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pargbonecrusher
2010-08-18, 06:34 PM
This is mainly to get a frustration off of my back.

There have been many RPGs in the past that you or people you know have played. Now these might not mean much to you, but to others, it holds a soft spot in their dice. So I must ask you, What is the best RPG you have played that has since been discontinued or just fell out of existence.

I would like to point something out though, I'm talking about fully published RPGs.

My favorite would have to be Brave New World by Matt Forbeck.

Ernir
2010-08-18, 06:35 PM
D&D 3.5. :smallfrown:

Grynning
2010-08-18, 06:51 PM
Two spring to mind - WasteWorld, a silly Rifts/Dune/SciFi kitchen sink ripoff with one of the best combat systems ever, which I unfortunately only have the quickstart rules for because the main rulebook is hard to find and pricey.

Star Wars D6 - I love Saga, but the D6 game is the first thing I ever GM'ed and I have a special affection for it. It kind of survives as some generic sci-fi rules that got put out a few years ago, but I don't know anyone who uses them.

BladeofOblivion
2010-08-18, 07:02 PM
3.5. It has all the good homebrew.

Aroka
2010-08-18, 07:09 PM
Easiest question ever: The Riddle of Steel. Best combat system ever in any RPG, for each of smoothness, fun, and realism. The developers just fell off the face of the earth (along with the pre-orders for their next book on magic and the fae).

Runners-up:

RuneQuest, 3rd edition (Avalon Hill). Fortunately, Mongoose's RuneQuest is great too.

Cyberpunk 2020. 203X is the worst RPG I actually own. The attempt to convert from early 80s Gibson mirrorshade-cyberpunk to early 90s Stephenson post-cyberpunk (already ancient when 203X came out!) was hideous, but the single worst thing by far are the Intruder Countermeasure programs that form a body from nanites so you can just shoot them with a gun instead of hacking through them. :smallfurious:

Trodon
2010-08-18, 07:15 PM
D&D 3.5 :smallmad:

Gnaeus
2010-08-18, 07:21 PM
Torg. (Also D&D 3.5)

darkpuppy
2010-08-18, 07:29 PM
Hoo boy, where to begin?

I've heard good things about Torg, and similarly, I know darn well that Cyberpunk V3 is awful... when dealers at the last GenCon UK (apparently the last GenCon UK... :smalleek:) were literally giving the things away along with those free "quick play" things for various games, you know you're not gonna be able to expect much.

But on that subject, I'm one of the few people I know who ever liked CyberGeneration (the midpoint between 2020 and V3, again, a completely different game) and wants a new copy... lemme see... they should never have scrapped Alternity, that rocked. Amber Diceless also rocked. Artesia.. the company's still selling books, but they aren't working on anything new, 'sfar as I know... and finally, I want Chris Blankley's Screaming Silence and Heavy Ordnance to return to the web. can't find them for love nor money now.

EDIT: Okay, couldn't find the really cool PDF version of Heavy Ordnance, but I did find the HTML one, and Screaming Silence is on mediafire.

Aroka
2010-08-18, 07:33 PM
I wouldn't call Artesia: AKW discontinued so long as Archaia Press is going, and so long as Smylie is alive (I would say "so long as Smylie is doing the comic", but you know he'll die long before he finishes or stops making the comic even if he lives to be a hundred).

If it were, though, it'd be my #1. The combat system is only "pretty great" rather than "literally the best", but the game overall beats out TROS. The setting is stupendous.

lyko555
2010-08-18, 07:40 PM
By far the best is Tales of the floating Vagabond.
what game can go wrong when the dm is called the bartender

The Big Dice
2010-08-18, 08:01 PM
+1 to Cyberpunk 2020 going the way of the Dodo. Fortunately, there's still a ton of resources for it online.

I also miss D&D. That is the red/blue/green/black/gold boxed BECMI D&D, not AD&D. To the point where I got a bunch of clones, then shelled out for the Rules Compendium.

Analytica
2010-08-18, 09:07 PM
I think Kult is currently not published, unless that French company is still at it. I recall the original Swedish version (and the English translation) very fondly. In any case, there is an amazing setting and metaplot going on, with good rules support. Playing it like the authors seem to have intended should be completely awesome. It might be the one game that used the most real-world occultism for it's setting, and that tied it all together the most...

