Hi this is pretty simple, what game in your collection do you never see people talk about? Why do you think those games are so little known, and what do you like/dislike about them?
Personally I got a copy of the first edition of the Mechwarrior rpg when I was young. It was the second rpg I had ever bought and I was fascinated by the point build system. I TORE through that book and I started buying as much Mechwarrior/Battletech things I could buy. It was one of the main reasons I fell in love with rpgs, yet I've never seen anybody talk about it in years.
Hmm...
- The Morrow Project
- Flashing Blades
- Privateers & Gentlemen
- Behind Enemy Lines (Fasa)
Got rid of a good chunk of my games, slimmed down to only two shelves. But a few could make this list:
Swords of the Middle Kingdom: Using the same system as Hong Kong Action Theater, it is a Wuxia style game from 1996 or so. Never played it, but looked interesting. Has a unique magic system based on the I Ching. I don't like the layout and most of the art is simple. No one ever heard of it because the company that made with was bought out by Guardians of the Order and shelved, if I remember correctly.
Teenagers From Outer Space: From R. Talsorian. Anime-style roleplaying game in the vein of Tenchi Muyo, etc. Rules are really simple, fun, and evocative of the setting. I dislike the setting, but could easily make it for an early Dragonball or Earthbound type setting if I wanted. More of a "beer and pretzels" type game. Nothing was done much with it past 1998... except, there's a free supplement on DrivethruRPG that appeared a few months ago. A supplement about a fishing competition. What's with all the fishing competitions lately? (See RPG Pundit's new video on Dragonlance for reference)
Diablo: Bought the books years ago. I like the AD&D 2E version, and the Basic D&D box set. Rules were nice. Not as much of a fan of the 3E supplements (one is just the 2E book converted to 3E). Some cool ideas in here for running what essentially becomes a megadungeon.
I've seen some discussions over the past couple years on Diablo. Once in a while, I see something about TFOS. But, I definitely never see anything on Swords of the Middle Kingdom.
Geez....I literally have hundreds of games fitting this description. I'll have to think on this a bit...
Quote from: Yabba on November 10, 2022, 03:35:24 PM
Personally I got a copy of the first edition of the Mechwarrior rpg when I was young. It was the second rpg I had ever bought and I was fascinated by the point build system. I TORE through that book and I started buying as much Mechwarrior/Battletech things I could buy. It was one of the main reasons I fell in love with rpgs, yet I've never seen anybody talk about it in years.
If you're still interested, Catalyst has just done another print run of A Time of War. My copy arrived last week.
Ringworld, the RPG.
Quote from: Yabba on November 10, 2022, 03:35:24 PM
Hi this is pretty simple, what game in your collection do you never see people talk about? Why do you think those games are so little known, and what do you like/dislike about them?
Personally I got a copy of the first edition of the Mechwarrior rpg when I was young. It was the second rpg I had ever bought and I was fascinated by the point build system. I TORE through that book and I started buying as much Mechwarrior/Battletech things I could buy. It was one of the main reasons I fell in love with rpgs, yet I've never seen anybody talk about it in years.
Too many games to list. It's a D&D world.
For me its the RPG 'Adventurers' by Gramel. It's two pages for the players' guide and two pages for the GM's guide. Also I got rid of all of my GURPS books except GURPS Myth based off of the video games by Bungie. I keep that one around because I would love to run it with folks who actually remember those video games, but I would use a much faster system like Savage Worlds. GURPS is too much of a slog-fest for combats.
HöL (Human Occupied Landfill)
Apparently the thing was originally written as a joke as it had absurdly math-heavy rules and character creation literally told you to just give your character whatever stats/skills you wanted. A supplement came out later that toned things down and made it more playable, but I never picked it up. I never actually ran the game, and aside from an obscure few mentions over the last two decades, I don't think anyone else has to any serious degree.
Wheel of Time d20
The setting takes place concurrently with the books and so it suffers from the same things Dragonlance does. Fans of the books generally want to become part of the official story, while anyone else won't care and just want to do their own thing. Trying to appease both sides requires walking a razor's edge that just isn't worth the headache.
Mechamorphosis. A Transformers With The Trademark Filed Off RPG for the D20 system.
A niche product that was... Ok at what it did.
