Great stuff! For Magic users, I like to use a magic point system. Number of magic points = Intelligence + level. Spell cost is determined by level of spell. The magic points are replenished after each rest. This way a magic user can cast their memorized spells as often as they can afford. Thanks!
I used to give my players back in the day 2-5 luck points starting, + 1 luck point per level. These were one-use points to re-roll a dice (two could be spent at once for a +3 to that roll). This allowed a second chance for critical rolls like Save vs. Poison or die. If they did something very heroic, there was a 1 in 6 chance they generated a new luck point.
for healing, I use lvl X = (X HP/rest) + con bonus. because it makes absolutely no sense to me, that a high level PC needs more time to recover comepletely than a low level PC. When you get a HD with every new level the healing should scale accordingly.
Thank you for this. I am new to Basic Fantasy & RPG's in general. I'm running a solo campaign and didn't know how I could create a kind of universal but easy to get rule set for not only this, but also future campaigns I plan to run. I really appreciate how you broke it down very simply. Thank you again.
I love you hit point system. Currently I just started my characters with hot points equal to their Con Score. It accomplished about the same thing but they are staying and fighting longer. It's worked out pretty well but I'm tempted to try your style. I do something similar with my users in that I don't deal spell prep, but I go a bit unorthodox in place of spell prep. In my hand clerics get a number of spell per day equal to half their level and can cast spells up to a level equal to half their level, magic users are the same but get a number of spells equal to their full level per day. Since all spells can be cast at their Max spell level I added that casting call for a check (d20 plus int or Wis plus character level, DC10 plus double spell level). So far this has really worked out with casters trying to decide if they use the powerful spell with higher chance to fail or the lower spell they will more likely succeed at.
I like to use the PC's CON +1d6 for starting HP and then add the appropriate d4, d6, d8 based on CLASS at each new level. It might seem like a lot, but my players appreciate being kept in the fight a little longer in those early levels.
I've used that negative hit points = Con rule before. :) I like that a high Con also helps a character heal faster. I'll have to steal that one. I've seen that critical house rule on a lot of D&D 5E forums and I used that when I ran that game. Nice list of house rules.
HP regen has always been a point of contention because as written Magic Users and those with low HP totals heal faster than those with high HP totals due to static across the board systems, be it 1 HP/night or 1d4 HP/night. I tend to use 1HP for weaklings like MUs (d4 HD), 2HPs for normies (d6 HD), and 3 HPs/night for warrior types (d8 HD). If using a system where warriors have d10 HDs, I bump them to 4HP/night to keep the numbers properly steady.
I like your dying system. D&D 1e had a similar system of negative 10 hit points, but that always seemed like a cheat or a kluge to us, so we didn’t use it. I came up with a fix similar to yours, tho. You start with hit points equal to your strength (but future hp are reduced). When your hp get down below your strength score, you’ve been wounded. You can continue but with penalties to all d20 rolls. However, now you’re losing 1 hp/round from bleeding, etc. until you bind wounds or get magic healing. If you are reduced to zero hp, you’re unconscious & have to save vs death or die. I also require a saving throw for falling damage or you get a broken bone. If you roll a natural 1, you die from a broken neck.
Good rules! I use the death at -CON rule myself. It's particularly useful in a game with "save or die" effects, making these things seem a little more fair I feel. Some more I use - While not an "old school" method, I think using a point buy system in character creation is a good idea. Start all stats at 8 or 9 then allow players a certain amount of points to spend elsewhere, depending on how powerful you want the characters to be. This means no one gets stuck with a character they don't want to play, and people who want to play a character with below-average stats in a given area can still do so if they want. Some complain that this "makes the characters too samey" but I disagree. Particularly in old school games, where the stats on the sheet are less important than how a character is roleplayed. I also start characters at 3rd level so they're a little tougher and more distinct/competent in their class abilities. Supposedly even Gary Gygax was starting players at 3rd level in his games near the end of his life. I think players generally are less interested in having a parade of quickly dying level 1 characters than they were in the 1970s. You can also start characters off with max hit points at 3rd level if you find they're still dying too fast. If you want a less gritty and more cinematic/high fantasy flavor to your game "bennies" (as they're called in the Savage Worlds system, but there's lots of names for them) are a good idea imo. Each player gets 3 chips (these can be represented by poker chips or pennies or just about anything) at the start of each game session that they can spend to reroll any roll of a d20, always taking the better roll. Bennies can't be "saved up" from session to session but the GM can grant extra bennies for good roleplaying at their own discretion. The justification for this mechanic is simple that the characters are the heroes of the story, so fate should be just a little bit more on their side. For stat checks I just use the old "roll under" system from Basic DnD, have a character roll under their ability score for a relevant task on a D20. "You try to pull the chain from the wall, your STR is 12, but the chain is very sturdy so that's -2, roll 10 or under."
