Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules

[Solomoriah]

Post your comments here for the Core Rules.

http://basicfantasy.org/downloads.html#corerules

[copperblade]

Hey, I like the new cover. It's much more colorful.

[Solomoriah]

Thanks! Erik Wilson did it, and he did a wonderful job on it.

[Banesfinger]

Hi, I'm new here...

Just a quick note to say how great your system looks.

One comment, has anyone house-ruled on giving Thief Abilities a bonus for having a high Dex? Or Magic Users getting more spells for a high Intellegence?

The reason I bring this up is that Fighters get a bonus to their prime activity (fighting) for a high prime requisite (str). Yet the cleric (spells), Magic User (spells) and Rogue (thieving) do not get much boost for having a high prime requisite...

Am I thinking too "New School" here?

[Hywaywolf]

When I game with my daughters I give the Cleric the wisdom bonus when rolling to turn undead. Since wisdom is teh prime requisite for clerics I use that as a measure of how devout they are.

[SmootRK]

For Thieves, simply translate each + of bonus into 5%. It wont break the game.

Another great Cleric perk could be bonus healing on each die rolled.

Similarily MU could get bonus damage on spell effects... seems about as appropriate as weapon damage bonus from high strength.

all in all, none of these effects will break the game, but may slightly alter encounter balance. For pre-existing modules, the GM may wish to add a critter or two to each encounter to re-balance things.

[Solomoriah]

You could wander over to tower.newcenturycomputers.net and download Project 74 for some ideas on using ability scores as bonuses for other classes. I have to say, though, that there's a reason I have moved away from those rules... they aren't old school enough for me.

[Steveman]

I understand what you are saying about the old school thing Solomoriah, but it might not be a bad idea to present something like that as a set of optional rules. Piles of optional rules should be old-school enough. *glares menacingly at his boxes of Dragon Magazines that intermittently span the last 14 years of his life.*

Here's a simple pair of boosts I've been toying with using. I have not fully implemented them yet, because I want to get everything perfect... and btw I only thought to do these because my players started with D&D3.5 (and one with D&D 4), and I wanted to give them a taste of old-school between campaigns... they ended up liking old school better so we stuck with it. >,>;;

but anyways, on to the bonuses.

Spellcasting Bonuses (toned down and converted from D&D3.x)
Primary Spellcasters (such as Clerics, Magic-users and all sub-classes, such as Druid and Illusionist but not secondary casters like high-level Paladins) can apply their prime requisite bonus to the number of spells they can cast per day. The chart below for details:

Code: Select all

9-12    no bonus spells
13-15   +1 first level spell per day
16-17   +1 first level spell, and +1 second level spell per day
18      +2 first level spells, and +1 second level spell per day


Spellcasters who use spell points convert the levels into the appropriate number of points and gain that as a bonus.

Thief Discretionary Points (modified from AD&D2)
Thieves, and any class with access to 2 or more thief skills are allotted a number of points equal to 1d8 (1d4 for classes that have fewer than 5 thief skills) + their prime requisite modifier to be spread around their skills, giving them a +1% bonus to that skill for each point allotted. No single skill can be given more than half of the points that were determined by the roll.

[Solomoriah]

Interesting ideas. You should wander over toward Dragonsfoot.org forums and post these in the Workshop as supplements.

I'm curious why you chose to use random ranges for the Thief abilities; the optional Thief Ability rules in the back of the Core Rules book allow much the same type of customization, using percentages that mirror the standard improvement rates. I guess, looking at it, that your system improves Thief abilities by adding to the standard table? Is that done per level? Personally, as someone playing a Thief in a BFRPG game (and I am doing that), I prefer the optional rules given in the Core Rules book, even though your system would make my total abilities higher overall.

[Steveman]

Thief Discretionary Points (modified from AD&D2)
Thieves, and any class with access to 2 or more thief skills are allotted a number of points equal to 1d8 (1d4 for classes that have fewer than 5 thief skills) + their prime requisite modifier to be spread around their skills, giving them a +1% bonus to that skill for each point allotted. No single skill can be given more than half of the points that were determined by the roll.

Is this per level or at creation?

Like I said over at dragonfoot.org, I still haven't figured that one out yet. The only player I have that's used it is playing an Assassin, and hasn't reached level 2 yet. I might very well just give him either just his Dex bonus or his dex bonus +1 in points only.