RuneQuest for Stormbringer?

[andakitty]

Yes, I expanded the magic system big time. Instead of having each sorcery spell as a separate skill, I made the five types of magic (Sorcery, Alchemy, Enchantment, Necromancy, and Wizardry) each one separate skill. To know how to cast a spell you had to know one or more of these skills to a set level (and find a scroll or grimoire with the spell). Second, I added a 'non-variable' spell type to the 'variable' ones (remember, INT 12 allowed a level 6 spell and so on). Anyway, you might have a spell like Raise Dead. It would require something like (as an example) Necromancy 30%, Sorcery 20%, and a cost in magic points. Then you could add all sorts of complications, like an Alchemy roll of 30% to add a potion to add to the spell ritual to raise a zombie that didn't rot away. Higher skill rolls could add things like a summoning of someone's spirit to inhabit the zombie, etc, etc. One roll is made for each skill being used for success. Then there were other factors like doing a ritual when the stars were aligned correctly (Astrology) or invoking the power of a god or demon (Theurgy,Wizardry).

There were other skills as well. Essentially the more powerful the spell the more magic and/or mundane skills with higher levels of ability were required. The whole structure was a mixture of the basic Magic World rules and bits like the Plant Lore and Poison Lore charts in SB1, expanded. The players loved it, they had a good time just creating stuff they had seen in movies or read in books. Of course, I had to keep up with what they were up to, but all that was required to control the power creep was to up the ante and make ingredients hard to get. We had lots of fun with it.

I don't know. Maybe I should just forget MRQ, grab the new BRP rules for fresh angles and outlook and start that game up again. It has been a while...

 

[rabindranath72]

Rabindranath, the early editions of Stormbringer, 1e-4e, have the skill categories and probably correspond best. The present form of the Stormbringer rules first appeared in Elric!; Stormbringer 5 is essentially the same game. The magic system was summoning only, demons and elementals, and having them do chores or binding them and using their abilities as 'spells'. There were no spells as such in the earlier version. It probably would not fit Conan either. The sorcerers tended to get wildly powerful pretty fast. With luck you could roll up a sorcerer who could destroy whole armies right off the bat. You could just as easily roll up a blind, toothless one-armed beggar with leprosy. No joke. The skills and combat systems would be great for Conan, though. The magic is usually the hangup with any sort of Conan rpg, I guess due to the nature of the stories.

Thank you! So it seems I have a Stormbringer between 1-4 edition.
Acutally, on a careful reading, lots of the things I like in Stormbringer (except skill categories I love...I REALLY hate long lists of skills!) are already in Cthulhu Dark Ages.

Cheers,
Antonio

 

[RMS]

I went they other way. Stormbringer was the first Chaosium (heck the first non-D&D) RPG I picked up (I was disatsified with AD&D), and I eventually migrated to RQ. Generally, I found the magic system, especially in the Ken St. Andre designed first edtion to be so powerful as to complelty undermind the game. Eseentially those with demon weapons and armor killed those without them, pretty much reglardly of anything else.

That was much of the fun of it! I loved the completely unbalanced system. It just felt right for the Young Kingdoms. We had a lot of fun with early Stormbringer, but it was definitely treated as a beer-n-pretzels game for us. We typically had 50%+ casualties per session, used the completely random character (including nationality) generator, etc. One of my proudest moments in early RPGs was actually getting sickly, lame beggar through a single evening alive. OTOH, my Pan Tangian soceror with demon armor and a demon weapon was killed with a critical hit by a lowly sailor while he was dispatching the guards and captain. Much fun there...

We reserved RQ and Glorantha for the more serious gaming.

Later edtions worked to correct this (I found that out later when I took my 1st Edtion Melnibonean character into a second/third edtion group), but by then I was already into RQ.

FYI, 1-3 editions of Stormbringer are virtually identical. In fact, 3rd edition is simply 2nd edition reprinted with the Companion and some extra adventures in a single book. 4th was the first attempt at balancing things. Now, Elric/Stormbringer 5 have balanced everything out and make a great game, but it's too watered down to be a good match for the Young Kingdoms IMO.

 

[andakitty]

Oh, for chrissakes. :roll:

 

[atgxtg]

The "Beer & pretzels" style was quite appropraite for Strombringer. Ken St. Andre (the creator of Tunnels & Trolls, the ultimate Beer & Prezels RPG, at least at the time) was one of Strombringer's writers. T&T is not really known for game balance. Pretty much the tougherst character wins.

In Strombringer, if one side had a sorceor at rank 2 and bound demons, and the other didn't, it was game over.

 

[RMS]

The "Beer & pretzels" style was quite appropraite for Strombringer. Ken St. Andre (the creator of Tunnels & Trolls, the ultimate Beer & Prezels RPG, at least at the time) was one of Strombringer's writers. T&T is not really known for game balance. Pretty much the tougherst character wins.

In Strombringer, if one side had a sorceor at rank 2 and bound demons, and the other didn't, it was game over.

As written, it's pretty much the only way to run it. The random character generation leaves you lucky to have a single sorceror in the group, and pretty sure of having at least one "worthless" character due to nationality or profession. Plus, the odds of having a single character qualify to be a sorceror are pretty long and most of the premade adventures require at least one to successful navigate them. That doens't mean you can't have fun with it that way though! I don't know what ruffled andakitty's feathers so much about it, but it is a game and we enjoyed it, which is all that matters. So what if it wasn't a serious affair!?

To add to that, I really like the magic in early Stormbringer. For a longer term campaign, I've allowed everyone to be sorcerors before (usually in a smaller group) and dealt with plane hoping in true Moorcockian fashian, and chasing down lost grimoires, etc. That was fun too.

 

[atgxtg]

If a GM was well prepared, and familar with Michael Moorcock's works, it was possibly to run a campaign with a very authntic Young Kingdoms feel to it. I know I was able to do so a few times. THe biggest drawback to that, though, is that the Young Kingdoms is, in general, a very depressing place to be.