[7:34 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): I’m James Hargrove (jdrakeh or akajdrakeh at most places online). My current Kickstarter project is Six-Hack, a minimalist homage to The Original Edition (1974) of The World’s Most Popular Fantasy Roleplaying Game, with better organization, streamlined rules, and a few modern innovations. Six-Hack very much subscribes to the “rulings not rules” old school ethos and assumes that the players are at the table to work together in the pursuit of fun and are capable of doing so. You an find out more about it (and back it) here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sixhack/six-hack
[7:34 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): (done)
[7:35 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks, @Heckboy (James Hargrove)! The floor is open to questions!
[7:35 PM]Rated Aargh: It’s unusual to see a Kickstarter with such a modest goal. How will the game benefit from the fundraiser?
[7:36 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Most of the funds raised will pay for layout/graphic design (I already have somebody tapped for that), cover art, and stock art for the interior.1
[7:37 PM]Silverlion: In other words he’s not paying himself…
[7:37 PM]Silverlion: So what does it do differently than other “hacks” of the most famous trad games?
[7:38 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): I’m paying myself a tiny bit.
[7:38 PM]Silverlion: Alright, a tiny bit then.
[7:38 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Players define a code for their character to follow. This can be a personal code of honor, a chivalric code of a knightly order, a vow to a deity, or even a fiendish pact brokered with an otherworldly patron. This replaces alignments.
[7:39 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): There is a unified action resolution system using a single six-sided die versus target number (high rolls are better, target number can be shifted downward based on a favorable circumstance). Only risky actions and actions performed under duress are rolled for.
[7:39 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Action Points are a thing. Action Points can be spent in a number of ways (e.g. re-rolling a failed die roll, taking an extra action in combat, etc), including some that are class-specific.
[7:40 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Initiative in combat is per “side” (shades of Tunnels & Trolls here).
[7:40 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Do you have a character sheet that we can see?
[7:41 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): I do not have a character sheet. Character sheets will be index cards. As in ye olden days of lore.
[7:41 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Anybody can use magic if casting from a written source (e.g. scroll, tome, stone tablet, etc). BUT casting a spell must be rolled for like any other risky action. Elves and Magic-Users can cast from memory. There is a list of spells drawn from the mini-setting and inspired by OD&D. Wealth is not tracked in terms of counting coin or scrip, nor by way of a dedicated mechanical rating. Instead, whenever a character wishes to purchase something, be it a good or service, they need to roll 1d6 and produce a specific die result. Harkens back to Conan stories and tales of Lankhmar.
[7:41 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): There is a detailed system for applying templates to “base” monsters and NPCs to create more challenging encounters.
[7:42 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Turning to our old stand-by, how would you roll for someone jumping over a gap?
[7:44 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Roll 1d6. A result of 5+ is a success. If a favorable circumstance is in play (say, as granted by a class), then a roll result of 3+ is a success.
[7:44 PM]Dan the GMshoe: No impact from attributes?
[7:45 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): There are no attributes. Or attribute modifiers. BUT some classes confer favorable circumstances to certain actions.
[7:46 PM]Silverlion: Interesting that you have race/classes but not attributes.
[7:46 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): For example, a Rogue’s mastery of the larcenous arts counts as a favorable circumstance when attempting to resolve related actions.
[7:46 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Does this mean that all characters of the same class and level are identical?
[7:46 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): I just didn’t think attributes were necessary. Play testing bore this out.
[7:50 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Dan. They’re very similar but not identical. Each character has a player-defined moral code, randomly rolled Hit Points, and a number of Action Points that they can spend in different ways.
[7:51 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Well, let me rephrase: It sounds like all characters of the same class and level have an identical chance of doing anything.
[7:52 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Ah. Yes. This is intentional. I wanted an extremely streamlined action resolution system (where OD&D has none at all, I though a minimalist system would do).
[7:55 PM]Silverlion: Interesting fact: Older D&D, and 5E share the same chances to hit –when not using stats, for all classes
[7:56 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Haha. Yup.
[7:56 PM]Silverlion: (not AD&D or 2E…I don’t remember 3e)
[7:56 PM]Silverlion: Are you doing a setting for this game?
[7:56 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): In OD&D (1974), the only stat that affects combat is Dexterity and, even then, it only adds or subtracts 1 to missile combat rolls.
[7:56 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Yes! I am doing a setting for this game!
[7:57 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): The S&S setting, Kingdom of Kor.
[7:57 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Does that mean that it uses Six-Hack for the Kor rules?
[7:58 PM]Silverlion: groans at dan
[7:59 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): There only two reward tiers on the Kickstarter: For $2, you get the final working draft of the Six-Hack (completely playable) as soon as the campaign funds. For $10, you get that AND the final product, which includes the Kingdom of Kor, an introductory adventure, and professional layout/design/art.
