Call of Cthulhu / BRP rules suggestions for an Hyborian campaign

[Atgxtg]

19 minutes ago, DreadDomain said:

Was it? Where can we read about this?

Sorry, typo,  Stormbringer. 

I believe the story goes that Chaosium had been working on  a new edition of Stormbringer, but that was when Michael Moorcock wanted to end the arrangement, and licence out Elric to another company. So, not wanting to just throw the new edtion away, TPB decided to remove all the Young Kingdoms specific stuff, and release it as Magic World. At least that's what people said in the Stormbringer forum.

That's why Magic World is so similar to Stormbringer and Elric!

Edited January 13 by Atgxtg

[GothmogIV]

I have been playing Dragonbane, and I have found it very compatible with Magic World and Chaosium in general (I believe the original Dragonbane in Sweden was an iteration of BRP or Runequest). Dragonbane is fully supported on Roll20, not overly complex, and easy to run. I don't love their monsters, but I've been plugging in BRP monsters with little effort. Check it out! 

Edited January 14 by GothmogIV

[Prime Evil]

If the commercial value of Magic World to Chaosium is limited, maybe the company should either release it under the ORC license so third-party creators could use it as a sandbox or set up a BRP Community Content program based on the setting?

[SDLeary]

37 minutes ago, Prime Evil said:

If the commercial value of Magic World to Chaosium is limited, maybe the company should either release it under the ORC license so third-party creators could use it as a sandbox or set up a BRP Community Content program based on the setting?

I like this... the CC program could be something like "Journal of the Southern Reaches".

SDLeary

[Prime Evil]

Another option would be to release the rule content under ORC and the setting under a Community Content agreement? That would allow publishers to use the magic rules and creatures in other works, but keep control over the setting itself. Chaosium has done very well with its Community Content programs for both CoC and RQ. Of course, that's their decision.

[Ravenheart87]

8 hours ago, GothmogIV said:

(I believe the original Dragonbane in Sweden was an iteration of BRP or Runequest).

It was basically the original BRP booklet and Worlds of Wonder's Magic World booklet translated to swedish.

[NickMiddleton]

13 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

Was it? Where can we read about this?

No idea where that idea arose but it’s nonsense. The Moorcock IP license ended circa 2006 and went to Mongoose; Ben Monroe started looking at, and talking to a small group of peeps (including myself) about, a version of Elric! / Stormbringer 5th edition with all the Moorcock IP removed and made a generic fantasy game in late 2011 or early 2012. It was a tribute to his friend and mentor, and Chaosium grandee, Lynn Willis who was very ill at the time, and who sadly passed away before the game was printed in early 2013 iirc. The project was never intended as anything other than a standalone generic game making Willis & co’s work available again without the previous IP, which was still licensed to Mongoose until 2013 iirc.

And, to be clear, although many of us, including myself, refer to Magic World as a version of Elric! without the Moorcock IP, it was based on the revised text of Stormbringer 5th Edition content wise, with a variety of small elegant additions and refinements by Ben. Elric! gets mentioned because its layout was something Ben, and those of us commenting on his work, all really rated and had hoped would be the inspiration for Magic World's layout: we were alas disappointed.

Edited January 14 by NickMiddleton
Clarity, and making an additional point.

[NickMiddleton]

On 1/12/2024 at 2:38 PM, Ravenheart87 said:

...Your sorcery idea sounds neat too. And tempting, because the sorcery spell list is a bit more flavourful than the magic spell list.

As previously discussed:

... and as noted, although written for the "full" Sorcery system in Magic World / Advanced Sorcery this should be entirely compatible with the concise version of Sorcery in BRP-UGE. The separate download I did on Sorcery in the Reaches (see downloads section) doesn't explicitly reference this, nor does this reference that piece, but they are definitely complementary.

Edited January 14 by NickMiddleton

[DreadDomain]

2 hours ago, NickMiddleton said:

No idea where that idea arose but it’s nonsense. The Moorcock IP license ended circa 2006 and went to Mongoose; Ben Monroe started looking at, and talking to a small group of peeps (including myself) about, a version of Elric! / Stormbringer 5th edition with all the Moorcock IP removed and made a generic fantasy game in late 2011 or early 2012. It was a tribute to his friend and mentor, and Chaosium grandee, Lynn Willis who was very ill at the time, and who sadly passed away before the game was printed in early 2013 iirc. The project was never intended as anything other than a standalone generic game making Willis & co’s work available again without the previous IP, which was still licensed to Mongoose until 2013 iirc.

And, to be clear, although many of us, including myself, refer to Magic World as a version of Elric! without the Moorcock IP, it was based on the revised text of Stormbringer 5th Edition content wise, with a variety of small elegant additions and refinements by Ben. Elric! gets mentioned because its layout was something Ben, and those of us commenting on his work, all really rated and had hoped would be the inspiration for Magic World's layout: we were alas disappointed.

Thanks, this is much more in line with what I previously read regarding the genesis of Magic World. Looking at MW again, it is packing quite a lot. Full character creation, system and combat, sorcery with close to 100 spells, seafaring rules, a bestiary with almost 80 entries, just short of 50 magic items, an intro setting...

[Questbird]

On 1/12/2024 at 5:53 PM, Ravenheart87 said:

The extremely generic title Magic World didn't help either. If I saw it first today it would remind me of a classic Gunshow comic strip line ("Dare you enter my magical realm?"). Stormbringer? RuneQuest? Dragonbane? Now those sound cool as hell and immediately catch my attention. Magic World? Not so much. Before someone wants to hold a history lesson: yes, I know where the name comes from. But MW ended up being quite different from the little booklet in the Worlds of Wonder boxed set, which is a product only BRP/RQ grognards remembered by the 2000s anyway.

 

My players were already playing Elric! when Magic World was released. They weren't aware of the history of the name and they just laughed at it.

[joen]

I have also had plans to run a campaign set in the Hyborian Age for a while now. I bought both the BRP Universal Game Engine and Magic World for this purpose.

But I've think I'll go with Magic World, since it would require less work from my side as a GM and it seems pretty lightweight, which would be perfect for a pulpy sword-n-sorcery game. 

I'll probably also tone down the magic a bit since it would make more sense in Hyborian Age to have magic be something rare and mysterious. I might possibly use the sanity system from CoC and have magic spells be something that'll cost SAN or POW to use.