Re: Hackjammer - Initial Thoughts and Overview!

> I picked up Hackjammer today.  I've looked Hackjammer over a bit tonight,
> and here's some various initial thoughts (in no particular order).

    Kwel beans! :)  Still waiting out in my area.

> Cover Art - Overall, pretty good. It's got a good SJ feel, and it almost
> looks like the one ship is hitting the Hackmaster logo. lol Upon closer
> inspection, it looks like another ship fired upon it. The fighter guy on
> the front seems a little plain, but the gith and the pixie make up for it.
> Pixie seems like a natural addition to the SJ universe.

    There's been a lot of comments on the cover art over on Kenzer's boards,
mostly along the lines of "HOODY HOO!!  That's awesome!"  The Gith really
makes it stand out.

> Interior Art - I have mixed emotions on this. Some art is great, some a
> bit silly (hey, it's Hackmaster), and some is so-so. Seems to be some good
> space scenes in here. I wish the ships were in color, but that's okay.

    Heh, I can't wait to see that stuff.  Its a total mystery to me what the
interior artwork looks like.

> Authors/Adaptation - Adam Miller (aka Night Druid), Paul Westermeyer, and
> Rian McMurtry (aka Whalejudge). These guys are on the SJ Council, and
> there is nobody out there better qualified to bring Spelljammer to life as
> a Hackmaster product.

    :)  Now you're making me blush! ;)

> Chapter 1 - Player Characters in Hackspace
>
> Races - Looks like the Gromman (and Hadozee?) are replaced with the Apes
> of Gronnanar. There's four subraces to these, so that's good.
>
> The dracon, giff, and lizard men are all here. Looks like the scro are now
> orcs (orcs spelled backwards is scro!), and the xixchil are in the monster
> section.

    Yup, tried to get all of the SJ classics in there.  The only one I sorta
regret leaving out were the Hadozee, but we already had 4 ape races, so it
sorta felt a little redundant.

> New Skills - Standard SJ style skills here, taken from prior products.
> What I like here is that they can be adapted to any edition of D&D easily.
>
> Quirks - These are great flavor pieces! Phobias are all neat. Love the
> Smell of Smoke in the Morning just says Giff all over it (read the
> description!). My absolute favorite, though, is Red Shirt. Think the
> original Star Trek series on that one!

    Red Shirt comes up everytime quirks are mentioned, and the reaction has
been pretty much "kick arse!"  I get this feeling it'll be a fan-favorite.
;)  "OK, boarding party will consist of Knuckles, El Ravisher, Teflon Billy,
and Jimmy the Redshirt Torchbearer"  Jimmy, 10 seconds after boarding:
"NOOOOOOO!!!!!" :D

> Chapter 2 - Ships of Hackspace
>
> This is the chapter everyone is going to want to see. Looks like some
> mainstays in there. Dwarven Citadel is now the Dwarven Bastion. The Elven
> Motharaa Monarchship...am I reading this right? Mothra? lol

    Yup...keep reading on that one.  Twas a fun day when that was converted.

> Oh, you have to read the Gnomish Rodentship (Rodenster). It's a hamster
> cage in space, complete with spinning wheels. lol

    You should see the picture I drew of it.  Quite the little Rodenster! ;D

> Great Jammer appears to be the Spelljammer itself. Spudnik I? lol Gotta
> love it.

    Yup, can't have Spelljammer without the FRAGG'N SHIP THE GAME WAS NAMED
AFTER & WAS IN THE LOGO! |^D

> All the rules here appear to be very similar to the 2e SJ ship rules.
> What's nice is that many, if not all, of these ships have notes on other
> configurations.
>
> The bad part is that there isn't art for each ship.

    I'm curious to see how many deckplans there were.  I did a LOT of
deckplans, but I don't know how many they squeezed in.  Besides, I also have
artwork on a lot of the ships that I can give to Static to be posted later
:)  If it comes down to it, we can make really nice ship cards for most of
the ships & put them on BtM.

> Chapter 3 - The Dry Dock
>
> Equipment, crews, ship modifications, etc. A good section on ship perks
> and quirks.

    I really like this section, I think it turned out well.

