Basic Fantasy RPG Appreciation Day

Being a huge blabber mouth, I talk about my role playing hobby quite a bit and as a result I was recently asked to introduce a couple of long time friends to the hobby. The question in my mind was what set of rules to use.

When it comes to new players I want to provide them a fun and challenging experience, so that they will be encouraged to pursue the hobby on their own. So, for me the what set of rules question boils down to "Old School" mechanics and descending armour class or the new d20 rule mechanic with ascending armour class and a bunch of other rules I just don't think the game requires.

Further down the page you can read my musings on this under "Not In Isolation". For now, this post is about my choice of Basic Fantasy RPG Basic Fantasy RPG as the rule set I will use to start off my new players.

Like a lot of the "Old School" RPG games available these days, author Chris Gonnerman has adapted the best of 1st and 2nd edition AD&D to the new d20 mechanic without all the overhead, but with some subtle changes, additions and adaptations we would normally call House Rules. The changes have been kept to a minimum, or they reflect commons practises we all use so well that they are mostly transparent.

An example of this was pointed out quite admirably on the Gamers and Grognards blog Gamers and Grognards Blog  which is participating in "Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game Blog Appreciation Day.  This appreciation day is spearheaded by Tenkar's Tavern, another great gaming blog: Tenkar's Tavern .

BFRPG is completely free, as some have said, a gift to the role-playing community, and what a gift it is.

Chris provides the rule book free to download as a PDF and he and the BFRPG community have proved numerous and wonderful adventure modules, rules supplements and other game aids for free.  An even bigger bonus - the rules are also provided as a free download in OpenDocument format!

This means that you can grab Chris' hard work and bend it to your will! Remove what you don't like or add those house rules you've always played with.  In this way, you can create a custom game document for your game style or game world. This is a great thing to hand to your players especially those just starting out who may not have the inclination. (please remember to give credit to Chris Gonnerman and his contributors, as well as the OGL under which the work is published.  Respect!)

If you are a lapsed role-playing gamer and can't face the daunting task of learning a new set of rules, if you are a current GM who is tired of all the additional book keeping you must endure under new rules, if you just want to know what all this gibber-jabber is about, then BFRPG is for you!  All the old familiar old-game rules are there, but utilizing ascending armour class as presented in the d20 mechanic.  It's a good cross between what is now known as "Old-School" or "retro-clone" role-playing and the new basics of rolling dice used in the new rule systems.

Postscript: BFRPG is not the only retro-clone rule set out there.  Labyrinth Lord  is another free "old-school" RPG and there are a number of others you will learn about if you read any of the blogs mentioned above.

Many are based on the old rules but add enough changes or additions as to be significantly different and unique games in themselves.  Castles and Crusades or Barebones Fantasy represent two excellent examples.

Some offer their rules for free in electronic format. Some offer for-pay printed versions and many offer both options. Go check 'em out!