Quiet around here.

[SmootRK]

Funny, I was just about to write a post about how quiet it has been lately around here. Just as I refresh the screen, low and behold, Solomoriah posts a new little adventure. Great timing!!

Aside from that, anyone have any noteworthy news? Game events, interesting campaign developments, new creations to share???

Although I have not posted them here, I had done some revisions to a couple of classes/class options. I reworked some text on a Knight class, updated the quasi-class of Holy Characters (essentially a paladin replacement), and using the model for this quasi-class idea, crafted two extra class options - barbaric characters and archers. The basic idea on this 'quasi-class' idea is that for an XP penalty, some requirements and restrictions, characters can add some additional abilities along some theme or archetype.

Anyhow, rather than reposting in their entirety here, I will just point over to the Dragonsfoot Workshop forums where I posted the threads for each. http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=42

[jdn2006]

In my case, I've been completely self absorbed in something that isn't Basic Fantasy nor old school. I don't even know if it'll go anywhere but I'm have so much creative fun I don't have time for much else. I don't know if everyone else has given up or are off doing their thing or just bogged down in real life.

It's good to see the art for the monster supplement. It'll be interesting to see what it looks like when it's ready enough to go up as a download.

Reading the quasi classes you posted gave me a few thoughts about how I really am not all that interested in all the various classes people churn out. But am interested in some of the background ideas behind them. The description of the barbarians as a people and taboos, for example. Things like that might make for a decent supplement of characterization ideas based less on rules and classes and more on how socieities and people interact. Mixed in could certainly be examples of special "perks" or "traits" as you might call them showing how a GM might carry an idea on further.

Vague ideas swarming around included giving a few church structures -- how they might be organized, what resources they might have (military and political ties for example). Things a GM could jerk out, modify and put in a setting to provide backgrounds for the cleric character.

World building concepts more than character building ideas I guess. Big companies probably grind them out by the dozens in settings -- but I was thinking more of a booklet of brief but flavor packed ideas than a big, sprawling read-made game world.

[Solomoriah]

JDN: I'll get Monkey Isle sorted sometime soon. I'm afraid I've been short on attention of late... sorry.

[SmootRK]

Yes, new classes are not for everyone, especially those who want to embrace a minimalistic rpg experience (which BFRPG does so well). Others use the basic rules as the framework for more tinkering... sort of the underlying physics of the game... but want to build upon it to suit their concepts of the game.

I am somewhere in the middle. I like some additional options, but want to craft them with different perspectives that I have previously seen, and even try new sorts of options or ways of doing things... while still keeping very very simple mechanics... and overall I like having more options for individualizing a player; sometimes simple mechanical changes are easiest than relying solely on role-play.

Anyhow, there are background generators and backgrounds that give minor tweaks, as documents. They might form some of the basis of your idea of world/population background generators (trying to think of term for something like what you are saying). Sounds interesting.

[jdn2006]

JDN: I'll get Monkey Isle sorted sometime soon. I'm afraid I've been short on attention of late... sorry.

I can wait for months if it takes that long. It's just a game and a hobby, and there's always other things to do.

[jdn2006]

Anyhow, there are background generators and backgrounds that give minor tweaks, as documents. They might form some of the basis of your idea of world/population background generators (trying to think of term for something like what you are saying).

I was thinking more today and the ideas I had were just world building details. Churches, guilds, oracles, things like that for the GM to use. I was a little confused because I've been thinking of the barbarian in terms of a people the GM uses in the game world and not a class for a while now. And the barbarian quasi-class got me to thinking...

The quasi classes are a good idea. It seems to me like a "minstrel" with some of the singing abilities of a bard might work. (If it didn't have to be watered down; the last bard I looked at was built mostly around singing and I haven't kept up with any others...)

[SmootRK]

Bard is an excellent idea for that quasi-class mechanic... thief bards would be the norm (at least in my mind - or maybe druids), warrior bards akin to skalds, clerical bards would be ideal for some of the deities with that sphere of control, MU (or illusionists) bards would be akin to the magical versions found in 2e/3e. Thinking of the 2e kit books, this would work for halfling whistlers, dwarven chanters, etc.

I will need to think on this, as the bardic matter was something that stalled an Expert class that I was developing. Expert was designed as a more modular sort of thief/rogue - pick & choose abilities to form just about anything from tradesman to mundane assassins, wilderness bandits to tomb raiders (ala Indiana Jones or Lara Croft). Perhaps by stripping the concept down to just a couple of musical oriented abilities might make for a really good quasi-class.

[Steveman]

I've always liked the name "cantor" for priestly bards. I have no clue how relevant that is, but I felt I should put that out there.

[SmootRK]

bump... because it got very quiet all over again.

Anyhow, I had an idea to head back to my oldest dungeon magazines and look for some of the very simple adventures or side-treks. Consulting these small adventures, we can re-imagine some of the material, simplifying when necessary, inserting other creatures when possible, and otherwise re-making some of the ideas for BFRPG (keeping in mind that I do not condone any direct plagiarism).

Some of the small side-treks are just screaming for a BFRPG re-design making them immediately useful for filling in gaps in any BFRPG campaigns. Anyhow, just ideas for folks to help contribute in different ways to create material for the BFRPG community.

[jdn2006]

I have only two Dungeon's (July/August 1988) and September/October 1988).

I get the idea. They offer a selection of different themed adventures. If anyone was making a boxed set of rules, I'd suggest they include a booklet of "one offs" like that. The Adventure Anthology (on the downloads page) set offers some -- but there's always room for more.

I like the mapping in the two issues I have; some are simple, others more complex, but they all work well.