> Chapter 5 - The Rock of Brawl
>
> Gotta love the name! All too short of a chapter, though for the size of
> the product, I can see why.

    Of course you would...IIRC you named it!  Back in your days on the SJ
Council, that is :)

> Chapter 6 - The Worlds of HackSpace
>
> Shouldn't that be "wurlds"?
>
> Nice chapter on the sample sphere of HackSpace. Very abbreviated, as was
> the prior chapter. HackSpace, aka the Caz-Adar System, has an inner and an
> outer system, which is a cool idea for Spelljammer.

    Yup.  Very nice section.  I liked how the worlds turned out.

> Chapter 7 - Politics of HackSpace
>
> These are the Powers that Be in Hackspace.
>
> A funny one is the Joint Chiefdoms of the Giff General Staff (chiefs of
> staff - lol).
>
> There's a nice section on the guilds and churches of HackSpace. I like
> this section because it includes some of the major religions of SJ,
> providing a bit of a religious structure for the SJ universe. Celestian is
> here, so I'm happy.

    :)  We're definately glad you liked it!

> Chapter 8 - Adventures in HackSpace
>
> There's a couple of scenarios in here, plus notes on converting existing
> Hackmaster mods to HackSpace, future modules, and general notes on
> converting adventures. Kudos on this section.

    Another gem, I think.  Should help people work out their hackjammer game
using existing modules.

> Appendix A - New Monsters
>
> What I like is the stat blocks all have an "aka" in them, giving alternate
> names. These are hilarious. Sunrise dragon, aka sunset dragon (for
> example). Elmarin are also known as St. Elmo's fire. lol
>
> Speaking of dragons, the radiant dragon is in here, along with the comet
> and sunrise dragons (the latter two being creations of Night Druid). I
> still remember talking to him about them initially.

    ;)  Lots of monsters there (45 total!).  I did figure we needed more
space dragons, but Sun & Moon dragons just didn't float my hackjammer the
way the Sunrise & Comet dragons did, and I figured they deserved to be
rendered "official" in some way.

> Giant space hamsters are here, and we have an added bonus with giant space
> hamster humanoids. The Lakshu are here (nice pic!). Mechanical gnomes take
> the idea of autognomes (one of the types) and expands on it. I like that
> the bit about babies is in there too. Neogi are here.

    "Autognomes, roll out!"  Heh, I couldn't resist, the temptation was too
great.

> Space whales are hilarious. Kindori are here, but now we have the Moby
> Dori, Kindorca, and Delphinid.

    Moby Dori & Kindorca are new, Delphinid came from one of the MCs.  Angry
Light Whale...:D

> Finally, the Xixchil. This chapter ends with flora and fauna of HackSpace.

    That's an idea I stole from HM's City of Brass, actually, to squeeze in
a few more critters that really didn't need a full writeup, but were good
enough to round out the ecology of space.

> Appendix B - New Spells and Magic Items
>
> Helms are here, as are an alternate means of travel - the Splendid Sails
> of Hackjammin'. New spells. Lots of good stuff.

    Helms underwent a bit of a change, but all for the good, IMHO.  Also,
there should be Oars as well.

> Appendix C - Beyond Hackspace
>
> Phlogiston is here. There's a discussion on universe building, a map of
> the Known Spheres, and lots of tools here.

    If the map was done the way I sketched it, look closely at it & read the
sphere descriptions.  You'll find it appends nicely to another famous map of
the Known Spheres... ;)

> Overall, I think Hackjammer is great, and Spelljammer fans are going to
> love it. The feel isn't exactly the same, but a lot of that is art and
> layout. There are pages at the end of chapters with a lot of blank white
> space. Art could have been used there. Seems like there's a lot of good SJ
> ideas in there, more faithful to SJ than any other 3rd party product out
> there.

    Well, we did have the means of getting closer than other 3rd party
products!

> This book is a MUST for any serious SJ fan. Kudos to Adam, Paul, and Rian
> on a fun book and a job well done.

    Thank you! :)  I hope the majority of Spelljammer and Hackmaster fans
alike agree!

Adam

Look for my coming on the seventh month of the fifth year.  At dawn look to
the world were the Trio (plus one) that is Untouchable reigns supreme