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What you get: Your USD 59.99 buys you a hard-cover fake-leather 401-page book called HackMaster Player's Handbook, which is the rulebook for the HackMaster roleplaying game. USD 39.99 buys you the pdf version only. Pre-ordering the volume at the time of writing (April 2012) includes the pdf free of charge. If priced like the similarly voluminous and luxurious Hacklopedia of Beasts, the monster book of the HackMaster system which came out last year, the combo will be sold for USD 79.99 when the pre-order period expires. The document has been finalised and has been sent to the printer, and is expected to hit stores in summer 2012. Thus a) this is a review of the finalized product, but b) it is not a review of the physical product, it is a review of the pdf version only. The book does not have an edition number or other identifier to distinguish it from the previous edition, but that's probably better seeing the whimsical way HackMaster was numbered in the past. It is thickly written and in full colour. The fonts used are smallish (probably a size 11). Artistically the book has a common presentational aesthetic, but not a unified artwork from a single source. The art used is either public domain leaning towards realism, or a re-use of artwork previously found in other Kenzer & Co products.
Being the Player's Handbook, i.e. the entry point to the game, the book has 19 chapters and 2 appendices. The chapters are about character creation, ability scores, character races, character classes, clergy, alignment honour and fame, priors and particulars, quirks and flaws, proficiencies, talents, skills, goods services and equipment, combat, money and treasure, experience and training, non-player characters, miscellaneous rules, clerical spells and mage spells. The appendices contain pixie-fairies and the index.
A bit of history: In 2001 Kenzer & Co released Hackmaster 4th edition. The game was (almost) the fantasy RPG the Knights of the Dinner Table are playing on the long-running magazine of the same title, and was based in AD&D 1st/2nd edition with ample house-ruling and new ideas thrown in. It produced numerous books, splatbooks and adventures, some being adaptations of older TSR adventures and others being brand new. Due to the WOTC/Kenzer & Co licensing agreement, the game was written in an over the top way, with extravagant rules and a gratuitous degree of silliness (starting with the moniker '4th edition' while being the first). It won the Origins 2001 Game of the Year award and heavily polarized gamers, being a love it or hate it affair due do the complex rules, the prose and its overall feel. It was dismissed by some as a joke game, and beloved by others for its level of engagement, the innovation it brought to a stagnating AD&D and the modularity of its feel (meaning: it could be played dead seriously for the groups that wanted too).
In 2007 Kenzer & Co released Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier, a western RPG that won the Origins 2007 Roleplaying Game of the Year award and got nominated in four categories on the ENnie Awards: Best Production Values, Best Rules, Best Game and Product of the Year. The production values were off the scale, with a hard-cover fake-leather book that in our market comes out only in limited print runs for collector's editions. The system was not a license; it was Kenzerco's classless, percentile skill-based system for an old west with an alternate history but without magic or other supernatural elements.
In 2009 Hackmaster Basic was released. No longer in a contractual agreement with WOTC, HackMaster Basic is the entry (levels 1 to 5) to the next iteration of the HackMaster system. It has a system of its own right, heavily based on the Aces & Eights ruleset modified for fantasy roleplaying. As much as it demonstrated a particular attitude in the writing and a feeling of yore, the rules were streamlined and the silliness was gone. After publishing the Hacklopedia of Beasts in 2011, the first rulebook of the HackMaster system to be published, It is only in 2012 that Kenzerco manages to bring its flagship product to the market, incorporating the successful elements of its previous efforts: a game with a feeling, high-production value, clear and streamlined rules, attitude but not silliness. To that extent, it resoundingly succeeds.
Blurbs from the publisher: 'Nowadays, a fantasy RPG devotee has many choices in which to indulge problem solving with his fellow enthusiasts. The trend over the last decade or so has been leaning toward the heroic game. […] Here is where the HackMaster game sets itself apart from other fantasy roleplaying games. The HackMaster game is about more than just playing a hero that fixes troublesome predicaments. Indeed, HackMaster allows for heroic play – play long enough and you will experience such a game. But HackMaster includes another element overlooked by the other games – the journey to becoming a hero. […] In HackMaster, your character will be asked time and time again to display true heroism, to overcome personal and situational deficiencies and rise to the challenge. This is not to say that other games are not fun, but I submit to you, gentle reader, that the journey from hero to superhero is less rewarding (and therefore less enjoyable) than the journey from average to hero to superhero. In HackMaster the most atypical thing about your character vis-ŕ-vis society is his will to strive against the odds and make his mark in the world.'
