LOVE the idea of keeping initiative dice next to characters and removing them as they go. So simple. Also, for people doing individual init. for monsters(instead of as a group) it works great bc as you did, it is so easy to distribute the dice and keep track. Definitely using this.
Thank you for demonstrating how combat works in Basic Fantasy as well as sharing your friend's memory with all of us. I love Basic Fantasy, it's such a great system.
Thanks for sharing! I love this variant of dungeon crawling! Someday, I'll get back into drawing and get some more dungeon themed art this direction again... But, I must admit, the trade-off of watching my kids use BFRPG (and other books) to play games is worth it.
This was incredibly helpful. The initiative tracking gave me an idea for managing encounters with similar monsters. The OD&D and AD&D rulesets have been breathing new vitality into my home games and this demonstration has done a lot to help me understand the flow of Basic.
Thank you Chris! Your timing is perfect. My kids just rolled up their first BFRPG characters yesterday and we will start playing as soon as I finish planning their adventure. I will be adopting the initiative dice next to mini idea for our game.
Enjoyed the video, especially the information you shared about the miniatures and characters! It's nice to hear about the collection and home campaign.
Ack. I mis-stated Toliver's hit points after he fell the first time and was healed; I read the healing die wrong (forgot the +1) and so I said he was at 1 HP when he should have been at 2 HP. However, the gnolls do a minimum of 2 points of damage, so it doesn't change the outcome of the fight.
Don't worry about mistakes, it doesn't take anything away from the over all example. Great demo and very nice to see how others run their game. Thanks for sharing this!
Very good demonstration, thanks for doing it, Chris. Just goes to show that even old-school combat-play need not be that tedious staccato routine some make it out to be (because, as some claim, there are no feats or special cmbt maneuvre charts or the like). There are quite some tactical (and above all meaningful!) decisions to make even in relative standard encounters. Plus, I wondered why I never checked whether you had a YT channel... I will check out your other content here in the next days and weeks.
The characters are unaware of the Knolls BUT the players know for sure since the miniatures show where they are. Am I to assume the minis would be placed once they ambushed???
Maybe, but not necessarily. In play I might have already rolled for surprise before even drawing out the room; if the player characters are surprised, I might then go ahead and drop in the minis and begin the combat immediately with the gnolls' surprise round. If the gnolls decide to wait for the player characters to enter the room, I would not drop in the minis until the player characters could see them (i.e. when the gnolls reveal themselves). It all depends on the specific situation.
@@ChrisGonnerman Thanks, I see what you mean. I just feel the PLAYERS (people playing the game, not the characters/PCs) could be tipped off to what exactly is there before the Knolls revealed themselves.
@@ddobrien1 They could. This is what I meant by it depending on the situation. If the gnolls get surprise and choose to attack immediately, I'd just drop them on the map right after drawing it since we'd be going straight into the combat; if they choose to wait for the players to move in before revealing themselves, I wouldn't.
Hi ! I use BF as my favorite system with the following homebrew rules : fear (save or flee or disadvantage or lose actions), single number saving throws for monsters (from Sword & Wizardry), insanity (save or lose a sanity point, sanity points equal Wisdom), no initiative (spells missiles, and then melee), 0 hp roll on a serious wounds table, negative hp PC is dead, converted thieves abilities from d100 to d20 (10 percent success is 19 or 20 on d20), roll d20 to cast a spell : a fumble (1 on d20) means the spell backfires or friendly fire, or the priest cannot cast another spell today...), these rules come from the Dungeon Craft channel...Thank you for your great game ! Ben, from France
Glad you like the game, Ben! If you haven't already, you should join our forum at www.basicfantasy.org/forums It's the best place to share house rules, as well as keeping up with developments in the project!
