Hackmaster questions

[possum]

Hello, I was searching for some classic modules (Keep on the Borderlands if you must know) when I found Hackmaster's Little Keep on the Borderlands. I then visited their website and perused their products. I noticed how much they are inspired by first edition AD&D.

Now, for my first question, how do Hackmaster's remake/reimagining of classic modules such as Tomb of Horrors, Keep on the Borderlands, and Temple of Elemental Evil stack up against the original modules? Are they easily converted to 3.0? Are they worth the $19.95 price tag?

I was able to know some of the classic modules that were remade simply by the sight of them, can someone give me a list of Hackmaster adventures and what classic module (if any) they were based off of?

 

[Psychic Warrior]

I only have the B1 Quest for the Unknown module and I have to say it really isn't worth 19.95. Mine has a cover price of 11.99 though so maybe Keep on the Borderlands is bigger? All in all I think you're further ahead to just convert the original module rather than try to convert Hackmaster to 3.0. Also consider that you can usually find B2 Keep on the Borderlands for $5-6 on eBay - often much less. Quest for the Unknown has sat on my shelf for 3 years now despite my owning the Hackmaster PHB, I'm just glad I won it rather than bought it.

 

[Voadam]

Hackmaster uses a modified 1e/2e game set rules with everybody getting an extra 20 hit points (unless a monster has less than 1 HD). Very easy to use or convert to 1e/2e/basic D&D if you are familiar with those, but as hard to convert to 3e as the older stuff is.

They have a lot of cool stuff and details. They flesh out the old modules well, developing stories further and providing good dungeons and encounters.

They also have very juvenile humor with bathroom jokes rampant and anachronisms that are not to my taste. They also have a default setup of DM vs players with stuff designed to gross out, harass, and humiliate players.

 

[John Morrow]

Now, for my first question, how do Hackmaster's remake/reimagining of classic modules such as Tomb of Horrors, Keep on the Borderlands, and Temple of Elemental Evil stack up against the original modules? Are they easily converted to 3.0? Are they worth the $19.95 price tag?

I would say that Little Keep on the Borderlands (LKotB), the Hackmaster version, is with the $19.95 price tag with the caveat that it contains a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor and comedy, some of which is difficult ot cut out. But it greatly expands the concept and on the characters in the Keep over either the original Keep on the Borderlands (KotB) or Return to the Keep on the Borderlands (RttKotB). But of the three, the Hackmaster version is the "meatiest".

If money is no object, I'd suggest getting all three and creating a "best of" version out of the parts of all three, all of which are similar enough that you could do this fairly easily. The original KotB is a fairly sparse module in many ways (nobody in the Keep even has a name) and both LKotB and RttKotB do a decent job of fixing that problem. They are also expanding on the Hackmaster version of the Keep in Knights of the Dinner Table #99 and #100.

 

[Eolin]

Basicaly, everyone here has gotten it right.

Hackmaster is half joke, half making fun of the seriousness of 3e, and half making its own players the butt of the KoDT jokes.

But take it as it is, don't take it seriously, and it can be fun.

The guys over at Kenzer always do a really good treatment of everything they put out. They're the only company that does licensed D&D (not just d20) products, such as Kingdoms of Kalamar.

But converting Hackmaster stuff back into 3e is difficult. And likely more time than it is worth. But playing it straight up is a good alternative.

 

[Lucias]

My Hackmaster group has been playing for just about 2 years now. For nearly 9 months, we adventured at the Little Keep on the Borderlands. For $20, we got what amounts to a fully fleshed out, if small, campaign setting. In the 9 months we adventured there, the GM tells us, we had only seen 75% of the combat. Yeah, there's some tongue-in-cheek humor, but most of it is easily lifted out. It's a good reimagination, we all had fun.

Since that ended we played through Slaughterhouse Indigo and now have been working our way through Smackdown the Slavers for the better part of a year. Smackdown is a long adventure, but I think we're finally almost done. I think. So I'd say it's also worth the cover price. Can't say for the other remakes.

