About That Shelfie…

Pristine Elric! At a good price. Couldn’t resist.

Real Life Avalanche & NUNA Timeline

I'm currently in crunch time at the end of the schoolyear.

I'll probably stop posting here a week or two.

I hope to get NUNA quickstart done by month's end.

Do a few weeks of publicity then let it out into the world & RELAX before starting my next project.

Shelfie Life & Death

I've been meaning to make this post for a while, ever since I joined a new Facebook RPG group and got inundated with 'shelfies' of hundreds to over a thousand RPG books.

Here's my hot take - collecting RPGs without playing or reading them, especially if you're past the half century mark like me, is a sickness for the individual, a bane to the next generation of roleplayers, and probably a hassle for your family as well.

I will admit to having had hundreds of RPG books in Japan, and doing what Japanese call 'tsundoku' or buying 'unread books that pile up.' I had tons of Stormbringer, Cthulhu, and random vintage games. But when my Japan life fell apart, I gave 90% away to friends. I think 'tsundoku' is good for novels, which are solitary affairs, but a waste of potential for the social space of gaming.

In Newfoundland, I bought a few more games and settled in. However, I found that my hometown had no place for me, so left Newfoundland for Vancouver. Again, I sold or gave away 90% of my game books.

In early 2025 I had a financial crisis, and sold off two boxes of vintage Stormbringer, Ars Magica, and Runequest books. Although I miss them in a way, the experience taught me a few things about collecting RPG books.

How Many Books Do You Need?

Here is what my current shelfie looks like:

My Facebook marketplace finds. Very happy to have Mummy, Monster of the Week, and Serenity. Cowboy Bebop was from the Kickstarter.

Pristine affordable Japanese Stormbringer (I miss Mercari), filthy and overpriced Canadian edition.

Alien 1E from Marketplace, and Green Knight for FREE.

By the standards of most men my age, my collection is pathetic. On the other hand, it is also limited to games I love (Alien, Stormbringer, Serenity & Monster of the Week, Bebop), actual treasures (my Amano Japanese Stormbringer boxed set), and other things I am either dying to read or run.

All killer, no filler.

In a sense, I have all the books I need to make myself happy. I would love my Stormbringer collection back, but prices have doubled the past year, I have no space for new books, and I have some PDFs for reference.

So, if you are old and have a dragon's hoard of dusty roleplaying tomes, here are a few things I'd like you to consider.

Are You Getting These Books To Table?

I have made the supreme effort to get books to the table since moving to Vancouver. And this makes me MUCH happier than having a larger collection that I never used. All the books I have now will definitely get read, and a majority will get played.

So look at your collection, see what you'll never play, and find someone who will run them.

One of my high school students is playing in the school gaming club, which is dominated by 5E. I happened to have 2 copies of Savage Worlds, so I gifted him one.

He was ecstatic to read it! So I have helped break up a corporate gaming monopoly and spread the word about a fun game system to people who will be playing long after I am gone. Win win.

Would You Spread The Joy?

Although on the surface selling my big BRP collection was a tragedy, one amazing thing did happen. A young man who bought my books was overjoyed to have them, and paid a fair price. Now out there in Vancouver somewhere is a twentysomething with a crate of pristine Stormbringer, Ars Magica, and Call of Cthulhu books, with the energy and free time to read and run them. Considering the glut of 5E products and the concentration of these older games in older hands, and their increasingly unreachable prices, I am glad to have passed them on to the younger generation.

You could volunteer to run games for youth in your community, and gift or sell cheaply books your players like. This is how gaming is passed on to the next generation.

Do You Need The Money That Badly?

I think a lot of people are looking at their collection and seeing it as an investment. But if you have the money to acquire and house a large collection, you probably don't need the money or hassle of haggling over Ebay or Marketplace. Find a local gaming club and pass them on, donate to a library, or run a few games and gift them to a younger gamer who appreciates them.

What Happens After You Are Gone?

Coming back to North America, I can see that people are literally drowning in things and trying to downsize. I have furnished our apartment with furniture from sharing sites, and clothed sonny the same way. Recently, I have been looking at an auction site, and it is a cornucopia of amazing things being sold for pennies because the owners have died or moved into a smaller home or facility.

I haven't seen any gamebooks yet, but I have seen collections of dice and minis. The minis are unpainted, the dice unopened. If they go unsold, they go in the trash. And that is sad for something someone once loved and shared with others at the table.

The Kids Are Alright

One last thing to consider is how grateful young people are when you share older games. My student at school was moved and gave me a hug, the young fellow who purchased my books paid extra and thanked me profusely, and the young man who gifted me The Green Knight refused he few dollars I offered out of gratitude/guilt. Young people are turning to board games and video games because RPGs, especially classics, have become too pricey for them. If you love your games, you should consider passing that love on.

Food For Thought

I hope this post gives some people food for thought. I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty, just realize that our treasures could easily sparkle for younger gamers, So between sharing older games and creating new ones, I am much happier than I would be with a dragon's hoard of unused gamebooks.

AI & RPGs

So...

