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104-402: The name "White Wolf" originates from Michael Moorcock 's works. White Wolf published a line of several different but overlapping games set in the " World of Darkness ", a "modern gothic " world that, while seemingly similar to the real world, is home to supernatural terrors, ancient conspiracies, and several approaching apocalypses . The company also published the high fantasy Exalted RPG,

208-561: A Doctor Who novel for BBC Books in 2010, one of the few occasions when he has written stories set in other people's "shared universes". The novel The Coming of the Terraphiles was released in October 2010. The story merges Doctor Who with many of Moorcock's characters from the multiverse, notably Captain Cornelius and his pirates. In 2016 Moorcock published the first novel in what he terms

312-644: A 1978 essay, "Starship Stormtroopers" ( Anarchist Review ). There he criticised the production of "authoritarian" fiction by certain canonical writers and Lovecraft for having antisemitic , misogynistic , and racist viewpoints woven into his short stories. Moorcock has allowed other writers to create stories in his fictional Jerry Cornelius universe. Brian Aldiss , Hilary Bailey , M. John Harrison , Norman Spinrad , James Sallis , and Steve Aylett have written such stories. In an interview published in The Internet Review of Science Fiction , Moorcock explains

416-437: A Dice Pool that combines the two (such as weight-lifting or other feats of strength). Both systems roll their dice pool with the goal of beating a target number. In Chronicles of Darkness games the target number is always 8. Each of the dice that comes up at or above the target number counts as a "Success," with higher numbers of successes reflect a greater degree of accomplishment. Modifiers are either bonuses or penalties to

520-621: A book in 1969 by Allison and Busby ). A new, final revision of almost Moorcock's entire oeuvre, with the exception of his literary novels Mother London , King of the City and the Pyat quartet, is issued by Gollancz and many of his titles are reprinted in the United States by Simon and Schuster and Titan and in France by Gallimard. Many novels and comics based on his work are being reprinted by Titan Books under

624-542: A certain number of Dots associated which indicate its Dot cost. A Trait with 4 Dots, for example, "Common Sense", costs 4 Dots to purchase. Others have a range of Dots; "Language" for instance, is one Dot, and a character can buy a certain level of it as they choose. All game mechanics of the Storytelling System utilize a number of 10-sided dice (d10s). The Game Master is called the Storyteller. Depending on what

728-542: A character's Health track is filled with Lethal Damage, any additional Bashing or Lethal damage is upgraded to Aggravated. After a game, a Storyteller can award experience points to players to improve their character's Attributes, Talents and Skills. Experience distribution is typically based upon roleplaying performance (especially if flaws are present), as well as accomplishing short- and long-term goals. The Storyteller system used Abilities instead of Skills. The Mental attributes included Perception instead of Resolve, while

832-415: A complete lack of training and experience. Advantages in the game are such things as the character's Defense score, Health, Initiative, Morality, Size, Speed, and Willpower. Most of these either exist as pre-assigned values as part of character creation, or are derived from one or more of the character's Attributes or Skills. In the Storytelling System , each character has one Virtue and one Vice. A Virtue

936-549: A critical point of his story (this song may also refer to the "Warriors at the Edge of Time", which figure heavily in Moorcock's novels about John Daker; at one point his novel The Dragon in the Sword they call themselves the "veterans of a thousand psychic wars", although the term is also applied to Elric in 2022's "The Citadel of Forgotten Myths"), and " The Great Sun Jester ", about his friend,

1040-521: A day and gave myself three days a volume. That's how, for instance, the Hawkmoon books were written." Over the period of the New Worlds editorship and his publishing of the original fantasy novels Moorcock has maintained an interest in the craft of writing and a continuing interest in the semi-journalistic craft of "pulp" authorship. This is reflected in his development of interlocking cycles which hark back to

1144-412: A decade it was also known as "World of Darkness," causing it to be referred to as the "new World of Darkness" or nWoD to distinguish it from the prior line of games. In December 2015, it was renamed "Chronicles of Darkness" by its new publisher Onyx Path in order to more clearly distinguish the two given Paradox Entertainment's intention to reboot the original setting. Trinity was originally named Æon, but

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1248-462: A die roll that are determined and added in by the Storyteller, subtracting or adding to the number of dice that can be rolled in a Dice Pool to a maximum of 5. Anytime a character has absolutely no dice remaining in their pool as a result of negative Modifiers, the task would seem impossible to perform. The character is still allowed a single d10 die roll, called a Chance Roll, to see if sheer blind luck or divine intervention allows them to succeed. Only

1352-967: A flat cost per level of a trait increased, as opposed to the increasing cost of experience points to reflect the difficulty of higher levels of mastery. The Storyteller System frequently treated Merits as optional and frequently did not include them in the core books of most games; if the Storyteller allowed them, they could be purchased with Bonus Points. Merits had costs ranging from 1 to 7 points. Players could also receive Bonus Points for taking Flaws for their character. Certain traits that would later be codified as Merits still existed, but were instead referred to as Backgrounds; advantages such as Contacts, Resources and Status were universal across gamelines. Whereas most Storytelling games use Virtues and Vices, these do not exist in most games, and are very different where they do exist: Vampire: The Masquerade uses them for varying forms of self-control, and Hunter: The Reckoning ties them directly to Hunters' supernatural powers. In

