Most influential RPG

[RolRàpid]

Ironsworn and Mystic GM emulator for chat they did to the solo rpg movement

Sure, but I want to leave "Story games" and "Solo games" out of the list, as I thing are a different beast from traditional RPG.

 

[aramis erak]

Lessons learned from a product aren't always about the words. It was a layout nightmare.

It was largely the same mechanics as all other RTG games... there are differences, but the layout was hard to use. Once understood, it supposedly played just fine, and that was far easier to do if one knew the other RTG games - Mekton or CP/CP2020... CF was no help, tho' as it was their oddball.

 

[aramis erak]

Sure, but I want to leave "Story games" and "Solo games" out of the list, as I thing are a different beast from traditional RPG.

Most early solo games were just modules for standard TTRPGs. The rest were built into such modules. Standalone solo rules are a mid 90's thing, not intended for solo but for GM-less Trad Play.

 

[aramis erak]

Out of interest

Which game had the first 'active defence'?

To my knowledge
Traveller 1977 - Evasion gave a penalty to opponenent's hit rolls, allowing moving and slow reloading but no attacks.
RuneQuest - 1978 first rolled active defense

Which game had the first ' unsafe' spell casting?

Not sure - first I encounted was in RQ 3rd, but I think it's also in RQ2. It's just like all other skills - it can fumble.

( I like one of these, but not the other).

I happen to like both to a point.