 Is it just me, or does it seem that AI is attempting to find its way into the world of RPGs? The past few years have seen numerous AI controversies, the latest shitstorm being an article by 4 Pillar Games (who?)  about the late great Greg Stafford. Chaosium issued a rebuke, citing the lack of 'human care and creativity' in the piece, while acknowledging the growing use of AI tools in content creation.

And Chaosium is totally right to point this out, and have put their money where their mouth is by issuing a strict no AI policy for RPG art and content.

But the tide of AI slop will keep trying to seep into the once welcoming alehouse of roleplaying games. How can we fight this trend?

We have to know what to look out for.

Danger #1 The Corporate Boardroom

Of course, the ones pushing AI are corporations and the billionaires behind them. The CEO of D&D took flak in 2022 for complaining that the game was 'undermonetized'. Since then, D&D editions have split into more costly books, with proposed subscription plans designed to make players into the golden goose. But 'monetization' in the age of AI means getting machines to do for free what humans do for pay, and AI is being positioned to replace the unpaid labour of the DM. Just look at the proliferation of AI SaaS to run a game for you, which is still in the slop stage, but getting better by learning from those brave enough to try it.

We've seen this pattern before with tech, of people wielding the tools that are later used to destroy their livelihood. I myself paid off my MA student loans translating communications for Japanese car makers, but the Trados database I was forced to compile was later sold to corporations to train LLMs. When the 'translate' button appeared on my workplace email in Japan in 2020, I was happy to save hours reading Japanese and letting AI do all the work for me, but knew I could never make a dime translating as I once did.

These corporate types don't realize that one of the joys of D&D or any roleplaying game is making your own content and not being limited to game company products. I would say that the often mentioned shortage of DMs is due to the thankless work of mastering the games rules and a scenario of varying quality, while also paying for costly books. With AI, instead of a group sitting around a table, they offer to cut you off and let you play anywhere, anytime, which like many AI developments, seems to both shoot itself in the foot by eliminating paying customers, while totally misunderstanding the human or social aspect of what they are replacing.

Speaking of tools...

Danger #2 Technical Tools

Besides the corporate pressure to use AI to play games, AI in tools used for art and composition are almost impossible to avoid these days. Readers may recall that I had an AI scare where a designer's Photoshop that incorporated AI tools had added an extra finger to a character in a cover. The designer apologized, refunded payment, and explained that with image manipulation, AI is impossible to avoid unless you turn off lots of functions, which defeats the purpose of the software.

Note that the designer was a friend who I knew for decades and trust implicitly. He is also a graphic designer who has worked in magazines that are in a downward spiral of cutting costs and personnel, and my friend has stayed employed by staying atop of his design craft and tools.

Which leads us to my next point...

Danger # 3 The Pressure To Be Professional

Looking at RPGs on Kickstarter or from game studios, I can say that RPG art has never been more polished. I myself have felt the pressure and doubted that my self-taught illustration skills, coming from a family of professional self-taught indigenous artists, would complement my game.

Now, I am staunchly confident in my 'outsider art' as perfect for NUNA. I am a fan of UK game designer Tanya Floaker, whose great indie zine style games are a treat to read, and something I hope to get to a gaming table soonish. The OSR has already proven that individual creators can make a go of it with compelling works, and Old School Essentials seems to have found its niche doing so. And since I've turned into a game designer, I have met so many indie designers working on their own game and pushing the envelope in ways that an AI never could.

Onward!

Danger # 4 Slop RPGS

At some point, an AI generated RPG will hit the market. If it hasn't happened already and gone unnoticed, I am sure it will happen soon, whether its producer (I won't call them creator) announces the fact or not.

I get a lot of RPG ads, and I have to say, lots of them LOOK like they are made or influenced by AI. There are generic fantasy RPGs that sound like every other fantasy heartbreaker out there, without any of the verve or passion of the OSR when it first started spitting out retroclones over a decade ago. Then there is the art, largely figures or portraits of faces without much expression, and devoid of the kinetic or frenzied action of early RPG amateur art.

Just as AI children's books have appeared and distributed soulless, derivative works into the hands (and minds) of babes, the danger of AI is not only profiting off gamers, but also poisoning the well of imagination and community by switching over from human creations & social games to pale AI imitations that isolate gamers even more.

Danger # 5 Commoditizing A Social Space

Between the corporate pressure to use AI to play games, its invisible seep into tools, the pressure to use AI to look professional while keeping costs low, and the inevitable appearance of Slop the RPG, all this leads to the danger of losing roleplaying as a valuable social space. I have so many conversations with fellow Stormbringer enthusiasts about how online gaming is a pale substitute for sitting around a table, weaving tales and rolling dice together. What will be even worse is if people are playing RPGs run by AI whose only programming is to flatter the ego and pastiche all that has come before, and that was scraped from human works without permission or payment. I am happy that Free League AND Goodman Games will be making their own Stormbringer games, as both companies excel in getting people back to the gaming tables with their high quality, human-designed products that epitomize love for the game and gamers.

