Magic World vs Stormbinger/Elric! - Subsystems?

[Darkholme]

Here's what I already know: Magic World is an update of the Stormbringer rules. Advanced Sorcery is a rules supplement with more subsystems and magic systems for Magic World.

Stormbringer/Elric have a bunch of magic systems.

 

So; I've got a question: Are there any mechanical subsystems that I would need to hunt down the old Stormbringer books to use, or are there modern updates of all of them? What am I be missing out on (mechanically) if I don't go hunt them down?

[Sunwolfe]

Hey, Darkholme:

 

In my humble opinion I was missing nothing by not having the precursors to MW. MW and AS stand strong and well on their own. If, however, you want to add to or modify some of the mechanics, it's nice to have them as a reference. For example, I wanted to add the "Ki" mechanic from RQ III's "Land of Ninja" (which, again in my opinion, has a different feel than AS's Arete) and it was convenient to have the tome on my shelf, as well as RQIII for which the ruling was written. I also wanted to offer a choice to my warrior-types during the Statements phase of the MW combat round wherein they could choose to go for an impale, bleed, crush, entangle or knock-back special success rather than the special success result as written in MW. I was grateful to have had my RQ III, SBV, BRP BGB and RQVI on hand to reference as I tinkered with the mechanics. In the final analysis, however, I could have simply played MW as is happily and most satisfactorily without said references  having a rip-roaring time. I'm sure I'm not alone in this experience.

 

Cheers,

[tooley1chris]

Yep yep. MW, as is, is a wonderfully simple system and my group, coming from D&D 1st edition/2nd edition Seems to have had a good time with it. I personally prefer a little flavor in my characters and campaign so have incorporated some spot rules from MW and other systems as well as some of my own house rules stuff but this is for my own satisfaction.

This is the beauty of BRP and MW. It's so simple to take the system and make it your own by adding and subtracting what YOU want. That being said... er...typed, the more material I add from other systems or even create for use in my MW games, the more I realise I may be over complicating an already great system.

I've had a few veterans on these boards nonchalantly point this out to me, in a very nice way, and I failed to listen to their insightful wisdom time and time again. But they're correct. MW is about having fun with rules light roleplaying. Take what makes sense to you and your players, and don't over complicate it more than you have to. The fun is on the board, not in flipping through the books.

[Darkholme]

Haha. I'm sure I can run the game just fine with MW/AS, I wasn't trying to say MW is not a complete game or anything like that, or that I couldn't plug in options from other BRP games. Let me rephrase the question.

 

What are some of the interesting mechanical subsystems which I might want to use that are not present in MW, or AS, or RQ6, or Legend?

 

The RQIII Ki system and (RQ4/MRQ1?) Special Type selection are a good example of what I was looking for.

 

This could be anything from interesting magic systems not in those books, to tables of equipment, to spot rules, to additional combat options I could plug in. Since I'm not much familiar with the older products, I really don't know what options I might want to use or where I would fine them. I'm just interested in hearing about some of the interesting subsystems of previous games/games I don't have which people like/might want in their games. 

[Conrad]

 You might want to check out the magic/contriving in Corum. If you can find a copy.   http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1113  

[BMonroe]

One of my main goals in putting together the books for Magic World, was to reprint 'the best' of the BRP fantasy material from Stormbringer/Elric! and RQIII.

 

So, for example, the "Ki" magic from Land of Ninja was repurposed and expanded on as "Arete" in Advanced Sorcery. Ships and sailing rules from "Seas of Fate" were fiddled with and put in the main rules. Most of the monsters from the RQIII creatures book appear in the main rules. I went through -all- of the Elric!/SB5 books looking for sorcery spells and put them in the main rules.

 

Etc., ad nauseam. So over time, as the next few books in the line come out, you'll see the lion's share of the rules material from all the Elric!/SB5/RQIII books will be reprinted as MW material.

 

See, to me, RQIII/Elric!/SB5 represent the 'Golden Age' of BRP-based fantasy gaming. It seemed a shame to me that they were impossible to get ahold of for modern gamers, as well as us old fans who might be hoping to replace worn out old books. My only regret, honestly, is I wish I'd made the core book smaller, leaving a lot of material out for a 'companion' type book, and tried to bring the main rules in under $20.

 

But in the end, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out in the end.

[Darkholme]

Fair enough. I did see that it seemed to be trying to be a "Best of" book of sorts - However, it's far from an exhaustive collection between (at least so far), and I figured I might as well ask about any good stuff it's still missing.

[fmitchell]

See, to me, RQIII/Elric!/SB5 represent the 'Golden Age' of BRP-based fantasy gaming.

 

I came in just as RQ3 came out, and there's a lot to be said for the RQ2 years.  (TrollPak? Pavis and Big Rubble?)  On the other hand, all that Glorantha material was and is really hard to transplant to another world.  But yes, the RQ3/Elric!/SB5 years were most notable for exposing RQ/BRP mechanics to a more diverse audience.

 

So, thanks for rescuing all that stuff from limbo for us.

[Chaot]

What are some of the interesting mechanical subsystems which I might want to use that are not present in MW, or AS, or RQ6, or Legend?

 

Gods of Law was a monograph that is now available as a free pdf.  I highly recommend Virtues and Focus Skills from it.

 

Contrivances from Corum were mentioned, I would also recommend the other systems from that book.  Chaotic Melds are awesome and they play with the Chaos Allegiance in a cool way too.  There are small sections like Elemental Tattoos, Fetishes.  Their summoning pact rules are top notch.