smiorgan

thanks for the welcome guys!

It's almost a year that I'm working on an italian translation, and even this project is running fine

An Italian translation of OQ? That would be very cool! I'd play it with the kids at home!

P.S. I also own that edition of Stormbringer.

as the title says... hello guys

I'm a long-time fan of this forum, now I wish to interact with the community!

I've played RPGs for half of my (not so long) life, and I've betrayed the d20 years ago when I got my hands on Stormbringer...

Now my main interest is OpenQuest I also own Cthulhu dark ages (ita) and Legend.

I'll try to not bother you too much

Ciao!

Ciao, Whisker89 benvenuto!

I guess you're a fellow Italian. You'll see that BRP central is a very friendly and relaxed board!

OpenQuest is a cool game ... as is/was Stormbringer. Which edition/s of Stormbringer did you play?

Smiorgan

Well, not with the BGB. But I have done quite a lot of CoC/Stormbringer and CoC/Elric! crossovers in the past. Never had a problem. I'm sure that with the BGB it will be even smoother.

One little thing is weapon damage. Many weapons have slightly different damage dice in CoC and BGB. Personally, I would ignore the incoherence.

Smiorgan

PS Do you have BRP Rome? Personally, I'd use Rome's chargen and character sheets to run Cthulhu Invictus.

Yes there is. There's guidance given on where to site Monster Island in the world of Thennla, and one of the scenarios would easily dovetail with using Monster Island full-on.

Very cool!

Shores of Korantia is a settings book in the same world as Age of Treason, and in the same era. However its focus and point of view is not the Taskan Empire but the land of Korantia, a collection of some 40 city states that comprise the Korantine Empire - although this is an Empire in name only and our young Emperor Koibos XXIV (pictured on the cover) has little actual say over how these cities govern their affairs and they are fiercely competitive with one another, even to the point of warfare.

Shores also explores the Inner Ocean and provides information on some of the exotic lands and people that lie beyond it - as well as the rules you need to navigate your way there. And there's an extensive set of adventures set around a recently Korantine founded colony, its people and intrigues with neighbouring lands.

Very interesting. So, there's no need of owning the Taskan Empire book to enjoy this setting?

Is there any connection with Monster Island's setting? I have a vague remembrance of having read something about this connection somewhere.

I'm a lazy guy and I've always found BRP had terrific settings (Lovecraft, Moorcock, Glorantha). So, I've always used BRP published setting. What I often did was crossovers and setting-mix. Chtulhu 1920 + Ellric + Corum + Lovecraft's Dreamlands, or Elric + RQ Griffin Island. I also did a lot of Hawkmoon + Elric, but that is expected!

That's true.

The fact is that the Roman Empire never was a dynastic monarchy, at least not constitutionally. The Principate was a bizarre and unstable equilibrium between a formal Republic and a de facto military dictatorship.

The form of the state remained largely untouched in the transition between the Republic to the early Imperial Age. Contrary to Palpatine in Star Wars , Roman emperors never suppressed the Senate, most central Roman magistrates of the Republic continued formally untouched, including the consulate, even if they were largely devoid of real power. And that was at the center, in Rome. At a local level municipia in Italy and in other territories with Roman citizenship continued to be governed by elected officials (election campaign graffiti in early imperial Pompeii are a clear example!). Roman emperors never took the title of 'rex' (king), which was hateful to Romans. They used titles such 'augustus' (the beloved), 'princeps' (first citizen), 'imperator' (general, military commander) and took the name of 'Caesar' (who himself refused to be king, taking the title of 'dictator for life').

To my knowledge there were no written family based succession laws in the Roman empire. Exactly because the state was formally a republic! Emperors could indicate a successor but things went smoothly only when this choice was given legitimacy by the Senate AND military backing from the Legions and from Rome's Pretorian Cohort - which happened, well, rarely...

The only period in which succession sort of worked was the age of the Antonine 'adoption emperors': Nerva -> Trajan -> Hadrian -> Antoninus Pius -> Marcus Aurelius, where each emperor adopted as son his appointed successor, who usually was a relative. Marcus Aurelius had adopted Lucius Verus and made him co-emperor but here things went wrong because Verus got the plague and died. The throne passed to Commodus, Marcus Aurelius' biological son and the golden adoption age was over... It is in fact surprising that it did not go wrong earlier, because the adoptions were the result of complex negotiations, brokered by the Senate...

