Welcome gaming friends, to our new Hackmaster Campaign! We'll be playing Hackmaster 4e in the world of Aldrazar, and hopefully starting in the first week or two of August. I'll be using my blog to pass on information about the game and keep you up to date you on campaign happenings. This first entry contains some general guidelines for character creation.
If you follow the rules verbatim in the 4e PHB for character creation you should be fine. Remember that you only use 3d6 for each ability score and that they are rolled in order. I'm not going to set any restrictions or class at this time, so anything in the players handbook is playable. Of course you may not be aware that Hack Classes are restricted until later levels. I would offer a general caution against playing evil PCs of any type as this can cause significant issues in Hackmaster if you don't play your alignment. Party conflicts are sometimes unavoidable, but while we get started and are getting to know each other let's avoid obvious issues. Other cautions would include playing races that don't get along too well together, as this too ca lead to unavoidable conflict in the party. If your abilities are somehow high enough to qualify for some of the more rare classes such as Paladin, Cavalier, Monk or the like, be prepared for the roleplaying challenge they represent.
Hackmaster 4e is an intense and classic rewrite of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. That's one of the reasons it's so great! The spirit of the game is, though at times humorous, true blue died in the wool Gary Gygax AD&D. If you haven't had the chance to play old school D&D you are in for a real treat. A certain ethos pervades the game: let the dice fall where they may; roleplay like you mean it; and may all your hits be crits!
We are likely to have as many as nine players to start, but several are not yet finalized. No one has created characters yet, but coordinating as we go will be a good idea. That way we can make sure to have all our bases covered in terms of magic, healing, firepower, stealth and the like--although with as many as nine of us that should be fairly easy. The plan is to play at my house, as soon as our re-model is done :-) and tentatively on Saturday at 5:00 each week.
Oh, and by the way, I am very interested in eventually transitioning to Hackmaster 5e. I really like some of some of the changes they have developed and the company that owns Hackmaster is actively supporting the new edition. So maybe we could talk about changing to 5e down the road some. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Next time I'll give some basic background info on our campaign world of Aldrazar that should help you all begin to frame in your PC background. Until then!
