Stormbringer (role-playing game)

Stormbringer is an RPG set in the Young Kingdoms, one of the fictional universes of epic fantasy writer Michael Moorcock. It was created and first published in the United States by the publisher Chaosium in 1981. To date the game has been edited and reissued five times under the title Stormbringer (in 1981, 1985, 1987, 1990 and 2001) and once under the title Elric! (in 1993). In 2001 Dragon Lords of Melniboné was published, a supplement for the game Elric! that allows you to play in the "multiverse" of Moorcock with the d20 system.

History of the game

Stormbringer is part of a series of role-playing games that arose when in 1979 Greg Stafford and Lynn Willis, from the publisher Chaosium, decided to extrapolate the rules system of their role-playing game RuneQuest (1978) to a summarized and generic system of rules, the so-called BRP system (Basic Role-Playing). Stafford, in 1974, had obtained the first copy of the first role-playing game ( Dungeons & amp; Dragons , 1974) at a time when he was trying to publish and market his board games set in Glorantha. For this he created Chaosium in 1975, publishing games like White Bear and Red Moon . Chaosium had not yet entered the role-playing world then but created supplements for TSR, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, and when TSR approached Stafford with creating a supplement for the Dungeons & Dragons could be played in Glorantha he rejected and decided to create his own role-playing game. In 1976 he decided to gather a team of people to create the game system for what would be the role-playing game of Glorantha, and from that first work came RuneQuest, published for the first time in 1978. The following year Stafford met with Lynn Willis to work on a synthesis of the rules for RuneQuest, a generic role-playing game system that could be applied to an infinite number of universes. And so Basic Role-Playing was published in 1980. From then on, Chaosium published a large number of role-playing games based on the BRP system. The first of these was Stormbringer in 1981, soon followed that same year by Call of Cthulhu. It had not been difficult for Chaosium to obtain the rights to exploit the universe of Moorcock, as the American publisher already had relations with the British writer since 1977, the year in which Chaosium had published the board game Elric. In fact, the author of Elric of Melniboné has given his official approval to all editions of Stormbringer that have been published to date. This official approval is mentioned in each of the basic rules manuals as well as in their respective supplements. Currently, the role-playing game Stormbringer has been published through up to five editions (1981, 1985, 1987, 1990 and 2001) in addition to the edition titled Elric!, from 1993.

Game system

• Stormbringer: the game system Stormbringer It's essentially the one Basic Role-Playing (1980), inherited in turn (although simplified) from RuneQuest (1978), but with some differences. For example states serious injurywhich define the limit from which a wound is truly incapacitating for a character (with two maximum points of life).

• Elric!: the game system Elric! retake the BRP system Stormbringerbut it is a renewal of many rules and tables, in it the background has been updated, combat... and magic is no longer as tremendously powerful and affordable as it is in Stormbringer. With Elric! all the acts of the characters can affect their relationship with the forces of the multiverse. In short, Elric! increase playability and respect with the original ideas of novels. In addition the Spanish edition (Elric), which is actually a translation of the fifth edition Stormbringerincluding the supplement Dragon Lords of Melniboné in the same basic book, thus containing the rules to play in the multiverse of Moorcock with the d20 system.

Game universe

Elric. Elric of Melniboné is the best-known character in Moorcock's novels. Albino, strange, sensitive, reflective, heir to an empire, a powerful sorcerer, weak... he survives thanks to magical devices. His life changes when he seizes the demonic sword Stormbringer , a sword inhabited by a demon that allows him to "drink souls"; those he kills, allowing Elric to feed on the vitality he needs to survive. This sword with its own intelligent personality, runic and howling, will accompany him throughout the rest of his life.

