It’s August and that means that the annual #RPGaDAY ‘question a day’ is here to celebrate “everything cool, memorable and amazing about our hobby.” This year we’ve decided to join in the fun and will be canvassing answers from the ENWorld crew, columnists and friends in the industry to bring you some of our answers. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too… So, without further ado, here’s Day 11 of #RPGaDAY 2017!
#RPGaDAY Question 11: Which ‘dead game’ would you like to see reborn?
Morrus: I loved the original Ghostbusters game -- the one which gave the world d6 dice pools, and inspired WEG's more well-known d6 system. It has its flaws, but it's fun, simple, and easy to run.
Darryl Mott: I had to think about this one because we’re living in a golden age of republished material thanks to digital distribution, print-on-demand, expiration of trademarks from the 70s/80s, and crowdfunding. Paranoia, Top Secret, Earthdawn, Alternity, and more came back from out-of-print extinction. Hard-pressed, I’d have to say either of the TSR Marvel roleplaying game or West End Games Star Wars. While both systems are still available in a way (there are multiple Retro-Clones of the TSR FASERIP system and Open D6 is the WEG Star Wars rules system), it’s not the same without stats for the licensed material, especially considering how much material both of these games covered over the years. Due to the tangles of copyrights, licenses, trademarks, and other IP rights, I don't think we'll ever get either, unfortunately.
Christopher Helton: The classic Marvel Super-Heroes FASERIP system from TSR. I'd rather see it powering a DC Comics setting, though.
Angus Abranson: Many of the old ‘dead’ games that I’ve longed to see return have actually come back, largely thanks to Kickstarter. Space: 1889, Torg, Kult, Top Secret and Dark Conspiracy is returning next year. I’d love to see TSR’s Marvel RPG using the classic FASEREIP system return (which seems to be a popular choice here at EN Central), Golden Heroes, and also the diceless Amber RPG from Phage Press (although the system lives on in Rite Publishings’ Lords of Gossamer & Shadow).
But instead I’m going to go for two French games that I’d love to see new editions of – Scales and RetroFutur.
Scales was published by Asmodee back in 1994 and co-designed by the brilliant Croc (who also wrote both Bloodlust and COPS which are also very good). In the game you take on the role of a Dragon, or other magical creatures, that live in human forms in modern society. There are various clans of Dragons, denoted by their colour, and younger dragons are supposed to be subservient to their elders who were not born on Earth but travelled here long ago. The younger dragons, having only ever known Earth as their home, have a lot more attachment and affinity with the other denizens that also reside here which can cause friction between them. Having resided on Earth so long dragons pretty much run most large organisations and control the media, financial systems, governments, etc.
RetroFutur was published by Multisim in 2002 and is sci-fi paranormal game set in an alternate 1950’s. A century earlier humanity has ‘First Contact’ and was offered new technologies in return for safe haven and welcome. Governments no longer exist, having been replaced by bureaucratic agencies moderating every aspect of a citizens life. This has led to a wealth of resistance groups fighting back in a variety of forms. In addition to this oppressive and violent urban universe, paranormal phenomena has also started to appear…
Michael J Tresca: Gamma World. 7th Edition and Omega World were hints that Gamma World can work, but we finally need a comprehensive, full-support of the game that combines crazy mutations with post-apocalyptic goodness. Also, swarm-Yetis wielding stop signs.
Shane Hensley (Savage Worlds, Deadlands): Dark Sun! Not only is the world of Athas one of my all-time favorite settings, but Tim Brown, Troy Denning, Brom, Tom Baxa, and the rest of the crew who created it showed us the power of unified and evocative images, trade dress, and meta-plot. I was an example many of us have tried to follow for decades after. And wow...what I'd pay for a Savage Worlds version of it.
Mike Mason (Chaosium; Games Workshop): It Came From The Late, Late, Late Show, which was published by Stellar Games back in 1989. It was a humour and horror game in which you are actors in a classic style B-movie. What set it apart was a fantastic mechanic, which enabled you to call upon your ‘stunt double’ just before you were eaten by a bug-eyed monster from beyond. You swopped placed with the stunt double, who suffered the terrible fate, and you could continue in the game. It sparked a great deal of humour at some key moments, which was exactly the spirit of the game. I’d love to see it rise from the grave!
