BMonroe

Mongoose kept the Chaosium material available as PDFs on DriveThru for a long time, but when they surrendered the license back to MM, all the stuff came down. So, there's no legal way to obtain those books on PDF at this point.

Disappointing, to say the least...

If you compare the two, you'll see that Magic World is about a 75% cut and paste from Elric! (I was the editor of MW, btw). From there I went through all of the Elric!/Stormbringer 5 supplements, and collected tons of more material. So, for example, while Magic World doesn't have the Demon Creation rules from Elric!, it has -all- the Sorcery spells from all the Elric!/SB5 supplements in it. (The Demon rules show up in Advanced Sorcery). Likewise, I pulled the Ships and Sailing rules from Seas of Fate, and plopped them in MW. So, point is, if you liked the old Elric! game, MW is pretty much exactly the same, but with the Moorcockisms extracted.

Magic World is essentially Elric! with the serial numbers filed off, and some extra bits added.

One of my main goals in putting together the books for Magic World, was to reprint 'the best' of the BRP fantasy material from Stormbringer/Elric! and RQIII. So, for example, the "Ki" magic from Land of Ninja was repurposed and expanded on as "Arete" in Advanced Sorcery. Ships and sailing rules from "Seas of Fate" were fiddled with and put in the main rules. Most of the monsters from the RQIII creatures book appear in the main rules. I went through -all- of the Elric!/SB5 books looking for sorcery spells and put them in the main rules. Etc., ad nauseam. So over time, as the next few books in the line come out, you'll see the lion's share of the rules material from all the Elric!/SB5/RQIII books will be reprinted as MW material. See, to me, RQIII/Elric!/SB5 represent the 'Golden Age' of BRP-based fantasy gaming. It seemed a shame to me that they were impossible to get ahold of for modern gamers, as well as us old fans who might be hoping to replace worn out old books. My only regret, honestly, is I wish I'd made the core book smaller, leaving a lot of material out for a 'companion' type book, and tried to bring the main rules in under $20. But in the end, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out in the end.

The upcoming Chronicler's Companion has rules for hiring spell casters. Actually, about half the book is drawn from the aforementioned "Basic Gamemaster" book (aka, the RQIII Gamemaster's Book). Guidelines for buying magical junk would just need to be extrapolated from that. For example, figure out the total MP/POW spent to make a magical sword as if it was a demon weapon (ala Advanced Sorcery), then look that up on the table in CC/BG, and you're set.

The Chrinicler's Companion had a chapter on expanding the benefits of Championship, as well as how to use Alegiance to model cults and belief systems. Essentially breaking down the abstract notion of "Light, Balance, Shadow" into a way to create interesting pantheons.

I've been reading it over the last few months off and on, and really like it. I've an idea for a low-magic fantasy world for MW inspired by Conan, Kane, Thieves' World, and stories of that ilk. I'm strongly considering using Enlightened Magic as the de facto magic system for it.

I doubt it. They'd just be adjusting their characters to conform to the requirements for a different system. POW and INT have other uses in-game as well as just prerequisites for magic use. Of course, in my home games I don't make players roll for their PC ability scores; I just have them assign the stat values they want to make the characters they want to play.

I've got an idea for a game I want to do with MW where I'll just drop Sorcery all together, and use the stuff from Enlightened Magic. Setting it up so that magic is subtle, slow to take effect, etc. Not something PCs can always rely on to save their bacon. It's all going to be very Kane/Conan/Thieve's World/Lankhmar sort of stuff.

Nope. They're completely different books, and don't really cover any of the same territory. Be aware that the Magic Book uses a lot of options from the core BRP, so you'll have to do a bit of fiddling to get it to work with Magic World. That being said, if you want another cool book to add on to Magic World, I highly recommend the new "Enlightened Magic". I've been dogging through it lately and like it a lot.

I have no idea. Yeah, looks like that was forgotten. There are various ways to do it in BRP games. The version I've used is simply make the character use the rules for Aiming to hit a specific target in the melee. If the archer's attack fails, then have him make a Luck roll. Success means he hit -something- in the mob. Have all potential targets make a Luck roll and the one who fails by the greatest margin takes the hit.

It's not out yet in any format.

I wish! No, just crazy busy over the last few weeks.

There was a list of additions to the credits page that were not put in by the layout guy at the last hour. If it's any consolation, the authors of the Fey Magic of The Southern Reaches chapter didn't get credited either.

My feeling is that Enchantments like those in the MW core rules should be unique, strange, and unreplicatable by mere mortal sorcerers. So, as a Chronicler, if you want to include new ones in your game, just make something up.

Nope. It's the thing where you have a skill over 100%, so when you roll for experience checks, you try to roll over (100-stat). Most BRP games aren't so lenient...

SDleary speaks wisdom. Its entirely possible, though difficult. Though it's actually easier in MW than many other BRP games. Note the stat bonus to experience rolls, and the different ways occupation skills advance compared to regular skills. Also, starting characters at higher skill level (Epic, etc.) outs you that much closer. Also, SDLeary: I still have your copy of MW and Advanced Sorcery. Let's figure out a time to get together soon and I'll get them to you.

When you get your mitts on your copy of Advanced Sorcery, go directly to the chapter titled "Arete". It's pretty much exactly what you want. It's a system that lets you do cool things once certain skills get over 100%. It's inspired by the old "Land of Ninja" Ki powers. Between that, and the expanded rules for using Allegiance to create cults in the upcoming Chronicler's Companion, you should be all set.

Beats me. I poked Nick and he told me he'd look into it.

Excellent!

Contest deadline is today, so get those posts to Nick for entry.

OpenQuest is an excellent game. I ran a campaign of it that lasted almost a year, and we had a great time. I highly recommend picking it and MW up, and mashing them together as you see fit. They're both mostly compatible, with a little massaging around the edges (as mentioned above).

I'm sure the PDF will be along shortly.

Not sure exactly when it's coming out, but the upcoming BRP game, "After the Vampire Wars" should have what you need to do a V:tM game.