The Zealot's Guide to Wurld Conversion: Securing the Throne in the Afterlife
The Zealot's Guide to Wurld Conversion: Securing the Throne in the Afterlife is the third of four HackMaster class guides. The book is 143 pages, softcover, and retails for $19.99.
The Zealot's Guide to Wurld Conversion: Securing the Throne in the Afterlife, or the ZG as HackMaster fans call it, is the class book for cleric-group characters. It thus adds many options for playing a cleric who is more powerful and who fits better into his or her religious hiearchy.
Don Morgan and the D-Team are the lead authors, and they have done a fine job with this book-if you play a cleric or just want to understand them, this is an amazing book. It also provides clerics the crunch they need for the high-powered hackfest that is HackMaster.
There are five chapters, five appendixes, and of course the table of contents, index, and introductory pages. Clerics are the most important class to a group, but few folks like being the combat medic-thus the Jo-Jo Zeke riff on why playing a cleric is good is most amusing. Just like the other classbooks, the idea of the introduction is to pump you up for playing that type of character.
Chapter 1: Character Classes, is the longest chapter in the Zealot's Guide, weighing in at 46 pages. This chapter introduces 48 zealot classes, the Chosen One class, the Shaman class, and updates clerics, druids, and holy warriors such as paladins and rangers. The zealot classes are basically specialty priests out of second edition, some of which you will recognize for the original source materials were used in updating those deities to HackMaster. As stated in my review of
Gawds and Demigawds only members of the Gawds of Twillight Last, the Cabal members and greater gawds (a few are lesser but they had power then), have zealots. Thus the book on deities and the book on clerics dovetail perfectly.
There are zealots of each alignment and each zealot has the same EP table (slightly higher than the cleric EP table; in HackMaster all classes follow the old-school pattern of a different EP table for each class reflecting their power) and uses the standard cleric spellcasting progression. Zealots have special powers which distinguish them from standard priests. Some have access to spheres not normally available to standard clerics-thus the zealots of Thrain, known as Skites, have access to the Travel sphere. Keyholders, that is zealots of Hokalas, can cast magic-user spells as well as clerical spells. One of the nastiest zealots around, the zealots of Shona, can buy fighter-group talents and combat-oriented talents for half the cost. This makes the zealots of Shona, the Shonites, better fighters than most fighters despite her job as gawdess of games and ritual combat. Zealots lose something for what they gain-those which are more like magic-users attack like them or have smaller hit dice (cleric standard is a d8 and some zealots have a d4) and those which are like fighters tend to have other restrictions. Furthermore, all zealots have stronger religious duties than a standard cleric. And at level 5, their gawd sends a spiritual servant to directly give the PC their spells and keep them in line. So, zealots are awesome if you want to play a certain way but are less flexible than standard clerics due to their obligations to their gawd.
Another variant cleric-group character is the Chosen One. The Chosen One is literally chosen by a deity to serve them and has the stigmata (one flaw and a mark somewhere on the body) to prove it. The Chosen One class gets bonus spells based off their Comeliness modifier for Charisma, so they need a lot of Charisma and good but not exceptional Wisdom (for standard clerics, druids, and zealots get bonus spells through Wisdom). A Chosen One never has to train to advance in level and has one power that many d20 players will appreciate-spontaneous spell conversion known as spellburn. Of course, they have to sacrifice two spells of that level or one of a higher level to do such and it takes a round where they glow like a torch in a 10' radius and scream as the power is converted. Chosen One characters never need material components-their faith alone is enough. This class also breaks all the HackMaster rules on dual-classing, so it is a way for non-humans to acheive Hackclass if they could not normally. However, the Chosen One is a special class and thus available only with the approval of the GameMaster. So you can start as a Chosen One or dual-class into one, but only if you make nice with the Gamemaster.