Quote from: rkhigdon on November 10, 2022, 04:18:43 PM
Geez....I literally have hundreds of games fitting this description. I'll have to think on this a bit...
Ditto!
Some titles that come to my mind on the fly:
Vikings & Valkyries
The Spawn of Fashan
What price glory!?!
Hidden Kingdoms
Phantasy conclave
PDFs? Uncountable.
Physical? Well: Eoris Essence, World Tree, and Legends of Anglerre are probably the most obscure ones I own.
I am not sure I can say what I like/dislike, as I haven't read the entire thing. Eoris Essence is strange and the system feels very cumbersome, World Tree is also very strange but a bit lighter, and Legends of Anglerre is a crunchy version of fantasy Fate (this has more feats then PF!) that was very interesting on a first read, with some cool ideas... but not enough to make me play Fate.
Not that the books are terrible... but I wouldn't recommend any of them on the account of being too crunchy (and GURPS was my favorite RPG at the time!).
Suldokar's Wake. Really cool setting. The rules change a lot of conventional terminology which increases the barrier of entry.
Pretty much goto this thread.
https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/forgotten-rpgs (https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/forgotten-rpgs)
Gangbusers 3rd edition.
Love the setting, hate the system.
Luckily a B/X version of Gangbusters was released and the system is better. Haven't had a chance to run it but soon hopefully.
Gangbusters, Spirit of the Century, Talislanta, Blood of Heroes, Everquest, Arcanum, Fantasy Craft, are probably the only weird things.
But they're not *that* weird to anyone that's been in the hobby longer than ten years. I've gotten rid of most of the silly shit like FATE, and most non-referential DnD 3e/4e stuff.
I guess I'm thinking about this in such a way that I'm only going to bring up an obscure game only if I feel it has something unique it brings to the table (whether that uniqueness is overlooked by the gaming public, or whether the game itself doesn't fully embrace the interesting ideas contained within).
My first thought is Chronicles of Ramlar from White Silver Publishing. It's a bit of an overdone fantasy RPG from the mid-2000's with Elmore art and a hodgepodge of systems that plays relatively well, but ultimately was probably a bit too generic in it's setting and divergent in it's presentation/systems to get any real share of the market. However it did have a couple of really interesting systems, chief among them was the Demeanor/Theme system that drove character advancement and skill/ability progression, as well as give bonuses to actions that were in line with the characters goals (which were selected/developed by the player). It was driven by five(?) wheels on the character sheet, one for game participation and 4 more where the player could annotate certain goals or paths they were interested in pursuing. When the participation track was filled the character leveled, and when the other wheels filled the character would advance his goals and gain any requisite abilities. In addition, if you were performing actions that directly related to advancing on one of the wheels you could gain bonuses to success. All in all I thought it was a pretty brilliant system and I'm surprised I haven't seen something similar in more games.
Warbirds, a dieselpunk game of biplanes and air pirates set in the Caribbean islands that were translocated to an alien gas planet and float in the air in an ocean sized circle. AKA, there is no water or ground, just noxious gases below that we refine into aviation fuel. Sort of like Indiana Jones mixed with Crimson Skies set in the floating mountains of Avatar.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/115960 (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/115960)
It's also odd in the whole system is a 1D6 based game. Roll attribute + skill + 1D6. Beat a target number set by the GM. There are only three attributes that go from -3 to +3, and skills are 0-6 in size.
It also has a dieselpunk space fighter game, and historically accurate WW-2 propeller plane, and Cold War Jets expansion books.
Fringeworthy by Tri-Tac Systems
Tales From the Floating Vagabond by Avalon Hill (I think)
Quote from: weirdguy564 on November 14, 2022, 01:10:41 PM
Warbirds, a dieselpunk game of biplanes and air pirates set in the Caribbean islands that were translocated to an alien gas planet and float around in an ocean sized circle. AKA, there is no water or ground, just noxious gases below that we refine into aviation fuel. Sort of like Indiana Jones mixed with Crimson Skies set in the floating mountains of Avatar.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/115960 (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/115960)
You had me at air pirates.
Damn, do I miss Crimson Skies.
Pocket Fantasy.
First, it's free.
Can you reduce D&D down to just using a 1D6 and fit it all onto just two double sided pages? Yes, you can.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/189191 (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/189191)
I've played it and it works fine. It does have a couple of unique features.
