I played Call of Cthulhu before I played D&D and I read Michael Moorcock’s Elric before I read Lord of the Rings. What can I say? I was always like this.
I discovered Moorcock the way most people in the Twin Cities did: by hanging out in Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Bookstore. I was looking for something to read and the guy at the counter pointed me in the right direction. I had already discovered Robert E. Howard and Conan via H.P. Lovecraft, and once I mentioned those two, he knew where to lead me. The first Moorcock book I bought was Sailor on the Seas of Fate. I loved it. What’s more, I discovered Elric was only one incarnation of a character called “The Eternal Champion.” In fact, all of Moorcock’s heroes were incarnations of the Eternal Champion, which got me to read all the Moorcock I could get my hands on. When I finished with all the Elric there was to read, I found getting hold of the other books was… more challenging. I read about Hawkmoon and the Runestaff, Prince Corum in the Scarlet Robe, von Bek, and poor Erekosë who started the whole thing off. Like most of my reading habits, I had to read all of it before I read anything else. And, thanks to Mr. Moorcock, I had a huge list to fill. Back in those days—the dark, early days—there was no internet or Amazon. I had to get what I could get when I could get it and I never got my hands on all of it.
Until recently.
Gollancz Books has been reprinting all the classic Moorcock novels and I’ve been reading them. All of them. One at a time. I’m finally getting to read the second Corum trilogy (which I never got around to) and the High History of the Runestaff (I only got to read the Count Brass trilogy). I’m also getting to read all the “newer” Elric stories that I skipped over (all the Dream Thief stuff and Revenge of the Rose). Reading Moorcock again has re-ignited a love of fantasy in my brain. Reading the new stuff and re-reading the old shows me just how important he was to my own writing and my own thoughts about fantasy and epic.
(I’m specifically thinking of the vivid prose he uses when violence breaks out. I’ve used a similar technique with all my writing, but never realized it was Moorcock who inspired it.)
And, of course, being who I am, I’m thinking, How would I design an Eternal Champion RPG?
Well, how would I? Easy. I’ll tell you. But I won’t tell you all of it. You won’t get a working model. Just a glimpse. Why? Well, I don’t own any of the rights to make a real Eternal Champion RPG (that would just be disrespectful to Mr. Moorcock) and second, I get paid for my work. Except sometimes. When I’m feeling generous.
How It Would Work
Okay, some heads up on what we are doing here.
The Eternal Champion fights for Cosmic Justice across the Million Spheres (different realities), making sure the powers of Law and Chaos don’t get out of hand. The Champion takes different forms, plays different roles, but always has both a Consort (the one the Champion loves) and a Companion (the one the Champion trusts). There’s more to learn, but that should give you an idea.
First, I’d use Chaosium’s BRP. It’s the system I learned on, it’s the system that gave me Stormbringer, and it fits in my head. However, I’d use the simpler d20 version of BRP—the one found in Pendragon. I like it more and it’s my game, so there.
Second, this is a four person RPG. No more, no less. You need 4 people to play this game. One person is the GM. We all know how that works. Now, each player creates an incarnation of the Eternal Champion. You get to pick your Champion’s details including gender, appearance, and all the rest. Using Jared Sorensen’s “three things” rule, I’d say you get to say three things about your character and that’s it. At least to start. You can add more stuff later, but let’s not get bogged down in details.
Next, after everyone’s shown off their new Champion, you make a Companion and a Consort for the other two Champions. So, if it’s Amy, Becky, and Charlie…
- Amy makes a Consort for Becky’s Champion and a Companion for Charlie’s Champion,
- Becky makes a Consort for Charlie’s Champion and a Companion for Amy’s Champion, and
- Charlie makes a Consort for Amy’s Champion and a Companion for Becky’s Champion
Got that? Go around the table with everyone making either a Consort or a Companion for each Champion. Once you’ve got that done, we’re ready to play.
Spotlight
If you aren’t familiar with the concept of spotlight in RPGs, you should be. It’s the moment the GM shines on your character. Everybody else should focus on making this moment about you because soon enough, it’ll be their turn in the spotlight and you’ll be there to help them shine.
The GM focuses one session or set of sessions on a single Champion. This is their story. If the spotlight is on Amy’s Champion, Becky plays the Companion and Charlie plays the Consort. When that story ends, its Becky’s turn in the spotlight with a story dedicated to her Champion while Becky and Charlie switch roles. And so it goes.
Oh! And I’d also throw in some kind of bonus mechanic (bonus dice, bonus to your roll, etc.) if you can work in a parallel to a previous Champion’s story. Because Moorcock did it, you get rewarded for doing the same thing.
* * *
And that’s pretty much how I’d run it. A lot of the magic stuff would be hand-wavy because that’s pretty much how Moorcock wrote it. Not a lot of spell lists, but I’d use something similar to magic points because in Moorcock’s multiverse, magic seems to have a serious effect on the caster’s stamina. Violence would be brutal. Of course there would be a Law vs Chaos mechanic. And yes, I’d use pretty much the same mechanic you’d find in Chaosium’s Stormbringer and Hawkmoon, but with some slight modifications. No, I won’t tell you.
I hope this post encourages you to think of your own Eternal Champion game, or better yet, pick up the whole series. Trust me, if you’ve never read any Moorcock, get out and do it. You can thank me later.
In the meantime, I’ll go back to the adventures of the Prince in the Scarlet Robe. He’s about to roll the King of Swords and I can’t wait to see it happen.
Of course, there’ll be a heavy cost. For the Eternal Champion, there always is.