Question and idea: 1st: Before the characters enter the room, you described how the Gnolls had a 1-4 chance to surprise due to ambush conditions. Easy enough to understand. *But * let's say the Gnolls rolled a 4 instead of a 1. With the Elf having 1 less on the surprise roll(therefore only surprised on a roll of 1-3), would the Elf then be able to notice something and tell the group as they entered the room, acting as an alarm, negating the surprised condition of the other characters even though they failed their surprise roll? I understand how this works in combat, with the other characters in this imaginary scenario simply getting to go in the first turn, but i'm less clear on it outside of combat. Also, as I mentioned in another comment I love the idea of dice next to the minis to keep track on initiative. You mentioned in your video how the GM has to keep track of which monster on their sheet is which mini on the mat. One solution *could be* to color code each monster with a highlighter on the sheet, and use a die of that color for the mini on the mat. Thanks again for a great video :-)
@@anthonybernardo2214 If the elf was unsurprised at the beginning of combat, yes, he would have heard or felt something that gave away the presence of the gnolls. In a situation like that, he could have stopped the rest of the party from advancing. If the gnolls had ranged weapons they could have still stepped out from their hiding places and taking one round two free shots at the adventurers, and only Tolliver would have been able to return fire.
Hmm. I just rewatched the video. I did a second surprise check since the party had moved and it was likely the gnolls did too; since one player character, the elf Toliver, was not surprised, initiative had to be rolled to see where in the first round his action would come. The other player characters are surprised and thus don't get initiative rolls.
The draw to BFRPG is it’s simplification of D&G; therefore keep initiative rolls simple. One die roll for the monsters and one roll for the characters. Keep it simple.
Before watching this video I would have been staunchly against rolling for each monster, but I have really found that it only takes a moment to chuck a handful of d6s and place them next to monsters. I simply match up the relative placements of the dice to their corresponding enemies, and very little time gets eaten up.
I should echo Chris’s “that’s fine”; I realize that may have come across as me trying to tell you that you are wrong and that isn’t my intention. My mantra for playing has become another quote from Chris: “As long as everyone is having fun, you’re probably playing the game right”.
Did this video talk about why not allowing move after attack? I'm looking for reasoning why this is considered bad but did I miss it? Seems to be same in ad&d, but not d&d 3e.
Thank you for this I just downloaded the PDF and I'm going to buy myself a hardcover copy of the book, I'm more into solo RPG and and I know that there's a couple of people that have done this module like that, do you have any suggestions any tips and thank you again for even giving this game out for free
The best suggestion I can offer you is to join our forum. There are active discussions there regarding solo play, and resources available for you to download from our Workshop that have not yet been collected into any publication.
great video! I am trying to prepare to teach my kids Basic Fantasy and this helps. I don't have facebook and have been try to register at the Basic fantasy website but keep getting errors. Is there another way to contact admin there? thanks!
@@garyclarkson5246 Ah... does it say this: You have provided an invalid answer to the question. Please note that you will need to enter a valid email address before your account is activated. You will receive an email at the address you provide that contains an account activation link.
If it does, the first line is the actual problem, not your email address. The question is in the box below the registration form and must be answered correctly to join the forum. The answer is in the Core Rules in the descriptive text of the Flesh Golem.
@@ChrisGonnerman so it says electrical based spells heal but that is at 3rd level. The question asks for first level. Hold person didn’t work so I will try charm and sleep
Need to ask you a question, In BFRP is there a possibility to enhance the Ability Score or the Ability Bonus beyond +3 or do they always stay the same ??? Thnxxxx
Ability scores do not usually change; in particular, there's no rule for changing them during play. This question was asked recently on our forum, which is the best place for discussions like this. Take a look here: www.basicfantasy.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4167
I run a regular game on Roll20 using Discord for audio, and I get along well enough that way. But I can't specifically say I recommend it; I don't know enough about the competition to say if it's better or worse.
@@ChrisGonnerman Thank you. I haven't played D&D since about 1986 and am going with BFRPG to introduce my daughter (12) but kids these days are so scattered, so we need a VTT to have a campaign.
@@TheRoadToTravel Could be. As I said, I'd have to watch the video myself to answer the question. It's not as if I can remember all the details after this much time.
