The OSR And why I chose Basic Fantasy
Vložit
- čas přidán 31. 10. 2022
- In a world of old-school style role-playing games, why did I choose the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game? The answer might surprise you. Also, what the heck is the OSR anyway? All this and a little movie trivia await in this episode of the Doomed Wizard.
- Hry
So many retroclones, so little time! Welcome to the world of D&D on CZcams! 😁
“I named my channel after the poor doomed wizard” - Doomed Wizard making a point about the fact his was in fact doomed and a wizard.
It's my meta nature.😆
I've tentatively subscribed, hoping you'll go further down the Basic Fantasy rabbit hole than most CZcamsrs that just dip their toe in. I, too, began in 1981 with Moldvay Basic before graduating (?) to 1e, but as I've gotten older I've started to crave BX again. But my books were long gone and when I got the PDFs I realized that there were things about it I didn't like. And then I found this game: simple, free, open source, modular, expandable, but already excellent as-is with the tweaks I wanted already made in the core rulebook. Of course you can still house-rule it (even the author does, in 'The Glain Companion'), but what an excellent starting point it gives you. And then there's the community behind it. The collaborative development and support on the forums is inspiring. And the at-cost printed books! So... please go down the rabbit hole.
BFRPG is my jam, and I do plan on exploring it more. I've converted most of my players over to it, when fantasy is what we want to play, and it's my go to for rules when I can't pull the rule from my head.
Basic Fantasy is a very respectable choice. It’s a great system, it is highly affordable, and accurately duplicates the strengths of B/X. Not truly a retrogame, but worth looking at is the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. It was designed around the Appendix N literature. Biggest difference is magic, DCC makes it extremely dangerous, but wizards are powerful early.
I love the idea that magic isn't your friend.
80s BECMI kid here (52 now) - turned first to Labyrinth Lord way back when WOTC abandoned the D20 trademark and dropped the 3.5ed ruleset - then discovered BFRPG and OSRIC and all the rest of the retro-clone/OSR titles games, settings and contents. Love this video so much!!! :)
Thumbs up. Labyrinth Lord and Basic Fantasy rock!! Two of the best OSRs IMO.
That commercial in the intro is awesome! Love it
It's a classic.
Thank you for starting with that commercial. Classic!
Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry are also nice rulesets 👌 lots of good choices out there.
Welcome to the OSR CZcams community. Great video. Hope to see more from you.
Thanks a lot! I've got a lot planned over the next few weeks. Hope you stick around.
I'm new to the OSR myself and I have both Basic Fantasy and White Box. I love the build quality of the Basic Fantasy book, but I find I get a little overwhelmed by it. Because of that, I enjoy the White Box book more. It's smaller, decently organized, and for me, easier to understand. Plus, the artwork in White Box just kicks serious ass.
As someone coming from 5e, I especially enjoy how affordable a good chunk of OSR books are, and the fact that they're more or less cross-compatible with each other means a pretty much unlimited supply of settings and tools that I don't have to translate much between sources.
As long as it's OSR, it's all good. I don't care witch game you play😁 And yes, that cross compatability makes for endless options.
Whitebox 🦾⚡️⚡️
Welcome to the OSR.
My only correction/clarification I would make is the OSR was originally merely a means to produce support for older games legally. The reasons mainly seem to be a reaction to D&D 3E and even moreover D&D 3.5 because WotC pushed the playerbase to buy corebooks again in quick succession due to their own lack of playtesting. The OSR was a "take our ball and go home" response to these shenanigans, and there are not a few thinly veiled put-downs to 3E-style play in the original Old School Primer.
OSRIC was one of the first OSR products and is an acronym that stands for "old school reference and index compilation". What is it referencing and indexing? AD&D1E. Saying something was "compatible with OSRIC" was a dogwhistle to say "this is an AD&D1E product". Initially, OSRIC was never intended to be played itself. The OSR very quickly evolved into first generation retroclones for all old editions of D&D. Early games (including Basic Fantasy) were also influenced by what creators thought WotC was going to let people get away with using the OGL (a fear of CNDs/lawyers). So early clones (Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry) were never exact duplicates (unlike OSE or Full Metal Plate Mail). As such most were presented in the spirit of a given edition rather than the exact rules of an edition Basic Fantasy is a modified 3E to look like B/X rather than a strict copy of B/X, Labyrinth Lord plays with a lot of the numbers, Swords & Wizardry has one save, etc. Eventually the tides changes and several relatively exact clones came out (some more popular than others). Then the seasons changed again and with the exception of "classic" OSE, most OSRs now follow their own evolutionary paths and trajectories. Someone who plays Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Dungeon Crawl Classics the same is playing at least one of them wrong, in spite of them both having the same ancestry of B/X D&D.
