Black Sword Hack RPG | Review and Page-Through

[@MrRourk]

There is a kickstarter for a new 2nd Edition of this Game. The new book looks very impressive

[@LightbulbUK]

There's revised edition being produced going through kickstarter now with new art.

[@ebrim5013]

Love Black Sword Hack. Good review! The game plays like a charm and I like this classless take on Black Hack. Plus doom makes a really fun blackjack-esque mechanic. As you say, the physical product is pretty meh but I like reading books over PDFs. On the plus side it’s cheap and on the downside it’s cheap. 😉

[@Thegaminggang]

I have to laugh at the "plus side - cheap and downside - cheap" comment; it really does sum things up! ~ Jeff

[@RottenMechGaming]

Great to see you advocating for mask wearing. Although this was 2 years ago! I now just took delivery of the deluxe version of Black Sword. Will be doing a little review myself as a long-term player of the old Chaosium Elric and Hawkmoon I am keen to get back into that epic hero dealing with Gods and big demons. 😊

[@malcomalexander9437]

Jerry Cornelius is sci-fi, but Moorcock didn't limit the Eternal Champion to just fantasy.

[@marcoantoniosalazarmatamor9496]

Awesome read through.

[@Thegaminggang]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@sethpeterson8261]

So I picked this up, and maybe I'm missing something, but the combat/test mechanics seems broken as printed (and you skipped over them in this review) Now it never actually explains it in the instructions, but it seems enemies never roll dice, only PCs do. To Attack/hit you roll under your own strength. To parry you also roll under your own strength. Or you can dodge by rolling under your own DEX. Enemies have no stats at all, no differing attack or defense values. All enemies of the same level have the exact same hit points, are all exactly the same difficulty to hit and defend and even that number to roll under is exactly the same because it's your own Strength attribute. So there is no meaningful variety in enemies other than level and their attacks/damage. So if you have a strength of 10 and Melee a level 4 Giant Serpent you will always hit it by rolling under 10, always defend against it by rolling under 10 and it will always have 20hp. And fighting a level 4 Shaman would be exactly the same. Same with a level 4 Abbot. Or a level 4 Centurion. As would any other level 4 creature. All the same to hit, same to parry, same hit points etc... only their attacks/damage and minor Ai changes. There's mostly a lack of game in this game.

[@Thegaminggang]

As I mentioned in the video, this takes a very minimal approach - being based on The Black Hack is the first clue - and that is certainly not everyone's bag of tricks. ~ Jeff

[@JakubWojtowitz]

How is it broken? Only Player Characters roll for defense and for attack it is very clear in the rulebook. Enemies have differing actions - do you even look at chapter Bestiary (page 52)? There are enemies which can damage Your DOOM die or call for reinforcements, some have area attacks and some can buff their allies.

[@sethpeterson8261]

You're right. Broken was the wrong word to use. The rules work perfectly fine. Don't get me wrong, I love how concise and to the point Black Sword is written & worded, I love the theme. There is some really cool stuff in here. Black Hack is also a great, very elegant rules system... Both are cool, I like most everything about them. It's that I think they really drop the ball when it comes to combat. How PC's roll for both Attack & Defense is great, a system I love. The problem I see is how static the mechanics are here. You roll against a single stat (Strength) for both Attack & Defense so the base odds for both are the same. No variety in being better at attacking vs defending (other than the Swordmaster background/shields). OK, a single combat "skill" that encompasses both is totally fine (that's how most games are) as variety in attack/defense can be modified in other ways to show differences in enemy Difficulty/Skill/size/power/danger etc... But there isn't (other than fixed Threat level). There is no allowance for enemy ability or skill even being a part of the equation. So it doesn't matter if I'm fighting a slow turtle beast, a fast flying vulture, an insect master, a ghost soldier, a novice monk, a mercenary archer etc... big, small, fat, slow, trained, fodder, still, nimble, armored, naked, if it should be highly dangerous or should be completely harmless in a fight... They are all effectively, mechanically identical to hit or parry. No harder, no easier, no different other than a static threat level mod if they're a higher level. The difference between them is generally just the damage they do and a special abilities or two, some of which can be pretty cool and different like you mentioned. But the actual dice rolling combat mechanics themselves make them all feel the same. A minimal rules approach is awesome. For example Mork Borg also uses the same PC's roll for Attack & Defense system. However you use different stats for each (giving more character/skill variance right off the bat). Plus monsters skill/speed/size/deadliness matters too so it could be easier to hit but harder to defend against, plus have armor that isn't just HP, plus damage differences, plus their own special abilities, plus other potential modifiers that can make each encounter & creature feel different, with different odds and different results. Another example might be ICRpg which is also dead simple using a static Difficulty number for everything in the room, but things can still be easier/harder to hit, different to defend against, plus abilities, damage differences, variety in PC's different effort etc... That's all I was getting at. And yes all of this could be easily fixed simply by the GM giving modifiers as needed or house rules to make monsters feel alive (This ninja is fast as hell so you attack at -1 and defend at -6). Also my fault as I was thinking if someone made a hack of Black Hack, the first thing they'd improve was the combat so I was looking forward to that. Ha!

[@JakubWojtowitz]

​@@sethpeterson8261 you can Dodge even melee attacks with yout Dexterity, and You can also attack by it with Swordmaster background. Strength is one of the most useless attribute outside of combat. And combat is deadly enough to encourage players to avoid it. You can easly difference enemies by giving them vulnerabilities and restistances. Larger creatures could have attacks which characters can only dodge. If you want quick enemy instead of modifiers give disadvantage for Initiative and Attacks. Armor as HP bonus is simplicity but don't forget that Player Characters have way less HP than in Black Hack and enemies don't roll for damage, giving them damage reduction would be deadly for players. Stat blocks for enemies are great for making them on fly. This system is super flexible, but like most of OSR it is intended for more experienced Game Masters. I understand that You can dislike some simplifications but with some creativity You can make any monster or enemy You like. Combat is more complex than in The Black Hack, you have weapon effects and different powers (Demons, Spirits, Spells). You can't use the same action twice without testing Your DOOM die - there is space for some tactics. I have played three sessions in BSH as a GM and all my players had a blast. Rules are simple with lots of fun stuff and flexibilty and they have more crunch than The Black Hack or Mork Borg.