Character Creation

The Tragic Millennium is a world of ruined splendor, cruel empires, lost machines, and doomed courage. In this setting, player characters are not ordinary wanderers. They are rebels, knights, wanderers, rogues, scholars, desert riders, outcasts, and visionaries who stand against a world that has become monstrous.

This page explains how to create a character for the Hawkmoon setting using Savage Worlds Adventure Edition.

The Shape of a Hawkmoon Hero

Hawkmoon heroes are capable, romantic, flawed, and larger than life. They live in a dying age, but they are not passive victims of it. Even in defeat, they matter. Even in a ruined world, they can still choose honor, loyalty, defiance, or ambition.

Characters in this setting should feel at home among:

fallen kingdoms
strange science
tragic loyalties
bizarre enemies
bold journeys across a broken Europe

A Hawkmoon hero is not just a collection of statistics. He is a figure with a place in the broken world: a swordsman of a lost court, a hunted partisan, a renegade from the Dark Empire, a wanderer pursued by destiny, or a servant of some cause greater than himself.

Character Creation Steps

Follow the standard Savage Worlds Adventure Edition character creation process, with the setting-specific guidance below.

Choose Your Character Concept

Before assigning numbers, decide who your character is.

Are you a scarred mercenary who has sold his sword in a dozen wars? A dispossessed noble from one of Europe’s shattered realms? A resistance fighter driven into forests and ruins by Granbretan’s conquest? A renegade from the Dark Empire who has seen too much? A wanderer marked by the Runestaff? A physician, scout, duelist, courtier, pilot, engineer, priest, or outlaw?

In Hawkmoon, concept comes first. The mechanics should support the character, not replace him.

Ancestry And Origin

Most characters are human, drawn from the shattered peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Near East. Their homeland matters greatly, shaping language, costume, outlook, and the sort of weapons and customs they know best.

Possible nations of origin include:

The Kamarg
Germania
Granbretan
Francia
The Balkan lands
The Italian states
Other regions of Tragic Millennium Europe

Think about what your homeland has taught you. Was it proud, savage, courtly, scholarly, war-torn, isolated, half-conquered, or already ruined? Your origin should color the way you speak, fight, dress, and judge the world.

Assign Attributes

As in standard SWADE, your character begins with a d4 in each Attribute:

Agility
Smarts
Spirit
Strength
Vigor

You have 5 points to distribute among them. Raising an Attribute by one die type costs 1 point.

In Hawkmoon, these Attributes suggest different kinds of heroes.

Agility suits duelists, scouts, thieves, archers, riders, and quick-moving warriors.
Smarts suits scholars, physicians, tacticians, engineers, spies, and explorers of forbidden knowledge.
Spirit suits leaders, visionaries, zealots, loyal retainers, and those who must resist fear, corruption, and despair.
Strength suits hard-fighting soldiers, laborers, riders, guards, and brutal close-combatants.
Vigor suits travelers, survivors, soldiers, raiders, and all those who endure the poison, hardship, and cruelty of the age.

Choose Skills

You have 12 skill points to spend, as normal in SWADE.

Choose skills that reflect both your concept and the setting. Useful skills in Hawkmoon commonly include:

Athletics
Battle
Boating
Common Knowledge
Fighting
Healing
Intimidation
Notice
Occult
Persuasion
Repair
Riding
Shooting
Stealth
Survival
Taunt
Thievery

Not every Hawkmoon hero is a front-line warrior. Courtiers, scouts, medics, spies, scholars, priests, and engineers all belong in the Tragic Millennium.

Hindrances

Choose Hindrances that reflect the passions and burdens of the setting: loyalty, vengeance, honor, hatred of Granbretan, old oaths, pride, doom, forbidden curiosity, or family duty.

In SWADE, Hindrances help define who your character is and what troubles follow him. In Hawkmoon, they should feel rooted in the setting. A character might be Vengeful because Granbretan destroyed his homeland, Loyal to a doomed lord or cause, Wanted by the Beast Orders, Arrogant from noble birth, or Curious enough to tamper with the relics of ancient science.

See Hindrances for setting guidance.

Edges

Every character begins with one free Edge, plus any additional benefits gained through Hindrances.

Choose Edges that support daring action, strange learning, leadership, survival, and heroic defiance. Combat Edges are common, but social, scholarly, leadership, and Weird Edges may be just as important in a setting full of intrigue, strange relics, occult mysteries, and imperial terror.

Some Edges may be restricted or replaced in this setting.

See Edges for details.

Arcane Backgrounds And Strange Talents

Conventional fantasy magic is rare or absent in Hawkmoon. Powers in this setting more often stem from forbidden science, lost devices, occult traditions, mutant gifts, or bizarre disciplines of mind and will.

A hero with unusual powers should feel strange, uncanny, or dangerous rather than like a conventional wizard.

See Setting Rules and Forbidden Science.

Derived Statistics

Calculate Pace, Parry, Toughness, and other derived values as normal for SWADE.

These numbers matter, but they do not define the soul of the character. A Hawkmoon hero is made as much from conviction, suffering, and loyalty as from combat effectiveness.

Starting Equipment

Choose starting gear appropriate to your homeland, social station, and role. Weapons and armor should feel grounded in a decayed medieval-future Europe rather than a generic fantasy world.