The Shaman character class is basically a weak tribal druid. I much prefer the Shaman in the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting by the same company, for they have a little more jazz and a little more power. Nonetheless, the HackMaster Shaman has advantages: no need to formally train, can use weapons and armor of the tribe and gawd, and use Chant and Prayer once per day in addition to their standard spells. They normally can't turn undead and have a weaker spell progression than standard clerics. However, this is really an NPC class like Adept is in d20, so it is primarily a way for the GM to have humanoids with shamans instead of clerics. I guess you could also work the shamans are less of a problem for barbarians angle, but that's not worth the effort for the class. Thus I hope the class gets beefed up a little with the Kingdoms of Kalamar material.
Druids gain new choices for terrain so they aren't forest dwelling hippie-tree huggers; these choices fit the ranger terrains in the
Combatant's Guide. There are also explanations on Dark Knights, Rangers, Paladins, and short discussion on why playing a standard cleric is cool and what you should chose.
At the end of chapter 1 are requirements for dual-classing, a note that the Gawds of Twillight Last changed (in the PHB gawds had different alignments and weapons-this caused a lot of worry in sanctioned HackMaster until Jolly Blackburn said he let his wife change gawds for her cleric and everyone followed suit), and the fractional ability die rolls by class. The form noting changes of worshippers at the end of the chapter is a hilarious bureaucratic parody.
Chapter 2 is Cleric Group Priors, Particulars, and Options. It begins as usual, with a new table of Quirks and Flaws to screw BP-whoring players. While not every Quirk or Flaw in the book is a killer, even the weak ones like Shy Bladder and Weak Bladder are a pain. The big problems like Atheist, Death Wish, and Little Faith mean your cleric will probably not make it unless you have high-level babysitters. On the other hand, the Enabler quirk is fun in the right hands. Having a PC who accepts your PC as the psychopath he or she is and who helps them with their psychoses means you've got a friend. A character with the Enabler quirk buys the Alcoholic beer, helps the pyromaniac finds things to burn, and helps the gnome-hated at gnome hate-rallies. On second thought, this might not be funny to you. So, if you can, don't roll on the quirks and flaws table in this book. Next up is cleric-group packages. Like the 2e kits, these tweak your character in a certain direction. The Amazon culture is packaged for a third time in three books in this one for those who like playing the warrior priestess. Barbaric clerics and Savage clerics work well for tribesmen, fighting monk for your martial arts priest, and then you have other fun packages. The Inquisitor-who always gets good reactions from their religions' worshippers because they fear or respect her; the nobleman and peasant clerics focused on a certain aspect of society. The scholar, prophet, pacifist, and undead slayer clerics, following an ideal and getting power in that area because of it. And finally, for your pirate or Sherwood Forest campaigns, the outlaw cleric whose benefit and drawback are basically the same-no superiors to answer to. Each package lists what members of the cleric-group can take it, which are barred, and which are preferred. So, with a package your single-classed cleric-group character can be quite interesting.
Following the quirks and flaws and packages are the Seminary Days tables. In HackMaster, a cleric is not born out of nowhere-they went to seminary and you have to roll up the background (at least in sanctioned play-in unsanctioned play you can skip it but that's missing out on a lot of fun). First you roll to see why your character was called-it could be that the character had a disease and was saved, converted from another gawd, was an angst-ridden teenager searching for meaning, joined to make his or her mom happy, or had the talent and was in a religious community. The next roll is for the type of Ecclesiastical Training and this is where you must read carefully. Due to the size of various tables, they are not arranged in the precise order you are supposed to roll on them and one table has an incorrect reference to another table. All easily fixed, but still a pain if you weren't paying the attention to detail to get around it. Characters who are really wise get good training, as do those of higher social class. Then you have tables for how much the Reverand Superior taught the PC, how nice they were to the PC, the religious accoutrements available during training, skills acquired (if any were), and location and results of residency. Finally there is the final quality of education table and tables for starting honor and starting money. Parts of these tables are hilarious in the ironic vein-like having to fix a lot of leaky roofs as a cleric or being beaten by non-believers. Nonetheless, your PC has a general location of residency, which church they were an apprentice at, and other details to use as background for the start of their adventuring career. A few PCs end up from the Seminary Days table as either military clerics or out in the wilderness, so they have less skills but fewer rolls need be made.
