Spitting Into the Wind - The Elric of Melnibone rpg second edition & The Mongoose Hawkmoon rpg Commentary

  Dealing with newer editions of classic role play games brings up all kinds of interesting wrinkles in this post covid age of ours!? Today we dive into two newer role playing incarnations  of both Elric & Hawkmoon. Here's a bit of background on the history behind the newer Elric incarnation of the Elric of Melnibone  from the Elric of Melnibone site;" Mongoose Publishing acquire the Eternal Champion Licence from Chaosium in 2006, and published new versions of both Elric of Melniboné and Hawkmoon. The initial editions of these games utilised the Runequest (itself licensed from Greg Stafford) rule set, while the 2nd edition Elric of Melniboné was built on both the Runequest II and latterly Mongoose’s own Legend game system." 

Where do I begin?! If you want something done right then do it yourself. Last night I grabbed my pdfs of the Mongoose Hawkmoon & second edition Elric Rpgs. Why the second edition?! Well according to the Elric of Melnibone rpg website; "Initially written by Lawrence Whitaker and Pete Nash, this short lived 2nd Edition revised the game mechanics to match the Runequest II ruleset, while looked to expand the Young Kingdoms setting to more remote locales." 
And this lines up with my original question  what I asked in the Elric/Stormbringer rpg Facebook group.  Don't look for the thread because I deleted it. The questions  were how are the Mongoose Elric & Hawkmoon rpgs?! And do they work well together?! Comments on Christmas puddings & bull shite made it so that I got very frustrated. So taking on the question myself I looked deeply into both role playing games. 

So after reading through the Hawkmoon rpg last night & with a bit of eye shattering strain through the Elric second edition. The conclusion is that these would work very well together for a campaign & there are several reasons for this: 

1. Second editon Elric was created to smoothly intrgrate into Runequest rpg rules making my hit list of plusses. 
2. The Elric game is impressivley detailed enough to take the Young Kingdoms as a very viable rpg campaign setting. 
3. The Hawkmoon rpg  game gathers strength from the Elric rpg giving the players even more range with regards to the character creation.
4. Alone I don't think that the Hawkmoon rpg is very good but with Elric as a system it works extremely well. 
5. The range of trouble the PC's can get into is impressive to say the least. 
6. The world of the Young Kingdoms is nasty in the Mongoose Elrice second edition version. Its down & dirty Sword & Sorcery rpg world just waiting to screw with the PC's. 

 But let's talk about the Hawkmoon rpg for a moment. The setting is far more detailed in its own right & the empire of  the Tragic Millennium, is rife with adventure possiblities. 

Are the two games worth the price of admission?! Possibly by themselves?! Maybe but not for the fifty dollar plus collector's asking price at the moment. But coupled with Runequest & together?! Certainly and this is because they do the job of presenting their respective worlds very well. These games take on their material & bring it to the table top level in a way that actually suits the gaming that we've got today.

OSR Thoughts & Commentary On Michael Moorcock's Hawkmoon & The Granbretan empire

   "Centuries after the Tragic Millennium, when the older order of Earth was washed away in fire and poison, Europe has been reduced to a land of squabbling princedoms, of monster-haunted wormwoods and empty, ruined cities. From the bleak and terrible island of Granbretan, the Dark Empire plots to conquer all the world. Their beast-masked legions, armed with flying ornithopters and sorcerous flame-lances, march on across the Silver Bridge to put all of France to the sword. The Madness of Granbretan will consume all the universe if not checked."

Two thousand seven was not a great year for the family & quite a bit of turmoil happened. That's all water under the bridge these days. One of the games that almost passed my group of players by was Mongoose's Hawkmoon rpg. Today we got together to discuss rpg's for the coming year & Mongoose's Hawkmoon came up. So why Hawkmoon?! Well that's a great question. But it boils down to the fact that when Mongoose folded their tents with the  Hawkmoon rpg & the entire run went up on sale on Drivethrurpg. So the entire Hawkmoon rpg run sat   on my hardrive & a local print shop spiral bound the books right before the Pandemic. Now with things opening up again rpg campaigns are coming into vague. For the inside skinny on the Mongoose Hawkmoon rpg go here.  Reading through both Michael Moorcock's  Hawkmoon again. A singular question springs to mind. What the Hell was Hawkmoon's Earth messing with within the Million Spheres !? How did they have so much truck with the Lords of Order?! And why did Hawkmoon's Great Britian survive the various wars?!  Through the intercession of the lords of Chaos?! 


