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.

 

[Some Dude]

Goodman's involvement with JG post-nazigate has led to JG and some of the worst people in the hobby taking a victory lap. Not entirely Goodman's fault. It has also led to JG making accusations that Goodman has been secretly funneling money to them for years. And, since Goodman has been less than transparent, it's hard to take what they say about this at face value. Totally Goodman's fault.

I don't think Joe Goodman is a nazi, neo-confederate, or bigot. I really don't. That being said, I understand why folks would feel gross about supporting Goodman Games. And I also think that there is reason to doubt the veracity of Goodman's statements about their financial involvement, or lack thereof, with JG. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas and all that.

I won't judge anyone for buying Goodman products. I don't plan on buying any, but then my interest in DCC begins and ends with Lankhmar. Aside from one demo game run by Goodman staffers online, all of my DCC gaming has been Lankhmar, which to me was a perfect fit for DCC. Now that Goodman no longer produces Lankhmar or Metamorphosis Alpha, I don't have a lot of interest in their products. I'm also of the opinion that the wackiness of DCC is likely to be a poor fit for Elric, but that's just me. I'd have much rather seen DCC Groo the Wanderer than DCC Elric.

 

[nyvinter]

Not entirely Goodman's fault.

Sorry but no, it is. When it became clear what kind of people Judges Guild had become, Goodman said they'd finish what they'd do and never work with JG ever again. Had it stopped there, you would have been right. But then, IIRC, a year and a half later Goodman Games signed a new contract to publish Invincible Overlord — it was not part of the original deal they had.

They could have gone "we'd love to but no." They chose to go back to the holocaust deniers because of nostalgia for an adventure module. That's 100% on them.

 

[SkidAce]

The one who is alive and owns the rights is the issue, yes. This was something he said in the '20s, not something from the wooly' 70s from somebody else thst we would want to consider in historical context or something.

20's?

 

[Some Dude]

Sorry but no, it is. When it became clear what kind of people Judges Guild had become, Goodman said they'd finish what they'd do and never work with JG ever again. Had it stopped there, you would have been right. But then, IIRC, a year and a half later Goodman Games signed a new contract to publish Invincible Overlord — it was not part of the original deal they had.

They could have gone "we'd love to but no." They chose to go back to the holocaust deniers because of nostalgia for an adventure module. That's 100% on them.

Please don't strip my statement of context. What I said was that Goodman is not responsible for the words or actions of others. They are, of course, entirely responsible for their own words and actions. This is not a justification of Goodman's - or JG's - actions.

 

[Jeffzilla]

That came about because ICE were the publishers of Hero System for a short while. There were quite a few dual-stated products in that period.

Yeah, in one of her gaming histories Shannon Applecline wrote pretty extensively about how that happened. ICE signed an agreement to take over publishing and distribution for HERO Games and eventually took the HERO Games product line in lieu of payment for those services... ICE more or less got stuck with a whole 'nother game company.

 

[billd91]

I don't think Joe Goodman is a nazi, neo-confederate, or bigot. I really don't. That being said, I understand why folks would feel gross about supporting Goodman Games. And I also think that there is reason to doubt the veracity of Goodman's statements about their financial involvement, or lack thereof, with JG. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas and all that.

I agree, I don't think he's any of those either. But he may be a little too obsessed with the nostalgia gamer market because it sure sounds like he'd dally with Nazis to chase the nostalgia for some of those old products. And while he may be able to make an economic case for bringing updates and reprints to market, I can't see an ethical case for giving the remaining Bledsaws the reflected limelight that will come their way when we should be united in letting them starve for attention.

 

[chuckdee]

I think that sums it up for me. I was kind of hoping for a new BRP version in all honesty.

Yes. I have every version of the BRP Elric games and they still rock.

 

[chuckdee]

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.

I'm a Black guy. And yeah, it was necessary since you called it out. So are we even now?

 

[Argyle King]

I agree, I don't think he's any of those either. But he may be a little too obsessed with the nostalgia gamer market because it sure sounds like he'd dally with Nazis to chase the nostalgia for some of those old products. And while he may be able to make an economic case for bringing updates and reprints to market, I can't see an ethical case for giving the remaining Bledsaws the reflected limelight that will come their way when we should be united in letting them starve for attention.

What limelight?

Bledsaw is still doing whatever it is that he does -without financial gain, without his company benefiting, and without any perceivable change in what his situation already was.

For me, I can only echo what I already said in past threads: I don't feel that some guy being bitter on Facebook should be given control over whether or not I enjoy something.


At the same time, Goodman Games is doing what they do: positive community engagement and producing quality content that I enjoy.

I expect that to continue to be the case with their Elric campaign.

If, between now and then, GG hires a law firm to prevent better working conditions at my office, hires a private 'investigation' agency to try to break my legs, and/or something of similar detrimental impact to myself or the community, I will feel differently.

As it stands, I plan to support the Elric campaign. The boxed set will go on the shelf with the other sets related to Appendix N*.

*No R.E. Howard DCC yet, but I see a Kickstarter campaign for some cool Conan stuff from Monolith.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I agree, I don't think he's any of those either. But he may be a little too obsessed with the nostalgia gamer market because it sure sounds like he'd dally with Nazis to chase the nostalgia for some of those old products. And while he may be able to make an economic case for bringing updates and reprints to market, I can't see an ethical case for giving the remaining Bledsaws the reflected limelight that will come their way when we should be united in letting them starve for attention.

My take is that, yeah, Goodman had so much nostalgia for old Judges Guild and CSIO that it clouded his judgment here. My hope is that he's learned a lesson from all this and the Bledsoe-Goodman Games partnership ends after CSIO gets released. It was a bad move, plain and simple. I'm a big Judges Guild collector, but there's no world where I ever support anything involving the current Bledsoes.