Podcast mentioned Stormbringer negotiations with Chaosium

[smiorgan]

2 hours ago, Mugen said:

Yes, and "Âme" ("soul") seems like another name for "SANity".

Âme is also spent for casting runes in lieu of magic points. Brutal.

7 hours ago, SDLeary said:

That looks purdy, but also very crunchy. Do I see both lethal and non-lethal damage tracks?

I'd say is medium crunch. More crunchy than Stormbringer/ Elric! but probably slightly less than MRQ2 / RQ6 or big crunchy D20 games.

Yes there are two damage tracks.

 

[Thot]

Have there been any news on this whole negotiations thing?

[Rick Meints]

No news.

[smiorgan]

20 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

No news.

It's better than bad news .

 

[Sid Vicarious]

Any news now? It's  been well over a month since there was last no news.

[Rick Meints]

While we have no bad news, we have no good news either. This isn't something that is actively progressing. I wouldn't expect any news for months, if not longer.

[Sid Vicarious]

8 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

While we have no bad news, we have no good news either. This isn't something that is actively progressing. I wouldn't expect any news for months, if not longer.

This is disappointing, so it probably counts as bad news. But not catastrophically and irretrievably bad, which is....well, not good, but not not bad. And depending on the definition of news. Can't wait for some genuine good news on this.

 

[smiorgan]

22 minutes ago, Sid Vicarious said:

This is disappointing, so it probably counts as bad news. But not catastrophically and irretrievably bad, which is....well, not good, but not not bad. And depending on the definition of news. Can't wait for some genuine good news on this.

 

No, I think it is more likely that there are only 24 hours in a day and Chaosium just has to choose what to prioritize. They have a lot of Cthulhu to put out and the new RQ, which is a really big project and will take more than anticipated (second half 2017?). Before that it would be very unwise of Chaosium to propose a project to Mr. Moorcock, exposing themselves to financial and reputational risks.

Sure, I'd love to hear about a new edition of Stormbringer, but... one thing is to take steps to normalize a strained relationship - which apparently the new Chaosium did promptly - another thing is to start a new license agreement. 

[Guest Vile Traveller]

4 hours ago, smiorgan said:

No, I think it is more likely that there are only 24 hours in a day and Chaosium just has to choose what to prioritize. They have a lot of Cthulhu to put out and the new RQ, which is a really big project and will take more than anticipated (second half 2017?).

<ahem> Not to mention the RQ Classic Kickstarter rewards. Well, maybe to mention them a little bit.

[MOB]

On 12/29/2016 at 3:50 PM, Vile said:

<ahem> Not to mention the RQ Classic Kickstarter rewards. Well, maybe to mention them a little bit.

As announced by Rick elsewhere, we have squeaked in Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror on the last day of 2016 as downloads for the RQ Classic KS backers. They will be available for purchase on www.chaosium.com shortly as well.

[Pentallion]

When I reread the Stormbringer series after all these years, it struck me that what Elric is doing when he uses his magic is heroquesting.  And it got me thinking: what if all those Beast Lord pacts and pacts with the Elemental Lords are reinforced through heroquest?  What if travelling to the other dimensions is basically heroquesting? 

What if, every spell in Stormbringer was in fact a heroquest?

Your Melnibonean can summon Meerclaw?  He knows the Meerclaw heroquest where he performs services for the Lord of Cats and in return, he gains the cat lords services at a later date.  He goes on the dangerous heroquest to reenact the myth of the Melnibonean hero (we'll call him Mowgli) who aided the Lord of the Cats and thus gained his eternal friendship (or at least to call on him once or twice).

