Elric: Bright Shadows Preview

[MongooseMatt]

A preview of Bright Shadows has been posted on our web site. You can find it at;

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1478

Bright Shadows is scheduled to ship in two weeks time.

 

[Neo]

Page Border is lovely but a bit chunky, takes up a fair bit of the pages...

 

[Mongoose Pete]

I hate to say this Matt, but four pages of demon stats doesn't really give much of the flavour of the final book.

Just a suggestion, but I think it might be more tantalising if you let the public see some area descriptions of the Dragon Isle, or a bit of Melnibonean history...

 

[Rurik]

I gotta say I agree with Pete on this one (looks over shoulder for Great Old Ones awakening).

Kinda disapointing, I was hoping for some flavor of the supplement, not just stats.

 

[smiorgan]

While I did not expect demon stats in the preview, I did like them.

They show what can be done with the rules, have flavourful descriptions which may inspire the GM, and can be readily thrown at adventures exploring Melniboné.

So the preview made me want to buy the book. (In fact I already wanted to buy it because of the nice cover and because I am an Elric completist since the days of old Stormbringer).

I like digests and statted NPCs in my setting books. I was really put off by their absences in early Gloranthan and Lankhmar releases (Lankhmar had a grand total of 2 statted NPCs!). Hawkmoon and Granbretan had a lot of stats for important named NPCs in the saga and also for generic "rank & file" NPCs, which was great.
Elric had only a few important NPCs statted out but I gather a lot of stuff had to be cut and will appear in the Companion.

So I am cool with demon stats in my Biright Shadows book. Just tell me that the book also has cool detailed maps and that it stays flat when opened and I am a happy man.

 

[CthulhuFnord]

I gotta say I agree with Pete on this one (looks over shoulder for Great Old Ones awakening).

Kinda disapointing, I was hoping for some flavor of the supplement, not just stats.

Actually, I'm just heading off to bed now. :wink:

I also would have prefered a little more than a few pages of Demons. I'm rather curious to what the rest of the Bright Empires Sorcery looks like.

 

[Charles Green]

I also would have prefered a little more than a few pages of Demons. I'm rather curious to what the rest of the Bright Empires Sorcery looks like.

There are no additional Sorcery rules in Bright Shadows. It takes place in the same time period as the Elric rulebook, so the Bright Empire's vast sorcerous might is a thing of the past.

There are still some relic of that past to be found in and around Imrryr, though, which may still function if the players are resourceful enough to find all the needed parts.

 

[smiorgan]

There are no additional Sorcery rules in Bright Shadows. It takes place in the same time period as the Elric rulebook, so the Bright Empire's vast sorcerous might is a thing of the past.

There are still some relic of that past to be found in and around Imrryr, though, which may still function if the players are resourceful enough to find all the needed parts.

Charles,

Are there scenarios in the book? Scenario hooks - ideas?

Smiorgan

 

[Charles Green]

Are there scenarios in the book? Scenario hooks - ideas?
Smiorgan

There are no fully fleshed out scenarios, but there is a sizable section in the book directed at campaigning in Melnibone, including a list of scenario seeds that can be spun out into full-blown scenarios.

Also, the rest of the book is filled with scenario seeds, woven in to the descriptive text of various part of the island. There's plenty to do here.

 

[Hervé]

I tend to agree with many of the posts above: the preview doesn't preview much...
I really think the Table of Contents (with a few sample random pages) should be a nice preview of forthcoming books, much more than a bunch of Demon stats.

 

[MongooseCharlie]

Hi Guys, can I just say that the Bright Shadows preview is somewhat unique. We need to keep them to a certain size due to web restrictions and this book contains so many excellent and detailed pieces of art that I could not get a good preview under the size limit...believe me three of us played with it for three hours!!! This was the only part that would do it...which is a shame as the part I really wanted to preview contained an excellent map and a great half page Chaos Fleet drawing.

Fear not we shall try to fix this problem in future publications

 

[Shadow Queen]

Welcome to the Madhouse Charlie

 

[reverend keith]

I was busy statting up a demon for my game, and then this preview comes along. Woo hoo! Talk about great timing!

 

[MongooseCharlie]

Good good....glad someone is happy with the preview then!

 

[Da Boss]

I have the Chaosim book on Melnibone which I have found extremely useful and most evocative (for me at least). Is it similar / take a completely different view?

Is this more a campaign pack or a description of the Dragon Isle and its inhabitants?

thanks

 

[Hervé]

Da Boss wrote:

I have the Chaosim book on Melnibone which I have found extremely useful and most evocative (for me at least). Is it similar / take a completely different view?

I asked the same question on another post:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=30943
Hope it helps.

 

[MongooseCharlie]

OK then guys in order to try to clarify a little further I have decided to treat you all to the chapter headings! As follows:

Melniboneans - A People
Character Physiology
Theology
Melnibonean Society
Melnibone - A Land
Characters and Bestiary
Campaigning in Melnibone

Hope this gives a little more of an incling. We have the Elric Companion coming out soon also, and as I am currently editing it I can tell you that I am very impressed! The series will also be expanded upon further in the near future so everyone with a thirst for Elric should be well and truely satisfied in the coming months!

 

[Da Boss]

Excellent - I be buying that then

thank you both

I used the Chaosim one a great deal and hope the same for this one

 

[Rurik]

Hi Guys, can I just say that the Bright Shadows preview is somewhat unique. We need to keep them to a certain size due to web restrictions and this book contains so many excellent and detailed pieces of art that I could not get a good preview under the size limit...believe me three of us played with it for three hours!!! This was the only part that would do it...which is a shame as the part I really wanted to preview contained an excellent map and a great half page Chaos Fleet drawing.

Gotta love those complex page backgrounds and borders.

 

[Charles Green]

I have the Chaosim book on Melnibone which I have found extremely useful and most evocative (for me at least). Is it similar / take a completely different view?

Is this more a campaign pack or a description of the Dragon Isle and its inhabitants?

thanks

I tried to take what worked the best in the Chaosium book and expand on it. The book is both a description of the Dragon Isle and its inhabtants and a campiagn book.

THe outlook is similar to the old book, as I found that quite good at getting at the nature of their characters. however, I also made some changes based on the Elric comics done by DC. In them, we see a very different Melnibone that what is presented in the books.