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Questions concerning Magic World


MrHemlocks

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Hello

What is MW combat like? Is it real generic like in AD&D or does it use the hit charts and crits in the BRP core book?

Does the MG book contain a campaign setting? If so how does it compare to greats like Greyhawk?

Will they continue to support this game with more books and adventures or is the customer on his own after buying it?

thx

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MW doesn't use hit charts, but does use the Major Wounds rules. It has Special, Crit and Fumbles like in BRP core. There's a lot of back and forth, and jockeying for position in MW combat, as in most BRP-based games.

There is a small-ish campaign setting in MW. It's called the Southern Reaches, and is about 200 miles across. It's two baronies, split by a river, who are constantly sniping and pestering each other. They're not at all-out war, but there's tension. Then, add to that the difficulties posed to the area by the strange fey original inhabitants, and there's plenty to keep you busy for a while.

The Reaches were purposefully designed not to be a whole world, but a smaller, more intimate setting. Think something along the lines of the classic Robin Hood stories, where all the action took place in and around Sherwood/Nottingham.

There's a bunch of stuff in the works for MW. Elsewhere it's been noted that there are four supplements written, and making their way into layout: Advanced Sorcery, the Chronicler's Companion, Chronicler's Screen, and the MW Bestiary. There's a fifth book in the works, but that's not been formally announced yet. I will hint that it will include some scenarios, and be tied in to the Southern Reaches.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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I think it is also worth mentioning that MW uses variable armor absorption (which I think is an option in BRP core). Like, some armor might absorb 1d6+1, which sort of combines the effects of thickness with how much of your body it covers. Combined with the major wounds rule, I think this gives you the effect of hit locations, in a simpler fashion.

Some key combat rules (not sure which ones are already options in BRP core):

Riposte, meaning that if you have two weapons (including a sword & shield), then a special parry (20% of skill) with one hand gives you a free attack with the other.

Knockback, using either a shield or your body to bash someone and hopefully knock them down or into wall.

Multiple attacks, if you have over 100% skill, you can use it for multiple attacks as long as each one is at least 40%.

Effects of long weapons in terms of keeping opponents at bay, and then the benefits of closing with a short weapon vs. a longer weapon.

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There's a bunch of stuff in the works for MW. Elsewhere it's been noted that there are four supplements written, and making their way into layout: Advanced Sorcery, the Chronicler's Companion, Chronicler's Screen, and the MW Bestiary. There's a fifth book in the works, but that's not been formally announced yet. I will hint that it will include some scenarios, and be tied in to the Southern Reaches.

I know that MW doesn't use hit locations, but as regards the bestiary can I put a plea in that you include it as an option for that supplement ? Simply because a lot of people regardless of whether they play MW are going to want a BRP bestiary of new monsters

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They won't be in the Bestiary itself, but possibly I can see about putting together a freebie PDF that contains all that information for those who want it. I think that could be done easily for most of the critters. I wouldn't bother for doing -every- humanoid creature, as it's essentially the same chart over and over again.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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I know I have mentioned it before that I do prefer Hit Locations but awaiting MW we gave a Major Wounds a go just to get the feel for it and to our surprise it worked surprisingly well without making it to abstract as in D&D. We still prefer Hit Locations but raised the question if it will be worth the extra work plugging those rules from the BRP book. Hopefully I will be able to pick up MW pdf on Monday since I wanna see how the expanded Sorcery system holds up or if I still should port over the Magic system from BRP to have that for the more traditional hardcore Wizards that hurl thunder and fire around and use the Sorcery system for magic where you get it from a divine/spirit/demonic source. Either way I am happy that BRP book is available as plug and play options that you can use for MW to shape the fantasy you want.

From what have seen so far the small sample campaign setting looks excellent. If even seem to be able to plug perfectly into my own campaign world that have mostly the northern part fleshed out so far and this will fit perfectly just south of that area. Can't wait to get my hands on the book to explore it even more.

Edited by Chorpa
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Just a comment, I thought the dedication to Lynn Willis and his name getting first billing was an excellent tribute.

Lynn was a friend, and mentor to me for many years. I've been in the publishing field (in a variety of roles) for twenty years now, and just about everything I've learned can trace back to something Lynn had taught me at some point. He'd been sick for a while, and when I started on MW his prognosis was "it's only a matter of time". To be completely honest, I took the project on in tribute to him, and as a way of saying "thanks". I'd long thought Elric!/Stormbringer was a great game, and it was important to me that it get a second chance.

Hence the cover painting, "Standing on the shoulders of giants".

