Lords of Chaos! Free League also producing a Stormbringer game?

Well this is a bit confusing. Just two days ago I mentioned that Goodman Games announced that they will be producing material based upon Michael Moorcock’s “Elric” novels for the Dungeon Crawl Classics and 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons role-playing games.

Now it looks like the Free League also will be getting in on the Eternal Champion multiverse action, with Legends of Stormbringer, based upon their Dragonbane system. (Hat tip to Todd S for alerting me to this in his comment on my previous post.)

“Today, we are thrilled to announce Legends of Stormbringer, a new officially licensed tabletop roleplaying game based on the iconic fantasy works of Michael Moorcock, planned for release in 2027.

Legends of Stormbringer will carry you into the Young Kingdoms – a world of dying empires, warring gods, and doomed heroes – and bring Moorcock’s richly imagined setting to the tabletop using rules mechanics based on our award-winning Dragonbane RPG. The game will feature the same accessible, dynamic, and deadly approach that has made Dragonbane one of our most celebrated titles.

Returning to the Young Kingdoms as setting writer is Richard Watts, whose work on previous Stormbringer RPGs helped define how generations of roleplayers have experienced Moorcock’s world.”

This announcement is a lot more interesting and appealing to me than the one from Goodman Games, given Watts’s involvement and the use of Dragonbane instead of DCC or 5e D&D. I have yet to actually play Dragonbane, but I own and have read it. My overall impression of the game is quite positive. Moreover, since Dragonbane is descended from the Basic Roleplaying System – just as were Chaosium’s various editions of Stormbringer – there is greater continuity here with previous Eternal Champion role-playing material than there is with Good Games’ projects. This continuity is reinforced with Watts’s involvement.  

But I have to confess that I’m a bit confused by these multiple announcements! Given the setting in question, though, I suppose that this kind of Chaos is appropriate. 

By Arioch!

The return of Elric?

It looks like the multiverse of the Eternal Champion Elric will be returning to the world of in-print role-playing games thanks to Goodman Games:

“Goodman Games is thrilled to announce a licensing agreement to publish official tabletop role-playing material based on Elric of Melniboné, the iconic sword & sorcery character and setting created by legendary author Michael Moorcock! 

The Classic Era of Elric will include a line of sourcebooks, adventures, maps, and additional supplements, all designed for compatibility with both Fifth Edition and Dungeon Crawl Classics role-playing game systems. The project is scheduled to launch via crowdfunding in 2027. Products will be released following the successful campaign and will be available at game stores worldwide.”

Despite the influence that the early Elric stories had on me (and I remain fond of them to this day), I have to confess that I’m not all that excited about this. One reason is that the setting will use 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons and Dungeon Crawl Classics – two systems about which I have decidedly cool feelings. DCC was a poor fit for another cherished fictional setting – Jack Vance’s Dying Earth – and I doubt that it will be appropriate for Elric (at least not without some heavy reworking). 

A second – more decisive – reason is that I already own a lot of "Elric" role-playing books: three editions of Chaosium’s Stormbringer (including Elric!, which is the same system as 5th edition Stormbringer), and a lot of supplemental books for those editions, as well as all the Elric of Melniboné books that were published for Mongoose’s Runequest II (MRQII) system. (MRQII, as many readers no doubt know, eventually evolved into Mythras.) So I already have more than enough Elric material – as well as some Hawkmoon and Corum material – to run multiple campaigns, all using RPG systems that I much prefer to both 5e D&D and DCC.

But who knows – maybe the new material will be good! Time (and funds) permitting, I may check out what Goodman Games produces for everyone’s favourite melancholy albino. 

An Old School Warhammer Against the Darkmaster in 2026

I thought I would mention here that the guys at Open Ended Games have posted a short (~23 minutes) end-of-year "Questions & Answers" video on Youtube.

The most noteworthy piece of news to come out of the Q&A, in my opinion, is that in 2026 we will see a VsD city adventure -- Trouble in Greyport -- from legendary game designer Graeme Davis (who is most famous for his work on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but has written for many other systems as well). I'm really looking forward to reading this module and hope that it will have a little of that old school "grim and perilous" Warhammer flavour!

Also coming out is an adventure set in some "badlands" or wastes for higher level characters (levels 7-10) by Gabe Dybing (whose previous VsD module is The Crown of Castle Cynehelm). I look forward to checking this out as well, especially given that there is not much available for VsD in this level range (probably only the latter part of the epic Secrets of the Golden Throne campaign).

