Gangbusters and Gangbusters 3rd edition

[Vonlok The Bold]

I used to play the original Gangbusters and after I stopped playing it, I didn't pay any attention anymore. Recently I was looking through some websites and saw there was a third edition that came out in 1990.

Does anyone know what the difference between the first edition and the third edition of Gangbusters was?

::EDIT:: This isn't a D20 system so I think it might be supposed to be placed in the general section. I thought that was where I was posting it. Please move if this is in the wrong thread.

I aplogize for the trouble.

 

[Henry]

Moved to General RPG Discussion.

Unfortunately, I never played ANY version of Gangbusters (though I always wanted to), so I'm afraid I can't help.

I wonder if Diaglo or The Shaman were ever Gangbusters / Boot Hill fans...

 

[Samothdm]

I wonder if Diaglo or The Shaman were ever Gangbusters / Boot Hill fans...

I used to play Boot Hill back in the day... but never Gangbusters. That was one of the few TSR games we didn't try.

 

[Teflon Billy]

We played it, and it had a fairly odd twist of play that I had never seen at the time.

You were expected to play characters on opposite sides of the law if you so desired.

The lines drawn between in-character and out-of-character info were crucial to play.

So if you were playing a Mob Hit Man going to go rub someone out, and you failed your Spot Check to see the PC Private eye following you, then you were expected to go on with the hit even though you knew (OOC) that your guy had been made.

No idea about a 2nd, much less 3rd edition.

 

[The Shaman]

I wonder if Diaglo or The Shaman were ever Gangbusters / Boot Hill fans...

Until the arrival of d20 Modern and Sidewinder: Recoiled, 2e Boot Hill was my favorite roleplaying game evah.

I owned Gangbusters, but I could never generate enough interest among our group to play - Traveller, Top Secret, and Boot Hill took up most of our time, even to the relative exclusion of AD&D.

I don't ever recall seeing a later edition of Gangbusters.

 

[SWBaxter]

Does anyone know what the difference between the first edition and the third edition of Gangbusters was?

IIRC, third edition was a single softcover book (like the Boot Hill reprint around the same time) rather than a box set. I believe it had a battlemap but don't recall if there were any counters. Mechanically, I think it was pretty similar to the box set.

As an aside, I wish I knew why WOTC haven't released Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Agent 13, Top Secret, FreeLANCERS, and Star Frontiers sourcebooks for d20 Modern/Future. I know bits and pieces of some of those settings have made it into some supplements, but it seems to me it'd make sense to use them as brand names for those genres and give some identity to d20 Modern products. I'd snap up a rerelease of old Boot Hill and Gangbusters adventures with just statblock updates in a heartbeat. I dunno, maybe the old fogey nostalgia market ain't what it used to be.

 

[Hussar]

Man, Gangbusters. I remember that game. What a blast. I was in elementary school when I played that with a very good friend of mine. Always made a journalist. IIRC, The Untouchables came out around that time too. Was a great game. Star Frontiers too.

Man, I miss some of those old games.

 

[HellHound]

The third edition, as stated, is a single perfect-bound release instead of the saddle-stitched book in a boxed set that was 1st ed.

I'll go into my gaming vault and get both and do a comparison, but it will have to be after I drive the gelfling to school.

 

[HellHound]

As an aside, I wish I knew why WOTC haven't released Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Agent 13, Top Secret, FreeLANCERS, and Star Frontiers sourcebooks for d20 Modern/Future. I know bits and pieces of some of those settings have made it into some supplements, but it seems to me it'd make sense to use them as brand names for those genres and give some identity to d20 Modern products. I'd snap up a rerelease of old Boot Hill and Gangbusters adventures with just statblock updates in a heartbeat. I dunno, maybe the old fogey nostalgia market ain't what it used to be.

I don't know what exactly is planned, but I *do* know that WotC is not willing to license those product line names at this time, so I figure they have SOMETHING planned for them (or maybe I'm just to small-fry to consider licensing agreements with - but that's too depressing so I'll go with the "they have other plans" theory instead).

 

[HellHound]

It honestly took me an hour to find the bloody books on those shelves... Third eds were easy - perfect bound so I could find them by the spine. Problem with hunting through the rows of saddle-stitched titles... and then discovering that sure enough, it isn't with all the saddle-stitched titles, so was hidding somewhere in the middle of my hardcover World of Darkness titles.

Now that I'm done that...

First edition (1982) has 64 pages.
Second edition (1990) has 128 pages, and is available in PDF format from RPGnow http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?cPath=&products_id=1287&src=EnWorld

The big difference is that the 2nd edition includes Lakefront City inside the core book - which I believe was included as a module for 1st edition.

They really crammed the information into the first edition - for example, there is no table of contents, and there is material on the inside covers. The third edition is better organized, with the extended chargen material (height, weight, backgrounds, skills, XP, etc) right after the core chargen material instead of after the combat system.

In all, they appear to be the same game, with a marginally higher word count per page in the first edition, and the addition of the city background (and thus more NPCs, sample adventures, etc) in the third edition.

Oh yeah, and the third edition smells distinctly of cat urine. But that *may* just be my copy.