Free OSR - Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules 4th Ed

Basic Fantasy RPG is an oft-forgotten pillar of the OSR. An excellent presentation of the "classic D&D ruleset," BFRPG is now available in a 4th edition under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA licensing.

You can grab the Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules 4th Ed at DTRPG for free along with a fantastic collection of source material (suitable for use with the OSR ruleset of your choice).

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Free OSR RPG - Iron Falcon (It's Free RPG Day Eve)

As is my usual, I try to find some free RPGs in PDF to highlight for folks that don't have a FLGS participating in Free RPG Day. Or maybe you're like me and just not all that impressed with this years offerings.

Tonight I'm highlighting Iron Falcon by none other than +Chris Gonnerman (of Basic Fantasy RPG Fame)

What is Iron Falcon?

The earliest fantasy campaigns grew directly out of wargames. There was a point in the development of the first commercial role-playing game when the rules shed most of their wargame roots and assumed a form familiar to generations of players to come. Iron Falcon aims to be that game, reproducing its mechanics and style in all its raw and innovative glory, as it was before the advent of more "advanced" rules.

The rules are free in PDF and damn inexpensive in print.

My copy arrives from Amazon on Sunday ;)

 

Alignment - Is It Better Left Out?

Over my commute the last 2 days I've been listening to the Save or Die podcast wherein they discuss the Basic Fantasy RPG ( +Chris Gonnerman is the special guest.) It's and excellent episode and very informative, but it got me thinking when it was mentioned that there is no alignment system in BFRPG.

Is alignment really needed in an RPG?

How many RPGs that aren't derived or inspired by RPGs have alignment?

Does the removal of an alignment system open up the game to moreor less defined monsters and NPCs?

If 90% of PCs are either Chaotic Selfish (or Chaotic Crazy Homicidal Murder Hobos) and the other 10% are Lawful Rules Lawyers, is the 9 point alignment chart even accurate?

OSR Christmas 2014 - Day 6 - Fantasy is Basically a Collection of Cartographical Presentations

I am still majorly out of sorts (as is my stomach - never fails - go on vacation, get sick.)

Here are the OSR Christmas Day 6 Giveaways:

Billy's Books and More (Amazon and Ebay) is gifting a Basic Fantasy RPG Print Bundle. This is US only. It includes the BFRPG Core Book, Morgansfort, Monkey Island, Chaotic Caves and the Fortress, Tomb and Tower Adventure Anthology

+matt jackson is donating two print copies (US Only) of the elite and very rare A Collection of Presentations, Cartographical in Nature.

This post will be open until December 24th at noon NYC time. Add a comment here to enter. US shipping only.

The plan on December 24th is to put up TWO DAYs of Christmas goodies, one international and one US only. Lets see how well this plan comes together ;)

Basic Fantasy RPG 3e Released for Free on RPGNow - Monster Book Released too

I truly like Basic Fantasy. While not quite a clone, i can run adventures from Basic D&D to 3x to the various clones and the editions in between with minor conversions (if any) on the fly.

The price is certainly right, as the PDF for the core game and all the adventures and supplements are free and the print versions are at cost.

The 3rd edition of the Basic Fantasy rules just released as well as the Basic Fantasy Field Guide, which is a monster book with over 180 creatures for your BFRPG game or any other OSR or old school RPG.

Basic Fantasy 3e is currently $4.18 in print at Amazon and the Basic Fantasy Field Guide is currently $3.61. Amazon prices can swing a bit in either direction. Both ship Prime if you have Prime. They should also be available on Lulu.

Thoughts of an Idle and Intoxicated DM

So, after 9 rounds at our local pub to celebrate my son's first full time job, I got to thinking.

Basic Fantasy RPG is less than $5 in print, and even ships free if you have Amazon Prime. I now have all that BFRPG offers in print for less than than 20 bucks. Rule book and 5 adventure books. All free in PDF.

I have a year plus worth of gaming goodness with my next campaign if I go with BFRPG, and that's not including what is only in PDF at the moment.

Amazing the clarity that lack of sobriety can bring ;)

and the Free Basic Fantasy RPG Print Package Goes to...

Alright, I broke out my Gamescience percentiles and ignored any results above 57.

Rolled a 05

Which means +Peter Schweighofer , you win the Basic Fantasy RPG collection of books in print.

Peter, I'll need you to contact me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing so I can get this sent to you via Amazon.

Thanks to all that commented. There wouldn't be a blog without the community that's has formed around it. I can't thank everyone enough.

Huzzah!

The OSR for the Lapsed Gamer - Free PDFs - Basic Fantasy RPG

Basic Fantasy RPG is pretty much a bridge between 3x and the older editions of D&D. It was the first OGL based game that was meant to emulate Old School play and be used as such (OSRIC was originally written to make it easier for publishers to write old school adventures).

What Is Basic Fantasy RPG? 

The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a rules-light game system modeled on the classic RPG rules of the early 1980's. Though based loosely on the d20 SRD v3.5, Basic Fantasy RPG has been written largely from scratch to replicate the look, feel, and mechanics of the early RPG game systems. It is suitable for those who are fans of "old-school" game mechanics. Basic Fantasy RPG is simple enough for children in perhaps second or third grade to play, yet still has enough depth for adults as well. 

Basic Fantasy RPG is an Open Source game system, supported by dedicated fans worldwide who have contributed hundreds of pages of rules supplements, adventure modules, and other useful and enjoyable game materials...

It succeeds in this goal of replicating early D&D based RPGs very well, not just in the look, feel and mechanics but in presentation too.

Probably the most amazing thing about the Basic Fantasy RPG is the quality of the supplements and adventures, available for free in PDF and at cost in print.