What if the entire magic system were revamped to be done this way?  It would be taking the Gloranthan mythological way of looking at things and applying it to the Young Kingdoms, then doing away with the other forms of magic (ie, in the Young Kingdoms, there's no battle magic, rune magic, there's just the powers you gain through heroquesting.)   If a pact with the lord of the bears requires a heroquest that feels a bit like it's right out of The Jungle Book, then the Pan Tangians are dealing with Shere Khan.  So that mythology makes sense to them.  Note I'm using The Jungle Book, only has an example since that's an obvious heroquest of how Mowgli got his man rune.  And I always think isn't that how the Melniboneans, before they became so decadent, forged their pacts with the Beast Lords?  They were still innocent little Mowgli's going about the hero plane (multiverse) and making their pacts.  And in some alternate universe, Mowgli's enemy was Shere Khan so of course, the Tiger of Pan Tang makes perfect mythological sense.  And the archetypes are just sitting there, ready to be made.

And I wonder if this were the way Stormbringer were brought up to date, this new, exciting way of approaching the Young Kingdoms magic, if that wouldn't be a good selling point to get Mr. Moorcock interested in seeing the game return to print.

Edited January 11, 2017 by Pentallion

[lawrence.whitaker]

There are some great examples of these Dream Quests (which is what the Melniboneans call them) in the graphic novel series published in the mid 2000s called 'Making of a Sorcerer'. Elric, in preparation to rule Melnibone, undergoes several Dream Quests to establish the various pacts with the Beast Lords and others.

However, I don't think it would be appropriate to revamp the entire magic system to Dream Questing. There's ample evidence in the books for other types of magic: runes of power, shamanism, and more traditional sorcery involving the summoning of specific entities and the creation of enforceable pacts. While Dream Quests give Melniboneans an advantage, it seems to be limited to them. Other cultures have different approaches, and so other magical systems need to be present. Dream Theft is quite different from Dream Questing, for instance; and Elric remarks that the cultures of the Unknown East have a form of sorcery he hasn't encountered before.

I wrote Dream Questing into the MRQ-based Elric rules I produced for Mongoose, ensuring the game was as up to date with Moorcock's canon as it could be, so there are already such rules out there - although the books are now out of print.

[el_octogono]

I wonder if Chaosium would be willing to use another system for the return of Stormbringer... I have some nice rules in my hard drive

[Conrad]

I just think that it is total bollocks that Chaosium would revamp, or even go for the Stormbringer franchise again. They had a spat with the author a long while ago and that showed the antipathy between Moorcock and Chaosium. The best company in a position to have a shot at an EC set of supplements to my mind would be the Mythras crew, as Loz Whitaker is both a fan and has written such stuff before. However buying the rights to such a setting might be expensive if Moorcock sold the rights to some film producer or other.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Conrad

[nclarke]

I believe Loz has already posted that The Design Mechanism has no interest in a Moorcockian IP setting.

Edited February 10, 2017 by nclarke

[Conrad]

21 hours ago, nclarke said:

I believe Loz has already posted that The Design Mechanism has no interest in a Moorcockian IP setting.

The Luther Arkwright setting, that the DI publishes, is already so influenced by Moorcock as to be described accurately as "Moorcockian".

[Nick J.]

On 2/10/2017 at 4:22 AM, Conrad said:

I just think that it is total bollocks that Chaosium would revamp, or even go for the Stormbringer franchise again. They had a spat with the author a long while ago and that showed the antipathy between Moorcock and Chaosium. The best company in a position to have a shot at an EC set of supplements to my mind would be the Mythras crew, as Loz Whitaker is both a fan and has written such stuff before. However buying the rights to such a setting might be expensive if Moorcock sold the rights to some film producer or other.

Is it really the same Chaosium though? One would presume that with the departure of Mr. Krank (et al.) and the "new-old" management basically being Moon Design, with the name Chaosium re-purposed, that whatever animosity existed between Micheal Moorcock and the company isn't really an issue?

Then again, maybe I'm completely wrong.

[Mankcam]

I think I really liked Loz's version of the setting with the MRQ2 Elric book, and DM's Moorockian leanings are obvious, although given that it is yet another licence to purchase the setting then I can see why DM will steer clear of it.