Then Late Empire was entirely a different beast, but surely not a dynastic monarchy in any traditional sense. The military element was prevalent. Diocletian tried to put order in the succession mess with the Tetrarchy system, which was a bizarre chain of succession between itinerant regional commanders and vice-commanders with their travelling état-major and court. It never really worked.

I, too, much prefer the old Moorcock (haven't read Corum or Hawkmoon)

Corum and Hawkmoon stories are a lot of fun. I greatly recommend both Corum series and the first Hawkmoon series (History of the Runestaff) - which is the epitome of fun. The second Hawkmoon series (Castle Brass) is a bit weaker but still worth reading for the broader picture of the Multiverse (especially 'Quest for Tanelorn' which is the putative "end" of the Eternal Champion Series). Erekose stories are also worth reading, at least the original novella 'The Eternal Champion'.

My favourite incarnation of the EC stuff is Elric! RPG which made me fall in love with the game system.

"Go for straight BGB BRP, all the worlds of the Multiverse are already there!" Unfortunately Moorcock had a big fallout with Chaosium a long while back, so you are unlikely to see a BGB BRP supplement for the YK setting anytime soon.

http://www.multiverse.org/fora/showthread.php?p=237034

Yes. Unfortunately. That's a sad old story. And that's why I wrote that some of the options were not realistic.

I see that there is a (relative) majority of votes for RQ6 - which is understandable, given the excellent work done by Loz for MRQ2 Elric.

I was looking at my copy of MRQ2 Elric this morning over breakfast. It's an incredibly complete work. Everything seems to be in there. You can use it to run all kinds of Elric campaigns from relatively old school fast-paced sword and demon to subtle dreamthieving intrigue, from angsty games where characters struggle as slaves of the higher powers to apocalypse and crazy plane hopping.

Apart from the ugly cover and lousy layout, there is not much I would change. So, what could be in RQ6 Elric - apart better layout and better art?

I hated both. The best (IMHO) is the Brunner picture that graces the 1st ed Stormbringer boxed set (and 1st ed Elric!). It perfectly captures the sadness, brutal, slavish nature of man and sword. The reason it succeeds it because both Stormbringer and Elric are given equal definition and poise. No other illustration I've seen captures that symbiotic relationship.

I agree that was a great picture!

The "horn of fate blowing and Melniboné in ruins" picture of Stormbringer 4 was not bad either, even if the Pteranodon-like dragon seemed kinda wrong.

Hate to be a pedant, but its the french tranlation of MRQ2 Elric (the logo is in the corner)

I hate to be the French-speaking uber-pedant who corrects the pedant but it's NOT the French translation of MRQ2. It's a completely new game and it's not d100 as you can see from the character sheet

http://www.sombresprojets.com/mournblade/pdf/mournblade-fdp.pdf

that you can download from their website:

http://www.sombresprojets.com/mournblade/

As to why the Mongoose logo is there I have no idea. Maybe they got the licence indirectly from Mongoose...

In case you did not know... here is somethig that I have recently come across. There is one officially licensed Eternal Champion rpg that is currently in print, which appeared in 2012. It's in French, it's non d100 and it's called...

MOURNBLADE!

http://www.black-book-editions.fr/produit.php?id=349

So, Mongoose Elric has died. If you were to choose the rules engine for the next incarnation of the Eternal Champion, which would you pick?

Note that the poll is d100-centric and that some of the options are very improbable - looking at the past history of the license.

I've never read Moorcock, but from a customer perspective it's always good to have something in print. I'm sure old copies of Elric material will be floating around on Amazon, Ebay, etc., for years but the prices will gradually become ridiculous.

That's an interesting perspective. Having a current version in print can be good if you want to gather a group of players for your game in person or online, organize a game at a convention or just have something new to read and to discuss on Internet forums!

It seems that Mongoose's Elric line has died a quiet death...

http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=56328&start=60

PDFs of 'Secrets of the Steppes' have been withdrawn from Drivethru. This makes me think that Mongoose does not have the licence anymore.

I wonder whether we should wish someone to pick-up the license. On the one hand I still love the Young Kingdoms as a rpg setting. Last week end I picked up 'Stormbringer 4' with a friend and with my oldest son. We just rolled up some characters following the fully random procedure ... and we had a blast amidst laughs and pangs of nostalgia. So, I'm sort of sad thinking that the Albino exits another time from the world of pen and paper rpgs...