... but OWoD Mage: The Ascension might come a close second, and is also both excellent and discontinued.

arrowhen
2010-08-18, 09:42 PM
Car Wars, Battletech (neither of which were technically RPGs, but we used to roleplay the hell out of them back in junior high), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness.

Aroka
2010-08-18, 09:44 PM
Car Wars, Battletech (neither of which were technically RPGs, but we used to roleplay the hell out of them back in junior high), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness.

Battletech (http://www.classicbattletech.com/) ?

endoperez
2010-08-19, 12:31 AM
Torg. (Also D&D 3.5)

I have a TORG mainr rules box, but I never played it. Is it good for the rules, the setting, or something else?

Balain
2010-08-19, 12:52 AM
Doctor Who by Fasa

FelixG
2010-08-19, 12:58 AM
Battletech RPG (though i have been told they are reprinting the books!!)

and SPECIAL (Fallout)

Platinum_Mongoose
2010-08-19, 01:03 AM
Star Wars: Saga.

Or AD&D, but only because of Planescape. :smallsmile:

Zom B
2010-08-19, 01:05 AM
I gotta chime in again with West End Games' Star Wars d6 system. We adapted the heck out of that system for other campaign settings. It was so easy and enduring. Also, you can get a 5-pack of d6's at the Dollar Tree here.

pargbonecrusher
2010-08-19, 02:18 AM
I like the answers so far. Keep them up!

katans
2010-08-19, 02:27 AM
In Nomine Satanis / Magna Veritas. Greatest modern setting ever, easy and fun game system, nigh-endless possibilities (play an angel! play a demon! play a viking hero! heck, play a mundane human!), deliciously cynical, dark comedy aplenty... luckily there has been lots of material published, so I still have hours and hours of play before me, but yet again I felt really sad when I bought the final module.

Satyr
2010-08-19, 03:00 AM
I would say the original World of Darkness. I know it has a few successor games, but I really don't think that those have nearly the quality of the original games. And yes, pretty all of the game lines.

Two weeks ago, I would have mentioned the Unisystem RPGs as there have been no new publications in nearly two years, but since they finally published that awesome pirate book, I would put them from the red list.
So... it's not the Unisystem as a whole (fortunately), but I highly doubt that there will ever be a new book for Witchcraft, Armageddon or Terra Primate, and that's sad.


I wouldn't call Artesia: AKW discontinued so long as Archaia Press is going, and so long as Smylie is alive (I would say "so long as Smylie is doing the comic", but you know he'll die long before he finishes or stops making the comic even if he lives to be a hundred).


I would really like more books by him. The problem is, that he does everything alone, and I fear that sooner or later, he will face a serious George R.R. Martin syndrome... however, more Artesia AKX actually seems unlikely to me. Not because the game isn't good (it's perhaps a bit clunky, but okay) but because I've never heard of anybody who really plays it.

Wonton
2010-08-19, 03:03 AM
{Scrubbed}

Aroka
2010-08-19, 03:27 AM
I would really like more books by him. The problem is, that he does everything alone, and I fear that sooner or later, he will face a serious George R.R. Martin syndrome... however, more Artesia AKX actually seems unlikely to me. Not because the game isn't good (it's perhaps a bit clunky, but okay) but because I've never heard of anybody who really plays it.

He needs to write more of the damn comic - four volumes in, what, 11 years? It's not enough. If he actually produced it at a steady pace it could become a big thing, because it is completely awesome, and that ought to market the RPG too.

Kurald Galain
2010-08-19, 04:46 AM
I have a TORG mainr rules box, but I never played it. Is it good for the rules, the setting, or something else?

+1 to TORG.

Primarily for the setting. It's fun that several of the realities run on movie cliches. That means that if you're hanging on to a cliff and surrounded by evil zombies, somebody will come by and rescue you precisely because that's what would happen in a movie.

Also, a good part of the rules is the One On Many / Many On One table. There aren't many RPGs that deal this well with the notion of one character doing many things at once, and many characters trying to do the same thing at once.

dsmiles
2010-08-19, 04:52 AM
I would have said Talislanta, but I recently found out that it was still available (YAY!:smallbiggrin:)

Sooooo...AD&D (1e).

kestrel404
2010-08-19, 05:04 AM
Earthdawn. While 3rd edition has just entered print, Earthdawn itself went out of print after 1st edition for several years before a couple of different publishing houses picked it up and dusted it off for the LRG/Redbrick 2nd editions.