Chapter by chapter walkthrough: HackMaster is a class-based fantasy game which strives for realism, throws the power-creep out of the game and incorporates role-playing in its mechanics. The seven attributes (the usual six plus comeliness) are generated by rolling 3d6 plus percentiles and are depicted as XX/YY (e.g. a strength of 14/64). The players who keep the dice as they fell get extra building points (BPs) for character creation, while those that swap stats don't. The reason is that 3d6 averages out at approximately 11 and your character is as common as anybody in the world. There are no dump stats since all contribute to the well-roundedness of the character. For example, intelligence is one of the most important attributes for combat. Strength provides bonuses to damage but it is intelligence and dexterity that provide bonuses to hit. Putting your worse rolled stats in looks or charisma could be disastrous. These affect honour which is not rolled and the lack of which will find you dice-rolling on a penalty and confronting hostile NPCs and angry mobs. It's a world of tough choices from the beginning. There are exceptions however which allow rolling another character when specific conditions are met.
One can play eleven races, all with their own advantages and disadvantages: humans, elves, grel, half-elves (human or elf-reared), dwarves, gnomes, gnome titans, half-orcs, half-hobgoblins and halflings. A twelfth race, pixie fairies, is provided as an appendix since the designers wanted to emphasize their optional nature. The inclusion of grel (grunge elves, drow with an attitude) and gnome titans (effectively the Spartans of gnomedom) from the wackier Garweeze Wurld which accompanied HackMaster 4th edition is not a cause for alarm. On the contrary, the races are done seriously and maturely. The entries are not about stats only. They have an extensive wealth of information on physiology, habitat, languages, religion and overall things of interest on the race under discussion. The information is from HackMaster's default world, Tellene, the world of Kingdoms of Kalamar, a high yet scarce magic world where attention was given to detail and the world was constructed one logical step at a time. The information can be easily altered to fit the GM's needs. A small paragraph at the end of each race provides advice, serious and gonzo, on how to roleplay it. Setting aside the adventure ideas this gives, it's a stroke of brilliance and includes, funnily enough, things that hardened role-players do not always think off. Elves are practically immortal: everybody you know off is going to be dead long before you think of it. How do you play such a character? What is trivial and what is important? When do you meddle and when do you stay out? Why would you be part of an ephemeral adventuring party in the first place?
The book contains ten character classes plus fourteen (!) classes of clergy covering all the alignment combinations. The character can be a fighter, a ranger, a barbarian, a thief, a rogue, an assassin, a mage, a fighter/mage, a fighter/thief or a mage/thief. One can also become, if he wants to, a knight, but only after 5 levels of fighter, and a paladin, after 5 levels of knight. In other words, one doesn't start as a knight or a paladin; HackMaster is honest in that it doesn't let you start being the hero but paves the way for becoming one. Thieves are what most of us are used to calling, while rogues are grifters, charmers and con-men, perfectly suited for city-campaigns of treachery and deception. They should not be confused with the renamed thieves of 3E. The clergy gets its own chapter because clerics follow a particular god, something that makes each one of them different by definition. There are no generic clerics. Tellene's setting has a great pantheon (every race effectively has the same gods but with different names and potentially different practices) and the potential is enormous since there are forty three gods. All of their cleric classes will be covered in the future cleric splatbook. Multiple spells can be gained per level, since there are as many spell levels as character levels. Again, in an enlightened moment, the designers opted for clerics not having access to the same spells and not breaking them down in categories/domains. Instead they simply made spells lists per god covering the 20 levels of spell/character progression. Even more interestingly, the spells per se are levelless; it is the god that one worships that dictates at which level a potential spell becomes available. The mages cast their spells with spell points. By pumping up the spell point expenditure they can increase aspects of their spells like duration, effect etc. Conceptually they are not almost godlike beings nor do they appear to dominate the battlefields in higher levels. A simple look at their maximum spells known per level convinced me rather easily. It starts becoming a mantra by now that HackMaster is a game of hard choices.
