Obscure RPGs

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

DragonQuest - SPI, killed in the bankruptcy/TSR takeover. Some very nice ideas for its time. Heavily advertised.

Metamorphosis Alpha - TSR. Roleplaying on a generation starship that has fallen into barbarism. Largely based on Robert Heinlein's "Universe". Rapidly superseded by Gamma World.

DragonQuest was our fantasy RPG of choice. We logged more time in that than anything else. It introduced (so far as I know) the VP/WP type system -- they called it fatigue and endurance. Also, XP was awarded based on playtime per session, rather than just for killing stuff and taking their loot. Too bad the magic system was unplayable.

Kinda funny the comment on Metamorphosis Alpha. We abandoned it for Gamma World, which we abandoned for Morrow Project, which we abandoned for Aftermath.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen (A Superlative Role-Playing Game in the New Style by Baron Munchausen) - a great game, involving drinking, gambling, and competitive lying. An RPG that actually does have a winner. However, because the winner pays for the drinks some people play to lose. This one really should come back into print.

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 - except maybe as an adjunct to the main RPG we were playing, and even then the reasons to do so would be few and far between. But it does have a nice distillation of the Baron's exploits that can be used as adventure hooks.

 

[Aeric]

My best friend in high school was a real patron of obscure and/or indie RPGs. He had a copy of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (based on the comic of the same name). Mutant Chronicles was another one of his favorites.

 

[Twowolves]

Actually, Chronopia was a wargame spin-off of the most popular RPG ever published in Sweden (not D&D, incidentally). It was not a GW 'wannabe-competitor' -- indeed, why it got an American release at all, I'm not entirely certain (as American wargamers were not the target audience and the RPG in question has never been translated into English).

[Edit: If you liked the Chronopia setting and can read Swedish, you may want to track down the Target Games edition of Drakar och Demoner and its Chronopia setting supplements.]

Wow, I never thought I'd say this: I wish I could read Sweedish! (?)

I got the core rulebook, three issues of the magazine, and a boxed set with a cardboard tower and two minis before it disappeared from gamestore shelves.

 

[Piratecat]

but I can't imagine myself or anyone else I've ever gamed with ever playing it.

Tsk, tsk. You just need more wine. I remember it saving old Colonel Smyth-Herrington's life back in '91, during the trek through darkest Congo to find the source of the River of Dreams. Of course, an amorous hippopotamus and a wheel of cheese also played a part in that remarkable adventure, but that's a story for another time.



I recently bought three boxes of rpg books that used to belong to Dan Thron, the guy who wrote HoL. All sorts of goodness in there, including Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.

 

[meomwt]

Yup, been there, played Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, been in a game where it was melded with Twilight 2000 (it used the same base ruleset).

Also played Dream Park, the RPG of the book, where you play a player playing an RPG. Yup.

 

[Pbartender]

I remember it saving old Colonel Smyth-Herrington's life back in '91, during the trek through darkest Congo to find the source of the River of Dreams. Of course, an amorous hippopotamus and a wheel of cheese also played a part in that remarkable adventure, but that's a story for another time.

That'll teach you eat the center of the wheel of cheese first. Next time, eat your cheese wheels in wedges like a civilized man.

Not that it would have really made a difference, of course, the hippotamus being excepntionally desperate due to the fact that he'd spent the last twenty years in a Benedictine cloister and had only recently been released -- well, "escaped" might be a better term -- from his vows. He didn't get along well with the Abbot, you see. They kept getting each other's robes mixed up in the laundry... but that's a story for another time.

 

[RFisher]

Great thread! I am always amazed that there's a seemingly never-ending supply of obscure old games that I haven't heard of. My group already tends looks at me funny an awful lot because I cite so many games they've never heard of.

Fantasy Wargaming (with combat stats for God/Jehovah/Yahweh!)

That may be the most obscure game on my shelf. Though I remember seeing it in the RPG section at Waldenbooks for a long time, & I never saw the next two in a store.

Buck Rogers High Adventure Cliffhangers. Note that this is not the XXVc game. If Fantasy Wargaming isn't my most obscure game, then this probably is.

Prince Valiant? It was obscure to me when I first learned about it, but perhaps only because I never kept up with Chaosium that much.

I wonder about Hârnmaster. I wouldn't consider Hârn itself obscure, but I wonder how well known Hârnmaster is. (Although this is another one that I actually saw on a store shelf.)

 

[noffham]

I'd have to dig into my boxes to find them all, but I can remember having these off the top of my head:

Fifth Cycle
Halmahbrea
Iron Claw
World Tree
Space Opera
Superhero:2044
John Carter Warlord of Mars
Melanda: Land of Mystery
Ysgarth Rule System
Theatrix
Dreampark
Elfquest
Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes

I'm sure I'll think of more later

 

[Midknightsun]

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.