Let’s take our first foray into Science as set out by the Hawkmoon RPG. As noted, whereas Stormbringer went into ample depth with Sorcery, Hawkmoon leaves a giant, handwaiving gap in its Science mechanics.
So let’s take up the strands of what the game does provide, and see where it tries to lead us. Although I originally thought I could do the entire Science system (such as it is) in one post, it has surprisingly turned out to be too much to chew in one bite.
Today, I’ll try and tease out the implications of Bioengineering.
1) SCIENCE AS SKILLSET & PROCESS
The first evidence of Science mechanics we have in Hawkmoon are the various skills and examples of their use in the Player’s Book. The four Science skills are as follows:
Biological Lore Chemical Lore
Electrical Lore Machine Lore
These correspond to our modern fields of Biology, Chemistry, Electronics, and Mechanics. Actually, there is a fifth Science skill, Ancient Lore, that allows PCs to understand or unlock the secrets of ancient artifacts.
In truth, these initial four skills are cut from the same cloth as the Plant Lore and Poison Lore skills from Stormbringer, with different skill percentages ‘unlocking’ certain knowledge and abilities. However, more importantly, they also let a character manipulate the gameworld by creation of super science technology.
Let’s deep dive into the first and arguably most central to Hawkmoon, Biological Lore.
First off, Biological Lore allows some advantages to other skills.
Having it allows the character to add 5% to First Aid per 20% of Biology skill
There is also a vague mention of ‘curing’ patients with a successful skill roll, so we can assume this is for pathogens and poisons
Most importantly, it allows for knowledge of living organisms, as well as bio-engineering, i.e. the equivalent to demon summoning in Stormbringer. In the novels, bio-engineering is everywhere, from Count Brass’ horned horse (never called a unicorn), to the tamed riding flamingos of the Kamarg, to the Baragoon that haunts its swamps, all of these are remnants of ancient bioengineering.
As the Science book tells us,
“THE WEAPONS of The Tragic Millenium produced many strange creatures. Most “monsters” in Hawkmoon are actually mutants, descended from the flora and fauna of our own day. Most mutants are not warped completely, in fact, most would be classifiable by our own biologists. Over the centuries, the chromosomal damage suffered by these mutants stabilized and became natural. The young of many such mutants are still born dead, and most breed much more slowly than natural animals. Some of these mutations and constructs are beneficial, or at least useful, such as the giant flamingos of the Kamarg.
There are artificial mutations as well, genetic constructs such as the baragoon and the war jaguars of Asia Communista, which were created under carefully controlled conditions by fairly uniform species. Unique individual mutants are extremely rare, and usually deformed - often too grotesque to survive long. Generally, where one mutant beast is seen, quite a few more just like it are around somewhere.”
Lots of fluff in there, but it is mostly evocative, and hints at what the Bioengineering ability is supposed to allow.
Here is a simplified description of the levels
01-10 Recognize common plants & animals
11-20 Recognize exotic or dangerous plants & animals
21-30 Understand ecology, evolution, behaviour
31-40 Bioengineer superficial changes (skin colour, fur, feathers, eyes), also modify STR or SIZ by + or - 1D3,
41-50 Bioengineer minor changes (+ or - 1 AR, thick fur, tail, etc), also modify STR or SIZ by + or - 1D6.
51-60 Evaluate / estimate unknown abilities, behaviour, and biology
61-70 Bioengineer complex changes (+ or - 3 AR, gliding flaps, spikes, etc), also modify any attribute by + or - 1D6.
71-80 Bioengineer minor structural changes (paws to hands, quadruped to biped, litters instead of single births, etc), also modify any attribute by + or - 2D6.
81-90 Bioengineer major structural changes (speech, herbivore to carnivore, immunity to poison or radiation, disease carrier, etc), also modify any attribute by + or - 4D6.
91-00 Bioengineer unnatural or new changes (wings, tails, extra legs, glowing, water breathing, psychic, etc), also modify any attribute by + or - 8D6.
That’s a lot of information and abilities to process there, exactly like the Poison Lore and Plant Lore from Stormbringer. Personally, I would move the knowledge from 51-50 down to 31-40 and bump bio-engineering up the chain, then systematize or streamline the bonuses given.