On the other hand, I have TONS of Eternal Champion rpg material for 5 different rule-sets in 3 different languages, spanning the worlds of Elric, Hawkmoon and Corum. Do I need another one?

Also, my appreciation of Moorcock stories gravitates towards the older stuff. I still enjoyed 'Fortress of the Pearl' and 'Revenge of the Rose' (a little bit), but 'Dreamthief Daughter' was a big letdown and I've stopped reading after that.

So, what do you think? Do we need another Elric/ stormbringer version?

Smiorgan

The only issue I can see is that my group will have to get used to a more deadly game. They are spoiled by Savage Worlds and Vampire. I may have to take it easy on the combat until they adjust.

BRP has a very simple standard solution for that: double the hit points of the PCs. It works!

Note that this will not make combat easy.

A PC with CON 18 and SIZ 10 would normally have 14 HP - (CON+SIZ)/2 - and major wound 7, make it 28 HP and major wound 14. PC is just a little bit tougher but not much. Now, imagine that Mr. Big Thug attacks the PC. He rolls a 05 and scores a critical with his sword. The PC fails the parry. Big Thug rolls double damage, 2d8+2+1d4, ignoring armor. The blow can deal up to 22 dmg that goes straight to the character, not enough to kill the tougher PC but from 14 up it will be a major wound, possibly incapacitating or permanently crippling the PC.

Very cool cover.

Pardon my ignorance: is this 'Age of Treason reloaded' or a different setting?

Magic World features a very sleek implementation of BRP, with a ruleset further improved from the acclaimed Elric! game. Some notable features are:

- Simple yet rich chargen based on cultural background and professional occupation of the adventurer. Character development is not limited by profession, but professional skills are slightly favored. As with BRP at large, a character is defined mostly by his/her skills.

- A fast flowing and deadly combat system. Not very tactical, but rich enough in options to stage exciting combat encounters

- A simple magic system (Sorcery) based on magic points expenditure, with a good choice of spells and rules for summoning elementals, demons and spirits,

- An allegiance system that can be used to assign meaningful in-game effects to the affiliation of characters to gods or cosmic forces (standard forces are light, balance and shadow). It creates a secondary avenue for character progression (towards apotheosis!) and helps the GM in creating NPCs that are priests or agents of cosmic forces, giving them cool powers beside magic.

- A bunch of very classic monsters from mythology and fantasy: halflings, harpies, jabberwocks, krakens and lamias as well as manticores, minotaurs and dryads make their appearance, together with orcs, satyrs and trolls...and several other well known critters.

- Full sailing rules including structural damage to ships, navigation fumbles, shipboard combat and more

- A mini-setting (The Southern Reaches) with an interesting background and a slightly celtic vibe

-Finally, it should be noted that, while MW only uses BRP/Elric! Sorcery, it is 100% compatible with the other power types in the BRP "Big Gold Book". This can be quite useful to change the flavor of the game and create the kind of fantasy that you like. For instance, for an over-the-top action game in D&D4 style just give BRP superpowers to everybody in addition to sorcery. Or add "Mutations" to a dark fantasy games. "Psychic powers" if you want psionics as a source of power alongside 'Sorcery', or the 'Magic' spells if you want to have wise "white mages" vs. the darker "sorcerers", and so on.

-A little warning: the book is nice but not perfect - there are a few annoying typos and on 2-3 occasions rules descriptions are unclear. You can find extensive errata and rule clarifications on these very boards.

All in all there is a lot to enjoy in MW!

Smiorgan

This is actually a really good example of the informed decision-making I'm referring to. Stormbinger's variable armour was introduced because it was decided that locational hit points wouldn't be used. The reason for that was to speed-up game play to reflect the fast, furious and pulpish combat of the Elric books. Its also why the Major Wound Table came into existence. All three - variable armour, single HP pool, and MW table - are deliberate game design decisions to emulate the feel of combat in the Elric saga, while still utilising the core RQ system.

These weren't house rules: they were carefully engineered mechanics aimed at a particular play style. Just about every BRP/d100 game iteration has followed a similar pattern. I think its easier to tell the house rules, because they tend to lack careful application and fall apart in play (RQ3 Fatigue Points, for eg, or RQ3's sorcery rules).