When I say OSRIC was "one of the first", I meant intentionally. Hackmaster 4E and Castles & Crusades have been sort of retro-actively added to the OSR as time has gone on and OSR games have evolved more in the direction these two games went and away from strict adherence to the spirit or letter of dead D&D games. In this way, C&C and Hackmaster were ahead of their time at the time of publication.
Again, welcome.
I'm diving back in after a 20 year absence and plan on this system too as to introduce my kids into it. I needed a simpler ruleset like the basic edition TSR boxed set.
It's a good, clean system. And welcome back! Glad you're bringing in another generation.
@@doomedwizard5724 Definitely agree. Basic Fantasy is an awesome, simple system, and best of all a boatload of the PDFs are free, and the printed books are so reasonable. Love that the author want to keep the price reasonable, started to see some OSR games get kind of pricey. Basic Fantasy is a great choice!
@@quantus5875, I totally agree!
Thanks for a nice review! I did a few covers for BFRPG, so it was great to see them. Happy gaming (Ooooh, loved the Star Frontiers image too!)
I just picked up the OSE set today for $70. I can appreciate how Basic Fantasy is so affordable.
Basic Fantasy literally being free and done purely for the fun of the game makes for a LOT to recommend that particular OSR variant. The other one that looks worthwhile is OSE because it's just so well put together. It costs a little more…honestly it costs almost as much as those 5E books…but it's really hard to argue with those A5 format books if you need them at the table for some reason. Of course the proper response to that is that you SHOULDN'T need them at the table, and if you do your GM is doing it wrong. If you're the GM, learn to make a decision and play through! You can always make an adjustment later if you need to undo something that turns out to have been a bad call.
Good stuff! I love the Villains and Vigilantes shot here too... it was our go-to for supers gaming for a long time! 🤓👍
I just ran my second session of BFRPG over the weekend and am having a lot of fun. I'm bringing in 5e players so I felt okay bringing in some of the class and combat supplements without overwhelming them while adding in a little bit of that customization that people like. I really enjoy the initiative system and the speed of combat. I also like how much more grounded characters are and don't feel like superheroes. The game really embraces that classic fantasy feel.
Just discovered your channel and you must be new with only 252 subscribers because your videos are awesome! You've got an easy voice to listen to and your experiences and views with D&D sound very similar to my own. Best of luck with your channel!
Thanks! But, you should hear me in my recording studio (i.e. my closet). And, yes, this is anew channel, but I have other projects I've been doing for a couple years. I got the idea to do my own RPG channel from watching Heroes & Homebrews.
I definitely did not expect to come across Ken Nordine going down this rabbit hole--what a delight!
He was something special.
Mostly what you said. I'll add, thin, well organized text, complete. It's BECMI. I own Rules Cyclopedia. Granted the real thing is the real thing, and it is hard to beat the real thing, but it is NOT a well organized tome. Basic Fantasy beats out a lot of competition if you insist on it being a BECMI clone and only one tome. You DO only need this book. The other's are ok. My advice on them, get the pdf, print out the adventures as a single spiral bound tome. Get the other items if you desire them, and again, print them out as spiral bound single items. But after decades of DMing, I can say, the one book is a complete experience. The Basic Fantasy Field Guides make a nice monster manual.
Basic Fantasy is truly my favorite also
Geezer here...
Just that intro is worth a like and subscribe...... Oh the memories....
Had an auntie see that commercial....
Had to sit her down and try to explain... Ohh those days of satanic panic....
All things good to you and yours.
Gaming on.
