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Message: <blockquote data-quote="theCheese" data-source="post: 3039986" data-attributes="member: 44244">A lot of people in the HM community don't really play with a "GM vs Players" mentality, but the game does go back to the old "The GM is always right" perspective that I've found lacking in d20 games that I've played in.  I know that an individual d20 GM could easily implement this in his games, but:1) I've never seen it happen.2) The rules are actively vocal about who gets to look at what books - any modules or GM-only info is clearly marked as such.  The Player's Handbook is more of a book of guidelines (other than character creation, spell lists, etc) than hard rules, which is the GM's domain.  By the sound of it - yes, you'd be jarred.  HM has a real old-school flavor to it.  It takes from 1st, 2nd and 2nd Ed. Player's Option AD&D and adds in a lot of new mechanics to make an entirely new game.  Hackmaster also tweaks the attack matrices (THAC0) to make combat much more violent.  It uses the old style of saving throws, thief skills, etc... things that unfortunately would probably "get in the way" of your style of play.  - I'm not trying to be snarky here, I'm trying to give you an honest answer.  I've been running HM nearly weekly for almost 4 years now.  While there are a lot of parody aspects written into the game (they had to be there for WoTC to license the AD&D material to Kenzer & Co) any of the over-the-top silliness can be easily ignored.  Hmm.. rules as a whole... let's see:THINGS THAT ARE BASICALLY THE SAME AS AD&D:Attack Matrices (1st Ed)Different Experience Point Tables for different classesMost of the Character ClassesMost of the RacesSaving ThrowsSpellsThieves' AbilitiesWeapon ProficienciesTHINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT OR EXPANDED ON FROM AD&D:Honor - Categories of Honor: Dishonorable, Average Honor, & Great Honor with game mechanics reflecting thisAlignment Tracking & Alignment Infraction PointsPercentile-Based Skill SystemTalents - akin to d20 Feats, but only available during character creationNew ClassesNew RacesArmor & Weapon Maintenance & Damage - Your armor absorbs damage meant for you - but it gets beat up.New monstersNew magic itemsNew SpellsSkill & Level TrainingBuilding Points used at character creation to improve stats, skills, talents, backgroundGreat Character Background tablesExtensive Crit Tables - they do take some getting used to - but they add a lot of excitement to combat once you have them down.Penetration Damage - keep rolling on the highest die resultHit Point Kicker - extra HP so that you possibly survive the Crits with Penetration Damage  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Hackmaster is extremely playable.  The rules are extensive, and this turns off some people, but like any other RPG, after you've been playing for a little while it gets to be second nature. Hackmaster is my favorite game ever.  Period.   The guys at my table also play in a 3.5 game, but this is the game they get excited about - this is the game they talk about all week long.</blockquote>

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