1456-709: A literary experiment blending memoir and fantasy, The Whispering Swarm . In 2018, he announced his completion of the second volume The Woods of Arcady . In 2020, he said he was completing the final Elric novel The Citadel of Forgotten Myths ready for Elric's 60th anniversary in 2021. Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius novella Pegging the President was launched in 2018 at Shakespeare and Co , Paris, where he discussed his work with Hari Kunzru and reaffirmed his commitment to literary experiment. The first of an audiobook series of unabridged Elric novels, with new work read by Moorcock, began appearing from AudioRealms; however, Audio Realms

1560-503: A long illness. Moorcock abandoned a memoir about his friends Mervyn Peake and Maeve Gilmore because he felt it was too personal. He wrote prose and verse for The Sunday Books first publication in French to accompany a set of unpublished Peake drawings. His book The Metatemporal Detective was published in 2007. His most recent book published first in French is Kaboul , in 2018. In November 2009, Moorcock announced that he would be writing

1664-417: A major resource is Momentum, which does not represent any tangible or recognizable asset but instead the characters' narrative inclination to succeed in the story as a whole. It is spent by players to enhance or enable their character's abilities, and gained by encountering difficulties—failing at rolls, for instance, grants momentum—so that a character facing significant hardship eventually finds themselves with

1768-669: A new Deep Fix album in Paris, titled Live at the Terminal Cafe . Following Stone's death in 2016, Moorcock completed the album with producer Don Falcone . In 2019, Moorcock announced the completion of the album, and it was released 11 October 2019, on Cleopatra Records . Moorcock collaborated with the British rock band Hawkwind on many occasions: the Hawkwind track " The Black Corridor ", for example, included verbatim quotes from Moorcock's novel of

1872-572: A new company by White Wolf Creative Director Richard Thomas, purchased the Trinity games and Scion from CCP and became licensee for the production of World of Darkness titles (classic and new), as well as Exalted . Onyx Path does not, however, hold a license to the Mind's Eye Theatre titles. On Thursday, 29 October 2015, Paradox Interactive and CCP announced that Paradox had purchased White Wolf and all of its intellectual properties. Tobias Sjögren would serve as

1976-409: A note which often states quite directly that one should serve neither gods nor masters but become one's own master." Besides using fiction to explore his politics, Moorcock also engages in non-violent political activism . In order to "marginalize stuff that works to objectify women and suggests women enjoy being beaten", he has encouraged W H Smiths to move John Norman 's Gor series novels to

2080-566: A player needs to roll at or above on his dice in order to generate a Success) is variable for most games, although defaulting to 6 for most rolls: a 50% success chance for an individual die. Unlike the Storytelling system's exclusive reliance on Experience points, "Bonus Points" were given out to characters as part of character creation, with more powerful or experienced characters getting additional Bonus Points at character creation. These points were spent like experience points, but were frequently

2184-625: A pseudonym, particularly in his "Second Ether" fiction. Moorcock talks about much of his writing in Death Is No Obstacle with Colin Greenland, which is a book-length transcription of interviews with Moorcock about the techniques in his writing. Moorcock has also published pastiches of writers for whom he felt affection as a boy, including Edgar Rice Burroughs , Leigh Brackett , and Robert E. Howard . All his fantasy adventures have elements of satire and parody, while respecting what he considers

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2288-412: A result of 10 is a Success on a Chance Roll, but it can be rerolled for more Successes as above), on the other hand a result of 1 is a Dramatic Failure. Time in Storytelling System is measured in small Turns of three seconds. Turns further make up a Scene, which further make up a Chapter. A Chapter is usually one gaming session and Chapters are linked together into an overall Story set in a Chronicle (or

2392-578: A result of CCP Games' discontinuation of publishing, By Night Studios had acquired the license to all Mind's Eye Theatre titles. In May 2013, By Night Studios launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to rebuild the Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade product specifically for the Live-Action Role Play audience. The book was published in December 2013. This was followed by Mind's Eye Theatre: Werewolf

2496-556: A scale from one to five dots. Two dots represents an average capacity in that attribute, while five displays the peak of human ability. Attributes generally cannot have a rank of zero within the Storytelling System. Characters have a wide array of Skills to choose from that represent specialized areas of knowledge. Like Attributes, each Ability / Skill has up to five dots to represent a character's abilities. Unlike attributes, however, abilities can have no dots filled in to represent

2600-652: A script for a computer game/film/novel by Origin Systems . When Electronic Arts bought Origins, the game was cancelled, but Moorcock's 40,000-word treatment was fleshed out by Storm Constantine , resulting in the novel Silverheart . The story is set in Karadur-Shriltasi, a city at the heart of the Multiverse . A second novel, Dragonskin , was in preparation, with Constantine as the main writer, but she died in January 2021, after

