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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Jo Jo Zeke’s Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

HackMasters of EverKnight (installment seven) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Knights of the Dinner Table: “I Motion to Adjourn” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Created by: JJolly R. Bolly R. Blackburlackburnn, , BBrian Jrian Jelke, Selke, Stevteve Je Johanssonohansson

DDavid Kavid Kenzenzer and Mer and Manny anny VVegaega

Pencils & Cover Art by Manny Vega Inks by Ricardo Boronat Scripted by Greg Rucka

KENZER ANDCOMPANY

HackMastersof EverKnight #7

May, 2001_________________________

© Copyright 2001, Kenzer andCompany, All Rights Reserved.HackMasters of Evernight™ ispublished bimonthly by Kenzer andCompany, 25667 Hillview Court,Mundelein, IL 60060.

Postmaster:Send address changes to:Kenzer and Company25667 Hillview CourtMundelein, IL 60060

Subscriptions: A six issue subscrip-tion is only $16.00 (US $18.00 inCanada and US $32.00 Overseas).

To subscribe, send a check ormoney order (made payable toKenzer and Company) to:

______________________Kenzer & Company

HackMasters Subscriptions25667 Hillview CourtMundelein, IL 60060_______________________

or fax a valid Visa, MasterCard,AmEx or Discover card number,your signature, card type and expira-tion date to us at (847)540-8065.

Internet: steve@kenzerco.com(editorial inquiries only) or questions@kenzerco.com(all other inquiries). World WideWeb: http://www.kenzerco.com

Submissions: We accept submis-sions for strip ideas, jokes, cartoons,etc. We are interested in runninganything that other gamers and fanswould enjoy. Visit our website forwriter’s guidelines.

Legal Notice: HackMasters, Knights of the

Dinner Table, KODT, HackMaster, the

Kenzer and Company Logo, and all prominent

characters and likenesses thereof are trademarks

of Kenzer and Company.

™

™

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GARY JACKSON’SHACKMASTERSOF EVERKNIGHT™

Sturm Pyre. Gary Jackson. The men. The myths. The legends.

As all of our real fans know by now, the great GaryJackson has passed away, gone to that never-ending gamein the sky. Among his many accomplishments, Gary wasknown for his best-selling epic novel series, theHackMasters of EverKnight, upon which this series is(very loosely) based. Gary’s incredible novels introducedthe gaming world to many fantastic characters, such asSkragg Fallow, Lefty, Kevlar the mage and, of course,Sturm Pyre, the dwarven pirate.

Sturm Pyre was always Gary’s favorite character, one hetreasured even when many other gamers ridiculed himfor playing a one-legged dwarf. In fact, when Gary firstrolled up Sturm, he had just a 3 constitution. Any ofyou who are familiar with the HackMaster RPG knowjust how pathetic that is and that it’s unheard of for adwarf. But Gary refused to throw him away and startover from scratch. He redlined the character creationrules and squeezed out every ounce of character genera-tion points he could through some clever min/maxingand taking key character flaws and weaknesses. None ofus would have guessed that Sturm would live past hisfirst adventure. But Gary proved us wrong, adding ‘clas-sic’ Sturm Pyre sequences to his novels that were basedon actual game play (who could forget the time when hefought off four stone giants with only his peg leg and abloody giant-sized jaw bone). He even produced a spe-cial line of highly-requested and highly acclaimed SturmPyre miniatures.

Gary was a tough player, as well as a Game Master, andhis characters reflected that toughness. Especially SturmPyre. I remember once when Gary was running a cam-paign and Stumpy, uh, Sturm Pyre was an NPC travel-ing with our party. We were attacked by a spectre in adead-end room, with no hope of escape, and we foughtvaliantly, but to no avail. My 10th level halfling thief gotdrained down to 1st level, and everybody else got takendown to at least 2nd level – except for Sturm Pyre. Thatstupid dwarf wasted the spectre with ease, and as a bonushe gained all the extra levels that we lost! We com-plained, but it didn’t do any good. In fact, most of usended up with so many demerits that I’m still workingthem off. Well, not anymore, I guess. Wow! No more

demerits… I can hardly believe it. You can’t see me rightnow, but if you could you’d see I’m dancing a jig. Nomore demerits! No more Stumpy! Woooo hoooo! [ Jo Jo – This is supposed to be a frickin’

tribute to Gary and Stumpy, remember? Be sure

you rewrite it before distribution. Geez. –

Edmund ]

This issue brings back Gary’s beloved Sturm Pyre, theway we hope Gary would have wanted to see him. Infact, we hired one of Gary’s favorite writers, Greg Rucka,to script this very special issue. Mr. Rucka is well-knownfor his current work on Detective Comics, published bya little company known by the same initials. Many fansmight not be aware of this, but Gary was a huge Batmanfan. (He even loved all of those hideous films. Well, okay,the first one was good, but they all sucked after that.) [Jo Jo – is it legal to say that? Besides I kinda liked DrewBarrymore. – Edmund] So when art-monkey MannyVega wanted a writing break, and suggested his friendGreg Rucka take over for an issue, Gary jumped at thechance. Unfortunately, the timing of Gary’s departuremeant that he never even got to see the original script forthis particular issue of HackMasters of E.

Fortunately, we here at Hard Eight were always sensitiveto Gary’s feelings about Sturm Pyre. After all, we werethe ones who had to adventure with him. So we hadlong, drawn out discussions with Mr. Rucka, communi-cating our feelings on exactly how strong, smart, andcourageous Sturm Pyre really was. Greg’s experience withBatman is a perfect fit. Batman is all about a man with-out superpowers making the most of his human intellectand inner strength in his struggle with the evil of theworld and his own inner demons. Sturm Pyre is the sameis a lot of ways. For him, and often times Gary himself,it was all about overcoming adversity. It’s about makingthe most of what you have and engaging that constantstruggle with fate over who is in command of one’s owndestiny. On the surface, Gary lost. But Sturm struggleson. Through him and the fans that remember him, Garyhas achieved a certain immortality that the cruel hand offate can never rob him of. We think Gary would havewanted it that way.

Jo Jo Zeke

FOREWORD T O HACKMASTERS™ # 7

by JoJo Zeke© 2001 JoJo ZekeAll rights reservedwith minor contributions by

B. Jelke, J.R. Blackburn,D.S. Kenzer, S.Johansson

and Mano Vega

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