What Non-D&D TSR RPGs Needs to be Revived?

[Theory of Games]

TSR made a number of RPGs over the years, and none of them besides D&D have a currently published version. So, which TSR RPG would you like to see revived? How? In what form?

I want to answer "Gamma World" because I love Gamma World, and miss it, but my real answer is definitely Alternity -- and not the bland one that is currently out, the actual Alternity, including the phenomenal Star*Drive setting. Clean it up just a touch but leave the system mostly alone, please.

What do you want to see revived?

Dungeons & Dragons.

Bring back BECMI + AD&D 1e with saving throws, THAC0, the original Hit Dice, racial limitations, class restrictions, 18/00 Strength, dominion rules, the "war machine" and 36 levels. Mixing BECMI with some of the right AD&D material would work. Sure some people have come up with "clones" but the original text is superior.

 

[Reynard]

Dungeons & Dragons.

Bring back BECMI + AD&D 1e with saving throws, THAC0, the original Hit Dice, racial limitations, class restrictions, 18/00 Strength, dominion rules, the "war machine" and 36 levels. Mixing BECMI with some of the right AD&D material would work. Sure some people have come up with "clones" but the original text is superior.

Not only does this reply ignore the spirit of the thread, there are multiple currently available versions of early TSR D&D with strong support in addition to a vast library of PDF and POD classic material.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Oh interesting. I'll have to look for reviews!

They aren't going to be pretty.

It’s hilariously badly designed. You’re better off using the original or Cortex Prime, which it’s very poorly based on.

That. Top Secret: NWO is kind of a legendary train wreck on multiple levels. It's really a shame - but its existence makes me doubt WotC has access to the rights for SI. If nothing else the long fallow period may have let Merle reclaim it the same way Steve Jackson recovered TFT.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Several of the Amazing Engine settings were solid. The engine, as I recall, was a bit meh.

I was tempted to mention AE myself but that's nostalgia talking, and nostalgia that only exists because I bought the whole range for pennies on the dollar when the FLGS was liquidating it. If I'd paid retail for it I'd probably still be angry.

Like you said there were some settings that probably deserve a second chance at life, but the engine itself was awfully lackluster and there's enough generics out there that redoing (say) Kromosome with Cortex Prime or Once and Future King in Savage Worlds seems a better option. The one innovative thing in it - the way you could spend XP on you current character, or you "core" to make all future characters a bit better starting out - is still intriguing, albeit probably unbalancing. It was fundamentally a "player level-up" system that didn't have real limitations, and the idea that the 30-year roleplaying vet gets better starting PCs in every AE campaign than someone just starting out seems...problematic. Interesting attempt to secure brand loyalty though, I'll give it that.

Worth noting that even that innovation wasn't wholly original. The Dream Park RPG came out one year before AE, and it has a similar concept where your PC is actually a player of an augmented reality LARP within the titular amusement park complex, and your performance in those doubly-fictional scenarios improves your PC's standing in the gaming league, making you better in future events. Your PC can die (both inside and outside of an event) though, so your improvements aren't 100% safe from loss the way investing in AE's character core was.

 

[aramis erak]

Marvel FASERIP published as a generic superhero game.

Essentially, 4C System is just that.
Likewise, ZEFRS is TSR's Conan genericised.

It is, however, owned entirely by Wizards of the Coast who would not need a license from themselves to publish it once the material it was based on enters the public domain.

You're apparently unaware of the effect of Trademark law. The Buck Rogers Trademarks are a big part what prevents that reprint; they don't have a time-based ending.
Also, looking at the book, the copyright reads:

BUCK ROGERS and XXVc are Trademarks used under license from The Dille Family Trust. ©1990 The Dille Family Trust. All rights reserved"

Further down,

Game Design ©1990 TSR, Inc. All rights reserved.

So, no, the XXVc game is NOT TSR's, and thus not Wizards, to reprint. INor was it TSR's to reprint. Any reprint would require both the Dille Family Trust and WotC to agree to it.

 

[Wolfpack48]

They aren't going to be pretty.

That. Top Secret: NWO is kind of a legendary train wreck on multiple levels. It's really a shame - but its existence makes me doubt WotC has access to the rights for SI. If nothing else the long fallow period may have let Merle reclaim it the same way Steve Jackson recovered TFT.

That said, Top Secret has pretty well realized brand recognition, and with the lack of any espionage games on the market is a good candidate for that genre. James Bond and GURPS Espionage are long gone, and spy role playing is a lotta fun.

 

[Reynard]

the lack of any espionage games on the market

There are a few, not least Night's Black Agents.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

There are a few, not least Night's Black Agents.

Red Markets arguably qualifies by that standard too, but "straight" espionage stuff is rare indeed. The genre seems to have gotten tangled up with urban horror somewhere along the way.

James Bond and GURPS Espionage are long gone, and spy role playing is a lotta fun.

GURPS Espionage (and Covert Ops and Special Ops, very useful companion pieces) are an edition out of date, but still available. The only GURPS stuff that tends to go away ever is licensed material, and not even all of those.

Any reprint would require both the Dille Family Trust and WotC to agree to it.

Worth noting that the Dille Family Trust (that's Lorraine Williams' "side") has been tussling with the Nowlan Family Trust over Buck Rogers for years, although the last I looked I believe the Dille FT had finally won the legal conflict - while enriching rather a lot of lawyers in the process, no doubt.

 

[dbolack]

Worth noting that even that innovation wasn't wholly original. The Dream Park RPG came out one year before AE, and it has a similar concept where your PC is actually a player of an augmented reality LARP within the titular amusement park complex, and your performance in those doubly-fictional scenarios improves your PC's standing in the gaming league, making you better in future events. Your PC can die (both inside and outside of an event) though, so your improvements aren't 100% safe from loss the way investing in AE's character core was.

Dreampark had its own pile of problems.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Dreampark had its own pile of problems.

Undeniably true. The novels were pretty great though. Not usually a big fan of Barnes/Niven partnership books (although with Heorot that might have been Pournelle's infuence, admittedly), but Dream Park worked for me.