Melniboné (1993) is honestly a bit overdue as far as sourcebooks go, considering how central it is to the setting. On the other hand, I’m not sure I need a whole book on the Dragon Isle. Its main destiny plays out in the novels, and I would be loath to involve players in that, no matter how doomful the game is supposed to be. And Imrryr doesn’t really appeal as a place to visit.

Still, my appetite for Elriciana is deep and Chaosium’s fare is tasty. This was fun to read even if I will never use it in a game (and that’s OK!). There are a gazetteer and a solid history and a collection of important NPCs. A section on cosmology is perhaps the most interesting, running through the shifting beliefs of the Melnibonéans as they moved from Balance to Chaos and how the many pacts and treaties with supernatural entities protect them even in their decadence.

The Elric! sourcebooks often have a Digest chapter, which I kind of love—they consist of stat blocks for generic but flavorful figures players might encounter. Here that includes Eagle Knights, Brooding Dragon Princesses, Hallucinating Noblewomen and a variety of sorcerers and dreamers.

Three scenarios round things out. The first is one of those “Do X in order to wander through all the places of interest on the island” kind of jams. The other two scenarios take players away from the Melniboné of this book, which is annoying in another way. One is about rescuing dreamers, which is OK. The other is a preposterous time travel yarn that has the players hired by a sorcerer who sends them back in time to save a Chaos artifact from destruction (thus changing the course of the Young Kingdoms and ensuring the eventual doom of humanity, he thinks). Players do the deed and return to find the world has turned into a Chaos-ruled nightmare. The sorcerer sees what a horrible thing he has done and sends the players back in time again to undo it. When they return to the present for the last time, the sorcerer, with no memory of the Chaos nightmare, tries to murder them. It’s…I don’t like time travel stories, but I kind of love where this one goes, despite it being fairly linear.

Lots of good art. I’m particularly glad to have more work by Alain Gassner, who delivers some might fine illustrations for the interior of Rogue Mistress, some favorites of mine.