Dave Chapman (Doctor Who RPG; Conspiracy X 2.0): While I'd love to see WEG's Ghostbusters RPG escape from the containment grid and cause hilarious mayhem again, my top choice will always be Victory Games' James Bond Roleplaying Game. A work of genius, beautifully produced, with revolutionary gaming elements, and subtly altered scenarios to keep players on their toes. I'd love to see Bond return to the tabletop, capturing the production of the original but bringing it bang up to date with the style and class of the Craig era.
Richard Iorio (Rogue Games, Inc): The answer is a simple one, Big Eyes Small Mouth, which hands-down is my favorite system to run. The rules were simple enough for anyone to understand, plus they allowed you to quickly set up a game and start playing. I still play this game, but I would love to see a new addition so others could enjoy what I feel is one of the best games created in the earlier part of the century.
Chris Spivey (Cthulhu Confidential; Harlem Unbound): SLA Industries. I played a lot of SLA during high school and early college. It's a gothic horror sci-fi game and it speaks to me on a creative level. (The good news for Chris is that a new edition of SLA Industries has just been released from Daruma Productions! – Angus)
WJ MacGuffin (Paranoia XP, Unknown Armies): This is easy. It's Underground, published by Mayfair Games back in 1993. It's one of my favorite games (and books) of all time. Why? Because it manages to mix supers with guns, politics, and a realistic, cyberpunk-style future. Think Gibson and Tarantino make a superhero movie.
Underground also gives you an amazing reason for PCs to go on adventures — to improve their community. Instead of just leveling and looting, you'll be trying to improve take-home pay and government corruption. There are actual mechanics for changing the setting, something few games care about.
The book itself was incredibly illustrated, and the flavor text is sublime. You read the book, and you *get* the setting. The rules are clunky at first, but you grok it after your first session.
If you like superhero games that are dark, pick up Underground. Besides, don't you want to play a slightly unhinged superhero carrying a 35mm pistol? I cannot wait for this game to come back!
Andrew Peregrine (Doctor Who, Victoriana, Cabal): I have two answers for this, but one is a bit of a cheat. First I’d love to see a new Dune RPG. I really liked the Last Unicorn edition although it wasn’t so much dead as didn’t really get started. So my real answer is Skyrealms of Jorune. OK, so the Miles Teeves artwork is a lot of the draw for this game, but I’ve rarely seen a game better at evoking a culture and world setting.
Simon Burley (Golden Heroes, The Super Hack): Golden Heroes. BUT done by me or Pete Haines or just a reprint or "paint job". Please don't let any third parties mess with my baby!
Uli Lindner (Space: 1889; Clockwork Publishing): Planescape - completely with the old spirit of the game and the wonderful material.
Darren Pearce (EN Publishing; Savage Mojo): A dead game I’d like to see reborn is Cyberpunk 2020. I’m excited that the video game CP 2077 is coming, but I want a return to the pen and paper ‘punk!
Marc Langworthy (Modiphius; Red Scar): Elric. I’d really like to see this IP resurrected.
Mike Lafferty (BAMF Podcast; Fainting Goat Games): Werewolf: Wild West. I’ve got a warm spot for the supernatural-western genre. It’d be nice to see this concept revisited.
Eran Aviram (Up to Four Players; City of Mist): Continuum had what is probably the best time-travel system ever created, in any piece of fiction. It wasn't really PLAYABLE though - there wasn't much for the players to DO - and I think it could benefit much from the RPG innovations of the past 10 years or so, perhaps becoming playable (and awesome) if it ever gets resurrected.
Simon Brake (Stygian Fox): I was a big fan of Toon. It was a ridiculous game, and I used to create scenarios that, like modern day cartoons, would parody popular culture. The system was simple, the types of characters you could play were limitless (I had a player play an animated lightbulb), even the book that allowed you to play cartoon characters in parodies of other gaming worlds was fun, if a bit contrived. It was all pretty much played for laughs, to see what entertaining ways you could inflict cartoon violence on each other, with motivations rarely being any more serious than Catch the Mouse, Steal a Sandwich, or Survive the Haunted House. And no messy XP, or levelling up between sessions. Just pure, silly fun.
Ian Sturrock (RPG writer and game design lecturer?): Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth from Last Unicorn Games. It was more of a toolkit than a playable RPG, but the two published books held so much awesomeness for world building.
Richard August (Conan, Codex Infernus): Cold City by Malcolm Craig would be the one I'd really like to see rebooted and brought back to glorious, grimy life. It's a brilliant game with an evocative setting and a fun, intuitive rule system.