Some kind of supplement for higher-level (10+) characters is in the works but is unlikely to come out in 2026.

Overall, the wheels keep turning for VsD. I liked both of the adventures that came out in 2025: The Crown of Castle Cynehelm and the dwarf-focused The Mines of Kor-Khazan. Both have a (more or less) "sandbox" (or "setting" + "situation") structure to them, with the course of action very much in the hands of the players. But I do wish that the maps in OEG's adventures would include proper scales!

[From the cover of The Mines of Kor-Khazan]

Fight On! Issue 17 now available

As noted months ago here, the Old School Renaissance fanzine Fight On! has experienced its own renaissance. After spending a decade in a magically induced slumber, it awoke with an impressive new issue, number 15, during spring 2024.

Thankfully, that was not a one-off event. Since them, issue 16 has been published. And just this past Friday, issue 17 was unleashed onto the world.

Issue 17 features a rather nice cover illustration by the talented Peter Mullen:

Like every issue, issue 17 is available in PDF and print formats.

Crypts and Things for Zothique

I’m somewhat embarrassed that, in my recent post about the current Zothique kickstarter, that I failed to mention the excellent “Old School” swords-and-sorcery roleplaying game, Crypts and Things. Not only is C&T a great game, but it’s also one to which I contributed (albeit indirectly), as the author, Newt Newport, drew upon a number of my swords-and-sorcery house rules for Swords and Wizardry. 

[The Sorcerer from the C&T book]

Crypts and Things aims to emulate the works of authors like Clark Ashton Smith – as well as, of course, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, and the like. Indeed, CAS’s stories were a significant inspiration for my original house rules. So, it should be easy to run adventures set in Zothique using C&T.

(I have to confess that I remain a little vexed that Newt misspelt my nom de plume “Araskia” in the revised version of C&T ... but I’m trying my best not to be too petty these days.)

Zothique kickstarter

I’ve long been a great fan of Clark Ashton Smith’s fiction, especially his fantasy stories set in Hyperborea, Averoigne, and Zothique. Indeed, on balance I would rank his work to be at least as innovative and compelling as that of his “pulp” peers, H. P. Lovecraft and R. E. Howard. Unfortunately, despite his influence on a few later authors – most notably, Jack Vance – CAS’s writings are not especially well-known.

So I naturally was intrigued when I learned about a kickstarter to produce an illustrated omnibus of CAS’s Zothique stories, as well as role-playing adaptations of the setting. The latter consist of: The Zothique RPG Campaign Guide (the gazetteer and rules for the setting), The Denizens of the Dying Sun (essentially a “monster manual” for Zothique), and Litanies of the Dead: A Trilogy of Doomed Adventures (three adventures).  

Unfortunately, the role-playing systems in question are 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Shadowdark. I’m not really interested in any of these systems. The possible exception is Shadowdark, which I think is fine but nothing special. (I’m a little puzzled by its current popularity, to be honest. I have nothing against it, but for this kind of “rules-lite-ish, deadly, low magic” game, I regard Dragonbane to be a superior alternative. Nonetheless, unlike 5e D&D, I would be happy to try out Shadowdark some time. But enough of this tangent…)

I plan to get the omnibus. CAS’s short stories are available for free online (at Eldritch Dark). But it would be nice to have them all collected into a sturdy, attractive physical tome. I’m going to skip the RPG adaptations, but perhaps others might find them of interest. 

[Map by G. R. Hager. From Eldritch Dark.]

Against the Starmaster: Playtest materials available

I thought that I would mention that there is a space opera version of Against the Darkmaster coming out. It’s called (somewhat unsurprisingly) Against the Starmaster.

A set of playtest rules, sample player characters, and an introductory scenario are available here.

Following a quick skim, I think that it looks rather cool! (But I'm not a huge fan of the font.) Annoyingly, I’m rather busy at the moment (I’m editing a couple of books, revising a paper, and getting ready to teach again after Labour Day). But once I have a chance to read over these materials, I’ll post some thoughts here.

May the Force … er, Aether be with you!

Mythic Armorica for Mythras

The Mythic Britain series for Mythras has a new instalment: Mythic Armorica. (I first mentioned this supplement – and included a preview of its maps – back in December.)

Here’s the description from the Design Mechanism site:

Across the Narrow Sea separating Britain from Europe, lie the three kingdoms of Armorica: Poher, Benoic, and Broërec. And across the heartland, the mighty, enchanted Forest of Broceliande.

