Line #27 TabletopGame/Hackmaster


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hackmaster_logo.gif]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The ''Hackmaster'' logo.]]
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4	The general evolution of tabletop roleplaying games in the last couple of decades has been towards streamlining and speed, abandoning a lot of the number-crunching minutiae of 1970s and 1980s games in favor of simpler and easier systems.
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6	''Hackmaster'' goes running in the other direction. Screaming.
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8	This is the game played by most of the characters in ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'', which is a sort of [[AffectionateParody barely-veiled parody]] of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. A few years into the magazine's life, its publisher Kenzer began to branch out into making games of its own, and licensed the rights to the first two editions of ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' in order to make a real version of ''Hackmaster''.
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10	The result is a fully playable if murderously complex fantasy tabletop RPG with a healthy dose of in-jokes and meta-humor from the "Knights" comic strip. It reads exactly like the game from the strip, complete with bizarre rules, typographical errors, and lengthy digression-filled rants from Gary Jackson that read like something between a highly defensive, neurotic man speaking out on behalf of his work and the Unabomber's manifesto.
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12	Take first edition ''AD&D'', with its weird class balance, gender issues (e.g. the infamous "strength cap" for female characters), huge number of charts, and idiosyncratic rules, and add a "building points" system, merits/flaws, a huge critical hit table with thousands of potential results, and a ridiculous variety of monsters. It deliberately eschews streamlining and handwaving; you roll for everything, you keep track of everything, and cutting corners is not allowed. It's a bit more coherent than first edition ''AD&D'' ever was, but it jumps on any chance it has to add more charts and tables.
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14	The first actual edition of ''Hackmaster'' was published in 2001 [[UnInstallment as the fourth edition of the game]], with the "Garweeze Wurld" from the "Knights" strips as its standard setting. In 2007, Kenzer's agreement with Wizards of the Coast expired, preventing them from using any copyrighted material from ''AD&D'' in ''Hackmaster''. The game soon switched over to ''Hackmaster Basic'', which contains all original material, and the original rulebooks for ''Hackmaster'' are out of print. Now called ''Hackmaster 5th Edition'', it features much of the same silliness as the previous edition, but is [[IndecisiveParody now more of a straightforward old-school RPG than a parody]].
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16	As the "fourth edition" of ''Hackmaster'' is literally a reskin of first and second edition ''TableTopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', there's a lot of "trope overlap" between the games and many of the go-to, long-running ''D&D'' tropes apply just as well here. The following is for tropes that are specific to ''Hackmaster''.
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20	! Tropes include:
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22	* AffectionateParody: If you played first or second edition AD&D, ''Hackmaster'' is one part nostalgia trip to one part reminding you that you were crazy to play a game that was this unnecessarily complicated. Verges on IndecisiveParody with the newest edition, where many of the rules are streamlined.
23	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The idea that non "demihuman" races are universally evil monsters is strictly embraced in both 4th and 5th edition; orcs in particular are such barbaric, savage monsters that [[EvenEvilHasStandards even hobgoblins look down on them]].
24	* TheBadGuyWins: The monsters in the cover art for most volumes and modules of the game, especially in regards to the Hacked versions of classic [=D&D=] modules. For example, ''Little Keep on the Borderlands'' depicts the [=PCs=] being annihilated by the owlbear on the inside cover.
25	* BornAgainImmortality: Pixie-fairies only live for about 10-15 years, but upon their death their spirit enters the womb of a living pixie-fairy female and is reincarnated as a baby of the same gender and appearance. Normally, the spirit enters the closest female, but the pixie-fairies can also use magic to designate host mothers. If an elf maiden is closer than a pixie-fairy, then the dead pixie-fairy's soul will use the elf's womb instead, resulting in a NonHumanHumanoidHybrid called a "Faeborn".
26	* DarkerAndEdgier: Both "Garweeze Wurld" for 4th edition and the 5th edition rendition of [[TabletopGame/KingdomsOfKalamar Tellene]] are ''much'' grittier and more focused on BlackAndGrayMorality than your standard HeroicFantasy D&D world. The best way to describe them as if Gary Gygax thought that ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' needed a doubled dosage of TheDungAges.
27	* DwindlingParty: There was a visual version of this with the ''Hacklopedia of Beasts'' Volumes 1-8. Volume 1's cover showed an eight person adventuring group, with one of the adventurers being killed by a monster. Volume 2's cover showed the remaining seven characters, again with one of them being killed. The pattern continued until Volume 8, which showed the last living party member, their hireling the torch-bearer, being chased out of a dungeon by the zombies of the first seven adventurers.
