The Black Hack : Conditions

When I first put together The Black Hack a number of things got left on the cutting room floor, some for 'lofty' designs goal I'd set myself - others due to the small page count. One of those things were ongoing effects and conditions. I forget why, however. Each of these effects should Finish at the end of the affected characters next turn unless stated otherwise.

Hindered - You can only make one basic attack (no spells), you can still move.
Distracted - You can only move nearby this turn, no attacking or casting spells.
Stuck - You can't move, otherwise you act as normal.
Paralyzed - You cannot move or take any actions.
Dazed - All ability checks to attack are taken with Disadvantage.
Helpless - All ability checks to avoid damage are taken with Disadvantage.
Weakened - All ability checks are taken with Disadvantage.
Stunned - All ability checks are taken with Disadvantage and you cannot move.
Vulnerable - All damage taken is rolled with Disadvantage.
Ongoing Damage - The creature take damage equal to its Level (HD) at the start of its turn, an Ability Test (GM will determine which) should be made to see if the damage continues next turn.

Its worth noting that theses use the most recent incarnation of the Advantage & Disadvantage rules (that should be available in the 'Additional Things' supplement) .. but for reference they are repeated below :

Advantage - Two die are rolled and the player decides which result to use.
Disadvantage - Two die are rolled and the GM decides which result to use.

SUNDAY NIGHT GAMING

Here's a thing I should share on my blog, some of you wonderful, beautiful people might not be connected to me on G+

Sunday Nights are gaming nights, either on Google Hangouts or Roll20, Run something or play, everybody is welcome. Drop a comment here if you wanna know more.

#SNG #SundayNightGaming

Death Beneath a Frozen Earth

This page will serve as my design notes for an adventure im feverishly writing - currently called 'Death Beneath a Frozen Earth' .. expect updates, changes and shit that won't make sense. If you like The Black Hack and have any remote intention of playing anything I write .. stop reading. If you're here because you might run it, or you're looking for ideas to steal. Crack on.

The players will start the game with four 0 level funnel characters. Don't bother with stats, roll them as soon as that character needs to make a test. We want players up and running as fast as humanly possible. I already made some TBH funnel sheets when I ran a DDC back in the summer. i'll adapt those.

Game/Scenario Objective
The characters are part of a lost and presumed doomed expedition into the deep frozen earth. The fluff and mcguffins need working out, but the crux of it is they're trapped underground and have to search for a way out before their food runs out or the cold kills them. Also they've managed to unearth some horrid extra-planar-shapeshifter thats slowly eating them one by one. Even if they make it to the surface, if the Things do too - its game over. Players will control both the 'Humans' and the 'Things' - so they will have split priorities, some will want the Humans to win, others the Things.

Gameplay
The gameplay is split into two distinct phases, Day and Night.

Day is very much a traditional dungeon crawl in the old school tradition. Deadly, weird, probably not a huge amount of monsters - certainly no 'higher-races' or super intelligent beings. Maybe shambling frozen undead. I'll work on that.

Night is slightly different - normally you just assign watch and fast-forward the clock, not so in this adventure! Characters should quickly realise the cold will kill them, so they must build a fire for the night. Unfortunately there wont be enough spaces round the fire for all the characters, some will have to sleep huddled in the cold, the players first task during the night phase is deciding who.

- If 'A Thing' sleeps round a fire the gradual thawing will reveal its true nature, initiating a combat (assuming the other characters don't just lay down and allow themselves to be eaten)

- If a Human DOES NOT sleep round a fire they will gain a 'Numb Die' (this is a working title - I might change it to reflect a more madness inspired vibe)

Nightly Actions - In addition to to the campfire mechanics - players must decide what each of their characters are doing for the night. They should pass the GM secret notes for each of their characters declaring what they will be doing. There are 3 possible actions.

Humans can:
- Sleep. They will wake in the morning rested and can remove 1d4 Numb Die.
- Stay Awake. They will have DISADVANTAGE on all tests they make until they next Sleep. They can only Stay Awake for 3 consecutive nights. They will then be forced to Sleep.

Things must:
- Select one character to convert into another Thing. If they choose someone who is Staying Awake, they will be revealed. If they choose someone who is asleep .. that person is now A Thing.

Once all the actions are declared the Night phase will end and the GM will pass back notes to the players (for each of their characters) letting them know how the night went, there are a few options:

- You had a good nights sleep, remove 1d4 Numb Die.
- You're tired, but alive. You have DISADVANTAGE on all test until you next sleep.
- You are now A THING.

After all these cards are handed out the players roll their Numb Die - i'm still working out what this does, but its not good.

Also i've got something i'm working on called fears. Basically if characters have to do something they are afraid of they gain and have to roll their Numb Die.

...

More to come

- DB

The Black Houserules : Armor

One the greatest parts of being involved with the 'Hack movement is seeing what interesting things people can do with simple moving parts. Shout out to +Jeff Call for some inspiration on this.

