Vikings and Elric

[tarkhan bey]

I was looking at the upcoming releases and noticed that Elric and Vikings are back on the schedule.
I have fond memories of using the old Avalon Hill Vikings box set. I imagine that as I still have access to it and GURPS Vikings that I will have little use for it.
What might make me buy it would be Viking Runes.(I could port these over into my Slaine game for the Midgarders).
Will the use of the Futhark Runes be covered? I don't mean a list of Runes and what they mean but a Runic Magic system.
@ Loz
Elric of Melnibone for 1st Ed MRQ was good,in fact it was very good. My group enjoy playing it and any issues we had were with the glitches in the parent system which we sorted out with the judicious application of house rules.
I own pretty much everything that has ever been released for Eternal Champion games. As a completist it is likely that these new Elric releases will find their way onto my bookshelf,however, Is there anything new in them? Are they simply going to be the very best bits, trimmed down from the earlier books with the new MRQ2 rules tacked on?
I know that you don't favour the use of cultural bonuses in character creation but I always felt that it gave some inclination to the player as to how their character might act or be regarded by the world around them.
Assuming that your opinion will remain the same in this edition, will the books include any more, in depth, analysis of the various peoples of the YK?
Is there any intent for further Elric releases and if so, will these simply be rewrites of your previous material such as Dream Realms? Will we ever see a Loz penned, Atlas of the YK?

 

[waylandson]

Tarkhan,

What version of the futhark are you talking about? There were two versions used, the Elder and the Younger, of the two there is a lot more information about the Younger Futhark than there is the Elder.

Also, how about the use of Seid, which was the old, more female style of magic used by the Norse?

To be honest, the way I look at it, Rune or Galdr Magic is more akin to Sorcery, while Seid is more akin to Shamanism & Spirit Magic. Although Divine & Common Magic can be used for both. Confusing isn't!

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

It also differs by period and location; what was believed in 8th century Denmark isn't the same as in 12th century Iceland!!!

 

[Loz]

Elric of Melnibone for 1st Ed MRQ was good,in fact it was very good. My group enjoy playing it and any issues we had were with the glitches in the parent system which we sorted out with the judicious application of house rules.

Thank you! With RQII, its about to get even better.

Is there anything new in them? Are they simply going to be the very best bits, trimmed down from the earlier books with the new MRQ2 rules tacked on?

Yes, there is new material. Character generation has changed with some new races added and the whole creation system now fully based on RQII. The background on the nations is the same as in the last version; I saw no reason to alter text that I'm very happy with, although I have brought the Unknown East and Sered Oma firmly into the canon. Sorcery is very complete, with dream magic expanded, rune magic brought in, and some tweaks (with new demons) for summoning. Spirit magic is now a feature of the game, too.

I've changed the cult chapter. There aren't as many specific cults of Law and Chaos - those are detailed in Cults of the Young Kingdoms - but I've introduced some new ways of worshipping any of the higher powers without needing to dedicate to a named god or pantheon.

The creatures and personality chapters are fully changed to reflect RQII and to address some discrepancies with the first edition. Finally, there's an extensive chapter on alternative eras for the Young Kingdoms, going right back to the days of the Mernii and coming right up to the Bright Empire at its height.

BTW, the RQII rules aren't 'tacked on'. You will need the RQII core rules for this edition of Elric; the book doesn't stand alone (the first edition wasn't meant to either, but a last minute change of plan meant that the rules were levered in, and a lot of material levered out)...

Is there any intent for further Elric releases and if so, will these simply be rewrites of your previous material such as Dream Realms? Will we ever see a Loz penned, Atlas of the YK?

Cults of the YK has been revised, but I don't have any plans to update Dream Realms. However a project later this year is 'Cities of the Young Kingdoms' so that will be a sort of step towards a Loz-penned 'Atlas'. What cities will be covered? Raschil for certain, probably Ilmar, probably Ryfel and perhaps Gromoorva or Menii. Not sure. And as well as being city descriptions there'll be a campaign arc that runs through each of them.

And next year, a full campaign, I'm hoping...

 

[waylandson]

Can you tell us anymore about the Vikings Sourcebook which is what I am interested in?