Here are some of my Basic Fantasy house rules: - All characters start with the max hit points allowed by class or race (elves) with Constitution modifier. As levels are gained dice are rolled and Con mods apply. - Ability scores are generated mostly by the book. Roll 3d6 straight down with one swap if it's an intended prime req. If the sum of mods is negative you can re-roll or subtract every score by 21 (got this from Chris Gonnerman). At levels 4, 7, and 10 the player can add one point to an ability score of their choice. This represents focused, downtime training or growth made by the character. It lessens penalties / increases bonuses without too much power creep. - For skill checks, I use the Ability Roll mechanic in the book for anything that has real consequences (being discovered by enemies, suffering damage, etc.). This gives the 1st-level character a base chance of 20% that is increased gradually as experience is accrued. Their mods ability apply as any situational mods. For instance, if a character wanted to cross a 10' gap from one parapet to another using a wooden beam, I might add +3 to the ability roll target number and have them apply their Dex mod to their roll. If they're trying to do it in the rain, I might add a +5 to the target number. For any skill check that's low-stakes or doesn't have immediate consequences (say, trying to influence a local politician or find an obscure book in an unfamiliar library), I use the old school house rule of rolling under the relevant ability score on a d20.
I'd avoid max hp as a gift. I dont want all fighters to be cookie cutter. I would however make the minimum hp for a warrior 4 at 1st level. Like they did in 2nd ed...fighters would start with a minimum of 6 hp.
Great video. Thanks for sharing. I'm currently running Basic Fantasy with many similar house rules. I like the way you do critical hit damage better than my own, so going to steal it. I also downloaded your thieves skill conversion table. Brilliant. For magic, I recently completely swapped out the BF system for the Wonder & Wickedness and Marvels & Malisons rules by B. Strejcek and Paolo Greco. Their rules are pretty similar to yours (and my old) house rules and the spells are really cool. I think its under ten bucks at drivethru-rpg.
Another house rule that I use is a streamlined experience points system. I only use the basic FIGHTER for ALL character classes and the MAGIC-USER for any multi-class characters. This keeps it simple. I also don't give XP for gold (I've never understood that) but instead, I have players keep track of their actions in game and award points at the end of the session based on things like: 25 points for daring (clever or not) 50 points for a clever action, maybe 100 points for an action or idea that saves the party. I find that this keeps the players engaged and fosters creative role-play.
The first house rule I'd have would be either to clone the movement/encumbrance rules from BECMI D&D, or else (for simplicity) just say armor doesn't affect movement -- I don't commit to one but vary based on how experienced the players are. One thing I don't like in this game is the armor slowing players, which isn't realistic/believable, isn't fair to classes who have all armor as a major feature, and doesn't work well with players possibly needing to run. EDIT: One other house rule changing ability score checks. After briefly considering using the old roll-under on a d20 method, I came up with trying to roll-over with 2d6+ability to hit a target representing the actual difficulty of the task. The difficulty is the score needed for a 50 % chance +7 (average for 2d6) as a guideline. This is to make ability score checks (1) based on the ability score, (2) smaller than the range of ability score but wide enough to make chance significant, (3) tapered. I've since realized many people want to use them for something like a skill check, but where leveling might affect the skill but this is not what I use ability score checks for -- instead, I used them more for raw ability, like strength to move a boulder, so a 1st level character who is strong should have a better chance than a 20th level weakling.
I really like your critical hit rule, it takes a bit of the randomness out of dice roles. I have played with the roll damage twice ruling and one where you simply roll damage normally but double it, both can be a little underwhelming if you roll poorly.
