I have watched this vid several times over the months since you posted it. It always inspires me and I consider it one of your greatest contributions to our hobby. Much like Mr. Gonnerman's game, it's a gift that keeps on giving.
This video is helping me understand where I need to look more into as a very fresh new player. I have my very first session tomorrow and I am nervous, but this helped so much. Thank you for creating this Crash Course.
Thank you. I have been looking for something like this. I haven’t played early editions in 25 years. Been playing 5e for two years, so this is helpful.
Honestly whatever edition dnd I play, I end up playing exactly like this more or less. And it’s a whole lot cheaper (FREE) to play and run, decided to buy a few extra core books to donate to my library as they are only 5$
Thank you for this! Some old friends and I are hoping to get back into Fantasy role playing for the first time in 25 years soon. We were thinking we would have to get the old basic D&D box sets somehow... (we've been out of if for a long, long time lol) Basic Fantasy RPG sounds perfect for us. We want something simple, so that we spend more time playing and less time feeling like lawyers.
I like this. It's a good guideline, and that's all I need. I needed a good jumping back in point, and I prefer this over paying top dollar for a bunch of overpriced Wizards of Greedy Hasbro 5e. I used to play D&D with my friends in middle and high school in the 90s, but you know how it can be maintaining a group as people move away, have careers, busy schedules, and that alienating time can do to us. Now I am married to a fellow nerd, we have 5 kids, 3 of which are already old enough to read, and the oldest is into fantasy fiction. We can do this as a family thing in the winter especially. My way a GM'ing was always to use the rules as a basic guide, let the dice decide the fates, but I liked coming up with worlds and story building with options. One thing I found I needed to do with older D&D was nerf the rate at which characters got exp, as well as factor in things like how much help players may have received from an npc or situational advantage, which reduces exp gained whenever a challenge wasn't really as hard as it otherwise would have been. Games that give GM's some flexibility with things like that I always prefer.
I really like how bare bones the system is and you are less likely to be bogged down by rules, that can slow the game down. But it seems very deadly. Like don't get attacked to your character, as you may not see level 2. I think I will try the rule -10 hp for death to get some hope, and start everyone with max hp for level 1. I don't mind death being more of an issue than it is in modern games, but I would like to see the players level and have success....unless I get a table of real masochists or something.
Another comment. I just got the physical copies of the Basic Fantasy RPG rules, the Field Guide, Morgansfort, and the 1st Adventure Anthology. I'm super excited to rewatch this video and bookmark any pages that are important. 🙂
@@2000TalesRolePlaying I did have one question whenever you have the time to answer. 🙂 Do weapons have their own attack bonus, or does it just go by the AB your character has? This kinda stumps me sometimes. Until I found BFRPG, I wasn't too familiar with B/X D&D, so I'm still learning the ropes a bit. 😅 Like my elf fighter as an example. She's a level one, so her attack bonus is +1. Would the +1 also be for her weapons?
On the lack of "game balance" for encounters. This game IS a bit more work on the GM. The GM does have to figure out their own balance based on their players abilities. Running OSR games is as much of an ART as it is a science. Newer versions of D&D have removed ALL the art from the craft of DM'ing.
I got into Dark Fantasy Basic, it is super stripped down D&D, 4 classes humans that's it. About a dozen spells you can cast however you want. Fire, it's ball its wall its cone, how strong do you want it? Any strength you want the DC just go's up. Customize character through feats that are pretty simple. I like it because when everything is epic nothing is epic. Dragons Orcs and vampires are not special if you have 2 dragonborns and a vampire half orc in your party. Also I am not a fan of multiclass because then it becomes about power leveling. It's a role playing game pick a role and play it.
Also Dark Fantasy Basic character background supplies (it's like a dollar maybe) has a cool way of doing stats. Roll 3d20 and a table with options from type of game you want from hopeless to gritty to epic, generates 6 stats. I really like that because it like picking difficulty level for the kinda game you want.
I got BF book and its a fine game. I always wanted a game system that combines lots of the best rules into 1 ttrpg and this game system I love: D100 Dungeon by MK Games from Martin Knight. 1 thing about D100 Dungeon is no GM needed, the dice & tables are the GM.
It would make more sense to use d20 style ability rolls for consistency since it already uses it for attacks. In some ways, this sounds more deadly than old-school D&D (at least the version I learned), as I remember poison killing after a set time, all for a cure poison spell to be cast.
