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BRP Classics: STORMBRINGER - The Young Kingdoms


Trifletraxor

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Stormbringer is one of the classic BRP games, a dark sword and sorcery setting perfect for Chaosium's grim and gritty BRP rules. It is set in the world of the Young Kingdoms in the Multiverse and is based on the books about the doomed albino emperor Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock. The game was created by Ken St. Andre and first published by Chaosium in 1981. The Stormbringer RPG takes its name from Elric's sword Stormbringer (though one edition was titled Elric!) and evolved through several editions from 1981 to 2001:

[img=http://basicroleplaying.com/own/pics/classics/stormbringer1.jpg]Stormbringer 1st & 2nd edition (1981 & 1985) [img=http://basicroleplaying.com/own/pics/classics/stormbringer3.jpg]Stormbringer 3rd edition (1987) [img=http://basicroleplaying.com/own/pics/classics/stormbringer4.jpg]Stormbringer 4th edition (1990) [img=http://basicroleplaying.com/own/pics/classics/elric!.jpg]Elric! (1997) [img=http://basicroleplaying.com/own/pics/classics/stormbringer5.jpg]Stormbringer 5th edition (2001)

Many great supplements were created for this game, but as of 2007, Chaosium no longer produces new books for the Stormbringer roleplaying game. Still, the game has a lot of fans and many of its supplements are still available.

Some useful links:

Stormbringer! - The main Stormbringer RPG fansite. Here you'll find adventures, old monographs, interviews and more.

Chaosium - The old publisher of Stormbringer. They still sell some old books from their stock at reduced prices.

RPGNow - Classic Moorcock pdfs. Sold by Mongoose Publishing, but originally published by Chaosium.

Darksyde productions - Publisher of Corum, a 3rd party supplement for Stormbringer, with a free adventure.

eBay - A great places to turn cash into OOP hard to get dead tree supplements (categories: books and toys & hobbies).

Moorcock's Miscellany - The official Michael Moorcock website with forums and a wiki.

Mongoose Publishing - Publisher of the new Elric of Melnibone setting for MRQII (should be easy to convert).

Like Elric's sword Stormbringer consumed souls, this thread will consume other Stormbringer threads, merging with them to keep the information and discussion in one place, easy to find.

Edited by Trifletraxor

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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Looks like Chaosium has sold the rights of their old Stormbringer supplements to Mongoose, at least some of them, as Mongoose is selling old Stormbringer pdfs at RPGNow. Has anyone started using Mongoose's Elric of Melnibone supplements for their Stormbringer game? If so, how does that work?

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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Like Elric's sword Stormbringer consumed souls, this thread will consume other Stormbringer threads, merging with them to keep the information and discussion in one place, easy to find. So, what do you think about Stormbringer?

Wait, does this mean we can't have multiple Stormbringer threads if they're about different subjects?

:confused:

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Wait, does this mean we can't have multiple Stormbringer threads if they're about different subjects?

Stormbringer is a topic which is not up for discussion that often, you will f.ex. allmost never see two threads about the old game on the first page at the same time. Once they drop behind the first page they usually disappear, and the forum search function isn't really that good. The in-thread search function on the other hand, is great. This thread is linked to from the first post of the stickied thread, which makes it always easy to find. The intention behind it is to give Stormbringer some more attention, but the strategy can be re-evaluated if people here think it's not really a good idea.

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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Nothing specific to say but I feel the need to waffle on a little on Stormbringer.

My first rpg book was Stormbringer 3rd ed published by Games Workshop in 1987. It was a bright colourful book that incorporated the Stormbringer Companion and at the time, was all I needed to play in one book. Perfect. Or so I thought, until my pages started falling out. In the end, I hole punched the whole lot and stuck it into a ring binder. I was glad when 4th ed came out.

SB3 was the first game that I GM'd and I learnt a lot from my novice mistakes. Played a lot and eventually succumbed to burnout that has lasted nearly 20 years.