Conclusion - Folk Resistance

When I started this blog back 13 years ago as the first wave of the OSR abated, I was doing it mostly out of nostalgia and an unfulfilled creative urge. Now, I see it as both a creative outlet for me, as well as a source of deeply sociological games that represent people who have been portrayed stereotypically in media, such as indigenous people and the Japanese.

Now I am happy to consider my efforts in making a game as an additional part of the folk resistance against an unnecessary and exploitative technology that is being rammed down our throats in ways that destroy both our social bonds, natural environment, and economic viability.

Viva la resistance!

Sources

"Statement from Suzanne Stafford and Chaosium regarding a recent AI-generated article about Chaosium founder Greg Stafford." chaosium.com

https://www.chaosium.com/blogstatement-from-suzanne-stafford-and-chaosium-regarding-a-recent-aigenerated-article-about-chaosium-founder-greg-stafford/?srsltid=AfmBOoqJjAlPemRnG4GhbaPND0mk6nlFs2nS9BOC9H48F9GG1luDoxku

Wizards of the Coast Believes D&D Is "Under-Monetized" 80lv.

https://80.lv/articles/wizards-of-the-coast-believes-d-d-is-under-monetized

"I Tried AI D&D So You Don't Have To."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGn0SagCkQ

Chaosium no AI policyhttps://www.chaosium.com/blogfrom-the-qa-our-creator-contracts-require-work-submitted-to-be-creators-original-work-and-not-contain-any-ai-generated-art-or-text/?srsltid=AfmBOorjFhgE1Kn72HyfXV1CHMwCWPBdaBPip7mY3091PZwKMJEVWVxo

Want to understand Moorcock? Understand the New Wave

 Great analysis of a movement that still influences us today

HERE

NUNA & Indigenous Education

So I just went to BEAUTIFUL Victoria BC for a workshop on Indigenous Education for my school.

Not only did I learn lots of useful things for my classes, it made me reflect on how this plays out in NUNA

BACK TO YOUR ROOTS

In NUNA, all of the peoples (Inuit, Viking, and Rigger) all survive by going back to their roots. The Northern Inuit have re-mastered the pre-colombian skills of hunting with handmade weapons (I will NOT say primitive as they are very sophisticated), the Southern Inuit use reliable early 20th century devices, and the Riggers all cling to the different cultures their ancestors brought with them working on the rigs, from Maori Whalers to Portuguese swordsmen.

I learned that Canada in general, and BC in particular, is reconnecting and recognizing the people rooted in this land, and are trying to survive as a pluralistic nation by doing so.

PREHISTORIC RECONNECTION

Even the Scientists of NUNA are reconnecting back to the lost roots of humanity. Although the Inuit often say they have always been on the land, the genetic Thule strain of modern Inuit, according to recent research, spread from Far Eastern Russia only a 1000 years ago, and was proceeded by the now extinct Dorset Inuit, and possibly the mythical Tuniit giants before them. So it is true to say that Inuit peoples have lived in the North from time immemorial, without bogging down in genetics. I pay homage to the Tuniit by having them as returning mystic giants in NUNA, hiding in caves where they hang upside down and give aid or prophecy for those brave and foolish enough to seek them out.

REST & RECUPERATION

As for me, the workshop was a chance for me to learn more about the First People's English course I am teaching, as well as enjoy so long needed R&R with sonny. Now I am back to the fatherhood + work + NUNA grind, but with summer vacation, the end of the tunnel is finally in sight.

Long Weekend Reading - The Skrayling Tree & The Meanderings of Late Moorcock

 

Wow.

This is a slow slog, more of a literary thesis turned into a novel than the muscular prose of an Eternal Champion book. Luckily, I have an MA in English and have been trained to read ANY book without feeling pain.

It is an interesting exercise of Moorcock trying to stitch the Eternal Champion into Walden and The Last Mohican. It is more an exploration of western literary tropes about indigenous North Americans than anything to do with real indigenous people.

Bit of a lost opportunity. Just imagine if Moorcock had gotten Eden Robinson to write about a Pacific Northwest indigenous champion, or Marlon James to create an African /  Caribbean one.

The mind boggles.

NUNA Research Friday

TGIF!

Other side of the continent from Labrador, but good just the same.

ENJOY

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.

NUNA External Playtest Report

The intrepid band of playtesters in the UK have had their way with NUNA.

This is the initial response.

THE GOOD

"We had a lot of fun!

The feedback on the scenario was super positive, the overall setting too.

I'll have a more detailed report for you in the next couple of days, but rest assured, they really loved the setting and scenario."

The Chaosium contest confirmed that the setting had legs, and my last playtest at Rain City showed me the type of play or scenario was also appealing. I had one player gasp in disgust at one of the adversaries, so glad that some of this made it through even with a different GM.

THE BAD

"It was a bit 'choppy' but we're through it.

The choppy part was more around some of the rules, missing damages, and finding the right elements in the quick start book when needed."

Again, no surprise. If I waited till it was perfect it would never get done. So glad to have some feedback that will help me get it ready for the world. When I ran the game, I could rely on my memory and improv ability to fill any holes and keep the game going. Now I have to provide an airtight garage of tools and vehicles to get players and GMs through the game without confusion.

My work is cut out for me. And this is only the Quickstart!

