Whitehack (17-04-21)

This is another game I got due to Questing Beast - specifically him showing the beautiful 3rd edition, its almost like an opposite to Mork Borg, clinical and austere, and with the practical attention to detail that Ben Milton reveres.

Out of the OSR rules systems I have read so far this might be my favourite, although admittedly I do have  a tendency to think that the last thing I read is the best. It seems like a great combination of rules and fiction, with everything being kept as elegantly simple as possible. 

It features the usual Attributes, rolled on 3d6. There are only 3 Character Classes: the Deft, the Strong & the Wise, which cover the obvious key archetypes. Each has ‘slots’ to fill, essentially abilities which get chosen at each level, for the Wise this is spells, the Deft its bonuses of sorts etc.
 

It is a roll under system. There are no skills as such, but once Class is chosen you pick a Species, Vocation and Affiliation, i.e. Elf, Wizard, Devout to Arioch, or whatever. On one hand these are the key fictional details that define your character, on the other, you write each beside an attribute - whenever you are rolling for a task that is relevant to that Group you roll 2d20 and pick the best.


In addition to the 6 attributes each character also has an Attack Value and a Saving Throw specified by their class. To attack you need to roll under your attack value and over the target’s Armour Class. This sounds super elegant and smart. A similar logic is applied to skill contests, where its the character who rolls the highest (but also under their relevant stat) who wins.


Magic is fairly freeform, in that the players get to design their own spells and the DM assigns them a hp cost - using magic depletes your hp, but Wise characters recover hp fairly fast.


The one rule I didn’t really get when I first read it was the concept of ‘Auctions’ the idea being that these should be used for extended contests where the outcome would not be lethal. In a way these are kind of like what I was thinking of as the Scene System for Skippy (working title of a cancelled video game). The example given is of a chase sequence. All parties involved roll a d6 in secret, then bid on their roll, i.e. they say 'I will roll over n and still succeed on my attribute roll'. Whoever bids highest rolls first, so they have to roll over their bid and under the relevant attribute plus the secret d6 roll. Whoever succeeds first wins the ‘Auction’, with the idea being that each player should dress their bid with appropriate fiction (‘I take a shortcut only known to members of the thieves guild’ etc).


The writing is a lot like the presentation - it is very spare and exact. He tells you only the minimum. Most rules require some thought before you have the moment of click - ah, I get why its like this… Perhaps that's partly why it has impressed me so much, because I had to think about it, I experienced that satisfaction of understanding, of discovery.


I hope the book for his setting ‘White Curse’ comes out soon, I’d like to see the content he creates. I would really love to try this system.

You can get Whitehack 3e from it's website here.