I was just wondering what types of role playing games people have played. I played a number of RPG’s as a kid. Perhaps I am pining for my youth, but I’ve wondedred if I would enjoy one again.
D&D of course so I won’t discuss it.
Champions - This is a game where you make up that you are one of the X-men. You come up with a character (mutant) and there are some strict rules to follow on what type of talent you can have. If you wanted a big talent you had to pick a major disability. (Allergic to glass was a common one that people picked in my group.) I was just some no imagination ninja.
007 - I think thats what it was called. It was a fun spy type game based usually on james bond. You could be a PI, but I guess then you got different missions. We all picked spy cause James Bond was cool.
Some cartooniverse type game - This was a strange one. I can’t remember much about it. Something about being able to pull sledge hammers out of thin air.
We tried to make our own game too. I think we called it ringworld. This was in the early 80’s so I have no idea if the concept was stolen. It didn’t last long.
I played D&D, too. My 6th Grade science teacher DMed sessions after school.
City of Heroes/Villains was originally supposed to be along the lines of the Champions system but Cryptic decided to go with something more approachable.
That might have been Top Secret.
There was also a licensed James Bond Game published by Avalon Hill subsidiary Victory Games but that didn’t have any PIs.
Obviously D&D. I started playing back when D&D and AD&D were two separate things (I’m guessing it was right about when 1st switched to 2nd. I was about 7 or 8 and my brother bought the red boxed basic D&D set from a lawn sale. We started playing with a couple friends of ours that were also brothers. We then switched to AD&D, and since then, I got older, and in HS introduced several of my friends to AD&D, and then we went to 3rd and 3.5.
Robotech. About three or four years after starting D&D, we started playing Robotech from Palladium games, because we all enjoyed the cartoon.
Vampire - I didn’t play a lot, but a little bit back a few years ago before it switched to a new system, or whatever it did.
Exalted - Played for a few months with some people in college.
Rifts - My brother was big into rifts in college, and I would borrow some books and did a little bit here and there.
Games I’ve played quite a bit of:
D&D of course.
ShadowRun (1st and 2nd edition) - CyberPunk (with magic) type game.
Ars Magica - Game with a pretty cool spell system (with the ability to make up spells on the fly). For a magic centered game, not bad melee combat system.
Mechwarrior (The RPG aspect of BattleTech) - had some serious problems (IIRC the average person could run 100 meters in 10 seconds, even if encumbered)
But we didn’t have much out of mech adventures.
Every PlatteCon (gaming convention held at my alma-mater: UW-Platteville) I try to play a game I haven’t before (not just RPGs, also board games and card games). Too many to list, and I’m not sure I can remember much less describe all of them.
what the heck (in addition to the above)
Champions (I got to roll 48d6 once)
Paranoia
World of Darkness (Vampire, Mage, Mummy)
Chill
Cthuhlu Dark Ages
Star Wars (West End)
Star Wars (D20)
Serenity
Space 1889
Twilight 2000
Earthdawn
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Heroquest
Deadlands
Homebrew Anime
Homebrew Super Hero
Rifts
Toon (I’m pretty sure this is what Christopher was thinking of - its called “hammerspace” IIRC)
Oh, and at least one GURPS game (Hitchhiker’s guide - not sure what “system” was used) - I’ve probably played others.
I played a “Pigs in Space” RPG, but I forget the system it was based off of (not toon, a more serious space RPG)
I played the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” RPG
D20 Modern. Although the GM decided to mix D&D elements, in a way that didn’t add anything, IMO, but rather just makes it difficult to make our character sheets. My history professor/wizard is a pain in the ass for this…my special forces guy is much better, only using D20 Modern materials.
DC Heroes - I think the new edition of this is called Blood of Heroes, but is essentially the same game, just without the stats for DC characters. I’m (theoretically, in any case - we stopped while I was sick and haven’t gotten back, yet) running a game set in Gotham City. (Well…the most recent ‘arc’ has been set in Atlantic City, actually, but the characters are based out of Gotham.)
GURPS - it was a fun game, but the GM was a newbie, and the game kind of fell apart. It’s a pity, I really liked that character. (Imagine Edward Wong Hau Pepilu Tivruski IV, as a pyromaniac catgirl, from a non-technological society, given a super-scientific time travel device… You can see why she was fun.)
Well, during the end of AD&D 2nd edition, they discontinued the regular D&D titled line, so no more “Elf” or “Dwarf” as a class. When 3rd edition came out (in 2000) they dropped the advanced amd it’s just Dungeons and Dragons now (though it’s like the advanced, with separate races and classes, more complex rules, etc…)
I cut my teeth on AD&D but didn’t really start buying my own RPG junk until AD&D 2nd edition was released.
