Stormbringer™ & Hawkmoon™

These two Roleplaying Games take place in the universes of Michael Moorcock. The first is adapted from the Cycle of Elric and describes the very dark universe of the Melniboneans : this one will be the basis of our critic. The second one deals with the Cycle of Hawkmoon which describes an alternate and futuristic Europe. We must notice that every Michael Moorcock's heroes are the various incarnations of a same person in different dimensions. In Stormbringer, the Players choose randomly an archetype they will play. Those archetypes are numerous : Melnibonean, Noble, Sailor or Peasant, for instance. The random system is based upon a percentage. In each skill, the Character possesses a score. The player rolls a hundred-sided dice and the result must be lower than the related score. If the Player roll less than 10% of it's skill, he achieves a critical hit. Then, he ticks off the skill. At the end of the scenario, the Player will roll a hundred-sided dice for each skill ticked off. He must roll greater than his skill. If he manages, he gains 1% in the related skill. If not, he earns nothing at all.

Our Opinion

Advantages :

An original Random system based upon a percentage which is very flexible for the Game Master. The well-described universe fot these two Roleplaying Games was very easy to assimilate. The Game Master just had to read the two cycles. Then he could afford to play thousands scenarios.

Defects :

Stormbringer introduced a revolutionary concept, unbalanced archetypes, but they're was a real problem : the disproportion. Indeed, the peasant started with it's average skills around 25%  while the Melnibonean started with 80%. The experience system was supposed to counterbalance this disequilibrium but in the facts, it was harder for a peasant to progress than a Melnibonean (8% chance to roll a critical hit for the Melnibonean then 20% to progress meanwhile the Peasant had 2% chance to roll a critical hit then 75% chance to progress. : Mathematical result : 0,016 for the Melnibonean and 0,015 for the Peasant!). The entire universe is mere violent. To conclude, there was a strange feeling of frustration when we rolled a weak archetype.