The Red Hack

Here it is, my own set of RPG rules! It’s still far from finished, these are playtest editions and haven’t been tested, rewritten to be comprehensible, or edited - but they’ll do for use at my own table!

The system started out as a combination of The Black Hack and Old School Essentials. Back in 2020 I wanted a system for my lockdown game and had modest goals: I wanted it to be simple enough that I didn’t get a headache running it, and OSR enough that I could play all of the wonderful adventures coming out of that scene.

In the end I found I had an ideal game for new players. Character creation takes five or ten minutes, but you can still make your character unique. Play moves fast - you don’t end up spending the whole session on one combat. What complexity there is in the game is mostly pointed at the DM - players don’t need to know most of the rules.

And because it’s based on OSE - itself a direct copy of D&D as it existed in 1981 - it provides a fairly authentic experience for anyone who is coming from watching Stranger Things and wants that authentic Hellfire Club experience! In the end it provided something I’ve wanted for a long time: The D&D I loved as a kid, but without the frustration.

Which is why I refer to it as a version of D&D (at least until I have to make a version I can publish!) D&D was always something people cobbled together for themselves. The earliest editions weren’t even playable without a lot of what can generously be referred to as interpretation. Despite the best efforts of Hasbro, D&D isn’t a product, because the things that make it great have always been the things you come up with for yourselves.

But if I had to summarise the selling points of The Red Hack, I’d go with:

• Compatibility: Want to play with old modules from the 80s? Want to play Dolmenwood or Through Ultan’s Door? It works with all of them!
• Simplicity: Combat is fast and simple, procedures guide play, anything with heavier bookkeeping is relegated to downtime.
• Novelty: It’s not just a retroclone. Fighter techniques, wizard cantrips, and elaborate downtime rules differentiate it from basic D&D.
• Agency: I built this for long and player-centered campaigns. There are lots of ways to customise your character, for them to leave their mark on the world, and safety nets to avoid narratively unsatisfying character death. The simplicity of the base rules makes it easy to make exceptions when a player’s concept or story calls for one.