Anyone ever play any of the iterations of Stormbringer, the Elric game? It was set in the Young Kingdoms, had mostly human races plus cannibal-elf style ‘Melnibineans’, winged people, dragons and demon summoning magic.
So perfect for 2d20…
The last version was Mongoose I believe and wasn’t successful because (reviews said) the system was meh. But I think a 2d20 version would blow minds. Even a homebrew.
Thoughts?
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Yep. Stormbringer was actually the first RPG I ever bought, although I had played D&D beforehand.
I bought the copy of the Games Workshop published 3rd Edition, which had the really spectacular cover art and a few other full colour plates inside. It looked really evocative and the system was a very simple percentile system, which was easy to grasp. The concepts of “Law vs Chaos” and the “Multiverse” comes from Moorecock’s Elric series, and Stormbringer was the name of a demon-sword he carried. In D&D terms, Elric is an archetypal Warlock.
The Melnibonéans weren’t cannibal elves as such, but were an ancient decadent empire of inhuman, Chaos-worshiping sorcerers. They commanded a dragon-riding army - which is possibly where Game of Thrones got some ideas about the Targerians - and a powerful sorcery-enhanced navy. Their decadence meant that a lot of them spent their time in a drug-like dream state, while others engaged in artful practices like torture. They were a very cruel empire.
Elric was the mirror opposite of Conan - deliberately written as such, as a sort of counter-cultural statement. He was a classic antihero, who began as a weakling, wistfully melancholy albino who sat on the throne of the Melnibonéan Empire as it’s doomed last Emperor. He sustained himself with drugs, sorcery and pacts with demons and other magical figures. He essentially renounced his throne to go on adventures, then later sacked his own capital and pretty much destroyed everything he ever loved - including the entire universe he lived in. He was part of a series of Eternal Champions, however, that existed in a multiverse that each brought a balance between cosmic Law and Chaos.
If Modiphius did do the license, for 2D20, I for one wouldn’t hesitate to get it.
You put it so much better than me…
Stormbringer was also my first RPG purchase! Also played Hawk moon, I believe.
I think I might have to homebrew a magic system for. The 2d20 system fits it so well. And you’re right, Elric was a counter-culture statement. So there would be a beautiful kind of symmetry to Modiphius somehow getting the license for it… 
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I hear that if you stack enuff euros, Moorcock will give in…
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Well he had a falling out with Chaosium, with rumours of unpaid royalties and/or lack of development or summat, under the old management. It was then picked up by Mongoose for a while, then dropped.
So nobody is doing anything with the material at the moment, which is a shame. Moorecock’s remains alive and kicking and I listened to an interview with him a few days ago.
I played it and died horribly. I wouldn’t mind modiphius taking a crack at it 
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Details, please, Feond(as). 
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Its been a while. I got lucky on rolls during character generation and got a well armored noble and named him Albion Weyland etc. Well after several adventures we ended up going to a castle but i never got there as some guards found our group and during the scuffle one of them buried an axe in Albion’s chest right through his full plate. There was more and something to do with a demon we were tracking but its been so long I don’t remember it fully.
It did make me aware of crit tables though. If you and NPCs have equal access to them eventually they get lucky and you will die. Dnd was the same way. I’ve seen crit tables with zombies destroy good parties and leave them maimed and bleeding. Warhammer 40k does it well with only Main villains getting the ability to crit but regular mobs and lieutenants don’t get to crit you.
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