Next up in chapter two are skills, talents, and the Grenade-like Missiles weapon proficiency. The eight skills include Distraction, Feint, Veterinary Healing, and some abilities to improve combat. Twenty-nine talents trick out your cleric. You can buy better turning (in HackMaster you have an unlimited number of turn attempts per day but can turn each undead only once) in terms of undead numbers, in terms of size of undead turned (but you lose the ability to turn numbers as well), or through burning your life energy. Life Smite makes your character hit undead for an extra 2d6, but they hunt you do if they are intelligent as they smell the stench of undeath ending on you. There are resistances to curses, elements, death magic , diseases, and poison, and a few talents where the character's prudery (Prudish and Puritanical) help them resist the opposite sex and booze. Through in a few movement talents, Precision Casting and Quick Casting talent, talents improving healing on oneself and others, Divine Smite and Divine Shield (hit and AC bonuses based off Charisma) and your cleric can be nasty. Finally, there is the Legacy talent-it lets you use a sword only certain people are destined to do, do great feats of Strength, or some other power you can convince the GM to let you have. Note that in sanctioned HackMaster, many of these talents are restricted to cleric-group characters only. Your paladin does not get access to Divine Smite. If you play unsanctioned, well, you can do whatever you want but remember that the fighters get good stuff so make sure the clerics don't suck
Oh, and Grenade-like Missiles is for throwing flaming oil, holy water, and other things in vials at the enemy. Holy Hand Grenade coming online.
The remainder of the chapter is cleric personality types. These are good for a newbie or a GM who needs a quick personality for an NPC cleric-veteran roleplayers already know these personalities and so their utility depends on your needs.
Chapter 3: Rules of the Road, is about the role of the cleric in society. It is the best chapter in the book. Yes, the new crunch is fun, but playing a cleric who is more than a walking healing potion dispenser means you need help on how to roleplay them and where they fit in with society. This chapter does that and any non-HackMaster players should read it at the friendly local game store if they won't be shot for browsing. Prophecies and there interpretations are discussed-it is important to see how a cleric reads omens and this book talks about how to interpret them and how to make the bad ones not so bad on you. Cleric duties are also covered, and there is a discussion of advancement in the religious hierarchy. Low-level characters start as flunkies at big churches, or run small ones. If you have an adventuring cleric (because roleplaying daily prayers and running a congregation is boring to most folks), it explains what the GM can do so they can adventure and not have to run a church. The perils of being an adventuring cleric when most clerics work a certain area are also explained-but keep in mind as an adventurer you have more wealth, advance more quickly (can't be MVP of a session of just preaching and 1 EP per point of healing is pretty damn slow) than your sedentary brothers and sisters of the faith. Any cleric that is not an outlaw should be building a church at level 9, so if you play an adventurer, the goal is to make the money and power, build a church (and get the church's half to help pay for it) using the church rules, find some good flunkies to administer it, then go back to adventuring. Every once in a while, you check back with the church and give the big sermon. There is also a reminder of the non-clergy who work for your church-from the humble parishioner who cleans the church rectory to the king who worships in your most fabulous church. Finally, a short section on church and crown fills this chapter out.
Chapter 4, Hackprayer, introduces new combat rules centered on clerics and tells you how your PC can call for a Holy War! First off is a discussion of weapons and spells-keep in mind that clerics can fight quite well in HackMaster (unless you took a less martial zealot class). So, as a secondary fighter with spells to help, remember to heed the advice. Clarifications of how nasty critical hits are and medical care are provided. Then there are sections on dealing with lycanthropes and undead-how to cure them and how to kill 'em. It is clarified that characters can actually command undead close to them in alignment (class permitting as some zealots are turn only)-thus the Chaotic Good cleric can command Chaotic Good ghosts (not that there are many of those). Clarifications on how mixed undead are turned are provided. And as noted, the rules on calling for a Holy War and how it happens are also provided-become a famous cleric and you can call for a Holy War to smite your enemies.
