Questbird

Those are great for any Sword and Sorcery backgrounds. I use Elric! in Fritz Leiber's Nehwon, but I've easily mixed in dashes of Legend's Xoth and OpenQuest's The Savage North. Fantastic thanks!

I use it fairly straight. I changed (or supplemented) the magic system. I use the Maelstrom magick system and an adaptation of Spell Law (I've posted about each elsewhere on this forum), which allows for different magical traditions in different areas of Nehwon (my Nehwon gets more magical as you travel further south). Both these systems keep magic power fairly low for players. I use allegiance straight, but I don't award Chaos points for every use of magic, just for Chaotic uses. I've had one PC attain apotheosis for Law and one for Chaos. The Law one I let him reclaim some land from the Quarmall Barrens (equivalent of the Weeping Waste) and the Chaos one swore allegiance to Hecate and is on the way to becoming an NPC sorcerer villain. In a recent campaign I pasted the Gloranthan Zola Fel river down on the southern Lankhmar continent between Klesh and the Quarmall Barrens. It worked out fine except that a couple of RQ3 NPCs became PCs and their magic is relatively overpowered compared to everyone else (doesn't really matter though). As for published stuff, I have the TSR Lankhmar supplement, all three of the Mongoose books (Lankhmar Unleashed is basically a combination of the first two though the adventures are different) and some Savage Worlds supplements. I don't think Mongoose released more than that for Lankhmar. I have been running bits of the Mongoose Swords across Nehwon and Swords against Sorcery. Neither are particularly good as a campaign but each has bits which can be cherry-picked. Most of my campaigns have not been in Lankhmar proper but in various parts of Nehwon. The best published adventure for Nehwon I've seen was the AD&D one called, appropriately, Nehwon, by Blake Mobley. It consists of a lot of mini-quests to notable locations in Nehwon. I think it mostly manages to avoid having Sheelba™, Ningauble™, Fafhrd™ and the Gray Mouser™ in every adventure -- an achievement beyond most other Lankhmar adventure writers apparently. Trivia fact: Lankhmar was going to be published by Chaosium instead of TSR back in the 80s. Fritz Leiber may have (accidentally?) licensed both companies. Greg Stafford didn't want to sue Leiber (or TSR) so he let TSR go for it. Source: Designers and Dragons by Shannon Appelcline, which I've been reading recently. Had Chaosium published it, we might all be playing there. Imagine the love Lankhmar could have got with a supplement like Cities, Carse, Pavis, or Tulan of the Isles I'm not expecting too much from the DCC project, though I am a backer and will read their material with interest. At least it seems they are taking the licence seriously.

It was a great city product, especially the polished Chaosium version, lovely maps and a fully working city with factions etc. Very easy to slot in anywhere (as I did too). As detailed as Pavis, with more logic (Pavis, even in Glorantha is kind of in the middle of nowhere). Heh, but later I slipped even Pavis into my southern Nehwon campaign.

Maybe. I have no problem running Lankhmar with Elric! and now that Classic Fantasy has gone all Mythras-sy I'm less keen. It surprises me that people still try to shoehorn the Twain into a class/level system. The pair of them are ridiculously multi-skilled. Both are expert swordsmen and thieves. They can handle boats and sail by themselves on Nehwon's worst and most isolated oceans. Fafhrd can sing, and climb mountains. The Mouser even has some skill with spells.

It wasn't just Carse, which I did plonk on to the western coast of the Lankhmar Continent, but even certain islands I added to the map for my campaign. Although I had not intended it this way, it worked just like a 'copyright trap' or 'trap street' so that I could identify that Mongoose had plagiarised my map.

The Holmes D&D set was the one which got me started in roleplaying and I remember it fondly. I just backed your kickstarter too.

I run a campaign set in the world of Nehwon, using Elric! rules. Over the years, the rights to Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar has passed around various game companies, from TSR to Mongoose (MRQ -- who also plagiarised my online map of Nehwon) to Pinnacle (Savage Worlds) and now to Goodman Games, publishers of Dungeon Crawl Classics. They are currently running a kickstarter for a new Lankhmar boxed set. The kickstarter can be found at: It's done very well for itself and has 4 days to go. That's only partly why I'm posting though; it doesn't need any help from me. Over the years I have bought most of the game supplements put out for this setting. I'll get the PDFs from this kickstarter too though I'm not holding my breath. One reason for this is that DCC is a D&D retro-clone and I am pretty much over those. It means that the adventures will be tied to character levels and classes and hit-dice and all the rest of it. Anyone else use Lankhmar or Nehwon as their setting for BRP games?

Elric! is still my favourite 23 years on. It's slimmer than Magic World even with the Young Kingdoms information that I don't use, and it has everything I need. It also helps that my gaming gang has about four copies between us at the table. And I agree with Chaot about the layout. Character generation is slightly different in Magic World: you have fixed amounts of points to allocate to skills in chargen, for example two skills add 60%, three add 40% and four add 30%. In Elric! it is more freeform: you have 250 points, go for it. The main reason I bought Magic World was simply that Elric! was out of print by then and I wanted some rulebook redundancy. But I haven't really used it other than to work with Colinabrett on a BRP character generator (in slow progress). BTW my players laughed out loud when they heard the name 'Magic World'; they thought it was a joke.

