The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Despite all of AD&D's flaws, there's much to be said for its fundemental nature. When you read Stormbringer, the 4th edition of what would later become the Elric! role-playing game, you can see how AD&D is much better in certain respects.

At the moment, Stormbringer is about one or two versions old. A previous review of Elric! maade it sound as if most of the game's flaws had been fixed, but I figured that I'd review the 4th edition just to showcase what's been changed and what's completely flawed. Plus, it's neat to see how it differs from the current version, which sounds like it threw out almost all of the major flaws of this version.

In any case: the setting for Stormbringer is also the home of Michael Moorcock's most famous creation, Elric of Melnibone, a moody albino sorceror/swordsman/ex-emperor of Melnibone whose adventures were written during the New Wave of science fiction; they were a mixture of sword and sorcery and intense introspection, since Elric was one of the gloomiest characters in the fantasy field.

Oddly enough, I've never been a fan of his works. They struck me as standard sword and sorcery with the occasional moment of inspiration, like when Elric and three other aspects of the Eternal Champion melded into the dead, building-sized body of one of their enemies in order to fight its twin. To be sure, they're worth reading, but Moorcock's innovations - a psychologically deep character, adventures that span more than one plane, the eternal battle between Law and Chaos and the notion of the Eternal Champion - have already been worked into most modern fantasy. They still stand as excellent fantasy, but they've been a little outdated. At least, as far as I know...

In any case, the game is set in the Young Kingdoms, around the period of the fall of Melnibone. Melnibone has steadily sunk into decline, and the Young Kingdoms are on the rise - at least until the entire world is wiped out by the incursion of Chaos, sparked by Elric's upsetting of a particular balance between Law and Chaos. Admittedly, ten years is a long time for characters to adventure in, and there are other worlds that the characters can escape to; the doom of the Young Kingdoms is something that can't be worked around, unless you want to completely ignore the events of the Elric stories. If you do, what's the point?

That raises one of the problems that I imagine Elric! solves; in the Young Kingdoms, most of the characters are going to be involved with the struggle between Law and Chaos in a peripheral sense. Elric himself was the prime mover and shaker in the destruction of his own world, and since characters probably shouldn't be allowed to change that result, Keepers are going to have to strike a balance between letting the characters feel like they're actually doing something and avoiding doing anything that could alter the fundemental sweep of the stories. In Call of Cthulhu and similar stories, the doom is nebulous and occurs whenever you feel like it. In Elric, it's like an oncoming freight train.

The good thing about this is that there is the multiverse to explore; dozens of different worlds where the struggle between Law and Chaos continues, without a set end. As a matter of fact, Moorcock pretty much invented the concept of the multiverse, and his books are packed with some pretty amazing examples. So there's the solution to that particular problem, I imagine.

In any case, Stormbringer uses Chaosium's standard Basic Role-Playing System, which is one of the simplest and most useful role-playing systems out there; attribute checks are done by multiplying the attribute by five and rolling percentile dice. Attributes are rolled depending on race - and here's the problem; you either decide to be a standard human (Vilmirian) or take your chances by rolling on a random table of races from the Young Kingdoms.

Each race changes your attributes; for example, the Pikarayd get 2d4 to STR and 1 to their SIZ score, while the Lormyrians get -1d4 from their INT and 2 to their SIZ. Essentially, you get penalized or rewarded on the result of a single dice roll. Elves in AD&D lose, say, a point from their Constitution in exchange for an extra point to their Dexterity; but in Stormbringer, there's no balancing mechanism. Maybe it's meant to reflect the influence of Chaos on the Young Kingdoms; in my mind, it's a recipe for annoyed players. To boot, only certain races have the option to be sorcerors - this is realistic, but it's also annoying. It's just not something that most players are going to put up with. Hence Elric!.

As for occupations, most characters are going to wind up in fairly common occupations - besides thief, warrior and noble, there's sailors, merchants, hunters, priests and craftsmen available. Again, the luck of the dice is essential. You could get a Priest, who gets something like 5d100 gold coins (LB, in Stormbringer) per month to support himself, or a farmer, who gets his INT x 1d20. And perhaps a kick in the skull for good measure. What the author was thinking while he was writing this chapter is a mystery even to me.

You know, I was going to go through the whole thing point by point, to showcase the merits and flaws of this particular game; but it's just too sad to go over. Given what I read in the review of Elric!, the system there has changed by leaps and bounds, tightening up most of the crud and fixing the ludicrously broken system involved in becoming an Agent of Law or Chaos. There's an excellent system for winning favor from patrons of Law or Chaos, where you gain points for doing certain actions; there's some nice, if out-of-place art from Nick Smith in the color plate section (something that Chaosium sorely needs to reinstate); there's some fairly silly, early AD&D style adventures; there's nothing that really justifies the time that you might put into this product.

