ReluctantGM Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Hey! I'm returning to gaming after a long absence and I'm looking to run a straight up fantasy style game. I played a lot of RQIII and Stormbringer back in the day and I really liked the gritty aspect of the game. I've got the big gold BRP book and I've got a few questions about the magic systems in there. How do they compare to the later releases? I liked the Battle Magic/Spirit Magic from earlier editions but I never got along with RQIII Divine Magic or Sorcery. The systems in the book seem straightforward enough but I'd like a little more than the tidy little plugins they outline. Are the later books (Classic Fantasy, Magic World, etc..) expansions of these sections or do they replace these sections entirely? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mankcam Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 (edited) Welcome back to the hobby Southpaw, and welcome back to BRP! I think the other books replace magic systems, rather than expand them...I'm away from my copies at present, but I think perhaps Magic World could have an expanded Sorcery rules, I'm not sure. I know the upcoming Magic World supplement 'Advanced Sorcery' will detail more Sorcery and provide some alternative Sphere/Rune magic stuff. I think it will be heavily influenced by some of the magic described in Elric/Stormbringer's 'Unknown East' supplement from the '90s. The monograph 'Classic Fantasy' certainly does a good job expanding the BRP BGB 'Magic' system with heaps of additional spells which alone make it a worthwhile addition to the BGB, even if you don't want to play the other rules in it (which do a good job of making BRP into D&D or pnp WoW; it depends on your tastes if that's a good thing or not). The spells can easily be renamed and given different trappings to make them feel less D&Dish if you don't want that feel. If you can source out the Nephilim magic book, 'Liber Ka' then that provides an esoteric sorcery system that can be easily adjusted to fit BRP, its a very mature approach to the subject and not for those who want High Fantasy Magic-User tropes. I think the author was involved in updating it to fit BRP BGB, but I haven't heard much on that project for a long time, so I'm unsure if it is still going ahead. Liber Ka is a pretty good catch in the meantime if you want a very plausible and mature tone to ritual magic, it is about 90% compatible with BRP BGB. Unlikely to see it just sitting in a store though, you would have to source it out online from places like Amazon, Troll & Toad, Noble Knight Games, etc. Edited April 28, 2013 by Mankcam Quote " Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMonroe Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 I'm away from my copies at present, but I think perhaps Magic World could have an expanded Sorcery rules, I'm not sure. I know the upcoming Magic World supplement 'Advanced Sorcery' will detail more Sorcery and provide some alternative Sphere/Rune magic stuff. I think it will be heavily influenced by some of the magic described in Elric/Stormbringer's 'Unknown East' supplement from the '90s. Magic Aworld contains all the Sorcery spells from the BGB, and adds in all the additional Sorcery from the other Elric!/Stombringer 5e supplements. Advanced Sorcery is a compilation of extra Sorcery spells, as well as the Demon Magic stuff, and almost all of the Bronze Grimoire (the only BG stuff not in it are the extra sorcery spells which were already put in the MW core rules. If you can source out the Nephilim magic book, 'Liber Ka' then that provides an esoteric sorcery system that can be easily adjusted to fit BRP, its a very mature approach to the subject and not for those who want High Fantasy Magic-User tropes. I think the author was involved in updating it to fit BRP BGB, but I haven't heard much on that project for a long time, so I'm unsure if it is still going ahead. Liber Ka is a pretty good catch in the meantime if you want a very plausible and mature tone to ritual magic, it is about 90% compatible with BRP BGB. Unlikely to see it just sitting in a store though, you would have to source it out online from places like Amazon, Troll & Toad, Noble Knight Games, etc. Hassium still have copies of all the Nephilim books in their warehouse. You should be able to get Liber Ka from them. That being said, it has been revised and expanded ad Enlightened Magic. It's still in the production cycle, though I'm not 100% sure where. Last time I visited Chaosium I was told it's coming along. I've seen the manuscript, and its going to be a great book. Quote Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mankcam Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 (edited) There you go Southpaw, Zomben is the actual author of 'Magic World' (in case you hadn't worked that out), so he certainly knows the lowdown with 'Magic World' Sorcery. I have been flicking through it and seeing the similarities with 'Elric/Stormbringer' magic, but I didn't want to speculate if it was an expanded version of the BRP BGB Sorcery, or if it was a variant of those Sorcery rules. So if you like the BRP BGB Sorcery then you'll love 'Magic World'. I'm waiting for the 'Advanced Sorcery' book, and that 'Enlightened Magic' book Zomben discussed, I'm sure it is the one I was thinking of that is a re-working of 'Liber-Ka' for BRP. If you want less fantasy sorcery and more esoterica then that will be the volume to get, although as Zomben says you can probably order 'Liber Ka' directly from Chaosium - if this is your thing then the pdf might be a wise investment in any case. Otherwise, expand the BRP BGB Magic with 'Classic Fantasy' and the BRP BGB Sorcery with "Magic World'. I think the 'Witchcraft' monograph also contains additional spells for the BRP BGB Magic system, and there are probably numerous other monographs that expand on either BRP BGB Magic or BGB Sorcery. If you are going