The Modern Hack

Made using The Black Hack

Art: Publisher’s Choice Quality Stock Art © Rick Hershey / Fat Goblin Games
WHAT’S THIS? one handed weapon as allowed by their
The Modern Hack is a roleplaying game set class. Equipment that can be bought is
in the modern era and that is based on listed on the next page.
David Black’s The Black Hack, which is ARMOR POINTS
based on the grandfather of all roleplaying Armor provides protection by reducing all
games itself. However, elements from Da- incoming damage. Each type will reduce
vid Black’s blog have been incorporated damage by a limited amount. In this man-
and the game has been stripped down and ner, Armor Points are effectively bonus
then overhauled in order to be able to Hit Points. Armor Points are regained
easily function in a modern setting. I hope after a character gets a full night’s rest.
you have fun playing this hack and adven- Once one utilizes all of their Armor
turing in the most dangerous time period Points, they can no longer fully use the
yet, the present. protection from their armor and begin
THE BASICS taking full damage.
Everything a character might possibly at-
tempt that could result in failure is re- TYPE ARMOR POINTS
solved by attempting to roll a d20 beneath Textile Vest 4
one of the six stats. If the result of the d20
is beneath the stat, it is a success. If the Ballistic Vest 61
result is equal or above, it is a failure.
Enemies of the characters never roll ex- Liquid Body Armor 8
cept for damage, characters will roll to Riot Shield 2
dodge and resist enemy attacks
Ballistic Shield 4
STATS
Stats are generated with 3d6 in the follow- 1Ballisticvests lose twice as many armor
ing order: Strength (STR), Dexterity points when used to stop melee attacks
(DEX), Constitution (CON), Intelli- Enemies have 1 point of armor for every
gence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), Charisma HD above 1, to figure this out quickly
(CHA). If a stat that is 15 or higher is simply subtract 1 from their HD - They
rolled, the next must be rolled with 2d6+2, can also carry shields. Enemies can never
then continue with 3d6 until the end or have more than 10 Armor Points.
another stat equal to or greater than 15 is ARMOR PROFICIENCY
rolled. Once all Stats are generated 2 may If a character wears armor that their class
be swapped around. is not proficient with, they add their total
CLASSES Armor Points (despite how many they
There are four choices for your class: bur- have used) to any rolls to attack or to
glar, doctor, scientist, and soldier. Your avoid damage.
class determines how much damage you
do, your Hit Points and grant you unique
abilities.
BUY EQUIPMENT
Every new character starts with 3d6 x 10
dollars with which to buy their equipment.
They also start with a set of clothes and a