As for which edition of the game is best, I'm currently in an 1st edition/LRG hybrid game (since LRG didn't re-publish a lot of the original play options, and we own ALL of the original source material). That and the Redbrick version of 2nd edition are both quite playable and nice. While 3rd edition TRIES to fix a few things (like versatile character options) that were poorly done in the first two editions, it does a bad job of it and makes the game less appealing to old style players.

Overall, between the backstory (epic fantasy post-apocalyptic pulp horror), the gameplay (faster paced and easier to use than DnD with a slightly steeper learning curve), the magic system (mages get a very limited of selection of spells at any time that they can cast at will, but the more powerful spells take multiple actions to cast, and they can change between these spell as either and out-of-combat action that takes 10 minutes, or take damage and make a roll to try to do it fast), and the integration of the fluff with the crunch (90% or game mechanics are in-world concepts with reasonable explanations, including things like why 'dungeons' exist to be explored and looted by adventurers, and going up level) all combine to make Earthdawn the best RPG I've ever played.

Bogardan_Mage
2010-08-19, 05:10 AM
D20 Modern. In many ways, what 4th Edition probably should have been.

darkpuppy
2010-08-19, 05:23 AM
Interesting that you say that, Bocardan, because some of the features in 4E were indeed directly lifted and modified from D20 Modern.

potatocubed
2010-08-19, 05:27 AM
I'm going to say Alternity. It's one of the very few scifi games I actually liked.

Bogardan_Mage
2010-08-19, 05:42 AM
Interesting that you say that, Bocardan, because some of the features in 4E were indeed directly lifted and modified from D20 Modern.
Yes, but not enough of them. Incidentally, the things I like most about d20 Modern (that are different to 3.5) are in the same areas as the things I dislike most about 4E (if that makes sense). Namely classes/levels (4E and Modern went in basically opposite directions, one heavily discourages multiclassing and the other makes it practically compulsary) and alignment (Allegences have all the benefits of pre-4E alignments without the "roleplaying means picking one of 9 personalities" idea that some players have)

Curmudgeon
2010-08-19, 05:58 AM
D&D 3.5, based on the size of my investment in books. :smallannoyed:

KiltedGrappler
2010-08-19, 06:09 AM
Alternity(!) and Star Wars d6. I'd say older editions of D&D, but since most of them are retro-cloned now I can't complain anymore.

Tengu_temp
2010-08-19, 06:12 AM
Earthdawn. While 3rd edition has just entered print, Earthdawn itself went out of print after 1st edition for several years before a couple of different publishing houses picked it up and dusted it off for the LRG/Redbrick 2nd editions.


I didn't mention Earthdawn because of the third edition. But your point about the first edition is valid, so I'm going to second this.

FelixG
2010-08-19, 06:41 AM
Star Wars: Saga.



they are discontinuing starwars saga edition? 0.o

hamishspence
2010-08-19, 06:46 AM
Yup- they discontinued it back in May:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Roleplaying_Game_(Wizards_of_the_Coast)

Unknown Regions was the last book.

hamlet
2010-08-19, 06:48 AM
I'm going to say Alternity. It's one of the very few scifi games I actually liked.

+1 More here.

And AD&D in any incarnation, too. Frankly, I really think that WOTC/Hasbro is dropping the ball by not either releasing the license for it, or offering it up for free development to those interested. It can't do anything to them except generate sales and, if they just permit people to put AD&D on the cover rather than hiding behind OSRIC, it would cost them nothing at all and build good will to a group that they shot at not long ago. But, ce'est la vie (and I"m sure I spelled my French wrong there).

pife
2010-08-19, 06:53 AM
+1 for Cyberpunk 2020
+1 for Star Wars D6

Tyrmatt
2010-08-19, 07:06 AM
AD&D 2E. It was my introduction into the world of RPG games. For all it's flaws, I miss it. It ruthlessly punished you at low levels too..

FelixG
2010-08-19, 07:19 AM
Yup- they discontinued it back in May:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Roleplaying_Game_(Wizards_of_the_Coast)

Unknown Regions was the last book.