House rules, I actually like the first few you mentioned & might actually steal them if I run a OSR game again My Rolemaster Express game will be run pretty much RAW, but I want to run a local OSR Grim Dark Low Fantasy campaign using either Lamentations of the Flame Princess or either Basic Fantasy or Iron Falcon. With them I'll use House Rules, I'll likely use a critical & fumble system like yours - maybe tweaked a bit, depends on the game. Another would be your death/dying HR based on the players con rule. I'll implement a Character Knowledge rule, rooted in their background. So a thief from the gutter will likely be uneducated about high lores & things outside their city, beyond rumors; but will know how much various things might be worth to Old Shrek the fence in the shallows, which nobles slum there & have debts to Horak one-eye the old Dwarf loan shark off Piss Way. They would also know how to gamble, speak semi-fluently one or two extra languages and know the fastest and safest routes through the city, plus several places to hide there as well. Where as a Wizard, will have know many lores with a number of specialties depending on their int bonus, maybe know how to cook good local or even exotic cuisines, learned at home or during their apprenticeship. Basically stuff like that & in situations they need a role I'd have them roll under their stat, modified by how obscure or common the query was. Depending on game I might give perks the first few levels for the wizard as they get shafted, but make up later at higher levels. I can't think of any other house rules not knowing what OSR I'd run - OH I almost forgot. I'd likely implement the travelling rules from Adventurer, Conqueror, King RPG, as I like them a lot.
I made the leap to AD&D 1st edition in 1984, but I always like the clarity of Basic and it is that clarity that makes BFRPG one of my favorite modern RPGs. BFRPG is low Fantasy, just like Basic was and my old DM would use the "social class" section from the Pendragon RPG to really drive that difference between social classes home. Modern RPGs are set firmly in the high Fantasy, Disney-esc, world of social equality. In a low fantasy world where the vast majority are either peasants bound to the land under a feudal lord or a slave, players have an incentive to remain on good terms with their perspective supporting institutions. The local boss is appointed by a local lord to run things and help keep order might also run a brothel or a gambling house from which that local lord takes a cut so the people who work for the boss might be considered a thieves guild. Since people don't die and stay dead like they do in the real world, I see no point in having hundreds of gods and went with a universal belief system of reincarnation. Resurrection is possible, with a living sacrifice, but such a thing would be considered an evil act by society. However, I do allow reincarnation which does allow a character to return as another creature, just like the reincarnation spell. The player will still need to create a new character, but it allows the player to so some interesting options with the old one. Clerics no longer have gods, but there are 10 orders and each order is represented by a Saint and represents an alignment. There is only one female saint but her alignment depends on who you talk to. She was the virtuous wife of the Lawful Good Saint and is the Holy Mother, but the patron Saint of Chaotic Evil says most of those kids were his and enshrines her as the Saint of Prostitutes ... and so on. The religion is like a mix of Confucism on the Lawful side and Daoism on the Chaotic side. Then the last major house rule is that all magic has an alignment. While NN items, armor and weapons can work for anyone, a lawful item would be cursed to a Chaotic character and a Chaotic item would be cursed in the hands of a Lawful character. I also like the idea of giving any weapon or armor over +1 an intelligence so it is able to try to manipulate or take control of a character it does not like. Clerics earn experience points by capturing such cursed items and turning them in to be destroyed. Elves Dwarves and other races simply worship their ancestors. I do have an optional rule that I do use with some players which requires clerics to preach to one person per day per level so giving a local service once a week might make their quota and they are only allowed to provide healing to those of their order's alignment for free. All others must pay or the Cleric must pay out of his own pocket. Debt is also a big deal. Guilds need to get their cut for the character to remain in good standing and those who owe money can be sold into slavery to repay debts. I keep treasure plentiful but money tends to be very tight in my games.
Take what you need. In early Basic D&D, they didn't really have gods, they had the immortals. I was a big fan of Hollow World, but when TRS announced they wouldn't support it the developers just tacked on a quick non-sensical close. I'm in the process of creating my own world as well. Inspired by Monkey D. Luffy's world from One Piece, there are nine realms. 1st level characters begin in the human realm, which is about the size of North America and must work their way through all nine realms picking up clues along the way. Each realm can take weeks or months to play through and each realm should have its own DM. One trip through all nine realms should take 3 to 5 years of regular play. Once they have all of the clues and solve their puzzle, they gain access to the next nine realms so that after playing 6 to 10-years any surviving character becomes one of the new immortals and the old immortals ascend to higher planes of existance.
In AD&D we would treat a 20 as a double damage roll, but also you would roll again for an 'instant kill' if you rolled another 20 (or some games if you rolled a 19 or 20).