Settled a 150 years ago by Britons from the mainland, they displaced the native Gauls and created their own lands. But now Armorica is a land under siege. The Franks and the Visigoths fight on the eastern border and threaten to make Armorica their battleground. Meanwhile, the bishops of Armorica fight a war against pagan practice, and under their urging, Broceliande is shrinking every year. Finally, a dark force is working from within, waging a covert war of conquest against the three kingdoms.

Mythic Britain: Armorica is a campaign expansion for the Mythic Britain setting. You will need both Mythras and Mythic Britain to make full use of this book.

With Mythic Britain, Logres, Waterlands, Gwynedd, and now Armorica, Mythras has the ultimate “historical fantasy” British setting for role-playing campaigns!

Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms Kickstarter: 3 days left

I don’t support many kickstarters these days but I’m making an exception for this one: Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, the Northern Marches. I almost missed it entirely – there are only three days left! The author is Robert Conley of Bat in the Attic Games (and the blog of the same name), who has written a number of excellent RPG products, including How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox. 

The Northern Marches setting is a “hex-based” “sandbox” setting in the style of the classic Judges Guild’s Wilderness material. I am great fan of Conley’s previous settings, including his free Blackmarsh, the “Wild North” (published in the third issue of Fight On!), and the settings he produced for Goodman Games’ Points of Light books many years ago. In fact, I reviewed Blackmarsh here – quite positively – back in 2011! It turns out that the Northern Marches integrates and updates material from all those products. So there is no way I could resist getting it.

My GM style is more of a “subway map” approach – there are various storylines and key “decision points” for the players – rather than a truly open “sandbox.” But one of these days I’m going to run a proper sandbox campaign – and the Northern Marches would be superb resource to do so!

OSRIC the Third

The wise sages at Mythmere Games are hard at work on the third version of OSRIC (“Old School Reference and Index Compilation”). You can support this project at Backerkit.

OSRIC is a restatement of the first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules as they existed prior to the publication of Unearthed Arcana (with some minor modifications to ensure its legal “safety” at the time). It was the first true “retro clone” – version 1.0 came out in 2006 – and helped turbocharge the “Old School Renaissance” in its early days. While other “old school” games preceded it (e.g., Castles & Crusades, Basic Fantasy RPG, Hackmaster), OSRIC was the first to aim simply to restate an earlier, no longer supported, set of rules, rather than capture its “ethos” or “feel” with a somewhat different (more “modern”) system.   

While continuously available for free (in PDF) for almost two decades now, OSRIC eventually was eclipsed by other retro clones (including Mythmere Games’ own Swords & Wizardry, which restates the pre-AD&D version of the game). 

Hopefully with new art and a more reader-friendly presentation, though, OSRIC will enjoy its own renaissance and find a new audience.

Certainly, when I contemplate running an old school TSR-era version of D&D again, I tend to think of “Gygaxian” AD&D (using Gygax’s version of the World of Greyhawk) more than anything else. And I prefer the pre-UA version of the game overall (in part because I don’t have much nostalgia for the post-UA version, as I had drifted away from AD&D shortly after it was published).

The new version promises to be great. Hopefully half-elves will be able to be druids in this version (as they were in AD&D – their true, unique niche). And while I’m disappointed that there will be no bard class, I’m looking forward to adding OSRIC 3.0 to my library. I’m “all in”!

Emirikol would approve! 

Bundle of Holding – Against the Darkmaster

Until May 26th you can get all the PDFs in the Against the Darkmaster “Bundle of Holding” starter set – the impressive core rulebook + the Heartbane adventure + the Game Master Screen – for only 7.95 (USD)!

The “Level Up” option provides the Secrets of the Golden Throne, two other adventures (The Silence of Dawnfell and Legacy of Blood), and six sets of spell cards. The Secrets of the Golden Throne includes an entire campaign plus some additional game options (kins, backgrounds, spell lores, monsters, and the like).

I'm running two Against the Darkmaster (VsD) campaigns right now – "Against the Court of Urdor" and "Against the Witch-King" – so obviously I'm a big fan of the game. If you liked Middle-earth Roleplaying (MERP) back in the day, VsD is a worthy successor in my view. So, check it out for the price of a few cups of coffee!

Fight On! Issue 16 now available – dedicated to DA Trampier

One of the best things to happen in the “old school” gaming community in the past year is the return of the amazing fanzine Fight On! 

Issue 16 has just dropped and it’s dedicated to my favourite FRPG artist of all time: David A. Trampier.