How inexpensive?

Less than 11 bucks for the rules and two campaigns with multiple adventures in each. Personally, I really like BF1 Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign. It has a B2, Keep on the Borderlands feel while still being different

Here's what I'm going to do. One random commenter on this post will get the above three books in print sent to their home. US residents only, as this will be shipping via Amazon Prime. Don't fret, everyone can grab the above and more for free in PDF directly from the Basic Fantasy RPG website.

You need to comment by 930 PM Eastern Time, September 24th, 2014 to be considered.

Time to Pick a System for the Sunday Morning Game With the Old Group (OSR of Course)

Sunday morning is about to sneak up, and I think I've gotten my hold out to finally step away from his stand of "it must be published by TSR or WotC or it isn't legit". Trust me, it wasn't easy ;)

So, the three choices I'll be presenting them are:

AD&D 1e / OSRIC - probably the closest to how we played back in our High School / College days, but with a crapload of house rules I'v gained in the intervening years. Problem is, half the group no longer has access to their 1e books and I suspect the other half no longer remember what's in their 1e books ;)

Basic Fantasy RPG - close enough to the AD&D rules with some modern sensibilities. They can get a new print copy of the rules from Amazon for less than 5 bucks. I could run Morgansfort as is with the minor conversions needed for the other systems on this short list.

Swords & Wizardry - I'd run with the core rules, but allow the players if they wanted, to grab a class from the Complete rules if they desired. Most streamlined set of rules on the list, and may be the best to bring back gamers who haven't played in 16 years nearly to the week (I think our last game was March 2nd, 1997, assuming that was a Sunday - after 16 years, I know the day of the week, as we always games on Sundays, but I can't be sure the day of the month - it was the first weekend of March).

At least all of the options are available in PDF

There you have it - the three choices I will present. I'm interested in hearing your ideas on this. I'm leaning towards S&W, but that might be because with the recent Kickstarter package that arrived, it's my new shiny :)

I Got My Basic Fantasy RPG Loot From Amazon Today

Just in time to kick off a new campaign I received this package in the mail:

Talk about timing ;)

I'm thinking of using Morgansfort to kick off the new campaign, whether we use BFRPG or AD&D 1e / OSRIC or something else.

Just think, I got all 4 for $15.64 and free shipping from Amazon.

Impossible price to beat, and they are free in PDF from the Basic Fantasy RPG site.

Basic Fantasy RPG - $4.62 on Amazon

Huge hat tip to +Christopher Helton for the heads up on this:

Amazon has the prefect bound version of the Basic Fantasy RPG for $4.62. Free shipping for prime members or part of a qualifying order over $25.

You could outfit a group of 6 for less than 30 bucks.

A Huge Thank You To All That Participated in the BFRPG Appreciation Day, and a Question

I want to thank all of the bloggers that participated in the Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game Appreciation Day. You were all awesome. We hit 24 blogs involved in the event. Amazing!

I also want to thank the readers of this blog and all of the other blogs that were visited. I want to thank everyone that took the time to go to the Basic Fantasy RPG Site and gave it an honest look. I hope you found it to be rewarding.

So yes, a huge thanks to all!

Now the question:

Should we do this again next month?

If so, who / what do we "appreciate"?

This was certainly a huge success. Can we repeat it?

Give me your thoughts if you will...

Roll Call Request For Those Participating in the January 31st "Basic Fantasy Role Playing Blog Appreciation Day"

I know there's well over a dozen bloggers that have expressed interest in participating in the January 31st  "Basic Fantasy Role Playing Blog Appreciation Day" event coming up this Thursday. I have your names from G+ and the comments section, but what I really need are the names of your blogs so I can put a link list together (and so I don't miss stuff later on this week).

So, if you would be kind enough to add your blog's name as a comment here or on G+ I'll get that list up and put on a sidebar of The Tavern.

It's not too late to participate. The more the merrier ;)

The "Red Headed Step-Child" of the OSR - Basic Fantasy RPG

It seems whenever I compile a list of OSR games ans resources, I inadvertently leave off the Basic Fantasy RPG. It's not that it's a bad set of rules - it's actually a very good set of rules. It's not that there is a lack of material for the system - there is enough freely available to keep your game running for years.

I was talking with +Christopher Helton about this last week via G+, and the conclusion I came to is that it gets overlooked a lot because it isn't seen. How's that for a self fulfilling prophesy? ;)  What I mean by that is the big names in the OSR have either their core books and / or supplementary material available on RPGNow. That's not the case with BFRPG. With BFRPG it's all available at a central location  it's own website. The problem is, without knowledge of the website you won't have knowledge of the game.

The other thing Chris and I talked about was organizing a "Basic Fantasy Role Playing Blog Appreciation Day" or something with a similarly awkward sounding title. The idea would be to organize a couple of bloggers and G+ posters to post about / talk / whatever on the same day. Kind of a saturation of the media to get the BFRPG in the hands of a few other gamers. It is free and there is a crapload of free stuff for it. Think of it as a community service for our readers :)

If it's even halfway successful, we could do this for other deserving yet under appreciated RPGs on a monthly basis.

So, what say you my fellow bloggers? Are you with us?

I'm going to suggest next Thursday, January 31st for the "Basic Fantasy Role Playing Blog Appreciation Day".

Just add a comment to this post (on the blog or G+) to let us know if you are joining us. It should be fun. The type of post you make it up to you. All we ask is that it have something to do with BFRPG.

Of course, anyone can and should add their thoughts to this, whether you plan to participate or not. Good idea? Bad idea? Needs more crumpets. Whatever ;)

(edit -  the BFRPG site is currently running a bit slow on downloads tonight- i think we are driving traffic already ;)