28	* {{Elfeminate}}: Not elves, actually, but pixie-fairies, which are called out as being very androgynous. Their dedicated {{sourcebook}} for Hackmaster 4th Edition clarifies that there ''are'' male and female pixie-fairies, but a) they all tend to look androgynous to human eyes due to being so small, and b) individuals vary widely in their gender expression, ranging from weirdly sexless to sporting [[HeroicBuild dramatically exaggerated masculine or feminine frames]].
29	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: This is the game system of choice for people who subscribe to the theory that the GM's job is to try to kill player characters. One critical hit can abruptly kill or maim a PC, everything is shockingly expensive, and there's a deliberately large number of monsters that appear to exist entirely to pop up as random encounters in taverns, towns, or ''latrines''.
30	* FanFlattering: ''TabletopGame/{{Hackmaster}}'' 4th Edition
31	** In the introduction to the Player's Handbook it says "...the fact that you've chosen to pick a copy of '''[=HackMaster=]''' speaks well of you." and says of Hackmaster players "We're not ordinary -- we're Extraordinary.''
32	** The introduction to the Game Master's Guide praises the reader's "spirit, drive and determination to rise to the challenge."
33	* {{Gorn}}: The cover art for most volumes and modules of ''Hackmaster'' is shockingly violent if not incredibly detailed, typically featuring monsters and [=PCs=] alike getting hacked to bits. The ''Hacklopedia'' volumes, the ''Monster Manuals'' of the line, tell a story with the cover art about a luckless adventuring party getting killed to the last man, then being brought back as zombies to menace their torch-bearer.
34	* HonorBeforeReason: An "honor" system exists in ''Hackmaster'', and it's just as easy to game as it is in the "Knights" strip.
35	* IntimidationDemonstration: The monk class's Intimidating Display and Really Intimidating Display abilities.
36	* IntrinsicVow: 4th Edition ''Player's Handbook''. The spell Charm of Undying Devotion allows the caster to control the target's actions. If the caster gives an order that is against the target's nature, the target receives a new saving throw with a bonus of +1 to +4. If the saving throw succeeds, the spell is neutralized.
37	* MinmaxersDelight: The game encourages you to tweak a character as far as you can by spending "building points," taking flaws, and doing everything possible to get even one more bit of combat potential onto that sheet.
38	* NonHumanHumanoidHybrid:
39	** Grunge Elves, or "Grels", are said to be the result of a multi-generational interbreeding between elves, humans, orcs and ogres.
40	** Leprechauns are believed to have originated as a result of mating between pixies and halflings.
41	** Pixie-fairies are, as the name suggests, originated as the product of interbreeding between pixies and other fairies. They are capable of interbreeding freely with brownies, leprechauns, nixies and sprites (though pixie-sprites are sterile).
42	** Grixies ("Grel-Pixies") are an unusual take on this trope, as they are former grel who have transformed into half-grel, half-pixie hybrids as a result of eating too many pixie-fairies.
43	** Elvariels were magically engineered hybrids of pixie-fairies and elves, having the appearance of a pixie-fairy and the height of an elf. In contrast, fae-born are pixie-fairies who reincarnated through the womb of an elf mother, and because a pixie-fairy/elf hybrid.
44	* RedEyesTakeWarning: 4th Edition ''Player's Handbook''. In the description of the almost AlwaysChaoticEvil drow it says that their eyes glow a feral red - evidence of the hatred that burns in their hearts and minds.
45	* ReincarnationRomance: Zigzagged with pixie-fairies, since the race reincarnates and knows this as a matter of fact. Whilst it's inferred that standard marriages can survive beyond the original incarnations who made their vows, "Life Marriages" only last for a single incarnation; once the pixie-fairy dies and reincarnates, they are considered to be divorced.
46	* ShoutOut:
47	** The 4th edition Hacklopedia of Beasts volume 3 features the "Fairy, Carnivorous" entry, which is a reference to Kenzer & Co's cannibal fairy wargame ''TabletopGame/FairyMeat''. It even uses the game's terminology of having the magic-focused "Glitter Fairy" and the standard carnivorous fairy progressing through ranks of toughness entitled "Wild, Seasoned, Hunter and Hardcore".
48	** "Hackjammer" has a buttefly-shaped Elven ship called a [[Film/{{Mothra}} Motharaa]]-class Monarchship.
49	* WeakenedByTheLight: 4th Edition's drow (AlwaysChaoticEvil elves) were based on 1st and 2nd Edition Advanced ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', but there was a difference: instead of multiple specific penalties, drow get a simple -1 penalty to all rolls in bright light (bright daylight and Light/Continual Light spells).

Context TabletopGame / Hackmaster