Forgotten RPGs

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Alpha Omega

This is a great game, setting and mythology wise, with a hint of Shadowrun - unfortunately the level of system crunch was too much. It did a nice job of re-imaging the force, or magic from Sorcerer's Apprentice - then enabling you to stick them both in a game. In fact I was using this space magic, and bits from Aberrant for my own homnebrew setting.
 
This is a great game, setting and mythology wise, with a hint of Shadowrun - unfortunately the level of system crunch was too much. It did a nice job of re-imaging the force, or magic from Sorcerer's Apprentice - then enabling you to stick them both in a game. In fact I was using this space magic, and bits from Aberrant for my own homnebrew setting.
I still own all three (I think it's three) books. I love it. But yeah, the system... Needed a LOT of work. And apparently, the designers used to live in my town!
 
I still own all three (I think it's three) books. I love it. But yeah, the system... Needed a LOT of work. And apparently, the designers used to live in my town!

I just wish they could have continued but did the company go under or just stop trading?
 
From what I could tell, Mindstorm Labs is now defunct.

Shame really, if I had the money I would so take IP off their hands.
I would do the same with Unisystem too, as that is pretty defunct nowadays too.
 
I still own all three (I think it's three) books. I love it. But yeah, the system... Needed a LOT of work. And apparently, the designers used to live in my town!
I have the core rules and the bestiary. What was the third book?
 
I have a copy of Dark Winter although that's more of a minis skirmish game with some RPG elements like character gen. It's actually pretty good. What's most notable about it is that it's the first game by Angus Abranson of SLA Industries fame.
 
Pirates of Dark Water
Wizards
both fairly forgotten
 
There was an old rpg, like Ninja's and Superspies but without any kind of powers.The players played ninja's, able to perform incredible feats - lift 400 pounds, that kind of thing. It was all very 80's, used to own a copy but not sure what happened to mine.
Can anyone remember the name of it?

Night of the Ninja? It seems to be the correct timeframe. I couldn't find much of anything about it online other than its title, so it seems suitably obscure.

You should check out the Dead Games group on Facebook. I have a good collection of games and I've been into them since the 70's with an absence in the 90's. They routinely put games out I never knew existed.


Further contributions:
Guardians rpg (superheroes by starchide)

Thieves Guild
Primal Order

I remember Thieves Guild and Primal Order got some buzz back in the early 00s days of RPGnet. Maybe "buzz" is too strong word, but I do recall Primal Order was brought up quite a bit.

I've long wondered about Guardians. It was advertised in the copy of Justifiers my friend got back around 1990, and the game coincidentally shared the name of a secondary superhero team in the superhero game I did run. That made me curious about it from the get go. I was never able to acquire it back in the day. I had an opportunity to snag a copy a few months ago, but I skipped on it.

----

Someone needs to dig up some info on The Paragon System by the Paragon Society for Wargamers. This game was advertised in a full page ad in Dragon Magazine once in the 90s and was never heard from again. It's questionable if copies of the game even exist anymore.

The only truly obscure games I've owned are because they're PoD or pirate publications.

I used to own Gamma Trollworld and Superheroes: Power Trip. Both were Tunnels & Trolls style games. Both were pirated Shipman specials. Both were absolute crap.

I used to own Tunnels & Trolls: The Mythical 6th Edition. It was another pirated Shipman special. I threw it away. But honestly, I wish I had kept it. I liked that one.

In the PoD camp, I own Far Trek and Rogue Space. Both are by the same author. Far Trek is a Star Trek game, and a pretty decent one with an old school feel. As for Rogue Space, it's a sci fi game with a sort of OSR and comic book sci fi bent to it. I think Rogue Space is still available. Far Trek may still be irregularly available, as I think the author occasionally sells it on Lulu for a couple of days before taking it down and leaving it unavailable for months to years.

---

Edit: Almost forgot another obscure and nearly forgotten RPG: Superbabes: The Femforce RPG!

Well, maybe it's not forgotten. It has some level of infamy. Good luck trying to find and acquire a copy.
 
Primal Order was great. It's why I bear a grudge against Magic: The Gathering. When it exploded, they dropped Primal Order development. :sad:
 
Primal Order was great. It's why I bear a grudge against Magic: The Gathering. When it exploded, they dropped Primal Order development. :sad:

Totally agree. Still one of my go-to references. Not really an RPG, but a great set of references for Divine matters.
 
Also Pandemonium! The tabloid rpg.

That was a really fun book! Never actually played it but I always wanted too. I bought it about the same time (perhaps the exact same time) I bought Teenagers From Outer Space 3rd Edition and Over The Edge 2nd Edition. I was on a kick of buying light, quirky games.

Speaking of quirky, and largely forgotten, I've always been curious to read the Rocky & Bullwinkle RPG.
 
That was a really fun book! Never actually played it but I always wanted too. I bought it about the same time (perhaps the exact same time) I bought Teenagers From Outer Space 3rd Edition and Over The Edge 2nd Edition. I was on a kick of buying light, quirky games.

Speaking of quirky, and largely forgotten, I've always been curious to read the Rocky & Bullwinkle RPG.
I have Rocky and Bullwinkle. It's a weird party game.

Pandemonium has a supplement too that I randomly bought. The authors of these games are a who's who list. So odd.
 
You should check out the Dead Games group on Facebook. I have a good collection of games and I've been into them since the 70's with an absence in the 90's. They routinely put games out I never knew existed.


Further contributions:
Guardians rpg (superheroes by starchide)
Extreme Vengeance!
Alpha Omega
Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque
Thieves Guild
Primal Order
Rune
I wasn't considering Thieves Guild a forgotten RPG, it is certainly less known.

