ONE PRIME TO RULE THEM ALL

Knowing full-well that it's my 60th birthday in November, Prime Video has just released trailers for two franchise shows dropping that month that are right in my wheelhouse: one a returning fantasy series, the other a new sci-fi spin-off from a great couple of movies.

BLADE RUNNER 2099

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER, SEASON THREE

Rings of Power continues to chart the rise of Sauron in Middle-Earth, starting November 11, while all eight episodes of Blade Runner 2099 will drop on November 25.

Coincidentally, both shows have popular roleplaying games based on them, published by Free League.

Dragonbane Kickstarters Open Up 40 Years Of History

Dragonbane, Free League's English translation of the venerable Swedish roleplaying game Drakar och Demoner, comes with no official setting for its adventures.

However, two current Kickstarters (translating and updating Swedish source materials) are offering the original Swedish campaign setting - Ereb Altor - and the first standalone adventure - Twin Mountains - to modern Dragonbane players.

Both Kickstarters have already funded, guaranteeing their production.

Running until July 16, the Ereb Altor Kickstarter consists of four gorgeous-looking hardbacks, with maps, where you can find - among many other things - the locations of the adventures already published by Free League (such as Misty Vale). 

As well as new kin, heroic abilities, foes, and monsters, the setting guide includes:

"A chapter exploring Ereb Altor's history as one of Sweden's most enduring fantasy roleplaying settings."

Two of the four books concern The Copper Sea: one a player's guide to the region, including rules for seafaring adventures,  and one a gamesmaster's guide and sandbox campaign book.

The final book in the Kickstarter is Call of The Siren, an epic campaign.

Pop over to the Kickstarter's page to learn much more about all the goodness on offer.

Meanwhile, the Return to Twin Mountains crowdfunding campaign, which runs until July 31, will produce a 72-page, softback, standalone sequel to the classic 1983 adventure, Twin Mountains.

Forty years ago, a few daring adventurers from Sarnath left The Bagpipe inn in the small village of Windwoe and set off for the burial mound where the sorcerers Swarzard and Kobbler lay. After a few fierce battles against trolls and reptile men, they managed to enter the burial mound and face the dangers within. But they also found riches and the infamous demon sword Dziggetai.

Four decades have now passed, and something seems to have come back to life down by the Twin Mountains. Rumours of this reach Sarnath, and a new group of adventurers sets off for Windwoe to buy a talkative old man a beer at The Bagpipe. What is happening on the peaks of Simenov and Menov? And where did Dziggetai end up all those years ago?

It is time to journey back to the Twin Mountains.

To learn much more, and make your pledge, you can visit the adventure's Kickstarter page here.

More Blood and Souls For My Lord Arioch!

Michael Moorcock's Elric may not have been my (post-Tolkien) introduction to the sword-and-sorcery genre (that honour rests with Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser), it was Moorcock's work that truly shaped my taste in reading.

I haven't read any Leiber in an age, but I often revisit the twisted, hallucinogenic, weird fantasy adventures of Elric of Melniboné and The Young Kingdoms.

There's something about the succinctness of Moorcock's early tales of Elric and his soul-devouring sword Stormbringer that I've always found more enchanting than the doorstop tomes so prevalent today.

It was after years of reading Moorcock that I instituted my "Moorcock Rule" (more of a guideline)  that stated that a book REALLY had to work hard to justify itself if it ran longer than 150-200 pages. 

That said, I've never used the Young Kingdoms - nor any of the trappings of Elric's adventures (even Stormbringer, itself) - in my own roleplaying games. 

I don't own a copy of Chaosium's Stormbringer/Elric of Melniboné RPGs (1981 - 2010). I've looked into it in the last couple of decades but those books generally command silly money on the secondary market.

However, in recent weeks, both Goodman Games and Free League have announced they will be releasing games based on this IP next year (after crowdfunding campaigns).

Goodman Games is planning two different iterations: one using Dungeons & Dragons 5e and one using Dungeon Crawl Classics. While I feel the latter system is probably more suited to emulating the demon-fuelled magic of Elric's world, neither of these systems really tickle my fancy at the moment.

However, my interest is well-and-truly piqued by Free League's offering, Legends of Stormbringer, which will run on the Dragonbane engine. 

I know I keep saying I'm out of the buying new games side of the hobby, but to quote Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part III:

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

Dragonbane isn't a game I'm particularly familiar with, except from second hand accounts which are a generally overwhelmingly positive... with a few minor niggles about some of the mechanics.

