GMing a game for Basic Fantasy

[Rookie555]

Hey all, since things are changing in the lim light. I decided to take role of GMing a game using Morgansfort, what is some advice I should take and not let my fear get to me when I play the game?

Im not really experienced even if i joined a few games, but what would be helpful to know?

[Solomoriah]

Let your players start with 5,000 XP, plus racial bonuses. Morgansfort is tougher than I planned when I wrote it.

[Rookie555]

Awesome, thanks chris! Im not sure maybe im just letting the rules worry me too much. Of course im just looking over the rules and module to be prepared.

[Snarkythekobold]

I was a first time GM not too long ago and I can tell you what I had problems with and how I worked through.

My three main problems were with remembering "saves," dealing with the cleric's actions of turning monsters, and working through how to deal with actions that were not covered, like special "feats."

So, I would keep those three tables with you - saves, turning the undead, and the special ability rolls.

FYI, there is a LOT of info to keep up with and it is best to just accept that you are going to get stumped. If you don't know what to do, just wing it. Try your best to not pull out the rule book and stall the game. Just make a judgment call, jot down your question in your GM notebook (you need one of those, just a small notebook of some sort) and then go find out the answer later. The players won't remember if you jacked something up. Just learn from it and have fun.

Me and my players eventually hacked BFRPG with Knave and a few rules from the Black Hack and went to a classless system and way fewer rules. In fact, I've got just about all of my rules on my GM screen. But honestly, you need to start playing the game as it is when you start out. I'm glad I did

[Rookie555]

Thanks for the advice snarky. I'll keep track of the three you mentioned.

[BusterBluth]

For a relatively new GM, i wouldn't recommend starting a game at 3rd level. IMO, you'd be better off starting the game as intended, with first level characters but in an adventure scaled for your party.

There's tons of adventures out there for starting PCs. I ran my kid through 'In Search of the Unknown', which is dated, old-school, and a little dry, to be honest. But he loved it. Even if the modules are for other game systems, if they're reasonably close to BF, they're easy enough to translate.

[Solomoriah]

JN1 is good for real 1st level characters, as long as they don't blunder into the tougher lairs first.

[Rookie555]

Yeah Im starting my players at 1st level unless I have them roll up a 2nd character and have that one idle. Of course i have 2 players only. because of timezone issues advertised in ifg discord channels. Though I think I prefer a small group of 2-3 players. The players I have are not so big in Basic Fantasy as they come from D&D 5e, but at least they are open to trying it.

[Seven]

I always find it difficult to keep a small group of level 1 players alive.
Without backups, things can go south in a hurry.

I like to give the players a pet, like a hound or a warhorse, or a henchman, someone for a mage to hide behind.
Also, it adds a way to provide hints or clues without leading the players and a henchman will know a lot of local people while the players usually know none.

[Rookie555]

Well turns out that I decided to cancel the entire plan to run a game for the players. Which is a shame that I made the choice. Im not sure im overthinking things on my part or I just need more experience to know.