So in TSR's heyday...

Omega · December 22, 2014, 04:06:47 PM

Quote from: Sacrosanct;805563I find this highly likely. Even as a teenager in the 80s designing games, I quickly realized that the mechanics should compliment the setting, and not all mechanics work that well when used in a different genre.

He said much the same in a rather long interview as well when someone asked him why he did not use D&D as a unified engine for all the games. He also mentioned that the 2nd ed D&D that he had been working on with another designer would have been quite different from the published version if TSR had not ousted him.

Old One Eye · December 22, 2014, 06:14:03 PM

Well, I think TSR missed the boat in this regard. I would have loved to be able to play a 5th level Klingorn Pilot, excited to find a gause rifle in some labyrinthine starbase.

GameDaddy · December 22, 2014, 06:21:25 PM

Hrrrmmm?

I ran a D&D/Traveller mashup in the late 70's. Just took all the Traveller stats and damage rolls and multiplied by 1.5 to get D&D stats and damage rolls and ran the game using D&D.

Worked pretty good, and we had a lot of fun with a bunch of Medeival characters that were kidnapped by "Starmen" and edumucated in the wiles of futuretech. Then of course, they were dropped off back in their Medeival Magic world with some of their new toys.

Lots of fun, that game. Specially liked the Amazons that attacked the Dragons lair using .357 magnums.

Omega · December 22, 2014, 07:13:10 PM

Quote from: Old One Eye;805615Well, I think TSR missed the boat in this regard. I would have loved to be able to play a 5th level Klingorn Pilot, excited to find a gause rifle in some labyrinthine starbase.

That is pretty much Metamorphosis Alpha. And Star Frontiers to a lesser degree.

Matt · December 23, 2014, 11:34:46 AM

I'm happy they didn't. I prefer a game system to be designed based on the genre or setting it's meant for. All the "universal systems" I have tried have shown me it's a fool's errand. Plus D&D kinda sucks anyway as a game: you can't play Sinbad, Conan, or Gandalf with the rules as written.

Omega · December 23, 2014, 12:25:45 PM

Quote from: Matt;805723I'm happy they didn't. I prefer a game system to be designed based on the genre or setting it's meant for. All the "universal systems" I have tried have shown me it's a fool's errand. Plus D&D kinda sucks anyway as a game: you can't play Sinbad, Conan, or Gandalf with the rules as written.

You are s very very wrong.

Matt · December 23, 2014, 12:34:38 PM

Quote from: Omega;805737You are s very very wrong.

If it's opposite day where you live, okay.

Panjumanju · December 23, 2014, 01:59:47 PM

Quote from: Matt;805723I'm happy they didn't. I prefer a game system to be designed based on the genre or setting it's meant for. All the "universal systems" I have tried have shown me it's a fool's errand. Plus D&D kinda sucks anyway as a game: you can't play Sinbad, Conan, or Gandalf with the rules as written.

What are you talking about? When I finally ready Robert E. Howard's Conan I was *shocked* by how --- entire segments of text were lifted --- to create the D&D barbarian class. Are you talking about some kind of miraculous hair-splitting like "Galdalf would have had more spells per day at that level"? Because if so, I roll to disbelieve how persnickety your argument is.

//Panjumanju

finarvyn · December 23, 2014, 06:30:56 PM

Quote from: Matt;805723Plus D&D kinda sucks anyway as a game: you can't play Sinbad, Conan, or Gandalf with the rules as written.

I always love hearing about how you "can't" do a thing that I've been doing for decades.

I'm not sure which edition is so limiting, but I've found that running characters like those typically require minimal rules tweaks.

Armchair Gamer · December 23, 2014, 06:48:06 PM

Quote from: Matt;805723Plus D&D kinda sucks anyway as a game: you can't play Sinbad, Conan, or Gandalf with the rules as written.

Well, these two aren't necessarily the same thing. The latter depends on your tolerances for bending details, making exceptions, etc. in both game rules and character modeling.

As for the former, D&D is by all accounts a very good game ... at being D&D. If you want to do something that isn't the bizarre, psychedelic/psychotronic melange that came out of the 70s, or a linear descendant of that feel, you're almost certainly better off with a different system.

Note that I'm speaking as someone who feels alienated by nearly every major stream of D&D product and fandom outside some of the post-Gygax/pre-WotC 2E and BECMI stuff, and 4E.

Omega · December 23, 2014, 08:18:54 PM

Quote from: Matt;805740If it's opposite day where you live, okay.

Says the village idiot. Try again junior troll scout.

Old One Eye · December 23, 2014, 10:09:25 PM

Quote from: Matt;805723I'm happy they didn't. I prefer a game system to be designed based on the genre or setting it's meant for. All the "universal systems" I have tried have shown me it's a fool's errand. Plus D&D kinda sucks anyway as a game: you can't play Sinbad, Conan, or Gandalf with the rules as written.

Meh, I am not that interested in simulating some specific media. I just wanna roll my six stats, pick a race blatantly stolen from the genre, pick a class rooted in the genre, and go explore some genre appropriate dungeons, grabbing genre appropriate loot, and gain some XP.

I agree that D&D is not the game for playing Sinbad, Conan, or Gandalf as portrayed in their respective media. It is, however, excellent for making one's own character with Sinbad/Conan/Gandalf inspiration, and then go adventuring for some sweet loot and grow in personal power.

RPGPundit · December 26, 2014, 07:29:58 PM

I suspect that the belief was, and it became a default 'company culture' for too long, that gamers would be more likely to buy a game if it had a brand new system. I can see that way of thinking, based on lack of experience as what was happening was brand new, where the thought was "but if we make the rules exactly like or even too much like D&D's, we might lose customers!".

Omega · December 27, 2014, 12:18:00 AM

Not from anyone I've talked to in the industry.

TSR was for a while the odd man out amongst companies. More went a unified route to one degree or another right out the gate.

It seems to more be a chance thing too. Some companies take on new RPGs by submission rather than in house. So youd get either something simmilar, or something very different. Usually different.

Others though saw the strength of a unified system and worked with that.

Just differing design philosophies.

Phillip · December 27, 2014, 11:15:30 PM

Quote from: GameDaddy;805622Hrrrmmm?

I ran a D&D/Traveller mashup in the late 70's. Just took all the Traveller stats and damage rolls and multiplied by 1.5 to get D&D stats and damage rolls and ran the game using D&D.

Worked pretty good, and we had a lot of fun with a bunch of Medeival characters that were kidnapped by "Starmen" and edumucated in the wiles of futuretech. Then of course, they were dropped off back in their Medeival Magic world with some of their new toys.

Lots of fun, that game. Specially liked the Amazons that attacked the Dragons lair using .357 magnums.

My main D&D game in the early '80s was a mashup of everything, although magic and high tech didn't work in every neighborhood. I also ran a primarily RuneQuest session with a D&D character and Traveller character (whose smg in the hands of a reckless native very quickly caused far-reaching trouble).