Back in high school, one of my best players was told by his extremely religious parents that he couldn't play D&D with us anymore. I had him ask his mom how she felt about super heroes. She was fine with it, so we switched to Villains & Vigilantes. God bless the Satanic Panic.
@@doomedwizard5724 Geezer again.... Oh ya, V&V..... That was a jewel....
Gaming on.
My OSR game of choice these days is Whitehack. Great ruleset all-around. I have spent a lot of time looking at a lot of different ideas but this one just stands out for me.
Hey Doomed Wizard, just found your channel. I'm 58 and started playing in 1979, tapered off when I when to University in 1982 and totally done by 1987. It was mostly life circumstances that led to that, but I wasn't finding my type of game and gamers anymore. That was confirmed by a disappointing day a GenCon in Milwaukee in 1987. Before discovering D&D, I had a good collection of Avalon Hill war games.
I got back into adventure design after reading about and then watching Critical Role. I appreciated Matt Mercer's narrative, the high production value with diorama landscapes for encounters, background music, and distinctive NPCs. DMing is so much work and great DMing is even more work, so long ago I predicted D&D dinner theatre where adults would pay for great DMing and better fare than chips and a 2 Liter.
I decided to design using Basic Fantasy to eliminate the financial barrier to joining a game. I decided to design for Greyhawk, because it iconic and not fully built out. I have peaks and valleys in the amount of my free time for D&D, so after a lot of stop and starting I have developed a low level hex crawl, railroad style adventure. A Furyondian supply caravan from Greatwall to the Border Forts on the Veng River and on to the Port City of Willip., The PCs hire on as caravan guards. It a redesign of the forgettable TSR module WGM1 Border Watch. it's more or less done, but I keep adding to it. At some point, I will find some OSR type players and give it a run.
Recognizing the contradiction of using free rules (Basic Fantasy) and supporting my local game stores, I tipped the owner of one of the game stores $100. I am looking forward to more of your videos.
Thanks for finding my channel! Basic Fantasy's price point makes it easy to rope in new players who aren't sure if they'll like playing. I've converted most of my groups over to it for that same reason, and the modular nature of OSR games makes it pretty easy to adapt what you want to it.
I play Basic Fantasy solo, using Dungeon Quest or the Dungeon! Boardgame as "GM emulators"
I love Dungeon. It's a great primer for D&D.
I do have a video on how I use Dungeon Quest with Basic Fantasy, and I might do one for Dungeon! In the future! Good luck with the channel man. Keep up the good content
Huge fan of Basic Fantasy!
I'm really liking OSE since I joined a group that plays it, but I found call of cthulu a simple enough system that I would totally play a d100 under system, I think it does allow for a better spread then the d20
I'm glad I found your channel...
Dude! Good for you!
I play a mix, it’s not that hard to integrate, just bump up some of the OSR damages and allow them better heal options…
But the AD&D 2edition is solid and full of great material. Not much hand holding which is awesome!
Basic Fantasy is a great game! I have the Old School Essentials books and our group gave it a shot but we ditched it pretty quickly to go back to AD&D 1e. My other group is online, started up due to the pandemic, and that we play Basic Fantasy. It has everything we want. Most of us are in our late 40's or early 50's and BFRPG is close to enough to BX to feel like home for us. And it's simple enough that the couple of young guys that didn't grow up with the Red Box version can easily figure it out.
Basic Fantasy is like B/X with enough AD&D mixed in to be the best of both worlds.
Great video. Basic Fantasy is a fantastic game. I've been sticking with Old School Essentials, though.
I miss the Motor City Con. I used to attend with my wife when we were back in Michigan.
Motor City was one of my favorite cons to set up at.