It's released under the Free Art Licence. You can look it up, but here's some relevant clauses: 2.1 FREEDOM TO COPY (OR TO MAKE REPRODUCTIONS) You have the right to copy this work for yourself, your friends or any other person, whatever the technique used. 2.2 FREEDOM TO DISTRIBUTE, TO PERFORM IN PUBLIC You have the right to distribute copies of this work; whether modified or not, whatever the medium and the place, with or without any charge, provided that you: attach this license without any modification to the copies of this work or indicate precisely where the license can be found, specify to the recipient the names of the author(s) of the originals, including yours if you have modified the work, specify to the recipient where to access the originals (either initial or subsequent). The authors of the originals may, if they wish to, give you the right to distribute the originals under the same conditions as the copies. So anyone can release a high quality PDF and even charge for it if they want.

I think you use the full chance to hit for a riposte. I allow ripostes with the off-hand weapon on a critical parry.

I've bought a few things approaching 'collector' prices with the intention of running them. For example, before this recent Chaosium revival, some of the earlier Praxian materials were a little hard to find. I got a (cheap ) copy of River of Cradles and was impressed enough with the setting of the Pavis and the Zola Fel valley to incorporate it into my campaign (stopping short of the rest of Glorantha though). After my players finished the Troubled Waters campaign in that book, I looked around for other adventures in the area. I bought an expensive boxed set of the Borderlands campaign, and also a (cheaper) copy of Shadows on the Borderlands. As it turned out however, the players only really did one adventure in Borderlands (they didn't want to work for Duke Raus, and had no need to). Oh well, maybe later.

First, a correction to my earlier post: Geoff Gillan was the author of Corum; Liam Rout was the project director and I think one of the leaders of Darcsyde. I picked my copy and had another look at it. It is certainly nicely done. Corum was intended to be a High Fantasy contrast to the darkness of Elric!/Stormbringer, set in a world menaced by Chaos but salvageable by heroic deeds across the Five Planes. Perhaps this is one reason I've not really used the material since I run a more gritty Leiber-inspired swords and sorcery campaign. Here's some things in there: Detailed elder races: Vadagh (rational long-lived followers of Law), Shalafen (sea people with elemental tattoos), Nadragh (the Vadagh's old rival race, all but eliminated by the Mabden) and Rhaga-Da-Kheta (a fatalistic and cowardly elder race which has embraced the inevitability of Chaos). Each has special skills and occupations. Rules for chariots and stats for local ships for use with Sailing on the Seas of Fate ship rules (which are available in Magic World) A nice overview and map of Corum's world, including useful little sketch-maps of some of the cities The magic system has a Chaotic one where sorcerers combine various Chaotic effects into an impermanent Sorcerous Meld. It's a kind of wild magic. If you make a Sorcerous Meld you get a chaos allegiance point. If you make one you haven't used before, you get two. The power you can invest in sorcery is related to your chaos allegiance, and it gives you some magic points for free. There are also elaborate rules for demon summoning and pacts (which comes down to a thing taken from a victim). Lawful followers use no sorcery but can learn the arts of supreme craftsmanship or contriving, which combines the Precepts of Quality, (eg a supremely well-crafted sword which always does 11 points of damage). Mechanics (think of clockworks which never run down) and Plane Shifting (seeing or interacting with other planes). These contriving rules are interesting and provide a good contrast to the chaotic sorcery. A digest of commonly encountered NPCs (with stats) and specific personalities from the books Three introductory adventures in Corum's world .

Thanks for posting this, and please send our best regards to Ray. I found Fire and Sword to be a very thought-provoking game and have incorporated quite a few of its ideas into my own games.

This is a Stormbringer/Elric! spin-off. It was in print for such a short time. I think it was already gone when I found out about it from Chaot (with another name on another forum) and managed to buy my copy from the author, Liam Rout. It is a lovely book with many ideas that I've always thought I would use -- but haven't. I quite enjoyed the Corum books when I read them years ago, but they weren't my favourite Moorcock books. Reading this RPG book made me want to like the source material more than I did. (Sigh like the Vadagh for the passing of a better age).

You're welcome. I've spruiked the Maelstrom system for many years. I've used it successfully in Hârn and I've used it to a lesser extent in my current campaign in Nehwon, another low-magic setting.

