Barebones Fantasy: Some Tinkering

  Ok, after having it for a few days, I can say I am smitten with Barebones Fantasy!  Like many other gamers, when I like a system, I want can't resist the urge to tinker with it. In BBF, the idea of character classes finds expression in Skills. Well, there is no Monk skill, and Monk is probably my favorite character class in traditional D&D-type fantasy.

So with some ideas and guidance from Altered Priest on rpg.net, I decided to try my hand at making my own!  

Here's what I came up with:

Monk

This skill represents a melding of a character’s mental and physical discipline into a coherent and potent style of fighting, moving, and living.
Score: half Wil +10 per Monk level. Cannot be attempted unskilled.
» Pure Body

» Resist Poison
» Heal Self (once per encounter heal 1D BP on a successful check, 2D BP on a critical success)
» Ignore Environmental Effects.
» Armor Prohibition (If the character wears armor of any kind, he loses the special abilities associated with this skill.)

» Pure Mind

» Mental Resistance (Use your WIL check or Monk check to resist charm, illusion, etc.)
» Resist Fear.

» Transcendent Body

» Controlled Fall (ignore damage from falls of height equal to Monk skill or less)
» Swiftness (+1 space to Move per Monk level)
» Deflection (at level 3 and beyond ignore disadvantage against ranged attacks.)
» Iron Fist (your body is a deadly weapon; you count as being armed for purposes of defending yourself in combat, you use your Monk skill to make attacks when fighting unarmed, and your unarmed strikes do 1D+1 damage [increases to 1D+3 at level 3, and 2D at level 6]. At level 4 and higher the monk’s unarmed attacks count as magic weapons.)

» Transcendent Mind

» Impress (wise sayings, awe-inspiring display of prowess)
» Charm Animals
» Intimidate (demoralizing shout, stare down enemy).
» Stunning Strike (Before rolling the dice the character may announce he is attempting this special unarmed strike, using his Monk skill for this attack. If his attack hits it does damage as normal and his target counts as stunned and can make normal resistance checks to remove the condition. Stunning Strike may be used a number of times per Encounter equal to the character's Monk level.)
» Weapons Focus (When a monk is made the player must declare 1 weapon that fit the monk’s style--he may use his Monk skill as the basis for attacks with this chosen weapon.)

Level       Monk Title

1             Student

2             Initiate

3             Disciple

4             Seeker

5             Enlightened One

6             Master

Of course, I need to test this in play, but I am excited to do so, and I think with a few tweaks this will do a nice job of modeling the Monk.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Barebones Fantasy Delivers The Goods!

  Let's face it, there are a lot of fantasy heartbreakers out there in the RPG industry. Barebones Fantasy is not one of them! This little 84 page, digest-sized gem of a book delivers awesome traditional fantasy RPG action with a few neat twists. It's percentile based, uses only D10s for all resolution, and offers the 4 classic fantasy races as PCs: Elf, Dwarf, Human, Halfling.

The magic system possesses a slick and versatile character that makes it diverse without being complicated. And it's miniature friendly! Bonus!

Anyway, more BBF as I run through some play-tests!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott