Tell me about "Any RPG" from before 1990!

[Jan van Leyden]

I've never really been interested in Warhammer since I've mainly thought of it as a minature game first. If I decided to take a look at it, more than likely I'd go with the new version.

How is WFRP different from the Warhammer minature game? Do I need to have a understanding of the mini game to play WFRP?

No, the RPG is a complete game; you don't need to know or even touch the miniatures game.

And you should really try to get the 1st edition Enemy Within campaign:

• The Enemy Within
• Shadows over Bögenhafen
• Death on the Reik
• Power Behing the Throne
• (Something Rotten in Kislev)
• Empire in Flames

At least the first four parts (or three; TEW and SoB were bundled as one product most of the time) are an absolute classic, often and rightfully termed one of the best roleplaying campaigns ever.

SRiK doesn't really belong to the campaign; it was published as part of it because GW couldn't finish EiF on time. It's a bit ... curious.

EiF is IMHO the weakest part, so you actually just need the books up to PBtT to be able to play a truly legendary campaign.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So, what I'm looking for on this thread is advice. Tell me about your favorite RPG that came out before 1990. (Heck, tell me about your favorite non-D&D RPG that came out before the year 2000!) What was good? What was bad? What was so bad that it was good?

Pre-1990?

AD&D was my first game- I started in 1977 with AD&D in a game in the library of East Middle School, Aurora, Co (a suburb of Denver). Shortly thereafter, I tried some stuff out of Blackmoor/Chainmail/Eldritch Wizardry, but couldn't find anyone else to play it with. Still, I was hooked. I've invested heavily in material for every edition of the game up through 3.5...4Ed lost me, though.

In 1980, moved to Manhattan, KS, and I met a guy name George "Buddy" Lavezzi, who introduced me to Traveller and boardgames like Starfire, Star Fleet Battles, Starship Troopers, Feudal and many more- and got hooked on those as well. Manhattan was so small, though, that I often had to leave town to see any games beyond those few, or to find stuff to buy that I didn't own within my first few months of living there. Still, Dragon Magazine introduced a few quirky board games- Thank you, Tom Wham!- and there were these tiny boardgames from a company called Metagaming.

Metagaming had dozens of these little things, including such classics as O.G.R.E. and G.E.V.. They also had a series of fantasy combat boardgames called Melee, Wizard, Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard...together, they formed the basis for the easiest FRPG I've ever played: The Fantasy Trip. With only 3 (or was it 4?) stats, character generation took 5 minutes. It was a blast, and was portable enough to take to school in your backpack...unnoticed. This game laid the foundation for G.U.R.P.S..

In 1982, I moved to Irving, TX- just as Champions hit the stage. It wasn't quite the first supers RPG, but it was (IMHO) the best out there. Eventually, Champions morphed into the toolbox RPG system known as HERO (my personal favorite). Here, I also discovered Paranoia and the Runequest-derived Stormbringer RPG.

And really, that was as far as I got into RPGs until 1990. In 1990, I started buying RIFTS stuff to supplement a Champions game, and shortly thereafter joined a game group that broadened my horizons immensely. Between 1990 and 1996, my game collection ballooned to more than 40 systems, a process which peaked at over 100 different RPGs (including some playtests that never got released) until I sold off some to buy books for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan starting in 2003. I now own around 60 or so RPGs.

 

[Bluenose]

I've gained a slight interest in the new version of RuneQuest because there is a Lankhmar sourcebook for it.

How does the new version compare to the original/older version(s)?

I'd want to use the Lankhmar book with the "best version" of RuneQuest.

I like the Mongoose version a little more than I liked AH 3rd edition, and perhaps a little less than I liked Chaosium's 1/2e (which are more or less the same).

There isn't very much difference in play between characters from MRQ and 2RQ, although there will be less magic flying around in most MRQ games. In that respect it's probably a better fit for Lankhmar where magic is rare, and a poorer one for Glorantha where it's quite common. At the same time most magic in earlier editions, at least in player hands, came in the form of Battle/Spirit Magic. In the current version the equivalent is Rune Magic, and if a DM is generous in making plenty of Runes available you could get similar amounts.

Legendary Abilities are a new thing with MRQ. I've mixed feelings about them, since the sort of fancy tricks some let you pull off aren't really something I've seen in RQ before, and yet they do seem rather "cool". I haven't really seen them in use, since we didn't play to the sort of power level where characters had them, so I don't know how they affect game play. Many of them look interesting, but I wonder how much they'd be used since most start with a low chance of success at a time where character skills are reaching quite high levels.


On the more general theme of the thread, Runequest was my second RPG that wasn't D&D, and it was a big shock in many ways. In D&D I was perfectly happy for a moderately experiences warrior to get into a fight with four or five weak enemies. My experienced mercenary in an early RQ game didn't think much of getting into a fight with four armed trollkin - it didn't go quite as well as I expected. My next character fought smarter. The system I don't care for quite as much as I used to, but Glorantha is still one of my favourite settings. Evocative locations, interesting races (Trollpak is a terrific example of how to write a racial supplement for an RPG), and an approach which makes it clear this isn't another medieval fantasy game.

The first non-D&D RPG i played was Traveller. It's still one of my favourites, and my first choice for a SF game. Some people I know dislike it intensely because you can't get the character you want with the random generation system, but for me that's a feature rather than a bug. If you like more control over how your character ends up you won't like this. But the campaign styles you can have are enormous, especially with some of the supplementary material. Mercenaries, traders, explorers, scientific researchers, spies, bounty hunters, colonists, I've seen games about all these things and occasionally others. I've played and run horror games with strange creatures, political intrigue, space naval action, gritty dirtside combat, and all sorts of other things. A really versatile game.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I've never really been interested in Warhammer since I've mainly thought of it as a minature game first. If I decided to take a look at it, more than likely I'd go with the new version.

How is WFRP different from the Warhammer minature game? Do I need to have a understanding of the mini game to play WFRP?

New version is all you need and no, you do not need to understand the mini game.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Twilight 2000 - First published in 1984.
The PCs are remenants of US forces stranded in Europe following a disasterous battle in WWIII. It was an interesting take on how WWIII could occur and not involve a general exchange of nuclear weapons. You can find a lot more about it here:
Twilight 2000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I LOVED THIS GAME!!!!

 

[Knightfall]

Also, TSR published a Lankhmar supplement and several modules for AD&D (and much earlier a board game based on a design by Fritz Leiber and Harry Otto Fischer).

Yeah, I have the D&D 1e version of that book. I'd like to get the 2e version as well. I didn't like the boxed set TSR did for Lankhmar, however.

 

[The Shaman]

I'm currently preparing to run Flashing Blades, the game of swashbuckling action in 17th century France. Visit the Wiki page of my campaign wiki (link'd in my signature) to learn more about it.

I'm still a big fan of Top Secret and Boot Hill as well.

 

[Mournblade94]

No, the RPG is a complete game; you don't need to know or even touch the miniatures game.

And you should really try to get the 1st edition Enemy Within campaign:

• The Enemy Within
• Shadows over Bögenhafen
• Death on the Reik
• Power Behing the Throne
• (Something Rotten in Kislev)
• Empire in Flames

At least the first four parts (or three; TEW and SoB were bundled as one product most of the time) are an absolute classic, often and rightfully termed one of the best roleplaying campaigns ever.

SRiK doesn't really belong to the campaign; it was published as part of it because GW couldn't finish EiF on time. It's a bit ... curious.

EiF is IMHO the weakest part, so you actually just need the books up to PBtT to be able to play a truly legendary campaign.

Right. Though all of these were from the FIrst edition of WFRP they are easily converted to the new WFRP. It is really like taking a 1st edition add and converting it to second edition.

 

[armorclass10]

Twilight 2000 - First published in 1984.
The PCs are remenants of US forces stranded in Europe following a disasterous battle in WWIII. It was an interesting take on how WWIII could occur and not involve a general exchange of nuclear weapons. You can find a lot more about it here:
Twilight 2000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I LOVED THIS GAME!!!!

Man we played that game non-stop, between D&D campaigns that is. Graet game, wouldn't mind playing that again. Very Lethal to say the least.

I also played many of the above mentioned games but I wanted to mention....

Paranoia- I don't even know where to start with this I can say it is not to be taken seriously, in fact if you don't like humor and some lighthearted gaming it's not for you.
Paranoia (role-playing game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[TerraDave]

I think it is worth noting just how many RPGs were made in the 80s. And I am not talking indy-game fanzine proto pdf stuff, but books, boxed sets, multiple supplements...Often with widely divergent mechanics, genres, etc. Looking back at old game catalogs, it really is amazing.

And I played so few.

Dabbled in Marvel Super Heroes and Car Wars as RPG.

Played more Twilight 2000 and Star Frontiers, though the latter was focused on space combat.

Also, still play CoC, but didn't before the 90s.

Mostly, just wish I had played more!