Intro to The Black Sword Hack (Hyborian Age)

Introduction:
"Know, O adventurer, that in the time between the drowning of Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of—the Hyborian Age—an era of gleaming bronze and shadowed sorcery. The world was riven by warlords and haunted by elder gods, and kingdoms flared like fire and then crumbled into dust. On the coast of the Western Ocean sprawled the great trade cities, and perhaps none was more treacherous than Messantia, capital of Argos. Its gilded towers and opulent bazaars mask a festering underbelly of slums and slave markets. And now, in the dank prison cells beneath the Temple of Law, you and your fellow convicts await your sentencing in the Pit. It is a name whispered in fear, where doomed men kill each other for the amusement of the city's rich merchants and jaded nobility, all under the guise of 'justice'..."

Setting: Robert E. Howard's "Hyborian Age" from the Conan stories

OSR System: The Black Sword Hack

What You'll Need:

1. Your imagination & whatever acting skills you can muster
2. A printed copy of the The Black Sword Hack character sheet with Quick Rules - https://uristmacitchio.itch.io/black-sword-hack-character-sheet-quick-rules
3. Set of standard RPG dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) or online dice simulator - https://tacticaltokens.com/dice-roller/
4. Zoom app (free for users) - https://zoom.us/download

Useful But Not Necessary:
> The Hyborian Age map - https://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2009/07/map-of-hyborian-age.html

How to Prepare:
You'll need to create a character prior to our session. You can find the Black Sword Hack rules for character creation here - https://blackswordhack.github.io/3character.html

It's a simple 4-step process:

1. Determine Your Attributes:
   As with D&D, there's 6 stats that define your character: Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), Charisma (CHA). Although the rules say to roll dice to determine your attribute scores, I want everyone to start on an equal footing, so just allot the following scores as you see fit: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. You'll get some bonuses to these stats in Step 3.
2. Choose Your Origin, Culture & Name:
   Black Sword Hack has you pick one of the following origins for your character: Barbarian, Civilised, or Decadent. Next, you'll pick a Hyborian Age culture that matches your origin.
   * If you're a barbarian, choose either Pictish (tribal forest dwellers), Cimmerian (highland clans), Hyrkanian (nomadic horse-archers), or Kushite (jungle hunters).
   * If you're civilized, choose either Aquilonian (fertile valley dwellers), Corinthian (mercantile city-states), Shemite (desert traders), or Zingaran (able seafarers).
   * If you're decadent, choose either Stygian (snake god cultists), Zamoran (urban thieves/assassins), Vendhyan (Eastern mystics), or Hyperborean (wizard-ruled northerners).
   > Lastly, pick a name that sounds at least somewhat appropriate to your culture - for inspiration, check these sample names: https://hyboria.xoth.net/rules/sample_names.htm
3. Choose Your Background:
   Pick three backgrounds: two tied to your origin and another one from any list. Backgrounds raise one of your attributes and have mechanical effects; they can also help define your character’s motivations, potential allies & enemies, etc. Please try to pick backgrounds that jive with the Hyborian Age culture you chose above, and pick ones that make sense together thematically rather than trying to optimize your character for gameplay.
   NOTE: You can only choose one background that allows your character to engage in sorcery, demon pacts, spirit alliances, faerie ties, or twisted science - you can't choose 2 or more. To learn more and see the options, you'll need to consult these tables to determine what you can do - https://blackswordhack.github.io/6darkpact.html
4. Record Your Hit Points, Doom Die, and Damage Types:
   - Your hit points (HP) total is equal to your CON score. All characters start with Ud6 as their Doom die. Characters start with 1d6 weapon damage and 1d4 unarmed damage.
5. Record Your Starting Equipment:
   - As a slave about to be thrown into the gladiator pits, you'll begin with no money, light armor (reduce damage your take by 1), a dagger, and another weapon based on your civilization type - roll 1d10 and consult Table 4.4: https://blackswordhack.github.io/4equipment.html
   - Note: If you got a one-handed weapon, you also get a shield which offers advantage on parry rolls. If you got a two-handed weapon, you don't get a shield but you get advantage on damage rolls. If you got some type of bow, you get 12 arrows. If you rolled a 0, you get a special one-handed weapon (but no shield) based on your civilization type that does only 1d4 damage but gives you a special effect without needing a Doom roll: barbarians get a burning torch (causes extra Ud4 ongoing damage), civilized folk get a parrying dagger that disarms (enemy's reduced to 1d4 unarmed damage), and decadents get a whip that entangles (other attacks on this enemy get advantage).