Hi

Question.  You hate the Official RPG for a known Intellectual Property, but then you find a game that is clearly that setting.  However, it is a knock-off copy that does it way better.  What game is that?

Here are five examples, but feel free to post ANY genre or I.P. you like.

1.  Star Wars.  I dare say Pundit's own Star Adventurer book.  I'll clarify that it's Fantasy Flight Games dice pool Star Wars it improved on.  Old West End Games D6 system is still considered good by a lot of players. 
2.  Macross/Gundam.   For me, and my love of rules lite, I'll go with Tiny-D6 Mecha vs Monsters.  FYI, the 2nd Edition should be out this week.  Hopefully. 
3.  Warhammer Fantasy RPG.  I got recommended a small game called Warlock.  I've never played it, but it looks good and fits the setting well. 
4.  Star Trek.   Not sure on this one.  I've found the most blatant copy-cat rules, but haven't played them
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).

So, time to brag.  What games do you think do a setting better than the official/original game did?

Zozer Games' HOSTILE is a better Aliens than any of the licensed products.

Spooktacular - slim retro-clone of Ghostbusters that combines bits of first and second editions. Inexpensive and pretty good.
Mutants In The Now - re-working of TMNT and Other Strangeness. Not a clone, per se, but an obvious "spiritual successor". Several fixes/streamlined.
Zweihander - WFRP, obvs. I like it, YMMV.
Lords of Gossamer and Shadow - descendant of Amber Diceless.Expands the game beyond the confines of Amber (which is great, but still)
The Blood of Heroes - rose from the ashes of DC Heroes. Expands upon it.
Mythic D6 - rose from the ashes of DC Universe, a really nice set of fixes to a game that was pretty damn broken. MD6 is damn good, and delivers on the promises DCU made but failed to keep.
Classified - faithful retro-clone of James Bond 007, with nicely updated equipment lists.
Mutant Bastards - Gamma World 1e clone. Has a wacky, "western" feel.
FASERIP, G-Core, Astonishing Super Heroes - all clones of Marvel Super Heroes. G-Core in particular is very good.

Double pizzost

Well, it's a bit of a flip but X-Files is a pretty good Dark Conspiracy knock off.

Bug Hunters or Kryomek for Aliens.
Star Ace for Star Wars.
Champions for Marvel and DC.

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.

Quote from: Tubesock Army on March 30, 2022, 08:03:24 PM
Spooktacular - slim retro-clone of Ghostbusters that combines bits of first and second editions. Inexpensive and pretty good.

Can't even say Spooktacular does it better (as it is a retro clone) but it DOES save you a hell of a lot of money if you just want to play a good game and don't need it as a collector's item.

My favorite is Monster of the Week for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's a spot-on adaptation that outshines the licensed RPG, which is still good.

I haven't been favorably impressed by most retro-clones, though I haven't closely followed that many. I've always preferred the original RPG, which I find have better editing, layout, production values, and adventure material.

Age of Shadow from Crooked Staff. It's based on Runequest (or rather Openquest) and is not quite (but close to) Middle Earth with the serial number filed off. Very well done game.

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.

^^Quoted for truth.^^

Basic Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, and Old School Essentials all do Dungeons and Dragons better than "Official" Dungeons and Dragons.
d6 Star Wars beats the fuck out of and steals the lunch money from d20 Star Wars and FFG Star Wars.
Cepheus Engine beats Traveller for the originality of its products.

This isn't a TTRPG, but it bears mentioning. Star Craft based on Warhammer 40K. Arguably the knockoff is bigger than the original now.

Silent Legions I think makes a good case for being better than Call of Cthulhu. Not necessarily because CoC is bad, but because the Mythos is so well known and understood now, that the random cult, god and alien generation in Silent Legions means you'll really have that feel.

Saga of the Space Barbarians for ZeFRS has given me a strong Chronicles of Riddick vibe, and I think could be good for that. I don't think it was meant to be a knockoff though.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten needs to be considered for a Dawn of the Dead knockoff.

If I may nominate a board game, "Fortune and Glory" from Flying Frog Games perfectly captures the spirit of Raiders of the Lost Ark-style 1930s serial cliffhangers.  Every game we've ever played generates a story or two that gets re-lived every time my friends and I get together, just as our favorite old RPG adventures get recalled and re-lived.

Savage Worlds is the literal Knock-off *machine*. Its entire purpose is to generate knock-offs and do them in a cinematic pulpy way. Though lately most of their direct IP translations are very on the nose - this is certainly not a bad thing.

Savage Rifts is *better* than Rifts to me - because literally all the fluff that makes Rifts **spectacular** only fuels the much easier to run chassis of Savage Worlds, and I find that purchasing Palladium Rifts source material only makes my games better purely for the fluff (and so win/win for both companies).

Savage Pathfinder is better than Pathfinder on *every* level. Unironically I will make the claim it's better than D&D at D&D if you like your D&D fast n' furious with cinematic over-the-top scalable combat where PC's are heroes and feel badass all the time (until they get their shit pushed in... but that's how explodey-dice go).

Mekton - as mentioned above. Much like Savage Worlds, Mekton SOARS above all mecha-combat games because the system flows so well comparatively to any other. My brief stint with Battletech was *murderously* de-railed by Mekton... and I never went back.

Lacuna for "Inception". I ran three adventures written by me and we had a lot of fun.

The official Ghostbusters RPG was pretty cool. While it wasn't written anywhere, you could take any Call of Cthulhu adventure and run it under Ghostbusters (the original movie is already one of the best Lovecraftian stories ever).

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.