The charts for abilities ( example: Turn undead ) are not near the classes because they player should not be looking at it. That's to domain of the GameMaster.
There isn't encounter balance or any nonsense like that....it's old school. Thnx for that! The wilderness nor dungeon is concerned with whether or not you might be able to handle them. 👍 If you can't, then RUN and come back later, or not.
I found that there wasn't enough tools in this book to help me run adventures, so I bought more books to help. Then I found other systems even a free one that had the tools that were missing.....
The top of page 36 “Time and Scale” is the only thing the game itself covers but really all you need to remember is Round=10 second Minute=6 Rounds Turn=10 Minutes Hour=6 Turns Then Days Weeks Months and Years.
On races: "If you don't get attribute bonuses, why do you take these other races..." It's this little thing called ROLEPLAYING. Don't play an dwarf for the +1 to constitution. Play a dwarf to be a short, bearded Clint Eastwood character. Making decisions "for plusses" is not in the spirit of the game. No matter your choices, you won't be very survivable at the start. So make a character that's interesting to you regardless of the numbers. Expect the worst, hope for the best. On clerics: Essentially "Turn Undead" is the cleric's first spell. It's not great but it gets better over time. On fighters: Fighters actually have the MOST special abilities. Every other class it's essentially codified in abilities. With Fighters you have to make up stuff and the Ref has to figure out the odds of that stuff working (more on this later). Then you have to agree to those odds and roll. It's a full different mindset than current editions. Fighters are pulp heroes. Indiana Jones is an example of a mid-level OSR Fighter. Now other characters can do this as well, but since the fighter HAS to do it, he's more likely to interface with this. On thieves: Their small HD and low XP table are intentional, they are supposed to run 1-2 HD above the rest of the party over time. While not fighters, they can become a bit roguish but shouldn't push their luck in combat. As Sneak Attack has been bastardized over time (modern editions should call it "Flanking Bonus"), it's almost better to call it an Ambush Bonus nowadays. Because you only get it at the beginning of an ambush. On Monsters vs NPCs: Monsters are just NPCs you failed the reaction roll on. Reaction rolls are essentially the things that keep 1st level characters alive. On non-thief skills: B/X has an unwritten rule that non-Thieves have a 1/6 (~16%) chance of doing anything (rational/logical/possible). This can be logically be benefitted by this or that bonus, circumstances, etc. Like if it seems like a PC has a 50/50 shot of something, the Ref should give them a 3/6 chance. It's all very much a pure risk reward system. The Ref determines the odds, tells the player, then the player chooses to go through with the roll or not. This dynamic is very important to OSR play. How to handle a baseline penalty? I shift the die up a size. So something with less chance working goes to 1/8 (~13%), then 1/10 (10%), etc. The Rules Cyclopedia is actually not based on Moldvay B/X, it's a revision and consolidation of Mentzer BECMI minus the I (Wrath of the Immortals came out later to fix this). Sorry that's just a pet peeve of mine.
Sorry for the dumb question. I get hp, ac, what die to roll for a weapon...what's hit die and how is that used? I've heard it used in a few different scenarios/contexts
Roll your hit die to determine how many hit points you have, then roll it again each time you level up to determine how many more hit points you gain. Monsters also have hit dice (typically more than one, all of which are typically d6's), which the dungeon master rolls to determine how many hit points they have. The number of hit dice a monster has also determines its attack bonus.
Thanks for this video I just downloaded the system I'm used to four against darkness it's really the only solo dungeon crawl that I've ever played. I mean I play d&d maybe once or twice and that's what got me into this. My question is I want to do it solo how will I go about that. Is there a modules that I can play solo or do I need to buy different resources to create a solo campaign?
It's been a year, and I'm interested to know how that went..Ive played 4ad a fair amount in the last 4-5 months, and I want to transition to full D20 solo, did this work out for you?
I am reading this book but I don't see anything about improving stats over time. Is there a leveling bonus built into the game or is that up to the gms discretion?
@@2000TalesRolePlaying Ah okay. I think I'm going to add a training component to let players get better at things over time, within reason of course, can't make it too easy lol. Thank you for answering my question!
I've been debating playing this, as I've been watching Geek Gamers talk about BFRPG. She plays it solo, which I think is awesome. This is a very information crash course. 🙂 What else would I need besides the BFRPG rules to play? Would I need to download the Field Guide also, and are there adventures for BFRPG?
