Hawkmoon redux #1 - Science vs Magic, and WTF Happened To This 'RPG'?

Greetings fellow Moonbeam Roadsters!

As threatened, er, promised, I am looking at the Hawkmoon RPG.

No, not that one.

Zhod, I wish it were that one! No, I mean this guy:

Yes, I feel the same way. After nearly two years swimming in the deep sea that is Stormbringer, time to wade onto the sandbar of the classic (?) Hawkmoon RPG.

WTF CHAOSIUM?

I remember distinctly finding a pristine Hawkmoon boxed set twenty years ago and wishing I had the lucre to get it. My previous Stormbringer 4E had been nicked by a long haired ambidextrous player, and I longed to purchase this to fill the hole in my heart and bookshelf.

I am glad I didn't.

There are a few reasons that classic Stormbringer went through 4 editions (basically slightly modded reprints I know), as well as the conversion to Elric!, then Moongoose, and finally RQ Stormbringer, not to mention Dragonlords of Melnibone for D&D 3E and Elric of Melnibone 1 and 2. Throw in all the recent indie games (Black Sword Hack, SWADE Bringer, Through Sunken Lands) and fan mods (BoL Stormbringer), and the continuing resonance is no less than astounding.

Hawkmoon, by comparison, has two games. Why? I can think of three reasons.

THE LESSER GAME

1) The setting is less meatier - The vibrant pulp nations of The Young Kingdoms are an exotic magnet for the imagination, while The Tragic Millenium Europe, although an interesting conceit, is a bit too close to our present dystopia, even moreso after Brexit and the UK's descent into the cult of Neoliberalism. Add to that, Elric is a cypher for the misunderstood adolescent in all of us, with his epic passions, while Hawkmoon is largely what Andy at Breakfast in the Ruins calls a bit of beurk, if I recall. Add to that in the YK you could conceivably roll a sorcerer, changing the game dynamic completely, while rolling the cognate of a scientist in Hawkmoon... doesn't change the game much. Speaking of magic...

2) The magic is less sinister and less coherent - For all my houserules and clarifications, the magic system of Stormbringer held together fine enough at publication to let the game catch fire, and keep players coming back decade after decade. Chaosium even filed off the serial numbers and put it out as Magic World, a testament to its playability. The fact that I can fine tune the magic system for modern players while keeping the original framework also shows how well designed it was.

By comparison, in Hawkmoon, the technomagic system itself is missing. There are Lore skills that give technological abilities, as well as a scattered laundry list of esoteric cannons, vehicles, and other trinkets that appeared in the novels. But there is no real system for creating or maintaining any of these. The cannons have no statistics save damage. This is a gaping hole in a game contending to stand alone, and this more than anything makes it a poor cousin to Stormbringer. This lack of polish extends beyond the rules...

3) The original ruleset was less inspiring - Another pertinent flaw to today's discussion was the lackluster design of the boxset. The title painting is attractive but an admitted step down from the cover piece of Elric holding Stormbringer on the brother game. Ditto the covers of the three books in the set - Hawkmoon's simple line drawings appear comic bookish and unfinished next to the fine ink shadows of the Stormbringer booklets. Added to this, the cramped juxtaposition of random background tables, the amateurish maps, and the lack of Stormbringer's tight chapter organisation, and the buyer gets an unflattering, rushed impression of Hawkmoon.

I don't think Hawkmoon is hopeless, however. Instead, if there had been a system of technomagic at the center of the game, I am sure the warts of setting and product would have been easily overlooked by fine gameplay that also reverberated with Stormbringer crossovers.

(NB: I haven't read the later game or its innovations, and am only focusing on the original box set)

What a lost opportunity. I don't know if management rushed the product to market, or the designers had trouble adapting the long series of novels. Whatever the case, I'm not here to blame them, just commiserate at a lost opportunity and set things to right in my own way.

THE METAPHORS OF MAGIC & SCIENCE

Just as I did with Stormbringer, I'd like to start by conceiving of the Scientific 'magic' of Hawkmoon as a metaphoric construct before jumping in willy nilly with rules. Basically, how was Moorcock thematically using the technology of Granbretan and Count Brass in his Hawkmoon novels? 

In my view, both Science and Magic as Moorcock conceives them are a type of Power that come at differing prices. To review, this is how magic works thematically in Stormbringer:

In Stormbringer, Magic is religion. Cosmology and theology are one. You worship greater powers and call their aid. You pay in souls, yours and others. These powers play games with worlds, and we are all pawns. The individual that stands against this hierarchy is doomed to be ensnared in its machinations.

By contrast, in Hawkmoon, Science is the dominant ideology. Faith has devolved into the cults behind the imperialism of Gran Bretan, and the ancient technology they wield. The orders of its army are the pawns, and they pay in tribute and resources from conquered lands. Only individuals who band together can stand against the onslaught of technology.

This is the thematic / metaphoric key to (re)designing rules for Science in Hawkmoon.

THE NEEDS OF POWER

One of the great missed opportunities of this game was tying the descriptions of lands under attack by Granbretan with what it needs to power its war engine. Reading the description of Carpathia, we get this gem:

"The mountains are rich in oil, iron, copper, gold, and silver. However, the soil is insufficient to support many people."

Initially, I thought this was fluff or padding in a light game that needed it. I have no idea if the designers had the same thought as me, but now I see such descriptions as a perfect resource for Gran Bretan's science, necessitating capture for their resources. Previously, I suggested the old Elric boardgame, which was concurrent with Stormbringer and used the same map, could be used to track the contest between Law and Chaos, with the player characters contributing to the success or failure of moves made by The Lords of the Higher Worlds.

In the same way, you could use the map of Tragic Millenium Europe to see what resources are available to Gran Bretan as it advances, predict its troop movements, and have the PCs move to thwart the advance.

The linking of Science to a concrete system of object creation based on resources not only improves the 'magic' of Science in the game, it also turns it into a tight French Resistance style thriller.

Here is the key not only to Science in Hawkmoon, but also the motivation of Gran Bretanian invasion, and the raison d'etre of the protagonist. This metaphor, and mechanics derived from it, is the key to rehabilitating Hawkmoon.