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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011140" data-attributes="member: 18387">Hackmaster is the K&C take on 1st ed. AD&D.  The overwhelming majority of rules for this game come straight from the old 1st ed. Players Handbook of AD&D which K&C has licensed from WotC.  Since many gamers are familiar with AD&D, I will spend some time on what is different.Ability scores are improved with time in Hackmaster.  Each ability starts with the roll of 3d6 and then gets a d00 roll for a fractional ability score.  Players can then use building points to increase the ability or wait and as they increase in level their abilities will increase gradually as well.Hackmaster uses Building Points or BPs for part of the character generation.  These can be used to increase abilities, buy skills, reroll on tables, etc.  The main problem with BPs is that you start with almost none.  You can buy a talent and maybe a couple of skills if you do not improve any abilities, which is rare with only 3d6 rolls.  This leads to another new thing that is pretty weak, Quirks and Flaws.Quirks and Flaws are what turn your hero character into a major loser.  Of course you have to take quirks and flaws for most characters you create because of the BP system Hackmaster uses, so your cool character can quickly become a joke character.  This is easily one of the two major flaws of the Hackmaster PHB, or at least for gamers who take their characters and their adventuring seriously.The other major flaw that quickly becomes apparent in the Hackmaster game is the player vs. GM attitude.  With the GM being all powerful, this player vs. GM attitude may be cute for 13 year old GMs bereft of any friends, but is not suited for more socially adapted people.  The good news is that a sane GM will ignore this and tone down the quirks and flaws, maybe by giving the players extra BPs without them and a relatively good game will be the result.Alignment and Honor are taken to extemes where characters must be wary of their hirelings urinating in their canteens ( actual example from book ).  Once again, a good GM can tone this part of the game down.  I can see where it is important for honor and alignment to be enforced, but with the whole GM vs. player attitude, I can also see where this could easily ruin a game as well.K&C took the idea of Rolemaster critical hits and did a good job of sprucing up the damage tables.  Many of the additions to "hacking and slashing" are quite logical and playable.  I like the fact that weapons and armor need maintenance and break down if not properly cared for.  All characters have a starting +20 hit point bonus, which is a good idea, but +10 would seem to be more balanced between the classes.Overall I really like a lot of the improvements K&C has added to game and I will probably steal them for my 1st ed. AD&D games.  Being a parody game though is really hurting Hackmaster.  Once again, an experienced GM will be able to weed through the parody and pull out the nuggets of gold, but a better written PHB without the parody quite so in your face would be a better resource for those wanting to play a more "serious" style rpg.</blockquote>

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