The core book already has a very robust bestiary, Field Guides 1 & 2 just add even more monsters. Also there are multiple full campaigns available as well as short adventure collections all on the BFRP website, all free digitally.
@@2000TalesRolePlaying I downloaded almost everything in PDF format. I have an issue. 😅 I especially want to use the colorful minimalist character sheet with boxes. I might be creating my first BFRPG character today. EDIT: I found the Quick Character Creation supplement, and so far, my first character has a wicked sad backstory that brings more questions than answers. I haven't even gotten to their events in young adulthood yet. 😱
I have watched this vid several times over the months since you posted it. It always inspires me and I consider it one of your greatest contributions to our hobby. Much like Mr. Gonnerman's game, it's a gift that keeps on giving.
You're video inspired me to get Basic Fantasy and I ran it for friends and family. We had an awesome time with it.
This is great! There are also supplemental rules for many more races, spells, classes.
This video is helping me understand where I need to look more into as a very fresh new player. I have my very first session tomorrow and I am nervous, but this helped so much. Thank you for creating this Crash Course.
Thank you for making this video as a newb to OSR it's appreciated.
Your crash course of BF was very clear and practical, thanks!
Thank you. I have been looking for something like this. I haven’t played early editions in 25 years. Been playing 5e for two years, so this is helpful.
Subscribed. Gonnerman and BF are treasures.
Super awesome, thank you for helping out newbies to BF!
Thanks for the crash course. It was a good listen.
Honestly whatever edition dnd I play, I end up playing exactly like this more or less. And it’s a whole lot cheaper (FREE) to play and run, decided to buy a few extra core books to donate to my library as they are only 5$
Great job! We need more of this.
Thank you for this! Some old friends and I are hoping to get back into Fantasy role playing for the first time in 25 years soon. We were thinking we would have to get the old basic D&D box sets somehow... (we've been out of if for a long, long time lol) Basic Fantasy RPG sounds perfect for us. We want something simple, so that we spend more time playing and less time feeling like lawyers.
Just bought it on Amazon. It'll be here in a week.
I like this. It's a good guideline, and that's all I need. I needed a good jumping back in point, and I prefer this over paying top dollar for a bunch of overpriced Wizards of Greedy Hasbro 5e. I used to play D&D with my friends in middle and high school in the 90s, but you know how it can be maintaining a group as people move away, have careers, busy schedules, and that alienating time can do to us. Now I am married to a fellow nerd, we have 5 kids, 3 of which are already old enough to read, and the oldest is into fantasy fiction. We can do this as a family thing in the winter especially. My way a GM'ing was always to use the rules as a basic guide, let the dice decide the fates, but I liked coming up with worlds and story building with options. One thing I found I needed to do with older D&D was nerf the rate at which characters got exp, as well as factor in things like how much help players may have received from an npc or situational advantage, which reduces exp gained whenever a challenge wasn't really as hard as it otherwise would have been. Games that give GM's some flexibility with things like that I always prefer.
This is the best thing I ever saw.
Fantastic video for a fantastic game. Thank you!
"Humans have no limits, cuz that's kinda always the point of them."
Actually, that's kinda profound.
Thank you
Giantess fetishists: bonjour.
Cringe.
Thieves can also choose to customize their skills as the level up according to the book. That's a little missed gem.
I wish I could give this 5 likes! This has been so helpful. Thank you so much!
12:08 point of clarification, spell research is an optional rule in BF RGP.
Thank you for this!
I just bought a bunch of these
Just downloaded BFRPG this video is hopefully going to help me understand how to play
I really like how bare bones the system is and you are less likely to be bogged down by rules, that can slow the game down. But it seems very deadly. Like don't get attacked to your character, as you may not see level 2.
I think I will try the rule -10 hp for death to get some hope, and start everyone with max hp for level 1. I don't mind death being more of an issue than it is in modern games, but I would like to see the players level and have success....unless I get a table of real masochists or something.
Another comment. I just got the physical copies of the Basic Fantasy RPG rules, the Field Guide, Morgansfort, and the 1st Adventure Anthology. I'm super excited to rewatch this video and bookmark any pages that are important. 🙂
I’m super excited for you
@@2000TalesRolePlaying I did have one question whenever you have the time to answer. 🙂
Do weapons have their own attack bonus, or does it just go by the AB your character has? This kinda stumps me sometimes. Until I found BFRPG, I wasn't too familiar with B/X D&D, so I'm still learning the ropes a bit. 😅
Like my elf fighter as an example. She's a level one, so her attack bonus is +1. Would the +1 also be for her weapons?
