Dragon Warriors
Mechanical Dream

Erm...

Well, there's a lot of gems really.

Quote from: GRIMDragon Warriors
Mechanical Dream

Erm...

Well, there's a lot of gems really.

Did you manage to play Mechanical Dream?  I thought most folk rather struggled with it.

Theatrix.  It's like Advanced GM Techniques Boot Camp.

The Court of Ardor[/u] by Terry Amthor.

Although technically part of ICE's old 'Middle-earth' line of campaign modules, this setting does not really fit into Middle-earth well. It is, however, a truly inspired setting in its own right. It is set in an unusual location (a southern jungle region), has interesting cultures (the evil remnants of a Numenorean colony, a culturally sophisticated African-flavoured republic, and a kingdom of transplanted Nordic hedonists), and a really cool evil organisation (a cabal of powerful elves who communicate via Amber-like tarot cards, and who plot the destruction of the sun).

It provides enough information to get one's imagination going, but is open enough to let a GM put his/her own mark on the setting. It has an implicit 'epic quest' that can be used or ignored by the GM. Especially noteworthy: it includes an absolutely gorgeous colour map by Peter Fenlon (and three nice colour city maps). This slim campaign setting (only 64 pages, although often with super-small font; it would probably be around 120 pages using 'eye-friendly' font) has inspired me since I purchased it in 1982. (While I greatly admire Amthor's later 'Shadow World' setting for ICE, it never inspired me quite as much as his Ardor.)

Pete Fenlon's maps are always a whole lotta awesome.  His work with MERP is second to none.

Quote from: Zachary The FirstPete Fenlon's maps are always a whole lotta awesome.  His work with MERP is second to none.

100 percent agreement.  

It's a real pity he's not still producing maps.

Quote from: Caesar SlaadDream Park.

I'll second that one.

Ghostbusters, 1st edition. A breezy, fun RPG that was the first to use what would become WEG's d6 house system. The game was light and funny, used a lot of pics from the movie as illustrations, the line art used was pretty good and featured dead-on caricatures of the movie's characters, and the main premise was solid - the Ghostbusters franchised out the GB name, and your PCs run one of those franchises. It didn't take itself too seriously and had a smart-assed attitude. The second edition, which came out at the time of the release of the second movie, was larded down with more game mechanics and took itself a little too seriously. The result was dull and listeless, much as the 2nd movie was.

Dark Continent - hard to find game about leadinhg an expedition of Victorian explorers into darkest Africa.

I'll also ditto Space 1889, which I thought was a splendid game.

Otherwise some french stuff like Miles Christi, Retrofutur (though not for the godawful game system) and a game whose name currently escapes me but it was essentially Men In Black in the era of the musketeers.

Does The Morrrow Project qualify as lesser known?

It's my pick. Pretty hard science, frighteningly real post-apocalypse (Mutation: Leukemia!), excellent militarized feel with weapons-damage tables straight from medical studies. And it had rules for dropping a nuke on your home town and calculating the damage!

-Marco

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalDark Continent - hard to find game about leadinhg an expedition of Victorian explorers into darkest Africa.

I own that, good pick, interesting game and very well put together.

Battlestations- sort of an RPG/boardgame crossover with a geomorph-generated starship and individual characters.

(fixed link, sorry)

Lejendary Adventures

Epic power-gaming RPG with quick chargen, and skills elegantly tied to traits. For instance, if your character's Physical is 40, no skill tied to the physical trait can be higher than 40.

A magic system that fits the setting and the feel of the game helps too.

The feel?

Epic adventure against epic foes with a large leavening of 30's and 40's era action/adventure. And since it's designed for power-gaming, you can let your power-gaming tendencies run wild.