The following is a play report from a few years ago. It was my very first time actually playing Basic Fantasy Role-Playing (BFRPG); up to this point I had only been a GM using 5e. Neither player had done much tabletop role-playing prior to this session. They made some mistakes that should’ve really backfired (namely, splitting up and exploring on their own), and I went a little too easy on them.
The planning for this session was pretty minimal. I had a city map drawn with a few locations they could check out, plus a small dungeon outside of the city. The NPCs inside the manor were part of an encounter list that I’d prepared for a completely different session.
If we could do this session all over again today I would probably do things a little differently. For one, the kobold named Club Sandwich should have died from the poisoned food. In addition, although BFRPG explicitly states that level 1 characters cannot hire underlings, I would’ve liked to encourage both players to do just that. Allowing players to control more than one creature can help them get used to the high lethality of these sorts of systems. It can also introduce to them the idea that hired creatures have their own motivations and are not likely to hang around if they’re always put in dangerous situations.
All things considered, it was a fun and silly time.
Cast
Club Sandwich the level 1 kobold thief
Zolohan the level 1 elf fighter/magic-user
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Club and Zolohan met in the city and approached the walled manor from the west. While Club attempted to scale the wall, Zolohan tried his luck getting by the lone guard. Clumsily juggling some knives managed to convince the guard that Zolohan was a hired performer. Meanwhile, Club successfully scaled the wall and hopped down into the manor grounds without incident.
The two partners in crime reunited once again headed to the front door to find out if it was unlocked. Club walked right in the front door while Zolohan decided on the spur of the moment to climb the manor itself to check for an entrance on the roof.
Inside the manor lobby, Club found himself face to face with a manor guest named Snauheim. Snauheim demanded to know who Club was, and, in a snap decision, Club did the splits to impress him. Snauheim, normally stuffy and dismissive, was so impressed that he immediately assumed that Club must be part of the night’s performance. Satisfied, Snauheim turned his attention to a painting on the wall, giving Club a chance to snitch his wallet. Taking his leave, Club tried to do jazz hands but only ended up flipping Snauheim the bird. Fortunately, Snauheim was too engrossed in a painting that he didn’t notice the kobold’s obscene gesture.
On the roof, Zolohan’s elven eyes only had to glance around before spotting a hidden trapdoor leading to an attic. Zolohan jumped in without looking and landed on a soft, but very dusty mattress. The attic proved to be a jumbled mess of disused furniture and not much else. While exploring, Zolohan nearly stumbled right into a giant spider. Fortunately, the spider hadn’t noticed him yet and the elf was able to lure it away with his ventriloquism. The spider likely sounded like a family of squirrels running around as it went off to find the voice it heard. Zolohan found another trapdoor in the floor and jumped down to the second floor of the manor.
Meanwhile, Club took the staircase in front of him to the second floor and proceeded to take the western hallway. He heard what sounded like a family of squirrels running around in the attic and, shortly thereafter, was reunited with his elven comrade. The attic ladder nearly crushed the poor kobold, but “almost” is the key word here.
Club decided to pick the lock to a locked door and made quick work of it. The two of them entered the room without listening to the door and found themselves in a bedroom with a skinny, well-dressed man named Wafer lying in bed and eating a seven course meal. Thinking quickly, Club readied his crossbow and fired a dart at the man’s head. The man died instantly. Club, feeling remorseful about his brash decision, began to search the room for a reason to justify his wanton killing. He only found a copy of a workers’ rights pamphlet, making him feel even worse. After some moping he dismissed the dead man as a “class traitor” due to his presence in an opulent manor. He was also sure to relieve the corpse of its wallet. Finally having a moment of reprieve, Club searched through Snauheim’s wallet and found 80 gold pieces. Wafer’s wallet only held 10, bringing Club’s total to 260 gold coins.
Zolohan, upon seeing his companion murder a man, suddenly felt ravenously hungry and helped himself to some of Wafer’s T-Rex meat.
The two set to hiding the body. They quickly closed the bedroom door and began to search the room for places to hide it. They debated about throwing it out the window, and even attempted it once to less than successful results; the window proved to be far sturdier than they anticipated and the two fell into a pile.
Next, they tried to hide the corpse in the closet but it was full of rotting food. Club foolishly touched the food and was promptly poisoned, nearly dying in the process. They finally tucked the body under the bed and left the room. Outside, they were immediately stopped by Tolly, a well-dressed, and well-muscled woman. The two managed to convince the friendly lady that they were the hired performers for the night. Club told her about being poisoned and she asked him if he had tried to open Wafer’s closet. “Honestly, we’ve tried to implement a ‘no food in bedrooms’ policy, but he just won’t listen. It’s really quite disgusting.”
Tolly invited the two down into the kitchen where she was certain the head chef should be able to whip something up to make Club feel better. The chef offered Club a pulsing vial of antidote, which Zolohan slapped out of his little claws. Zolohan insisted there must be a more attractive alternative. The chef offered a cake form of the antidote, which also pulsated and had a small vein on it. Club choked it down and started to feel better.
Gains this session:
90 gold pieces for Club Sandwich (unclear if he intended to share)
Creatures defeated:
1 man named Wafer