1. Combat is opposed rolls, but it is for damage vs damage blocked. This game skips the to-hit roll as it's unnecessary. If I roll 1D6 and get a 4, but the baddy rolls 1D6-1 and gets a 6, modified to a 5, the result is no damage done. Maybe I missed, maybe he dodged, or used his shield to parry, who knows.
2. Re-rolls are what separate the vets from the newbs. There are no levels.
3. Free Form magic. In combat the game has six known spells, and a wizard can cast magic twice per fight. However, out of combat the wizard can cast magic twice per session, but there is no spell list. You just describe what you want, the GM approves it or not, sets a target number of 2-6, and you try to do the spell. It's left open ended.
Quote from: GhostNinja on November 13, 2022, 02:09:23 AM
Gangbusers 3rd edition.
Love the setting, hate the system.
Luckily a B/X version of Gangbusters was released and the system is better. Haven't had a chance to run it but soon hopefully.
I ran a game of B/X Gangbusters with a couple friends for about a year and we had a blast with it. Definitely an excellent choice.
I also have a free OSR game called White Lies that I've been meaning to play. It's supposed to be an OSR take on espionage, ala Spycraft. Looks pretty neat, but can't say for sure if it's any good.
EABA attracts little comment, although not sure if it counts as "unknown". It's by Greg Porter.
Never got the chance to play but I found the basic design appealing and it seems solid. Everything works off d6s, with 3 of anything equalling a die. So if I have a Strength of 7, that's 2D+1. If I remember correctly the most you can score is 3D+2, so if you have more dice than that, you pick highest 3.
The core of it is a universal table that maps distances, weights and various other qualities to the same scale. So if I want to throw a 10kg weight 10 metres, I can read the difficulty number straight off the table. Likewise if I want to read a book of X pages in X hours. I only messed around with it by myself for a short while (no extensive playtest) but it seemed to give good enough results.
Some of the settings were interesting, with a tendency to the post-apocalyptic. I remember a cool character creation app for the steampunk setting.
It was point-build with ads/disads, which always puts me off a bit.
Not sure why it never gained more traction, although generic systems often seem to struggle, unless they have a long pedigree.
I really like EABA. I was less enthralled with the 2nd Edition. While the idea of the expanding combat scale seems nifty enough (where each round in combat is twice as long as the one before it) in practice it just seemed to break everybody's brain so we didn't stick with it more than a couple sessions.
Quote from: Redshirt451 on November 15, 2022, 01:58:49 PM
I ran a game of B/X Gangbusters with a couple friends for about a year and we had a blast with it. Definitely an excellent choice.
Thats great. I think when they originally designed Gangbusters they had a great idea, but no one who knew anything about game design. I ran a GB 3e game for awhile and everything seems random and just thrown into the game because they feel the game should have it.
I have the .pdf version and I am going to get the print issue. The guy who wrote the B/X version talked about doing a box set which would be great.
Quote from: rkhigdon on November 18, 2022, 09:54:32 AM
I really like EABA. I was less enthralled with the 2nd Edition. While the idea of the expanding combat scale seems nifty enough (where each round in combat is twice as long as the one before it) in practice it just seemed to break everybody's brain so we didn't stick with it more than a couple sessions.
I also have 2nd edition but haven't done more than read through. I remember the doubling combat rounds - I think it was trying to give a game-mechanic base for a cinematic development of the type of action that was happening, from blow-by-blow on up to more extended and elaborate effects. It was a nice idea but I could imagine it falling to bits in play.
Here's a couple more:
StarCluster from Clash Bowley - now up to 4E I think, but I only have 2E and 3E. 2E was a pretty confusing percentile system and 3E had a bunch of different dice resolution mechanics that you could plug in, depending if you wanted a swingier mechanic or preferred dice pools or whatever. The rules would say such and such item or trait gives you "an advantage" which would mean something different depending which mechanic you were using.
