Comments on: So you want to be a GM?

By: Joshua

Joshua — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:21:09 +0000

I started with white-box D&D, played a little bit of 1st edition AD&D, but mostly moved on to things like Runequest, The Fantasy Trip, Champions and homebrews, so I missed the whole Basic/Expert D&D lines. I didn't know anybody who played them or had even started out with them until much later in life. So I was surprised when picking them up for the first time (when Gygax died I wanted to run a memorial one-shot) how clean, simple, and coherent they were. Simply figuring out how to play original D&D was a challenge, and AD&D had levels upon levels of cruft. Basic/Expert and its clones like L&L and BFRPG now strike me as being eminently playable and well-designed within the constraints of the type of dungeon-delving and wilderness exploration adventure they're about. But now I tend to think of that as a plus for new gamers...I've tried to run my style of open-ended, you've made up a character now decide what you would like to do for RPG newbies, and it doesn't work all that well. My wife didn't really get RPGs until she ran for a while in a friend's dungeon-delving campaign; now she enjoys all kinds of more "sophisticated" settings and plots, but it took a couple months of listening at doors and trying to figure out ways to bypass traps before it started to click for her. Joshuas last blog post..What’s Normal in Savage Worlds?

By: Stargazer

Stargazer — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:18:01 +0000

I downloaded and leafed through both games this morning and I am pretty surprised of the quality of both books. I have to admit that I prefer BFRPG because it's closer to D&D 3.0 that was the game that made me a D&D fan. I never played the really old version of D&D and I hated AD&D 2nd Edition with a passion!

By: Joshua

Joshua — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:58:43 +0000

They're both essentially versions of Basic/Expert D&D, taking advantage of the material released under the OGL to recreate the nice, simple rules of the original without the copyright encumbrance. LL sticks pretty much to exactly Basic/Expert, so as to be a system that's completely compatible with all the old modules that you can get for cheap via Paizo or RPGNow. BFRPG strays a bit further towards D20 (AC goes up, and you have to beat it on d20 to hit), but you have to be pretty familiar with both to spot the differences. Either is dead easy to teach to a new player, and there's a ton of either free or cheap modules ready to pick up and play (BFRPG the GM would have to subtract the listed AC from 20 to get the new AC, but that's about it). Joshuas last blog post..What’s Normal in Savage Worlds?

By: Stargazer

Stargazer — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:23:48 +0000

Hmm, I don't know neither of them. I'll have to check them out then. I am always interested in new systems.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:05:50 +0000

Another good game for new DMs would be one of the free D&D simulacra, like Labyrinth Lord or the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. In some ways I'd recommend them over Savage Worlds, as much as I like it, because they just have fewer options to deal with. Joshuas last blog post..What’s Normal in Savage Worlds?