Huh, wonder who will pick up the license next!

dsmiles
2010-08-19, 07:33 AM
It ruthlessly punished you at low levels too..


It ruthlessly punished you at low levels too..


It ruthlessly punished you at low levels too..

:smallfrown:
*tear*

Ahhh...Advanced Dungeons and Dragons...it will be missed.

Melayl
2010-08-19, 08:03 AM
2E (first RPG I ever really played, minus one 1E game)
3.5
Star Wars D6 (my half million D6's miss you too...)

DanReiv
2010-08-19, 09:38 AM
SW D6 for honorable mention.

Fading Suns was the stuff, kick ass game.

Hawriel
2010-08-19, 10:17 AM
TSR's AD&D.

I never liked WOTC managment of D&D. I dont like how they wrote their books. Large run on sentences that tried to say every thing yet nothing. Constanty repeated paragraphs through out the book when an easy explination or page reference would do. The art chosen was WOW + animie. It made me wonder of the artists ever opened a book to see what a real suite of armor looked like. All that said D&D 3.5 is not dead.

Pathfinder is doing an amazing job of keeping the game alive. Great adventure campains for their world. The Pathfinder compain world is new yet familiar. The art is consistent, even if it has some of the problems of WOTC. Any new rules have been created with the core book in mind. The advanced players guide just came out. I like more than 20% of it which is alot more than most splat books. Paizo even sais if you dont want the book or cant afford it dont worry. Its not manditory to play the game.

Pathfinder may not exactly be 3.5, it's more what 4th ed should have been.

http://paizo.com/pathfinder

Look for yourself. Or dismiss it along with some others on these boards who sniff and say its just homebrew that got published.


Star Wars D6.

However the real problem is with WEG. WEG no long exists. After they lost the star wars lisence they made their own D6 books. D6 Space, Adventure and Fantacy. They had all of the creative writing of the star wars games. D6 Space might has well have been Star Wars 3rd ed.

Reverent-One
2010-08-19, 10:19 AM
Star Wars: Saga.


This. :smallfrown:

Tyndmyr
2010-08-19, 10:19 AM
7th Sea, followed by D&D 3.5

comicshorse
2010-08-19, 10:21 AM
Cyberpunk 2020, Fading Suns, Kult but most of all Pendragon

dsmiles
2010-08-19, 10:23 AM
How about Gamma World or Marvel Superheroes?

Wonton
2010-08-19, 12:51 PM
D&D 3.5. :smallfrown:

Yeah, D&D 3.5 for me as well... I actually started off with AD&D, and I've played 4e, but 3.5 is still my favourite and will always be. :smallfrown:

Zaakar
2010-08-19, 01:17 PM
I'll also say DnD 3.5, but I don't really see it as a problem that they no longer give new splatbooks. We don't really need more of that (although some erratas wouldn't hurt :smallannoyed:). Though I guess less and less people will be playing it, which sucks :smallfrown:

Kingboy
2010-08-19, 02:21 PM
...and SPECIAL (Fallout)

Was that ever officially published? I have seen the various download versions around, but never heard about a physical version (which I might not mind owning if it exists).



How about Gamma World...

Hmm...as much fondness as I have for 3rd edition Gamma World (which is pretty much the only version I've played), that game was a train wreck. Not even slightly balanced, and the books were laid out horribly with numerous errors. Heck, there was a whole section of rules that they forgot to put in the main book, which instead got added into the little compendium pamphlet that accompanied it in the boxed set (something I am also nostalgic for, but don't wish to see return).

Don't get me wrong, I still test the waters every now and again to see if I can convince my gaming friends to let me run them through a 3E GW campaign. My latest efforts have been an appeal to nostalgia, with the notion that it'd be a perfect system for a Thundarr the Barbarian style pulpish campaign, especially with the inscrutable Artifact Comprehension flowchart...


Speaking of games that I have a fondness for, but which I would hesitate to call "best", this whole thread has me digging around in the basement to find my copy of Morpheus (http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1658) from Rapport Games. Any game that has a power called "Reality Control"—which should be a giant tip-off —is probably not going to be the most balanced or well constructed game in the world. But I had a heck of a lot of fun with it, and it was just about as flexible a system as you imagination allowed it to be.

kc0bbq
2010-08-19, 02:46 PM
How about Gamma World or Marvel Superheroes?Gamma World isn't completely dead, a new edition is coming out in October as a stand alone mod to 4E, which with the way certain mechanics work I think will be pretty nifty. YMMV. Along this vein, though, Star Frontiers was all kinds of silly fun. (Holy moly, there are sets of TSR's Star Frontiers miniatures on Amazon!)

