My First Basic Fantasy Game Session

Got to play my first session of Basic Fantasy RPG the other day. We converted our existing D&D Basic campaign to Basic Fantasy.

First we converted our characters. It didn't take long, about 15 minutes to rewrite character sheets. Most of that time was copying information -- we play with lined paper and pencil character sheets.

One of the differences between Basic D&D and Basic Fantasy is that the later separates race and class. In Basic D&D there are human classes and demi-human classes -- an elf is an elf but humans can be mages, theives, fighters, and so forth. Basic Fantasy however allows for Elvish thieves or mages. Despite this difference I found that there was a Basic Fantasy class/race combination that represented the D&D Basic demi-human classes. These Basic Fantasy race/class combinations match almost exactly the nature of the old demi-human classes of D&D Basic with the exception of experience required to advance. Another minor difference was that first level Clerics in Basic Fantasy get no spells. I'd be interested in understanding why Chris Gonnerman made this decision.

After the conversion of our characters to Basic Fantasy we went on our first quest. There were a few differences here but mostly improvements.

1. Individual initiative instead of Group initiative.
2. D20 style armor class and to hit rolls.
3. Only one book to look things up.

I hope I convinced you to convert your existing game to Basic Fantasy. Download Basic Fantasy RPG.