[Bit of Fun] Guess the RPG from a screenshot of a page spread!

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RandallS said:
Book of Ebon Bindings (for Empire of the Petal Throne)
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Yes, that’s it. Sorry to be slow responding, but I’ve been offline.
AsenRG said:
Fvlminata?
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Correct! The image of the cannon and the translation of ‘primus pilus’ as ‘first musket’ give it away. Otherwise it could be just about any Roman game.

This makes me think about the challenges in this thread. It seems to me you can divide them into two types:
  • Jeopardy style (like the quiz show). These seem obscure, but the post and image give clues that can allow you to make a good guess even if you do not recognize the pages spread outright. This might be the artwork, or the presence of an unusual term or name that is closely related to the game concept (or recognizable in some other way). So for Fvlminata, the presence of black powder firearms in a Roman setting.
  • Straight questions, where the post and pages don't supply such clues. Sort of the equivalent of asking on a quiz show 'what is the speed of light in a vacuum?' You either know, or you don't.
Of course, there are also intermediate types, like the Book of Ebon Bindings page spread. There some of the names make it fairly clear it is a Tekumel product. One might be able to guess which one without recognizing it, based on the content (demon summoning) and the physical appearance, which suggests something from the 1970s or early 1980s. But anyone who knows that much about Tekumel publications is likely to recognize it anyway, I'd think.

Here are a couple more Jeopardy-style offerings. Both are probably pretty easy:

IMG_0087 - Copy.jpg

IMG_0088 - Copy.jpg
 
Lofgeornost said:
Yes, that’s it. Sorry to be slow responding, but I’ve been offline.

Correct! The image of the cannon and the translation of ‘primus pilus’ as ‘first musket’ give it away. Otherwise it could be just about any Roman game.

This makes me think about the challenges in this thread. It seems to me you can divide them into two types:
  • Jeopardy style (like the quiz show). These seem obscure, but the post and image give clues that can allow you to make a good guess even if you do not recognize the pages spread outright. This might be the artwork, or the presence of an unusual term or name that is closely related to the game concept (or recognizable in some other way). So for Fvlminata, the presence of black powder firearms in a Roman setting.
  • Straight questions, where the post and pages don't supply such clues. Sort of the equivalent of asking on a quiz show 'what is the speed of light in a vacuum?' You either know, or you don't.
Of course, there are also intermediate types, like the Book of Ebon Bindings page spread. There some of the names make it fairly clear it is a Tekumel product. One might be able to guess which one without recognizing it, based on the content (demon summoning) and the physical appearance, which suggests something from the 1970s or early 1980s. But anyone who knows that much about Tekumel publications is likely to recognize it anyway, I'd think.

Here are a couple more Jeopardy-style offerings. Both are probably pretty easy:

View attachment 48108

View attachment 48109
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The top one is Witch Hunter: the Invisible World.

EDIT: Maybe Clockwork and Chivalry for the bottom?

The guesses for Babylon Project are correct, it was released by Chameleon Eclectic during the run of the show.

For some reason it still intrigues me, the weapon damage tables gave me fits at the time (and I was a solid GURPS 3e player with moar options! at the time). When I re-read it later it seems to be doable, I should probably re-re-read it at some point.
 
Harl Quinn said:
Home of the Brave for CP2020? And my latest challenges. Never realized how hard it was to find layouts that didn't have the game title in the header or footer of each page...
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I've had to do some photo-manipulation on all the ones I have posted so far.
The Convenient Skill said:
The guesses for Babylon Project are correct, it was released by Chameleon Eclectic during the run of the show.

For some reason it still intrigues me, the weapon damage tables gave me fits at the time (and I was a solid GURPS 3e player with moar options! at the time). When I re-read it later it seems to be doable, I should probably re-re-read it at some point.
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I was a player in a game using it. I don't remember anything specific, but it seemed to work fine and I had a good time.

The biggest problem it had was in the setting information. was that it came out during the third season of the show, so it didn't have anything about the Shadow War. Not a lot of people wanted to play in the time period between the Earth-Minbari War and the start of the show. As someone working in a game store at the time, that was reason most people put it back on the shelf.

I'd certainly be more inclined to use that system than D20.
 
Caesar Slaad said:
The stat block looks like WEG's masterbook system, though the lore here doesn't look like TORG or Shatterzone, so I'm guessing it's something for Bloodshadows (which I never owned).
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Good enough for me. Have a winner potato.

Edit: and Lofgeornost nailed it next page. Two potato!

Second to last until I have to start digging through storage or... oh, I have some pdf games... well, maybe later.

20220726_221838.jpg
Really, it is a rpg book. I swear.
 
Telok said:
Good enough for me. Have a winner potato.