I like vancian magic. Alternatively, there's magic points MP. Alternatively, describe the effect of the spell you want to cast to the DM, the DM tells you what to roll.
I would love to see your d20 table for thief skills. I could make my own of course but if you dind't mind sharing I would love to see it. I also would like to use either 1 or 3 saving throws. I have basically taken an average of the saving throws and turned them into one save (like Whitebox does it) but it doesn't account for the lower numbers that some classes get in some saves. I would have preferred the game used Fort, REF and WIS saves
Old school magic users were too weak and never had that odd spell memorized that they suddenly needed like protection from petrifaction. It was a waste to memorize spells that you had very little probability of ever using. This is something 5e got right, and basically what you are saying.
the one rule i would include is all players who are not fighters roll 1d20 to hit fighters roll 2d20 for a higher hit percentage as they should be better with their weapons then other classes.
Jose Kercado that would be super helpfull, I've played other rpgs in the past, but I'm new to being a gm. Some of the rules and lingo sometimes require a little deciphering
2 handed finghting: get 1+1/2 mod str but -1 Ac after the attack in the next round. two weapon fighting: the second weapon get -4 atk bonus and must be light weapon.a shield can be used as secondary weapon but you lost shield bonus to turn it in a damage (+ str Mod) every spell can be casted 2 times for 1 preparation.example 1: a magic user prepare 1 fireball. to vanish this spell preparation the caster must cast fireball 2 times. example 2 a magic user prepare 2 fireball. to vanish this spell preparation the caster must cast fireball 4 times. This role is only for 1st- 2nd-3rd level spells because 1st to 3rd spell are considered casual ( 1st), common(2nd), uncommon (3rd) so they are esier to remeber respect some rare and hard casting spells. i add flanking role and opportunity attack role from from d20 dnd 3.5 system thief abilities is like original but + mod to table numbers example: thief liv1 dex +2 ; in Move Silently 25+ 2. turn unded is the same of your houserole barbarian fighter variant : d12 instead d10 for Hit points, only leather armor( as rogue). Rage: +2 dmg - 1 AC. Time:1d4 round + CON mod. when rage ends - 4 to Str and Dex for 20 min during surprise attack a barbian rolls 1d6 (1-3 fail). if success the barbarian is not suprised. hunter (or ranger), rogue variant d8 insted d 4 for hit points . skills as he was a tief Thief (but - 10%) "open lock" and "remove traps" become for the ranger "surviva"l and "follow tracks" . only attack with bows becomes sneack attacks if studies a target(dont attack) for 1 round and hit in medum or large range .the gm may require move silently or hide but NOT to stay behind the enemy. weapons competence as fighter (with limitation by Gm but generally linght weapons, one handed sword, axe maces and logbows). paladin fighter variant: d8 insted d 10 for hit points. lay of hands: 1d4+ mod car to heal at touch( 1+ mod wil for day). SMITE ( rolls 1d6 ,1-2 fail).:( 1+ mod wil x day) add mod car to damage agaist evil ones ( mosters and peoples). i discovered basic fantasy thanks your videos. greetings from Italy
The roll of 1 on a d20 always failing has never seemed quite right to me. That means even a high level character always has a 5% chance of failure even if he has a +6 proficiency bonus! One way around this is to "level up" your 1d20 to a 1d21, 1d22, etc. instead of adding a bonus when your character levels up. This is accomplished by rolling a second d20 bonus die. So if you want to simulate a 1d21, roll your regular 1d20 plus the 1d20 bonus die. If you get a 20 on the bonus die, then you have rolled a "21" (ignore whatever you rolled on the regular d20 die). If you roll 20s on both dice, then roll again (otherwise your chances of getting a 21 are slightly higher). This method ensures your chances of rolling a 1 decreases as you level up.
Man there is not skills check in BF! I am new in rpg If I don't know skills existance in dnd I have no idea what's meaning skill check at all!!! If I want to do skill check on anything I need to check dnd character sheet to see which attribute affect this skill.
Great stuff! For Magic users, I like to use a magic point system. Number of magic points = Intelligence + level. Spell cost is determined by level of spell. The magic points are replenished after each rest. This way a magic user can cast their memorized spells as often as they can afford. Thanks!