The multiverse, Law and Chaos. Many of Moorcock's works are set in the 'multiverse', a complex knot of planes or spheres in which a continual battle rages for domination by Law and Chaos. Elric, a fundamental element, is in between as an arbiter of these forces, the balance, although partial because it only serves his own interests, the perfect balance. These interests, like those of Law or Chaos, are not governed by the classical concept of good and evil, just as Elric is not the usual brave and lucky hero (The Lord of the Rings, for example, is an example of the complete opposite).

The world of Stormbringer. The Young Kingdoms are a medieval and fantastic universe where little by little Chaos is dominating. Specifically, the Young Kingdoms are a group of new nations that emerged from the decline of the decadent Melnibonese Empire. The Melnibonés, a non-human race, have secluded themselves in Melniboné, an archipelago of islands between continents.

Stormbringer and Elric! in Spain

The first translation and publication of Stormbringer in Spain was made from the fourth American edition, an edition translated and published by the Barcelona publisher Joc Internacional in 1990. The original fourth American edition was still being presented in box format, containing four stapled booklets and a map of the Young Kingdoms. The French translation of this edition kept the box format containing separate booklets, but the Spanish edition by Joc Internacional brought together the texts of those four booklets in a single hardcover book. The cover of Joc Internacional's book consisted of the original illustration by Michael Whelan, already used on the box cover of the US edition (although later the covers and interior illustrations of the supplements published by Joc were all signed by the Spanish artist Das Pastoras). This edition of Joc Internacional was produced in the same year that its American counterpart saw the light of day in the United States (in November 1990 in the case of the Spanish edition of Joc Internacional). Seven years later, in 1997, Joc Internacional published and translated the edition titled Elric! (from 1993), but this time bound in paperback, with a cover by Frank Brunner and without an exclamation mark in the title (Elric). When Joc Internacional signed its closing balance sheet (in 1998) the Madrid publishing house La Factoría de Ideas acquired the translation and publication rights of Stormbringer and Elric! His edition of the game, from 2002, was a translation of the original fifth edition of Stormbringer, although two points differentiated it from this one:

1. The title Elric of the previous edition of Joc International has been preserved while the fifth edition of the United States continues to be Stormbringerlike the four precedents that have taken that title.
2. The Spanish version of this edition also has the inclusion of some elements from the supplement Dragon Lords of Melnibonéso you can play with both the BRP system and the d20 system.

• Relationship of American original editions with their Spanish translations:

1981: 1.a edition Stormbringer (without translation in Spanish)
1985: 2nd edition Stormbringer (without translation in Spanish)
1987: 3rd edition Stormbringer (without translation in Spanish)
1990: 4th edition Stormbringer (translated in Spanish by Joc International with title Stormbringer)
1993 edition Elric! (translated in Spanish by Joc International with title Elric)
2001: 5th edition Stormbringer (translated in Spanish by La Factoría de Ideas with the title Elric)

List of manuals and supplements in Spanish

Joc International

• Stormbringer(basic manual, translation of the fourth edition, November 1990)
  • The Infernal Song(May 1991)
  • Demons and magic(March 1992)
  • The octagon of chaos(October 1992)
  • The white wolf(November 1995)
  • Hechiceros de Pan Tang(December 1996)
  • Screen of the game director(1994)

• Elric(basic manual, translation of the edition Elric!October 1997)

The Idea Factory

• Elric(basic manual, translation in a single volume of the fifth edition Stormbringer and supplement Dragon Lords of MelnibonéFebruary 2002)
• Elric (Deluxe edition of the basic manual, with the same content, ISBN itself and the same date of edition as the previous one)
  • The fate of fools(May 2002)
  • Screen of the game director(July 2002)
  • The bronze grimorium(November 2002)
  • The unknown, forgotten enemies of the Bright Empire(January 2003)
  • Atlas of the Young Kingdoms vol. I: the Northern Continent(March 2003)
  • Sailing in the seas of destination(May 2003)
  • Melniboné(April 2004)
  • The maiden renegade(September 2004)
  • Slaves of destiny(January 2005)
  • Dangers of the Young Kingdoms(November 2005)