KABAL (E.T.Hams, 1980)

Reposting reportages from the Astrifiammante project

KABAL (acronym of ‘Knights And Berserkers And Legerdmain’) is a self-published RPG by Ernest Hams from 1980, made up of four digest-size booklets that look surprisingly polished for an amateur release.

The full set includes a 44-page Players’ Guide, a 24-page referee book (no subtitle on the cover), a 24-page Creature Catalog, and a 36-page Kabal Magic Spells booklet. I strongly suspect KABAL and the Creature Catalog were sold together. Alongside the books you’ll also find loose sheets, similar to the Ref Sheets in the old D&D boxed set, plus a couple of character sheets.

(The full set of books)

The Players’ Guide opens with the basics, what a referee is, how the game works, then moves into character creation. Characters have eight core stats, plus a ninth roll for wealth. The style is ultra-terse, almost like Hams didn’t enjoy writing long explanations.

(First part of Vol.1: Introduction and character definition)

It then covers character advancement, the initial spell list (70 spells, compared to the 300 in the dedicated volume), and combat. Combat deserves a closer look: the math makes sense, but it’s far from easy. The book is sprinkled with illustrations that are anything but amateurish, evocative, stylish, and consistent across the series.

(Second part: character advancement, initial spells, combat)

Other mechanics include critical hits and an “Oops chart” for clumsy blows. The Players’ Guide closes with spell descriptions (again, very concise) and a nod to languages.

(Second part: other games mechanics and initial spells)

The Referee Guide, printed in turquoise ink reminiscent of AD&D 1E and BECMI maps, is almost pure tables: dungeon generation, wandering monsters, NPCs, magic items. Barely any prose, and it feels strikingly like a modern OSR zine.

(Referee guide: many tables for the GM)

Toward the end, though, Hams sneaks in some referee advice, skills, special notes, and a handful of recommendations before cutting things off.

(Last part of Referee guide: advices for the GM)

The Creature Catalog is stripped to the bone: stat block plus four lines of text per monster, and that’s it. The Magic Spells volume follows the same pattern, two short sections on how spellcasting works, then a straight 300-spell list with clipped descriptions.

(Creatures and Spells volumes)

For completeness: there’s also a second edition of KABAL (1983–85), packaged as a boxed set with the same four-book structure, revised and corrected.

(KABAL 2nd Edition boxed set)