smiorgan

One thing that Smiorgan missed in his brilliant and concise review of MW is that you also get seafaring rules (ship stats, shipboard combat, and survival at sea) which you don't get in the BGB.

Yes, seafaring rules are great. Including the sailing fumble table. If you don't have the old Elric! supplement 'Seas of Fate' you definitely NEED them.

They are more detailed than the ship rules found in Mythic Iceland (a BRP supplement which I adore, BTW). So, I plan to use MW sailing rules also for my future Viking games.

Smiorgan

Hi,

I had immediately picked up the PDF. But I waited for the hardcopy until I was able to get it for a reasonable shipping rate. Now I finally have the book in my hands and I'm perusing it more extensively and I like it even more.

* The ruleset is great. It manages to improve on the very solid Elric! rules with the right gentle tweaks: characteristic rolls, skill category modifiers, cultural skills, allocation of professional skill points at chargen, success levels, opposed skill rolls, combat matrix are the areas where I detected significant tweaks. Note that while some tweaks are simply ported from the BGB, the majority are specific to MW. I rate MW combat rules as the best d100 combat rules available (MRQII / RQ6 being a bit too rules heavy for me).

* The reskin from Moorcock fantasy to generic fantasy with a bit of Celtic flavor works. RQ3 creatures fit well in MW. Magic items do not remind too much of their origins. The Southern Reaches and the Fey threat are a cool setting (worth developing!).

While I like it very much, there are also certain things that are not so great in my opinion.

*The art. I know/ own most of the original sources of the recycled pieces. Seeing them out of the original context feels kind of sad. Maybe it's just me. Some pieces have not been scanned at a sufficient resolution and look pixelated. The new art ranges from OK to bad (weapon sketches I'm looking at you!). The cover is fun but nothing to write home about.

*The layout. Too bad the volume does not have the crisp and compact layout of its Elric! antecessor. Nowadays we have small publishers putting out books with great layouts and something better could have been done. MW gets merely a pass in this department.

*Proofreading. This is a mixed one. There are no major proofreading disasters in the book (nothing of Mongoosesque proportions), and some typos have been rectified between the PDF and the print book. There are however a few leftovers from RQ3 or BGB that might puzzle the reader here and there. I feel this can and and should be improved. I hope advanced sorcery will be better.

It's a poorly-guarded secret that the demon abilities in SB4, which were the prelude to those in Elric!, were created by making up little clusters of powers/disads using the Superworld rules. The "CV" cost of those powers is the end result of building them with the Superworld system.

And finally the secret behind the mystical Chaos Value is revealed!

Welcome, Nanaka!

Here is indeed a friendly place. And while people may have their preferences as to which BRP rules are better (e.g. RQ vs. Stormbringer), we generally enjoy BRP and its extended family in all versions.

Smiorgan

Big thanks! That's very useful.

I mean this is kinda sorta wtf imho. lol tho I sorta dig it irl. Anyhow, ymmw. It's narrativist and gimmicky. roflmao.

There are certain things in life that are simply cool. And (original) Gundam is one of them.

There's no rational argument. It's like, say, Elric swinging Stormbringer and shouting "Arioch! Blood ans souls!".

You can't argue with that. It's just cool. Full stop.

Let's talk about MW, for a change! I like a lot MW's Southern Reaches dwarves and I've created this scary little guy. Obviosly, the creation owes a lot to (is parasitic ? ) to the ideas of the MW authors...

ZUROCK THE DWARF ADEPT

Homeland: Copper Mountains

Religion: Croll, Lord of the Stone and Earth (Balance)

Profession: Sorcerer

This dwarf adept is like a spirit of the Earth, his skin is ruddy as red clay, his eyes black as onyx, his manner quiet as stone. His voice is deep and soft. His braided beard is perfumed like a king’s, but his calloused hands are those of a craftsman and laborer . He guards the secrets of the dwarves and those who spy on them are doomed. He will emerge out of the soil, silent as death and strike with his sacred hammer. He will call the Earth spirits to engulf the sacrilegious trespassers. To recover a treasure of the Dwarves he will brave the vaults of kings, picking the locks of their treasure chambers or simply shattering them with righteous sorcery!

