Stormbringer (role-playing game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stormbringer

Designer(s)	Ken St. Andre, Lynn Willis et al.
Publisher(s)	Chaosium
Publication date	1981 (1st edition) 1985 (2nd edition) 1987 (3rd edition) 1990 (4th edition) 1993 (Elric!) 2001(5th edition)
Genre(s)	Fantasy
System	Basic Role-Playing, d20 System

The Stormbringer fantasy role-playing game published by Chaosium puts the players in the world of the Young Kingdoms, based on the Elric of Melniboné books by Michael Moorcock. The game takes its name from Elric’s sword, Stormbringer (though one edition was published as Elric!). The game system used is Basic Role-Playing, a percentile-dice-based system used in many role-playing games designed by Chaosium.

1 History
- 1.1 Translations
2 System
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

The game has evolved through several editions over the years:

1st edition (1981) by Ken St. Andre; boxed set; cover art by Frank Brunner
2nd edition (1985) by Ken St. Andre; boxed set; cover art by Brunner
3rd edition (1987) by Ken St. Andre; book; published jointly with Games Workshop, cover art by Peter Jones (“PAJ”)
4th edition (1990) by Ken St. Andre, Steve Perrin, and John B. Monroe; book; cover art by Michael Whelan (from the 1977 DAW and 1986 Grafton editions of Michael Moorcock’s Stormbringer)
Elric! (1993) by Lynn Willis, Richard Watts, Mark Morrison, Jimmie W. Pursell Jr., Sam Shirley, and Joshua Shaw; book; cover art by Brunner (same as 2nd edition). The purpose of the “!” was to distinguish the role-playing game from the Elric board game published by Avalon Hill, Chaosium, and Hobby Japan in 1981.
5th edition (2001) by Lynn Willis, book, cover art by John T. Snyder

In 2001, Chaosium also published a d20 System version of the game as Dragon Lords of Melniboné, with cover art by Brunner.

[edit] Translations

2nd edition:
- French edition (1987), boxed set, published by Oriflam
- Japanese edition (1988), boxed set, published by Hobby Japan, cover art by Yoshitaka Amano
3rd edition:
- German edition (1989), boxed set, published by Citadel as Sturmbringer
4th edition:
- French edition (1991), boxed set, published by Oriflam
Elric!
- Japanese edition (1993), soft-cover, published by Hobby Japan, cover art by Yoshitaka Amano
- French edition (1994), hardback, published by Oriflam, cover by Herbert de Lartigue
5th edition:
- Japanese edition (2006), soft-cover, published by enterbrain, cover art by Yoshitaka Amano

[edit] System

Versions 1-3 are functionally similar, version 4 changed the magic system extensively, Elric! was a substantial reworking either loved or hated by fans, and version 5 is a new layout of the Elric! rules, with additional material from several older game supplements that are no longer in print.

[edit] References

Lynn Willis. Stormbringer 5th edition (Chaosium, 2001) ISBN 1-56882-152-2
Charlie Krank, Lynn Willis, Richard Watts. Dragon Lords of Melniboné (Chaosium, 2001) ISBN 1-56882-150-6