Mankcam

I see Fred Hicks is also in the credits for Design & Layout. I presume its a small world, and that this could be the Fred Hicks of FATE fame? I shouldn't be surprised I guess. Most of my rpg purchases in recent years external to BRP & MRQ2/LEGEND/RQ6 have either been Gloranthan HQ supplements or practically anything for the FATE system. I backed the FATE Core kickstarter as well. In fact I think FATE would be the only system I'ld GM outside of BRP & RQ6 these days, probably because both systems are very different and offer polar experiences in game play. Both Design Mechanism and Evil Hat (FATE) products practically exude creativity, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see a connection there. I'll have to look at the credits a bit more closely...

Bought the pdf for the price of a beer in a tavern. Excellent value, highly recommended!

EDUcation or not, I think the DM could easily get into real estate if this falls through. It's all about "Location, location,location..."

Heh heh brilliant !!!

Wow, you have certainly done your community a service, great stuff!

Well a lot of the typical New England investigations would lose some impact, but the more exotic campaigns would be perfect to have this treatment. I'm thinking Masks of Nylarthotep, Horror on the Orient Express, and the like. Great stuff!

These are great. The Legend system is a great fit for Pulp Era characters, particularly with the use of some of the Heroic Abilities. You've done a nice job porting over Pulp Era characters to the system

BRP can do high level, despite the low gritty focus. The Stormbringer/Elric rules that were the forerunner for MagicWorld particularly emphasised mastery-level skills (above 100%), and this along with the new Arete rules for MagicWorld can easily do high level characters. For a pulpy game I'ld recommend a system like FATE, but for powerful characters in a gritty setting (such as Malazan), then MagicWorld can certainly do a good job

This looks like its gonna be pretty good, I'll get the hardcover+pdf when I get around to ordering it. Good to see the setting has been continued

Yes, I posted too hastily, my previous suggestion would only complicate the process described. I am all for having some chance to learn from mistakes, as long as it doesn't gimp you from learning from successes. Interesting concept

The idea of learning through mistakes has merit, although I'm unsure if I would want characters to advance too quickly this way. Perhaps player characters could do this with skills 50% or less, as novices definitely learn by mistakes as well as success. Perhaps you could have a limit, maybe 1d4 failed skills per session could also have skill checks at half value, say 1d3% increase or something like that perhaps? I really like the idea of replacing INT with LEA, that is an excellent improvement Some interesting ideas here...

LEGEND is basically a forerunner to RQ6, and is great. I totally forgot about it actually, and for the price it's hard not to recommend. I wouldn't be surprised if you buy RQ6 at a later date, but LEGEND is a good stand alone product. The magic in in will be along the lines of what you have been looking at in the BRP Magic Book. The Magic Book was lifted almost verbatim from RQ3 in the first place, so the themes are highly compatible with LEGEND, which is really MRQ2 in all but name and setting (which in turn is really RQ5 if that makes any sense ). Hard to go wrong with RQ, so LEGEND is a very good option.

Running the BGB with the Magic Book and trying to mesh all those magic systems together will be a chore. I prefer the RQ mechanics personally, but if you never had RQ3 then doing what you are attempting will be quite a challenge. I always recommend people to buy the most recent version of RuneQuest (6th edition); it is brilliant and has all the things I really dig about the system. However in your case if you are already familiar with Call of Cthulhu and have had exposure to Elric/Stormbringer (and enjoyed it), then Vexthug's suggestion of buying MagicWorld is definitely the easiest option for you. MagicWorld has an excellent quick character generation process, and the game mechanics are pretty much Elric/Stormbringer minus the Young Kingdoms setting. I think there may be a spattering of rules or 'odds n bods' from RQ3 in there as well, for good measure. However it is much more Elric/Stormbringer than RQ3. MagicWorld is a great book for BRP, and it will save you time trying to sort out which 'nuts n bolts' of the BGB you will need to run a fantasy setting. The last chapter provides a sample setting of 'The Southern Reache's which can be used to mesh in with any home brew setting; ideal for what you are after. Its more a local frontier region with a collection of various cultures. Great to start an adventuring troupe off; it can be easily ignored if need be. I heartily second the notion of recommending you order a copy of MagicWorld and go from there. I would suggest keeping to one magic system (such as the Sorcery system provided in MagicWorld), and just change the trappings according to taste and variety. Wizardly sorcerers could be Sages with a focus of lore and magic study, whereas Clerical sorcerers could be Priests with magical spells in line with the nature of their deity. With a little fiddling you can change the spell names, provide different components or requiremenets etc, and you've got magic covered. I would also suggest buying the Advanced Sorcery book if you want to fiddle with magic - the Deep Magic rules are worth the price alone, and there is heaps of other content such as additional Sorcery spells, Rune-craft, Herbalism/Alchemy, and Skill Mastery (off the top of my head). So go with Magic World and perhaps Advanced Sorcery I reckon. I doubt you will be disappointed with them, as they are pretty much what you are after.

