What games were in some sense or another a product of their time, and something about their setting or their style (this isn't a discussion about mechanics) make them seem amusingly or ridiculously dated these days?

RPGPundit

Most conspiracy type games are very painfully 90's. just something about the time.

ConX, Dark Matter, etc...

I'm tempted to say Twilight:2000 (as much as I love it) but I think given that it's been 30 years since we faced as big a TEOTWAWKI scenario as we did in that time, it's gone back around to being retro in a good way.  It was a little harder to play it in the 90s when a mere handful of years prior the whole USSR had gone out of business...

VTM seems pretty dated.

Quote from: Piestrio;676076Most conspiracy type games are very painfully 90's. just something about the time.

ConX, Dark Matter, etc...

Unfortunately as good as some parts of it are, I'd have to add the overarching plot of "Y2k = STARS ARE RIGHT" element of Delta Green in there too.

Delta Green and Unknown Armies for reasons given.

Dragonlance. Once it was the bee's knees, now it's more velvet ya than Whoopi Goldberg.

Every word written by Gary Gygax.

WEG's Star Wars. No midichlorians, no Boba Fett clones, no JarJar Binks, there aren't even any rules for Trade Embargos! Doesn't even feel like Star Wars.

Oh oh oh, every fucking word of Cyberpunk:2020.  And Shadowrun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GPGQoR6f6w

especially Shadowrun.

And just so we've covered anything, any game that has characters ramming 3mm mini-DIN connectors into the sides of their heads to interface with computers ('cause yeah the human brain - so much faster than a sixteen-core cheap-enough-to-be-disposable hobby board with a touchscreen running Android...), and pits them against "neo Soviets" or "Japanese Megacorp private cops" or that constant chestnut of all Gibson's bastard children of the RPG hobby, the US broken up into tiny nation states that would make the most jaded randroid cackle with glee.  I think that pretty much handles the "cyberpunk" game genre.

Much of Delta Green.

The fundamental premise is sound (if derivative of Bureau 13). But the implementation. On the one hand, you have all these conspiracies about militias (which I guess to be fair, is always a major concern for left wingers when a Democrat is in offense, look at all the hyper ventilating they do about the Tea Party).

On the other, you have the Vampire/White Wolf style "cool" which really isn't anymore.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;676086Oh oh oh, every fucking word of Cyberpunk:2020.  And Shadowrun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GPGQoR6f6w

especially Shadowrun.

And just so we've covered anything, any game that has characters ramming 3mm mini-DIN connectors into the sides of their heads to interface with computers ('cause yeah the human brain - so much faster than a sixteen-core cheap-enough-to-be-disposable hobby board with a touchscreen running Android...), and pits them against "neo Soviets" or "Japanese Megacorp private cops" or that constant chestnut of all Gibson's bastard children of the RPG hobby, the US broken up into tiny nation states that would make the most jaded randroid cackle with glee.  I think that pretty much handles the "cyberpunk" game genre.

I dunno. I have been playing Shadowrun Returns, and it still has a certain amount of charm to it.

Quote from: Piestrio;676076Most conspiracy type games are very painfully 90's. just something about the time.

But does that make them less enjoyable to play? To me, that's part of the charm, like playing a spy game like Top Secret, or even an Old West game.

Shadowrun.  One can tell it's definitely a product of the 80s.  It didn't even get a wireless Internet until later Editions.

Deadlands.  It's plausible that the designers made the Confederacy non-racist as part of making the setting friendlier to PCs who aren't white males.

BUT!

Look at the last 2 US Presidential elections: racist right-wingers are throwing around dog whistle politics, while at the same time insisting that the Confederacy's slavery was but a minor issue.  Unsurprisingly the Neo-Confederate movement attracts a lot of white supremacists.  The "happy, progressive" Confederacy idea becomes a lot less comfortable.

Quote from: Lynn;676089But does that make them less enjoyable to play? To me, that's part of the charm, like playing a spy game like Top Secret, or even an Old West game.

Oh sure, but it went from 'modern conspiracy' to 'period conspiracy' fairly quickly.

For Shadowrun, it's dated (retro nowadays I guess. X that makes me feel old) setting is part of the charm for me. In that manner I'd say 2nd edition has aged very well.

Agree with the Cyberpunk and Shadowrun (so 80s) and ConX and White Wolf (so 90s), and will add
- anything published as Amazing Engine (much as I like Kromosome)
- Mayfair's Chill. It catches a lot of the 90s X-Files flak, but it's also something in the (purple spattered) presentation that seems dated (and if system were not off-limits you could go to town).
- anything by Palladium. Just looks like an 80s game.

Also, much as I love 'em - Everway and Over The Edge. The former because of its new age feel; something about it evokes 90s Clive Barker fantasy, etc. The latter for similar reasons, but replace Clive Barker with David Lynch (and maybe Cronenberg). Any game which evokes a particular cult feel from a particular time is going to feel dated.

Special mention for Gary Gygax's Cyborg Commando, which is so dated it's like Gygax squared (like its dice mechanic)

Quote from: Libertad;676090Shadowrun.  One can tell it's definitely a product of the 80s.  It didn't even get a wireless Internet until later Editions.

SLA Industries is even worse, because it never had new editions advancing the timeline and technology. It's incredibly advanced in some places, in others... less so.

It's way past cybertech and deep into biotech, they can stick whatever the fuck they want in your skull, space travel is trivial, and they can get an ambulance to you in less than four minutes... across most of the world, anyway.

And when you're done, you can settle back to watch a movie on VHS.

(Of course, given the entire universe in universe isn't quite real anyway, you don't really want to correct some things...)

Quote from: smiorgan;676097Agree with the Cyberpunk and Shadowrun (so 80s) and ConX and White Wolf (so 90s), and will add
- anything published as Amazing Engine (much as I like Kromosome)
- Mayfair's Chill. It catches a lot of the 90s X-Files flak, but it's also something in the (purple spattered) presentation that seems dated (and if system were not off-limits you could go to town).
- anything by Palladium. Just looks like an 80s game.

Also, much as I love 'em - Everway and Over The Edge. The former because of its new age feel; something about it evokes 90s Clive Barker fantasy, etc. The latter for similar reasons, but replace Clive Barker with David Lynch (and maybe Cronenberg). Any game which evokes a particular cult feel from a particular time is going to feel dated.

Special mention for Gary Gygax's Cyborg Commando, which is so dated it's like Gygax squared (like its dice mechanic)

The 80's: When every man had sunglasses, every woman had a perm, and EVERYBODY wore spandex.

JG