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Elric, Last Emperor of Melinbone, is a character who has fascinated and inspired role-players for as long as role-playing has been an established hobby. The quintessential antihero, who always fails to save that which he cherishes and is continually forced to deal with things he cannot comprehend, much less control, Elric’s cool demeanor and brooding aspect have more than withstood the test of time.

Sorry, D&D players, but Drizzt looks like a pansy next to Elric.

His latest RPG incarnation is in the form of Mongoose Publishing’s Elric of Melinbone, one of their growing selection of RuneQuest worlds to compliment their version of that venerable RPG. This seems fitting, as Elric’s first RPG appearance was in Stormbringer, a more complicated and specific for of the original RuneQuest. That was followed with the simplified Elric!. The new game is a complete game, after a fashion, and could almost be called Elric! Light. (Repeat after me: “There is no such thing as Dragon Lords of Melinbone….”) It is a neat, handy introduction to Elric’s world of the Young Kingdoms but is trimmed down, both in terms of system and in terms of detail about the world.

The system is fully compatible with what has become known as MRQ, and is pared down somewhat. There are fewer skills on display in the core book than there are in the MRQ core. Although if you also own other supplements or core rulesets you can add other skills, Elric’s world has its own magics so other RQ magic systems won’t work there. Period. Instead you have a variant of Sorcery that involves dealing with the Lords of Law and Chaos, both elemental forces that are not especially fond of sentient life in general. Magic users of any sort are suspected with good reason, as power does indeed corrupt in the Young Kingdoms. And Elric, the protagonist of Moorcock’s tales, has been corrupted absolutely – to even survive, he must call upon the aid of beings hostile to life, and allow his dread blade Stormbringer to drink in the souls of foe and friend alike. It is the quality of his enemies, like his vile cousin Yrkoon, and the fact that he has the capacity to regret the evil he must do that make Elric heroic.

The trimmed-down system is actually a pretty good introduction to the MRQ system. It continues the “roll what you get, play what you rolled” ethos of MRQ, the trimmed-down skill list allows for more focused and competent characters, and the basic skills required to play in other worlds can easily be learned here. Elric is here, far too potent to be a PC (POW 40 tends to do that) and absolutely deadly as an enemy or ally of PCs. Much of the Young Kingdoms is described, none of it in great detail. The presentation of the hardcover is sturdy, with nicely-drawn, languid line art full of scenes of violence.

This raises the question: if you’re never going to encounter Elric, and would be overshadowed were you to do so, why play in this setting? Well, mainly for the enemies. The Young Kingdoms are full of evil, with the occasional free group of people struggling to at least check its rampages. Although it is a grim, pre-apocalyptic setting (which Moorcock would turn to dust before he was done with it), it does possess its pleasures.

And the wealth of previous Elric-based RPG material is adaptable to MRQ with only moderate lifting, so there are plenty of classic campaigns and scenarios available for the game. You won’t run out of things to do.

Although Moorcock fans will probably want (and, eventually, get) more, Mongoose has developed the habit of introducing things in bite-sized chunks. Elric of Melinbone is a pretty tasty morsel all round, even if it is a light snack compared to the feast of Stormbringer.

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