THE UGLY

Now I have to finish the darned thing. But right now I am making more art and taking a little break from writing. And prepping for my Coyote and Crow session!

Coyote & Crow Game Session & NUNA Update

I'll be running Coyote & Crow at Rain City games in Vancouver on May 3rd. Hurry, seats are going QUICK!

Also, NUNA being playtested this weekend in the UK!

The Latest Elric Ripoff

 Welcome to the party, Diviner!

The Moorcock (Elric) Revival?

 

Seems like we are in the midst of an Elric revival.

The number of videos explaining the character for younger generations is up.

The Doomed History of Elric of Melniboné

As are videos explaining how Moorcock's character has been shamelessly ripped off over the years.

The Witcher & Plagiarism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UOzgxUcFzE&t=973s

The Witcher vs Elric: Popular Plagiarism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkiP64adGjY

And some interesting stuff on its place in popular culture.

Moorcock & Freud Walk Into A Bar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBFI3kzJepE

Then there is the Ebay sales of Stormbringer RPG, which have doubled in prices since when I was looking.

If there is a TV adaptation or movie in the works, I hope China does it. Would be delicious.

Coyote & Crow Review #3.8 CAHOKIAN LIFE & COME PLAY WITH ME!!

If I were younger, I feel I would blast through this Setting chapter, as it is an exciting read. Being a working single dad, it takes me time to get through it. Still, it is a great comprehensive guide to the world of Makasing, and a great inspiration for making the gameworld of Coyote & Crow come alive on the table.

I told a student about Coyote & Crow and especially the purple tint of the Adehnahdi powers and she said "It sounds like Jo Jo" and now I can't unsee it...

POPULATION & LONGEVITY

Maximum lifespan in Makasing is over 100, with 140 as the oldest. This beats our world, and is a subtle validation of indigenous modes of life over our factory farms and processed food. The growing conundrum of what to do with the increase in older members of the population again echoes Japan and its aging society. A hats off to writers for the comment that the youth are afraid of their elders gaining power over them, which is a dark mirroring of our world, where the young are disenfranchised from home ownership and are sent off to wars to protect the investments of older generations.

The fact that the world of Makasing has just come back from the brink of extinction of Awis (the mystical meteor strike that tipped off an ice age), which erased 50% of the population, means that the approach to death is very different from our world.

Adventure Seed #1 - “The Family.”
During the ice age, many peoples were scattered and lost. One was a lost group of families who have become a hidden cabal of inbred, mutated cannibals. Think the Donner Party and the X-Files episode Home. Only for grimdark campaigns, though.

In many places in Makasing, euthanasia is an accepted means of taking one’s burden off the tribe, which reflects traditional Inuit stories of senicide during tough times, and the similar event in the Japanese film Ballad of Naruyama. There are also tinges of indigenous-futurism with planned death and Soylent Green send offs. Additionally, people can travel freely to other city states to get medical treatment that more suits their needs and moral outlook.

I dig it.

Adventure Seed #2 - “A Good Death.” PCs are charged to help gather a dozen things or find people for a good death ceremony for their mentor. They may have to get a feather from a giant Adahnehdi powered eagle, track down an estranged cousin, recover an artifact from a flooded village, or a half dozen other wistful things.

WOMEN & CHILDREN

The writers neatly evade any questions of conception in Makasing by leaving things in women’s hands. On one hand, it echoes pre-colonialism matriarchal society, on the other it is a What if? projection of a society that values a woman’s body autonomy more than our world does.

The text also stresses the unimportance of biological parents, and greater respect for upbringers regardless of blood relations. It reminds me of a Canadian friend who lived up North here and brought up the children of the two indigenous women he loved as if they were his own.

I also dig the following comment on divorce.

While divorce is a thing, there are not really parallel concepts of stepparents. Nor do children 'lose' parents to divorce. They simply have more than one and all parents involved interact with their children as fits that specific relationship. Children with split parents often live freely between two or more homes. Still, divorce is uncommon due to the less restrictive nature of marriage. Additionally, a maternal uncle is often as strong a parental figure. (72)

This means most people will have huge extended families, which could be a great network of information and aid for PCs trying to solve a mystery. I also like the tough moral choices around the Adahnehdi technology that the authors present, an element of high technology that is glossed over in most other superpower media.

For example, if an infant is likely to die shortly after birth, is it acceptable to experimentally give them the Adanadi-based drugs to attempt to keep them alive or cure them? If an infant is born deaf, is it moral to give them cybernetic implants at birth? None of these kinds of questions have clear answers yet. (72-73)

The tension between Adanadi technology and traditional values seems a central theme of the gameworld, and it is all the more compelling for it.

Adventure Seed #3 - “The Lost Children.”
In our world, there is an African proverb that states, “A child not embraced by his village will burn it down to feel warmth.” A ragtag group of Makasing exiles are just such ‘lost children’, and have started working on forbidden technology, specifically cyberpunk style mechanical enhancements. They may kidnap an Inventor for help, and could create some great setpiece combat between the PCs and cybernetically enhanced bad guys who just need to be welcomed back into society. 

