Marcus Bone

I hate these sorts of threads, but given the announcement at Gencon - and the comments that the BRP system is only 10% of Chaosium's revenue - I'm wondering what the future might hold for the Magic World system?

I'm sure that we will learn more over time (especially once the Call of Cthulhu Kickstarters are fulfilled), but I'd be happy to hear something official.

Marcus

I'd love to be involved - but as I'm based on the other side of the world

Just wanted to say that Ben and Dustin solved my problem lightning fast! Chaosium FTW

Ditto - Fantastic service, something has really improved over at Chaosium!

It should go without saying that I'll happy host any Elric!, Stormbringer or even Elric of Melinbone material that anyone might produce over at stormbringerrpg.com.

Marcus

Late to the party, but please let my add my congratulations. You've pretty much got my dream job

Marcus

Purchased and on its way too me as I write this

Sorry to bring this thread back to life, but last night my age old concern with the purpose and function of the Allegiance rules reared its ugly head again. In my mind the rules as written make no sense, and don't reflect the background.

In the Elric stories, the main protagonists are always looking for Tanelorn - the City open to those who follow Balance. However, this is a difficult path, and the balance is a fine line between Chaos and Law. It is hard to attain, and even harder for one to maintain. To reflect this, I think that devotion to Chaos and Law tend to be two ends of a spectrum, and followers of the Balance look to attain a true equilibrium.

Mechanically the rules could go like this:

• There are only two Allegiances - Law & Chaos.
• All Characters start with 40% in one trait and 60% in the other (depending on background, race, etc).
• The two totals are counter matched, so as one goes up the other goes down.
• To achieve the Balance a character must get both to 50%.
• If either Law or Chaos reaches 100%, then the character becomes an Agent of that Power.
• At various times, based on events or actions, a player could be asked to roll against an Allegiance to see if they succumb to it's influence.

Any thoughts?

Marcus

Thanks for the kind words about Slaves of Fate. I quite enjoyed writing that adventure, my first published scenario. I would have liked to have seen it published for one of the d% iterations of the game, but it can't be helped. 

 

I'm confirming that there never was a publishable manuscript for Straits of Chaos, as mentioned above. I don't know why a revision was never attempted, but for one reason or another it never went beyond an unusable first draft (if that). It's a pity, as the outline sounded pretty cool. 

I do know that there is a SB 5th edition conversion for Slaves of Fate - I've uploaded a copy here - http://www.stormbringerrpg.com/?p=1416

Marcus

They are mentioned often in the RoH rulebook, but little is said about their motives or goals, or even who they are.

At a guess they are Loki's (the 8th AI) attempt to combat its brothers (i.e. the Machine Civilisations).

Any thoughts? I am hoping they will be detailed further in the RoH companion out soonish...

Marcus

Well it took me almost a year (which thinking about it is pretty quick for me ) but I've uploaded the first version of my 'Adventures in the Southern Reaches' scenario seeds (). As you'll see, I have at least two more ideas in draft format, plus a couple more floating around on scraps of paper... 

If there is interest, I'll do more!

Marcus

 

Yeah, our group has decided to try the -30 rather than the -20 in 1e. Our next session isn't for a few weeks but we're going to try the following (excerpt from an email I sent out to our group):

 

====

 

This was shamelessly pilfered from RuneQuest 6. I'm not suggesting we completely switch to the RQ6 combat system...just stealing a few rules to hopefully make our game better.

 

Each entity (PC or NPC/Monster) will be assigned Action Points based on their INT and DEX as follows:

 

INT + DEX

12 or Less: 1 AP

13-24: 2 AP

25-36: 3 AP

For every additional 12 points: +1

 

====

 

Thoughts/Comments? I love this game by the way. It's just that the attack/parry rule was slowing our game to a halt.

 

Oh, I like that rule... especially as I've had players running highly skilled characters break their combat round into multiple attacks (i.e. split their weapon skill). This results in a 'death by overwhelming' against even the most competent adversaries.

Funnily enough, for entirely other reasons I had my copy of 1e to hand and looked it up - and it is -20! I was surprised too (so much so I I just checked again!) but it's -20 in Hawkmoon and SB 4e as well, so I guess the -30 came with the major rules changes in Elric!/ SB 5e.

Cheers,

Nick

Good to know! I guess that for whatever reasons I've always used -30. Interestingly, I think I would have picked that up from my first SB GM who, as far as I can recall, used -30. 

Thanks for setting me straight

Marcus

Not

Remember that each Parry after the first is at -20; that masters can Riposte and that a parry against a critical ALWAYS breaks the parrying weapon.

Having said all that, the stalemate "problem" is a distinctive feature of SB1-4. The attack / parry rules in Elric! / Stormbringer 5th edition (and BRP and Magic World) are somewhat different.

Cheers,

Nick

Not to call you out or anything Nick, but isn't the negative -30 per Parry. Or am I wrong? I don't have my books on me at the moment.

Marcus

When the announcement that Mongoose had surrendered the licence back to Michael Moorcock, and the PDFs were no longer available, came out, I did a bit of asking around. I got in contact with Howard Morhaim, Mr Moorcock's agent in the US. Howard was nice enough to answer my questions about the licence and stated that they had been approached by another well known company aboutit (this was 9 months or so ago). I was unable to secure any rights myself (as I was unable to offer any money ), but he did say that their goal was to make sure the older material stayed available as far as possible. 

