The boxed set there was the first D&D thing I ever owned. Played White Box (sometimes mixed with AD&D, weirdly) but didn't actually have any of the books. I have distinct memories of finally convincing the parental units to let me spend my allowance on the darned thing, which involved a promise to go to Sunday school so the Satans wouldn't eat my soul for roleplaying. Spent a good six months playing without dice because no place local sold them. Nothing beats randomizer chits in dixie cups. :)
If you're open to suggestions, Basic Fantasy RPG may be a nice, lightweight lmuac video once you're done with the FATAL madness. The books are super cheap, the pdfs of literally all the official materials are free on their website, and its a much easier retroclone to get newer players into. I introduced some '5e or bust' players to it, made their characters, and completed a starter adventure in less time than getting 2/3rds through making a FATAL character. 😅
The good thing in this version was that although elfs, dwarfs and halfflings were limited in level they had something else (attack rank), that kept these character in play until the very end for human characters (level 36). Also, if having a couple of Gazeteer sourcebooks, elfs could choose to either increase attack rank or magical ability, that could reach a special level 20, that wasn't exactly what a Magic-User could reach, it came much closer.
We always liked to use the skills opinion in the cyclopedia, helps with some of the race being a class problem if you want to play them a certain way,like a hafling being a thief or playing a elf like a ranger or mage, you really can't do anything for the dwarf, unless you have the dwarf gazetteer then you can be a priest class
Great stuff! I ran some Basic/Expert D&D (Mentzer edition) in the 80s which was looser in the rules, more free-wheeling than the hardcover AD&D. I recognized the need to have rigid reference books to cover situations consistently, to meet for tournaments, but that could lead to rules-lawyering. With Basic there was less of that. You could just make a ruling on the finer points and save that time to put back in the story! Also it was an easier ride for beginner players with simpler character generation as you have seen.
We more of this. Basic works for me I would include most of the monsters from the handbook as playable classes like dragons, warewolves, and gargoyles.
@@VecTron5 I feel the other way around. That BD&D have always been more friendly towards using monsters-as-classes than AD&D. The Holmes edition of Basic directly told you to do so if you wanted to iirc. Also Old School Essentials *is* just BD&D.
Unfortunately it was very much made to specifically hold the information for this character, and even if I expanded it there's issues with the primary font.
The best Basic D&D sheet i ever got is this one: jaspersrantings.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/basic-dd-character-sheet-savable.pdf it looks great (but also original/retro), fits in absolutly everything i ever needed on just 2 pages and is editable/savable so you don't even need to print it out.
The rules for starting spells changed with each edition. In OD&D, it's implied but not stated that you start with every spell on the list, which represents a sort of "common knowledge" list of spells. With the Greyhawk supplement, magic-users had to check each spell in the list to see if they could learn it at all. The original Basic Set ("Holmes") continued the Greyhawk rules, where a magic-user could have any spell in the list that they succeeded at a check for. The 1981 ("Moldvay" or "B/X") D&D rules made it very clear that a magic-user or elf could only have as many spells in their spell books as they could memorize in a day. The player got to choose the starting spell, and they could go back to their masters when leveling up to gain new spells. The 1983 ("Mentzer" or "BECMI") D&D rules also made it very clear that a magic-user or elf starts with two spells. The DM chooses the spells. In actual use, players nearly always got to choose the spells themselves. The 1991 Rules Cyclopedia, magic-users (and elves) start with just one spell, chosen by the DM, and it recommends that magic-users start with Read Magic so that they can read found scrolls.
In all our campaigns, every DM agreed that mages had to have read magic or they pretty much couldn't be mages at all. So every mage got read magic and any other spell was determined by the DM's rules for mages.
This is Crap! Cyclopedia isn't Basic, it's barely even BECMI 😡 If you're going to 'roll up' characters from each rule book, then use the damn correct rule book 😒
“Woah your CHA is a 3? Did someone Feeblemind you?”
“Nah I just got hit with 1E-itis
*Basic syndrome.
The boxed set there was the first D&D thing I ever owned. Played White Box (sometimes mixed with AD&D, weirdly) but didn't actually have any of the books. I have distinct memories of finally convincing the parental units to let me spend my allowance on the darned thing, which involved a promise to go to Sunday school so the Satans wouldn't eat my soul for roleplaying. Spent a good six months playing without dice because no place local sold them. Nothing beats randomizer chits in dixie cups. :)
If you're open to suggestions, Basic Fantasy RPG may be a nice, lightweight lmuac video once you're done with the FATAL madness. The books are super cheap, the pdfs of literally all the official materials are free on their website, and its a much easier retroclone to get newer players into.
