Sample file By Willis and Friends

Art By Andy P. Timm, Kenneth Solis, Oneika Vegatoth, Taylor Davis, Ben Monroe, Alain Gassner, Earl Geier, Chris Johnston, Michael Kirkbride and Friends.

Production, Art Direction Nicholas Nacario, Ben Monroe and Zachary T. Irwin

Layout Design Nicholas Nacario

Southern Reaches Maps Ben Monroe

Chaosium Inc. is Lynn Willis, Charlie Krank, Dustin Wright, Meghan Mclean, Nicholas Nacario, Mike Mason, Sampleand a few curious others. file Dedicated to the memory of Lynn Willis

Revised Version 1.1 This book is primarily a reprint and reworking of the Chaosium games and books originally published as Elric!, The Bronze Grimoire, RuneQuest Creatures Book and Sailing on the Seas of Fate. The text has been revised and expanded for this com- prehensive edition; a few pieces were added from the Basic Roleplaying. New material has been added to enhance the themes of heroic fantasy. Many great supplements and rules additions have been published for Basic Roleplaying over the years. As a service to our many loyal fans and friends, Chaosium is currently working to bring many of these great supplements back into print, while at the same time revising them to bring them in line with the current Basic Roleplaying.

We hope that those of you who used these rules in the past as well as those who are new to this material will find enjoyment in this book, and that it will enhance your game.

As noted above, Magic World draws most of its text from previously-published works. The authorial credits to those books are as follows:

Elric!: Lynn Willis, Richard Watts, Mark Morrison, Jimmie Pursell, Sam Shirley

Bronze Grimoire: Ross Isaacs

RuneQuest Bestiary: Sandy Petersen, Steve Perrin

Seas of Fate: Mark Morrison

Basic Roleplaying: Jason Durall, Sam Johnson

Most, if not all of those books were skillfully edited by Lynn Willis and Charlie Krank. The compilations, revisions, and minor additions to the current text are by Ben Monroe. Special thanks also to David Ackerman, Jason Durall, Ian Kaufman and Steven Leary for helping out with a million bits and bobs throughout the revision, and to Professor James C. Monroe for insight into pre-industrial cultures. And many, many thanks to Nick Middleton for his invaluable insight, feedback and fact-checking.

David Ackerman wrote the entirety of the Southlands chapter.

Special note must be made to thank the writers and designers of the original RuneQuest game, of which Magic World is as a grandchild: Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, Warren James, John Sapienza, and Greg Stafford.

Ben Monroe, the revision editor of this edition of the game would like to respectfully dedicate the project to Lynn Willis: Teacher, Scholar, Gentleman, and Friend.

This book is a celebration of work done over the years by many people here in the U.S. and abroad. Much of the art was cre- ated for translated editions of Chaosium works-some of the overseas publishers no longer exist. Over the years we have lost track of some of the artists and are interested in finding them again. Please email us at [email protected].

MagicWorld is published by Chaosium Inc. MagicWorld © 2012 Chaosium Inc. as a whole; all rights reserved. Text for Magic- World is © 2012 by the respective authors. “Chaosium Inc.” and “Call of Cthulhu” are registered trademarks of Chaosium Inc. Similarities between characters in MagicWorld and persons living or dead are strictly coincidental. Address questions and comments by mail to Chaosium Inc., 22568 Mission Blvd. #423, Hayward, CA 94541-5116 U.S.A.