NO TRIBES BUT REAL ONES

The writer’s reticence to write about specific tribes and advice to allow members of those tribes to write about themselves is refreshing. This is the opposite of RPGs about farway places, such as Japan, which  are often written with an Orientalist lens that exoticizes them without touching on their complex reality. This is why I am writing my Giri-Ninjo RPG, as an antidote to the plethora of ‘D&D in funny hats’ Japan rpgs, and I am glad to see the Coyote & Crow team be so considerate of realworld indigenous identity. The focus on nations instead of tribes is a welcome patch for this issue. Identity is thus based on a combination of allegiance to Nation, Makasing Citizenship, Path or Family. This more complex formation than tribe is in accordance with Rogers Brubaker’s sociological work on identity.

Tribes certainly still dominate certain geographic regions, and often claim control or authority over that area. But in places like Cahokia, it's understood that to partake as a citizen, citizens have to partition their tribal identity and accept that they have more than a single label. For many, this is easy to do. But some tribes have long histories of confrontation and struggles and those aren't as easily overcome. (74)

I also dig the caveat for non-indigenous to avoid tribal identity, but rather focus on this triad of citizenship, family, and path. Paths are an allegiance to one of 15 animals reflecting their Adehnahdi powers, and I agree this is much more useful than focusing on tribal allegiance.

LIFESTYLES OF THE CAHOKIAN FAMOUS

This is a meaty section, which begins with the similarities of life with our world - work, taxes, love, politics. But the differences carry delicious implications. There is no standard 40 hour workweek, with no stigmata for those working less. People are involved and knowledgeable about politics, something our world could use more of. No culture wars on gender rage, there is universal healthcare for all, and companies that exist but do not dominate life. The authors ground this reality by reminding us that this has all come at a price.

All of this might sound pretty easy and straightforward, but it was a long road to get here for the citizens of Cahokia, and doesn't mean they live perfect lives in a utopia. (75)

More than anything this is what I dig about Makasing. It is not a utopian fantasy or world of indigenous Mary Sues with kewl powers. It is a society that does right some of things we don’t, such as universal housing and healthcare, but has its own problems of balancing mystic powers and steampunk technology with traditional morals and values.

COME PLAY WITH ME!

I’m in talks with Rain City in downtown Vancouver to run a game of Coyote & Crow next month! Check their website for details, and come down for Initiation Day, my homebrew adventure where you start as young heroes on their first day on the job where things go terribly wrong. Can you turn your Initiation Day around?

Go get The Prince of Masks RPG!

BIG NEWS! Steve Devaney, who also was a winner in the Chaosium design contest, just put his game Prince of Masks out on RPG.Now. If vampiric fey overlords and adult only content is your bag, please consider purchasing and supporting an indie creator. Like me Steve is a single dad working and gaming on the side, so let's show him some love!

Game is available HERE.

RL Avalanche & The Most Beautiful Song Ever

Hello,

Currently crushed under the task of marking, especially comments.

If you're a teacher, you know.

Quietly working on games and career.

This song is pulling me through. I hadn't heard it and suddenly realizing Gord Downey was singing the middle part was like suddenly meeting a ghost at a bar.

Enjoy.

NUNA Spring Vacay Update

Hello friends!

It has been a minute since I posted. I was trapped under the day job and killing off the few final academic writing obligations.

(My book chapter on AI and social discourse is HERE and article on Japan's MeToo movement coming any day)

On top of that had a nasty cold and so have taken some time for myself.

Now, I feel revitalized by the pause and am slowly ramping back up to work on a few things.

1. NUNA is at the playtesters and I am giving them the time they need. Participating in the Swords of the Serpentine playtest years back taught me you need to give it time and have people give good feedback on the game warts and all.

2. Japan Studies Book proposal. Probably the last academic thing I'll do unless a uni hires me, but some heavy hitters in the field are cheering me on and the idea is solid. Also, a rare paid academic work so going to give it a shot.

3. Giri-Ninjo, my rules light Japanese RPG. Yes there will be swordfights and seductions, but the game is based around the internal conflicts of characters' humanity and duties. Hope to get a MVP done and start playtesting with some former students from a Japanese uni where I taught Media Studies who also live here in Raincouver.

4. In talks to run some games at Rain City again, the list includes Coyote & Crow, Coyboy Bebop, and Stormbringer. If you are in Vancouver and want to play with me, this is your chance.

But now it is time to clean my space then take sonny out for a walk on this lovely day.

Editing Trick

Someone asked me how I churn out so much content.

My editing trick helps.

Sections that have been checked over I colour in green so I don’t waste time going back over them again and again. It saves time and allows me to have a manuscript that’s polished evenly throughout.

In the UK? Get Thee Hence to Andy Ruincon

 Hullo all,

Andy at Breakfast in the Ruins podcast is starting a Moorcock themed gaming con this June.

Details are on his website HERE.

I have been asked and would LOVE to go, but alas this year we just got stability so will be taking it easy on our bank account in BC.

If it becomes a yearly thing, I would love to go, play with great folks like Andy, Dirk the Dice, and the Swiss Crew.

