Hackmaster RPG: Opinions?

[john112364]

I have a friend who wants to play the Hackmaster Basic game as a break from our regular game. It looks kind of interesting in a retro 1.5e sorta way .

Anyone ever play this game? What are your opinions of it?

 

[Jolly_Blackburn]

I'm sure you'll get some feedback here, John.

Just popped in to let you know we have a very active HM community over at Kenzer & Company if your interest is piqued. Fans of the game are usually eager to answer questions and share their experiences.

I'm just lurking at the moment since my opinions are obviously biased but I'll jump in if anyone has specific questions.

 

[theemrys]

Well, my group has been playing it for about 8 months now... with an interuption part way through due to real life getting in the way...

We've been really enjoying it. I've always been partial to games where you "become the hero" rather than "start as a hero" so it really works for me. Now it is a basic game (meaning it doesn't have ALL the rules expected in Advanced HackMaster) but we've found it has more than enough for us to enjoy and play.

The progression in the system is much flatter than some other games so you don't get uber-powerful quickly, but I like that because I feel a goblin or orc should still be a threat to a 4th level character. We found the opposed rolls for combat add a lot of variable to the game which is great. Also, the initiative system ROCKS! It takes a few sessions to get out of the mindset of "rounds" but once you do it's great. For those who don't know, combat works by counting up seconds... so you have a movement per second, and it takes so many seconds between attacks (a series of attacks/parries/feints/etc). This means that small fast weapons get to attack more but don't do as much damage... and big weapons are great, as long as you connect... because you don't always get another swing.

I REALLY like as well what they've done with the magic system. There are spell points to cast mage spells, but you still memorize some. The memorized ones cost less points. You can also use your spell points to augment spells and power magic items once you're lucky enough to find some.


All in all, a very enjoyable game. Although it can be dangerous and gritty, it's a lot of fun. I highly recommend trying it because it does play different than it reads. I loved how it read but had some concerns on balance and such but after playing, I found it works well. Healing might take longer, but works well in the system. I threw some pretty tough things at our party (well above recommended at times) and we only had one character death from level 1 - 4 play... which isn't bad.

 

[TanisFrey]

My group just switched to HMb about 2 weeks ago. We are enjoying it lots

 

[lejanius]

I have run two mini-campaigns since it was released.

It is my groups game of choice (Hackmaster 4E was our previous game of choice for what that's worth).

It combines a nice old school feel, with brutal and gritty combat. Character's level somewhat slower, with levels basically being like half-levels. Casters in particular grow into their class, starting out weak but gaining strength and becoming very potent.

HMB has a lot of unique mechanics (initiative, spell points, opposed rolls, shield breakage, honor rules, knock backs, trauma, healing) that differ from traditional, older rules of D&D but create fun and fluid combats that can go range from quickly routing your enemy to long drawn out battles that hang by the roll of one die.

I heartily recommend several sessions to get the rules down. It is a great game and while it won't suit everyone it is a nice alternative to re-hashed d20 stuff.

My choice for fantasy game for a long, long time.

good luck, let us know how it goes if you give it a try!

 

[Treebore]

Well, I can't think of anything new to say, other than my group has been playing it for 4 months now, and we plan on continuing to play it for several more months. Our background is old 3E players, primarily Castles and Crusades players, none of us played Hackmaster 4E (except maybe a newer player, I'll have to ask him), and my group of 6 players (7 as of tonight) range from like it well enough to keep playing to it being their new favorite system.

Personally I like it, but it is not my new most favorite system, but unlike most I am willing to run it and play it. I am also concerned that with Advanced it will become too rules heavy, but another thing I like about HM so far is that the rules are very "modular", meaning I have been able to ignore using whatever rules I have wanted to ignore, and it plays just fine, and I believe it will stay that way with Advanced.

Also realize with the "penetration" rules (exploding damage dice) that HM has tended to be much deadlier than typical D&D. So HM players really need to think about attacking creatures in this game. I have 11 dead PC's so far. Killed by boars, skeletons, bear, a Troll, and other things.

To give an example, the party was level 4, with one level 3, and we had 7 players that night as well, and thinking in D&D terms they said, "7 of us should be able to take on a troll." With that they attacked. 12 seconds later 3 were dead and the rest were hiding, shaking with terror, behind hidden doors that they had found earlier. They never hit the Troll, not once.

So if HM is approached as a "hack and slash" game, create a dozen or so characters per player ahead of time.

HM also has a "Honor" system that largely works like Fate or Luck points in other games, which can help prevent deaths, but eventually even Honor tends to run out. Or, like in the case of the Troll, simply does not do enough to prevent the inevitable.

 

[Agamon]

Honor works like fate/luck, but is also the mechanism that encourages players to role play their PCs, which is cool.

Combat can be deadly, but once the players realize that fighting in the game is more "realistic" (PCs don't start as heroes, opponents are as dangerous as one might expect if they met them in a back alley), and don't try to solve everything with sword and spell, then that's not so bad.

The combat system itself is fun, the count up in seconds sounded unwieldy when I first heard about it, but it really flows nicely in practice.