Modren day eternal champion game ideas

[Mage]

SI I was thinking, some eternal champions are existant through our ownera, such as von bek, and indeed erekose, during the thirty years war and some other time.

I am proposing this thread be the start of a discussion on how to have a few mdern day games, ino uor world, where people get puled into a plt and then dimension hop throughout the multiverse, much in the way of the prevoiusly mentoined antagonists.

It would be interesting to see a modern day student in tragic europe, or a soldier in the yuong kingdoms, for instance, and how they can be drawn into some sort of cosmic balance story arc in our wolrd, and indeed others.

I am not saying a new champion be created, but how an EC campaign can start in our world and move on, from subtle modern day mystery and adventure to epic sagas invovling the lords of order and chaos.

It would need to start with a McGuffin of some sort, probably a jewel (the black jewel springs to mind), and from what I ahve heard the destruction of Elric's world heralded the creation of our one.

What else? Oh, some sort of underground cult movement that wortshipped one of the chaos lords would help flesh things out.

Any takers or other ideas?

 

[Loz]

A good place to start when looking at these kinds of possibilities is 'The Adventurers of Luther Arkwright', a graphic novel which is a homage to Jerry Cornelius and a very good example of dimension hopping steampunk with a good maguffin and an organisation to work for. There is Luther Arkwright RPG too, but its tough to find these days.

I've also got a short story about Jerry Cornelius written for the Tentacles Convention that may offer some more, modern day inspiration. PM me for a copy.

 

[GbajiTheDeceiver]

You should read the Jerry Cornelius novels first and foremost. Some of them can be "difficult reading", but at least The Final Programme adheres to more traditional novelistic conventions.

 

[Mage]

How are they 'difficult reading'?

 

[Loz]

How are they 'difficult reading'?

They're very experimental. Written as a quartet, the idea was that you could read them in any order, so the events and overall story arc (such as it is) are non-linear. The same characters reappear in different guises and different motivations; Jerry's personality and appearance change abruptly; events within the same book sometimes flow seamlessly from into the next, or shift without warning. Its sometimes difficult to place events in a particular context and you need to go back and reread an earlier part to orientate yourself.

But all this is deliberate. Moorcock was experimenting with the narrative form, and the novels are closely informed by the culture and politics of the era. Sometimes Jerry comes across as a sort-of James Bond; at others as a Swinging 60s dandy, and at others as a tortured messiah.

I'd say these are challenging rather than 'difficult' books, but they're not in the straight-forward mould of his fantasy heroes such as Elric or Hawkmoon. They are deliberate experimentations with language, structure, form and content, all wrapped in the hipness and exciting atmosphere of 60s/70s London.

 

[Mage]

That and wasn't Jerry Cornelius being a champion on behalf of chaos? So would this writing style in the stories not reflect on this?

 

[Kamelion]

Great idea - I have wondered about a game based around the von Bek family for a while, and how that might work.

I'd recommend taking a look at some of the modern-world multiverse stories. The recent trilogy starting with Dreamthief's Daughter heavily features a subterranean realm that connects with the Middle Marches, filled with all sorts of kookiness - it makes a really good way to introduce modern characters into more fantastic environments. It also receives coverage in the Multiverse comic as well as in a couple of stories in Tales from the Texas Woods.

For a more "out-there" approach, you could look at the Second Ether trilogy, which deals heavily with alternate versions of our world and features a number of interesting ways to move between the worlds.

For that classic von Bek feel, you should find a way to include the Grail in it somehow. This ties in nicely with some real-world myths around Glastonbury (which itself features in a couple of Moorcock stories like The Alchemist's Question and Birds of the Moon).

Echoes of the multiverse can also be found in real-world locations (imagined or otherwise), fantastical versions of which feature in the EC tales. Places like Oarzasaat, Las Cascadas, Tan-al-Oorn, Mirenburg and the Isle of Morn - all of these can bring a cool multiverse feel to a modern tale and might work well as jumping-off points for jaunts along the moonbeam roads.

Dreamquests also work well. You can take the idea of Melniboneans dreaming of our world and have modern characters who are actually cousins of the royal line of Imrryr in another guise. Maybe the PCs are just dreams of Melniboneans, but have yet to realise it.

Oh, and you should throw Klosterheim in there somwhere. Just for the pleasure of killing him repeatedly in a number of interesting ways.

 

[tarkhan bey]

I was thinking about Klosterheim after reading Mage's original post and about followers of Lucifer in the modern age. Anton LaVey suddenly sprung to mind. Could he be used as a representation of Klosterheim? ( I am only halfway through "The Skrayling Tree" and have not yet started " The White Wolf's Son" so I do not know if Klosterheim is destined for a sticky end.) They do seem to share some physical characteristic's.

 

[soltakss]

I think the Jerry Cornelius series, including various spin-offs and short stories, are the best books concerning the Eternal Champion. They are fast and furious and show that there are no heroes and villians.

People say that Jerry Cornelius is a poor man's James Bond, but I've never really seen that. Sure, he uses gadgets, mainly because of his father, but he doesn't work for anyone and certainly isn't trying to save the world.

In my opinion, Jerry Cornelius would find the past decade or so really interesting to live in. The idea of fighting in the various wars, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Zaire/Congo/Rwanda would definitely appeal. Who's side would he be on? He'd probably be fighting alongside the Bosnians and Albanians in Yugoslavia, because they were fighting the Serbians who are clearly pro-Law, and anti-American in Iraq and Afghanistan becase they are pro-Law. In Central Africa, he'd probably have fought on both sides or changed sides. He'd probably have disliked terrorism and would fight against fundamentalism as that is pro-Law, but would promote anarchy everywhere, so he would be in favour of the conflicts in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Would he have been a terrorist? Probably not. Would he have known terrorists? Almost certainly.

That and wasn't Jerry Cornelius being a champion on behalf of chaos? So would this writing style in the stories not reflect on this?

Well, he is a champion of the Balance, being the Eternal Champion. As the current world is heavily pro-Law, he would be fighting against it, so would seem to be pro-Chaos. But, when things tip too far, he fights on the other side. Quite often, this is not a concious choice, but something he is forced to do by outside events.