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Hack Master Basic is the basic version of the Advanced Hack Master game which should be seeing a release later this year. There is a lot of confusion about the word “basic” being in the title. Hack Master Basic is not a basic role-playing game. It is a fully featured game that introduces the basic concepts up the upcoming Hack Master advanced game. For players looking for a rules light or more of a free form role-playing game, this isn’t going to be that game. However, if someone is looking for a game that is easy to understand and allows them to create adventurers that have depth and to participate in a game that allows the players and their game master to go through the journey together, there is a lot here to like. Playing Hack Master isn’t a game about heroes doing heroic things; it’s about adventurers becoming heroes. I find by not having the players start out as being the heroes of the world it makes the game easier on me the game master and form my players to journey through the world together. A town elder isn’t going to ask a group of no-nothing players to journey to the crypt after a few minutes of meeting them. It’s up to the players to build their reputation in the world and show that they are a worthy group of adventurers to handle the job.
With that, players start Hack Master with a low-level of power. Creating characters the first time can take novice players up to an hour but anyone experienced with Hack Master 4th edition or role-playing in general most likely could create a character in around thirty minutes. Players roll for their stats down the line and have the option to exchange two ability scores but the penalty for that is losing out on half of the building point’s award to players at the begging of character creation. This allows players some flexibility to make a sacrifice if they really need a specific ability layout for their character. Building points are the games way to pump abilities, increase their knowledge of skills, and allow the player to really customize their character. The idea of a building point makes the games character system a mixture between levels and a skill based system.
The skill system in Hack Master Basic is something I really like. The basic game includes a broad spectrum of skills ranging from botany and fire-building to more standard fantasy fare such as lock picking and monster lore. By having a diverse set of skills it really allows the players to build interesting characters that have real world knowledge which allows me as a GM to incorporate these skills even to reward the player for their creativity or punish players who focus too much on monster killing and loot gathering. Hack Master Basic and the Kalamar setting provide a real world for the players to adventure in. The players need to think about how the world works, how their characters fit in, and what they’d like to be able to do in this world. The game uses a percentile skill system with the goal of rolling under the target number and the players ability increase with a higher degree of mastery. Hack Master Basic features a more detailed skill system with more depth and options than some other full featured games.
The real meat of the game and what makes it a whole lot of fun for my players and me is the combat system. Hack Master Basic throws out the abstract idea of rounds or other combat timing methods. Everything is done on a second by second count. This is nice because it’s very logical and if a player wants to do something, the GM can determine how long it would take a person to complete the task and then apply that to the game. Players are not boxed in to only being able to perform certain actions during the round which allows players to do really creative things in combat. I would suggest that someone in a group picks up a tally counter to be used during combat. Hack Master Basic combat is accomplished in melee by opposed combat rolls, the attacker will roll a d20 and add all of his bonuses while the defender rolls a d20-4 and adds his defensive bonuses. The higher total wins. An improvement to combat over other games is that the game actually looks about how combat was accomplished in the period of which the arms and equipment were being used and applies it to the game world. Shields are not a throw away so a player can make his duel-wielding elf that hacks and slashes like a cartoon character. The combat chapter may seem overwhelming at first but the system is not complex. It’s new and different but it’s also very logical and flows naturally. The chapter includes many helpful examples for different types of combat ranging from melee to ranged combat and at the end of the chapter the book includes a combat example illustrated by the Knights of the Dinner Table magazine characters. By the time I finished the chapter and read the combat example, I felt comfortable enough to run combat while relying on the book for looking up specifics. After our groups first two sessions the combat system felt just as natural as any other system a players are experienced with.
The game also uses penetrating or exploding die. When a player rolls the maximum on a die they then get to roll an extra die and subtract one from that roll, this can continue on until they stop rolling the maximum of the die. This can create for very exciting situations when the first level adventure hits a Minotaur for 22 damage on his first attack. Which brings in a characters threshold of pain, which is how much damage a character can suffer before he needs to make a trauma check, this really makes combat dynamic and exciting? If a character fails the check they fall to the ground and are unable to act until their suffering subsides.
There is a lot to this game. I feel that I could go one describing how it plays for thousands of words. If I were to describe the game to a friend and tell him why I think he should pick up his dice and give it a shot, I would boil it down to this: the game makes sense. After a few sessions of playing, a read through of the book, the game rules and systems melt away and it’s about playing a character in a world and going on adventures. Nothing is given to the players and nothing is artificially taken away from them. Combat is interactive and my players no longer decide to take breaks after their round is up, knowing that it may take another 10 or 15 minutes for the combat to get back to them. Players are engaged which makes being a game master a whole lot more exciting. The character creation system has enough depth for players to create unique characters and not feel as if they need to power game to get the best possible character at combat. If they do that, they’ll suffer because the world needs heroes not one-trick ponies.
The downside to the game is that for a $19.99 book the production values are not going to be on the level as a full priced book. The book is well built and sturdy but the interior art comes from a mixture of recycled art from the 4th edition book, public domain art and is all in black and white. I have no problem with this. Kenzer & Company have released some of the highest quality products (Look to the Aces & Eights core book) on the market and for the price and the amount of gaming to be had; I think the value of the book is fantastic. I wish there were more deities, an expanded spell list for both clerics and mages and more monsters. The company has expanded on this with the use of their in-house magazine, Knights of the Dinner Table. I hope that at some point that information is published on their website for non-magazine readers to have access to.
The downloadable PDF is $14.99 and there is a free adventure, White Palette, Ivory Horns aviable for new players. If you’re interested in trying a more realistic game with a lot of depth but without an level of entry so high to turn of novice or even more experienced role-players, I would highly recommend that you hop over to the website and give the game a try. One of the really nice thing about Kenzer and Company’s forum is that there are a lot of really helpful and eager people there to give advice to new players.
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