Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Have you seen this one? viewtopic.php?f=19&t=876&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Like I said, the idea (adventure or quickstart document) is perhaps better suited for a GM oriented companion to this document, "Game Master's Starter Rules" or "GM Quickstart". In fact, it is probably best to have that sort of separation into 2 distinct documents... players (just starting out) need not be bothered with much of the under-the-hood stuff; they just need to get driving.

I started playing D&D in 1980 onboard an aircraft carrier in the Med. There were two (maybe 3 DMs) who ran a game that pretty much ran around the clock. People joined and left as their work schedules allowed. I had no books, but the DM had run off a few pages of docs from his books that he gave to new people. It worked out pretty good. That is why I love the beginner essentials.

I don't think we need a "Quick Start" package. Those are designed to cater to people who want to try before they make a major investment... in other words, it's a money thing. We shouldn't need to worry about "money things."

Well, it can also be a time thing.

Beginner's Essentials is aimed at getting the players into the game quickly. My view of a quickstart package would be something to get new GMs into the game quickly, that is, to make it as easy & quick as possible for someone who's never played BF and who doesn't have a BF GM nearby to become the local BF GM.

But then, I don't have time to work on it, so if it happens, it will be whatever the lead person on that project makes it.

There has been some thought given to writing a "how to DM" supplement with a BFRPG lean. I don't dm much so that wouldn't be me.

I have to agree now that I think about it; it's not like BFRPG is hard to pick up and the darn PDF is free, so why not just go with the core rulebook to begin with? If there's something(s) in there that are too confusing, missing, etc. then now's the time to fix for 3E.

Hywaywolf wrote:There has been some thought given to writing a "how to DM" supplement with a BFRPG lean. I don't dm much so that wouldn't be me.

I really like both the http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1 ... +sour&it=1 and http://paizo.com/products/btpy8ffn?Path ... tery-Guide, so I'd love to see one for BFRPG. I would certainly volunteer to be a part of writing it, but there'd be so many opinions, etc. I just dunno...

IMO, any book on how to DM should have multiple opinions. There is not one right way to do it.

Indeed. The balance of pre-planning, long scale plotting, and shooting from the hip will vary between GM preference and the nature of a "campaign" and its players.

A book on how to run a game and a supplement for how to get started as a GM are really two different things. The first should be comprehensive and explore various ways to do things. The second should be quick and give the GM the essential information to get up and running ASAP. At the end should be suggestions for what to read next, but there's no need in it for an in-depth discussion of the various philosophies of GMing.