Balance 25, Shadow 8, Light 3

Characteristics

STR 16

CON 16

SIZ 8

INT 13

POW 15*

DEX 13

APP 11

Move 6

Hit Points 12

Damage Bonus: +0

Attacks:

Sorcerer's Warhammer 45%, 1D6+2, +1D6 on succesful MP vs POW, (HP 25)

Battleaxe 20%, 1D8+2

Bow 40%, 1D8+2

Buckler 20%, 1D3+db (HP 15)

Armor: Chainmail over entire body, plus open helm (1D8+1)

Skills:

Climb 20%, Jump 15%, Ride 00%,

Swim 05%, Craft (stone and metal working)

45%, Craft (Clockwork) 25%, Bargain 55%, Evaluate

80%, Insight 55%, Nature 20%, Potions 40%, Pick Lock 65%, Conceal

Object 15%, Repair/Devise 89%, Earthsense/

Search 45%, Visual Search 15%, Track 00%,

Sailing 00%, Move Quietly 100 % (75% in chainmail armor).

Own Language (Dwarven) 65%, Other Language (Common) 20%

Magic

Racial Spell (100% chance): Earth Walking (4) as the sorcery spell + the dwarf can move at 1/4 his normal rate while submerged in the ground.

Sorcery Spells (used INT 13/13, POWx5= 75% chance*): Make Whole (3), Shatter (3), Sorcerer’s Hammer (2), Summon Elemental (1), Gift of the Earth (4)

His Hammer functions as sorcerer staff: it has 25 Hit Points, will do an additional 1D6 damage on a target by winning MP vs. POW (cost 1 MP). The hammer stores 15 MP

*I use the optional rule on page 97, on removing POW requirements for casters and introducing POWx5% casting chance.

Dear Ghost Sword,

Many people here like a lot the Eternal Champion saga and have a deep respect for Mr. Moorcock as a person. I'm sure Ben Monroe is among them.

Having said that I dare to observe that registering in a forum for the sole purpose of starting what is technically called a "cross-forum drama" is generally frowned upon. Doing so on the basis of a single passing remark in an already old thread in the other forum borders the uncanny.

I do not want to enter into the old dispute between Mr. Moorcock and Chaosium. I am not privy to the facts and I cannot say whether Chaosium was indeed in breach of their contractual obligations to Mr. Moorcock. I believe that this dispute was settled when Mongoose acquired the rights to publish Eternal Champion rpgs. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

What I do know, however, is that Magic World has absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Moorcock's intellectual properties and ideas. It draws simply from the game mechanics that were developed by Chaosium writers for earlier Chaosium games including Stormbringer but also RuneQuest and applies them to a generic fantasy setting that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Eternal Champion saga.

MW shares with Stormbringer aspects of the combat system, the skill system, the resistance table, levels of success, experiece rolls etc. Game rules stuff! Not the Young Kingdoms, the Multiverse, the Lords of Chaos, or whatever setting idea might be specific to Moorcock.

Really, this indignation is uncalled for!

Take care,

Smiorgan

Egitto v. Dinosauri!

Because why settle for horses or elephants when you can have your chariots drawn by thunder lizards? There's a practical reason why the Nile Empire lasted so long.

Exactly!

I eagerly await your English translation of the entire series. You can begin with Dinosauri.

I wish I could. Who knows... First, I'd like to find the time to play them with the kids...then I might think of translating them.

BTW, there are also a few cool French BaSIC mini-supplements in the same vein that were published in the CASUS BELLI magazine...(one is Mousquetaires et Sorcellerie- Musketeers and Sorcery).

Initiative (I think, but it has been a while since I played),

Stormbringer initiative is plain DEX order. Same goes for MW.

I've got them all! The little Italian BASIC booklets that were published by Stratelibri in the 1990s when Chaosium had just stopped publishing Elric! supplements and when nobody could foretell the d100 renaissance.

