Great game - a unique theme for an RPG, and one that resonates strongly due to having read the same books as those that inspired this.

Just curious as to why the 'Waifs' PC character option didn't make it into The Hedgerow Hack 2ed?

And a 'Pursuit Die' and 'Malignity Die' are mentioned, but not explained - did these get superseded by other rules in the 2ed version?

At long last someone has written a cross-over worlds FRPG - and it's fantastic!

Superb and concise game using the easy-to-learn, quick-to-the-table, simple-yet-sufficiently-crunchy Black Hack system where you play a 'Briar Knight' fighting on the side of The Light.

If you grew up enthralled by the writing of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper, then this will be right up your street – a classic ‘The Light vs The Dark’ theme set in various times in history in the ‘real’ world and all steeped in rich British folklore.

But it’s not the mechanics that make this game what it is, it’s the wonderfully evocative character classes, spells, lore, magic, and adversaries to match that the author's created – it’s a pretty remarkable achievement and feels so faithful to the books and films that he lists as having inspired him. As soon as I read his Fen Orc blog post, ‘Through The Hedgerow We Go’, I knew that this was going to be exactly what I’d always wanted - he captures perfectly the sense one has as a child that doorways to other times/places could exist in everyday forgotten/ neglected/ hidden places – and that they could be just down any old unprepossessing overgrown pathway; the origin story of the Hedgerow Hack is a great read too – it’s on another of the blog posts – ‘A World Without (Too Much) Violence’ – and is well worth a look.

I got the PDF, then I bought the hardback book: buy it, it’s a lovely bit of work – remarkably compact (when you think of how big and bulky some game rulebooks are...), nicely bound, and far easier to read than any screen.

If you like/love the setting then I cannot urge you strongly enough to check out his ‘Through The Hedgerow’ RPG book (the same ideas and setting within a different rules set) – it is AB-SO-LUTE-LY BEAUTIFUL! What a gorgeous piece of work the publishers, Osprey, have done with this – the book’s font, layout, and graphic design are of the highest quality and lend so much to the feel of overall product. The numerous panels of full-colour artwork featured in the book are worth the price of admission alone – unbelievably evocative work from Peter Johnston, which adds so much to the overall feel of this richly flavourful world that Jonathan Rowe has created and detailed; and JR’s accompanying panels of story excerpts are just brilliant (when is the Through The Hedgerow novel coming out?...). The rules are completely different here – they're an innovative set of rules that are uniquely well-suited to his setting and strong ethos of de-centralised violence (“story-telling, not gory-telling”, if you will) – creating a drama-driven game which is masterfully well-balanced and nuanced, and engages the players to describe the unfolding drama of what they are doing.

It's pretty mind-blowing that someone can just come up with not only all of the rich lore and detail of the settings and characters, but also an entirely novel game mechanic framework to fit it all around. Even if I never get the time or opportunity to play this game I will always love just reading through this book – the ingenious rules combined with sumptuous art make it a total work of art. It really does add so much to The Hedgerow Hack in terms of flavour that you should treat it as something of a sourcebook for it – even if you're using The Hedgerow Hack rules - when I read it I just wanted to play it immediately!

Just good fun un the countryside. The adventures with this game are a lovely mix of sinister and whimsy.

Phenomenal implementation of The Black Hack. The openness and flexibility of the setting is a great asset.

I really appreciate The Vampyr Hack beause it is basically a streamlined engine swap for Vampire the Masquerade. It exchanges White Wolf's Storyteller System with a concise OSR alternative that is based heavily on The Blood Hack (a shorter, less expansive, but solid work that is itself based on The Black Hack). The Pre-5th Edition VtM lore has been ported over in broad strokes, mostly untouched, with just the serial numbers filed off. There are a few interesting changes here and there which I tend to agree with and these do have mechanical impacts. Anyone who is less of a fan may have to do some fiddling. Almost all of the fluff has been cut out in favor of mechanical clarity and can be supplemented back in with very little effort.

Here are the mechanical changes that most stood out to me: -Not-blood points, ammo counts, armor degredation, not-Humanity loss, and so on are each handled with their own individual useage die that shrinks or grows in size (d4 through d20) depending on what numbers are rolled. This scheme is especially rough for a 1st-3rd level vampire because their blood useage die is only a d4. Rolling the two highest numbers means the die shrinks by one size--down to zero, in this case. So the vampire has a 50% chance of exhausting their blood supply every time they have to roll it. This can be mitigated by drinking enough blood to temporarily boost their useage die size up to d6, which is a useful workaround. -The Discipline alternatives--Blood Gifts--either stand on their own or have three upgrade tiers maximum. Since the mounting effects are not distributed across five dots, to me they come across as more potent. Each vampire inherits their not-Clan's unique Blood Gift that automatically upgrades as they level up. The other two Blood Gifts are chosen freely from a general pool, granting each vampire a good deal of flexibility. More Blood Gifts are gained as the vampire levels up and some of them reflect powers seen in other vampire lore, such as flight or telekinesis. A vampire's generation--and thus their maximum level--can be raised with a Blood Gift or through not-diablerie committed while playing.

