Unpopular opinions go here

[aramis erak]

The Wild Cards series grew out of a supers campaign.

Specifically, Superworld (BRP).

And the published adaptation of the novels was to GURPS: Supers...

 

[aramis erak]

Sometimes nostalgia is just that, and revisiting what you liked back then just does not recapture the original feeling.

UO: 90% of the nostsalgia for AD&D 1e is not based upon the actual rules of AD&D 1E...
(It seems that it's based upon what subset of them and what house rules were added to them in the group played in.)

I suspect most AD&D 1E GMs hadn't read the whole of the DMG before running the game, and many still haven't...

 

[Thomas Shey]

And the published adaptation of the novels was to GURPS: Supers...

And later Mutants and Masterminds.

 

[aramis erak]

Combat is the least interesting part of crunchy RPGs, especially D&D.

D&D is a minis wargame.

The modern take that the OSR is exclusively D&D retrogames effectively removes many of the original members of the OSR from the fold.

Like 6-stat and 4-color. (Classic Traveller and AMSH clones, respectively)...
And the very excellent Mazes and Minotaurs. Or the very recent Neoclassical Greek Revival. Or all the people still playing Classic Traveller since Marc first made it available electronically in the 00's.

 

[Thomas Shey]

UO: 90% of the nostsalgia for AD&D 1e is not based upon the actual rules of AD&D 1E...
(It seems that it's based upon what subset of them and what house rules were added to them in the group played in.)

I suspect most AD&D 1E GMs hadn't read the whole of the DMG before running the game, and many still haven't...

The way I've phrased it is "When pressed, it turns out a lot of people who claim ran AD&D1e 'by the book' were using the version of the book they had in their heads."

 

[aramis erak]

Not an RPG. It's a miniature war game.

Not until 5th edition; from deluxe (2nd) to C2.5 it's very much an RPG, skills, including some with zero combat utility but plenty of RP, such as Area Knowledge. If one has the ADC supplement, it also adds many more non-combat skills, as well as adding super powers and helicopters to 1st edition.

Most people only played it as a wargame, and very few used minis, either.

Now, the new one is pure minis moneygrab...

 

[aramis erak]

I've seen a couple cases that didn't seem bad to me; the original Star Trek game was one; Fragged Empire is another. Some people still don't like because its a collective thing, but I think they at least involved everyone in it.

the first published Star Trek game was Zocchi & Kurtic's Star Trek Battle Manual, later renamed Star Fleet Battle Manual, which was neither coöp nor RPGish.
The first Star Trek RPG published was unlicensed, FGU's 1978 offering, Starships and Spacemen. It didn't do that either. At least, it's clearly and unmistakably ST inspired. It doesn't have roles split out for ship combat, but at least has ship combat.
The first license was Heritage Models' Late 1978 one: Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier. It doesn't have ship-to-ship.

Now, I strongly suspect you are referring to FASA's Star Trek the Roleplaying Game, STRPG in short, from 1983. It only involves some of the PCs...
There are panels for...

• Nav - operates shields and Tractors, notes damage to same
• Science - tracks sensors, superstructure, and critical hit damages.
• Helm - weapons, speed, and maneuver data
• Comm- Casualties - also has the modifiers table.
• Engineer - Tracks damage to power and power available, and who gets how much.

There's no medic panel, no separate Weapons station, either. Science getting damages is just a make work so Spock's comments can be replicated in play. It's not very engaging, and I've used it in play. Fortunately, the combat system's pretty brutal, so it's not too onerous.

 

[MGibster]

True story: It took me a long time to realize that the state called "ArkenSAW" was the one spelled this way, and that this wasn't a Pirate from Kansas. "Arrr... Kansas!"

Pronouncing it like Kansas gets the same reaction around here that you would get from Aldac for pronouncing Appalachia incorrectly. In 1881, the state government passed a law stating the state was spelled Arkansas and pronounced Arkansaw.

 

[MGibster]

Han shot first.

 

[Thomas Shey]

the first published Star Trek game was Zocchi & Kurtic's Star Trek Battle Manual, later renamed Star Fleet Battle Manual, which was neither coöp nor RPGish.
The first Star Trek RPG published was unlicensed, FGU's 1978 offering, Starships and Spacemen. It didn't do that either. At least, it's clearly and unmistakably ST inspired. It doesn't have roles split out for ship combat, but at least has ship combat.
The first license was Heritage Models' Late 1978 one: Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier. It doesn't have ship-to-ship.

Now, I strongly suspect you are referring to FASA's Star Trek the Roleplaying Game, STRPG in short, from 1983. It only involves some of the PCs...
There are panels for...

• Nav - operates shields and Tractors, notes damage to same
• Science - tracks sensors, superstructure, and critical hit damages.
• Helm - weapons, speed, and maneuver data
• Comm- Casualties - also has the modifiers table.
• Engineer - Tracks damage to power and power available, and who gets how much.

There's no medic panel, no separate Weapons station, either. Science getting damages is just a make work so Spock's comments can be replicated in play. It's not very engaging, and I've used it in play. Fortunately, the combat system's pretty brutal, so it's not too onerous.

You're correct that I was referring to the FASA one. While it didn't cover all possible PCs, the majority were going to land in one of them (and Security had enough to do the rest of the time I couldn't feel bad for them).

I kind of disagree with your characterization though; I saw a fair number of people who seemed to think it was fairly engaging (though some stations were more interesting than others).