Estimated Chris, thanxxx for the video, and for the system !!!!! I enjoy it very very much ! Can you tell me please where can I download anything about the Setting. I bought Morgansfort, but I would like to read a little bit more !!!!
Nécnon, as always, all our materials are available for free from www.basicfantasy.org, where we create all our materials in public on our forum. Unfortunately, there isn't much more "official" information on the Western Lands campaign as it is intended for individual GMs to expand as they see fit. However, several people on the forum have discussed how they expanded the world in different ways, which might give you ideas for your own game. Join us!
I wanted to get some info. On the new basic fantasy game. I’ve been playing role-playing games since the 70s. I have played Gurps, ICE, DND, and many other games. I turned 70 last year, I playgroup now consist of than 11 you were on a 10 year old, and 6yrs. Most of my stuff is very old. Played a lot of board games. But my six year old granddaughter loves the game. Wants to play every time her brother and her cousin are here.
Glad to have you here, Phillip! I have to say, Basic Fantasy is new compared to the games you listed but it's been around for 16 years now. In all that time we've created a lot of materials and shared them for free.
What was that mat you were using please? And thnx so much for this video! Being a Missouri Mule from birth until 2016 too, I really appreciate that the Ole' Show-Me state produced a great RPG guy!! 👍
Love the video! Mechanically 100% correct. I GM Labyrinth Lord (B/X 1E DnD Molvay Clone) Myself, just DON'T do "Initiative!" So combat happens x3 FASTER :) Yes, it is MORE Deadly, But much more brutally REALISTIC :) Keep em coming and I'll keep LIKING em, Great job, Chris :)
As the author of the game, I'd hope I could achieve "100% correct" game mechanics. :D But actually there may be some slight variations, rulings even, in the demo I showed here. Making rulings is as important as knowing the rules.
@@ChrisGonnerman WOW, LOL! I didn't even realize...No wonder WHY you seemed so rule savvy about Basic Fantasy :) Great Seeing you and watching your VLOG. I just saw content to a great game I just started learning :) Super Good job, capturing that OSR feel for a modern generation! I SMASHED THE LIKE on it, bro. Keep making those Vids and I'LL Keep LIKEn em :) And your right, Making rulings is as important as knowing the rules. God bless you, and hopefully long success!
This was fun to watch thank you Mr. Gonnerman and I’m sorry for the loss of your friend thank you for sharing this memory with me.
I have started BF with solo play. Pretty fun and easy to grasp. Thanks for all the hard work that went into it we really appreciate it!
Thank you so much for this demo video and for sharing the stories behind the characters and models used.
Glad you liked it!
THAC0 is an elegant system from a more civilized time
Hah. It's a crufty hack to smooth over a design stolen from some other game and used in a way that was less than optimal...
LOVE the idea of keeping initiative dice next to characters and removing them as they go. So simple. Also, for people doing individual init. for monsters(instead of as a group) it works great bc as you did, it is so easy to distribute the dice and keep track. Definitely using this.
The ever-changing initiative is great.
Thank you for demonstrating how combat works in Basic Fantasy as well as sharing your friend's memory with all of us. I love Basic Fantasy, it's such a great system.
Great demonstration, really nice with the stories regarding the miniatures. Regards from a OSR-player in Denmark
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Thanks for sharing! I love this variant of dungeon crawling! Someday, I'll get back into drawing and get some more dungeon themed art this direction again... But, I must admit, the trade-off of watching my kids use BFRPG (and other books) to play games is worth it.
We'd love to see you around again!
This was incredibly helpful. The initiative tracking gave me an idea for managing encounters with similar monsters. The OD&D and AD&D rulesets have been breathing new vitality into my home games and this demonstration has done a lot to help me understand the flow of Basic.
Thank you Chris! Your timing is perfect. My kids just rolled up their first BFRPG characters yesterday and we will start playing as soon as I finish planning their adventure. I will be adopting the initiative dice next to mini idea for our game.