Think I'll go back and check out Basic Fantasy again. Glad I stumbled on this. Trying to pick what to play for our next campaign as the current one is about four sessions from the climactic final battle. Although my players will likely find a way to make it six if they insist on roleplaying for an hour at the beginning of every session, which I honestly hope they do. I chose to run a module as the last one from the same company was pretty good. This one has a couple mysteries you have to go out of your way to look for, one of them being disappointing and the other not really giving enough clues, and other than that it's one battle after another. Needs more exploration and social interaction. My kids can roleplay the Hell out of just about anything, though, so that's where I've been getting the most enjoyment. Anyway, it's 5e and I've been trying to get them into something properly old school for more than one session (the last time they played Labyrinth Lord the Ranger nearly got melted by green slime near the entrance to their first ever dungeon and they quit, and playing BECMI (starting with the module from the red box) they encountered the carrion crawler and actually killed it, then quit and complained about Elf being a class. I was going to try ad&d 2nd, but we use so many house rules I figured I should actually READ the rules and play by them so if someone wanted to actually read the rules to learn to play I wouldn't suddenly have a rules lawyer on my hand, and so I was reminded how scattered, incomplete, and contradictory they are - and that's not even the optional parts. The cost is another selling point here, too. I hate having a laptop open at the table if I can avoid it. So thanks again!
I came to the game BECMI and plan to leave it that way. We played everything up until 4e but we always kept our BECMI games going as well, so when 4e happened we just stayed with BECMI as hasbro did not impress. If I needed an "oldschool" game to retreat to or check out now, I'd be playing Basic Fantasy too haha. The things they changed I didn't have an issue with and didn't think need changing just because I had no issues with thac0, didn't need skill ranks or everything being a d20. But if I had to get a retclone it'd be this one.
As someone with dyscalculia, I'll never understand when people complain about THAC0 being too much math. No shade to them, I just don't get it.
Bx, basic fantasy are the version of dnd that fits in my head. Super big fan of basic fantasy and the osr.
I like its simplicity, organization, and price.
Red and blue was my 1st and still favorite.
I had no idea LoL. I'm gonna look closer at this.
Great job keep it going
Thanks! I have no plans of stopping.
Great to see the Star Frontiers art. I played a few sessions with that back in the day
It was a hard one to get folks to want to play back in the day, but it was a lot of fun.
I don't use Basic Fantasy, but I did play Odysseys and Overlords from Aegis Studio, which is a clone of Basic Fantasy and Orignal setting. Pretty neat stuff.
Combination of everything I like says it all.
Alan Ruck was also on the show Spin City with Michael J Fox.
Yes, he was, wasn't he? I forgot about that one.
@@doomedwizard5724
He was indeed. People still like to talk about how good The Office was, buy Spin City always gets overlooked. When MJF left the cast of Spin City it was arguably even sadder then when Steve Carell left the Office, in my opinion anyway. Especially knowing that Mike due to medical complications with Parkinson's disease. Steve left the office because his five year contract was up and they couldn't come to a new agreement. MJF's issue was kind of heartbreaking. That didn't end his career completely, but he was never the same after.
I’m old enough to remember when we didn’t use the term “homebrew”. In general different DMs had different house rules developed over time. I never played a pre-made module as far as I can remember.
Thank you for putting together the Black Book. I had one. It was excellent. Had to give it away. Would love to get another one. Where can I get it? CAN I still get it?
I'm interested in you sharing more about Under A Gibbous Moon
It's getting close to being ready enough for me to talk about it, so hopefully soon.
Doing research for an OSR system I started with Basic Fantasy. Then I said 'nah, this cannot be it' and I read a dozen other retro clones and systems. And after reading them all... ended up going back to Basic Fantasy. Basically it overlaps simplicity, accessibility, modern (as of 20 years ago) design and verisimilitude. In other words it feels like oldschool D&D without the masochistic shit (THACO) and with Class + Race which if you where around and played basic you wanted to be able to mix and match.
I'm a fan of Basic Fantasy and more recently I've gotten into Warhammer 40K. Before I threw myself head first deep into painting Space Marines I was working on a bit of a BFRPG campaign. Haven't abandoned it it's just difficult not having many people to play with especially if they're not interested. Not to mention this enthusiasm I have and I start talking about it and everybody's eyes just glaze over. LOL 😆😆 Whatever. Anyway I have the Core Rulebook, Field Guide, Equipment Emporium, and one module, the Chaotic Caves, which shortly after I bought it I heard was a clone of the original Into The Borderlands module.
Like basic fantasy and OSE. i actually play both since basic fantadyband OSE are compatiable it gives u way more material to work with. Only issue i have with basic fantasy its not as organized as OSE but i understand that bfrpg is community driven while OSE is a business corporation. But both are good.