2704-467: A small chance of success in the first place. The effects of scale differ against Narrative targets (scenery and nameless bystanders) and Dramatic targets (recognizable characters and objects with significance to the story). While successes are added to Dramatic targets, they are multiplied against narrative ones, allowing for impressive effects that do not automatically overwhelm central characters. In August 2022, Onyx Path announced they would be releasing

2808-471: A surfeit of momentum to help them succeed in the end. Another addition is Scale: a mechanic employed when one character has a significant advantage over another that may not be ideally rendered by a dice pool. A relatively weak giant in Scion, for instance, bears an increased scale in rolls relating to strength and damage, granting them bonus successes on successful rolls, but their lower dice pool would still have

2912-407: A template to the character during character creation, before Merits or Experience. For instance, with a Vampire character, a template describing certain vampiric attributes (Disciplines, Blood points, etc.) is added. To keep the game balanced, only one supernatural template can be applied per character. Merits are special beneficial abilities and strengths a character may possess. They are similar in

3016-556: A trademark issue with Viacom related to the MTV show Æon Flux resulted in a name change. The majority of the Old World of Darkness games were adapted into the original Mind's Eye Theatre format for live-action roleplaying. Product lines in this era include: Subsequently, the Mind's Eye Theatre was revamped for the New World of Darkness. A core Mind's Eye Theatre rulebook was published as

3120-630: A trio with Peter Pavli and Drachen Theaker, some Deep Fix recordings were issued on Hawkwind, Friends and Relations and a limited-edition 7" single of "Brothel in Rosenstrasse" backed with "Time Centre", which featured Langdon Jones on piano. In 2008, The Entropy Tango & Gloriana Demo Sessions by Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix was released. These were sessions for planned albums based on two of Moorcock's novels, Gloriana, or The Unfulfill'd Queen and The Entropy Tango , which were never completed. Pavli, Moorcock and Falcone are currently in

3224-625: A way of commenting on it. Jerry, as Harrison said, was as much a technique as a character and I'm glad that others have taken to using that method. Two short stories by Keith Roberts , "Coranda" and "The Wreck of the Kissing Bitch", are set in the frozen Matto Grosso plateau of Moorcock's 1969 novel, The Ice Schooner . Elric of Melnibone and Moonglum appear in Karl Edward Wagner 's story "The Gothic Touch", where they meet with Kane , who borrows Elric for his ability to deal with demons. He

White Wolf Publishing - Misplaced Pages Continue

3328-572: A way to Feats in d20 System games, allowing characters to do something the main rules usually don't allow. They are organized in the Mental, Physical, and Social categories like Attributes and Skills. In the Storytelling System , starting characters get 7 Dots to purchase Merits. Some Merits apply to certain Attributes and provide a bonus when using them. Some also require a certain number of Dots in some other Attribute in order to purchase them. Each Trait has

3432-844: Is a friend and fan of comic book writer Alan Moore and allowed Moore the use of his own character, Michael Kane of Old Mars, mentioned in Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II . The two appeared on stage at the Vanbrugh Theatre in London in January 2006 where they discussed Moorcock's work. The Green City from Warriors of Mars was also referenced in Larry Niven 's Rainbow Mars . Jerry Cornelius appeared in Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century . Cornelius also appeared in French artist Mœbius ' comic series Le Garage Hermétique . In 1995–96, Moorcock wrote

3536-423: Is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy , who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné , which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s. As editor of

3640-465: Is caused by slashing and piercing weapons like knives and guns. Aggravated Damage is inflicted mainly by supernatural sources and the weaknesses of supernatural creatures (such as fire and sunlight against vampires or silver against werewolves); however, it can also be inflicted by severe radiation poisoning. Characters recover from Bashing Damage quickly, while Aggravated Damage takes the longest to recover from. Health boxes are checked off by Damage. When

3744-436: Is designed for LARP rather than tabletop roleplaying, and drastically overhauls the core mechanics to adjust for the different playstyle demands, resolving conflicts either through drawing from a deck of cards or by rounds of rock paper scissors . In July 2013, White Wolf released a rules update and the first in a series of intended "Chronicle Books" that would give a default focus for games and update their rules to work with

3848-696: Is no longer in business. The second audiobook in the series – The Sailor on the Seas of Fate – was published in 2007. There have been audio-books of Corum and others, several of which were unofficial and A Winter Admiral and Furniture are audio versions of short stories. Since then The Whispering Swarm and the Corum books became available via Audible and all the Elric books were scheduled to appear in audio form to coincide with Simon and Schuster's new illustrated set in 2022. Moorcock has his own music project, which records under

3952-422: Is some defining quality of a character's personality and an ideal which they struggle to aspire. A Vice is a basic weakness in the character's personality, and a flaw or guilty pleasure they may indulge even while knowing that there may be consequences to suffer. Characters can regain willpower by fulfilling their Virtue or Vice. In the Storytelling System , playable supernatural characters are created by applying

4056-580: Is the concept of an " Eternal Champion ", who has multiple identities across alternate universes. This cosmology is called the " Multiverse " within his novels. The Multiverse deals with fundamental polarities, such as Law versus Chaos , and order versus entropy. Elric's success has overshadowed Moorcock's other works, though he has worked the Elric stories' themes into his other works (the "Hawkmoon" and "Corum" novels, for example). His Eternal Champion sequence has been collected in two different editions of omnibus volumes totaling 16 books (the U.S. edition

