic Points from something like a Brazier or Staff
• Reordered fields so you can comfortably tab through the document when you are filling out the sheet.
• Added a few more miscellaneous tool-tips for some fields, to make rules references easier.

Test it out and let me know if something is wonky and I'll do my best to fix it ASAP.

 

For those who might still be interested, I updated these character sheets in the downloads section. The explanation of changes are included in the revision notes (mostly added some extra calculations, like armor penalties, sum of skill points added/allotted, some minor cosmetic adjustments, most calculated fields don't display a value until you enter a governing characteristic, etc.)

 

 

As soon as you try to break free on your combat action, it should provoke opposed rolls. By my reading, it should be 'highest successful roll, or highest degree of success' just like any other opposed skill roll. I.e. you were screwed over.

I agree that the wording makes things a little muddy. The way I would rule it is that there's only two rolls: one for the attacker and one for the defender as per the combat matrix for regular combat. Two normal successes should give the tie to the defender. It's only if the attacker gets through that he can then immediately perform a knockdown, immobilize, or pain. That said, following the procedure for opposed rolls, where the highest successful roll wins, wouldn't break the game.

Was your character allowed any sort of attempt to "parry" the grapple attempt in the first exchange? Breaking free, should only come up on your character's combat action for the round, not your combat reaction.

Unarmed Combat

Unarmed Combat works the same as Close Combat, except that one or more of the combatants is unarmed. An Unarmed Combat attack does 1D3 damage, plus the normal Damage Modifier. If an Unarmed Combat attack is parried by a crafted or natural weapon, then the attacker will immediately suffer the rolled damage of the Parrying natural weapon, with no damage modifier; if this turns out to be a Serious or Grave wound, it will be to the limb he is using to attack. This is in addition to the normal effect of the Parry.

Grappling:

A grapple attack is made in the same way as a normal Unarmed Combat or natural weapon attack but must be declared as such before any dice are rolled. Should the attacker hit with his grapple attack, no damage is initially caused. Instead, the attacker then opposes his Unarmed Combat skill to the target’s Unarmed combat skill, in a roll similar to an opposed skill test. Grapple Fails: The grapple attempt fails and the attack is considered to have missed. Grapple Succeeds: The two combatants are now grappling and the attacker may immediately follow up on this success by Throwing, Inflicting pain or Immobilising the target.

My instinct is that you are right. on two normal successes the tie should go to the defender per the combat matrix, so unless the opposed rolls were two criticals, you should have been able to stave off the grapple attempt, and even if you went by the rules of an opposed skill test, the higher successful roll should win.

 

It's a beautiful book, has a nice bestiary with great old-school art, lots of flavor, and some interesting concepts and conceits, but my god this thing is so over-written. It badly needed an editor with a merciless red pen to omit the reams of cruft.

At this point all I can envision is stealing bits from it to use in other games like Renaissance, but actually trying to digest this thing and get the people I play with, excited doesn't seem likely.

On 12/29/2017 at 2:55 AM, Nikoli said:

With Magic World, does anyone award the automatic increase suggested in the book? I'm wary of it. But then again, if skills can go over 100% as a new metric for increasing mastery, maybe it's okay? (I noticed in a runequest adventure a cook with cooking over 100%!)

I can't shake the feeling that it might be too much to allow as an automatic increase, even just to keep the mystique of getting beyond 100. I like it being a really difficult, yet incredible, moment to reach. (I'd probably limit starting skills to 75% or 80% max. I'd allow 90% for mastery, and then multiple attacks similar to the -30 defense rule appear at that point, but arete after 100%. I'd see it like chess: master at 90%, grandmaster at 100%, and then there are great grandmasters...Kasparov is in a whole other chess league! 150% plus. In chess they call them SuperGMs.)

With all due respect, breaking 100 isn't really some magical, mystical barrier. Certainly Arrete can make things interesting, and give players a few more wrinkles in how they approach problems, but aside from the fumble range being halved, and certain skills like brawl synergizing with cestus for improved damage at 101+, it doesn't really move the needle all that much to go from something like 95 to 105 -- special and critical chances aren't radically different and opposed checks are still mostly governed by degree of success anyway (particularly combat skills).

My only experience in playing Magic World for the past couple of years is that I'm far too stingy with my experience checks, not too liberal. You won't break your game by allowing your players' characters to improve their skills steadily and noticeably. The demons they bind, magic they acquire, and wealth they accumulate will probably have a more noticeable impact on the tone of the game, IMO.

You might also want to check out Lankhmar Unleashed from Mongoose. It was written for Mongoose RuneQuest, but it has some bits that would be easily adaptable to Magic World. I started my own MW adaptation for Lankhmar and I found its corruption rules helpful. You can't get the PDF any more, but I found a pretty cheap physical copy for about $12 on Ebay about a year ago. (Amazon currently has a copy for $11.50 FWIW). Might be worth it just to mine for ideas?

18 hours ago, RosenMcStern said:

I did not follow the software developer's #1 rule: "Always test the exact same artefact that you deliver".

Files fixed, there was also an issue with the PAK extension being capitalised, at least on my Windows 10 installation. It should work out of the box now.

What bugs did you encounter, Nick? We are more than willing to fix everything as soon as it is reported.

Next release will focus on usability, and have online instructions about the most important automated features.

I'm pretty sure the combat tracker threw up a script error when I opened it up. I just tried to replicate it and it didn't happen this time, so I'm not sure what changed. If I see anything else I'll try to remember to make a screen grab of the console error and report it.