Also, if this is clogging things up, feel free to delete it and tell me where I should post it!
Hearken to my tale, or do not (only need to watch first 30 seconds)
I took my hack ruleset on a maiden voyage. My friend rolled up Calcaneus, an NCO in the Lunar Empire running a tent group (Contubernium). Calcaneus wishes to excise himself from the empire and free his children. He serves on the Emperor's guard. Lacking any significant grounding in Glorantha or the Lunar Empire we created a splinter empire that involved (with inspiration from Dark Sun, Flash Gordon, Archer & The Sorceress):
Emperor Ignominious X, once a council to Gods, had grown senile and now(!!) craves immortality. He began appropriating all the slaves from the land to build the tomb for his inevitable ascension with the Seven Mothers. This left Citadel without production, which angered the various noble houses under the Emperor as they were now hemorrhaging money for this folly. The noble houses consisted of various subjugated races who were typically ruled by those countrymen willing to sell their brethren out. One such ruler is Calcaneus' uncle. Calcaneus has two children and a deceased wife, his children are kept under the care of the noble house so long as he pays (often) for such privilege. The slaves of his house are his own people. Houses typically treat slaves of their own people slightly better, perhaps just well enough for them to be really angry about the situation. His uncle reveals a plot to murder the emperor, with 5 out of 6 nobles houses supporting it, and to reward the heroes who aid this endeavor. Calcaneus doesn't trust his uncle at all, but agrees to advance his uncle's plans.
Calcaneus is intercepted by the brother of a girl who is promised to him once he retires (soldiers are not permitted to marry while serving). Urged to follow, Calcaneus painfully watches as the girl shyly admires a slave boy who she speaks with while he cares for her horse. The slave boy is known as one of Calcaneus' people. Calcaneus tells the girl's brother to summon her to greet him, saying nothing. The boy admires Calcaneus (and hates his sister) so he does so. After a tense RP experience, Calcaneus is unable to divine if the girl has any genuine feelings for him beyond normal sympathy. She tells him that her house has the Emperor's ear (they are the only loyal house) and that they know of a rebellion plot by a couple of noble houses—and most certainly they know his house will be one of those involved. He assures her that these are rumors, and is shocked to find her a fervent believer in the Emperor's ascension.
We then cut to a scene where Calcaneus gets his orders from his rival and superior, the Centurion Hallux. My friend uses a Snidley Whiplash voice which I decide is hilarious enough to adopt. Hallux hints that there is knowledge of various plans afoot, and Calcaneus' contingent is sent to the edge of the borders, to a town which has likely never seen Lunar presence to establish a garrison. He has the power to recruit to maintain his number as needed, though they have likely never seen a Lunar soldier. Hallux dances around seeming to know more than he is letting on of Calcaneus before dismissing him, claiming he will come in a few seasons to appraise the progress made in this border town, Drommgardt. Is Calcaneus being sent out of the picture for a reason? He certainly thinks so.
The Contubernium sets out for Drommgardt, a border town, and is intercepted by bandits who try to extort tribute as the true guardians of this area. Calcaneus manages to talk them down while simultaneously offering a token tribute that earns their trust. Their leader tells him that his father is the town elder. From there, they find the town small, lacking in able bodied adults and very poor. There is a small tribute temple to the Seven Mothers, and a priest, however. Calcaneus sets his soldiers up as the town's guard and immediately starts helping. His first job is to retake the old, abandoned watch tower taken over by the Barbarians recently.
For this base I used a convenient dungeon to go from dungeonslayers, The Brigands of Lyrkenfenn -Calcaneus approaches with 3 of his men and searches for the trap door to the tower below. According to my rules, I get a chance to roll for wandering monsters. I succeed, he fails, so I describe 4 brigands popping up the trap door then immediately falling back down after they see the searching soldiers. Calcaneus and team charge down with shields forward. What follows was a 20 minute Tarantino blood bath of screaming men doubled over in pools of their own viscera. The Brigands attack is 12, the soldiers 14, Calcaneus' is 13. The Brigands wear only 2 points of armor per location. All advantages point to the soldiers. At one point, two of the brigands are slain (mainly due to some horrible fumbles, including a 100 rolled on the parry fumble table), the remaining two ask to just leave and never return. Calcaneus wants them to drop their weapons, they refuse. Calcaneus assures them they will die. The last man alive, on what is certain to be his final attack, crits Calcaneus, severing his arm. His remaining men dispatch the rest and rush him back to the temple priest. At this point, the player and I talk about what options should Calcaneus have. He doesn't have a heal 6 guy on his team, so I offer one alternative and the player offers another. One is, the arm is re-attached, but permanently one or two hit points lower for that location. Another is that he loses the hand, but gains a D4 mace. It's a shield arm, but it means he can never fire a normal bow or swing a normal 2 handed weapon. The players likes this second option better, so he chooses the allotments of the table 1-5 his choice, 6 mine. He rolls his choice—and that's where we left it.
Was combat fun? hell yes. Would missile combat or spells have helped him some? Hell yes. Did I laugh hysterically at that last crit? You bet your ass I did. Since I use a d20 instead of percentile for 95% of the game, Fumbles happen 3-4% more often than in RQ.
One conscious situational thing I did in the game was make everyone, and I mean everyone, money hungry. They took coin and thanked for coin and wished for more coin. The idea for me was to create the empty kind of money sinks that you have in games like Contenders, where you wonder why in the hell should the character let themselves be tortured so. Fortunately my friend was laughing most of the time. I hope he returns to Doomquest, but perhaps a bit more willing to consider the tactical advantages of magic and missile combat in the game.
One thing I enjoyed about this game: transparency of play. I was able to play with what I knew or didn't know openly and without much embarrassment. He added information that he found interesting and we were both laughing often. We bargained for things that were not covered by the rules, though I have lingering questions of whether I sacrificed immersion for such openness of play.