4160-686: The Trinity line–use a new variant of the same mechanics, the Storypath system. As part of the new editions of the Aeon Trinity games and the Scion gameline, a modified game engine was developed with the intent of being able to handle a wide range of character power levels. While the core mechanics remain the same as the Storytelling system, the Storypath system focuses significantly more on ludonarrative consistency :

4264-490: The Arts Council of Great Britain for funding the magazine. In 2008, The Times named Moorcock in its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Moorcock is also a recording musician; he has contributed to the music acts Hawkwind , Blue Öyster Cult , Robert Calvert and Spirits Burning , and to his own project, Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix. Michael Moorcock was born in London in December 1939, and

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4368-573: The Chronicles of Darkness (formerly known as the New World of Darkness), a game world with several tabletop role-playing games tied in. The Storytelling System is largely based on the Storyteller System, the rule set used for White Wolf's older game setting, the World of Darkness (for a time known as old or classic World of Darkness). While on the road to Gen Con '90, Mark Rein-Hagen came upon

4472-501: The Old World of Darkness , all of which are currently out of print (although many are coming back into availability via print-on-demand). White Wolf also ventured in the collectible card game market with Arcadia , Rage , and Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (formerly Jyhad ). V:TES , perhaps the most successful card game, was originally published by Wizards of the Coast in 1994, but

4576-482: The top shelf . Moorcock began writing while he was still at school, contributing to a magazine he entitled Outlaw's Own from 1950 on. In 1957, at the age of 17, Moorcock became editor of Tarzan Adventures (a national juvenile weekly featuring text and Tarzan comic strip), which had published at least a dozen of his own "Sojan the Swordsman" stories during that year and the next. At the age of 18, in 1958, he wrote

4680-555: The "Borderlands" anthologies edited by Thomas F. Monteleone . White Wolf had different imprints under which various books are published, most notably: Black Dog Game Factory was also a fictional company in the World of Darkness, as detailed in the Subsidiaries: A Guide to Pentex game supplement. White Wolf won the 2004 Silver Ennie Award for "Best Publisher". Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939)

4784-578: The 2021 Spirits Burning album Evolution Ritual . Moorcock also appeared on five tracks on the Spirits Burning CD Alien Injection , released in 2008. He is credited with singing lead vocals and playing glockenspiel, guitar and mandolin. The performances used on the CD were from The Entropy Tango & Gloriana Demo Sessions . Storyteller System The Storytelling System is a role-playing game system created by White Wolf, Inc. for

4888-465: The 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade was published and the Onyx Path was announced. Video games such as Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines are based on White Wolf's role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade . There are also several Hunter: The Reckoning video games . On Saturday, 11 November 2006, White Wolf and CCP Games ,

4992-626: The 60th anniversary of his hero's appearance. He and Simonson produced the graphic novel, Elric: the Making of a Sorcerer , published by DC Comics in 2007. In 2006, he completed his highly praised Colonel Pyat sequence, dealing with the Nazi Holocaust. This began in 1981 with Byzantium Endures , continued through The Laughter of Carthage (1984) and Jerusalem Commands (1992), and culminated with The Vengeance of Rome (2006). His most recent sequence, KABOUL , with illustrations by Miles Hyman,

5096-577: The Apocalypse in October 2016 and Mind's Eye Theatre: Changeling the Dreaming in 2020. In 2019, By Night Studios released Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire the Masquerade, Volume II: Issue 1 , intended to be the first in a series of releases featuring new character options. Eventually each of these releases would be collected within a full edition of Volume II. This plan was eventually scrapped in favor of releasing

5200-515: The Big Picture), the theme and setting of the entire game. There are three basic kinds of Actions in the Storytelling System . Instant Actions take up very little time like taking a gun off safety, or shouting a small message to an ally. Extended Actions take longer time to accomplish and can extend over a number of Turns to complete, like getting a stuck window open, or changing a light bulb. Contested Actions are Actions that involve dealing with what

5304-450: The British " pop art " movement exemplified by Eduardo Paolozzi , Richard Hamilton and others. Paolozzi became "Aviation Editor". During that time, he occasionally wrote as " James Colvin ", a "house pseudonym " originally created for him by John Carnell also used by other New Worlds critics. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by Charles Platt as "William Barclay". Moorcock makes much use of

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5408-488: The British 'New Wave' in Science Fiction . He followed this with Michael Moorcock: Death is No Obstacle , a book-length interview about technique, in 1992. Michael Moorcock: Law of Chaos by Jeff Gardiner and Michael Moorcock: Fiction, Fantasy and the World's Pain by Mark Scroggins were published more recently. In the 1990s, Moorcock moved to Texas in the United States. His wife Linda is American. He spends half of

5512-513: The British science fiction magazine New Worlds , from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States, leading to the advent of cyberpunk . His publication of Bug Jack Barron (1969) by Norman Spinrad as a serial novel was notorious; in Parliament, some British MPs condemned

