A Quick Overiew & OSR Commentary On Corum: Heroic Adventures Across the World of the Five Planes Rpg From Darcsyde Productions For The Stormbringer fifth edition rpg

 "The balance between Chaos and Law has tipped. Barbarian hordes sweep across the land while civilization decays in doomed castles. Eldritch beasts terrorize the innocent. Arcane technologies are all but lost and foul Chaotic magic corrupts land and sea alike. In the age to come a cursed Prince will seek his destiny across this dying world. His path will be vengeance, his ultimate goal . . . to confront the gods themselves."

In this supplement to the acclaimed roleplaying game Stormbringer you can adventure in a heroic fantasy setting based on the World of the Five Planes created by the master of fantasy, Michael Moorcock. You will confront the most bizarre monsters and foil the deadliest plots on this and other planes of the Multiverse as you battle to free yourself and your world from the machinations of the gods."

Basically there are a number of rpg reviews & blog articles on the internet about the Corum rpg . This book is basically a third party add on for the Stormbringer rpg system & its done very well. Geoff Gillan with Mark Angeli, Alex Hammond, Bill Routt and Liam Routt take us into the Welsh mythological inspired world of Corum Jhaelen Irsei  ("the Prince in the Scarlet Robe"). Corum is the Vadhagh race & another tortured aspect of the incarnation the Eternal Champion. Out of the Eternal Champion books by Michael Moorcock Corum is one of my favorites. The cover of the Corum rpg is an artistic interpretation & it fits with the over all mood of Corum's incarnation. The history of the Corum rpg goes something like this according to the Corum wiki entry; "Darcsyde Productions produced a supplement for use with Chaosium's Stormbringer  (2001)  role-playing game  adapting the characters and settings from the Corum  series for role-playing." 

Michael Moorcock's Corum cycle is about death & rebirth, the dying of th eold gods,  loss & acceptance, & the battling against the forces of Chaos that threaten to not only change but wipe out both the men of Corum's world but  the Vadhagh themselves. 

he men of Corum's world are puppets to the Lords of Chaos & yet they are willing puppets. Corum himself is one of my favorite incarnations of the Eternal Champion he finally achieves a measure of happiness against the backdrop of the battle between men, Law, & Chaos.Ultimately Corum is himself a harvest king. Darcsyde Productions book originally sold for 24.00 dollars us & boy I'm glad I picked it up. Now even the PDF's of the rpg are getting much harder to get ahold of.

The world of Corum is a strange & dark one where the five planes overlap. The Welsh mythological cycle is right in central themes of the game & it makes no bones about it. The rpg covers the main storylines history of Swords trilogy & the Silverhand's book plot lines.   The layout, the mapping, the cartography, & the whole product is a weird yet rpg loving system to Moorcock's maimed hero. 

Darcsyde Productions did a bang up job with this book but its not a stand alone rpg but a supplement.  There's no place where this is more evident then in the magic system where the Stormbringer rpg's rules are modified. These system   bring in whole new aspects into the Stormbringer fifth edition rpg especially when it comes to the sciences of Law & the magicks of  Chaos.

The Stormbringer fifth edition rpg isn't a whole new kettle of fish so much as it takes the kettle's contents in several other directions. It would require several blog entries unto itself but Corum is a product of the early '00's Stormbringer rpg scene. This isn't a bad thing but simply from a different time period allowing a different aspect of play.

And the answer before you even ask is no I'm not ever selling my copy of the Corum rpg. This was gotten during a very dramatic time of my life but that's a blog entry for another time. All in all Corum: Heroic Adventures Across the World of the Five Planes  Rpg is a great little addition to the Stormbringer fifth edition product line & universe. Really wish that the Corum rpg was still in print so that others could experience this version of the tales of Corum as their own campaign setting.

A Quick Overiew & OSR Commentary On Corum: Heroic Adventures Across the World of the Five Planes Rpg From Darcsyde Productions For The Stormbringer fifth edition rpg

  "The balance between Chaos and Law has tipped. Barbarian hordes sweep across the land while civilization decays in doomed castles. Eldritch beasts terrorize the innocent. Arcane technologies are all but lost and foul Chaotic magic corrupts land and sea alike. In the age to come a cursed Prince will seek his destiny across this dying world. His path will be vengeance, his ultimate goal . . . to confront the gods themselves.