I'd also like to run the two Stormbringer scenarios I've been working on, The Laughing Tower and Angels & Spiders.

Good luck and good gaming to Andy and all the participants!

NUNA Playtest Sighting

 In the wild...

The Prisoner RPG?

PRISONER OF THE PRISONER

Among other things, I am a fan of old The Prisoner show.

Why?

During my youth in Canada, American TV was still a rare thing except for blockbuster shows like The Six Million Dollar Man or Buck Rogers. Mostly, my earliest memories were of watching UK shows like Space: 1999, The Tomorrow People, or Blake's Seven, or the few Japanese anime that were trickling in.

Then The Prisoner came to our TV. My first memory was of the episode where Number 6 goes to a bar and orders a drink. He takes a sip and sees a word at the bottom of his glass.

YOU

Another sip, another word.

HAVE

Yet another.

BEEN

A last gulp.

POISONED

Cooly, he orders a half dozen whiskies, downs them one after the other, then goes to the bathroom to throw his guts up.

Brilliant!

Unfortunately, the program was shown out of order, so after that was a jumble of disjointed episodes. But the images - The Village, Rover, ball chairs, the theme song - all stuck with me. Later, I read the comic series, and it was fairly meh, more IP nostalgia tourism than a new work in the same universe. I have discovered there are novels, but honestly I am afraid to read derivative works and ruin my interest.

When I moved to Japan, I had a vivid flashback to The Prisoner at Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki. HTB is a HUGE Dutch-themed park, with Dutch people in traditional dress, millions of tulip bulbs, and delivery trucks with FISH or BREAD written on them. There are no store or brand names. No one speaks English.

It is the Village made flesh in Asia.

GURPS GOOD, BAD, & UGLY

So far as I know, the only RPG adaptation was the 1990 GURPS The Prisoner sourcebook. Like most GURPS books, it is an excellent read and IP sourcebook. Yet as a game, re-creating McGoohan's trippy psychedelic re-examination of spies after his successful Danger Man series in an old school simulationist ruleset like GURPs means lots of heavy lifting from the GM.

Couldn't we do better?

GAME vs FICTION

To make a fun and faithful adaptation of The Prisoner, you first have to reflect on the difference in genres, and how a TV show and RPG Game are good at different things.

The TV program showcased the individual fighting a faceless organization, while a traditional RPG has to incorporate the group and its dynamics united against a palpable threat. Last, the TV Show had a serious, menacing tone that was deliberately punctured by absurdist actions. Sitting around a table for hours with friends (and presumably some drinks and snacks in hand) playing a game, the tone cannot stay serious all the time, but peaks and dives in reflection of the high and lows of the story being told, as well as the freshness of players & the GM.

Note that I am sure there is a solo play or journalling game out that there could do a passable or even fun version of The Prisoner, but that is outside my wheelhouse. Please leave a comment if you know of a good candidate. The I'm Begging You To Play Another RPG Facebook page people suggest FATE, Fudge, Dread, and Wilderness of Mirrors as candidates.

What system would then work to recreate The Prisoner as a trad RPG?

THE PRISONER = PARANOIA

Since one of the themes of The Prisoner is paranoia and mistrust, how about we use the game Paranoia? Some of you might say that a game about super-powered clones trapped in an underground dystopia by a mad computer and killing one another over spurious secret society connections and accusations of 'Traitor!' wouldn't represent the source material well.

AND

YOU'D

BE

WRONG

Both the Village and the Alpha Complex are isolated dystopias, so settings are similar in feel.

The Computer and Number 1 are both near mythic overseers, close enough.

All clones have psychic powers, and in The Prisoner we see Number 12 (Alison) use hers at the end of The Schizoid Man. This implies that subtle and rare uses of psychic could work very well in the game. It also implies that player characters could all be double agents jostling to move up the hierarchy and become the new Number 1 by judicious use of their powers. The danger would be in having their powers nullified if discovered.

Delicious!

As for the secret societies, one staple of The Prisoner is the jostling and scheming background characters. In an RPG, the player characters are thus part of this system, and so connecting to like-minded NPCs would seem a natural part of the game.

Here would be a good small starter list:

1 Anti-Psychic League - Will try to unmask and nullify all psyhic powers while shamefully hiding their own.

2 Village Historical Society - Must find out how the Village came to be. Always trying to get at records or stories from older residents.

3 Houdinis - Will try to escape at all costs. Under constant surveillance, but somehow always manages to have a plan in the works.

4 Assassins - Dedicated to destroying Number 1. Keep this undercover and are always looking for an opening.

5 The Faithful - Devoted to Number 1 and protecting the Village. They make good traitors who sell out or sabotage other PCs.

6 Hedonists - Spend their time indulging in vices in pastimes, from playing chess to mind-altering substances.

7 Superiors - Pro-psychic group who see themselves as advanced beings. Can improve their abilities but normally keep them hidden.

8 Outsiders - Spies from the outside trying to smuggle tech and secrets from the Village back to their homeland.

Of course, all these societies could provide help and story hooks to characters, as well as the danger of being caught.