@@musingsofmessa a normal weapon just uses your attack bonus, but magical weapons might produce a bonus on top of that. Like a +1 sword uses your AB+1
@@2000TalesRolePlaying I see. I get it now. Thanks! 🙂
On the lack of "game balance" for encounters. This game IS a bit more work on the GM. The GM does have to figure out their own balance based on their players abilities. Running OSR games is as much of an ART as it is a science. Newer versions of D&D have removed ALL the art from the craft of DM'ing.
I got into Dark Fantasy Basic, it is super stripped down D&D, 4 classes humans that's it. About a dozen spells you can cast however you want. Fire, it's ball its wall its cone, how strong do you want it? Any strength you want the DC just go's up. Customize character through feats that are pretty simple. I like it because when everything is epic nothing is epic. Dragons Orcs and vampires are not special if you have 2 dragonborns and a vampire half orc in your party. Also I am not a fan of multiclass because then it becomes about power leveling. It's a role playing game pick a role and play it.
Also Dark Fantasy Basic character background supplies (it's like a dollar maybe) has a cool way of doing stats. Roll 3d20 and a table with options from type of game you want from hopeless to gritty to epic, generates 6 stats. I really like that because it like picking difficulty level for the kinda game you want.
I got BF book and its a fine game. I always wanted a game system that combines lots of the best rules into 1 ttrpg and this game system I love: D100 Dungeon by MK Games from Martin Knight. 1 thing about D100 Dungeon is no GM needed, the dice & tables are the GM.
Great video man! Keep them coming. Thanks.
It would make more sense to use d20 style ability rolls for consistency since it already uses it for attacks. In some ways, this sounds more deadly than old-school D&D (at least the version I learned), as I remember poison killing after a set time, all for a cure poison spell to be cast.
GM rolls for the Cleric turn undead. Old-School gaming the GM rolls a lot for the players.
The charts for abilities ( example: Turn undead ) are not near the classes because they player should not be looking at it.
That's to domain of the GameMaster.
How do ability checks work... Roll under?
There isn't encounter balance or any nonsense like that....it's old school. Thnx for that!
The wilderness nor dungeon is concerned with whether or not you might be able to handle them. 👍 If you can't, then RUN and come back later, or not.
Thsnks
I found that there wasn't enough tools in this book to help me run adventures, so I bought more books to help. Then I found other systems even a free one that had the tools that were missing.....
I'm getting back to rpg after more than 20 years with a group of noobs and I choose BF to run for them. I'm a bit nervous to GM after so long.
Thanks, very useful, excellent presentation
Do you know if there's an easy way to track time in Basic Fantasy? That kinda stumps me. 😅
The top of page 36 “Time and Scale” is the only thing the game itself covers but really all you need to remember is
Round=10 second
Minute=6 Rounds
Turn=10 Minutes
Hour=6 Turns
Then Days Weeks Months and Years.
@@2000TalesRolePlaying Awesome. Thank you! I decided to make a time tracker to keep track of everything, so I think that will help too. 😊
How does this game compare to something like Dungeon World?
On races: "If you don't get attribute bonuses, why do you take these other races..." It's this little thing called ROLEPLAYING. Don't play an dwarf for the +1 to constitution. Play a dwarf to be a short, bearded Clint Eastwood character. Making decisions "for plusses" is not in the spirit of the game. No matter your choices, you won't be very survivable at the start. So make a character that's interesting to you regardless of the numbers. Expect the worst, hope for the best.
On clerics: Essentially "Turn Undead" is the cleric's first spell. It's not great but it gets better over time.
On fighters: Fighters actually have the MOST special abilities. Every other class it's essentially codified in abilities. With Fighters you have to make up stuff and the Ref has to figure out the odds of that stuff working (more on this later). Then you have to agree to those odds and roll. It's a full different mindset than current editions. Fighters are pulp heroes. Indiana Jones is an example of a mid-level OSR Fighter. Now other characters can do this as well, but since the fighter HAS to do it, he's more likely to interface with this.
On thieves: Their small HD and low XP table are intentional, they are supposed to run 1-2 HD above the rest of the party over time. While not fighters, they can become a bit roguish but shouldn't push their luck in combat. As Sneak Attack has been bastardized over time (modern editions should call it "Flanking Bonus"), it's almost better to call it an Ambush Bonus nowadays. Because you only get it at the beginning of an ambush.