Never the less, and barring the Hawkmoon monograph, I have collected everything published by Chaosium and also bought MRQ1 Elric.

One of the reasons for my burnout, came as a result of frustration with how the Young Kingdoms were portrayed in the game books. From everyman and his dog having a bound demon to authors taking liberties with canon (or lack of canon) to make things up.

My main frustration is my inability to;

a) Have a mechanism to provide my PC's with motivations that are fitting to the novels. I don't want it to be just for money as some of the written scenarios assume. in Moorcock's books characters are motiveted by hate, love, duty, hope, knowledge or are resigned to their fate. In my experience with PC's its been about money and power (in the forms of magic / demons).

B). Having a mechanism for linking the groups actions to the sway of the balance on the YK. The previous Elan and current Alignment system is a little too personal to the PC. I would have liked to see something for each 'world' which can be affected by the outcome of each game. To allow the players to see how their actions affect say, the use of magic, chaotic events, the attention of Gods etc.

Since I have only vague ideas of what I want and no clear way of making it happen, I have been unable to commit to Stormbringer / Elric as much as I would have liked.

I have considered using Pendragon to run Stormbringer as it includes Passions and Personality Traits but at least the latter are now in BRP.

Right now, I will not run a scenario (either mine or pre written) which I feel will not give you a Moorcockian experience. That is as much down to motivations as well as the PC's general role as Agents (unwitting or not) of the balance.

Thanks for reading this. Any comments suggestions appreciated.

Damon

Edit: Just for clarification. I'm not knocking anyone. I have liked many scenarios and gamebooks over time. Its just that some of them don't fit into my style. I've mined them for ideas where I can, but haven't been able to use 90% of the material.

Edited by Merak Gren
Clarification

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Thanks for reading this. Any comments suggestions appreciated.

My only suggestion is to convert over to MRQ2 and pick up the new version of Elric of Melnibone. Loz and I designed the magic system to be as faithful to the saga as possible (not everyman and his dog having a bound demon), and Loz has meshed a passion system into this version which explicitally fulfils your PC motivation requirements. ;)

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My only suggestion is to convert over to MRQ2 and pick up the new version of Elric of Melnibone. Loz and I designed the magic system to be as faithful to the saga as possible (not everyman and his dog having a bound demon), and Loz has meshed a passion system into this version which explicitally fulfils your PC motivation requirements. ;)

I'll probably do that budget allowing.

Likes to sneak around

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...and Loz has meshed a passion system into this version which explicitally fulfils your PC motivation requirements. ;)

Does it work? I have had some of the same problems with my group, with some of the players being only interested in money and power, and the characters being amoral at best. I do have some problems with having rules guide the PCs actions though.

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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Does it work? I have had some of the same problems with my group, with some of the players being only interested in money and power, and the characters being amoral at best. I do have some problems with having rules guide the PCs actions though.

The rules grant bonuses to performing acts related to passions the players themselves choose. How frequently you incorporate the source of thier passions into a game is of course up to the GM.

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The rules grant bonuses to performing acts related to passions the players themselves choose. How frequently you incorporate the source of thier passions into a game is of course up to the GM.

Sounds similar to Pendragon then? This would be a step in the right direction.

Ultimately, the Elric saga is far removed from the "Kill things and take their stuff" mentality, but my experience of Stormbringer as a game it is far too tempting to "take what you kill".

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I must admit Stormbringer never did it for me....after all what's the point, doesn't matter what you do the entire world gets eaten by chaos in a few years.

Why? You don't need to follow canon. In my games the players are the Eternal Champion. Set in Sadric's reign nothing is preordained, other than what stories I wish to run.

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The Passions used in 'Elric of Melnibone' are a little like the Pendragon passions and traits, but a lot more freely applied. They work, more or less, like this.

A passion can be for anything: Love Myshella; Love Tanelorn; Love Freedom; Hate Pan Tangians; Hate Jagreen Lern, and so on. They can be taken as part of character creation or developed during play.

