Messages from the Far Havens

My current gaming obsession appears to be The Black Hack (TBH). Over the past few weeks I have got enthused about using this small engine to drive a number of games, including a short campaign set in the realms of Midnight. In fairly short order TBH has spawned a whole host of hacks, embellishments, and whole new genre settings from grimy Victorian London to the glittering towers of corporate Cyberpunk. Amongst this eruption of creativity I have gathered a range of neat ideas to blend back in to TBH to make the game that I want around the table – The Gray Hack.

The ideas are, largely, not my own, but the blend and presentation will be. I will include my own take on fantasy races and a few minor tweaks to the classes and include some of my own. Armour will see some modifications along the lines of David Black’s ‘Additional Things’, though I’m still vacillating on which method to use. A simple skill system has been included along with some other clarifications and 13th Age loveliness.

At present this is just coalescing on a Google Doc, but in fairly short order the blend will be done and I can put it into some sort of layout, which will be a challenge. I’d like to try Scribus for this short and simple project, to get my hand in, but may just keep this to a PDF export from Docs as it is all very simple.

What will I do with The Gray Hack? In the end I’m not really sure how useful a careful blend of some of the neat ideas around TBH all placed into one little rulebook will be to anyone else but me. I’ll judge it when it is done. If nothing else it will be a fantastic and complete little book for me and my friends, which is probably good enough for me.

I’m of to UK Games Expo later this morning for a few days of gaming, shopping and schmoozing. Fantastic way to end my week off.

It’s been a glorious return to Runequest over the past few weeks. I’m playing in Dr Mitch’s Saxons campaign for Mythic Britain, with everything you could possibly want for playing Germanic heroes questing for new lands, prestige and the honour of the gods.

We are playing using the up-to-date Design Mechnism’s Runequest 6 version of the game and my word is it a honed beauty. I remember my delight with this meticulously developed version of the game when it first came out. It really is the ultimate expression of the system for general use in a wide range of settings. I can’t wait to see the Design Mechnism forthcoming releases for the game, they promise to be very special, embodying the high quality writing of the two lead maestros and surrounding team.

I’d had an off-putting online experience of the game. Multiple magic systems and some uncertainties of application of the combat rules led to a slow, rather leaden, gameplay experience that seemed to indicate that RQ6 was just too heavy for its own good. Well, that has proven to be nonsense. The ’round the table’ experience was smooth, fast even, and provided that pulse quickening visceral feeling to combat that is such a feature of the Runequest name. I was bricking it. It remains the case that your characters are vulnerable to one good strike and that adequate armour can make just enough of a difference, some of the time.

Runequest 6 has got it all just about right. The d100 base chances are all going to be roughly in the early to mid 20s to give you a base to work from. Standard character generation has given me a couple of signature abilities at 70%, so I’m feeling competent with room to develop. Luck points are all kind of ace. They are your life savers and your opportunity grabbers, a finite resource to spend judiciously at the right moment. The group pool of two more gives us a buffer as a team if we are under pressure. Passions and augments were smoothly applied, giving a simple way to help another character under pressure or to tie in how you feel into what you are doing. Great stuff.

I like my magic low level and subtle. Runequest particularly excels in this kind of setting and my limited experience of Mythic Britain has got his down to a tee. I am, belatedly, trying to get a copy of the Mythic Britain book, so I’ll find out more about how RQ magic has been applied in the setting.

I’m still a fan of my own Age of Arthur and for Keltia, but Runequest 6 has given me another excuse to get out to Britannia to adventure. In a moment I’ll put the keyboard down and head off for a walk. My head is buzzing with setting ideas for Runequest. Some folk magic and maybe some sorcery, lots of danger and passion.

Juggling the excitement, I shall also get on with a few more entries in The Midnight Hack, to get us up and running in that dark and forlorn setting. Runequest 6 would work just as well.

Anyway, thanks to Pete and Loz for the excellent Runequest 6 / Mythras, and to Paul for a very cool game.

As I meander through the plethora of RPGs in this the golden age of gaming I bump into whole genres and philosophies, re-arrange the furniture as I blunder, and amble on. So it is with the Old School Renaissance, reinventing and rediscovering the joys of early D&D with light, elegant re-interpretations that preserve the free flowing and mechanically straightforward systems. I have been aware, but ignored, as I’ve left D&D behind these days, though happy to play, and saw little need to explore this movement.

Bump!

I’ve arrived into a vibrant community of bubbling creativity, how could I not be enamoured and entranced? My first delvings have brought me to The Black Hack, an incredible 19 pages of solid gaming goodness. Outstanding. Pared to the essential bones and summoned from the earth to wreak gaming havoc on tables across the kingdoms, The Black Hack has everything you need to get started for fantasy adventures with four classes, two blocks of spells, a simple roll under your familiar six stats on d20, ten levels and damage dished out by monsties based on their HD.

Of course hacking the Hack is not only allowed, but encouraged. Mine is going to include ‘Race selection’ providing a bonus to one stat, a bonus to one type of saving throw, and some colour abilities that should provide ‘advantage’ (roll 2d20 and pick the best result). I’ll also be looking at introducing some more spell lists, though this dude looks to be considering this too. His additional classes will see some use at my table, though I’d have liked some revised spell lists to go with the spellcaster classes.

This is going to be the game that I use for my 10 year old youngling and his group of mates…

I also have The Front, a WW2 hack of The Black Hack. This game has all sorts of potential, especially when the 2nd edition comes out with more explanations and a tidied up vehicle and aircraft system. I shall await to see how it looks and report back from The Front…

To complete this most recent binge, I have ordered, through Lulu, Whitehack. What is it with Sweden? I just got eternally co-joined with Symbaroum in a blasphemous ceremony, and now this. I’ll compare and contrast and potentially blend. Perhaps we will have a Gray Hack before you know it…

Well, that was all a bit of a surprise.