The core systems work essentially as they do in Black Hack, so I won’t go into them here. The additions contribute to the doomful atmosphere. These amount to a set of different sorts of pacts — demons, evil swords, fairies, and so on. There are a variety of powers to draw on and be consumed by.

The rest of the book is given over, mostly, to tools for collaboratively creating a world and a central city for players to inhabit, explore and, eventually, ruin and destroy. Goes with the territory, really. A couple scenarios round things out. A fantastic appendix lays out a method to create adventures using your favorite paperback fantasy novel.

Black Sword Hack touches on many of the same themes as Chaosium’s Stormbringer, but in a more minimal, smoother sort of way. It’s more direct, really. It’s also its own thing, and every game is unique, thanks to the world generation. I’m keen to see it develop further.

The post Black Sword Hack: Ultimate Chaos Edition (2023) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Letty Wilson did all the art. The writing and selection was by a variety of authors, from a variety of locations and this provides GMs with a nice diversity of options. Some are already passingly familiar (dybbuk, Black Shuck, Jack-in-Irons), some are really more like NPCs (the Queen of the Fallow Field, who is a bit like Lady Midday, and Bad Paxti, a nefarious blacksmith). Many function as variants of more generic monsters (Tartaro are basically classic cyclops, with some tweaks, like the fact that they are numbered instead of named or that their eye can emit a blinding beam of light — they’re probably my favorite beastie in the book). Like the previous two books this week, this serves to reimagine and recontextualize familiar monsters, though perhaps more subtly than the other. I’ll tell you, though, I will always take another strange folkloric goblin over some of the eyeroll-worthy monster variants that have cropped up in official D&D. Winged gnolls, for Pete’s sake?

The post A Folklore Bestiary (2022) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

The energy in this thing is explosive and infectious. There is just so much stuff here, I want to shake it all out on the floor and get to playing with it all. The bright blocks of color encourage this, I think. In fact, the design sense reminds me of the maximalism of Mork Borg, though without the grim elements. Knock revels in lighthearted fun. Sort of. It is still a magazine about killing (and being killed by) monsters, basically, but it is so zany that it is hard to focus on the darker bits amid the bright palette.

It is impossible to catalog all the goodies. There are tables galore, there’s at least one adventure, many adventure sites, a bunch of new monsters, a fantastic collection of dungeon maps (presented as art rather than utilities). It can be a bit difficult to see where one thing ends and another begins. The verging chaos of it all no doubt diminishes the utility of the book. I love it though, sometimes it is nice to have to roll up your sleeves and dig for treasure.

The post Knock #1 appeared first on Vintage RPG.