‘Level Up’ exhibit at the Chicago Writers Museum

While Toronto is my ‘home base’ these days, as my wife and I own a condo there (and her job is based there), I also currently live part of the time in Chicago due to work (until the end of 2025, barring some catastrophe). Last weekend my wife was visiting Chicago, and by chance we discovered that it was a “free Sunday” at the American Writers Museum (located at 180 North Michigan Avenue – about a fifteen minute walk north of my present “crash pad”).

The museum currently has a special exhibit called “Level Up.” Here’s the description:

“Our special exhibit, Level Up: Writers & Gamers, explores how Americans use role-playing and video games to define and respond to our culture. The exhibit guides visitors into the world of game writing, from the 1970s to the present. Some of the games featured include Dungeons & Dragons, Zork, Apocalypse World, Baldur’s Gate III, and game writers from the last 50 years such as Michael Pondsmith, Porpentine, and Tanya DePass.” 

 The exhibit was small but had some artifacts of note:

It looks like this set was once owned by Terry Kuntz (older brother of Rob Kuntz).

The good old Holmes Basic Set – the game that started it all for me!

Anyhow, the exhibit runs until 5 May 2025. More information can be found here. If you’re in Chicago and have some time to kill, I recommend checking it out.

Role-playing Games mystify those who have never played them

I think that this article, “The Most Dangerous Game: At 50, Dungeons & Dragons is more popular than ever — and still misunderstood” by Andrea Long Chu, is quite good. It’s really about role-playing games in general (which, for most people who don’t play them, and also — sadly — many who play only D&D, is synonymous with D&D). It does a solid job in explaining why the activity is so inscrutable to those who never try it. Next time some “normie” asks me about this crazy hobby of mine, I might just send them this article.

Mythras Miscellany

I thought that I would mention two cool things for Mythras that might be of some interest.

The first is the Unearthed Companion for Mythras Classic Fantasy. Here’s the blurb from the Design Mechanism folks: 

Delve deeper than ever before, with the Classic Fantasy: Unearthed Companion, the highly anticipated expansion for Mythras Classic Fantasy! 

Classic Fantasy has become a popular branch of the Mythras family, blending the Mythras rules with traditional dungeoneering adventure mechanics. The Classic Fantasy core book presented everything needed for Ranks 1 to 3. This volume, long in the making, expands Classic Fantasy to Ranks 4 and 5, with updates and expansions to certain rules, but more importantly providing the additional magic, monsters and treasure for higher Rank characters and adventures. 

Unearthed Companion is compatible with Classic Fantasy core, and Classic Fantasy Imperative.  

More information here.

Classic Fantasy provides rules and guidelines for running Mythras games with the flavour of “Gygaxian” Dungeons & Dragons (i.e., first edition AD&D). Why do this? Perhaps you like the ethos and adventures of early TSR-era D&D/AD&D – but like combat to be interesting.

I have yet to play Classic Fantasy myself. But I’d be interested in running a short campaign using it someday, perhaps focused on an adapted version of a classic AD&D or D&D module (like Tom Moldvay’s The Lost City or the Saltmarsh series).

The second item is something that hopefully will be coming out in 2025: Mythic Armorica.

I assume that this will be a supplement for Mythic Britain (but am not certain about that).

Anyhow, Happy Boxing Day!

Fight On! has a new website

FYI: The original Old School Renaissance fanzine Fight On! has a new website.

Open Ended Games 2024 Q&A

I’m currently running two campaigns using the Against the Darkmaster ("VsD") fantasy role-playing game, one set in my homebrew setting of Ukrasia, the other in Middle-earth (for both, I am making use of some of my old ICE Middle-earth Roleplaying material, which is easy to do, given that VsD draws heavily upon MERP). So, I’m obviously a big fan of the game!

Hence, I was interested to watch the "Question-and-Answer" episode for 2024 with Open Ended Games (the folks behind VsD). It can be found on YouTube here.  

A few interesting announcements were made by OEG:

• The most significant is that a space-based version of VsD will be coming out at some point, called Against the Star Master. (The mention of “star blades” makes me think that it will resemble Star Wars in some ways.) It looks like the playtest “quick start” rules should be available sometime in 2025, although the full game likely will not be finalized for a while.
• A companion to cover higher-level (“mythic”) characters is going to be produced at some point (although almost certainly not in 2025).
• A couple of new adventures will be coming out for VsD (probably available in 2025).
• A new “deluxe edition” version of the core rules – with a new (hopefully sturdier) GM screen – will be coming out soon-ish.

I’m glad that VsD is doing well. It’s tied with Mythras as my favourite RPG these days. I look forward to all these future products.  

