Jump to content

Marcus Bone

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    176

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    7

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Marcus Bone

    So, how do you run Stormbringer?

    in Stormbringer

    Posted

    I've been thinking about what makes up my version of Stormbringer at the table; in otherwords the aspects and themes that I focus on during play. Interestingly, the more I thought about it the more I realised that I also modify the game mechanically to best reflect my version of SB!

    Theme wise I am a big fan of morality plays, where the characters have to make a decision based on what they think is the best solution. I think this comes from my memories, some recent, some faded of the sort of decisions Elric himself had to make, and in the gaming sphere from Loz's Ghosts in the Machines adventure from the Rogue Mistress campaign. My greatest success in this was an adventure in which the characters had to determine whether or not to kill an NPC who they knew would, in the future, kill a number of people, despite the fact that he had no current intention in doing so. Suffice to say most of the concluding session consisted of me simply sitting back and watching the players argue their points in front of the very man whose life they held in their hands...

    Mechanically, I'm not a big fan of the overload of demons and magic seen in the later SB releases. I think they have their place in the game, but I usually minimise them (i.e. in my Lost Heroes* campaign, the group encountered only one bad guy with a demon blade, and only one real demon). Everything else I run as written, although I often allow my players to allocate points to their stats and generally limit magic to one caster per group.

    As for setting, I have a weak spot for Menii, although I've run a number of campaigns - both short and long - as well as numerous one-offs in other locations. Timewise I set all my games in the first year of Elric's reign, as noted in the core rulebook, and I usually relegate the powers of Pan Tang and Melnibone to the background (i.e. way above the interests of the characters). That said I have had one campaign, in which I was a player, that ended at the fall of the Dreaming City, which was excellent, as while our fates were never detailed, we were key in ensuring Elric returned with a vengence to his homeland.

    Probably the most interesting aspect of all the games I've run, is that for the most part I still default to the ELRIC! ruleset, rather the 5th edition SB book. I don't know why this is... maybe because I own multiple copies of ELRIC! and only only one, rather mint copy of SB? I will add, that while I've played and run plenty of Stormbringer games over the last decade, I was late to the whole party - The only Moorcock I'd read before 2000 was the Kane of Mars series as a young teen. My hey-day was in the mid 2000s when I was running multiple games (oh and doing the layout for those couple of SB Monographs), and playing in that epic campaign I mentioned earlier. In recent years, with a move half way across the country, I've only had the briefest chances to run SB... much to my disappointment.

    Well, I garbled on there for a while, but what I want to know is - how do you run Stormbringer? What rules? What changes? What adventures or campaigns? Hell, anything...

    Marcus

    * - One day I might write this up...

    • Like 1

    [Magic World] Let's talk about it!

    in Magic World

    Posted

    I have a big old Stormbringer campaign that I've thought would be good for MW. Just change a few locations, add a bit of flavour and *pow* would be done. That said, it would be be more dark fatasy than high fantasy, and might not be a good product to produce in a line looking move away from its Elric roots.

    And on top of that my real concern at the moment, with Chaosium flushed with the Kickstarter success from the Call of Cthulhu Horror on the Orient Express supplement, is that MW will be low priority for the next year or so...

    Scenarios and simple setting material for the mini-setting. Maybe a short monster book tied to the setting (with adventure hooks). Maybe something more ambitious à la Griffin Mountain.

    There is a lot of talented and (even better) reliable* RPG authors on these forums, perhaps we are the ones to hammer a project like a Griffin Mountain through, and more over take MW in a direction we'd like to see it go? Of course, there's no money in it :P

    Marcus

    * - I exclude myself from this, if not both catagories.

    Looking for previous Stormbringer & Elric! authors, writers, editors, etc.

    in Stormbringer

    Posted

    Hi All,

    As you are likely aware, I've been running a series of interviews over the past few years (on the www.stormbringerpg.com site) with a number of old Stormbringer hands. I've always found it interesting and insightful having these chats and posting the interviews, and long may they continued. However, my list of contacts is getting a bit short and therefore I'm coming to ask the community if you know of any one who was previously involved in the production of the Chaosium editins of Stormbringer or Elric! and would be interested in sharing there thoughts and memories.

    If you know of anyone or are yourself someone who fits this bill, please feel free to contact me over at stormbringerrpg@gmail.com and we can talk more.

    Thanks in advance!

    Marcus

    Stormbringer! - A website supporting Stormbringer 5th edition

    in Stormbringer

    Posted

    Hey!

    I've just released an update at http://www.stormbringerrpg.com/. Of most interest will be the reworked Old Hrolmar Monograph (written by Richard Watts and published as Chaosium's last Stormbringer monograph back in 2006) and other supporting documents for the setting.I've also posted the second session of an old actual play of Calisander, Richard's adventure set in the aforementioned Old Hrolmar.

    Cheers!

    Marcus

    Stormbringer

    in Stormbringer

    Posted · Edited by binder

    I've just added some Stormbringer stuff to the downloads section. The first is a player handout gazatteer for those new to the Young Kingdoms. It's largely text from the books edited and formated in order to be a convenient player hand out. It totals four pages, each page details a different continent, the north, west and south as well as one page for the island.

