Summoning, Stormbringer style

[famouswolf]

Now that you mention it, Elric!, Stormbringer's successor for the Young Kingdoms-set game from Chaosium, downgraded the power level from editions 1-4 and added a relatively weak spell system and other odds and ends...like demon desires. Something that you must give the demon to summon and/or keep it bound, like a virgin every full moon, an oxen to eat once a week, etc. Sometimes these things would be exactly what the sorcerer needed, like the need to guard riches (an excellent reason to summon the critter to start with).

There is a supplement called the Bronze Grimoire which has the spells, demon characteristics and so forth. I'll be looking at this system with an eye to Hyperborea now that I have crossed Stormbringer 1 off the list (although I may still use Stormbringer 1 like cultural modifiers). I think it could definitely capture the right spirit if used correctly and sparingly. There are also rune spells in that book that could be ported into Hyperborea and would fit the milieu.

I just can't do anything until I read the game, but at this point I'm pretty sure I'll be running this puppy sometime somehow.

Do elementals figure into Hyperborea as written?

[giantbat]

Elementals are present, in a manner I believe is fairly consistent with AD&D. I haven't read enough of the gazetteer yet to know if there are more particular ties to the setting. Hopefully someone else will provide a better answer, but at minimum, yes, they are present.

[jasonzavoda]

Dec 9, 2012 20:29:27 GMT -6 @giantbat said:

You'd think somewhere in the blogs or forums there would be a random table titled "What does the demon want?" but I can't find one. Maybe someone else knows if such a table exists?

One could look to this for inspiration, I suppose: The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations
Make a random roll ((d6 - 1) * 6) + d6 to select one, interpret result in a way congruent with a demon's desires. If it doesn't seem directly relevant, perhaps it reflects a situation the demon has an interest in and wishes to influence the outcome of.

That is an interesting idea. i scribbled down 6 possible demands related to that list that was linked.

What Does The Demon Want?

1). Supplication

This Demon is under a powerful curse and its demand is to be punished. It wants the summoner to remove its left hand and replace it with block of iron.


2). Deliverance

The Demon has been wronged by a powerful sorcerer, now long dead. The Demon demands the skull and thigh bones of the sorcerer, but the Demon only knows the location of where the sorcerer lived hundreds of years in the past.

3). Crime pursued by vengeance

This Demon was robbed of an item, a small wooden box inlaid with ivory and locked with a puzzle lock. It is in the possession of a powerful thieves guild. The Demon demands the return of the box and the skin of the thief who took it.

4). Vengeance taken for kin upon kin

Another demon who is bound into the service of a mage has wronged this Demon and is protected against other demons. This Demon wants this other demon slain.

5). Pursuit

This Demon demands sanctuary. It has committed terrible crimes upon its home plane and is being hunted by seven other demons.

6). Disaster

This Demon has been defeated in struggle for power among its own kind. It is extremely weak and has terrible wounds across its body. It demands to be healed and for the summoner to locate its kin and tell them of this defeat.

[famouswolf]

This is getting good.

[famouswolf]

Excellent. Thank you.

[geoffrey]

If you have access to them, consult the following two articles:

"Demonology Made Easy; or, How to Deal with Orcus for Fun and Profit" by Gregory Rihn in The Dragon #20 (Nov. 1978) [This article is recommended by Gary Gygax on page 195 of the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide.]

"Patron Demons" by Lewis Pulsipher in Dragon #42 (Oct. 1980)

[famouswolf]

Thanks.

Interestingly, that's about the time Stormbringer came out. I bet Gary Gygax and Ken St. Andre had an interesting talk at a con in the mid seventies sometime.

[Deleted]

Here's a few suggestions:

Jason Vey's Age of Conan and Age of Conan II: Secrets of Acheron both have some great stuff on the Sorcerer class. They can be found here and are OD&D friendly.

There's some excellent stuff on the xoth.net site that, although aimed at later versions of the game, can easily be adapted to older games. There's a great collection of articles here, in particular An alternate magic system, a brief article on the blog called The mysteries of magic, and three excellent products that really capture the flavour - in particular The Spider-God's Bride and Other Tales of Sword & Sorcery (has a free preview pdf), which I'm considering using alongside AS&SoH.

Then you might get some ideas from The Nature of Sorcery, an article from a campaign setting called Pax Thumanus.

Dan of the Sword and Board blog floated some ideas on Pact Magic that included two further posts.

...and the sky full of dust blog wrote Rituals for Beginners.

While The Antithesis of Weal blog gave us Rituals for AD&D and Tactical Simulation Ruleset.

And Gavin on The City of Iron blog organised a Community random table: Sacrifices to cosmic powers, a nice carousing-style xp mechanic.

[Ghul]

Thanks for the links, austrodavicus. The Spider-God's Bride looks well worth the $10.

[Ghul]

Dec 9, 2012 23:06:14 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

"Patron Demons" by Lewis Pulsipher in Dragon #42 (Oct. 1980)

Interesting pen name.

[famouswolf]

austrodavicus, thanks!

This looks like the motherlode!

[Deleted]

No worries famouswolf.

And yes Jeff, The Spider-God's Bride is definitely worth the price - 200 pages of Sword & Sorcery goodness. It's a shame there's not an old school version, but it's not hard to adapt the stuff. It's very well written.

[Deleted]

More suggestions - Talysman of The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms blog has written a series of posts about S&S style sorcery. So far there are parts one, two & three.

[Ghul]

Jan 6, 2013 13:45:37 GMT -6 @austrodavicus said:

More suggestions - Talysman of The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms blog has written a series of posts about S&S style sorcery. So far there are parts one, two & three.

Taking a look now. Thanks for the heads up. Have an exalt!

[famouswolf]

Having looked around, I have decided to add the summoning rules from Bard Games' Arcanum if I run Hyperborea. If anyone is interested, there are copies for sale on e bay and probably Noble Knight Games. (I just looked, there is a mint copy on e bay right now for $19.95. The one with a yellow cover, the second edition from Deaths Edge Games. It's 90% the same as the first ed. version.) The first edition was black with a pentagram on the cover, there are some of those for sale too.

It is designed to be compatible with AD&D and similar, and it includes lists of demons, devils and assorted other beings that may be summoned, and has detailed rules to do so. It also lists what each being will do for the sorcerer, such as assassinate someone, serve as a guardian, teach specific spells, etc. Best of all, it's not so graphic as to be objectionable. It's actually a much better set of rules than Stormbringer, TFT, or any others that I know of.

I would probably make it a low level spell, so as to tempt players soonest. As in LotFP.

[blackadder23]

Thanks for the link to the Spider God's Bride. Great stuff for the price though obviously not quite the bargain AS&SH was. Still, it will come in very handy if I ever need to slot in a quick adventure and don't have much prepared.