Memoir '44 also tends to encourage a fair amount of fictionalizing.  Something about the Normandy beaches, and masses of infantry being mowed down by gun emplacements, that comes across as much more than just moving tokens.

I'd be pretty stoked to see an M44 game create the context for a GURPs D-Day scenario ... 'cept I think my group has played so many GURPs D-Day scenarios that we may be tired of it

Id like to suggest the old boardgame, Down with the King.

The basis of the boardgame would make for a fantastic political thriller of a pseudo-fantasy campaign.

I only ever played it twice, but I think it was Avalon Hill from 1981.

Using "face" cards you built up a hierarchy of "next in succession line" for a royal family, and attempted to usurp the King and replace him with a distant cousin or somesuch.

This should probably go without saying, but there was also the old TSR Dungeon boardgame...

Quote from: Age of Fable;243634By the way this is the cover to another expansion. It reminded me of some older rpg artwork, where the party is just about to turn a corner and run into trouble.

That's funny, I complete that sentence as ambush a passing caravan because they're low on cash.

Koltar, this probably won't help if you're looking for something you can just pick up in the store, but Magic Realm is, in itself, an RPG-like boardgame. (In fact, it was in a sense a boardgame company's clueless response to the RPG phenomenon. Yet it's a great game.)

Anyway, Magic Realm has a wealth of characters, monsters, NPCs, factions, magic items, "random events", and so forth...even an implicit web of relationships between them. I think the whole thing could be used as a framework for a fantasy campaign.

Key to the Kingdom is a fantasy boardgame.  It's little more sophisiticated than candy land, but it's good for a laugh.  The board/map is really freaking neat and would make for a great campaign map for an rpg.

I could also see running a pulp rpg session on Fireball Island.

Quote from: droog;243599[EDIT: Actually, scratch that last part. I expended a lot of brain juice trying to get relationships between the DP and RQ mechanics happening.]

I kinda of just switched between the systems. It did get a little tricky in the midst of car battles when characters were jumping on top of moving trailers and hanging on to speeding cars etc....but I just sort of fumbled through it. I suppose I should have given the whole thing a little extra thought.

Regards,
David R

What also might overlap partially into this topic is boardgame parts that could be used or mske more sense in a role playing game.

 FOR EXAMPLE "When Darkness Falls" has 6 pewter miniatures inside ir close to 25mm scale - they just need painting. These would work great for modern-day Horror campaign or a "Buffy:TVS" style game.  (One fig could be painted to look like Giles easily, another is very close to Faith in looks)

The other might be things like this little boardgamne called Through The Desert. It has a nice hexagon-covered board map of typical desert terrain - very easy to use for an encounter in an RPG.


- Ed C.

This list on boardgamegeek.com might be relevant:

Pseudo RPG's in which you control and advance a character

Quote from: Koltar;243589All three of those have some  sort of character stat cards and miniatures included that match up with player's characters in the game.

Have any of you folks played those as straight RPGs and ignored the more boardgame-oriented aspects of them?


 Are there any other board games that with a little help could be converted easily into an RPG?

...OR Board games that have parts that are very easily borrowed into use with a Role Playing Game.

Funny, I've been on a board game rush lately and it has satisfied my gaming urge. I think most of the games that function in a similar manner to RPGs are called Adventure Games. Popular examples include Runebound, Talisman and Prophecy. An obvious semi-RPG I have bought and played lately is Arkham Horror.



Coming from a heavy RPG background, it is a little crude and a streamlined experience for me but on the other hand, it's been a nice compromise to gather folks at the table. Plus, it can even be played solo, which I've found cool enough.

But without a doubt, one that has fascinated me and is less well-known is Shadows Over Camelot.



I hesitate to open this Pandora's Box but some of the trappings reminded me a little of a Story Game Done Right. Where Arkham's characters and rules care a little more about the simulation aspect, Camelot seems more focused on theme. Camelot also has a nifty twist in a "traitor" rule. That is, at the beginning of play, every player (who each control a character) will randomly determine if he is loyal to the Round Table ideals or if he is corrupted. There's only one traitor possibility so chances are, there's no traitor but doubts sometimes creep in and a sort of wonderful in-character/out of character paranoia ensues.

A game I've bought but haven't had the chance to try yet is Fury of Dracula. In it, one person plays Dracula and 1 to 4 other players are hunters, gathering clues and chasing after the vampire. Looks pretty fun and perhaps RPG-ish.

I'm having lots of fun and moving some of the players to Story Engine and D&D for roleplay but with some work, you could use new optional "roleplaying rules" and ideas/scenarios with those games, or you could use Arham Horror elements in straight CoC game, for instance.

Quote from: David R;243595Well I used Car Wars for a postapoc roleplaying campaign.

I've also used Car Wars for role-playing.

A really good quasi-RPG board game (that could be run as an adventure for a space game) is GDW's Series 120 game Asteroid.

The side of the box blurb read "Only the courage and determination of a few gifted individuals stand between the computer and worldwide disaster.  Select your team from The Professor and his beautiful daughter, Nicholle, Muscles and Lucky McGee, Scoop Phillips the ace reporter, and more.  Then venture into the asteroid base and try to unplug the computer before it destroys you and your world."  Basically, there are a bunch of characters that you choose form that have different combat and movement abilities as well as special abilities (e.g., the dog can climb through air ducts at full speed, the jewel thief can move between cover without being spotted, etc.) and they fight through robots on a randomizable map.  The combat chart with all of the characters can be found here.

Hmmmm.  I wonder if this qualifies as a swine game.

You guys have mentioned a lot of good stuff here....more please?


 John - I don't think that the ASTEROID game would qualify as "swiney".  GDW just wasn't that kind of company. That sounds like maybe the prototype idea for the Belters career in TRAVELLLER  -OR- they were trying to do a more light-hearted game, but still just a game at the heart of it.


- Ed C.

Quote from: John Morrow;243962Hmmmm.  I wonder if this qualifies as a swine game.

That really depends on how vocal some here are about the hate they feel towards the game.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: Koltar;243973John - I don't think that the ASTEROID game would qualify as "swiney".

It was a joke, based on the fact that the game was designed to play a specific adventure (stop the computer from crashing the asteroid into the earth) and even though the team and map might change, it's always that scenario, sort of like some of the story games.

It's definitely a light-hearted game.  Maybe it was one of the old GDW catalogs where they jokingly called it a realistic hard science fiction game when it clearly recycles almost every cheesy 50s and 60s science fiction cliche they could think of.

Crimson Skies started out as a board game from FASA in 1998.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3855

and by Wizkids in 2003.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/6551

it's been Savaged twice, one very in depth with alternate air combat rules, bases, and resource management.
both are on Savage Heroes.

Aliens, the board game from Leading Edge.  I've actually run (way back in high school ) an Aliens rpg using it as the basis for the rules.

Though I suppose that Leading Edges' own Aliens Adventure Game already counts as a proper conversion.

How about the old "Dungeon Quest" game from Games Workshop?