I looked at my shelves and anything I would really consider a forgotten RPG has been sold, or at least is in my for sale bins in the garage. I suppose I could go through those and maybe dig out a few....

Frank
 
I wasn't considering Thieves Guild a forgotten RPG, it is certainly less known.

I looked at my shelves and anything I would really consider a forgotten RPG has been sold, or at least is in my for sale bins in the garage. I suppose I could go through those and maybe dig out a few....

Frank
Yeah forgotten is a bad category. If we all really forgot it then it would be an empty thread.

It's hard to track down a copy at anything less than collector price these days and there is no legal pdf.
 
Yeah forgotten is a bad category. If we all really forgot it then it would be an empty thread.

It's hard to track down a copy at anything less than collector price these days and there is no legal pdf.
Ok, I guess that's a reasonable way to characterize "forgotten RPG".

I think actually Thieve's Guild does also qualify as an underappreciated RPG. Those who know about it know about it and give it due consideration, but many folks never were exposed to it. It would be really nice to see it put out in PDF form and made more available. It's a neat game and had some really nice supplements. One of these days I'll give it a spin again.

I suppose if we go with underappreciated and/or no longer easily available, I could list some more off my shelves:

Elfquest, Ring World, Stormbringer (though my copies are 4th and 5th editions, earlier editions as well as Elric and Hawkmoon would be even more qualified), SPI's Universe, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Gamma World, Adventures in Fantasy, Dragonquest, Mechanoid Invasion, and Other Suns.

There's one or two SFRPGs that have gone missing in the past 6 years. I was referencing them when I was setting up my Traveller campaign, and they don't show as having been sold so I dunno where they would have gone... They'll probably show up when we move next...

I think everything else on my shelves is at least available in PDF.
 
Ok, I guess that's a reasonable way to characterize "forgotten RPG".

I think actually Thieve's Guild does also qualify as an underappreciated RPG. Those who know about it know about it and give it due consideration, but many folks never were exposed to it. It would be really nice to see it put out in PDF form and made more available. It's a neat game and had some really nice supplements. One of these days I'll give it a spin again.

I suppose if we go with underappreciated and/or no longer easily available, I could list some more off my shelves:

Elfquest, Ring World, Stormbringer (though my copies are 4th and 5th editions, earlier editions as well as Elric and Hawkmoon would be even more qualified), SPI's Universe, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Gamma World, Adventures in Fantasy, Dragonquest, Mechanoid Invasion, and Other Suns.

There's one or two SFRPGs that have gone missing in the past 6 years. I was referencing them when I was setting up my Traveller campaign, and they don't show as having been sold so I dunno where they would have gone... They'll probably show up when we move next...

I think everything else on my shelves is at least available in PDF.
Licensed IP is the area where I generally think unavailable and forgotten don't necessarily intersect. By their nature they are only available for a limited time. They're often remembered and would likely do well in the PDF market but that's not an option.
Several of the ones you just listed fall into that category.
The old TSR ones I can't call forgotten simply because they got so much exposure in Dragon magazine making them hard to forget even if you can't get them anymore.

Mechanoid Invasion - I personally love and it has had some intermittent love from Palladium. No clue how many people remember it.

Adventures in Fantasy - the only reason I knew this existed was the old Chaosium Thieves World boxed set. I set out to get every system it included. I have this but other than Dave fans I don't know how many people know about it.

Other Sun's - have it. Think it's cool but yeah other than seeing it in Dragon Magazine I never knew anyone who had it. My group got kind of burned by FGU in that maybe one in four of their games seemed playable to us. After a while we treated FGU as synonymous with bad.
 
Further contributions:
Guardians rpg (superheroes by starchide) Owned.
Extreme Vengeance!
Alpha Omega
Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque
Thieves Guild
Primal Order
Rune
Owned
Nope
Owned
Nope
Nope
Owned
Owned :grin:
So many many many games...

Does the obscure mini-combat game of shapechanging wizards count? With chart for how long it took to transition through the species list? I love that game. Can't remember if its just "Shapeshifters" or not. Probably not.

What else? Hrms.

Did someone mention Lords of Creation? I might have missed it.
My memory has holes, there were so many games I owned at one time now dead, and gone, le sighs.
 
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Crossroads Modern Mythic Roleplaying
 
Delta Force: America Strikes Back by Task Force Games. More of a tactical simulator than a role-playing game. Very good (though very crunchy) modern combat rules, to the extent that for a couple of years I ran Traveller games using this system until I lost the extensive conversion tables. Coincidentally, one of the Keith brothers of Traveller fame was the designer of DF:ASB. The RAW make American guns and personnel twice as good as everyone else, but it was a doddle to revise all the stats based on reality (or Traveller).

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Just thought of another. A|State by Contested Ground Studio. I love this game, personally, and it has a really unique setting. Never a concept that my group was quite into. Some day...

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The following is real. I didn't make it up. Judges Guild published and sold it.

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It has monsters such as "Burnt Toast", "Coffee", and a whole slew of monsters called "Tinkles" which are piss elementals.
 
Some of these aren't so much forgotten as obscure, but here's a list I got from an user on RPGX on a bet:grin:!

1) Ysgarth Roleplaying System
2) Aletheia
3) Noumenon
4) Baker St
5) Cogs, Cakes, and Walking Sticks
6) Equinox
7) Hillfolk
8) Liminal
9) Meddling Kids
10) Pandora
 
we've had entire threads about Hillfolk on the Pub recently
 
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