Intro to The Black Sword Hack (Hyborian Age)

Opening Scene:
"Know ye, that in the time between the sinking of 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 and 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. Rather than trying to replicated old-school dungeon crawls, it's designed for running dark fantasy epics inspired by the works of the old masters like Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, and Fritz Leiber. It evolved from an earlier OSR game, David Black's award-winning 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.

In terms of world building, Black Sword Hack encourages an epic clash between the forces of law and chaos, as opposed to good vs evil. The forces of law, balance & chaos intersect with the 3 possible cultural backgrounds characters start with (i.e. barbaric, civilized, decadent). The side players pick will affect their character's ultimate destiny, and may even pit them against each other.

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

Campaign Title: "The Shadow Over Messantia"

Session Number: 3 - 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 roleplaying 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. All the characters are slaves training - willingly or unwillingly - to be gladiators at the ludus (i.e. gladiatorial school) of House Valerius.

It helps to know that each fictional Hyborian Age culture is loosely based on a historic culture - see Wikipedia for parallels. Feel free to personalize your character a bit by changing their name & gender (sample names here), coming up with a physical description & approximate age, their favored deity (e.g. list of gods/goddesses here), some catch phrases (e.g. greetings or toasts in their native tongue, battle cries or curses based on their deity, nicknames for other players) and habits (e.g. facial expressions, postures & gestures, nervous tics) 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) Rasmus (a.k.a. "Raz") the fallen Ophirean noble
STR 8, DEX 13, CON 9, INT 11, WIS 9, CHA 16
Backgrounds: Sword-Master, Sophist, Changeling (Cauldron of Gold, Dwarf Deceit)

(2) Astrid the Vanir shield maiden:
STR 11, DEX 16, CON 12, INT 8, WIS 9, CHA 10
Backgrounds: Sword-Master, Raider, Vicious

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

(4) Ashanti the Amazonian warrior
STR 15, DEX 14, CON 11, INT 8, WIS 10, CHA 8
Backgrounds: Hunter, Wildling, Pit-Fighter

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

(6) Rollo the disgraced Aquillonian knight
STR 16, DEX 11, CON 12, INT 11, WIS 7, CHA 9
Backgrounds: Legionnaire, Vicious, Cavalry*

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

(8) Severus the Argossean fisherman turned retiarius (i.e. gladiator who fights with a trident & net)
STR 12, DEX 15, CON 13, INT 7, WIS 10, CHA 9
Backgrounds: Sword-Master, Net-Fighter*, Vicious

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.
- The "Changeling" options for Erasmus: "Cauldron of Gold" (gold coin that always returns to him) & "Dwarf Deceit" (advantage on lying & sneaking) - are listed on Table 6.4 - https://blackswordhack.github.io/6darkpact.html