Stormbringer: Fantasy Roleplaying in the World of Elric

by Ken St. Andre, Steve Perrin

(Games Workshop [UK] hardcover edition) "Available for the first time in a hardback book, and including the separately published Stormbringer Companion, Stormbringer brings alive the lands of the Young Kingdoms. Based on the same game system as the enormously popular RuneQuest Fantasy Roleplaying Adventure game, Stormbringer allows players to choose from a wide variety of backgrounds, from Melnibonean Noble to Pan Tangian sorcerer. All the characters and places from the Elric mythos are here, ready for your characters to meet and adventure with. Complete details of the Young Kingdoms at the time of Elric are included, along with creatures, characters and 7 complete roleplaying adventures, including two solos. With this one volume, you have a complete guide to roleplaying in the world of Elric, Moonglum, Rackhir, Yyrkoon - and, of course, the soul-stealing demon-sword Stormbringer."

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, Fantasy, Games

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Kenneth Eugene St. Andre is an American fantasy author and game designer, best known for his work with Tunnels & Trolls, the fantasy role-playing game he has authored and curated since 1975, and Wasteland, the 1988 post-apocalyptic computer role playing game. He has been an active member of The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America since 1989 and in June 2018, The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design inducted St. Andre into its Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Garrett Henke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realistically, this book does not deserve 5 stars. This edition was released in 1990 and it really shows. The system is archaic by modern standards (absurd levels of lethality) and the artwork was maybe slightly above average for the time. Further, it doesn’t actually fit Michael Moorcock’s brilliant Elric setting in any sort of way. So why the 5 stars?

Essentially, this game is just flat out fun. The writers took the Young Kingdoms and Elric’s world in general and adapted it to a highly engaging RPG campaign world. No, it’s not really Elric, but it’s a better gaming world.

Over the years I’ve read this book probably ten to fifteen times and run it about a half dozen. Even with the old school quality, I enjoy myself going through the pages each read through. Whenever I run it for a group there is a lot of laughter, cries of victory (and sighs of disappointment), and just a fun time in general.

[Matthew J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tabletop RPG both very much of its time and ahead of its time. Basic Role-Playing, the core mechanic behind "Runequest," "Call of Cthulhu," and the game I got started with, "Worlds of Wonder" is used to bring Michael Moorcock's crazy Fantasy world alive. There are organizational and formatting choices that let you know right off this game was from the EARLY days of the hobby. Pages of text blocks, awkwardly placed info dumps, information about certain subjects randomly scattered throughout the 144 pages of the rule book...that sort of thing. That said, even in this early game, the things that make Basic Role-Playing so good come through. The system is fairly clear.
Character creation makes sense. There's a lot of variety in what you do. There is a lot more randomness than would be common in later games, even down to what nationality your character is. That could easily be off-putting for a player who has a specific character in mind. However, it shouldn't take much to work around that.
I don't know that I'd be especially suited to running a game in Moorcock's world, but boy I'd like to try playing in it. The whole time I was reading this book, I was thinking about how much fun it would be, and about all those early games I used to run and play back in the late 80s.

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely-presented hardcover compilation of the 2nd Edition Stormbringer rules and the Stormbringer Companion. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...