Balanced starting party for Morgansfort Old Island Fortress?

[aramfingal]

Preface: I've never played a tabletop RPG before. I've always been interested, but none of my friends were. Recently my friends and I have been playing HeroQuest, which they like a lot. As the GM, I have some fun with it, but it's a very limited game in scope and after a few quests the tedium of hack and slash kind of bores me. Somehow or another I came across Basic Fantasy. I picked up a hard copy of the core rules and Morgansfort from Amazon (amazing value btw) and I'm studying up on the game.

The next time my friends want to play HeroQuest, I want to give Basic Fantasy a shot. To keep things simple I plan to have them dive right into the Old Island Fortress with a party of pre-generated characters. There will probably be 4 or 5 players. I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to best balance the party for that particular adventure so that new players (who are used to charging into rooms of enemies) don't immediately die and get frustrated.

After the first round of it, if they want to play again, I can point them to this site and they can roll their own characters.

[vfults]

It's always a good idea to have one PC of each class. Giving the cleric a scroll with a couple of Cure Light Wound spells or granting each PC a potion of healing at character creation will help keep them alive if things go south for the party. Also, suggest to them that paying for a hireling or two to help out can be advantageous.

[Tree Ant]

As far as balanced parties go, what vfults said. That breakout will be the best for new players.

That being said, how the players play will be far more important than party composition. I played through a module as a gnome illusionist with my only companion a human thief (talk about terrible balance in a low-level party). We got through fine, but had to be a little clever about it.

I'd recommend to the players not to go charging in and hacking away. The modules are not balanced with that sort of play in mind.

Combat in BFRPG is typically very deadly, and it is usually best to either avoid it or to make sure you engage in combat on your own turns. Kick-in-the door and run in swords swinging is a good way for the entire party to be taken out within a few combats. This game tends to favor creative thinking and planning over mindless hack-and-slash.

There's a great primer written by Chris that uses BFRPG as an example of how to GM an "old school fantasy game". viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1400 I'd highly recommend reading it.

[aramfingal]

Thanks for the tips. I just downloaded that primer, going to read it tonight. Thank you for pointing me to it!

I think I definitely will give them a few extra potions, at least to start so they get a feel for the game. It will definitely be a different experience for them (hopefully one they enjoy). There's always one person who is foolhardy though and goes against the play it safe recommendations. It'll make for some interesting encounters and a few hard lessons. But what the heck, they can always reroll.

[SmootRK]

Although I prefer to have everyone start at level one (good learning to be cautious), since all are neophytes here, you might consider having everyone at 2nd level. This will give a little bit of extra endurance, some extra abilities to draw upon, and marginally better success rates with attacks, traps, etc. Level 3 characters may even be an option. The objective is to learn and have some fun... try out the rules.

Following up on that, I would stress to the players that the intial objectives are not necessarily long-term campaigning with the characters but a few sessions of learning the ropes... expect death, expect misfortune, expect doing things wrong and overall just learning the game mechanics. Then after a few sessions, gather everyone and say "OK, I think we have a better handle on how this needs to work. How about we start a 'real campaign'?" At this point, everyone can re-evaluate their character choices (class, races, etc.). You (as GM) might consider one or more optional supplements and otherwise start making the game that you (and your players) want to see in action.

Welcome to the forums here, and feel free to inquire with any questions... great group of people around here. Be sure to share your experiences in getting started. We love hearing these initial steps.

[Jandolar]

I'll second what the others have said about a balanced party and add in my own couple of pennies. I've never played HQ (looked it up right quick for reference) but it looks a lot like Descent:Journeys in The Dark which I've played the heck out of. If it is similar in that the companions are "built" for run-in-swords-a-swinging then that is what your folks are going to do in BFRPG. As others have said BFRPG is pretty deadly to characters with that mind set. It'd be a great idea to explain this to your players.

Also would like to advise that you let the players roll up the characters that they want to play, emphasis on balance, and pick the starting equipment and list of goodies. In the board game type that I've played (guessing HQ is similar) the characters are no more than a piece on the board and a cardboard stats list. No real love between player and character there. A rolled character swiftly becomes more than a piece of paper to the player and they'll likely be more apt to want them kept alive and less inclined to charge in at the enemy. As a long time gamer I've got character sheets from 20 years ago still in a folder here in the house and I love each and every one of them because I created them.

Just some text for thought.
Jandolar.

[Solomoriah]

Olde Island Fortress is a little tougher than I intended it to be; I recommend starting complete newbies out at 2500 XP. This will make everyone 2nd level except for Thieves, who will be third, and combo class Elves who will still be level 1. I strongly recommend against starting everyone at the same "level;" using XP is the only way to be fair.

[aramfingal]

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I'll let you know how it goes. I hope to get everyone together around Thanksgiving to try it out. There was one game of HeroQuest where I lost their character sheets and I dropped them in Quest #8 or so with brand new characters and it was much harder for them than I anticipated. There were some epic fights, but they managed to eek through it. I think Old Island Fortress will be a similar experience, they'll just have to keep a leash on Steve who likes to open doors before everyone's ready.

[vfults]

I think Old Island Fortress will be a similar experience, they'll just have to keep a leash on Steve who likes to open doors before everyone's ready.

With a newbie PC, I'll generally ask "Are you sure?" when they attempt something ill-advised. If they go ahead, I let the chips fall where they may. After this happens a couple of times and a PC or two has shuffled off their mortal coil, the players tend to wise-up.

[Dimirag]

I think Old Island Fortress will be a similar experience, they'll just have to keep a leash on Steve who likes to open doors before everyone's ready.

Locked doors are a good way to slow down characters, and if you add some traps to the doors the player will learn to open carefully or to let the thief to search for traps at every door.