Anyway the best thing about it was the default setting. Humans on generation ships fleeing the destruction of Earth arrive in a Starcluster already peopled by a bunch of aliens and by three humanoid species that I think were descendants of primates lifted off Earth by ancient aliens (I might be misremembering). Some of the Earth humans get together with the three indigenous humanoid species in a mostly-nice-but-don't-mess-with-us federation while some other humans split off into a more species-phobic coalition. The Thieves' Guild were a third faction which was barmy for a space opera setting, but I could just about live with it. I remember not much liking the aliens though - some of them were Dr Moreau style mashups of Earth animals. SC2 had a detailed starmap whereas SC3 had a roll-your-own-setting guide that worked like SWN traits.
Normal Traveller style space opera hijinks can ensue although the feel I got off the books was more Iain Banks than Dumarest.
Nebuleon by Hinterwelt - another SF space opera offering. I barely remember the system mashing up D20, Rolemaster and BRP into an unholy mess that I would not touch with a 10' pole. But again I really liked the setting. There were multiple alien species. Humans were the galactic underclass with no known homeworld, which is both a nice twist versus most settings, and puts the PCs on the back foot from the off (assuming they are human). A previous empire had collapsed after the ruling species was decimated by a plague, although they were still around and quite powerful, and in a somewhat adversarial relationship with the new boss empire. The aliens were cool - there was a race of pharmaceutically inclined tree sloths, and a theocratic species that delegated alien contact to a sort of unclean caste. The new empire were a bit less original, big-cat aristocratic warriors. The old empire were mostly too scared of plagues to leave their world so hired aliens to serve in a kind of foreign legion, which makes for a nice campaign premise. I started a campaign with the setting in BRP using various monster stats reskinned for the aliens, but sadly it didn't last. I would love to see a new version using a current system like Traveller, SWN or Mythras.
Quote from: World_Warrior on November 10, 2022, 04:06:41 PM
Teenagers From Outer Space: From R. Talsorian. Anime-style roleplaying game in the vein of Tenchi Muyo, etc. Rules are really simple, fun, and evocative of the setting. I dislike the setting, but could easily make it for an early Dragonball or Earthbound type setting if I wanted. More of a "beer and pretzels" type game. Nothing was done much with it past 1998... except, there's a free supplement on DrivethruRPG that appeared a few months ago. A supplement about a fishing competition. What's with all the fishing competitions lately? (See RPG Pundit's new video on Dragonlance for reference)
This was a neat game that really opened my eyes to the power of simplicity in game design.
There were a couple supplements for TFOS, as well as an attempt to relaunch it with some kind of new setting that I remember not liking. I have all of them, but they are in storage.
Quote from: jeff37923 on November 10, 2022, 05:18:17 PM
Ringworld, the RPG.
This was one I never got to play. It went out of print really fast, and then the collector value shot way up.
People talk a lot about Star Wars D6, and the Ghostbusters RPG, but I never hear people talking about Men In Black: The Roleplaying Game. This was a D6 game put out by WEG in the late 1990s.
I have the main rulebook and one of the supplements. Never played it, though.
Quote from: Lurkndog on November 18, 2022, 05:43:35 PM
People talk a lot about Star Wars D6, and the Ghostbusters RPG, but I never hear people talking about Men In Black: The Roleplaying Game. This was a D6 game put out by WEG in the late 1990s.
I have the main rulebook and one of the supplements. Never played it, though.
I'll admit I didn't know about Men in Black.
My D6 game of choice is the free Mini-Six Bare Bones. I like it's simplicity for static defense style of combat, only needing 4 instead of 6 stats, and making hero points less powerful while simultaneously giving them more uses.
Combined with the optional rules for more cinematic melee combat called Dueling Blades from Griffon Publishing (note: it relies heavy on movement) and I can honestly say it changed how I think and play the D6 set of rules.
Quote from: tenbones on November 14, 2022, 11:47:10 AM
Gangbusters, Spirit of the Century, Talislanta, Blood of Heroes, Everquest, Arcanum, Fantasy Craft, are probably the only weird things.
But they're not *that* weird to anyone that's been in the hobby longer than ten years. I've gotten rid of most of the silly shit like FATE, and most non-referential DnD 3e/4e stuff.
FantasyCraft is one of my favorite fantasy games. I still play it.
The best game you've never played is Spellbound Kingdoms. It's got a truly innovative combat system, plus a dice pool system for skills that works beautifully (dice can "explode" but it only means you also roll the next die size up and take the best, so it's not nearly as swingy as Savage Worlds), plus it's got integrated support for the players being part of organizations.
