Space 1899 doesn't even try to disguise its John Carter of Mars
Alternity Dark Matter is very obviously the X Files

Quote from: weirdguy564 on March 30, 2022, 07:31:03 PM
5.  D&D.   I'm just putting this in here for a complete list.  The VAST majority of RPG's are clones that it boggles the mind that anybody still plays/pays for official RPGs at this point.  I'm also hostile to D&D in general as I don't like the core system of fixed armor class, but more hit points per level (they're reversed IMHO).

Ah, the Arneson school of thought.

I'd suggest "Against the Darkmaster," which is sort of a retroclone of MERP but is infinitely superior mechanically to the awful "The One Ring" from Free League, which is a glorified board game.  Would play Vs. the Darkmaster over TOR any day.

Quote from: migo on March 31, 2022, 07:28:39 AM
This isn't a TTRPG, but it bears mentioning. Star Craft based on Warhammer 40K. Arguably the knockoff is bigger than the original now.

Starcraft 2 was a real disappointment to anyone who cared about Starcraft from the story perspective (and also gameplay). Starcraft 1 was lightning in the bottle. One of the best multiplayer games in the early era of multiplayer games will never happen again.

I suppose in the sense of raw people who have played SC it's bigger than 40k, but 40k has the benefit of being an actual living franchise. Whereas Starcraft is basically dead in the water.

Quote from: Zelen on March 31, 2022, 09:58:45 PM

Quote from: migo on March 31, 2022, 07:28:39 AM
This isn't a TTRPG, but it bears mentioning. Star Craft based on Warhammer 40K. Arguably the knockoff is bigger than the original now.

Starcraft 2 was a real disappointment to anyone who cared about Starcraft from the story perspective (and also gameplay). Starcraft 1 was lightning in the bottle. One of the best multiplayer games in the early era of multiplayer games will never happen again.

I suppose in the sense of raw people who have played SC it's bigger than 40k, but 40k has the benefit of being an actual living franchise. Whereas Starcraft is basically dead in the water.

That's true. It's all WoW now and DotA now from Blizzard.

I think I could treat Fading Suns as Dune rip-off at least in spirit of space anti-tech feudalism.

Quote from: Zelen on March 31, 2022, 09:58:45 PM

Quote from: migo on March 31, 2022, 07:28:39 AM
This isn't a TTRPG, but it bears mentioning. Star Craft based on Warhammer 40K. Arguably the knockoff is bigger than the original now.

Starcraft 2 was a real disappointment to anyone who cared about Starcraft from the story perspective (and also gameplay). Starcraft 1 was lightning in the bottle. One of the best multiplayer games in the early era of multiplayer games will never happen again.

I suppose in the sense of raw people who have played SC it's bigger than 40k, but 40k has the benefit of being an actual living franchise. Whereas Starcraft is basically dead in the water.

The story in SC1 isn't a great implementation of the premise either. The writers admit to making everything up as they went. So it's very meandering and the different aspects of the setting don't fit together. For example: two alien fleets invade the system and slaughter billions, but the main human plot is a generic rebellion against a generic evil empire. The evil empire are also incompetent morons for good measure. Then the aliens just leave the rebels alone after they take over and institute a new evil empire, because if they kept attacking then the remaining humans would all die. It gets worse from there. Most of it doesn't make sense unless you read the manual, but there are also big inconsistencies with the manual so that will cause just as much confusion.

Trying to point this out to the fans will get you mercilessly attacked. I speak from experience. Damn this franchise and damn this fandom. I hope M$ drives it even further into the ground.

I've moved on to a new RTS called Immortal: Gates of Pyre. One of the selling points is that the writers put actual care into the world building, so reading about it doesn't melt your brain with inconsistencies, plot holes and bad romance. It's like an RPG campaign setting, but for RTS. I think they even have an actual RPG spin-off somewhere?

I wish there was a setting like SC but with better writing, tho. I can't get into 40k anymore for a variety of reasons. Altho SC is derivative as fuck of previous scifi stories like AVP, SST, etc, it did have a few novel ideas, like making the space bugs more introspective while still monstrous... at least until the idiot writers fucked it up. The tyranid campaigns in the 40k video games are so fucking boring even though they never got bastardized like the zerg did. The tyranids are just void of personality: either their dialogue is telepathic "on nom nom" (literally) or a voice over of a magos biologis talking about them. In SC1 OG, you had overmind speechifying about the zerg's plans to consume the universe and perfect themselves. Now that's all gone forever. Oh well.

Maybe if I invest in life extension I can one day accumulate enough money to fund development of the game I wish starcraft had been. Or more likely I'll die mad. Fuck Blizzard.

