Hackmaster

[Ampolitor]

I picked up a few books for Hackmaster and so far the game looks really cool. Anyone else play it? What did you think of it?

 

[Crothian]

Reading the books was fun. There is a good perspective and comedy about them. Playing the game was a little too complex for me. It is not a game I would run, but I did havea lot of fun playing it at cons with people who knew the game really well.

 

[Falstaff]

Great game.

Stay tuned for the new HackMaster game. The first will be HackMaster Basic, followed later by HackMaster advanced.

 

[Voadam]

I own a module (B1) and one of the hacklopedias.

It is basically 1e/2e with a few extra bits such as +20 hp for everybody (for extra hack and slash experience), crits, armor damage, extra races and classes, honor, etc.

Treat it like 1e and use the subsystems you like and it should be fun. Trying to use everything looks a bit cumbersome.

The humor is hit and miss. I did not like the crap humor, the harassment aspect of the adventure (unkillable harassing magic mouths), some of the anachronisms or silliness (drow with curly tooed Keebler booties). Other aspects were great such as the orc slaves progression in the absence of their masters to become heavily armed and militarized then raid the liquor stores.

 

[Greylock]

Double post.

 

[Greylock]

B1 will always hold a special place in my mental scrapbook of gaming memories - poo-flinging lemur, that'll always be a classic. My character spent the entire adventure hunting the damned thing, and the damned thing was always lurking right around every corner.

Every character should have a nemesis.

 

[mhensley]

The humor is hit and miss. I did not like the crap humor, the harassment aspect of the adventure (unkillable harassing magic mouths), some of the anachronisms or silliness (drow with curly tooed Keebler booties).

They are probably going to get rid of a lot of this in the new edition of HM.

 

[wayne62682]

The only problem I had with Hackmaster is the fact that the comedy is a little over the top and too many people take it to the extreme, acting like they do in the comics e.g. killing random NPCs just because they're NPCs, ignoring all roleplaying and just trying to kill things, etc. There's also the "GM vs. Players" mentality, which because its a staple of the comics makes people think that's how the game is supposed to be played, instead of a tongue-in-cheek attempt to poke fun at early D&D.

The first and only time I played Hackmaster, which was several years ago at a now defunct game store, the group did just this and would actually get new players, give them a minor magic item, and then kill them later on for it, or screwing with players just because (the shop owner's son had the most powerful character and forced everyone else to be his servants on pain of death, basically). I actually causes quite a scandal on the old Hackmaster forums by talking about it... this was in the day of the Hackmaster Retailer Association, and it actually resulted in the game store being kicked out, because KenzerCo investigated it or some such. Some of the disgruntled players (the ones who had suffered some of this nonsense, no less!) then came onto the forums to flame and make death threats at me.

Fun times.

 

[Falstaff]

The only problem I had with Hackmaster is the fact that the comedy is a little over the top and too many people take it to the extreme, acting like they do in the comics e.g. killing random NPCs just because they're NPCs, ignoring all roleplaying and just trying to kill things, etc. There's also the "GM vs. Players" mentality, which because its a staple of the comics makes people think that's how the game is supposed to be played, instead of a tongue-in-cheek attempt to poke fun at early D&D.

The first and only time I played Hackmaster, which was several years ago at a now defunct game store, the group did just this and would actually get new players, give them a minor magic item, and then kill them later on for it, or screwing with players just because (the shop owner's son had the most powerful character and forced everyone else to be his servants on pain of death, basically). I actually causes quite a scandal on the old Hackmaster forums by talking about it... this was in the day of the Hackmaster Retailer Association, and it actually resulted in the game store being kicked out, because KenzerCo investigated it or some such. Some of the disgruntled players (the ones who had suffered some of this nonsense, no less!) then came onto the forums to flame and make death threats at me.

Fun times.

Just because someone doesn't know how to run a good game doesn't mean the game is a bad game. Wouldn't you agree?

 

[Ampolitor]

woo hoo

I can't wait until I run Robinloft! These modules look really fun. I already have two players that are going to play it. Dont get me wrong I own the 4E books, but there was too much of a video game rpg in it for me. I also didn't care for the new races. A nice set of books but just not for me, I'll go back to the older editions.