Shattered Dreams, which is all kinds of awesome and creepy. Over the Edge. Monique D'Aubainne, Historic Liberator and Current Shepherdess of Al Amarja is the greatest RPG creation ever.

Amber DRPG, which, now that Erik is gone will never be coming back. :( Stupid cancer. Not that there was much left to do with the system, its the principle of the matter.

Fax Celestis
2010-08-19, 03:03 PM
Everway's my vote.

Clepto
2010-08-19, 03:14 PM
I was going to say All Flesh Must Be Eaten, since as of the last time I tried to buy it (sometime in 2002), it had ceased publication. But apparently it started back up sometime in 2004 with the newfound zombie love that everyone has. Probably due in large part to Romero's remake of Dawn of the Dead, which kind of kicked off the whole thing.

Definitely +1 to D&D 2E.

+1 to WEG Star Wars, the first RPG I ever played.

I love Paranoia XP since you can play pretty much any style game you want with it, but I definitely miss the 2nd Ed Paranoia games.

Tetsubo 57
2010-08-19, 06:04 PM
Gamma World 4th Edition (1992).

Everstone: Blood Legacy.

Cyberpunk 2020.

Justifiers RPG.

A note on 3.5 edition of D&D. We have the OGL. It will live forever.

realbombchu
2010-08-19, 08:26 PM
As far as I know, BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth) 3rd edition is dead, and that makes me sad. It was the first point-buy game I'd ever played, and I enjoyed it. The game is still owned by White Wolf, but I doubt they'll do anything else with it.

I realize we are not talking about video games, but I also miss Earthbound (Super Nintendo). That was the game that started it all for me, and I'm still upset that they didn't release Earthbound 2 in the States.

Thefurmonger
2010-08-19, 08:43 PM
Mythus Dangerous Journeys Se it here (http://www.waynesbooks.com/MythusDangerousJourneys.html)

A great game by Gary G. sadly it died before it really lived. but it was a blast to play.

senrath
2010-08-19, 08:44 PM
As far as I know, BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth) 3rd edition is dead, and that makes me sad. It was the first point-buy game I'd ever played, and I enjoyed it. The game is still owned by White Wolf, but I doubt they'll do anything else with it.


Considering that there was supposed to be another book released a couple years ago and it never appeared, BESM seems pretty dead. Pity.

SigCorps
2010-08-19, 11:56 PM
Battle lords of the 23rd century.

While I do not think it was ever big main stream, I went to college with some of the designers and was a play tester for some of their stuff. Great Sci-fi game. Well thought out, balanced, very fun, with a little bit of humor built in.

derfenrirwolv
2010-08-20, 12:39 AM
7th sea.

It had a few mechanics problems that you could work around, but the flavor of the world with pirates and swashbucklers was awesome. I've never seen a system that encouraged over the top role playing so much. It had our groups resident munchkin role playing one of our most memorable characters, a deep and rich history, and a huge cast of characters.

caden_varn
2010-08-20, 06:07 AM
I'l second Torg. It's a really fun system to play, simple, an interesting world and loads of hooks for adventures.

I never really got to do much with Kult, but it did look like an interesting system. Maybe I'll need to dig it out.

The one I regret most was Aria, which was a game where you played a whole civilisation rather than a single character. Sadly they only ever published the first book as far as I know.
This only allowed you to create your race, the second book was supposed to have the play rules.
Book 1 (canticle of the Monomyth) was quite handy as a world-building guide though, so not a total waste of money.

Tyrrell
2010-08-20, 06:57 AM
Easiest question ever: The Riddle of Steel. Best combat system ever in any RPG, for each of smoothness, fun, and realism. The developers just fell off the face of the earth (along with the pre-orders for their next book on magic and the fae).
While I hardly consider it an easy question, I did come up with the same answer.

Bayar
2010-08-20, 08:45 AM
Apart from D&D 3ed and Alternity, SenZar.