Each passion is ranked exactly like a skill but with different starting values depending on how the passion was forged and its type. They can be increased using Improvement Rolls or through specific events: if Myshella kissed a character with 'Love Myshella' you'd expect an immediate and significant improvement.

You can then use your Passion to augment other skills, as long as there is direct relevance; use it as a skill in its own right for various circumstances; or use it against others who might have an opposing passion. Generally though, it reflects your depth of feeling about something: the higher the % then the greater that depth of feeling and the more it should be roleplayed accordingly.

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The Design Mechanism: Publishers of Mythras

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The Passions used in 'Elric of Melnibone' are a little like the Pendragon passions and traits, but a lot more freely applied. They work, more or less, like this.

A passion can be for anything: Love Myshella; Love Tanelorn; Love Freedom; Hate Pan Tangians; Hate Jagreen Lern, and so on. They can be taken as part of character creation or developed during play.

Each passion is ranked exactly like a skill but with different starting values depending on how the passion was forged and its type. They can be increased using Improvement Rolls or through specific events: if Myshella kissed a character with 'Love Myshella' you'd expect an immediate and significant improvement.

You can then use your Passion to augment other skills, as long as there is direct relevance; use it as a skill in its own right for various circumstances; or use it against others who might have an opposing passion. Generally though, it reflects your depth of feeling about something: the higher the % then the greater that depth of feeling and the more it should be roleplayed accordingly.

Loz,

I'm sold.

However, what kind of Augment? +50% as in Pendragon (+10) or as 10% of the skill as in HeroQuest?

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The Passions used in 'Elric of Melnibone' are a little like the Pendragon passions and traits, but a lot more freely applied. They work, more or less, like this.

A passion can be for anything: Love Myshella; Love Tanelorn; Love Freedom; Hate Pan Tangians; Hate Jagreen Lern, and so on. They can be taken as part of character creation or developed during play.

Each passion is ranked exactly like a skill but with different starting values depending on how the passion was forged and its type. They can be increased using Improvement Rolls or through specific events: if Myshella kissed a character with 'Love Myshella' you'd expect an immediate and significant improvement.

You can then use your Passion to augment other skills, as long as there is direct relevance; use it as a skill in its own right for various circumstances; or use it against others who might have an opposing passion. Generally though, it reflects your depth of feeling about something: the higher the % then the greater that depth of feeling and the more it should be roleplayed accordingly.

So...to use a real world example, a roman legionary might have have 'hate germanic barbarians ' as a passion ( say 50%) and this would give him 5% to combat skills for fighting said barbarians....but if he was transferred to the eastern front and ended up fighting the persians he wouldn't benefit from the bonus ?

have I got that right ?

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So...to use a real world example, a roman legionary might have have 'hate germanic barbarians ' as a passion ( say 50%) and this would give him 5% to combat skills for fighting said barbarians....but if he was transferred to the eastern front and ended up fighting the persians he wouldn't benefit from the bonus ?

have I got that right ?

Yep. The bonus has to relate to the circumstances. However, as an alternative, 'Love Roman Empire' might give you a bonus no matter who you're fighting. Depends on how specific the circumstances and the passion.

The Design Mechanism: Publishers of Mythras

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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

Stormbringer! - Exploring the worlds of the Eternal Champion at http://www.stormbringerrpg.com

Unbound Publishing - Bringing back the fear - http://www.unboundbook.org

DCtRPG.info - Supporting Dark Conspiracy across the decades - http://www.darkconspiracytherpg.com

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

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?

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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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

Stormbringer! - Exploring the worlds of the Eternal Champion at http://www.stormbringerrpg.com

Unbound Publishing - Bringing back the fear - http://www.unboundbook.org

DCtRPG.info - Supporting Dark Conspiracy across the decades - http://www.darkconspiracytherpg.com

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