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching!
my first character (an elf) got smoked in the first fight also... was awesome and I was hooked.
Nothing like a spectacular death to bring you back to the table.
Great channel
Thanks! I finally just decided to go for it.
No idea what Subatai, The Lost Boys and Ferris Bueller are. Never heard of them.
I love the idea of BFRPG. Barrier to entry is ultra low, but OSE presentation and layout won me over straight away
I have both. I tend to lean into Basic Fantasy more. OSE's layout is great, I'm just not a fan of its super succinct descriptions, etc. Still a good series of books, tho.
the joke about OSR fans making their own games is so real and i love it!
Wow Was that Jami Gertz with the pigtails?
Yep! That commercial goes back a ways.
we need the PDF for the B/X book that you showed.
I just bought both books off of DriveThruRPG and mixed them together. The cover is easy enough to find. Someone made it, and I just came across it one day online.
After a long hiatus from 2e and GURPS, I got back into RPGs and at that time Swords & Wizardry was a big deal. I ran several one shots with it and it was really good. I eventually made the small step over to Basic Fantasy and run that more than anything else, despite having a nice collection of hard covers for OSE and a reprint of Rules Cyclopedia. I wouldn't mind playing D&D with the original rules, probably B/X or BECMI/RC or 1e, but it would have to be with the right group of players. If there are any newer players I'd rather bring them in under BFRPG or something like it, than have to explain why these old games have some really clunky rules. There's a real value to having a set of house rules cleaned up for how people actually play.
Auto cool for wearing Red Wings jersey
I had a folder of dead low level wizards…my fighter/mage lasted the longest, besides my one mage.
Wait, did that commercial imply you beat a dragon by simply casting a lightning bolt.
😆
I think DMs like OSR with grim dark, serious world building; and players like Thor Love and Thunder. The OSR is full to the brim with only DM grognards and 5e is filled with only players and ‘yes men’ DMs.
Hyperbole.
5e is barely even a ttrpg, it's sad how people play with this shitty system and call themselves "rpg players"
@@oatstealer5075 your gatekeeping is pathetic
I've yet to meet a 'yes men' DM in 5e. I think your perception is grossly limited by your narrow experience in 5e. In fact more of the 5e DMs I've met have been more strict with the rules and limitations than many of the 3.5e DMs I've played with. You could argue 5e brings it back to the earlier editions by having less factors in terms of options in combat aswell as mechanics vs pathfinder and 3.5e. (While it still acts like a sandbox). And alot of the preset adventures throwback to the challenging and engaging expansions from back in 2nd edition.
The ONLY Campaigns I've ever played have been grim and dark. Just say you don't like wizards direction with their extra source books, but don't lie to yourself and pretend 5e has become some rpg goofy safespace. It's just as brutal as it's always been.
To gatekeep the game that's stayed true to itself for generations is hilarious. You sound old and out of touch.
I could say OSR is just wish.com DnD, but then we would all be wrong.
But if for everyone illogical bias opinion one person has, another has the exact opposite opinion. And sometimes as a result of the first.
@@zenraloc hyperbole
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
I’m sure not ALL 5e DMs are yes men and not EVERYONE in the OSR are grognards.
If only basic fantasy had a searchable markup version on their website, and all the treasure and random encounter tables in a JavaScript app....
"I am Subotai, thief, and archer..."
My sub number is 401! Great video!
Thoughts on Mythras & Adventures Dark & Deep?
That's not ringing any bells, might have to look into it.
I have Palladium Fantasy, Warhammer FRP, D&D all editions, OSRIC, OSE, Whitebox, Barebones, C&C and a few more less known. They recently tried for my attention, and failed once against Basic FRP game, One single book in hardcover is hard to beat. It's well written, and has a slew of good adventures and bestiary tomes if you insist on more. And work just fine with a mountain of old school adventure content out there.
At its core, I love Palladium's combat system. The "roll 5 to hit" makes for good cinematic combat.
@@doomedwizard5724 I like it's combat enough to use it. In the field of number crunchers, I think it is the more user friendly.
Isn't the voice in the commercial Ken Nordine of "Word Jazz" fame?
