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.

 

[chuckdee]

As a black man in America with a mostly black and brown gaming group yeah personally it does.

I have drifted away from playing OSR and OSR-esque games because of the often unchecked racism that bubles up in the spaces and the head in the sand mentality of many of its most face forward creators. GG, up until this incidet came out, was one of the few I had supported... going in on their DCC, Lankhmar and Purple Planet kickstarters... but the fact that GG has shown me money or the need to re-pubish an old book or whatever justification they use... means more to GG than whether I am allotted the basic respect and decency humans deserve based around my race... yeah Im not compounding that mistake by then contiuing to support GG. Luckily Free League is making Elric material since I'm a fan, otherwise I'd stick with my old Chaosium books.

Well said. And it doesn't have to be a deep conspiracy to be so. There is no deep conspiracy or long goal- just the actions of a company in relation to a bad actor.

 

[Argyle King]

As a black man in America with a mostly black and brown gaming group yeah personally it does.

I have drifted away from playing OSR and OSR-esque games because of the often unchecked racism that bubles up in the spaces and the head in the sand mentality of many of its most face forward creators. GG, up until this incidet came out, was one of the few I had supported... going in on their DCC, Lankhmar and Purple Planet kickstarters... but the fact that GG has shown me money or the need to re-pubish an old book or whatever justification they use... means more to GG than whether I am allotted the basic respect and decency humans deserve based around my race... yeah Im not compounding that mistake by then contiuing to support GG. Luckily Free League is making Elric material since I'm a fan, otherwise I'd stick with my old Chaosium books.

Thank you for sharing your views. I appreciate that.

I can empathize with what you've expressed. Members of my family have faced similar challenges. There are gaming stores that I don't frequent because the welcoming and 'inclusive' environment that was advertised isn't what was actually provided.

I understand why you hold the views you do. It isn't cool to deal with stuff like that.

My experience with GG has been the opposite. If it becomes more like what you've expressed, my views will change.

 

[Imaro]

My experience with GG has been the opposite. If it becomes more like what you've expressed, my views will change.

How exactly have they been the opposite? You accept he did business with Bledsaw...right? You accept Bledsaw has and still does espouse racist and anti-semetic rhetoric..right? GG lied about never working with him again and then did work with him again...right? If these are all true, we both had the same experience... we just each decided to respond differently.

 

[Sketchpad]

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.

His. Shannon Applecline is a guy.

 

[Sketchpad]

I used to buy Adventurer’s Quarterly, which published game material dual-statted for HERO System and RoleMaster/SpaceMaster.

Unrelated, but man do I miss Adventurer's Club.

 

[Jeffzilla]

His. Shannon Applecline is a guy.

Thanks for the correction. Having only seen his name in print...

 

[Rainbow Scissors]

At Dungeon Con, I was unsure what to think because of what people have said in other threads. I felt genuinely welcome in my interactions with Goodman Games.

I had not bought much of their stuff before. I bought a few small things after hearing about products in other threads here. I was treated well. The products are good.

I feel good about 5E Elric.

 

[Psychman]

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

Apparently, Free League have also announced a Stormbringer TTRPG line, based on their Dragonbane mechanics - so that will be closer to the BRP classic in tone and mechanics.

Free League Announces Legends of Stormbringer RPG Based On Dragonbane Mechanics

 

[chuckdee]

Apparently, Free League have also announced a Stormbringer TTRPG line, based on their Dragonbane mechanics - so that will be closer to the BRP classic in tone and mechanics.

Free League Announces Legends of Stormbringer RPG Based On Dragonbane Mechanics

There's a thread for that one here also.

 

[Argyle King]

How exactly have they been the opposite? You accept he did business with Bledsoe...right? You accept Bledsoe has and still does espouse racist and anti-semetic rhetoric..right? GG lied about never working with him again and then did work with him again...right? If these are all true, we both had the same experience... we just each decided to respond differently.

I think we categorize "work" differently.

How I see it:
•Bledsaw is not an employee of Goodman Games
•Bledsaw did not (to my knowledge) write for DCC CSIO. From reading about the product, he didn't write the original material either.
•Bledsaw did not (to my knowledge) do any artwork for CSIO.
•Bledsaw did not get paid for CSIO
•Bledsaw is doing now exactly what he was doing before: posting on Facebook
•Bledsaw has (imo) zero ability to in any way tangibly do anything...
...unless I allow him to prevent me from being allowed to enjoy something. If somebody wants to be bitter, they can do it on their own time.

I'll put it this way, if I could get the Wu Tang album tracks that were locked away by the medical company d-bag without paying anything and without in any way benefitting him, I would listen to it. I do not believe that would constitute 'working' with him.


In contrast, my "opposite" experience has been:
•Goodman Games employees engaging the community and usually speaking like real people who actually enjoy gaming rather than corporate speak or making (what I perceive as) weird claims from corporate executives claiming to play with 30-40 people simultaneously.
•Being very open-minded and supportive of people from a variety of demographics. (This was especially important in regards to my family.)
•Diversity among the staff and community being a natural thing growing out of a culture that is supportive -and being neither a) bigoted nor b) engaging in the kinda soft 'benevolent' racism I've witnessed in which a person/company makes a huge deal of including someone so as to tokenize identity or virtue signal
•Excellent customer service -even going so far as to help me with an issue with one of their products that I got from a different source.
•How my family looks or identifies has never once been an issue, and (as of the time of this post) there is no sign that it ever will be an issue.
•I have felt more at ease when dealing with GG than a lot of the gaming community and nerd community as a whole. That has been my experience.

Do I acknowledge that communication about CSIO looked bad? Yes, I do. I have done so repeatedly. That has been acknowledged and covered multiple times in this thread, as well as others.

I weighed the information. I considered my experiences with the company. My experience with Goodman Games has been overwhelmingly positive.