Overall, I think this is a very solid product and worth a look for anyone who might want a lighter VtM experience. However, I cannot give the full five star rating it would otherwise deserve because of one big fat glaring problem: No PDF bookmarks. Their omission is a strange decision which lowers the quality of not only The Vampyre Hack but its two expansion books as well. If the problem is ever rectified, I would be happy to revise my review.

Mage Hack is an urban fantasy game that has some really interesting looking mechanics and ideas. Playing on the idea of a flexible magic system in which you can do pretty much anything and running with it. 

The rules seem pretty good and are very light overall. Character creation is fast and easy with most emphasis focused on the characters magic. 

The majority of the rules focus on magic. For the magic rules I love the philosophy system which allows for the creation of any kind of magic user. Be they wizards in a tower, mad scientists, or secretive witches. The magic relies on a charge system where you roll to collect charges for your spells. The magic is flexible and diverse relying on creating spells in six magical schools which align with each of your stats. Where as far as I read your character could do anything if they had enough time and reached a high enough level. 

Overall I like the magic system. It's flexible giving your characters the ability to cast whatever spells they want and while somewhat complicated is fairly easy to manage once you get the hang of it. 

I do dislike that character creation requires rolling for stats and no alternatives to doing so are provided. But I understand that this is based on the black hack which is in tern based on 1970s role-playing games so I suppose that it's expected. 

The game is generic and has little in the way of setting. Though it does have some rules on other worlds and possible antagonists such as an invasion of fairies or aliens. It can be used for pretty much any urban fantasy setting so long as your ok with extremely freeform magic. It does however seem at times that the game was designed to be "mage the ascension, with better rules" especially considering the philosophy examples seem to be the 9 traditions with the serial numbers filed off. I do feel like a good setting could be made from this though and overall I think it's a good system to work with if you like flexible urban magic. 

This RPG in a word is quite original and throws you into the fray with a chance to role-play dimension travelling scarecrows, beaked men, tinkers, magic casters, and adventurers in a land that is connected closely to the folkloric other world with light and dark creatures and demi-humans. The reader is introduced to a setting of English hedgroves with portals that may mysteriously open into another time or place where you are called on to over overcome some fearsome evil. It has overtones of Narnia, but also could be suitable for games of a darker nature with adults. I look forward to seeing more developed for this series - particularly a setting or an adventure.

An interesting idea here roleplaying ghosts in a world where both the living and the dead pose a threat to your undead existance.

The dice mechanic is the most interesting thing here, where the die you roll to influence the game changes to reflect fatigue or power loss. This seems an excellent way to reflect your efforts and will give a sense that your actions have consequences, rather than simply running out of magic or being able to swing a sword infinately like in other RPGs.

I've only read this book, so I can't say if this is its own game or a supplement to a larger game system, but The Ghost Hack reads more in line with an instrcution manual than a book that gives you a big insight into the world in which it is set. This isn't a bad thing if you like to homebrew based on good mechanics, but I felt after reading it that I wanted to understand how the afterlife works, what are the undead locations like? How do some of these rules work in a scenario? So perhaps this last point is where this book could have shined further, and a scenario or adventure included in the book with the rules to demonstrate the potential here would have been welcome.

I like the black and white art inside the book, giving a creepy theme that matches the subject matter, which also has callbacks to classic RPG books from the 70's and 80's.

well worth chucking a few shekels at. something will catch your eye or at the least give you some cool concepts to work off. hope there's going to be another volume....

Nice work, fits well with original. Surprisingly good for a free product. 5/5

Excellent product.

All the flavour you want without obstructive mechanics. This is a game that has it’s focus set on telling compelling, emotional tales. It’s all roleplay over rollplay, I highly recommend the “Hell hath no fury” adventure to get your feet wet. That will take you along all the important points of the system and clarifies any ambiguity you might have.

Cannot recommend enough.

Been following the blog for a long time, saw these as they were posted. Great to have them all contained in one slick volume.

If you like what's in here there is a lot more content on fenorc.co.uk, reviews of systems, homebrew stuff etc.

If you’re looking for one shots, or want a side quest to spice up your campaign then this is a must have. Each one is creative and differing in tone and theme. Personally I want to keep the “Inn of the cold companion” in my back pocket in case of TPK.

Great imaginative expansion on a classic module. Highlight being the introduction of a dungeon warden or ‘dingleman' (as Fen Orc puts it), there’s a link to a great article included that builds on the idea.

I really love this expansion of Zenopus' Tower. It pays homage to the original dungeon and brings in loads of fun elements and mystery. The thematic and spacial relationship with Holmes' original dungeon is spot on. I started my players out in the Ruined Tower and this was a really fun way to expand their adventure once they had cleared out the first level. Would highly recommend!