Today we have the pleasure of offering you the review of The Hammer and the Stake, a unique RPG to say the least.

Fruit of the work of Chris Gunning and his Weaponized Ink, The Hammer and the Stake is available on the main distribution platforms for digital formats. In particular, if you want to buy it, you can find it in the digital version on Divethrurpg at the price of 17 dollars, just under 16 euros in the version Full Manifesto. 

Alternatively, the quickstart The Worker’s Primer is available for the sum of 5 dollars. This version also features a player-only manual to introduce anyone to the game without the information needed by the game master to run the session and campaign.

The Hammer and the Stake Peculiar System Review

The Hammer and the Stake is a very special game. Already starting from the title: it mimics the classic symbol of the workers’ movement, hammer and sickle; however, he replaces the scythe with the stake used to render the vampires, the main (but not the only) antagonists in the game, helpless.

But stake also indicates the stake, reflecting the peculiar rules system on which it is based The Hammer and the Stake. It provides for a single roll of two six-sided dice for the entire game group and does not affect who carries it out. Each player (including the game master with his NPCs) then places his bet, choosing from possible outcomes between 2 and 12. The rolls continue until any combination is obtained that gives a result of 7. At that point, all unsuccessful actions fail.

Or rather, they fail. “Failure” in The Hammer and the Stake corresponds to the victory of the status quo, even for the opponents.

A Precise Gaming Experience

Of course, the system doesn’t end there. The characteristics and abilities of the characters influence which and how many numbers can be chosen for the bet, and the abilities modify the effects. Some results can give critical successes, some combinations allow failure to be ignored. All this gives the “stake” of the title extreme depth.

Another fundamental mechanic is the use of experience as an in-game currency. Experience points can be spent in the more traditional way, to increase characteristics and abilities; but the most effective way to use them is to influence bets, and above all to give them to other players. In this way, a network is established that wants to create parallelism with the socialist ideal, which the master is encouraged to stimulate in the players.

The Hammer and the Stake Review: Against Cryptocracy

Why this kind of system? A great advantage of The Hammer and the Stake it is precisely that the mechanics strongly reflect the proposed gaming experience. It pushes the players to create a group of socialist rebels united against a fascist, capitalist and “cryptocratic” system, that is, led by arcane creatures. In this specific case, the vampires under the orders of Dracula are already in themselves metaphors of capitalism.

An important premise is that whoever wrote this game knows the topic they are talking about very well. It all starts from a uchronia in which Dracula awakens at the end of the First World War and, disgusted by what has become of his land, decides to re-found it. The vampire creates the Nagy-Magyarrorszag, Greater Hungary. A land under a hegemonic culture that marginalizes the enemy and bases its power on unbridled consumerism and a fascist-style government.

Expert at Work

Right here you see Gunning’s particular expertise in creating The Hammer and the Stake. Whenever it comes to politics, history or economics, his work is accurate and complete. Without ever being pedantic, he reconstructs a pseudo-historical reality full of perfectly credible domestic, foreign and economic policies. Even the supernatural element is integrated into an extremely “earthly” narrative.

The Full Manifesto does double duty, in this sense. On the one hand, it builds the game world perfectly, with the detail that a uchrony must necessarily have compared to a setting of pure fantasy; on the other, it establishes the context of the game, providing game masters and players with all the elements to extricate themselves from the challenging issues it brings to the table. In particular, the paragraph explaining the difference between historical Italian fascism and fascism as a government structure does a job that should be done by compulsory schools.

The Hammer and the Stake Review: the Revolution

Coming more to the game dynamics, The Hammer and the Stake allows you to play a partisan who opposes the cryptocratic regime. Much of the game can, however, be articulated in the conflict that reigns between the various factions of the CRF, the Carpathian Revolutionary Front.

• The HSR, the Hungarian Socialist Revolution, heads the CRF. As such, it is forced into positions of greater compromise, especially towards its ally Russia.
• The CNR, the Committee of the New Revolution, has formally detached itself from the CRF, even if the latter still reserves an assigned seat for it. Born to protect the role of women and minorities, it focuses in particular on the political struggle.
• The Company of Secularists has a rational and scientific approach to the struggle. It is his belief that victory against Dracula and his acolytes will only come through the use of technological innovation.
• WHO, the International Liaison Department, is strongly aligned with Bolshevik Russia. His goal is to expand the socialist revolution even before fighting the vampiric regime.
• The IWU, the International Workers Union, is strongly focused on the political struggle for the conquest of the means of production, snatching them from the vampires along with their advantage. Accused by many of being too close to the capitalist soul of the regime.
• The Krewspach Commune is made up of members of an isolated community that was dedicated to the practice of socialism in its purest form. Attacked by vampires, its members have decided to cover their faces to maintain anonymity and become the most effective and ruthless hunters.
• The Literati are the cultural soul of the CRF. Intent on keeping alive the Romanian language and culture, which Great Hungary wants to erase, they have specialized in smuggling starting from their love for written texts that the regime would like to destroy.
• The Society of St Blaise is one of the more controversial revolutionary factions, as it focuses on fighting vampires rather than the regime. And it does so by drawing on occult and especially Christian traditions, something not well seen by the socialist leaders of the CRF. But their brutal utility is beyond doubt.

The manual describes very well the development and mentality of these factions and their internal currents. Above all, it weaves a dense network of relationships and internal conflicts, which allows you to create a lot of play between the characters.

Some Shadow, Many Lights

Perhaps the only flaw of The Hammer and the Stake it’s all about gameplay cues. Not that the game offers few ideas, on the contrary. It provides topics so vast that it becomes difficult to focus on anything in particular. An introductory adventure would undoubtedly have helped; even more precious would have been a few pages dedicated to individual ideas, even if only as inspiration.

Even the game mechanics are not the most intuitive. It is certainly interesting and, once you become familiar with it, it becomes less difficult than it seems. However, it leaves the impression that a simpler result could be obtained, especially for a particularly structured game but with such a specific experience that it does not seem to be a title that will be replayed regularly without due love for the proposed themes.

In any case, a modern formulation of the “zero rule” compensates for everything: the goal of the game is to create an interesting story that allows everyone present at the table to have fun. Because play is a collective activity.

Conclusions of the Review of The Hammer and the Stake

This is the great added value of The Hammer and the Stake. We are talking about an RPG designed for a very specific gaming experience. But above all for a collective experience, something that gives a sense of group dynamics both between characters and between players. Liberate Greater Hungary from Dracula and his regime or become a mindless underclass?

Many argue that politics should stay out of the game. The truth is that any form of storytelling is by its nature a political act. The Hammer and the Stake is a perfect game for those who are familiar with it, nodding to the cornerstones of the genre and not everyday insights.

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