I used to give my players back in the day 2-5 luck points starting, + 1 luck point per level. These were one-use points to re-roll a dice (two could be spent at once for a +3 to that roll). This allowed a second chance for critical rolls like Save vs. Poison or die. If they did something very heroic, there was a 1 in 6 chance they generated a new luck point.
for healing, I use lvl X = (X HP/rest) + con bonus.
because it makes absolutely no sense to me, that a high level PC needs more time to recover comepletely than a low level PC. When you get a HD with every new level the healing should scale accordingly.
I always let starting players have the full potential hit dice for their class.
Thank you for this. I am new to Basic Fantasy & RPG's in general. I'm running a solo campaign and didn't know how I could create a kind of universal but easy to get rule set for not only this, but also future campaigns I plan to run. I really appreciate how you broke it down very simply. Thank you again.
Love it! Hope to see more Basic Fantasy talk!
I'd love to see the thief percentile to d20 table
I love you hit point system. Currently I just started my characters with hot points equal to their Con Score. It accomplished about the same thing but they are staying and fighting longer. It's worked out pretty well but I'm tempted to try your style.
I do something similar with my users in that I don't deal spell prep, but I go a bit unorthodox in place of spell prep. In my hand clerics get a number of spell per day equal to half their level and can cast spells up to a level equal to half their level, magic users are the same but get a number of spells equal to their full level per day. Since all spells can be cast at their Max spell level I added that casting call for a check (d20 plus int or Wis plus character level, DC10 plus double spell level). So far this has really worked out with casters trying to decide if they use the powerful spell with higher chance to fail or the lower spell they will more likely succeed at.
I like to use the PC's CON +1d6 for starting HP and then add the appropriate d4, d6, d8 based on CLASS at each new level. It might seem like a lot, but my players appreciate being kept in the fight a little longer in those early levels.
I've used that negative hit points = Con rule before. :) I like that a high Con also helps a character heal faster. I'll have to steal that one. I've seen that critical house rule on a lot of D&D 5E forums and I used that when I ran that game. Nice list of house rules.
HP regen has always been a point of contention because as written Magic Users and those with low HP totals heal faster than those with high HP totals due to static across the board systems, be it 1 HP/night or 1d4 HP/night. I tend to use 1HP for weaklings like MUs (d4 HD), 2HPs for normies (d6 HD), and 3 HPs/night for warrior types (d8 HD). If using a system where warriors have d10 HDs, I bump them to 4HP/night to keep the numbers properly steady.
I like your dying system. D&D 1e had a similar system of negative 10 hit points, but that always seemed like a cheat or a kluge to us, so we didn’t use it.
I came up with a fix similar to yours, tho. You start with hit points equal to your strength (but future hp are reduced). When your hp get down below your strength score, you’ve been wounded. You can continue but with penalties to all d20 rolls. However, now you’re losing 1 hp/round from bleeding, etc. until you bind wounds or get magic healing. If you are reduced to zero hp, you’re unconscious & have to save vs death or die.
I also require a saving throw for falling damage or you get a broken bone. If you roll a natural 1, you die from a broken neck.
Great video! I agree with Chalice in Chains below, I would really like to see your d20 table for thief skills.
Love the Cleric,Mage and Thief Rules.
Good rules! I use the death at -CON rule myself. It's particularly useful in a game with "save or die" effects, making these things seem a little more fair I feel.
Some more I use -
While not an "old school" method, I think using a point buy system in character creation is a good idea. Start all stats at 8 or 9 then allow players a certain amount of points to spend elsewhere, depending on how powerful you want the characters to be. This means no one gets stuck with a character they don't want to play, and people who want to play a character with below-average stats in a given area can still do so if they want. Some complain that this "makes the characters too samey" but I disagree. Particularly in old school games, where the stats on the sheet are less important than how a character is roleplayed.
I also start characters at 3rd level so they're a little tougher and more distinct/competent in their class abilities. Supposedly even Gary Gygax was starting players at 3rd level in his games near the end of his life. I think players generally are less interested in having a parade of quickly dying level 1 characters than they were in the 1970s. You can also start characters off with max hit points at 3rd level if you find they're still dying too fast.
If you want a less gritty and more cinematic/high fantasy flavor to your game "bennies" (as they're called in the Savage Worlds system, but there's lots of names for them) are a good idea imo. Each player gets 3 chips (these can be represented by poker chips or pennies or just about anything) at the start of each game session that they can spend to reroll any roll of a d20, always taking the better roll. Bennies can't be "saved up" from session to session but the GM can grant extra bennies for good roleplaying at their own discretion. The justification for this mechanic is simple that the characters are the heroes of the story, so fate should be just a little bit more on their side.
