D&D General Official Elric of Melniboné TTRPG coming from Goodman Games

Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné is getting an official tabletop roleplaying game courtesy of Goodman Games. The game will be powered both by the D&D 5E game engine, as well as Goodman's in-house Dungeon Crawl Classics.

A whole line of products is planned, under the banner The Classic Era of Elric, and will be crowdfunded in 2027.

Elric of Melniboné is a classic sword and sorcery character dating back to the 1960s, featuring in a series of stories by Michael Moorcock. The titular character, a summoner, is physically weak and maintains his health using special herbs until he acquires Stormbringer, a magical sword which grnats him physical prowess, but which must feed on the souls of living beings.

 

[Divine2021]

Some of you are being weird and super online about this Goodman Games thing. It’s gross.

 

[jdrakeh]

Some of you are being weird and super online about this Goodman Games thing. It’s gross.

What's gross is enriching unrepentant bigots.

 

[...m...]

Me, either, but they have openly admitted (after first promising that they would not and later trying to justify it) that they're cool working with virulent racists. So.

...there's a profound categorical difference between publishing an historic work with licensing rights inherited by unsavory individuals (with no creative involvement in the work), and working with unsavory individuals in a manner which gives them creative voice...

...if you can't see that, well, you do you...
(and good luck avoiding pervasive ownership interests of unsavory folks in every aspect of modern commerce)

 

[Divine2021]

What's gross is enriching unrepentant bigots.

Did that feel good to write out to me? Like, do you feel better about yourself? Look, I’m a Black nerd, I don’t need a terminally online white guy to tell me what’s racist.

It’s weird. But you do you. I’ll just continue to play good games and spend my money where I like.

 

[Dire Bare]

Writing wild west inspired games and including the Confederacy (or a sci-fi future version of it) doesn't make the game's creators "neoconfederates" by any stretch.

Still, it's tricky to include those elements without making folks understandably uncomfortable, which is why Deadlands walked it back.

I don't hold Broncosaurus Rex against Goodman Games (although, I've never read the books) . . . but Goodman Games continuing to do business with Bledsaw and Judges Guild, however, I do hold against them. And their inability to address the problem transparently and honestly. That's enough, I don't need more.

Shame, because I'd love to check out a 5E Elric game! Oh well.

 

[Dire Bare]

...there's a profound categorical difference between publishing an historic work with licensing rights inherited by unsavory individuals (with no creative involvement in the work), and working with unsavory individuals in a manner which gives them creative voice...

...if you can't see that, well, you do you...
(and good luck avoiding pervasive ownership interests of unsavory folks in every aspect of modern commerce)

There is a difference . . .

But not enough of one, for me at least.

It's not actually all that hard to avoid doing business with racists like Bledsaw. If you know about their racism beforehand, you just simply don't cut a deal. If you find out later, you wind down the project and end it. Easy peasy.

 

[Morrus]

What's gross is enriching unrepentant bigots.

Did that feel good to write out to me? Like, do you feel better about yourself? Look, I’m a Black nerd, I don’t need a terminally online white guy to tell me what’s racist.

It’s weird. But you do you. I’ll just continue to play good games and spend my money where I like.

Dial it down, please, you two. Or put each other on ignore. Whatever works.

 

[EthanSental]

Out of curiosity, this GG version launches in 2027 but when will the pdf or physical be available? With the free league be out first or does it launch around the same time or do both complete and ship around the same time?

 

[Jeffzilla]

Me, either, but they have openly admitted (after first promising that they would not and later trying to justify it) that they're cool working with virulent racists. So.

I didn’t follow the hot takes about this all that closely at the time, but my understanding is that the ‘virulent racists’ weren’t involved in said project at the time, nor did they profit from it, and that Goodman Games essentially bailed out a stalled project so that backers weren’t left completely high & dry.

To me, that sort of equates to being the good guys in the situation, assuming my understanding of things is accurate— and it may not be. As mentioned, I didn’t follow the issue beyond articles that I read here in this forum, so I’m not claiming expertise on its various sordid details, and I’m not a customer of any of the publishers involved, so I don’t have a lot of emotional investment in those details anyway. Racism is a problem and I like to shop my values, but sometimes people are a little loose with that accusation, too.

 

[jdrakeh]

I didn’t follow the hot takes about this all that closely at the time, but my understanding is that the ‘virulent racists’ weren’t involved in said project at the time, nor did they profit from it, and that Goodman Games essentially bailed out a stalled project so that backers weren’t left completely high & dry.

GG wasn't very transparent about this and floated a lot of different explanations, so I'm more than a little reluctant to trust them and instead am only basing my conclusion on what I've seen with my own two eyes (notably their promise to never work with Judges Guild again after the Dark Tower stuff, and then immediately breaking that promise as soon as JJ was in the ground and being very cagey about it).