Rather than squatting the Elric thread let's go on in this thread..
It seems a new edition of Bloodlust called Bloodlust Metal (http://www.sans-detour.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=1) may be published before summer.
The cover (http://artsilencieux.blogspot.com/2009/09/bloodlust-metal-la-couverture.html) isn't of Frazetta but it isn't too bad.
And Benoist added:
QuoteFrom what I understand, the combat system, with all its different skills for each different type of attack and defense (Power Attack, Feignt, Rapid Attack etc) is gone, though. The system will be completely different. It's the universe of Bloodlust, with the continent of Tanaephys, the cool races and background, the God Weapons for each PC, etc, but I'll wait until I see some reviews before deciding what to make of it.
I L-O-V-E the original Bloodlust. It's like Stormbringer and Conan meet in a bar, have a fight, rape one another, and their kid, who read a tiny little bit of Tolkien while doing hard drugs, is raised by Frank Frazetta. Yeah. It's that metal/hardcore. It's awesome.
You seem to know more about the content of this edition than I do. I hope there will be tactical depth to the new combat system. I'm not married to the system of 6 skills (or was it 7?) that defined the previous combat rules. It was quite original though.
The "type of attack/defense" system made characters weapon agnostic. I mean a guy specialized in fast attacks should avoid pole arms and focus on light weapons, that was a given when looking at weapon specs. But nothing forced characters in their weapon choice and they could improvise with whatever was at hand. The paradox is that most PCs would stick to one weapon (their own Stormbringer) and one weapon only. It was a bit of a waste of rules flexibility.
My main curiosity, and what I will focus on when reading reviews, is how they plan to distribute weapon bearers and god weapons roles across the table. The original Bloodlust made a few suggestions but it didn't feel like they playtested them much. If the new edition only offers one mode : GM plays god weapons, players play weapon bearers (the normal game mode originally) I think I'll spare my money. The setting isn't bad and they might spin it in a good way. But it's mostly the rules that matter to me.
Quote from: boulet;367821My main curiosity, and what I will focus on when reading reviews, is how they plan to distribute weapon bearers and god weapons roles across the table.
[...snip...]
If the new edition only offers one mode : GM plays god weapons, players play weapon bearers (the normal game mode originally) I think I'll spare my money.
Refresh my memory -- wasn't one of the options to play something like
Wraith: the Oblivion, where the role of the self-defeating Shadow was taken by one of the other players at the table, not the GM?
As ever, I am excited by this game, but I ain't no Phrancofone, and I have little hope of it ever seeing an English translation. Chances are good that I'll just end up cobbling a variant from my
Elric! rules.
!i!
Quote from: Ian Absentia;367832Refresh my memory -- wasn't one of the options to play something like Wraith: the Oblivion, where the role of the self-defeating Shadow was taken by one of the other players at the table, not the GM?
Yes. You had the option for the GM to play the God Weapons, and the players to play their bearers. Or for some players to play bearers, others God Weapons. Or some players would play a bearer AND a God Weapon of ANOTHER player character. And so on.
Let's remind everyone that the system was actually EXTREMELY lethal for bearers, while Weapons were indestructible (short of losing them, in the depths of the Ocean for instance, which is about the only thing that scared the shit out of them). God Weapons, aside of exotic powers like being able to come aflame, or charm targets, or suck their souls, or grow an actual chainsaw in combat, were acting as sort of templates that were added to the bearers stats.
One of the points of the game was that bearers would inevitably die, one after the other, while the Weapons would remain the same throughout the campaign and grow in power, personality and tastes (yes, Weapons had tastes as far as the types of experiences they wanted to experience the most through their bearers, like Wealth, Violence, Sex, and so on).
I don't know much about what the new game will contain. What I know of it I gathered from French-speaking message boards here and there, some threads involving the people who are designing the game. The system will be different, and I don't think it'll use percentages for skills anymore, but at the same time, my memory may be faulty, and as far as I understand, the design was still an ongoing process at that point (that was at least several months ago).
