Basic Fantasy
Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a clean, complete, classic-style fantasy RPG — a faithful old-school "B/X" game you can learn in an evening and run forever. It's famous for two things: it is completely free, and it's the game people hand to a brand-new GM because it quietly teaches you how to run a game.
After two decades and a 4th Edition, it has one of the most generous communities in the hobby — a mountain of free adventures, supplements, and tools.
Where to get it
BFRPG is free by design, and print is sold essentially at cost:
- basicfantasy.org — the home of the game: the free core rules plus every official supplement as a PDF, and the community.
- Print at cost — softcover and hardcover through Amazon, Lulu, and DriveThruRPG (basicfantasy.org keeps the current links). Priced to cover paper, not profit.
It's free on purpose. Chris Gonnerman and the community release BFRPG under the OGL and give the books away — buying print just covers printing. You're not pirating anything; the whole point is that anyone can play and build on it.
A deep, free library
This is BFRPG's superpower: the official site hosts a huge, growing shelf of free adventures, setting books, and rules supplements — all community-made and curated. Want more dungeons, classes, or monsters? They're a free download away.
Character generators
Unlike some games, BFRPG is not short on character tools — credit where it's due:
- Codex.Quest — an actively maintained, community-built generator (the developer patches bugs in real time). A great free option.
- The generators linked from basicfantasy.org cover the core game.
Ours is here too, as part of the full RPGsecrets kit — creation, an inventory you actually manage, and session-play views — and we aim to keep pace with 4th Edition supplements. Use whatever fits your table.
Roll some tables
BFRPG runs on its tables — wandering monsters, treasure hoards, the works. Roll on BFRPG's tables (and hundreds more) for free, no account needed, at the RPGsecrets tables app.
Build a character
Make a fighter, cleric, magic-user, or thief, roll their abilities and starting gold, and keep a sheet that handles the bookkeeping — then take them straight into play.