Using the advanced rules a character may well collapse from particular types of mortal wounds, or in combat from sheer exhaustion, especially if wearing heavy armour. Characters could easily end up with wounds that would last for months or suffer the loss of digits, or limbs. Unlike combat in most contemporary RPGs, and even most RPGs today, combat in Maelstrom was very realistic. One example noted in the rule book is that of a mercenary becoming a priest and being expected to eschew previous experience with weapons. In some cases a character may be expected to refrain from using skills previously acquired on entering a new profession. A character may have one, two, three or more professions as long as the referee agrees (a player normally being expected to provide a plausible explanation for the character having studied so many areas).
Professions in Maelstrom are not like the rigid class systems seen in many other RPGs from the 1980s. Older characters are also more susceptible to disease. A character starting with many professions will be older than other characters and will thus never achieve the lofty attribute scores a younger character could achieve. An inexperienced character may thus have low initial values but great potential while an older character with experience may actually find that their attributes are limited by their age maximum, and continue to decline as they get older. The character spends a number of years training in each profession and is normally assumed to have fully completed all training at the start of the campaign.Īge impacts the maximum values that each attribute may have. As part of building a character the player then chooses one or more professions. Maelstrom - Back Cover ( Puffin Books Edition)Ĭontents Thanks Introduction Part I: Player's Rules 1: Character Creation Īge is a very important characteristic to a character in Maelstrom, unlike many RPGs where aging is not a major consideration in character generation.Īll Maelstrom characters start at age 14. YOU choose the characters, YOU decide the missions and YOU have the adventures in the turbulent world of Europe in the sixteenth century - either as a player or as a referee.Ĭomplete with Beginners' and Advenced Rules, Referee's Notes, maps, charts and a solo adventure to get you started, Maelstrom is a great game for three or more players. *Or any one of a host of different characters. *A spy - disguised as a herbalist, carrying vital messages to the King *A noble lady - on her way to stir up intrigue at court *An alchemist - skilled in the dark arts of magick Imagine a band of travellers on the long road from St Albans to London - a dangerous journey in troubled times.
Interview with Alexander Scott from ImagonemĮnter the world of Maelstrom - the fabulous new role-playing game! There was a large initial print run, and it was reprinted after about a year, as well as going into a Japanese edition.ĭespite the fact that Maelstrom had sold well, Penguin ended up concentrating on the Fighting Fantasy books. it certainly sold pretty well, despite having virtually no publicity.
#Maelstrom game single player free
After that, they gave me a pretty free hand. I suggested quite a variety of different settings, and sixteenth century England was the one they liked. Penguin liked the idea of publishing a game, but they weren't keen on a pure fantasy or science fiction setting. We went through quite a few different ideas at the beginning. I was 16 when I started writing the book I'm not sure knew what they were getting! So I wrote off to Penguin myself and suggested they publish a game in a paperback book. The Fighting Fantasy solo adventures were popular at the time, and some friends of mine had written a book called "What is Dungeons and Dragons?" (explaining D&D to non-gamers, and also published by Penguin), which made the whole thing seem more possible. I thought it would be great if you could just go to a bookshop and buy an rpg for the price of a paperback book rather than having to find a specialist store and pay several times as much for one of the AD&D rulebooks. I was at school, and doing a lot of role-playing, but it was always difficult to find shops that stocked rpgs.
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