Ken Spencer (Rocket Age; Why Not Games): Bring back Spelljammer, and do it now!
Charlie Etheridge-Nunn (RPG Reviewer; Who Dares Rolls): Which ‘dead game’ would you like to see reborn? This one’s a little odd, as it’s kind of being reborn. I loved Alternity. The system was a little fiddly, but I adored Star*Drive and Dark*Matter. We had a few campaigns in those worlds, I bought the novels set in them. It was great. Star*Drive was basically about a section of space in the year 2501 which had been cut off from the main galactic governments for 100 years and gone a bit weird. Two planets were still fighting the (now long-over) galactic war which isolated them. A prison planet let everyone out when they realised backup wasn’t coming. The Lighthouse, a mysterious teleporting station (long before Mass Effect’s Citadel) was a hub of activity. It was Firefly meets B5, meets Mass Effect and a tiny bit of Starship Troopers. Then Dark*Matter, which was “If X-Files was a whole company”. I loved them, so when I saw Alternity was being resurrected on Kickstarter, I was pretty pumped. Then I saw the product. The rules are streamlined in some sections and even more fiddly in others. The settings are (probably for licensing reasons from WotC) entirely gone. While it has an original designer, it doesn’t feel at all like the Alternity I grew up with and loved for so long. What I’d love to see is Star*Drive and maybe Dark*Matter as either system-agnostic books or an Alternity system with maybe half as many skills or a simpler way of generating characters which won’t terrify players as much as having to list your trained and untrained skills back in the day.
Garry Harper (Modiphius Entertainment; The Role Play Haven): Aeon Trinity by White Wolf.
Federico Sohns (Nibiru RPG): I'm not a fan of the older schools of gaming, so I can't really say I'd like a game to be reborn. I would welcome, however, a rebirth that came with great mechanical reworks (I think we are living through the best times for roleplaying from a mechanic design standpoint) yet those who crave for the relaunch of dead lines are usually, also, nostalgic for a specific type of mechanics, so with regards to that... I'd say... none particularly!
Rich Lescouflair (Alligator Alley Entertainment; Esper Genesis 5E): James Bond 007
Stephanie McAlea (Stygian Fox Publishing, The Things We Leave Behind): Twilight 2000, Continuum: Roleplaying in the Yet, or In Nomine.
****
Originally created by Dave Chapman (Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space; Conspiracy X) #RPGaDAY os now being caretakered by the crew over at RPGBrigade. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too!
#RPGaDAY Question 11: Which ‘dead game’ would you like to see reborn?
Morrus: I loved the original Ghostbusters game -- the one which gave the world d6 dice pools, and inspired WEG's more well-known d6 system. It has its flaws, but it's fun, simple, and easy to run.
Darryl Mott: I had to think about this one because we’re living in a golden age of republished material thanks to digital distribution, print-on-demand, expiration of trademarks from the 70s/80s, and crowdfunding. Paranoia, Top Secret, Earthdawn, Alternity, and more came back from out-of-print extinction. Hard-pressed, I’d have to say either of the TSR Marvel roleplaying game or West End Games Star Wars. While both systems are still available in a way (there are multiple Retro-Clones of the TSR FASERIP system and Open D6 is the WEG Star Wars rules system), it’s not the same without stats for the licensed material, especially considering how much material both of these games covered over the years. Due to the tangles of copyrights, licenses, trademarks, and other IP rights, I don't think we'll ever get either, unfortunately.
Christopher Helton: The classic Marvel Super-Heroes FASERIP system from TSR. I'd rather see it powering a DC Comics setting, though.
Angus Abranson: Many of the old ‘dead’ games that I’ve longed to see return have actually come back, largely thanks to Kickstarter. Space: 1889, Torg, Kult, Top Secret and Dark Conspiracy is returning next year. I’d love to see TSR’s Marvel RPG using the classic FASEREIP system return (which seems to be a popular choice here at EN Central), Golden Heroes, and also the diceless Amber RPG from Phage Press (although the system lives on in Rite Publishings’ Lords of Gossamer & Shadow).
But instead I’m going to go for two French games that I’d love to see new editions of – Scales and RetroFutur.
Scales was published by Asmodee back in 1994 and co-designed by the brilliant Croc (who also wrote both Bloodlust and COPS which are also very good). In the game you take on the role of a Dragon, or other magical creatures, that live in human forms in modern society. There are various clans of Dragons, denoted by their colour, and younger dragons are supposed to be subservient to their elders who were not born on Earth but travelled here long ago. The younger dragons, having only ever known Earth as their home, have a lot more attachment and affinity with the other denizens that also reside here which can cause friction between them. Having resided on Earth so long dragons pretty much run most large organisations and control the media, financial systems, governments, etc.
