Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;281131Nephilim and Kult should have been huge. Deep, rich modern settings rife with possibility.
Unfortunately, I believe both games suffered from systems too poor to render the gameplay properly...

Nephilim's problem, I think, was more that it wasn't very clear on what it was for, whether in the marketing or in the books.  IIRC, you were playing a sort of astral parasite that would live in other people's bodies for a while, and then after death would sort of lurk like a psychic landmine until someone activated you and you took over their life... not the most heroic of characters to play.

Plus, there was sort of a muddled cross between fighting the forces that were trying to wipe out your kind and trying to achieve some sort of transcendance - again, I remember it not really being clear what you were sitting down with this character to *do*.

So, games I'd like to have become mainstream?  Hm.  Space:1889 is one I'd love to see become more popular, and having Mekton return would be neat too, I think.  BESM pretty much has the 'rules light' part of the anime RPG covered, IMHO, and Mekton nicely covered the 'rules heavy/wargame' end of the curve.

I'm hoping the new release of Traveller stays on to become more mainstream - I realize it's famous and a bit name, but I've never been able to play it, although it looks like I'll get into a campaign later next month.

There's another cool-as-fucking-hell indy RPG called Blood! It was re-released by the good guys at Postmortem Studios. It runs on a percentile system that's a bit too clunky (wayyyy tooo many charts) for my tastes but It's an amazing, old-school, game to run 80's inspired horror.
I've thought about trying to write a short campaign for Blood! but I've yet to sit down to do it.

Quote from: jcfiala;281222Nephilim's problem, I think, was more that it wasn't very clear on what it was for, whether in the marketing or in the books.  IIRC, you were playing a sort of astral parasite that would live in other people's bodies for a while, and then after death would sort of lurk like a psychic landmine until someone activated you and you took over their life... not the most heroic of characters to play.

Plus, there was sort of a muddled cross between fighting the forces that were trying to wipe out your kind and trying to achieve some sort of transcendance - again, I remember it not really being clear what you were sitting down with this character to *do*.

That's very true. Even supplements left things to interpretation.
I think it could have used a stronger GM advice section too and help clarify a lot of possibilities offered through play.

In my case it would be Usagi Yojimbo. It's not an old game, but it's so obscure that very few people heard of it when it was released (including myself). A pity, because I think the system is very well thought out, and it portrays the source material really well. I really love this game!

Quote from: Claudius;281308In my case it would be Usagi Yojimbo. It's not an old game, but it's so obscure that very few people heard of it when it was released (including myself). A pity, because I think the system is very well thought out, and it portrays the source material really well. I really love this game!

I got the impression from another thread that there are two quite different versions.  Which one are you referring to so I can keep my eye out?

Quote from: Nicephorus;281317I got the impression from another thread that there are two quite different versions.  Which one are you referring to so I can keep my eye out?

Sorry, I meant the Sanguine Productions version. I do recommend it.

The other one is the Gold Rush Games version.

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;281148David, please say more about Wizard's Realm. I'm a fan of High Fantasy but I don't think I've heard of WR before.

Okay, Wizard's Realm was a pretty basic frp.  Orcs, dwarfs, bogeys, teleporting dragons, the usual stuff.  The art was very flowing and disneyesque or perhaps Charles Vessesque only less so.  The cover had a really bad colouring job that made it butt ugly.  I think they'd have done better with black and white.  It wasn't mainstream game art but it was nice.

Anyhow, character creation was 2d10 for eight attributes.  Mostly the usual ones with dexterity and agility being separate IRRC.  Then you spent three skill points and wrote down what your character called what they did as your character class.  A skill point was good for a +1 with a weapon or a base rating of 50% in a skill or a variable base rating in a spell or +5% in a skill or spell.  The races gave minor attribute modifiers.

Melee was a combat total system with three stats +1d20 for attack and defense with the weapons having attack and defense modifiers and the damage being the amount the defense was beaten by.  Missile weapons had a table that gave their chance to hit and damage at different ranges.

It was a fun little game all told and crammed a lot into a very small book.  Races, monsters, spells all in a very minimalist but clear format.  They even had the of iconic characters from the illustrations stated up and a map of a town with a short key and a very empty world map.

It's games like Wizard's Realm and High Fantasy that inspire me to design.

STAR FRONTIERS is available at: StarFrontiers.com for FREE.  Marvel Superheroes (the original, etc.) is available for free somewhere else on the Net, if anyone's interested in those gems.

Nephilim and KULT, for sure.  Although, I have found a lot of themes of KULT are in World of Darkness, so much so that they had articles in their magazine about how to do crossovers.

Nephilim is clunky to the max (the magic system is especially unwieldy).  The authors seem to take great delight in trying to make the system as difficult as possible to understand.  And tighter goals would be a good thing.  As for astral parasites, well, that's part of playing something different (though I wouldn't mind if they changed that somewhat).

Quote from: teckno72;281423Nephilim and KULT, for sure.  Although, I have found a lot of themes of KULT are in World of Darkness, so much so that they had articles in their magazine about how to do crossovers.

Themes, yeah sure. I would rather play in Kult's setting than the WoD. The Lie, man! The Illusion! (I'll stop the spoiling right about there).

Quote from: teckno72;281423Nephilim is clunky to the max (the magic system is especially unwieldy).  The authors seem to take great delight in trying to make the system as difficult as possible to understand.  And tighter goals would be a good thing.  As for astral parasites, well, that's part of playing something different (though I wouldn't mind if they changed that somewhat).

Yup. A new system that supports the type of games that should be run with Nephilim would be nice. And astral parasite? Lol. That's not untrue but a weird way to put it, I suppose.

How DOES one roleplay a KULT character at -250 or +250 or so?  I always thought that was a valid question, though I do love the game.

Quote from: jcfiala;281222Nephilim's problem, I think, was more that it wasn't very clear on what it was for, whether in the marketing or in the books.  IIRC, you were playing a sort of astral parasite that would live in other people's bodies for a while, and then after death would sort of lurk like a psychic landmine until someone activated you and you took over their life... not the most heroic of characters to play.

Plus, there was sort of a muddled cross between fighting the forces that were trying to wipe out your kind and trying to achieve some sort of transcendance - again, I remember it not really being clear what you were sitting down with this character to *do*.

With some of the supplements, there were other interpretations which were less unpleasant, but per the core rules it did strike me you were basically playing a Lovecraftian horror that effectively possessed people and took their place in order to further its own goals.

When I read the core book, I recall thinking, surely we should be playing the guys fighting these things?

Quote from: teckno72;281861How DOES one roleplay a KULT character at -250 or +250 or so?  I always thought that was a valid question, though I do love the game.

The game becomes completely cerebral or it becomes a game of 'what creature/cult/secret society can I kill next?'
At least that's what I always imagined it would be like...

I've never heard of anyone getting there and I certainly haven't.

Quote from: Balbinus;281988With some of the supplements, there were other interpretations which were less unpleasant, but per the core rules it did strike me you were basically playing a Lovecraftian horror that effectively possessed people and took their place in order to further its own goals.

When I read the core book, I recall thinking, surely we should be playing the guys fighting these things?

Same here. As a GM, some might find that it is something to tap into as the characters realize they are nothing more than monsters, really. What do they do next?

I used that a lot without it getting old.

Quote from: teckno72;281861How DOES one roleplay a KULT character at -250 or +250 or so?  I always thought that was a valid question, though I do love the game.

At that point, the game has gone past straight horror (or Splatterpunk) and moves into dark fantasy. A game with -/+ 250 characters would probably look and feel like something set in Lovecraft's Dreamlands.