Trail of Cthulhu 2e and Broken Empires

I try not to back funding projects (on Kickstarter and the like) that often these days. This is because I backed a few in recent years that I now kind of regret (e.g., Shadowdark, Dolmenwood, Old School Essentials, a bestiary from Goodman Games, and a couple of other things, the details of which I've already largely forgotten).  As they trickle in (many of my recent "regrets" still linger in the ether somewhere) I find myself sighing and -- after briefly flipping through them -- putting the print products on my shelf and the PDFs into my ever-expanding dropbox of RPGs. 

To be clear, the products themselves might be fine or even quite good. For instance, Shadowdark certainly has some interesting mechanics, some of which I'm on the fence about (but which, I concede, very well may be vindicated in practice). But the cold hard truth of the matter is that I just don't see using this game that much (if at all) in the near future, as well as the other RPG products that have trickled in over the past few years (e.g., OSE). 

Having said all that, there are two funding projects that I have decided to back, albeit at a reasonably scaled back level (for me). 

The first is the second edition of Trail of Cthulhu. Now, I already have a surfeit of Cthulhu Mythos material (including ToC, but mostly Call of Cthulhu books, some 7th edition but mainly material for earlier editions). However, I've played a couple of ToC scenarios and thought quite highly of them. Indeed, one was probably the best "one shot" horror scenario I've ever gone through. So I will be backing the current Trail of Cthulhu 2e funding campaign because of its innovative treatment of the setting and the high quality of the scenarios. I also love the ToC art. (Plus, I had a distinctly unpleasant "experience" with some of the "new Chaosium" folk around 2016-2017 -- no one involved with 7e CoC but rather the Moon Design folks -- which has put me off their products ever since. Hence, I'm happy to go elsewhere for new Cthulhu material.) 

If you're curious about Trail of Cthulhu, check out the 2e Quickstart.

The other project that I'm backing is the Broken Empires FRPG (albeit, again, at a lower level than I have backed projects in the past). I'm curious about the system, as Mythras is one of its main influences, and it aims to be a "sim-lite" game. This means, roughly, that the game falls within the "simulationist" camp -- that is, it is a game in the mold of Mythras, RuneQuest, Harnmaster, Rolemaster, Middle-earth Roleplaying, Against the Darkmaster, and the like. These kinds of games (which generally belong to the "d100" BRP and RM "families") vividly and precisely describe, via their mechanics, what happens in the game world, with hit locations (in Mythras and related systems) or critical hits (in Rolemaster, MERP, VsD, etc.), different levels of success for skill rolls, and so forth. My tastes, I've (re)discovered in recent years, definitely lie in the simulationist region of RPGs. But Broken Empires also claims to be "lite" by achieving a high degree of "simulation" with fewer mechanics, dice rolls, and calculations. I'm frankly a little sceptical about the latter claim, but the game overall looks interesting enough for me to want to include it in my collection. I'm especially intrigued by the "free form" magic system (roughly, there are no "spells," but instead spell-casters describe what effects they are trying to realize, and they draw upon their relevant skills in order to do so).  

These are somewhat niche RPG interests, I suppose, but I thought that I would mention these projects in case others might be interested in them.

The Tome of Worldbuilding from Mythmere Games

I thought I’d mention that Mythmere Games is running another kickstarter. This one is for a volume entitled The Tome of Worldbuilding. The title pretty much sums up what the book is about: “The Tome of World Building is written by ENNIE-award winning author Matt Finch, author of the critically-acclaimed Tome of Adventure Design. Using the Tome of World Building, you can create fantasy worlds quickly and fill them out with a wealth of detail from the random-generation tables in this book.”

While Mythmere Games is known primarily for its Swords & Wizardry retro-clone – my favourite game of the “Old School Renaissance” and the one that motivated me to start this blog over fifteen years ago – The Tome of Worldbuilding is system-neutral. This also is the case for the other book that is part of this kickstarter, The Nomicon, which provides “new tables for name generation.”

More information about the kickstarter is available here.

The art samples look really great. I’m especially impressed by the pictures by Kennon James, which evoke the style of the late great Dave Trampier, while still being original.

Mythmere Games does great work. Check it out!

Sale on issues 1-14 of Fight On!

As recently announced here, the Old School Renaissance fanzine Fight On! has returned to publication after a long sabbatical.

If you are missing PDF versions of the first run, issues 1-14, they currently are available in a bundle at Drivethru RPG for 50 percent off (34.99 USD). The sale will run until this Saturday (12 October 2024).

It’s great to have Fight On! back with us … and fighting on!