"As simple as it gets — which is why it's been remixed a thousand times."
The Black Hack is an ultra-rules-light OSR game: checks are roll-under d20 against an attribute, and the players make every roll. Twenty pages of rules, familiar classes and levels, but none of the bloated tables. The most-hacked old-school engine going — Cthulhu Hack, Rad Hack, Black Sword Hack, and dozens more were built on its chassis.
Setting-agnostic. The implied world is classic dungeon fantasy: the candle, the ration, monsters in the dark. But the featherweight rules make The Black Hack an ideal frame for any setting — from grimdark to gonzo. That flexibility is exactly why people love to hack it into anything.
Roll-under d20
To test something, roll d20 against an attribute and score equal or under. Players make all the rolls — attack and defense both. The GM never rolls; they just narrate the world.
Usage Dice
Ammo, rations, torches are tracked by a single die: use it, roll it; on a 1–2 the die steps down (d20→d12→…). When it's gone, so is the resource. No counting individual units.
Advantage & Disadvantage
A good position lets you roll an extra d20 and keep the better; a bad one, the worse. A simple, intuitive modifier instead of a stack of bonuses.
Light & hackable
The whole game fits in a couple dozen pages. So flexible it spawned an entire family of 'hacks' across every genre. The perfect frame for building your own game.
Open in Session Zero to let every player vote and see the results.