Possibly? Frankly I'm amazed someone else knows who he is.
Under a Gibbous Moon...is it available to download? I'm a huge H.P. Lovecraft/Cthulhu fan.
It's still in the beta testing, re-writing stage. I'm hoping for mid-spring. I may do a video about it in the future.
@@doomedwizard5724 Oh excellent - I look forward to its eventual release, and I'll be on the lookout as well for any video you make on it. I am intrigued because I'm into the OSR and enjoy horror-themed rpgs, so I'm curious as to what you've got in the works. Cheers and best of success!
The OSR is great. Whether you play Basic Fantasy, OSE or OSRIC it's all good.
It's very different to, and much better than, modern editions of the game.
Been looking to run a BROSR game with some of the products like old school essentials or basic fantasy. Still haven't decided yet. Don't know which will work better with faction play.
THE OSR if pretty much what you describe but "old school" is more exclusive. RueneQuest and Tunnels & Trolls are old school without being OSR.
So is Glory Road Roleplay, which I developed in 1978 or so, having gotten tired of D & D.
Free, open for anyone to add content to, Basic Fantasy is rad. It's one weakness is how poorly laid out the book is, makes it seem more intimidating than it is.
another '81 starter!
that was the Christmas that it all began.......
fade through light snow to a house way out in the boondocks.
3 young boys, sitting on the floor in front of their grandparents Christmas tree.
"I rolled 3 6's for Strength! that's good isn't it?"
let the games begin.........
Man i wish i could play this, but the people i know doesn't want to :
Any good solo ttrpg?
There may be, but I've never played them.
Ironsworn and Starforged are solo games but the system is PBTA
I play in a weekly online Basic Fantasy game and I enjoy it. To be completely honest though, I wish we were just playing real D&D instead. All of the OSR games are just basically copies and I would prefer to just play the real thing. I started on the Red Box basic set back in the early 80s and also got the blue box expert set. Later moved on to AD&D and now AD&D 2e is my game of choice. I would still have fun though playing a game with the old BECMI stuff if I could find a group for it.
Old School Essentials is the real D&D, but edited for clarity and reformatted for convenience
@@trainerred6582 I have looked at it. I don't care for it. There is really nothing unclear or inconvenient about the BECMi D&D or AD&D 2E. I will still to the originals.
Hello! What do you think of The OSR lamentations of the flame princess? This one I found nicely done and it is also translated into my native language, but one thing I would like to change is devide race from class and I don't know how to do it, should I take race/class sistem from some other OSR sistem ..I don't know
I have never played Lamentations of the Flame Princess, I have only watched videos about it. You can probably find videos on how to divide race from class, though.
I choose Basic because it's the only edition that uses Race as Class. I can't go back to the other way.
Sorry u can use race as class with OSE and labyrinth lord. Both systems allow u to mix and match. Basic fantasy is cheaper though and it's a good system but there are other good systems and better systems out there. Anyway u can play what works for u but saying basic fantasy is only system with race as class don't work sorry
I did not have an unbiased opinion, and it's that BFRPG is D&D, and I present it as such to my players. I like somethings about 5e and have lots of books (but seldom played it since 2020-2021), but to GM, it gets uncomfortable pretty soon. For me.
OSR?
Viva OSR!
During Covid I started using OSR rule sets because the simplicity allowed for a game I could run over Skype or messenger without requiring extra programs.
The OSR is the future of this hobby no question
I certainly hope so.
I've been looking at the OSR for years, even though I'm a bit too young to actually remember these games. My first edition was actually 3e (though I mainly experienced it through the Neverwinter Nights game, still it was close enough to the real game I consider it an authentic d&d experience).
I don't know why I keep looking up OSR stuff. 1e and 2e were never a part of my life, so I have no nostalgia for these games. And I'll be honest, I do dislike OSR games for many reasons. Coming from 3e, I'm used to having a lot of character creation options. In particular, that server I played on in NWN had literally dozens of custom races added. Even 5e looks like an utter joke in comparison. I also prefer the more systematic system 3e had for creating monsters and whatnot. I never liked this 'its art' method to creating monsters. I prefer things to be spelled out for me. Besides, I never got the dislike of templates. They may take time to apply, granted, but honestly I see that as more of a fault of all the stats 3e characters had. I mean, one idea for a 'template' I thought of for OSR games is to make a lich by just making a high level magic-user but giving them undead immunities and monster hit die. Is that really such a big deal?