I know that doesn't quite answer the question you asked, but I thought you'd find it interesting...

Marcus (who wishes he had a few thousand dollars free to get the EC licence!)

Hi All!

Just a note to say that - after way too long - I've not only completed the update to the stormbringerrpg.com site (well mostly), but also uploaded some new content; an interview with Malcolm Wolter of the 'Herald of Doom; fanzine fame, and an EoM adventure by Dean Paolillo (yes I know Hell must be freezing over )

In regards to the future of the site, I'm looking at extending its support to Mongoose's Eternal Champion editions* in addition to the older Chaosium ones (although these remain my favourite). As you all likely know, Mongoose no longer holds the EC license, and while I'm not able to reproduce any of the out-of-print material from any of the publishers (I asked Mr Moorcock's agent about this directly), I'll continue to hunt out new content when and where I can with your help!

Cheers!

Marcus

* - BTW, I'm happy to host Magic World content as well, if there's an interest.

Sounds great! I look forward to what comes out.

Once they are available I'll make sure I post an update over on stormbringerrpg.com (maybe an interview with the author(s) etc., we have to keep the SB vibe alive you know, especially after the death of EOM over at Mongoose)

As for using existing Elric! material, I find that all the stuff I really like is a little dark for an 8 year old (Great for adult players however!)

I believe there is a monograph of a mini setting / set of scenarios set in the Southern Reaches being worked on (possibly submitted?).

Good to hear, I'm looking at getting my eldest son to game with me (he's only 8 but pretty on to it) and think the Southern Reaches is definitely a setting he'll enjoy. As I said, I'm looking a writing up a couple of scenario ideas but family time and live always limits my efforts, hence my interest in seeing pre-written material!

I've got a couple in varying states of completion, but dues to a terminal illness in the family and a horrendous period at work, progress is GLACIALLY slow (and I've no clear idea what I'd do with them anyway).

Sorry to hear. But I know what that's like. Since taking a Interim role here at work (so much for 'only a month or two') my free time has been reduced to near zilch (not to mention a recent accident that saw me in hospital for a week :{).

Marcus

... are there any?

I'd be keen to see a scenario book (much like the old 'Perils of the Young Kingdom') for the setting.

I've also started on a few adventure seeds myself, that I'll post here if there is any interest.

Marcus

Any news on this?

The curious want to know (i.e. how far away is OQ2?)

Thanks,

Marcus

This is one I did a few years ago, my players liked it at the time:

STR+SIZ: DB

02 - 10: -d4

11 - 19: 0

20 - 24: +1

25 - 30: +d2

31 - 35: +d4

36 - 40: +d6

(Every multiple of 16 beyond 40 grants +d6)

I really like this and might use it in my next SB game - if you don't mind

Marcus

Congrats Ben! Purchased, downloaded and under review

as I think I've mentioned previously, I've been working on a fantasy setting myself for a while and Magic World will definitely be the mechanics I set it to. I hope to pop it up somewhere on the net one day but not any time soon

Marcus

....add that to an ambiguous passage about shields in the combat chapter and its possible to get quite tied in knots over how weapon and shield parries work. ...

Hey Nick,

That passage in Elric! re: Shields has confused me for years

Today, I just let the characters use shields to parry and riposte, but I'm not sure that's what Richard meant with that paragraph...

Marcus

Hi Ben!

I have Richard's contact details and spoken to Mark once in the past. I'd be more than happy if you'd put in a good word for me (or PM me and tell me if there's an issue )

Marcus

Hey,

I've started to convert various old 4th edition adventures to SB for my site. It is a bit of hard work (the Elric! edition has a conversion doc in the back of the book BTW), and things still seem a bit over powered.

I hope to get my various conversions up some time (with this new site layout I've promised to do!)

Marcus

Hi All,

I thought I'd raise an aspect of the Stormbringer/Elric! game system that I've always struggled with, and have secretly wished would better reflect what I think is a core aspect of roleplaying in the Young Kingdoms - the Allegiance rules.

I don't know about you, but I've never been happy with the way they've been presented in any edition of the game, and even my own attempt at sorting them out (over at Stormbringer! » 20sided Conversion) leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Now that might all sound a bit odd, but let me explain why I think this way (about the Allegiance rules as a whole, not my ill thought-out attempt ). You see, I have always thought that the struggle characters should face in Stormbringer is how to balance their support for the three powers - Law, Chaos and the Balance - and how this in turn influences their opinions and actions. To me these three things should be a driver for all events in the setting, and should lead characters into making hard decisions.

Ideally I see them working something like the 'passions' from Pendragon, where opposite forces work against each other to form a characters outlook on the world. However, with three elements this is a little harder, and I can't see a way in which you could align all three. The other thing is that, IMO, these influences should not dictate the character's actions. In the Young Kingdoms the most chaotic character should still be able to act in the name of law, if the circumstances benefits them, and vice versa.

I also believe that dedication to one of these powers should provide benefits to a character, especially when one acts in their name. However doing this in a way that doesn't seem contrived looks difficult.

So is it just me, or do others have the same difficulties with these mechanics? Why oh why couldn't this be as simple and yet meaningful as say Call of Cthulhu's Sanity system, or the Insanity/Chaos rules from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying!

Marcus

P.S. Just writing this post as put a few mental notes in order, and I might post my thoughts here is anyone is interested...