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Science and Sorcery in Earth’s Far Future
Product History
“Shortly after our own time, a terrible nuclear, chemical, and biological war destroyed much of the planet… This war and the years that followed it were known as the Tragic Millennium” (pg 12, Players Book)
The Hawkmoon game is based on two series by Michael Moorcock, The High History of the Runestaff and The Chronicles of Castle Brass. These and other Moorcock stories have greatly influenced the fantasy genre as a whole and roleplaying games in particular. Other writers repeatedly borrow Moorcock’s concepts of the multiverse, the war between Law and Chaos, and Eternal Champion. Mr. Moorcock’s most famous creation, Elric, is the basis for the Stormbringer RPG. The Hawkmoon title is derived from the hero of the novels, Dorian Hawkmoon. He is the Duke of Köln, and an avatar of the Eternal Champion. The setting is a post-apocalyptic Europe in the very distant future. The world has reverted to pseudo-medievalism and superstition, with mutants and super-science standing in for monsters and magic. It’s a time of epic battles, armored knights, fantastical weapons and bizarre adventures.
Hawkmoon 1st Edition was published in 1986 by Chaosium. It uses the Basic Roleplaying System (BRP) as its core mechanic and is compatible with 1st through 4th editions of Stormbringer. This RPG is also part of Chaosium’s aborted Eternal Champion product line. Hawkmoon had only one supplement, The Shattered Isle published in 1987. This booklet had additional rules, but mostly it contained mediocre adventures. After the 1980s, the game disappeared. During the 1990s, Hawkmoon 2nd edition was promised, but it didn’t materialize until recently. Chaosium finally decided to issue a stripped-down version of Hawkmoon 2nd Edition as a cheaply printed monograph. This new version, by Lawrence Whittaker, is supposed to have revamped rules to make it compatible with Stormbringer 5th Edition and Corum. I haven’t read it, so I can’t comment on its quality. At any rate, Hawkmoon is available again for gamming fans.
Layout
“Much of the world has regressed to a quasi-feudal time, though sophisticated remnants of the technological prowess of the ancient civilization remain” (pg 7, Players Book)
Hawkmoon 1st Edition is a boxed set containing: The Players Book (52pgs), The Gamemaster Book (48pgs), The Science Book (16pgs), References Sheets (charts, tables, character sheets), and a large map of Tragic Millennium Europe. Each b/w book has engaging art by Jim Crabtree, while the box has a painting of Duke Hawkmoon by Frank Brunner. The game originally came with the standard dice as well.
Players Book
This booklet contains: an obligatory introduction to role-playing, background on the Tragic Millennium, character creation, BRP game mechanics, skills, and combat. While the Players Book is the “meat” of this game, it is excessively padded with eight copies of the character sheet, two scaled down versions of the Tragic Millennium Europe map, a small map of the Young Kingdoms from Stormbringer, and extremely large font on page 11.
The first chapter, “Welcome to the Tragic Millennium,” spends a half-page on Moorcock and his creations, Elric and Dorian Hawkmoon. About four pages are spent on how role-playing games work, and it’s not the worst I’ve read. The last, and most useful part of this chapter is the World of Hawkmoon. This section introduces Tragic Millennium Earth, and discusses Moorcockian concepts, such as the Million Spheres (the multiverse), the Eternal Champion (mostly Elric), and the hoary artifacts of Law such as the Runestaff. The chapter finishes up with rules for chronology and money systems.