In this supplement to the acclaimed roleplaying game Stormbringer you can adventure in a heroic fantasy setting based on the World of the Five Planes created by the master of fantasy, Michael Moorcock. You will confront the most bizarre monsters and foil the deadliest plots on this and other planes of the Multiverse as you battle to free yourself and your world from the machinations of the gods."

Basically there are a number of rpg reviews & blog articles on the internet about the Corum rpg . This book is basically a third party add on for the Stormbringer rpg system & its done very well. Geoff Gillan with Mark Angeli, Alex Hammond, Bill Routt and Liam Routt take us into the Welsh mythological inspired world of Corum Jhaelen Irsei ("the Prince in the Scarlet Robe"). Corum is the Vadhagh race & another tortured aspect of the incarnation  the Eternal Champion. Out of the Eternal Champion books by Michael Moorcock Corum is one of my favorites. The cover of the Corum rpg is an artistic interpreation & it fits with the over all mood of Corum's incarnation. The history of the Corum rpg goes something like this according to the Corum wiki entry; "Darcsyde Productions produced a supplement for use with Chaosium's Stormbringer (2001) role-playing game adapting the characters and settings from the Corum series for role-playing." 
Michael Moorcock's Corum cycle is about death & rebirth, the dying of th old gods,  loss & acceptence, & the battling against the forces of Chaos that threaten to not only change but wipe out both the men of Corum's world but  the Vadhagh themselves. The men of Corum's world are puppets to the Lords of Chaos & yet they are willing puppets. Corum himself is one of my favorite incarnations of the Eternal Champion he finally achieves a measure of happiness against the backdrop of the battle between men, Law, & Chaos.Ultimately Corum is himself a harvest king.  Darcsyde Productions book originally sold for 24.00 dollars us & boy I'm glad I picked it up. Now even the PDF's of the rpg are getting much harder to get ahold of. 

The world of Corum is a strange & dark one where the five planes overlap. The Welsh mythological cycle is right in central themes of the game & it makes no bones about it. The rpg covers the main storylines history of Swords trilogy & the Silverhand's book plot lines.  The layout, the mapping, the cartography, & the whole product is a weird yet rpg loving system to Moorcock's maimed hero. 

Darcsyde Productions did a bang up job with this book but its not a stand alone rpg but a supplement.  There's no place where this is more evident then in the magic system where the Stormbringer rpg's rules are modified. These systems  bring in whole new aspects into the Stormbringer fifth edition rpg especially when it comes to the sciences of Law & the magicks of  Chaos. 

The Stormbringer fifth edition rpg isn't a whole new kettle of fish so much as it takes the kettle's contents in several other directions. It would require several blog entries unto itself but Corum is a product of the early '00's Stormbringer rpg scene. This isn't a bad thing but simply from a different time period allowing a different aspect of play. 

And the answer before you even ask is no I'm not ever selling my copy of the Corum rpg. This was gotten during a very dramatic time of my life but that's a blog entry for another time. All in all Corum: Heroic Adventures Across the World of the Five Planes  Rpg is a great little addition to the Stormbringer fifth edition product line & universe. Really wish that the Corum rpg was still in print so that others could experience this version of the tales of Corum as their own campaign setting. 

OSR Thoughts On Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms written by Charles Green- with large contributions from Richard Watts For Chaosium’s Stormbringer and Elric! Rpg

 "This second volume of Cults of the Young Kingdoms shows an approach to life in the Multiverse very different from that found in the Cults of Chaos. Where the Church of Chaos is composed of several mostly independent cults, the Church of Law sees itself as a single, monolithic structure that exists to protect the Young Kingdoms and its people from the ravages of the Dukes of Disorder. This book explores this structure. The Player’s section details how the Cult of Law understands the cosmology of the Multiverse, how individual cultists behave, and how they approach their tasks of cleansing the world of the taint of Chaos. "



"We also see the Barrier of Law-a mystical wall of energy that prevents the Young Kingdoms from dissolving into pure Chaos. Magic is discussed as a by-product of this energy, and how both the cults of Law and Chaos use it. The Gamemaster’s section is a series of discussions about using the information in this book in your Stormbringer campaign. There are details about working with gods-appropriate themes, the cultists of Law as antagonists, and campaign seeds for further adventures. The Barrier of Law-a mystical wall of energy that prevents the Young Kingdoms from dissolving into pure Chaos is discussed here, along with magic, seen as a by-product of this energy, and how both the cults of Law and Chaos use it."

Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms written by Charles Green- with large contributions from Richard Watts is a free monograph for Chaosium’s Stormbringer and Elric!  Rpg respectively. This monograph dives deeply into the background, make up, and monolithic nature of the Cult of Law in Moorcock's Elric series of novels. Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms goes far deeper into the cheap & cheerful nature of Law then one would expect in a free supplement. 

Gods of Law In The Young Kingdoms is also a good resource for an OSR game as well because it has a solid exploitation of the existing information on the church & cults of Law in the Young Kingdoms. This isn't a monster book per say but instead is a solid addition to the Stormbringer rpg.  Gods of Law In The Young Kingdoms could be used for other planes of existence where the cults & church of Law has influence. 

The cultists of Law could well be some of the most fanatical and dangerous NPC's that adventurers of the Chaosium’s Stormbringer rpg. The fact is that cultists & followers of Law's religions have a nasty & very dangerous hatred of all things Chaos. The cracks in the barrier of Law has allowed the cancer of magick as Law looks at it to creep into the Young Kingdoms. The church of chaos of Pan Tang has been actively destroying the ancient safety valves that the Young Kingdom has in place. This is  one of the main reasons why the cults of Law & churches of Law are right in a way. But the fact is that the forces of chaos fueled by Pan Tang & the Young Kingdom's human chaos cults have become such a problem. 
Elric himself as a champion of Arioch is a walking disaster area wherever he goes in the Young Kingdoms & beyond. 

 Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms takes this knowledge of the twilight of Law & adds to it a sense of the cult & church's desparate fight against Chaos. Looking at Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms with a both a player's & DM's eyes is interesting because it puts the view point of the Law into focus. 
Is Gods of Law in the Young Kingdom worth the download? Yes in my humble opinion because of the fact that you've got the magicks of Law, the layout & background, and much more about the dieties, cults, the church, & more of Law! 

Download Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms written by Charles Green- with large contributions from Richard Watts For Chaosium’s Stormbringer and Elric!  Rpg Here 

Review & OSR Commentary On Lobo Blanco By Patricio González The Free Michael Moorcock Elric Fan rpg

"In this game you take the role of adventurers who pursue their own commitments and, during their journey, encounter numerous situations that escalate in intensity. Will you side with Law? Or Chaos? Can you survive to achieve your dreams? Or will you rest too long in the comforts of Tánelorn the Eternal?"

 There are not enough hours in the day to sometimes cover all of the games & retroclones take for example Lobo Blanco. Clocking in at over 219 pages of Micheal Moorcock Elric weirdness Lobo Blanco is a game that really tries to take everything we've seen before & repack it a system that works for eternal champion play. Oh did I mention that this is a free down load? Lobo Blanco is a dice (Primarily d8),skill based (buy or gain skills), & trait / Aspect Based (personality affects gameplay) motivated system. Lobo Blanco is centered around the world of the Young Kingdoms from the ground up. It motivates the players with a very well done system that works well for its Sword & Sorcery style of play. 

Lobo Blanco is a love letter to Michael Moorcock's Elric world setting & the eternal champion mythologies crafted over Moorock's writing career. The system while a bit dry emulates just the right amount of weirdness & solid strangeness  of the Young Kingdoms. Is Lobo Blanco trying to replace the classic Choasium Stormbringer? Hell no! What its trying to do is to bring the Young Kingdoms to gamers who might not even know it exists. And no its not its not  Mournblade rpg or that lines books at all. Lobo Blanco takes its own path & strives to create its own mark on the world of Sword & Sorcery gaming. There's a bit of PC customization going on within its bounds & it strives to build on it. Remember the mythologies that Moorcock created & how it Pulpy origins pull right from the classic writers that Mr.Moorcock grew up reading. 

So what does this mean for the DM looking to start a Lobo Blanco campaign set within the Young Kindgoms?! Well you get everything & we mean everything you need to pick up and play within the download from the ground up. You can literally download Lobo Blanco & with an IPad start playing with dice & friends! This is very appealing because of the drag & play aspect of the game. The layout, the system, & pretty much the entire book or is it two books because you get a black & white as well as a colour. 