What do I like about osr games then? Them being free is one thing, they don't get updated and replaced relenetlessly, and honestly I prefer the simpler rules. Playing a digital version of the game, I never had to do the actual math or rolls myself. Messing around with the actual game though, I found I quickly got annoyed by this. Everything that just so damned long. In nwn, you make an attack, you just left-click the target. In 5e, you roll a d20, add attack bonus, wait for the DM to compare it to your target's armor class, then roll another die for damage, add a number to that, then the DM subtracts that from the monster's hit points. My brief time playing 5e (the only time I ever got to play an actual tabletop game with other people), I quickly grew tired of sitting there waiting for my turn (though part of that is because we had too many players are not enough DMs). Its why I like OSR games like Basic Fantasy; it doesn't take ten freaking minutes to make one action in the game. Granted, it may not be on par with a video game in terms of speed, but its still a dramatic improvement.
On top of this, I like how intercompatible a lot of these games are. If you can't find a game you like, you can pretty easily mix-and-match to create the system you want. Granted, the core game may be flawed and limited, but you can't beat hackability. To me, that's what OSR means; its a family of games that are all inter-compatible. I even bought a superhero OSR game once and tried to run it at the local shop. Nobody was interested though, and the rulebook itself is infamously bad. Its inconsistent, abound with typos, and the sample characters in the back have powers listed nowhere else in the book and their stats don't add up right. Apparently this is because the game went through a lot of running changes during development. Fixing it to a playable state would require a lot of houseruling, so nobody seems to want to play it. Even the company that made it only ever released on supplement for it, even though they're still releasing stuff for their more popular products. Oh well. If you care to know what game that is, its called Guardians, and is by Niteowl Workshop. Its part of the whitebox family of games. I really wish it would get more love, but I guess it was just never meant to be. What can you do? The OSR is still severely lacking in superhero content though. How many more high fantasy games do we really need, seriously?
I've been hacking old-school games to create superhero adventures for almost as long as I've been playing RPGs. And, yes, the quick play and interchangeability of rules is what makes the OSR, retroclones and older games so much fun for me.
Let's see...
ACKs as the core game but without the demihuman classes
AD&D demihuman racial choice (along with their features, d10's/percentiles and all) for race & class character choice
Lamentations Encumbrance system
Thief skills and check doors/traps/hear noises, magical item creation rules from the Rules Cyclopedia (especially for magic weapons)
AD&D 2e adventuring phases, overland movement tracking and item/material saving throws
Just too many good ideas to choose from!
I love how modular and adaptable rpgs can be with each other.
Dungeon Crawl Classic mercurial magic and zero level funnel systems.
Your cadance reminds me of mr. Plinkett. Your videos have a lot less of... whatever mr Plinkett does.
I'm going to take that as a complement, whether you meant it to be or not.🤣
Everyone is different. I've been playing a long time too (1976) and my issue with today's DnD isn't high-fantasy... it's PC omnipotence... when I play as a PC or when I DM. Hollywood movies and TV today make (mostly) Mary Sues and (some) Marty Stus today, and that's why the younger, video-game minds of today (mostly) like those movies, and more thinking, story-driven people, (generally older) hate today's movies.
The characters use to move the story forward, but today... there is no story, because the perfect infallible characters (pretty much from their start) are the story. (Boring to me and most).That, (IMO) is what the latest iteration of 5e has done wrong, (caused by the over-flooding of supplement books) is make DnD completely focused about the infallible characters, rendered a DM 2 inches from useless, and taken far too much away from the story. Characters are Superman, Incredible Hulk, Batman or Spiderman, etc... characters (IMO) are supposed to be able to fail, make mistakes, and hopefully, (but not assuredly) triumph in the end. Have today's movie people and DnD provider (I'm taking about you WotC) never heard of Joseph Campbell?!