1
 Usage
Item Cost Notes
Die

Textile Vest $150 - 4 Armor Points

Ballistic Vest $300 - 6 Armor Points

Liquid Body Armor $500 - 8 Armor Points

Riot Shield $100 - 2 Armor Points

Ballistic Shield $400 - 4 Armor Points

Backpack $50 - -

Bandages $10 d6 -

Batteries $15 Special See Electricity Section

Binoculars $50 - -

Burner Phone $10 d10 Electrical

Disposable Camera $10 d6 -

First Aid Kit $25 d8 -

Fresh Rations $5 d4 -

Laptop $200 d10 Electrical

Preserved Rations $10 d8 -

Tactical Flashlight $40 d10 Electrical

Tent $250 - -

Ammunition $20 d8 -

2-Handed Weapon $400 - -

2
USAGE DIE PLAYERS’ TURNS
Any item listed in the equipment section During a player’s turn a character may
that has a Usage die is considered a con- move and perform an action. They could
sumable, limited item. When that item is attack, look for a clue, talk with an NPC,
used, the next Minute (turn) its Usage cast a spell - interacting with the world is
die is rolled. If the roll is 1-2 then the us- an action. Often they will test their attrib-
age die is downgraded to the next lower utes to determine the outcome.
die in the following chain: TIME AND TURNS
d20 > d12 > d10 > d8 > d6 > d4 There are 2 important types of tracked
When you roll a 1-2 and the Usage die is time - Moments (rounds) and Minutes
a d4, the item is expended and the charac- (turns). Moments are how time in combat
ter has no more of it left. and other dangerous periods is measured.
Note: If an item has the Electrical note, Minutes are used when actions are not so
rolling a 1-2 on a d4 means that new bat- fast-paced, such as when searching for
teries must be procured for it and after this traps or examining a murder scene. The
has been done, its Usage die resorts to GM should feel free to change Minutes to
the starting value. Hours, Days, or any other measurement
FIREARMS of time if the pace of the game would ben-
Firearms are one of the crucial differences efit from them doing so.
between a game set in the modern age and MOVEMENT & DISTANCE
one set in the distant past. Firearms rely on Rather than track precise numbers of feet
ammunition and can only function when and yards, The Modern Hack uses three
they have ammunition. Ammunition has a zones for distance during combat, Near,
Usage die of a d8. Instead of rolling the Distant, and Remote. A character can
Usage die the Minute after, they roll the move somewhere Near and still act in
Usage die at the end of every combat. their Moment or move somewhere Dis-
When the item would normally be expend- tant and forfeit their action during their
ed, they must reload the firearm with more Moment. A character must either move
ammunition. The main two types of fire- and act over three Moments or move and
arms are pistol and rifle. not act for one Moment and move for the
SAVING THROWS next Moment to move somewhere Re-
The Modern Hack does not use traditional mote. Conversion rates from zones to feet
saving throws, opting instead to have char- are below.
acters make a check against a relevant stat.
Near Distant Remote
Str Dex Con
0-20 ft. 20-80 ft. 90+ ft.
Physical Physical harm Poison,
harm that that can be disease, or INITIATIVE
cannot be dodged. death At the beginning of each combat, an order
dodged. for every character to have their Moment
must be established. This is done by hav-
Int Wis Cha ing each player roll a d20 and subtracting it
from their Dexterity. The character or
Torture and Deception and Social at-
creature with the highest result goes first,
mind games trickery tacks

3
 than the character or creature with the
second highest result goes, and so on. Enemy HD Damage
ENEMY HD
HD represent the level a character would 1 d6
be to fairly face a enemy and are the num-
ber of d8s that are rolled to determine a 2 2d4
enemy’s Hit Points.
ATTACKING & DEFENDING 3 d10
When a character decides to attack a crea-
ture, they roll a d20 and are successful if
they roll lower than their Str (for melee 4 d12
attacks) or Dex (for ranged attacks). When
a creature attacks a player, the player will 5 d6+d8
try to roll under their Str (to dodge a melee
attack) or their Dex (to dodge a ranged 6 2d8
attack). Damage is dealt based on the char-
acter’s class. Creatures deal damage ac-
cording to the table to the right. In order 7 3d6
to make a melee attack, a character or crea-
ture must be at least Near to their target. 8 2d10
TWO-HANDED WEAPONS
When using a two-handed weapon, add 9 d10+d12
two to all dice you roll with them, for both
attack rolls and damage rolls. This repre- 10 2d12
sents that two-handed weapons are heavier
and deal more damage but are also harder probably die in combat with bullets flying,
to use and aim. that’s not exactly ideal conditions. For this
LUCKY SHOTS reason, almost all characters that die stay
When a player rolls a natural one on an dead and it is totally in the GM’s wheel-
attack roll, they deal double damage. When house to say that a character cannot be
a player rolls a natural twenty when trying resurrected.
to avoid an attack, they take double dam- BEING OUTMATCHED
age. When a enemy has more HD than the
DEATH character has levels, it is a difficult encoun-
When a character reaches zero hit points, ter. On every roll of a d20 that the charac-
they’re dead, swimming with the fishes, ter makes, they add the difference between
belly up, worm food, and so on. However, the enemy’s HD and the character’s level.
this does not mean that they can’t be For example, a level 1 character fighting an
saved. With proper application of immedi- enemy with 6 HD, besides facing almost
ate professional medical care, a dead char- certain death, would have to add 5 to all
acter can be revived. The longest amount d20 rolls.
of time that can go between death and ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES
being resurrected is twelve hours, with Whenever the circumstances align to grant
ideal conditions. As most characters will a character a boon or make their task hard-

