Free to Download: Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules 4e

Not to be mistaken with Chaosium’s $24.99 Basic Roleplaying, Chris Gonnerman’s Basic Fantasy RPG is free to download.

The 200+ page Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules 4th ed published by The Basic Fantasy Project which clearly articulates the focus of the publisher!

They describe it;

This is the revised 4th Edition of the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, a rules-light game system written with inspiration from early RPG game systems. It is suitable for those who are fans of “old-school” game mechanics, and it’s simple enough for children in perhaps second or third grade to play, yet still having enough depth for adults as well. With this edition, the game is now released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license.

Moving to the Creative Commons license is a fashion triggered by the OGL drama in which rule Wizards of the Coast tried to change the rules that govern how other people use 5e. That can’t happen here now that Basic Fantasy is in Creative Commons.

If you pop the freebie into your DriveThruRPG basket, you’ll get two files;

The cover in PDF
The core rules

I’m unsure why Chris has done this except to save colour ink. The core rules file has a black-and-white cover of its own. A different one. A different dragon.

The rules are chaptered as you might expect

Introduction
Player Characters
Spells
The Adventure
The Encounter
Monsters
Treasures
Game Master Information
Index

The stats are also familiar;

There’s no setting other than an assumed high fantasy one, and therefore, space in the download goes to sections like Waterborne Travel Traveling by Air, Becoming Lost, Judging Wishes, Missiles That Miss and Oil. You might recognise some of these are hot topics for rules discussions, and I think inclusion is welcome.

There is no setting but there is flavour text;

We had the foresight to bring several large sacks with us, and we swiftly filled them with coins and gems from beneath the sarcophagus. Without further delay we moved out, intent upon reaching the stairs to the surface and then returning to Morgansfort. But it couldn’t be that easy…

On the way in, Barthal scouted ahead and we took our time, constantly on the lookout for monsters. On the way out, we threw caution to the wind, moving at full speed with Barthal watching behind us. So it was that Morningstar and I turned a corner and practically stepped on the first rank of a goblin patrol!

Once again I was caught flatfooted, but so were the goblins. Morningstar reacted more swiftly, striking down the first of the little monsters. You might think that parley would have been a better idea, but we had already tried that with these goblins without success… so I couldn’t blame the Elf for striking first and asking questions later.