2) THE REQUISITES OF BIOENGINEERING
As a corollary to the Biological Lore skill section, we are also given some details of what is needed to perform Bioengineering:
“To conduct bioengineering experiments, a scientist must have a proper laboratory. The details of constructing and maintaining such are left to the gamemaster, but such should be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. Once the lab is built and filled with instruments, experiments can be conducted. Creation of a basic mutation in a chosen organism takes 60 - INT (minus the researcher’s INT) months and a successful Biological Lore skill roll. A failed skill roll may simply result in a failure to obtain the desired result or it may cause the death or maiming of the organism.” (40-41)
To summarize, this is all we know about bio-engineering:
Place: A laboratory, though few details are given.
Time: 60 - INT months to make a mutagen
Finances & Materials: No details given.
Skill Roll: Biological Lore, but with no details on success or failure.
As we can see, the text leaves a lot to the imagination. Also, this is the most detailed of all the scientific process explanations for Science skills, which grow shorter as the skill chapter proceeds. As a writing instructor at university for nearly two decades, I can’t help but see this as evidence that the book was rushed, and that the creators wrote and revised the initial section on Biological Lore, but ran out of time to do the same for Machine, Chemical, and Electrical Lores, not to mention Ancient Lore.
Let’s try and fill in some holes and see what we get.
TYPES OF LABORATORY
First, we must determine what constitutes a laboratory. If we search the books for answers, this is what we get for all Science types:
Biology - Clinic
Chemistry - Refinery
Electronics - Workstation
Mechanics - Tool Shop
Ancient - Installation
So if we take ‘laboratory’ for the general term, but require one of the 5 specific structures for each type of Science done, we avoid re-use of materials and make experimentation suitably costly for greater constructs like Flame Cannons.
Next, time for biological experimentation seems straightforward, but doesn’t make sense if we consider that experiments can vary widely in difficulty. Putting a horn on a horse and turning a man into a Baragoon are very different things, and should take vastly different amounts of time. Maybe we can link the scale of work done with the time required, a logical extension.
To do this, we need to add some sort of resource. One of the greatest RPGs involving mutants was the old Palladium TMNT game. Despite its faults in other areas, its Bio-Energy system for creating mutants was very solid. In the same way, implementing a Mutagen Point (MP) cost system for Bio-Engineering in Hawkmoon should help streamline the time calculations and overall process.
MP COSTS
1 MP per die of attribute modified
1 MP per point of AR modified
2 MP per superficial change (skin colour, fur, feathers, eyes) Skill 41-50.
3 MP per minor exterior change (thick fur, tail, etc). Skill 51-60.
4 MP per complex changes (gliding flaps, spikes, etc). Skill 61-70.
5 MP per minor structural change (paws to hands, quadruped to biped, litters instead of single births, etc). Skill 71-80.
6 MP per major structural change changes (speech, herbivore to carnivore, immunity to poison or radiation, disease carrier, etc) Skill 81-90.
7 MP per unnatural changes (wings, tails, extra legs, glowing, psychic, etc). Skill 91-00.
TIME FORMULA FOR BIO-ENGINEERING
30 + MP - INT
In other words, take a base of 30 (reduced to compensate for varying MP costs of abilities), add the Mutagen Points the experiment costs, then subtract the Scientist’s INT to determine the time in months to complete the world. Note that any experiment cannot be less than 30 months regardless of calculations. Also, bio-engineering that is merely replicating previous work for which all instructions are understood reduces the base by half to 15.
For example, if a Scientist wanted to make a guard dog with +1D6 STR and immune to radiation for travelling through the wasteland, it would cost him 1 MP for the 6 MP for the immunity, for a total of 7. According to the formula, the cost in time would be 30 (base) + 7 - the Scientist’s INT.
FINANCES & MATERIALS
I won’t go into finances at the moment, as both Hawkmoon and Stormbringer have price lists for daily goods and little else. Instead, I think it is simpler to use social class as a marker of wealth. In this case, only Nobles and Scientists should have the resources to afford any type of laboratory, and may still be required to quest for materials and extra funds.
But we should try to specify exactly WHAT is needed to perform experiments. If we do a cost analysis for Bio-engineering, we might get something like this:
TEST SUBJECT - Every experiment needs one. Many are unwilling, as was Hawkmoon when he had the Jewel in the Skull implanted. This has lots of great game implications, including kidnapping of victims for experiments, and experimentation on political enemies or prisoners, for example.
