The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Hack! is a non-collectible card game based on Kenzer and Company's Knights of the Dinner Table comic. You take the part of one of the KODT characters, or more accurately one of the KODT character's PCs, raiding the Tomb of Vectra. There are five decks in all, one each for Knuckles, Teflon Billy, Thorina, El Ravager and the GameMaster. You need at least two decks to play, ideally different decks. Each player will also need a d6 (not included).

Physically, the cards feel nice. They're standard playing-card size with a smooth, glossy finish. Manny Vega, Dan Smith and George Vasilakos (who colored them all) illustrated the cards in a cartoony style wholly appropriate to a comic strip. They're great cards.

Each deck has a character card, an Entrance, two Exits and a mix of other cards. There's also one card with a fold-up miniature. (Think Cardboard Heroes or Sparks.) Characters have four stats: Combat, Negotiation, Thieving and Rules Lawyering.

The GameMaster deck is slightly different. B.A. is not a PC, so he has only the Rules Lawyering stat. He has no Entrance or Exit cards, and no miniature card. Instead, he has a card covered with gravestones for tracking the deaths he causes. In Hack!, the GM is most definitely out to kill the PCs.

To start the game, everyone puts out his character card. One player plays an entrance, and the others are set aside. All players except the GM place their minis or other markers on the entrance. Each player draws five cards. High roll goes first, and play goes clockwise.

On your turn you have three actions. For each action you may:

Play a Rule card. A Rule changes the game in favor of the person who played it.
Try to remove a Rule card someone else has played.
Discard a number of cards and draw that many.
Play a Room card. It must be adjacent to any Room with a character in it, and the doorways must match up. If the Room is an Exit, it must be at least three Rooms away from the Entrance.
Move into an adjacent Room.
Pass. This ends your turn, of course.

As you can see, the game layout will probably never be the same twice. And as in other games with dynamic layouts, it's entirely possible to block off a Room's exits by playing other Rooms near it.

The GM has slightly different rules. Since he has no character token, he does not move around the board. He may also play an Encounter face down in an empty Room anywhere on the board.

Moving comes with other hazards. If the GM isn't playing, or if he hasn't played an Encounter in the room, then the other players get a chance to play an Encounter in the Room. Only one Encounter may be played per move, regardless of who plays it.

Encounters come in three varieties: Monsters, NPCs and Traps. Each has an associated difficulty number. The two players involved each roll 1d6 and add it to the appropriate stat. For the character, it's Combat against Monsters, Negotiation against NPCs or Thieving against Traps. For the person who played the encounter, it's the difficulty (duh!). If the character wins, or if he didn't face an Encounter in the first place, he can search the room for treasure. If he loses, he dies, regardless of the Encounter type. That means he loses an Item and goes back to the entrance.

You get Items by searching Rooms. To search, you roll 1d6 and compare it to how many Rooms you are away from the Entrance. If it's one Room away, you have to roll a 1. Two Rooms away, a 2. And so on. If you succeed, play an Item from your hand. Items typically improve one of your stats.

Removing a Rule plays out the same as an Encounter. Each Rule has a difficulty, and you roll against that with your Rules Lawyering stat to get rid of it. That's not always a good idea, though. For example, there's a Rule that says any time you roll against another player, that player automatically rolls a 0. There's another Rule that says if you call what you roll, you automatically win. Zero looks bad at first, but it can be your friend under some circumstances.

Characters have two ways to win. The first is by finding an Exit. If you get out alive, you win. Of course, everyone else is trying to stop you.

The other way to win is to find the Hand of Vectra. Each character deck includes this Item, each with different flavor text. If you can get the Hand of Vectra to the Inner Chamber of Vectra (another card common to all character decks), then you can take an action to use the Hand. If you succeed, you win! Of course if you fail, you die. You have a 50/50 chance of either result.

These victory conditions don't apply to the GM. Instead, B.A. wins by killing characters. His Encounters must result in one more kill than the number of players. So if B.A. is playing against Thorina and Knuckles (three players total), he must rack up four kills in any combination of Thorina and Knuckles to win. It's easier than it sounds, especially since the GM gets Item cards for successful kills.