5616-511: The Brujah vampire clan, it was announced that White Wolf would no longer function as an entity separate from its parent company, and would cease developing and publishing products internally. The games of this series use White Wolf's Storyteller System . Several games inspired spinoffs in the form of historical period settings such as the Dark Ages . In addition to those game lines a series of books

5720-628: The By Night Studios website for free. In May 2023, By Night Studios announced a new Laws of the Night , featuring new live action rules based on Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition . A crowdfunding campaign was launched and successfully raised $ 111,165 with a target goal of $ 25,000. The PDF version of the book was released online in September 2023, with physical copies scheduled to ship in 2024. By Night Studios also published Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire

5824-528: The CEO of the revived company, which would remain a subsidiary of Paradox. Martin Ericsson, formerly a developer on the World of Darkness MMO, served in the "Lead Storyteller" role for the company. In November 2018, as a result of backlash generated by material pertaining to " murder of gay Chechens " published in a Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition source book as well as the inclusion of optional neo-Nazi aesthetic in

5928-1054: The City , the Pyat Quartet and the short story collection London Bone have established him in the eyes of critics such as Iain Sinclair , Peter Ackroyd and Allan Massie in publications including The Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books as a major contemporary literary novelist. In 2008 Moorcock was named by a critics' panel in The Times as one of the fifty best British novelists since 1945. Virtually all of his stories are part of his overarching " Eternal Champion " theme or oeuvre , with characters (including Elric) moving from one storyline and fictional universe to another, all of them interconnected (though often only in dreams or visions ). Most of Moorcock's earlier work consisted of short stories and relatively brief novels: he has mentioned that "I could write 15,000 words

6032-629: The Icelandic MMO development company responsible for EVE Online , announced a merger between the two companies during the keynote address at the EVE Online Fanfest 2006. It was also revealed that a World of Darkness MMORPG was already in the planning stages. This game was cancelled in April 2014 after nine years of development. At GenCon 2012 it was announced that CCP Games/White Wolf would not continue to produce table-top RPGs . Onyx Path Publishing,

6136-450: The LARP analogue to the World of Darkness core rulebook, with several Mind's Eye Theatre adaptations following in suit: The Requiem , The Forsaken , and The Awakening each adapted their respective namesakes to the new system of MET rules. The license to produce Mind's Eye Theatre content was acquired by By Night Studios in 2013. At Midwinter Gaming Convention in 2013 it was announced that as

6240-874: The Masquerade: War of Ages in 2023, which took the setting for Vampire the Masquerade, Fifth Edition and re-imagined the game in the style of Nordic Live action role-playing games , focusing less on game mechanics in favor of a deeper focus on immersive role-playing. Starting in 1986, White Wolf published fiction in various formats, beginning with its eponymous magazine title (which ran 57 issues), then three comic book titles in 1987, and on to graphic novels, paperbacks and hardcover books. Works included novels and anthologies based on White Wolf's games, as well as general fantasy and horror fiction. White Wolf printed several Elric of Melniboné collections by Michael Moorcock . The company also put out general fiction collections by Harlan Ellison , as well as several paperback editions of

6344-546: The Rings for their " Merry England " point of view, equating Tolkien's novel to Winnie-the-Pooh in his essay " Epic Pooh ". Even so, James Cawthorn and Moorcock included The Lord of the Rings in Fantasy: The 100 Best Books (Carroll & Graf, 1988), and their review is not dismissive. Moorcock has also criticized writers for their political agendas. He included Robert A. Heinlein and H. P. Lovecraft among this group in

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6448-627: The Rockets , and Firing the Cathedral , which was concerned with 9/11. All four novellas were included in the 2003 edition of The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius . Moorcock's most recent Cornelius stories, "Modem Times", appeared in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume 2 , published in 2008, this was expanded in 2011 as "Modem Times 2.0". Additionally, a version of Cornelius also appeared in Moorcock's 2010 Doctor Who novel The Coming of

6552-467: The Terraphiles . Pegging the President (PS. 2018), The Fracking Factory (on FB, 2018) are two recent novellas and further stories are forthcoming. Moorcock is a fervent supporter of Mervyn Peake 's works. Moorcock is critical of J. R. R. Tolkien 's works. He met both Tolkien and C. S. Lewis in his teens and claims to have liked them personally even though he does not admire them on artistic grounds. Moorcock criticised works such as The Lord of

6656-488: The Vietnam War, and continued to feature another variation of the multiverse theme. The first Jerry Cornelius book, The Final Programme (1968), was made into a feature film in 1973. Its story line is identical to two of the Elric stories: The Dreaming City and The Dead Gods' Book . Since 1998, Moorcock has returned to Cornelius in a series of new stories: The Spencer Inheritance , The Camus Connection , Cheering for

