Dragon Lords of Melnibone experiences anyone?

[Turanil]

Well, long ago I bought Dragon Lords of Melnibone (Elric adapted to d20), but never used it because the D&D classes did look out of place in Elric's world. But now I am thinking about using it as a setting for a Grim Tales game, adding in some stuff reminiscing of Hawkmoon (thus a little of weird technology).

So, I would like to know if anyone has ever played or DMed this setting, and what was his experiences. What do you think about the rules for demonology for example?

 

[HellHound]

the d20 demonology rules are pretty painful. Generally speaking, you only get to summon the wimpiest demons.

I've run several Stormbringer! campaigns over the years, and my own house setting is very much an adaptation of the setting in question... but DLoM just doesn't cut it as a d20 product (although it is an excellent setting book if you just ingore the crunch - as long as you don't already own another edition of the game).

 

[JoeGKushner]

the d20 demonology rules are pretty painful. Generally speaking, you only get to summon the wimpiest demons.

I've run several Stormbringer! campaigns over the years, and my own house setting is very much an adaptation of the setting in question... but DLoM just doesn't cut it as a d20 product (although it is an excellent setting book if you just ingore the crunch - as long as you don't already own another edition of the game).

This is a "Me Too" post. Another reason why when people keep heaping praise on Chaosium I just shake my head. It's almost like they wanted their d20 projects to fail.

 

[C. Baize]

I have Dragonlords of Melnibone...
It was the first 3rd party D20 product I ever bought.

It was almost the last. Even being a complete newbie to D20, I could see how out of balance the book was.

I dunno... it might work as a setting unto itself, but I doubt it.

 

[Psion]

the d20 demonology rules are pretty painful. Generally speaking, you only get to summon the wimpiest demons.

I've run several Stormbringer! campaigns over the years, and my own house setting is very much an adaptation of the setting in question... but DLoM just doesn't cut it as a d20 product (although it is an excellent setting book if you just ingore the crunch - as long as you don't already own another edition of the game).

I thought you said we disagreed on this book.

 

[Turanil]

The d20 demonology rules are pretty painful. Generally speaking, you only get to summon the wimpiest demons.

It's also what I thought to have noticed. I think of adding this houserule: when summoning a demon in a region/place where the influence of Law is strong, the DLoM rules apply as is, and yes you spend much XP for a wimpy demon. Now, the strongest the influence of Chaos in the region/place where you summon the demon, the less costly it is. That is, I will give a multiplier so for 1000 XP you get in fact worth 2000 or 3000 or 4000 etc. points to make the demon.

 

[malebode]

In order to properly represent the type of magic that is in Michael Moorecock's Melnibone and Young Kingdoms, it would be necessary to revamp the entire magic system. Instead, Chaosium just took the core magic system and basically skewed it slightly toward summoning. The demon rules are just a "slap-on", in my opinion. The book does have a wealth of good setting information; However I must add the disclaimer that since Moorecock habitually refrains from world-building, most of the details are extrapolations from the books or new material presented for filling out the world. The core magic system, being poorly suited to Elric's type of magic, is better replaced by something like the Conan RPG. Robert Howard's magic was similar to Moorecock's, and it would be a good starting point.

 

[Voadam]

The demon rules have too high a cost for not enough demon, you also need to give up stat points for summoning in addition to the massive xp costs.

Also watch out for unconverted monster abilities that are straight out of the elric/stormbringer version such as the dragon breath weapon.

 

[Voadam]

The dark fantasy setting works fine for D&D. I played in a campaign that melded in the setting with others. The melniboneans worked well as "drowesti" elves for the setting, and Stormbringer was a dangerous artefact Sword of Evil that could kill gods.

 

[trancejeremy]

The Demon summoning rules are pretty much straight out of Elric! and poorly converted to d20, like just about everything else in DLOM.