And for some reason, timing or marketing or reach, it sank like a stone. Then the author Kickstarted a supplement which he was late on, which didn't help, but really the first book is fully playable so I don't even mind.
Next I'd say Mothership (industrial sci fi horror) and Whitehack (almost OSR but doing its own thing more than most clones), but I feel like these are slightly better known even if not many people play them compared to the big games.
Heroes of Adventure -> https://nameless-designer.itch.io/heroes-of-adventure
Quote from: Lurkndog on November 18, 2022, 09:00:34 PM
Quote from: tenbones on November 14, 2022, 11:47:10 AM
Gangbusters, Spirit of the Century, Talislanta, Blood of Heroes, Everquest, Arcanum, Fantasy Craft, are probably the only weird things.
But they're not *that* weird to anyone that's been in the hobby longer than ten years. I've gotten rid of most of the silly shit like FATE, and most non-referential DnD 3e/4e stuff.
FantasyCraft is one of my favorite fantasy games. I still play it.
You are a glorious pervert!
Quote from: tenbones on November 24, 2022, 12:04:44 AM
Quote from: Lurkndog on November 18, 2022, 09:00:34 PM
FantasyCraft is one of my favorite fantasy games. I still play it.
You are a glorious pervert!
Ooh-kay, then! :)
Is there some kind of context I'm missing? I thought the Crafty games were fairly mainstream.
I got into them because my friend Ian Homeyard (RIP) was a big fan of the system. We started out playing Stargate/Spycraft, and when that campaign ended we switched over to FantasyCraft.
Dungeons and Delvers: Dice Pool Edition.
https://biggeekemporium.com/product/dungeons-delvers-dice-pool/ (https://biggeekemporium.com/product/dungeons-delvers-dice-pool/)
Up front I'll say that this game is now one of my top three RPGs I've played, along with Palladium Rifts, and D6 Star Wars.
This is how Savage World and D&D should work.
At its core, this is almost an OSR. However, enough has been altered that I consider this game unique.
1st. No D20. You get a dice size for your attribute/ability score, and another for your skill. Everything you will do is an attribute dice + skill dice to try and equal a target number. All of your attributes and skills starts as a D4, upgrades to a D6, D8, and maxes as a D12. You often get more dice for Talents like specializing in hammers, or two-handed weapons. Thus a character rolls a D8 for high strength, D6 for melee fighting skill, a D4 for a hammer, and another d4 because it's a two-handed hammer. Roll all four dice, pick the best two, and beat a target number.
No insane hit points. You start with 5 or so hit points, but max out with about 8 hit points. One-handed weapons do 1 damage, and two-handed weapons inflict 2 damage.
Magic casting is a skill test. There are no spell slots or mana points. You can cast magic all day long. Just know that a ranged battle between a wizard vs a longbow armed ranger or fighter, the wizard has unlimited ammo, but the bow is both longer ranged and does 2 damage per hit. Odds are in the bowman's favor to win.
Highly customizable characters. Every class has 15-20 talents to choose from, many of which have three ranks. You get to pick. Kitting out a fighter is just as interesting and involved as a wizard. Wizard spells are just their talents, making the various classes seem equal to each other in complexity and power.
Armor doesn't raise your Armor Class, but are a few extra hit points. Your attributes determine three defense target numbers of Block, Dodge, and Mind.
No savings throws. Stuff like poison is a status effect. A dragon breath attack is just a ranged attack.
Overall it is quite a simple system, but is just complex enough to be interesting, and fixes many weird tropes that D&D based rules keep perpetuating. I love it.
Quote from: weirdguy564 on November 25, 2022, 11:35:31 PM
Dungeons and Delvers: Dice Pool Edition.
https://biggeekemporium.com/product/dungeons-delvers-dice-pool/ (https://biggeekemporium.com/product/dungeons-delvers-dice-pool/)
I must have missed this store somewhere, I don't even recall hearing anything about it's launch. I probably did hear something but just forgot.
I'm picking up this game on your recommendation, so it better be good :P
Actually, I already have all the other versions of the game already.