A translated version of Drakar och Demoner, a game system played in Scandinavia since 1982, Dragonbane's definitely been at the top of my "must check out the starter set" list since it was first released in English in 2023.

This recent announcement might be the nudge I "needed" to pull the trigger on yet another game that I may - or may not - run for the Tuesday Knights.

You can read about Free League's forthcoming Stormbringer offering (and a bit about Dragonbane) here.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: My Life and Humanoid Ducks In Roleplaying Games

Part of the reason for my passionate support for Darcy Perry's wonderful DuckQuest roleplaying game - and why I backed several of his anthropomorphic duck-related miniatures Kickstarters - stretches right back to my earliest days of gaming.

In the late '70s and early '80s the bulk of my long-form (rather than random one-shot) gaming was with Gublin, a friend who lived five doors down the road from me.

Although created for a specific Dungeons & Dragons adventure at our local gaming club, my enduring character from those days was a female half-elf fighter/cleric/magic-user called Staghind, who enjoyed a storied adventuring career, before becoming a queen of her own nation and retiring.

At some stage in her life she adopted an anthropomorphic duck called Quincy as one of her many children and he taught her Quack Fu. Or she was taught Quack-Fu by a master and then she adopted Quincy. My memory from those days is like Swiss Cheese!

My ideas about humanoid ducks were entirely shaped by reading Steve Gerber's bonkers Howard The Duck comics, rather than RuneQuest (which officially introduced ducks into the roleplaying consciousness).

This is also why I have a copy of this issue framed and hanging on the wall in our lounge with other key comics from my years of collecting and reading. 

Not just because of the incredible impact it had on me as a nascent comic book reader, exposing me to the gonzo possibilities of the medium, but also for the influence it had on me as a fledgling gamer.

Whilst my anthropomorphic duck gaming ended rather abruptly with Staghind's retirement, the concept endured with the help of one of my mum's delightfully random fandoms.

Once I was of working age (and writing nonsense for the local paper), my mum somehow became a massive fan of the late '80s kids cartoon Count Duckula, so I used my salary to ensure she had an extensive collection of VHS tapes and annuals (as that was the only merch available at the time).

These days duck characters can be found roleplayng games such as Dragonbane (from Free League Publishing), where they are called "mallards", and Twilight Sword (yes, this was a deciding factor in me backing this game).

In the latter game the duck kin are also known as "mallards" and were available, in print form (as a set of cards), as an early bird sweetener to entice backers to get the ball rolling on the crowdfunding campaign.

I hesitated and missed out on this bonus "kin", but understand it will still be available to all backers as a PDF. I can't NOT have ducks as a playable race in my version of Twilight Sword!

PROJECT 60: Okay, I Might Have A Problem 😱

 

Despite having already named Go Fer Yer Gun! as my favourite roleplaying game set in the Old West, and having an ever-expanding collection of Deadlands material from across the ages, I still managed to purchase two more distinctly different games in the last seven days: Tales of The Old West and Shooting Iron.

While I admire Go Fer Yer Gun! for its elegant simplicity, Shooting Iron is another d20-based system (class, level, hit points et al), with a heap of background material (although nothing on Native Americans; they were supposed to be covered in a supplement, which has yet to see print seven years after the core rules were published).

I could see this nicely written and laid out, 200-plus page, tome being a source of "houserules" and additions to a possible GFTG! campaign, with little need for much tinkering with the stats and mechanics. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Tales Of The Old West employs the Year Zero Engine, the award-winning d6 dice pool mechanics that power such Free League roleplaying games as ALIEN, Tales From The Loop, The Walking Dead etc

I'll admit the book is quite intimidating. Tales of The Old West may be too complicated for my little noggin, although one of our group mentioned to me in the past of her experience playing ALIEN, so that could help persuade me (always helps to have someone else at the table who knows the rules of the game you are playing).

Although a licenced product (it is produced by Effekt) the book has the high production and art standards consumers of Free League games have come to expect.

Of course, these "straight" West books are just the latest addition to my RPG library.

The other week I picked up a couple of "Weird West" games: Down Darker Trails (a Call of Cthulhu supplement) and We Deal In Lead (based heavily on Stephen King's Dark Tower saga).

So, now, I have six Western-themed roleplaying games: three with ghosts and monsters and three for playing pseudohistorical reality!

What does this all mean for my current superhero campaign that I'm running for the Tuesday Knights?

Maybe nothing, but maybe something. 

I guess it depends if the current game has legs (we've only managed three sessions in five months, for various reasons).