Edit: and Lofgeornost nailed it next page. Two potato!

Second to last until I have to start digging through storage or... oh, I have some pdf games... well, maybe later.

View attachment 48112
Really, it is a rpg book. I swear.
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I have no idea what game it is, but at least it answers the question of ""Where does everyone go to the bathroom?".
 
Telok said:
Good enough for me. Have a winner potato.

Edit: and Lofgeornost nailed it next page. Two potato!

Second to last until I have to start digging through storage or... oh, I have some pdf games... well, maybe later.

View attachment 48112
Really, it is a rpg book. I swear.
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Given that it's lifting real-world Apollo stuff, including 'fecal retainment,' I'm guessing the Apollo 47 Technical Handbook. But I'm just guessing.
 
Lofgeornost said:
Given that it's lifting real-world Apollo stuff, including 'fecal retainment,' I'm guessing the Apollo 47 Technical Handbook. But I'm just guessing.
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Aye. Too easy huh? Ok, one last easy before I have to start on obscure pdfs... dang it I can't find my save of Devil Bunnies: The Fluffing.

20220726_221907.jpg
 
Baulderstone said:
That's the Chameleon Eclectic one that came out while the show was still running.
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We tried that back in the day, but it produced characters that we found were relentlessly mediocre, and that did not feel like the show at all, so it was dropped pretty quickly (in favour of hacking the Traveller: TNE rules and using those, as I recall).
 
Sharrow said:
We tried that back in the day, but it produced characters that we found were relentlessly mediocre, and that did not feel like the show at all, so it was dropped pretty quickly (in favour of hacking the Traveller: TNE rules and using those, as I recall).
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While it worked okay for us, the adventure mainly consisted of investigation and subterfuge, and those are the kinds of games where you can go most of the session without touching the dice.
 
Lofgeornost said:
Right on both counts. It's first edition Clockwork and Chivalry, when it was still a MRQII setting.

Here's another easy one I've been wanting to post:View attachment 48110
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I'm guessing this is an ICE MERP supplement on the lands east of the Misty Mountains or on the Rohirrim, but I never managed to get hold of most of those books, so I've no idea what it'd be called.
 
Sharrow said:
I'm guessing this is an ICE MERP supplement on the lands east of the Misty Mountains or on the Rohirrim, but I never managed to get hold of most of those books, so I've no idea what it'd be called.
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That’s correct. The title was Riders of Rohan, and unlike most MERP supplements it provided settings for different time periods—probably because the Riders didn’t actually occupy Rohan in typical era used by MERP.
 
Lofgeornost said:
Is it AEternal Legends? The mention of the Unaware World and calling Elves a Clade would fit.
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Yes it is, and there's really no game too obscure for the Pub:grin:!

OTOH, I managed to hold for almost two days, I think...:tongue:
 
Tulpa Girl said:
Wolf-Packs & Winter Snow
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Quite right! I've not been able to identify your game, though--nor has anybody else, that I can see. From the spelling, it's American rather than British, and the level of didacticism makes me think an earlier game rather than something of the last couple of decades. But I've got no idea beyond that.

Tulpa Girl said:
Here's my entry (camera phone is acting buggy, so I did some scans but had to do it as two different pages rather than a single image of the two-page spread).

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The only thing I know about Tulpa Girl Tulpa Girl 's scan is that I've never read anything like it, but the combat example sounds really LARP-inspired:thumbsup:.
 
Lofgeornost said:
Quite right!
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Another guess on my part, but a fairly safe one, as I recognized some of Cavegirl's design from some of her other OSR games.

Lofgeornost said:
I've not been able to identify your game, though--nor has anybody else, that I can see. From the spelling, it's American rather than British, and the level of didacticism makes me think an earlier game rather than something of the last couple of decades. But I've got no idea beyond that.
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It is indeed an early game (less than a decade away from the release.of OD&D). I *think* it's an American company that designed it, but I would have to get home to double-check to make sure.

As a (possibly obscure) clue, I have referenced this game at the Pub in the past, although I don't think I ever mentioned it by name.
 
Lofgeornost said:
Really? How so?
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The barbarian fights off a short blade-wielding thief using his trusty javelin, because it's got better reach, and that's a huge advantage in the system (25% miss chance on the thief's successful attacks is nothing to sneeze at).
Then the thief runs, turns back when three hexes away, and prepares to throw flaming oil, so the barbarian throws his javelin at him, trying to kill him off.

Using a javelin in close combat happens in LARP, but is seldom a preferred option. I saw no mention of a disadvantage, though.
Sure, long reach is a huge advantage...right until someone manages to close the distance, when it stops being so and becomes a hindrance - but LARP players routinely ignore that second part IME, because their rules usually disallow grabs.

