Twenty Quick Questions: Rules

Taken from Necropraxis.

Either:

• 3d6 and arrange freely, or
• roll 4d6h3 in order down the list, or
• roll 3d6 in order down the list, but for one ability score you may roll 6d6h3.

The first lets you roll and customize; the second lets you roll and have slightly above the fold on average.  The last makes someone who is likely to excel in one particular ability of your choice.

Characters are unconscious at 0 HP, and every turn they are at 0 HP or lower they must save versus death at -1 for every point they are below 0 HP or die.

If a character applies first aid successfully to the incapacitated character (spending a turn binding wounds, staunching bleeding, etc.) then the incapacitated character is returned to 1 hit point and will regain consciousness in 1d6 turns.

Power to perform miracles such as Raise Dead or Resurrection is legendary and practically unheard of in these times.  That does not mean that it is impossible, of course, but you would have to seek it out.

It is often whispered in tales that there are locations, devices, and strange groups or beings that can offer restoration to life (or something… similar), often at a cost.

In Basic Fantasy RPG it's really, really quick to roll up new first level characters, y'know?  It's a good thing, because that's what all replacement characters are.

Group initiative (and surprise), determined by the stats of the expedition leader/caller.  Typically, the expedition leader is whoever organized the game session, which may or may not be the one with the best chances for/against initiative and surprise.

No.  Combat is already abstract and players get butthurt when monsters get criticals against them.  Also, monsters tend to have large numbers of attacks or large numbers of combatants, which means statistically they get more critical hits, which can make combat more swingy than players would like.

There are times where you may end up with special wounds or even maiming based on an attack, or perhaps could even do the same with the right magic weapons; some magic weapons may allow for the traditional "critical" of double damage.

Yes and no; you don't get an armor class benefit, but anything that would be directed at the head (like, say, a creature crawling in your ear, acid falling on your head, the government listening to your mind with radio waves, etc.) would definitely benefit from a helmet.  However, hearing and peripheral vision is more difficult when you wear a helmet.

Of course!  Don't you ever hear about the collateral damage from drive-by shootings?

Aiming into melee and firing is perilous; not only is it -2 to -4 to hit, if you miss your target and the target is engaged with another party in combat you must also roll an attack against that party because of them providing partial cover to your intended target.  (For example:  if Fred the Fighter in your party is fighting an orc and you fire at the orc and miss, you then have to fire to see if you hit Fred instead, since during the combat he is providing partial cover to the orc from your attack, so you may actually nail Fred instead of the orc.)

Player characters have no plot immunity.  Characters can go anywhere, and even in places perceived as able to be handled by your level of characters there will be things you can't handle.  Encounters are not adjusted for party level.

Players need to decide what they can handle, and can get in over their heads, certainly.  That's part of playing in a sandbox.

Yes!  But, maybe not just monsters…

Bonus answer: yes, you can be turned to stone, too

Absolutely… poison, drenching in acid or lava, dragon breath, all sorts of possibilities here.  Wear your big adventurer pantaloons under your armor and use your brain.

Encumbrance is tracked using a riff on the anti-hammerspace inventory system. ( Add a link when done.)

Common expendables are abstracted to a usage die to save the whole counting it during camp or fights and spare us all the "can I recover some ammunition?" questions.

Of course, all magical ammunition and consumables are tracked individually.

Tracking resources is important to the exploration part of the game, and a lot of this setting is about braving the wilds.

While training is not required, downtime is.  You must take at least one week per three levels (rounded up) of downtime.  Look at it as an opportunity to play a secondary character from your stable for a while.

Also, while training is not required you can do some training to spend some of that hard-earned gold to convert it to XP to reach a new level.

No, you do not get spells automatically.  Spells are either found through play, bought or gifted from NPCs, or researched.

Killing monsters and taking their stuff.

Well, okay… you get 50 XP per HD for killing monsters, plus an extra HD for special abilities.  It's a lot at first, but not a whole lot once you pass third or fourth level.

You get 1 XP per 1 GP that you spend that was earned by adventuring.  If you get a bunch of gold and hoard it, you don't get any experience for it until it's spent.  If you decide to shuffle cargo between towns for money, you don't get XP for it no matter when or how you spend it.

Also, you get XP for exploration.  Being the first one to find a legendary place or thing can confer experience, and some things are so awesome and inspiring that everyone who sees them will get some XP to reflect how it shapes their view of the world or their sense of accomplishment or personal growth.

Finally, if you spend GP on carousing sometimes you get bonus XP.  Note that if things don't go your way, you can also get consequences for carousing!

You describe what you are doing and looking for and I describe what you find.  There's also the thief's ability to find and remove traps.

Retainers are definitely encouraged!  More meat to absorb the damage, right?

Morale (and reaction rolls) for monsters and NPCs works like it does in your run-of-the-mill B/X game.  Retainers will also do checks between adventures to see if they stay in your employ, so treat them well!

Experimentation is the tried-and-true method.  Knowledge of arcane lore helps, or sages and historians can figure it out.

Speaking of arcane lore, it is often said that certain supernatural and underworldly creatures may be able to identify magical items (or perform other extraordinary feats).  There may also be spells (such as Divine Magic and Analyze Magic), rituals and magic items that reveal such things…

There aren't MagicMart™ stores, if that's what you're asking.

There may be places where one can pick up enchanted gear, auction houses selling antiquities that may have certain dwoemers, witches or hedge mages hawking charms and disgusting-looking brews at the bazaar, etc.  Let the buyer beware!

Yes, but it requires a lot of knowledge, time and power that could often be better spent adventuring.  However, modified Holmesian scroll creation rules are in effect.

However, magic users and clerics can inscribe scrolls based on a modified modified Holmesian spell inscription rule, where basically for a level L spell a character knows, it can be inscribed for their class to use at a cost of the L^th triangle number x 100 GP and one week per spell level.

At a cost five times that and two weeks per level the spell scroll can be inscribed such that any literate character can cast the spell, although spells inscribed in this manner cannot be used in research to copy the spell to a spellbook.

Go ahead.  As I said before, in BFRPG it's really, really quick to roll up new first level characters.