The Black Hack - Kickstarting Now

It suddenly occurred to me that I haven't posted to my blog since 'The Black Hack' kickstarter went live - and I know most people who read this will have seen me pimping the living shit out of TBH on G+, but you know, there might still be someone who hasn't seen it yet.

So.

The Black Hack is an 'OSR' retro-clone, based on OD&D. Oh great another retro clone I hear every groan in unison. Yeah, thats right - another one. But this one is a bit different, in fact its arguably the simples of all the clones. Here's some of the thing what it does, like.

• Characters take 5 minutes to roll. You'll be back in a pit trap in no time.
• The rules fit into a 22 page Digest sized booklet, table reading is important and the rules are straightforward and elegant.
• Players roll the dice, the GM will only ever roll some damage (if they want to, that is)
• 4 classes Warrior, Wizard, Thief, Cleric
• Races dont have rules, being an elf is cool enough! (but someones already homebrewed that)
• AC is damage reduction, a small amount of soak, assuming your character is well rested.
• There's 40 monsters in the book.
• The character sheet has a backpack to write all your loot on.
• We're already funded, and we've hit our first 2 stretch goals, the next ones not far off either.
• I made made it and therefore, by logical extension, it must be pretty good.

If you feel like throwing me a couple of quid (the same price as a starbucks you don't need) heres the KS link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1730454032/the-black-hack

Clinton Clone 13

Made this in the photo shops and posted it to G+, was too funny and didn't want it to disappear so..

'Clinton Clone 13' a stasis frozen battle-clone from the United Nations of America commemorative-bloodsports, circa 3030 al (after Lincoln)

I'm playing him in a hyper gonzo space opera setting tomorrow, been doing my best Clinton impression when im alone - like some weird Gollum. Shits gunna be rad.

Asking Your Employees To Do Off Key Shit

House ruling out loud. Stop me if i'm talking out my arse.

So hirelings are just people you employ to do very unusual and dangerous jobs. I was thinking about this whilst watching a co worker using the kitchen sink, I wondered what his reaction would be if I told him there was 150 quid in the food processor, heres 20 quid and i'll split it with you if you get it out. Might go off mind you.

Commanding people to do dumb shit for money is all about your relationship to the person. Charisma.

From now on, every-time a player asks a hireling to do some dangerous-ass-shit im putting a tally by the npc's name. You need this many Charisma to enjoy the ride, sorry. You reset that when the boss character levels. In my games hirelings level when characters do - so another reason for job satisfaction.

Additional thing.

When hiring, choose from 3 abstract types of employee.

Complete Waster : d6
9-5'er : d4
Mega Keen : 0

The NPC starts with that many tallies when taken into employment. Im also going to make PC's fill out HR forms and stipulate clauses in contracts because fuck those meat-emoji PC bastards.

"SPELLS ARE JUST MAGIC ITEMS REALLY"

I really hate (during campaign play) people just acquiring spells as they level - like they just magically appeared in the spell book? pffft! I'm with you on dragons and car parks full of solid gold coins, but that's just one step too far!

Here's an idea I had for a gonzo campaign I might never run. Each Spell is unique - much like Highlander there can be only one, every magic user that a player creates - starts with one spell (randomly determined, re-rolled if the spell already exist in the world)

The only way to gain more spells is by stealing them from other Wizards. That's it.

Suddenly who has what spells became uber important, their actual acquisition roots for adventure - thanks for the hand out PHB but we make our own fun!

Some spells will be forgotten, if the Magic user dies and doesn't pass them on. Nobody knows them, I'd imagine they can be found on dusty scrolls at the bottom of a Dread Beholder's tomb. Apprentices just became important too. Double Dipper!

Also Happy New Year you Bastards.

THE BLACK HACK

The Black Hack is a Ultra Light First Edition Style Fantasy RPG

Basically TBH is a tabletop roleplaying game, played with paper, pencils and dice - one that uses the Original 1970s Fantasy Roleplaying Game as a base. But it adds and takes away elements to make it a distinct streamlined flavour of the original roleplaying game. 

