Basic Fantasy - Anybody here regularly play it? Why yes, why not?

[aiouh]

Basic Fantasy is my favorite pet game I never had the pleasure of running or playing.

It modernizes B/X style gaming, has a completely free ShareAlike license, has an active group of contributors (modules, supplemental rules) and the game is sold at cost on Amazon alongside its free PDFs on its own Website. It's basically the TTRPG equivalent of a completely free/open source software project that is entirely noncommercial.

It basically has everything going for it (save for the outdated art), yet I barely see it online outside of its own forums on basicfantasy.org so I wanted to ask you guys, have you ran it? What were your experiences with it like?

(I think one issue people generally have is that its not a super faithful B/X Clone, but then again, I've rarely seen anybody run BECMI or B/X completely RAW)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How much does it modernize B/X? My impression is that it still uses multiple resolution systems, like percentile dice for thieves, and might also use to-hit and saving throw matrices, rather than using a single unified resolution system, which is what I think of as modernized OSR play styles.

That said, I've heard good things about some Basic Fantasy adventures and am open to using them with Shadowdark, for instance. But I've been playing since 1979 and today, I greatly prefer a unified d20 resolution system, rather than multiple systems or, especially, looking on charts each time to adjudicate a roll. I have the same issue with OSRIC.

My preferences don't mean anyone else is wrong for feeling differently, of course, but that's my personal reasons, per your question.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think one issue people generally have is that its not a super faithful B/X Clone, but then again, I've rarely seen anybody run BECMI or B/X completely RAW

I think the people interested in that are mostly playing Old School Essentials. Necrotic Gnome has done a great job of creating a large and vocal community around that, which almost certainly peeled off some potential Basic Fantasy players. OSE is much more expensive than Basic Fantasy, of course.

 

[Theory of Games]

Years ago I read a review and the game seemed like a limited clone of B/X with ascending AC. No comparison to the Rules Cyclopedia in terms of options (strongholds, dominions, 36 levels, advanced combat features and more).

But BFRPG isn't terrible.