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Raskal RPG: Black Sword Hack


Kobayashi is the Swords of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion saga, Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane, and also the Cycle of Fritz Leiber.
I have a rather ambiguous relationship with The Black Hack, a game that I want to love (I attended the correction of its translation in French) but there are too many small things in the game that I dislike and make me happy to play (the amplitude of features that have a big impact in a game) roll under, armor management, 2. DEATH SELL ability, …). Kobayashi released Extinction, which provided some nice tweaks, so it was natural for me to be interested in this game. Dark fantasy.

The game is 75 pages long for just over $ 4. It is in black and white color, with pictures that adjust the mood well. The layout (similar to Extinction) is restrained and effective. The book goes straight to the point and we immediately understand where the author came from. To this should be added all the Black Hack settings made by Kobayashi which greatly improved the original (for me), such as tighter features or a more efficient armor and shield management. The game offers everything you need to encourage immersion. Doom Die “very dark” effects, good tone of old careers with a cultural origin, a combination of runic weapons, demons and spirits (we can do Strombringer), as well as creating slightly distorted scientific wonders (for the Hawkmoon gamer) and as PCs progress in experience Libra, Law or Chaos allegiance to the (Eternal Champion). Everything is simple, explained in a few words and elegant.

I still don’t like weapons that do the same damage (1d6 by default) and I find it unfortunate that the THREAT LEVEL only applies when it is weaker than the PC opponent. dark heroes.

In the end, I don’t know if this game is the best version of Black Hack, but my preferred game (in a universe fantasy).