The Black Hack!

I remember seeing the Black Hack RPG mentioned when it was first up on Kickstarter, even though the price was great at the time I had made the decision to hold off on backing anymore kickstarters until some of the ones I had invested in had produced product (still waiting on a few of them...*sigh* lessons learned).  I scanned some reviews of the game, and to be honest my first impression was that this was simply another rules-lite OSR product. Having a shelf, well OK SHELVES full of OSR clones and retro-clones and such, I again decided I didn't really need another RPG. Then I kept seeing all of the posts about this game and how fun it was, followed by a plethora of follow-up Hacks to the game and posts about how easy it was to play and "hack". However, I couldn't get my head around the whole concept of the players performing all of the dice rolls...for this ancient-school DM that seemed somehow strange to me. However, the more I thought about it the more I came around to understanding the idea and how it could work and let me focus on other stuff. Then I decided I didn't care for the limits on armor and how armor worked in the game (see how I kept trying to talk myself out of liking this system?), recently the game's designer posted some optional rules on handling armor and some other features of the game (Guns!) which addressed my concerns regarding armor and provided some other options. Several expansion hacks to the system are out or soon will be out (including some for Space and Post Apocalyptic Gaming!). So for $2 I figured what the heck and downloaded the darn thing.  I have to say that this game is a blast! I have found my creative gaming muse inspired in ways that hasn't happened in quite awhile.  Is the game perfect? no, but it is fast, intuitive has some cool features and for me allows the rules to fade into the background with ease, and any rules that don't work for me, I can easily change without feeling like I have wrecked the system or should be playing something else. The Black Hack incorporates the Advantage/Disadvantage Mechanic from 5E (my favorite mechanic from the latest edition of D&D), and the way The Black Hack handles limited use items (ammo, torches, etc.) via the Usage Dice is really cool!  Well I think I have carried on enough about The Black Hack, off to work on some gaming stuff! For a comprehensive list of current products for The Black Hack check out Sophia Brandt's RPG Blog!