Here we continue our discussion of “Powers” in Hack100 – Specialities that are extraordinary or supernatural in some way – with a look at effects that temporarily transform a character. Some examples would be shapeshifting, lycanthropy or berserking. Such abilities may or may not be within the full control of a character.
As with our look at the use of spell casting in the previous blog, we’ll consider some illustrative examples.
Here we expand upon the use of Hack100’s “Powers” (i.e. Specialities that are extraordinary or supernatural in some way) by looking at a particular set of examples: spell casting.
Firstly, with regards to the specific wording of a spell caster’s Power, it is recommended that very broad definitions (e.g. “Magic”) are avoided in favour of narrower areas of focus (e.g. “Fire Magic”, “Illusionism”, “Necromancy”, etc.). This will help to keep the range of a given spell caster’s ability within well-defined boundaries, and also ensure that their magic use has a distinctive flavour.
In the previous blog on Health, we touched briefly upon the concept of “Powers“. Here we look at Powers in Hack100 in more detail.
A Power is any form of extraordinary or supernatural Specialism. Most obviously, a Power might be the ability to cast spells or perform miracles. However, Powers could also encompass a wide range of other special abilities – shapeshifting, psionics, berserking, or whatever. As with all Specialisms, Powers are Abilities that differentiate an individual from the vast majority. Unlike Specialisms, Powers go beyond rational everyday understanding.
In Release 0.03 of Hack100, I removed the rules summaries from the end of each chapter and collated them into a single document. I figured this would be more useful as a quick reference during play. Here’s a link to the new summary document:
It’s been a little while since the last release, but here’s the latest version of the Hack100 rules.
This includes two new Chapters – “Combat” and “Health” – based on recent blog posts, as well as some general tidying-up.
Loss of Health
In Hack100, there are two main ways in which a character can lose Health:
A Terminology Update
In a previous post, we discussed “Criticals” and “Fumbles“. A successful roll that is also a double (e.g. 11, 22) was said to be a “Critical”, leading to additional benefits. Conversely, a failed roll that is also a double (e.g. 99, 00) was designated a “Fumble” and something had gone badly wrong.
Whilst drafting the Hack100 rules, I’ve attempted to keep the terminology as simple, clear and jargon-free as possible. Therefore, with this in mind, I’ve decided to rename Criticals as “Major Successes” and Fumbles as “Major Failures“. I’ll use these terms moving forward, and update the compiled rules for the next release.
For those that prefer tactical combat using figures and floorplans, it’s important to have a robust set of movement rules. Hack100 offers nothing innovative in this regard. It adopts entirely standard approaches to defining how far a combatant can move each round, and how combatants engage and disengage from hand-to-hand combat.
Let’s continue our development of Hack100’s combat system by looking at how we will accommodate the effects of different weapon and armour types.
Previously, we’ve established the fundamental mechanics behind combat in Hack100 and how they build upon the game’s wider task resolution system. Missile attacks are made using a Ranged Task Roll. Close combat is resolved using an Opposed Hand-to-Hand Task Roll versus either the defender’s Hand-to-Hand Ability (an attempt to parry) or their Agility Ability (an attempt to dodge). If an attack is successful, the basic damage inflicted is equal to the tens die of the task roll.
In one of my earlier blogs, I looked at a selection of existing d100 systems – RuneQuest, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, OpenQuest, GORE and the BareBones Fantasy Role-Playing Game – in terms of the number of “characteristics” (e.g. Strength, Intelligence, etc.) and “skills” (e.g. Climb, Dodge, etc.) that they employ. In some cases, the answer was “a lot”. For example, the most recent version of RuneQuest has over 70 skills. A tendency for skill-inflation between successive versions of a game was also noted.