Star Frontiers.

You know I have to go with Original Dungeons and Dragons here. It was perfect for everything that I wanted to do, in order to run a Fantasy role-playing game, and it still holds up well, even now, ...after almost fifty years. I still run many games a year where new players get to experience the wonders of imagining themselves in their favorite fantasy setting, and have a huge crew of older players that have come back to that game and fill my tables at game shows and conventions.

Maelstrom. It looked like a Fighting Fantasy book but had its own d100 roll-under system that I've read is pretty clearly a direct ancestor of WHFRP. The default setting is Tudor England. It oozes flavour. Arion Games gave it a recent reprint.

I highly recommend BUSHIDO to anyone who enjoys Samurai Fantasy.

As for RECON, which edition do people recommend? I don''t know the difference between Advanced and Deluxe. I know that Zozer Games did a retro-whatever called GRUNT, but I've never played it.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1121525I highly recommend BUSHIDO to anyone who enjoys Samurai Fantasy.

As for RECON, which edition do people recommend? I don''t know the difference between Advanced and Deluxe. I know that Zozer Games did a retro-whatever called GRUNT, but I've never played it.

The original little black books and newsprint supplements by RPG Inc when the game was actually set during the Vietnam war.

The Revised Recon published by Palladium is fine for the rules, but they sterilized the setting using a kind of Hollywoodified "not Vietnam" which I personally find lame and somewhat insulting. Advanced Recon was a rules supplement put out by Palladium, Deluxe was a later printing of Revised that included Advanced Recon.

Since they sterilized the setting they also never reprinted the Vietnam based supplements or Sayeret and Track Commander which was a Recon supplement for the Arab / Israeli Wars.

FASA's Behind Enemy Lines and Task Force Games Delta Force. Both games were written by William Keith Jr (a prolific freelance Traveller author) and use a very similar game system (I consider DF to be advanced BEL). Behind Enemy Lines is a WW2 game, Delta Force a modern (1980s) military game, specifically spec ops and anti-terrorism missions. They maintain a fine balance between small unit tactical wargame and RPG.

I think these two games are the best military RPGs that have been written. PCs are well developed, but chargen is also pretty quick since occasional PC death is likely.

Quote from: ffilz;1121494Other games from the 70s I think could deserve more love: Bunnies & Burrows

+1.

When I was 14 years old I actually tried to design a boardgame based on "Watership Down" (my source of inspiration being the "War of the Ring" game by SPI). I even built a mockup but I never managed to get it to work. Obviously at the time I didn't know about RPGs...

Quote from: Toadmaster;1121528Task Force Games Delta Force.  

I liked Delta Force too and ran a memorable campaign back in the day. There were some good adventures for it too. Also Crime Fighter by the same publisher. It didn't use the same system but one a little like a stripped-down Hero System, which I liked.

I rather enjoyed The Price of Freedom, by West End Games. The combat system was interesting and I adopted it for my own 1940 - England Invaded! rpg.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1121525I highly recommend BUSHIDO to anyone who enjoys Samurai Fantasy.

As for RECON, which edition do people recommend? I don''t know the difference between Advanced and Deluxe. I know that Zozer Games did a retro-whatever called GRUNT, but I've never played it.

I stick with the original that was produced before the Palladium buyout. I don't know much about the Palladium versions (Advanced, Deluxe, and Revised) other than they're more "PC" with a lot of the real-life nations being fictionalized, with some hilarious results (like the Soviet Union being referred to as "Big Red" and the South Africa/Rhodesia expy being renamed "Boorland" while South Vietnam is somehow presented as a monarchy instead of the weak republic it was in real life)

The original RECON used the real names of countries, the corebook focused on 'Nam, as did the adventure modules released during that time. There was a single supplement released before the Palladium buyout, which was called Track Commander.

Track Commander was about the Arab-Israeli conflicts of the 50's, 60's, and 70's, with special attention given to the vehicle combat of the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, as well as the counter-terrorist raids against the PLO. It was assumed that players in a Track Commander game would be part of an IDF mechanized unit or a Mossad/Sayaret counter-terrorism unit, although its vehicle combat rules were compatible with any Cold War era setting.

There was also a planned supplement called "Headhunters" which was about mercenaries in Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa, and even in the RECON corebook, it was implied that mercenaries were going to be a focus of the game later on. The text even states in a few places that players who didn't want to play in 'Nam could be mercenaries instead, or the PC's who survived a Vietnam campaign could become mercenaries later on.

EDIT-Ninja'd by Toadmaster

Quote from: Reckall;1121490The Arcanum/Atlantis RPG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis_(role-playing_game))

First, it was the first RPG based on D&D that gave you much more than the Basic/Expert rules - exp. with the number and variety of classes (30+, covering, BTW, a wide variety of spellcasters and spell schools).

Second, the setting was "The World before the fall of Atlantis", and had a strong pulp-Hyborian flavour (Hyboria was actually part of the setting). Today you can find the same flavour in the wonderful "Dominions" computer series of strategy games, but back in the day only in Atlantis I found the opportunity to play from traditional Celtic myth to Ancient Babylon via Meso-American cultures and Norse paganism (everything sprinkled with the stray lovecraftian concept). I never ran a game in Atlantis, but The Arcanum was a wonderful sourcebook for my B/E D&D gaming before I switched to AD&D.

The Arcanum had a troubled history, with a 30th Anniversary Edition now on DriveThruRPG (thanks Wikipedia!) The rights on other books of the system, however, are owned by other people, and, as of today, unavailable.

One of the unsung greats indeed. And it's cousins - Talislanta, Atlantis. Wonderfully unsung awesome games that never seemed to get the attention they deserved. But I'm clearly biased.

I'll third the Arcanum! I still use it for inspiration in my 5th ed games. Obviously a labour of love and such great appendices!

Quote from: Marchand;1121521Maelstrom. It looked like a Fighting Fantasy book but had its own d100 roll-under system that I've read is pretty clearly a direct ancestor of WHFRP. The default setting is Tudor England. It oozes flavour. Arion Games gave it a recent reprint.

I bought my copy of that game in England in the 1980s as a teenager. Still have it.

There's also Commando from SPI, a military-themed RPG from the late 70's that I know almost nothing about. I'd like to find out more about it, if possible.

From what I understand, it was sold in a board game boxed set and had two sets of rules, the first set is a tactical-level wargame and the other set is a proper roleplaying game with a modern military theme.

I would go with Bushido, James Bond, Maelstrom, Dragon Warriors and Time Lord

Bushido is the most eligant system hidden under wargamer rules. James Bond was just fun and did its background justice. Maelstrom had an exelent  background and the magic system was cool even if the rules where a bit strange in places. Dragon Warriors was just fun and should become a standard starter RPG. Timelord was the best DrWho game, and the dice mechanic was intresting and worked (i also like the squezing into zent rules which used size as a penatly).

Quote from: zincmoat;1121627Dragon Warriors[/URL]
Dragon Warriors was just fun and should become a standard starter RPG.

Dave Morris is working on a new edition. Here's a link to his patreon where he's releasing information has he works on it. https://www.patreon.com/jewelspider