library:blog:black_hack_class_the_cultivator [ttrpg]

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====== Black Hack Class: The Cultivator ======

I recently came across the [[https://itch.io/jam/the-black-hack-10th-anniversary-jam|Black Hack 10th Anniversary Jam]]. I had great memories with this system. Back in 2016, this 1st edition of The Black Hack stood apart from other OSR systems with its minimal ruleset whilst respecting the OSR play style. It was an easy gateway into the old-school play aspects without the crunch. It was, in fact, the starting point for my heartbreaker TTRPG system.

Enough said, now that it returned into my sight by virtue of fate (and the organisational efforts of the great people in the [[https://discord.gg/87GKfBny|Black Hack Commyniy Discord]] group) I decided to revit one of the roots of my TTRPG journey. I promise I am not procrastinating with a new side project, mind you! I was so excited that I immediately drafted a homebrew class. That's incredible productivity I haven't seen in months!

{{ :library:blog:cultivator.png?nolink }}

==== Design Note ====

This class actually began as a more orthodox Tao/Dao priest rather than a cultivator. I started with the daemon-sealing theme as a skeleton. Then, since I always like to shake up aspects of a game system when I homebrew, I chose to mess with levelling & HD. The aim is to be like a Master Shifu, you grow stronger within your current league, exchanging offensive power at low health. Or grows mightily healthy at the cost of resetting your dmg output.

Note, you can give your vitamin pills to other party members! (but they don't benefit from the attribute growth you get)

A core playstyle I expect is the choice between offensive, defensive, and balanced power. Do you:

  * Choose to tribute more of your sealed creatures for more utility cleric spells, or 
  * Choose to grow your HD and become the very best late game?
  * Choose to level up, gaining great HP but down-ranking your HD?
  * Choose to withhold at a level that no longer progresses, but keep a high HD?

These decisions are more impactful in the early game (which The Black Hack excels at). Your choices are most likely influenced by the party's needs. It might not even be worth pursuing a high HD, high HP late game in a short game.

Cultivation is all about bettering yourself. In case you don't know, cultivators are //healthy as hell//. The HD is an excellent representation of life energy. In fact, I plan to use it as the driving force for all martial arts (to be included in another post).

==== What I am Unsure About ====

I am a bit undecided on the **Attack Damage**. On the one hand, this could be for a martial arts module; unarmed should probably be a given. Hell, they could be picking up anything like a Jackie Chan fight! An alternative would be** [HD, unarmed 1 per HD grade]**, or **[HDd4 unarmed 1 per HD grade]**. Each emulates the feeling that you become more powerful within your current HD (realm of cultivation), but become weakened once you level up (stepping into the next realm).

On the other hand, a class should always guide a theme/aesthetic, not leave it open to interpretation. Odds are, people will come in not knowing much.

I tried to spread **Attribute Tests** across features, so that no attribute is ever irrelevant for a class and somewhat included. STR & CHA is the favourite children by the nature that raw strength and asking nicely can fix most things. But I find others often ignored, if not reduced to single purposes outside of class features & spell-casting. Yet, some might not even make sense in the case of The Cultivator, like DEX Test for sealing something.

==== Conclusion ====

I'll mull around a bit, maybe come up with some other classes before play testing them altogether. I plan to include this class as part of a small adventure module, where the whole module supports each other to create a sense of a cultivation adventure. The environment this should play under should still be an OSR dungeon crawl (I'm not trying to reinvent a new game). So I must be careful of the scope creep.