BMonroe

Actually, it occurs to me to make it more D&D-like, just give a HP bonus any time any skill goes above 80%. That way wizards, thieves, farmers, etc. can all raise their HP too.

And the guy above you wants them as full rulebooks rather than supplements. It's really a case of realizing that there's no way to make everyone happy. However, it's important to look at each product on a case-by-case basis. That being said, most of the things I've got lined up at this point are more of the supplementary model than core game model.

This is something I've been giving a lot of thought to. My opinion is that it needs to be considered on a case by case basis. Some settings are worth considering as full games, others as supplements to the BGB. I' not interested in making any sort of hard and fast rule about this at this point. But I expect in the future you'll see some full games, ala Magic World, and some supplement/setting books ala Mythic Iceland or Blood Tides.

One of the great things about BRP-based games, is that there are so many ways to do anything without breaking the system. As we've seen here, adding scaling hit points (never done in an official BRP-based RPG) is just a matter of figuring out how to do it. It's not going to mess up your game, or cause the rules to collapse.

I am. A lot. One of the original purposes for the monographs was to judge the merits of some odd book ideas, and see if they'd be worth converting into fully finished production books for the retail trade. Sadly, that idea fell by the wayside in favor of putting out books which could generate a little quick cash without a lot of Chaosium input. As everyone has said above, there were some real gems in the line, and some... not gems. We've been thinking a lot about the monographs over the last few weeks, and I don't have any real news for you at this point. What I can tell you is that we're giving them all careful consideration, and trying to figure out what to do with them. Some will probably be fast-tracked into full books. Others might be dissected for good bits, and compiled into "Companion"-style books. As an example, an upcoming Magic World book includes six adventures from the various monograph adventure books. Each of them was given back to the original author, who was asked to revise their scenario to fit in a specific area of the default Magic World setting. Then the author of that book gave them each a quick edit to make sure they flowed together, and with the rest of his text. So now, those six adventures will form almost half the content of that book. Right now, we're not looking at reprinting the existing monogaphs in the way we have in the past. We are looking into other options to have some way to keep them around for a while, however (evaluating PoD services, etc.). Can't give you more specifics than that, however. And really just because I don't want to announce anything that might change completely tomorrow, or next week, or...

That's why I incuded the Heroic Hit Points option. Indeed, in almost all the games of MW I've run for my own group, we use the HHP option. In addition to letting PCs stick around a lot longer, it makes Major Wounds much more rare on them. Of course, I also use the Mook rules where cannon-fodder NPCs have CON/2 Hit Points. I just like running games where the PCs are Big Damn Heroes .

You could also add Hit Points to the list of trainable characteristics. Another thought would be to have HP gain "experience" much in the same way as other characteristics. Every time you take damage (from a wound, poison, etc.) check your HP. Then, at the end of the adventure, roll d% and try to roll over your HP x 5 or 10 (CON is the bonus for totals over 100%). If you beat the number, add 1 or 1D3 HP up to a maximum of CON+SIZ. Or, for a more "D&D-like" method, make it a bonus from skill experience. Maybe any time you raise a Combat or Physical skill over 80% (or some other number), you can add a point to your HP total. Sort of like how in CoC, when you get a skill past 90% you get a bump to your SAN score. But really, whatever works for your group is fine. Play around with it and let us know how it goes.

I wish I knew. It's a big provlem, but one I don't think there's any way to solve except on a case by case basis.

Yup. Noticed that a few days ago. It's on Nick's list to do in a few days, once he's done with a couple other projects that have to get finished ASAP.

At long last, the PDF of Magic World has been updated with all currently-known errata! It's been reloaded to Drivethrurpg.com, and is going to be reloaded to Chaosium.com later today. Yay! (And if you find any errors, keep 'em to yourself until next week. I'm too tired to think about them today...)

Ha!

The Chronicler's Companion has a chapter of stat blocks for a variety of NPCs. Shopkeepers, town guards, etc. It's not as extensive as FOES, but it'll do the trick. I'm honestly not sure if there's much of a market for something like a MW version of Foes, but if people like the idea, maybe it's something I can think about for down the road.

I feel bad for him. He totally got ripped off. I feel -so- bad for him, that I'll buy the stuff off him for what he paid. I'll even pay to have it shipped to the US!

Charlie and Meghan are no longer employees of Chaosium. Nick is still onboard, and will be overseeing pretty much all fiction programs, and doing layout/editorial of other RPG projects under my mentorship. The inestimably awesome, and tirelessly patient Dustin Wright is also on board, helping out with marketing, PR, more fiction stuff, and lots of other things.

I love this so much, I want to go out and punch a hippy. Seriously, this is -exactly- the type of thing I imagined when envisioning the Southern Reaches. I pitched it to David Ackerman (the author of the chapter) as: "Make me a fantasy setting along the lines of what would happen if Ray Harryhausen made a movie based on celtic/saxon myth, from a screenplay by Michael Moorcock, with art direction by Rodney Matthews."

You're preaching to the choir! Go tell some -other- people how great it is! The cover of the book is too subtle, really. I meant it as a tribute to the history of all the BRP fantasy games that came before it, but nobody gets that. Note the knight in the Chaosium-logo tabard, "Standing on the shoulders of giants". Ah, well. Welcome to the madhouse!

