HAGHEX: BEVVITCHED

SMALL, SALTY AND CRUNCHY LIKE HARDTACK!

This is how I describe the second edition of my 2-page old-school-style RPG HAGHEX, the first edition being a free, minimalist framework for devising house rules for fantasy games, in the spirity of the Twin Cities and Lake Geneva gaming groups at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. Like its previous edition, HAGHEX: BEVVITCHED is a classless, skill-based, mathless, d6-only game that has all rulings for character creation, downtime and game running fitted into a folded leaflet. However, this new edition is better in all those aspects.

And it is FREE!

The overall structure and content of the HAGHEX: BEVVITCHED leaflet is seen below: not just a ruleset, but also a system-agnostic dungeoneering tool!

If you truly like HAGHEX and want to support this project, consider purchasing its exclusive art pack by drawing-master Rafael Delgado, containing the logos from both first and second editions, alongside four variants of a scene with HAGHEX pin-up, Cuca the Alligator Witch in her ``cavolatory.'' This will motivate me to finish an already half-written module, ``The Hex of the Hag'', featuring the aforementioned pin-up as the Big Bad Evil Gal in a 2-page supplement, also portable to system agnosy as the Haghexian rulings themselves. Much obliged!

¶

How to print the leaflet

Look for and select the ``Both Sides'' and ``Print Pages on Short Edge'' options when printing the leaflet. Both A4 and US Letter formats are available to download. Look at the images on this pages to see how to fold a newly printed leaflet.

Other resources

You can also download and print a page with three blank character player sheets, as well as a page with three pregenerated player characters that also examplifies on how to create a new player character.

¶

What exactly is new in HAGHEX: BEVVITCHED? 

• IMPROVED PLAYABILITY: many of the originally (and intentionally) vague terms used in the first edition have now been given more precise mechanical functions in the game, without loosing their narrative-wise adaptability and natural language approach. Elements of dungeon crawling, resource management and quest planning have been fully encorporated into this new edition;
• ELEGANT FORMATTING: the new ruleset is written with refined line and character spacings, having key words and phrases strategically placed and highlighted to draw the reader´s attention and allow an easier scanning throughout the text.
• A GOOD OLE SKILL CHECK TABLE: in a modern approach to a tabletop gaming practice of yore, rolling for a skill check is now assisted by an easy-to-read, short table that indicates the number of dice rolled and the conditions for passing a test. The success rate of a skill check increases by gaining levels at a particular skill, such a rate being modified by an acculumative Disadvantage/Advantage system that affects a skill check according to the in-game circunstances.
  
• REVAMPED SKILL-ASSET SYSTEM: now skills follow a four-level progression, with each skill being directly connected to an asset that employs its understanding. Examples of asset-free skills are still provided (and encouraged) to creative players.
• EXPANDED ASSET LIST: the category that encapsulates purchasable items, services and the like now uses more usual terminologies (compared to those used in the first edition) and has more adventuring gear (called packs now), animal companions, new armor system, new livelihood system (now being a beggar is not the end of the road as it was in the first edition) and a new monetary system that is closer to that of a typical old-school game. All the new considerations take into account a better integration with resource management and world building when compared to the first edition.
• RISKY BUT REWARDING MAGIC: Haghexian spellcasting was a soft magic system since the first edition, but now it is divived between common effects and weird effects, the former emulating effects of mundane assets and the latter creating game-changing powers--at a cost. Falling magic skill checks causes player characters to earn Doom Points, slowly making them descend into the darkness of their own humanity. However, earning Doom Points willingly also make player characters to momentaneously divine the mysteries of the Abyss, removing the hindrances of mortal flesh over the wielding of True Magic!
• NONLINEAR GRID CRAWL GENERATOR: by exploiting the statistical behavior of a 2d6 roll, a table generates random encounters (combats and social interactions alike) and findings during search (including hidden paths and shortcuts), meticulously thought to offer high rewards for player-character engagement at the risk of facing more-than-one-dimensional enemies and environment hazards that pose danger but are not immediately damage dealers, using a new game element called debuff.
• ACTION-REACTION ROUND SYSTEM: by encapsulating dynamical initiative and surprise determination, in-game situations called scenes are easily set up with everchanging tides during their procedural execution, having player characters to quickly decide their next steps, while hoping for successful skill checks.  
• PREGENERATED PLAYER CHARACTERS: three filled-up player character sheets representing classical archetypes of fantasy roleplaying games (the fightning man, the priest and the magic-user) are presented alongside the new ruleset leaflet, as examples to create player characters of your own.

Renewed Influences

After publishing HAGHEX around a year ago, I have met and ran to my fellow-players two games that had a great and expanding impact in the design of HAGHEX BEVVITCHED: Mörg Borg and (polemics aside) Lamentations of the Flame Princess. The original inspirations mentioned in the first-edition page are still there, but now the heavy metal vibes are sounding loud in the second edition! Three electronic games (which I have started playing again after several years since PS2 times), Darkest Dungeon, Blasphemous and Dark Souls, have also greatly impacted many of the design choices I made. Moreover, influenced once again by Dungeon Crawl Classics, I have started reading some of the Appendix N books and stories available in Public Domain while writing and playtesting HAGHEX: BEVVITCHED, giving me insights on the literary inspirations the Founding Fathers of Roleplay Gaming had back in their days...

I hope you enjoy HAGHEX!