Is Lobo Blanco perfect?! Not at all & for really bringing home the weirder aspects of Young Kingdom magick. I'd add in the Bronze Grimiore from the Elric rpg which has some of the best flavor of the Young Kingdoms magick that have been seen on the table top level.  Yes this is from 1994 but its cracking useful at the table top level especially for adding in that elusive Young King's weirdness & wild to the magick system. 

Lobo Blanco isn't perfect but as a fan created Young Kingdoms, Elric, eternal champion emulator, & complete rpg system package this is a chaos god sent in many respects. 

You can download Lobo Blanco for free right from here & start your Sword & Sorcery adventures in the Young Kindoms today! 

A Quick Overiew & OSR Commentary On Corum: Heroic Adventures Across the World of the Five Planes Rpg From Darcsyde Productions For The Stormbringer fifth edition rpg

 "The balance between Chaos and Law has tipped. Barbarian hordes sweep across the land while civilization decays in doomed castles. Eldritch beasts terrorize the innocent. Arcane technologies are all but lost and foul Chaotic magic corrupts land and sea alike. In the age to come a cursed Prince will seek his destiny across this dying world. His path will be vengeance, his ultimate goal . . . to confront the gods themselves.

In this supplement to the acclaimed roleplaying game Stormbringer you can adventure in a heroic fantasy setting based on the World of the Five Planes created by the master of fantasy, Michael Moorcock. You will confront the most bizarre monsters and foil the deadliest plots on this and other planes of the Multiverse as you battle to free yourself and your world from the machinations of the gods."

Basically there are a number of rpg reviews & blog articles on the internet about the Corum rpg . This book is basically a third party add on for the Stormbringer rpg system & its done very well. Geoff Gillan with Mark Angeli, Alex Hammond, Bill Routt and Liam Routt take us into the Welsh mythological inspired world of Corum Jhaelen Irsei ("the Prince in the Scarlet Robe"). Corum is the Vadhagh race & another tortured aspect of the incarnation  the Eternal Champion. Out of the Eternal Champion books by Michael Moorcock Corum is one of my favorites. The cover of the Corum rpg is an artistic interpreation & it fits with the over all mood of Corum's incarnation. The history of the Corum rpg goes something like this according to the Corum wiki entry; "Darcsyde Productions produced a supplement for use with Chaosium's Stormbringer (2001) role-playing game adapting the characters and settings from the Corum series for role-playing." 
Michael Moorcock's Corum cycle is about death & rebirth, the dying of th old gods,  loss & acceptence, & the battling against the forces of Chaos that threaten to not only change but wipe out both the men of Corum's world but  the Vadhagh themselves. The men of Corum's world are puppets to the Lords of Chaos & yet they are willing puppets. Corum himself is one of my favorite incarnations of the Eternal Champion he finally achieves a measure of happiness against the backdrop of the battle between men, Law, & Chaos.Ultimately Corum is himself a harvest king.  Darcsyde Productions book originally sold for 24.00 dollars us & boy I'm glad I picked it up. Now even the PDF's of the rpg are getting much harder to get ahold of. 

The world of Corum is a strange & dark one where the five planes overlap. The Welsh mythological cycle is right in central themes of the game & it makes no bones about it. The rpg covers the main storylines history of Swords trilogy & the Silverhand's book plot lines.  The layout, the mapping, the cartography, & the whole product is a weird yet rpg loving system to Moorcock's maimed hero. 

Darcsyde Productions did a bang up job with this book but its not a stand alone rpg but a supplement.  There's no place where this is more evident then in the magic system where the Stormbringer rpg's rules are modified. These systems  bring in whole new aspects into the Stormbringer fifth edition rpg especially when it comes to the sciences of Law & the magicks of  Chaos. 

The Stormbringer fifth edition rpg isn't a whole new kettle of fish so much as it takes the kettle's contents in several other directions. It would require several blog entries unto itself but Corum is a product of the early '00's Stormbringer rpg scene. This isn't a bad thing but simply from a different time period allowing a different aspect of play. 

And the answer before you even ask is no I'm not ever selling my copy of the Corum rpg. This was gotten during a very dramatic time of my life but that's a blog entry for another time. All in all Corum: Heroic Adventures Across the World of the Five Planes  Rpg is a great little addition to the Stormbringer fifth edition product line & universe. Really wish that the Corum rpg was still in print so that others could experience this version of the tales of Corum as their own campaign setting. 

