I am a fan of sword & sorcery adventures - unlikely heroes in a desolate land, marching against a tyrannical force of power. Sometimes pulpy, sometimes grim, sometimes mythic, sometimes futuristic. Black Sword Hack seems to cater all these niches in the genre, with amazing art and style, that's why I was enticed into buying the book. I have the Ultimate Chaos Edition via kickstarter, printed Feb 2023, which we'll use for making a character. You can purchase the book or pdf here.
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| a great book in front of a shelfie |
For this game, I think a [Dimabiro] profile would be fun. A serious but easily irritated character, trying to succeed in a world of law and chaos. See Cooking Characters Primer for more details about archetypes. And now it's time to make our doomed adventurer, following the book's three-step process.
Step 1: Roll for character attributes. The game uses the standard six from the world's most popular tabletop game, as this game is intended for running old school fantasy adventures from the same line. We roll 2d6 for each attribute in order - a staple in old school games - and note the score from a table. Rolled [7], [9], [4], [4], [6], [7]. We are pretty average, which is a good thing.
STR 10 DEX 11 CON 9 INT 9 WIS 10 CHA 10
Step 2: Pick an Origin. A somewhat vague starting concepts but these allow you to take your character into interesting directions. And a lot of notions about the world and regions to go or come from.
I picked the Decadent Origin and rolled [17] and [4] on the 1d20 table under it. Born in an asylum deep within the Forbidden City sounds mysterious, but enough strings to potentially bullshit your way in scenarios. Further in the book has some prompts and questions about said region (page 62 of the book), which is probably part of the session zero. Maybe the Forbidden City is an alchemy-fueled society, and our hero is an escaped experiment that was supposed to rot in the asylum? Maybe the city was a former capital ruined by demons, and all children born there are fate-bound to Chaos and thus need to be imprisoned?
Step 3: Choose three backgrounds. Two must be tied to the Decadent Origin, and one from any list. There are unique-tagged backgrounds, that cannot be chosen together with other unique ones. Choices also bump a relevant attribute's score. I'll continue my train of thoughts from our origin's prompts.
- If the city is ruined by demons, then maybe they survived by colluding with demons. So, we will take Warlock to get 2 demon pacts. And CHA goes from 10 to 11
- I still like the alchemy-fueled society bit but make it a polluted city because of illegal and indecent experiments. Snake Blood seems appropriate to have now, but less about serpentine ancestry, and more "got used to toxic food and water that my body became immune to poisons" thing. CON gets bumped from 9 to 10.
- Lastly, I'd get Sophist. Maybe they got good in lying from the demons, maybe from the experiments, I'm leaving that to future developments. And CHA is raised again, from 11 to 12.
Adjusted attribute scores:
STR 10 DEX 11 _CON 10_ INT 9 WIS 10 _CHA 12_
And that's all the major steps. We go to the final details. HP is equal to CON score. Doom starts at Ud6 (usage die d6). Starting equipment comes with a set of clothes, two random weapons (1d10 each based on origin), and coins depending on origin (100 coins!). I also get Thyrenian and Duhuang starting languages.
Rolled [8] on Decadent weapon list, and [4] in Civilized weapon list. Shiv and cleaver combo.
Because we took Warlock background, we go to the Demonic Pact section. It says "choose their types opposite" which is a confusing phrase. The demon type list doesn't indicate if they are opposite of each other, so I'll assume the phrase means I will get demon types that are opposite to my characters' intended personality. So, we go back to the [Dimabiro] profile and build it further.
Our decadent, so far, is a chem-blood experiment escapee from the Forbidden City with demon powers. Perhaps, they want to leave their past behind and build a new life. Even steal someone else's, if needed. They will work hard and smart for it, tirelessly. Demons of Sloth and Nightmare will be attracted to that ambition. We roll for demon names, [17], [18] first, then [2], [15]. Gaki will put people to sleep, and Gorgo will keep people up all night.
And we put those details in the official character sheet. There are 2 version of it, and both look cool, very thematic. Not a lot of space for background descriptions though. We'll call our doomed hero Sirius.
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| there is indeed a black sword in this hack |
Remarks!
- Rolling stats is always brutal, and not always fun for everyone. I'm personally used to it, and it can get in the way of building a character to a particular direction. The game seems to have adjusted to make extreme results of rolls to be less frequent, so there's no reroll nor swap score options, no compensation for low rolls, and no drawbacks for high rolls.
- I am surprised that there is no table to roll for backgrounds for a faster character building, which I expected for high lethality old school game such as this. Less of a nitpick and more commentary on this one.
- Some backgrounds can funnel you further into specific player options - Warlock's Demon Pacts, Inventor's Marvels, Changeling's Faerie Ties, etc. - which pushes exploration of options, at the small cost of creation speed. Makes you want to read further for future characters to make or long-term advancement decisions.
- The origin and region prompts are fun though. It really pushes player to have a discussion with the GM and the group (if you have the same or related choices) for the world or city creation.
- Backgrounds also help players define their motivations and possible connections, which the GM can use to anchor them in the setting or adventure.
- Character sheet is stylish and simple. Nitpick is I wish it had more space for background details and abilities.
- Essential rules first before chargen! And page references on further details within the creation rules. Excellent.
SCORING TIME!
- Player Fun: 7
- Creation is compact and easy to follow. Rolling stats might put you in weird attribute scores, but customization via backgrounds and origins save it. Options are plenty and engaging but not overwhelming. Character sheet is vibing.
- GM Fun: 4
- A lot of incorporated world and region building in chargen rules, without making them "useless" if adventure is not engaged in those regions or areas of expertise. Makes characters easy to integrate to a lot of adventures. At the same time, it is not necessary to finalize or incorporate all of background stuff immediately.
- Designer Fun: 3
- Classless modular setup is always cool for me. Character sheet screams "customize me further". Good stuff.
If this game had options for bonds, or a similar prompt or mechanic to connect players with each other or specific NPCs and locations, this would have been golden.
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