Palladium's Beyond the Supernatural is Ghostbusters... but better.

Beyond the Supernatural was Kolchak the Nightstalker meets Tomb of Dracula: the Game

Quote from: TheGlen on March 31, 2022, 03:00:52 PM
Best knock-off games based on big I.P.

I'm guessing there was probably a very popular superhero TTRPG that had all of the superhero names scratched off. Anyway, Marvel and DC characters are all ghey now.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on March 31, 2022, 12:40:55 PM
Are we allowed to cite rpg heartbreakers?

EDIT: I'd say Nightlife, WitchCraft and Everlasting are superior implementations of the urban fantasy genre as far as 90s games go. Nightlife has really swingy mechanics and Everlasting is written in an insanely pretentious manner, but not both at the same time.

NightLife predated White Wolf's Vampire. It seemed inspired by The Lost Boys & 1980s horror films, only you play the Lost Boys.

And does WitchCraft actually count as a heartbreaker? Eden Studios was a pretty successful publisher in its time, and CJ Carella was big enough to have his name on the cover.

Quote from: S'mon on April 02, 2022, 05:34:46 AM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on March 31, 2022, 12:40:55 PM
Are we allowed to cite rpg heartbreakers?

EDIT: I'd say Nightlife, WitchCraft and Everlasting are superior implementations of the urban fantasy genre as far as 90s games go. Nightlife has really swingy mechanics and Everlasting is written in an insanely pretentious manner, but not both at the same time.

NightLife predated White Wolf's Vampire. It seemed inspired by The Lost Boys & 1980s horror films, only you play the Lost Boys.

Yeah, but I think the setting is better than WW. The classes are simultaneously more distinguished than the WW high school cliques, but also have much better reasons for being part of cross-species cliques. The setting isn't bogged down in irrelevant lore bloat but focuses on how the kin survive in the modern day and how they feel about humanity. For example, the Complex and the Commune both believe in maintaining secrecy but have diametrically opposite views of the "herd" (their lingo for muggles). The Commune believes in a commensal relationship in which muggles are still respected as people, whereas the Complex believes they should be free to use and abuse muggles so long as they don't attract attention. One interesting aspect is that the kin can cultivate a sense of humanity even if they were never human to begin with. Also, you play all different types of kin (e.g. vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, warlocks) in the same setting with the same rules.

Quote from: migo on April 02, 2022, 06:07:49 AM
And does WitchCraft actually count as a heartbreaker? Eden Studios was a pretty successful publisher in its time, and CJ Carella was big enough to have his name on the cover.

I heard anecdotally that it was made in response to dissatisfaction with WW's idiosyncratic design, but I have no idea whether that's true. I think the setting is a pretty good implementation of urban fantasy and a lot better than WW's deranged counterculture propaganda, so I'm disappointed that it was cancelled after only a few books were published.

Quote from: Chris24601 on March 30, 2022, 09:10:46 PM
For Macross/Gundam/All the Anime Robots = Mekton Zeta. Full Stop. The ONLY giant robot setting it doesn't do better than at its official game is Battletech and that is only because Battletech veered HARD away from the anime tropes (including humanoid robots; I suspect largely because of the Unseen/Harmony Gold debacle) which Mekton embraces so well.

Seconded.

Mekton Zeta is not just for robots, either. It can handle any space opera setting. I've given serious consideration to using it for oBSG.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on April 02, 2022, 06:19:53 PM

Quote from: migo on April 02, 2022, 06:07:49 AM
And does WitchCraft actually count as a heartbreaker? Eden Studios was a pretty successful publisher in its time, and CJ Carella was big enough to have his name on the cover.

I heard anecdotally that it was made in response to dissatisfaction with WW's idiosyncratic design, but I have no idea whether that's true. I think the setting is a pretty good implementation of urban fantasy and a lot better than WW's deranged counterculture propaganda, so I'm disappointed that it was cancelled after only a few books were published.

I think it probably has to do with All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Buffy and Angel. The early 2000s were more of a zombie era than a vampire era. I know I was hugely into vampires in the 90s and would watch every vampire movie I could get my hands on. Then it shifted to zombies and I'd watch every zombie movie I could get my hands on, and eventually I didn't care for either of them. That was probably the zeitgeist, and WitchCraft came a bit late. Meanwhile AFMBE came at exactly the right time, and Buffy and Angel were established IPs that hit the vampire itch perfectly.

If you're Eden Studios, and you have hot properties with AFMBE, Buffy and Angel, are you going to keep putting effort into WitchCraft that just doesn't have a huge fanbase? Rather than scrapping it entirely, releasing it for free was pretty cool.