DwD Studios

I wanted to send a message to all of you there at DwD studios who helped produce the BBF system. In 1983-1984 I was in 7th grade, and by the middle or end of that year, I was playing D&D with the Mentzer set that I bought. I was also playing Runequest (2nd edition) by way of a friend of mine who GM’d a group of us. From then on I was torn in half. Part of me kept looking for a system that covered lots of details, yet was playable. Another part of me was very freeform and running theater-of- the-mind games that heavily relied on GM decision-making. After many years of gaming (much of which was spent GM’ing), life changed. Years passed, and I didn't game for long periods of time, but I did collect and read gaming books here and there. More recently I have been returning to gaming and discovered the BareBones system. I am very impressed. You have found a very workable key in condensing roleplaying concepts and rules into multifaceted yet simple forms. I applaud the eloquent and efficient design of the BBF system.

Some of us who started role-playing a generation or so back in the 70’s or 80’s are concerned about the change in game-playing style that has transpired over the years with players leaning towards a rules-heavy, boardgaming approach, instead of the theater-of-the-mind, rules-arbitrating approach that some early role-playing systems encouraged. Granted, this change in style is certainly a result of players’ choices in what they want their games to be, but game companies seem to be no less responsible. They have pushed too many rules and too many editions of rulebooks upon the game-buying public, often at the expense of altering the nature of role-playing itself, where ROLE-playing has become overt ROLL-playing. But a divergence over play style between theater-of-the-mind and war gaming with over-reliance on miniatures and lots of rules seems to go back to the very early days of our hobby. (As a side note, further chaos seems to have multiplied over the years in that there are some people who demand “role” playing to mean overt acting out with character imitations at the gaming table instead of concentrating on theater-of-the-mind gaming. I know this can be something of a debate over a matter of style, but I myself see little room for distracting acting out by people who seem rather more interested in extroversion and drawing attention to themselves and act like they would rather be on Broadway or in front of a movie camera, than IN THE GAME WORLD ITSELF in the theater-of-the-mind.)

I think what you have done with the BareBones system goes a long way in preserving classic theater-of-the-mind role-playing, with some modern advancements. With new games like the BareBones system, and retro-clone systems such as Swords and Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, and even the more extensive Dark Dungeons, we can once again concentrate more on the story and action in the game world, and strive to have the rules become the invisible mechanics behind the scenes.

I thank you, and I hope you have a long and widespread existence. I look forward to more BareBones game modules, as well as that book on more races.

Logan