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Elric!


K Peterson

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I've been reading through this oldie-but-goodie recently. Owned it for many years, but have never played it. Last looked at it about 10 years ago and then filed it away in a dark corner of my bookcase to be forgotten.

Now, it's interesting comparing the mechanics of Elric! with the d100 gaming I've been running over the past 5 years. Which has mostly been MRQ2, and permutations of that system. It's tough not to be a bit cynical now after having played a system that used attribute-derived starting skill levels rather than one with base starting skill levels. Or used improvement points rather than skill checks. Or combat styles instead of weapon classes.

But, still.. there's quite a bit I do like about Elric!: total hit points and the major wound table, rather than hit locations; the elemental and demon summoning rules; and the more abstracted combat rules. I'd really like to perform major surgery on both MRQ2 and Elric! to Frankenstein-together a general Sword & Sorcery rules set.

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I have hybridized RQ and Elric!/Stormbringer (along with a bit of WFRP and Harnmaster) without problems. In fact, I've been doing it for years. I played so many different d100 systems that they started to run together. There are things that I prefer from each system, and I never seem to be completely happy with a system as written. For example, like you, I prefer stat derived starting skills, and total HP/major wounds for combat. I now have pages and pages of house rules typed out to codify my hybrid from chargen to combat to magic, but really my Frankenstein just evolved over time - it wasn't something I planned. The beauty of the BRP family is that it is all 90% compatible and/or modular. I see no reason why you couldn't play RQ with Elric! Combat and elemental/demon summoning without major surgery - it worked fine for me.

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And Elric! was a updated version of Strombringer which did use attribute-derived skill levels, since it had skill category modifiers.

I actually did sorta do a "Frankenstein" version of Elric! years ag. I used RQ3 as the basic system and ported over and tweeked the stuff from Elric/Strombringer that was missing in RQ3. It worked very well.

RQ3 had a bit more to it that either Strombringer or Elric!, so it helped the non spellcasters a bit more.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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I've had the same experience: bits and pieces of all the d100 games are now finding their way into my OQ2-based S&S rules for my Atlantis campaign. It started out as a Stormbringer 5 house-ruled set, but OQ2 allows me to actually assemble it into something I can freely (well, except for the printing costs) distribute to my group.

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I've had the same experience: bits and pieces of all the d100 games are now finding their way into my OQ2-based S&S rules for my Atlantis campaign. It started out as a Stormbringer 5 house-ruled set, but OQ2 allows me to actually assemble it into something I can freely (well, except for the printing costs) distribute to my group.

My 'Monster Worlde' ruleset is on my macbook now being slowly boiled from bits of Elric!, OQ2, RQ6 and Renaissance..

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