[Retroclones] Basic D&D With Separate Races & Classes? | Dungeons & Dragons / Fantasy D20 Spotlight (2024)

Lord Zack said:

I would suggest the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion.

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What he said. Or Swords & Wizardry Complete - it's OD&D+Supplements rather than B/X, but it's very easy to play and run. It also has ascending AC.

Sleeper said:

Basic Fantasy. It's essentially a retro clone of B/X, with race and class split. (And a few other tweaks, like ascending AC and more generous thief progressions).

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That would be my recommendation, it does exactly what you want. LL+AEC is nice but is meant to AD&Dise LL, and costs about 4-5 times as much as getting BFRPG from Lulu.com.

Sleeper said:

Basic Fantasy. It's essentially a retro clone of B/X, with race and class split. (And a few other tweaks, like ascending AC and more generous thief progressions).

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Based on the character sheet and a quick glance at the preview, that looks very promising. Thanks!

simontmn said:

That would be my recommendation, it does exactly what you want. LL+AEC is nice but is meant to AD&Dise LL, and costs about 4-5 times as much as getting BFRPG from Lulu.com.

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Thanks for the warning. AD&D is not what I want. Like I said, "about the same level of simplicity" as Basic.

MarianLH said:

Thanks for the warning. AD&D is not what I want. Like I said, "about the same level of simplicity" as Basic.

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It's about the same level of simplicity, but with more races and classes. No weapons vs armour tables, segments, psionics, etc...

simontmn said:

That would be my recommendation, it does exactly what you want. LL+AEC is nice but is meant to AD&Dise LL, and costs about 4-5 times as much as getting BFRPG from Lulu.com.

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I'm not even sure what "AD&Dise" means. It's got spells and monsters from AD&D, not just new races & classes, if that's what you mean. Why wouldn't you want that?

Also, it's free in PDF.

The actual clone for it is Dark Dungeons, but I don't think it splits the races and classes. It might. Its just been too long since I read through it to remember. PDF is free and the print book from Lulu was/is something like $25.

Definitely check out BFRPG. It placed second as my system of choice for D&D type gaming.

MarianLH said:

Is there a retroclone that's basically B/X or BECMI D&D, or at least at about the same level of simplicity, but with separate races and classes instead of race-as-class for nonhumans? I've got some friends who are asking me for a simple old-fashioned dungeon crawl.

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I'd just stick with B/X or BECMI and do a quick mod to them. Dwarves are already fighters with special dwarf abilities (infravision, underground stuff, bonus languages, and +4 levels to saving throws). They pay a 10% XP penalty for that and require a minimum Con. I'd stick with the minimum Con for any dwarf, then just charge them 10% additional XP per level for any class. Elves get a little more, so I'd do the same thing for them, but make it 20% XP cost. Halflings trade off hit points for their special abilities and use normal XP charts. I'd stick with that for halflings or let them keep standard hp for other classes, since their pseudo-dex ability bonuses won't do nearly as much for other classes.

If you want to allow multi-classing, then keep the XP-values listed above, and just spread them between classes like AD&D does it.