6760-1136: The allegorical fantasy novel The Golden Barge . This remained unpublished until 1980, when it was issued by Savoy Books with an introduction by M. John Harrison . At 19, Moorcock worked on The Sexton Blake Library , a serial pulp fiction featuring Sexton Blake , which The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction referred to as the poor man's Sherlock Holmes . Under Moorcock's leadership, New Worlds became central to "New Wave" science fiction. This movement, not of its own naming, promoted individual vision, literary style and an existential view of technological change, in contrast to generic " hard science fiction ", which extrapolated on technological change itself. Some "New Wave" stories were not recognisable as traditional science fiction, and New Worlds remained controversial for as long as Moorcock edited it. Moorcock claimed that he wanted to publish experimental/literary fiction using techniques and subject matter from generic SF but, initially at least, to marry "popular" and "literary" fiction at what he considered their natural overlap. After 1967, this policy became evident and allied to

6864-502: The background of his multiverse. Moorcock is prone to revising his existing work, with the result that different editions of a given book may contain significant variations. The changes range from simple retitlings (the Elric story The Flame Bringers became The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams in the 1990s Victor Gollancz /White Wolf omnibus editions) to character name changes (such as detective "Minos Aquilinas" becoming first "Minos von Bek" and later "Sam Begg" in three different versions of

6968-597: The band on many occasions, including the Black Sword tour. His contributions were removed from the original release of the Live Chronicles album, recorded on this tour, for legal reasons, but have subsequently appeared on some double-CD versions. He can also be seen performing on the DVD version of Chronicle of the Black Sword . Moorcock also collaborated with former Hawkwind frontman and resident poet, Robert Calvert (who gave

7072-585: The better the character is at those abilities. A set of dice representing the Dots in an Attribute or Skill forms a Dice Pool that the character uses to see if he/she succeeds or fails at specific tasks. Characters have nine Attributes in three groups: Mental, Physical, and Social. In the Storytelling System , Attributes are also divided into three use-based categories: Power (the ability to alter one's environment), Finesse (the ability to use power efficiently), and Resilience (the ability to cope with power being exercised upon one's self). All Attributes are rated on

7176-415: The chilling declamation of "Sonic Attack"), on Calvert's albums Lucky Leif and the Longships and Hype , playing guitar and banjo and singing background vocals with his wife Linda. Moorcock wrote the lyrics to three album tracks by the American band Blue Öyster Cult : " Black Blade ", referring to the sword Stormbringer in the Elric books, " Veteran of the Psychic Wars ", showing us Elric's emotions at

7280-399: The drug community' but made venues and stations wary of booking and playing them. The first album New Worlds Fair was released in 1975. The album included Snowy White , Peter Pavli of The Third Ear Band, regulars Steve Gilmore and Graham Charnock, Moorcock himself on guitars, mandolin and banjo, and a number of Hawkwind regulars in the credits. A second version of the New Worlds album

7384-415: The essentials of the form. Although his heroic fantasies have been his most consistently reprinted books in the United States, he achieved prominence in the UK as a literary author, with the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1977 for The Condition of Muzak , and with Mother London later shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize . Novels and series such as the Cornelius Quartet , Mother London , King of

7488-455: The full version of Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire the Masquerade, Volume 2 in October 2021, featuring the additional new rules that were slated to appear in Issues 2 and 3. After publication of Vampire the Masquerade, Volume 2 , work began Mind's Eye Theatre: Werewolf the Apocalypse, Volume 2 , which was written but never scheduled for formal release. In February 2023, the manuscript was released on

7592-589: The future World of Darkness setting. This was a simple adjustment (since the core premise of both settings is 'Earth as we know it' + 'supernatural fiction is reality') and particularly suited to the 'Tremere connection' between a clan of vampires from the original Vampire and a House of magi in the Order of Hermes (the central organization of Ars Magica as well as one of the 'Traditions' in M:TA ) . The games of this series use White Wolf's newer Storytelling System . For over

7696-462: The general title The Michael Moorcock Library, while in France a new adaptation of the Elric and Hawkmoon series has been translated into many languages, including English. Moorcock's best-selling works have been the " Elric of Melniboné " stories. In these, Elric is a deliberate reversal of clichés found in fantasy adventure novels inspired by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien . Central to many of his seminal fantasy novels, including his Elric books,

7800-528: The idea of a new game design that would become Vampire: The Masquerade . Tom Dowd , co-designer for Shadowrun , worked with Rein-Hagen to adapt the core mechanics from his previous game success to use d10 instead of d6 for calculating probability. Over the next few years, several games were published under this rule set. The World of Darkness games exclusively used this ruleset, as did Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game (1995), Trinity (1999), and Exalted (2001). The Storyteller System

7904-497: The initials "JC"; these are also the initials of Jesus Christ , the subject of his 1967 Nebula Award -winning novella Behold the Man , which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using " Warwick Colvin, Jr. " as

8008-578: The landscape of London, particularly the area of Notting Hill Gate and Ladbroke Grove , is an important influence in some of his fiction (such as the Cornelius novels). Moorcock has mentioned The Master Mind of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs , The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edwin Lester Arnold as the first three non-juvenile books that he read before beginning primary school. The first book he bought

8112-419: The last box is checked with bashing damage, a character is generally at risk of passing out, if the last box is checked with lethal damage, a character is helpless and generally at risk of dying without medical attention, and if the last box is checked with aggravated damage, a character is dead. If a character's Health track is filled with Bashing Damage, any additional Bashing Damage is upgraded to Lethal, and if