For those who don't know about them here are the titles of the little series:

BASIC - Il gioco di ruolo universale. An Italian translation (sometimes more an adaptation) of the original BRP booklet + the original Magic World rules from Worlds of Wonder. 2 scenarios, which are the translations of the scenarios from the BRP booklet and from Magic World.

BASIC - West. An Italian original. This is straight western adventure, with just a hint of Spaghetti western (in an Italian rpg one would have expected more of it). 3 scenarios, which look like good fun. Major drawback: nothing on American natives. As the author says "it would have been impossible to do them justice in such a short space".

BASIC - Egitto. An Italian original. Adventures in the land and times of the Pharaoh. With Egyptian ritual magic system, creatures and 3 scenarios and a decent amount of setting info. Perhaps the most ambitious book of the series. It would have benefited of a higher page count (e.g. the magic system is cool but sketchy).

BASIC- Dinosauri. An Italian original. Dinosaurs! This is basically Jurassic Park / Lost World with a few clever twists. You can plug in your Egyptians and cow-boys as lost communities in the lost world mini-setting. Add super-sapient aliens and dinosaur-men and you have a really over-the-top setting for pulp-style action. In case you need them you have stats for Godzilla and King Kong. It has 3 scenarios linked in a mini-campaign.

BASIC- Giocare Alien. The Alien movies setting. Officially licensed. Too bad this is the shortest of the series. It was licensed as promotional merchandising for Alien IV and appeared in a rpg magazine. It has one customizable scenario. It is the kind of combat-heavy spaceship-crawl you might expect.

All in all a fun little series.

I have to verify, but I think RQ3 gives Movement in meters per Strike Rank, which would be 30m for a human, which would be the same as in BRP. But you are right, I could add a table for RQ3 to make things easier. Tomorrow.

Yup I think you are right, MOV 3 in RQ3 = MOV 10 in BRP. It is with BRP 10 = MW/Elric! 8 that it gets tricky.

Great table! Very useful.

I don't know why there are these differences. MW movement rates come from Elric! and are identical to those in CoC. I think they originate from RQ2 movement rates. RQ3 movement rates are completely different and BRP ones are neither those in RQ3 nor those in RQ2/CoC/Elric!/MV.

Perhaps you could expand the table including a column for RQ3 movement rates.

Yes it is.

It is not as epically bad, as the ritual burners would have you think.

It has some good scenario ideas that are salvageable.

But generally it is bland.

And it has epically bad art. Walktapus picture, I'm looking at you!

It's companion in RQ infamy, the lost city of Eldarad was a far better adventure module though. Eldarad's capital sin was simply not being Pavis' Big Rubble.

But if you forget Pavis, Eldarad is not bad at all. Not great. But not bad.

If you were annoyed mostly by the Stormbringer setting, MW might be OK.

If you were annoyed by Stormbringer 1-3 or Stormbringer 4 rules, there is a 75% chance that MW will somewhat annoy you, and a 90% chance that Advanced Sorcery will annoy you.

If you were annoyed by Stormbringer 5 or Elric! rules, there is a 95% that MW will annoy you and 100% that Advanced Sorcery will annoy you severely.

Rules-wise MW is 95% Stormbringer 5, with added skill category bonuses, cultural skills and tweaked success levels. Magic system is Elric!/BRP sorcery, with minimal tweaks. Monsters are converted mostly from RQ3.

Ignore Hit Locations Does not compute ...

Sorry... I'm a Stormbringer guy at heart ... I would give away hit locations any day for the joy of 1d10-1 plate armor (helmet off), grievous APP disfiguring major wounds, epic multiple parries at -30%, ripostes, and weapons that break at the worst moment possible...

I have both 'Merry England' and 'Magic World' they are very compatible. The only point that needs conversion is that Merry England uses hit locations while Magic World uses rolled armor. Easy solution: ignore hit locations in Merry England and substitute static armor value with the corresponding rolled value: the armor tables in the BGB have them. All the rest is totally compatible, including the Christian magic which can be simply plugged in into MW with no fuss at all.

