Maelstrom is a role-playing game by Alexander Scott, originally published in 1984 by Puffin Books as a single soft cover book (ISBN 0140318119 ; ISBN 978-0-14-031811-1). The game is set in a 16th to 17th century British setting - the Tudor Period and the Elizabethan era - although the rules can be adapted to other locations or time periods. Firearms (readily available in Europe at this time) are conspicuously absent from the setting, mentioned only in passing in the initial rulebook.