Intro to The Black Sword Hack (Hyborian Age)

Opening Scene:
"Know ye, that in the time between when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of Gilgamesh to the throne of Uruk, there was an age undreamed of—the Hyborian Age—an epoch of gleaming bronze and shadowed sorcery, when glaciers still gripped the northern wastes while mythical beasts lurked in the caves and forests.

On the coast of the Western Ocean sprawled the great trade cities, and perhaps none was more treacherous than Messantia, capital of Argos. Its gleaming domes and high-pillared temples rose above her thronged harbors, but beneath the gilt and incense there was a charnel reek: slums where the poor begged and starved, notorious brothels, dens of thieves and fences for their ill-gained wares, and noble houses riddled with secrets fouler than the plague.

And now, as we return to the story of our heroes, we find them slaves forced to train as gladiators in the ludus of House Valerius. Surrounded by bloodthirsty cutthroats, merciless trainers and scheming nobles, they yearn for their freedom - if only they could find a means of escape... Will the other gladiators and servants of House Valerius aid them or stand in their way?"

OSR System: The Black Sword Hack

Nominated for the Ramanan Sivaranjan Excellence in Gaming Awards, The Black Sword Hack is an "OSR-adjacent" game designed by Alexandre "Kobayashi" Jeannette and published in 2023. It's designed for running dark fantasy epics inspired by the works of the old masters of the fantasy genre, like Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, and Fritz Leiber. It evolved from an earlier OSR game, David Black's The Black Hack, but unlike its predecessor it takes several steps away from the game mechanics of original D&D. It's a classless system, and it doesn't bother with extensive lists of armor & weapons, although it offers each character a handful of special abilities. It uses rolls against the familiar 6 attributes to resolve all player actions, and it's "player-facing" which means the players rather than the GM make all the dice rolls. Options for magic use exist, but critical failures can be dangerous to the caster.

One of the game's most unique aspects is the "Doom die", which is rolled when a character repeats an action in combat, experiences a critical failure on a test, or uses a special ability that requires it. It starts as a d6, but when rolled the Doom Die will downgrade to a d4 on a roll of 1 or 2. If the Doom Die is already a d4, it's depleted on a roll of 1 or 2 - and the character is considered "Doomed" and suffers Disadvantage on all rolls until they rest.

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

Campaign Title: "The Shadow Over Messantia"

Session Number: 2 - but new players are welcome!

How To Join: Click on the Zoom link above at the scheduled date/time

*Note: We'll be playing with the more freeform "theater of mind" method, so unlike the Shadowdark games, we won't use a virtual tabletop app.

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:
If you weren't at the 1st session but want to jump in, we'll have you pick from one of the following pre-generated characters. Characters 1-4 are slave gladiators at House Valerius, while characters 5-8 are household servants (i.e. employees not slaves) for House Valerius who work at the gladiatorial school but don't train or fight in the arena, yet may still get swept up in intrigue. Several of the characters have options for changing them to fit a different culture which involves swapping their attributes or backgrounds. Feel free to personalize them a bit by changing their name & gender (sample names here), coming up with a physical description, along with some catch phrases & common gestures they use that'll help with roleplaying them, as well as sketching their backstory to explain how they ended up at House Valerius's ludus in Messantia,:

(1) Sigurd the Aesir viking:
STR 17, DEX 10, CON 12, INT 8, WIS 9, CHA 10
Backgrounds: Berserker, Raider, Vicious

• Note: For Astrid the Vanir shield maiden, swap the STR & DEX scores and swap "Berserker" for "Sword-Master"

(2) Jabari the Kushite jungle warrior:
STR 16, DEX 13, CON 11, INT 8, WIS 10, CHA 8
Backgrounds: Survivor, Wildling, Vicious

• Note: For Ashanti the Amazonian warrior, swap "Survivor" for "Hunter" and "Vicious" for "Pit-Fighter"