In my opinion it is much easier to use Merry England with Magic World than with Legend. Basically with Legend you can leave the hit locations but you have to convert pretty much everything else! Skills, damage bonus, weapon damage, characteristic rolls into resistances and magic. Basically Merry England Christian magic should be scrapped and substituted with a variant of divine magic. Totally feasible, but moch more work than using with MW.

Finally, Stormbringer - any edition, including Mongoose's Elric of Melniboné - just rocks and you should get it as a game in its own right. Stormbringer 5th and Elric! are those on which Magic World is based and are also quite close to BGB BRP. Stormbringer 4th is a bit different but has a very fun magic system and crazy character generation, plus several simple deadly scenarios on the edge between silly and totally epic.

I've played Stormbringer for ages and I love that rule. In actual play it works great. When the outnumbered player rolls that last parry with a 10% or something and succeeds it feels really heroic and dangerous at the same time.

Since you're allowing anyone access to Sorcery, maybe both? They have to use Craft to build the summoning "device" and then Art to perform the ritual. This way, there's no POW-requirement, but its not super-easy to become a powerful sorcerer. It takes time and dedication.

Good idea. I like to have a clear trade-off between being a powerful sorcerer and excelling in other skills - at least at character generation when you have to allocate your skill points.

Nice! This is cool stuff. Any reason why you're using Craft instead of Art for the Suummoning spells?

Thanks!

No, I do not have any particular reasons for the skill choice. In BRP 'Future Earth' it was Perform (Summoning Ritual). Converting to MW I was exitating between Art and Craft.

Maybe craft makes sense if we imagine that the ritual involves preparing a binding seal? But, no... 'Art' would be fine with me.

CASTING MAGIC

I like the spellcasting requirement option on page 97. There is no POW requirement for casting magic. Sorcery is a Knowledge skill with 0% base chance. Additionally, all summoning spells require the skill Craft Art (Appropriate summoning ritual) - see Chronicles of Future Earth. Magic spells are each its own skill as in the BGB.

MAGIC AND THE SPIRIT PLANE

Summoning and binding entities from the Spirit Plane is traditionally the province of shamans like those of the Stagali riders or of the orc tribes. Yet, more learned sorcerers and wizards do not disdain the power that comes from the plane bordering our reality.

Using the various SUMMON SPIRIT spells various kinds of spirits can be lured from the immaterial plane.

SUMMONING NEW SPIRITS: To those described in the MW corebook 'Magic Spirits' and 'Spell Spirits' are added from RQ3 Creatures book. 'Magic Spirits' may contain either Sorcery spells or Magic spells. 'Spell Spirits' contain a single Sorcery spell. Illiterate shamans from primitive people do not own grimoires but can learn new sorcery spells from spirits. Magic Spirits cast magic on their own and are appreciated by all kinds of spellcaster.

INCORPOREAL MINOR DEMONS roam the Spirit Plane and can be summoned with the 'Summon Demon' spell. These are the remains of entities that were once more complete, the shadows of other planes, the pale reflection of powers dreamed of, creatures whose body was once destroyed and now are floating full of scorn in a sea of nothingness. They are all too willing to be lured to the world. These minor demons only have INT and POW, they can have any demon power that does not require other characteristics. Summoning only takes 1 hour.

They can be commanded with the Command Demon spell (see Chronicles of Future Earth) or bound into objects. They long for a body, and would gladly possess that of the caster if given a chance!

(to be continued)

If you decide that you want to add Familiars in addition to the Sorcerer's Staff, I suggest snagging the cat write up from whatever Dreamlands book it is in.

Once again, poor keetoms are shafted while dogs get all the glory.

Interestingly, I think the Toad and the Hawk write up mention using them as familiars.

Yes! the familiars from BGB have to be in. And Dreamlands can come in handy, for the cats, but also for Fey creatures.

Thanks a lot to both for the great answers!

I think that I will let the players participate in the decision about the type of ship and adapt the scenario accordingly. If they chose the knörr there will be also trading involved, if they opt for the longship it will be pure raiding and a more perilous crossing to Ireland. This gives opportunity for a nice role-play scene when they discuss about the boat with the godi and the other participants. Plus, if they choose the dreki there will be the cool departure scene.

It is great to have this community! Thanks a lot.