Hackmaster. Please explain.

[dead]

I know nothing about Hackmaster but it intrigues me.

From what I can gather, it's a spoof of 1st Edition AD&D. What I want to know, however, is:

1) Are there people who actually play this game in earnist (ie. not as a tongue-in-cheek experience but as a kind of "the D&D 3E that was meant to be")?

2) Do the "re-makes" of the classic 1E modules stay true to the original material or do they "update" them in a "Return to the . . ." type of way (ie. taking place 20 years later or some such)? Do they add new material to these adventures?

3) Is there anybody out there who has purchased all 10 (?), A-Z, monster books?

 

[Henry]

From what I can gather, it's a spoof of 1st Edition AD&D. What I want to know, however, is:

1) Are there people who actually play this game in earnist (ie. not as a tongue-in-cheek experience but as a kind of "the D&D 3E that was meant to be")?

Yes; check the Kenzerco forums for specific examples. I don't, myself, but I've seen examples over there of people who do.

2) Do the "re-makes" of the classic 1E modules stay true to the original material or do they "update" them in a "Return to the . . ." type of way (ie. taking place 20 years later or some such)? Do they add new material to these adventures?

I cannot answer this from having seen them, but I believe someone has said they are the originals, but with a good bit of parody injected.

3) Is there anybody out there who has purchased all 10 (?), A-Z, monster books?

If there's ANYONE here who has, it'd be Diaglo.

 

[Crothian]

THe modules that are based off of old modules have to be parodies.

 

[Spell]

I am playing the game already, and I can tell you that its feel is 100% AD&D. For my money, HackMaster is _really_ meant to be the third edition of the game. The old mechanics are there, polished a bit. You also get some new interesting and well done rules that are useful to flesh out the character (flaws, talents, etc.), or to keep control over those insane powermonger players that tend to spoil the fun for the rest of the party (Honour, anybody?).
Sure, there is a parody factor in it, but if you buy the manuals, you are not buying a commedy book. You are buying a complete game. Feel free to use or ignore the parody element as you see fit.
As for the re-edition of the old adventures: yes, they are the original stuff (as opposed to the old "return to" serie), and yes, they added some stuff to it. The amount of new stuff varies from module to module. I think the one with most new stuff in it is the re-edition of the old B2.

As for the monsters, I can't really tell. I don't think you have to buy all the hacklopaedias to start gaming, especially if you plan to use published adventures: the monsters are very similar to their AD&D or d20 counterparts (they just added more variants, and new details on ecology and... well, you'll see if you buy some Hacklopaedias), AND you can find complete statistic blocks for the monster used in the adventures here: http://www.kenzerco.com/rpg/hackmaster/gm_downloads.php.
There's a bunch of players handouts, too.

As a final note, I think that stiggybaby.com had some sort of offers on HackMaster products a month ago or so, especially on the Hacklopaedias.
Hope it helps.

PS: as Henry pointed out, if you want more information, do come to the Kenzerco boards.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I played Hackmaster as straight up as I think you could honestly play it, and it was one of the finest gaming experiences of my whole life.

At the very least one of the deadliest and nastiest games I've played. In all my life I've only had one TPK that was more satisfying. And it featured the only interesting session I've been that focused on an internal party debate over the nature of our adventuring charter.

An element of the game that I found added an important element of realism to play.

What was frustrating was how long it took for the DMG equivalent to come out.

But that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Hackmaster would be the perfect pick-up game.

Just enough continuity to let you keep going with it, but with plenty more than the requisite amount of casual humor.

Plus the whole system assumes both deliberate and inadvertant party evil.

 

[MerricB]

Hackmaster has one great flaw: the Hackopedia. It makes it a game for existing AD&D players rather than for drawing in new DMs. I think that they released a one-volume Hackopedia supplement that would work as a MM, but it was far, far too late for me to get reinterested in the game.

Yes, there are people that have everything Hackmaster, who play it seriously (or not so seriously) and have a great time with it.

There are 8 Hackopedias in the initial run.

Cheers!

 

[Sarmaga]

I know nothing about Hackmaster but it intrigues me.

From what I can gather, it's a spoof of 1st Edition AD&D. What I want to know, however, is:

1) Are there people who actually play this game in earnist (ie. not as a tongue-in-cheek experience but as a kind of "the D&D 3E that was meant to be")?

2) Do the "re-makes" of the classic 1E modules stay true to the original material or do they "update" them in a "Return to the . . ." type of way (ie. taking place 20 years later or some such)? Do they add new material to these adventures?

3) Is there anybody out there who has purchased all 10 (?), A-Z, monster books?

1) Yes. It's a blast. There's a very gamist sort of beauty in playing a game as written. It's very reminiscent of the early D&D experiences I had. If I could find a steady group, I'd play it. There are many steady D&D 3E groups around, but I do not partake in those.

2) The modules are revised in such a way that they make more sense than they originally did. I'm not sure how exactly I did so, but I played many of the old modules and thought they were wonderful twenty years ago. When I look at them now, they're just... bad. No story to speak of, poorly designed dungeons, no motive for creatures therein, just no sense in general. HM stuff attempts to make the modules more sensical without completely removing the ludicrous beauty that were present in the originals.

3) I'm sure there are. Gamers do some pretty crazy things.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I wait with baited breath for the release of "Garweeze Wurld", the setting supplement used in KoDT.

 

[nsruf]

I own the HM PHB, GMG, and Little Keep on the Borderlands, because I thought some occasional old-school game would be fun. But I haven't played yet, as the complexity of the thing is putting me off. IMO, there are a lot of unnecessarily complicated rules, lots of tables you have to reference all the time (get a GM screen or it'll bog down play too much), and the amount of bookkeeping required of the GM reminds me unfortunately of the accounting classes I had to take for my degree. Plus, the organization of the books isn't too great, with rules in the PHB being incomplete or distorted versions of those in the GMG.

If you enjoy a crunchy rules system that takes time to master and lends a distinct flavor to the game experience, HM may be for you. If you want to play without having the rules interfere overmuch, I can't recommend HM.

 

[Numion]

What bothered me about the game was that it didn't live up to the KoDT comics. For example the various Fireball spells used by Teflon Billy, like Fireball, No-Mercy and such were just like normal fireballs with different damage dice. I would've expected better.

I'm not too familiar with the books though, but some elements seem excellent. Those tired of the Paladin moral dilemmas will surely rejoice playing a Knight Errant