BASH Fantasy allows you to create nearly any sort of character you like, with several races already built into the system. There are only three attributes: Brawn, Agility and Mind, with ratings from 1 (wimpy) to 5 (Mr. Universe). Your character also has a number of rather broad skills equal to the total of your Agility and Smarts. You are also allowed to buy Powers (Magic, Esp, or special class-like abilites) from a small pool of points. Point values are kept low (in the 1-5 range) so there isn't a lot of number crunching during character creation.

Using a skill or making an attack is based off a very simple mechanic. Rolling two six sided dice and multiplying the result by the Ability score being used. If the dice thrown show doubles, then one of them is rerolled and added to the total, with that die continuing to be rerolled if it keeps coming up with the same number. Compare the score rolled to a standard target number or with a competitors roll and it is very easy to determine success or failure. That's about it. It makes for quick gaming and a need to look up something in the rulebook kind of a rarity, which is refreshing.

The booklet shows lots of combat options, a mass-combat system, a good supply of D&Desque monsters, treasures both magical and mundane and how characters can make them, and lots of alternate rules that allow the GM to run anything from adventures in ancient Rome to the Wild West.

Despite some editing vagarites (the movement rules are kind of hidden in the Powers section), BASH Fantasy is a great little game that lends itself to a long-term campaign as well as the one-shot quickie. For the dollar, one could game for a long time without ever having to buy a supplement. Of course, supplements such as campaign worlds and such are in the works and will hopefully be of a quality equal to the ruleset.

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