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Author Topic: Forgotten RPGs  (Read 30165 times)

Ravenswing

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #45 on: September 30, 2020, 11:56:52 AM »
I'm not sure who JH Kim is

A guy well-versed in RPG history who put together, and maintained through 2015 anyway, an encyclopedic list of every RPG anyone had ever heard of.  Kinda surprised you haven't heard of him, seeing as he's currently active on this board and has something like 8000 posts.
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.

Bren

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #46 on: September 30, 2020, 01:22:07 PM »
Was it like Ace of Aces, where each player has a flip-book that shows the view out of the cockpit, and you go to a different page depending on which maneuver you choose?
Not the same, but a similar idea. Rather than a flip book, there was a cardboard cockpit device. It had a slide that depicted your maneuvers. You used the slide to select your maneuver, the device had cutouts that would then display the bonus or penalty for the various maneuvers your opponent might. So you lined up your maneuver on your device while the opponent did the same on his device. You both revealed your choices and rolls to hit were made using the appropriate bonus or penalty. It was fun for solo dog fighting, but have been a bit unwieldy for many ships and possibly less fun for the characters on a freighter who weren't picking the maneuver.

The cockpit device may have been inspired by Ace of Aces. I know the designer played aerial war games like Foxbat - Phantom before Ace of Aces was published. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he had seen Ace of Aces.
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Bren

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #47 on: September 30, 2020, 01:26:06 PM »
I'll echo others. I'm a bit surprised how many of these games I've never even heard of. I guess I did miss something not going to all those gaming conventions over the years.
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Steven Mitchell

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #48 on: September 30, 2020, 02:35:39 PM »
From what I read Powers & Perils was still too stuck to wargame-style simulationism (makes sense since it came from Avalon Hill) and failed to compete with D&D 1e. Kind of like TSR blowing themselves up with Spellcraft trying to compete with Magic...

In my teenage years, I didn't have a lot of funds to get games. I had to be very picky about what I ran.  A relative started loaning me games to try before I bought.  That's how I got to experience Runequest in all its glory, for example. Anyway, Powers and Perils was one of the loans.  I ran an adventure with it for friends.   Keep in mind this was a group that played multiple RPGs and a lot of Avalon Hill board games (Titan, Kingmaker, etc.). At the time, we thought P&P was just off somehow and not worth pursuing.  Maybe we didn't get it and I'd feel different now.  I can't remember it well enough to know why we didn't like it, but I remember quite clearly it was one of the few unanimous, "No way in hell are we playing that anymore" votes.

hedgehobbit

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #49 on: September 30, 2020, 03:46:29 PM »
Maybe we didn't get it and I'd feel different now.  I can't remember it well enough to know why we didn't like it, but I remember quite clearly it was one of the few unanimous, "No way in hell are we playing that anymore" votes.
My interest in Powers & Perils is because it was written by Richard Snider who was influential in early D&D. He was responsible for how dragons worked in AD&D, gaining fixed hit points per hit die, and for the dragon subdual rules (although they were originally rules that let the dragons subdue the PCs!). He also worked on Arneson's Adventures in Fantasy. I suspect that he was incredibly good at doing math in his head as both games have you comparing multiple numbers in order to generate a chance to hit.

Bren

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #50 on: September 30, 2020, 03:49:15 PM »
Is Powers and Perils the game with the killer penguins?
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Bren

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #51 on: September 30, 2020, 03:52:14 PM »

In my teenage years, I didn't have a lot of funds to get games. I had to be very picky about what I ran.  A relative started loaning me games to try before I bought.One of my best friends in my youth was a self-professed game collector. He used to like reading game rules. I have a fair number of RPGs, but he had many more.We teased him because he collected game after game for over ten years before he ever ran a session. I miss him.
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Brad

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #52 on: September 30, 2020, 05:47:29 PM »
Here's Part 2 in the series
I have a lot of obscure games and have read Heroic Worlds cover-to-cover multiple times, but these are totally off-the-wall...learn something new every day!

RE: Powers and Perils, I own everything published for it, even had a POD printing of the new version made. Honestly, I love that game, even with its impenetrable rules. It's like the Mirror Universe version of Chivalry and Sorcery.
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Hakdov

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #53 on: September 30, 2020, 11:28:30 PM »
The most obscure rpg I still own is High Fantasy published in 1981.  The system is kind of weird but it has my favorite solo module of all time in the back.  I recently found out that the author (Jeffrey Dillow who is some kind of scientist) has recently started publishing his own fantasy novels on Amazon.  It's pretty cool that he is still writing after taking like 30 years off. 


https://www.amazon.com/Jeffrey-C-Dillow/e/B001KI4SEK/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1

David Johansen

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #54 on: October 01, 2020, 12:11:22 AM »
huh...I've owned and played Wizard's Realm, Powers And Perils, and High Fantasy.  I've even played the miniatures rules from Martin Hackett's Fantasy Wargaming (as opposed to Galloway's).  I've always felt Wizard's Realm was pretty neat with it's runic alphabet and coded messages in the margins.  It had some good ideas in there.  The town locations list is often funny (his wife is the real bare knuckles champion in town).  Really, a second edition could have been fantastic.  Powers and Perils wasn't as bad as people say it was but it didn't really bring much new to the table.  High Fantasy had some great ideas on downtime activities by character class.
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Ravenswing

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #55 on: October 01, 2020, 05:22:41 AM »
The most obscure rpg I still own is High Fantasy published in 1981.  The system is kind of weird but it has my favorite solo module of all time in the back.

Huh, I had a copy of that at one time: it was a Christmas present from one of my players.  The first (and for all I know the only) attempt by a major book publishing company -- I believe a subsidiary of Prentice-Hall -- to come out with an RPG.  I remember nothing about the rules, but it did come with an interesting scenario about an underground temple separated from the world for many years, with warring factions for the PCs to sort out.  Filed off the serial numbers and used the scenario.
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.

Brad

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #56 on: October 01, 2020, 10:45:16 AM »
I, too, have a copy of High Fantasy, along with Adventures in High Fantasy, got them both for $5 at a model train store in Austin circa 2000. Same store also had all the GURPS Conan books, but I passed them up for some stupid reason.


No idea how obscure these are, but I was digging around and found Ninja Burger, Ork, Aria, and Reich Star. Gonna go through all those boxes soon...
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brettmb

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #57 on: October 01, 2020, 09:38:09 PM »
I was going to mention a seventh game in Part 2 of the Forgotten Games series, but the timing didn't work out. This has been a personal favorite of mine for some time. I did not get it back in the day, but found it on eBay several years ago. I have secured the rights to Worlds Beyond (1989), so there will be a classic reprint of it in the near future.



http://rpg.deals/wb

brettmb

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #58 on: October 01, 2020, 09:39:56 PM »
I like High Fantasy, but never played it. Not sure how the system holds up.

Mercurius

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Re: Forgotten RPGs
« Reply #59 on: October 02, 2020, 12:50:05 PM »
The game that came to mind when I read the title was Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth. It got some attention back in the early 90s - great idea and very high concept, but I'm not sure how playable it was. I think it had a bit of a cult following for awhile.

Wasn't Bushido kind of big in the 80s? That disappeared, afaik.

Jorune is well-remembered by setting enthusiasts, but also disappeared.

There are literally hundreds of games that game and went with no fanfare, from "fantasy heartbreakers" to countless indie and self-published games. I wouldn't call them forgotten, though, because that implies that they were ever known. Check, for instance, Noble Knight's fall clearance - lots of games there.