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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2008199" data-attributes="member: 172">This book is an attempt to bring the classic Sword & Sorcery setting of the Elric saga to the D20 System. Along with it comes an array of new material to accomoate this. In addition to the background material, there are new spells for the D20 system, new skills, and new system notes. The new system notes include demon summoning and an allegience system that measures ones alleigances with respect to the forces of law and chaos in the setting.Alas, despite all of this, the book is a somewhat lackluster effort. Chaosium didn't really put their all into this product. And it shows.First off, a great degree of the material is clipped straight from other Chaosium products. I have to admit there was a great wash of nostalgia as I read the demon system, as I had played Elric and Stormbringer in the past. But as I read more, the sinking realization set in that this was not a good thing. The adaptations were nowhere near as thorough as they needed to be.For example, they do a good job of trying to outline what spells are appropriate for the setting, However they miss a more basic question of who is a sorcerer, who is a wizards, and who is a cleric. The Elric setting doesn't distinguish neatly between divine and arcane magic (and the book as much as states that certain arcane spells come straight from the lords of Chaos.) I was baffled to see at no place did they see fit to discuss how to treat this situation.The demon rules are rather cool, but are extremely costly and risky for all but the hugest congregations. They could definitely use some more work, perhaps even borrowing material from Sword & Sorceries ritual rules (you can do that under the license, y'know).As others have mentioned, the book engages is skill proliferation, a practice that is avoided by WotC and other vendors. Many of the skills could have been done with the existing craft, profession, and knowledge skills. As a matter of the fact, that's obviously what one Chaosium staffer was thinking, because they text includes a sailor specialization of the expert career. However, the sailor has profession (sailing) instead of Chaosium's home grown sailing skill.In short, the books has some interesting crunchy bits, but that aren't well done and it probably won't be worth it if you are not going to use the setting. And if you are out to use the setting, you will find that the adaptations are probably aren't as good as Chaosium's own system are on this score.This is not to say that I don't think that the D20 System couldn't do the Elric saga as good or better than the BRP system... it most definitely could have if some genuine effort was spent in the adaptation. But alas, this is not the case, and if you intend to do an Elric-saga type game, you may find it prudent to do some more of your own work on the system before you dive in.The book has some good ideas and material, but given this, the implementation it is merely "alright." Further, I can think of a number of "average" products that I will get more use out of than this book.If you want to play the Elric Saga and are willing to do a little work, this may be a worthwhile purchase for you. Lacking either of those criteria, perhaps your money is better spent elsewhere.</blockquote>

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