All race/class combinations are allowed (with the exception of knights and paladins which are possible offshoots of the fighter class and can only be human). However, and since classes are bought through the use of building points, some combinations are a lot more expensive than others. The versatile humans need 20 BPs to become any class. The dwarves however need from 20 (for a fighter) to 75 BPs (for a Ranger, amongst others). I found it a clever way of one the one had allowing everybody to do everything, while at the same time making a case for some races being better in certain classes than others, and that in-game some characters (like the half-hobgoblin mage) will not be common at all.
All classes go to level 20, but level progression and experience allocation is purposefully done in a much slower way than in AD&D or 3E/Pathfinder. At level 20 the characters are at that point in their lives that followers start coming and more grandiose ideas start taking shape. According to the designers future splatbooks will cover advancement up to level 30. I am a big fan of the slow advancement approach. It allows for intimacy with the character, for the opportunity to really assimilate his strengths and weaknesses and for tons of adventures to be played - provided he stays alive.
The chapter on alignment, honour and fame is pretty much self-explanatory. The game retains the nine alignments on the good-evil and law-chaos axes from the previous editions of D&D. However, for characters to gain honour the alignment must be played as stated. Effectively alignment becomes a road map of what the Game Master is to expect from his player. Honour defines how the character measures up to society’s ideals of courage, integrity and inner strength and it's outright important. Depending on one's honour category, one can have bonuses or minuses on his dice rolls, the possibility of rerolling in case of bad results, NPC reactions change etc. Since honour is a societal affair and can be also measured as family and group honour, whom one hangs out with becomes suddenly important and has consequences. Low-lifer's honour will improve by hanging out with the aristocracy, but the aristocrat's honour will at the same time plunge. I am totally buying this, and as un-subtle it might be, it's a great way to insert good role-playing opportunities in situations where most players would simply ignore them. Fame, on the other hand, is about how known a character is, something that can again lead to dice altering mechanisms, modified NPC reactions etc. Priors and particulars immediately reminded me of HarnMaster, as well as splatbooks that other fantasy RPGs had published about rounding out characters. It's all about providing depth to the character, with options for height, weight, handedness, heritage and lineage. This information is of immediate use, since it blends, again, mechanically to the game.
Quirks are mental while flaws are physical. Every character can have a few if he wants to, since they generate building points which can be used to round out the character further. Random generation provides more BPs than choosing them outright, but due to a diminished returns system after three or four flaws and quirks the character is likely not to gain any BPs at all. Their purpose is to make a character more real, meaning that the player should play them out and the GM will reward or penalize the player depending on role-playing. I will once again repeat that role-playing opportunities and deeper immersion blend mechanically with the system.
What a character knows is divided into proficiencies, talents and skills. Proficiencies can be weapon or non-weapon, and they are effectively an on/off button. Either you know how to use low skill weapons or you don't. You either know local history or you don't. Weapon specialization is also covered here, but this works differently, effectively having been broken down in parts. Just because you can hit more easily with the sword doesn't mean you can parry as well with it or that you are faster with it or that you do more damage with it. It's a long and hard way to become a hero indeed.
Talents are out-of-the-ordinary non-magical abilities that conceptually are not learnt, even though they can be acquired during the life of the character. This includes martial talents like blind-fighting or improved reach as well as miscellaneous talents like fast healing or polyglot.
Skills on the other hand are substantially more numerous and work with percentiles in levels. Improving upon a skill makes the character easier to achieve his skill rolls. It also allows him to do more with that skill. A novice and a master blacksmith can accomplish different things and with different ease.
The chapter on goods, services and equipment was pleasantly extensive. An addition I liked was the price per availability, meaning that different prices were given for the same item depending on whether the item was sold in a market with high, moderate or low availability. The categories covered were quite vast with adventuring gear being in the forefront. From weapons, armour, clothing, illumination and expedition gear (a staple for fantasy RPGs really), the game goes on up to religious items and accoutrements and musical instruments.