My GM wrote the vast majority of Kenzer's City of Brass too and I can guarantee you it's a good buy for all the great ideas.

 

[ARandomGod]

They also have very juvenile humor with bathroom jokes rampant and anachronisms that are not to my taste. They also have a default setup of DM vs players with stuff designed to gross out, harass, and humiliate players.

A little research should uncover that adding that humor is how they got permission to reprint the things in the first place. Theoretically it's supposed to be a spoof. It *has* to be for liscensing reasons. On the other hand, cut that out and you'll see a very impressively thought out and presented game, IMO. In reality the "default" setup is much, much less default than the default of 3.X
^_^

Basicaly, everyone here has gotten it right.

Hackmaster is half joke, half making fun of the seriousness of 3e, and half making its own players the butt of the KoDT jokes.

But take it as it is, don't take it seriously, and it can be fun.

The guys over at Kenzer always do a really good treatment of everything they put out. They're the only company that does licensed D&D (not just d20) products, such as Kingdoms of Kalamar.

But converting Hackmaster stuff back into 3e is difficult. And likely more time than it is worth. But playing it straight up is a good alternative.

I'm really impressed with KenzerCo, and I approve of their products. Personally I sneak Kingdoms of Kalamar adventures into my regular D&D group all the time.

But converting Hackmaster? That's probably just as difficult as converting the original. Maybe moreso.

 

[JohnnFour]

I'm using HM: Little Keep for my D&D 3.5 campaign and it's going well. Kenzer's fleshed out the Keep very nicely and helped inspire many personal tweaks. NPCs and critters I'm recreating for D&D without trying to mirror the HM version. "Mid-level thug? Ok, Ftr7 coming up!"

Some of the illustrations from Little Keep have proven darn useful too.

 

[mossfoot]

Wow, not much for me to add here, other than, if D&D is like Indiana Jones, then Hackmaster is like The Mummy (with Brenden Fraiser). And I love both those movies

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Now, for my first question, how do Hackmaster's remake/reimagining of classic modules such as Tomb of Horrors, Keep on the Borderlands, and Temple of Elemental Evil stack up against the original modules? Are they easily converted to 3.0? Are they worth the $19.95 price tag?

Hey possum, nice to know ya!

All of the modules are based on the originals (except for new adventures like Road to Aster or Slaughterhouse Indigo), but there have been significant changes. Your players may even notice certain rooms or traps look similar, if they played the adventure before. Of course, the old traps don't act the way they used to, and there are plenty of new traps, new NPCs, new monsters and new areas, plus twists and turns in the plot that weren't there before. Price, of course, varies depending on the size of the book.

Little Keep on the Borderlands is probably the best example. The original Keep was about 32 pages, if I remember correctly. Little Keep is 144 pages. Plus there's new stuff (dungeons, 3d maps) for the Little Keep in issue #99 and the upcoming issue #100 of Knights of the Dinner Table. Speaking of which...

To digress for a second, if you haven't picked up KoDT in a long time (or ever), you don't know what you're missing. Every issue includes over 24 pages of new KoDT strips, followed by another 40-60 pages of gaming material (articles, reviews, npcs, magic items, and so on). February's issue #100 will be perfectbound and twice the size!

Now, back to HackMaster. There's a complete list of available HackMaster products here, including the modules. Another great example is Against the Giants, since the author wrote a reply to "I already own the original G1-3. Why should I bother with this?" which you can find here along with PDFs of the battlesheets.

How easy it would be to convert to D&D 3.0 or 3.5 would depend on how skilled you are, and how much time you had. I'd say it would be easier to just convert the traps (or wing it) and completely replace the monsters and npc stats with preexisting 3.0/3.5 monsters and npc stats. This assumes you're playing it in your own campaign setting, of course. If you're playing on Aldrazar (the Hackmaster world), then you should keep the same monsters, but if you're doing that you should just be playing HackMaster anyway...

Much of the humor in HackMaster comes from the writing style, and how seriously the game takes itself, which you can read in "Elementary HackMaster." There are occasional funny bits, but not really much more so than the old modules had, if you go back and look at them again.

More questions?