bbPress.org

do i need both bbpress and buddypress?

Depends on what you might need for your site, but technically no.

assuming i don’t “need” both, is it advantageous to have both?

Having BuddyPress allows you to use Group Forums, wordpress toolbar notifications for new topics and replies, better profile and custom profile fields, Members page, and a bunch of other stuff that might be useful if you want a more featureful forum.

do i need a wordpress page? i thought this was the case, so i registered and signed up for an annual wordpress account.. now that i’ve installed bbpress, it appears that i don’t actually need a wordpress page or an annual account, is this correct?

You don’t need a page, its not on the recommeded requirements for set up in my opinion. It might be required for a workaround for a theme/bbPress related bug. What do you mean by annual account? Just so you know bbPress won’t work on wordpress.com sites, and only self hosted ones.

how do i import a phpbb 3.1 forum into wordpress? i read the tutorial but a phpbb import tool isn’t included among the other import tools…

for 3.1 phpbb forums look into using bbPress 2.6 alpha, because the current version of the phpbb import in the stable version of bbPress does not work for version 3.1 phpbb forums.

my goal is to set up a phpbb-type forum/discussion, i’m not interested a wordpress blog or the like, just a discussion board. is this something i can achieve with bbpress, bbbuddy, the combo of both?

Its possible to create a forum with some features sort of like phpbb with the help of BuddyPress and bbPress, and quite possibly some other plugins that might be useful.