And of course, throwing flaming oil kinda reminds me of a boffer LARP as well, where the wizards throw missiles that results in a "fireball":evil:.

Also, it pays to remember that I might be wide off the mark:tongue:!
 
Tulpa Girl said:
It is indeed an early game (less than a decade away from the release.of OD&D). I *think* it's an American company that designed it, but I would have to get home to double-check to make sure.

As a (possibly obscure) clue, I have referenced this game at the Pub in the past, although I don't think I ever mentioned it by name.
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It looks like it should be easily identifiable--the use of letters for armor types rather than numbers, rolling 3 dice for attacks, hexes or squares for combat, the stock character "Brandon the Barbarian," etc. But I'm not coming up with anything...
AsenRG said:
Using a javelin in close combat happens in LARP, but is seldom a preferred option. I saw no mention of a disadvantage, though.
Sure, long reach is a huge advantage...right until someone manages to close the distance, when it stops being so and becomes a hindrance - but LARP players routinely ignore that second part IME, because their rules usually disallow grabs.

And of course, throwing flaming oil kinda reminds me of a boffer LARP as well, where the wizards throw missiles that results in a "fireball":evil:.
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That's interesting. I'd interpret those elements somewhat differently. Worrying about the reach of weapons and trying to distinguish between them in the service of 'realism' was a common design feature or goal in the post OD&D era. And throwing flaming-oil Molotov cocktails was a standard tactic back in the old days, a product of the fantasy f**ing Vietnam school of dungeon-crawling.
Tulpa Girl said:
Don't know if that's the case or not. Not certain how big LARPing was at the time it was released. If not LARPs, perhaps the SCA.
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The SCA influence seems likely to me.
 
So many of these look familiar, but I can’t place them. Of course, I think one is yet to be answered, but I won’t answer it, because that would be too easy for me.
 
brettmb said:
So many of these look familiar, but I can’t place them. Of course, I think one is yet to be answered, but I won’t answer it, because that would be too easy for me.
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I think there's at least one other unanswered beyond Tulpa Girl Tulpa Girl's offering. In trying to identify hers I came on this one and had to share it:

Screenshot (6).jpg
 
Lofgeornost said:
So, a relatively easy one, at least to get in the right ballpark. Identifying the precise product may be a little harder. Both images are from the game--the second is some of the cards referenced in the text:


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The font and content make me think of the first edition of Chivalry & Sorcery. Your phrasing indicates a supplement of some sort, and with what appears to be a focus on mounted combat, I'm going to guess Destrier.
 
Lofgeornost said:
I think there's at least one other unanswered beyond Tulpa Girl Tulpa Girl's offering. In trying to identify hers I came on this one and had to share it:

View attachment 48146
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...interesting. So the distinction between Fatigue/HP and Meat Points is much older than I thought:grin:?
Lofgeornost said:
That's interesting. I'd interpret those elements somewhat differently. Worrying about the reach of weapons and trying to distinguish between them in the service of 'realism' was a common design feature or goal in the post OD&D era. And throwing flaming-oil Molotov cocktails was a standard tactic back in the old days, a product of the fantasy f**ing Vietnam school of dungeon-crawling.

The SCA influence seems likely to me.
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Tulpa Girl said:
Don't know if that's the case or not. Not certain how big LARPing was at the time it was released. If not LARPs, perhaps the SCA.
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Yeah, guys, I figured that the Molotov cocktail was indeed part of the old-schoolness of the game.
As for the SCA part, I'm yet to see SCA in person. But regardless, let me remind you: "I might well be off-base" (or words to that effect, I can misquote myself all I like:tongue:). It gave me a LARP vibe, I mentioned it and explained.
Once someone else guesses it, we might dig a bit more and see if the author was in the SCA, a LARPer, or whatever:shade:!
 
Tulpa Girl said:
The font and content make me think of the first edition of Chivalry & Sorcery. Your phrasing indicates a supplement of some sort, and with what appears to be a focus on mounted combat, I'm going to guess Destrier.
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Precisely right! The phrase 'Great Blow' in the cards is a C&S giveaway.

The following was not designed as an RPG supplement, but was published that way:

IMG_0091 - Copy.jpg
 
Tulpa Girl said:
Another guess on my part, but a fairly safe one, as I recognized some of Cavegirl's design from some of her other OSR games.



It is indeed an early game (less than a decade away from the release.of OD&D). I *think* it's an American company that designed it, but I would have to get home to double-check to make sure.

As a (possibly obscure) clue, I have referenced this game at the Pub in the past, although I don't think I ever mentioned it by name.
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The typography and layout looks very like that of Runequest 2, but it's rules are completely something else.
 
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