Obscure Tabletop RPG's

[Krug]

My father was a huge fan of D&D back when he was in college so I've always grown up around D&D and the Pool of Radiance games. So growing up I didn't think that there were other games like D&D out there much less functional ones. I've seen Paranoia and Shadow Runner but never played them, but I do play Fallout Pen and Paper.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is: Does anyone know any good but obscure Tabletop RPG's? I really interested in learning about them and maybe so others forum goes might have their interests piqued.

[Lost Demiurge]

There's a ton of them out there. From the seventies on, in all genres and all sorts of systems.

But I can toss out a few venerable ones that have stood the test of time... You've already mentioned Paranoia and Shadowrun, but THESE are a bit more obscure...

OLD-SCHOOL, BUT STILL GOING STRONG TODAY

Call of Cthulhu - Adventurers? Nope! You're investigators in the roaring 20s, looking into hauntings, mysterious happenings, and things that go BURBLE in the middle of the night! Famous for having a Sanity stat, that decreases the more weird stuff you see. Most investigators go nuts or die horribly or both, but the trip is usually horrific fun all the way down.

Champions/Hero system - An old-school superhero game, heavy on the math, but capable of handling just about anything. Creaks a little in comparison to modern games nowadays, but one book (Thick enough to stop bullets, mind you,) covers everything.

GURPS - Stands for Generic Universal Roleplaying System. Famous for being able to model just about ANYTHING. Has a ton of setting and rules books, all of which are optional, and all of which work together. A bit complicated compared to modern rules, but you can do ANYTHING with the system.

Runequest - Take D&D, put it in a bronze/early iron-age world, turn it sideways, and give it one of the most well-fleshed-out, flavorful settings ever designed. The rules are simple enough, a bit grittier than D&D, but you don't play it for the rules. You play it for the SETTING. This is a world where leading your clan on a raid to steal cattle might segue into reliving the quests of one of your gods, and that's just part of life.

MORE MODERN, BUT ARE GUARANTEED TO BE AROUND FOR A LONG WHILE

Mutants and Masterminds - A powerful and simple superhero roleplaying system that uses a single D20 to resolve EVERYTHING. Seriously easy to run, and capable of handling other genres.

Pathfinder - Wouldn't really call this one obscure, but you didn't mention it, so I will. See, back when D&D moved from its third edition (3.5 if you want to be pedantic) to fourth, a lot of people didn't like the change. So a company called Paizo made a system which was what they thought D&D SHOULD have turned out like, and a lot of people liked it. Today it's a freaking huge product line, with a ton of books and adventure paths. And it's basically D&D. Mind you, it's a well-designed version of D&D, with seriously good support.

Savage Worlds - A pulpy, fast little system that's got a generic main book, and a ton of settings and campaigns. Bills itself on being FAST, FURIOUS, and FUN, and I'm inclined to agree. Not really meant for deep, introspective games, this is more about rolling dice, pulling cards, and throwing down against monsters.

Vampire and the other various White Wolf Games - Play a monster! Experience angst! Try to keep yourself a little human, in the face of various problems! Famous for having politics that make "A game of thrones" look like a preschool slapfight, and for being overly hipster, the games still hold up well. Uses D10s to resolve things. Lots of D10s. Games are usually less about kicking butt and taking loot then they are about trying to set up deep, introspective roleplaying.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Here's the subforum you want (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=60) :smallsmile:

To add to the venerable test-of-time list: King Arthur Pendragon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendragon_(role-playing_game)), possibly the most-overlooked game in RPG history. It dates back over 25 years, and it's one of the best games I've come across. You all play Arthurian knights, going on an adventure per in-game year, tending to your manors in the off-season and fostering your lineage...so that when your knight dies (or retires), you journey out with their heir, on new knightly adventures! The passions and virtues of knights are at the forefront of the game, which gives a rich character-based texture.

It's also a game which now has an 87-year campaign. You play through 87 years of Arthurian history and legend.

There's also mounds of obscure contemporary games that tickle all sorts of niches. Dread (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dread_RPG) is a horror game that uses a Jenga tower instead of dice to represent the mounting tension of the scenario. Leverage (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/85727/Leverage-Roleplaying-Game) is a slickly-paced heist game (based on the TV show) that folds in character traits and the complications that come up during the job. Fate (http://fate-srd.com/) is a game that almost literally runs by Rule of Plot. (It's also a descendant of far older games, so it straddles the line between "old and venerable" and "new and flashy".)

[factotum]

If you really want to see how RPGs developed, see if you can track down a copy of the original Tunnels and Trolls. It came out in 1975 as a simpler alternative to D&D, but it has some interesting features in its own right. I always particularly liked the magic system; the way it was supposed to work is that you had to say the name of the spell from memory (no fumbling through spell lists to figure out what to use in an emergency), so they gave the spells silly (but easy to remember) names like Fly Me and Take That You Fiend.