The original book is about 80% pure narrative content, so it really doesn't make that much difference whatever system you are using. You could still benefit from this book even if you were using a non-BRP system like Rolemaster, for instance. The updated RQ6 book is likely to be in a similar vein with the majority of the book being purely narrative content. The remaining 20% is game mechanics content, of which I roughly estimate about half being directly compatible with BRP BGB mechanics. The remaining BRP mechanics that are specific to RQ would only be about 10% of the book I reckon. Of that you could easily hand wave things like spell names (or find a BRP equivalent, or make up a new spell on the fly), and perhaps some minor things like DEX Ranks versus RQ Strike Ranks for example, things that you could quickly recalculate if need be. Good setting. Its worth a look if you're considering running a medieval campaign

Great news! I have the MRQ version in pdf format only, but I might consider getting the printed book in RQ6. It's a brilliant medieval setting, and I'm glad its in print again.

I will have to dust off Unknown East, but from memory the Deep Magic rules look very similar. I would be surprised if there has been any significant alterations to the mechanics that Loz came up with. I remember at the time of original publication I was blown away with the versatility of that magic system, I finally had a version of White Wolf MAGE magic for BRP! I am happy to see it in a more generic rule set, although I also wondered if it could be a bit unbalanced due to its scope. Sorcerers in full plate with longswords were very much in keeping with the stories of The Young Kingdoms, but for generic rules it does strike me as unbalanced. However as I had never had the chance to use it I am unaware if it actually is unbalanced. Harshax describes numerous in-game limitations that I haven't thought of, and I think this would provide a level of balance. I would much prefer game balance occurring within the narrative context as opposed to an arbitrary gamist limitation, which has been an innate strength of RQ and BRP, and the reason I was initially attracted to BRP. The inclusion of Deep Magic has great potential for MagicWorld or any fantasy setting. I'm glad it's been brought back!

Just hand wave it, using the listed stats as a guide I reckon

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I don't think a straight 'warts n all' reprint of the original Worlds of Wonder would do much for the BRP system. Perhaps a kickstarter for die-hard fans, although I'm unsure if it'ld be worth the expense. It was almost 30 years ago, a good product in its day, but a dated one now unfortunately. However, if the concept was revisited as a slipcase or boxed set with three sturdy hardcover books with revised and NEW content (Futureworld, MagicWorld, and SuperWorld), and an additional slim hardcover edition of the BRP Quickstart Rules then that might be a good product. The Quickstart Rules pretty much provides enough core content, and that way some of that doesn't get revisited in the other books. Now if these books were hardcovers with decent art, then the whole thing could be a game changer on the shelves. The title 'Worlds of Wonder' is much more evocative than a functional term like 'Basic Role Playing', and a product like this would stand its own on the shelves alongside D&D, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, Numera, White Wolf, Warhammer, Savage Worlds, etc. Basically it has to be 'pretty on the eye & heavy in the hand' to attract new players now, as this is what the popular products are all about. It could be followed up with a 'Worlds of Wonder, Set 2': (WestWorld, SpyWorld, and SteamPunkWorld perhaps). Who knows...(dreaming here) One could argue that MagicWorld has only been revisited in title only, the current book feels more like Elric/Stormbringer than the original Magic World product. That is not to say that is a bad thing, but the original product of Magic World has more in common with the BRP Classic Fantasy monograph than it does with the current Magic World; in spirit at least. The Professions were presented much more like fantasy archetypes (Classes), and the game had a simple quality to it, almost 'beer & pretzels', ideal for old fashioned dungeon crawls. I think it was a good idea to publish the new Magic World, although I would have preferred another title, as it bears little resemblance to the flavour of the earlier Magic World. Perhaps a title like 'Realm' would have been more apt? A Worlds of Wonder product like I have described would be a good thing, although to publish it at present may only confuse new BRP players as to which path to follow with in regards to their BRP fantasy games, given that Chaosium already has a current published fantasy setting. Perhaps the other titles could be revised and published as separate settings, which is more likely to be the case if the idea was looked at. I don't think they would sell all that great as separate titles however. In many ways, Worlds of Wonder was the sum of its parts, and the charm came from having a few settings in one product. As far as a kickstarter goes, I would possibly like to see Chaosium offer a direct reprint of the RuneQuest Gateway content that they published as a boxed set prior to the release of RQ3. I never saw it, but I have heard decent reviews, so I'm curious. But again, whether that would be a viable use of staff resources is an obvious hurdle for anything like this. Perhaps some of the content could be rehashed to fit 'The Realm', and then it could become a MagicWorld publication perhaps? In all honesty Chaosium is probably wise not to divide their efforts too much, and keep their current focus on Call of Cthulhu and perhaps Magic World. This is not to say that a licensee couldn't pick up other settings, along the lines that Pagan Publishing, Cubicle 7, and Alephetar Games has done in the past. But I can't see Chaosium flying the flag too much for anything that's not going to be related to Cthulhu 7E in the near future. I guess that's logical, considering its a new edition of the flagship product. Given this I can't see much future for Worlds of Wonder, kickstarter or otherwise