Enjoyed the video, especially the information you shared about the miniatures and characters! It's nice to hear about the collection and home campaign.
Ack. I mis-stated Toliver's hit points after he fell the first time and was healed; I read the healing die wrong (forgot the +1) and so I said he was at 1 HP when he should have been at 2 HP. However, the gnolls do a minimum of 2 points of damage, so it doesn't change the outcome of the fight.
Don't worry about mistakes, it doesn't take anything away from the over all example. Great demo and very nice to see how others run their game. Thanks for sharing this!
Hopefully nobody is that pedantic, the tutorial still stands regardless of a small error.
Thanks for sharing, Chris. A great way to commemorate a friend.
Thank you Chris, this was a really insightful video, I look forward to hearing more from you! :)
Thanks for the kind words. Should be a new video up Sunday!
thank you for this video and all the work you've done.
You are welcome! Thanks for watching!
Very helpful. I'd love to see more like this.
Thank you! There will be more Solomoriah Speaks in a month or so, after I get the four "actual play" videos we recently recorded online.
I really enjoy this system. Excellent and I recommend it to everyone.
Thank you. Great video that has really helped me answer some questions.
You are welcome! Glad I could help.
Thanks for this, its always good to see the author play their own game, to see what was actually intended.
Very helpful. I'm about to start my first BFRPG game in two days. I will have to check out an actual play or two.
Very good demonstration, thanks for doing it, Chris. Just goes to show that even old-school combat-play need not be that tedious staccato routine some make it out to be (because, as some claim, there are no feats or special cmbt maneuvre charts or the like). There are quite some tactical (and above all meaningful!) decisions to make even in relative standard encounters. Plus, I wondered why I never checked whether you had a YT channel... I will check out your other content here in the next days and weeks.
Thanks Olaf! Nice to see you here!
The characters are unaware of the Knolls BUT the players know for sure since the miniatures show where they are. Am I to assume the minis would be placed once they ambushed???
Maybe, but not necessarily. In play I might have already rolled for surprise before even drawing out the room; if the player characters are surprised, I might then go ahead and drop in the minis and begin the combat immediately with the gnolls' surprise round. If the gnolls decide to wait for the player characters to enter the room, I would not drop in the minis until the player characters could see them (i.e. when the gnolls reveal themselves). It all depends on the specific situation.
@@ChrisGonnerman Thanks, I see what you mean. I just feel the PLAYERS (people playing the game, not the characters/PCs) could be tipped off to what exactly is there before the Knolls revealed themselves.
@@ddobrien1 They could. This is what I meant by it depending on the situation. If the gnolls get surprise and choose to attack immediately, I'd just drop them on the map right after drawing it since we'd be going straight into the combat; if they choose to wait for the players to move in before revealing themselves, I wouldn't.
This was a lot of fun to watch. Thank you!
Love your system you have created, will be introducing my friends to it
Hey, thanks!
Hi ! I use BF as my favorite system with the following homebrew rules : fear (save or flee or disadvantage or lose actions), single number saving throws for monsters (from Sword & Wizardry), insanity (save or lose a sanity point, sanity points equal Wisdom), no initiative (spells missiles, and then melee), 0 hp roll on a serious wounds table, negative hp PC is dead, converted thieves abilities from d100 to d20 (10 percent success is 19 or 20 on d20), roll d20 to cast a spell : a fumble (1 on d20) means the spell backfires or friendly fire, or the priest cannot cast another spell today...), these rules come from the Dungeon Craft channel...Thank you for your great game ! Ben, from France
Glad you like the game, Ben! If you haven't already, you should join our forum at www.basicfantasy.org/forums
It's the best place to share house rules, as well as keeping up with developments in the project!
So I see I didn't really address why we allow only movement before attacking. Guess I need to do another video...