It was interesting to note that the Wretched stuff is there as well. I've been hearing a bit about The Red Room, and noticed Pundit did some interviews with them. I looked over their stuff, and I think I'm going to pick up Wretched New Flesh too. Anything that actually turns out to be on par with Burroughs sounds just about cool weird enough for me to pick up
Quote from: Dropbear on November 26, 2022, 06:48:14 AM
Quote from: weirdguy564 on November 25, 2022, 11:35:31 PM
Dungeons and Delvers: Dice Pool Edition.
https://biggeekemporium.com/product/dungeons-delvers-dice-pool/ (https://biggeekemporium.com/product/dungeons-delvers-dice-pool/)
I must have missed this store somewhere, I don't even recall hearing anything about it's launch. I probably did hear something but just forgot.
I'm picking up this game on your recommendation, so it better be good :P
Big geek emporium started this summer by the guys from Bigus Geekus podcast as a reaction to Drivethru RPG refusing some content based on politics. Specifically Venger Satanis made a game supplement about a fantasy scenario that is anti-abortion. Venger doesn't shy away from stuff like that.
David Guyll put his games on their site.
Emporium still really small. It's only advertised by word of mouth.
As for the various Dungeons and Delvers versions, I like the dice pool version because I'm very much a rules lite fan now. Dice Pool fits well in that genre.
If I ever write my own Star Wars ripoff game, it will use those rules.
Quote from: Lurkndog on November 25, 2022, 09:26:11 AM
Quote from: tenbones on November 24, 2022, 12:04:44 AM
Quote from: Lurkndog on November 18, 2022, 09:00:34 PM
FantasyCraft is one of my favorite fantasy games. I still play it.
You are a glorious pervert!
Ooh-kay, then! :)
Is there some kind of context I'm missing? I thought the Crafty games were fairly mainstream.
I got into them because my friend Ian Homeyard (RIP) was a big fan of the system. We started out playing Stargate/Spycraft, and when that campaign ended we switched over to FantasyCraft.
Contrary to what we, as Crafty Games fans may think - I don't see them as very popular in actual play. It's like Talislanta, *everyone* says they love it, but no one relatively actually plays it. I think there's probably less than a half-dozen folks around these part aside from myself that have actually run Fantasycraft. Spycraft seems to have a much broader recognition.
But the WEIRD part to me about Fantasycraft is that it is *superior* mechanically on every level compared to anything from 3.x WotC or Pathfinder, yet it has very few fans.
I suspect it's due to the timing of its release and the nature of the system being a true toolkit design. Most new GM's are unaccustomed to designing the rules around their settings in a broad manner. They just wanna pick up and run where anything written down is "canon", like 5e does. Plus 3rd party content for 3.x was pretty plentiful. I see a lot of people saying FC is "confusing" and "dense" when all it really does is re-codify the basic components of the 3.x system and balances them out more thoroughly than Pathfinder or 3.x. MANY if not *all* of the classic weaknesses of those systems are eliminated from the game.
* No Linear Fighter/Quadratic Mage issues
* No Dumpstatting - all stats matter
* No Feat trees longer than 3. ALL Feats are powerful and awesome.
* Classes mechanics are matched to their narrative conceits. And Multi-classing is ROCK SOLID.
* Every level is a big upgrade. Capstone abilities land at 14th level, not 20th.
* Spells are not fire-and-forget. They're skill checks.
* Non-casters are *dangerous* in combat and useful out of combat.
* Multiple-attacks are not headaches
* Armor actually absorbs damage, and skill determines whether or not you get hit.
* HP/Wounds - so no HP-sponge mechanics. Skilled PC's can one-shot your sorry ass.
* Monster dynamic power-scaling. Robust system mechanics tweaks that can be implemented on the fly. Yes, you can slaughter 20th level PC's with Goblins.
* Core book is PHB, DMG, MM all rolled into one.
I could name more features... and I've done this before, had puh-lenty of good discussions, but few people seem really interested in running it. Though a lot of people do seem intrigued by it. I don't think i've ever personally seen it run in the wild, the only other people I know that have run Fantasycraft are the precious few weirdos on this form that either discovered it as I did, by accident, or were enticed by previous discussion threads.
Although many more people know about Spycraft. I think Fantasycraft is like Talislanta - forever shunned for mysterious reasons. And it's weird to me in the inverse, that for some reason I get really enamored with games with really good mechanics/toolkit appeal that all seem to fall into this category. I fully submit it might be due to the fact that more GM's don't really want to pre-tune their mechanics for their settings... which I think is the dealbreaker. Most GM's that are new to the hobby don't get into that mode of thinking for a while, and most either drop out, or stick with what they know.