8216-436: The mechanical place of Virtue and Vice, most games had instead "Nature," reflecting a character's innermost personality, and "Demeanor," showing the persona the character displayed to the world at large. World of Darkness games suggest players to have at least ten d10s available to roll for their character's task resolutions and Attribute tests; other games, such as Exalted, may use more. The Mind's Eye Theatre system,

8320-481: The modern mythic Scion , and d20 system material under their Sword & Sorcery imprint, including such titles as the Dungeons & Dragons gothic horror campaign setting Ravenloft , and Monte Cook 's Arcana Unearthed series. In order to complement the World of Darkness game line, a LARP system dubbed Mind's Eye Theatre has been published. White Wolf also released several series of novels based on

8424-527: The name Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix . The Deep Fix was the title story of an obscure collection of short stories by James Colvin (a pen name of Moorcock) and was the name of the Jerry Cornelius band. Moorcock's story had dealt with releasing the unconscious, and although it referenced William Burroughs, it was not specifically about illicit drugs. This allegedly lost the band considerable airplay and gave Moorcock what he called 'a great reputation in

8528-538: The new rules released in The God-Machine Chronicle . The system changes include the addition of Conditions and Tilts, which are usually-temporary traits that can impact characters' abilities; while Conditions apply at all times, Tilts usually directly affect combat. The Experience Point system also changed greatly: throughout a session, players now accumulate "beats" through coping with or resolving Conditions, dealing with hardships, or accomplishing goals. When

8632-453: The opposition does, like shooting at a running target during a Combat Scene. For every Success a character has on their Attack roll against an opponent, they inflict one Health Point of Damage upon the target. There are three kinds of Damage in White Wolf games: Bashing, Lethal and Aggravated. Bashing Damage is inflicted by blunt objects that bludgeons targets like a baseball bat. Lethal Damage

8736-489: The options, usually when they seemed to drift too far off course. In February 2019, BBC Studios announced they had secured the rights to the Runestaff series of fantasy novels, which feature Hawkmoon as their hero. Another of Moorcock's creations is Jerry Cornelius , a hip urban adventurer of ambiguous gender ; the same characters featured in each of several Cornelius books. These books were satirical of modern times, including

8840-607: The origins of fantasy in myth and medieval cycles (see "Wizardry and Wild Romance – Moorcock" and "Death Is No Obstacle – Colin Greenland" for more commentary). This also provides an implicit link with the episodic origins of literature in newspaper/magazine serials from Trollope and Dickens onwards. None of this should be surprising given Moorcock's background in magazine publishing. Since the 1980s, Moorcock has written longer, more literary "mainstream" novels, such as Mother London and Byzantium Endures , but he continued to revisit characters from his earlier works, such as Elric. With

8944-575: The player accumulates five beats, she may redeem these for an Experience. Improving character traits is now flat, such that buying the first dot of a trait costs the same as purchasing the final dot of the same. On August 16, 2014, Onyx Path Publishing revealed that they were publishing a second edition of the Chronicles of Darkness setting, using the God-Machine rules. They also announced that they would be releasing new editions of their first five games in

9048-761: The poet Bill Butler, who died of a drug overdose. Moorcock has performed live with BÖC (in 1987 at the Atlanta, GA Dragon Con Convention). Moorcock contributed vocals and harmonica to the Spirits Burning albums An Alien Heat , The Hollow Lands , and The End Of All Songs - Part 1 . Most of the lyrics were taken from or based on text in novels from Moorcock's The Dancers At The End Of Time trilogy. The albums were produced by Spirits Burning leader Don Falcone , and included contributions from Albert Bouchard and other members of Blue Öyster Cult , as well as former members of Hawkwind. Moorcock plays harmonica on three songs on

9152-452: The process of making the intended versions of those songs based on the group's TEAC recordings of the 80s. They are influenced heavily by modern classical music which they look to for inspiration. Moorcock's considerable range is demanded. Moorcock and Pavli have long been advocates for Mahler, Schoenberg, Ives and other 20th century composers. Working with Martin Stone , Moorcock began recording

9256-412: The publication of the third and last book in his Elric Moonbeam Roads sequence, he announced that he was "retiring" from writing heroic fantasy fiction, though he continued to write Elric's adventures as graphic novels with his long-time collaborators Walter Simonson and the late James Cawthorn (1929–2008) and in 2021 announced that he had written a 'straight' Elric novel, within the first canon, for

9360-438: The reason for sharing his character: I came out of popular fiction and Jerry was always meant to be a sort of crystal ball for others to see their own visions in – the stories were designed to work like that – a diving board, to use another analogy, from which to jump into the river and be carried along by it. [...] All of these have tended to use Jerry the way I intended to use him – as a way of seeing modern life and sometimes as

9464-403: The same name , and he worked with the band on their album Warrior on the Edge of Time , for which he earned a gold disc. Moorcock also wrote the lyrics to " Sonic Attack ", a Sci-Fi satire of the public information broadcast, that was part of Hawkwind's Space Ritual set. Hawkwind's album The Chronicle of the Black Sword was largely based on the Elric novels. Moorcock appeared on stage with

