Time to get back to the BasEx!
Original 1980 Tom Moldvay edition - still available!
After working with Chainmail for a while and throwing several battles for the guys [click], I was at a *decision point* about my old D&D stuff, that had been carted around for years, somehow surviving. I mostly just kept it for nostalgia and the many lovely hand-drawn illustrations. But eventually, a friend and I decided to see if we could get a few people together to play Basic / Expert D&D [BasEx], from the 1980 editions. This was perfect since we've known each other since 1980, but never played D&D together!
The first result of that decision was to work on the battle system for it, that used the BasEx framework as closely as possible [click]. Why? Because it's me...! And I can't imagine any fantasy campaign that doesn't end in a big battle of some sort, so may as well prepare in advance. I also wanted to work with the mechanics, in general, and this would give me plenty of action.
We were successful in getting a regular group to play, and I ran them through a modified "B1: In Search of the Unknown" first, just to get things started. This went well, and we all like that BasEx stresses decisions and dice rolls over game mechanics, and is therefore rules light.
It should be noted that many BasEx publications are still available, either in print, pdf downloads, or scattered around the web in various forms. Several Fb groups, Wikipedia, and RPG Geek support them, and provide easy start points. These include: Original D&D, 2nd Ed "Chainmail" (yellow), and numerous modules:
Basic D&D, still available for $5: [CLICK]
The modules B1–B9 include:
B4 The Lost City,
B7 Rahasia,
B8 Journey to the Rock, and
First 9 modules, plot arcs: [CLICK]
Overall, I found the mechanics pretty straightforward, with lots of explanation of one Turn [10 min] in an Encounter B23, and one Round [10 seconds] of combat B24. While most of it is common sense, it is well thought out and easy to follow [although I made a QRS for myself and the players].
As a tabletop skirmish game, BasEx is simple:
A) Roll for Initiative by all Sides in a game [usually 2 but complex situations could result in more]. In a tie, both sides may act simultaneously if situation allows.
B) Initiative winner acts first, using below sequence.
1. Morale Checks.
2. Movement.
3. Missile Shooting.
4. Magic Spells.
5. Melee.
C) Initiative Loser acts, or the Side with next highest Initiative roll, etc.
Further explanations about rolling Initiative to strike first in melee, movement while in Melee, Missile Fire, Cover, etc, all take up about 4 pages. There is also a short but interesting suggestion on how to use simultaneous resolution of mechanics to take care of the "who acts first" questions.
Combat - shooting and melee - is simple. You roll to hit cross-referencing attacker's Level versus defender's Armor Class. If you hit, your roll Damage.
- Modifiers include Dexterity, Magic, Cover, and Range
- The higher your level the easier it is to Hit
- The better the defender's armor class the harder it is to Hit.
Magic spells are all given in concise explanations that include Range, Duration and Effect. As D&D is a magical world, a lot of the tactics will involve careful use of spells to gain advantages and confound your opponent. However, depending on the type of spells your Magic User(s) have, you will take very different approaches in an Encounter [scenario]. So it is not just firing off magic missiles and fireballs! You can use Charm Person, Light, Sleep, Mirror Image, and Phantasmal Force [an illusion] to confuse, misdirect, and outwit your opponents. Floating Disc and Levitate can gain you position advantages, especially in steep or wooded terrain.
Clerics have a wide variety of protection and preservation spells [prayers] to help their side. They can use Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil, Remove Fear to buff up their side. As Clerics can use all spells of any level they have access to, it is easier for them to prepare for an encounter with enough warning, preferably a day. This can be managed by the Encounter's back story and explanation, but is obviously to advantage if the players know their likely opponents, situation, terrain, and plan an ambush. If the players are themselves ambushed, Clerics are more likely to have picked prayers with wide rather than narrow application, e.g. Cure Light Wounds.
BasEX as an Historical or Fantasy Skirmish Game
At the back of my mind, the reason to use BasEx D&D as a battle game is that it is a relatively simple combat game with all the resources you need to pit two sides against each other, from move rates to mundane combat capabilities. However, if you wish to throw in the fantastic - magic and prayers - you can easily do so.
Obviously, there is an EXTENSIVE amount of information on how to match players against opponents [often but not always monsters], manage the critical opening stages of an encounter, and how it develops into a conflict. As an RPG, it is best seen as a - large - tool kit to provide numerous Encounters on land and sea, extensive background information, and many ideas for Encounters, from quests to more mundane sources of conflict.
Where's the genius and variety?
The game has relatively simple combat mechanisms, even if the Encounter's Host finds creative and logical / historical ways to handle the modifiers in the book.
This may be seen by some gamers as a drawback in a wargame culture where sophistication is expressed as Special Rules with a multitude of modifiers for tabletop situations, and complex capabilities of various gadgets and weapons. And neither fantasy / sci-fi nor Historical gamers have a monopoly of this sort of thinking.
Variety of weapons is modest but enough. It is more in the game's fantastic elements that the granular aspect of play variety is found. In effect, if you just change the names a bit and use different figures, the game would play equally well in a modern or sci-fi setting!
But more importantly, variety is found more from player decisions and the Encounter's terrain. Yes, the terrain is a key part of any Encounter, as it should be!
Player Decisions include shooting, maneuvering and fighting hand to hand, and how to use the terrain to give their characters advantage and disadvantage the opposition. If used, magic can be a significant element of player creativity as their Side works together, as a team, covering their Side's weaknesses and utilizing their strengths to win.
As D&D presupposes that one Side [at least] is going to be run by the Dungeon Master [DM] / Host, there is a cooperative element of "everybody against the machine" which is very enjoyable and used in numerous historical table top games like "B Troop Ain't Coming Back" and the Terminator Genisys board games. This leaves the Host in a place to present the players with enjoyable challenges and see that they have fun, significantly reducing the possibility of toxic competitors, rules lawyering, and personality clashes that can all-to-often spoil a head-to-head tabletop miniatures game.
As BasEx approaches gaming from a Host / Players cooperative direction, it is also easier for the Host to hide failures to plan for every possibility or mistakes with rules. And cooperative games are unusual in tabletop miniatures of every genre, from speculative fiction to historical simulation.
Therefore, I recommend you spend $5 for a pdf and $13 for a Print on Demand copy, then set yourself to creating some interesting scenarios with conundrums to challenge the most experienced and jaded Grognards. As long as they are open to "fantastic elements' being in a game, and even most historical gamers are, it is quite a tool kit of nearly endless possibilities to test tactical skill and improvisation for gamers of any level.
More to come!
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