    The second is two versions of a character sheet for a Gods of Law game.

    I hope someone finds them useful.

    Hey Chaot!

    Would you mind if I upload those to Stormbringerrpg.com? I'm always on the lookout for good SB support material!

    Beyond that, it's great to see some more discussion on my favourite fantasy RPG!

    Marcus

    Stormbringer! - A website supporting Stormbringer 5th edition

    in Stormbringer

    Posted

    Hi All,

    One of the projects I'm looking to kick off over the new year is to create a wiki of all things SB. As part of this I want to create (in part or full) the missing Atlases of the Young Kingdoms.

    I have settled on Wikkawiki, and would like to create a custom theme for it. I know a bit of .css and .php but I'm not expert (more of a play and test the results sort of guy), and was wondering anyone on this forum would a) be interested in helping out or B) have the right skills to bounce changes off?

    Feel free to PM or email me is you are interested.

    Marcus

    Stormbringer! - A website supporting Stormbringer 5th edition

    in Stormbringer

    Posted

    This is true. I'd rather keep control of the back catalogue for Mongoose projects rather than have electronic versions available that could contradict things I might want to do later.

    First, congrats on moving on to a new job. It must be a great role to give an actual full-time job in the RPG industry! The best of luck! (oh, although I'm wondering whether I should approach Mat to see if he's looking for a replacement :P Jokes!)

    Second, hopefully this might allow us to tap into your great archive of Elric creation for stormbringerrpg!

    Cheers, Marcus

    P.S. For those of you who are unaware, see here - http://blog.mongoosepublishing.co.uk/

    Stormbringer! - A website supporting Stormbringer 5th edition

    in Stormbringer

    Posted

    Hey Ian,

    I've pretty much got everything Richard Watts ever wrote for Elric/SB on one of my HDDs at home (we talk every know and then). One person I have followed up with is Mark Morrison. We have discussed getting some of his SB material up online, but he's a busy man. I do have my eye on something special from him, however. He did, however, put me onto Malcolm of the Herald of Doom fame!

    I've talked with Loz a few times about his older material, but I think he's recycling most of it back into his work with Mongoose (which is great as it gives some continuity to the games). Shannon, however I haven't thought about. I'll attempt to track him down.

    Marcus

    Stormbringer! - A website supporting Stormbringer 5th edition

    in Stormbringer

    Posted

    Hi Damon,

    Had a look at the forum, but couldn't see how to register.

    You can use a range of logins (I just tested this with my twitter and my Yahoo accounts!). You just have to click the 'Sign In' option on the top right of the forum. This allows you to register through your preferred app (i.e. from Facebook through Open ID, etc.)

    Had a question I was going to post there. Have you got any plans to bring in 'When the Madcap laughs' as an adventure? It was published over 3 White Dwarf either 95-97 or 96 to 98. Not sure. Also can't remember who wrote it either. I have been scouring the internet for a copy with no luck so far.

    Not unless someone comes to me (and they have the copyright). I know Stormbringer! is only a fan site, but I really want to ensure I jump on a few toes as possible...

    Sorry,

    Marcus

    BRP Classics: STORMBRINGER - The Young Kingdoms

    in Stormbringer

    Posted

    Yes, other than that one, it's allready at the top of the list. Come to think of it, it's the only true fansite. The other links are official sites and resources... How stable are the sites on the wayback machine? How long do they keep a copy?, do you know?

    Thanks, I try hard - I actually wish I started the site a couple of years earlier, when I could have got more of Mark Morrison's stuff!

    As for the WBM, I don't know. They have a pretty impressive server array, and you can get some results from back in 2002 and earlier! If I could find who ran Terhali's Realm, I'd ask to save their reviews on SB!

    Marcus

    BRP Classics: STORMBRINGER - The Young Kingdoms

    in Stormbringer

    Posted

    Does anyone know of any other fansites for Stormbringer? Didn't really find that many links.

    SGL.

    I'm guessing you are saying other than www.stormbringerrpg.com?

    No, not that are readily available. I know the wayback machine has archives of the old Terhali's Realm website - but it is hit & miss finding info via this - (see http://web.archive.org/web/20060424061315/www.geocities.com/Area51/Capsule/7909/)

    Other than that no, nothing I know of...

    Marcus

    Looking for Michael Baumann or Matthew Hartley

    in Basic Roleplaying

    Posted

    Hi Mike,

    I was hoping you'd be here, or that someone would know you on this forum!

    As you might (or might not) know, I run Stormbringer! (www.stormbringerrpg.com) a website dedicated to Stormbringer 5th edition (and just about everything else RPG related to the Eternal Champion). Anyway, recently I was reading yours and Matthew's 'Shadows of the Past' and 'Sands of Time' adventures, and was thinking that as they don't seem to be available up on the Chaosium site anymore, they'd have a prefect home at Stormbringer!

    If you think this would interest you, I'm happy to talk more (either here, or PM me your email address).

    Thanks, and look forward to talking further!

    Marcus

×
×
  • Create New...