AD&D 2 editions
D&D 3.0
GURPS (3rd and 4th)
Call of Cthulhu (various settings)
Marvel Superheroes (Old TSR version)
DC Heroes
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
RIFTS
Palladium Fantasy
Palladium Heroes
Robotech
Legend of the Five Rings (all three editions)
Chill
Dark Conspiracy
Shadowrun (1st edition)
Tales from the Floating Vagabond
Delta Force
Cyborg Commando (To my great shame)
Deadlands: The Weird West
Deadlands: THe Wasted West
Savage Worlds
True 20
I started with wargames, like Dune, Starfleet Battles, various Avalon Hill things, then got dragged into an AD&D game when I couldn’t hijack the group to play Dune instead. Played lots of AD&D, but now go years between sessions. Still playing a Ranger I started in 1984. Also dabbled in a Marvel superhero game, Paranoia, and tried Cyberpunk. Then Karana invented the internet, and there was much rejoicing
Vampire the Masquerade
Vampire Dark Ages
Werewolf the Apocalypse
and that’s pretty much it. Got out of it because I moved and haven’t found a group around here (it’s not that there aren’t just that I’m shy and the only reason I started was a friend introduced me and then I got to know others… I don’t know anyone here who plays).
There is a new system too, and it’s all changed up. No longer Masquerade, the apocalypse has come and now it’s the aftermath. I found some of the new books but I haven’t had a chance to look through them yet.
Games I played at least semi-seriously (as in not just for one evening): Dungeons & Dragons: The basic boxed set. I think I had the Basic (lvls 1-4) se and the Expert (lvls 5-10) set.
Advanced D&D: 1st edition. Never much got into the later editions but we played the heck out of the original game.
Gamma World: I played a monkey-man! My partner was a space amoeba! I had a needle-gun! That’s about all I remember from this TSR sci-fi adventure.
Twilight: 2000: Post-apocolyptic world where you start as an American army unit trapped in Poland after the bombs fall. The setting was neat, the details were excellent, the feel of it was well done… but the game mechanics sucked ass.
Robotech: We played a little but were more interested in the Battletech system and just beating the crap out of one another than actually role-playing the pilots and stuff.
Bunnies & Burrows: Inspired by (and very loosely based on) Watership Down, you played a group of rabbits in this quasi-parody of RPGs. The game focused more on role-playing and problem solving than combat since, well, you were a rabbit and damn near anything could kick your ass.
Shadowrun: First edition again. This was one of the very few games where I never had to GM a campaign and only ever played the game.
Marvel Superheroes: Played some in college with a roommate but I found the character creation more interesting than the actual game.
Paranoia: I have to admit that I barely remember this game although I played it for several months in high school in the late 80’s. I think the GM was mostly winging it. I do remember that I had a chainsaw for a weapon.
Vampire: the Masquerade: I think everyone who played RPGs in the 90’s wound up playing this at least once.
Wraith: the Oblivion: Me and three other people played this. Not me and a group of three others, I mean the entire W:tO playing population apparently numbered four people. Which is a shame because it was easily my favorite World of Darkness setting.
D&D, Basic, 1st Ed. and 2nd Ed. (GMed, too)
Gammaworld
Rifts
Paranoia (I loved GMing that, too. But I’ve always said it must be played with either very close friends, or people whom you’ll never, ever see again.)
Toon
Vampire (GMed, too)
Top Secret
finally, my personal favorite: The Morrow Project - a post apocalptic game, where the players are part of a nationwide conspiracy to rebuild civilization. And things have gone very wrong. I don’t know many people who’ve played it, but I had a lot of fun with it. It was also a favorite of mine because as GM I could insist that the players try to be heroic. I got very sick, after a while, of people wanting to play villians.
I played and DMed a whole lot of AD&D 2nd ed. I bought the 3.0 books when they came out, but by then life started interfering with games and I never got to play much. Now I’ve started beating life back, and I have a brand new character in the RPGA. They use modified 3.5 rules.
I was into the World of Darkness for a good while (mainly Mage and Werewolf) but now I’ve come to the conclusion that the system mechanics are fundamentally flawed. They’ve tried to fix it in newer editions, but at the same time they’ve completely altered the story settings. Now it’s just kind of a giant mess.
Other systems, in roughly descending order of play time:
Rifts
Deadlands
Shadowrun
Trinity
Toon
Chill
various random stuff at conventions
So, no Rolemaster players, eh? “We few, we happy few…”
often derisively referred to as “Roll-Master”, this d%-based game by I.C.E. (they also do MERP)used tables (lots of tables) for combat resolution. Results could be quite graphic. Still, nothing compares with the satisfaction of a 66 crit. Iusually DMed, but have played sorcerers and knights in other people’s games.
Cyberspace 2020 was a pure cyberpunk game (no elf-hackers here) that used the same mechanics, and, I think, came closest to the Gibson setting in flavour. I was the techie.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And Other Strangeness) was put out by the Palladium (the rifts guys). Just the character generation was fun enough, never mind the gameplay. I was a raccoon getaway driver.
Casle Falkenstein was a playing-card based elf-steampunk system. I played an English nobleman sorcerer. Along with the elf-lord, the Hob, the Bayernese cavalryman and the Atlantean, we had a fun time. Including the time it rained mammoth.
I’ve also played AD&D 1st & 2nd Ed., GURPS, Vampire and Call of Cthulhu.
