Old School Hack
I am currently on the verge of obsession with Old School Hack. Created by a friend of mine, it seems to hit a very nice sweet spot between old school sensibility, story game philosophy, and contemporary game design theory. I say "seems" because, admittedly, I haven't played it yet. I've seen it played on several occasions; if it weren't for the damn traffic on I-85 I would have played in a pre-release playtest. Curse you, outlet mall!
I am scheduled to run a session of this game next week for some folks here and am really looking forward to it. I am also already thinking about how to hack Old School Hack for the WWII pulp game I hope to run someday.
I am scheduled to run a session of this game next week for some folks here and am really looking forward to it. I am also already thinking about how to hack Old School Hack for the WWII pulp game I hope to run someday.
It does look cool. It seems a little "gamey" to my tastes, but maybe that's more the particular sort of modern presentation than actually content, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I gather from Risus Monkey that you are in Rcok Hill? You're just down the road then.
@Trey -- Curious as to what you mean by "gamey". And, yeah, I am in Rock Hill. Are you in SC?
ReplyDeleteI kind of see the "gamey" thing, but it doesn't get in the way of story (unless like a certain fourth edition of a popular RPG). The gamey part relates entirely to combat but it adds a very interest layer *and* it helps make combat fast and furious. Outside of combat, the "gamey" bits fade into the background and it truly resembles an old school game.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I had a blast the one time I ran it.
Yeah, I'm in Columbia. By gamey, I mean "gamist" in the old Forge GNS theory sense. It's encounter set-up (arenas, I think?) and some of its character abilities exist for game reasons.
ReplyDeleteRe: Gamey -- I get it now. I haven't run it yet, so I am just speaking from reading it and seeing it played. I think the arenas are a cool way to handle a lot of game elements (range, reach, etc) in a fast, semi-abstract way that would be very flexible. It's not ideal for dungeon-crawling, though.
ReplyDelete@Trey -- Awesome! We should try to get together sometime. I am running Old School Hack on Friday if you want to head up. It's only an hour!
That would be cool! Unfortunately, I'm going out of town this weekend, but maybe some later date?
ReplyDeleteSure! I'll keep you posted.
ReplyDelete