BIO-MATERIALS - British scientist and broadcaster Heinz Wolff coined the term bioengineering in 1954, so preceding The Jewel in the Skull’s appearance in 1967 by a scant 13 years. The mechanics of gene splicing etc that inform our present day knowledge of bio-engineering could be imported here usefully. For example, if you want to put a horn on your horse, maybe start with DNA from a rhino horn and a horse. This could be used as a story hook to have PCs quest for a rare genetic specimen, or else gain funds to barter for the materials needed.
MUTAGEN - As in the real world, some mutagenic agent, usually radioactive, is needed to create change in an organism. Yet again, this has great game implications, as characters will have to brave the radioactive wastes to obtain mutagen if they want to try their hand at bio-engineering. Given the short term nature of playing Hawkmoon, bio-engineering is likely to stay the province of NPCs, usually evil, unless PCs need it for a specific goal.
Finally, determining degree of success or failure in a bioengineering roll is also easily delineated much like I did for the Sorcery skill in Stormbringer.
BIOENGINEERING SUCCESS OR FAILURE
(Roll vs Biological Lore skill)
CRITICAL - Smashing Success! The Scientist gets exactly what they intended, with no complications.
SUCCESS - Success! The Scientist gets exactly what they intended, with 1 to 2 complications.
FAILURE - Failure! Time and money has been wasted, and the Scientist must start over again.
FUMBLE - Abject Failure! Not only has time and money been wasted, a monstrosity has been created due to some error. Roll random mutations and complications. All this and the Scientist must start over again as well.
3) THE EFFECTS OF BIOENGINEERING
Finally, the effects and details of bioengineering are available in muddled form in the Mutations section at the end of the Science book. To me, this is another indicator of the rushed nature of the project, especially given the preponderance of phrases like “... effects are A, B, or C etc.” A lot of it strikes the reader as placeholder text that the design staff just never had time to return to, and which probably passed muster due to the culture of gamemasters at that time, who often created their own houserules or discussed options with players. Although Stormbringer 4E’s Demon Abilities section is more filled out, it too suffers from a similar lack of taxonomy, or overarching theme of powers, that plagues Hawkmoon.
In this case, it would be a simple (yet time-consuming) solution to go through the muddled list of mutations, which mixes good and bad and power levels with little rhyme or reason, and classify them based on Beneficial / Harmful, and Mutation Level for the former to allow calculation of MP cost when bio-engineering. For instance, here is the first page of mutations.
Adaptability (Beneficial, Complex change = 4 MP)
Allergy (Harmful)
Ability Increase (Beneficial, MP cost varies according to skill level, which also affects number of dice used. Also, Scientists can do both ability decreases on an organism to offset increases, but if this results in an attribute of 0, the creature is stillborn)
Ability Decrease (Harmful)
Biped (Beneficial, Minor structural change = 5 MP)
Camouflage (Beneficial, Comlex = 4 MP)
Coloration (Beneficial, Superficial = 2 MP)
Congenital Disease (Harmful)
Disease Carrier (Harmful, unless intentional, in which case Beneficial, Major structural change = 6 MP)
Group Intelligence (Harmful, unless intentional, in which case Beneficial, Unnatural change = 7 MP)
In this way, you could easily create tables of random Beneficial and Harmful mutations, see all their MP costs at a glance, and basically take the ambiguity out of the process.
Also, bioengineering should not come without some cost to the test subject. Basically, no one should want to undergo the process willingly. This prevents it from becoming overpowered, but also keeps it a danger instead of a kewl power that any min maxer would willingly inflict on his character, as befits Moorcock’s fiction.
CONCLUSION
Although I was fairly harsh on Hawkmoon in my first post, I will amend my opinion with regards to Biological Lore, since with a little work, there is a usable system provided for Bio-engineering. It is hampered by being disorganized and split between books, but is a worthy and salvageable part of the game.
Due to the characteristic Chaosium editorial habit of splitting necessary information between different books (Player’s and Science in this case), as well as the paucity of details as the text progresses, we have a somewhat fleshed out and workable Bioengineering system, but with increasingly vague and thus non-functional rules for Electrical Lore, Chemical Lore, and Machine Lore.
This is a pity, since Flame Cannons and Silver Machines are just as much part of the Hawkmoon setting as mutants and genetic constructs.
But that is a tale for another time.
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