Retro Review & Commentary On The Free Campaign Setting For Fifth Edition Stormbringer rpg - Old Hrolmar By Richard Watts

" OLD HROLMAR IS a bastion of culture within grim Vilmir, and stands as one of the greatest cities the Young Kingdoms will ever see. Yet it is a city under siege. While the machinations of Law and Chaos threaten its stability from within, far greater dangers are massed outside its walls. Neither King Naclon of Vilmir, nor the powerful Cardinal Garrick of the Church of Law, look favourably upon Old Hrolmar, and its bravely independent ruler, Duke Avan Astran. Sadly the duke is fated to be slain by Elric of Melniboné within a few short years, after which the city’s glory will quickly fade as the inexorable weight of Vilmirian tradition is brought to bear upon its citizens. This book however, is set before those unhappy days, during the city’s brief renaissance, when the duke and his ideals reign and all is good within Old Hrolmar. "

Its been ages since the spine of the free fifth edition Stormbringer  rpg -  Old Hrolmar monograph was cracked. What is this free supplement?! Well in the words of the Stormbringer.com site;"Near the end of the Chaosium’s Stormbringer and Elric! production run they produced a number of ‘cheap and cheerful’ monographs set in the Young Kingdoms. " 

Note that Old Hrolmar  is a human centric campaign setting & it brings this setting into a viable & actually usable supplement. Old Hrolmar  is a good supplement & even as a monograph deserves to be used in a Stormbringer rpg campaign. 

This is basically a fully fleshed out Young Kingdom campaign city right from the ground up; "Old Hrolmar explores the Vilmarian city of the same name, and details how the home of Duke Avan Astran represents a bastion of change throughout of the Young Kingdoms. This monograph includes information on the city, its inhabitants and its future in a world doomed for destruction." 

 Recently having reread Michael Moorcock's Sailor on the Seas of Fate, exactly the part that this kingdom plays. And the huge history that Old Hrolmar has in the 'Young Kingdoms';It should be noted that the vision of Old Hrolmar as described in this book differs in one important respect from the chronology laid out by Michael Moorcock in the early volumes of his passionate, furiously-written and sometimes contradictory Elric Saga. The adventurerexplorer Duke Avan Astran is introduced to readers in the second book of the saga, The Sailor On The Seas Of Fate, before being swiftly killed off in the same volume. " 

Old Hrolmar  clocks in at one hundred & ten pages & it does so with the idea that this is a campaign monograph to be used at the table top level. The city & its environs cry out to be used & used well during play. The historical details & writing are crisp & the balance of material in the supplement is well done. 

We've said it before & so it going to be stated again, Elric is not a hero at all. He's a chaotic force of nature destroying everything around him. And Old Hrolmar has centuries before he has to appear on the world stage of the 'Young Kingdoms'. This happens to make the Old Hrolmar campagin setting not only viable but very accessible. A perfect addition to Old Hrolmar campagin setting; 

"Visitor’s Guide to Old Hrolmar, a Primer for Stormbringer 5th edition Players " 

This a perfect hand out for players who want to have a viable & stable kingdom to base themselves in. That's not to say that there isn't 'adventure a plenty to be had'. Old Hrolmar  has some solid NPC's, well thought out backgrounds, and intriguing hooks to get the players deeply involved. The writing is good and there are two well done maps an annotated map of the City of Old Hrolmar, Bastion of Change – March 2019 (JPG, 1 A3 page, 835Kb) perfect for the players & for the DM Old Hrolmar (as original drawn by Carl Pates). 
The Old Hrolmar campagin setting feels like an adventurers city, a place to hang your hats & shealth your sword. But its also a place to get the players into the action of expediations to unknown lands, & places of intrigue. There are details here on some of the cults of both Law & Chaos, the politics of the palace, and back alley deals waiting to happen. 

To us at least Old Hrolmar is a real place in a Stormbringer campaign & a place that can be dropped into a Stormbringer fifth edition campaign with little issue. Since this is a monograph part of me as a Stormbringer fan wants to see more. That's why this is a four outta of five for me.  

Note that this isn't the first time we've  reviewed this monograph but because of my recent rereading of the Stormbringer rpg  we thought that it would be a good time to reexamine Old Hrolmar.