Man, it's been a crazy day today. Nick's going to be back in the office tomorrow, and in-between moving stuff around, trying to sort out all the Kickstarter craziness, and lots of other "gotta get done" stuff, I'm going to talk to him about he and I finishing up the errata to the PDF of MW. The list is there, and ready for us to do. He just kept getting pulled off to other projects over the last few weeks. Now that those distractions are gone, we're gonna make this thing happen.

Hey guys, So, I know you've all heard the news about Greg & Sandy are back at Chaosium, which is just so frikkin' exciting I can't expletive enough. What's not been made much of is that I've been asked to come back on board full time and help get things back on track. As you'll see below, my official title is "Chief Operations Officer, Magic World/BRP Line Editor, and Earth Ro-Man". Which basically means I'm doing all the 'boots on the ground' stuff, as well as taking on the task of making sure AWESOME THINGS HAPPEN WITH BRP! Everything is up in the air right now: we're evaluating -everything- from the last few years, and trying to figure out how to make it awesomer in the future. But, I am -committed- to pushing Magic World along as best I can. Nick is still on board, and he and I will now be in the office together Getting Shit Done . I can't promise things like the Chronicler's Companion will be out by GenCon at this point, but man I'm more excited about the future of MW than I've been in month. More to come, but I wanted to touch base with all you guys on this forum, because you're all awesome, and I've come to really appreciate your enthusiasm over the last few years. I'd like to also give you all the first look at our new Chaosium slogan: "Making Awesome Games for Awesome People." Guys... this is really frikkin' happening.

Indeed!

That sounds like a hoot. Using SB to run Hyborian Kingdoms stuff is great. I did a bunch of that back in the day with the GW hardcover version of the game (SB 3, I think).

That's awesome to hear. After SB4, I'd hoped to have a chance to do the same thing with the Hawkmoon science that I'd done with the Stormbringer magic system, but it never happened. Using Superworld is essentially the way to go. The Stormbringer 4 demon powers were really just clusters of powers made up using the SW system. For my game, I'm going back to my original idea (which was to have demons and sorcery separate) and probably going to build a "Wizardry" system using the Superworld powers. My idea right now is to allow "Wizards" access to a pool of power points during character generation, and letting them build their spells with them. I'm still fiddling with the ideas, so no details as of yet.

I have trouble reconciling the demon magic from SB 1-3 with the books, but maybe saying it was a "terrible" representation was too harsh. I was a huge fan of the game back in the day, but haven't played 1e in years. Hence now my interest in going back and revisiting it. Should be fun!

For the first time in over 30 years, I recently began rereading the Hawkmoon books. Which got my mind wandering back to play testing the Hawkmoon RPG with Kerie, which then got me thinking all about all the Stormbringer/Hawkmoon games I played back in the day. All of which is simply to say that over the past week or two, I've been thinking a lot about the original Eternal Champions games. So, now I’ve got this idea to mash together 1st ed. Stormbringer and Hawkmoon to run my 80s S&S weird fantasy game. Admitting that 1e SB is a great game, but a terrible representation of the Elric world, makes me wonder what it would be like to use it as the basis to create a whole new world... 
I really want to build a world using both demon magic from SB1, and super science from Hawkmoon.
The Gateway Bestiary would be the perfect monster book for this. And it needs a wandering tribe of werewolves. Wrote up a stack of new index cards (setting brainstorming) based on this stuff last night. EG: "The Isle of Wights: home to the immortal sorcerer kings of a bygone age. Their bizarre science borders on magic, and their presence fuels legends of ghosts and hauntings." At the core, I've got this: The world is constantly slowly shifting in a balance between three cosmic forces: Disorder: Disorder is a state of unnatural occurrences, where the laws of nature are wronged. Undead, mutations, etc. Sorcery is the magic of disorder. Use SB 1st edition Demon magic, renaming Demons to Spirits, or something similarly odd. Equilibrium: The natural state of the world is in Equilibrium. It is the province of elemental magic. Use the standard 4 elements, but add Light, Darkness, Plague, and (others?). Order: Order is the province of stasis, science, technology. Hawkmoon weird science rules for this. It's all very weird, Atlantean, Flash Gordon sort of stuff. I also think I'm going to try and replicate my original idea for the SB 4th edition sorcery revision, which was to replace the static demon types with a fluid magic system based on the Superworld powers rules. I'm not sure how that fits in with the three forces above, but I'm going to mull it over a bit and see what I come up with. So, after all that, I need to think for a bit about how to make a setting feel "Moorcockian" without the use of any of his specific settings. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them! And for what it's worth, I'm attaching the map I'll probably use for this setting.

If I was going to GenCon, I'd sign up!

Step 1: Stop by the Chaosium offices and interrupt his day. Step 2: Ask him, "Hey, how's the Chronicler's Companion coming along?" Step 3: when he replies, "Oh, it's looking pretty good", respond with "Okay, great! Because I think I've got another chapter we could add to it that would be awesome..." Step 4: Profit! So, yeah, I'm currently evaluating a scenario and a new rules chapter for inclusion in the Chronicler's Companion...