RetroFutur was published by Multisim in 2002 and is sci-fi paranormal game set in an alternate 1950’s. A century earlier humanity has ‘First Contact’ and was offered new technologies in return for safe haven and welcome. Governments no longer exist, having been replaced by bureaucratic agencies moderating every aspect of a citizens life. This has led to a wealth of resistance groups fighting back in a variety of forms. In addition to this oppressive and violent urban universe, paranormal phenomena has also started to appear…
Michael J Tresca: Gamma World. 7th Edition and Omega World were hints that Gamma World can work, but we finally need a comprehensive, full-support of the game that combines crazy mutations with post-apocalyptic goodness. Also, swarm-Yetis wielding stop signs.
Shane Hensley (Savage Worlds, Deadlands): Dark Sun! Not only is the world of Athas one of my all-time favorite settings, but Tim Brown, Troy Denning, Brom, Tom Baxa, and the rest of the crew who created it showed us the power of unified and evocative images, trade dress, and meta-plot. I was an example many of us have tried to follow for decades after. And wow...what I'd pay for a Savage Worlds version of it.
Mike Mason (Chaosium; Games Workshop): It Came From The Late, Late, Late Show, which was published by Stellar Games back in 1989. It was a humour and horror game in which you are actors in a classic style B-movie. What set it apart was a fantastic mechanic, which enabled you to call upon your ‘stunt double’ just before you were eaten by a bug-eyed monster from beyond. You swopped placed with the stunt double, who suffered the terrible fate, and you could continue in the game. It sparked a great deal of humour at some key moments, which was exactly the spirit of the game. I’d love to see it rise from the grave!
Dave Chapman (Doctor Who RPG; Conspiracy X 2.0): While I'd love to see WEG's Ghostbusters RPG escape from the containment grid and cause hilarious mayhem again, my top choice will always be Victory Games' James Bond Roleplaying Game. A work of genius, beautifully produced, with revolutionary gaming elements, and subtly altered scenarios to keep players on their toes. I'd love to see Bond return to the tabletop, capturing the production of the original but bringing it bang up to date with the style and class of the Craig era.
Richard Iorio (Rogue Games, Inc): The answer is a simple one, Big Eyes Small Mouth, which hands-down is my favorite system to run. The rules were simple enough for anyone to understand, plus they allowed you to quickly set up a game and start playing. I still play this game, but I would love to see a new addition so others could enjoy what I feel is one of the best games created in the earlier part of the century.
Chris Spivey (Cthulhu Confidential; Harlem Unbound): SLA Industries. I played a lot of SLA during high school and early college. It's a gothic horror sci-fi game and it speaks to me on a creative level. (The good news for Chris is that a new edition of SLA Industries has just been released from Daruma Productions! – Angus)
WJ MacGuffin (Paranoia XP, Unknown Armies): This is easy. It's Underground, published by Mayfair Games back in 1993. It's one of my favorite games (and books) of all time. Why? Because it manages to mix supers with guns, politics, and a realistic, cyberpunk-style future. Think Gibson and Tarantino make a superhero movie.
Underground also gives you an amazing reason for PCs to go on adventures — to improve their community. Instead of just leveling and looting, you'll be trying to improve take-home pay and government corruption. There are actual mechanics for changing the setting, something few games care about.
The book itself was incredibly illustrated, and the flavor text is sublime. You read the book, and you *get* the setting. The rules are clunky at first, but you grok it after your first session.
If you like superhero games that are dark, pick up Underground. Besides, don't you want to play a slightly unhinged superhero carrying a 35mm pistol? I cannot wait for this game to come back!
Andrew Peregrine (Doctor Who, Victoriana, Cabal): I have two answers for this, but one is a bit of a cheat. First I’d love to see a new Dune RPG. I really liked the Last Unicorn edition although it wasn’t so much dead as didn’t really get started. So my real answer is Skyrealms of Jorune. OK, so the Miles Teeves artwork is a lot of the draw for this game, but I’ve rarely seen a game better at evoking a culture and world setting.
Simon Burley (Golden Heroes, The Super Hack): Golden Heroes. BUT done by me or Pete Haines or just a reprint or "paint job". Please don't let any third parties mess with my baby!
