Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Hey folks, Jandolar here, been a while since I posted. 2015 was the last time I think. Anyway I was invited to join a game with some co-workers and happily accepted. Well that was a mistake. I think it's version 5 or 6 or 35 or something. HOLY MOSES there were so many darn rules and exceptions to rules and addendum that it took me at least an hour to get a character rolled up. Once the game began we had to stop every 15 minutes or so so that the resident "lawyer" could argue a point of fact with the DM while we poured through the rule books to make a decision.

Worst. Game. Ever.

I offered to DM some BFRPG for the players. We'll see what happens in the next week.

Plus everyone can have ALL the rules, supplements, etc... for FREE thanks to Solomoriah and the rest of the fine folks here.

Obviously there are other free games out there, but find me one as well supported and easy to access everything at once.

Hi Jandolar. I would like to hear your group's reactions to the different game systems. Let us know how the Basic Fantasy game goes.

With all due respect, if you ALL did play 5th edition and found it too complicated, I'd like to know how and why. :S

I have a ton of faults with the system but being too complicated for me was not one of them.

Friendly reminder not to let this go into any sort of "edition war" dialogue. We all have our favorites and not-so-favorites, and our focus should be mostly about BFRPG... and how cool our particular offering is.

I've checked out the Basic Rules for 5E, and while they're not bad they still feel incomplete and just not my style. Basic Fantasy RPG is apparently what's hard-coded in my brain for fantasy RPG.

I bought extra copies of the core rules so players could have their own copy, while my spiral bound copy is chock full of stickies for reference. I think that between ALL the print books, a mat, markers, DIY game tokens, and a bag full of dice (enough for 10 players and then some), I spent around $100. That's pretty much the entry cost for the industry-backed books alone for current major RPG systems.

As for 5e, it honestly sounds like you might not have had the best group. It can be pretty straight forward once people understand the rules. I have to give the 5e design credit for making pretty much everything "roll d20, higher is better." My preference for the old-school games is less mechanical and more stylistic. 5e encourages "roll for everything," such as when I asked a DM if there were any doors or bars at the end of a hallway. I didn't think an adventurer would need to pass a check to see a door is front of him.

Anyway, one thing I think the core BF rules do is give a feel for the old-school style of play instead of just trying to list the dice mechanics. These kinds of role-playing games are interesting precisely because you're NOT trying to following the rules and only the rules down to the letter at every point in the game.

SmootRK wrote: ↑Thu Jan 10, 2019 6:13 pm Friendly reminder not to let this go into any sort of "edition war" dialogue. We all have our favorites and not-so-favorites, and our focus should be mostly about BFRPG... and how cool our particular offering is.

Good point. And nothing says it has to be all or nothing. Play what you like, and switch it up if you need to. (I'm taking a DM break this week and my buddy is running 5E).

But enjoy and obsess about the old school goodness that is BFRPG as often as you can.

When I hear newest "d&d" my first thought is to check the downloads here for a new release

I don't have any experience with 5e from Wizards, and only look at their new stuff for map tiles, minis and stuff like that if I'm in Books-A-Million.

Olgabelle wrote: ↑Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:36 am When I hear newest "d&d" my first thought is to check the downloads here for a new release

I love that quote! Thanks for it!