For stat checks I just use the old "roll under" system from Basic DnD, have a character roll under their ability score for a relevant task on a D20. "You try to pull the chain from the wall, your STR is 12, but the chain is very sturdy so that's -2, roll 10 or under."
Here are some of my Basic Fantasy house rules:
- All characters start with the max hit points allowed by class or race (elves) with Constitution modifier. As levels are gained dice are rolled and Con mods apply.
- Ability scores are generated mostly by the book. Roll 3d6 straight down with one swap if it's an intended prime req. If the sum of mods is negative you can re-roll or subtract every score by 21 (got this from Chris Gonnerman). At levels 4, 7, and 10 the player can add one point to an ability score of their choice. This represents focused, downtime training or growth made by the character. It lessens penalties / increases bonuses without too much power creep.
- For skill checks, I use the Ability Roll mechanic in the book for anything that has real consequences (being discovered by enemies, suffering damage, etc.). This gives the 1st-level character a base chance of 20% that is increased gradually as experience is accrued. Their mods ability apply as any situational mods. For instance, if a character wanted to cross a 10' gap from one parapet to another using a wooden beam, I might add +3 to the ability roll target number and have them apply their Dex mod to their roll. If they're trying to do it in the rain, I might add a +5 to the target number. For any skill check that's low-stakes or doesn't have immediate consequences (say, trying to influence a local politician or find an obscure book in an unfamiliar library), I use the old school house rule of rolling under the relevant ability score on a d20.
Chris Hall I also started giving max HP at level one, not sure when I started doing that though lol
I'd avoid max hp as a gift. I dont want all fighters to be cookie cutter. I would however make the minimum hp for a warrior 4 at 1st level. Like they did in 2nd ed...fighters would start with a minimum of 6 hp.
Great video. Thanks for sharing. I'm currently running Basic Fantasy with many similar house rules. I like the way you do critical hit damage better than my own, so going to steal it. I also downloaded your thieves skill conversion table. Brilliant.
For magic, I recently completely swapped out the BF system for the Wonder & Wickedness and Marvels & Malisons rules by B. Strejcek and Paolo Greco. Their rules are pretty similar to yours (and my old) house rules and the spells are really cool. I think its under ten bucks at drivethru-rpg.
I'll check that out!
Another house rule that I use is a streamlined experience points system. I only use the basic FIGHTER for ALL character classes and the MAGIC-USER for any multi-class characters. This keeps it simple. I also don't give XP for gold (I've never understood that) but instead, I have players keep track of their actions in game and award points at the end of the session based on things like: 25 points for daring (clever or not) 50 points for a clever action, maybe 100 points for an action or idea that saves the party. I find that this keeps the players engaged and fosters creative role-play.
The first house rule I'd have would be either to clone the movement/encumbrance rules from BECMI D&D, or else (for simplicity) just say armor doesn't affect movement -- I don't commit to one but vary based on how experienced the players are. One thing I don't like in this game is the armor slowing players, which isn't realistic/believable, isn't fair to classes who have all armor as a major feature, and doesn't work well with players possibly needing to run.
EDIT: One other house rule changing ability score checks. After briefly considering using the old roll-under on a d20 method, I came up with trying to roll-over with 2d6+ability to hit a target representing the actual difficulty of the task. The difficulty is the score needed for a 50 % chance +7 (average for 2d6) as a guideline. This is to make ability score checks (1) based on the ability score, (2) smaller than the range of ability score but wide enough to make chance significant, (3) tapered. I've since realized many people want to use them for something like a skill check, but where leveling might affect the skill but this is not what I use ability score checks for -- instead, I used them more for raw ability, like strength to move a boulder, so a 1st level character who is strong should have a better chance than a 20th level weakling.
I really like your critical hit rule, it takes a bit of the randomness out of dice roles. I have played with the roll damage twice ruling and one where you simply roll damage normally but double it, both can be a little underwhelming if you roll poorly.
Exactly. This is one of those things where I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier. I love it. Definitely using it in my game going forward.
House rules, I actually like the first few you mentioned & might actually steal them if I run a OSR game again My Rolemaster Express game will be run pretty much RAW, but I want to run a local OSR Grim Dark Low Fantasy campaign using either Lamentations of the Flame Princess or either Basic Fantasy or Iron Falcon. With them I'll use House Rules, I'll likely use a critical & fumble system like yours - maybe tweaked a bit, depends on the game. Another would be your death/dying HR based on the players con rule.
