Just listened to this BANGER of a podcast with Andy at BitR and irrepressible game designer Tanya Floaker.
The conversation circles back around the perennial question, "What do we mean by Moorcockean gaming?"
The answer depends on which works you are basing the game on.
THE ETERNAL CHAMPION GAME
Andy calls The Eternal Champion games from Chaosium and some indie publishers 'Geographical trappings' without larger themes. He is not wrong. I even called these Young Kingdoms tourism ads when we spoke years ago.
The Elric stories are a fantasy saga and pulp mix up, with serious literary inspirations, with gods and sundry beyond the power of the players to influence. Stormbringer RPG et al do a good enough job of this, but I wrote Stormbringer Redux because I felt more that an overarching framework that emphasized the themes of fate was needed.
Andy notes that players are intimidated by other players changing the narrative, so adding meta mechanics is of necessity limited.
This is what I would call bottom up Moorcock gaming.
MOORCOCK'S MULTIVERSE
For her part, Tanya posits making a game based on The Multiverse Comic - a self-referential series which includes meta-gaming for the multiverse at actual gaming tables. Sounds like a combination of The Microcope RPG and Playing At Worlds RPG, hopefully with better mechanics. She and Andy bandy about using cards to simulate moves of the Lords of the Higher Worlds, both poker and Tarot. Tanya gives hints on poker and the roles (Champion, Consort, Companion, Enemy), something which I have toyed with before.
Andy adds that this would emulate the Balance and the 'correction through violence' that is a staple of Moorcock's works.
This is what I would term top down Moorcock gaming.
THE GAME OF CREATION
Tanya then brings up the Lester Dent master formula for writing pulp as Moorcock's process.
How about instead of the game mechanics, we focus on GM training. Lester Dent as a guide to Moorcockean storytelling?
Let's run Elric through this! The first 1500 words:
1 Fistful of trouble - The armada from the Young Kingdom draws near!
2 Hero Pitches In - Elric armors up and heads out to meet them on his battle barge
3 Introduce Everyone - By this time we've met Elric, Cymoril, Yrkoon, and Dyvim Tvar in short order.
4 Hero In Trouble - Elric is thrown overboard by his cousin. GAME OVER?
5 Surprise, It's A Twist - Strassha comes to save Elric, upending Yrkoon's betrayal and ursurpation of the throne.
In hindsight, we can see that Moorcock used this framework in his stories. But how do we adapt it to a game about fragile rat kickers? Maybe preparing a Fiasco style playset is the ticket.
Tanya notes that Moorcock was unsettled by the accuracy of Tarot readings. Maybe the cards give not only randomized events, but also the possible moves to counter or deflect them as determined by the cards.
We are thus trapped between the tendency of random events to go off the rails, and the need for superior improvisation and interpretation of game events by masters.
This is what I'd call Meta Moorcocking.
WHERE I COME IN
As for me, I think I would be up to creating a Bestiary that leans into the aesthetics of Moorcock's monsters that I previously categorized into Metaphorical, Allegorical, Psychedelic, Weird, Alien, and Cosmic Horror, or a combination of the above. This would spice up any bottom up Moorcock game and avoid the baby + bathwater conundrum. Could also be used as moves in top down gaming.
I'm also interested in making scenarios for the old games. Other than that, I would just continue my fine tuning of the old rulesets.
I like what I like.
THE PROBLEM
As I see it, there is always a contradiction between player interests and the meta game. Can you play Elric if you control Arioch and see what move is coming? Also, what is the benefit for players of being pawns? Elric is a main character who dies, yet players want to avoid death.
In the end, game and fiction are not the same. We have to temper our expectations (ie prepare to die) but reach for the stars (improvise like madmen and madwomen).
ANDY'S HABERDASHERY
One thing that I really dug was the talk of character fashion. Andy hits the nail on the head when he notes any Elric or Moorcockean game needs a haberdashery with a wild array of absurd or frivolous clothing options. I remember Elric's yellow silk kimono, later on his kilt and tartan breeches, and the infamous shopping scene from the 2nd or 3rd Hawkmoon book just before the hero acquires the Sword of the Dawn (the comic adaptation was simply Zoolander with a sword). Moorcockean fashion seems to be a mix of 1960's psychedelic clothes and Camden Market thrifting, but it should also give advantages to social skills or survival I reckon.
There was an old OSR random table that did this. Maybe I should make one for Stormbringer...
Thanks again Andy and Tanya!
PS I am editing and polishing up Stormbringer redux again.
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