Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game

With the release of the 4.0 version of D&D and all of the tension that created in the D&D gaming community, it seems to me that there are a lot of new gaming systems that are being spun off the 3.5 SRD. While some are just trying to fix/improve the 3.5 rules (for example, Paizo’s Pathfinder RPG ), others are trying for a more retro feel, attempting to create versions of the rules that play and feel like older versions of D&D. While this has been going on prior to the 4.0, e.g. Castles & Crusades, I think the process has accelerated as all of the gamers who aren’t moving to 4.0 look for a new RPG homes.

My all-time favorite version of D&D was the D&D Cyclopedia set of rules and the associated game world of Mystara. The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game looks to me like an attempt to recreate much of the ruleset of the D&D Cyclopedia version of the rules. I have only done a cursory review of the core rules, but here are things that jump out at me, including some differences from the D&D Cyclopedia ruleset:

• There are a lot of downloads (all free) available on the main website: the rules, adventures, supplements, and character sheets. Chris Gonnerman, the author, has put in a lot of work creating this game.
• All of the documents are available in PDF format. In addition, all of the documents were created with OpenOffice.org Writer 2.0 (or another of the OpenOffice.org programs) and all of the original source files are available, so making changes to the documents is easy. In addition to the free downloads, the 2.0 version of the Core Rulebook available for print on Lulu.com at cost.
• The Core Rules, which has everything needed, to play is 154 pages. The D&D Cyclopedia was about 300 pages.
• Character progression goes from levels 1 to 20. The D&D Cyclopedia took it from 1 to 36. I think my highest level D&D character was 7th level, so I doubt this will be relevant in my life.
• Cleric and Magic-User spells go to 6th level. The D&D Cyclopedia went to 9th level.
• In the D&D Cyclopedia, each non-human race was its own class as well. The Basic Fantasy RPG keeps the class/race distinction separate, although there are limitations to which classes a race can belong.
• The Weapon Mastery rules, introduced in the D&D Companion Set and reproduced in the D&D Cyclopedia, are not in the Basic Fantasy RPG.
• The Skill Proficiency rules that were in the D&D Cyclopedia are not recreated.
• The thief skill tables and cleric turning tables are present. The THAC0 mechanic of the earlier versions has been replaced with a system very similar to the current 3.5 rules, e.g. higher AC is better.

Overall, the rules appear to be very, very compatible with the D&D Cyclopedia version of D&D. I certainly think that one could run any of the old Basic and Expert modules without any prework needed for conversion. The only thing that would need to be done when running is converting racial classes to standard classes and converting from the old THAC0/AC system, both of which should be very easy.