I know I have mentioned it before that I do prefer Hit Locations but awaiting MW we gave a Major Wounds a go just to get the feel for it and to our surprise it worked surprisingly well without making it to abstract as in D&D. We still prefer Hit Locations but raised the question if it will be worth the extra work plugging those rules from the BRP book. Hopefully I will be able to pick up MW pdf on Monday since I wanna see how the expanded Sorcery system holds up or if I still should port over the Magic system from BRP to have that for the more traditional hardcore Wizards that hurl thunder and fire around and use the Sorcery system for magic where you get it from a divine/spirit/demonic source. Either way I am happy that BRP book is available as plug and play options that you can use for MW to shape the fantasy you want.

I used to be a hard-core Hit Locations fan from the RQIII days. But then I fell in love with the free-flowing fun of Major Wounds and random Armor Values. I think they accomplish much the same thing, but a bit faster.

Also, I heartily recommend plugging BRP Magic into the game. It works great, and if it fits your style, I say go for it.

Initially, when I was planning this book out, I was going to include -all- the magic material from the Elric! line. However, when I started pulling it all together, I realized that would mean almost half the book would be spells and magic of various sorts. Despite the game's name, I've long been frustrated by RPG books that focus overly-much on one type of character, most notably mages of various sorts. Note the Pathfinder rules, or most versions of D&D, where half the book is taken up with spells and magic. And yet (to my memory) only a quarter or so of the classes in the game can use them.

So, in the end, we decided to present one solid, good magic system in the core rules, and then leave the rest for the supplement. I honestly hope that doesn't come off like we're making a broken, or incomplete game, only to have you buy more books to 'fix' it. My intention all along was that the core rules would be as complete as the Call of Cthulhu core book, and the supplements would all be 'optional, but very useful'.

From what have seen so far the small sample campaign setting looks excellent. If even seem to be able to plug perfectly into my own campaign world that have mostly the northern part fleshed out so far and this will fit perfectly just south of that area. Can't wait to get my hands on the book to explore it even more.

That was indeed, the original intent. Chroniclers should be able to drop the Southern Reaches into their own campaign setting, or use it by itself as an isolated realm. I keep going back to the example of the "Robin of Sherwood" TV series, and how 95% of the action in the game takes place directly in and around Nottingham/Sherwood.

My intention was to never detail the areas outside the Reaches at all; to leave them vague and open to Chronicler caveat. Indeed, there've been a number of times when the writers working on the setting asked about creating some NPC, or other thing from 'outside', and making up details of its origins, and I had to rein that back in. I want the areas outside the Reaches to be whatever individual play groups want them to be.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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Lynn was a friend, and mentor to me for many years. I've been in the publishing field (in a variety of roles) for twenty years now, and just about everything I've learned can trace back to something Lynn had taught me at some point. He'd been sick for a while, and when I started on MW his prognosis was "it's only a matter of time". To be completely honest, I took the project on in tribute to him, and as a way of saying "thanks". I'd long thought Elric!/Stormbringer was a great game, and it was important to me that it get a second chance.

Hence the cover painting, "Standing on the shoulders of giants".

I used to be a hard-core Hit Locations fan from the RQIII days. But then I fell in love with the free-flowing fun of Major Wounds and random Armor Values. I think they accomplish much the same thing, but a bit faster.

Also, I heartily recommend plugging BRP Magic into the game. It works great, and if it fits your style, I say go for it.

Initially, when I was planning this book out, I was going to include -all- the magic material from the Elric! line. However, when I started pulling it all together, I realized that would mean almost half the book would be spells and magic of various sorts. Despite the game's name, I've long been frustrated by RPG books that focus overly-much on one type of character, most notably mages of various sorts. Note the Pathfinder rules, or most versions of D&D, where half the book is taken up with spells and magic. And yet (to my memory) only a quarter or so of the classes in the game can use them.

So, in the end, we decided to present one solid, good magic system in the core rules, and then leave the rest for the supplement. I honestly hope that doesn't come off like we're making a broken, or incomplete game, only to have you buy more books to 'fix' it. My intention all along was that the core rules would be as complete as the Call of Cthulhu core book, and the supplements would all be 'optional, but very useful'.

That was indeed, the original intent. Chroniclers should be able to drop the Southern Reaches into their own campaign setting, or use it by itself as an isolated realm. I keep going back to the example of the "Robin of Sherwood" TV series, and how 95% of the action in the game takes place directly in and around Nottingham/Sherwood.

My intention was to never detail the areas outside the Reaches at all; to leave them vague and open to Chronicler caveat. Indeed, there've been a number of times when the writers working on the setting asked about creating some NPC, or other thing from 'outside', and making up details of its origins, and I had to rein that back in. I want the areas outside the Reaches to be whatever individual play groups want them to be.

