Elric of Melniboné

[Loz]

Campaign settings are a major investment - and a risk. They don't sell in large numbers, and they require committed support by the publisher. You therefore have to get it right and be confident that the setting will sell enough for you to be able to support it - and that you have the right support framework in place.

From the RQ6 point of view, we have two in the direct pipeline. 'Shores of Korantia' is a setting and campaign book, the sequel to 'Age of Treason', and will be released early 2014. Its finished editing and is in art and layout.

We also have Glorantha, with our 'Adventures in Glorantha' being written for RQ, with a campaign book to follow very soon after. Also for 2014 will be Mythic Britain, which I'm writing at the moment, and 'Luther Arkwright', which is Moorcockian, Plane-Hopping, Comic Book, Existentialist, Steam Punk Pulp adventure.

This weekend RQ6's boards mention a new, or at least re-published, setting - Empires Rising. Core book, adventures and a campaign in the pipeline, which perhaps addresses the issue Olaus Petrus brought up. The wheels are turning. Probably. It's hard to tell with the naked eye.

This is actually being published by Nathan Baron's 'Lion & Eagle Press' under the RQ Gateway license, so its not a Design Mechanism product. There is also another RQ Gateway license setting book, from another publisher, waiting in the wings while we get the press release details together. And its a lot different to the others already mentioned.

 

[Prime_Evil]

That's fantastic news, Loz.

 

[Bifford]

We also have Glorantha, with our 'Adventures in Glorantha' being written for RQ, with a campaign book to follow very soon after. Also for 2014 will be Mythic Britain, which I'm writing at the moment, and 'Luther Arkwright', which is Moorcockian, Plane-Hopping, Comic Book, Existentialist, Steam Punk Pulp adventure.

Anything at all like my Ancient Stones setting?? Set in Wiltshire (though other places would work), around all the ancient monuments, standing stones, burials, henges, barrows, leylines. So ancient times but with common and divine magic, allowing things like water gods, barrow gods (think Narnia), shapeshifters etc. Common magic is linked to professions and divine magic as you would expect.) Cornwalls' "Stonehenge" sort of thing.

 

[Loz]

Anything at all like my Ancient Stones setting??

Well, having not read your Ancient Stones setting, I really couldn't say.

Set in Wiltshire (though other places would work), around all the ancient monuments, standing stones, burials, henges, barrows, leylines. So ancient times but with common and divine magic, allowing things like water gods, barrow gods (think Narnia), shapeshifters etc. Common magic is linked to professions and divine magic as you would expect.) Cornwalls' "Stonehenge" sort of thing.

Cornwell is an influence, but this is Dark Ages Britain rather than very early Bronze Age (which is when Stonehenge is set).

 

[Bifford]

Anything at all like my Ancient Stones setting??

Well, having not read your Ancient Stones setting, I really couldn't say.

http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=50156

Cornwell is an influence, but this is Dark Ages Britain rather than very early Bronze Age (which is when Stonehenge is set).

Ah fair enough!

 

[danskmacabre]

For those who are still interested, got an answer about the Elric line in this thread:
http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=56665&p=766767#p766767

Sorry, been tied up for a while - I regret to say there will be no further Elric books forthcoming in the foreseeable future.

Doesn't say if the license has been dropped (which I have also asked about), but we won't be seeing anymore Elric material from Mongooose.

 

[Olaus Petrus]

For those who are still interested, got an answer about the Elric line in this thread:
http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=56665&p=766767#p766767

Sorry, been tied up for a while - I regret to say there will be no further Elric books forthcoming in the foreseeable future.

Doesn't say if the license has been dropped (which I have also asked about), but we won't be seeing anymore Elric material from Mongooose.

That's bad news, not unexpected but still bad. After excellent Secrets of the Steppes I was hoping to see a new line of Elric books. Biggest disappointment is that Talons of Winter (which was almost ready according to earlier Mongoose's release schedule) is also cancelled.

Legend's current release schedule looks kind of boring, because I'm not that interested about Deus Vult. Hopefully it will become more interesting in the future and we will see proper sword and sorcery campaign settings.

 

[danskmacabre]

Biggest disappointment is that Talons of Winter (which was almost ready according to earlier Mongoose's release schedule) is also cancelled.

A shame it wasn't even a PDF only release or something.
Seems a shame to waste all that work.
Oh well.

 

[soltakss]

Maybe there's a chance for Elric with RQ6 - after all Loz has a bit of a history with Elric.

 

[danskmacabre]

Maybe there's a chance for Elric with RQ6 - after all Loz has a bit of a history with Elric.

Yeah that's a good point.
Pretty cool idea actually.

 

[Prime_Evil]

We can hope for Elric to come back SOMEWHERE - the statements from Matt haven't mentioned why the line has been cancelled. Was it simply poor sales? Or has somebody else snapped up the licence? I notice that all of the older Elric titles are no longer available via Drivethrurpg and even the old Chaosium PDFs have been withdrawn, so something may be afoot.

