Most influential RPG

[Theory of Games]

I'd like to know your opinion about the most influential RPG in RPG history. Those game that were precursors and lead the rpg design through the history.

So far my list would be something like this:

D&D
The Fanstasy Trip (GURPS dady)
Champions
Traveller
CoC
Vampire
Ars Magica
Sorcerer
Burning Wheel
Savage Worlds
Fate
Apocalypse World

What other games would you include? What would you remove from the list? Why?

Thanks for your help and insight!

I'd remove everything after CoC except AW. I'd at Fudge, Rifts, Talislanta, Marvel Super Heroes and James Bond 007. None of these are in my "favs" but their influence on ttrpg design is clear.

 

[Koloth]

My picks and the ones I am familiar with:
D&D (the one without version numbers) - created the d20 system genre.
Traveller - Made character creation a game in its own right. d6 only game, in Space.
Fantasy Trip - A d6 game. Quick character creation - often quick character death. Offspring of pocket game Melee.
GURPS - d6 game. Classless character system.

 

[mamba]

What other games would you include? What would you remove from the list? Why?

I am curious about your rationale for including some of them. What did this section of your list lead to?

Ars Magica
Sorcerer
Burning Wheel
Savage Worlds
Fate

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This is going to be a thread full of people's favorite games, rather than the influential ones.

Looking through the thread I'm actually surprised how little of that there is.

I think the original list and @Snarf Zagyg's one are pretty good.

I'd personally add:

Dogs In The Vineyard - Obviously hugely influential, surprised it's not on either big list and fits your "under the radar" descriptor too.

Feng Shui - I think that Feng Shui really kind of fired the starting gun for lot of modern design, and particularly for RPGs that tried to use rules built specifically to emulate genre/tone, rather than rules bolted on to existing systems, which usually attempted solely to evoke specific genre tropes, without actually attempting to emulate the genre in a wider sense (the latter was common with GURPS supplements, for example). I think it's a weaker pick than DotV though.

I'd remove Savage Worlds because whilst it is a good game, I can't think of anything or anyone who has been influenced by anything its doing, design-wise. I'd also personally remove Sorcerer because whilst it is an interesting and weird game, I'm not actually aware of it having any influence, but this could be ignorance on my part, so I'd definitely be open to hearing what influence it did have.

The rest seem fairly solid.

 

[mamba]

what about OSRIC for the OSR movement?

OSRIC is just D&D, not sure why it would need to be added

 

[billd91]

I'd probably add Top Secret. Fame and Fortune points. Megagame resources for PC success/survival.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Like Ghostbusters. First to use a dice pool. Cool.

But first doesn't mean it is the most influential. I would argue that WEG Star Wars was the most influential use of dice pools - because it is the one that popularized the form. Others took the idea from WEG, not from Ghostbusters directly.

Actually, it was cool. As you write, some others took the idea from WEG Star Wars.

WEG is, of course, West End Games. Ghostbusters was a WEG Game- it was the immediate success of WEG Ghostbusters that "led {WEG} to pivot from a board game company to an RPG company." It was the first use of dice pools in any game; the WEG Ghostbusters system became the WEG d6 system.

So this popular game led WEG to commit to a pivot to RPGs, and to use dice pools and the d6 system. Brownie Points in GB became Force Points in Star Wars. And so on. (Source: Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground (Stu Horvath) pp. 167-69.

Seems influential to me.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I'd personally add:

Dogs In The Vineyard - Obviously hugely influential, surprised it's not on either big list and fits your "under the radar" descriptor too.

I waffled for a long time on that one.

 

[overgeeked]

OSRIC is just D&D, not sure why it would need to be added

By that logic it’s Brownsteins all the way down and nothing else matters.

 

[Umbran]

Seems influential to me.

Didn't say it had no influence.

Said that figuring out "most influential" is tricky, and picking "first" may miss the mark.

Also, I wonder if maybe you are stretching the word "influence" a bit far with this. But whatever.