The Merry Mushmen

CRACK! and CRACK!+

Olivier — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:55:35 +0000

At the Mushmen Battle Headquarters, we think that dungeons, dragons, d20s, goblin markets and saving throws belong to all of us. They’ve been a part of our culture for over half a century, and they’ve been enshrined as free to use at the beginning of this one by WotC themselves.

Announcing the Common Rules for Adventure Campaigns by KNOCK!

This little game is our brick in the corporate window. CRACK! is broadly compatible with the 1981 rules and most OSR systems. We hope it will be used as a *lingua franca* for all our material to be compatible, whatever happens with the OGL in the future.

CRACK! is a free PDF you can download here , and the full text of the rules is released under CC-BY- 4.0. You can steal it in its entirety for any use, commercial or not. (Have a look inside the book for some precisions.)

And more than just the game!

We’ve reached out to some of the KNOCK! contributors, asking if they had some free stuff to give us (or the time to make some) and the result is CRACK+, a series of mini supplements containing more character options, creatures, adventures, and random tables.

The first XX issues of CRACK+ are available for free from our Resources page.

You can use these in your games (whatever system you use), and as a base to develop your own material. Another one of our goals for this game is to show newcomers to the adventure gaming (we call them 5Expatriates) how easy it is to make homebrew spells, classes, magical items and the like.

We’d like to thank Erin ‘taichara’ Bisson, Evlyn Moreau, Frank Reding, Harbowoputra &Renata Sumadinata, James Maliszewski, John Grümph, Nicolas Dessaux, Rosie Grey, Stuart Robertson, and Vagabundork for answering the call of community and producing cool stuff with a few days’ notice. Go buy their games, they’re worth every penny.

And thank you too, for checking out CRACK!

More Chaos for your coin!

Olivier — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 11:44:19 +0000

Hi, and happy new year!

Congratulations, everyone! Our Kickstarter Campaign for Black Sword Hack reached a secret stretch goal. Okay, not really. But still, you’re getting something extra with your copy or copies of Black Sword Hack. This little something will be issue zero of The Chaos Crier! (The Chaos Crier will be a short zine that we’ll release aperiodically with content for BSH and other sword & sorcery games.)

Issue #0 is free on Kickstarter, for sale on our website after that!

Work in progress cover:

BLACK SWORD HACK, Ultimate Chaos Edition – Now on Kickstarter!

Olivier — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 07:12:23 +0000

We’re ready, people. The new and improved edition of Kobayashi’s sword and sorcery RPG, Black Sword Hack, is ready to go on Kickstarter!
Black Sword Hack has been out for a couple of years on DTRPG, where it is a Platinum bestseller. It’s a game we love so much we asked Kobayashi to work with us on an extended, pimped to the max incarnation. The full-colour hardback book will be 110 pages (vs 75 for the first edition), and is filled with art by Goran Gligović. Here are some samples:

In Black Sword Hack, you’ll play doomed princes, escaped gladiators, and powerful sorceresses fighting their way through the end times. Will you choose a side in the struggle between Law and Chaos, or will you try and find a way out?

Inspired by authors of the age of classic fantasy, such as Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock, or Fritz Leiber, Black Sword Hack has rules for creating heroes armed with dark powers, as well as a dying world full of peril and wonder. It evolves from David’s Black The Black Hack, introducing backgrounds instead of classes, and six different types of magical or weird powers.

You can learn more on the campaign page for Black Sword Hack, Ultimate Chaos Edition. We hope you back the Merry Mushmen’s first full-fledged RPG!

SHIPPING BESTIARY STARTS NOW!

Olivier — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 09:50:54 +0000

They’re at home, and we’re super proud!
Shipping start today, and will take a week to be completed.
Happy happy Mushmen!