Which RPGs hold special value for you because of something other than the game itself?

#41

Seeing the Wraith mentions reminds me of the place Changeling: the Lost holds for me. In college, a friend of mine got together people for World of Darkness. We only met for one session, and I remember almost nothing about it. But he was basically letting us use whatever, so we had two Conspiracy-tier Hunters and I decided to dive into Changeling.

It just sparked with me. The idea of having a broken soul torn half away by the thorns of the Hedge, the way that my character (Winter Court Fairest) transfixed people with stunning beauty and drank in loneliness and melancholy… it was striking.

It got more complicated as years went on and the mental health and abuse subtext of Changeling became more obvious to me, and it remains messy and powerful to me for various reasons. The image of a human indelibly marked by this otherworldly nature haunts me still, not to mention the powerful imagery of magic and natural forces.

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#42

Another obscure game that I have a soft spot for is Psi World, an RPG by Fantasy Games Unlimited from 1984 about psychically-gifted people living in a dystopian near-future society that wants them dead. (The game was loosely based on the sci-fi/horror movie Scanners.)

You could play either as the psychics trying to find a place in (and/or overthrow) the society, OR as non-psychic authorities trying to stop a dangerously-powered terrorist group.

The cover and interior art was by not-yet-famous comic book artist Bill Willingham.

This was the first RPG I ever tried to steal game mechanics out of in order to graft into another: I was looking for an improvement on AD&D’s psionics system. (I didn’t yet have the game designer chops to square that circle, being only 15 at the time…)

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#43

Marvel Super Heroes (FASERIP) - the first rpg I ever played; One on one with my best friend, lost through the years. On my 14th birthday, I GMd my first game of MSH with my new high school friends…most of which are still friends (even if living far away) today!

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#44

This is totally cliche but that Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set by John Eric Holmes I bought at Fat Cat Books (Johnson City NY) in 1979 still reminds me of the joy of first discovering RPGs as a kid and that magical place called the game store. I couldn’t believe this amazing activity that opened the floodgates of imagination was a thing!

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#45

My list contains:

  • Tenra Bansho Zero and Mouse Guard for being the games that, between them, finally showed me how SYSTEM COULD MATTER and opened my eyes to all the cool stuff that is out there.
  • Ryuutama, because it has my name in the credits as something other than a Kickstarter backer.
  • Oddly, perhaps, NOT Mentzer Red Box D&D or any other early D&D edition, even though those are where I got my start.
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#46

The Splicers RPG by Palladium games. One of the first settings/concepts that lit my brain on fire and embedded a love for weird biotech that lasts to this day.

Rifts, also by Palladium games. Reading the wikipedia entry is what got me into ttrpgs, and taught me what ttrpgs were. Xiticix Invasion was the first gamebook I ever read.

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#47

I have tender feelings for the handful of games I’ve had some small part in bringing to press (editing). Other than those…

Basic D&D (Moldvay) still takes me back to 1981 when I started role-playing.

Invisible Sun evokes power and awe for the sheer scale and audacity of it all, though I have never played it.

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#48

The Buffy RPG. It’s the first RPG I read which sounded less like a dry text. It taught me to use television-style structures when plotting sessions & seasons. The shorter season approach has served me incredibly well over the years. It’s also where the players first bought into being fans of their characters, shipping and angsting over everything.

Hunter: The Reckoning, which I used to read every release for on the Saturday morning after getting a book. I had other RPGs and other WoD RPGs, but this was the first one I heavily got into. I ran some very different, very good campaigns. One had my two most bloodthirsty AD&D players learning to love a small life as a pair of sisters looking after their house and neighbourhood. They mapped the house, the objects in it, befriended monsters and occasionally got into fights.

I’ve got different games I’d rather run if I wanted to replicate the play experiences, but I still have them as mementos.

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#49

For me it’s Blades in the Dark, both for just being an amazing system that opened my eyes to so many possibilities for different game designs, but also because the book does such an amazing job explaining itself to the reader. Not only do I find it provides the information in a very intuitive way, but there are small essays on best practices for players and GMs, and worst practices for players and GMs, and how the game is supposed to be run, with a bunch of potential modifications at the back (vigilante payoff, uncertain resistances, trust mechanics etc.). The system and the book itself have opened my eyes to so much and I attribute a lot of where I am today to Blades in terms of gameplay preferences, game design ideas, book layout ideas, and what I think should be included in rulebooks and focussed on.

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#50

For me it’s The Sprawl. I went through a whole process of discovering what PbtA games were for awhile, reading original Apocalypse World, listening to podcasts, etc., but that was the first one I actually got to play. It was with a really good group of friends who made it a ton of fun, even as we were all completely new to PbtA and continually stumbled through really understanding how the system was supposed to work.

I’ve read and played in so many other games since then, but The Sprawl continues to be the classic game for me when I think about PbtA, and it’s what I’ll constantly refer back to when I’m trying to tell people about how fun the system can be =P

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#51

I’ve got quite a few RPGs like that. To me “special value” here means “this book collects dust and will continue to do so but I’ll never abandon it”.

MERP was a flawed system (roll to see if you know how to run) but it was my first.

Arkona, obscure Polish RPG drawing inspiration from Slavic folklore. Great concept, pure heartbreaker in execution.

CP2020 - first game I run. Atrocious Polish translation makes it hard for me to open it these days.

Artesia is unplayable but I love the world and would kill for a solid video game set in it.

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#52

Runequest 2e/Glorantha, because the setting is so layered and detailed (that might be considered part of the game, but BRP doesn’t require it). I’m still very interested in setting and backstory (but see below). I was also the first game that I played from zero to hero (literally). I think it’s mostly nostagia for the game though. I probably wouldn’t play it again.

Ghost Lines, I learned the value of tightly written color text and that a well crafted random table can provide a heck of a lot of setting detail and story hooks, without using pages and pages of boring expository text. I encourage every designer to look at the random tables in that game.

Ghost/Echo, I learned that typography, art, and design matter, and that they can provide the players/gm with hints, clues, and a starting point for what the game is about; even when there is barely any rules or setting text. It also taught me that giving the players/gm freedom to create is more important than being strict with and/or providing copious setting details (i.e. the anti-Glorantha).It’s also the first story-game that I really understood as a story-game.

I also learned that I really love fortune in the middle mechanics, and the play to find out playstyle (maybe you consider that part of the game).

Archipelago, I don’t even know where to begin…

There are others, but that is enough.

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