For a two-player game, the rules recommend two character decks. There are special rules for using the GM deck that balance things a little, but that's one variation I haven't tried.

So how is it? Hack is fun, great fun. You don't have to know anything about KODT to enjoy the game. To add to the feel, each card has a quote from a KODT strip. Read the quotes as you play the cards, and it starts to feel like a session of Hackmaster, rather than a card game. It gets loud, but who cares?

Each deck has different cards, tuned to the character in question. For example, Teflon Billy has a number of different spell cards, including several fireball variations. El Ravager has a load of weapons to choose from, if he survives Encounters. This adds to the replay value, since you can play a different character each time, and steal items from the other characters.

And it's fast. Even with all five decks in play, it only takes about an hour to finish the game.

It's also nice that the character's face is on each card in his deck. No matter how badly the cards get spread around during play, they're easy to sort afterward.

There are only two real drawbacks to the game. The first is cost. It takes an initial investment of $24 just to play the game. A full set of decks will set you back $60. Admittedly, this can be spread over several people who can then swap decks to play, but it's still a hefty up-front cost.

The other drawback is the Hand of Vectra. It's irritating to finally whip out that Hackmaster 12, slap a Nose Ring of Viscid Globs on the GM to slow him down, and cruise right next to an Exit, only to have some yahoo manage to get to the Inner Chamber of Vectra with the Hand and win on a lucky roll. I've seen this happen when the well-armed El Ravager was right next to the exit, and had the next turn. (For the record, I won that game and talked smack about it right after. Just like the rules suggest.) If you read the flavor text, it's a humorous victory, but it's also a little cheesy.

Who am I kidding? Cheesy or not, it's a blast. Bottom line: if the initial cost doesn't bother you, buy the game. Hoody-hoo!