Armor Hack
Im not  a huge fan of the Usage die being used for everything, but in additional things im already bringing in UD mechanics to Armor points and that solution isn't really doin git for me. So. Fuck it. Im thinking armor. There are two types of Armor. Light (d6) and Heavy (d8) When you take damage roll the Amor die, reduce the amount of damage taken by that amount. Additionally if you roll a natural 1-2 then the die downgrades in the normal Usage Die manner.Small shields +1 to the roll, and Large shields +2.

Note: You could do Light (d4) Medium (d6) Heavy (d8) - this fits with the 3 range band thing TBH has going on? Dunno, I like the simplicity of two options for amor, Heavy or Light. Binary sooths the soul.

The Black Hack : The Beserker Class

Here's an alternative to the current Warrior class (and Knight class from The Vertex of Hate). This is WIP and needs play-testing, and will likely make an appearance in an official capacity at some stage. Please lend me your collective brains and help me smooth off the rough edges.

Beserker
Starting HP : 4 + d10
HP Per Level/Resting : 1d10
Weapons & Armor : Anything that can be swung or thrown & All armor.
Attack Damage : *See special features

Special Features
For each level a character has, gain a damage dice (d8) kept in a dice pool, when you make your action to attack - assign your damage dice to all the creatures you want to damage. These can be Close, Nearby or Far-away. They do not have to be next to each other. Then for every target roll a corresponding Attribute test to confirm they take damage. The player must be able to, through narration and description, play out the attack. This pool resets at the start of the Berserker's turn.

A Beserker may go into a rage for the duration of a combat, giving them Advantage on all tests to deal damage, and Disadvantage on all tests to avoid damage. They may go Berserk once per day at level 1, twice per day and level 3, three times at level 6 and four times at level 9.

A Beserker gains an additional AP per level, on top of whatever armor they are wearing.

- DB

This is what TBH Mass Combat would look like

So Mass Combat, I've seen a few ways of doing it - some do away with the wargame, some embrace it whole. My version sits in the middle somewhere - still using the d&d trappings but adding weird story game style descriptive tags to units and adopting a GW inspired combat resolution. I dunno. Might change after a bit of testing, but this is fresh out the mind oven.

We take a monster and make them a unit. We don't need to know specific numbers, although to the nearest 10 or so is good. Goblins have 1HD. Lets say its a pack of goblins, that's? 20? So the unit of Goblins has 1 HD and we can make a few other bits of fiction or assumption. They have poor weapons, armor and training. Now lets take a squad of honor guards, there's 5 of them. Specific numbers still aint no problem though'. They have excellent weapons, Armor Training Morale etc. You get the idea. They also have 2HD.

So the two units face off, and roll a d6. They add their HD to the roll. You also get +1 for each of the following if they apply to your unit.

• 
  
• Larger Force than the foe.
• Be better equipped than the foe.
• Have more battle experience than the foe.
• Being led by/is a champion.
• Faster than the foe.
• Battlefield advantage. (such as a water elemental troop fighting in the sea)

Players compare scores and whoever wins deals that difference in damage. This damage is taken away from the HD. When HD = 0 the unit is Out of the Battle (1d4).

1. No survivors, all dead, including champion.
2. Champion Out of Action and unit destroyed.
3. Champion and handful of the unit remain fighting, rest dead.
4. Champion remains fighting, rest broken and fleeing.

Players should have all their units selected in an order on the table in front of them. Perhaps cards would be a good way to do this. The everyone takes turns to activate a unit. Move and attack or Double move move. Standard TBH. Close, Nearby, Far. Scale is just fractal. (Don't tell FATE). resolve spells normally? I dunno. A unit of wizards? Really? I like warhammer battle wizards so maybe i'll have work on some sort of magic system that uses existing spells. Another night perhaps

Spelling and grammar, i regret nothing.

DB

The boys first dungeon

Benefits of having offspring is you get to experience cool moments where they show an interest in your hobbies. My hobby is d&d. What follows is the boy's (age 6) first dungeon. I consider it to be equal parts weird, familiar and interesting. I think ill run some players through it. Maybe add some 'filler black rooms' - plus yeah yeah, I get blank rooms don't need to be filler (all killer amirite?)

Room Contents:

1. Goblin Shark (Head of shark, body of Goblin)

2. Psycho Cyclops.

3. Creepy lab, Skeleton, liquid with label 'Toxic', if drank gain a level.

4. Cyborg Skeleton - teleportation, mind control, lazor eyes.

5. Bunch of Bats - Machine converts toxic waste to healing potions.

6. Another lab - more skeletons, sword that traps souls.

7. 12 chests - 6 trapped: Laval pit, Arrows, Scared to Death, Killed by darkness, Anvil falls on you, Virus Kills you.

8. Yellow orb - reach in? flip a coin, Heads: Ghost Wolf appears. Tails: Nightmare spawns.

9. No door, just a purple portal. (wait that's it?? shouldn't there be more? No. Apparently not)

10. Ghosts with some abstract medieval contraption that's basically a hoover. There was a picture but just trust me. 

11. Robot room - bear with hat.

12. Misty Room with chest guarded by octopus.