User summary:
HackMaster started life as a fictional D&D-like RPG in the Knights of the Dinner Table comic, where the players would obsess over intricate rules, GM versus player interactions, and the endeavors of the game's egotistical fictional writer, Gary Jackson, and publisher, Hard 8 Enterprises.
In 2001, HackMaster became an actual RPG based on the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. The game features familiar races, classes, and spells, but augments them with its own brand of "old school, hardcore" retrogaming, and delights in such mechanics as d10,000 critical hit tables, a super-detailed Honor system, level and training tables, and options for GMs to deal harshly with players who get out of line.
HackMaster is wrapped in a light touch of humor, with pedantic "Gary Speak" hearkening back to the original Gary Gygax roleplaying day, along with humorous monsters, spells, talents, and flaws that pay homage back to HackMaster's original comic incarnation.