I am on the fence to buy or not. Looking at the BRP core book (page 207), there is a major wound table. Is this the table that is in MW? Where as a major wound, either magical or physical, gets a roll on the table and allow for more damage and certain body locations to become maimed or worse.

Anyway you could copy the wound table, in the MW book, and post it here?

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No, the table works fine for both physical and magic attacks, so there's no need for a separate one.

There is a rule for aiming missile weapons (delaying your action to get an increase in your skill %). There's nothing set up for called shots to specific areas of your opponent's body, but that shouldn't be hard to do. My suggestion would be to make it an alternate result of a special or critical result. Instead of the increased damage, you can choose the location hit.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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They won't be in the Bestiary itself, but possibly I can see about putting together a freebie PDF that contains all that information for those who want it. I think that could be done easily for most of the critters. I wouldn't bother for doing -every- humanoid creature, as it's essentially the same chart over and over again.

That's fair enough, you'd only need hit locations for odd creatures. For others you'd just need something like " for players using hit locations simply use the horse template on BRP page ( insert page number here ) ". I think It'd certainly be much appreciated by folks and it'd open up the market a bit more for the product.

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No, the table works fine for both physical and magic attacks, so there's no need for a separate one.

There is a rule for aiming missile weapons (delaying your action to get an increase in your skill %). There's nothing set up for called shots to specific areas of your opponent's body, but that shouldn't be hard to do. My suggestion would be to make it an alternate result of a special or critical result. Instead of the increased damage, you can choose the location hit.

I am soooo close to buying it now! But more questions:

1) Does the game use the Attackand Defense Matrix found in the BRP core book (page 193)?

2) Are special Successes used(page 194 BRP book)?

3) Fumble used(page 194 BRP book)?

4) Do you need the BRP core rule book to play MW?

5) I wanting to tweak MW rules, using the BRP core rule book, would it be 'easy' to do?

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1) Does the game use the Attackand Defense Matrix found in the BRP core book (page 193)?

Yes, but it's been slightly streamlined from how it is in the BRP book. Essentially, it's the same thing, though.

2) Are special Successes used(page 194 BRP book)?

Yes.

3) Fumble used(page 194 BRP book)?

Yes.

4) Do you need the BRP core rule book to play MW?

No. It's a complete, stand-alone game.

5) I wanting to tweak MW rules, using the BRP core rule book, would it be 'easy' to do?

Very much so. Indeed in a game I ran I ported Superpowers over from BRP into Magic World, and it worked just fine.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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When will it be for sale on Amazon.com? I will be buying two copies for Easter. One I will have rebound, spiral bound, and laminated for game play. While the other goes into my rpg collection...

What do you have planned for the game? Will you be making 1-2 adventures, at least, per year?

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When will it be for sale on Amazon.com? I will be buying two copies for Easter. One I will have rebound, spiral bound, and laminated for game play. While the other goes into my rpg collection...

Not sure. It comes out in hardcopy towards the end of March, so I'd imagine sometime shortly after that.

What do you have planned for the game? Will you be making 1-2 adventures, at least, per year?

No guarantees, of course... As has been mentioned elsewhere, there are four products written, edited, and moving toward layout: Advanced Sorcery, The Chronicler's Companion, the Chronicler's Shield, and the MW Bestiary. There's a fifth after that that's about 75% written. It's a combo of setting and adventures, but that's about all I can say on that for now.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 month later...

I've heard Magic World is the Elric/ Stormbringer rules repackaged and cleaned up a bit. What has been ported over rules wise to the main book and Advanced Sorcery? Is the latter just the Bronze Grimore for the ruleset?

More. Ship rules from a combination of RQ3 and Sailing the Seas of Fate, changes that make chargen easier and more streamlined, and a more general Shamrock and Sorcery feel to the system. Advanced Sorcery includes the stuff from Bronze Grimiore, more on Summoning, Loz' brilliant magic system from Unknown East, Nicks Arete system (a very cleaned up and adapted Ki system), rules for potions, and more. In all replaces the Stormbringer stuff on my shelf, which now goes into storage.

EDIT: OH! Also, In MagicWorld, a short but brilliant and straightforward section on playing Sentient Animals/Monsters aimed primarily at the kids out there, and the Dropped Lantern rules from RQ3. In Advanced Sorcery there is also a section on how items can become Great Items or Semi-Enchanted in nature. If you are in the US and watch Warehouse 13, think of how Artifacts come into being.

SDLeary

Edited by SDLeary
OOPS, forgot!
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  • 3 weeks later...

I took the plunge and grabbed the core book and Advanced Sorcery. Magic World has some interesting stuff in it, I like the new take on Allegiance, and will likely end up porting that into my other BRP/Legend/Runequest games. I was puzzled over the lack of zombie stats in either the base book or Advanced Sorcery.

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