One of the head cannon theories that my group of players put together is that the United States military found their way into an alternative reality within the Million Spheres. This escalated the early Eighties Cold War world stage as the gods of Chaos in some form began to influence the world of Hawkmoon's Europe. Various Chaos mutation, alien technologies, gifts of chaos,etc. all allowed mankind to advance along the ladder of various technologies. But unto all things there is a season & like its want to do Chaos's creations began to turn out the will of their masters. Worlds & seasons end especially with Chaos's influence on the world. Not unlike Jerry Cornelius 's exploits in 'A Cure For Cancer'. The total break down of physics provides the return of the Dark Age world of Hawkmoon. 

There's a very elastic quality that we find with Michael Moorcock's Count Brass novels where everything seems set up for the appearance of Doreen Hawkmoon. Hawkmoon's world is rife with the rise of  the Granbretan empire during the end of the  Tragic Millenium.  

Talking this over with my players the rise of the Granbretan empire with its twisted sorcery & super science seems in direct contradiction to Kamarg. Warriors from the dark empire of Granbretan can literally show up anyplace to terrorize adventurers. 

At the end of the Hawkmoon books the Granbretan empire during the end of the  Tragic Millenium seems like its positioned to take over not only the rest of what remains of Europe. But to expand its scope into the rest of the Multiverse.  So we're really surprised that the animal masked orders of the Granbretan empire haven't shown up as enemies in more Mongoose Stormbringer rpg games. 

Spitting Into the Wind - The Elric of Melnibone rpg second edition & The Mongoose Hawkmoon rpg Commentary

 Dealing with newer editions of classic role play games brings up all kinds of interesting wrinkles in this post covid age of ours!? Today we dive into two newer role playing incarnations  of both Elric & Hawkmoon. Here's a bit of background on the history behind the newer Elric incarnation of the Elric of Melnibone  from the Elric of Melnibone site;" Mongoose Publishing acquire the Eternal Champion Licence from Chaosium in 2006, and published new versions of both Elric of Melniboné and Hawkmoon. The initial editions of these games utilised the Runequest (itself licensed from Greg Stafford) rule set, while the 2nd edition Elric of Melniboné was built on both the Runequest II and latterly Mongoose’s own Legend game system." 

Where do I begin?! If you want something done right then do it yourself. Last night I grabbed my pdfs of the Mongoose Hawkmoon & second edition Elric Rpgs. Why the second edition?! Well according to the Elric of Melnibone rpg website; "Initially written by Lawrence Whitaker and Pete Nash, this short lived 2nd Edition revised the game mechanics to match the Runequest II ruleset, while looked to expand the Young Kingdoms setting to more remote locales." 
And this lines up with my original question  what I asked in the Elric/Stormbringer rpg Facebook group.  Don't look for the thread because I deleted it. The questions  were how are the Mongoose Elric & Hawkmoon rpgs?! And do they work well together?! Comments on Christmas puddings & bull shite made it so that I got very frustrated. So taking on the question myself I looked deeply into both role playing games. 

So after reading through the Hawkmoon rpg last night & with a bit of eye shattering strain through the Elric second edition. The conclusion is that these would work very well together for a campaign & there are several reasons for this: 

1. Second editon Elric was created to smoothly intrgrate into Runequest rpg rules making my hit list of plusses. 
2. The Elric game is impressivley detailed enough to take the Young Kingdoms as a very viable rpg campaign setting. 
3. The Hawkmoon rpg  game gathers strength from the Elric rpg giving the players even more range with regards to the character creation.
4. Alone I don't think that the Hawkmoon rpg is very good but with Elric as a system it works extremely well. 
5. The range of trouble the PC's can get into is impressive to say the least. 
6. The world of the Young Kingdoms is nasty in the Mongoose Elrice second edition version. Its down & dirty Sword & Sorcery rpg world just waiting to screw with the PC's. 

 But let's talk about the Hawkmoon rpg for a moment. The setting is far more detailed in its own right & the empire of  the Tragic Millennium, is rife with adventure possiblities. 

Are the two games worth the price of admission?! Possibly by themselves?! Maybe but not for the fifty dollar plus collector's asking price at the moment. But coupled with Runequest & together?! Certainly and this is because they do the job of presenting their respective worlds very well. These games take on their material & bring it to the table top level in a way that actually suits the gaming that we've got today.