"How about security clearances?" you might say. I don't think Paranoia's system is portable as is, or particularly apt. Instead, we can use the system of numbers that already exists in the Village. Taking a quick glance at the Prisoner wiki, a rough outline would be as follows:

Number 1 - All access, never seen. Leader of the Village.

Numbers 2 Highest access, work directly under Number 1, mission is to break Numbers 6-11.

Numbers 3-5 High access, work under Number 2 to as technical, administrative, and consulting support.

Numbers 6-11 No access, high value targets kept under close surveillance.

Number 12-49 Partial access. Work in 'speaking parts' in the Village and cleared to interact with Numbers 6-11.

Numbers 50-100 Limited access. Work in non-speaking, menial parts in the Village.

Numbers 50-199 Low access. Village residents

Numbers 200+ Special access. Specially talented, unique individuals called in by the top 5 to assist in breaking 6-11 or other crises.

"What of clones then?"

In episode one "Arrival," Number 6's old associate Cobb supposedly dies, but comes back at the end of the episode. If we add medical revivals that scramble a character's psychic abilities and secret society alignment (or keep it the same if you wish), then we are good to go.

"How about the rules?" you might add.

Listen...

I played and ran in tons of Paranoia games back in the day.
I don't remember a thing about the rules.

They were innocuous and blended into the gameplay. We had a blast with the scenarios, and the rules backed that up.

Just what The Prisoner needs.

"Well, how about the Lore?"

See below.

BONUS! RANDOM TABLE

There are many fan theories as to the true nature of The Village. I would recommend the GM rolling a different one each episode and keeping that in mind as the canon du jour. This means that you will conserve the delicious ambiguity and contradictions of the series in your games.

1 Computer Simulation - On the surface, this seems like a boring, no-brainer. However, if we take the trope of assigning numbers instead of names, we can transform it into AI trying to convince humans to join them and subsume their personality.

2 Alien Simulacra - This is the Ray Bradbury option, turning the setting into a mirage put up by aliens. This explains all the weirdness - the aliens are trying to communicate but cannot understand, only imitate humans.

3 Drug Induced Fantasy - This is a tad dark, but fitting for one off games of trippy weirdness. The drugs could be used to try and get secrets out of PCs, or else just a one off strange trip.

4 Alternate Dimension - Could be a reality warping machine or just a parallel dimension, feel free to have something slightly off and the events here happening in a pocket universe. Canon and consistency are suspended for a session.

5 Foreign Spybreaker - The whole Village is a facade created by a foreign nation to get the info from the player characters. There might be subtle hints in the higher numbers.

6 Robot World - Villagers are 'sleeper' agents, totally normally until a threat, then turn into powerful automatons. Means there is probably a whole support system somewhere...

7 Mental Hospital - Another seemingly depressing option. However, if we turn it into a Shutter Island style narrative, where the protagonists each have to confront their own trauma or insanity, then it gets interesting.

8 Characters in a Story - The PCs are just characters in a spy novel, and may overhear the Narrator. They could try to break the fourth wall and contact their creator, or else Rick & Morty up the mate game.

And remember....

I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

Why I Don't Use Minis & Battlemats

I just reconnected with Andy from Breakfast in the Ruins and gave a re-listen to the podcast episode he kindly invited me to guest on a few years back.

Listening to us bang on about Moorcockean roleplaying I had to laugh at our conversation about minis.

I do not like them, Sam I am.

DISCLAIMER

If you like minis and battlemats, more power to you. They just are not my bag.

My friend KinpatsuSamurai paints amazing mini diaoramas. I love seeing them.

My friend Dave is a master of online grid combat with digital minis. I enjoyed gaming with him.

My friend Chris has cabinets of minis in his basement and knows what every one means. They are awesome to look at.

I just don't want to do any of that in my games. I am a pure Theater of the Mind guy.

So, what do I think is wrong with minis (for me)?

Grab a chair...

1 Not a Roleplaying Game

As Andy puts it, using minis and battle mats doesn't feel like playing a roleplaying game, instead it turns the game into string of combat encounters a la the old Heroquest boardgame. As a GM, some of my proudest moments are when players roleplay in a way that totally avoids a combat slugfest. In my Laughing Tower playtest of a few years back, a Melnibonean high priest bluffed his way past guardsmen, the party hopped on his mystical yacht, and they sailed away from a city on high alert. This just after battling with powerful demons. Having the option to roleplay out of some combats means that the combats you do engage in are meatier and more memorable.

The few times I played 4E, I found combat very video gamey. We had status markers going everywhere, it really was more gamey than immersive, and the game petered out quickly after a few fights.

2 Problems With Scale

Besides distracting from roleplaying, the Dollhouse Scale of most battlmats and minis means that the immense scale of fantasy environments is wasted. Tolkeen's Moria is huge, an endless dungeon, but with minis it is reduced to an endless array of battlemats (ho hum). Go look at the final chase scene in Moria from Peter Jackson's films, the party are ants running along endless corridors that team with innumerable hostiles.

Back when I played AD&D, we had massive maps to explore, and combat was abstracted. We knew our position . Modern gaming has shifted focus from the PARTY on a single 10x10 wide BLOCK to the MINI on a 1x1 or 2x2 TILE. This is a huge step down in scale, and game worlds feel all the more constrained and small for it.