9568-499: The setting. While Vampire: The Requiem had released its The Strix Chronicle less than a year previous, Onyx Path conceded that the second edition of Requiem would be identical enough to Strix that they would supply a free PDF of the second edition to anyone who had already purchased a PDF copy of that book. New games from Onyx Path, such as They Came from Beneath the Sea –as well as new editions of some older games, such as Scion and

9672-420: The short story "The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius"), major textual alterations (for example, the addition of several new chapters to The Steel Tsar in the omnibus editions), and even complete restructurings (as with the 1966 novella Behold the Man being expanded to novel-length and into a novel rather than an SF story recreated from the original version that appeared in New Worlds for republication as

9776-448: The situation calls for, a character has a number of Dots in Attributes and Skills associated with the task. Each Dot represents a d10 die that is added to a dice pool to roll for task resolution. For example, if a character is scaling a wall, they add the number of Dots in their Strength Attribute and their Athletics Skill together. In this case, if the character has a Strength of 3 Dots, and an Athletics Skill of 4 Dots, they get 7 dice in

9880-531: The social Attributes of Charisma and Appearance were replaced on the sheet by Presence and Composure, respectively. Unlike all other attributes in the Storyteller system–and unlike all attributes in the Storytelling System–Appearance could have zero dots in it, although this was only to reflect particularly hideous or monstrous characters. Further, the Target Number for rolls (which was a number

9984-497: The year in Texas, the other half in Paris , France. Moorcock's works feature political content. In one interview, he states, "I am an anarchist and a pragmatist . My moral/philosophical position is that of an anarchist." In describing how his writing relates to his political philosophy, Moorcock says, "My books frequently deal with aristocratic heroes, gods and so forth. All of them end on

10088-504: Was 15 volumes, while the British edition was 14 volumes, but due to various rights issues, the U.S. edition contained two volumes that were not included in the British edition, and the British edition likewise contained one volume that was not included in the U.S. edition) containing several books per volume, by Victor Gollancz in the UK and by White Wolf Publishing in the US. Several attempts to make an Elric film were made. Moorcock refused to resign

10192-511: Was a secondhand copy of The Pilgrim's Progress . Moorcock is the former husband of the writer Hilary Bailey , with whom he had three children: Sophie (b. 1963), Katherine (b. 1964), and Max (b. 1972). Moorcock is also the former husband of Jill Riches, who later married Robert Calvert . She illustrated some of Moorcock's books, including covers, among them the dustjacket for the first edition of Gloriana ( Allison and Busby , 1978). In 1983, Linda Steele became Moorcock's third wife. He

10296-403: Was abandoned just two years later after a revamped base set, name change and three expansions were published. White Wolf acquired the rights to the game in 2000, even though no new material had been produced for the game in over four years. Since then, several V:TES expansions have been released, and the game was the only official source of material for the Old World of Darkness , until 2011 when

10400-499: Was an early member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of eight heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s and led by Lin Carter , selected by fantasy credentials alone. Moorcock is the subject of four book-length works, a monograph and an interview, by Colin Greenland . In 1983, Greenland published The Entropy Exhibition: Michael Moorcock and

10504-501: Was discontinued in 2003 after completing the metaplot building up since Vampire: The Masquerade . It was replaced by the Storytelling System , a more streamlined rule set. The Storytelling System premiered in The World of Darkness in 2004. Storytelling System characters are built with character points that represent a Dot on their character sheets. Each Dot represents a ten-sided die ( d10 ). The more Dots in an Attribute or Skill,

10608-718: Was issued in 2004 under the album name Roller Coaster Holiday . A non-album rock single, including Lemmy on bass and Moorcock playing his own Rickenbacker 330/12, "Starcruiser" coupled with "Dodgem Dude", was belatedly issued in 1980 on Flicknife . Although announced to appear at Dingwalls, the performance was cancelled when schedules clashed. The Deep Fix gave a rare live performance at the Roundhouse , London on 18 June 1978 at Nik Turner 's Bohemian Love-In , headlined by Turner's band Sphynx and also featuring Tanz Der Youth with Brian James (ex- The Damned ), Lightning Raiders , Steve Took's Horns , Roger Ruskin and others. In 1982, as

10712-520: Was produced under the title World of Darkness . These provided stand-alone materials for multiple game lines with the focus on a specific region or theme, e.g. WoD: Blood-Dimmed Tides (about the oceans), WoD: Combat (an alternative 'crossover' combat system to resolve contradictory mechanics and add some sophistication), WoD: Tokyo and WoD: Mafia . For the Third Edition of Ars Magica , White Wolf connected that game's pseudohistorical setting to

10816-471: Was published in French by Denoel. Among other works by Moorcock are The Dancers at the End of Time , comedies set on Earth millions of years in the future, Gloriana, or The Unfulfill'd Queen , which he describes as an argument with Spenser 's The Faerie Queen , set in an alternative Earth history and the "Second Ether" sequence beginning with "BLOOD", mixing absurdism, reminiscence and family memoir against

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