Was Stormbringer The Wrong Name?

I've been thinking Stormbringer thoughts in my limited spare time.

What if Chaosium got the semiotics of Moorcockean game naming all wrong?

(NOTE - This is just a fun mental exercise about my first gaming love. I have huge respect for Willis, Stafford, Peterson and Campbell-Rogers and would not dare to actually accuse any of them of being 'wrong'. The games they made have stood the test of time, but are also products of their time before the RPG market became the demographic-targeted Kickstarting industry it is now. So in that light, and with tongue firmly in my cheek, I proceed in my analysis.)

Stormbringer is not the name of the protagonist, which is confusing for newbies, but that would emphatically come later with Elric! To be fair, these games came out when Moorcock's popularity was at its peak, so eliciting the albino and his runesword were not bad decisions. Then they made a D20 version during the 3E glut, when arguably younger generations of fantasy enthusiasts had also presumably moved on in their reading, and they chose Dragon Princes of Melnibone. Not the most resonant or representative name or ruleset.

Naming the game after the hero continued with Hawkmoon, and Darcsyide followed this trend years later with Corum (not Corum! I note).

Naming a game after an IP's protagonist is, on the one hand, resonant for hardcore fans. But naming a game after a single hero is limiting - Serenity is not named Mal, the RPG. Conan and James Bond seem to be the exception here.

The original FRPG games were named after their setting, so as to appeal to players as a site where they could be the heroes of new adventures.

Forgotten Realms.

Dark Sun.

Ravenloft.

Planescape.

All very resonant, mysterious names.

So what if instead of Stormbringer (or Elric! or Mournblade), which do not have popular appeal they once might have had, we named the next iteration after the setting instead of the characters?

Stormbringer et al become The Young Kingdoms. Hmmm, sounds like a Percy Janes novel. How about Melnibone?

Hawkmoon becomes The Tragic Millenium. Or maybe Granbretan. Sounds like an AI generated Beatles' album.

Corum becomes Bro-an-Vadhagh. Or maybe The Fifteen Planes. Not very enticing.

These place names were made in a highly literary mode, and thus are not as succinct or enticing as other game-only worlds.

But maybe Chaosium had it right after all. Both Stormbringer and Hawkmoon prudly bore a sticker proclaiming them part of The Eternal Champion series of games.

How about we use this as the game name, and choose a resonant subtitle + blurb for each setting?

The Eternal Champion RPG.

Book One - The Doom of Melnibone. The gods of Law & Chaos have chosen your world as their battleground. Whose side will you fight on?

Book Two - Granbretanne Invasion. Repel the superscience armies of the evil empire that seeks to overrun post apocalyptic Europe.

Book Three - The Sword Gods. Free your world from the Chaos gods who warp its very reality.

Now we're getting somewhere.

I need to get to bed.

The final stretch

 Nuna needs a few more hours of my life then it’s out into the world. Quickstart rules, pay what you want.

Core book coming in 2026. Includes the adventure path Return of the Shamans

NUNA Quickstart is Coming

NUNA Quickstart coming in at about 30 pages.

Barebones rules, sample adventure The Silver Machine.

Combat results table to speed up fights in a fun way and Community rules to give characters someone to fight for. 

Pay What You Want on DriveThru RPG.

Let the games begin.

NUNA Quickstart Update

Nuna quick start 95% done!

Today’ teaser:

“Super Science should never make sense. There should never be a catalogue of buyable abilities or gear. Every item should be weird and unique, and above all, just as dangerous as it is useful.

NUNA Playtests, The Silver Machine, Christmas Gifts Oh My!

Did my 2nd playtest at Rain City Games in downtown Vancouver on Saturday. Thanks to the staff for the awesome gaming space!

(The first playtest was online last week with Vancouver Film School (computer games specialization) students. Thank you for all the feedback my lovelies!)

Definitely drop by and give Rain City Games some love (and buy or play some games!) if you are in Vancouver.

(There is also a smaller satellite shop out by my place in New Westminster).

We had two gaming couples and a refugee from a Call of Cthulhu game come out and play The Silver Machine, the introductory scenario of Nuna. The Inuit hunter Tutuak, the shaman whisper Kaubvick, the Maori whaler Silvia, the Rigger roughneck Gonzalo, and the Scientist Synth made their way overland to find The Silver Machine in the Torngat Mountains. The sessions was filled with psychedelic happenings and weird monsters, so very in keeping with the Moorcockean themes I have outlined on this blog. 

What I learned from the latest playtest with normal players:

1) Math be hard. Even those with degrees struggle with it nowadays. Which is why modern Chaosium uses batches of points in chargen at the expense of making attribute scores meaningless. Still, I am basing NUNA on older Chaosium with an infusion of Mork Bork aesthetics, so I have a line in the sand I will not cross.

2) There is a huge appetite for an indigenous game about the arctic that deconstructs the concept of frozen wasteland but instead leans into the reality of a living, bountiful land where life and adventures are bound by the seasons and by the needs of communities. Players were especially excited by the Community Needs rules, where individual experience is replaced with fulfilling community needs to access better NPC support and materials.

3) D&D really has a heavy footprint on the expectations players bring to a table. The two biggest ones that stand out are the Something For Nothing and Give Me A Win tendencies. With Something for Nothing, players will ask things like, "Can I move in such a way that I can hit him but he can't hit me?" Honey, that is what every person in a boxing match or karate dojo asks! I don't see the joy in winning a fight with no risk, and so I politely refuse such entreaties, but I do give advice on actions that might give a higher chance of success.

As for Give Me A Win, players will often say, "I missed 3 times, can I just hit him the 4th?" Once again, I don't see the fun in getting a freebie, as opposed to the thrill of getting a solid hit in after rounds of whiffing. I remember reading D&D 3E with its rule of take 15 instead of rolling an action, and I see how this has become ingrained in gaming culture. Instead, I gave advice on how players could better support their compatriots who were doing damage, making combat victory into a group success.

The verdict from both playlists was that NUNA is solid as a setting and in storytelling possibilities, but that the rules need some polishing. Which is exactly what I was thinking.

So unless something earth shattering comes up, I will be putting the NUNA QuickStart (basic rules + Silver Machine scenario) up for sale on RPG.now (Drive Thru RPG whatever you want to call it) before Christmas.

Nuna basic rules PDF and POD will be out by summer.

Based on the success of that, I will consider Kickstarter for an Expanded edition with a campaign book.

NUNA Playtest 1

 Second playtest downtown Vancouver at noon. Rules are looking like a cross between old Stormbringer and Mork Borg.

Let's do this!!

Nuna Playtest 0

Nuna secret play test went very well last night! We’re hitting all the markers in terms of creating an exciting story in the land, rules are entering their final edit form. First official public play test next week!