Uli Lindner (Space: 1889; Clockwork Publishing): Planescape - completely with the old spirit of the game and the wonderful material.
Darren Pearce (EN Publishing; Savage Mojo): A dead game I’d like to see reborn is Cyberpunk 2020. I’m excited that the video game CP 2077 is coming, but I want a return to the pen and paper ‘punk!
Marc Langworthy (Modiphius; Red Scar): Elric. I’d really like to see this IP resurrected.
Mike Lafferty (BAMF Podcast; Fainting Goat Games): Werewolf: Wild West. I’ve got a warm spot for the supernatural-western genre. It’d be nice to see this concept revisited.
Eran Aviram (Up to Four Players; City of Mist): Continuum had what is probably the best time-travel system ever created, in any piece of fiction. It wasn't really PLAYABLE though - there wasn't much for the players to DO - and I think it could benefit much from the RPG innovations of the past 10 years or so, perhaps becoming playable (and awesome) if it ever gets resurrected.
Simon Brake (Stygian Fox): I was a big fan of Toon. It was a ridiculous game, and I used to create scenarios that, like modern day cartoons, would parody popular culture. The system was simple, the types of characters you could play were limitless (I had a player play an animated lightbulb), even the book that allowed you to play cartoon characters in parodies of other gaming worlds was fun, if a bit contrived. It was all pretty much played for laughs, to see what entertaining ways you could inflict cartoon violence on each other, with motivations rarely being any more serious than Catch the Mouse, Steal a Sandwich, or Survive the Haunted House. And no messy XP, or levelling up between sessions. Just pure, silly fun.
Ian Sturrock (RPG writer and game design lecturer?): Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth from Last Unicorn Games. It was more of a toolkit than a playable RPG, but the two published books held so much awesomeness for world building.
Richard August (Conan, Codex Infernus): Cold City by Malcolm Craig would be the one I'd really like to see rebooted and brought back to glorious, grimy life. It's a brilliant game with an evocative setting and a fun, intuitive rule system.
Ken Spencer (Rocket Age; Why Not Games): Bring back Spelljammer, and do it now!
Charlie Etheridge-Nunn (RPG Reviewer; Who Dares Rolls): Which ‘dead game’ would you like to see reborn? This one’s a little odd, as it’s kind of being reborn. I loved Alternity. The system was a little fiddly, but I adored Star*Drive and Dark*Matter. We had a few campaigns in those worlds, I bought the novels set in them. It was great. Star*Drive was basically about a section of space in the year 2501 which had been cut off from the main galactic governments for 100 years and gone a bit weird. Two planets were still fighting the (now long-over) galactic war which isolated them. A prison planet let everyone out when they realised backup wasn’t coming. The Lighthouse, a mysterious teleporting station (long before Mass Effect’s Citadel) was a hub of activity. It was Firefly meets B5, meets Mass Effect and a tiny bit of Starship Troopers. Then Dark*Matter, which was “If X-Files was a whole company”. I loved them, so when I saw Alternity was being resurrected on Kickstarter, I was pretty pumped. Then I saw the product. The rules are streamlined in some sections and even more fiddly in others. The settings are (probably for licensing reasons from WotC) entirely gone. While it has an original designer, it doesn’t feel at all like the Alternity I grew up with and loved for so long. What I’d love to see is Star*Drive and maybe Dark*Matter as either system-agnostic books or an Alternity system with maybe half as many skills or a simpler way of generating characters which won’t terrify players as much as having to list your trained and untrained skills back in the day.
Garry Harper (Modiphius Entertainment; The Role Play Haven): Aeon Trinity by White Wolf.
Federico Sohns (Nibiru RPG): I'm not a fan of the older schools of gaming, so I can't really say I'd like a game to be reborn. I would welcome, however, a rebirth that came with great mechanical reworks (I think we are living through the best times for roleplaying from a mechanic design standpoint) yet those who crave for the relaunch of dead lines are usually, also, nostalgic for a specific type of mechanics, so with regards to that... I'd say... none particularly!
Rich Lescouflair (Alligator Alley Entertainment; Esper Genesis 5E): James Bond 007
Stephanie McAlea (Stygian Fox Publishing, The Things We Leave Behind): Twilight 2000, Continuum: Roleplaying in the Yet, or In Nomine.
****
Originally created by Dave Chapman (Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space; Conspiracy X) #RPGaDAY os now being caretakered by the crew over at RPGBrigade. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too!
