[Rq-rules] Elric query...

[Pete Nash]

Tom asked...

Please tell me you realise that in Elric! and Moorcock books the person
> decides what they want to do and have free will, whatever temptations
> the gods and men put in their way..


Yes the player always has free will. However, they can be tempted into
bargaining their souls for the rewards and aid the Lords of the Higher
Realms offer. Those bargains inevitably lead to the person and/or their soul
being claimed by their patron in the end.

Those who have mortgaged themselves are still free to choose their actions,
but that does not necessarily mean that they aren't pawns... lied to,
tricked, blackmailed or cajoled in the games of their patrons.

>I shall be delighted to see how Pete and Loz did it.

Here's something I wrote in reply to an inquiry on RPGNet which offers a few
more hints as to the nature of the new, and hopefully authentic magic
system. (and no, there is no demon binding!)

Pete

*****
I think I might be able to help with this, since I helped Loz co-develop the
new magic system and unfortunately he's off at a Con this weekend.

First off, let me say we spent a solid week trawling through *every* Elric
book and found *every single reference* to magic, demons, spell casting,
potion making, weird artifacts and anything else supernatural you could
possibly imagine. I still have a huge txt file with all the quotes and
references cluttering up my PC.

Then we thought about exactly how Elrician magic worked in the saga. What we
finally arrived at were,

1) Demon/Elemental summoning
2) Runes (which is the name for stand alone spells in the saga)
3) Potion making
4) Dreamthieves
5) Automatons
6) Gifts from the Lords of the Higher Planes

None of this worked with the existing MRQ rules, so we did them over from
scratch, although we used Stormbringer 1st edition as inspiration for the
new Demon Summoning rules.

Summoning allows you to call up some really powerful creatures , but at an
increasing chance that you will fail to control whatever comes.

Runes can be used either verbally for short duration effects, or inscribed
for potentially eternal effects depending on how much of your magical
strength you want tied up.

Potions are the way of storing Runes for later use, but are deadly if abused
since most require poisons as ingredients.

Dreamthieves grant a whole new aspect of traversing the mythic shadows of
the million spheres, and help to control such things as the gradual buildup
of insanity which affects most Moorcockian sorcerers.

Automatons allow the creation of golems such as Myshella's flying bird.

The Gifts of the Lords of Law, Chaos and the Elements are truly powerful,
but require you to mortgage your soul... and that Lord will eventually come
back to collect it, using you as a puppet in the meantime. Few players will
be able to refuse the bargains the Lords offer, setting them invariably on
the path of damnation...

All in all, the magic is true to the saga, and illustrated with quotes from
the books to emphasize the atmosphere. It is awesome in its capability yet
with great power comes great corruption. Souls truly are valuable!

The feel is definitely much on the original saga, trust me.

Unfortunately I heard that Mongoose had a tight page count and not all of
the magic system made it into the final book. But I believe Mongoose is
working overtime to make sure that it is all released, even if only as a
supplemental pdf.

So there you go. A teaser, a taster.

If you want authentic Elric sorcery which *really* kicks butt, then go out
and get yourself a copy... even if you prefer to use SB5/Elric as your rules
set, since the magic rules can easily be ported.
*****
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