So I'm in a state of flux on the new game. I'm certainly interested, but at the same time, since I have a PDF copy of the original game, it may not be necessary for me to get yet another completely new game system that doesn't add much to the experience. We'll see, I guess.
Quote from: Ian Absentia;367832Refresh my memory -- wasn't one of the options to play something like Wraith: the Oblivion, where the role of the self-defeating Shadow was taken by one of the other players at the table, not the GM?
Well no actually, the credit of this idea is still in Wraith camp.
They suggested:
- each player plays a weapon bearer, GM plays god weapons
- each player plays a god weapon, GM plays weapon bearers (that's weird)
- each player plays both a god weapon and its weapon bearer (stupid IMO: there's no more telepathic discussions between god and bearer, what's the point of the game then?)
- one player plays a bearer, another a god weapon (needs even number of players... could work but the lack of symmetry seems odd to me)
The Wraith/Shadow player duo is superior to all of them in my view. But it needs a good system to adjudicate passions and domination between gods and bearers (that's the weakest part of Bloodlust IMO).
Oh yeah that's right. Boulet's right. The Shadow combo is infinitely superior!
That's the way I'd play Bloodlust now. :)
Benoist: you don't have more details about the new system by any chance?
I'm looking at this Q&A thread with the publisher right now (http://matrice.johndoe-rpg.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=798) (in French).
OK. I'm on the fifth page of the thread. For those among us who are not reading French at all, here's what I'm getting from the Q&A so far:
- The world is different. They keep the same continent, most of the original factions, races, conspiracies and so on, but they re-shuffled everything to create a world that is less humorous, more gritty, more believable, and less Swords & Sorcery in tone.
- The rules are definitely completely different. There seems to be a heavy emphasis on the background of the bearers, with more than 30 professions/occupations to choose from, the races which seem to be the same, and what seems to be some sort of merits and flaws like "Tall", "Beautiful" etc to customize the character.
- No random element at all in the creation of God Weapons. Everything is done via lists of powers and point-buy. Sounds like creating a GURPS character.
- There are still some silly powers like your Weapon having actual testicles or a chainsaw on its blade (lol).
- The system of desires for Weapons seems to have been completely reworked. From what I'm reading between the lines, there doesn't seem to be numerical values for them anymore, but a more "backgroundesque" approach to them. Keywords, maybe?
That's where I am right now. Someone referred to the system as "Jacquou le Croquant RPG", i.e. very gritty, with the normal man, not the uber-hero on steroids, as the focal point of design. I think that sucks, personally, and runs contrary to the tone of the game. I'm not playing Bloodlust to play "Average Joe RPG". I'm playing to play a Piorad (Cimmerian) with a huge Axe with mouths and yellow feline eyes all over its blade, his muscular body covered with the blood of his recently deceased enemies, trying to catch his breath on a mound of intertwined bodies of fallen friends and foes... if you see what I mean. :D
I don't know. They seem to want to create a Grim and Gritty Glorantha instead of a sketchy, hard and fast setting for hardrock magical clusterfucks of Gods and Puppeteers trapped in Weapon forms. I have my doubts.
That thread is 30 pages long... Thanks for exploring the jungle... I lack the courage right now :)
- The System no longer uses percentages but pools of d6.
- It seems that attacker and defender roll each their scores of attack and defense, and the damage of the attack depends directly on the difference between these two previous results.
- Default game play: players play the bearers. The GM the weapons. Though the "Shadow/Wraith" approach WILL be discussed in the rules/advice contained therein.
- Fixed number of "actions" possible per round of combat.
- The system seems less lethal for the bearer, but that's my reading of it. They don't say it explicitly.
AH. Character sheets:
- Ahman ab Iban'edjati (http://www.la-vouivre.com/golem/metal/Ahman.pdf), Young Batranoban Noble.
- Yellowbone (http://www.la-vouivre.com/golem/metal/arme-cimeterre.pdf), Minor Cimetar God.
These are PDF Files.
It's strange they chose to display a minor weapon god. It's the opposite of the badass image I have of Bloodlust. Too gritty, not heroic enough... Wait, I heard those words before!
