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Frandor’s Keep from Kenzer & Company is the first mini-campaign released for their Hack Master Basic role-playing game system. It represents a pinnacle in sandbox style campaign adventures and is one of the finest role-playing game products ever produced. My group and I have been playing it weekly since its original release in 2009. The book comes in at 144 pages with black and white text and it is softbound but the cover itself is very sturdy and the book has held up to a lot of wear and tear. I like this product so much because it represents what I like about gaming so much which is emergent stories that come from the players themselves and how they play the game. I am not a fan of narrative heavy games that seem more like an excuse for a writer to push their poorly written novel in replacement of players creating a story by their character’s actions.

The book has a modular make up with the first two chapters serving as an introduction and history to the Keep and the following chapters breaking down individual portions of the Keep, Quarrytown, the outlying areas and adventure hooks that discriminating game masters can decide to use. Frandor’s Keep was a product from the 4th Edition of Hack Master and has moved into Kenzer & Company’s Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting. The Kingdoms of Kalamar is a low-magic realistic campaign world that was originally produced by Kenzer & Company back in the 90’s. The setting is about getting out of the way of the players and letting them be the heroes and the main actors that move the world. It is a highly fantastic campaign world that features a realistic and logical world. I do recommend if players are going to be adventuring in the world for the game master to pick up any of the campaign setting books which are not system specific or download the campaign .pdf directly from Kenzer & Company’s website. This world could be used by any setting with only nominal changes by the game master.

Frandor’s Keep is a game world. The product is designed to simulate a living breathing location for a groups campaign. This means that the product doesn’t guide you step by step, instead it creates locations and gives the game master information about the npcs living in this world, the world itself and then allows the players to decide what to do next. There is enough information in the book for the game master to run the world behind the screen and depending on how the players act, what adventures they choose to participate in, who they choose to help, they shape the world and then open and close future opportunities. I like that a lot. One of the things that have allowed my group to activily play the game for over a year is that based on their actions the next week’s session has been shaped. This has allowed my players to adventure to different places in Kalamar, away from the Keep and then venture back for more within and around the Keep.

Hack Master is about creating realistic and logical worlds and games for players to participate in. Things make sense both in the game system and within this product. This allows players and game masters to make assumptions and draw out the products because we already know the frame work. The blue print for the world and the game is in our hands so if the players decide to do something unexpected or unexplained we have the tools not to stop the game or put artificial limits on them but to improvise and go where the game takes us. Within the Keep there is a group called Rikar’s Ravens and my players have been battling with that group for months which has caused them to travel within the world and take adventure opportunities elsewhere which didn’t stem from plots in Frandor’s Keep but derived completely from in-game actions.

If your group is looking for a product to expand your Hack Master Basic campaign or you’re interested in playing Hack Master Basic, I highly recommend this product. My group went to the keep after completing the downloadable adventure, In the Realm of the Elm King which is an adventure designed for level 1 to 2 parties and fits well with getting your group near the Keep. It’s another fine product and a good jumping into point for Hack Master and Frandor’s Keep. The product features the best maps I’ve seen in any role-playing game product. They are detailed, clear, and easily read. The biggest downside to the product is that now that my group has been playing it for so long we’ve nearly capped out of what we’re able to do with the Hack Master Basic rules. Hopefully with the pending release of Advanced Hack Master if your group were to start this campaign setting the full rules will have released by the time your group needs them.

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