Best Licensed RPG: Discuss the Best Adaptation of a Movie/Book to an RPG that You've Ever Played!

[TarionzCousin]

I'm running an Amber Diceless campaign right now.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I'm probably the only one who liked DC Heroes 2nd edition by Mayfair games (I believe...), but I really did. Allowed for a wide range of adventure types, crossovers, etc.

I wish I had been older when that game came along.

I agree. I always liked that game and how it addressed some of the failings of the Marvel game. Unfortunately, it was more complex, so we almost always played Marvel instead.

Not that Marvel was a bad game. We loved it. I just think that DC had a bit more potential that we couldn’t quite tap into.

I noticed that players, who are not so into comics, don't like this equalization when the team consists of a range from Hawkeye to Hulk. Very strange...

Hulk should be thankful that an A-lister like Hawkeye even lets him hang around.

 

[John Desmarais]

The two that stood out for me were Humanx...

That Humanx book was great. I dont play GURPS, but I got a lot of game mileage out of that one.

 

[kingpin000]

Yes, well, the Cortex+ core is designed from the idea that all characters should be... I guess I'd say narratively balanced? Cortex+ would allow you to have Superman and Jimmy Olsen in the same adventure, and Jimmy would somehow manage to be relevant to events, even though he's just this guy. This is a fine representation of actual comics, in which relatively low-powered people still make a difference.

This falls apart if your approach to comics is about the power of superpowers, instead of the power of the narrative.

Jimmy Olsen as photographer/reporter would be a specialty character, who could be only effective in non-combat scenes, but Jimmy Olsen as Guardian like in the Supergirl TV show could fight along other superheroes.

Hulk should be thankful that an A-lister like Hawkeye even lets him hang around.

I think you are a little bit biased, Mr. Hawkeyefan!

 

[Tony Vargas]

The issue with licensed games is that most source material relies heavily on narrative convention in order to tell its story. If you try to put out a ruleset which describes how the world actually works, then it falls flat in execution; it becomes obvious that the events of the source material were contrived, rather than logically following from how the world (supposedly) works.

Most stories - outside of truly-great keen-observer-of-human-nature writers doing deeply meaningful slice-of-life-fiction, that is - get by on relating events that are interesting, because they're not mode-average probable in every character and event all the way through. So if you were to create a ruleset for 'how the world actually works' for any modern or historical genre, you'd end up with an unutterably boring game, if played at any level of detail, because you're completely missing both the story and the genre, and focusing on the backdrop.

(And, ultimately, the backdrop can be interchangeable: Shakespeare's The Tempest and the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet are essentially the same story with different backdrops, for instance, or 7 Samurai and the Magnificent 7, for another. So modeling the backdrop is the least important part of capturing a story.)

Or else you end up with a game that actually operates on narrative convention, which is even worse.

What could possibly be worse than a game in which it is 99% likely nothing of interest ever happens? I mean, other than taking it out to 5 or more '9's?

Modeling the genre of a story instead of the backdrop would at least run the risk of being fun to play, at times.

Taking it a step further and modeling a specific story might work, too, but it takes a lot possibilities out of the game - taken far enough, it becomes like a play with a script, just a re-enactment of the original story, possibly with a few variations giving you a few decision points.

 

[Eilathen]

I have to agree with Marvel Heroic ... beautiful game that feels like, well, Marvel's stuff.

Hard disagreement on TOR and on Star Wars Saga Ed. .

Maybe TOR works for The Hobbit, I don't know (never read it, just seen the movies), but it does not capture ME (the living, breathing world/mythology) at all. It might do LotR semi-decent, but I am skeptical.

D20 system for Star Wars? No, just no.

 

[pogre]

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I promise this is an honest answer - the most fun I have ever had with a licensed game was the Bullwinkle and Rocky Party Roleplaying game!

I played with a bunch of guys on my college football team and we had a running back from Chicago that did amazing voices. He could do all the voices from the show. It was an amazingly fun time.

 

[longisland]

James Bond RPG by Victory Games.
You can choose to play as James Bond and most of the published adventures were based on James Bond films complete with the bad guys and locations. While the games guidance on how to create adventures was also true to the style of the movies. The game system is also extremely good at emulating the movies. From the gun and H-to-H combat system to the chase system to the persuasion and seduction systems. And the game world has the gadgets, cars, guns, girls, and thrilling locations.

There are however some things I would change.

Hero points when used to help characters succeed I would change to each point increasing the ease factor instead of each point increasing the quality of success. That means hero points would complement the rest of the game system rather than override it. Hero points as written I think are too powerful and break the system particularly in chases.

I would make the weakness attraction to the opposite sex part of the basic game system as it is a trope of the movies. And in my opinion should not be reliant on the GM choosing to use the optional weaknesses rule and the player choosing the weakness for their character. I would get rid of all the other weaknesses. This is James Bond the spy with an eye for the ladies not James Bond the drug addict, greedy, sadist, superstitious, terrified of anything and everything, spy.

I would also get rid of the fields of experience optional rule. Its daft that James Bond unskilled can fly a helicopter and defuse a nuclear bomb using his attributes, but cannot play golf or ski if he does not have the required field of experience.

I would make Strength of 14 to 15 and along with it the ability to shrug off, reduce H-to-H damage something only NPC privileged henchmen can have. Agents looking like Jaws minus the teeth being too recognizable to work as secret agents. And it maintains the movie trope of James Bond often being outclassed in brute strength by the privileged henchman.

I would get rid of the time requirement on Interrogation and let it include the infliction of some pain. James Bond does not kidnap people and interrogate them over days and weeks, he twists their arm and demands they tell him what he wants to know. While for torture later movies have shown James Bond does not break even after months of torture. So the game rules on bad guys torturing the hero need changing.

 

[Beleriphon]

I hear there's this D&D Game that models the Forgotten Realms novels really well. I don't think its as good as the way the D&D cartoon worked though.

In all seriousness, I like Star Wars SAGA edition, I honestly prefer the rules in that to most other versions.

 

[JeffB]

CoC (Chaosium)
WEG (1E for me) SW
FFG SW
Victory's James Bond
Marvel (1984)
Stormbringer/ELRIC!
I think most of the MERP lore/adventure material was on point and really, really well done. Rules... are debatable.