Only the real lifers and kooks gravitate toward this end of the pool. Hence - you're a pervert like me.
Quote from: Dave 2 on November 20, 2022, 01:10:55 PM
The best game you've never played is Spellbound Kingdoms. It's got a truly innovative combat system, plus a dice pool system for skills that works beautifully (dice can "explode" but it only means you also roll the next die size up and take the best, so it's not nearly as swingy as Savage Worlds), plus it's got integrated support for the players being part of organizations.
And for some reason, timing or marketing or reach, it sank like a stone. Then the author Kickstarted a supplement which he was late on, which didn't help, but really the first book is fully playable so I don't even mind.
Next I'd say Mothership (industrial sci fi horror) and Whitehack (almost OSR but doing its own thing more than most clones), but I feel like these are slightly better known even if not many people play them compared to the big games.
I LOVE Spellbound Kingdoms. It is a tragedy how unknown it is. Whitehack is also very good and unique for a "almost" OSR game. Mothership is pretty good but, I wouldn't call it very nice. I've seen fan content for it on itch so I do think there is a community for it, however small.
Man, Myth & Magic
Dragonraid
Dark Continent
World of Necroscope
Ghosts of Albion
just to name a few
Quote from: MerrillWeathermay on January 02, 2023, 03:15:12 PM
Man, Myth & Magic
Dragonraid
Dark Continent
World of Necroscope
Ghosts of Albion
just to name a few
Nice, MerrillWeathermay. I've been curious about some of those. Any reflections on them? Have you run or used them at all?
I have too many to name, but if I could pick a few of my more obscure favorites:
Thieves' Guild - an evocative specialized system for fantasy thieves, that I never got a chance to run
Time and Time Again - an early time travel game with hard-to-follow mechanics, but an intriguing background for time travel
Hellcats & Hockeysticks - a great comedic system for one-shots that I've used several times. It's about rebellious schoolgirls with fantasy/scifi elements.
Quote from: Effete on November 11, 2022, 01:01:24 AM
HöL (Human Occupied Landfill)
Apparently the thing was originally written as a joke as it had absurdly math-heavy rules and character creation literally told you to just give your character whatever stats/skills you wanted. A supplement came out later that toned things down and made it more playable, but I never picked it up. I never actually ran the game, and aside from an obscure few mentions over the last two decades, I don't think anyone else has to any serious degree.
I used to own it, even made a gonzo character, never ran or played it.
Quote from: tenbones on November 14, 2022, 11:47:10 AMSpirit of the Century
Own it, I've played it as often as I was able to cajole my wife in to running it ;D
As for my own games, hmm...
Cartoon Action Hour - Saturday Morning Cartoon emulation is fairly niche, plus the designer messed up a Kickstarter, and basically scammed a bunch of people. So there's been no new edition in 10 years.
In Nomine - 90's Angels and Demons in a shadow war on Earth.
Hong Kong Action Theater - Play as a Hong Kong actor, where the adventures are your actor playing a role in a Wuxia or Gun-Fu movie.
(https://cdn.eldeforma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/captura-de-pantalla-2020-03-11-a-las-162535-300x196.png)
Then about a billion old and obscure games as PDF's.
Quote from: jhkim on January 03, 2023, 02:54:42 AM
Quote from: MerrillWeathermay on January 02, 2023, 03:15:12 PM
Man, Myth & Magic
Dragonraid
Dark Continent
World of Necroscope
Ghosts of Albion
just to name a few
Nice, MerrillWeathermay. I've been curious about some of those. Any reflections on them? Have you run or used them at all?
I have too many to name, but if I could pick a few of my more obscure favorites:
Thieves' Guild - an evocative specialized system for fantasy thieves, that I never got a chance to run
Time and Time Again - an early time travel game with hard-to-follow mechanics, but an intriguing background for time travel
Hellcats & Hockeysticks - a great comedic system for one-shots that I've used several times. It's about rebellious schoolgirls with fantasy/scifi elements.
Dark Continent is awesome. Atmospheric 19th century African adventures with a system that is like BRP-lite.
