CLASSIC FANTASY - A Return to the Dawn of Roleplaying

[threedeesix]

Rod,
Thanks for the fast response! Will the revised pdf be available next week?

Once I turn it in I have no control on the time it takes them to make it available. I can't imagine it would be longer than a week however. Maybe less.

Questions about the game: what kind of "benefits" do various races receive? Attribute and skill bonuses?

Everything they did in 1st ed. AD&D. One of our members, Naturaltwenty, did up a copy of the Dwarf in a much nicer style than that of the book. Take a look at it here.

http://www.naturaltwenty.com/downloa...age_layout.pdf

The writeup is true to the book.

Does character background play any role in the chargen process?

Not any more so than it does in Basic Roleplaying. I mean, as a supplement to BRP, you can use as much as you like from that core book. But as character background really played little part in early AD&D, it does here as well.

What type of magic system is in place -- it is vancian? Spell points? Fatigue-based? Roll-for-success?

Yes and no. It is based on the base magic system used in Basic Roleplaying. So you do memorize spells. However, these spells are NOT forgotten when cast. You may know 20 spells (eventually) for example, but only be able to memorize 1/2 your INT worth. These spells can be cast quickly. They cost a number of magic points based upon just how powerful you wish to make them. Other spells, those that were not memorized, can still be cast when read from the owners spell book. This is generally much slower, but still cost magic points.

I love this system because it has the feel of AD&D as each magic-user spends time before each adventure deciding which spells to memorize, but doesn't then forget how to cast them.

Are there schools of magic and clerical domains a la AD&D 2e?

No, I really only used 1st edition as source material as it was my favorite. Each succeeding edition started moving in a direction further from my interest. For example, when they removed demons and devils from 2nd edition and then decided to add them again later, they never gave clerics and paladins the ability back to turn them. They made giants and dragons so much larger and more powerful, that normal heroes, those without a boat load of hit points would never be able to defeat them. 1st ed giants and dragons convert so much more nicely for just that reason.

Thanks!

No, thanks for your interest. Just remember, Classic Fantasy is NOT a stand alone game. You need Basic Roleplaying for the core rules.

Rod

[wbcreighton]

Did you make any spreadsheets for building characters ?

When you do conversions of characters and adventures how do you translate AD&D levels ? Increased % to hit, increased skill%, etc

Are you thinking about doing an intro adventure ?
I was looking at some old Classic adventure modules and noticing the similarities from one to the other.

1) Need a small village as a base of operations.
2) Some ruins nearby
3) Some threat to the village from evil that has set up in the ruins.
4) A reason or reward for cleaning out the ruins.
5) Some hidden evil force or organization that is behind the problems so that the adventure gets more complicated.
6) A bigger town or city nearby that becomes the new base of operations for the pcs investigating the bigger evil.
7) A bigger dungeon or ruins nearby the city for prolonged adventures.

It is interesting how often this template has been used.

If you had a village and a city fleshed out you could easily convert a Classic adventure to fit the Realm very easily.

Another thing that is helpful is the number of free adventures you can download and convert.

WotC ( lots of 3.5 edition adventures and the complete 4e first adventure), Necromancer, paizo to list a few all have free adventures that can be downloaded.

If I had any time, I would flesh out a village and a nearby town/city and then do some conversion docs that would list all the characters and monsters and magic items converted to Classic Fantasy. All the DM would have to do is download the original adventure and use the conversion doc to run it. Of course that isn't a commercial enterprise.

[CthulhuFnord]

A few of the adventures I've put together over the years seem to follow that formula. :eek:

Did you make any spreadsheets for building characters ?

When you do conversions of characters and adventures how do you translate AD&D levels ? Increased % to hit, increased skill%, etc

Are you thinking about doing an intro adventure ?
I was looking at some old Classic adventure modules and noticing the similarities from one to the other.

1) Need a small village as a base of operations.
2) Some ruins nearby
3) Some threat to the village from evil that has set up in the ruins.
4) A reason or reward for cleaning out the ruins.
5) Some hidden evil force or organization that is behind the problems so that the adventure gets more complicated.
6) A bigger town or city nearby that becomes the new base of operations for the pcs investigating the bigger evil.
7) A bigger dungeon or ruins nearby the city for prolonged adventures.

