Thread: Magic Heavy Fantasy Supplements

Awesome! Thanks guys.

I kept seeing The Green was highly recommended but I had no idea what contents it had. Another take on the magic system is certainly not a bad thing in my eyes!

Edit: Nice illusion magic adjustments. I was thinking of the size adjustments for an illusion specialist myself. Illusionist rogues / bards are absolutely my favorite class. I'll be picking it up shortly to contribute to your work.

You mention Stormbringer, so here's the skinny on it. The Sorcery system in the BGB is from the Elric! book and Stormbringer 5th edition. The earlier editions of Stormbringer don't have the Sorcery spell system. All versions of it, and Elric!, have a demon summoning system. Mongoose now has the rights to sell these pdfs, so if you're interested in taking a look, there's a place to start. I recommend Elric!, as I find it to be the cleanest presentation of the rules, although Stormbringer 5e is the content of Elric! with more setting information (and a few things like the Fly skill and additional weapons) added.

The Elric! line had a lot of magic content published. Biggest single source is probably the Bronze Grimoire, which had things like Runic magic, Necromancy and a whole slew of magic items. There is also the supplement, The Unknown East, which has a nifty 'verb' + 'noun' free form magic system.

The good news is, this stuff is going to be revisited in the upcoming Magic World books. However, if you you like Demon Summoning and wouldn't mind picking up a few more magic systems you should seriously think about picking up the Corum book from Chaosium's website. Elric!'s demon summoning rules has a bias for demons as bound weapons. Corum undoes that a bit with it's Pact system. I think it's a big improvement and now use it for my games.

Corum has a Chaotic Meld magic system in which individual spell effects are combined to form new spells. They have a Lawful magic system that centers around creating lawful artifacts. They have a brief but substantial run down on things like Elemental Tattoos, Fetishes, and, um, something else that I'm forgetting right now. Note that currently Corum is only available in dead tree and only from the print run that Chaosium is selling.

An excellent and free addition to the Elric! line is Lawful Virtues and Focus Skills. They can be found on this site and over at stormbringerrpg.com in the 'Gods of Law' pdf. Really worth a read.

Awesome, thanks!

I see a couple versions of Elric over at Drivethrurpg. The ones you mention wouldn't happen to be these would it?
Michael Moorcock's Elric! - Mongoose | Classic Moorcock | DriveThruRPG.com
The Bronze Grimoire - Mongoose | Classic Moorcock | DriveThruRPG.com

I've been doing a lot of review reading and searching but all the threads I've read assumed a bit of familiarity with stormbringer/elric or runequest. Since I currently have zero experience with either you guys have been a great help.

Those are they. Again, a lot of the material is being repurposed for Magic World, which will be out soon. But those are two really solid books there.

Actually, since you have the BGB, I think you have most of the sorcery spells that are in Elric! What you would be getting is Demon Summoning rules and a combat option, Riposte. Demon Summoning rules are also present in 'Chronicles of Future Earth' but I don't remember how comprehensive they are. Bronze Grimoire is a good buy with an expanded Sorcery spell list, expanded Demon Ability list, a bunch of magic items as well as Runic and Necromantic magic.

Since Puck mentioned The Green, I'll add that his Glyph magic system is cool and his setting even cooler. I dig The Green.

Also, since you mention magic items I'm going to point you at Lucky Trinkets, Heirlooms and Named Items.

Once you've collected all of these systems, the trick will be in deciding which one to use and how to use it!

It's also worth considering some of the BRP Mythic Earth setting books published by Alephetar. Merrie England is a great setting for fantasy medieval games, as is Crusaders Of The Amber Coast and Stupor Mundi. If you want a more ancient setting then ROME is great, and Asian fantasy can also be portrayedwell with Celestial Empire and Dragon Lines.

Originally Posted by Robsbot

Has anyone ever tried to run a fantasy campaign with just the magic from the big gold book, and if so how did it work out?

I have, but only for low-magic settings. For magic-rich settings, I use the RuneQuest rules.

Originally Posted by Chaot

Actually, since you have the BGB, I think you have most of the sorcery spells that are in Elric! What you would be getting is Demon Summoning rules and a combat option, Riposte. Demon Summoning rules are also present in 'Chronicles of Future Earth' but I don't remember how comprehensive they are. Bronze Grimoire is a good buy with an expanded Sorcery spell list, expanded Demon Ability list, a bunch of magic items as well as Runic and Necromantic magic.