 

[Loz]

I can't, as its one of Pete Nash's projects, but I'm sure he'll be along here personally to answer that question!

 

[Mongoose Pete]

What might make me buy it would be Viking Runes.(I could port these over into my Slaine game for the Midgarders).
Will the use of the Futhark Runes be covered? I don't mean a list of Runes and what they mean but a Runic Magic system.

I'm writing the last parts of Vikings now, so I might be able to answer your question.

First off I'm hoping that MRQ2 Vikings will compliment the old AH Vikings box set, covering a bit more material in a bit more detail. As always, some generalisations have to be made because of the broad time period and range of places involved.

Viking Magic will be a bit more true to the eddas and sagas, rather than just shoehorning the four base magic systems into a different genre.

Yes, the younger futhark are a part of the magic system, but not in a direct causal kind of way, since the few references existing from the early poems and tales infer that charms were created from combinations of Runes rather than singular relationships. I have included some guidelines for GMs to create such if they wish, but I wanted to keep the base magic rules simple and there's a lot of other stuff to cram into the book!

As Waylandson pointed out Runes are but one aspect of the various Scandinavian methods of magic, which are in reality a confusing mess. Thus its been necessary to impose a few artificial delimitations in an effort to try and clarify things for game-play rather than sticking strictly to historical accuracy. However there will be Galdrar, Rune Carving, Shamanism, Spa and Shape-shifting which I hope will be enough to satisfy most players and inspire some fun scenarios.

 

[Mongoose Pete]

Can you tell us anymore about the Vikings Sourcebook which is what I am interested in?

What else did you want to know?

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Is the 'homesteading' section from the RQ3 version expanded upon?

This is a real question, I thought that section quite good, and it certainly isn't covered anywhere else in any other RQ version.

 

[waylandson]

Can you tell us anymore about the Vikings Sourcebook which is what I am interested in?

What else did you want to know?

I was quite happy with your previous answer, it would interesting to see how you manged to incorporate both Galdr and Seid (Screeching and Sething) Magic including the use of Bind Runes into the Runequest Magic system.

There are two reasons I am interested in the Viking Sourcebook, the first is that I am very interested in Norse Lore and I actually practise a Norse Mind, Body & Spirit System called Stav, so I am interested how you manage to interpret a real world system into a role playing game system. If you want more info on Stav follow this link: http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/index.html

The second is that I am trying to develop a new game world which would incorprate a Norse style campaign area as well as a ancient Greek/Byzantine Empire on the point of collapse. Rather than using D&D, which I stopped playing when 4th Edition came out, I would like to use Runequest instead as an alternative system to use for it.

 

[tarkhan bey]

Very good Pete and Loz. I guess you can both add at least one more to the guaranteed sales tally.
As I mentioned, I hope to port a workable Midgarder magic system into MRQ Slaine. It looks like MRQ Vikings will have exactly what I need for that. 8)
Will there be a mini campaign or scenario in it? The one in AH Vikings was pretty good as I remember. Also, I've just read the first Oathsworn book,'The Whale Road' by Robert Lowe and I have to say, a quest for the lost treasure of Attila the Hun looks like an adventure idea.
Loz, I wait with baited breath for your campaign. About the Cities book though, will each city be dealt with in an in depth fashion or will it be more of a generic tool with the aforementioned cities as given examples?

 

[dbhoward]

Sorcery is very complete, with dream magic expanded, rune magic brought in, and some tweaks (with new demons) for summoning. Spirit magic is now a feature of the game, too.

I've changed the cult chapter. There aren't as many specific cults of Law and Chaos - those are detailed in Cults of the Young Kingdoms - but I've introduced some new ways of worshipping any of the higher powers without needing to dedicate to a named god or pantheon.

So the material from "Magic of the Young Kingdoms" will be part of the first Elric release for MRQII, but most of the cults from the MRQI Elric core book will be edited into Cults of the Young Kingdoms? If so, you have a customer right here for both products. I always thought MOTYK was one of the single best things ever done for RQ, full stop; or for Elric, for that matter.

 

[Antalon]

Vikings! This product looks (and sounds) soooo sweet

The cover is brilliant too!