A few questions

[Dwarmij]

Hello all, new to the forum. I ran across your site while surfing a little. I'm quite a fan of older versions of the " Worlds most popular role playing game " as it is often put. I run a small, for now, play by post site and am trying to stir up a little interest amongst the older players there in this game. I have a question about monsters. I downloaded the spreadsheet, and yes there are plaenty of monsters in it, but, if I were to try to convert some from other sources, which is the best way to go. Use 1e/2e books or use d20 sources. Also, do you have some sort of conversion guide or can you give me some method perhaps ?

[SmootRK]

Here is one of the articles that appears in the Dungeoneer's Almanac:

http://basicfantasy.org/download.cgi/BF ... 2006.2.pdf

It may help you with some monster crafting. Also over at the Dragonsfoot forums is a few threads that add monsters to the game. At some point these should become actual supplements for BFRPG.

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewt ... 42&t=19239

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewt ... 42&t=35223

Feel free to contribute in these threads to add your own creations/conversions.

[SmootRK]

and welcome to the forums!!

[Dwarmij]

OK, it's pretty much like I thought from looking at the core rules. They look pretty much like a 1e/2e stat block except you replace THAC0 with BAB and use the 3e/3.5 AC system. Is any monster you could find on an SRD site open for "public conversion". One more annoying little question, do you use magic resistance or spell resistance, or something else entirely, ( yes I already have a creature in mind, one of my favorites )

[Solomoriah]

You can convert anything that's OGC to BFRPG and publish it. Of course, you can convert ANYTHING for your home game... nobody can tell you that's wrong.

Basic Fantasy RPG reproduces a "Basic" mode of gameplay, not "Advanced." OGL clause 17 prevents me from being more specific. We use NEITHER "Magic Resistance" nor "Spell Resistance." Any monster that is more resistant to magic than normal would be noted as having a bonus to saving throws vs. magical effects, perhaps as much as +5; some monsters may have complete resistance to certain magic (such as undead vs. mind-affecting magic), or take half damage from certain effects.

Magic Resistance in the "1E" mode means that any MR-equipped monster gets TWO saving throws, one against MR, and the second against the standard saving throw figure. Worse, 1E MR requires math, as you have to adjust up or down based on relative levels. I don't agree with any of that. I don't like the double rolls, and I don't like the math. More importantly, MR is not "Basic."

I'm not familiar with the rules for "Spell Resistance" so I can't comment on it.

Of course, you can do as you wish in your own game, and you can publish supplements with MR or SR in them if you wish... but I won't publish anything like that on this website.

[SmootRK]

Just about any critter from any sort of game can be easily converted to BFRPG. However, there is a sort of general consensus that most creatures are completely re-thought out, rather than simply ported over - whenever possible. This should be especially true for any critter that might get misconstrued as intellectual property of someone (or company). There are many creatures that have been declared exclusive property, even when they have roots in other sources. One should not expect these to get published in any supplement... but like Solo said, what you put into your own game is nobody's business but yourself.

[Dwarmij]

I understood, from reading on The Hypertext d20 SRD, that certain creatures were considered " Intellectual " property by Wizards. The creator of the site even put up a list of them. What you are trying for then is a more " Basic" form of fantasy role playing, as the name implies. That is why ,for instance, your dragons have only one entry for each type. Instead of the myriad entries for age etc.

[Solomoriah]

I think you're conflating two different things, Product Identity and old-school gaming. Rather than try to untangle it, let me explain what the game is about.

Back in 1981, I got this cool game for Christmas. It came in a box that might be described as hot pink or purple, with a scene depicting stalwart adventurers facing a dragon. The book within the box was the "Basic" book, written by Tom Moldvay. That rulebook took adventurers from levels 1 to 3.

A few months later I laid hands on the "Expert" rules, which extended the Basic rules to level 14. A "Companion" rulebook was promised, including higher levels and more cool stuff (monsters, magic, etc.) but that rulebook never appeared; in 1983, the Basic and Expert rules were rewritten, and that rewrite got a Companion, Masters, and Immortals book added on.

The look, feel, and play of Basic Fantasy RPG is meant to emulate that 1981 edition, not the way it was but the way we played it; I did include a very few more modern rules, such as ascending AC (which, had I thought of it back in the day, I'd have used it then). BFRPG owes much more of its design to those 1981 rules than to anything more modern, and despite strange things others have said, it's much easier to use materials written for those old rules with BFRPG than to use materials written for post-2000 RPG systems.

[Solomoriah]

Oh, and regarding dragons: The way they appear in BFRPG is more or less like the way they appeared back in the old days, in that game that I started with. No metallic dragons (except the gold dragons), no other oddball types, and different age categories handled with a simple table for each type. Actually, you were supposed to do the math back then for the age categories; I've made it a lot easier using tables.

[Hywaywolf]

well, I don't know what game Solomoriah is talking about, but BFRPG plays just like my Moldvay/Cook D&D Basic/Expert rules from 1981. My game of choice until BFRPG came along.