I thought I'd start a new thread for this.

B&B is (well, actually B&B is Bunnies & Burrows, but let's pretend the term's not already taken for a moment) Backswords & Bucklers. It's a reimagining of OD&D for Elizabethan era gaming and for me one of the more interesting looking items to come out of the OSR.

The webpage is here and the core rules can be downloaded from that link at the bottom of the page. So far there's one supplement which is mostly focused on how to actually run the game, and comes with lots of random tables (in a good way on this occasion).

I haven't run it yet, but hope to. The combat rules look a little odd, but the whole thing's so light it looks distinctly bendable. I would like some guidance on demons, spirits and so on but hopefully that will eventually arrive.

Anyway, nice to see the OSR doing something more than yet another version of essentially the same game experience. Also, I love the idea of replacing the dungeon crawl with the tavern crawl.

I like it's simple yet flavorful bits, but some aspects of it would have to be developed more before I was tempted to run it.  For example, a more historically-based set of rules for spells would really go a long way for me.  (Dowsing is...pretty boring.)

I haven't look at the supplement yet, however.  Maybe it's full of goodies.

My plan for eventual play when I can get da' boys back together is to graft this on to it:
http://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2009/07/magicians-and-colours-of-magic.html

(no clerics, colored magic system, black magic can burn wisdom)

To the point, I love the simplicity of the B&B rules. I'm not too sure about the Downright Blows, and ranged weapons seem kinda crazy-lethal, but I'm willing to try it as-written for AP the first few times.

Where's the supplement? I can't find it.

Danbuter: supplement is here -

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/backswords-bucklers-book-two-tavern-trawling/17415108

what about the combat is odd?

Well, thanks to you all I have added yet another game to the "I want to run this" list.

So far I have only skimmed the game but it looks quite serviceable. Good for early period swashbuckling adventures, Piracy with Drake, lots of interesting things happening in the world beyond London.

The supplement has lots of juicy tables relating to all sorts of things tavern.

Reading through it now.  There are certainly borrowable concepts in the main book - I particularly like that your first drink of alcohol after being wounded instantly restores d6 hit points.  A fine, bracing whiskey indeed!  This is a great example of a one-sentence rule (blink and you'll miss it) which helps establish genre in ways a full paragraph of how-to or fluff might not.  I may steal this for LL at some point (maybe just for the dwarves...).

The switch to damage reduction isn't seducing me, but I didn't download the pdf looking for a game, but rather ideas to mine.  I expect I'll pick up the supplement for the extra tavern tables, but the few 'looking for work' tables in there are nicely liftable, as is the sample tavern and associated NPCs/rumors.

ha, I already have that rule in my S&W game.

Quote from: Aos;491062ha, I already have that rule in my S&W game.

...Whaddya want, a medal?

Quote from: RPGPundit;490671what about the combat is odd?

i wouldn't say "odd", but seemingly quite lethal.  (which again may be entirely accurate..)

melee weapons do 1d6...ranged weapons do 1d6 per level of the attacker.
obviously, the bows and crossbows changed the course of warfare and missile weapons are crazy powerful, so maybe it's just a nod toward realism.

"Downright Blows" are the result of causing an opponent to go to 0 HP.  You roll 1d6 in this case, and if you get a "1", the wound is instantly fatal.

In the second book, they do make a point of stating that, Yes, the game can be lethal, but that's by design.  The guys I play with would be totally cool about this and just whip up another "Basterd" and be done with it, but I can understand that some people might mince around the table like their old sweet auntie just died, railing at the DM about unlucky dice and the unfairness of it all.

tl;dr i think it's awesome, but I imagine that others may not.

Quote from: kregmosier;491137i wouldn't say "odd", but seemingly quite lethal.  (which again may be entirely accurate..)

melee weapons do 1d6...ranged weapons do 1d6 per level of the attacker.
obviously, the bows and crossbows changed the course of warfare and missile weapons are crazy powerful, so maybe it's just a nod toward realism.

"Downright Blows" are the result of causing an opponent to go to 0 HP.  You roll 1d6 in this case, and if you get a "1", the wound is instantly fatal.

In the second book, they do make a point of stating that, Yes, the game can be lethal, but that's by design.  The guys I play with would be totally cool about this and just whip up another "Basterd" and be done with it, but I can understand that some people might mince around the table like their old sweet auntie just died, railing at the DM about unlucky dice and the unfairness of it all.

tl;dr i think it's awesome, but I imagine that others may not.

I like it all too, and once again, it's similar (in spirit) to how I run my home game. In my game any small or medium sized target of a bow or gun is automatically an armor class 10. If a character is hit with a missile he gets a saving throw, a successful ST results in 1d6 dmg; a fail results in a roll on the brutal 1d4 wound table. On larger animals, however, guns and bows function normally in terms of damage- excepting when a critical hit is scored, in which case it's the wound table again.

I like the. Switch from Armour Class to Defense and Damage Reduction.

In a nut shell, high Dexterity makes you harder to hit, armour makes it harder to damage you, high Dexterity makes it easier for you to hit your opponent and high Strength let's you do more damage.

Downright blows actually make going below zero hit points a less than certain death sentence, and give. Time for those long Shakespearian death speeches, of course most of the time you will still die.

A simple combat system, but with a bit of narration it could capture period feel. Certainly it does as well as any rules lite system can.

I look forward to the magic users supplement. The Wise Woman/Cunning Man class is ok, certainly useful in it's way, but I want more. Alchemy, demons, sorcery, prayers of devout priests, so much more could be included within period feel and scope.

To me this feels like a game I would want to lay every fourth or fifth RPG session as a break from an ongoing campaign, or as a pick up game whe player continuity from session to session was not required.

The vastly greater lethality of missile weapons makes sense under the design assumptions of the game.  Hit Points largely model your ability to get out of the way at the last instant when a blow is struck.  This is fairly easy to do in melee combat, turning a solid strike into a glance or a scratch. Even a blow to a limb is not likely to be immediately fatal, and is more likely than a blow to the torso.

With missile weapons on the other hand, a hit is more likely to occur ithe torso, and more likely to prove fatal.

The thing about hit points in this game that will take the most getting used to for me is that a good night's sleep restores all lost hit points, and even a bad night's sleep will heal half of them.  Characters recovering and healing between adventures is not new, but having it happen overnight its.

Anybody up for a PbP of this?

Quote from: DavetheLost;491184The vastly greater lethality of missile weapons makes sense under the design assumptions of the game.  Hit Points largely model your ability to get out of the way at the last instant when a blow is struck.  This is fairly easy to do in melee combat, turning a solid strike into a glance or a scratch. Even a blow to a limb is not likely to be immediately fatal, and is more likely than a blow to the torso.

With missile weapons on the other hand, a hit is more likely to occur ithe torso, and more likely to prove fatal.

The thing about hit points in this game that will take the most getting used to for me is that a good night's sleep restores all lost hit points, and even a bad night's sleep will heal half of them.  Characters recovering and healing between adventures is not new, but having it happen overnight its.

Anybody up for a PbP of this?

Hit Points and Vitality split would seem to solve the "Did I just heal all those bloody cuts and bruises, or did I just restore my energy?" question.