HackMaster being its name, combat gets an extensive treat with a system that is both enthralling and engaging. Everything happens in game time. No rounds nor turns, just counts of seconds of game time. One can always act and readjust his tactics. And, amongst others, tactics involve defending.
After initiative is rolled and as the GM calls each second in the game world, those who can act do so. Movement is pretty much allowed at all times, while how often one attacks depends on his weapon speed or his spell's casting time. It is a highly tactical experience, since it is nowhere near stationary. There is knock back and unconsciousness (through a threshold-of-pain check when one is dealt a great amount of damage), most importantly though, there are combat manoeuvers such as aggressive attack, defensive fighting, giving ground, full parry etc, which allow the character to adjust his attitude during battle. What fully enhances the feeling of being in battle though, apart from the dozens of options, is the opposed roll. Even though it is obviously influenced by modifiers, defence is not a static number. Each round your opponent attacks with his d20p, you defend with your own die and vice versa. Even a pitiful (non-fumbled) attack can wield results if the defence is piss poor. And even the best attack can miss, if it draws with the equally perfect defence. Armour does not make a character more difficult to hit, it makes him easier to hit, as logic dictates. However, it absorbs chunks of the damage dealt. Shields are pretty much indispensable. Those fighting without one are heavily penalized on their defence rolls. Damage wise hit points are used, wounds however are tracked separately since each heals at its own rate. On the few combats I have had there was a genuine feeling of involvement. There is no waiting for something to happen while the GM rolls, no number or stat which was indirectly generated and which seals your fate: you are there, you have to do better, and if the battle is not going too well, maybe fighting defensively and fleeing is not such a bad idea after all. Apart from critical hits and fumbles most dice are penetrating (meaning that if the highest number on the die is rolled you keep on rolling them) there is no such thing as a predetermined battle. One can down a dragon on 1st level if luck is on his side, but so can the lonely scared kobold down your 7th level fighter. This is a good thing: first, because statistical aberrations are not commonplace but they should still be accounted for to instil some prudence on how one plays. In-game though, it does not allow for creatures to lose their relevance once characters go up in level. Enemies change in other fantasy games, because a 20-th level fighter in 3E cannot challengingly fight orcs. That is not the case here. Tactics, the engaging system and luck can really turn the side of battle one way or the other. Many of the rules mentioned such as the combat moves as well as others like shooting into melee, called shots, momentum, fatigue etc are clearly marked as advanced rules. The GM and players who wish to familiarize before using the system in its full glory can take them out without unbalancing anything.
An illustrated example of play with the KODT protagonists as players demonstrates the combat routine. A similar approach was used in the HackMaster Basic rulebook and was hugely successful, effectively serving as an ad for the game. Kenzer & Co is doing the same again, since the illustrated example is free on their website. It is well-explained and extremely useful, demonstrating how easy and intuitive combat becomes once somebody has just a bit of familiarization.
Money and treasure is a small chapter discussing issues that aren't always expected to be found in an RPG, and even more so a fantasy one. Silver coins are the norm, with gold and platinum being very rare. One gets a glimpse on haggling and bartering, loans, banks, superior quality items and magical items. Even investments and inflation are discussed, since prices in a small community will logically go up when a party comes out of the nearby caves carrying sacks with gems and jewels.
With time characters improve. In experience and training one gets to see how it is done. The experience points required are the same for each class, it is indicative however that level 19 is 75,200 and level 20 87,650 points. Quite a few adventures will be needed to reach these numbers, and they will mean nothing on their own if the character doesn't take the time to train, be it alone or under a tutor. Just passing the point threshold does not improve your character: no extra hit dice or hit dice rerolls, no increase in stats (which is the reason why the stats go up to two decimals), no additional BPs or new spells, no proficiencies, talents or skills.
NPCs is the chapter about hirelings, followers, sidekicks and everybody else from the NPC world. The system tries to anchor down the players by giving them other points of reference in the gaming world than the other PCs only, with them having friends, family and even adventuring NPCs they actively care about.
Under miscellaneous the game covers illumination, falling damage, doors and portcullises and healing time. I would expect more of these rules to come out with the Game Master's Guide.