On Monsters vs NPCs: Monsters are just NPCs you failed the reaction roll on. Reaction rolls are essentially the things that keep 1st level characters alive.
On non-thief skills: B/X has an unwritten rule that non-Thieves have a 1/6 (~16%) chance of doing anything (rational/logical/possible). This can be logically be benefitted by this or that bonus, circumstances, etc. Like if it seems like a PC has a 50/50 shot of something, the Ref should give them a 3/6 chance. It's all very much a pure risk reward system. The Ref determines the odds, tells the player, then the player chooses to go through with the roll or not. This dynamic is very important to OSR play. How to handle a baseline penalty? I shift the die up a size. So something with less chance working goes to 1/8 (~13%), then 1/10 (10%), etc.
The Rules Cyclopedia is actually not based on Moldvay B/X, it's a revision and consolidation of Mentzer BECMI minus the I (Wrath of the Immortals came out later to fix this). Sorry that's just a pet peeve of mine.
Thanks man! Interesting video. 👍👍
Sorry for the dumb question. I get hp, ac, what die to roll for a weapon...what's hit die and how is that used? I've heard it used in a few different scenarios/contexts
Roll your hit die to determine how many hit points you have, then roll it again each time you level up to determine how many more hit points you gain.
Monsters also have hit dice (typically more than one, all of which are typically d6's), which the dungeon master rolls to determine how many hit points they have. The number of hit dice a monster has also determines its attack bonus.
@@MoonMoverGaming thank you! So for monsters it's the exact same thing. I appreciate it.
Thanks for this video I just downloaded the system I'm used to four against darkness it's really the only solo dungeon crawl that I've ever played. I mean I play d&d maybe once or twice and that's what got me into this. My question is I want to do it solo how will I go about that.
Is there a modules that I can play solo or do I need to buy different resources to create a solo campaign?
It's been a year, and I'm interested to know how that went..Ive played 4ad a fair amount in the last 4-5 months, and I want to transition to full D20 solo, did this work out for you?
I still prefer Labyrinth Lord AEC or Osric but if i need a System to introduce Players to Old school dnd then BF is my choice
The way I was introduced into osr was dcc.
I am reading this book but I don't see anything about improving stats over time. Is there a leveling bonus built into the game or is that up to the gms discretion?
Basic Fantasy builds of the design of B/X D&D where attributes did not increase however magic items might change them.
@@2000TalesRolePlaying Ah okay. I think I'm going to add a training component to let players get better at things over time, within reason of course, can't make it too easy lol. Thank you for answering my question!
I've been debating playing this, as I've been watching Geek Gamers talk about BFRPG. She plays it solo, which I think is awesome. This is a very information crash course. 🙂 What else would I need besides the BFRPG rules to play? Would I need to download the Field Guide also, and are there adventures for BFRPG?
The core book already has a very robust bestiary, Field Guides 1 & 2 just add even more monsters. Also there are multiple full campaigns available as well as short adventure collections all on the BFRP website, all free digitally.
@@2000TalesRolePlaying I downloaded almost everything in PDF format. I have an issue. 😅 I especially want to use the colorful minimalist character sheet with boxes. I might be creating my first BFRPG character today.
EDIT: I found the Quick Character Creation supplement, and so far, my first character has a wicked sad backstory that brings more questions than answers. I haven't even gotten to their events in young adulthood yet. 😱
Yeah. Another rpg for a lot of house rules. Lowering max HP to 20 - 30 for all classes and so on.
THAC0 = Descending Armor Class.
For clarity.
To Hit AC of Zero= THACO
Isn't BFRPG supposed to be free? Click Subscribe Patreon?
BFRPG is free. This dude is asking for money. He's reviewing the game, he isn't the creator of BFRPG.
Can you solo play like FAD?
It's not really built for solo play but it is possible
What is FAD?
@@hujands Force and Destiny!
Bookmark
18:03
5:00
"It uses 'AC?'" Did you mean ASCENDING Armor Class there?
Yes people use that term.
your description of the fighter made me pass on this game. I want to be a fighter and more than a rolling d20 machine.
I hear ya. I have heard people just porting in feats and maneuvers from battlemaster.
I'd give the fighter the charge ability from the basic rules.
Great video BUT it's Ascending Armor Class and Descending Armor Class NOT AC and THAC0. Sorry, pet peeve of mine. Otherwise, carry on.
Terrible tutorial video!