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I had a group going and we were meeting somewhat regularly, but it fizzled. I would still be very interested in trying again, it really is quite a neat (albeit crunchy) system.

Are you in Stoon? perhaps if we can drum up more interest we can make this happen, I have a few reliable people who I can usually talk into joining games.

Tempest, I appreciate your standing up for 4th, it seems like most people's stance on it is a default 'hate' regardless of whether they gave it a chance, or what not.

I agree that strict rules for role-playing shouldn't be necessary. Even in the new edition, it's left deliberately (sometimes frustratingly) open for DM adjudication.

I can see how the structure of exploits/powers can seem to remove player agency. I went to an encounters session with my wife, and she wanted to hit the monster with her mace, 'no, you have to use divine strike' (I didn't look up the specific power that came up that day). That being said, at the end of the day the result is the same, or more interesting as you put it.

I would have liked to give 4th more of a try, and still would as I'm pretty open minded. Though it seems everyone on here plays in Regina...

IMHO - 5th Edition is a love letter to 1st/2nd with a little bit of garnsih from 3rd/4th.

I agree with this and the way they not-so subtly kept a lot of elements from 4th.

Also it seems that 5th still includes the reactions, though by the sounds of it to a more limited extent.

On the surface 5th 'looks' more like 3.5 than 5 did, with its spell slots, and lack of at-will/utility/daily powers.

I didn't play 4th much and my experience with the 3.5ish games is mostly through Pathfinder, which in itself has become pretty overloaded with splat books and content. I agree with

For me, it became a chore with all of the material that was released. The material was not released in a logical or indexed manner. Much of the material was by different authors and some of the rules were incompatible with others. In the end, it started to feel more like an exercise in statistics and an R&D project.

While Paizo might have done slightly better thank Wizards before, it is still an overwhelming mess of content that's available out there.

With that 5th Edition is nice at the moment that there is only the 3 core books and a couple adventures published to date. The adventures even have free online supplements for users of the free basic rules.
The rules for 5th edition really support empowering the DM to make calls and rules, and simplify a lot of the old nickel and diming of modifiers into their 'advantage/disadvantage' system.
From what I've read and can tell from the games I've run, the classes are well balanced in 5th as well, one of my players made a half-orc rogue, and there were many interesting synergies that came from that previously unlikely combination.
The Monster Manual is chock full of cool inspiration, with neat effects like how dragons alter the regions in which they inhabit. Really offers a lot of good inspiration and tools for DMs to make interesting worlds.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of 5th, and have really only heard positive reviews from some of my friends who were big into the 3.5 scene back in the day.

Ah, that would be imperial assault. The more board - gamey dungeon crawler. Also a fun game but yeah, much more expensive.

The starter set was surprisingly affordable, I paid about $25 on amazon or something, and it comes with a set of the dice.

The rulebook is a fairly standard  ~$60, and fortunately the system encourages using pawns, or other deliberately vague representations of characters so miniatures aren't really necessary.

The focus on interpreting the results of the dice pool in creative ways is a fun change of pace from standard d20 vs. target number resolution systems.

I ran a few games of this using the starter set for Age of Rebellion. I really like the FFG system with their unique die pool mechanics. I really liked the Warhammer Fantasy RPG but only really had a chance to start it once.

I hope you were able to find someone to show you some ropes.

The previous, and original edition despite being named 4th edition,was a big time parody of ad&d and fantasy gaming in general, but actually hid a decent game system underneath all the jokes.
The current (5th) edition is free of their parody license and has really put together a nice game. While it's no longer a parody, the rules are fun to read with lots of wisecracks.

Haven't thought that far ahead yet. I'm trying to see what kind of interest/awareness there is for the product in this community.

Have you tried it before PhotoJim?

Hey Sask Games, I've been rather uninvolved since joining up, thought I'd start a thread to see what's what.

Is anyone interested in Hackmaster? Specifically the 5th edition, which has been releasing its core books over the past few years. I recently ran some friends through an intro adventure and it was good fun. It's an old-school rpg, with some cool, novel combat mechanics.

Have any of you played it? Would anyone want to play it?

There are free basic rules available at http://www.kenzerco.com/hackmaster/

Yours in Hacking

GtB