gamesmeister started this thread with a review, but as I am in Review Mode, I might as well do Granbretan as well.
The cover has a very dark picture of a weird city, presumably Londra. There are other illustrations inside that aren't as dark as in Elric but are good.
What's in it? Chapter by Chapter .....
Introduction contgains a very silly snippet from a play, very Moorcockian in nature, where Hawkmoon assaults the Throneroom, sort of.
The History of Granbretan describes the past history of the land, with prehistory, the Tragic Millenium, including the Fixing of the Masks, The War of Abasement and The Madness of Granbretan. It's short, it's historical, it's good.
The Realm of Granbretan is written from the point of view of a tour guide, or rather Sir Malik of the Order of the Stag, who was assigned to guide Yuri Bogdanovitch from Muscovy. It is written from a first person point of view, which I don't really like, but does work here. It describes The Silver Bridge, Deau-Verre, The Home Counties, Londra, Osfoud, Gloster, Leodis, Maester & Skowse, New Castille, Edenbough, capital of Shkarlan, Yel & Cornwallis, Eire and The Orkneys. These sketches are short and don;t do a lot, but are atmospheric.
The Beast Orders describes the Beast Orders, the backbone of Granbretan. It briefly coveres the structure of the Beast Orders and describes the Revels of the King where three times a year, each Beast Order is recalled to Londra and take part in an orgy with another Beast Order where anything goes, including gang rape, cannibalism and torture. Granbretan is not for the fainthearted. There are 37 orders described, including the Order of the Lion that is now no more but is blamed for any unexplained deaths in Granbretan. Each Beast Order is described, with a Grand Constable, a description of the Order, Temple, Benefits and Skills.
The Lords of Granbretan covers 11 notables of Granbretan with stats! I'd thought that Mongoose had forgotten to inlcude the stats of notables in their supplements, but here they are! Amazing and welcome.
Equipment covers the typical equipment available to a citizen of Granbretan. It includes Masks and the lovely Fleshmasks (masks made of human faces skinned from their owners, so that Granbretans may walk around seemingly without a mask), Armour, Wonders of Science (Breathing Masks, Gas Bulbs, Glowlamps, Spyglasses, Stiltwalkers, Poisoners Gloves, Venomous Weapons), Poisons and Plagues (Anthrax, Bubonic Plague, Blessing of the Carnivore God, Infectious Dysentry, Melting Sickness, Burning Madness, Duellist's Delight, Green Death, The Hand of Friendship, The King's Evil, Malice and Serpent Venom) - Nice.
Scientific Sorcery covers the magic of Granbretan, with 19 spells, 10 Artefact Spells and brief rules for travelling the Multiverse.
Creatures and Foes covers exactly that. Here there are sample stats for slaves, servants, various courtiers, some of the Beast Orders, D-Beasts and strange magical beasts.
Mass Combat has rules for fighting battles. There are rules for units, different tactics and strategies. They seem complete enough, but I don't know how they work in play or how different they are from the standard RQ Battle rules.
The Course of the War covers a brief history of the War and also Granbretan's future plans. It very briefly describes other lands and what Granbretan expects to do to those lands. Characters & The War even describes how Granbretan plans to conquer other lands, with strategies and tactics.
Hunters of Granbretan is a scenario. What? A scenario? In a Mongoose RQ Product? How come? Well, it is a bit of a shock. Finding Notables with stats and a scenario in the same supplement is amazing. Anyway, Hunters of Granbretan in which the heroes must liberate an arcane sword from the city of Karlye.
Appendix consists of a list of spells from Hawkmoon and Granbretan and a summary of Battle tactics.
So, there it is, the majesty and madness of Granbretan.
What's missing? Well, it doesn't have a map, but actually doesn't suffer from this. One of the joys of reading Hawkmoon is working out where the strange places were and how they relate to our idea of Great Britain and Europe. So, Gloster is Gloucester and Londra is London and so on. having a map would actually spoil this. There aren't many oplaces described in Granbretan, which might mean that these are the only places that survived the events before the Tragic Millenium, but might mean that more are to be described in future supplements. I haven't got Hawkmoon yet, so I don't know if Flame Lances and similar things are described there, I would expect that they are.
Is it any good? Yes. It contains everything you really need to play in Granbretan or to use Granbretan citizens elsehwre in the world of Hawkmoon. It doesn't pull its punches, this is no PC version of the land. This is a land of sadistic, power-mad, insane perverts. Clearly, it is difficult to capture the feel of Granbretan or the books in a supplement, but this comes pretty close. Actually, the silly play at the start comes closest as it is a farce or comedy, which is what the Hawkmoon books really were. It uses the RQ rules and uses them well. It is well written and consistent. It is dark and malign.
Should you buy it? Well, if you are using the Hawkmoon setting and need to use the people of Granbretan then yes. If you want to use the sorcery in other Eternal Champion settings then yes. If you want to use its components in other games then perhaps. You could use the Scientific Sorcery in Jrustela easily enough, for instance.
So, I'd give this A, excellent, Buy It 90%.
