BareBones Fantasy RPG

[Piperdog]

Hey, I thought I would share this. I just discovered a new rpg called Barebones Fantasy RPG. Its by DwD Studios and seems pretty cool. It is extemely rules lite, yet crunchy enough for people with experience gaming. It is a "roll under percentile" system that at glance makes you think of BRP, Legend, or CoC. But it has only four abilities (Strength, Dexterity, Logic, and Will). These range pretty much from 35-80. You then have only a handful of skills. Warrior, Enchanter, Spellcaster, Scout, Thief, Leader, Scholar, and Cleric. Under each of these categories are some various descriptions of things you can attempt.

So Thief represents all stealth, traps, locks, filching, etc while Warrior represents your combat skill (this is the ony skill that is actually divided into two categories- Melee (based off the str stat) and Ranged (based off the Dex stat). Scout contains all outdoor survival stuff, including tracking, animal handling, foraging, etc. Scholar contains your typical knowledge stuff, but also charisma based stuff like persuasion. Spellcaster is basically your wizard stuff and lets you cast spells, while Enchanter is all things alchemy, magic item and rune creation. Cleric skill is for all things clericky. heh heh. Leader is all about battlefield command, tactics, and seemed to evoke a 4e warlord feel.

You start out with picking a Primary skill (+20%) and a Secondary Skill (+10%) and get an additional 10% per rank level you put into it. Everyone starts with Warrior, Scout, and Thief free, using the attribute defaults. But things like Spellcaster and the rest cannont be used unless you buy at least one level in it.

You can buy ranks in each with development points/xp to increase your skill, with ranks ranging from 1-6. Really, the ranks are pretty much your level in d20 when it comes to that skill, and various skills have cool new things/abilities you get once you buy another rank in it. It really replicates the feeling of Basic D&D while giving it a hair more crunch and a lot more versatility. You can replicate a number of archtypes by combining the skills in various ways.

I bought it after reading stellar reviews on it and finally broke down and got the pdf and the print version. Really glad I did. It is amazingly easy to house rule and expand on, and is very easy for new people to see what an rpg is about. I certainly don't do it justice by my breakdown of it here. Do yourself a favor and at least check it out!

[alcyone]

Yes, your review is slightly longer than mine would be:

"It's Star Frontiers in a dungeon."

Which isn't completely accurate, but to me, a high recommendation. Are you running a game with it?

[mordrene]

I purchased the game as well and enjoy playing it. I agree its easy to learn and suited for beginning gamers.

[Piperdog]

I have run a couple sessions already and it was a blast to run. I had some players that had never played an rpg before, mainly preteens, and they had a lot of fun. It's easy to GM for one thing, but has just enough crunch to play like a rules medium game. The modules are simple, straight forward adventures with nice large friendly fonts and colorful maps that feel easy to digest and run without a lot of prep.
I really dig this game.

[kreider204]

Anyone else played this yet? I'm very intrigued, and may have to shell out the cash for it soon.

Also, anyone bought their other products? The Kerenak (sp?) setting, any of the adventures?

[Eisenmann]

Anyone else played this yet? I'm very intrigued, and may have to shell out the cash for it soon.

Also, anyone bought their other products? The Kerenak (sp?) setting, any of the adventures?

I've only picked up the core game and it's really good. I posted up about it on my blog. In short, did I say that it's really good?

http://platonicsolid.blogspot.com/2013/ ... ckins.html

[kreider204]

Good review, thanks. Ya, I keep telling myself I'm going to stop buying new game systems too ...