| Rogue Mistress | |
| Designer: | Fred Behrendt, Lane Grate, Keith Herber, Michael Szymanski, Lawrence Whitaker |
| Illustrator: | Alain Gassner |
| Publisher: | Chaosium |
| Date: | 1991 |
Rogue Mistress, subtitled "An Epic Campaign Across the Multiverse", is a collection of adventures published by Chaosium in 1991 for use with either of the fantasy role-playing games Stormbringer or Hawkmoon, both based on the Elric of Melniboné stories of Michael Moorcock.
Rogue Mistress is a campaign of nine chronologically-linked adventures[1] in which the player characters travel to various planes that make up Michael Moorcock's "Million-Sphere Multiverse." Travel from sphere to sphere is accomplished on the pirate ship Rogue Mistress captained by Maria de tres Pistolas.
The campaign consists of eight adventures that are played in sequence:[2]
In 1977, Chaosium acquired the game license for Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion stories, and released the boardgame . Under the same license in 1981, Chaosium published the fantasy role-playing game Stormbringer, and by 1990, had published the fourth edition. The following year, Chaosium published the campaign Rogue Mistress, a 144-page softcover book created by Fred Behrendt, Lane Grate, Keith Herber, Michael Szymanski, and Lawrence Whitaker, with cover art and interior art by Alain Gassner, and cartography by Carol Triplett-Smith.
In his 2014 book Designers & Dragons, game historian Shannon Appelcline noted that after the fourth edition of Stormbringer was published, "the best books to date for the line were produced first by Keith Herber, then by Mark Morrison. They consisted of thick, well-written books of background, such as Sorcerers of Pan Tang (1991) and colourful adventures, such as Rogue Mistress (1991)."[4]
In Issue 27 of White Wolf (June/July 1991), Matthew Gabbert noted that this campaign "dramatically captures the flavor and diversity of the Million Spheres." Gabbert was "extremely impressed" by this campaign, and thought it would be "sure to keep the adventurers on their toes. The plotting is suspenseful and imaginative." Gabbert did point out that "the pace tends to rush the characters along, with little chance to explore these brave new worlds." Gabbert concluded by giving this book a rating of 4 out of 5, saying, "While the price may seem a bit on the high side for an adventure, be assured that Rogue Mistress is 144 pages of long-lasting, high-quality roleplaying. The maps, NPC descriptions, and player handouts are first-rate; the layout is clear and concise; and the illustrations are excellent. So if you've got a party of tough guys who think they've seen all there is to see in the Young Kingdoms, book them a cruise on the coolest ship ever to sail the Seas of Fate."[5]