I like casting Fireball as much as the next Wizard, but... I want my Fireballs to mean something. To me (and many) the story captivates the players, viewers, readers, etc. and the characters move the story excitingly forward. We care who Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia are... not because of them, but because we are plot-driven, not character-driven.
But again, that's just me, my 3 cents, and no right or wrong... to each their own.
But know this...Wizards rule! (Readies Fireball, 9th level, and I hold my action.)
What's the joke?: I didn't ask how big the room was, I said I cast Fireball.
So tired of 5e nonsense. Going back is how we go forward I guess.
Basic Fantasy is nice, cause it's free and seems like a decent enough system, although i don't like the simplicity.
While some people say "just use your imagination and ability checks", basic fantasy doesn't even have the skills. Just abilities. It's working, but it's not enough. I am the type of person, who didn't like playing fighter, cause the idea of spending most of the campaign just spamming the same attack was not pleasant. I like Pathfinder's approach - various moves, which, while some OSR fans might say gamify ttrpg too much or make it more restricted, is actually making the game more interesting.
Like, if it was truly about simplicity and freedom, people would just not use rules or even dice maybe.
I think that if some OSR game manages to fix the boring martial problem, it would be interesting. I think some OSR game has epic deed system, which, from what i've heard accomplishes this somewhat, but it is also a bit simple to my understanding
Ideally, a TTRPG should give martials a short spell list like set of moves they can do in battle.
But eh.
I think that a ttrpg needs to be between mechanical complexity and simplicity. It must provide enough complexity to give some mechanical choices of stuff like builds and such, while also being light enough to not have to spend a week learning how to play it.
I do like how simple some systems are. Primal Quest for example (a pay what you want game). It's rules are around seven double-sided A5 pages (with a hexcrawl added into the rulebook, giving it ten more double-sided pages). It's very simple and has a lot of soul to it. Great if you want a nice and quite simple system. It is more stone/bronze age focused though, but that can be solved with homebrewing. Same author made a more traditionally medieval ttrpg, but that one is not something you can get for free.
Pocket Fantasy is also nice, although perhaps too simple. I think that Pocket Fantasy provides an experience a bit similar to playstyle when PCs stay at level 3. It's probably nice for one-shots.
Personally, i'm a fan of E6 (Epic 6) playstyle and do like DnD 5E and Pathfinder 2e. I am trying to make a low magic system rn, somewhat inspired by such playstyles.
So yeah, i think that Basic Fantasy is nice, especially given it's price. It's competition in "pay nothing" category is:
Pathfinder 2e - It seems like you can legally view all the rules online for free. It feels like a better 5e. Quite a good system in my opinion.
D&D 5e Basic Rules - similar to Basic Fantasy RPG, but 5e. Simple, free demo version of 5e's rules. I think that it's neat.
I guess that if you want a more OSR experience, but not OSRIC level of old-school, Basic Fantasy is a good choice.
I was the 74th thumbs up. Cha'alt!
Basic Fantasy just doesn't inspire me. I hate looking at the whole thing. The feel of the book along with the cheap cover art is just grotesque.
I'm interested in OSR games, but I'm not racist enough for the OSR community.
How did you get the basic rules book in hardback? I MUST HAVE ME ONE lol
I bought the pdfs off of DriveThruRPG, diced them up, and found the cover on the internet. I had the whole thing printed up on lulu for personal use.
i think alot of OSR DMs neglect rewarding low level characters (especially mages) with magic items to supplement their non-existent abilities. i usually hand out a free magic item to each new character. kinda like the DnD cartoon where they all had a signature magic item. nowadays in modern editions, characters live and die on their built in class/race abilities, so its easy to see the older editions as "flawed". but the lifeblood of those editions was finding useful magic items and plundering loot. so exploration (hexcrawling) and problem solving was encouraged long before you would consider head-on combat. there was also a kingdom building element encouraged, because all the classes gained a stronghold and followers at a certain level. it was up to them to log the progress of their stronghold on a hexmap. so many little details that make old school DnD exciting. not to mention it had a grim and gritty sword and sorcery aesthetic, which scared your teachers and parents. it was truly a game for rebels, weirdos, and outcasts.
All great ideas. Maybe I should do another video on world building where you let your players do all the heavy lifting by building strongholds, etc.