Elric: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying in the Young Kingdoms [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

I have never met another person in the flesh who runs the Elric roleplaying game. This is sad, but easily explainable... the game doesn't "look" good enough. The art cannot hope to compare with White Wolf (ironically, White Wolf takes its name from the character of Elric, the White Wolf). Call of Cthulhu, Elric's far more popular sister game, is better made up, but still no Vampire: The Masquerade. It sells because of its reputation.

Elric... there is no way to put it more clearly. This is the quite simply the best dark heroic fantasy roleplaying game you will ever encounter. The smooth elegance of the system dances around Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, slicing that old dinosaur of a game with wounds that would surely be fatal were it not for TSR's limitless funds. The rich background, drawn from Michael Moorcock's classic and indispensible tales of Elric and other aspects of an Eternal Champion reincarnated countless times to suffer countless hells of living, burns the reader with its timeless originality and makes one wonder at the seemingly largely unplumbed depths of possibility for heroic fantasy roleplaying WITHOUT dwarves, elves, halflings, orcs, the myriad of generic races that make fantasy roleplaying and reading such a yawn of tired convention, convention which, for the health of the genre, should have died with Tolkien.

Reader, if you love a good adventure in your game, if you lust for the human pleasures of blood and death, of vicious combat, or the dancing sparkle of a quick and sharp wit, or the transcendental danger of facing the harsh and cold force of ultimate cosmic power, and yet truly need more, need depth of vision and the breath of wonder, of suspense, of the unknown to bring your gaming blood to boil, you need look no farther than this game. Further, if you are an enthusiast of the work of Michael Moorcock, and also a player of roleplaying games, it is criminal, indeed I can only look upon you with condemnation, if you have not yet purchased and played this game.

So I like this game... I think you get the message. But what of the supplements, you may ask? Really, all you need to run Elric is the basic book and a keen imagination. If you are so inclined, a lifetime of adventure may be written working off of this exceedingly brilliant system.

But I don't see why you should bother. Every supplement I have read for this game fits in a quality range of damn good to brilliant. And with the unfortunate publication rate of about one book per year, due I'm sure to the game's obscurity, it really couldn't be any other way. Chaosium does the work for you, prepares you to run the most intense heroic fantasy run your players will ever worship you for. I recommend all of the supplements (I'm sure the two and a half I have not yet read are up to par). They are rarely anything but ingeniously written, and even when the writing flow is lacking the word "sublime" rarely fails to describe the adventures and scenario ideas devouring these pages. But not everyone has a limitless bank account, myself heartily included, so I will provide a few notes on the Elric RPG canon...

The Bronze Grimoire. Indispensible. Expands the ingeniously colorful systems of magic described in the rulebook to new levels of supernatural depravity. Your characters and your campaign will be greatly enriched with this sadistically good book.

And if you buy one adventure book, make it either The Fate of Fools, if you are after more subtle, extended adventures, Sorcerers of Pan Tang if horror and death suit your fancy, or Sea Kings of the Purple Towns, if you seek a middle ground. If you love the folk of Melnibone, their book is wonderful, but there are only three adventures in the book. The first is perhaps the weakest in the Elric canon, but the second is one of the very best. Sailing on the Seas of Fate adds new wonder, detail, and danger to the oceanic Young Kingdoms, and should bring out the pirate in even your most landlubbing players. Rogue Mistress is a vast extended campaign through the multiverse, and is probably the most unique adventure book in the line. Your characters are unlikely to survive the whole trip, but your players will be glad they had the privelage of experiencing it (warning: the writing style of this book is poor, but the adventure is first rate). Something like the game of Elric itself... any faith you have in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons or any of the other more widely known fantasy RPG's is unlikely to remain intact, but you certainly will not regret playing the emperor of fantasy games.

--Copyright 1998 by Kaecyy McCarthy. Author reserves rights to this work but grants permission for Amazon.com to use it on their website.