I agree that Loz is definitely the best person to do a new version though...

 

[danskmacabre]

I agree that Loz is definitely the best person to do a new version though...

Don't really need a new version of the rules, well just port it over, which should be pretty minor to RQ6.

 

[TrippyHippy]

The likelihood that Loz and Pete will have any time to do a new version of Elric is pretty slim though - not at least for the next few years - as they are committed to their own schedule of releases.

 

[havercake lad]

I am sure a good deal of the material I wrote for Talons of Winter will get used in some RPG system. I'm sorry for anyone who kept campaigns on hold waiting for the book, I had sent the draft in over a year ago and it was recieved very positively by its playtesters. I'd urge budding RPFG writers not to be discouraged by projects like this, I gather situations like this happen to far better writers.

Ideally the book is best left as uinchanged as possible and placed in a Young Kingdoms campaign setting, but if no one goes for the license then I will try to get parts of it published in another RPG setting such as RQ6's The Realm (RQ6) or in Uma (Orbis Terrarum).

 

[Olaus Petrus]

We can hope for Elric to come back SOMEWHERE - the statements from Matt haven't mentioned why the line has been cancelled. Was it simply poor sales? Or has somebody else snapped up the licence? I notice that all of the older Elric titles are no longer available via Drivethrurpg and even the old Chaosium PDFs have been withdrawn, so something may be afoot.

I agree that Loz is definitely the best person to do a new version though...

I noticed that too. Luckily my local RPG shop seems to have few hard copies of MRQ1 Elric and Hawkmoon books left, so I think I will get the ones I don't have once I have bit of extra cash. As long as those were also available in .pdf I wasn't in any particular hurry to get all of those, but I bought only the ones which I needed in campaign. But now situation has changed and I need to prepare for all future needs by getting them as long as it's still possible.

 

[danskmacabre]

I have loads of Elric material, I've been collecting Elric stuff since I was 16, so I've either owned it at some stage or used it in a campaign at one stage or another.

Having read the Elric books many times over my knowledge of the series is very good. So I'd only be interested in new material, but even if there isn't any new stuff, I can get by with that I already have and make up the rest.

Shame tho there's no active support for it, but who knows what the future brings. Maybe some other company will pick up the brand and do something with it.

 

[tzunder]

Big fan of the Young Kingdoms games over the years but you know what?
It's time to move on.
There are new and different authors that would make new and different licensed rpgs: there's enough Moorcock stuff available to keep us old guys happy.

So, who in that kind of gritty dark fantasy (and it need not be written fiction) would make good rpgs, and yes that could include Computer RPGS.

 

[Olaus Petrus]

Big fan of the Young Kingdoms games over the years but you know what?
It's time to move on.
There are new and different authors that would make new and different licensed rpgs: there's enough Moorcock stuff available to keep us old guys happy.

So, who in that kind of gritty dark fantasy (and it need not be written fiction) would make good rpgs, and yes that could include Computer RPGS.

I disagree here. It's one thing to end a product line which is has grown stale. Elric was nipped in the bud, right in the middle of campaign. We never had that almost finished second part of campaign book and if I understand correctly author had new fresh ideas about how to explore the world of Young Kingdoms.

You are correct that there was plenty of old Stormbringer material available, but it seems to have become more scarce recently, because DriveThruRPG has removed those books from their catalogue. And in any case I prefer Elric of Melniboné's interpretation of Young Kingdoms over that in Stormbringer, so not everything there is usable in Elric campaign.

I wouldn't be so annoyed about it, if it wasn't that Elric of Melniboné has been one of the best campaign settings which I have ever hosted. And because I'm personally against piracy, soon there simply won't be any way at all to get any kind of campaign material other than writing up my own stuff (which wouldn't otherwise be a bad thing, but doing proper research of the sources and writing up descriptions of entire cities and realms takes whole lot of time, which I don't always have).

 

[alex_greene]

We can hope for Elric to come back SOMEWHERE - the statements from Matt haven't mentioned why the line has been cancelled. Was it simply poor sales? Or has somebody else snapped up the licence? I notice that all of the older Elric titles are no longer available via Drivethrurpg and even the old Chaosium PDFs have been withdrawn, so something may be afoot.

It sounds as if the license holder has simply withdrawn the rights. I'm speculating on a movie deal.

 

[Carew]

We can hope for Elric to come back SOMEWHERE - the statements from Matt haven't mentioned why the line has been cancelled. Was it simply poor sales? Or has somebody else snapped up the licence? I notice that all of the older Elric titles are no longer available via Drivethrurpg and even the old Chaosium PDFs have been withdrawn, so something may be afoot.

It sounds as if the license holder has simply withdrawn the rights. I'm speculating on a movie deal.

Not that. It was optioned for a movie years and years ago by the Weiss brothers but nothing ever happened with it. I know theres a new game called Mournblade that's a French d20 thing so maybe Mr Moorcock decdide that one game license was enough and just let the Frenc guys have it.