Thread: Another Magic World interview...

Can be found here: Stormbringer! » Interview with Ben Monroe

Cool! Thanks for the link. This game is starting to look pretty interesting....

I am already sold on the game, but always fun to read more about it.

Originally Posted by zomben

Can be found here: Stormbringer! » Interview with Ben Monroe

Thanks for the shout out in the interview

Ian

The below is a mild rant, please take with a grain of salt.

I've read both interviews and am pleased that this is being done, but I have severe reservations. I run a campaign originally based on AD&D that was updated over the years, i love the BRP System and happily jumped ship when it became available. Sadly, Chaosium has shown little actual support for it. There are many fan/semi-pro products that I have bought and been very pleased with. Classic Fantasy and BRP Witchcraft are my fave two to date. I have bought a few of the products produced by Chaosium itself and have been greatly disappointed. The Magic book was barely edited as far as I can tell for integration and instead of adding to the two magic systems already in place was a poorly reworked system that did not work well in previous versions of RQ.

We now have 'Magic World' coming out. The basic 'Magic World' book from Worlds of Wonder was embraced and quite popular in Europe and was a core system used by many loyal fans. It was not supported by any supplements but retained popularity, to my understanding up to and even after the BRP system was released a few years ago. Now we hear of a new 'Magic World' book. However, instead of taking and updating the high fantasy style of the original book by this name, we are getting a reworking, mainly cut and paste. of Elric magic and RQIII system rules.

I own both Elric and the Bronze Grimoire. I've integrated spells from both into my game world.Sadly, BRP/Elric Sorcery does not permit high or even medium Fantasy style magic. There are no spells that allow for much in direct magical assault. A 'Sorcerer' is mostly dependent on a weapon still, with perhaps a spell to increase damage slightly. The few direct target spells are single target spells and do not allow for much if any direct magical damage. RQIII had a few spells, notably the Battle Magic spells such as Disruption that gave the feeling of a Sorcerer, instead of a warrior that knew a few tricks. If some of the RQ Battle magic spells were ported over, it might allow a greater sense that you were playing a 'Sorcerer', but my own feelings are that if you want a Fantasy world, you need a selection of spells so that a player can feel more like a spell caster.

If you want to play a low-magic Fantasy campaign this may be perfect. The Chaosium promo says " The rules of MAGIC WORLD are simple to grasp, while having enough options and complexity to suit any gaming style... Any sort of fantasy character you can imagine, you can play." Based off the interviews and comments on what is being used as source material, I have grave doubts that a pure Sorcerer will be a very viable option. I would really like to see new material from Chaosium instead of yet another semi-updated reprint of prior supplements.

As a final note, the ability to resurrect players is a problem I've noted in BRP core books. The ability to bring back those who have died is a staple of Fantasy RPG's. It should not be easy perhaps, but a system does need to exist for it.

You have a somewhat unusual definition of "high fantasy", because high fantasy normally
has nothing to do with the power of magic in the setting. To quote Wikipedia:

High fantasy is defined as fantasy fiction set in an alternative, entirely fictional ("secondary") world, rather than the real, or "primary" world. The secondary world is usually internally consistent but its rules differ in some way(s) from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy is characterized by being set in the primary, or "real" world, or a rational and familiar fictional world, with the inclusion of magical elements.

For example, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is a textbook example of high fantasy, and even
the most powerful mage of this setting - Gandalf - has only comparatively low power ma-
gic, and is certainly not able to resurrect someone.

That nit picked, I see where you are coming from. While I prefer low power magic myself,
I agree that a supplement with more powerful spells would be a nice addition to the BRP
material.

While google will show that I'm made the same nitpick, I actually think that the academic distinction between low and high fantasy is less than useful and I prefer the usage of Greymagius.

As to the point of the rant, a couple things.

I too love Classic Fantasy and BRP Witchcraft. Both are great books and their magic systems can easily be integrated into Elric! and (I assume) Magic World.

I don't have the Magic Book so I won't say anything towards that.

I often feel that Elric sorcery should be explained like this. There are four spells; Summon Demon, Summon Elemental, Brazier of Power, and Chain of Being. Oh yeah, there are a few utility spells as well. The real power in Elric comes along with pacts and bindings, and this is made even more so with the additional tweaks that came with Corum.

Point the second. The high fantasy aspect that comes along with Elric is not just due to the magic system. Elric characters, and correspondingly Magic World characters, come out of the gate uber-skilled. When I've needed to explain in the past I've said that beginning Elric character competence is roughly equivalent to lvl 5 thru lvl 7 AD&D characters.

So, yes, I see where you're coming from, though I don't think I'm in agreement, quite.

Have you seen/used the Unknown East supplement for Elric! Did you ever see Charlie Seljos's houserules for Unknown East?

There is going to be an Advanced Sorcery book (amongst other supplements) for Magic World that uses rules from Unknown East, and coupled with Charlie's house rules, I think you will find quite a few spells that deal direct damage to opponents and can be used as an area attack.

Chaosium.com: News - BRP Advanced Sorcery
Charlie Seljos' house rules for Unknown East Magic

Ian

I'm interested to know which of any fantasy (low, medium or high) material allows for resurrection of characters. It might be a 'staple of Fantasy RPGs' but it isn't a staple of Fantasy per se. The only raising of the dead I normally read about involves necromancy and the undead.

To be honest if you want a magic using character who is a multiple enemy killing machine then perhaps BRP is not the best choice of RPG.

Originally Posted by nclarke

character who is a multiple enemy killing machine then perhaps BRP is not the best choice of RPG.

In fairness, Elric does this fine.