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.

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