Setting Rules

Hawkmoon is not merely a medieval adventure setting with strange gadgets laid on top. It is a world of tragic romance, grotesque empire, ruin-haunted landscapes, and terrible knowledge preserved in masks, engines, and laboratories. These rules help give the setting its proper weight and flavor in play.

Core Assumptions

The Tragic Millennium is a world of:

ruined civilizations
lingering war
grotesque science
strange relics
tragic choices
bold action in the shadow of despair

Tone And Style

Adventures should feel dangerous, colorful, mournful, and grand. The world is broken, but not empty. Courage still matters. Beauty still survives. Honor still exists, though it is often cornered by horror and necessity.

Fear And Horror

Optional or core Fear rules will go here.

The Tragic Millennium is full of sights that shake the soul: beast-masked nobles, laboratories of mutilation, dead cities, obscene engines, and relics that should never awaken.

Forbidden Science In Play

Forbidden Science is the great unnatural force of the age. It is neither modern science nor simple sorcery, but a degraded and monstrous inheritance from lost ages.

See Forbidden Science.

Relics, Ruins, And Salvage

Rules for relics, salvage, scarcity, and exploration will go here.

Masks, Orders, And Identity

Rules or guidance for beast masks, status, secrecy, and social terror will go here.

Optional Setting Systems

Potential additions:

corruption or degradation
unstable devices
social terror under Granbretan
regional travel hazards
relic misfire tables