Thursday, July 8, 2010

Classic Moorcock RPGs Available Again

It's only available in PDF form, admittedly, but it's better than nothing. Mongoose Publishing, the current license holder for RPGs based on Michael Moorcock's "Eternal Champion" novels, has apparently made an arrangement with Chaosium, the previous license holder, to sell electronic versions of the older rules and supplements.

From the looks of it, all the good stuff is here, including Stormbringer and Hawkmoon, two positively awesome old school games. This makes me very happy indeed, as these are games that aren't as well known or lauded as they ought to be. If I didn't already own the stuff I wanted in hardcopy form, I'd likely be plunking down some money to pick up some of these products. I recommend others do the same.

Kudos to Mongoose and Chaosium for making this stuff available again. Here's hoping more publishers follow suit.

12 comments:

  1. Yes, this is excellent news!

    My only disappointment is that Darcsyde's superb 'Corum' supplement is not available.

    Nonetheless, this is some unexpected good news.

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  2. You know, I have never seen the Corum supplement, even though I went to college with the sister of one of the people who wrote it.

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  3. I remember owning a copy of stormbringer, my friends weren't too interested in playing but I loved the concept used for magic which spirits were actually bound into items. It really captured the feel of the books that magic was dangerous. Like toying with bear traps that think, and didn't think too much about you.

    Lazarus Lupin
    http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
    art and review

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  4. The last I checked, the Corum sourcebook for Stormbringer was still available from Chaosium. (That's where I bought my copy.)

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  5. I'm always in favor of making PDFs of old stuff available.

    If it is not available legally, then it is pirated, and the right people don't get their money.

    ...and anything that good is GOING to get pirated.

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  6. Indeed, Tom.

    That's why I still cannot fathom the logic behind WotC's having pulled all the old school D&D PDFs from sale. With all the growing interest in earlier editions of the game -- not to mention other games from the 70s and 80s -- I bet they could have had a steady, if small, income without any real overhead and zero development costs.

    Every month that OD&D is no longer available is another month where Labyrinth Lord or Swords & Wizardry makes money instead. Now, I'm glad to see Dan and Matt make some dough from their games, believe me, but I do wish I could point interested people to a legally available PDF of the LBBs when they ask me about it, as they frequently do. That I can't is both a pity and a wasted opportunity by WotC.

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  7. Small World! - a copy of Stormbringer arrived this week to replace my old copy which has drifted off to Moorcockian planes of existence unknown.

    As for WOTC stopping selling their PDFs I'd bet my mortgage upon some beancounter or middle manager without a clue got alarmed that people were spending money on old stuff when they could be spending it on new 4E stuff instead! Because obviously the target markets are identical...

    (I know they said it was piracy but that never rang true with me and I still don't believe it).

    wv - lopit, the MBA-approved tactic of removing old goods from sale to avoid cannibalising the sales figures of the new ones you'd rather they bought instead.

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  8. 1e Stormbringer is one of the best games made IMHO - glad to see it available for those who don't already have it.

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  9. Fantastic news! I've been looking to acquire a copy of Stormbringer 1e since you wrote so highly of it before, but hadn't had much luck doing so at a reasonable price. Problem solved!

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  10. Loved Stormbringer and Hawkmoon. My copy of Stormbringer was lost to the seas of Chaos, but I still have my copy of Hawkmoon.

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  11. Akrasia -- you can get the Darcsyde Corum supplement from the Chaosium site. I believe it's available as an actual book as well as pdf.

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  12. To quote Michael Moorcock in Kobold Quarterly #5:

    "Or course, Chaosium turned out to be crooks, paying no royalties, ripping me of, behaving in a dodgy way. I tried over the years to get the stuff away from them, but it wasn't until Mongoose made a serious offer to Chaosium, plus an offer to me, that I was able to switch. Mongoose have proven a completely trustworthy firm... Gary [Gygax] told me he wished he'd known the circumstances, since he had other ideas for EC games. I too wish I'd signed with GG, who seemed a pleasant and agreeable guy."

    FYI.

    Quite a different picture than one might imagine.

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