A noble may begin with fine arms, a mount, and the remnants of courtly splendor. A mercenary may carry worn but reliable weapons, patched armor, and the tools of a hard campaigner. A resistance fighter might begin with practical gear, hidden weapons, and the means to travel light and disappear fast.

See Arms And Equipment.

Final Touches

Before play begins, decide:

What does your character hate?
What have they lost?
What do they still hope to save?
What do they fear Granbretan may become?
What might they become, if they fail?

Also decide where your character comes from, how he dresses, whom he serves, what his enemies want from him, and what cause might be worth dying for.

Character Templates

The following templates are examples of the sorts of heroes who belong naturally in a Hawkmoon campaign. Use them as inspiration, not as limits.

Mercenary

The mercenary has fought for coin, bread, survival, or simple habit. He has marched beneath many banners, seen many lords fail, and learned that steel still speaks clearly in a broken world.

A mercenary often favors Agility, Strength, and Vigor, with skills such as Fighting, Shooting, Athletics, Notice, Survival, and perhaps Battle or Intimidation.

This template suits caravan guards, veteran soldiers, bodyguards, free companions, and hard-bitten adventurers who begin with no cause but may yet discover one.

Resistance Fighter

The resistance fighter has seen what Granbretan does to conquered lands. He may be a partisan, scout, saboteur, smuggler, or hunted rebel surviving by stealth and courage.

This type often favors Agility and Spirit, with skills such as Stealth, Notice, Survival, Shooting, Fighting, Athletics, and Thievery.

This is an ideal template for campaigns centered on occupation, rebellion, vengeance, and desperate patriotism.

Noble

The noble comes from one of Europe’s failing courts. He may be a dispossessed heir, a knight without a kingdom, a courtly duelist, or the last representative of a proud but broken house.

A noble often favors Spirit and Smarts, though some are formidable warriors as well. Useful skills include Persuasion, Common Knowledge, Riding, Fighting, Battle, Notice, and Taunt.

This template is well suited to players who want obligations, politics, rank, inheritance, and tragic burdens.

Granbretanian Renegade

The renegade once served the Dark Empire. He may have belonged to a Beast Order, an army, a laboratory, or some lesser arm of Granbretan’s power. Something made him turn: conscience, horror, betrayal, or ambition soured into disgust.

This kind of character often benefits from a balanced spread of abilities, especially Smarts, Spirit, and Agility. Useful skills might include Fighting, Shooting, Intimidation, Common Knowledge, Repair, Notice, Battle, Occult, or Persuasion depending on former service.

This template creates immediate tension. He knows the enemy, but others may not trust him, and Granbretan certainly wants him back or dead.

Agent Of The Runestaff

The agent of the Runestaff is drawn into deeper currents of fate, prophecy, and strange design. He may not fully understand why he survives certain dangers or why uncanny meetings seem to shape his path, but he feels that his life is part of something larger.

Such a character often favors Spirit, Smarts, or Agility. Appropriate skills might include Notice, Occult, Survival, Persuasion, Common Knowledge, and Fighting.

This template works well for characters close to the mythic, uncanny, and visionary side of the setting.

Scholar Or Physician

Not every Hawkmoon hero fights with a sword. Some battle plague, ignorance, madness, and the remnants of ancient science. A scholar or physician may be monastery-trained, court-taught, self-taught, or the keeper of dangerous records others would burn.

This type usually favors Smarts and Spirit, with useful skills including Healing, Occult, Common Knowledge, Notice, Persuasion, and perhaps Repair.

This template is especially strong in campaigns involving relics, investigation, strange diseases, hidden lore, and forbidden learning.

Scout Or Wanderer

The scout knows the roads, rivers, ruins, wild places, and borderlands. He may be a hunter, messenger, guide, outrider, smuggler, or desert traveler.

This type often favors Agility and Vigor, with skills such as Notice, Survival, Athletics, Stealth, Riding, Boating, and Shooting.

This is an excellent template for travel-heavy campaigns and for players who want their hero to be the party’s eyes and ears.

Warrior Of A Fallen Cause

This hero once served a kingdom, order, army, or banner that no longer stands. He may be the remnant of a knightly household, a bodyguard whose master is dead, or the last survivor of a conquered army.

Such a character often combines combat skill with strong Spirit. Skills like Fighting, Battle, Riding, Athletics, Notice, and Intimidation are common.

This template strongly fits the tragic and romantic spirit of Hawkmoon. It is well suited to characters defined by loyalty, memory, grief, and duty.

Quick Advice For Players

If you are not sure where to begin, choose one of the templates above and answer three simple questions.

What does my character do well?
Who or what does he care about?
What trouble is already following him when the game begins?

Those answers will tell you more about your character than mere numbers ever can.

The Spirit Of A Hawkmoon Hero

A Hawkmoon character should feel as though he belongs in a world of masks, ruins, tyrants, relics, and doomed loyalties. He need not be noble by birth, but he should be capable of nobility in action. He need not be pure, but he should be more than a bystander.

These are heroes for a dark age at the end of time. Let them be strange. Let them be burdened. Let them be bold.

Hawkmoon Codex Home • Character Creation • Edges • Hindrances • Marks of the Ancients • Granbretan • Tragic Millenium Europe • Science and Sorcery • Arms and Equipment