New retro games

rcsample · January 16, 2007, 11:48:26 AM

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Bah! Hearsay. Why, I played it with Pinky Carruthers at the Banzai Institute back in '80.

Correct. It is real. It actually pre-dates D&D. I played it in the '50's with Captain Tuttle when I was stationed at the 4077th in Korea.

jrients · January 16, 2007, 12:18:18 PM

Quote from: KenHRWhat is Spaceship Zero?

It's a sci-fi rpg based upon a cult classic radio serial and 70's TV show that never existed. Spaceship Zero blends Lovecraftian horror and the Golden Age of Sci-Fi to produce something that is both gee-whiz wondrous and mind-shatteringly horrible. It's also one of the few sci-fi games aside from Transhuman Space that tries to be something more than space opera adventure. It asks tough questions about identity and human nature, but you also get to zap fish men on the moon.

Melan · January 17, 2007, 02:38:18 AM

So ends a legend.

Akrasia · January 18, 2007, 01:25:40 PM

Quote from: MelanDifferent aesthetics definitely play a part....

And then there is also the redistribution of power from DMs to players, not to mention the overzealous attention to "game balance"...

All in all, what this has resulted in is the flowering of a gaming niche...

As usual, Melan is spot on.

Hastur T. Fannon · January 18, 2007, 02:37:09 PM

Quote from: MoriartyI've been thinking of getting the latest version of Metamorphosis Alpha that Jim Ward had a part in designing. I don't know much about the system other than that it is NOT d20 and uses a 3d6 system.

The 25th Anniversary Edition blew goats. I read it and immediately flogged it to Tim Willard along with some of my other surplus games. It's still a jokey bone of contention between us (I warned him! I really did)

Zachary The First · January 18, 2007, 03:10:04 PM

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonThe 25th Anniversary Edition blew goats. I read it and immediately flogged it to Tim Willard along with some of my other surplus games. It's still a jokey bone of contention between us (I warned him! I really did)

Was it really that bad? That's a shame.

Balbinus · January 18, 2007, 03:11:49 PM

Quote from: MoriartySorry to quibble over terms here but to me, "new retro" actually means both: recapturing old-school gaming as well as modernizing the ruleset; something that Castles & Crusades does magnificently as it dumps the more byzantine rules of AD&D and dumps the rule for everything style of d20.

Moriarty,

I think you have a point and I'd agree with that.

That said, I also think it's funny as hell I got corrected on the proper use of a term I made up myself, and all the funnier because you're right.

RPGPundit · January 18, 2007, 03:13:20 PM

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonThe 25th Anniversary Edition blew goats. I read it and immediately flogged it to Tim Willard along with some of my other surplus games. It's still a jokey bone of contention between us (I warned him! I really did)

That's really, really too bad. But yea, from what I'd read about it, I had a feeling the new version was going to suck ass.

RPGpundit

Mcrow · January 18, 2007, 03:18:27 PM

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonThe 25th Anniversary Edition blew goats. I read it and immediately flogged it to Tim Willard along with some of my other surplus games. It's still a jokey bone of contention between us (I warned him! I really did)

4th ed isn't much better if you ask me.

Metamorphosis Alpha: 4th Edition - (MA4e) Designed by James Ward with Craig Brain, illustrated by Jim Holloway (AD&D, Gamma World, Paranoia et al.) and playtested by (among others) Alex and Gary Gygax. Published by Mudpuppy Games.

KenHR · January 18, 2007, 06:31:37 PM

Was that the edition that featured campaign "stages" or some such? Like, you're robots for the first campaign, etc.? The ad copy I read didn't really fire me up. I LOVE the original game, though.

lev_lafayette · January 18, 2007, 07:44:13 PM

Quote from: MoriartyFor some background: Metamorphosis Alpha was the precursor to Gamma World, both of which were designed by the aforementioned Jim Ward. I don't know much about the game setting other than its set on a giant and stranded spaceship that originated from Earth.

I have a copy of MA.. It's surreal, amazingly silly and basically a dungeon crawl with lasers.

A colony ship is struck by radiation "of an unknown type" which kills most the crew. "Intelligent and mutated animals and plants now populate the vessel, and these compete or perhaps cooperate with the humans aboard". The game asks us:

"Have you ever seen a moose with quills? Or a teleporting woodpecker with a double brain and a poison beak?"

You get the picture.

Hastur T. Fannon · January 19, 2007, 04:19:44 AM

Quote from: RPGPunditThat's really, really too bad. But yea, from what I'd read about it, I had a feeling the new version was going to suck ass.

It was just really, really uninspiring. It wasn't that it was bad as such, because even a bad game like Gamma World d20, or Worlds of Synibarr can inspire you to produce something better or give you material you can lovingly rip off. This was just tediously mediocre.

MA was legendary. I wanted to play MA. I don't any more

KenHR: Yeah, it encouraged you to run three campaigns, one after another as the ship realised how much of a problem it had. In the first campaign you played security robots, in the second, hastily constructed androids and in the third it woke up the human crew