Hack is a combination of a tile-laying game and a card game. Thematically, Hack is based on the exploits of the characters in the Knights of the Dinner Table comic book and is aptly illustrated in full colour and more than adequately mimics the look and feel of the comic. During the course of the game, players will lay down tiles and create a dungeon to walk through. The object of the game is to be the first player to escape the dungeon or to be the first player to find and successfully use the legendary Hand of Vectra (an artifact hidden somewhere in the dungeon). While each player plays a character in the same dungeon this game is almost entirely non-collaborative and each player is constantly throwing difficulties in the face of other players.

This game consists of five different decks, all of which are purchased separately. A complete set of decks will likely cost upwards of $50 which is expensive for a card game but gaming groups can buy individual decks and share to defray the cost. There are four "character" decks and one "game-master" deck. For players that are entirely new to the game I highly suggest only playing with the four character decks for a while first before adding the "game-master" deck to the game. Additionally, if you're only going to be playing with two players it is not much fun to play with one character deck and the game-master deck. Trust me on this one: stick to the character decks at first. Let me be clear and say that the game is a lot of fun with the game-master deck but it's such a different concept from the character decks that it's a tough deck with which to learn the game.

Each of the character decks are named after the "HackMaster" characters played by Knights of the Dinner Table characters of Bob Herzog, Dave Bozwell, Sara Felton, and Brian VanHoose. Respectively, the characters' names are Knuckles the thief, El Ravager the warrior, Thorina the barbarian, and Teflon Billy the wizard. Each character is sketched to strongly resemble the aforementioned comic-book characters which is a lot of fun to behold. Each character deck has an eponymous character card with four statistics on it with a value between 8 and 11:

1. Combat (Red)
2. Thieving (Green)
3. Negotiation (Purple)
4. Rules Lawyering (Blue)

The first three skills listed above are used when the character has to face an encounter. Combat is used to fight monsters, Thieving is used to escape traps, and Negotiation is used to outwit NPCs. The fourth skill, Rules Lawyering, is used to remove Rule cards that other players have put into play.

Each character deck also contains an "Entrance" card. Only one Entrance card is required to play the game. At the start of the game, one player places his/her entrance card face-up on the table and all other players remove the Entrance card from their decks. Each deck comes with cut-outs of all four characters which can be used as game pieces. Each player places their game piece on the Entrance at the start of the game. Finally, each player shuffles their deck and draws a hand of five cards.

Each character deck is made up of Room cards, Encounter cards (monsters, traps, and NPCs), Item cards, Rule cards, and Event cards. During a turn a player may take three actions from the following list (taking the same action multiple times is allowed):

1. Play a Room card.
2. Play a Rule card.
3. Attempt to remove a Rule card.
4. Move into a room.
5. Discard X cards to draw X cards.
6. Pass.

In general, whenever a card has been played and is completely resolved the player who played the card replenishes their hand with a new card from the top of their deck. This occurs whether or not the card was played on that player's turn or on another player's turn. Many of the cards in Hack allow for the written rules to be contradicted. If a card's text contradicts a rule, the card is "triumphant."

Room cards are played face-up on the table and create the map of the dungeon. Rooms have some number of entrance-ways on the card and must be placed so that one of its entrances is up against one of the entrances to a room in which your character is located. Many rooms have additional rules text on them. Every player has two Exit cards in their deck. You win the game by ending an action on an Exit. There can be multiple Exits in the dungeon but each Exit must be at least three rooms away from the Entrance.

Encounters are played by your opponents against you during your turn when you move into a room. Encounters are monsters, traps, or NPCs and all have a difficulty number. The person to the left of the player who entered a room has the first opportunity to play an Encounter. If that player cannot or chooses not to play an encounter the next player to the left has the opportunity to play an encounter. This continues until an encounter is played or the last player opts not to play an encounter. Only one encounter may be played per instance of a character entering a room. When an encounter is played, the player on whom the encounter was played rolls a six-sided die and adds their relevant stat (Combat for monsters, Thieving for Traps, and Negotiation for NPCs). The player who played the encounter rolls a six-sided die and adds the difficulty number. If the encounter scores higher, the character upon which the encounter was played is killed, goes back to the entrance, and that player's turn is over even if they had more actions to perform. If the character's total is higher they defeat the encounter and may play an Item card from their hand.

