HackRight

[Trithemius]

Fearless_Leader:

> Even if WotC started putting out BR again, I wouldn`t be entirely happy

> unless all the old authors were working on it.



Looks like some of us are out of luck then...

They`d probably not enjoy me pimping other people`s game rules *anyway* :D



> In my mind, BR has creatively expanded a great deal since its cancellation

> largely because its been in the hands of the fans. For example, a great deal

> of about Anuirean society has been worked out by a number of fans, including

> myself.



Hear! Hear!

I personally spend more time pondering the intricacies of the BR-L archives

than I do the PSes these days.



> As well, now that this is happening, I have to seriously question the

> future of the whole BRCS and d20 Atlas project. Will WotC allow us to

> continue? Will any product we produce no longer be "official"

> but simply be fan produced fiction (and thus no longer allowing us the

> use of copy-righted material)? Will a seperate and completely new BR

> community growing up around the Hackmaster game eventually drain this

> one and eventually kill it?



Is Kenzer buying the whole ex-TSR back catalogue of BR stuff too?

That`s interesting...

I`m not particularly worried if my work on BR is considered to be "fan"

or "home rules"; codfication of several people`s "home-rules" is all that

campaign setting really is anyway. Official badges are nice, but lack of them

will not stop me playing and thinking about BR; or using the books that I

purchased to support my playing and thinking.



--

John Machin

(trithemius@paradise.net.nz)

-----------------------------------------------------

"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."

-----------------------------------------------------

- Athanasius Kircher, `The Great Art of Knowledge`.

[Trithemius]

Gary:

> It`d make the current round of record companies suing individual

> Internet users for downloading MP3`s look like a cake walk.



An interesting OT aside: A British music company (and one of my favourite

producers of music) Warp Records recently released their catalogue as higher

than normal quality MP3s through an online store. They have no copy-protection

mechanisms used at all because, so they say, they do not wish to treat their

consumers like potential criminals. They say that they hope that the

opportunity to buy cds in this format, and to buy single tracks, will encourage

their listeners to not steal music, but instead buy it easily online directly

from them.



> In the long run, if the Hackmaster version of things becomes more

> popular then that really only justifies the decision to go with an open source

> philosophy for the material in the first place. I don`t think we should

> worry overmuch about the actual game mechanics applied to the setting

> itself, since individuals can (and have) already applied a wide variety

> of rules to the setting in the BR community. It seems unlikely that such a

> trend will stop because of yet another set of rules being used.

> Hackmaster stuff may become dominant (though, I somehow doubt it) but on the

> whole the BR community itself doesn`t really suffer for that.



Indeed. Some of us were talking about weird things even back in 2e days! I`d

welcome any new products as fuel for the fires, but I don`t anticipate dropping

all my own efforts to date just because a new edition is produced by

sonmeone. ;)



--

John Machin

(trithemius@paradise.net.nz)

-----------------------------------------------------

"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."

-----------------------------------------------------

- Athanasius Kircher, `The Great Art of Knowledge`.

[Trithemius]

Kenneth Gauck:

> There are a lot of things that could happen, but I find it hard to

> believe that new players who discover a "HackRight" would simply ignore this

> community entirely. Star Trek has gone through FASA, Last Unicorn, and

> is now with Decipher and its fans just adapt to new role playing systems.

> Some play the old FASA system, some play the new Decipher system, and so

> forth, but that`s hardly something we would balk at. There is only one

> official BR product in one system, but players who frequent this forum play

> other systems and some have kept the setting current with a conversion to 3.x.

> If you wanted to start a BR discussion on most standard game systems

> someone would be here to tell you that they started working on it (and

> probably never got finished). What is one more system? We are hardly system

> specific. So what if one more system gets added to the mix. If it draws

> new people to the BR that we know. If the new people don`t like what`s

> going on here, we know its a Shadow World phenomena, and that it

> heralds Azrai`s Return. Have a nice day.



FASA Star Trek is a Shadow World phenomenon. I had a six hour game of it once,

a while back... hold on... it wasn`t a game - it was character creation. And I

don`t mean I spent six hours writing my background either.



To drag myself back on topic; what other systems have people tried to `port BR

to? I have thought about Ars Magic (shock!); Hero Wars/Quest; BRP; -Storyteller

System-; and various homebrews. None of them ever got completely finished. How

about the rest of you? I remember Lyndon B. talking about Pendragon ages ago...



--

John Machin

(trithemius@paradise.net.nz)

-----------------------------------------------------

"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."

-----------------------------------------------------

- Athanasius Kircher, `The Great Art of Knowledge`.

[Trithemius]

Does anyone know much about the guys behind Kenzer Co?

Are they hiring? ;D



But really, perhaps if someone could drop them a line or hit their forums (if

they have them) with some good questions we could find out whether we need to

be happy or terrified.



I might go see what I can find out myself, before the university decides I have

had enough internet for the day...



--

John Machin

(trithemius@paradise.net.nz)

-----------------------------------------------------

"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."

-----------------------------------------------------

- Athanasius Kircher, `The Great Art of Knowledge`.

