Excellent use of The Black Hack for a more straightforward D&D type experience. Still stripped down, but with more robust options for characters and magic. Very impressive, and I'm glad to have it in my collection. A great value, to boot. Not much else to say. I like The Black Hack - a lot. But if you want your game to feel more like.D&D, while still running like TBH, this is a great place to start.

A great blend between TBH and BX, enabling me to directly use existing BX modules without adapting the theme to the more whimsical TBH. Classes are good - we're making a few adjustments, making things a bit more balanced - but overall, a great baseline. Easy enough to house-rule. Author did a fantastic job on layout and art - well done! One of the best hacks I've seen so far.

I saw a review on the Dark Lore blog talking about Dark Sagas. The author of the post took pains to explain why he liked the game. Through several paragraphs he lovingly described the system, except I was left wondering how exactly it was supposed to be played. Since it was only $4, I figured that was a small price to sate my curiosity.

And it's interesting. The game is extremely rules light, but it is not OSR. In fact, it avoids some of the tropes of D&D. You're not automatically good at combat just by having a high Strength (Physique, in this game) or a master Archer for having a high Dexterity. Fighting and Marksmanship are stats, and you can pour as many (as few) points as you want into them. Armor blocks damage, and your Defense acts as a target number that other opponents have to hit in order to hit you.

For the most part, the system works well, just adding the stat to a 2d6 roll to hit a target number. Skills are not what you'd expect. Rank I usually gives you advantage on a roll, but Rank II might give you access to a thieves guild, for example. It's oddball but it's also refreshing. They have a fairly extensive skill list, but not so much that it's overwhelming. That's become more and more common these days.

Armor and weapons are broken down into categories: light, medium, and heavy. There's a short paragraph explaining what kinds of weapons or armor are included in that category, and a table giving you ranges for armor points and damage.

And there's a bestiary featuring 100 monsters. That's enough to get you started. They also include stats for human beings, so if it's a simple bandit threatening you, you don't have to figure out what that means. The game also features threat levels for the monsters, so you can figure out roughly how tough a monster might be (very useful for Game Masters or solo roleplayers).

Magic is roll-to-cast and magic points. I feel the author should have chosen one or the other, but it's a minor quibble. If you roll well, the spell goes off without a hitch. If you don't roll well, then terrible things could happen.

There's even a default setting, an appendix explaining the odds of rolling this number or that one, and a table featuring example difficulty numbers for different things. And there are combat maneuvers that almost remind me of GURPS, and they add a welcome tactical dimension to the game.

Now for the bad:

They include a curious mechanic for Defense, adding 8 to your Dexterity. That number is higher than your starting stats can be. I understand why it was chosen, but they should have figured stats into the mix. The default numbers gave me such a high Defense, nothing could hit me. After some deliberation I finally changed it to 4 + Fighting.

You see, Dexterity does too much. There's no reason as a warrior I should be able to open locks, have superior balance and manual coordination, hide objects on my person, etc. Part of learning how to fight is learning how to defend yourself, how to block and parry blows, or even avoid them entirely. So I house-ruled it.

Other than that, there are curious omissions. It talks about regaining Hit Points under a healer's care, but doesn't tell you how much that costs. The Roc is not included in the Bestiary despite having a bookmark for it. And despite proofreading, there's an error that pops up early in the rules. It's "decent" not "descent."

But for all that, the game is playable. And but for defense, everything works. The author has whipped up an entirely enjoyable game system, for a really good price. If you're in the market for a game that's not D&D, and you have four bucks burning a hole in your pocket, then get this game.

Afrer reading and playing TBH, I started writing my own hack... and as a traditional gamer and lover of classic Fantasy settings and stereotypes I wanted to write the perfect hybrid between Moldway/Mentzer and TBH. Figure my surprise when I found Heroes & Monsters and discover that it's absolutely everything I had in my head. Just great.

At 272 pages, 270 are the content.

Dark Sagas (2e, v10), uses a 2d6 system.

Your character's attributes are: Fighting, Dexterity, Physique, Knowledge, will, Perception, Charisma.

Armour is classed as light (-1 penalty), Medium (-2 penalty), Heavy (-3 penalty). The penalty refers to Physique and Dexterity tests. Upgrades, such as a helmet implies a -1 penalty to Perception. Shields (Small, Large), imply no penalties.

Magic: 2 types (Devine and Arcane). Each spell has a Difficulty Number (DN). You make a Will test against the DN of the spell. If you succeed, you pay a number of Magic Points (MP) eequaal to the level of the spell. You can also boost the effects of the spell by spending more MP.

Creatures includes the usual culprits. Orc is also included in the New Races section.

At £2.90/$3.99, it's very much worth a look.

I got some other stuff from Hassel and he doesn't miss a single hit. Nice BX/The Black Hack hybrid, with lovely layout and accessible structure.

If you love Basic D&D and Black Hack then do yourself a favor and grab this game. This is a wonderful combination of these two systems.

Incomplete. Some words and sentences, for example in the weapons table.

I rated this at 3/5. Per the rating system, 1 is bad and 5 is good. This title is neither that bad nor that good. Even at $1.90...

