Quote from: Eric Diaz on December 11, 2020, 09:18:29 AM
6. Zero (by Lester Smith and Steve Stone; published by Archangel Entertainment in 1997)

The characters are rebels who have been expelled from a telepathic hive. Think of it as waking up in the Matrix movie. Each character is part of a caste (or was): archivist, breeder, drone, soldier, or tech. Abilities are like skills, but separated into focus abilities (expert), prior abilities (rusty), and unfamiliar abilities (unskilled). The total number of focus abilities is the focus rating.

Interesting stuff... Matrix came out in 1999, like 13th floor; Dark city is from 1998.

Apparently, a common theme at the time. Curiously, the whole thing faded out... even as we get closer and closer to achieving instruments that might allow us to experience a simulation (and progressively stranger times, like 2020...).

I was compiling a list of "alternate reality" movies last week. For some reason, it was a popular theme in the late 90s. In addition to the ones you mention above, Existenz (1999), The Truman Show (1998), and Strange Days (1995) all deal with reality as a vast simulation, in different ways.

In the "But I was promised a flying car!" category, Strange Days was strangely ambitious with its prediction that we'd have total sensory VR by the turn of the millennium. At the time I felt like the movie would have made more sense if it had been set in 2020. Even now, VR is still pretty primitive.

Funny that it is such a popular theme in movies, but not as much in RPGs. I recall years ago there was a fan-made "D6 Matrix" game on the web, but that's about it.

V&V 2.1 was pub'd in 2010; then the "upgrade" came, called Mighty Protectors (touted as V&V 3.0) came in 2017. So, yes an old game yet not forgotten.

Quote from: Omega on January 02, 2021, 08:30:11 PM

Quote from: dungeon crawler on November 15, 2020, 06:50:35 PM
FTL:2448 from Tri Tac games
Another one is Villains&Vigilantes from Fantasy Games Unlimited.
Aftermath from Fantasy Games Unlimited.
These were popular in my neck of the woods back in the early to mid 80's.

Think I have FTL somewhere, or had it.

As for V&V. This is far from forgotten. Its just been in limbo due to Fantasy Flight stonewalling the designers for a long long time. I was just going through some old stuff and its pretty good overall, if a bit spartan sometimes. Which for me is a bonus usually. It gets talked about as a viable alternative to other superhero RPGs and I know several who prefer it over MSH or Hero/Champions.

What does though seem to have been forgotten is the old DC Heroes RPG. This got alot of acclaim for a bit, and then poof, silence.

As for the list itself. I remember way back when Twilight Imperium was in development as I knew the FF folk back when they were more comic book distributors than game makers.

Already mentioned:
I remember seeing Nightlife & Abyss on shelves for YEARS in the 90's.

I owned Twilight Imperium with some supplements.


Not mentioned:

I still have the core and the only supplement for "It Came From the Late, Late, Late Show".

I formerly owned:

The boxset for 2300 A.D.
Beyond the Supernatural
The Arcanum
Blood of Heroes

and probably a lot more that I can't remember right now.

Edit:

RECON.  Pallidum had a series of these games before they started doing RIFTS.  Beyond the Supernatural and Recon are the only two I remember owning off the top of my head.

Quote from: Two Crows on January 03, 2021, 02:02:09 PM
I still have the core and the only supplement for "It Came From the Late, Late, Late Show".

I formerly owned:

Beyond the Supernatural

RECON.  Pallidum had a series of these games before they started doing RIFTS.  Beyond the Supernatural and Recon are the only two I remember owning off the top of my head.

One of my players had It Came From. Never had a chance to look at it really.

BTS is very not forgotten and comes up relatively often in discussions of alternative supernatural settings or ones good for playing say Ghostbusters. Its also not forgotten because it is the precursor to Rifts and where certain notables like Victor Lazlo originated. It got a rather poor 2nd edition a couple of years ago. Stick with the original.

I was going to drop a bit on CyborGladiators, but I can't find my book. Cute little thing, decent names attached to it (who? Don't remember), like it was a goofy side project done for fun on a slightly better budget than most. 

The premise is undead super-aliens kidnap lesser aliens (Humans! Catgirls! Bugmen!!!) and upgrade them with bionics to fight in gladatorial games. And that's pretty much it. The in game fiction suggests a campaign arc of playing, getting moar upgrades and leading a slave revolt, but honestly there isn't enough on the captors to really support that, as I recall.

Quote from: Omega on January 03, 2021, 11:30:38 PMBTS is very not forgotten and comes up relatively often in discussions of alternative supernatural settings or ones good for playing say Ghostbusters. Its also not forgotten because it is the precursor to Rifts and where certain notables like Victor Lazlo originated. It got a rather poor 2nd edition a couple of years ago. Stick with the original.

I had a copy of BTS 1E in my salad days, and enjoyed reading it immensely, though I never got around to playing it. What did the 2nd edition change, out of curiosity?

Quote from: Stephen Tannhauser on January 04, 2021, 08:05:39 PM

Quote from: Omega on January 03, 2021, 11:30:38 PMBTS is very not forgotten and comes up relatively often in discussions of alternative supernatural settings or ones good for playing say Ghostbusters. Its also not forgotten because it is the precursor to Rifts and where certain notables like Victor Lazlo originated. It got a rather poor 2nd edition a couple of years ago. Stick with the original.

I had a copy of BTS 1E in my salad days, and enjoyed reading it immensely, though I never got around to playing it. What did the 2nd edition change, out of curiosity?

1e BTS was a blast to play (at least for a teenager in the late eighties).  The more gonzo you played it, the better.  No idea what they changed, but it would be hard for the changes to have been an improvement...