I'm running Adobe Reader on a Surface Pro 2. Resolution time is slightly slower than most pdfs, but otherwise the pdf loads up okay for me

I could learn to like this. With great power comes great responsibility, and all that heh heh; If only that was true In regards to magical items I kinda like a few approaches actually. I do certainly prefer most magic items to be artefacts and plot devices, otherwise they will fall into the old school D&D trap of having power for power's sake, and it certainly outshines character skills and ultimately the character. I'm inclined to agree with Harshax on this one. However there is a part of me (my inner munchkin), that still enjoys knowing a game mechanic process of magic item creation; even if it is only one way to create magical items. My advice is to use the Enchantment rules from the BGB or RQ, although place certain other conditions upon the creation process that are outside mere mechanics , such as having specific rare components, performing the enchantment at a particular location or date, or having some innate connection to the character. For example, perhaps you could imbue a sword with Damage Boosting 2 (okay, that's my old RQ3 mind working...I think the equivalent spell in MW may be 'Sorcerer's Razor 2'). This would cost the enchanter 2 POW and a successful Enchantment roll. Sounds reasonable in mechanics, albeit a bit bland. However you could also stipulate that the blade has to be forged by one of noble virtue (? define such - possibly some type of minimum Allegiance score required), and can only be forged during the Solstice. Perhaps the blade should never be able to draw first blood, and in doing so incurs a Curse (2pts - GM works out what a 2 pts Curse is). Perhaps the Enchanter also needs to be the forger, so a Crafting Roll may be required, and perhaps the enchantment can only occur upon a Crafting special success or greater. Hmmm I may be getting a bit tedious, but you get the idea. Having the game mechanic should only be the baseline to work from, and you need to add colour and difficulty to the process otherwise it becomes no challenge to create magic items. And add a sense of wonder - this is an important aspect of describing anything magical. Magic needs to be unusual, erratic, wonderful or mysterious; but never too systematic in its approach. (Unless, of course, you're playing a Gloranthan God Learner, but I digress...) Making magic item creation into merely a skill roll and game mechanic process runs the risk of an enchanter becoming a factory line worker for magic items. Magic items will just get equated with 'superior equipment' and lose all sense of wonder. This may have been fun as an adolescent player, but it doesn't add much to the flavour of a more mature setting. If I find myself falling into this rut then I might as well return to grinding at the crafting tables in an MMO... So although I don't mind having some mechanics, I would still have to be careful with how I use them. I think that having other ways for magic items to come into being is equally important, and the creation of such items may not always be an intentional process. I like having the sense of 'Resonance' in my game worlds, so for example a mundane item could become magical in itself if used by a historic figure etc. I agree with Ben in that that magic items should be weird and mysterious, and often unique, and are something to be in awe of or in fear of; they should never be just another piece of equipment to get lost in an adventurer's swag. These days I tend just to make them up as I need, and its all about the character of the item and the history of such that is just as appealing as the powers of the item itself. But its not to say that you can't have a baseline process to hang all the other trappings off if you want to

Hmmm...so it does. Thanks Nakana, you can see I cut my teeth on RQ3 rather than the BPR BGB. Not sure if that makes me Seasoned or a Fogey Yes, the BGB covers the mechanical process sufficiently on pages 240. No flavour whatsoever, which is what you would expect from a 'toolkit' book, but that would be entirely setting specific in any case. Brimgeth I take it you have the BGB, or do you only have Magic World and/or Stormbringer? Were you after the game mechanics, or just seeing what other narrative approaches people have considered?

This was one kickstarter project I had to skip unfortunately. I'm now thrilled to see it released for wider publication. I greedily scooped up the corebook pdf and it looks great. I can't wait to hold the hardcover edition in my hands, and I'll love to see some more resources for it. Fine work fellers!

Chaosium/Avalon Hill 'RuneQuest 3rd Edition' had rules for enchanting items with magic spells in order to make them ongoing functioning magic items. I think these rules were reprinted almost word-for-word in the Chaosium BRP monograph called 'Basic Magic.' I'm sure a lot of that could be incorporated into Magic World. If you want other types of magic items you can also use some of the Arete rules in the recent publication of Magic World "Advanced Sorcery' - the 'Works Of The Master' feature allows crafters to create exceptional items and imbue them with their essence to a degree. Depending on how you look at it, these items could just be exceptionally well crafted items, or they could be almost magical in nature, such as Tolkienesque items. But if I want to create items with spell-like features I tend to use the guidelines from RQ3 or BRP Basic Magic if necessary.

I think you may find that Moon Design is considering publishing a content-only book on Gloranthan mythology which I thought I read was a potential product after The Guide To Glorantha. I'm sure it will be a definitive volume on the subject, much like what they are wanting to achieve with the cultures in Guide To Glorantha. I would certainly recommend posting on Glorantha.com as you will have access to some heavy weight Gloranthan scholars there, and don't be surprised if the current developers chyme in as well. Given the significant background of the setting, you'll best go straight to the source I reckon