Overflowing with fun ideas. An artfully made, rich campaign setting. Tantalizing sense of mystery throughout. Handsome art matches the pithy prose. 4/5 only because the book is more oriented toward reading than playing - fun for the GM but not presented in a way that I found easy to translate to the table for players. Review the author's work on his site for examples.

Unadulaterated fun. Interactive, varied, polished. Has a personality without falling into button-pushing or trope-abuse. Little wrinkles of suprise for both players and referee throughout. Woekd well for both my young kids and my regular grown-up group (both using OSE rules)

I have pushed 3.5e, 5e, and several retro-clones on my firends. They now ask for The Black Hack by name. Every group I introduce to this game has a common response: that was FUN!

This is a game to be played. For my taste, many other rules systems are more interesting to read and think about and many other books are much nicer to hold and look at. But no other game in this space has produced such a positive response from my players.

I would wholeheartedly recommed these rules to anyone interested in "D&D" without reservations.