Obscure RPGs

[mcrow]

That said, the production values (e.g., artwork, layout, etc) put much TSR 2e stuff to shame.

I don't think it was any better really.

 

[Twowolves]

Reading these lists calls more to mind, such as:

Mutazoids
Aliens (based on the movies, using Phoenix Command rules)
Alone in the Dark
The Foundation (super yuk!)

 

[jdrakeh]

Let me add Fanhunter to the list. I can't read Italian, though I'm making an effort to learn for this RPG.

 

[Capellan]

re: Baron Munchausen

I have this, and I have to admit to two very conflicting feelings about it. On one hand, I think it's well-written and fun to read. On the other hand, it's a storytelling game whose actual rules could have been handled with maybe two paragraphs. I think it's worth having, don't get me wrong, but I can't imagine myself or anyone else I've ever gamed with ever playing it.

BM's been a running event for Arcanacon (one of the major Australian RPG conventions) ever since the game came out. But then, Australians do like to spin a yarn. It's definitely playable in and of itself. I still remember the time the question was "Lord X, pray tell us of the time you saved the world with the aid only of a raspberry gin."

The immediate response from the participant began: "Well, as everyone knows, a djinn is a kind of genie ..."

Great stuff.

 

[TGryph]

My contributions:

The Mechanoid Invasion - from Palladium, it was actually a very interesting setting, but the system was too close to D&D for my tastes.

Swordbearer - Heritage Games ) I think...maybe FGU). Anyway, a REALLY cool liitle game that got my group away from D&D for a year or so, but we found the combat WAY to lethal and went back.

And from a little company in my hometown of Pontiac, MI called Tacky-Tac (later Tri-Tac) Games..

Geriatric Wars - Senior Citizens battle for the few remaining social security checks.

Escape from Westerville State- PC's are mental patients trying to escape from the asylum.

TGryph

 

[Jack of Shadows]

I enjoyed,

Justifiers - Would make a great D20 Future setting
Living Steel - Great setting but rules only an accountant would love.
Talislanta - Not really obscure but no one else mentioned it.
Space Opera - Most comprehensive weapons list I've ever seen. Rules were less than spectacular.
Twilight 2000 - Which is becoming more and more obscure as time passes.
There's also a sci-fi game I can't remember the name of. Distant Stars or something like that. Still the best set of space opera rules I've found.

I'd have to go into the boxes to remember some of the other old ones. I went through a faze where if I hadn't heard of it I bought it. My only regret was picking up the steaming pile that is Fifth Cycle.

Jack.

 

[Raptor]

I have or had some of these games at one time:
(Some have already been mentioned)
1) Blue Planet
2) West End Games Shatterzone
3) Reich Star
4) Lace and Steel
5) Mythus Dangerous Journeys
6) Leading Edges Aliens

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Tapestry

Only 107 copies were ever printed. Why 107? Because Kinko's screwed up and ran off too many. Hooray!

 

[Theron]

Wow, three pages and no one has mentioned Living Steel.

It was actually a really cool game, but IMO the combat system tried so hard to emulate reality, it would cause real world injuries to those trying to figure it out.

A buddy of mine loved that game. He desperately wanted to run it, but a bunch of dedicated Hero System players all thought it looked too hard. He finally talked my brother and I into running a "simple" one-on-one combat he refereed. IIRC, it took three hours.

Some of the setting stuff looked pretty cool, though.

The prize bits of my collection aren't obscure, but they're rare due to age:

Call of Cthulhu, 1st edition boxed set
Villains & Vigilantes, 1st edition
Boot Hill, the little yellow digest sized rules
Metamorphosis Alpha
Gamma World, 1st edition

I used to have "Wings of the Valkyrie," a Champions adventure that got pulled by the publisher due to some controversial content, but I sold it off a few years ago.

One that does qualify as obscure was called, "Professional Wrestling." It was a little digest-size game of, well, professional wrestling. The combat system was clearly derived from GDW's En Garde!, but the designers went wild with the crazy stuff. There were random tables to determine the wrestler's costume and schtick, and random event tables to generate crazy things that went on during a match. Of course, the point wasn't to pin your opponent so much as to pull off maneuvers that would add to your popularity score. We killed a lot of high school lunch breaks with it.

I've also got a Spanish printing of the WEG Star Wars that I picked up on a lark at a used bookstore.

 

[ssampier]

Yeah, I like that one as well. It's not obscure, it did have a pretty good following. From what I year the new addition should be coming out in not too long.

LINKY

I seem to recall a fun boardgame based on the series. And it looks like a movie is in the works:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutant_Chronicles