Cavada
2010-08-20, 08:58 AM
I know at least one person has mentioned it before but Runequest is definately the best that has fallen out.

I think it was second edition that was the best by far, and it may be personal preference, but I think d100 is just a better system than d20. (Maybe I just like percentiles, who knows, course I've never truly played d20 for an extended period) Mongoose has a new version out, but its just not as good as 2nd edition by Chaosium.

I think there was an edition that also went extinct just after 2 that was decent, but other than that all the remakes have been trying to be something RQ is not.

Bagel
2010-08-20, 09:00 AM
As far as I know, BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth) 3rd edition is dead, and that makes me sad. It was the first point-buy game I'd ever played, and I enjoyed it. The game is still owned by White Wolf, but I doubt they'll do anything else with it.

This

getting ready to sit down with wife and friends and start another campaign about an hour from now :P , its my groups preferred game. we like our systems open ended and point buy happy :)

darkpuppy
2010-08-20, 09:10 AM
*coff* since there's so many Alternity players here... ninja recruitment! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9180839)

Anyways, darn good thread, enjoying seeing many of my old favourites on this list... What to add to this...?

As controversial as this may seem, I liked Skyrealms of Jorune... less controversially, Blue Planet. Both are, as far as I'm aware, discontinued.

DanReiv
2010-08-20, 09:24 AM
{Scrubbed}

Edit post surgery : oups sorry, didn't knew It was an unwanted topic anymore. Last time I saw it was the journal attempt in these board (worth a smile too)

Voldecanter
2010-08-20, 09:29 AM
Mythus Dangerous Journeys Se it here (http://www.waynesbooks.com/MythusDangerousJourneys.html)

A great game by Gary G. sadly it died before it really lived. but it was a blast to play.

I agree completely , this is most definitely one of my Favorite Game Systems .

FelixG
2010-08-20, 09:32 AM
also, FATAL.

Because reading all the reaction was FUN.

-burns with purifying fire!-

darkpuppy
2010-08-20, 09:33 AM
{Scrubbed}

Gods NO! KEEP IT AWAY! WUBWUBWUBwubwubwubwub

TheEmerged
2010-08-20, 12:02 PM
Alternity. By far, the longest sci-fi campaign I ran was in this system. I was particularly fond of the dice mechanic (instead of adding/subtracting constants, you rolled additional dice) and the success system. I also liked that they laid the race creation rules bare for us to see, and that your class wasn't as absolute as most race/class systems.

(We ran a lot of Battletech, but typically very short campaigns. Our Alternity campaign went for like 4 years).

Brave New World. This was a Good News/Bad News situation for me. I *loved* the world. I *hated* the system. We quickly abandoned the system and ran the world in HERO. I kept several aspects of it for my last superhero campaign (especially the idea that lower-leveled superheroes were actually pretty common and fell into certain "archetypes").

SAGA: Dragonlance 5th Age. The system had some gaping flaws, but we house-ruled and ran with it. I wouldn't take much convincing to use a card-based random resolution system again :smallbiggrin:

The *old* Marvel Superhero System, AKA "FASERIP". I've run several short campaigns in it. Some parts were better than others, and for long-term campaigns I prefer HERO. But this system does have its charms, even if it doesn't reflect the gap in power between superheroes as well as I'd like.

Otogi
2010-08-20, 12:18 PM
How about Gamma World or Marvel Superheroes?

Ah, Gamma World, how I missed thee, especially your 4th edition. Speaking for 4th editions, though, I'm still in high hopes for the newest one (one of the first RPGs I've ever preordered!)

Caliphbubba
2010-08-20, 12:35 PM
oWoD- Vampire, Mage, Werewolf...even Changling and Wraith! (not to mention Hunter, Demon and Mummy lol) I freaking loved that system, and devoted many, many hours to playing and running both table top and LARP games of this setting.

D&D 3.5, just cause.

I don't get the love for the d6 Star Wars system. It was an OK game, but had some janky rules. Then again they could have been houserules the GM I played with was notorious for houseruling.

Moriato
2010-08-20, 12:37 PM
3 pages and no one's mentioned Deadlands yet? For shame. "Reloaded" doesn't count.

