My HackMoor Campaign

[tmjva]

Havard asked that I post my After Action Reports (AAR) here. My AD&D games originally started in Greyhawk many years ago. When version 3.0 came out I stayed the version 2nd Edition AD&D until I found HackMaster and called it GreyHack. I soon discovered all the other D&D or HackMaster campaigns at my brick and mortar comic book start were also in Greyhawk. In order to avoid Players having too much campaign knowledge I started a new campaign in Blackmoor, having owned the old Arneson Brown Book and called my campaign HackMoor. Then another GameMaster started running HIS campaign in Blackmoor and I started overhearing the same plots I had been hatching during other unrelated games in the same room, I switched to another store on the other side of town. Again, not that I had anything against the other GM or his Players (some of which were also in mine), but to avoid cross-seeding the Player campaign information pool.

Thus my HackMoor campaign floundered through the First Fantasy Campaign for a few years. There was one reset along the way where I moved the timeline to a couple hundred years later, the earlier campaign stories becoming legends for another generation of characters. With the latest rendition I also acquired the old DA# modules and it is finally ending up in DA4.

What will follow will be a series of postings that will pick up where my campaign is now. I will also repost older After Action Reports GOING BACKWARDS IN TIME. So the subject line will contain the original posting date.

Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/empire/
BT







NNNN

[Havard]

Hi Tracy!

Glad you made it here!

I love the name HackMoor! How do you find the Hackmaster rules working with Blackmoor? Which edition of Hackmaster is this? Did you find that you had to modify the rules at all in order to make them work even better with Blackmoor?

From what I understand, the original Hackmaster Rules were filled with puns and in-jokes. Would you say that you are running a humorous take on Blackmoor, or is it fairly standard fair? The gaming reports seem to suggest the latter...

-Havard

[tmjva]

Dear Havard,

I use the now out of print Hackmaster that came out in in 2001 which is also known a version 4.0. Yes HackMaster is a parody of 1st Edition AD&D, but it is also playable and nothing is really "lost" from the 1st Edition because new material was added to the old rules. The easiest way to make it work with old material you simply add an extra 20 hit points to the monsters, then de-conflict any spells that no longer exist, renamed, or moved to another level.

Humor is sufficient in context of the rules. Take for example the 7th Level Cleric spell "Restorative Cure All":

"This spell works like a Cure-All spell except that it heals all damage that the creature has suffered, leaving them well rested as if they had just received eight hours of sleep, removing any curses affecting the creature, and leaving their mouth feeling minty fresh."

Notice the spell is a valid spell, but the humor is in the context of the last few words.

Sometimes here is no need to alter modules to inflict humor. For example in my current module, I can use a romantic entanglement a Handmaiden of Death before a male Player discovers the Handmaiden is in drag.

Of course one of my Player Characters is going through a divorce. In a few more game weeks the wife will also obtain a restraining order placed against him. Of course it all depends on me as GM to invent a byzantine court system under King Uther.

Tracy Johnson
BT







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[Havard]

Hey Tracy,

Thanks for filling me in on the details of Hackmaster. Love that spell description!

A Handmaiden of Zugzul in drag also sounds hillarious. Like you, I prefer having humorous elements grow into the campaign naturally rather than to bring them from modules/rulebooks into the played game.

Of course one of my Player Characters is going through a divorce. In a few more game weeks the wife will also obtain a restraining order placed against him. Of course it all depends on me as GM to invent a byzantine court system under King Uther.

It will be interesting to hear how you handle the court system under Uther. IMC I presented Uther as a reformist when it came to law, though there would certainly be old fashioned structures inherited from the time when Blackmoor was part of the Thonian Empire...


-Havard