Best of Breed

Dan Proctor of Goblinoid Games (Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, etc)announced that he has secured the rights to Time Master RPG. I'm only periphrially aware of Time Master and don't know much about it. I think that this is a cool development from what I can tell and from what little I know of the system, but it does leave me wondering, what systems should be brought back? I'm sure there are some exellent older games that suffered from lack of promotion/distribution back in the day and many not so worthy systems that got a fair bit of attion due to advertisement. I like the fact that Dan has done quite a bit to bring support back for older games (and I think he has done a great job of it). But do we have enough DIY toolkits out there already to model most of the settings/genre out there? What's missing? Old West shootouts like Boot Hill? Maybe, but I seem to recall someone working on that. I'm a big fan of TSR's Marver Superheroes FASERIP system. For me, it modeled the type of superhero slug fests that were the staple of Marvel Comics back in the 1980's. I'm kind of disappointed to find that 4C, the system developed by Phil Reed at Ronin Arts not take off. I think that it's a great fast paced, easy to play system that you could do quite a bit with. But then again, maybe I'm just a bit off. I was thinking about how we have some great fantasy systems that model just about every concievable fantasy angle and the Sci-Fi arena seems to be well represented as well. I was thinking I'd like to see something like a modern Delta Green/Conspiracy X/Fringe/X-Files type game using an OSR rule set. I suppose OpenQuest could be used but I'm thinking something a bit lighter like 4C. Although I'm not sure that 4C wouldn't lend itself better at moedling something like say Ghostbusters/Men in Black/Evolution. So, what else is there out there that has been under represented and what was out there that didn't get enough representation the first time around?

Comments

  1. TreyMay 13, 2011 at 11:39 AM

    I'm a big fan of the FASERIP system too. I think you could probably adapt a lot of types of games to that sort of system. Back in my early high school years, a friend and I devised a G.I. Joe game based on a variant of it.

    This may be a little "new school" in thinking--but wonder if "genre emulation" rules tweaks (like sanity) and just sort of renaming terms/concepts in old school rulesets for a new genre might be the way to go next.

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  2. XyanthonMay 13, 2011 at 12:47 PM

    G.I. Joe would be a perfect fit for FASERIP. I'm really not too bent up over being new school or old school. I'm more concerned with interesting concepts and DIY ethic. I'm actually thinking of adding some sort of sanity rules to my Labyrinth Lord game.

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