Also, since you mention magic items I'm going to point you at Lucky Trinkets, Heirlooms and Named Items.

The Lucky Trinkets article is great thanks, Chaot!

The Bronze Grimoire isn't so much a new magic system (except for the rune magic), but it has a lot of cool spells. It's worth getting. Corum is really well-put together thing, though I haven't really used it in my campaign. I haven't tried the Green yet. If you just want spell lists, Call of Cthulhu's Dreamlands supplement is also a good source.

Riposte and demon summoning rules are enough to wrench free the 10$ the PDF will cost me for sure! I would love an expansion to the brb on demon summoning as I feel out of combat ritual magic is one of the most innovative things I've ever seen in a RPG system. That and the pact magic from D&D 3.5's magic supplement. I may work on a rough port of that one day.

I want to be able to go to my players, ask them what they want their character to do and maybe present them a few ideas and then use the systems for inspiration or help crafting their character. I seriously doubt I'll use one system in its entirety but I'll certainly have a demon summoning sorcerer NPC, a necromancer raising legions of skeletons, A fire and ice slinging arch mage, and probably everything inbetween during their adventures. The more systems I have the more I can check to see how balanced my ideas are and the more inspiration I have for both PC ideas and NPC ideas.

To research list: Everything Mankcam mentioned.

Current to buy list: Runequest 6th ed., Elric!, The Bronze Grimoire, Unknown East, Corum (although I'd like a PDF version so I may wait until Magic World and the Advanced Sorcery supplement and see what it does with the system), The Green.

I just wanted to pop back in and give a quick thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread. I've got tons of great supplements now and tons of ideas and possibilities for future games. Thank all of you for answering all my annoying little questions and giving great advice!

I still have yet to get any books from Alephtar Games, mythic iceland, chronicles of future earth, and the full version of the green (but the supplement Puck posted was great!) so I've still got a bit to go but I've got a great base and some good books to look forward to picking up. Thanks again guys!

I'll be updating the OP with my findings for future reference.

Originally Posted by Questbird

The Lucky Trinkets article is great thanks, Chaot!

Thanks QB! It's been met with a warm reception from my players. I need to get around to updating that thread.

Ok Robsbot, if you're interested, I've got some more to lay on ya. I almost feel like I'm doing a disservice to your bank account.

If you're looking for cults, Moon Design Publications' Cult Compendium is overwhelming. It's reprinted Glorantha material from RQ2 and is really excellent to steal ideas from. The Mongoose Elric line went down the cult path and there's a lot there as well. Pete Nash and Loz have done a really fantastic job with the line. Of note, tucked away in the Magic of the Young Kingdoms book is small section called Elemental Paths. (I think it's in the Magic of the Young Kingdoms book.) The closer you are aligned with an element, or the further down the path you are, the more you develop abilities related to the element. You also take on obligations to and personality traits of said element. That's a Charles Green system.

That ties nicely in with the magic system from Nephilim, which hermetical with a heavy dose of elementalism. Originally published in the core Nephilim book and tehn massively overhauled in Liber Ka, this system is scheduled to be republished through Chaosium by the author, John Snead.

And here I feel like I'm going over to the enemy, but 3rd edition Gurps Magic is a wonderful source to steal from.

And for something different, if you want to get your kung fu groove on, I highly recommend Dragon Lines. It's another Charles Green system. Actually, at the risk of embarrassing him, I recommend keeping your eye on Green. His stuff is really innovative.

Originally Posted by Robsbot

Riposte and demon summoning rules are enough to wrench free the 10$ the PDF will cost me for sure! I would love an expansion to the brb on demon summoning as I feel out of combat ritual magic is one of the most innovative things I've ever seen in a RPG system. That and the pact magic from D&D 3.5's magic supplement. I may work on a rough port of that one day.

I'm very glad that you like Elric! If you have a chance, I hope you check out how it runs in general. A bit fuller than CoC, but still lightning fast during play. I really think BRP starts to sing when you allow skills over 100%. But that's another thread.

Originally Posted by Robsbot

Corum (although I'd like a PDF version so I may wait until Magic World and the Advanced Sorcery supplement and see what it does with the system)

Sadly, I don't think it will ever exist and I haven't heard of Magic World bringing any of that stuff into the fold yet. (Although I would be very happy to be wrong. Please Ben? ) I can give you the run down on the Corum pact system though. It's fairly simple but very game changing.