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Author Topic: Forgotten RPGs  (Read 30124 times)

Omega

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #60 on: October 03, 2020, 06:14:39 AM »
Heres one got before my accident...

Thieves Island: A Riddle Rooms Adventure. Cloud City Games 1996. Its a self contained adventure with a basic system geared to solving puzzles. And its jam packed with all manner of puzzles and riddles.

Abraxus

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #61 on: October 03, 2020, 09:38:55 AM »
Not so much forgotten so much as licensed and then horribly mismanaged By Margaret Weis Productions:  Firefly and Leverage.

Ravenswing

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #62 on: October 03, 2020, 12:02:58 PM »
Hell, the Serenity RPG was botched from the start: it had savage omissions from the start (trading rules, space combat rules, character sheets, an INDEX ...), although they were also under heavy constraints not to use elements out of the TV series and from Universal itself.
This was a cool site, until it became an echo chamber for whiners screeching about how the "Evul SJWs are TAKING OVAH!!!" every time any RPG book included a non-"traditional" NPC or concept, or their MAGA peeners got in a twist. You're in luck, drama queens: the Taliban is hiring.

Joey2k

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #63 on: October 04, 2020, 03:35:31 PM »
Legend of Yore is another one (although I don't know if you can call it "forgotten" since I don't think anyone ever knew about it to begin with).  I used to own it, I honestly didn't read the rules, but it did have what seemed like a decent setting attached to it (one part that impressed me was that trolls, goblins, and other humanoids had their own kingdoms/lands rather than just being monsters that roamed around the countryside, which seemed pretty novel at the time).

Same can be said of Battle Axe RPG, another that I kept just for the setting and never actually paid much attention to the rules.
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Brad

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #64 on: October 05, 2020, 09:14:33 AM »
Legend of Yore is another one (although I don't know if you can call it "forgotten" since I don't think anyone ever knew about it to begin with).  I used to own it, I honestly didn't read the rules, but it did have what seemed like a decent setting attached to it (one part that impressed me was that trolls, goblins, and other humanoids had their own kingdoms/lands rather than just being monsters that roamed around the countryside, which seemed pretty novel at the time).

Same can be said of Battle Axe RPG, another that I kept just for the setting and never actually paid much attention to the rules.

I have Legend of Yore; just another fantasy heartbreaker. Lots of good ideas, but as is typical with these sorts of games, someone published their own version of D&D.
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

Pat
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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #65 on: October 05, 2020, 09:42:38 AM »
Same can be said of Battle Axe RPG, another that I kept just for the setting and never actually paid much attention to the rules.
I remember downloading the free PDF in the early aughts, being impressed by the sheer effort that must have been put into such a massive PDF, and then ignoring it. Never knew there was a print edition.

brettmb

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #66 on: October 08, 2020, 12:50:41 PM »
Here's Part 3 in my new Forgotten Games series on my blog.
https://www.pigames.net/store/blog.php?entry=2832

VisionStorm

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #67 on: October 08, 2020, 01:08:38 PM »
Here's Part 3 in my new Forgotten Games series on my blog.
https://www.pigames.net/store/blog.php?entry=2832

I actually had Lost Souls (not sure if the book is still around). I tried to get a game going once, but not sure we ever got around playing it. I do remember making some characters, but it was so long ago I barely remember the rules, though, they didn’t seem too complicated and the book itself wasn’t very long (just little over a hundred pages, IIRC).

The game seemed to have an interesting premise, though, I agree that the skills felt a bit too mundane for a game that was supposed to be set entirely on the afterlife with limited (if any) interaction with the physical world. IIRC, your character would pass beyond once they resolved whatever issue was keeping them bound to the world, so unlike most RPGs the objective of the game was to truly die and leave the mortal world behind.

Not familiar with any of the others, but I do recognize Brom’s cover art in Abyss.

Brendan

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #68 on: October 08, 2020, 01:42:38 PM »
Here's Part 3 in my new Forgotten Games series on my blog.
https://www.pigames.net/store/blog.php?entry=2832

Oh wow, Lost Souls.  I had forgotten about that one entirely.  A friend of mine had a copy.  I think we played one game. 

Forgotten RPGs I have are probably not so much "forgotten" as just not terribly popular. I have a copy of Jake Norwood's Riddle of Steel.  It had some interesting dueling mechanics and spiritual attributes.  It's been described as "blood opera" as the spiritual attributes tend to drive the characters to final violent deeds that end badly for everyone.   Never got a chance to play or run it.   

