Advantages of Magic World

[Guest Vile Traveller]

20 minutes ago, K Peterson said:

Can I hire you to be my personal forum translator? You do a better job of getting my questions across than me.

My rates are very reasonable! 

[NickMiddleton]

18 hours ago, Vile said:

That's the impression I'm getting in my current reading of both books, but would you care to elaborate? Any changes in particular?  

1) The addition of cultures to character creation add atmosphere and texture - but in a fashion that doesn't complicate matters.

2) Skill categories were an option in Elric! but MW gives them some significance (by having bonuses) but without the complexity of the RQ 1/-/3, SB 1/-4 etc model.

3) Character creation, frequently a morass of decision paralysis dividing point totals out across skill lists,  is streamlined to assigning defined list of fixed BLOCKS of points, simplifying the whole process (whilst still allowing customised breakdowns if preferred.

4) Rather than fixed "impales" as the highest level of success (but only for weapon attacks) and "critical" on 1/5th of skill as in Elric! Magic World reinstated the more traditional scaling of critical on 1/20th of skill and specials on 1/5th of skill, for ALL skills. Annoyingly, this was errata that was missed before the book originally went to print - not sure if it ever got corrected in the PDF.

5) Occupation skills increase slightly faster than non-occupation skills, ensuring occupations retain some relevance without being a straightjacket.

6) Guidance on generic NPC stats - Magic World page 221

Those are the ones that spring to mind and I'm confidant of without going through the two texts closely side by side - there are a number of other "nips & tucks" that are more editorial in nature. The compiled errata is here - https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/2786-magic-world-errata-is-live/?do=findComment&comment=77861 Thanks to Big Jack Brass retrieving it from off site after the previous upload was lost.

Chaot is remembering incorrectly - as published, MW retains both statement of intent as a separate step in combat, AND divides sequencing so Magic happens in INT order and then physical actions in DEX  order, as in  Elric! And all spells takes a FULL found to come in to effect.

cheers,

Nick

 

Edited April 24, 2017 by NickMiddleton

[Nick J.]

5 hours ago, NickMiddleton said:

1) The addition of cultures to characters creation add atmosphere and texture - but in a fashion that doesn't complicate matters.

2) Skill categories were an option in Elric! but MW gives them some significance (by having bonuses) but without the complexity of the RQ 1/-/3, SB 1/-4 etc model.

3) Character creation, frequently a morass of decision paralysis dividing point totals out across skill lists,  is streamlined to assigning defined list of fixed BLOCKS of points, simplifying the whole process (whilst still allowing customised breakdowns if preferred.

4) Rather than fixed "impales" as theist level of success (but only for weapon attacks) and "critical" on 1/5th of skill as in Elric! Magic World reinstated the more traditional scaling of critical on 1/20th of skill and specials on 1/5th of skill. Annoyingly, this was errata that was missed before the book originally went to print - not sure if it ever got corrected in the PDF.

5) Occupation skills increase slightly faster than non-occupation skills, ensuring occupations retain some relevance without being a straightjacket.

6) Guidance on generic NPC stats - Magic World page 221

Those are the ones that spring to mind and I'm confidant of without going through the two texts closely side by side - there are a number of other "nips & tucks" that are more editorial in nature. The compiled errata is here - https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/2786-magic-world-errata-is-live/?do=findComment&comment=77861 Thanks to Big Jack Brass retrieving it from off site after the previous upload was lost.

Chaot is remembering incorrectly - as published, MW retains both statement of intent as a separate step in combat, AND divides sequencing so Magic happens in INT order and then physical actions in DEX  order, as in  Elric! And all spells takes a FULL found to come in to effect.

cheers,

Nick

 

The language about criticals and specials on page 48 was indeed corrected in the PDF revision.

[Guest Vile Traveller]

As errata documents go, that's pretty small.

[Toadmaster]

I can't really comment on the Elric vs Magic World rules as I've never owned Elric. I did have Stormbringer at some point which I believe was related. That was the 80s and I hated the "dumbing down" of the RQ rules, as at that time I saw that as a step back towards D&D which we had fled to RQ from. It didn't help that I've never been able to get into the Elric stories.

Now I have much more appreciation for a less complex set of BRP rules. I love the added crunch of BRP with all the switches thrown, and the stuff RQ6 added, but MW is a nice take on the other end of the system. I also think it was wise to offer a more focused (fantasy) version of BRP as nearly all generic games suffer from too much to fast for a new player or GM to sort through.

 

Anyway on the tangential question of name that has cropped up I do have an opinion on that. I agree Magic World was a less than perfect name choice. If I knew nothing about it I would immediately assume it had something to do with fairies and elves, perhaps an Elfquest kind of thing (which wouldn't really appeal to me) although I might still take a look at it hoping that maybe it was more of a darker Grim's fairy tales kind of thing but even then it would only get me to take a peak. 

I don't think Elric* is really that big of a franchise that it would have really helped sales that much to have used a Stormbringer-esqe name, but I could certainly support a more sword and sorcery or even throw back fantasy sounding name. I would have preferred a name that was more suggestive of Conan, or Thieves World, or even a S&S style fantasy Europe. It is a good product with a somewhat indifferent name. It is too bad it didn't get a single setting book to work with.

 

Oh well rambling...      

 

*Moorcock's work is certainly a known item, but it has been done several times so fans likely have a real Elric / Stormbringer product and would not necessarily be hungry for an Elric / Stormbringer with the numbers filed off product. Conan is the 1000lb gorilla of the genre, and it hasn't really had that many solid game interpretations so anything suggesting Conan / Hyborian age style S&S will generate interest. Has Swords & Sorcery been used as a game title? I see a board game, but Google isn't showing me any RPGs with that name. Direct to the point and even has that X & X throwback thing going for it.  

Edited May 28, 2017 by Toadmaster
can't spell at all today!!!!

[Mankcam]

Yeah Magic World as a title was a throwback to the 1980s Worlds of Wonder box, which had three different genres, with Magic World being one of them. The most recent releae of Magic World had nothing to do with the Worlds of Wonder rules, except that it was BRP based, I was very unhappy about that.

However it was a good idea to get the Elric/Stormbringer mechanics back in print. For me the strength is the ease of char gen in the most recent addition, and the fact that  alot of the Stormbringer stuff found it's way into print again via the MagicWorld book or the Advanced Sorcery supplement. I was never a big one on the variable AP + MW Table over the RQ Hit Locations idea, so I wasn't looking at porting to it. However the char gen was so quick, that was an excellent idea.

It hinted at a reasonable high fantasy setting, but that needed to be more realised. Having more of an edge to setting flavour would have worked well. A grim Dark Ages setting like The Brothers Grimm Tales would have been good, or something a little gonzo  (think Terry Pratchett/Brian Froud mixing with Fritz Leiber) like Fighting Fantasy's world of Titan could have worked as well.

I think the biggest issues with it was definitely the game's name of 'Magic World', and it also needed more eye candy - title pages should of had colour plates, for instance.

I am glad I have the book however, it is still a great little fantasy version of BRP, and IMO it's perfect for converting old D&D scenarios into better mechanics

Edited May 28, 2017 by Mankcam