Chapter 5, Tools of the Trade, is the equipment section for clerics. Here you will find holy symbols, clerical robes, braziers, chalices, new weapons for clerics that include the garrote (plus improvised weapons from Hackjournal #8), and a description of them. Sadly, each church's vestaments aren't covered in detail, but that would have made a much longer book.
Appendix A: Spells, covers 17 pages. It has a number of new cleric and druid spells and explains spheres so that if you didn't play second edition AD&D or weren't paying attention, you know how those work. It also denies bonus spells to those cleric-group characters without a Wisdom modifier in their prime requisites (unless stated otherwise in the class description), making some of the zealots less useful than you'd think purely from chapter 2. Many of the new spells are body part repair spells, lesser versions of Cure Critical Wounds. There are also some resistance spells, a number of spells for the new travel sphere, and a few utility spells. The most interesting spell is Focus, a level 4 spell which allows a community of worshippers to empower a place or person as a magical item. This explains many of the powers at a temple-the worshippers devote time to maintaining the focus. Appendix B: Spell Components, is similar to the
Spellslinger's Guide setup, but for cleric and druid spells. It lets you know which critters are good to harvest to cast which spell and any additional effects of using their body parts. In HackMaster, everything is loot.
Appendix C is an updated spell planner by level-there are a few typos but it is generally useful. Appendix D lists spells by sphere and level-the Healing section is a pain to read due to a misprint putting everything one column over. Spheres are really for the zealots, but you could plan with the for a standard cleric. Normally the GM choses spells for the Chosen One, but if you want to roll dice, Appendix E has a random list of spells for Chosen One characters to cast at each level. Finally, the last non-index section of the book, Appendix F, lists Deities' Favored Weapons. Normally clerics and druids are mighty restricted in their weapons, but if your character's gawd lets them use more, then the list here tells you what. Thus if you want to play a two-handed sword wielding-cleric, look here! The list is alphabetical by deity and pantheon, so it will make figuring out who they are easy if you also have the
Gawds and Demigawds tome.
At the back is a set of 12 coupons-like all HackMaster books. Unlike the prior classbooks and the Griftmaster's Guide (which has two sets), only one coupon set was printed for the
Zealot's Guide. Coupons include Indulgence (buy off Alignment Infraction Points), Resident Evil Eviction Notice (doubles number of undead turned or commanded), Cure the Disease and Kill the Patient (cures the disease but the target must make a System Shock roll or die), And I Will Strike Down Upon Thee With Great Vengeance and Furious Anger (double damage on a melee attack). These are all blue and white.
Artwork is your HackMaster standard-Brendon and Brian Fraim and some other artists. In this case, Stacy Drum, Mark Parsons, and Jolly Blackburn. Stacy Drum illustrated the cover, which again depicts adventurers kicking rear and taking names. A ghost seems to be rising from the body o a dead man, and some kind of vampire chicks wearing jewelry pasties and jewelry bikinis and a vampire lord are geting beaten up in an orange-colored cave by two clerics. One cleric is a female with a stake and glowing warhammer and the other is a male with a mace and glowing holy symbol. The pose is less action-oriented than the other classbooks, and is thus my least favorite of the four classbook covers. Plus, that female human cleric looks like she took a bunch of hits from the ugly stick and she's right up in your face.
Interior art is sparse, as per HackMaster standard. My favorite illustration is a Mark Parsons line drawing of a blacksmith working on a sword (page 19) because it shows the details of his muscle, beard and the shadow he creates and almost seems alive. The Fraim's image of a Gandalf-like guy meeting a gang of black-robed figures in the woods on page 84 is also interesting-you can shee his staff is crooked like a tree branch and you just know something's about to happen.
In sum, the HackMaster
Zealots Guide to Wurld Conversion: Securing the Throne in the Afterlife, is a 5-star book. If you don't play HackMaster, chapters 3-5 will give you ideas on how to better play and equip your cleric and if you do play HackMaster, this books gives you a ton of new classes and makes it easy to play a name-taking cleric. Now, go to work for your deity by picking this up at the friendly local game store or from the Kenzer and Company website!
