A Grim Hack
A downloadable TTRPG
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A Grim Hack is a Hack System for grim settings, perilous adventures, and pseudo-historical feels that wears its influences on it's sleeve. Grim Hach provides streamlined rules system based on old school Grim & Perilous Fantasy Games from the 80's and 90's. It provides the basic ruleset to get your gaming group started quickly and playing right away.
Features
- Quick - Players new to the genre don't need to spend 3 hours creating characters that might not survive the night. Great for those new to Grimdark and new to TTRPGs.
- Random Character Creation - Grim worlds mean that your characters aren't always specialized and optimized. Random generation lets you play characters you would normally shy away from.
- Lethal Combat - Combat is quick and deadly. Engage at your own peril.
- Dangerous Magic - Magic is dangerous to both mind and body. You are free to cast magic but be aware of the risks and choose widely.
- Stress, Trauma, and Injury - Stress and trauma are real consequences that your characters will have to deal with
- Flexible Magic - magic is rules light and flexible. Sample spells are included but Magic can be much more narrative focusing on desired effect and in setting difficulty.
- Straight forward d100/2d10 system where you roll under stat skill and look at the degrees of success.
The rules are straightforward with no implied setting details requiring specific mythologies or cosmologies. You will find it simple enough to incorporate mechanics and ideas from other games into this ruleset.
The players take the role of common folk pulled into something much bigger than their everyday lives. This game is not about leveling up skills and abilities to become an unstoppable force. Few characters will be accomplished fighters and even those trained in combat will find that their lives are truly at risk in a fight. While using magic won’t suddenly cause you to sprout tentacles from your back or to go instantly mad, the supernatural forces are dangerous and invoking them can result in a mental trauma or even death. This is a game about common people fighting against the impossible.
While this is an homage to the original grim fantasy of the 80s and 90s Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), most of the inspiration for this game came from the following:
- Mothership
- 17th Century Minimalist
- White Hack
- Unknown Armies
- Troika
- Cakebread & Walton’s Renaissance D100 Black Powder
A Grim Hack is Set up under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). Please take what I have here and hack it to bits, write adventures for it, or do what you like.
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Development log
- Minor Version UpdateApr 05, 2023
- Fabled MonstersMar 27, 2023
- GrimMaster ResourcesMar 16, 2023
- Upcoming NPCsMar 02, 2023
- Free City HustleFeb 25, 2023
- Go live with Exalted FuneralApr 13, 2022
Comments
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Do you plan to make corruption rules like mutations?
Thanks for asking, short answer...
Possibly?
As it is, the stress and trauma rules stand in for old-school "Insanity" mechanics. Things like corruption weren't directly part of that old-school until much later, so if you are using a setting that has corruption, you can track that on the stress tracker and simply roll on a corruption table from that setting to determine if you gain physical corruption instead of the panic & mental trauma that is included with the current rules.
However, I am finishing up a campaign model (see draft below) that sets up the characters as bounty hunters in the old world. After that, I was thinking about a follow-up campaign model that would allow for more of a Call of Cthulhu vibe, I might try to include physical corruption as part of that. Have to think more if it's going to be a good fit.
It's not my goal to remake all of a certain product but rather to provide the tools to help make those worlds more accessible and empower GMs and Players with paired-down rules to fit any low fantasy world.
I understand your point. For me, a simple rule like Shadow of the Demon Lord's corruption would work just fine.
Totally, I'm not directly familiar with SotDL's mechanics. I likely won't be able to tackle that immediately since the current module is taking longer due to work and family stuff. but I'll keep you posted. might be nice to take a break from the module and work on a corruption mechanic for the GM resources. I'll post here as things move along.
Nice. Do it in your time, without pressure. ^^
SotDL corruption rules are quite simple. Basically, when you perform evil deeds or access forbidden knowledge, you gain 1 or more corruption points. Whenever you gain corruption, roll 1d20 against the new value, if you roll lower, you gain a taint of corruption (roll on the taint table). The more corrupted the character is, the harder the social rolls are and the more attention he draws from the dark powers. Something along these lines.
one of the occupations starts with a blunderbuss. Does this use one of the already existing statblocks for the guns or is this supposed to have its own?
blunderbusses are a hybrid of pistol and carbine. I’ve used the carbine stat block but shorten the range by half
Great hack! Thanks for the CC license. I will certainly base myself on these rules to create my grimdark game.
hey that’s great please do. Drop a link here for anything you publish!
