Other D&D Variant Basic Fantasy?

[Rellan]

I’ve been a player a few times and just DMed a one shot for the first time with my friends. It was fun, but I was looking into other resources later for no particular reason and I found Basic Fantasy. I really love the pacing and rules of old-school DND, even though it was a little clunky, so would this be a fun purchase to try and do something with for another one shot?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I believe Basic Fantasy is sold for cost in print and free as digital products, so it's a pretty easy purchase, even if just to check it out. Given that it's emulating B/X D&D, that also means it's 99.99% compatible with Old School Essentials, which is also built on B/X and which has a ton of material available.

More broadly, most of the Old School Renaissance material out there is probably 90%+ compatible with it as well, outside of stuff like Cairn, Errant and Mork Borg, which might have similar vibes, but a different underlying engine. But that still leaves a lot of compatible stuff to pick up, not even counting all of the old TSR material that's available on DMs Guild/DriveThruRPG.

 

[Jahydin]

Basic Fantasy is a great game that I've ran several times. I still have my copy on the shelf, but recently have been occupied with more recent OSR systems. I recommend checking out what's out there and finding the best system for you (especially since most of them are free to download). Here's a link to Drive-Thru RPG's OSR section in case you haven't seen it.

 

[Mannahnin]

Basic Fantasy is great as a max-accessibility old school game.

Between the pricing and the one main change from B/X D&D being that it splits species & class (which basically everyone who's started in the last 30 years is used to), it's a super easy way to try out old school.

 

[John Quixote]

Basic Fantasy is great as a max-accessibility old school game.

Between the pricing and the one main change from B/X D&D being that it splits species & class (which basically everyone who's started in the last 30 years is used to), it's a super easy way to try out old school.

It makes two other noteworthy changes: BFRPG has no alignment mechanic in the core rules; and the all-important 1 g.p. = 1 XP rule is relegated to an option (like in 2e).

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

Basic Fantasy is fine. I don't like how it handles encumbrance and XP (tracking individual pounds of gear sucks, and combat-only XP means you're never gonna get a PC past level 1) The art and layout make it feel very amateurish and dated compared to more modern projects like OSE.

The price is right, though (Free or POD at cost), so I can't complain too much.

 

[Mannahnin]

It makes two other noteworthy changes: BFRPG has no alignment mechanic in the core rules; and the all-important 1 g.p. = 1 XP rule is relegated to an option (like in 2e).

Good points, thanks. I agree, making gold for xp optional without replacing it with substantial additional sources of xp is generally a miss in design.

 

[Spellslinging Sellsword]

In addition to what others have said, I also like that they released the most recent version under a Creative Commons license. I got the hardbound 20th anniversary edition via Amazon a few weeks ago.

20th Anniversary Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules 4thEd: Gonnerman, Chris, Wilson, Erik: 9798298238519: Amazon.com: Books

20th Anniversary Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules 4thEd [Gonnerman, Chris, Wilson, Erik] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 20th Anniversary Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules 4thEd

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