RPG Salad!
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Ah, sitting in the same legacy as GURPS.
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I do recall seeing the Dragon ads, but never saw the product in stores, nor knew anyone who played it. Until you just provided the synopsis, I had no idea what the setting was. Thanks for the write-up!
What, Generic Universal Role Playing System doesn’t grab your imagination? Yeah, mine neither. I have played GURPS though, and still have some of the books. It seems like TORG could suffer a bit from the possibility of going to any setting in any game session. GURPS doesn’t have that problem, as you generally pick a setting and stick with it for the campaign.
The universal systems I have actually had the most fun with are the more bare bones systems like QAGS (Quick A$$ Game System) and FAST ( Flexible Adventure System, Task-oriented) where you can crank out a character in a few minutes and just have a crazy fun time with a disposable adventure. They aren’t that amenable to anything lasting more than a few sessions, though.
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No, I’m riffing on how both systems got their names from designers being unable to come up with better names.
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GURPS uses points to BUY characters; unlike DND, Pathfinder, their many clones and so on, you don’t create characters but use points to purchase stats, skills, advantages, disadvantages & so on.
If anyone wants to actually try GURPS and not resort to piracy, searching thru secondhand shops for books, etc, there’s GURPS Lite. It’s a 32 page condensed version of the rules for those who want to give it a try.
Some like it so much that they may simply runs GURPS games based on the Lite ruleset!
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So, when I first got into Mutants & Masterminds, I wound up finding a group, and the set-up was a teen heroes game where the kids of villains decide to be superheroes. One of the group had an idea that was… somewhat unique.
Cowboy Fetus and his sidekick Yeti Dog. Yes, a baby born prematurely who somehow becomes a hero. He even included a helpful artist rendering. And now I’m going to subject YOU to it.
SURPRISINGLY, this concept ultimately wound up NOT getting statted up and making it into the game. The player went with the slightly less ridiculous Joseirus, the Egyptian God Of Mexican Wrestling.
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I see Toon got some love above. I almost did a Toon supplement of a huge number of tables that we had made for our own games for SJG, but the deal fell through.
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…this Meat Boy spinoff looks weird.
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Idk if this is a hot-take or not, but something I was thinking about today. Games with more rules (i.e. D&D) seem to be better for long-term campaigns than more free-style (i.e. Kid’s on Bikes) ones. My reasoning behind this is that there are different game mechanics you can keep exploring throughout the campaign to keep it interesting, but maybe others disagree. Would love to hear people’s opinions.
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So darn true. I loved Car Wars as a kid in the 80s, but I tried to play the re-issue with my wife and son a couple of years back. It was… not a hit with anyone for pacing reasons.
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Hmmmm. Really interesting question. My guess (based strictly on anecdata) is that it’s the preferences of the people at the table whether any particular system works for a campaign or not. I run three campaign-based tables right now. One is Delta Green, one Call of Cthulhu, and one Traveller. None of those systems involve any changing or evolving game mechanics. They aren’t exactly rules-lite systems, but none of them do level-based character advancement, or feats, or any form of expanding tactical/power options, either. The only thing that can happen to a character is they actually have fewer and fewer mechanical options over the course of a campaign as they mentally and physically degrade!
I also run a fourth group that’s been playing through a bunch of new (to us, at least) systems, which have been a mix of rules-lite (Mork Borg, A Dirty World, Tales from the Loop) and somewhat rules-heavy (Kult, Alien, Twilight 2000, and City of Mist). Some have been popular and some less so. Interestingly, only Tales from the Loop was deemed potentially long-term worthy. Not for any mechanical reason, but because the players really enjoyed how the game largely avoids violence as its source of drama and tension, instead focusing on coaxing out empathic, emotional reactions. That would probably bore the pants off many gamers, but it worked for that group and they have said they want to continue with their characters at some point until the characters age out (which is how Tales from the Loop handles how long any particular character can be played.)
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I think it boils down to accessibility. You can find the core D&D books pretty much anywhere books are sold, where as other systems you might have to go far and wide to find. Admittedly, this is less of an issue in the days of online shopping and e-books, but still, it’s like a familiar chain restaurant versus some new spot that you’ve heard of that no one’s tried before. You might visit the latter once or twice, but ultimately, your friends are going to go back to the chain restaurant just because you know the menu.
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When there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?
Published in 1986 by West End Games, this game played fast & loose with rules not being as rule-heavy as GURPS, Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, etc. It got an update in 1989 thanks to Ghostbusters II.
It used d6 and included a Ghost Die which replaced the 6 with a ghost. If this came up on a player roll, something bad happened even if the player succeeded on their roll.
The d6 system influenced other RPGs including Star Wars from West End Games. That game system I remember too…but that’s another post.
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Speaking of the Star Wars D6 game, when Star Wars Rebels came out, many viewers were commenting on how much the characters on the show acted like player characters.
Also speaking of sci-fi fantasy gaming, I picked up the Dark Matter campaign setting 5e from Mage Hand Press. It’s D&D IN SPAAACE, but moreso than Spelljammer, leaning in much harder than Spelljammer does, blending traditional fantasy with sci-fi tropes and the world-building is really neat. Like, magic got industrialized, so a lot of the “high tech” is actually just machines quickly (if rudimentally) casting a spell, like a blaster pistol just being a mass-produced magic missile casting.
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I did like the Star Wars RPG from West End. PDFs of the books do exist online if anyone wants to give the game a spin.
Funny you mention DND in space; when Wizards of the Coast took over the Star Wars RPG, they basically turned it into that! Characters had the six stats of strength, wisdom, intelligence, constitution, dexterity and charisma. You also got skill points and feats. But unlike DND, you had lasers, droids and spaceships. And you didn’t play dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-orcs, etc - it was Wookies, Ewoks, Gamorreans, Twi’leks and so on.
Sadly, I could never convince my DND gamers to try the game; they were actually not big on Star Wars!!
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I’m tempted to suggest you look up GhastBashers which is a more recent and less licensed take on the same idea.
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So does space in Dark Matter work the same way that it does in real life? Personally, one of the things I liked about Spelljammer was its Ptolemetic approach to astrophysics.
If you’re not already familiar with it, I recommend checking out the webcomic Darths & Droids.
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There’s also InSpectres, which is all about running a Ghostbusters paranormal investigation franchise.
I think I preferred their take to the D6 version, but I never did get anyone to play it with me. It’s a shame there’s no good way to get a copy of those now. You can’t even get a digital copy of the current Star Wars RPG because EA claims that infringes on their video game license (or something like that).
Darths & Droids was awesome. I stopped reading when it got into the newer movies, which I’m just not interested in, but it might be time to revisit the classic run.
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Haven’t gotten that far yet, but the short answer appears to be “Yes, but”. I’d say it’s like comic book space.
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Interesting stuff, I guess at the end of the day there’s just no accounting for taste
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