4
er, they have an advantage or disadvantage. your allies are Near to you.
When you have an advantage or disad- Crazy Ammo: Crazy ammo is any
vantage, you roll the die twice and take the special ammo such as depleted uranium
lower result if you have an advantage or bullets. A weapon that has crazy ammo
the higher result if you have a disad- rolls with advantage when attacking but
vantage. Exactly when a character has an rolls the Usage die with a disadvantage.
advantage or disadvantage is determined
by the GM. If you have a class feature that
permanently grants you advantage on cer-
tain rolls, you would roll the die normally
when you would normally have a disad-
vantage on those rolls.
CLASS WEAPONS
When using a weapon that their class is
not proficient with, a character suffers a
disadvantage on all attack rolls.
RESTING
When characters rest for an hour or more,
they regain the use of all their Armor
Points. Once per day, after resting, they
may also roll a Hit Die associated with
their class and regain that many HP.
LEVELING
Characters level when they make a major
accomplishment, as decided by the GM.
When leveling, a character gains more hit
points equal to a roll of their HD. Addi-
tionally, they roll a d20 once for each stat.
If the result is higher than the stat, the stat
increases by one.
OPTIONAL FIREARM RULES
These optional rules for firearms are
meant to help foster cinematic and fun
combat.
Spray and Slay: When using this
rule, you can choose to still hit your target
even when you roll your Dex or greater
but you have to roll the ammunition Us-
age die automatically.
Swiss Cheese: If you kill a creature
with this gun, and rolled more damage
than the creature had HP left, you must
give that damage to a creature that is Near
to you. You still must do this even if only

5
 Burglar
Starting HP: d6+4
HP Per Level/Resting: 1d6
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Pistols, Clubs, and
Daggers
Attack Damage: 1d6/1d4 Unarmed or Improvising

Special Features
Rolls with advantage on Dex checks to hide and move silently

Rolls with advantage when opening locks, hacking keypads, and

Rolls with advantage when lying about illegal activities or their back-
ground

LEVELING UP
When burglars roll to see if their stats increase, they roll twice for
either Dex or Cha.

6
 Doctor
Starting HP: d8+4
HP Per Level/Resting: 1d8
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Scalpels, Pistols, and
Textile Vest
Attack Damage: 1d6/1d4 Unarmed or Improvising

Special Features
Rolls with advantage on all checks related to medical care and treat-
ment

Rolls with advantage on all checks related to convincing someone

A doctor can heal a number of hit points for their allies equal to half
of the doctor’s Wis per day

LEVELING UP
When doctors roll to see if their stats increase, they roll twice for
either Cha or Wis.

7
 Scientist
Starting HP: d4+4
HP Per Level/Resting: 1d4
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Pistols and Textile
Vest
Attack Damage: 1d4/1 Unarmed or Improvising

Special Features
Rolls with advantage on all checks related to their field of research

Rolls with advantage on all checks related to solving cryptograms,

Rolls with advantage when trying to recognize minutiae and seeming-

LEVELING UP
When scientists roll to see if their stats increase, they roll twice for
either Int or Wis.

8
 Soldier
Starting HP: d10+4
HP Per Level/Resting: 1d10
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Any and All
Attack Damage: 1d8/1d6 Unarmed or Improvising

Special Features
Rolls with advantage on all checks related to resisting poison and dis-
ease

A soldier only adds +1 to their roll when using a two-handed weapon

A soldier can choose to gain 5 hit points when leveling up instead of

LEVELING UP
When soldiers roll to see if their stats increase, they roll twice for ei-
ther Str or Con.

9
DESIGNATION OF PRODUCT IDENTITY The name The Modern Hack and all artwork, logos and layout are product
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Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
THE BLACK HACK, Copyright 2016, Gold Piece Publications; Authors: David Black.
The Modern Hack, Copyright 2017, Lernaean Studio; Authors: Chance Phillips.