Question and idea:
1st: Before the characters enter the room, you described how the Gnolls had a 1-4 chance to surprise due to ambush conditions. Easy enough to understand. *But * let's say the Gnolls rolled a 4 instead of a 1. With the Elf having 1 less on the surprise roll(therefore only surprised on a roll of 1-3), would the Elf then be able to notice something and tell the group as they entered the room, acting as an alarm, negating the surprised condition of the other characters even though they failed their surprise roll? I understand how this works in combat, with the other characters in this imaginary scenario simply getting to go in the first turn, but i'm less clear on it outside of combat.
Also, as I mentioned in another comment I love the idea of dice next to the minis to keep track on initiative. You mentioned in your video how the GM has to keep track of which monster on their sheet is which mini on the mat. One solution *could be* to color code each monster with a highlighter on the sheet, and use a die of that color for the mini on the mat.
Thanks again for a great video :-)
@@anthonybernardo2214 If the elf was unsurprised at the beginning of combat, yes, he would have heard or felt something that gave away the presence of the gnolls. In a situation like that, he could have stopped the rest of the party from advancing. If the gnolls had ranged weapons they could have still stepped out from their hiding places and taking one round two free shots at the adventurers, and only Tolliver would have been able to return fire.
@@ChrisGonnerman Okay, thanks for clarifying!
This man needs more dice.
Hah. That's just one bag full.
Why would you roll for Initiative when the Players are unaware of the Gnolls?
Hmm. I just rewatched the video. I did a second surprise check since the party had moved and it was likely the gnolls did too; since one player character, the elf Toliver, was not surprised, initiative had to be rolled to see where in the first round his action would come. The other player characters are surprised and thus don't get initiative rolls.
One thing I forget to do is add the +1 to ranged attacks that are in short range. That might have helped Toliver.
Nice work, Solo!!
Thank you sir!
The draw to BFRPG is it’s simplification of D&G; therefore keep initiative rolls simple. One die roll for the monsters and one roll for the characters. Keep it simple.
You don't like my approach, and that's fine, but I made the video to show how I as the author actually play the game.
Before watching this video I would have been staunchly against rolling for each monster, but I have really found that it only takes a moment to chuck a handful of d6s and place them next to monsters. I simply match up the relative placements of the dice to their corresponding enemies, and very little time gets eaten up.
I should echo Chris’s “that’s fine”; I realize that may have come across as me trying to tell you that you are wrong and that isn’t my intention. My mantra for playing has become another quote from Chris: “As long as everyone is having fun, you’re probably playing the game right”.
Did this video talk about why not allowing move after attack? I'm looking for reasoning why this is considered bad but did I miss it? Seems to be same in ad&d, but not d&d 3e.
oh, next episode 🙃
Thank you for this I just downloaded the PDF and I'm going to buy myself a hardcover copy of the book, I'm more into solo RPG and and I know that there's a couple of people that have done this module like that, do you have any suggestions any tips and thank you again for even giving this game out for free
The best suggestion I can offer you is to join our forum. There are active discussions there regarding solo play, and resources available for you to download from our Workshop that have not yet been collected into any publication.
great video! I am trying to prepare to teach my kids Basic Fantasy and this helps.
I don't have facebook and have been try to register at the Basic fantasy website but keep getting errors. Is there another way to contact admin there?
thanks!
solomoriah@basicfantasy.org is my email address. What kind of errors are you seeing?
It keeps stating you need a valid email. I have had the same hotmail account since 1997
@@garyclarkson5246 Ah... does it say this:
You have provided an invalid answer to the question.
Please note that you will need to enter a valid email address before your account is activated. You will receive an email at the address you provide that contains an account activation link.
If it does, the first line is the actual problem, not your email address. The question is in the box below the registration form and must be answered correctly to join the forum. The answer is in the Core Rules in the descriptive text of the Flesh Golem.
@@ChrisGonnerman so it says electrical based spells heal but that is at 3rd level. The question asks for first level. Hold person didn’t work so I will try charm and sleep
Need to ask you a question, In BFRP is there a possibility to enhance the Ability Score or the Ability Bonus beyond +3 or do they always stay the same ??? Thnxxxx
Ability scores do not usually change; in particular, there's no rule for changing them during play. This question was asked recently on our forum, which is the best place for discussions like this. Take a look here: www.basicfantasy.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4167
Thank you!
