Aces & Eights probably fits here.That makes me curious, are there currently any Heavy-Sim RPGs being published? We got a few in the 80s, but I can't honestly recall seeing any since, like, Phoenix Command
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Aces & Eights probably fits here.That makes me curious, are there currently any Heavy-Sim RPGs being published? We got a few in the 80s, but I can't honestly recall seeing any since, like, Phoenix Command
IIRC most of the old FGU games are still technically in print (mostly to prevent the original authors from being able to reclaim the rights to them), but those are all 35+ years old so not really what you probably had in mind.That makes me curious, are there currently any Heavy-Sim RPGs being published? We got a few in the 80s, but I can't honestly recall seeing any since, like, Phoenix Command
I kind of want to buy MERC, and all two of its supplements.IIRC most of the old FGU games are still technically in print (mostly to prevent the original authors from being able to reclaim the rights to them), but those are all 35+ years old so not really what you probably had in mind.
I have a big soft spot for heavy-sim games and would love for them to make a comeback.
I've been following the creator's blog - he's currently doing a series of articles about playing Ghastly Affair in the 1970s on a fictional American highway. Diners, roadside attractions, UFO cults, creepy redneck families... One of the classes is Late Night Cable TV Horror Movie Host.For an indie production, Ghastly Affair is very well done, and I wish it would be successful enough to have a range of resources. It uses a version of D20, which Is clearly influenced by D&D. Not sure what is happening with it at present, it is very much a small press publication.
I wish that Ghostbusters had been a juggernaut. Feel like the mainstream of the hobby would be a lot more interesting and fun. Plus it is a damn fine game.
I wish the Pacesetter Ltd games sold by Goblinoid Games (CryptWorld, Rot World, Time Master) would get a better marketplace hold, it really sucks Dan Proctor doesn’t have the Chill IP because I think PDFs of it and those modules would definitely sell.
EDIT: I forgot to add my own. You may have seen me mention Hippogryph, by Lightspress Media. It fused thr d20 SRD with the Fate SRD. Due to the OGL fiasco and apparently poor sales, the author is taking it down for an undefined amount of time.Do you have a game system you like a lot but doesn't get the love you feel it deserves?
For me it's gurps. I love it, especially 3e, but 4e is fine too, 3e just has so much more stuff. I liked that gurps tries to cover everything, genre settings abd rules wise. You could do nearly any setting with it and sure it wasn'tt perfect for every setting but it usually gave you enough to get by with. I wish gurps had held onto it's status abd not declined so much over the years,I still feel it deserves more gamers than it gets.
This sounds like the perfect time for a second edition, then. With mutants and bikes, blackjack & hookers!Oh, I don't know, every single game I've written?
Funny thing, the one game of mine that gets a named checked occasionally is my very first effort, Mutant Bikers of the Atomic Wastelands from 20 odd years ago. And I love my Mutant Bikers, but even I recognise that the game is more about attitude then the system, which is just was just a quick and dirty Fudge hack. I mean, despite the game's name, there are actually no rules for mutatations or for vehicle, including motorcyles. A little bit of an oversight, you'd think?
My newer stuff, while still Fudge-based, I think have so much more to offer but it just never got the same level, or really any level, of name recognition.
Gallant Knight Games bought V6 engine and Atomic Highway. Not certain what they plan to do with it.Probably Atomic Highway. It's a great little post-apocalyptic game that I wish would have taken off more or at least inspired other games to experiment with the system. I was always tempted to try hacking it for a Fallout game but never got around to it.
I was completely unaware of this. When did Wordplay change to Tripod System? I thought I was following Wordplay closely. Not close enough, it seems.There's a lot of good stuff already listed so I'm going to avoid mentioning those games and jump in with a few others...
Wordplay (now known as Tripod System): A really nice descriptor-based narrativist dice pool system. It's pretty simple and very flexible. Aside from the generic core (which has been released in 3 versions with Tripod Essentials being the most recent) there's only been 3 games released that use the system. Starfall, Project Darklight, and Gran Meccanismo. The latter is probably the best known and most recent. Personally, I think it would be great for running something like Vampire the Masquerade or Demon the Fallen. Ah, one day maybe.
That sounds really cool, I'll have to patronise it when he releases itI've been following the creator's blog - he's currently doing a series of articles about playing Ghastly Affair in the 1970s on a fictional American highway. Diners, roadside attractions, UFO cults, creepy redneck families... One of the classes is Late Night Cable TV Horror Movie Host.
https://engineoforacles.wordpress.com/2022/08/23/tv-stations-of-the-uncanny-highway/
It's very much a fiction-first kind of setting, and the mechanics are not intrusive at all.A new edition is in the works, along with a system-neutral supplement collecting and greatly expanding upon the author's Uncanny Highway blog posts.
I've been following the creator's blog - he's currently doing a series of articles about playing Ghastly Affair in the 1970s on a fictional American highway. Diners, roadside attractions, UFO cults, creepy redneck families... One of the classes is Late Night Cable TV Horror Movie Host.
https://engineoforacles.wordpress.com/2022/08/23/tv-stations-of-the-uncanny-highway/
What! You had it completely scanned for them?I've been hoping the proper Chaosium's Worlds of Wonder would get a proper shake of the stick ever since 1982, but it was not to be. My hope for it died in 2014 together with my expectations for nuChaosium (I scanned and OCR'd my boxed set for them then). It'll stay vapourware no doubt, though wouldn't be interested now even if they got around to putting it together.
