“Elric lifted the huge blade easily and turned it this way and that, admiring its alien beauty. ‘Stormbringer,’ he said . . . . it was suddenly as if he had been born again and that this runesword was born with him. It was if they had never been separate. ‘Stormbringer.’ And the sword moaned sweetly and settled even more smoothly into his grasp.”
– Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock, 1972
Where the Old is New Again…
Stormbringer! is a website dedicated to pen & paper roleplaying games based on the worlds of Michael Moorcock (an author whose writings are now widely regarded as classics) and his Eternal Champions. It actively catalogues and collects material for all of these games, and has the ultimate goal of keeping alive the memory of everything from Chaosium’s 1st Edition Stormbringer, through Mongoose Publishing’s Elric of Melniboné and Département des Sombres Projets Mournblade RPG.
We hope that by doing so we can bring together past players and new fans alike, while generating new material and encouraging ongoing discussion on all editions of these worthy games.
What is in a Name?
Stormbringer is the name of a sword with seemingly unlimited power that was ‘discovered’ by Elric of Melniboné (one of the first incarnations of the Eternal Champion). Not only that, but it is also the title of the first Eternal Champion RPG published and hence it seems fitting that this site bears its name.
Why the Worlds of the Eternal Champion?
Good question. There has been vast amounts of quality material created for these great games over the past four decades – the first edition of Stormbringer hit the shelf way back in 1981 – and this site is a chance to bring all of this history together in one location. The roleplaying games of the Eternal Champions (in all their guises and edition) are unique in that YOU take the role of the heroes changing reality – for better or worse. You get to discover the secrets of the Million Spheres, exploring the nature of the multiverse, and pitting your wits against Gods of Law, Chaos and the Balance. These are games of fate and futures, where doomed worlds searches for salvation. Why wouldn’t we want to celebrate that!
But so many of these games are now out-of-print?
Just because a game is no longer in print, it doesn’t mean that it is no longer fun or interesting. Chaosium’s Stormbringer license saw 4 editions released (5 if you include its incarnation as ELRIC!), and Mongoose Publishing’s Elric of Melniboné saw two. All of these incarnations offered something new and different to the world of roleplaying and more importantly its setting. And today we see that the Stormbringer spirit lives on, in games like Le Département des Sombres Projets Mournblade and Hawkmoon.
Here at Stormbringer! we feel it is important that these games – ones that has offered so much fun and pleasure to players the world over has some central point in which this history can be gathered — we want this site to be that place.