Roleplaying Games of the 1970s (and very early 80s)

aramis erak

Legend

• Oct 8, 2020

• #41

dragoner said:

We also played a lot of Snapshot, with Martian Metals minis, on the big FASA deckplans.

Click to expand...

Just so others are aware, Snapshot was a square-grid variant of Classic Traveller's personal combat rules, released as a Traveller boardgame. It's just shy of being a light version of Traveller. I didn't mention that I also played this, because it was always just "the action point version of the core combat rules" - I used the tables a lot, as they're the same data as, but in a different organization, the ones in CT, but also including the Bk 4 weapons. It also has generation for random combatants when needed for scenarios. CT PC's can literally be dropped in.

 

log in or register to remove this ad

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Staff member

Supporter

• Oct 8, 2020

• #42

Mmmmm....Autoduel on the Apple IIe. Brings back memories.

 

S

Scott Christian

Hero

• Oct 8, 2020

• #43

Our top three were:
D&D
Middle Earth/Rolemaster
Dangerous Journeys

 

Doctor Futurity

Hero

• Oct 15, 2020

• #44

Between 1980 and 1984 I got into, in rough order:
Gamma World
D&D (first basic then AD&D)
Traveller
The Fantasy Trip
Tunnels & Trolls
Runequest
Arduin Adventure
Call of Cthulhu
Palladium Fantasy
The Mechanoids
Ysgarth
Boot Hill
Top Secret
Star Frontiers

There were others....games I don't even remember the names of and which are impossible to even stumble across these days. There were some like Powers & Perils and Lords of Creation which we played but I think those were more mid eighties.

 

Stormonu

Legend

• Oct 16, 2020

• #45

I didn't get into RPing until '80, so this is my early list from back then (from '80 til about '88):

Gamma World
Star Frontiers
Rolemaster/MERP
Twilight 2000 (another group I knew was playing it back in the 80's, I didn't pick it up until after 2000...)
Warhammer
Villians & Vigilantes
Marvel
DC Heroes
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Palladium)
Toon

Is WEG Star Wars too late?

There was also Car Wars and Battletech, though those were more war games than RPGs.

 

P

Paul Masao Wisham

Explorer

• Oct 18, 2020

• #46

Jellys comic books and games, along with Walden books gave me access to Tsr games and other RPG’s...(early 80’s, Honolulu)
There was Car Wars, CofC, AD&D, then.. ; I remember playing Champions, Boot Hill, TopSecret and Gangbusters as well.
Gamma World and star frontiers were looked over. Villains and Vigilantes was talked about too.
Fun times.(82-87, approx.)

 

Cadence

Legend

Supporter

• Oct 18, 2020

• #47

I finally picked up a copy of the Art & Arcana visual history of D&D book. I knew some of the folks I played with in the early 80s had played with Gygax before the game was published... but had never realized that one of the three game stores in town (and one I would go to in high school to get Star Fleet Battles books and figures) had been owned by Jeff Perren, the co-author of Chainmail or that the local RockCon had been there at the beginning.

 

Attachments

• 
  1602983519792.png

  1 MB · Views: 93

Y

Yaztromo

Explorer

• Nov 15, 2020

• #48

There was also Fighting Fantasy RPG, followed by Advanced Fighting Fantasy.
Later on there was a d20 version of the game, and, more recently, there was an Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd edition.