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Author Topic: Forgotten RPGs  (Read 30119 times)

brettmb

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #15 on: September 24, 2020, 10:34:11 AM »
Panzerkraken, I have all of them. I will discuss Hahlmabrea in a future entry, but Journeyman is coming up in the sci-fi post (probably next week). Thanks.

Marchand

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #16 on: September 24, 2020, 12:32:45 PM »
Panzerkraken, I have all of them. I will discuss Hahlmabrea in a future entry, but Journeyman is coming up in the sci-fi post (probably next week). Thanks.


Steven Goff did a follow-up to Journeyman called Stellar Wind, with more of a d20-ish system. Has an amazing hard scifi ship construction and space combat system (heat management is a key element). Or is that not forgotten enough?!


I have a game on my hard drive called Core-7 by VisioNation Studios. Scanning it for the first time in years, it used a percentile system, seemed more geared to modern/future games (rules for firearms and vehicles), and is written in such a way that it's pretty clear the authors thought it was shit hot. Tagline: "the system is on_". Marketing spiel: "for those who want a medium between storygames and trad games", although it doesn't seem to have many storygame elements. There is discussion of diceless play (basically just allow the action if the GM-assigned difficulty is less than the PC's skill level). The GM is called a Visionary. I usually hate it when games introduce some new term for the GM and... I hate this.


Again not sure if this counts as forgotten, but there was the Hinterwelt output. As an inveterate collector of SF RPGs I picked up Nebuleon. Great setting (humans the underdogs in a space opera empire dominated by aliens), system kind of a mashup of rolemaster and d20 - certainly that part is forgettable.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2020, 12:40:46 PM by Marchand »
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brettmb

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #17 on: September 24, 2020, 12:39:47 PM »
That's a little too new.

Omega

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #18 on: September 24, 2020, 01:06:25 PM »
I have Ravenstar. Setting seemed a little... odd. Reminds me in a way of how Anarchy Online's setting is presented. An anomolous planet where magic-like powers are possible and everyones trying to take advantage of that.

Omega

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #19 on: September 24, 2020, 02:03:41 PM »
I came across an advert for Dreamtime in issue 172. But it was just short of the most uninformative advert ever. Did mention a planned UK release so maybe it gets more mention in White Dwarf, but I am betting probably not as WD was phasing out reviews of other company stuff by then. But aside from that one advert in Dragon, seems it was never produced?

Issue 171 has a little advert for a game called RÜS from an Australian publisher by the same name about "role playing in heathen Russia" and set in the 900s. Unfortunately for a historical themed RPG it is sorely lacking in history.

Jaeger

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #20 on: September 24, 2020, 03:05:14 PM »
I've always wanted to get my hands on a copy of  Cutthroat, The Shadow wars...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutthroat:_The_Shadow_Wars

The set up is very much in a thieves world vein. Lots of premise similarities to Blades in the dark.

Evidently it had a kind of proto d20 system. I read on another internet forum that WOTC went around and bought out a few games before 3e was released...

Disappeared - and I think highly unlikely to ever see the light of day again.
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VisionStorm

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #21 on: September 24, 2020, 08:14:13 PM »
MetaScape

I believe I ordered this from a Dragon Magazine ad or something in the 90s. The company isn’t even around anymore and the guy still kept posting poorly edited updates in a website somewhere (not sure if still around). The game was basically a fantasy sci-fi game that ripped off Star Wars and a dozen space opera tropes. It had a race of cat people with psychic matriarchs, cyborg lizard people, male-only warrior-monk race that looked like Dark Sun Muls on steroids and a mysterious hooded robe-wearing race of magic users who no one had ever seen without their robes (all you could see was darkness if you tried to peek through their hoods), had laser swords and could command magic by harnessing the power of the Source (not to be confused with the Force...but basically the same thing).

I’m not sure if I still have the books somewhere cuz I lost a bunch of stuff to a termite infestation years ago, but the game came in a boxset with a couple of manuals (maybe three or four, can’t recall), a couple of miniatures and its own patented 16-sided dice (I lost to time). They system used some sort of esoteric math were you multiplied the result of the 16-die by another die roll (don’t remember which other dice it used) to determine a potentially infinite result (I believe the system also used some sort of exploting dice or something). It was sort of race/class/skill-based, were your race and your class determined your starting abilities as a sort of package deal, but you could take off from there in a more freeform progression approach.

Don’t really remember details about the setting, but it was basically a far future spacefaring society, predominantly human (or at least a more advanced version of humanity) with a hodgepodge of other allied races, settled around a space sector close to where they made contact with the robe-wearing race of magic users.

As I recall it, the whole thing (setting and system) was a combination of interesting and innovative, with tropey, weird and overly specialized.

brettmb

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #22 on: September 24, 2020, 09:54:25 PM »
Very complicated if I remember correctly.

Lurkndog

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #23 on: September 25, 2020, 05:35:30 PM »
I'm curious to see your list of sci fi games. Please keep us posted!

Brad

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #24 on: September 25, 2020, 08:26:05 PM »
I gave Quests of the Ancients, bought it at Half Priced Books a couple years ago. A couple I have that aren't exactly obscure, but maybe not too well-known:

Darkurthe Legends
MEGA
Ysgarth
Bifrost

Most of my stuff is in boxes right now due to getting new carpeting, so I cannot verify, but there was one book I have that I also got at HPB that I've never heard of or seen before I bought it. Looks like possibly a one-off, self-published RPG. I'll need to dig it out sometime to see if anyone has ever heard of it. Spoiler: it's basically a mediocre D&D knock-off...
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brettmb

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #25 on: September 25, 2020, 08:52:09 PM »
While Ysgarth is too complicated, there is something about it. Darkurthe is pretty good. Pretty sure I have MEGA, but don’t remember it. I have heard of but have never seen Bifrost (very rare).

Trond

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #26 on: September 26, 2020, 07:53:12 PM »
Powers & Perils? Too mainstream?

brettmb

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #27 on: September 26, 2020, 07:57:42 PM »
Powers & Perils? Too mainstream?
I always want to like that, but it's so complex.

Trond

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #28 on: September 26, 2020, 08:55:48 PM »
Powers & Perils? Too mainstream?
I always want to like that, but it's so complex.


The rpg.net review of the game is pretty hilarious. It always cracks me up that the women characters have lower INT according to the rules, and something about (unintentional?) homoerotic art. Sounds like a bit of a mess, don’t know if it’s a fun mess at the table though 😊

Marchand

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #29 on: September 26, 2020, 10:01:49 PM »
Never heard of Powers and Perils. This would appear to be the game's website: https://powersandperils.org/rules.htm#Skills . Seems quite extensive.





"If the English surrender, it'll be a long war!"
- Scottish soldier on the beach at Dunkirk