Blog post on the (A)D&D Adventure that MM Helped Write

[Heresiologist]

...Imagine was TSR's official organ in the UK. Issue #22 was a Michael Moorcock Special Feature including: an interview with him, a short story by him (“1st UK magazine publication”), an AD&D adventure by him, and a three page publication history of the Eternal Champion by someone other than him...

Anyway, the eight page adventure is written by Michael Moorcock and Michael Brunton. So, it's a collaboration. How much did Moorcock contribute? In the interview, when Moorcock is asked if he will write for role-playing games, he replies, “I'll write the odd scenario, such as the outline I did for IMAGINE.” So, Moorcock's contribution was limited to an outline. The credits at the end of the adventure attribute “Inspiration” to Moorcock and “Perspiration” to Brunton.

http://thoulsparadise.blogspot.com/2...-moorcock.html

[Rafael]

"Imagine Magazine" used to be available in its entirety at "Abandonware" websites, and at the Internet Archive. Not posting any links here, as I am not entirely sure about the legality of these things - but the adventure should be out there, and readily available.

The problem isn't the adventure itself, it's the setting beyond it. Unless you're very, very acquainted with the World of Elric. For modern-day players, this needs an extremely careful introduction to work well, and to do that, a month's worth of writing work. Difficult, but not impossible. :)

[Heresiologist]

"Imagine Magazine" used to be available in its entirety at "Abandonware" websites, and at the Internet Archive. Not posting any links here, as I am not entirely sure about the legality of these things - but the adventure should be out there, and readily available.

The problem isn't the adventure itself, it's the setting beyond it. Unless you're very, very acquainted with the World of Elric. For modern-day players, this needs an extremely careful introduction to work well, and to do that, a month's worth of writing work. Difficult, but not impossible. :)

If Internet Archive has it, I'd expect it's legal.

As for the setting problem, there's plenty of help at site member marcus bone's Stormbringer RPG website.

[Rafael]

Bone has some extra info on the "Age of Aubec"?! - That would be amazing. Can you point me to the exact link?

(For reference/in case there's a misunderstanding: The Imagine Mag adventure is set in the time of Earl Aubec of Malador, NOT in the default Stormbringer/Elric era. The adventure is great if you decide to run it by the book, but if you think about tinkering with it, it's gonna be a lot of work.)

[Heresiologist]

Bone has some extra info on the "Age of Aubec"?! - That would be amazing. Can you point me to the exact link?

(For reference/in case there's a misunderstanding: The Imagine Mag adventure is set in the time of Earl Aubec of Malador, NOT in the default Stormbringer/Elric era. The adventure is great if you decide to run it by the book, but if you think about tinkering with it, it's gonna be a lot of work.)

Yeah, sorry, I don't know if there's any Age of Aubec material on that site.

At any rate, if I were to get my hands on a copy of that Imagine magazine and decide to run the adventure, I'd probably not be fussed with just making it "my own". Even to the point of declaring the existence of a parallel, or sub-, multiverse based on my interpretations of MM's works.

[Rafael]

- Yeah, it's really the only way, for a project of this kind. It's also not that it wouldn't be doable, it's that it takes an extremely long time to work on this, in comparison with some more accessible "McD&D" material. Like, even as a very, very dedicated and knowledgeable fan, this is a month's work we're talking about. Not many are going be willing to invest this, even with a project as interesting as this one. ...Now, honestly, a setting book for the "Age of Aubec", that would be a pretty amazing RPG project, some distant day. Maybe the guys that are doing Mournblade can be persuaded...? ;)

[Heresiologist]

- Yeah, it's really the only way, for a project of this kind. It's also not that it wouldn't be doable, it's that it takes an extremely long time to work on this, in comparison with some more accessible "McD&D" material. Like, even as a very, very dedicated and knowledgeable fan, this is a month's work we're talking about. Not many are going be willing to invest this, even with a project as interesting as this one. ...Now, honestly, a setting book for the "Age of Aubec", that would be a pretty amazing RPG project, some distant day. Maybe the guys that are doing Mournblade can be persuaded...? ;)

Would you mind outlining what you expect would be necessary to get the "Age of Aubec" setting right? Maybe we can inspire somebody to get to work on it. Or maybe over the course of the next thousand covid era years, we can slowly develop it ;)

[Rafael]

Hehe, gladly, but I seriously think this more of an exercise for folks like the guys who run the Stornbringer fansite, or even for the crew from TITAM:

Basically, if, and that is IF you're indeed striving for a sandbox game, you got to update the entire setting and ruleset.Everyhting that is "passively" mentioned in the original source, and everything that is actively part of the adventure. That's... Big. If you want to do this, the first step is to create an index of all names, locations and/or otherwise items....And then go from there.

What say you? You do the original story, and I'll do the Imagine Mag adventure? :)

[Heresiologist]

Hold my beer. Wait... Actually, feel free to finish it and the rest of the case. I've got two regular D&D sandboxes to work on (one barely begun) and I need to track down the original source (which I assume is Master of Chaos) and not get snared by looking into Brunner's works (as I seem to remember an early Traveller in Black story was something of an influence on Aubec).

[Rafael]

...Which is exactly why I'm saying that a project of this magnitude is left best in the hands of the pros. Just the preliminary research takes a year, if you're talking about doing this with your "me-time". If any of the powers that be read this, though - this would be a project worth pursuing - if only because "traditional", Elric-centered SB will only get you so far. An Aubec-centered version of the setting, after forty years of the game evolving more or less around the same topics, probably something that both older and newer fans would appreciate.

[Rothgo]

When it comes to Mike's creations, many of the everyday folks who have frequented these forums are experts in any meaningful sense of the word.

[Heresiologist]

An Age of Aubec setting book sounds like a pretty good match for a labour of love, not so industry professional, project to me. Something like Carcosa or Yoon-suin or Deep Carbon Observatory or similar offerings.