Name and describe a little known game from before 2000 that you either really like or mine frequently for ideas. It cannot be from a mainstream product line and must date before the year 2000.

My selection is Prince Valiant, because it utilizes a real simple system that does what it needs to do in a creative way without requiring a lot of math or using ridiculous gimmicks.

Foul.  Prince Valiant was published by Chaosium, which, prior to 2000 (well, certainly prior to 1997-98) was arguably a mainstream publisher.  Hah!

My nomination is for The 23rd Letter, published 1996 from Crucible Design of Belfast.  One of the creators of the game lurks hereabouts.  It's a fantastic game of psychic powers and secret agent skulduggery.  It plays the theme on the low-powered end of the spectrum -- think Firestarter or The Dead Zone rather than X-Men.  It plays much more like a spy thriller than a sci-fi movie.

!i!

You're right. It's late. I didn't mean publisher - I meant mainstream product line (changed)

I have 23rd Letter. I wanted to like it, but I wanted more structure.

How about Legendary Lives, c. 1993?  Its like they put in every race/class they could think of (including some pretty gonzo ones), and its fun to read (and free!).

Quote from: brettmb;265160I have 23rd Letter. I wanted to like it, but I wanted more structure.

For a little more structure, it'd make a pretty good template to place over -- dare I say it? -- White Wolf's Storyteller System.

!i!

For structure, I meant setting, or a better way to organize the characters.

Heavy Ordnance.   Doom meets the playground.  A portal to hell opens up in the middle of the school cafeteria, and everyone over puberty becomes possessed or transformed into a slavering, bloodthirsty, demon host.  Now you and your school chums must fight to survive.

Time & Time Again:  I really liked the concepts regarding time travel.  Time cannot be changed by going back into the past.  Also, I liked the concept of the time agents.  The agents belong to a paramilitary organization that is based off the French Foreign Legion.  They system was wonky, but the fluff is excellent.

Justifiers:  This is one of my favorite games.  The game system is simple and workable, but the gold mine in this game is the fluff.  I really like the concept of the TransMatt technology, and that in order to explore a planet a team must be blind-beamed into orbit of the planet.  I like the concept of Justifiers being genetically altered and manipulated anthropomorphic beings that are created into semi-slave status.  I like the hard science-fiction approach of the game.  Also, the art is cool.

Justifers is awesome!

I'm a big fan of Attack of the Humans, which is a pretty simple and easy to run game that involves paranormal investigators hunting supernatural beasties.

Whenever this topic comes up, I mention Waste World, an aborted product line from the 90's. The game system reads a bit like a cross between GURPS and Talislanta/Omni, while the setting is a very over-the-top post-apocalyptic world with a bit of a kitchen sink feel--cybergear, lizard men, etc. But beneath all the cool gonzo there's also a neat premise of a world in which resources are so depleted that people go out into the wastes to risk their lives scrounging. If I were to run it I might redo the setting a bit to play up that element, basically turning it into a world where licensed and unlicensed recyclers fight each other, toxic environments, and mutated horrors in order to salvage precious materials.

Quote from: Zachary The First;265162How about Legendary Lives, c. 1993?  Its like they put in every race/class they could think of (including some pretty gonzo ones), and its fun to read (and free!).

I've only looked through a bit of it, but I really like what I see. Thanks!

En Garde!, originally from 1975. I haven't actually done anything with it yet, but I'd like to do an online version next year, with a new system and setting.

There are two games (and one ... supplement?) that I regularly take from my shelf just to browse and immerse in the naiveté and old-school-ness.

Dragon Warriors - Which has been brought back to life by James Wallis and should be on the radar of many RPGsiters because it has seen many discussions here as well. From 1985-1995 I mined the hell out of those paperbacks.

Darkurthe Legends - If I had had this book in 1985 when I started RPing I guess I would have switched to this system in no time. It has a certain Palladium-ness to it, but in a good way.

Lüdinn - not a game but a primer for players in a Living City-style AD&D convention campaign during the 90s. I mentioned it before here.
Pure gonzo.

Continuum has given me some good ideas for certain games over the years, not least of which Amber.

RPGPundit

Starleader: Assault, published in 1982 by Metagaming, was the first module of the Starleader rpg. S:A provided the introductory man-to-man combat rules of the system, like Melee to the The Fantasy Trip. None of the other modules were published, however, leaving S:A as a stand-alone skirmish game.