Fighter Attack Bonus

[Oni]

I've been looking at various retroclones and other OSR games trying to decide which one to use, and in comparing the games I've noticed that the attack bonus progression of the Basic Fantasy fighter seems somewhat conservative, both overall and relative to the other classes. So, before I go changing anything, I'm curious to know why it was done that way.

[SmootRK]

In my own house-rules, I adjust them slightly, as well as making all the other classes equal to the Normal Man at their first levels (giving the fighter another small boost over them right away). You can locate my houserules here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=537 (specific table on p.23)

[SmootRK]

So, before I go changing anything, I'm curious to know why it was done that way.

All of BFRPG is meant to mostly mirror (note not necessarily duplicate) the game edition inspiration. The B/X edition of a certain game is likely very close to these amounts.

[Oni]

So, before I go changing anything, I'm curious to know why it was done that way.

All of BFRPG is meant to mostly mirror (note not necessarily duplicate) the game edition inspiration. The B/X edition of a certain game is likely very close to these amounts.

I'm not really that familiar with B/X, but I noted the value was a fair bit different from Labyrinth Lord, which everyone says is extremely close to the source material. I did make the assumption that Basic Fantasy was the deviation (which might be incorrect), and that the author had deliberately chosen to go with the more modest attack bonus advancement for reason. Now, for me, fidelity to the original is basically a non-issue, I was just curious about the thought process behind the design decisions.

[Solomoriah]

The "coverage target" game only went up to level 14, and characters at that level had bonuses that were pretty much "maximum" for the game's mechanical limits. Extending the level range to 20 required spreading out the advancement a bit.

So now you know.

[Oni]

The "coverage target" game only went up to level 14, and characters at that level had bonuses that were pretty much "maximum" for the game's mechanical limits. Extending the level range to 20 required spreading out the advancement a bit.

So now you know.

Thanks, that's interesting. That bit of information made me go back and compare the saving throw tables too. It's something to think about, how important chance is in terms of game mechanics.

On a completely unrelated note, the website says the 3rd edition pdf is still under development. If I were to print out a Basic Fantasy pdf tomorrow to run a game, would you recommend the 2nd edition one or the 3rd edition one?

[Solomoriah]

The 3rd edition is a mess, layout-wise. I'd recommend going with the 2nd.

As I've noted elsewhere many, many times, there is no functional difference. It's the same game, 1st or 2nd or 3rd edition doesn't matter. 3rd is getting a handful of new monsters (that are presently available in the Field Guide or on the forum), a few cleanups, more artwork, and a little help with traps for the GM.

[Oni]

Fantastic, thanks a lot.