Editing Elric! (section)

==Publication history==
Chaosium published the first edition of ''Stormbringer'', a role-playing game based on Michael Moorcock's Elric novels, in 1981, followed by a second edition in 1985, and a third edition in 1987. All of these used a variant of Chaosium's [[Basic Roleplaying]], with revised rules for magic and other setting-specific elements. The fourth edition in 1990 used essentially the same set of rules with the exception of the magic system, which was changed extensively.

But the early 1990s saw the rise of role-playing games with newer rules systems such as ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' and ''[[Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game]]''. In an effort to keep up, Chaosium produced a 5th edition retitled ''Elric!'' to differentiate it from the decade-old ''Stormbringer''. Designers [[Lynn Willis]], Richard Watts, Mark Morrison, Jimmie W. Pursell Jr., Sam Shirley, and Joshua Shaw substantially revised the entire game, adding additional material from several older game supplements that were no longer in print.

Game historian Shannon Appelcline noted that Chaosium began creating significant role-playing systems for the first time in nearly a decade, commenting, "The first was ''Elric!'' (1993), a totally new ''BRP'' vision of the Young Kingdoms, meant to replace the venerable ''Stormbringer'' ... The new system was cleaner and more balanced. It also downplayed demons and increased the role of common magic — perhaps making it more accessible, particularly in Middle America."<ref name="designers70s">{{Cite book|author=Shannon Appelcline|title=Designers & Dragons: The '70s|publisher=[[Evil Hat Productions]]|year=2014| isbn=978-1-61317-075-5}}</ref>{{rp|273}}

The supplement ''[[Melniboné (Elric!)|Melniboné]]'' was published in 1993, and ''[[The Bronze Grimoire]]'' was published in 1994.

In 1996, Chaosium entered the [[collectible card game]] market with ''[[Mythos (card game)|Mythos]]'', but took such a loss when the new game failed that, as Appelcline noted, "Chaosium responded by shutting down several of its lines, this time ''[[Pendragon]]'', ''Elric!'', ''[[Nephilim]]'', and ''Mythos'' itself."<ref name="designers70s"/>{{rp|274}}

This was the end of the ''Elric'' series of role-playing games until 2001 when Chaosium briefly published a [[d20 System|d20]] version of the game called ''Dragon Lords of Melniboné'' (2001).<ref name="designers70s"/>{{rp|276}}

===Translations===
* Japanese edition (1993), soft-cover, published by [[Hobby Japan]], cover art by [[Yasushi Nirasawa]]
* French edition (1994), hardback, published by Oriflam, cover art by [[Hubert de Lartigue]]
* Spanish edition (October 1997), soft-cover, published by [[Joc Internacional]] as '''''Elric''''', without any exclamation mark, cover art by Frank Brunner ({{ISBN|84-7831-154-8}})<ref>[http://www.psnrol.com/biblioteca/seccion.php?juego=51&pag=0 Psnrol.com]. Psnrol.com (August 9, 2013).</ref>