For example its got :

• 20 A5 pages (page flicking is for suckers)
• Unified player resolution (aka only the players roll)
• Modern mechanics.
• Old school cool.
• Compatible with anything that uses Hit Die.
• 40 or so monsters.
• Spells for level 1-7
• 4 Classes.
• 0 calories.

Not bragging but it's currently a Silver Seller and got a rating of 4.5/5 with 16 reviews. You can read them on RPG.now here - and of course get the PDF for, like $2.00 ... yes, two bucks.

If you  want to get hold of a 'real' copy (go on, treat yourself) then you should visit Peter 'The Publisher' Regan's webstore here.

Theres also a vibrant G+ which I recommend highly, so go here.

ANOTHER SIMPLE DICE MECHANIC RPG SYSTEM

So a while back I posted about a simple 3 die (one page paragraph) RPG system. Read it here. So i've got another one - it's a little bit longer, but whatev's yo'.

Each character has 3d20, one for Body, Mind and Soul. These are Effort die. Players roll these die to to complete tasks, they need to roll a 4 or higher to succeed at any task - but if they do succeed they lose that die. A player can 'split' the d20's up, turning them into 2d10 or a d12 and a d8. Whatever combination of d4's to d12's they can - and they can 'reform' die together whenever too. Some tasks have an minimum level of effort, requiring a minimum Effort die to be rolled to accomplish the task, for example a d6 or a d20. Tools give you an advantage, increasing any Effort die to the next highest one d8 to a d10 for example. When you run out Effort die in any area you can no longer contribute to the adventuring until you have rested.

HERE'S HOW IM STRUCTURING MY SCRIPTED ADVENTURES

I've been very busy writing #HIVELIFE1979 so my time spent here on my blog has really dried up, but there's something I wanted to post for both you and for me. Whilst I don't think there's an absolute formula for a successful 'scripted' adventure - I know if I can get what I write to do the following things, its going to work on a primal 'reason to be engaged and get some closure' level.  It's just a skeleton, if the meat on the bones is shit, then the whole experience will leave a bad taste - but if you pack loads of imaginative and fun things that happen and the players can do, you're onto a winner.

It follows a basic scriptwriting technique of 8 steps (or key scenes)

1 - Status Quo & Inciting Incident  - The  world is shown to the players and they're told where they fit into it. Something happens that propels them to step 2

2 - Predicament & Lock In - The thing that happened at the end of the last scene now leaves the players with a problem or conflict they have to sort out. Their first step towards this goal puts them on a path they cant easily get off.

3 - First Obstacle & Raising the stakes - The characters must overcome the first step towards their goal this could be a medium sized dungeon or wilderness/urban area, also a number of options or resources should be taken away from them.

4 - First Culmination - The reason options have been removed in step 3 should be resolved, and it should be a harder task than they tackled before. Tone is important here, it should mirror the tone of the desired outcome and overall adventure.

5 - Subplot & Raising the stakes - The players will thank you for a little distraction, not too far off course but something thats not directly pivotal to the main plot, but is connected somehow. A great place to weave in some setting or story exposition. Continue to remove options or resources.

6 - Main Culmination - This is where the players deal with the final threat, the BBEG or whatever. They think they're done, this should mirror the vibe going on in step 4. Also you could give them some inkling its not quite over.

7 - New Tension and/or Twist - Everyone loves an encore, or facing the puppet master - the players should figure it all out and deal with that shit here.

8 - Resolution - They all live happily ever after, or do they? This doesn't even need to be played (although its fun to do it, but make it quick) just wrap up the events of the game with a short and concise 'read aloud box' if you want - players wont feel cheated as they should have had the satisfying ending of step 7.

Some further advice I've been thinking about. Some people will tell you scripted adventures are shit as you've got a railroad for the players to run on. I don't think thats the case if you do a couple of things. Plan what the bad guys are going to do - and plan what happens if the players don't stop them. The rest you make up at the table.