Basic Fantasy Role Playing Blog Appreciation Day

 

I decided I wanted to join some of my fellow RPG bloggers and help Eric Tenkar with his Basic Fantasy Role Playing Blog Appreciation Day event. This is despite my lack of time to do much in the way of a thorough study and review...but when has that ever stopped me?! ;-)

 

I can't speak competently yet about the ins and outs of the system, not until I have time to read through it. Instead, I wanted to give some stream-of-consciousness impressions of the game from my perspective. I have composed a short ode. Ahem...

 

Oh Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game (BFRPG), thou art a hidden gem amidst the sea of OSR offerings! You are among the games that inflict me with bouts of the dreaded Gamer ADD. Thy many tomes and other wonders are available for free download!

 

Ahem, harrumph...ahem. Ok, enough of that. Here are the serious facts of my opinion (heh): I consider BFRPG to be the only true collaborative effort in the OSR movement. What do I mean? Look at the homepage of the game's site. Look under the header "How Can I Contribute?" That's right. Send them your BFRPG submissions and they will be added to the ever-increasing list of free materials. The game depends on the RPG community to help it grow, and to spread the word. That's the way it should be.

 

The person behind the game has started a blog, and I'm glad for that, since it's given some backstory for the game's development. I say "person" because, honestly, I can't easily discover the identity of the person posting (I believe it's Chris Gonnerman, who's name appears on the site as part of the copyright language). That, to me, speaks volumes. It says to me that the person or persons behind BFRPG are not doing what they're doing for recognition. They're doing it for love of the game.

 

Look, I'm not saying that the other OSR game offerings are peddled by glory hounds out to make a name for themselves in the hobby. What I'm saying is that there's something to be said for a quiet and humble approach. It's refreshing, and clearly a labor of love.

 

Do yourself a favor, and be sure to keep BFRPG in the loop when you're looking for your next old-school-flavored game. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Battle of the Bards: AD&D vs. C&C

Ok, maybe I should wait until I have the AD&D and C&C books in front of me before I get into this. Nah. I'm impatient and lazy, so I'm just going to riff on this one. Here goes:

So I'm playing a bard in a campaign using the awesome C&C rules. Anyone who's read this blog for any amount of time knows I love C&C. But now that I'm playing again, and playing a class that I've never played before in any version of D&D, I'm having some issues with some of the rule choices.

So yeah, I'm playing a bard for the first time ever in my gaming career. I thought it would be good to try something new. Anyway, there's this bard ability called "Exalt" that basically boils down to my bard chanting or singing or playing an instrument or something, and inspiring my companions. All well and good.

But this class power only seems to help companions with bonuses to saving throws and attribute checks, not combat bonuses. Somehow, that doesn't make sense to me. I mean, the description of the power mentions "battle cry" or something like that as one method of performing Exalt. So, you loose a battle cry but your companions only benefit via better saving throws? That just seems rather limited to me.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the AD&D bard (1E and/or 2E) have some similar ability that provided bonuses to combat for companions?

Overall, I'm finding the C&C bard sort of, well, bare. Meaning, there doesn't seem to be much that the bard can offer. Sure, Legend Lore is awesome. It allows a bard the potential to know vital tidbits of information during the course of a session. But that and Exalt are the only class powers that a bard has at low levels (I think...again, I don't have the C&C PHB in front of me at the moment).

This issue might seem minor, but there are other C&C class abilities that I'm having issues with here and there. This is sort of making me pine all the more for some Classic D&D. Less character class "powers" to deal with during a game, you know? Meaning, more room for player creativity, right?!

Anyway, any insight you wonderful folks out there can provide, that would be awesome, as per usual! What would I do with out our virtual collective consciousness/hive mind?

Dippin' my toe in the Pathfinder pond once again...

So this past Saturday night I made my way to an acquaintance's house to play some Pathfinder. The group of guys I played with are technically "friends of friends," but we've known about each other's appreciation for RPGs for a while. It's just taken us a while to get together. I figure that, if we get together enough, we'll eventually take on a new level of friendship. You know how these RPG things can go ;-)

Anyway, there were four of us, one GM and three players. The GM is running the Rise of the Runelords adventure path. I played a half-orc rogue, and the other guys ran a cleric and a monk. We had a good time, joking around and killing some goblins, interacting with NPCs (in my case, lifting some valuables in the process), etc. It wasn't a session of earth-shattering excitement, but then again it's the first session we've ever played together. Hey, we were roleplaying, so that's a good thing!

I have to say that I still feel lost when I'm playing anything more complex than Basic D&D/Labyrinth Lord or Castles & Crusades. I may always feel that way. I'm not sure I can/want to grok the system, you know? As long as the guys are willing to have patience with my lack of system mastery, then we're good to go. I don't think these guys will give me the grief like my last Pathfinder group.

So, while I had fun, it was mostly due to the people I was gaming with, rather than an enjoyment of the game system. The experience has solidified for me the fact that I love the older systems, and am quite happy with them. I will very likely continue to play in the Pathfinder game, but I know I will probably never want to run a campaign using the system. Gimme the old games any day!

End-of-Week Elmore (1/25/13)

No time to post much in the way of commentary with the Elmore selection this week. Let's just say, I'd rather be adventuring. Have a good weekend, all.

Could it be...D&D and SATAN?!

Check out the following, I got a chuckle outta this:

12 Nutty Dungeons & Dragons Media Mentions From the 1980s

OK, I suppose the title of this blog post is sorta inaccurate, because not all of the "nutty" news stories included are about D&D and Satan. But a good number of them do involve that taint of "D&D is bad" mentality that was rife in the 80's. However, there doesn't seem to be a mention of Jack Chick anywhere, so that at least is refreshing.

I think my favorite is the story where the guys gave up tossing around 45 RPM records in favor of playing D&D. Good move, fellas.

P.S. Did anyone out there reading this have a Judah the Christian Soldier action figure?

Remember the Heroes (& Other Worlds)!

Hey there, folks. Been getting my ass handed to me by work, but I wanted to check in. So, I read that the Sword & Shield blog is going on hiatus. I hope it's not a long one, and I wish the good man called "Fenway5" the best, and hope to hear more from that amiable chap soon! Our RPG blog community is like a slow-to-reproduce race of beings: every loss is a big one. 

 

He has other blogs, however...especially one dedicated to his Heroes & Other Worlds (HOW) game. I'm a customer, by the way! I bought HOW, which is based on The Fantasy Trip RPG and inspired by B/X D&D.

 

I haven't had time to really read it and give it a proper review, but I wanted to share some "inspirational photos" of the game. I think the book is gorgeous and oozes with old-school flavor! What I've read of the rules intrigues me. The style of art and layout makes me think of British RPGs like Advanced Fighting Fantasy or Dragon Warriors, games that I've had a hankering to play one day.

 

So take a look at the photos below, and do yourself a favor and grab a copy for yourself!

 

End-of-Week Elmore (1/18/13)

Chaos! Argh! This illo gives you an idea of how I'm feeling at the moment. I'm in the middle of a battle involving work deadlines! So just a short note this week. Blech! Yes, the image above is one that Larry did for Everquest. Note the iconic scantily clad elf wizard lady. I know, an Elmore illo with alluring ladies in revealing outfits?! How unusual! Well, enjoy, hope your week wasn't as busy as mine, and happy gaming!