What Hackmaster is?

[David Howery]

I love KODT... if HM is anything like it is in the comic strip, then the game will be insanely complicated with zillions of tables and zillions of modifiers for each table. From what I can recall off the top of my head, the game-in-the-comic had such things as seduction tables, lynching tables, critical hits that could sever body parts, chain fireballs.....

 

[John Morrow]

Aaargh!!! All you are doing is teasing my curiosity, not quenching it! I will not buy a single book of this game, I swear!

That's too bad, because the Hackmaster version of Keep on the Borderlands called Little Keep on the Borderlands is excellent, as are the Hackmaster treatments of other classic D&D adventures.

 

[mattcolville]

Aaargh!!! All you are doing is teasing my curiosity, not quenching it! I will not buy a single book of this game, I swear!

In order to really understand what Hackmaster is, you have to be a fan of KoDT. The confusion so many people have about this game indicates to me it was perhaps not properly marketed.

Knights of the Dinner Table is a comic strip about 5 gamers who spend most of their time playing an RPG called Hackmaster. Hackmaster is a transparent kludge of AD&D and Rolemaster. However, and this is the tricky part, it assumes that this imaginary game 1/2 AD&D and 1/2 Rolemaster dominated the industry in the 80's and 90's and has gone through more and more complex and detailed editions.

So, as to "what is the Hackmaster RPG?" the answer is; take that game that's 1/2 AD&D and 1/2 Rolemaster that you're imagining, and then imagine people played it for 20 years, constantly making the rules more and more detailed and byzintine. Imagine 20 years of a Dragon-type magazine for it coming out every month. Imagine guidebooks and conventions.

That's the Hackmaster RPG. In one sense, it's totally serious. It's a real RPG you can really play, and people do. On the other hand, it's very hard to take it seriously when you see some of the tables and rules. Mind you, looking back on original AD&D, it's hard to take some of THAT seriously in this day and age.

And that's the point. Hackmaster hates "this day and age." The idea of "systems" for RPGs is antithetical to Hackmaster. Hackmaster, like AD&D, isn't a system, it's a mismash of dozens of different rules, each with their own paradigm, ignorant of the other rules.

Many AD&D players yearn for this kind of game, harkening back to AD&D and imagining what it would have been if there'd never been a Lorainne Williams or Wizards of the Coast. Many don't like D&D3, particularly because of the sense it makes.

 

[diaglo]

I love KODT... if HM is anything like it is in the comic strip, then the game will be insanely complicated with zillions of tables and zillions of modifiers for each table. From what I can recall off the top of my head, the game-in-the-comic had such things as seduction tables, lynching tables, critical hits that could sever body parts, chain fireballs.....

of course, i own and have modified all of the rules in 4ed Hackmaster to fit OD&D.

Hackmaster is 1edADnD and parts of 2edADnD with some of its own rules thrown in.

it is also riddled with inside jokes, which are just flavor text.

it is i can report a pale imitation of ADnD... but like all copies it does flatter 1edADnD.

and as we all know.

1edADnD and all of its fellows are just poor imitations of the real thing... OD&D(1974)

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I love KODT... if HM is anything like it is in the comic strip, then the game will be insanely complicated with zillions of tables and zillions of modifiers for each table. From what I can recall off the top of my head, the game-in-the-comic had such things as seduction tables, lynching tables, critical hits that could sever body parts, chain fireballs.....

Ahh, but they're playing 3rd edition HM in the comic; the actual, real HM is 4th edition, which the Knights have not upgraded to, so a lot of the most egregious stuff from the comic can be explained as absent in the real game because of the new edition. Nuclear Winter Fireball is an example.

The game can be played seriously, and has a lot of tweaks and fixes that make it playable. OK, so it does have actual, working d10,000 encounter charts and huge critical hit tables, but they don't slow the game down as much as you might think.

The GM Shield is, quite simply, the biggest and best game master shield for any game I've ever seen. The GM Guide is, indeed, a fine book, well worth looking at by any fan of D&D, whatever edition. I saw David Kenzer post that the GMG was his best work, the book he was most proud of. I can see why.

 

[Orius]

I read in another thread about Hackmaster. My curiosity got picked up, so I got a look at their website and discovered there were dozens of products already available for this game I had never heard of before. However, the only thing I could understand about Hackmaster, is that it seems to be a parody / funny conversion of AD&D 1e.

Does anyone knows this game? Has anyone ever played it? Can you tell me more about it?

Basically, it's old-school D&D played in a Knights of the Dinner Table style. HackMaster is the game of choice of the characters in the comic strip, and that game itself is a thinly veiled parody of D&Disms and playing habits of D&D players. Essentially, you could probably play a game like HackMaster by using 1e rules and playing up an adversarial relationship between the player and the DM. Like other posters have said, it pokes fun at the insane and arbitrary nature of the game in the old days, and there's a lot of charts, tables, and other crazy stuff that overcomplicates the game. I've never played HackMaster, but I suppose you could game like that if you use the 1e rules with as many option as possible, and play it with the type of flavor found in the comic. You probably don't need to actually run out and buy a new game if you've got 1e stuff (2e stuff might work too). Personally, I find KoDT hilarious, but I couldn't see anyone actually playing the game like they do.

If you've never read KoDT, here's a link to some strips they have online. Fair warning though: the links on the page tend to be a bit dodgy.

http://www.kenzerco.com/periodicals/kodt/kodtonline_current.php

 

[Orius]

Ahh, but they're playing 3rd edition HM in the comic; the actual, real HM is 4th edition, which the Knights have not upgraded to, so a lot of the most egregious stuff from the comic can be explained as absent in the real game because of the new edition. Nuclear Winter Fireball is an example.

Hahaha. The KoDT site recently ran a couple of online strips in which the group discusses upgrading to HackMaster 4.25. It's a pretty obvious parody of the discussions about the release of D&D 3.5. Here's links to the strips. WARNING: I strongly advise people to swallow any beverages in their mouths and to not drink while reading these. I will not be held responsible for spewed beverages.

http://www.kenzerco.com/periodicals/kodt/kodtonline041217.php
http://www.kenzerco.com/periodicals/kodt/kodtonline041220.php
http://www.kenzerco.com/periodicals/kodt/kodtonline041221.php

 

[Alzrius]

Ahh, but they're playing 3rd edition HM in the comic; the actual, real HM is 4th edition, which the Knights have not upgraded to, so a lot of the most egregious stuff from the comic can be explained as absent in the real game because of the new edition. Nuclear Winter Fireball is an example.

I don't think that's right. In terms of the comic's continuity, HackMaster 4E was released either just before or after Gary Jackson's death (I think after), and the Knights, like everyone else, play it now.

 

[Turanil]

Ah, thanks for your detailed explanation everyone. Now I can picture clearly what this game is about. Well, someday it would be interesting to get a look at the book, but well...

 

[KenM]

From what I understand, Hackmaster is so close to first ed. ADnD, Kenzer and Co. had to get permission from WOTC to publish it. WOTC let them.