Thornhammer

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #69 on: October 09, 2020, 12:51:44 PM »
Here's Part 3 in my new Forgotten Games series on my blog.
https://www.pigames.net/store/blog.php?entry=2832

You pick some good shit.

Bureau 13's setting was close to what we got with the original run of Delta Green - cell structured government anti-weird agency, lost a lot of members after one specific incident, lot of "do what you can, here's some equipment, good luck."  I thought Delta Green did it a little better, but that was mostly through presentation and subject license - the Bureau 13 art was a little on the cartoony side, Delta Green's was not and had the "this is a Call of Cthulhu product" gravitas.

Nick Pollotta wrote a set of novels based on his own version of Bureau 13, which turned the outfit into a group with access to unspeakable amounts of resources and they were not afraid to use those resources. Real gung-ho and kick ass, which is sometimes exactly what you want.

On Abyss, it was an RPG extension of a miniatures game also done by Global Games.  The miniatures game was called Inferno: Battles of the Abyss. A buddy and I made an abortive attempt to get into the miniatures game for a bit - there were little horde footsoldiers that fit five on the old-style square Epic bases, then sergeant units that were slightly bigger, lieutenants bigger yet, and archfiends that were enormous.  The boxed set came with a small background book that was fairly interesting too.  I bought the RPG book years later, flipped through it, couldn't really get any of my normal players enthused about it.  Global Games did something else.  Legions of Steel?  Space Hulk knockoff with some more bells and whistles, if I'm thinking right. Did play a few games of that because we were apeshit crazy for Space Hulk (1st edition).  It was fun.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2020, 12:53:35 PM by Thornhammer »

Steven Mitchell

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #70 on: October 09, 2020, 01:49:32 PM »

Oh wow, Lost Souls.  I had forgotten about that one entirely.  A friend of mine had a copy.  I think we played one game. 

Forgotten RPGs I have are probably not so much "forgotten" as just not terribly popular. I have a copy of Jake Norwood's Riddle of Steel.  It had some interesting dueling mechanics and spiritual attributes.  It's been described as "blood opera" as the spiritual attributes tend to drive the characters to final violent deeds that end badly for everyone.   Never got a chance to play or run it.

I've got almost all the books on RoS.  I'd run it with the right group of players for a short campaign.  It's one of the few games that would get me to run a mostly historically-based Dumas-style campaign.

Lurkndog

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #71 on: October 13, 2020, 06:17:26 PM »
Bureau 13's setting was close to what we got with the original run of Delta Green - cell structured government anti-weird agency, lost a lot of members after one specific incident, lot of "do what you can, here's some equipment, good luck."  I thought Delta Green did it a little better, but that was mostly through presentation and subject license - the Bureau 13 art was a little on the cartoony side, Delta Green's was not and had the "this is a Call of Cthulhu product" gravitas.

Nick Pollotta wrote a set of novels based on his own version of Bureau 13, which turned the outfit into a group with access to unspeakable amounts of resources and they were not afraid to use those resources. Real gung-ho and kick ass, which is sometimes exactly what you want.

I really enjoyed those books, though I don't think I ever owned the game.

Eric Diaz

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #72 on: October 13, 2020, 06:40:00 PM »
I have a couple of games I bought out of curiosity... Not sure if anyone has ever played them:

- World Tree RPG.
- Eoris RPg.

Also The Secret Fire RPG and Noumenom... all quite strange.

Chaos Factory Books  - Dark fantasy RPGs and more!

Methods & Madness - my  D&D 5e / Old School / Game design blog.

Omega

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #73 on: October 13, 2020, 11:05:09 PM »
Bureau 13 I remember as Phil Phoglio did the cover art.

Speaking of 13s

Theres aso the obscure Agent 13 supplement for Top Secret converting the RPG into a 1920s pulp hero adventure. Had a graphic novel and I am pretty sure at least two novel. Since this had the Dille name on it it was allmost certainly another royalty scam by Loraine to milk TSR of more money.

David Johansen

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #74 on: October 14, 2020, 09:21:19 AM »
Here's Part 3 in my new Forgotten Games series on my blog.
https://www.pigames.net/store/blog.php?entry=2832

Global Games has risen from the dead and successfully kickstarted Legions of Steel.  So, Abyss might get a reprint or at least a pdf release in the near future.
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