Wolrd of Necroscope is fun, but a bit crunchy and kloogy. Some things work well with the Masterbook ruleset, but others are a bit difficult to figure out and implement. Good gameworld
Man, Myth and Magic is fun, but I haven't played it in ages. You can get it again, since Precis Intermedia owns the rights and has re-released it
I have looked through Dragonraid and Ghost of Albion, but haven't played either of them.
Maybe the most obscure game for me? Twerps Metaphysical Ninja Maniac Chainsaw Vitamin Junkies.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/890643086848430180/1062878461418557530/Twerps_MNMCJ.jpg)
Quote from: Cathode Ray on January 11, 2023, 06:41:23 PM
Maybe the most obscure game for me? Twerps Metaphysical Ninja Maniac Chainsaw Vitamin Junkies.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/890643086848430180/1062878461418557530/Twerps_MNMCJ.jpg)
What in the crystal meth is that?!?
Quote from: weirdguy564 on January 11, 2023, 07:11:36 PM
Quote from: Cathode Ray on January 11, 2023, 06:41:23 PM
Maybe the most obscure game for me? Twerps Metaphysical Ninja Maniac Chainsaw Vitamin Junkies.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/890643086848430180/1062878461418557530/Twerps_MNMCJ.jpg)
What in the crystal meth is that?!?
I have to have this, where can I find it?
Quote from: Cathode Ray on January 11, 2023, 06:41:23 PM
Maybe the most obscure game for me? Twerps Metaphysical Ninja Maniac Chainsaw Vitamin Junkies.
I think I have everything for TWERPS except that.
I have the Puffin trade paperback of Maelstrom, a historical roleplaying game by Alexander Scott set in sixteenth-century Europe, which was obviously released to capitalize on the popularity of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks at the time but delivered actually quite a compelling little RPG in one book (particularly impressive when one learns that the author was in the English equivalent of high school at the time he wrote it). If it has one flaw it's that it doesn't really give enough guidance for GMs on coming up with adventure ideas or in how to set appropriate stats for PC opponents.
(It would also no doubt run afoul of the PC-niks these days -- one sample combat has characters fighting savage tribal foes literally identified as "cannibals", and priests have the ability to actually successfully convert listeners to the Christian faith solely on a die roll, among other things. But I trust the crowd here has more discernment.)
I have the complete collection of Fast Forward Entertainment books from when they were around. The Red covers are beautiful to look at even if the interior content is utterly bonkers.
Quote from: Yabba on January 11, 2023, 07:52:15 PM
Quote from: weirdguy564 on January 11, 2023, 07:11:36 PM
Quote from: Cathode Ray on January 11, 2023, 06:41:23 PM
Maybe the most obscure game for me? Twerps Metaphysical Ninja Maniac Chainsaw Vitamin Junkies.
(Image of TWERPS METAPHYSICAL MANIAC NINJA CHAINSAW VITAMIN JUNKIES)
What in the crystal meth is that?!?
I have to have this, where can I find it?
You can find it on eBay, if you are patient. TWERPS titles are a bit pricey. You may find this in a bundle or a lot of Twerps titles and get a good deal. (That's how I acquired this copy: in a bundle of 6 Twerps titles.) You'll require the basic TWERPS rules to play. Twerps Metaphysical Maniac Ninja Chainsaw Vitamin Junkies is kind of the Twerps equivalent of Car Wars, which is a tactical combat game with some role-play elements. Sometimes titles are really pricey, and months later, someone posts a copy of games like these at a reasonable price,which is when you should jump on it. I did that with Panzer Pranks, which was going for $90 forever, and then someone posted one for about $16.
The Twerps franchise was released by Reindeer Games, and distributed by Gamescience, which has a place in RPG history as the ones who provided the polyhedral dice for old-school Dungeons and Dragons.
I don't know many who have physical copies of this https://nameless-designer.itch.io/heroes-of-adventure (https://nameless-designer.itch.io/heroes-of-adventure), or even have heard of it.
I won't include PDFs, but as far as little-known RPGs I have Thieves Guild, Wizards (Bakshi), Hawkmoon, Corum, JAGS Wonderland, Warbirds, and every Tekumel game (my Tekumel collection is for sale if anyone's interested).