Hawkmoony Stuff

[Mongoose Gar]

As I work on the Secrets of Tragic Europe supplement for Hawkmoon, here's some stuff that I've been looting for ideas:

Nikolai Dante comics. Future Europe with dynasties and a mix of swords-and-superscience, lots of pulpy adventure.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill, GK Chesterton's novel about a mad king in London, and taking ideas seriously.

 

[Mage]

Here is a suggestoin. i nkow it is an old eighties cartoon but I think it has the same atmosphere of a post apocalyptic world as Hawkmoon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visionaries:_Knights_of_the_Magical_Light

Their armour and weapons look hawkmoony in my opinion, and htey have the whole animal order thing with their totems. Might give you ideas for new magic.

 

[Loz]

Nikolai Dante just rocks.

Weapons Crests for Hawkmoon. Mwhahaha....

 

[Facedanser]

also see:

Lesser Shades of Evil RPG

it contains some of the same themes/ tropes and style as Hawkmoon.

Not identical, but similar in a 'ancient tech in a new dark age world' way.



Fading Suns Rpg could also have some potential as source. Maybe?

 

[atgxtg]

I think the big secret would be just what/how/when Europe got wiped out and tossed back into a dark age. Looking at alomost any "fall of modern civilization/WWIII" story could help to work out just what sort of things are lying around in ruins, and where.

Maybe, it might be a good idea to give several alternate versions of what went wrong, helping GMs to customize thier own campaigns. THat way you could use any sort of concept from WWIII to accidental biotoxin relase, to attack from another plane of exisitence, to meteor impact, to a series of tsunami caused by the collaspe of San Andreas falut line.

THat would keep the "Secrets", well, secret.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Dear All,

One of the things I didn't like about earlier editions of 'Hawkmoon' was the prevalence of surviving ruins and such.

'Hawkmoon' is set around the turn of the 53rd/54th centuries - nothing from now (or even the near future) will survive till then, let alone be in a usable state!

For example - a big molithic building such as the Empire State Building could last 200 to 300 years unattended as it's made mostly of stone, concrete and steel. More modern buildings made of glass and steel would probably fare less well, possibly lasting 75 to 100 years. These estimates being based on windows breaking and letting in the elements; older stone structures have fewer windows, thus the rate of decay would be slower.

There was an article on potential material survival in a recent 'Scientific American' - a real nail in the coffin for "ruins to explore". In effect a PC in 'Hawkmoon' should never realistically find much more than weathered concrete boulders from our times.

That said, ruins are fun....

Regards

 

[Loz]

That said, ruins are fun....

And its a fantasy setting. Ornithopters shouldn't work, either, but they do, and are all the more fun for it.

Also, how do you know the setting is 53rd/54th century? I don't recall Moorcock ever specifying a time. The old Chaosium boxed set created a timeline, but that wasn't based on anything from the books. The TM could have happened much earlier - or even much, much later.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Dear All,

You are right as far as I can recall, there is no defined dating in the books... that date-line comes from the previous versions, who all use the 53rd/54th century date.

However, there has at least to be a fair old gap of time to allow for the "Tragic millennium". Long enough for buildings to crumble away.

Regards

 

[atgxtg]

Yeah, but 53rd century or not, there is still a lot of High tech still around, so either they found/saved old tech, or have moved beyond.

Besides, how do we know that the ruins would be from our era/the near future. For all we know everything could have fell apart in the 30th, 40th or 45th century. Maybe in that time they will use matierals and techniques designed to last again.

At the very least, we could probably see the remnants of the cultures from after the collapse. Maybe some culture in the 47th century built tombs or pyramids.

For all we know, there could be underground facilties where millions of people have been cryogenically frozen waiting for the day the Earth is habitiable again, :shock:

or perhaps for the lemon soaked paper napkins. :wink:

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Dear All,

There was a scenario in the 1st 'Hawkmoon' edition where the PCs encounter a NATO bunker....

Regards

 

[Mage]

Well, if something happens that does not make sense in Hawkmoon or in a suppliment, or anything:

Chaos did it
It's a different version of the world
Some lord of law did it
Its the will of the runestaff

As for a nato bunker, well, maybe the bunker has a destiny...

 

[CthulhuFnord]

With the mention of 80's cartoons, no one thought of Thundarr the Barbarian?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhAobPugvsk

A World of Superscience and Sorcery indeed.