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Friday, April 15, 2016

Super Simple Traditional Races for The Black Hack

I've been thinking about how I would bring races into The Black Hack, coming up with different answers depending on whether I were to run it for +Ken H and +Tim Shorts (one of them is not a fan of race-as-class, and I'm not telling which), or if I were running it in a context where race-as-class was the better option (for example, if at some point down the line Brie and I decided convert our current game in which Brie is playing a race-as-class elf).

Since +Marshall Brengle just asked a question about race-as-modifier vs. race-as-class over at the Black Hack discussion community on Google+, I thought I'd toss out the ideas I've been bouncing around on the matter.

Race-as-Modifier

Since virtually everything works on stat checks in The Black Hack, the simplest way to bring in races is just with stat modifiers. Roll for stats as per the rules, then apply the following modifiers.

Dwarves: +1 to CON, -1 to CHR
Elves: +1 to INT, -1 to CON
Halflings: +1 to DEX, -1 to STR

If I went this route I might bump the modifiers up to +/-2 instead, to make the modifiers themselves more meaningful. While this is slim on flavor, it does keep everything streamlined. This is the way I'd do things if I were to run a game for players who wanted races but disliked (or didn't care) about race-as-class. Modify your stats and then pick a class as normal.


Race-as-Class

That said, it would not be terribly difficult to actually come up with a new class for TBH. Lots of people are already doing so, both at the discussion community as well as over at RPGNow (e.g. +Mark Craddock's The Class Hack). While I don't think Brie and I are going to convert our current game to TBH (at least not in the immediate future), I have thought about it and I'd probably do something like this if we did:

ELF

Starting HP: d6+4
HP Per Level/Resting: 1d6
Weapons and Armor: All except Plate & Mail.
Attack Damage: 1d6/1d4 Unarmed or Improvising.

Special Features
Roll with Advantage when using WIS to search for secret doors.
Roll with Advantage when saving vs. effects caused by undead.

Leveling Up
Roll to see if attributes increase, roll twice for INT and DEX.

Arcane Spellcasting
Elves can cast a number of Arcane Spells per day according to the Daily Elf Spells table below.

Spellbook
Elves start with a large spellbook containing a total of 1d4+1 spells from the Level 1 and 2 Arcane Spell Lists.


Easy-peasy.

5 comments:

  1. Living with a gamer, I should be able to understand this but, really, I don't. Anyway, have a great weekend and boogie boogie.

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    Replies
    1. Lol, Brie said it was all gibberish to her too! :)

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  2. Replies
    1. Oh, duh. I did use the expression "easy peasy" in this post. Jeesh, I need to start paying attention when I write.

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