My 'wild magic' system is adapted from the game Maelstrom. I've written about it elsewhere on the forum: For Channeling magic I do use spells, but I allow them to work automatically. They are powered by 1 magic point from the caster, and the rest from Allegiance points to the god. If you want special powers from the gods you could design certain effects per individual deity. Make an Allegiance check and if successful find the difference between your roll and your total Allegiance points. 1-30: minor boon related to the deity; 31-60: major boon; 61-90: great power; 91+: avatar or direct intervention. Afterwards -- success or failure, you'd need to earn 10 more allegiance points to the god before you could try again. You'd have to make up the individual effects for each god and they could be vague or specific as you like. I think Dungeon Crawl Classics uses a system similar to this. eg. A sea god, jealous of the land 1-30: a swarm of fish or octopi appear. They can provide food, or point the way, or carry a light load some distance 31-60: a surging current can swamp an enemy ship or provide a getaway for yours or get you out of that rip you've been dragged into 61-90: A tidal wave can destroy a ship, or a wharf, or smash a hole in a harbourside castle, or drain the beach to reveal a hidden treasure 91+ The Great Serpent himself appears and will grant you one wish

I felt the same about Chronicles of Future Earth. I found it definitely more fantasy than science-fiction. I love Swords of Cydoria and have started a campaign with it. I find it full of interesting ideas which inspire rather than constrain me. I didn't get Fractured Hopes but maybe I will now if I spot it.

I use both systems. In practice, each character only has to track their relationships with a few key organisations, such as cults and guilds, so it doesn't get too out of hand. I just use Allegiance points for cults. As for fame, I award single Fame points for great deeds (usually completing adventures or other significant deeds). I list on each character sheet what the Fame point is for. When Fame is relevant I use a Fame x5 check to see if the character is known. I suppose if the character is very far from his or her known haunts or dealing with particularly ignorant monsters such as the lizardmen you could make the check Difficult. Example: Yucta Axotylata, Kleshite master of herb-lore, doubter of the gods. He is quite a long-term character and the veteran of three or more campaigns. Fame: 10 for being marked by Zola Fel as a River Voice for defeating the Beastmen of Five Eyes Rise for defeating the Colossal Gorp at Harpoon for defeating the chaos menace to the Zola Fel river for journeying to the Moon in the Dreamlands and rescuing Feroza for rescuing Feroza again in Nehwon from the caverns below Black Mesa for traversing Horn Gate for battling the Icewyrm of Olathoe for killing the Icewyrm of Olathoe for rescuing the prisoners of Crag Don from the Wodemen Using Fame in this way can also help with the relationship score. For example, an adventurer moves into a new city and decides to stay for a while. Their initial reputation in that city could start as CHA + Fame, and be improved by 'fitting in' socially or being seen to do notable deeds for the city.

Fire and Sword, which is available on this site had a tracking mechanism for allegiance to groups or cults. Each action which helps the group gets a few points. If you get 100 points the group or cult owes you a favour; you could also get a favour outright for completing important quests.

That sounds awesome! It sounds like the Manuscript found at Saragossa. It sounds like it will be translated into English this year, and that suits me fine.

I was using minimum weapon damage + minimum damage bonus actually, ie. the minimum damage that defender could inflict, with each successful parry. Additionally I allow ripostes on a critical success, that is an extra attack from the defender with the non-parrying hand weapon (or fist, as happened once in this fight, to the surprise of the Yellow Mountain Adept on the receiving end).

I just had a situation like this over the weekend. Tribesman Ockasiola the Zebran (armed with a sword) faced 8 unarmed but dangerous Adepts of the Yellow Mountain in the dining room of their ape-temple. They tried a mass Wrestle. One eventually grabbed* Ockasiola and tried to strangle him while the others kicked and punched him. I was using the Elric! rules which as written are similar to ones you listed above except they give the immobilised target a STR vs STR roll (instead of grapple or hand to hand skill) to escape each time the grappler tries to inflict damage. Ockasiola was not as strong as these guys and unfortunately was reduced to unconsciousness. The resistance table is a harsh master, though I did let his armour reduce the damage. He did survive however (a comrade with a 2-handed mace 'distracted' the adepts), but it was a near thing. Moral of the tale is, even if you are skilled with a blade, don't let yourself get outnumbered 8 to 1! * I have a rule that if you parry unarmed attacks with a weapon you also inflict the minimum damage for the weapon to the attacker, so these guys were getting cut up as they attacked.

I wouldn't mind seeing Mythic Arabia or Mythic Mesoamerica.

It doesn't really matter which spell list you choose. You've mentioned a few others in the past too, like Primea. You could use Dragon Warriors spells, or D&D ones if you want. The main point is you pick some lists from somewhere, and each magical 'skill' corresponds to a list of spells rather than a single spell. I like to use the INT limits too for magical skills. That way there is still scope for learning individual spells. For example, a wizard might have skills in Herbal Magic, Shadow Magic, Acrobatics Magic (those aren't necessarily in Spell Law or anything, they just floated to the surface of my brain) but could still learn individual spells such as Hell's Talons from a captured grimoire. In this case Hell's Talons would take the same amount of INT 'space' as all the Shadow Magic spells. No wizard will ever be exactly the same!

Good to hear you have an Australian warehouse. That was always a bit of a sticking point in the past.