Dragonbane & Stormbringer

So I am reading the Dragonbane QuickStart to bone up on the system before it is used in Free League's Stormbringer.

And I am seeing a lot to like. Many Dragonbane rules would be awesome house rules in an old Stormbringer game. Here are a few I would definitely implement.

Boons & Banes

First, in Dragonbane, you roll D20 and try to get under your skill level for a success. This means it is roll under like Chaosium, but just reduces the number of die rolled.

The Dragonbane rules state that if you are under a Boon (blessing) you instead roll 2D20 and take the best result, while if you are under a Bane (curse), you roll 2D20 and take the worst result.

This would be so easy to port over, since you roll two die anyway. So if you roll a 9 and a 3, with a Boon you could reverse it to 39, with a higher chance of success depending on skill, while a Bane would keep it at 93, most likely a failure. In the case of rolling 4 and 0, it could be 04, probably a critical, or 40, on the line of success or failure in many cases.

Moreover, the idea of Boons and Banes is very in keeping with Moorcock's fantasy, and the Dragonbane rules often read as an homage to Stormbringer.

Monster Combat & Sundry

When I ran Stormbringer, I had to fill in lots of holes in combat, the main difference being how men and beasts or monsters are adjudicated. I ruled that monsters can do ALL their attacks AND have a Dodge, but can't Parry, while men choose one attack and Parry OR Dodge and Parry. This makes monsters or beasts largely not worth the trouble for sole adventurers and require teamwork to defeat or avoid. I find this fits well with Moorcock's writing, where Elric needs to summon a creature or use magic to defeat or escape from such creatures as Mist Giants or Oonai.

Dragonbane adds some great rules, such as monsters NEVER doing the same attack twice in a row, and not being able to Parry. These are all very evocative and add an element of chance.

For example, if we take the old Stormbringer dragon and map out its attacks like Dragonbane, this is what we get if we add in a few options.

1. Flame breath - 80%, does POW in damage (average 27)
2. Claw - 40%, 9D6 (this damage needs adjusting...)
3. Wing buffet - 60%, all human size foes must make a STRx1% roll or else be knocked to the ground and lose their attack this round.
4. Tail swipe - 30%, any foes behind or off to one side of the dragon take 1D8 damage and are knocked down.

The idea of defense as Reaction is interesting, but seems a bit fiddly and I prefer the Stormbringer rule of 'free' Parries that are reduced by 30% for extra attempt.

Critical Choices

I like that a critical attack (that Dragonbane calls a dragon) gives the player choices between double damage, taking another attack, or ignoring armour, and I actually implemented similar choices the last time I ran the game. I can only see these adding to the fun of Stormbringer combat.

D&Disms

I'm not sure about Dragonbane's D&Disms, such as levels, higher Hit Points, and Stretches or rests to recuperate Hit Points. But I am willing to give it all a chance based on what I have read so far to not repeat the mistakes of Dragon Princes of Melnibone.

Stormbringerisms

As I have written before, I am really enamored of Stormbringer's rules on Elementals & Gods, which don't have stats and are thus put such entities beyond any mortal attack. I think this differentiates Stormbringer from D&D, which gave Arioch stats, and thus marked a god as something to be fought physically, which I consider the antithesis of Moorcockean, where men can only attack gods indirectly or with supernatural aid.

I wouldn't want to lose any of the unique elements that Chaosium's Stormbringer got right.

Only time will tell how right or wrong Free League will get it.

Elric’s Secret

I’ve started practicing art again for a NUNA. There’s a little teaser of an Elric piece I’m working on inspired by the new RPG news.

Mapmaking for NUNA

 I put this off for a long time, worried I couldn't do it justice.

No more excuses - the NUNA map is taking shape.

Take a peek!

The Mystery of Cahokia

 Wish I had seen THIS before I ran Coyote & Crow last week. Don't think I did too bad.

Elric Comes TWICE!

Last week I posted that there seems to be a bit of an Elric / Moorcock revival going on, based on the proliferation of Elric or pro-Moorcock content on YouTube..

Then the RPG world exploded with TWO big announcements.

TWO HARBINGERS

First, Free League announced an Elric RPG based on Dragonsbane.

