RPG Review Gallery 3
This GURPS Update is, dated, to say the least, looks like 3rd Edition maybe? I never did wind up playing even one game of GURPS though I liked the modular and very open structure of the game.
Same with the FASA Star Trek game – I made a ton of characters, used their quite awesome tables to come up with entire solar systems and the planets in them… but I never managed to run it, nor play it.
Another one I inherited, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG, based on the comic books, before the cartoons and such – I and a friend stayed up til 5 in the morning, and I uttered the phrase “My monkey has a strength of 2″, at which point another friend woke up, threw a pillow at me and growled “GO.TO.BED!” Never got to play this one either.
Super Squadron I actually bought, new, from a gamestore in Tulsa. Reading through it, I remember attempting to convince myself that I liked the rules and could see how it made sense to roll up entirely random characters, including powers. I don’t think I believed me, as I never ran or played this.
Marvel Heroes I also didn’t ever run or play but the system was certainly more user-friendly than DC Heroes. I’ve got a buttload of little cardboard superhero counters though!
Car Wars I bought from a friend at a garage sale for $3.00. He and I tried a number of times to run just one simple car chase and combat but found the rules and recordkeeping just entirely too much work. I did enjoy, for some reason, building my own car and worrying about how many power plants it had.
The Chill Companion, presumably, really opened the door for 2nd edition Mayfair Chill by providing a number of new optional rules including Resolve Points and modified fear checks, new disciplines of the Art, etc. Sadly, I only got to run one very brief game of chill and it was before I got this book.
Oh look – DC Heroes! The most memorable thing about this game was how long I spent translating the Action Points of speed that Superman and the Flash had, and determining how fast each was, down to the miles per hour – I swear I was doing higher math. The second most memorable thing about this game was my attempt to run it, or rather, just to try it out, and set up a fight between a neighbor who played Superman, and Darkside. He said “I punch him”, which started close to a 30 minute search through the rules on what that meant, and how to do it, and all the details. It wound up with Superman doing enough damage to KO Darkside and enough knockback to put him in a wheelbarrow at a construction site, which Superman used to cart him off to Supervillain Jail. Neither of us were terribly impressed with the DC Heroes rules.
I am fairly proud of The Best of Dragon Magazine Games by TSR, a diverse compilation of mini-games, using chardboard counters and chits, for everything from boxing to food fights to building a fantasy empire and running races and even making your own RPG. My clearest memory of this game is that my mom kept beating me at the furry humanoid racing game. I probably managed to play each game at least once, though I honestly don’t know how people played games using only little lightweight cardboard chits like this game uses – they’re insanely hard to keep from blowing away or sliding all around and getting lost.
The Complete Guide to the World of Lone Wolf and Grey Star: The Magnamund Companion was a little like a holy grail I didn’t know existed. It was a couple years after I really stopped reading and keeping up with all the Lone Wolf Kai adventure books that I came across this on a shelf at B. Dalton or Waldenbooks in Tulsa, out of the blue – I had to have it and am glad I got it, though there really isn’t all that much to do in it – it’s more a reference book (duh) though it did come with its own mini tavern game. I treasure this one and have serious nostalgia moments involving picking my Kai powers and cheating on the “dice rolls”, when looking through it.
Sports Illustrated Pro Golf … is sort of a role-playing game, as it came with a number of tiny little glossy cards, sequentially numbered, each representing a particular golfer, and with each card also having a number of arcane stats and a D6% (hard to explain) dice roll and the results of each number. The game also included a “course” booklet, which had I think three different entire 18 hole courses in it, each of which changed the dynamics of the dice rolls and results of the cards, which I still have to admit is pretty clever. I did indeed play this more than a few times by myself, and a couple times with friends and family, though I eventually tired of it because even with all the statted cards, it still seemed a bit too vague and pure random chance based, which it was and in fact, it was weighted toward bad rolls, which usually wound up with me yoinking the ball into a sandtrap or the water.
And that is the end of this set of RPG reviews, though I feel myself almost trying to be inspired to go dig up a few more RPGs to put together one more RPG Gallery/Review post. We’ll see.
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