On the page with Stress 5.3, the top section of the page with the three heads that get bigger and bigger, I do believe that is the Highwayman from Darkest Dungeon, with a 98% being certain it is. Hope you have the rights to use it.
For that one, I sketched from fanart as a model, then added effects and cropped out most of the sketch. I am fairly confident that there is no IP issue with Red Hook since there is no suggestion of endorsement nor is there a suggestion of it as being "The Highway Man" and wasn't modeled off any art from the actual game. The fan art that I sketched from was 3.0 CC. I don't know if a sketch of a 3.0 CC model counts as fair use or if I'm clear but I'll reach out and see how they feel about it.
Hey, love the system! Any chance we can get a single-page version of the rules so we can print it out at home (if you're cool with that)?
the closest I have been able to condense it is to the quick reference at the end. If that works I’ll upload those as a separate sheet!
oh no sorry I mean a pdf with one page per sheet, rather than a 2 page spread per sheet, so that it can be printed in booklet format
Single Page File added with minor updates and corrections!
you're an absolute gem
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Hi Folks -life has been crazy and I'm glad I've had a few people reach out asking about supporting A Grim Hack with additional content. Long Story Short I've had a lot projects scrapped because I simply couldn't pull them together. Life got in the way after that. I'm going to set up an additional project or two in the next week where I can start actually uploading additional content A Grim Hack. First Peace will be an introductory Adventure, followed by individual entries for a bestiary. These PDF will be updated regularly and free. My goal will be to create enough content that I can start creating additional Zines for publication. Will have the first project page up later this week or next, and work on setting up a regular cadence. Thank you all for your patience.
Oh one more thing. On the Quick Reference there is a listing for Body to block damage in opposing an attack, but that doesn't seem to be explained in the combat rules?
on the Combat page (4.2) there is a section for Opposing Attacks. that you can use body to defend (Oppose the attack) and attack that fails it's opposed check is unsuccessful and thus no damage is caused. The value of opposing with Strife or Speed is that you defend/dodge and can inflict damage back/move but these are at a penalty
Ah see to me "Body Check to defend or break away from a Grapple." read as only applying to Grapples, not all attacks. I see why I was confused now.
No worries - I think I would like to do an update to the PDF soon to correct some small things like that.
There are two things I am curious about.
The first is the injuries, the Light Injury example has "00" for the botched recovery but a -5 for a recovered, should that be reversed? I know the healing arts weren't great but I wouldn't think a black eye would carry a permanent penalty.
Second, for the magic variants, the charts are askew and incomplete, and the Strange Magic title appears multiple times. Is this intentional? It's hard to understand what the intent was of including these incomplete snippets if so.
Correct - That is something that I should have caught. The -5 and 00 should be switched. Magic Variants are suggestive; the charts are moving around as an indication that things are increasingly unstable as you move toward strange magic, Its the first time I've wanted to explore more free-form layout ideas but still wanted it legible.
I bought the game (which came yesterday from EF) and was somewhat surprised that there were no examples of "Monsters" (though there is a picture of a rat, on page 7.2), and no examples of Treasure (though XP are given for cursed artifact destruction, so they must play a part in the implied world [there is an implied world, whose tone you can sense by the occupations, spells, XP awards, etc.]). Ghosts, Demons and Spirits are mentioned under the Summon Entity spell. Can you please provide three (or more) varied Monster stat blocks and descriptions as an example for us to use when crafting/designing our own monsters? What information do you write down for monsters in your own game prep? Can you elaborate on the cursed artifacts and the role they play in the game (and perhaps on treasure a well)? Thank you for your anticipated reply.
Hi, thanks for the comment. So the goal of the book is to get players up and running quickly. All the rules are focused more on the players and what they can do; less on any particular setting. Though aspects or themes of settings are mentioned because AGH is meant to hack into any setting. That being said, I'm currently working to introduce things like NPCs, Monsters, and Weapons (artifacts) through mini-settings like what you might see with "Pound of Flesh" or "Visitors Guide to Rainy City".