to run a fantasy campaign then 'Magic World' is a good buy anyway. I'ld at least grab the pdf if you don't want another hardcopy in addition to the BRP BGB, it's worth it. Edited April 29, 2013 by Mankcam Quote " Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mankcam Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 At least I think Zomben directed you to the Chaosium online store. He wrote 'Hassium', which I think is a typo. The only Hassium I am aware of is a synthenised chemical element with the symbol 'Hs'...I suppose it could be a store somewhere though...! Quote " Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smjn Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 At least I think Zomben directed you to the Chaosium online store. He wrote 'Hassium', which I think is a typo. I think its a joke/nickname, not a typo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mankcam Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 I think its a joke/nickname, not a typo. You may be right, I'm usually way out on these things Quote " Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmitchell Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 At least I think Zomben directed you to the Chaosium online store. He wrote 'Hassium', which I think is a typo. Or autocorrect gone mad. He also wrote "Magic Aworld", which seems more like a phone typo than a keyboard typo. Quote Frank "Welcome to the hottest and fastest-growing hobby of, er, 1977." -- The Laundry RPG Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link6746 Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 Honestly I can't wait for a suppliment that adds a full spellmaking system to BRP. I miss that from Mage, DnD's Chaos Mage class (Encyclopedia Arcane), etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smjn Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Or autocorrect gone mad. He also wrote "Magic Aworld", which seems more like a phone typo than a keyboard typo. Yes. I don't have a "smart" phone, so it didn't occur to me, but it is quite possible that it is an autocorrect mistake. Whichever the case, however, I declare yesterday "Hassium Day". From now on Hassium (and Hs for short) is our inside joke nick/codename for our beloved RPG provider and everybody better start using it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mankcam Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Long Live Hassium!!!!! Quote " Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMonroe Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Bah. This is why I normally don't access forums on my phone... Quote Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReluctantGM Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 Thanks for the replies, guys! I think I'ma have to get Magic World. From what I've read in hear it's pretty much what I'm used to from my Stormbringer/Elric days. One last question: As I said in my original question I'm a fan of the Spirit Magic from RQIII. Are there any further treatments of that in later supplements? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMonroe Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 The entirety of the RQIII Magic Book (including Spirit Magic) is contained in the Chaosium publication "the Magic Book". Sadly, I failed my "Spot Errors" roll, and a few mistakes crept through. Notably, some RQ-isms weren't removed to make it 100% compatible with the BGB (Ceremony skill, a few other things.) However, if you're familiar with RQIII, it shouldn't pose any trouble at all for you to use that stuff with Magic World. You might have to do a bit of polishing here and there, but it's nothing insurmountable. Quote Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threedeesix Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 I've got the big gold BRP book and I've got a few questions about the magic systems in there. How do they compare to the later releases? I liked the Battle Magic/Spirit Magic from earlier editions but I never got along with RQIII Divine Magic or Sorcery. The systems in the book seem straightforward enough but I'd like a little more than the tidy little plugins they outline. Are the later books (Classic Fantasy, Magic World, etc..) expansions of these sections or do they replace these sections entirely? Thanks! Hi southpaw, Sorry, I have been away from my computer for about a week. Classic Fantasy builds on the spells in the BGB, specifically the "Magic" system. I did not reproduce the spells already written, but did expand upon them by adding 150 new spells. As Classic Fantasy is a BRP adaption of D&D they are very "high fantasy" in nature. Both "Magic" and "Sorcery" have very different and distinct feels. So it really comes down to just what magic system you want to use for your campaign. Rod Quote Join my Mythras/RuneQuest 6: Classic Fantasy Yahoo Group at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RQCF/info "D100 - Exactly 5 times better than D20" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReluctantGM Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 Rod, So I can just use the BRB Magic system and slot in the Magic spells from Classic Fantasy as is? That'd be sweet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threedeesix Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 That is correct. Quote Join my Mythras/RuneQuest 6: Classic Fantasy Yahoo Group at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RQCF/info "D100 - Exactly 5 times better than D20" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threedeesix Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 southpaw, I just sent you a private message. Quote Join my Mythras/RuneQuest 6: Classic Fantasy Yahoo Group at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RQCF/info "D100 - Exactly 5 times better than D20" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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