The last two chapters are about the clerical and the mage spells respectively. The level of detail is as high as to describe the exact material components that a spell demands and whether they are expended or not. Since clerical spells are levelless and different gods hand them out at different levels, they are presented in alphabetical order. There are approximately 260 clerical spells, some being higher or lower level variations of the same idea; for example, there are 21 cure wounds, starting from 'trifling' and ending with 'great'. On the other hand, there are 174 mage spells on 22 levels. The apprentice and journeyman levels exist before level one and a first level mage starts effectively casting from those three levels. There are more spells on the lower levels, something rather expected, with the number being reduced the more one moves higher. There are only 4 spells on level 20, but I am certain that the splatbook on mages will take care of that.
The strong points: Let’s do a small break from content for the moment and talk about the art and presentation. I remind you that I am reviewing the finalized pdf and do not have the physical copy in my hands yet. In one word, art reaches perfection. The designers opted mostly for known oeuvres in the public domain and it really gives a particular feel. It is not homogenous like the commissioned art of Pathfinder or 3E, and there is some reused art from older Kenzer & Co products, however it suits the game fine. The layout is clear, with two columns per page. Useful tips are put on the side of some pages, as small reminders or personal notes that the reader himself might have put. Apart from the table of contents at the beginning of the book and the fact that every chapter is bookmarked on the pdf, each chapter contains on its first page a small index with what one can find therein. The final appendix is nothing less than an extensive index.
Back into content, it's obvious that some basic design choices were made from the very beginning. They might not please everybody, but they are solid, supported all the way through and make sense. The writing has style and the book does not read like a vacuum cleaner manual. Once in a while it addresses the reader, makes a snarky remark, discusses the logic behind a rule or two, and all this while approximating the way Gary Gygax wrote in some of the earlier D&D products. I felt this was done with gusto, and clearly makes the rulebook read like a game. It is sparse and does not get campy, overwhelming or repetitive. I chuckled while reading 'Engaging in combat is not the most important thing in HackMaster; it’s a weak third behind surviving and, most importantly, winning combat!' Every now and then bubbles of text appear with commentary from fighters (the iconic El Ravager), mages (Greytar, whose travelling exploits are often published in KODT) and other characters who already made their appearance in Hacklopedia of Beasts. They provide first person solid advice on how some rules work and what's their 'real life' experience. Clever.
The mechanics of the game are solid and seem at many points to go the other direction from current trends. Armour makes one easier to hit, just like in real life. It's the damage he incurs that is lessened, just like in real life. A shield will do a combatant tons of good, just like in real life. Wounds heal separately, just like in real life. Are there hit points in real life? Not really, but this is a designer choice and a positive one at that. If you have D&D/Pathfinder in one hand and the old and acclaimed Harnmaster and Harnworld from Columbia games on the other, it feels as if the designers wanted to retain the best parts of both while eliminating their disadvantages: the heroism of the former and the grit and danger of the latter, procuring a fantasy game anchored in realism. I can't think of many ways they could have done it better.
The weak points: I have spotted one typo in a word that does not see much use in everyday life (accoutrement) as well as a misattributed title in a reference. While the number is low, I never understood why when reading books outside our hobby we have zero tolerance for typos but in our hobby it is kind of normal to have them.
People might be put off by the price of the game. At USD 60 for the tome and USD 40 for the pdf (USD 80, if one doesn't pre-order and the price for the combo comes out as expected) it is not exactly cheap. Pre-ordering now though and getting the pdf free of charge alleviates the issue. It must be said again that the physical volume has production values higher than many collectors' edition handbooks in the past, using the Hacklopedia of Beasts as a point of reference. That, along with the content value makes the price totally justified in my eyes.
What preoccupies me a bit is the production schedule and support for the game. Even though some adventures and a small campaign setting came out along with the Hacklopedia of Beasts, it took from 2009 to 2012 to have the full rules published and move on from HackMaster Basic to the completed HackMaster Player's Handbook. I do acknowledge that they did an enormous playtest involving their fans and that takes time. The designers have recently stated on KODT that they have the Game Master's Guide slated for 2013, a few adventures on the works, along with four splatbooks (each per basic class) and regional and city Tellene guides. I am cautiously optimistic. If this material comes out with the same love Hacklopedia and the Player's Handbook did, there is nothing to fear. Seeing how Kenzer & Co's release schedule in the past sometimes bordered on glacial pace however, I would love to see additional product come out sooner than later.
