Lords of Hack
The Lords of Hack is an association of tabletop role playing gamers located in South Central Pennsylvania.
Gaming History
The Lords of Hack have been gaming since 1999. We have had a whole lot of fun in the years we have been gaming. As one might imagine there are plenty of in-jokes that have accumulated. Here's a list of all of our previous campaigns.
Campaign | System | Began | Ended |
---|---|---|---|
Redspan Campaign | AD&D 2e | July 1999 | March 2000 |
Melvek Wilds | RC D&D | April 2000 | July 2000 |
Northern Marches | D&D 3e | August 2000 | March 2002 |
Vikings | D&D 3e | April 2002 | May 2003 |
Draw Outlaw | D20 Homebrew | June 2003 | August 2003 |
Space Bastards | D20 Homebrew | September 2003 | February 2004 |
Dr. Skull's Conan Cult | D20 Conan | March 2004 | November 2004 |
Traytor’s Raiders | D20 Traveller | December 2004 | January 2005 |
Six Dales | Homebrew D&D | January 2005 | August 2005 |
Knights of Orion | Savage Worlds | October 2005 | July 2006 |
Uthax | Savage Worlds | August 2006 | October 2006 |
Brown Trousers (Aquilla) | Castles and Crusades | November 2006 | January 2008 |
Fulton Horizons | Savage Worlds | April 2008 | June 2008 |
Irongate | D&D 4e | July 2008 | May 2009 |
Gatavia | Return of the Trolls | June 2009 | April 2010 |
Slipstream | Savage Worlds | April 2010 | November 2010 |
Badlands | AD&D | November 2010 | December 2011 |
Kings of Orion | Savage Worlds | January 2012 | May 2012 |
The Rhylanor Express | Traveller Classic/Homebrew | May 2012 | January 2013 |
Mutants & Muskets | Savage Worlds | February 2013 | August 2013 |
Gatavia III | Adventurer, Conqueror, King | September 2013 | September 2015 |
Fulton Galactic | Traveller Classic/Homebrew | October 2015 | December 2015 |
Wilderlands | AD&D | January 2016 | August 2016 |
Blades in the Dark | BITD v.0.7 | August 2016 | October 2016 |
Wild West Shootout | Fistful of Lead | October 2016 | December 2016 |
To A Bloody Pulp | Savage Worlds | January 2017 | November 2017 |
The Krondor Campaign | D&D 5e | December 2017 | December 2018 |
The Thranconia Campaign | D&D Blueholme Journeymanne | January 2019 | August 2019 |
The Greyhawk Campaign | D&D 5e | August 2019 | December 2019 |
Grampa's Assignment Infinity | Savage Worlds | January 2020 | March 2020 (COVID-19 Quarantine) |
Eldritch Earth : Five Hacks Deep | Five Torches Deep | July 2020 | August 2021 |
The Cat's Back | D&D Blueholme Journeymanne and Rampage Amid the Ruins by David Langdon Nelson | February 2021 | August 2023 (Played Online) |
Polychronopolis | Rampage Amid the Ruins by David Langdon Nelson | August 2021 | August 2022 |
Savage Space Bastards | Savage Worlds Deluxe | September 2022 | January 2023 |
Shieldlands | Rampage Amid the Ruins by David Langdon Nelson | February 2023 | August 2024 |
Lost Virkon | Rampage Amid the Ruins by David Langdon Nelson | September 2023 | June 2024 (Played Online) |
Hacksaw Hombres | Savage Worlds Deluxe | July 2024 | November 2024 (Played Online) |
Pirate Bastards | Pirate Borg | September 2024 | Present (Partially Played Online) |
Starkpool Campaign | OD&D Variant | November 2024 | Present |
The Hacklords
The Lords of Hack are legion and honorable. The following is a list of all those who regularly contribute or have once passed through our hallowed ranks in roughly the order in which they joined.
-
David Nelson
Bob LaForge
Chuck Fleurie
David Hanley
Peter Zollers
Joe Fryer
Andrew Smith
Shaun Sipple
Mike Miller
Toby Miller
James Gallagher
Marlon Kirton
Jason Leibert
Joe Cress
David Coombs
Chris Crimmins
Kevin Viands
Robert Swan
Zach Kleiser
Gabriel Miller
Tim Moyer
Miles Trout
Quinton Laughman
Craig Judy
Travis Wooley
Our Manifesto
Mission Statement
The purpose of The Lords of Hack is to have fun.
General Tennants
- No jerks. If you are acting like jerk on game day, don't come. How do you know who is a jerk and who isn't? Those who violate the mission statement are jerks. Everyone should do their best to both have fun and support the fun for all other players. Those not having fun or and/or spoiling fun for others will be asked to leave the campaign.
- Communicate! If you have a problem with something, tell somebody. The participants are all adults (even if we don't always act like it in-game). Together we can figure anything out.
- GMs and players should always be consistant within the storytelling. We can believe that in the world the sun rises in the west and sets in the east -- but it should always do so. And everything that depends on that fact should reflect this. Don't contradict the consistancies set forth by other GMs in the campaign.
- It is only common courtesy to let the GM and hosts know that you are not coming, so they know when to start and what to plan for. As soon as you know you aren't coming, let 'em know right away.
- Players are encouraged to add "flavor" wherever they can. A good description of your PC, painting miniatures, a detailed PC background, some in-character fiction, or even helping to flesh out the campaign world are all welcome to all players -- not just GMs.
- If you would like to see a story or subplot -- suggest it! GMs don't like doing all the work anyway. Alternately, offer to GM it yourself.
- We refrain from discussing real life matters of religion or politics. Just because we don't see eye to eye, it doesn't mean we can't stand shoulder to shoulder.
- Be courteous to one another. Help the host prepare before the game and help clean up after. Listen to your host. Ply the host with snacks and gifts if you think it is appropriate. Happy hosts make for a good game.
GM's Guidelines
- Anyone can be the GM if they want to.
- Less is more. If you can have a multitude of items, choose a few that are really interesting and develop them as much as possible. Favor depth over breadth of content in all things.
- Let the players make choices. That's what the game is all about. No railroading. At the very least give the players the illusion of free will. Instead of saying "no", always consider saying "yes, but...".
- Try to keep adventure sessions reasonable in scope. Oftentimes even the best games can get too convoluted and out of hand if the GM tries to do too much. Try not to tackle "save the world" plotlines. "Save the nation" or "save the town" is about our speed. When in doubt, make the plot scope simply "save yourselves."
- Always try to add "flavor" to the game. Roleplaying away from a game session by email or IM is a legitimate way of getting a subplot out into the open between sessions. Also, it makes a good log entry in itself.
- Try to build on previous adventures to create "campaigns" or extended stories made up of several game sessions. This continuity makes for a more immersive experience.
- GMs must write a session log after each game they GM. Alternately they may convince someone else at the game session (a player/bystander/pet/etc) to write it for them. Example templates of logs can be forwarded to you at your request. A GM post-mortem and campaign polls are good to in order to gauge the feelings of the players, but are not necessary.