Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Hey everyone, like I said in the title I'm fairly new to GMing in general, and new to GMing Basic Fantasy entirely. My players haven't played many RPGs so I thought the general simplicity and the accessibility of getting the rules for this system would be great for all of us.
I've become interested in running older modules, a lot of the well known basic/expert modules that came out throughout the 80's and was wondering about conversion. Conversion seems to be easy, the only thing I would need to change is the original AC system to the more modern accending AC system; so I don't think that is going to be much of a problem. My main sticking point is the fact the module is recommended for a party of 6-10. I'm not sure what the best way of going about running this with four people would be, should I just roll up a few NPCs and have them as retainers/mercenaries that the party came in with; or maybe knocking back the number of monsters would be apter? Lemme know what you guys think. Thanks.

Deduct the AC values from 20, so 5 becomes 15 for example.

As to the difficulty level... yeah, I'd reduce the monster numbers a bit. OR, bump the PCs by starting them at 5,000 XP, making them level 2 or 3 (depending on race and class) to increase their odds of survival.

I started to run some of the older models but instead chose to read through some of them instead (like the Lost City) and just create my own from the bottom up with BFRPG creatures.

The best ones are sandbox modules that only require a few things anyways . . . just a few maps, encounter tables, and some basic location encounters.

And here's the things, if you craft the adventure/ module yourself, you feel way more comfortable as a GM running it.

Just take the basic premise of the Lost City and make your own. The site https://donjon.bin.sh/ is awesome for this. Just use the "fantasy" tab to find generators for everything you need, including some really nice maps!

Just do not prepare too much. Let your players give you ideas as you go and prepare for whatever direction that they choose to go in (and add some more options because you never know what players are going to do!).

Good call for Basic Fantasy to have all PCs start off with an attack bonus of one. Converting by subtracting from 20 is a lot easier to do and remember than from 19. Also good call on smoothing it out a bit between levels. They're subtle but I'm still finding the ways you modernized the game in a lot of good ways.

Thanks for the kind words! Honestly, it just seemed obvious to me...