9mm
2010-08-20, 02:23 PM
Battletech (neither of which were technically RPGs, but we used to roleplay the hell out of them back in junior high),

Catalyst has the licence and has revamped rules up to the old battlespace; though they're seemingly in a retool mode so Universe at War (the mechwarrior replacement) is in total limbo at the moment.



Was that ever officially published? I have seen the various download versions around, but never heard about a physical version (which I might not mind owning if it exists).

a pen and paper version was put out with Fallout 3.

Set
2010-08-20, 05:25 PM
If I had to pick one, it would be Aeon/Trinity, by White Wolf.

Somewhere just below that;

Adventure!
Vampire: the Masquerade
Mage: the Ascension

GURPS 3rd edition

AD&D 2nd edition (esp Al-Qadim and Kara-Tur)
D&D 3.0 / 3.5

Villains & Vigilantes has nostalgic appeal but I wouldn't call it a great system... Ditto Paranoia.

Rhonstet
2010-08-20, 05:40 PM
3.5 is too obvious. Anything from WotC can't count, because 4.0 involves taking everything earlier and trying to make it fun for the people who _don't_ own a thousand dollar library.

My vote goes to Fading Suns(or Dune When It Grows Up) from Hollistic. The rule system might have been warm garbage, but no other setting has been as dynamic, except perhaps a time-travelling GURPS campaign.

The combination of inquisitious religions, aliens, starships, swordfights, fallen civilizations, and exploration gave GMs totally unlimited freedom in terms of storytelling. I played in a dozen campaigns, and they all played like totally different rule systems thanks to the campaign emphasis. I've never seen a game session that started as The Name of the Rose and ended as Aliens before.

Lost Demiurge
2010-08-20, 07:31 PM
Nobilis, my friends. Nobilis was so beautiful...

Got a copy of the big white book on my shelf, just waiting for the right group and the right time. Perhaps one day I'll even get to play it...

Hawriel
2010-08-21, 01:56 AM
Wow, how could I forget 7th sea.

Man that was a great setting.

Satyr
2010-08-21, 02:04 AM
Midnight by Fantasy Flight Games. It was "only" a campaign setting for D&D 3.5, but at least it was my favorite one (and closer to my tastes than any of the official ones).


GURPS 3rd edition
That's the first time I have ever sen that someone didn't see the 4th edition as an improvement to the 3rd. Can you explain what do you see as problematic with Gurps4?

Roga
2010-08-21, 02:35 AM
Old World of Darkness, especially the Orpheus set. It, like most of WoD, had just amazing flavor and depth.

Shadowrun 2nd Ed, so much fun things that got either ignored or nerfed in the new edition. (Reminds me a lot of when D&D went from 3.5 to 4th)

and lastly D&D 3.5, I love it so. The fact that I own all but 4 of the 3.5 books doesn't hurt.

Platinum_Mongoose
2010-08-21, 10:28 AM
-burns with purifying fire!-

What did fire ever do to deserve such horrors?

Tetsubo 57
2010-08-21, 11:31 AM
3.5 is too obvious. Anything from WotC can't count, because 4.0 involves taking everything earlier and trying to make it fun for the people who _don't_ own a thousand dollar library.

My vote goes to Fading Suns(or Dune When It Grows Up) from Hollistic. The rule system might have been warm garbage, but no other setting has been as dynamic, except perhaps a time-travelling GURPS campaign.

The combination of inquisitious religions, aliens, starships, swordfights, fallen civilizations, and exploration gave GMs totally unlimited freedom in terms of storytelling. I played in a dozen campaigns, and they all played like totally different rule systems thanks to the campaign emphasis. I've never seen a game session that started as The Name of the Rose and ended as Aliens before.

Thousand dollar library? You think *small*...

Tetsubo 57
2010-08-21, 11:32 AM
Old World of Darkness, especially the Orpheus set. It, like most of WoD, had just amazing flavor and depth.

Shadowrun 2nd Ed, so much fun things that got either ignored or nerfed in the new edition. (Reminds me a lot of when D&D went from 3.5 to 4th)

and lastly D&D 3.5, I love it so. The fact that I own all but 4 of the 3.5 books doesn't hurt.

The last Shadowrun books I read were the 1st edition. How did the 1st and 2nd editions differ?

pargbonecrusher
2010-08-21, 12:21 PM
I love the responses so far. In all honesty, I didn't think that it would go this far. I had thought it would have died out at the second page.

