First game last night!

[Fasafan]

Hello, all!

So, after telling everyone that BFRPG was my favorite RPG for the last three years, I finally got to play last night!

For almost 10 years, two others and me have been playing a game set in a Greyhawk campaign from our youth. We started with 3.5e, skipped 4e, and dabbled in 5e.

As a player, I enjoyed 3.5e (after being dragged kicking and screaming from 2e), but the shine faded after tenth level or so: I know it's fantasy, but the ridiculous feats (little "f") we were able to do just made the game a bit of a grind.

I had high hopes for 5e, and jumped feet first. Then, I ran my first game and realized that I entirely missed the part where cantrips - including damage causing ones - were completely at will. All of the sudden, Chill Touch and it's brethren lost their mystique, and so, too, did the game for me.

The time was right last night, however. Like most delicate tasks, I had to know when to spring Basic Fantasy on the group. One player has always preferred the "PCs are obviously superior to the great unwashed" camp, and enjoys fiddling with characters (both PC and NPC) using rules minutia. The other player would play anything.

Anyway, after supper we grab some dice and had both guys roll up two characters apiece, mainly in case one characters was "bad", the other might be "better"! Keep in mind, these players have been used to the "4d6 drop the lowest" method of character creation for 20+ years, and I had them rolling 3d6 straight down!

We end up with an Elf magic user/thief and a Human fighter with (1 hit point!) for the player who likes "above average characters", and a Dwarf cleric and Human fighter for the other.

While purchasing equipment, the players decide pretty readily that they'll need to hire some retainers. With absolutely no game planned, I thought that'd be a great introductory one: arrive in town and let the PCs attempt to find some retainers. I shared the examples of how to accomplish this in the rulebook, and off they went to the inn.

Ten dead Normal Men (and Women), one dead first level fighter (the part-time constable), and a burned-down inn and tavern in the small thorp later... they never did quite find a retainer, but then again they didn't survive either!

Yes, the game went down hill, really fast, but we had a friggin' blast! The "power gamer" realized that even a first level fighter with one hit point could more than hold his own with Normal Men, and even when hit by a NM's fist that he could recover and rejoin the slaughter, ER, fight.

Three of the PCs survived the encounters in the inn, only to be taken out by three peasants with short bows. The Elf MU/Thief used a Shield spell to awesome effect, deflecting two shots, but with the third killing him, as he stood in front of the greedy Dwarf cleric trying to loot the body of the 1 HP fighter who was killed as they tried to make their escape. It was one round too long, and the four murder hobos were all dead!

We rolled up four new ones as we laughed and laughed. The next game? The PCs see a large plume of smoke rising in the distance as they travel to that same small thorp...

One question about the rules: Normal Men have an attack bonus of +0, and are not proficient with any weapons save their hands (p. 46). Should I have applied a -5 penalty to their attack rolls when using a weapon? I inferred this from p. 151: Weapon and Armor Restrictions, but this section is specifically for classes. As it was, I just used the +0 Attack Bonus, and assumes that these NPCs were competent small game bow hunters.

The good news is that even with a -5 penalty, the two kill shots on the last two PCs would still have hit.

Thanks to all for a great community, and a fantastic game!

[Longman]

Sounds funny.

I had a similar session of Labyrinth Lord recently with massive player death. It's fun for an early session but it gets stale if it happens too often, in my view.

Sounds like you treated the peasants as 'Green Troops' (d6 hit points and can use fighter weapons so -5 penalty does not apply) instead of average 0-level humans (d4 hit points, no weapon proficiencies, therefore the -5 penalty does apply). That's what I do all the time with what I would consider to be 'hardy' 0-level NPCs like hunters or whatever. The system described under 'Normal Men' gives you two different types of 0 level NPC.

[Solomoriah]

I actually only apply a non-proficiency penalty to NM characters when they use weapons not reasonable for a peasant. A shortbow, a dagger or shortsword, maybe a sling, but nothing bigger or "fancier."

Sounds like you had a blast! Glad it worked out for you.

[Fasafan]

Thanks to both of you for the insight! I know there's "no wrong way to play", but I do want to be fair and/or consistent

This was a fulfillment of sorts for me: that 9 year old boy in (what was then) rural Tennessee who got a Moldvay basic set for Easter* (!), who asked his dad to help him make heads or tails of it and was told a week or two later it was a game for college kids, who rolled up characters alone on his great-grandmother's couch, but not really knowing how to proceed, a boy whose mother bought into the "D&D is evil" hysteria**...

...that boy finally got to play "his game" Saturday night, and it was a blast! I haven't had that much fun in years - especially as a GM.

*I probably saw and asked for some Elfquest board game, and my dad went back and got the Moldvay basic "by mistake", truth be told.

** My mother and I can laugh about it now, and have for several years.

It's nice to be home again!

Lee

[Solomoriah]

Well, welcome! Nice to have you here!