Monday, October 12, 2020

My Life As A Gamer: Basic Fantasy Deserves Your Respect

Okay, you're into tabletop RPGs. You like your D&D and games like it, but you know that Wizards of the Coast and Paizo Publishing hate you so you don't want to give them money (or attention), so you want alternatives. Besides buying used copies of the TSR editions, or pirating PDFs thereof and getting your own print copies somehow, you can go with one of the retroclones.

Wednesday of last week I received Basic Fantasy, one of the cheapest retroclones available. The designer, Chris Gonnerman, is a hobbyist first and does this for the love of the game; that's why what he publishes is free in PDF and at-cost in print via POD (and that means you can buy them on Amazon).

He has plenty of supplementary material, also dirt-cheap to get in print and free in PDF.

You're not going to get the glossy paper, full-color interiors, full-page artwork and so on that WOTC/Paizo/etc. use to justify their cover prices and ebook pricing. You'll get simple two-column books with functional, clean presentation and a ruleset as newbie-friendly and casual-friendly as you get without being a literal clone of Original D&D or one of the pre-AD&D editions.

The best part? Your buy-in costs are so low that you will not care if your print copies get damaged or destroyed; you can just buy new ones and--if you're a Prime member--get them at your door in two days. (Hardcover, as it's via Lulu, is more expensive and takes longer but you'll get more options.) The rulebook is a whopping $5; that's stupid-good value for a complete ready-to-go tabletop RPG capable of giving you the D&D sort of experience you want without funding WOTC or Paizo's SJW cancer.

And even if you prefer another ruleset--be it TSR D&D or another retroclone or another OSR game like Pundit's Lion & Dragon--you should give Basic Fantasy's product line a chance; conversion to your ruleset should not take long at all due to shared roots. The cheap buy-in for physical makes this easy, and free digital makes it a no-brainer if you prefer that route.

Basic Fantasy may never be your game of choice, but it deserves a spot on your shelf and Gonnerman is a classic act that's done a great thing for gaming as a hobby, especially if you're into the publishing or game design end of things. This is a Brand Zero D&D to get behind.

And I am.

A more detailed review will follow down the road. If you don't want to wait, download the PDF or get yourself a print copy.

4 comments:

  1. Bradford

    What's your view of the Osprey booklets for their take on D &D?

    Jon Mollision uses the Osprey booklets for historical wargaming. So I'm more reassured (and because I'm Osprey men at arms and imprints junkie)

    xavier

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Osprey is fantastic for D&D, subject to the fact that you have to account for the fantastic elements in the setting, so the results will not be exactly the same.

      Delete
  2. Bradford,

    Thanks. I suspected Osprey would be satisfactory. What fantastic elements would I need to take into account? If ever I wanted to try
    D & D, which Osprey rule book would you recommend? Or would it be better to get a much more foundational (i.e. n00b) booklet?

    Thanks!
    xavier

    ReplyDelete
  3. For products by people who DON'T hate you, ACKs is an excellent system, and Alexander Macris, who put it together, is a great guy.

    ReplyDelete

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