Hack!
Hack! Playtest Review by Patrick Clark on 11/08/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) A great non-collectible game with a high cost of entry. Product: Hack! Author: Matthew Colville Category: Card Game Company/Publisher: Eden Studios Line: Hack! Cost: 11.95 Page count: n/a Year published: 2001 ISBN: varies SKU: EDN3001 Comp copy?: no Playtest Review by Patrick Clark on 11/08/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Comedy	Hack! is a non-collectible card game based on Kenzer and Company's Knights of the Dinner Table comic. You take the part of one of the KODT characters, or more accurately one of the KODT character's PCs, raiding the Tomb of Vectra. There are five decks in all, one each for Knuckles, Teflon Billy, Thorina, El Ravager and the GameMaster. You need at least two decks to play, ideally different decks. Each player will also need a d6 (not included). Physically, the cards feel nice. They're standard playing-card size with a smooth, glossy finish. Manny Vega, Dan Smith and George Vasilakos (who colored them all) illustrated the cards in a cartoony style wholly appropriate to a comic strip. They're great cards. Each deck has a character card, an Entrance, two Exits and a mix of other cards. There's also one card with a fold-up miniature. (Think Cardboard Heroes or Sparks.) Characters have four stats: Combat, Negotiation, Thieving and Rules Lawyering. The GameMaster deck is slightly different. B.A. is not a PC, so he has only the Rules Lawyering stat. He has no Entrance or Exit cards, and no miniature card. Instead, he has a card covered with gravestones for tracking the deaths he causes. In Hack!, the GM is most definitely out to kill the PCs. To start the game, everyone puts out his character card. One player plays an entrance, and the others are set aside. All players except the GM place their minis or other markers on the entrance. Each player draws five cards. High roll goes first, and play goes clockwise. On your turn you have three actions. For each action you may: Play a Rule card. A Rule changes the game in favor of the person who played it. Try to remove a Rule card someone else has played. Discard a number of cards and draw that many. Play a Room card. It must be adjacent to any Room with a character in it, and the doorways must match up. If the Room is an Exit, it must be at least three Rooms away from the Entrance. Move into an adjacent Room. Pass. This ends your turn, of course. As you can see, the game layout will probably never be the same twice. And as in other games with dynamic layouts, it's entirely possible to block off a Room's exits by playing other Rooms near it. The GM has slightly different rules. Since he has no character token, he does not move around the board. He may also play an Encounter face down in an empty Room anywhere on the board. Moving comes with other hazards. If the GM isn't playing, or if he hasn't played an Encounter in the room, then the other players get a chance to play an Encounter in the Room. Only one Encounter may be played per move, regardless of who plays it. Encounters come in three varieties: Monsters, NPCs and Traps. Each has an associated difficulty number. The two players involved each roll 1d6 and add it to the appropriate stat. For the character, it's Combat against Monsters, Negotiation against NPCs or Thieving against Traps. For the person who played the encounter, it's the difficulty (duh!). If the character wins, or if he didn't face an Encounter in the first place, he can search the room for treasure. If he loses, he dies, regardless of the Encounter type. That means he loses an Item and goes back to the entrance. You get Items by searching Rooms. To search, you roll 1d6 and compare it to how many Rooms you are away from the Entrance. If it's one Room away, you have to roll a 1. Two Rooms away, a 2. And so on. If you succeed, play an Item from your hand. Items typically improve one of your stats. Removing a Rule plays out the same as an Encounter. Each Rule has a difficulty, and you roll against that with your Rules Lawyering stat to get rid of it. That's not always a good idea, though. For example, there's a Rule that says any time you roll against another player, that player automatically rolls a 0. There's another Rule that says if you call what you roll, you automatically win. Zero looks bad at first, but it can be your friend under some circumstances. Characters have two ways to win. The first is by finding an Exit. If you get out alive, you win. Of course, everyone else is trying to stop you. The other way to win is to find the Hand of Vectra. Each character deck includes this Item, each with different flavor text. If you can get the Hand of Vectra to the Inner Chamber of Vectra (another card common to all character decks), then you can take an action to use the Hand. If you succeed, you win! Of course if you fail, you die. You have a 50/50 chance of either result. These victory conditions don't apply to the GM. Instead, B.A. wins by killing characters. His Encounters must result in one more kill than the number of players. So if B.A. is playing against Thorina and Knuckles (three players total), he must rack up four kills in any combination of Thorina and Knuckles to win. It's easier than it sounds, especially since the GM gets Item cards for successful kills. For a two-player game, the rules recommend two character decks. There are special rules for using the GM deck that balance things a little, but that's one variation I haven't tried. So how is it? Hack is fun, great fun. You don't have to know anything about KODT to enjoy the game. To add to the feel, each card has a quote from a KODT strip. Read the quotes as you play the cards, and it starts to feel like a session of Hackmaster, rather than a card game. It gets loud, but who cares? Each deck has different cards, tuned to the character in question. For example, Teflon Billy has a number of different spell cards, including several fireball variations. El Ravager has a load of weapons to choose from, if he survives Encounters. This adds to the replay value, since you can play a different character each time, and steal items from the other characters. And it's fast. Even with all five decks in play, it only takes about an hour to finish the game. It's also nice that the character's face is on each card in his deck. No matter how badly the cards get spread around during play, they're easy to sort afterward. There are only two real drawbacks to the game. The first is cost. It takes an initial investment of $24 just to play the game. A full set of decks will set you back $60. Admittedly, this can be spread over several people who can then swap decks to play, but it's still a hefty up-front cost. The other drawback is the Hand of Vectra. It's irritating to finally whip out that Hackmaster 12, slap a Nose Ring of Viscid Globs on the GM to slow him down, and cruise right next to an Exit, only to have some yahoo manage to get to the Inner Chamber of Vectra with the Hand and win on a lucky roll. I've seen this happen when the well-armed El Ravager was right next to the exit, and had the next turn. (For the record, I won that game and talked smack about it right after. Just like the rules suggest.) If you read the flavor text, it's a humorous victory, but it's also a little cheesy. Who am I kidding? Cheesy or not, it's a blast. Bottom line: if the initial cost doesn't bother you, buy the game. Hoody-hoo!