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Forgotten RPGs

Started by brettmb, September 22, 2020, 06:44:01 PM

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Omega

Quote from: David Johansen on June 18, 2023, 11:18:50 PM
Your attributes were 6d20 and you made percentile rolls against the square root of your attribute divided by the difficulty times 100.  In the case of combat the difficulty.  Fighters got one attack per level.  Magic used spell points and the list was pretty generic.  The monster book was pretty standard with a brief description of each creature and a stat block.  I had a copy long ago, fished out of the discard bin at The Sentry Box, I've always loved small press stuff.  I did always wish I'd gotten the floor plans that came with it.

Sounds like they had the same idea as Other suns where you needed a math degree to create a character.

One of the first cons I ever attended had an obscure little Mecha combat game on display called Ground Assault Gamma Force and the minis were little plastic Gundam models from Japanese grabber vendors. Probably the only person to ever have the game.

Theres alot of those out there I suspect. More obscure than the obscure.

brettmb


zircher

Quote from: Omega on June 19, 2023, 06:58:32 AM
Sounds like they had the same idea as Other suns where you needed a math degree to create a character...
Yeah, I reached out to the author back in the day and asked if I could write a program for character gen and give it to him to use and increase the player base.  He declined.  Yeah, if you are so protective of your property that you would rather have it die on the vine, don't be surprised when you get what you asked for.
You can find my solo Tarot based rules for Amber on my home page.
http://www.tangent-zero.com

Omega

Quote from: zircher on August 17, 2023, 09:33:28 PM
Quote from: Omega on June 19, 2023, 06:58:32 AM
Sounds like they had the same idea as Other suns where you needed a math degree to create a character...
Yeah, I reached out to the author back in the day and asked if I could write a program for character gen and give it to him to use and increase the player base.  He declined.  Yeah, if you are so protective of your property that you would rather have it die on the vine, don't be surprised when you get what you asked for.

Yeah me and a friend were working on a fan site way back and he threatened the site owner and got it shut down. None of the FGU staff I ever met had anything good to say about the designer.

Omega

Found another obscure RPG while cleaning out storage.

Pandemonium: Adventures in Tabloid World: 1992. from Deja Vu Studios and M.I.B Productions. Theres mention of Atlas on the back but not in the book. Reads like similar take as another tabloid themed RPG from the 90s. So yeah, all the tabloid adds are true and you make adventures with those as possible adventure hooks. Uses a d10 system where 6 and up is a success of some sort. Came with EZ rules for quickstart and then the normal rules.

Also found my roommates copy of Ars Magica.

Brad

Quote from: brettmb on August 17, 2023, 03:57:22 PM
Part 13 in my Forgotten Games series on my blog.

https://www.pigames.net/store/blog.php?entry=3018

LOL @ MEGA...so I was in high school and had busted my ass mowing yards, earmarked about $20 to buy a new RPG and I was hell-bent on getting MEGA from the gaming store. A lone copy sat on that shelf for at least 6 months and I thought it looked badass. Well, my brother wanted to buy a new album one evening so we took the bus to the mall and he went to Hastings while I went into Waldenbooks next door (really dating myself here). I ended up getting GURPS instead, much the chagrin of a couple guys I gamed with who all thought MEGA would be the best game ever created, because the cover looked cool or something?

Flash forward to around four years ago, I got a copy of MEGA off ebay for $5. Let's just say, at the time I thought maybe I made a mistake getting GURPS instead, but in retrospect what an uninspired fucking mess this game is. It could have been a tour de force of Norse RPGness, and instead is merely a weird D&D knockoff with some "interesting" systems. I'm happy I finally have a copy, but I doubt even 14 year old me would have had fun playing it.
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

brettmb

This is rare for me to do, but I brought back a game on my list. The Machineguns & Magic Classic Reprint is now available in PDF, with optional Softcover pre-order. What happens when your military squad gets transported to a fantasy world and must face orcs, goblins, dragons, and evil wizards?

http://rpg.deals/mm


brettmb

I'm bringing back another game on my Forgotten Games list. Wasn't exactly planned, but it worked out. It will be an all-new edition of Holocaustic Dungeons. I covered it in this entry: https://www.pigames.net/store/blog.php?entry=2890

D-ko

I'm still confused why Dallas got an RPG.
Newest version of the Popular Franchises as Tabletop RPGs list can be found here.

yosemitemike

I was a really popular show at the time.  That's my only guess.
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brettmb

I don't know how popular it was, but the Dallas game was really well done.

Omega

#236
Dallas was super popular for a time and some companies tried to cash in on the RPG craze.

There were a couple of these. Some as standalone RPGs. Some as modules for some other RPG.

Dallas. (by SPI no less! 1980)
Dragonslayer (also by SPI in 81)
Star Trek (by FASA in 83)
James Bond (Avalon Hill in 83)
Indiana Jones (TSR in 84)
Conan and a Red Sonja module for AD&D (TSR 84)
2001 and 2010 modules for Star Frontiers (TSR 84)
Conan RPG (TSR 85)
The Keep (by Mayfair Games in 85 or so.)
Ghostbusters (by West End in 86)
Star Wars (WEG again in 87)
Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (GDW  using the Twilight2000 system 90)
Aliens (by Leading Edge in 91)
Indianna Jones (by WEG in 94)
Men in Black (WEG again in 97)
Star Trek TNG (Last Unicorn in 98)

And thats just the pre-2000 ones I am aware of. Probably more out there. And this is not even getting to any RPGs or modules based on cartoons and anime. Rocky & Bullwinkle, Sailor Moon, Votoms, Dominion. Silent Mobius. Tenchi and more GOO cranked out a bunch of those. Palladium did the Macross and TMNT RPGs. Though the TMNT one was based on the original comics rather than the cartoon. I could have sworn someone did a Cadillacs & Dinosaurs RPG maybe under the Xenozoic Tales title. But seems not.

Zalman

Quote from: Omega on March 02, 2025, 05:30:30 AMDallas was super popular for a time

Wildly so. The summer of "Who Shot JR?" was insane.
Old School? Back in my day we just called it "School."

brettmb

I meant how popular the RPG was. I know that Dallas the tv show was incredibly popular.

moonsweeper

Quote from: Omega on March 02, 2025, 05:30:30 AMDallas was super popular for a time and some companies tried to cash in on the RPG craze.

There were a couple of these. Some as standalone RPGs. Some as modules for some other RPG.

Dallas. (by SPI no less! 1980)
Dragonslayer (also by SPI in 81s)
James Bond (Avalon Hill in 83)
Indiana Jones (TSR in 84)
Conan and a Red Sonja module for AD&D (TSR 84)
2001 and 2010 modules for Star Frontiers (TSR 84)
Conan RPG (TSR 85)
The Keep (by Mayfair Games in 85 or so.)
Ghostbusters (by West End in 86)
Aliens (by Leading Edge in 91)
Indianna Jones (by West End in 94)
Men in Black (WEG again in 97)

And thats just the pre-2000 ones I am aware of. Probably more out there. And this is not even getting to any RPGs or modules based on cartoons and anime. Rocky & Bullwinkle, Sailor Moon, Votoms, Dominion. Silent Mobius. Tenchi and more GOO cranked out a bunch of those. Palladium did the Macross and TMNT RPGs. Though the TMNT one was based on the original comics rather than the cartoon. I could have sworn someone did a Cadillacs & Dinosaurs RPG maybe under the Xenozoic Tales title. But seems not.

Cadillac & Dinosaurs was done by GDW back in the heyday of T2000.
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