The character creation chapter is the best part of the whole game and the most interesting to read. It begins with the usual BRP attributes and Hawkmoon uses CHA (charisma) rather than APP (appearance). The chapter quickly moves to a discussion of nationality. The PCs can be from Europe or Amarehk (North America). European nationalities are directly related to modern and medieval cultures. Examples include Granbretan (Great Britain), Germania (Germany), Muskovia (Russia, Poland, the Baltic States), Shekia (Bohemia, Slovakia), and Italia (Italy). Some nations even have the same English names (France, Greece, Romania). Here, Michael Moorcock, in a manner similar to Robert E. Howard, uses real world cultures as fantasy shorthand. Many countries reflect political boundaries of the mid-20th century, like Slavia (Yugoslavia) still being together, but some echo later developments like a united Germania (Germany) or an independent Ukrania (Ukraine). France is interesting as it is really a collection of small feudal nations with Kamarg and Normandia as named realms. Wicked Granbretan with its beast orders and twisted technology receives the most space as it figures prominently in the novels. Of course, Eire (Ireland) gets screwed, it is on the map but it’s not mentioned in the text at all. The shorter section on Amarehk includes a map of North America. The continent reflects a more familiar post-apocalyptic environment with portions of Amarehk underwater and few major nations. The land mass is now a wild frontier full of ruins and isolated factions. This chapter finishes up with backgrounds (occupations) for the PCs.
The Last three chapters (The Game System, Skills, and Combat) are fundamentally the BRP mechanics from Runequest and Stormbringer. There’s no magic abilities available, so that means no demon summoning for Hawkmoon characters. The skills unique to Hawkmoon include Ancient Lore, Biological Lore, Chemical Lore, Electrical Lore, Mechanical Lore, and Pilot Ornithopter. These skills seem simplistic when compared to Call of Cthulhu, but they help create a genuine science-fantasy atmosphere that is necessary for a post-apocalyptic RPG. In fact, I have used these Lore skills when I developed my own homebrewed BRP Gamma World game.
Gamemaster Book
This booklet has chapters on, creatures, NPCs, and adventures. The Creatures chapter contains 30 beasts. There is a wide range: mutant animals, genetically engineered horrors, mutant plants, humanoids, and natural fauna. Some interesting examples include: the Baragoon (clawed slithering carnivores); Charki, (angleworm/human crossbreeds); Giant Flamingos (flying mounts of Kamarg); Ocean Ghouls (slimy webbed humanoids); War Jaguars (large spiked tigers), and Jeebies (dandelions with human eyes).
You’ll find all the major personalities from the Hawkmoon stories in the next chapter. Some of the entries are: Blowgentile, Count Brass, Huillam D’Averc, Baron Meliadus, the Warrior in Jet and Gold, Yisselda, and of course Duke Dorian Hawkmoon. The rest of the booklet contains two adventures. The first is “The Twisted Village,” where the PCs investigate ancient ruins in the mountains of Osterland (Austria). The second adventure is “The Chatillion Caverns” where spelunking PCs battle Granbretanian sorcerer-scientists and zombies. Both adventures are straightforward but offer some nice opportunities for combat and have some fun surprises.
Science Book
This ridiculously small booklet (16pgs) should have been part of the Gamemaster Book. Only 6 pages are actually about Hawkmoon science, so, it’s a clear example of poor planning.
The Science Book starts out with a quick history of the Tragic Millennium from 2100 to 2842 A.D. Then a short discussion of the effects of the Tragic Millennium is interrupted by a timeline (5295 to 5304 A.D.) of the Hawkmoon stories. The timeline goes for two pages, and then the discussion of the Tragic Millennium effects picks up again. Both of these sections are useful, especially the Hawkmoon timeline, but the layout is another example of weak design.
The next section briefly covers strange devices from the novels such as: acid cannons, flame cannons, hypnoglobes, the Mad God’s Amulet, the mentality machine, ornithopters, the Runestaff, sonic cannons, and the Sword of the Dawn. These devices have weird, powerful affects that blur the line between sorcery and science. Some of them, like the Runestaff, are major artifacts in the inter-dimensional struggle between Law and Chaos. Flamelances are discussed in the Combat chapter of the Players Book.