[bobthe6th]

I still really want to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other strangeness RPG with the mutants down under supplement. Metal Eating Virus! Authoritarian Government! Airships! Tornado Summoning! Grasshopper Riding!
Not sure if it is any good, but the flavor is amazing.

Other then that, Rogue: Clandestine Operations(a home brew system made on this forum) Sounds really fun.

[TheEmerged]

/wishes HERO/Champions wasn't considered obscure but knows it is...

One that I always bring up when this topic shows up is Alternity. It was done by T$R and has some of the classic T$R flaws (like not putting all the rules in one book and being very dependent on supplements). It came out in the days between 2nd and 3rd Editions of D&D, and you can see some of the 3rd Edition ideas starting to germinate in the rules. One of the charms was the interesting dice mechanic; instead of adding straight bonuses to the result of the d20, you add or subtract the result of a dice & which dice you're rolling goes from d4 to d6 to d8 and so forth.

Our second-longest campaign was in this system.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Oh! There's another angle you might consider, if you want to have a look at more obscure games: the crop of Japanese RPGs that's rolling into America. A number of them are actually older games that are just now being discovered--and they've kept pace impressively well with American TTRPGs.

Golden Sky Stories (http://starlinepublishing.com/our-games/) is a game where you play centuries-old animal spirits in a small village who turn into human children to solve villagers' problems and help them get through life with a smile.

Tenra Bansho Zero (http://tenra-rpg.com/) is a 210% wasabi-crazypants conglomeration of 80s and 90s Japanese tropes with high action and rules that encourage you to ham up your roleplaying in grand style.

Double Cross (http://www.amazon.com/Double-Cross-Role-playing-Game-Rulebook/dp/0615708110) is a game where you play teens infected with an encroaching virus that gives them superpowers. Has some cool mechanics that emphasize your relationships as what anchors you and stops you from succumbing to the virus.

And there's others on the horizon! Keep your eyes peeled for Ryuutama and Shinobigami, among others.

[Metahuman1]

I remember picking a paperback copy of a rulebook once some time back for a game that ran everything in brackets of D10 and used a really odd system that did everything form high magic to high tech called Legendary Realms.

Then there's Anima: Beyond Fantasy, which is probably kinda obscure cause even though as far as I know it was only ever one really thick book, well, put it this way, I never did figure out how to go about building a character, let alone running a game.

Also off the top of my head there was a game, and I can't even remember what it was called, were the premise was to play a Kaiju or Giant Robot or 30's-60's Z rate horror movie Giant Monster as your character. It looked like an interesting system but I never did get around to buying a copy and I don't even recall now what it was called.

And last but not least, and I'm not sure how obscure this is, Big Eye's Small Mouths. Which was a game targeted at different genera's of Anime. Always kinda wanted to try it but again, never had the pleasure.

[Airk]

There are approximately 303,653,975 RPGs out there at this point. Okay, that's a significant exaggeration, but RPG.net has catalogued nearly 20,000 of them, and I daresay that most of them are more obscure than the ones mentioned in this thread (I mean really? GURPS? Call of Cthulu? Pathfinder? Obscure is not a word I would use to describe any of these.).

Is there a particular reason you're looking for 'obscure' games, or are you just looking to expand the scope of your knowledge beyond the handful you're aware of? Presuming it's the latter, I'll add:

Mouse Guard (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/60496/Mouse-Guard-Roleplaying-Game)

Burning Wheel (http://www.burningwheel.com/store/index.php/front-page/burning-wheel-gold.html)

Houses of the Blooded (http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16617&cat=0&bestseller=Y)

And, as a freebie, Lasers and Feelings (http://onesevendesign.com/lasers_and_feelings_rpg.pdf).

Tabletop RPGs are a fascinating area to explore, but you'll often find that most people who play them aren't actually interested in "exploring" them, and would rather just play what they are familiar with, even if they don't entirely like it.

[Lost Demiurge]

Oh! Can't forget Legend of the Five Rings!

It's fantastical samurai-style roleplaying in a world where monsters are real, your major houses are descended from literal gods, and the wrong words to the wrong person at the wrong time can kill you more easily than any blade. One where honor is a major stat, and sometimes you might end up finding that offing your character is the best course of action, and that's OKAY.

Lotsa good memories of L5R. It's over the top and easy to love...

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Tabletop RPGs are a fascinating area to explore, but you'll often find that most people who play them aren't actually interested in "exploring" them, and would rather just play what they are familiar with, even if they don't entirely like it.
That should be remedied. :smallbiggrin: