Elric has left the building

Or should I say the 'plane of existence'?

I just noticed that no Elric or Stormbringer RPG-related materials (or anything related to the Moorcockian multiverse, for that matter) are now available for sale … anywhere.

It looks like Mongoose has dropped their Elric of Melniboné RPG line entirely (the announcement is in this thread).  And the PDFs of the classic Chaosium Stormbringer (1e and 4e) and Elric! products are no longer available for sale at RPGnow or DrivthruRPG.

Even though I have most of these materials, in either print or PDF (sometimes both), I'm quite disappointed to learn of this development.  (After all, one of the best campaigns I ever played in was set in the Young Kingdoms.)

*sigh*

Mongoose RuneQuest II to become 'Legend' with an 'Open' License

Instead of renaming their RuneQuest II system 'Wayfarer', Mongoose instead has opted for (the vastly superior, in my opinion) name 'Legend'. Moreover, it will be released under an 'open' license!

From here:

Henceforth, the core RuneQuest II rules will be known as Legend.

We are still putting together the release schedule of this line for 2012 (though it is filling up fast!), but we can reveal the following books and their availability;

October

Legend: The core rulebook, providing all the mechanics you need to start playing - these rules will be 100% compatible with the current RuneQuest II line and _nothing_ will be invalidated. If you are using it now, you will be able to make the switch to Legend in October without so much as fluttering an existing campaign. They are the same game.

Monsters of Legend: The central bestiary for the game, it will draw material from all RQII settings thus far, plus include a few surprises you have not yet seen.

November

The Spider God's Bride: A real Hyborian-esque sword & sorcery romp with a classic extended adventure.

Rouen - City of Sanctified Sinners: A brand new supplement for Deus Vult, detailing the city of Rouen and the movers and shakers that trouble the people there. If you have read Sister Devout, you will know what to expect!

January

Arms of Legend: Every piece of equipment your fantasy or historical adventurer could ever need will be in these pages!

February

Vikings of Legend: We have a soft spot for these guys, so RQ Vikings will be converted into the new format sooner than most.

There will be many more brand new releases for Legend, but these are the ones we have currently locked into the schedule.

Three more points to be made...

First off, we have to stress that Legend will be 100% compatible with your current RQII books. If you have an RQII book now, you will be able to use it with Legend. If you buy a Legend book, you will be able to use it with your RQII books. So it is written, so it shall be.

We have had a few requests about tweaking the core RQII rules or adding some bits and pieces to them, and we are considering this. However, _if_ we add or change anything to RQII (and _if_ we do, it will be minor) then we will post any such changes, in their entirety, on our weeb site for free download. We are not looking at doing this lightly but where a tweak will make for a better game, we will have to consider it.

Second, All Legend books will be in 'digest' format, literally half the footprint of the current RQII line. The maximum price for these books will be $19.99, and a few will be less than that.

Finally, we have decided to proceed with an 'open' licence for Legend. This will allow anyone to publish pretty much anything they like using the RQII/Legend mechanics.

However, we are going to make it easier to operate and be a part of. There will be no registration required and no complicated contracts or agreements. You will simply abide by a few very easy rules (such as not copying the front cover designs of our books), put a Legend Compatible logo on the front, and you will be good to go! There will be no SRD - instead, you may freely use anything that appears in the core book range - from the schedule above, this will include the main rulebook, Monsters of Legend, Arms of Legend and Vikings of Legend. And yes, when they appear (likely in summer 2012), Samurai and Pirates of Legend too!

So, if you want to construct your own Viking saga, for example, you can do so using Vikings of Legend as the foundation, and then publish it alongside our core book. We recommend sticking to the digest format, but there is absolutely no requirement to do so.

We have lots more coming up for Legend, material both old and brand new, and we will be revisiting classic settings while exploring all new ones. The future is looking good!

I had been quite pessimistic about the future of 'Wayfarer-now-Legend', doubting Mongoose's commitment to the system. But this is very good news, and I'm feeling much better about the future of the system now!

My only disappointment with this announcement is that there is no mention of any future 'Eternal Champion' books. If Mongoose has no intention on producing any future Elric, Hawkmoon, or Corum supplements, I wish that they would simply drop the license so that someone else could give it a try. But perhaps I'm being too pessimistic again, and will be pleasantly surprised in due course...

I am very much looking forward to the 'Legend' version of The Spider God's Bride, and will definitely be picking it up once it becomes available.

Finally, as had been noted widely when Mongoose first announced their new name for MRQII, there already exists a 'Wayfarers' FRPG. It looks like Mongoose will be publishing and distributing the original Wayfarers for Ye Olde Gaming Companye:

Wayfarers RPG

First up, we have been chatting to those nice chaps at Ye Olde Gaming Companye and found out that they were not only prepping a new version for their Wayfarers RPG but that they were in need of distribution. Being familiar with their game and seeing they were obviously such nice chaps, we immediatly offered to print and distribute their game!

The Wayfarers RPG will be released by Mongoose in December this year, likely in the second week. We will be following it up with the first supplement in January, World of Twylos. Look for them in all good game stores.

I own the PDF for Wayfarers and quite like it, so I'm happy to learn that it will be enjoying greater distribution in the future.

In short, lots of unexpected good news over at the Mongoose website today!

Inexpensive RuneQuest II PDFs

I don't think that I've mentioned this already, despite my earlier posts on Mongoose's decision to drop the 'RuneQuest' license (see this and that), but the PDFs for the RuneQuest II books are now quite inexpensive!

I recently picked up the 'core bundle' and PDF versions of the three 'Elric' supplements. If you are fond of 'd100' games at all (BRP or earlier versions of RuneQuest), I highly recommend purchasing at least the MRQII core rulebook.

Mongoose's RuneQuest 'I' PDFs also are quite inexpensive these days, although, obviously, less useful for people who prefer RuneQuest II (and what sane person wouldn't?). Still, I may pick up the 'Hawkmoon' PDFs soon, as I think it's quite unlikely we'll ever see a MRQII/Wayfarer version of that setting.

Some News on the Future of Mongoose's RuneQuest II System

I missed this statement when it was first posted a week ago by Matt Sprange of Mongoose Games. It addresses some of the concerns with 'the-game-formerly-known-as-RuneQuest II' that have been expressed at various forums and blogs, including my worry that 'Wayfarer' was simply an attempt to prevent Mongoose from being stuck with a backlog of MRQII books. It also broaches the general interest amongst MRQII fans in the possibility that the game might be re-released under the OGL.

Here are the relevant bits:

With the announcement of RuneQuest II becoming Wayfarer, the internet forums briefly lit up in a spark of debate and the inevitable analysis followed. Some of it was correct, a lot wasn't. So, time for a spot of rumour control!

First, we are not planning for Wayfarer to just limp along. It is not a ruse to keep selling stocks of RuneQuest books in the warehouse. If we were not serious about supporting the game, we would not be doing it - it has to be understood that we do not simply hang around the office all day playing games. The people here work extremely hard and they all have better things to do than prop up a game we are not serious about supporting.

It also makes perfect sense for us to have an in-house fantasy system that we can readily apply to any new settings we develop or licence, just as we have a science fiction system in Traveller. If we were to relinquish all fantasy RPGs, it would be a noticeable gap in our line up.

It has been said that all we are planning to do is shovel existing books into a new format so they can tick along. Well, that is rather a negative way of looking at it, and a little further analysis would reveal that producing existing work in the new format is a logical course of action. It has the following advantages;

1. It is quick, easy and economic for us. This means we can support the system indefinetly because the costs are greatly reduced. At the same time, we can release the books at a much lower price point, making them a much more attractive proposition for you. We are aiming for a £9.99 price point for most books, and it is difficult to see how even a big fat one would be priced at more than £14.99 - this is exactly what we have been doing with the Lone Wolf Multiplayer Gamebooks, so we know the concept works.

2. The new format does not require existing players to buy a new book (in fact, it gives them the Pocket version people have been asking for since RQII came out). If we asked people to do that it _would_ kill the game dead.

3. If there are people out there who have been wavering on the edge, hearing about how good the game system is (and, as you will know if you have played it, it really is very, very good), then the new format is practically an impulse purchase.

We will re-release the core book (the mechanics unchanged, with the exception of integration of errata and a few clarifications - anything new will be posted, for free, on our web site for owners of the RQII rulebook), Arms & Equipment and the Monster Coliseum (renamed and potentially with the arena rules removed - we wanted the book to be more than just a monster manual, but it seems that is exactly what most people wanted!). Those will appear fairly quickly, as they form the core of the game, but we will also bring back Empires and Vikings, and likely Necromantic Arts a little further down the line.

However, we will also be bringing brand new material into play relatively quickly. We are currently looking at a one-shot Hyborian-esque grand adventure, new material for Deus Vult and some bits and pieces for Elric - we will be adding to this list over the next few months, and we have a strong interest in working with more historical settings, be they extensions to Vikings or brand new areas (and Land of the Samurai could certainly make a return in one form or another).

We have been asked whether we will make Wayfarer OGL. This will be a decision made later but, at this time, we are leaning towards it. However, I don't think it will be the usual OGL/logo licence combo, as messing around with SRDs is very time-consuming for us. If we go ahead with this, it is more likely to be a case of everything in the core book range is ripe for picking, just stay away from the setting books - aside from using a 'Wayfarer Compatible' logo, there will be nothing to sign or register for. Just pick up the rules and use them.

(Thanks to the rune under water for the link.)

The reference to only 'bits and pieces' forthcoming for the 'Elric' line is not encouraging. (And there is no mention of any other potential 'Eternal Champion' books, e.g. 'Hawkmoon' or 'Corum'.)

However, Sprange also has announced recently that a MRQII/Wayfarer version of the Spider God's Bride will be forthcoming (from 'Xoth.net publishing'; more on the world of Xoth here). This would be, I assume, the "one-shot Hyborian-esque grand adventure" that Sprange mentions in his post.

If MRQII/Wayfarer is supported with more similar third-party products, then perhaps the future of MRQII/Wayfarer is not as grim as I had feared!

I think I'll have a couple of pints on that happy thought...