Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Hey all, not new to RPG's but new to Basic Fantasy and these here boards.

For awhile I have been looking to break the hold 3.5, Pathfinder, and 4th ed have had on my gaming group and get back to my gaming roots. Having downloaded and read the Labyrinth Lord rules I was chomping at the bit for an opportunity to run it.

That opportunity has come and in a big way! I got to run some adventures, using the Labyrinth Lord rules, for both my regular gaming group and a new group consisting of my girlfriend and a bunch of our other non-gamer friends. As it turns out everyone has had a great time and enjoyed the game (and they keep coming back for more!). There has been one snag with Labyrinth Lord that has caused me to look around for another retro-clone which is what lead me to Basic Fantasy.

Oddly enough the snag was the same in both my newbie and experienced group, and that snag is attack tables and descending AC. When I first learned to play D&D way back when in 1985 we were young and the descending AC and attack tables were all we knew. Both of my groups have asked the same "why does it work like THAT?!" question when I try to give them the run down on the combat rules and the only answer I have is "thats just how it was back then". That just doesn't cut it when there are better ways to do it.

So, thanks Basic Fantasy for keeping all the retro goodness while updating this one mechanic to something that makes more sense and is easier for all to grasp, good job.

Looking forward to running many more adventures with the Basic Fantasy rules.

Welcome to the boards and to Basic Fantasy. I felt the same way as you do. Old school is awesome, but why should we keep using descending AC? BFRPG fixed that, but it did even more. B/X (1981 rules) was filled with minor (and not so minor) inconsistencies. BF fixed those without stacking on loads of other rules.

But the real beauty of BF is that although it works great on its own (the way I prefer it) it also has a big library of addition material to make your game as complex as you want it.

Yes sir Hywaywolf.

When I first hit up the download page to grab a copy of Basic Fantasy I couldn't believe how much extra material there was available. And it's good material too.

I've been so tempted to print it all out I've been having a tough time restraining myself

Welcome aboard and good hunting!

I'm glad I'm not the only that thought the old descending AC and THACO was kinda dumb. Newer versions didn't get alot right but moving to an ascending AC was one of them and I'm glad BFRPG incorporated that into its ruleset.

Yes, I think one of the Fails of some other endeavors at keeping things basic, is that they fail to realize that there actually has been some good innovations over the years that can be incorporated into games (and still keeping things basic). This is where I find BFRPG an improvement over some other offerings.

Also, especially since I spend some time writing material for games, I find the ease of incorporating material into BFRPG especially nice. One can add in a little, or one can add in a lot... and the materials are presented in OpenOffice format so that it is generally understood that one can tweak away to their hearts desire!!