Given that it is a dark fantasy setting that seems to attract interest then I'm sure another system will pick it up again. In fact this has  already happened, but the game is not written in English.

If it is the Stormbringer BRP game mechanics that people are after, then Ben Munroe's edition of MagicWorld seems to tick a lot of boxes. It may not be a big line, but it is still available on the Chaosium webpage and could be seen as the alternative to the RQ line. I would not expect any supporting resources in the near future, considering company efforts are being focused on the Gloranthan and Lovecraftian settings, given their wider appeal.

However the mechanics are still available for those who want it. I just doubt they will be ever married again to The Young Kingdoms setting like they used to be.

 

Edited February 19, 2017 by Mankcam

[Conrad]

10 hours ago, Nick J. said:

Is it really the same Chaosium though? One would presume that with the departure of Mr. Krank (et al.) and the "new-old" management basically being Moon Design, with the name Chaosium re-purposed, that whatever animosity existed between Micheal Moorcock and the company isn't really an issue?

Then again, maybe I'm completely wrong.

Sure, it isn't the same Chaosium but you try telling that to MM. Plus I read somewhere that MM sold the rights to some film makers (was it the Wachowski brothers?) that would probably considerably increase the amount Chaosium would have to pay to get a licence to publish YK material. To my mind the most probable route to produce a YK related RPG (in english) would be to do it for Mythras, but Loz Whitaker has already said he isn't into doing that, plus the cost of the licence, et cetera, et cetera, et ceteraaaaaa........

Edited February 19, 2017 by Conrad
Reversed neutron flow polarity in the flux capacitors!

[Jason D]

On 2/19/2017 at 4:51 PM, Conrad said:

Sure, it isn't the same Chaosium but you try telling that to MM. Plus I read somewhere that MM sold the rights to some film makers (was it the Wachowski brothers?) that would probably considerably increase the amount Chaosium would have to pay to get a licence to publish YK material. 

The Weitz brothers were working on a trilogy, but that was 10 years ago. The license was re-optioned in 2015, but I don't know if it's escaped development limbo. 

(The Wachowski bothers are just "The Wachowskis" now, also.) 

 

[Pentallion]

On 3/27/2017 at 3:30 AM, Jason Durall said:

The Weitz brothers were working on a trilogy, but that was 10 years ago. The license was re-optioned in 2015, but I don't know if it's escaped development limbo. 

(The Wachowski bothers are just "The Wachowskis" now, also.) 

 

Tim Hiddleston has my vote for the role of Elric.  Or Jude Law.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Pentallion

[Thot]

Hm,. such a long time and no news probably means it's not happening. A pity.

[Nick J.]

3 hours ago, Thot said:

Hm,. such a long time and no news probably means it's not happening. A pity.

Probably, but with Chaosium squarely focused on Runequest: Glorantha, maybe it's just a matter of priorities? Hope springs eternal.

[Rick Meints]

4 hours ago, Nick J. said:

Probably, but with Chaosium squarely focused on Runequest: Glorantha, maybe it's just a matter of priorities? Hope springs eternal.

Sadly, it's not a "we could make a deal, but can't be bothered to find the time" situation.

We have no news to report.

[g33k]

12 hours ago, Nick J. said:

Probably, but with Chaosium squarely focused on Runequest: Glorantha, maybe it's just a matter of priorities? Hope springs eternal.

Actually, Chaosium has a LOT on their plates... in addition to RQG, there's CoC7, HQ, and more.

The Stormbringer license is simply NOT in Chaosium's hands at the moment, and any negotiations that may or may not be happening are not being discussed by Chaosium.

They can't MAKE it happen just by being insistent ...  No matter how much the fans may want them to!

If I were going to make a guess, I'd guess they have an inquiry in, which hasn't been dismissed out of hand (possibly with a request from Moorcock (or his agent) that they make no-public-discussion until the issue HAS been addressed).