It is interesting how often this template has been used.

If you had a village and a city fleshed out you could easily convert a Classic adventure to fit the Realm very easily.

Another thing that is helpful is the number of free adventures you can download and convert.

WotC ( lots of 3.5 edition adventures and the complete 4e first adventure), Necromancer, paizo to list a few all have free adventures that can be downloaded.

If I had any time, I would flesh out a village and a nearby town/city and then do some conversion docs that would list all the characters and monsters and magic items converted to Classic Fantasy. All the DM would have to do is download the original adventure and use the conversion doc to run it. Of course that isn't a commercial enterprise.

[Barliman]

Everything they did in 1st ed. AD&D. One of our members, Naturaltwenty, did up a copy of the Dwarf in a much nicer style than that of the book. Take a look at it here.

http://www.naturaltwenty.com/downloa...age_layout.pdf

Looks promising. I have a question for you: SIZ is the hardest stat in BRP for me to wrap my head around, and, looking at the Dwarfs' SIZ of (IIRC) 6-7, they strike me both short and (kind of) weedy, whereas I think of them as short and burly. How do you in your mind translate a SIZ 7 Dwarf into height/weight terms? :confused:

[threedeesix]

Looks promising. I have a question for you: SIZ is the hardest stat in BRP for me to wrap my head around, and, looking at the Dwarfs' SIZ of (IIRC) 6-7, they strike me both short and (kind of) weedy, whereas I think of them as short and burly. How do you in your mind translate a SIZ 7 Dwarf into height/weight terms? :confused:

In my mind, as far as human size characters and smaller, SIZ is height, not weight. I know every BRP player and GM has there own opinion on it, but that would be mine. I feel its not weight because you can look at the SIZ table on page 26, a character that weighs 150 lbs could be SIZ 8 through 17, however a character that is 5 feet tall (60") can only be SIZ 8. Having it based on weight just gives to many variables.

Now before this thread turns into another SIZ thread. I would appreciate it if anyone that wants to pursue the whole SIZ thing beyond how it pertains to CF please start another one. Thats right, I said it. :cool:

[Vile]

AD&D 1st Edition, eh? Well, that's just too new-fangled for me. I guess I'll just have to write me a Basic D&D version, darnit.

[threedeesix]

AD&D 1st Edition, eh? Well, that's just too new-fangled for me. I guess I'll just have to write me a Basic D&D version, darnit.

Funny you should mention that. It actually began as a conversion of Basic D&D as I was playtesting BRP in Mystara, one of my favorite D&D settings. I only expanded upon it with AD&D when moving in a commercial direction.

As a matter of fact, my original 100 page conversion is pretty much a conversion of the red box set to BRP terms. I even did the dwarf, elf, and halfling as a profession built into the race to remain true to the source material. It was fun and I still like to flip through it now and then. It really is the precursor to Classic Fantasy, and some of the text in CF remains unchanged from that early book.

Rod

[Vile]

It actually began as a conversion of Basic D&D as I was playtesting BRP in Mystara, one of my favorite D&D settings.

Well, whaddaya know. :confused:

It was coming across my old light blue Expert D&D book this week which got me reminiscing about what I still call the Known World (I don't think they called it Mystara until after we stopped playing D&D), and rummaging through some old Gazetteers. I'm seriously considering doing a BRP conversion of the old Basic and Expert books, at least (never played at the higher levels), just as a fun project while I do more serious stuff with Mongoose Traveller. I might go the whole hog and do the D&D Rules Cyclopedia (never bothered getting the Companion / Masters / Immortals sets). Probably just rules, though, no setting, time being money and all that.

Er, or I could get Classic Fantasy, I suppose. :lol:

[Barliman]

In my mind, as far as human size characters and smaller, SIZ is height, not weight.

Sounds reasonable. :cool:

Now before this thread turns into another SIZ thread. I would appreciate it if anyone that wants to pursue the whole SIZ thing beyond how it pertains to CF please start another one. Thats right, I said it. :cool:

Ooops! I didn't know that was a contentious topic around these parts... :eek:

[Mechashef]

How do you in your mind translate a SIZ 7 Dwarf into height/weight terms? :confused:

I don't.

I just think the SIZ value for dwarves is wrong. I always picture them as being of similar (perhaps a bit less) mass than average humans.