What's the best RPG or setting that's actually unpopular?

crkrueger · May 28, 2017, 08:30:15 PM

Quote from: Dumarest;964944You guys are making me want to roll up some Vrusks and Drasalites...I still have the Star Frontiers books, though the box and maps and counters are long gone. Wasn't there a space fighter combat boxed set that came out after the roleplaying boxed set?

Yeah, Knight Hawks. There was a lot of cool stuff in Dragon Magazine too during the years when they had their Ares Sci-Fi section.

Nexus · May 28, 2017, 08:38:09 PM

Quote from: Baulderstone;964857I kind of liked the way that it allowed you to skew the game to be dark or humorous, but the rules were kind of a mess, and even when you understood them, the still felt wonky. They weren't really any wonkier than what White Wolf was doing, but I think I resented it more because I expected better from SJG. I'd consider it an almost-classic.

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That was my favorite aspect of the game too. Customization was really encouraged especially in the gm's guide. There were so many options and dials to fiddle with. You could emulate Dogma to Legion to Michael or Good Omens and then some even changing the major aspects of the default background like the veracity of different religions and even who the good guys were or who or what you focused on (Angels, Demons, Mortals, Ethereal Gods...) It was a game with allot of replay value due to that. Two campaigns could use the same basic setting but be completely different.

Baeraad · May 29, 2017, 01:43:47 AM

Blue Rose. Quite a good game if you actually get around to playing it, which no one ever seems to do because out of the people who even knows it exists, half are too busy bitching about how it's too politically correct, and the other half are too busy bitching about how it's not politically correct enough.

Omega · May 29, 2017, 02:26:40 AM

Quote from: Dumarest;964944You guys are making me want to roll up some Vrusks and Drasalites...I still have the Star Frontiers books, though the box and maps and counters are long gone. Wasn't there a space fighter combat boxed set that came out after the roleplaying boxed set?

Knight Hawks, the starship and space business expansion. Also came with a space wargame.

RPGPundit · May 30, 2017, 02:14:37 AM

Quote from: TrippyHippy;964741I don't know if it's strictly 'unpopular' as such, but I do think that Steve Jackson Games dropped a baby with In Nomine which should have been bigger than Vampire in the 90s. The French game actually predates Vampire, but it captures the same dark satirical elements and in some ways has more immediate playability. Unfortunately, they took way too long to bring out the US-targetted version and could never quite get the tone of the game right, while the actual organisation of the core rules is all over the place.

The real issue is that the original game is brilliantly biting black-comedy satire, and SJG instead sold it as a dead-serious Wod-Clone because that's what everyone else was doing.

RPGPundit · May 30, 2017, 02:15:54 AM

Quote from: S'mon;964781It has the usual D&D polytheism (12 gods) that looks oddly like real-world monotheism...

That was my biggest issue with Al-Qadim. It's also an issue for me with most western-european medieval-fantasy settings.

S'mon · May 30, 2017, 06:20:21 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;965200That was my biggest issue with Al-Qadim. It's also an issue for me with most western-european medieval-fantasy settings.

I find that treating the non-Evil gods as Saints or Saint-analogues, with an All-Creator Over-God hovering somewhere above them, works really well to deal with this issue. It's not massively far from real life, several pagan gods like Brigit (I'm a McBride myself) got translated into Christian Saints.

RPGPundit · June 02, 2017, 08:19:25 AM

Quote from: S'mon;965235I find that treating the non-Evil gods as Saints or Saint-analogues, with an All-Creator Over-God hovering somewhere above them, works really well to deal with this issue. It's not massively far from real life, several pagan gods like Brigit (I'm a McBride myself) got translated into Christian Saints.

Yeah, or you can just go with actual monotheism, like I did in Dark Albion.

S'mon · June 02, 2017, 09:19:13 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;965977Yeah, or you can just go with actual monotheism, like I did in Dark Albion.

I was referring to how to deal with published fantasy settings that have the "Christian church with pagan god at the altar" problem.

Dumarest · June 02, 2017, 11:26:22 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;965977Yeah, or you can just go with actual monotheism, like I did in Dark Albion.

Better yet, take out the Unconquered Sun and such substitutes and just use Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. I find it makes roleplaying much easier than constantly trying to remember the fake versions as most everyone is familiar with the real deal whether or not they practice any of them.

David Johansen · June 02, 2017, 01:52:16 PM

The GURPS Banestorm setting Yrth gets nothing but grief for using Christianity and Islam. I love Yrth, I'm actually writing a novel set there at the moment. In 1200AD magical storms transported people from Earth to Yrth and for a variety of reasons they still have largely medieval societies. Some people argue they wouldn't but personally, just trying to rebuild and get sorted out is probably a 500 year set back. Never mind all the wizards who don't want gunpowder and internal combustion engines.

Llew ap Hywel · June 02, 2017, 02:43:26 PM

Birthright was a fantastically realised medieval setting that got way less love than it deserved.

Burning Wheel is a great role playing game that also gets way less love than deserved.

jeff37923 · June 02, 2017, 03:13:40 PM

Cyberpunk 2020, Mekton II, Mekton Zeta, Dream Park - a lot by R Talsorian Games

Traveller when it is not married to the OTU. Traveller was originally a generic science fiction RPG system that could be applied to a lot of literary science fiction. The OTU, however, has overshadowed this by being one of the most detailed and massive settings ever created which has been growing for over 40 years. Many believe that the OTU setting is Traveller. It has only been with MgT1e and Cepheus Engine have things gone back to its origin of being a generic science fiction RPG and non-OTU settings being developed.

Dumarest · June 02, 2017, 03:19:40 PM

Quote from: David Johansen;966024The GURPS Banestorm setting Yrth gets nothing but grief for using Christianity and Islam. I love Yrth, I'm actually writing a novel set there at the moment. In 1200AD magical storms transported people from Earth to Yrth and for a variety of reasons they still have largely medieval societies. Some people argue they wouldn't but personally, just trying to rebuild and get sorted out is probably a 500 year set back. Never mind all the wizards who don't want gunpowder and internal combustion engines.

I seem to recall Cidri from The Fantasy Trip was similar to that (real world religions , not the novel).

Omega · June 02, 2017, 10:26:42 PM

Quote from: HorusArisen;966031Birthright was a fantastically realised medieval setting that got way less love than it deserved.
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Part of Birthrights problem was it came out as TSR was on its last legs. It seems to still have a fanbase even now and at least one of the designers still comments now and then.

I dont think Birthright was unpopular so much as it was not advertised as much and never made it past one expansion I think? It was also minorly competing with Red Steel which has an oddly similar underlying premise. But Red Steel was even less promoted. Birthright had the better production values.