Two Elric of Melniboné RPGs in one week. Free League has just announced Legends of Stormbringer, an officially licensed game built on the bones of its acclaimed Dragonbane system, days after Goodman Games revealed its own Classic Era of Elric line. Two adaptations of Michael Moorcock's doomed albino emperor, both due in 2027, both heading to crowdfunding. Bit of a feast for anyone who's been waiting since Mongoose's last Elric run went out of print.
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Find events near youIf you've never read Moorcock, Elric is the white-haired, drug-dependent emperor who basically invented the antihero sword-and-sorcery template. Warhammer, Dark Souls, and most of modern grimdark fantasy owes him a debt. Legends of Stormbringer drops players into the Young Kingdoms, the dying-empire setting Moorcock built around him, with setting writer Richard Watts back at the wheel. Watts worked on Chaosium's beloved Elric! edition in the 90s, so this is a proper homecoming for one of the genre's foundational designers.
The Dragonbane choice is the headline. Free League's house fantasy system landed in 2023 and has won broad acclaim, including a Gold ENNIE for Best Cartography in 2024. It plays fast and lethal, somewhere between BRP and a streamlined OSR retroclone, with quick character creation and percentile rolls that turn every fight into a knife-edge moment. That fits Moorcock's doomed Young Kingdoms about as well as any system could. The studio has been voted ENNIE Fan Favourite Publisher five times since 2020, on the back of Tales from the Loop, the Alien RPG and Twilight: 2000.
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See how it worksThere's no firm crowdfunding date yet, just 'further details to be revealed' alongside the rest of the creative team. Goodman Games' rival line uses Dungeon Crawl Classics and 5e mechanics, so the two won't really compete on the table. Moorcock fans get to pick their preferred ruleset, which is the best kind of problem to have. Worth keeping an eye on UK retailers like Leisure Games and Dice Saloon, which usually carry Free League stock on day one.
Sources: Tabletop Sentinel | Stormbringer RPG | Wargamer
