Basic Fantasy Field Guide Volume 1

[SmootRK]

(but I would suggest that you don't reference the original 3.x material... I think it would need perspective that is not skewed by that mess.

Easy enough, as I thought it was an original creation.

I believe it was a direct port over from the SRD material. I am attempting to review everything that was likewise ported over directly, as much re-balancing is needed for that stuff (especially the higher 'level' monsters).

[Solomoriah]

Just thinking about dropping a ghost into House of Coldarius, so I pulled up the Field Guide and read it. Wow. Talk about overpowered.

Unless I'm reading it wrong, your first 10 years of aging (from merely seeing the ghost) has no saving throw. If the saving throw vs. fear is supposed to apply to the aging too, the description needs rewriting.

I'm going to roll my own for the adventure, but sometime we need to seriously rethink this monster.

[SmootRK]

Just thinking about dropping a ghost into House of Coldarius, so I pulled up the Field Guide and read it. Wow. Talk about overpowered.

Unless I'm reading it wrong, your first 10 years of aging (from merely seeing the ghost) has no saving throw. If the saving throw vs. fear is supposed to apply to the aging too, the description needs rewriting.

I'm going to roll my own for the adventure, but sometime we need to seriously rethink this monster.

That is one of those artifacts of porting stuff from SRD directly into BFRPG without a re-thinking... the conversion material is more and more dysfunctional as the power level (from srd) increases. I ran into this with other powerful creatures such as delver.

I have found that the 2e stats work well as the base for re-design efforts. They are more thought out than their comparative 1e stats, while not necessarily being ramped up for 3e use. I still try to make effort to 'Basic-fy' what I have been re-doing.

Overall, I think the conversion document does not address this edition power-creep. Higher level creatures ought not be converted, but rather the advice should be to 're-design'. I also think re-designed or completely re-thought creatures allow BFRPG to have its own vibe or style that can help set it apart from the other games (or their inspirations). If it were up to me, I might even consider dropping the conversion document altogether to more encourage people to make the effort to redesign from later-edition versions of creatures... the document becomes less usable as 4e and now 5e stuff will predominate moving forward.

I will definitely put Ghost into the que for review and re-evaluation.

[SmootRK]

certain things just cannot be copyrighted, but their specific stats for a certain game can. Of course, if you just have to stat up a goat... by all means, it will likely look quite similar.

Best to focus on all-new interpretations of certain concepts, rather than the porting of the materials from copyrighted games. Go back to the inspirational sources, rather than the game mechanics, and write new. Of course, such materials are great for other inspirations, mixing and matching things, comparing, and seeking ideas otherwise.

In other words, even if you do get an idea for something that already exists, make certain your idea has differences in both concept and implementation, to make certain you are not violating a company's copyright... and in my mind, more importantly, to give BFRPG a unique take on ideas, giving our preferred game a flavor all its own, by having loads of unique and different interpretations of material... rather than just endeavoring to copy as much stuff as possible from these other games.

Emphasis bolded... I want to stress this aspect as time keeps passing us. With the massive power-level increase seen in 3e and even moreso in 4e, and who knows what is coming down the pipe with 5e... one must quickly realize that direct conversion by manner of fast/easy conversion tables/charts/equations is just not going to work. This is already easily seen in high level 3e era monsters... they will not convert well in a systematic fashion.

We really need to put emphasis on new interpretations of ideas (of course done in old-school ways) in order to make new stuff for BFRPG. There is, and will be even more, cool stuff to 'borrow' into our favorite little system we have here... but we should be doing our own homework when creating this sort of stuff.

[SmootRK]

First post of this thread has an in-progress draft of the release 3 Field Guide

Also, if noticed, the Workshop Thread was merged into this (Project) Thread.

[SmootRK]

A new draft of Field Guide in post #1 of this thread. Several changes, additions of several entries, combining of some related entries, and several new pieces of artwork by Shonuff and Andrew (new contributor). Sorry but the formatting/pagination is a bit screwy right now... still working on adding stuff.

One area where I could use some help, is that there are many entries without XP values, and I am dubious about many other XP entries being correct. If anyone could review the XP to double check accuracy (and add in the omissions). In some cases, the asterisks for HD could be edited according to the descriptive text (special abilities).

Anyhow, a helping would help me fix some stuff while I am trying to add to the material. I have a bunch of stuff to add from modules, Dan's recent monster work, and a few other places in the forums (and on DF)... so help with some review would be great.

[Blazeguard]

I'll try and start looking through it tonight. Do you want me to just post the corrections here or how do you want that handled?

[SmootRK]

I'll try and start looking through it tonight. Do you want me to just post the corrections here or how do you want that handled?

You can post them here, or email me directly. same name @ gmail dott com
Thanks for lending a hand!

[dymondy2k]

Beat me too it..

[Blazeguard]

Don't let me be the one to deprive you of the joys of editing.