What is the Best Licensed RPG?

[Reynard]

Pure opinion thread.

What, in your opinion,is the best licensed RPG. You can use whatever definition of "best" you want: most complete, most fun, best production values, whatever. Just let us know why.

I'm going to get the obvious one out of the way: WEG d6 Star Wars. Not only was it a fun game that really captured the feel, it is also at least 50% responsible for keeping the franchise alive during the dark years.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

WEG Star Wars is right up there.

But my vote goes to Marvel FASERIP. Fun, simple, did a good job of capturing comic book hijinks. I keep meaning to try (reading) one of the modern variations. Also, if I were ever to run it again I'd be a lot freer handing out the karma, both to the heroes and villains.

 

[MGibster]

This is not an easy one to answer but I'll take a stab at it.

Star Wars by West End Games. For you youngsters who don't remember, there was a period of time when the only new Star Wars material being produced was coming from WEG's Star Wars license. Kenner stopped producing Star Wars toys in 1985, by 1986 they stopped production on the cartoons Droids and Ewoks, and there was a dry spell in merchandising until around 1995 or 1996 in anticipation of the special edition of A New Hope to be released in 1997.

WEG produced more than 100 sourcebooks and adventures for Star Wars from 1987 until they lost the license in 1999. When Timothy Zahn and other authors of Star Wars novels asked Lucas where they could find source material, he pointed them to WEG books. Sometimes you see stuff pop up in later movies or television series like Rebels that first appeared on one of WEG's supplements. The games sold well and they were good. I think it's the best licensed game over all.

 

[overgeeked]

Besides WEG Star Wars? Doctor Who RPG. It almost pitch perfectly captures the feel and tone of the show. The mechanics are slick and really light. It uses 2d6, which is objectively the best dice mechanic, and it’s incredibly well supported. At worst it has 1-2 flaws that are fairly simple to iron out.

 

[Greg K]

WEG Ghostbusters! (note: If I recall correctly, it was actually written by the people at Chaosium).
Honorable mentions to Angel, Buffy, Dr. Who, DC Heroes 2e and 3e (Mayfair Games), Smallville, Firefly, Marvel Heroic, Leverage, and Marvel Superhero Adventure Game (if using Tom Costa's unofficial Roster erratas, and Steve Kenson's unofficial Ultimate Power and Watcher's Option guides).

 

[John Dallman]

Best I've played or run is the Discworld RPG, which is GURPS-based.

 

[aramis erak]

Pure opinion thread.

What, in your opinion,is the best licensed RPG. You can use whatever definition of "best" you want: most complete, most fun, best production values, whatever. Just let us know why.

I'm going to get the obvious one out of the way: WEG d6 Star Wars. Not only was it a fun game that really captured the feel, it is also at least 50% responsible for keeping the franchise alive during the dark years.

I've got to go with Alien, but really only for the cinematic adventures.
FFG Star Wars second.

Why not WEG? WEG Star Wars, at time of release, was a mediocre adaptation, and a great game. 7 hours of film, 20 of TV, and none of the TV considered canonical by LFL. So, since there wasn't enough, they went and grabbed the licensed Novels (The Han and Lando trilogies). But not the Marvel comics, nor the daily strips. WEG created a setting based off of hyper-extrapolation and filling in the gaps. They're just lucky that George Lucas gave them the leeway which revitalized the fandom. Lucasfilm staff have been quoted as seeing the game's relationship as symbiotic with the rest of the EU. Lucas himself? I've not seen any comments one way or the other, but his commentary on the revised DVDs noted that there was a resurgence of the fandom, and he had the time and money to bring his vision forward... but that vision seems to have been very much influenced by the toys, the games, and especially the RPG.

Plus, I honestly prefer the mechanics of FFG's version. (And I think the breaking up of FFG by Asmodee was a jerk-move from hell. Anti-Fan, and bad for all the involved IPs.)

 

[humble minion]

The Unisystem Buffy game was great, some really innovative minor mechanics that really nailed the feel of the show. Just don't run your campaign too long because it breaks down when PCs have too many XP. Alien looks excellent, but i haven't played it.

The worst I've seen is possibly Firefly, which just had a dysfunctional system in many many ways. (The original version at least, apparently there was a much later revision that fixed the worst of it). D20 Star Wars was right up (down?) there too.

 

[Bill Zebub]

The One Ring, 1st Edition.

 

[DevL]

Another vote for WEG Star Wars here.