I'll implement a Character Knowledge rule, rooted in their background. So a thief from the gutter will likely be uneducated about high lores & things outside their city, beyond rumors; but will know how much various things might be worth to Old Shrek the fence in the shallows, which nobles slum there & have debts to Horak one-eye the old Dwarf loan shark off Piss Way. They would also know how to gamble, speak semi-fluently one or two extra languages and know the fastest and safest routes through the city, plus several places to hide there as well. Where as a Wizard, will have know many lores with a number of specialties depending on their int bonus, maybe know how to cook good local or even exotic cuisines, learned at home or during their apprenticeship. Basically stuff like that & in situations they need a role I'd have them roll under their stat, modified by how obscure or common the query was.
Depending on game I might give perks the first few levels for the wizard as they get shafted, but make up later at higher levels.
I can't think of any other house rules not knowing what OSR I'd run - OH I almost forgot. I'd likely implement the travelling rules from Adventurer, Conqueror, King RPG, as I like them a lot.
I made the leap to AD&D 1st edition in 1984, but I always like the clarity of Basic and it is that clarity that makes BFRPG one of my favorite modern RPGs. BFRPG is low Fantasy, just like Basic was and my old DM would use the "social class" section from the Pendragon RPG to really drive that difference between social classes home. Modern RPGs are set firmly in the high Fantasy, Disney-esc, world of social equality. In a low fantasy world where the vast majority are either peasants bound to the land under a feudal lord or a slave, players have an incentive to remain on good terms with their perspective supporting institutions. The local boss is appointed by a local lord to run things and help keep order might also run a brothel or a gambling house from which that local lord takes a cut so the people who work for the boss might be considered a thieves guild. Since people don't die and stay dead like they do in the real world, I see no point in having hundreds of gods and went with a universal belief system of reincarnation. Resurrection is possible, with a living sacrifice, but such a thing would be considered an evil act by society. However, I do allow reincarnation which does allow a character to return as another creature, just like the reincarnation spell. The player will still need to create a new character, but it allows the player to so some interesting options with the old one. Clerics no longer have gods, but there are 10 orders and each order is represented by a Saint and represents an alignment. There is only one female saint but her alignment depends on who you talk to. She was the virtuous wife of the Lawful Good Saint and is the Holy Mother, but the patron Saint of Chaotic Evil says most of those kids were his and enshrines her as the Saint of Prostitutes ... and so on. The religion is like a mix of Confucism on the Lawful side and Daoism on the Chaotic side. Then the last major house rule is that all magic has an alignment. While NN items, armor and weapons can work for anyone, a lawful item would be cursed to a Chaotic character and a Chaotic item would be cursed in the hands of a Lawful character. I also like the idea of giving any weapon or armor over +1 an intelligence so it is able to try to manipulate or take control of a character it does not like. Clerics earn experience points by capturing such cursed items and turning them in to be destroyed. Elves Dwarves and other races simply worship their ancestors. I do have an optional rule that I do use with some players which requires clerics to preach to one person per day per level so giving a local service once a week might make their quota and they are only allowed to provide healing to those of their order's alignment for free. All others must pay or the Cleric must pay out of his own pocket. Debt is also a big deal. Guilds need to get their cut for the character to remain in good standing and those who owe money can be sold into slavery to repay debts. I keep treasure plentiful but money tends to be very tight in my games.
Take what you need. In early Basic D&D, they didn't really have gods, they had the immortals. I was a big fan of Hollow World, but when TRS announced they wouldn't support it the developers just tacked on a quick non-sensical close. I'm in the process of creating my own world as well. Inspired by Monkey D. Luffy's world from One Piece, there are nine realms. 1st level characters begin in the human realm, which is about the size of North America and must work their way through all nine realms picking up clues along the way. Each realm can take weeks or months to play through and each realm should have its own DM. One trip through all nine realms should take 3 to 5 years of regular play. Once they have all of the clues and solve their puzzle, they gain access to the next nine realms so that after playing 6 to 10-years any surviving character becomes one of the new immortals and the old immortals ascend to higher planes of existance.
In AD&D we would treat a 20 as a double damage roll, but also you would roll again for an 'instant kill' if you rolled another 20 (or some games if you rolled a 19 or 20).