[Don E]

I don't think there is all that much to worry about. Personally I would like to see more products for BR made no matter the rules system. Kenzer has also made a ravenloft product, without that stopping Arthaus from publishing lots of products for it. Most likely this will not mount to more than one book for Hackmaster (I hope I'm wrong), and Brithright will fall back into the obscurity of the fan domain.

Cheers,
Don E

[Birthright-L]

----- Original Message -----

From: "Don E" <brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET>

To: <BIRTHRIGHT-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM>

Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 6:56 AM

Subject: Re: [BIRTHRIGHT] HackRight [2#2253]





> This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.

> You can view the entire thread at:

> http://www.birthright.net/forums/ind...=ST&f=2&t=2253

>

> Don E wrote:

> I don`t think there is all that much to worry about. Personally I would

like to see more products for BR made no matter the rules system. Kenzer has

also made a ravenloft product, without that stopping Arthaus from publishing

lots of products for it. Most likely this will not mount to more than one

book for Hackmaster (I hope I`m wrong), and Brithright will fall back into

the obscurity of the fan domain.

>





Does anyone know how much Hackright is Birthright--my suspicion of slight

parody makes it completely not useable for me and has no interest but if it

is Birthright without parody--then perhaps it will be worthwhile.



(Although personallly I find the humor inherent in Hackmaster rather

juvenile.)

[DanMcSorley]

On Sun, 8 Feb 2004, John Machin wrote:

> To drag myself back on topic; what other systems have people tried to

> `port BR to? I have thought about Ars Magic (shock!); Hero Wars/Quest;

> BRP; -Storyteller System-; and various homebrews. None of them ever got

> completely finished. How about the rest of you? I remember Lyndon B.

> talking about Pendragon ages ago...



I think an interesting BR-type game could be done with Exalted, which is a

second or third generation version of the storyteller games. Characters

in exalted are heros imbued by the gods with magical powers. Change it to

be hereditary, and you`ve pretty much got the BR setup. Actually, the

Dragon-blooded in exalted are hereditary, but I find the Solars more fun

to play with.



It`s already got semi-builtin systems for handling domains, too; a

combination of the Resources trait, to handle money income, and treating

the population as a version of the Cult trait, which lets you regain

Essense (magical energy, used for powers) for having followers, and you`re

about set. It`s rather more abstract than BR itself, but the focus in

exalted is rather less on micromanagement, and more on crazy heroic

action.



I`d need to do some charm trees for domain level stuff, but that wouldn`t

be a problem really.



There`s a book coming up for it that is supposed to have mass combat

rules, too.



Hmm. I may have to put more thought into this.

--

Daniel McSorley

[Birthright-L]

----- Original Message -----

From: "Daniel McSorley" <mcsorley@OKKOD.PAIR.COM>

To: <BIRTHRIGHT-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM>

Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 1:17 PM

Subject: Re: [BIRTHRIGHT] HackRight [2#2253]





> On Sun, 8 Feb 2004, John Machin wrote:

> > To drag myself back on topic; what other systems have people tried to

> > `port BR to? I have thought about Ars Magic (shock!); Hero Wars/Quest;

> > BRP; -Storyteller System-; and various homebrews. None of them ever got

> > completely finished. How about the rest of you? I remember Lyndon B.

> > talking about Pendragon ages ago...

>



Pendragon would probably be pretty decent. I`ve done some work on Gurps

(using Gurps Supers for Blood Powers), and have been working on my private

Birthright Saga (I`m trying to find enough in game book art that prints

cleanly enough to make cards..all for only my own use of course.) I like

Saga but adapted it having two suits per archetype (Warriors, Keeps being

one set based on combat and defence. Wizards/Towers, magic and learning,

Priests/Temples, Faith and Community, and Rogues/Guilds for stealth and

commerce...





Someday I will finish it :)

[Lee]

In a message dated 2/7/04 8:37:12 PM Eastern Standard Time,

trithemius@PARADISE.NET.NZ writes:



<< Indeed. Some of us were talking about weird things even back in 2e days!

I`d

welcome any new products as fuel for the fires, but I don`t anticipate

dropping

all my own efforts to date just because a new edition is produced by

sonmeone. ;) >>



Hear, hear. If there are new BR products coming, great! If it turns out

they suck (and we`ll hear about it here), well, then I won`t buy them. Enough

people do that, and it`s back to being a fan-only world again.



Lee.

[Arjan]

Originally posted by Elton Robb@Feb 7 2004, 02:55 AM
Here&#39;s something I found on Wizards Chat, and KenzerCo&#39;s catalog. I&#39;m very angry now.
=================================
I think Kenzer & Co. got the license but is using it to expand their Hackmaster line. You guessed it, it&#39;s called Hackright.

I swear (but not profanely), what was thought to be a parody that was based on a fictional RPG from their long-running comic book ("Knights of the Dinner Table") is seriously becoming a legitimate game product.
===============================================
From K&C catalogue

HackRight K&C2123 &#036;34.99 WRITING

I talked to Foundry Dwarf (kenzo staff) a while ago (may 2003) when i found a Post on kenzo&#39;s forum.

i just went there again and found out that A freelancer &#33;?&#33; took the stuff made by Dwarf, and made a new manuscript using HackMaster rules.

Further i have no idea of it, i havnt been contacted or so what.

A.