What Licensed RPG Do You Wish Existed But Doesn't?

[James Gasik]

Not officially licensed, but IIRC back when the cartoon was on the air there was a fan created Gargoyles book for the Storyteller system that was passed around on the internet. I wish I still had a copy - I remember it being pretty good. But a lot of my old 90s downloaded fan creations succumbed to bitrot before I could get them off floppies and onto other media

(There was also a Highlander fan book for Storyteller. Which, honestly, felt like White Wolf really missed the boat in NOT licensing that franchise for an adaptation. A closer fit to their usual product than Street Fighter was at least).

I vaguely recall owning an off-brand TTRPG about playing immortals from Highlander with the serial numbers filed off, I think the main setting was Atlanta, Florida, but I have no idea what happened to it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Richard Garriott's Ultima series.

100% I've adapted large portions of that setting into my Level Up/5e games as it is.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Adventures in Mid-World and Beyond!

 

[The Shadow]

100% I've adapted large portions of that setting into my Level Up/5e games as it is.

Ultima IV in particular seems like a great choice. I love how it incorporates the virtues into the classes! (I'm not really familiar with anything after that.)

Unlike many of the settings on this thread, I think D&D is a great choice to adapt Ultima.

(I'm not sure how much fun it would be to play a Shepherd, though.)

 

[Undrave]

Any sort of isekai LitRPG with one of those class systems with hundreds of classes and skills. Just a really hardcore crunchy book with 500+ pages of mechanics.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced and A2?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

There's so much you could do with the Nine Houses, Cavalier, and Necromancer systems. And that's not even getting to the world itself

The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir. No, Thirsty Sword Lesbians does not count. I want lesbian necromancers in space, thank you. But seriously rules for playing a necromancer and they’re cavalier, or a member of the cohort, choosing your house and your place within it. Ugh. Yes pls. I’d be torn between the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth houses. Or Ninth, just to be maximally goth and sad.

In 198-something, my brother, our friend, and I put together a Legend of Zelda RPG. It really lends itself so well to it, and back then there were only two games to go on.

My actual answer - Legend of Zelda.

Honestly, I can think of worse properties that have gotten RPGs! Just make sure there are good vehicle racing and combat rules!

My not as serious answer - Super Mario Bros. Mostly because I want to see what kind of game they'd make for that license.

My stupid answer - Super Mario Bros. the movie. As a Storyteller/World of Darkness supplement.

(EDIT: And I mean the original live action Super Mario Bros. movie, not the upcoming cartoon one.)

For my part, I'm surprised that Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series didn't get the TTRPG treatment. There's so much to work with in it. Heck, the magic system is super-codified and well-explained.

 

[Reynard]

For my part, I'm surprised that Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series didn't get the TTRPG treatment. There's so much to work with in it. Heck, the magic system is super-codified and well-explained.

I swore there was, but a quick Googling tells me I was remembering a board game adaptation.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

It feels like there should have been a Myth Adventures RPG, with Phil Foglio art and everything. I can imagine something having come out in the early 90s, or even early 00s as a d20 system game.

I swore there was, but a quick Googling tells me I was remembering a board game adaptation.

 

[John R Davis]

Majesty pc game using SPI Dragonquest.
Equilibrium where you play the grammaton clerics ( using savage worlds).

I have run both these in the past!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My actual answer - Legend of Zelda.

My not as serious answer - Super Mario Bros. Mostly because I want to see what kind of game they'd make for that license.

My stupid answer - Super Mario Bros. the movie. As a Storyteller/World of Darkness supplement.

(EDIT: And I mean the original live action Super Mario Bros. movie, not the upcoming cartoon one.)

Have you seen Bloat Games' Zelda, Mario and Castlevania books? They have bestiaries and gear books. They have system neutral, 5E, DCC and OSR versions. They're currently Kickstarting books based on Metroid and some game I don't recognize.

(I can't find the Mario books for sale to non-backers. I wonder if Nintendo hit them with a C&D.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Majesty pc game using SPI Dragonquest.

I held onto the Majesty hint book for years to use it as a gazetteer. So much great implied lore and setting ideas there.

More broadly, this thread has a ton of great examples of stuff I am baffled hasn't been licensed out. The small stuff can't cost much to license at this point (how many people are beating down the door for a Majesty RPG book nowadays) and the big stuff seems like a no-brainer for the big companies that own them. (Seriously, a Mass Effect sci-fi ttrpg is a license to print money.)

 

[The Shadow]

For my part, I'm surprised that Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series didn't get the TTRPG treatment. There's so much to work with in it. Heck, the magic system is super-codified and well-explained.

The magic system did drift a bit with time... The first book did a lot with ley lines, which were pretty much completely dropped thereafter. But yeah, Skeeve's magic pretty much boils down to telekinesis and wards. Some people seem to be able to do mental magics as well.

 

[Blue Orange]

Everyone's dodging the elephant in the room, eh?

The series Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos was supposed to emulate?

The one The Magicians trilogy was supposed to be the college-age version of? (Though that one has actual D&D spells in it.)

The one that's a magical version of Tom Brown's Schooldays?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Personally I have no int

Everyone's dodging the elephant in the room, eh?

The series Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos was supposed to emulate?

The one The Magicians trilogy was supposed to be the college-age version of? (Though that one has actual D&D spells in it.)

The one that's a magical version of Tom Brown's Schooldays?

Personally I have no interest in a Harry Potter RPG; that setting makes absolutely no sense outside of the very narrow narrative of the main series (and often not even there).

I would be down for a The Magicians RPG though.

 

[billd91]

Everyone's dodging the elephant in the room, eh?

The series Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos was supposed to emulate?

The one The Magicians trilogy was supposed to be the college-age version of? (Though that one has actual D&D spells in it.)

The one that's a magical version of Tom Brown's Schooldays?

I think a Harry Potter RPG could have been fun... at one time. But Rowling has screwed that pooch (and keeps screwing it again and again and again) so that's pretty much that.

 

[overgeeked]

Larry Correia

Ugh. No racist Sad Puppy nonsense.

Sad Puppies - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Corinnguard]

I think I would like to see the Wizardry VII and Wizardry VIII computer games as RPG settings. Wizardry 8 - Wikipedia

I also wouldn't mind seeing the Storm Hawks cartoon as a setting. Storm Hawks - Wikipedia

 

[overgeeked]

Thundarr the Barbarian. Pirates of Dark Water. Anything Miyazaki.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Any fans of Michael Scott Rohan?

Winter of the World would work as an excellent low fantasy setting. I'd avoid having the PCs be yet more gods slumming it in mortal form.

For a more high fantasy feel there's his Spiral series. Weird interplanar travels with serious consequences for those who stray too far from the core.

 

[John R Davis]

Thundarr the Barbarian. Pirates of Dark Water. Anything Miyazaki.

There is a PODW rpg