Edition wars! Games other than D&D

[BiggusGeekus]

I also play Shadowrun, which also has 3 editions. The interesting thing about SR is that everyone likes the newest version substantially more the others. The updated versions fixed things that the fans wanted.

I think the second everyone saw a Troll take a point blank hit from an assult cannon they figured something was up.

3rd edition SR is great.

I've seen edition wars for Ars Magica. Heck. I've participated in them.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

I think the second everyone saw a Troll take a point blank hit from an assult cannon they figured something was up..

Ah, I remember my Orc Street Sam, taking bullets like punches and yelling back,

"Is that it?! Is that tha best you got?!"

Shadowrun, god bless its broken arsed system back then.

 

[Henry]

I prefer the original Star Wars to this new 2nd edition or 2nd edition Revised crap.

Think about it - in the original, force-users could use any of the force powers listed - they didn't have to PICK one every time they got a pip! Outrageous!

And dodge - what's this "Passive" and "active" dodge crap!?!?! You just need a dodge!

And look at the number of templates in the first book versus the second and third books; WEG just picked those out of the book and reduced it to bare bones just to put them in supplements later and milk us for money! The nerve!

And don't get me started on this "character scale" vs. "capital scale" junk, or changing speed from die codes to concrete move numbers - feh. You didn't need all those rules codified and set out; a GM could create that stuff on the fly if he needed it - now you've got weasly little "power gamers" saying, "I can cut thru a Star Destroyer 'cause I got the extra dice of lightsaber damage, even with the die caps." Power-gamey crap...

Even using character points for extra dice is munchkin as all get-out. bleh.

*Ahh, the more things change, the more they stay the same.*

 

[TerraDave]

CoC has very few edition wars, as it's changed very little.

More like "Edition Yawns"

 

[Steel_Wind]

I was a HUGE fan of Rolemaster. I bought everything ICE ever released since The Iron Wind and Arm's Law were first published and I played RM 1st ed before there even was an RM 1st ed.

As everyone knows, Rolemaster was The Schizznit in the mid to late 80's and Rolemaster 2nd ed. is one of the finest RPGs ever published (take that Diaglo!)

Somewhere along the way in the mid-to-late 90's, they decided to release "Rolemaster - the Standard System".

RMSS was born, featuring even more charts, more bloat and a character generation system that would take hours to set up a character under. It was utterly broken. Horrible. Horrible!!

GAHHHHHH!!

ICE went bankrupt over RMSS. *spitz* Rebranding it as "RM-FRPG" did not help it much either.

RM2 forever.

 

[rogueattorney]

CoC has very few edition wars, as it's changed very little.

Are you kidding? 5.6 was SOOO much better than 6. 'Cus there was the... Well... The one thing... Actually, they were about the same, weren't they?

Gamma World is the only one I really have experience with. Editions 1 and 2 were about the same. 4 was an attempt to get back that direction. 3 and everthing after 4 were quite different from the original and pretty different from each other.

EDIT - I'm no expert, but weren't there some pretty big differences between the editions of Runequest? Particularly between the BRP 1st and 2nd editions, and the Avalon Hill 3rd edition. RQ fans... educate me.

Also, I've heard a number of 1st ed. Palladium Fantasy fans have bad things to say about the 2e.

R.A.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

We had minor edition wars over 4th and 5th edition Ars Magica. 5th won and the 4th edition diehards agree it was for the best now. A much more polished system now.

3rd Ed shadowrun was great. Only know 1 person who favours an older edition - he's firmly stuck on 1st ed.

 

[Squirrel Nutkin]

The first two editions of Gamma World are *vastly* superior to all subsequent editions, with 4th coming closest to the original two.

I clicked on this thread to post the very same thing.

 

[Ghostwind]

- The first two editions of Gamma World are *vastly* superior to all subsequent editions, with 4th coming closest to the original two.

And here is a 1980 (1st ed.?) Gamma World still in shrink for the curious: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=44112&item=5173439983&rd=1

And a 1983 (2nd ed.?) Gamma World also still in the original shrinkwrap: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=44112&item=5173440362&rd=1

 

[Turjan]

The edition wars regarding Earthdawn are in full rage. There's quite a vocal group of fans who did not like at all what Living Room Games did to the game. I think they will publish their own version of the game this spring. FASA dished out the license twice .