If any game deserves a nostalgic reprint, it's GhostbustersI wish that Ghostbusters had been a juggernaut. Feel like the mainstream of the hobby would be a lot more interesting and fun. Plus it is a damn fine game.
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2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th? (I assume we will not discuss 6th. And 1st Ed was Champions only.)HERO System.
jg
Well technically 2nd and 3rd( I believe) were also only either Champions or the various other genres. They played well together but not perfectly. Skill and ability costs I believe varied by product so no guarantee a guy from Espionage would transfer properly to Champions or Justice Inc. I believe they only unified things under 4th edition.2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th? (I assume we will not discuss 6th. And 1st Ed was Champions only.)
I think people who liked Dragonlance didn't like the major changes, and those who didn't like Dragonlance didn't like that Palin Majere and Goldmoon were two of the most important characters. If you had no opinion of Dragonlance at all, it probably wouldn't be as big of a deal. It's like doing the Spellplague for Forgotten Realms 4e and not majorly debuffing Elminster. They really ought to have done it with a fresh setting - and it's not like they were hurting for creativity in that era.Same here. Honestly, it would have made a great Fantasy game with tweaks a bit closer to Marvel with a 2E and stripping out Dragonlance that wasn't really the Dragonlance people wanted. (I liked it as a setting but I was not a DL fan previously.)
I enjoyed PDQ, but it didn't seem to have staying power.
The tweaks in Jaws of the Six Serpents showed ways to extend the system without breaking the feel of it.
Zorceror of Zo was OK, but I would have liked to see this system customized to some other settings.
I could imagine a Walking Dead setting using descending ranks for resources or damage to resources.
Boot Hill 2e?Did Boot Hill ever get a retroclone?
I'm right there with you...crying in the other corner, I guess?I'm currently toying with running Spooktacular, the retro-clone for Ghostbusters. It's so fast to learn, I cry at the thought of all the generations who got introduced to tabletop through D&D levels of crunch.
Of course I haven't made up my mind yet. Two things are giving me pause at the moment: the probabilities for the rolls vs TN are pretty extreme and the stats in both the original game AND its retro-clone are very wishy-washy to apply.
This sounds like the perfect time for a second edition, then. With mutants and bikes, blackjack & hookers!
Pretty recent I think - I'm a big fan and got my copy a couple of months backThis sounds like the perfect time for a second edition, then. With mutants and bikes, blackjack & hookers!
Gallant Knight Games bought V6 engine and Atomic Highway. Not certain what they plan to do with it.
I was completely unaware of this. When did Wordplay change to Tripod System? I thought I was following Wordplay closely. Not close enough, it seems.
Glad to see someone else appreciates it. I started trying to use some of the ideas for my Bridgers RPG. I really need to revisit that and polish it some more.Speaking of Marvel, the Marvel Universe RPG ( the "stones" game) I think was a clever system with a lot of potential that could have done with a few more editorial passes. I think there was a gem buried in there that sadly didn't survive long enough to find an audience, or get a desperately needed revision. It's a system I'd like to revisit at some point, maybe try to clone with a few basic fixes
I was completely unaware of this. When did Wordplay change to Tripod System? I thought I was following Wordplay closely. Not close enough, it seems.
Pretty recent I think - I'm a big fan and got my copy a couple of months back
I’m a huge fan of Barbarians of Lemuria and the new Dicey Tales pulp version just released to Kickstarter backers looks great. I’m not so hot on the generic version, Everywhen, which is why it’s so great Dicey Tales has happened.
I loved Truth and Justice. I would kill for a second edition - and a print version of the Achtung! Cthulhu version.I think the system's strength was it was simple enough to get out of the way. I liked ZoZ, but barely used the PDQ rules in it at all, and to the extent I did I'm sure I was doing it 'wrong'.
The new Dicey Tales looks excellent - I have the Kickstarter PDF version and I'm currently writing an adventure for it set in the pacific, which I hope to playtest shortly. The game author is full of ideas for the game - hereAgreed! I would love to see BoL and its offspring get more consistent recognition, it's such a great rules engine. Looking forward to playing the new Dicey Tales. The Everywhen core book didn't really do much for me either, but I'm glad Garnett is still publishing some solid variant settings (he's currently working on a non-Lemuria S&S supplement) and adventures.
I remember the b13 novels. My friends and I read them in high school. We played a short campaign of it using palladium heros unlimited. Those were fun games. Good memories.Fringeworthy. The first honest game of transdimensional exploration.
Coming in a close second....
Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic
These games, despite some bad editing decisions, were simple, easy to play, and a heck of a lot of fun. The system was adaptable and easy to do things with. Tri-Tac was designed from Grognards, by Grognards... thus lost a lot of potential players.
These games have had D20 and other game system adaptions. People like them. Just the original games, languish in obscurity. (Who even remembers the B13 novels and the video game?)
Questers Of The Middle Realm is very quirky and it does have that annoying script font, but you can erasily run it for classic fantasy dungeon crawls and whatnot, much easier than D&D in many ways. It really is quite good, despite it's indie production.Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot is one of the funniest roleplaying game rule books I have ever read.
I've flirted with picking up Questers of the Middle Realms but, shallow as it may sound, I was always put off by the scrawly font it uses. Maybe Tim will revisit it one day.
Oh yeah, "Your favorite game system you wish had better layout" would be a whole other thread…I've flirted with picking up Questers of the Middle Realms but, shallow as it may sound, I was always put off by the scrawly font it uses.