Recon. I had the original,  Pre Palladium, and one of the supplements for it. I remember Mike Stackpole giving a  scathing review of it in Sorcerer's Apprentice based on his political beliefs about The Vietnam War.

Would we include Twilight 2000?

Most of the GDW stuff had decent shelf presence in my area, but NOBODY I met ever played it, even if they had the books/boxes.

I think Twilight 2000 has fallen by the wayside. But back in the 80s or so it seemed to be really popular. And seemed to outlast Morrow Project for a while. But in the end Morrow Project is still talked about fairly often whole Twilight 2000 is not. T2000 though got at least one PC game if I recall right. But then so did Jorune, which is far far more obscure.

Another one that sort of fell through the cracks is Aftermath, another post apoc RPG.

I still have my original T2K stuff as well as an old copy of Aftermath, never had The Morrow Project. 
I think the reason T2K died out vs. Morrow was because it was so closely tied to the cold war instead of a century or so later.

Quote from: Stephen Tannhauser on January 04, 2021, 08:05:39 PM

Quote from: Omega on January 03, 2021, 11:30:38 PMBTS is very not forgotten and comes up relatively often in discussions of alternative supernatural settings or ones good for playing say Ghostbusters. Its also not forgotten because it is the precursor to Rifts and where certain notables like Victor Lazlo originated. It got a rather poor 2nd edition a couple of years ago. Stick with the original.

I had a copy of BTS 1E in my salad days, and enjoyed reading it immensely, though I never got around to playing it. What did the 2nd edition change, out of curiosity?

Lets see. They spend about 20 pages describing the setting and yet not. Mostly just repeating that "Tthere are monsters from beyond. You have to stop them. There is never any proof."

Another big change is "being observed by mundanes and scientists depowers psychics and mages". Which goes contrary to the originals ability to mix mundane investigators with supernatural ones. Another one is that psi and magic gets stronger as they get closer to places of supernatural focus. This was a thing in the original too. But not as much emphasis.

Another is that your ISP fluctuates based on the things facing. Against mundane things you are at base level. Against minor things its doubled, and against the bigger supernaturals its quadrupled. And ISP is six times greater against major threats. 10x vs the top end horrors.

Classes are different too to some degree. And it feels like the supernaturals are more up front. Autistic Savant, Diviner, Firewalker/Pyrokinetic, Genius/Natural, Ghost Hunter/Psi-Mechanic, Latent and Nega-Psychic (that most hated of classes), Physical Psychic and another Psi-Mechanic, Psi-Healer, Psychic Medium, and Psychic Sensitive for the psi. Of these the Autistic Savant, Ghost Hunter, Firewalker and Medium are new.
And for mundane investigators there is merely the entries on Ordinary people and the Parapsychologist. Which is the same in the original.

No spellcasters at all. That was to be in a book titled Arcaneum I believe. On the other hand the original only had one mage class. The Arcanist. (And an NPc class, the Diabolist)

The psi powers are mostly the same ones, but not sure if theres fewer or the same.

The equipment section feels gutted of all the tech toys.

It sure feels like there are fewer monsters listed, but may be about the same

No maps and hardly any mention of ley lines.

The rest is fairly standard Palladium system, but damages is SDC/HP only. No MDC that I could find.

There is also no comedy/Scooby-Doo adventure and no adventures at all.

Overall it feels lesser somehow due to the overfocus on psychics. The original felt like psi was alot less frequent and powerful. YMMV but that was my impression as the DM and my players were mostly 2 parapsychologists one latent and one sensitive.

Quote from: Omega on October 25, 2020, 08:04:52 PM
High Colonies from 85 by Eric Hotz through Waterford Publishing. A semi-hard SF setting within the solar system and various colonies throughout. There is one alien race present, but no FTL drive, yet, and no artificial gravity that I recall. Nor any psi. I think. Its been a long time.

Columbia Games must have gotten the rights to High Colonies because they did a revision/version of it last year.  I think it was last year...2020 seemed to drag on forever!  Mechanics are Harnmaster-like, but a lot of the fluff is pretty much the same.

I always wanted a copy of the seemingly-forgotten Witch Hunt RPG, published in 1983 by StatCon Simulations.  I like the concept (and am a fan) of an early colonial America RPG, even if it's limited in scope.  Apparently, one can play witches or those tasked with seeking them out.  It always sounded like an interesting game, but it's usually out of my price range.

Quote from: Omega on January 08, 2021, 09:05:14 PM
I think Twilight 2000 has fallen by the wayside. But back in the 80s or so it seemed to be really popular. And seemed to outlast Morrow Project for a while. But in the end Morrow Project is still talked about fairly often whole Twilight 2000 is not.

  On the other hand, the new edition of Twilight: 2000 just tied with Dune in EN World's "Most Anticipated RPG of the Year" award, so I expect there's life in the property yet.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on January 09, 2021, 02:46:11 PM

Quote from: Omega on January 08, 2021, 09:05:14 PM
I think Twilight 2000 has fallen by the wayside. But back in the 80s or so it seemed to be really popular. And seemed to outlast Morrow Project for a while. But in the end Morrow Project is still talked about fairly often whole Twilight 2000 is not.

  On the other hand, the new edition of Twilight: 2000 just tied with Dune in EN World's "Most Anticipated RPG of the Year" award, so I expect there's life in the property yet.

Well, that dampens my enthusiasm a bit.  Anything the 'tards at ENWorld "allow" to be on one of their lists must have something wrong with it.  Granted, many (if not most) of the readers strike me as decent folks, but I have very little trust in the mods or admin there...