Diary of a Gamer 7/17/09

So last night was my first session of the new Hackmaster Basic game my group is running.

It was blast!

Character creation was a lot of fun. The stats are rolled with 3d6 so obviously they are going to be noticeably lower than your normal D&D 4d6 stats.

So how did I do?

Str 10
Int 10
Wis 15
Dex 11
Con 12
Looks 6
Cha 7

Not terrible, but certainly nothing to write home about. Fortunately Hackmaster Basic gives you some option as far as your stats go. The first thing I did was swap Strength and Wisdom since I wanted to play a fighter. Later on I was able to add to my scores by using building points. For my race I selected DWARF! This means, in addition to playing my character with an annoying accent, that I got a +4 to my CON and a -2 to both Looks and CHA. In the end my abilities looked like this.

Str 16
Int 10
Wis 10
Dex 12
Con 17
Lks 4
Cha 3

Which made my character about as ugly and unlovable as you can get. That worked for me though, I wanted to play a pretty standard surly Dwarf, who need Looks or Charisma?

The Answer? Anyone who cares about their starting honor. Mine suffered a massive penalty because of my far below average score in those stats. Unfortunately that meant that I began the game in the dreaded dishonorable category. I was to suffer a blanket -1 to all die rolls.

Let me tell ya... that sucked.

I used the rest of my BP getting my Fighter ready to... fight. I purchased a number of fighter related talents (and got them half off because I was a Dwarf), and did as much specializing in the battle axe as I could afford. I didn't have many skills, but dammit, I was a ready for when a fight broke out!

The rest of the party consisted of a Dwarven Cleric, a Human Cleric, a Human Mage, and a Halfling Thief. This was good as we had all the classes covered and even had an extra cleric, which is always a good thing. We had three of the four races covered, but no elves. One of the regulars from our group was absent for the game, so I kind of hope he plays an Elf so we can get a look at all four available races in HMB.

We moved straight from character creation to beginning play in the small town of View. We were sent by a local artist to recover some cargo he had shipped via caravan to him, but was lost somewhere along the road to the town. We followed his directions and found the broken down caravan with signs of battle. As we investigated to find who had attack the caravan we were set upon by wolves.

I was eager for a fight wanting to give both the fresh combat rules, and my new Dwarven Fighter (Gorman MacGregor by name) a test run. Neither Gorman nor the rules disappointed. Battles in Hackmaster Basic run smooth and are very active. There is a lot of tactical movement around the battlefield, but it doesn't slow down gameplay. I was forced to use the aggressive attack option several times in this battle, mostly because my dice we failing me big time. Fortunately my armor and shield protected me from the minimal damage the wolves were putting out.

After finishing off the animals we tracked the caravan raiders to a cave not far off. The cave was home to five Kobolds who had raided the caravan and took the goods for themselves. We entered the cave intent on getting the goods back and handing out some justice. Unfortunately the Kobolds were ready for us and our Mage took several arrows in the chest in the opening volley. He was dead before he hit the ground. The rest of us managed to finish off the kobolds and returned successfully to View.

We wrapped up the game there, but not before treasure, xp, and honor were handed out. The best part? I got out of the dishonorable category. Woohoo no more -1 to all die rolls!

Overall I had a great time playing Hackmaster Basic, as did the other members of my group. I am looking forward to next week when we will resume the game and will introduce two new PCs to the group. Stay tunes for next week's diary entry as well as Revil's GM perspective article!