Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Knock! Issue 2 Is Live On Kickstarter!

Here we go again!

If you were a fan of Knock! Issue One, Knock! Issue Two looks every bit as good if not better!

More OSR goodness from around the blogosphere!

The first Knock! kickstarter had the fastest turn-around for a kickstarter that I've ever seen and this one looks to do the same! 


Wednesday, May 12, 2021

A Little Nod To Basic Fantasy

 Haven't drawn a hot dwarf in a while!

The four books below, 1 hardback, 3 soft covers, cost me a total of $26.45. 

  • Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game
  • The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign
  • The Basic Fantasy Equipment Emporium
  • Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign.

All you need to play D&D, literally, for years

And, the PDFs are all actually FREE to download (along with optional races, classes, adventures, spells, etc.) at: https://www.basicfantasy.org/

I like to reward such efforts with a physical purchase. Plus, I prefer books.

Most of you know Basic Fantasy already, but I make this post on the off chance that you do not.

So, Basic Fantasy's been around for a while, why am I only buying it now? Not sure. It popped into my head recently, as things do... actually, I was thinking about saving throws and different ways to do them and I seemed to remember that Basic Fantasy saving throws followed a different progression than B/X, BECMI, or AD&D.

One thing that bothers me (well, "bothers" is actually too strong a term) about old-school D&D is that your saving throws don't progress more smoothly.

Even if you're aware of Basic Fantasy's existence, you might not know how it actually differs from the game it clones (mainly B/X) and how it differs from other clones. Some things I noticed after a quick glance:

  • Race and Class are separate: 4 races, 4 classes. More options can be found at their website.
  • Turn Undead uses a d20, not 2d6 (but 2d6 is used to determine the number of undead.)
  • Individual initiative.
  • Slightly (and I mean slightly) different spell list.
  • Sleep allows a saving throw.
  • Every 2 levels, 2-4 of your 5 Saving Throws improve by 1, sometimes 2.
  • Class levels are 1-20.
  • Energy Drain gives "negative level" penalties, but not actual loss of levels.
  • Scale Armor is considered better than Chain Mail. (In the Equipment Emporium)
  • Dragon Breath is based off Hit Dice not Hit Points.
  • Demons & Devils are called Infernals. (In the Field Guide)
  • Gold for XP is listed in the optional rules section (as are customizable thief skills.)
  • NO ALIGNMENT. 

A solid clone.

And it's easily the best bang for your buck.