Starting as early as page 8, "There is no die with 100 sides," I already knew that there were going to be fundamental issues. There are 100 sided dice. Since the 80s, at least. Then we move on to character creation. Here, the author opts for a point buy method which is too gimmicky for an old school feel. In The Black Hack, they are quick 3d6 rolls and modified if you roll over a 15; in The Unearthed Hack, there's are two ability arrays that are offered. In either case, character generation is quick. Tallying points detracts from the old school feel but lends itself to more directed character builds. Per above, that's neither good nor bad, it just.... is. The classes are basically The Black Hack with B/X races as classes included which, again, is pretty typical RPG fare, including reinforcing the RPG trope that Elf is Best Class. I won't go into the mechanics, but being an Elf has such limited drawbacks (I get 1d4 spells instead of 1d4+2?! And I can't access the highest level spells?! gasp) that it falls back into the same tried and true trope most RPG groups experience: why play a human?

Everything from character creation up to chapter 7 is basically The Black Hack, so... it's The Black Hack. Chapter 7 brings some adventure design advice for newer GMs, which I'm sure newer GMs will find helpful. Again, nothing special in the previous six chapters, so this is neither good nor bad. It just is. Then we hit the Appendix, which typifies every B/X campaign since the 80s: class bloat (really, just four). It addresses the same issues that's plagued every gaming circle for the past 40 years. Why can't my Dwarf be a Fighter/Cleric? I can?! So why be a Fighter...? Because RP. Ok. And there's the Elven Thief/Mage. And two other classes veteran players may be able to deduce. My concern with this style of play is the slippery slope: Is an Elf a racial class or a race with multiple classes? If the former, and you start making exceptions, where are all the other exceptions, like, say, a Human Paladin? If the latter, why force character builds into molds instead of going the AD&D route of allowing multi-class?

And this is why, even at < $2, it's a negligible download. A veteran is being put in the exact same territory covered 30 years ago. A new player is going to experience the exact same problems from 30 years ago. There's nothing new here, but there's nothing WRONG here. It's a semi-faithful reproduction of gaming from the 80s, with the same baggage that comes along with it. The problem being, if I want the problems of the 80s, I can just buy the PDF of Moldvay Basic and Cook/Marsh Expert for not much more than this and The Black Hack.

Best version so far of The Black Hack rules IMO.....Reduces the Fighter attacks to every other level and other small fixes which to me make the game better.....Layout and art selection are very professional....Includes races as class and provides some alternate versions at the end of the book

I don't know why this only got one three star review. The book is well laid out and gives you everything you need to run D&D black hack style. Maybe it was just too similar to the original black hack and various clones? I don't know, I read it and I liked it.

I love D&D 5th edition but it is just too top heavy for me. I'm looking at lighter OSR solutions like Heroes & Monsters that I can tweak a little bit. I'd probably add some skills / careers outside of class in and this would mostly work for me.

If you like a well made 2d6 Rpg, complete with everything, full of options for your characters (traditional classes or classless) and combat, a non-vancian magic system based on magic points (but you can easy use a Vancian one if you like), all the traditional monsters, very easy to add your house rules and with an old school feeling... you have found something that will make you very happy! :)

I noticed The Black Hack is really popular right now, and there is nothing wrong with that. Dungeon Questing is more to my taste though. It uses a 2D6 mechanic, is a very rules lite flavor of OSR clone, but it is more flushed out than Black Hack appears to be (I read the Black Hack SRD I haven't bought it yet but probably will). Monsters are flushed out much further, as well as spells and other things. Dungeon Questing is skill based with what is it 17 or 18 key skills. I like this, I can already see adding a few of them. I'm looking forward to playing this. I didn't trust the 2D6 mechanic, thinking it was too limited, until I played Barbarians of Lemuria. The simplistic mechanic works fine and moves very fast. In BOL you can get a lot of adventuring done in four hours...I'm assuming it is the same with Dungeon Questing. So far it looks like a fine rules light OSR and it is a steal for $2.50. Recommended.

I purchased this game on a whim, while buying more high profile items and was pleasantly surprised by it. It is exactly what it claims to be, the old White Box Sword and Sorcery remixed to the dice mechanic found in the Doctor who games and countless others (2d6 + Stat + Skill >= Difficulty). For some reason I found it utterly charming, and I think it would make a good game for an experienced GM to play with younger children, or to introduce new players to the hobby. It also removes the classes and levels, instead defining class features as separate skills (Turning Undead is a skill, escalating hit dice is a skill, Casting Spells is a skill). I liked this rule idea. It makes the game easier to expand as a GM, and allows the players to "multiclass" in a simple and elegant way. The set of rules I are less impressed by are the race rules, humans seem under-powered, and there is too much similarity between dwarves and halflings. The game has a nice layout with an attractive font. My main complaint would be the extremely poor editing but that doesn't impact the understanding of the rules.

This game is an inexpensive, but solid option iin the Old School gaming field.

Right up front, let me say that the game could use another editorial pass. In the descriptions of Chrisma and Wisdom it says you get an XP bonus if your stat is 13+. At the beginning of the section, it explains that stas go from -2 to +2. So obviously, someone didn't finish cleaning up some of those old references. But I will also say that sort of thing is piddly-tosh and not what would frighten a bold adventurer.

As it stats in the product description, Dungeon Questing is pretty much BX D&D, based on a 2d6 system instead of using a d20. If that sounds like your kind of game, then Dungeon Questing is for you. The rules are complete - as complete as any BX style game - with monsters and treasure and spells and everything else you need.

Dungeon Questing does not use character classes - though their is an optional appendix to do so - but instead uses a skill system that lets you build your own character as you see fit. If you do not like skill systems, then you may have a problem here, though I think you could probaby simply the game another step and eliminate most of the skills with little problem.

At $2.50 for 162 pages, this is a fantastic bargain and a must have for anyone who wants to play Old School D&D, but wants to ditch the d20.