Hey there Cats and kittens!

Hey there Cats and kittens!
Old Uncle Jon has a bit of wonderment for you today

This time it comes in the form of a simple 2 die RPG.

The Indie Hack is a derivation on the quick rule set of The Black Hack. But it takes it ease of play and creativity one step further.

The Devil’s in the Details.

For those of you out there who are fans of FATE, this should be fairly familiar. Each item, player, NPC and scene is full of details. Details that simply paint a picture of the world around you and details that change the face of combat or interaction.

These details come in 3 different flavors with your choice of Positive or Negative just like a good desktop power supply.

Hard Details – Are damage or other things that fundamentally change the face of a situation.

Soft Details – Are temporary or superficial changes.

Scene Details – Are details that change the world around you and can shape tactics and situations.

During combat tests rolls determine who sets new details each round. From adding a chandelier above a sword fight to dropping said chandelier on top of an opponent during the heat of battle.

All of this is clearly and simply illustrated in the text and it seems to me to be one of the easier systems to get new players to wrap their heads around.

Character creation and game play are so simple that they will make pick up games a breeze.

The in game currency is called “Jingle”. Much like in Apocalypse World currency is anything with intrinsic or extrinsic worth. Taking the focus off of accounting and moving it to the realm of barter and haggle. Not haggling on a daily basis is a new invention of the bar code age. This system brings back the offer and reply that ran economies ever since strangers meet to exchange this for that. It requires more role playing than simply exchanging gold pieces.

Death and Dying.

Once you have been beaten to death by your favorite monsters. The game doesn’t end, but leads you to something akin to the fates. They are called “The Child, The Mother, The Crone” each of them will ask for something in return to sending you back to the realms of the living.

Making your very own PC.

7 sample character classes are offered covering your standard fantasy fare. But the classes are so very basic that it shouldn’t take a trained gamer much more than 10 minutes to create their own.


Men and Monsters.

The book ends with some advanced rules and advice about how to run a good game and campaign. Using the same rules I have used for decades for advancement of players. The “Why should you level up?”advancement system of bragging and achievement.

A few templates for making the monsters you wish to kill your party with, show how easy it is to grab any fantasy monster manual and get down to business.

A note on Art.
The art in this slim book is fantastic and extraordinarily evocative. It isn’t everyday that a book seems to get the art so spot on. But this is one of them that does it very well.

After reading and re-reading this. I know that I am not doing the game justice with my review. It is far better written than I could hope to emulate. So if nothing above has made you want to go out and pick up a copy. Let this, go out and get it. Run it and see. It’s worth the money.