Basic D&D and Traveller.

Each one wins because their rules were not just simple, they were elegant in design. Both games gave you just enough to get yourself and a few friends in trouble, the rest was up to you to create.

I don't have any, sorry.

Heh...

See my sig.  

V&V.

Something died in me whan my group switched to FASRIP. We ditched our years in the making shared homebrew universe (I still use elements of it today, though) and became second stringers in the MU. I was never able to get into it.

"Dragon Warriors" - I've had the set since they were published when I was 12. I just kind of grokked it in that it did everything D&D tried to do, only better. It's still one of my favourites. YMMV.

Quote from: gale_wolf"Dragon Warriors" - I've had the set since they were published when I was 12. I just kind of grokked it in that it did everything D&D tried to do, only better. It's still one of my favourites. YMMV.

Great game. I wouldn't say it was "better" than D&D (insert obligatory "All hail the Moldvay Basic Set!" warcry) but it was definitely more flavourful. The implied setting of earlier books was a dark reflection of England during the early middle ages, with the exception of knights in full plate. The scenarios often read like twisted fairytales, I loved the idea that dungeons were retitled 'Underworlds,' and were often supernatural places where one expected to encounter dark, nonsensical shit. Giving them a pagan, spiritual dimension worked very well in reinforcing the idea that these weren't just monster spawning points.

The rules were cool, too. As a kid I thought subtracting Defense from Attack then rolling under on a d20 was inspired, and applied it as a general system for skills and the like before I knew what a Unified Resoloution Mechanic even was. The core classes were great, as were the vaguely historical monsters. Hobgoblins weren't grunts to be slaughtered out of hand, they were powerful and intelligent individuals wielding darkly sorcerous power.

I'm pretty excited by the revised hardback James Wallis has in the pipeline. Hopefully it'll inspire a mini-revival of an old school game that deserved a lot more attention than it actually got.

Old-school games?
Empire of the Petal Throne: a very servicable OD&D variant with a nifty world, fun rationales to go dungeon crawling and fun dungeons, period. Weird monsters, strange deities, cool spells, some genuinely creepy art by the creator himself. Plus a rudimentary yet awesome mass combat system.

Quote from: MelanOld-school games?
Empire of the Petal Throne: a very servicable OD&D variant with a nifty world, fun rationales to go dungeon crawling and fun dungeons, period. Weird monsters, strange deities, cool spells, some genuinely creepy art by the creator himself. Plus a rudimentary yet awesome mass combat system.

Yes!  Good times.
I'm trying to revive that feel with my Savage Tekumel conversion.
=

Sosthenes recently described Tunnels & Trolls' system as "roll some dice, add them up, tell a story".  A great summary.  I love it.  I like this game; it's streamlined and uncomplicated, with lots of wiggle-room. It may be kind of gestalt in the combat department, but it's easy enough to compartmentalize and personify.

I know that Talents are a late (official) addition to the rules, but...dude, I just made up a warrior whose talent is "Sheer, ballsy will".  If you can prove that does not rock, I will think about giving you a donut.

Villains and Vigilantes, for making a superhero game and doing things well early on, but notably for fairly quick and easy handling of map based movement, as well as the best handling of super speed I've seen, as well as offering many tactical options in ways that were easy to follow, sadly the jumping rules were a mess of complexity I still don't want to touch.


Marvel Superheroes (Faserip), for doing Marvel Universe well, simply and making charts cool--a single resolution chart that handled the game mechanics, simple direct and easy to understand. Abstract movement that fit comic books a bit more than tactical style play, and basically did superheroes of Marvel "right".


Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes: Tunnels and Trolls slightly more complex brother. It's an espionage/detective game that has solid handling of all the things needed for such a game and even some suggestions to expand into modern "fantasy" (investigative/supernatural) style play. Add to that its handling of "live" clues, and you've a slim game which does its job well and gets out of the way. (Guns are deadly, but in play fairly inaccurate, which plays up the tropes of the genres it covers well--people get shot at but rarely hit, when they are hit, its going to matter.)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for the reasons above: For years, that game had the most fun, intense character generation hands down. For a while back in high school, some friends and I would make characters, play a session, then the next week make new characters and play again.

TORG: Big New Jersey Girl Hair meets techno-primitive-pulp-horror-ninja action. It was my first exposure to multi-genre, multi-world gaming that was cohesive and made sense. The heroes were Heroes, with a clear goal: Save the world(s). It was never, ever hard to make a TORG adventure.

I like the reference to T&T and MSPE "doing their job and getting out of the way." The consistency of the rules lets you drop in a rule to do pretty much anything you want, without the house rules breaking the feel or seeming bolted on. And everything you actually want to do often is in there, laid out in clean, simple language. They're both still around. It's too bad more people don't give them a try.
There're really the foundation of the indy games, without pretension or bizarre conceits.

My nostalgic favorite for drawing me into a whole new world that has never grown old is Space:1889. I love all the games from that family, and I continue to enjoy all sorts of alternative Victoriana.

My nostalgic favorite for a game that simply never once ever offered a negative experience is Hong Kong Action Theater! (1st ed.) I still run it at conventions when I have the time. I've run dozens and dozens and dozens of scenarios in this game and every single one has been a gas.

My nostalgic favorite for something so wierd and awesome and full-gonzo fun that it locked me into the hobby forever is Arduin. Damn, I love Arduin. I don't care that it wasn't well-organized or well-balanced, or well-edited or any of that stuff. It was enthusiastic and colorful and awesome!

Marvel Super Heroes: genre emulation done right. Plus just a great, great game system.

D&D: Nobody does it better. Makes me feel sad for the rest. Nobody does it, half as good as you. Baby, you're the best.

Oh yeah, and Gamma World, just about any edition. The rules were always varying degrees of FUBAR but the game world was really awesome.

This is what the new edition missed. GW fans were always willing to put up with wonky rules for the setting, so making the rules tighter at the expense of the setting accomplishes exactly nothing.

Quote from: stu2000My nostalgic favorite for something so wierd and awesome and full-gonzo fun that it locked me into the hobby forever is Arduin. Damn, I love Arduin. I don't care that it wasn't well-organized or well-balanced, or well-edited or any of that stuff. It was enthusiastic and colorful and awesome!

I played this once in the 86-87 I really liked it (the GM had a lot to do with it). anyway, anyone if there is there a PDF or anything? I'd really like to get a look at it.

An outfit called Emporer's Choice reprints and releases the material economically. They are going to release a fresh new version of Arduin soon, one that presumably makes sense. I'm a little leery. I play Arduin cause I like to make my own kinda sense.