3 Lack of Imagination, Group Cohesion, & Listening Skills

With Theater of the Mind, you have to listen intently to scene descriptions for any tactical advantage. With minis, you peek at the grid, then go get a drink from the fridge until it is your time to roll dice. You are disengaged and disinterested in what is going on until it is your turn.

I saw the difference big time when I ran The Laughing Tower and had old Stormbringer stalwarts (hullo Alan!) and younger games who had been raised on mini combat. The characters had entered a ruined town where the tower had materialized, and were walking towards the rainbow-hued tower. I explained that there was a door at its base and a window straight above it near the top.

The party got half way across the square the tower had appeared in when a disgusting fly headed archer began shooting arrows at them from the window. The vanguard was made up of older players, who all decided to book it for the door, reasoning the sniper could only loose so many arrows before they got to safety. However, a younger player and Moorcock newbie decided to stand his ground and return fire. When he was knocked, an older player asked "Can I just drag him a few steps to the side and be out of the field of vision?"

"Of course!" I replied.

The older player had an image of the scene and the tactical considerations in his head, the younger one had been condition to stand his ground and fire back by reliance on minis and battlemaps. Just as we should be wary of kids nowadays letting AI do their thinking for them, we should also consider the effect of outsourcing our descriptions of combat to mats and minis.

4 Prevention of Narrative Abilities & Overreliance on Rules

Although I am a grognard and love older games, I do believe that adding some narrative rules judiciously can improve the experience of Moorcockean games, considering their narrative origins. Case in point, some of the rules I am working on have narrative effects that reflect Moorcockean themes, such as the ability to sacrifice NPCs or allies if in danger.

If you are using a battlemat and rules made for it, such an ability would have a range of effect and also be limited by the physical positioning of the minis. The player of a Melnibonean PC could offer to sacrifice an ally, but others could point out that their spaces aren't adjacent, or invoke some BS 5 meter casting range. The battlemat and minis thus becomes a physical constraint on rulings and creativity.

This isn't very Moorcockean.

5 Literary Roots

Last but not least, having a static dollhouse view of the battlefield takes away all the thrill of combat as it appears in the work of literature the game is based on. Go read the scene where Count Brass duels Baron Meliadus, or when Elric fights Yrkoon. These are page turners, tightly worded and pulse pounding descriptions of combat that are exactly why we love Moorcock's books and play games based on them. To read the book then abandon all descriptive efforts in favor of pushing little men around squares seems the antithesis of what I for one am trying to do.

Conclusions

I know I sound elitist or snobby for my dim views on minis, but I have to be true to how I feel. I am not here to yuck anyone else's yum, just articulate my feelings.

Now with the 5E glut pumping out products like pocket dungeons and battle maps, the scale of combat will only get smaller.

This make me sad.

To combat this trend, I have started working on a Guide to Theater of the Mind. Look for it sometime next year.

What's Not in the NUNA Quickstart

The NUNA QuickStart stands at just under 50 pages.

For a game that melds arctic survival, adventure, super science, and the weird, lots had to go.

Here are the things that broke my heart to leave out but will shine in the complete Corebook.

1 Community rules - To me, this is the beating heart of Nuna. Why go on an adventure? Because your community needs medicine, or weapons, or more people to sustain it. And the more you give your community, the more it gives back to you. There are hints at this with the Player Character descriptions, but no time to stop and smell the roses.

2 Arctic transport - I used to care for the late great Tony Williamson, arctic expert, and the stories he told of travelling the arctic were the stuff of legend. I try to incorporate that in my game design, and so from massive Soviet ice ships, to super science land ships, to Inuit dogsleds, I have created systems of travel that allow people to traverse the land in all conditions. And choosing the right transport can be a question of life or death on Nuna.

3 Cultural powers - In Nuna, all characters have powers that seem supernatural to people from other cultures. Inuit can see far on tundra and are never surprised, while Whalers can swim in frozen waters. This type of superior ability is not unique to the Arctic. The Kalenjin of Kenya are marathon superpowers, and routinely win marathons the world over against professional full-time trained athletes. The Bajau Sea Nomads of Asia can hold their breath as long as world record divers. Culture is a superpower, and Nuna brings this to the fore.

4 Shaman magic & gonzo super science - Shamanism died out under colonization in Canada, but Nuna conceives this dead mystic art as a potent force trying to find its way back into the land of the living. Ditto super science, which is ancient knowledge unlocked with the Fall. Both can unlock immense power for wielders, but at great cost.

So when you hold the Nuna QuickStart in your grubby hands, remember that this is just the tip of the glacier.

S

The Thunder Perfect Mind Kickstarter - I'm in

I'm backing THIS (as soon as Kickstarter accepts my change in profile info, which is holding up my payment!)

Looks like an eminently playable Wraith derivative, which I found interesting but a bit heavy and needing more motivation.

Tanya's game seems to have motivation in spades.

Good luck Tanya!

Breakfast in the Multiverse - What is Moorcockean?

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.

Sounds tasty!

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.