I like vancian magic. Alternatively, there's magic points MP. Alternatively, describe the effect of the spell you want to cast to the DM, the DM tells you what to roll.
I would love to see your d20 table for thief skills. I could make my own of course but if you dind't mind sharing I would love to see it.
I also would like to use either 1 or 3 saving throws. I have basically taken an average of the saving throws and turned them into one save (like Whitebox does it) but it doesn't account for the lower numbers that some classes get in some saves. I would have preferred the game used Fort, REF and WIS saves
Old school magic users were too weak and never had that odd spell memorized that they suddenly needed like protection from petrifaction. It was a waste to memorize spells that you had very little probability of ever using. This is something 5e got right, and basically what you are saying.
the one rule i would include is all players who are not fighters roll 1d20 to hit fighters roll 2d20 for a higher hit percentage as they should be better with their weapons then other classes.
I think I might try these rules out :)
Thanks for making these vidos, could you do a video explaining how to make a character. I have the rules but they are hard to understand
Jose Kercado that would be super helpfull, I've played other rpgs in the past, but I'm new to being a gm. Some of the rules and lingo sometimes require a little deciphering
2 handed finghting: get 1+1/2 mod str but -1 Ac after the attack in the next round.
two weapon fighting: the second weapon get -4 atk bonus and must be light weapon.a shield can be used as secondary weapon but you lost shield bonus to turn it in a damage (+ str Mod)
every spell can be casted 2 times for 1 preparation.example 1: a magic user prepare 1 fireball. to vanish this spell preparation the caster must cast fireball 2 times. example 2 a magic user prepare 2 fireball. to vanish this spell preparation the caster must cast fireball 4 times. This role is only for 1st- 2nd-3rd level spells because 1st to 3rd spell are considered casual ( 1st), common(2nd), uncommon (3rd) so they are esier to remeber respect some rare and hard casting spells.
i add flanking role and opportunity attack role from from d20 dnd 3.5 system
thief abilities is like original but + mod to table numbers
example: thief liv1 dex +2 ; in Move Silently 25+ 2.
turn unded is the same of your houserole
barbarian fighter variant : d12 instead d10 for Hit points, only leather armor( as rogue). Rage: +2 dmg - 1 AC. Time:1d4 round + CON mod. when rage ends - 4 to Str and Dex for 20 min
during surprise attack a barbian rolls 1d6 (1-3 fail). if success the barbarian is not suprised.
hunter (or ranger), rogue variant d8 insted d 4 for hit points . skills as he was a tief Thief (but - 10%) "open lock" and "remove traps" become for the ranger "surviva"l and "follow tracks" . only attack with bows becomes sneack attacks if studies a target(dont attack) for 1 round and hit in medum or large range .the gm may require move silently or hide but NOT to stay behind the enemy. weapons competence as fighter (with limitation by Gm but generally linght weapons, one handed sword, axe maces and logbows).
paladin fighter variant: d8 insted d 10 for hit points. lay of hands: 1d4+ mod car to heal at touch( 1+ mod wil for day). SMITE ( rolls 1d6 ,1-2 fail).:( 1+ mod wil x day) add mod car to damage agaist evil ones ( mosters and peoples).
i discovered basic fantasy thanks your videos.
greetings from Italy
When u making more videos?
The roll of 1 on a d20 always failing has never seemed quite right to me. That means even a high level character always has a 5% chance of failure even if he has a +6 proficiency bonus!
One way around this is to "level up" your 1d20 to a 1d21, 1d22, etc. instead of adding a bonus when your character levels up. This is accomplished by rolling a second d20 bonus die. So if you want to simulate a 1d21, roll your regular 1d20 plus the 1d20 bonus die. If you get a 20 on the bonus die, then you have rolled a "21" (ignore whatever you rolled on the regular d20 die). If you roll 20s on both dice, then roll again (otherwise your chances of getting a 21 are slightly higher). This method ensures your chances of rolling a 1 decreases as you level up.
Do you have these in a written doc?
Man there is not skills check in BF! I am new in rpg If I don't know skills existance in dnd I have no idea what's meaning skill check at all!!! If I want to do skill check on anything I need to check dnd character sheet to see which attribute affect this skill.
Sorry but im going to steal your rules 😀🐉🐉🐉
Could you give a little more info on the Thief house rule, I didn't quite understand it? What charts are you using?