Keep up the good work players!!:haley:

Clepto
2010-08-21, 12:41 PM
I would also be remiss if I didn't plug the Iron Kingdoms. For those that haven't heard of it, it's a D&D supplement for 3.5 written by Privateer Press. It's an entirely new campaign world, labeled Full Metal Fantasy, which is kinda steampunk, but less dystopian and more magic. It's also the world that started the Warmachine/Hordes tabletop games.

It's currently mostly OoP, but Privateer Press is overhauling it and adapting it to an original system so they can make it a standalone game.

The IK is probably my favorite D&D setting of all time.

a_humble_lich
2010-08-21, 01:22 PM
Shadowrun 1st and 2nd Editions were basically the same game as far as I remember. They simplified the combat mechanic a little, added a few different archetypes, and changed a little of the art. Otherwise it was basically the same.

I agree with Satyr about GURPS 3rd Edition. Also I don't really see it different enough from 4th Edition to really count as a different game. Third Edition supplements are basically all still quite usable. And GURPS requires the GM to make so many decisions anyway about the way the game is set up, he/she could quite easily rule all sorts of 3rd Edition stuff in.

Roga
2010-08-21, 04:09 PM
My bad, I meant Shadowrun 3rd edition. That's where I played the most, and both of my favorite characters did not translate well to 4th edition.

4th edition is still a great game, it just doesn't have as many options as 3rd. This happens anytime you reboot to a new edition, see D&D 3rd to 4th.

Set
2010-08-21, 08:03 PM
That's the first time I have ever sen that someone didn't see the 4th edition as an improvement to the 3rd. Can you explain what do you see as problematic with Gurps4?

We had some issues with 3rd edition, such as defenses going too high, and made some house-rules over the years, such as eliminating most sources of Passive Defense. This nicely streamlined combat, which, with defenses over 13 or so, quickly turned very tedious. 4th edition came out, and added some of our house rules, and we loved that, only to find that they'd arbitrarily added +3 to defense rolls, essentially taking away the problem with one hand, and then putting it right back with the other. (That's just one example, obviously. There dozens of changes, some we like, some we didn't, and, for the most part, our house-ruled 3rd edition worked better for us than attempting to house-rule 4th edition back, and spending lots of money to do so...)

Our group has played since Man-to-Man and The Fantasy Trip, and 1st edition was a great improvement, and 2nd edition was a great improvement, and 3rd edition was a great improvement, but 4th edition just kinda fell down for us. Maybe we got old and inflexible. Maybe it's us. Either way, 3rd edition remains our preferred GURPS edition.

mikej
2010-08-21, 08:07 PM
D&D 3.5 :smallmad:

The Glyphstone
2010-08-21, 08:48 PM
The Iron Kingdoms books for certain, though they don't really count as an RPG so much as a campaign setting/supplement series. I loved the IK setting, playing WARMACHINE for years without ever realizing I could play D&D in it too, until it was out of print.

Satyr
2010-08-22, 12:27 AM
[tangent]

Yes, thank you for the explanation. I had very different experiences with the system, and never had these problems (thanks to a frequent use of Deceptive Attacks), but I can fully understand how personal expectations and so on have their impact on the perception of a game (that's why I personally dislike Shadowrun 4, after all).

Jabas
2010-08-28, 08:09 AM
WFRP 1st edition, Star Wars D6 and MERP were some of my all time favourites.

I also have a soft spot for Pendragon (or is that still in print?)

WhiteHarness
2010-08-28, 11:28 AM
Another vote for the Riddle of Steel.

I don't understand the popularity of D&D 3.5; it wasn't much fun unless spellcasters are the only type of character you like to play. I'm much happier with 4th Edition's apparent commitment to making sure that the mundane warriors aren't consistently outshone by the spellcasters as they were in older editions...

Curmudgeon
2010-08-28, 11:31 AM
3.5 is too obvious. Anything from WotC can't count, because 4.0 involves taking everything earlier and trying to make it fun for the people who _don't_ own a thousand dollar library.
Care to elaborate? 3.0 started out the same as 4.0, and the pace of releasing new books seems to be about the same. With the 4.4 update, or changed emphasis, or whatever you want to call it, it does look like they're building a new reason for people to acquire new books.