Then, Goodman games of Dungeon Crawl Classics announced THEIR Elric game.

What do I make of these announcements?

Nobody asked for it, but here are my two Large Bronzes.

THE ONE I AM BUYING

I don't think it is any surprise but I will be ordering Free League's game. Dragonbane from what I have read is a spiritual successor to the old Chaosium games, and from what I know probably fits between the original Stormbringer and the fanmade Barbarians of Lemur hack floating around on the inter webs in terms of mechanics.

Content wise, if Free League can do LotR right, I'm interested to see what they'll do with the Young Kingdoms.

As for DCC/5E, I am largely over the OSR and vanilla fantasy. I am also moving past my distaste of 5E - I appreciate that people play it for relaxation, don't really use the rules, and make meme characters for laughs. Good on them, and a good antidote to the tiring corporate touting of D&D as "world's greatest" and the glut of 5E products.

I am a proud member of the I'm Begging You To Play Another RPG FB page, where we regularly promote indie and lesser known TRPGs and bag on 5E / WotC marketing bloat. But I also feel that people should play what they want (while hopefully trying new things), and Goodman Games are experts in both marketing and getting people to the table.

So I wish them well, and would sit in on a game in a heartbeat.

WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU GET?

If you got the cash, why not get both? The older editions have doubled or trebled in price the past few years, so this may be the only way to get an affordable official Elric game.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

I'll go out on a limb and say that with this much buzz, an Elric TV show or movie is nigh inevitable. If the suits catch on that The Witcher is an Elric pastiche, they might bankroll the project. However, their interference might also make it go pear shaped.

In my dream dimension, Ralph Bakshi has come out of retirement to make it. Dude made Fire and Ice and Wizards, the Secret of Nimh. He can do no wrong in my book.

Exciting (and unsettling) days ahead for us Moorcock lovers! I hope that Michael is getting a well deserved cut of the proceeds.

Coins & Scrolls Reminder

Someone was asking me about OSR random tables that were all the rage in the 2010s. Reminded me of this blog, which has some incredible content (eating dungeon monsters table is my fave and a must for any fantasy campaign).

Happy reading!

Coyote & Crow gaming in Vancouver

 So yesterday (Sunday), I ran my homebrew Adventure for Coyote & Crow, Initiation Day.

It was a blast!

Here’s a tip for game masters. Always get players to make something for the game. It engages them and you can use it later as a prop. Players made this great art when we did a review of the setting at the start, but then it was used by NPCs as a projection in history lesson later in the adventure.

Here is an honest self appraisal of the game.

The good

The story was solid and players brought their best game. They were actually a table of people who had played together and so their acting in collaboration was top-notch, and I gave them lots to work with in an adventure about young Suyata or superpowered marshals coming to the big city to be initiated. I found the adventure that came with the Coyote & Crow book a bit lacking, and so I thought this would be a far more fitting adventure. And it was, with them being engaged with several NPC’s, making their way through a big action set piece, using their superpowers to help in investigation, and having a good showdown at the end, all followed by a cliffhanger surprise that came out of left field. 

(I will be publishing this with the Coyote & Crow publisher program in future, so no spoilers!)

The bad

Although my game mastering in terms of acting and prompting was some of my best, my mastery of the game system was lacking. My printer didn’t work the night before so I had to just come with everything on the laptop, and the rules are quite unique and complex, so I ruled several things on the fly or negotiated solutions with players. Luckily, they were very forgiving and open to learning and being more creative with how rules were applied. 

The ugly

Nothing really stands out. I think if I was a younger man with lots of free time, I would’ve mastered the game better but the textbook is admittedly a wealth of information and I didn’t want to wait until I had mastered all of it. I decided to jump in and learn as I went and invited the players to come along and do the same thing. And we all put in the work and had a great time.

And there was some talk of me running the game again for an organization they knew, so we’ll cross our fingers and see where that goes.

Now back to Nuna, thanks to the great feedback from my fellow Chaosium contest winners, and the amazing Welsh play testers, it will be a lean and mean psychedelic indigenous role-playing Quickstart.

Quickstart will be out in time for summer gaming, full rules will be out in time for Christmas gifts.

This next few months are gonna be fun.