Our web site www.chaosium.com always contains the latest release information and current prices. SampleChaosium publication 0400 file ISBN 1-56882-353-3 Published in March 2011. Printed in the United States. Contents

Clear Credits 2

Introduction 6

Adventurers 11

Skills 37

Game System 48

Combat 62

Sorcery 95

Seafaring 131

Bestiary 151

Chronicler Resources 215

The Southern Reaches 237 Sample file 4 MAGIC WORLD

A Foreword by Sandy Petersen

Long ago, the fi rst edition of Dungeons would back off on D&D and play the & Dragons appeared and I was among new game, typically playing about 50- the lucky few to get and play that game. 50 - i.e., D&D one week, then the new Of course it wasn’t the rules that at- game the next week. tracted me - it was the idea of fantasy In 1978, the fi rst edition of Runequest roleplaying. I bought plenty of other came out, and I was among the lucky few games over the years, and played them to get and play that game, too. As with with my group. Each time a new fantasy the other games we’d played, we initially game would come out (Chivalry & Sor- played 50-50 D&D and Runequest. cery, The Fantasy Trip, etc.) our group But something different happened by the end of the year, our group was ONLY playing Runequest. Most people who were playing Runequest said they did so be- cause of the cool fantasy world of Glorantha, but not me. I mean, I liked the world well enough, but I didn’t see why it had to be at- tached to any rule system. In fact, I designed a D&D campaign set in Glorantha (how weird is that?). Runequest took over our fan- tasy gaming world because the rules were so great. We thought the combat was fantastically bet- ter than any other fantasy game we’d ever played. It seemed to fi t fantasy books and movies better than the other games did, plus the skills system let us make any kind of character we pleased. It was terrifi c. Really, the only fl aw of Run- equest was the comparatively weak magic. The sadly obscure Worlds of Wonder game tried to address this. Now it has been re- dressed in a much more skilled and balanced way. I am excited to try out the new Magic World game. I’ve already seen and love Samplethe rules! file - Sandy Petersen

Introduction MAGIC WORLD 5

IF YOU'VE NEVER PLAYED A ROLEPLAYING GAME BEFORE, READ THIS FIRST!

Don’t panic! Despite all the rules, charts, • Characteristics are usually 3-18 (the and arcane language, you already know higher the better), human average is how to play this game. It’s simply the 10-11. Make a characteristic roll when same ‘let’s pretend’ games you played there is no opposition and a resis- as a child. But in Magic World, and other tance roll when there is an opposed roleplaying games, there are rules to de- force that can be rated. scribe how the world works, and how your characters interact with it. And to solve • The Resistance Table is based on the perpetual “I got you!” “No, I shot you equal forces having a 50/50 chance fi rst!” problems. against one another. The more un- equal the forces are, the greater the The size of this book may seem daunt- difference. Both scores’ chances al- ing at fi rst, but don’t let that stop you. We ways add up to 100%. recommend you use a “SQR” method in reading the book: • Skills have percentile ratings (the higher the better), and you want to roll Survey: You don’t need to read the entire low to succeed. A roll of 99 and/or 00 book at fi rst. Just skim it, read over things is a fumble. A roll over your skill is a that seem interesting to you. If you think failure. A roll equal to or under your you might want to play an erudite Sor- skill rating is a success. A roll of 1/5 cerer, look over the Sorcery rules. Want your skill is a special success. A roll of to play a battle-hardened warrior? Skim 1/20 your skill is a critical success. over the combat section. Like monsters, beasts and fantastic creatures? Take a • Occasionally, skill ratings will be mod- peek at the Bestiary. ifi ed by a value (usually within the range of ±20%) if some contributing Question: As you survey the book, ques- factor makes things more diffi cult, or tions may arise about certain aspects of if something makes the skill attempt game play. Dig deeper and fi nd the an- easier. swers to those questions. This game has been written to be user-friendly, with • When you run out of Hit Points, you simply-presented rules. It may seem that die. there’s an awful lot of material to learn, • Most spells use Magic Points for fuel. but just remember that it’s written down When these run out, you fall uncon- in a book so you don’t have to remember scious. it all! Everything else can be determined dur- Read: Once you’ve had a chance to sur- ing the course of play, or explained as vey the book, and answer any immediate required. If knowledge of the rules is get- questions, now go through and start read- ting in the way of actually playing, better ing the book again from the beginning. to play. Try making a couple of sample characters to see how that process works. Remember, this is a game! Have fun with it. SampleMagic World has only a few core princi- file ples to keep in mind, and once you know these, you should be fi ne:

Introduction