I introduced some '5e or bust' players to it, made their characters, and completed a starter adventure in less time than getting 2/3rds through making a FATAL character. 😅
the alignment language for chaos is cockney. funny.
The good thing in this version was that although elfs, dwarfs and halfflings were limited in level they had something else (attack rank), that kept these character in play until the very end for human characters (level 36). Also, if having a couple of Gazeteer sourcebooks, elfs could choose to either increase attack rank or magical ability, that could reach a special level 20, that wasn't exactly what a Magic-User could reach, it came much closer.
I'll never understand how you roll such goated stats with 3d6 in order
We always liked to use the skills opinion in the cyclopedia, helps with some of the race being a class problem if you want to play them a certain way,like a hafling being a thief or playing a elf like a ranger or mage, you really can't do anything for the dwarf, unless you have the dwarf gazetteer then you can be a priest class
Just found this one and since BECMI (or Basic) D&D is my absolute favourite roleplaying game of all time i just have comment on this.
Great stuff! I ran some Basic/Expert D&D (Mentzer edition) in the 80s which was looser in the rules, more free-wheeling than the hardcover AD&D. I recognized the need to have rigid reference books to cover situations consistently, to meet for tournaments, but that could lead to rules-lawyering. With Basic there was less of that. You could just make a ruling on the finer points and save that time to put back in the story! Also it was an easier ride for beginner players with simpler character generation as you have seen.
We more of this. Basic works for me I would include most of the monsters from the handbook as playable classes like dragons, warewolves, and gargoyles.
That just sounds like adnd with extra steps.
Jk, but maybe consider Old School Essentials, GURPS, or a more narrative-driven rpg like Cairn for that.
@@VecTron5 I feel the other way around. That BD&D have always been more friendly towards using monsters-as-classes than AD&D. The Holmes edition of Basic directly told you to do so if you wanted to iirc. Also Old School Essentials *is* just BD&D.
There are rules for that in Supplementals IIRC
Thaco…
Would I be right in thinking your elf once hosted a cooking show?
Loved this :) where can i get that character sheet ur using in the vid?
Unfortunately it was very much made to specifically hold the information for this character, and even if I expanded it there's issues with the primary font.
The best Basic D&D sheet i ever got is this one: jaspersrantings.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/basic-dd-character-sheet-savable.pdf
it looks great (but also original/retro), fits in absolutly everything i ever needed on just 2 pages and is editable/savable so you don't even need to print it out.
How does the Elf get two spells to start off?
The rules for starting spells changed with each edition.
In OD&D, it's implied but not stated that you start with every spell on the list, which represents a sort of "common knowledge" list of spells. With the Greyhawk supplement, magic-users had to check each spell in the list to see if they could learn it at all.
The original Basic Set ("Holmes") continued the Greyhawk rules, where a magic-user could have any spell in the list that they succeeded at a check for.
The 1981 ("Moldvay" or "B/X") D&D rules made it very clear that a magic-user or elf could only have as many spells in their spell books as they could memorize in a day. The player got to choose the starting spell, and they could go back to their masters when leveling up to gain new spells.
The 1983 ("Mentzer" or "BECMI") D&D rules also made it very clear that a magic-user or elf starts with two spells. The DM chooses the spells. In actual use, players nearly always got to choose the spells themselves.
The 1991 Rules Cyclopedia, magic-users (and elves) start with just one spell, chosen by the DM, and it recommends that magic-users start with Read Magic so that they can read found scrolls.
In all our campaigns, every DM agreed that mages had to have read magic or they pretty much couldn't be mages at all. So every mage got read magic and any other spell was determined by the DM's rules for mages.
@@CaptCook999 Ah okay. That makes sense.
How are you supposed to figure out your thac0?
Look up the appropriate to-hit value for an AC of 0 on the attack rolls table
When you said step 10 was the "boring stuff" you lost me.
This is Crap! Cyclopedia isn't Basic, it's barely even BECMI 😡 If you're going to 'roll up' characters from each rule book, then use the damn correct rule book 😒
RC is Basic at it's best. And it is mostly BECMI. It's just missing the I! Go take some CBD of something...