In this review, I will talk about the Italian edition of The Black Hack, edited by MS Edizioni, who I thank for giving us a copy of the manual.
The Black Hack is an Old School RPG by David Black inspired by 1970s fantasy RPGs. A new setting has been added to the Italian edition, in addition to the translation of the basic rules edited by Enrico Emiliani.
If you are interested in purchasing, the manual is available on the official store at the price of £20.00 in physical version or $6.00 in digital version only.
The Black Hack Setting Review
This content is only available in the Italian version of the manual.
The Latlos peninsula was doomed following the Coming of Flammagenitus, a terrible explosion that occurred 200 years ago on the Abbath mountain range that created a huge chasm. All of Latlos was shaken by an earthquake and a fiery column rose into the sky.
From the Maw (as the chasm is called) thick black smoke began to emerge and spread towards the nearby villages and territories. The cloud is called Ashen Shadow and, due to its progress, it created the Dead Lands; they are immense abandoned territories where only darkness and ash are present.
With the arrival of the Shadow, the Black Fate has spread, a disease that causes ash stains on the skin in sick people that spread to the vital organs. The cities of the peninsula close their gates to the victims of the Black Fate, but the Cult of Our Lady of the Black Death finds in this disease the divine punishment of the creator of the Ashen Shadow, a way to purify the land from the population not worthy of a new future. This secret religion has its headquarters in the Pure Isle and is supported by nobles and great families of Latlos.
The city of Kran was the first to pay the consequences of Advent; its population was segregated within the walls to breathe the ash. Today the city is silent, gasping black statues stand in the streets, and it has become home to aberrant creatures. Kran could be a great place to introduce new characters to the world of The Black Hack; the manual presents many other suggestive ideas for setting your sessions on the Latlos peninsula.
Character Creation
Each character has six Characteristics that define him. To determine the score of each one you need to roll 3d6 and note the sum on the card.
- Strength is used in melee combat;
- Dexterity represents agility and the ability to attack from a distance;
- Constitution measures the character’s temper;
- Intelligence refers to Arcane knowledge and Spells;
- Wisdom indicates cunning and Divine Prayers;
- Charisma corresponds to charm.
Next, you need to choose the Class; The Black Hack features four: the Fighter, the Rogue, the Cleric and the Wizard. This choice will determine his Hit Die, Hit Points, what armour he wears, how much damage he deals to enemies and what he gains by levelling up.
- The Warrior is the front line of the group, he begins the adventure with a Decorated Shield with his heraldic emblem that he uses to defend himself in battle.
- Instead the Thief has a Disguise of his choice and can count on his acrobatic and stealth skills.
- The Cleric relies on his own Prayer Book, which gives him divine magical powers; he is also capable of Turning Undead and is very resistant to poisons.
- The Wizard has a Book of Spells containing all the formulas he can cast; he also has Arcane Luck which allows him to start the adventure with a magical object if he only has one Hit Point at the time of creation.
Finally, you need to choose a Background suited to the character, even just a few lines; it can be used to roll some related tests twice and keep the best result.
Each Character accumulates Experience by killing Monsters or completing missions to Level Up. Depending on your Class, you gain different benefits when this happens.
General Rules of The Black Hack
As per the classic OSR, this game also involves the role of the Gamemaster, the narrator of the game world and the interpreter of the NPCs and Monsters that the players will encounter. The latter will instead play a character each.
Time in this role-playing game is divided into turns, in which each character can move and perform actions. In combat, they last a few moments, while in other circumstances they consist of minutes (and Actions take longer).
More complex Actions require an Ability Test; they are resolved by rolling a d20 and trying to stay below the value of the corresponding Characteristic. Some rolls, at the storyteller’s discretion, may have an Advantage; in these cases, the player rolls two dice and chooses the best result. Others instead have a Disadvantage and therefore the narrator will choose the result to keep.
To measure distances during turns it is necessary to have a gridded map, both for exploration and for combat; so it is easier to establish the distances between Contact, Near, Far or Distant.
Characters can also decide to use objects during their turns; some are consumable and have a Supply Die. When that item is used, the indicated die must be rolled; when the result is 1 or 2, you must move down the category (d8 > d6 > d4) until it is consumed. Some objects instead indicate the duration of their effect in minutes. Be careful when walking around without light though… finding yourself completely in the dark, the Character could Panic, with serious consequences on his psyche.
Combat Mechanics
At the start of the fight you must roll Initiative and each character makes a Dexterity check; if it is overcome, you act before the enemy. Each character can decide to Attack or Defend, whether in close combat or at a distance, by carrying out the relevant Characteristic Test.
In the case of Defense, the Characters have armour that grants a pool of Armor Dice, which correspond to one six-sided die each; the number of d6s in the pool equals the Armor Value. If a Character is unable to Defend himself, he can decide to break an Armor Dice, and then be able to repair it during Rest.
Critical Hits (1 on the attack die) double the damage dealt to enemies, or the PCs suffer double damage if the defence roll is 20. Some attacks deal with Continuous Damage over time, causing you to lose Hit Points at the start of each Turn; the afflicted character must make an ability check chosen by the GM to recover. When a hit hits, you must roll on the Damage Location Table, possibly assigning impairments and making the game highly deadly.
The GM will never roll the dice in combat: the players (and the dice) will determine their victory or defeat. Be careful not to lose all your hit points and end up out of action!
Monsters and Adversaries of The Black Hack
During Exploration, the party will undoubtedly encounter NPCs or Monsters that could prove hostile. Since this is an old-school role-playing game, the encounter with the Enemies is often random and is defined by rolls on reference tables.
As a result, fights cannot always be balanced; the idea of an escape should not be underestimated when encountering too tough opponents. One way to try to understand this is to add the Hit Dice of the Characters and check that the enemies do not exceed this quantity by more than 2 HD.
Monsters are characterized by an Attack with an attached Special Ability, which specifies who the target will be and how much damage it will inflict. Some Monsters have a Morale where they may decide to escape after taking too much damage.
The Black Hack provides many random tables dedicated to Monsters; some are used to understand how they behave or what they are doing and, all together, greatly differentiate the encounters. Thanks to these precautions you never have the sensation of clashes being too similar.
Conclusions of The Black Hack Review
This 220-page game manual pays great attention to the aesthetic side. The matt black hardcover with a white title refers to the concept of Light and Panic and, despite its simplicity, has a very strong impact. The maps and illustrations are also of high quality and perfectly convey the tones of the macabre and dark setting of The Black Hack.
In my opinion, the abundance of tables is very useful for generating meetings and much more immediately. The manual also offers a pre-made adventure called The Ruined Tower of Gormalong and examples of adventures, taverns and dungeons that are excellent for learning how to best manage this role-playing game.
To conclude this review, I recommend The Black Hack to players (both novices and non-novices) who love risky adventures and dark settings. A tip, though: don’t get too attached to your character!
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