Lesser Known Gems of Gaming?

RPGPundit · September 04, 2006, 02:56:04 PM

A thread to spread the love about RPGs that get little attention/are out of print/didn't deserve to be forgotten.

My pick: SPACE:1889, a brilliant little RPG about victorian adventurers travelling in rockets to Mars and Venus and setting up colonies! It had everything: imperialism, skyships, wierd aliens, mad scientists, moon men, dinosaurs, anarchists, canals on mars, the whole deal.

And contrary to what people say, its rules system was remarkably good for late-80s RPGs.

RPGPundit

Zachary The First · September 04, 2006, 03:03:12 PM

I'll go with one of the ones I've been trumpeting most of the year: Epic RPG, by Dark Matter Studios. A fantastic, flexible character generation that goes with guilds instead of classes, and has some of the best, most unique paths of magic I've seen in a good long while. I did a full review on it a while back here. For a company's first release, it's really great. And at least one of the designers (Reimdall) posts on this board!

S. John Ross · September 04, 2006, 03:06:09 PM

Well, around here anything any of us can name probably already has a dozen vocal fans

I think the Thrilling Locations supplement for JB007 deserves to be eternally enshrined as an educational example of brilliant book design.

I think it, like a lot of supplements for licensed RPGs, don't get the attention they deserve in the broader gaming community because they're tied not only to a specific game (a curse all by itself) but to a specific license (which polarizes interest and insures that OOP titles stay that way due to legal entanglements when the license expires). My TOS Narrator's Toolkit is similarly doomed to Trek-specific niches, even though it's a very nice guide to adventure design in general, IMO.

Settembrini · September 04, 2006, 03:21:30 PM

Phoenix Command, FGU:

Red Dawn/Fortress America style RPG/Campaign, which let's you kick Commie butt, or contemplate the merits of real Communism in the USA.
Best combined with elements from Freedom Fighters and the likes.

Levi Kornelsen · September 04, 2006, 03:22:50 PM

Quote from: RPGPunditMy pick: SPACE:1889, a brilliant little RPG about victorian adventurers travelling in rockets to Mars and Venus and setting up colonies! It had everything: imperialism, skyships, wierd aliens, mad scientists, moon men, dinosaurs, anarchists, canals on mars, the whole deal.

I'll back that pick. A good choice.

Reimdall · September 04, 2006, 03:28:04 PM

Thanks, Zach! We're honored.

As for me, it's old, not exactly little-known, and might not stand up under my own twenty-years later jadedness, but man, I loved my Star Frontiers.

RPGPundit · September 04, 2006, 03:41:40 PM

Quote from: ReimdallThanks, Zach! We're honored.

As for me, it's old, not exactly little-known, and might not stand up under my own twenty-years later jadedness, but man, I loved my Star Frontiers.

My younger brother is a massive fan of Star Frontiers.
Me, it never did that much for.

RPGPundit

JongWK · September 04, 2006, 04:16:19 PM

Aquelarre.

Gritty rules like you don't see these days (you can die from cholera or a badly treated wound). The setting is the Iberian peninsula in the Middle Ages. Castillians, Basques, Moors, Portuguese and Jews live side by side, and all those weird mythological monsters from Iberian folklore exist. You can be an alchemist, a peasant, a scholar, a knight or a witch, among some "classes."

(Ok, so it's a Spanish game. Sue me!)

Yamo · September 04, 2006, 07:06:25 PM

Lost Souls. It's kind of like White Wolf's Wraith: the Oblivion with a sense of humor. The random tables for how your new ghost character died are hilarious, as are the potential results of the reincarnation roll when he "dies" again. 1991.

Pixie. An extremely bare-bones 20-page game of tiny pixies that want to take over a human house. Avoid the peril of the garbage disposal and huck fireballs at the fearsome giant (to a pixie) housecat. Instantly-accessable, goofy fun. 1992.

Hastur T. Fannon · September 04, 2006, 08:37:33 PM

"Tales from the Floating Vagabond."

Nice and light with system that supported the humour. Good early example of how to allow the players to influence/shift the plot without taking over. Gadgets like the "Buzzzt!" and the "Zo you vant to be a mad scientist?" set encouraged the players to come up with creative solutions to their problems and encouraged the GM to accept or tailor them to his/her plot

Plus it had Space Nazis

Dominus Nox · September 04, 2006, 08:46:46 PM

Living steel.

Ok, I know the game system was complex, but the production values were top notch and most modern games don't have PV this high, plus the setting was wonderful and original, as were the antagonists.

Production values and originality were A+, the game system was just too complex for most people.

Caesar Slaad · September 04, 2006, 09:04:09 PM

Dream Park.

Not really so much for it's claim to fame, which is a genre-mixing game-within-a-game (It's based on the niven/barnes book, in which Dream Park is a virtual reality gaming amusement park.)

No, what really did it for me was is that it's my ideal for a light yet complete game. It supports all sorts of genres, and you can swap parts in and out. But the basic framework is very simple.

laffingboy · September 04, 2006, 09:21:41 PM

Legendary Lives 2nd Edition, by Joe and Kathleen Williams. It uses the same 'Action Results Table' system as Lost Souls, which Yamo mentioned. It' s fast, without sacrificing depth of results or relying overmuch on GM fiat. Character creation is fun, and generates plot hooks for each Pc, to boot. The magic syatem is free-form and flexible, with enough rules structure that you're not left in the dark. It covers mass combat, world background, all the usual fantasy races plus a few new ones, and comes complete in one big softcover.

Balbinus · September 05, 2006, 05:35:40 AM

Quote from: RPGPunditA thread to spread the love about RPGs that get little attention/are out of print/didn't deserve to be forgotten.

My pick: SPACE:1889, a brilliant little RPG about victorian adventurers travelling in rockets to Mars and Venus and setting up colonies! It had everything: imperialism, skyships, wierd aliens, mad scientists, moon men, dinosaurs, anarchists, canals on mars, the whole deal.

And contrary to what people say, its rules system was remarkably good for late-80s RPGs.

RPGPundit

Bugger, that was going to be my choice. Great game, I run it pretty much by the rules as written. Easily one of my favourite rpgs and certainly in my top 5.

Lawbag · September 05, 2006, 06:06:21 AM

Ill second Star Frontiers

but add

The Price of Freedom - a smart "modern" RPG that managed to have a contemporary setting with effective weapon rules.