Item cards represent treasure that you find in the dungeon. Item cards confer some kind of benefit on your character, most often expressed as a bonus to your roll against a certain type of encounter. Items are played by either searching for them or by defeating an Encounter. You can search for Items when you enter any room that isn't the Entrance. To search, first count the number of rooms away from the Entrance you are and add one (e.g. if you are in a room adjacent to the Entrance you are one room away from the Entrance. Adding one to this yields a total of two). Now roll a six-sided die and if you roll equal to or less than the aforementioned number you may play an Item card from your hand. Searching is not mandatory and is done before Encounters are played. You may also play an Item card if you defeat an encounter but this is not mandatory. Whenever your character dies you must discard one Item card in play.

Rule Cards are played face-up in front of you and introduce a new rule into the game. These rules usually confer some kind of benefit for you and/or a penalty for your opponents. As an action, you may use your Rules Lawyering skill to remove another player's Rule card in play. Similar to encounters, roll a six-sided die and add your Rules Lawyering skill. Each Rule card has a difficulty number on it. The player who owns the Rule that is being targeted rolls a six-sided die and adds the Difficulty number of the rule to the roll. If the roll to attempt to remove the rule is higher then the rule is removed. If not, nothing happens.

Event cards do not require an action to play but each Event card states the conditions that must be met before they may be played (e.g. "Play when another player defeats an NPC"). Depending on the conditions, Events can be played either on your own turn or on other players' turns. Event cards have one-time affects that most often confer a benefit to the player playing the card and/or a penalty to one or more of that player's opponents.

As described in the Room cards paragraph above, a player can win if their character ends an action on an exit. An alternate way to win is to find the Legendary Hand of Vectra in the Dungeon and successfully use its ability in the Inner Chamber of Vectra. Each player has the Legendary Hand of Vectra Item card and the Inner Chamber of Vectra Room card in his/her deck.

The game-master's deck is slightly different from the other decks. It contains no exit cards and the game-master only has one stat: Rules Lawyering. The game-master's possible actions are different from that of the characters. On his/her turn, the game-master may:

1. Play a Room card adjacent to any room in which there is currently a character.
2. Play an Encounter face-down on a room in which there are no characters.
3. Play a Rule card.
4. Attempt to remove a Rule card.
5. Discard X cards to draw X cards.
6. Pass.

Options 3-6 above are identical to the actions described for players. As mentioned above, since the game-master does not have a presence in the dungeon represented by a playing piece like the characters do, the game-master places rooms adjacent to rooms in which there are currently characters.

When the game-master plays an Encounter face-down on an empty room the first player that enters that room turns that Encounter card face-up and confronts it as if it was played from another player's hand. This Encounter counts as the single Encounter for that room. The game-master may play Encounters from his hand in the conventional manner, as well. If one of the game-master's encounters kills an character the game-master may play an Item from his/her hand. The game-master wins if he kills a number of characters equal to the number of non-game-master players plus one. The game-master may kill the same character multiple times.

This game is a lot of fun to play and is a very tongue-in-cheek rib on the "Munchkin" style of role-playing typified by 1980s Dungeons & Dragons. The thematic aspects of this game will appeal highly to anyone that cut their teeth on D&D in the 1980s and readers of Knights of the Dinner Table will identify even stronger since many of the cards have memorable quotes from the comic on them.

Winning a game of Hack is largely luck-based. Between die rolls, the drawing of cards, and very limited control over the cards that your opponents will play on you the planning ahead you can do in Hack is very easily thwarted. This game is heavy on the "take that" factor and you often spend as much or more time frustrating your opponents' efforts to win as you do trying to win the game yourself.

That being said, this game is a lot of fun. I have played this game dozens of times with more-or-less the same group of people and the humour of what happens during the game is not diminished by the fact that we've seen the cards many times before. Being on the receiving end of the countless "take that" cards your opponents have is 75% of the fun in Hack.

One of the only critiques I have of this game is that the game has too many Item and Encounter cards that focus on Combat and less so on Thieving and even more less so on Negotiation. Perhaps this was intentional given that the flavour of HackMaster is to hack first and ask questions later. The only drawback of this apparent imbalance is that the "Thorina" character has her highest stat in Negotiation which she doesn't get to use as often as the other characters that have their highest stat in Combat, Thieving, or Rules Lawyering. The other critique I have of this game is the price. Although it is novel to allow the low-cost buy-in of a single deck the cost of all five decks together makes for an expensive 300-card game compared to others on the market.

I'll end this review of this great game on a positive note and mention that the production values of these cards are top-notch. The colours are vibrant, the text is crisp and easy to read, and the cards are on thick stock and very durable. I've played dozens of games with my decks and they still look new.