This is great!
Thanks for the informative video.
I'd love to play in a game of yours one day.
Whenever I need a new player for my online game, I always post in the Basic Fantasy RPG group on Facebook.
Out of curiosity, what virtual tabletop would you recommend or have used if you hadn't used miniatures?
I run a regular game on Roll20 using Discord for audio, and I get along well enough that way. But I can't specifically say I recommend it; I don't know enough about the competition to say if it's better or worse.
@@ChrisGonnerman Thank you. I haven't played D&D since about 1986 and am going with BFRPG to introduce my daughter (12) but kids these days are so scattered, so we need a VTT to have a campaign.
Thanks Chris.
I try to figure out where Tybrinn's extra +1 AB on the warhammer comes from, any help would be appreciated :3
Honestly, I'll have to watch the video to remember. This was posted some time ago.
@@ChrisGonnerman :) it got my attention right here: ua-cam.com/video/zYgeS97VNPw/v-deo.html
ahh me noob it should be a magic item bonus right?
@@TheRoadToTravel Could be. As I said, I'd have to watch the video myself to answer the question. It's not as if I can remember all the details after this much time.
learned a good bit cheers
Estimated Chris, thanxxx for the video, and for the system !!!!! I enjoy it very very much ! Can you tell me please where can I download anything about the Setting. I bought Morgansfort, but I would like to read a little bit more !!!!
Nécnon, as always, all our materials are available for free from www.basicfantasy.org, where we create all our materials in public on our forum. Unfortunately, there isn't much more "official" information on the Western Lands campaign as it is intended for individual GMs to expand as they see fit. However, several people on the forum have discussed how they expanded the world in different ways, which might give you ideas for your own game. Join us!
Until you see your friend again in Valhalla! 🪓 ⚔️ 🙏
Solomoriah...from Dragonsfoot? That was my home away from home 20 odd years ago.
Basic Fantasy RPG was born on Dragonsfoot 15 years ago. Also, welcome!
I wanted to get some info. On the new basic fantasy game. I’ve been playing role-playing games since the 70s. I have played Gurps, ICE, DND, and many other games.
I turned 70 last year, I playgroup now consist of than 11 you were on a 10 year old, and 6yrs. Most of my stuff is very old. Played a lot of board games.
But my six year old granddaughter loves the game. Wants to play every time her brother and her cousin are here.
Glad to have you here, Phillip! I have to say, Basic Fantasy is new compared to the games you listed but it's been around for 16 years now. In all that time we've created a lot of materials and shared them for free.
Doesn't a Warhammer do a d6?
What was that mat you were using please? And thnx so much for this video! Being a Missouri Mule from birth until 2016 too, I really appreciate that the Ole' Show-Me state produced a great RPG guy!! 👍
Chessex battlemat. And thanks for the kind words!
This is a great video
+3 Sonic Screwdriver spotted.
Awesome
Love the video! Mechanically 100% correct. I GM Labyrinth Lord (B/X 1E DnD Molvay Clone) Myself, just DON'T do "Initiative!" So combat happens x3 FASTER :) Yes, it is MORE Deadly, But much more brutally REALISTIC :)
Keep em coming and I'll keep LIKING em, Great job, Chris :)
As the author of the game, I'd hope I could achieve "100% correct" game mechanics. :D But actually there may be some slight variations, rulings even, in the demo I showed here. Making rulings is as important as knowing the rules.
@@ChrisGonnerman WOW, LOL! I didn't even realize...No wonder WHY you seemed so rule savvy about Basic Fantasy :) Great Seeing you and watching your VLOG. I just saw content to a great game I just started learning :) Super Good job, capturing that OSR feel for a modern generation! I SMASHED THE LIKE on it, bro. Keep making those Vids and I'LL Keep LIKEn em :) And your right, Making rulings is as important as knowing the rules.
God bless you, and hopefully long success!