That's very true. And that's why I'm not going to use MRQ2 (or RQ6) for my Elric game. I'd rather bolt Loz's excellent rules for pacts and summonings onto an old Stormbringer or Elric! ruleset.

Most d100 variants have their flavor. For instance, RQ6 seems to me like the 'Pathfinder' of d100 games. And I mean that as a big compliment. It's true to RQ origins but modern, carefully designed and awfully complete, just a little bit rules-heavy.

That's something that tends to be under-appreciated, and it counts across all games systems. There are some that are just not different enough if you are running or playing in a lot of games. D&D 3.5E and Pathfinder should never share spots on a calendar, for example. RQ6 and BRP are different enough in my opinion, but just barely.

Let me say I'm very happy to have this problem!

I clearly remember a time between 1997 and 2005 when CoC was the ONLY BRP title in print (if we except the spotty re-release of Elric! as Stormbringer 5ed and the heroic publication of Corum around 2000). In that long forgotten era it had even become cool to dismiss/ridicule BRP as a system in forums such as RPGnet. People would say it was outdated, clunky, roll-under (at the time it was perceived as an inherent flaw) and with "too linear probabilities" without a "nice bell curve"...and similar nonsense.

I also remember that the publication of WFRP2 changed the perception of percentile systems overnight. I suspect that WFRP2's success could have inspired Mongoose's decision of reviving RQ.

Speaking of BRP variants, I consider WFRP1-2, Dark Heresy etc. as distant relatives or bastard offspring of BRP on a par with Pendragon. Interestingly, CoC7 by moving to % characteristics has taken a big step towards the WFRP design.

Don't convert. Just lift and drop the whole system into your BRP game. It's simpler and unlikely to break, and you get to use it rather than messing with it.

I second this very sound advice. My experience with the d100 family is that the best conversion is not converting anything. If you don't convert you immediately get something that works 90% of the times and when it doesn't it is very easy to adjust on the fly (e.g. opposed roll -> resistance table, or rolled strike rank -> fixed dex rank) or ignore the difference (5% critical vs. 10% critical vs. 01 impale, just ignore and let the effect become more or less powerful!). If you convert you get lost in the dozens of very minute differences between the different d100 systems. And bad conversions are bad.

Wish you nice day :-),

I want to ask you for you experience with v Potions skill in Magic World. I just think, that this skill have great potential but is to weakly described in the rule book.

What have you players did with this skill? What did they craft from it? Or just poition examle :-). Magical of Non-magical.

Thanks.

I think that in the forthcoming 'Advanced Sorcery' book there is a small chapter on potions that might give more substance to the skill.

In term of the skill description, the weak description was already in Elric!. The old Stormbringer 'Plant Lore' skill had a better description with a nice table matching skill level with the power level of the potions you can create. If you have access to a Stormbringer rulebook (editions 1-4) it can be ported to MW quite easily.

I've already expressed my views of the rules changes on other forums...and they are similar to those many people have expressed here (and in the other forum).

From a commercial viewpoint, my gut feeling is that this edition is going to be a trainwreck.

Apart from pissing many BRP grognards, they're making their existing stock obsolete: this includes the variant settings (CoC Dark Ages, Cthulhu Invictus), as well as the latest stuff and (seemingly) some of the stuff they have in the pipeline. WotC has always had a phase-out period for the old editions, so that the latest products of the cycle don't get "burned". It may be 90% compatible, but I think they underestimate the difference in look and feel. Who's going to pick-up a book that looks outdated. And Chaosium is not ready to quickly pump out supplements for the new game in Mongoose style.

I sincerely hope that I'm wrong here.

Hi! I'm Yuri Abietti, author of Basic Dinosauri! I was just jumping around on the web when I stumbled upon your mini-review and I must say it brought back a lot of memories! It was the 1997 and I was just 26 years old. I finished writing the sourcebook while I was in vacation in Rome (I live in Milan, northern italy) and I just bought my first Motorola cell phone. Different times, indeed.

I just want to say "hi". I'm happy that somebody still remembers and wants to play those old RPGs and I'm flattered by your positive comment! Thank you very much and keep playing!

Yuri

Ciao Yuri!

Great that you chimed in! We are exactly of the same age. It's good to remember those days. Even if I don't remember your face, I guess we have seen each other and probably spoken in Stratelibri's shop in Milan.

Andrea