One of the reasons why I picked this game up - at $8 - was because Chaosium can usually provide good value even in an earlier version of a product. For example, Call of Cthulhu 4th and 5th edition aren't that entirely different, and 4th has more raw material than the 5th edition does. But Stormbringer isn't like that; it exemplifies some of the worst tendencies of AD&D without offering anything useful in its place. If you want to play in the world of the Young Kingdoms, or in Michael Moorcock's multiverse, pick up Elric! and leave this sucker on the shelf.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Stormbringer, 4th edition
Author: Ken St. Andre, Steve Perrin, John B. Monroe Category: game Company/Publisher: Chaosium Line: Elric/Stormbringer Cost: $5-20, depending on where you can get it... Page count: 196 ISBN: 0-933635-66-4 SKU: Chaosium 2110 Capsule Review by Darren MacLennan on 08/16/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Horror Gothic	Despite all of AD&D's flaws, there's much to be said for its fundemental nature. When you read Stormbringer, the 4th edition of what would later become the Elric! role-playing game, you can see how AD&D is much better in certain respects. At the moment, Stormbringer is about one or two versions old. A previous review of Elric! maade it sound as if most of the game's flaws had been fixed, but I figured that I'd review the 4th edition just to showcase what's been changed and what's completely flawed. Plus, it's neat to see how it differs from the current version, which sounds like it threw out almost all of the major flaws of this version. In any case: the setting for Stormbringer is also the home of Michael Moorcock's most famous creation, Elric of Melnibone, a moody albino sorceror/swordsman/ex-emperor of Melnibone whose adventures were written during the New Wave of science fiction; they were a mixture of sword and sorcery and intense introspection, since Elric was one of the gloomiest characters in the fantasy field. Oddly enough, I've never been a fan of his works. They struck me as standard sword and sorcery with the occasional moment of inspiration, like when Elric and three other aspects of the Eternal Champion melded into the dead, building-sized body of one of their enemies in order to fight its twin. To be sure, they're worth reading, but Moorcock's innovations - a psychologically deep character, adventures that span more than one plane, the eternal battle between Law and Chaos and the notion of the Eternal Champion - have already been worked into most modern fantasy. They still stand as excellent fantasy, but they've been a little outdated. At least, as far as I know... In any case, the game is set in the Young Kingdoms, around the period of the fall of Melnibone. Melnibone has steadily sunk into decline, and the Young Kingdoms are on the rise - at least until the entire world is wiped out by the incursion of Chaos, sparked by Elric's upsetting of a particular balance between Law and Chaos. Admittedly, ten years is a long time for characters to adventure in, and there are other worlds that the characters can escape to; the doom of the Young Kingdoms is something that can't be worked around, unless you want to completely ignore the events of the Elric stories. If you do, what's the point? That raises one of the problems that I imagine Elric! solves; in the Young Kingdoms, most of the characters are going to be involved with the struggle between Law and Chaos in a peripheral sense. Elric himself was the prime mover and shaker in the destruction of his own world, and since characters probably shouldn't be allowed to change that result, Keepers are going to have to strike a balance between letting the characters feel like they're actually doing something and avoiding doing anything that could alter the fundemental sweep of the stories. In Call of Cthulhu and similar stories, the doom is nebulous and occurs whenever you feel like it. In Elric, it's like an oncoming freight train. The good thing about this is that there is the multiverse to explore; dozens of different worlds where the struggle between Law and Chaos continues, without a set end. As a matter of fact, Moorcock pretty much invented the concept of the multiverse, and his books are packed with some pretty amazing examples. So there's the solution to that particular problem, I imagine. In any case, Stormbringer uses Chaosium's standard Basic Role-Playing System, which is one of the simplest and most useful role-playing systems out there; attribute checks are done by multiplying the attribute by five and rolling percentile dice. Attributes are rolled depending on race - and here's the problem; you either decide to be a standard human (Vilmirian) or take your chances by rolling on a random table of races from the Young Kingdoms. Each race changes your attributes; for example, the Pikarayd get 2d4 to STR and 1 to their SIZ score, while the Lormyrians get -1d4 from their INT and 2 to their SIZ. Essentially, you get penalized or rewarded on the result of a single dice roll. Elves in AD&D lose, say, a point from their Constitution in exchange for an extra point to their Dexterity; but in Stormbringer, there's no balancing mechanism. Maybe it's meant to reflect the influence of Chaos on the Young Kingdoms; in my mind, it's a recipe for annoyed players. To boot, only certain races have the option to be sorcerors - this is realistic, but it's also annoying. It's just not something that most players are going to put up with. Hence Elric!. As for occupations, most characters are going to wind up in fairly common occupations - besides thief, warrior and noble, there's sailors, merchants, hunters, priests and craftsmen available. Again, the luck of the dice is essential. You could get a Priest, who gets something like 5d100 gold coins (LB, in Stormbringer) per month to support himself, or a farmer, who gets his INT x 1d20. And perhaps a kick in the skull for good measure. What the author was thinking while he was writing this chapter is a mystery even to me. You know, I was going to go through the whole thing point by point, to showcase the merits and flaws of this particular game; but it's just too sad to go over. Given what I read in the review of Elric!, the system there has changed by leaps and bounds, tightening up most of the crud and fixing the ludicrously broken system involved in becoming an Agent of Law or Chaos. There's an excellent system for winning favor from patrons of Law or Chaos, where you gain points for doing certain actions; there's some nice, if out-of-place art from Nick Smith in the color plate section (something that Chaosium sorely needs to reinstate); there's some fairly silly, early AD&D style adventures; there's nothing that really justifies the time that you might put into this product. One of the reasons why I picked this game up - at $8 - was because Chaosium can usually provide good value even in an earlier version of a product. For example, Call of Cthulhu 4th and 5th edition aren't that entirely different, and 4th has more raw material than the 5th edition does. But Stormbringer isn't like that; it exemplifies some of the worst tendencies of AD&D without offering anything useful in its place. If you want to play in the world of the Young Kingdoms, or in Michael Moorcock's multiverse, pick up Elric! and leave this sucker on the shelf. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Stormbringer, 4th edition