The Mutations section is intriguing but sadly it’s underdeveloped. The process works by choosing a base species (plant, animal, human) and rolling a 1D4 to see how many mutations the creature receives. Then you roll on either the animal mutations table, which has 25 mutations, or the plant mutations table, which has ten mutations. It’s possible to roll all beneficial or all negative mutations. Unfortunately, the mutation descriptions are vague, and most of them don’t have genuine game mechanics. This forces GMs to work out the specifics for themselves. This chapter is more of a mutation idea generator than anything else.
The last section deals with the differences between the more chaotic Young Kingdoms and the very lawful Tragic Millennium Earth. GMs are encouraged to run cross-dimensional adventures reminiscent of Moorcock’s novels as long as certain guidelines are followed. Magic abilities and demons are greatly reduced in power in Hawkmoon, while Lore skills barely function in Stormbringer.
Impressions
“Generally where one mutant beast is seen, quite a few more just like it are around somewhere” (pg 10, Science Book)
I really wanted to like this game and to some extent I do. It is playable but there is work to do in fleshing out the additional rules. Hawkmoon 1st Edition feels rushed both in design and organization. What holds the game together is Michael Moorcock’s imagination and the proven aspects of the Basic Roleplaying System. The extra rules for mutations and technology are unfinished. I enjoyed the art and the maps though.
What I basically do, is borrow ideas from Hawkmoon to use in other games. That is sad because the Tragic Millennium has a lot of potential as the character creation chapter illustrates. It’s also nice to have adventures based on Sword & Science-Fantasy rather than Sword & Sorcery as in other Chaosium games. Generally, Hawkmoon seems like a better supplement for Stormbringer than it does as the separate game.
Pros
“One of Hawkmoon’s greatest strengths is his large number of faithful friends, of whom he has more than any other known Eternal Champion” (pg 18, Gamemaster Book)
The rules are straightforward and easy to learn. The details about the campaign setting are very interesting to read. There are plenty of things to swipe for other BRP games such as creatures and Lore skills. The maps and the drawings are nice. The adventures are playable. It doesn’t introduce yet another variation of the BRP magic system like other Chaosium products. This RPG gets one interested in the original novels. Stats for the major characters in Hawkmoon are included. The timeline for the Hawkmoon novels is very informative.
Cons
“Abandoned cities quickly became vegetation-overgrown monoliths, monuments to a dying world” (pg 6, Science Book)
Poor planning and rushed design hamper Hawkmoon 1st Edition. Recycled art and maps pad the product. More detail on the world would be nice. The supplementary BRP rules are weak and lack refinement such as mutations. Hawkmoon 1st Edition is old, and requires modification to be used with the current version of Stormbringer.
Who would find it useful?
“Most of the “monsters” in Hawkmoon are actually mutants, descended from flora and fauna of our day… …such as the giant flamingos of the Kamarg” (pg 9, Science Book)
Michael Moorcock fans, BRP fans, folks interested in RPG rules development, post-apocalyptic fans, Chaosium collectors, Stormbringer gamers and those interested in the battle between the forces of Law and Chaos.
Conclusion
“Despite their madness, Granbretanians are undeniably brilliant. Their sorcerer-scientists have recreated devices from before the Tragic Millennium, and produced new technologies besides” (pg 20-21, Players Book)
Hawkmoon 1st Edition is halfway between being its own game and being a Stormbringer supplement. It is ultimately a beta version RPG, released before it was truly ready. Despite its flaws, the game does draw players into a feudalistic post-apocalyptic world. In the end, Hawkmoon 1st Edition rates a substance of 3 because of Moorcock’s fascinating concepts rather than the mostly functional rules. Tragic Millennium Earth is a great place to run a campaign, but it does need help from the GM to bring it to life. Hopefully, the Hawkmoon 2nd Edition monograph by Lawrence Whittaker does a better job.
“All the while, your most important job is to function as a window into Tragic Millennium Earth” (pg 5, Gamemaster Book)
NOTE: Hawkmoon 2nd Edition is advertised and available on Chaosium’s website. Additionally, much of Michael Moorcock’s new book, The White Wolf’s Son (2005), takes place in the world of Hawkmoon.
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