:hmm: No official release date yet.
Seems that things have been progressing very slowly during the last year or so.
*resurrects thread for whatever reason*
I have purchased the finished game on a recent trip to France along with the first supplement/GM screen.
I started reading it and I am very happy with it so far. Would love to run this for some friends in the future, maybe after GenCon.
Anyways, has anyone read/run the new edition?
Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;908962*resurrects thread for whatever reason*
I have purchased the finished game on a recent trip to France along with the first supplement/GM screen.
I started reading it and I am very happy with it so far. Would love to run this for some friends in the future, maybe after GenCon.
Anyways, has anyone read/run the new edition?
I'll play no French game until Benoist translates it for me.
Quote from: CRKrueger;908979I'll play no French game until Benoist translates it for me.
Yeah, I'm looking at translating some of it so I can run it for my crew here in the US. I'll likely share things here as I make progress, but looking at my current schedule, this won't be until end of August...
I just need enough of the background stuff so that the players can decide on what culture their characters come from etc so as long as I keep it light it shouldn't be bad.
Quote from: boulet;367838Well no actually, the credit of this idea is still in Wraith camp.
They suggested:
- each player plays a weapon bearer, GM plays god weapons
- each player plays a god weapon, GM plays weapon bearers (that's weird)
- each player plays both a god weapon and its weapon bearer (stupid IMO: there's no more telepathic discussions between god and bearer, what's the point of the game then?)
- one player plays a bearer, another a god weapon (needs even number of players... could work but the lack of symmetry seems odd to me)
The Wraith/Shadow player duo is superior to all of them in my view. But it needs a good system to adjudicate passions and domination between gods and bearers (that's the weakest part of Bloodlust IMO).
I loved the first edition and speak, read and write French (probably better than English), where can I get the PDF;)?
Quote from: AsenRG;909369I loved the first edition and speak, read and write French (probably better than English), where can I get the PDF;)?
(Salut!)
Well, after getting the book and getting home to good ol' Arizona (where I'm the only french native and speaker in my game group), I wanted to get my hands on the PDF as well. To my surprise it isn't sold anywhere! I did find the freebie stuff and lots of resource PDFs (le chagard enchainé).
If you find a place where the full book PDF is available please let me know!
Copy pasting text to translate is way easier than reading the book and typing it out. -_-
Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;909374(where I'm the only french native and speaker in my game group)
Probably only one in the State as well. ;)
Quote from: CRKrueger;909382Probably only one in the State as well. ;)
Surprisingly not!
Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;909374(Salut!)
Well, after getting the book and getting home to good ol' Arizona (where I'm the only french native and speaker in my game group), I wanted to get my hands on the PDF as well. To my surprise it isn't sold anywhere! I did find the freebie stuff and lots of resource PDFs (le chagard enchainé).
If you find a place where the full book PDF is available please let me know!
Copy pasting text to translate is way easier than reading the book and typing it out. -_-
(Salut, mon ami, mais le français n'est pas ma langue maternelle non plus:)).
I'm going to look into it, and apply liberal amounts of Google-Fu. Worst case scenario, I'd need to skip that purchase;).
Somebody should lure Benoist back.
I can get a good deal on Roquefort...
Quote from: AsenRG;909398(Salut, mon ami, mais le français n'est pas ma langue maternelle non plus:)).
I'm going to look into it, and apply liberal amounts of Google-Fu. Worst case scenario, I'd need to skip that purchase;).
Any luck?
I've been reading some more in between being insanely busy with GenCon prep, and damn this is gonna be fun for the right group.
I say "for the right group" because I can see how fun this would be with players that don't hold back.
The setting is insanely unforgiving, violent, very Dark Ages, where power and might are right.
The concept of the Gods getting bored and incarnating as weapons so that they get to feel human passions through their bearers is a fascinating concept. I love it!
Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;911204Any luck?
Not much, I'm sorry to say. Then again, I got distracted by Usagi Yojimbo and Iron claw, so I probably didn't search enough.
That, or it's going to become the French variant of Burning Wheel, another game I never bought because of the lack of a PDF option.