(3) Khalid the Turanian steppe horseman;
STR 11, DEX 16, CON 12, INT 9, WIS 11, CHA 7
Backgrounds: Hunter, Sword-Master, Cavalry*

• Note: For Rollo the disgraced Aquillonian knight, swap the STR & DEX scores and swap "Hunter" for "Legionnaire" and "Scout" for "Vicious"

(4) Valerio the Zingaran duelist:
STR 10, DEX 15, CON 12, INT 9, WIS 7, CHA 13
Backgrounds: Sword-Master, Sophist, Vicious

• Note: For Severus the Argossean retiarius who fights with a trident & net, swap swap "Sophist" for "Net-Fighter*"

(5) Aramis the Shemite healer/secret priest of Ibis:
STR 8, DEX 9, Con 10, INT 14, WIS 13, CHA 12
Backgrounds: Surgeon, Alchemist*, Changeling (True Faith, Witchsight)

• Note: For a healer who's a secret priest of Set, swap the Changeling options to Skinwalker (snake) and Barrow Wisdom

(6) Johannes the Nemedian weaponsmith:
STR 13, DEX 10, CON 9, INT 15, WIS 10, CHA 9
Backgrounds: Tinker*, Bookworm, Changeling (Faerie Ties: Cold Iron Weapon, Trollish Ruggedness)

• Note: For Tafari the Puntian artificer, swap STR & DEX and swap "Bookworm" for "Tomb Robber*" and the Changeling option "Trollish Ruggedness" for "Silversmith Sorcerer" (cast fireflies & spontaneous combustion)

(7) Miri the Zamoran gypsy cook:
STR 8, DEX 14, CON 8, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 14
Backgrounds: Storyteller, Herbalist, Evil Eye*

• Note: For a cook that's actually a spy/assassin, swap Storyteller for Street Urchin and swap Evil Eye for Snake Blood

(8) Bakumbe the Keshani beast trainer:
STR 10, DEX 13, CON 11, INT 8, WIS 15, CHA 9
Backgrounds: Scout, Cavalry*, Animal Handling*

• Note: For a beast trainer whose powers are more esoteric, swap Scout for Shaman (can summon Animal Lord & Pain spirits)

Each character's hit points will be equal to their CON, and for most of them their weapon damage - regardless of what they use - will be 1d6 (unless they have the "Vicious" background which bumps it to 1d8) and their unarmed damage will be 1d4 (unless they have the "Pit-fighter" background which bumps it to 1d6). In terms of what the various backgrounds do, check out this page - scroll down to Table 3.2.4: https://blackswordhack.github.io/3character.html

* NOTE: There's several backgrounds listed above that you won't find on Table 3.2.4, such as:
- "Cavalry" which allows you to do damage equal to STR score with melee weapons when charging on a mount, although you'll be vulnerable to double damage from "set spears" from footmen.
- "Net-Fighter" allows you to do use a net to perform several attack effects with a DEX roll from Table 2.1.10 (Entangle, Disarm) without having to roll your Doom Die - and on a Critical Roll (Natural 1) you get both effects.
- "Animal Handling" gives you Advantage on checks to calm wild animals, and enables you to train them as animal companions.
- "Tomb Robber" gives you Advantage on climbing/spelunking, finding secret doors, and finding/removing traps.
- "Evil Eye" allows you to curse enemies, causing them to get Disadvantage on all their rolls for rest of the day if they fail WIS check.
- "Alchemist" and "Tinker" aren't on the background list either, but they're just variations on the "Inventor" background which is listed. "Tinker" allows you to pick locks, design gadgets, and make high-quality weapons/armor, whereas 'Alchemist' allows you to brew various chemical concoctions like healing potions, poisons, acids, burning oil, etc. The "Twisted Science Marvels" list on Table 6.5.5 will give you some ideas of what you could create with access to a well-stocked workshop - https://blackswordhack.github.io/6darkpact.html