[8:00 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What makes the Kingdom of Kor stand out as a fantasy setting?
[8:04 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): It has a detailed cosmology (gods and religions), a number of detailed merchant houses, unique guilds that the PCs can work for (only the thieve’ guild is rather pedestrian, but even it has legitimate businesses), and a number of villainous organizations.
[8:04 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): *thieves’
[8:05 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How common is magic in the Kingdom of Kor, and how powerful does it get?
[8:06 PM]Silverlion: How do you work in fantasy races into an S&S setting?
[8:08 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Magic is not common in Kor, residing in the hands of a powerful few, although a college does exist that will teach those that they deem worthy (to keep magical traditions alive).
[8:09 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Gone are the elven kingdoms, gone is the subterranean dwarven empire, gone are the days when wee’uns held court in the woods, and gone are the traveling clans of cyclopes. In the distant past, prior to the war between the Gods and the ancient Magi during the Age of Magic, beings of magic (e.g. dwarves, elves, etc) sundered the way between their native realm and the material world.
[8:09 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): The demi-humans that inhabit the material world today are the few remaining descendants of those that chose to remain behind after the Exodus. The world of Kor is, today, largely a world of humans and a new age of exploration and adventure is dawning.
[8:10 PM]Dan the GMshoe: So do elves and dwarves just live in human communities?
[8:10 PM]Dan the GMshoe: And wee’uns = halflings?
[8:12 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Yes. And yes.
[8:13 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Aside from their lack of their own civilizations, do you offer any twists on the standard demihumans?
[8:14 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): No. I tried to cleave close to OD&D in that respect.
[8:17 PM]Dan the GMshoe: And I take it that the races are classes?
[8:18 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): If human, you choose a class. If not, choose a race (which advance as classes, but also have some additional benefits).
[8:19 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What are the classes?
[8:20 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Fighter, Magic-User, and Rogue.
[8:20 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Magic-User is all-encompassing. From the text:
[8:20 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): You are a Magic-User, a mysterious figure, a master of arcane powers and spell casting. Magic-Users can be devastating opponents, despite being physically weaker than other adventuring classes. You might be a druidic priestess, a sinister cultist, a wise shaman, or a shining cleric of the faith blessed with holy powers.
[8:22 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How do you distinguish between the various types of Magic-Users? To what degree to Clerics resemble classic D&D Clerics?
[8:25 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Magic-Users are defined by what spells they cast. There are a number of spells typically associated with clerics in D&D, as well as combat oriented spells (for the Wizardly types), and utility spells. Six-Hack effectively uses the “Wizards Cast All The Spells” house rule that I’ve been using in OD&D for years.
[8:27 PM]Dan the GMshoe: So do your Clerics wear armor?
[8:27 PM]Rated Aargh: Do they only use blunt weapons?
[8:29 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Clerics can wear any armor and use any weapons deemed appropriate by the Referee. One thing that Six-Hack specifically is not is an equipment depot. From the rules:
[8:29 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Describe the two weapons most favored by your character, even if they are just your hands and feet. After you have done this, define what armor (if any) and clothes your character wears. This step of character creation is entirely symbolic, but it does define how your character looks and how they can be expected to act in combat or other situations . In addition to defined accouterments, every character is assumed to possess any easily portable equipment that makes sense for their class or race to possess (e.g. a Rogue is assumed to always be in possession of things like lock picks).
[8:30 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): There is some further discussion of accoutrements for the Referee, but this is the whole of player-facing rules regarding equipment.
[8:37 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): I very much borrowed from both Risus and the Window here.
[8:41 PM]Rated Aargh: Getting back to something you mentioned earlier. Is the gameplay here meant to hew closely to the dungeon crawling roots of the hobby, or can I do something like Conan or Lankhmar?
[8:45 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Good question! There are actually no specific rules for dungeon crawling, but a fair amount of rules for overland (and oversea) travel and exploration. BUT there’s no reason you can’t use it for dungeon crawling or urban adventure. One of the core conceits of the setting is that magic is in pretty short suppply and so, thee Antiquarian’s Guild, sponsors expeditions into the wild and forgotten places of the world in search of treasure. Think Victorian Age expeditions to Africa and South America.1
[8:47 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Can you say more about how combat works?
[8:47 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Sure!
[8:50 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): First, surprise is determined by rolling 1d6 on behalf of the “side” of the conflict that stands to be surprised. Per The Basic, a roll of 5+ indicates no surprise (3+ for a Fighter). If surprised, all enemy combatants in a position to do so get one ‘free” attack. Then Order of Combat is determined.
[8:51 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): During combat, time is divided into turns. During any given turn, a character may attempt to perform one action in addition to moving, making a check as previously described. To determine the order in which characters can take those actions, at the beginning of a combat turn, each side rolls Initiative on a d6; high roll wins. The winning side acts first – moving, attacking, and casting spells. The other side takes damage and casualties, and then gets its turn. Initiative rolls may result in a tie. When this happens, fate favors the PCs (they act first).