Apart from those issues that are not even indirectly related to content, I honestly can't find weaknesses about the product. The love and dedication that its designers have shown is evident throughout the book, from the well-playtested rules to the almost typo-free presentation. I will thus point out things which might put off some fellow gamers but which under no circumstances are weak points per se.
I find the game of moderate crunch, however I realise that for others it might look like a steep hill to climb. In that sense it reminds me of some of my more demanding board games like Puerto Rico or some GMT games of moderate difficulty. It might take a bit of time to explain the rules, or a bit of thinking to understand them as written. When it comes to playing them however it is immediately obvious what is to be done. It's the same with HackMaster. Having opposed rolls on pretty much everything appears time consuming in theory, and where are the modifiers for this or that action when you need them? In practice however it works flawlessly and makes the game more engaging than anything else. On the second or third session the game felt intuitive and smooth, as if I was playing it forever. The learning curve might be easier by having someone explain the rules, or participate in a demo if possible.
In contrast to current design trends the game does not have a unified resolution mechanic. You will be rolling percentiles for skills (wanting low), from d12 to d4 on initiative depending on the circumstance (also wanting low), d20p for attacks (wanting high) and d20p-4 for defence in melee (also wanting high). Plus modifiers are not always but almost always positive, since one needs minus modifiers in initiative. For some this might appear as a step backwards. For me, after creating a few characters and participating in a few battles, it is irrelevant. The system is clearly a result of playtesting on particular principles, not a quirky offspring of the necessity to use all the dice like D&D of the day used to be. Three or four resolution mechanisms are by definition more than a single one. There is no need however to exaggerate their importance or relevance, since the system choices make full sense and become intuitive during play.
There are those who wish to play heroes with uncanny capabilities from the very beginning. Going for stunts like firing 3 arrows in one go while surfing staircases is very likely to have one killed. Characters do not gain part of their strength as soon as the battle is over. Starting at a substantially higher level for an epic play within the bounds of realism is however possible. Character generation will take a bit more, but I do not see why a group can't start on level 15 if that's their thing. Since the Game Master's Guide is not out yet, some caution is recommended to aspiring GMs of such groups in order to accommodate the challenges the party will face. Even experienced GMs have noticed that the monsters from the Hacklopedia of Beasts should be used with caution. Five HackMaster zombies are substantially more lethal than the same number of their counterparts in different fantasy systems and a simple one for one substitution might lead to pointless total party kills.
I was thinking that a detriment to the game might be its name. The furore HackMaster had generated back in 2001 and the impression it had created might linger on. This is nowhere near a parody nor a joke game however. The designers actively spoofed this preconception in an ad for the Hacklopedia of Beasts. If you are not trying it fearing the revenge of the silly or an old-school bore you are doing yourself a disservice. The game is very serious and super successful in what it tries to achieve.
Conclusion: HackMaster evokes a partial old school feel and a healthy 'yeah!' attitude without being an old school game. It is moderately reminiscent of AD&D, Harnmaster and BRP without being any of them. It does not unveil the next new big thing in mechanics, but the rules it uses, be them old or new design, had never been combined in such an innovative way. It is adequately modular to be played with more or less crunch depending on preference. Style-wise it mostly caters to a 'rags to riches' game, the long road from low-life to hero. It won't always be an easy ride for players or characters. The players will have a few ropes to learn and brace for quality role-playing. The characters will have to get used to the idea of circumventing trouble since the game can be lethal.
Objectively, HackMaster is right now one of the best and most lavish fantasy RPGs on the market. Subjectively, for my tastes and standards, it easily occupies the top spot redefining fantasy roleplaying. More importantly, it is the first RPG I read in the last few years that gives me this inexplicable desire, this indescribable excitement of rediscovering what an RPG is supposed to be about. I will grab the physical copy as soon as it's out. I will play it. I will run it. What a game!
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