I'll drop some updates this week to give folks some line of sight of what I'm working on.
Thank you for the quick response. I look forward to seeing a mini-setting to get an idea of what creatures and their stats would look like in this game. By the way, is AGH OGL? I didn't see the OGL in the rulebook.
good call. I removed that page with 4.0 from the EF version to be safe. but it's still here for the itch version.
"A Grim Hack is Set up under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). Please take what I have here and hack it to bits, write adventures for it, or do what you like."
In short, please; infringe, hack, steal, and trade with others. It's my genuine hope that folks who have wanted to write adventures/modules for big name d100 systems will find AGH a viable option to write their adventures with Ratfolk, Kaos, and overthrowing the fascist empires. Nobody owes me nothing and I just want to see more creators tell their stories in low fantasy, grimdark, grubby, and perilous settings! My only ask is that you do your best to be inclusive and intersectional so that anyone can tell their stories.
Thanks again! When you finish your first mini-setting, it would be great if you would post a short note here, along with a link, so that we can get it as soon as it is available.
So if you would say use a monster guide, what game would work best in your opinion. Cause personally, having this book "for the players" is a little weak, seeing I have it in print and there was no monster creation guide, I have other smaller indie games that have at least one page for monster creation and a handful of monsters to get you started. So how about gives us a free bone for us GMs out here and then we can make the game better.
Hi - Thanks for the feedback. The goal right now is to upload 2-3 resources here on itch as free PDFs. they are excepted from the larger print version I'm trying to work through. Unfortunately, time isn't on my side, so finishing up is a bit difficult. I'll post here once they are up. It will include monsters and conversion guidelines.
Hi DMGM - I didn't answer your first question. Since the mechanics are relatively similar, you can pull monsters from games like Zweihander or WFRP. I'll be posting NPCs tonight and Basic Fantasy Creature (Dragons, Orcs, Trolls) in the next two weeks.
A question about the rules, you get 2 core actions and 1 supporting action per turn. Can both core actions be used for Agency actions, e.g. to attack twice, or is one dedicated to an Agency action and one to a Position action?
Core actions can be used for a second attack or second movement. The intent is for the GM to measure that out but effectively a core action can be used for a second attack. It kind of plays out that way anyway because attacking someone usually prompts a reaction so you can technically force a target to use all their actions reacting to attacks. so the intention was for core actions to allow flexibility and supporting actions as a buffer.
Thanks, I can see that working quite well in that having the initiative means you can force defensive reactions, but you also have the risky option of defending at -20 with a counterattack if you succeed
Loving what im reading. Can't wait to try this out when my copy from EF gets here.
Any advice on designing enemies/npcs? even just a basic stat block to get the ball rolling would be super helpful.
Hey glad to hear it! and yes!
Part of the logic behind character creation came from my frustration with enemy combatants in DnD where bland prebuilt nobodies were pitted against heroes. In A Grim Hack making an NPC is as easy as... rolling up a character!
But here are some suggestions based on what have done:
Tweak for what feels right but the basic idea is that NPCs should be similar to the characters without bogging down the game with everyone having Grit used constantly. In the system above I always start with that base of thirty because I can make up NPCs on the fly if I need to. Those that do well (and survive) in an encounter may grow along that progression if it seems appropriate and they stick around.
Another trick I like is to approximate Stress for NPCs.
At the start of an interaction roll a d10 9. If the NPC has a setback or gets hurt roll against that score. Failure means they want to extricate themselves from the situation. Critical failure may result in panic (your discretion).
I really haven't Codified these but, I am using these as a model for the mini-setting for A Grim Hack which will have a short Bestiary (because of course), and NPCs including agents for different factions.
I Hope this helps
This is perfect! thanks for the response. Great tips.
Is there any information about what the system is like? Things like what dice you roll, etc, etc.
thanks for the question. Added some info
Straight forward d100/2d10 system where you roll under stat skill and look at the degrees of success.
Ah, great. Thank you.