[8:52 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): A player may spend an Action Point to have their character take an additional action during their turn. This may only be done once per turn, but may be done multiple times in a single combat if the player so chooses.
[8:53 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): During a combat turn, each character may move a distance up to 6″ on the tabletop (i.e. 30 feet in the game world) for free or, if they sacrifice their action on any given combat turn, they may move double that distance instead (12″ on the tabletop or 60 feet in the game world).
[8:53 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): All weapons/attacks (including spell attacks) have ranges within which they are effective (i.e. are capable of striking a target). Ranges are as follow: Near (within range of a handheld melee weapon), Far (within range of a thrown ranged weapon or mechanically assisted ranged weapon), Distant (within range of a mechanically assisted ranged weapon only), and Out of Range (unable to be hit by any weapon). Spell attacks tend to be based on line of sight or touch (i.e. they can affect a target that a caster can see or touch).
[8:54 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): When a character hits an opponent with an attack (magical or mundane) in combat, the attacker rolls 1d6 to determine damage (the one exception to this rule may be a magic attack, which can potentially deal multiple d6s worth of damage). A player may spend an Action Point to re-roll this result if displeased the first time around. As with resolving basic action, this second roll result must be kept. Further, the player of a Fighter, Dwarf, or Elf who is currently a Fighter, can spend an Action Point to roll another 1d6 and add this result to the first 1d6 rolled, causing extra damage. Finally, a Rogue (or Wee’un) doubles the amount rolled on their dice if attacking an opponent from behind or from ambush.
[8:54 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Damage is subtracted from the target’s Hit Point total. Once a character’s Hit Points have been reduced to zero, they are dead.
[8:54 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Sorry for that big ‘ole wall of text.
[8:55 PM]Dan the GMshoe: So all weapons do the same damage?
[8:57 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Yes. Just like in OD&D. All weapons do a base 1d6 damage. However, some spells can be “pumped” by Magic-Users and Elfs to do additional damage and Wee’uns get to add a +3 damage bonus when they attack with missile weapons.
[8:58 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Why wouldn’t everyone want to use the cheapest and most concealable weapons (like daggers), then?
[9:01 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): There is no price list for weapons (not an equipment depot), so that’s a non-starter. As for concealability, some people just want weapons that look cool. This is a direct holdover from OD&D. Also, Wee’uns do not gain their damage bonus from thrown weapons.
[9:03 PM]Dan the GMshoe: You mentioned an Elf functioning as a Fighter. Do they have to switch back and forth, or can they always combine Fighter and Magic-User abilities?
[9:05 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): They have to switch back and forth and must do so between sessions, not during a session. They are granted the abilities of the class they are currently emulating (except for Hit Points, which stack).
[9:08 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Do you have any plans to add more classes?
[9:10 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): If the Kickstarter funds, in the future I’ll be looking to add additional classes and, probably, more base monsters and spells in a single volume supplement.
[9:10 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Speaking of monsters, how large is the bestiary?
[9:14 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Not very large (26 creatures), but part of that is because there are a number of templated that can be applied to any of the base monsters (e.g. animated skeleton, zombie, elite monster, solo monster, etc).
[9:14 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): *templates
[9:17 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Well, wait. I take that back. Some templates can’t be applied to certain monsters (no gelatinous animated skeletons for you!)1
[9:18 PM]Dan the GMshoe: No game is flawless. That being the case, what is your least favorite aspect of Six-Hack?
[9:21 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): I’m not really 100% happy with the monetary system. It works with the “not an equipment depot” aesthetic and hearkens back to REH stories and adventures in Lankhmar, but I’m still not 100% on it.
[9:21 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Nice answer!
[9:22 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Also, no game is for every gamer. What sort of gamer is Six-Hack not for?
[9:23 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Six-Hack is not for people who dislike old-school adventure games or minimalist rule sets.
[9:24 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Cool.
[9:25 PM]Dan the GMshoe: In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?
[9:25 PM]Heckboy (James Hargrove): Not really. And it is like 90 degrees in my office right now, so I need to bounce downstairs and soak up some AC. Thank you for having me, Dan!
[9:26 PM]Dan the GMshoe: My pleasure, @Heckboy (James Hargrove)! You’ve been a great guest!
[9:26 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Usual reminder: If you’ve enjoyed this Q&A and would like to treat me to a coffee or two, you can do so at https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe. Anything’s appreciated! Ko-fiBuy Dan Davenport a Coffee. ko-fi.com/gmshoeBecome a supporter of Dan Davenport today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love with no fees on donations.
[9:26 PM]Dan the GMshoe: If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll get the log posted and link you!