YO DOG, I HAVE HEARD THAT YOU LIKE SHADE
This has been an interesting couple of months for licenses. Bethesda announced a forthcoming pen & paper rpg for The Elder Scrolls. Then they discovered that the sample module, Elsweyr, they'd put out to promote that had been massively plagiarized from a WotC module. On the other hand, Bethesda has still not addressed how much Tamriel looks like Glorantha (#undeservedshade). I kid (but seriously, there's some influence there - when Ducks show up as a playable race, you'll see).
On a less problematic note, Free League announced the Alien RPG, building on the Mutant Engine. I love many of Fria Ligan's games (especially Tales from the Loop and Mutant: Year Zero). I've been gunshy about backing this given my KS fulfillment woes with several of their recent campaigns. The design and adventures for a few of their big ticket releases disappointed me. However, they have brought on Cam Banks as the editor for it. That seriously shifts my interest level up and now I'm leaning towards doing the pre-order...ugh. So tempting.
Then there's Sea of Thieves from Mongoose. I've mentioned before on these lists my surprise at certain niche licenses. And maybe Sea of Thieves has a more devoted fanbase than I think. Mongoose has had their share of issues with licenses in the past (as we will see in future installments). Currently they seem to be down to Traveller. Sea of Thieves looks pretty - a big, high production value boxed set. But there's not much info on what the "new Avast system" actually looks like. There's no quickstart or substantial preview and the pdf clocks in at $40 on DTRPG. I'll definitely wait to see the reviews.
This has been an interesting couple of months for licenses. Bethesda announced a forthcoming pen & paper rpg for The Elder Scrolls. Then they discovered that the sample module, Elsweyr, they'd put out to promote that had been massively plagiarized from a WotC module. On the other hand, Bethesda has still not addressed how much Tamriel looks like Glorantha (#undeservedshade). I kid (but seriously, there's some influence there - when Ducks show up as a playable race, you'll see).
On a less problematic note, Free League announced the Alien RPG, building on the Mutant Engine. I love many of Fria Ligan's games (especially Tales from the Loop and Mutant: Year Zero). I've been gunshy about backing this given my KS fulfillment woes with several of their recent campaigns. The design and adventures for a few of their big ticket releases disappointed me. However, they have brought on Cam Banks as the editor for it. That seriously shifts my interest level up and now I'm leaning towards doing the pre-order...ugh. So tempting.
Then there's Sea of Thieves from Mongoose. I've mentioned before on these lists my surprise at certain niche licenses. And maybe Sea of Thieves has a more devoted fanbase than I think. Mongoose has had their share of issues with licenses in the past (as we will see in future installments). Currently they seem to be down to Traveller. Sea of Thieves looks pretty - a big, high production value boxed set. But there's not much info on what the "new Avast system" actually looks like. There's no quickstart or substantial preview and the pdf clocks in at $40 on DTRPG. I'll definitely wait to see the reviews.
YOU'RE BASKING IN IT
This list focuses on products which adapt novels, movies, video games, or comic books. I’ll generally restrict myself to official licenses. My comments offer a mix of context, commentary, description, and review. If you see something I’ve missed from 1993 to 1995, please tell me in the comments.
PREVIOUS LISTS
History of Licensed RPGs (Part I 1977-1983)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part II 1984-1985)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part III 1986-1989)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part IV 1990-1992)
History of Universal RPGs
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs
History of Steampunk & Victoriana RPGs
History of Cyberpunk RPGs
History of Superhero RPGs
History of Horror RPGs
History of Wild West RPGs
Samurai RPGs
This list focuses on products which adapt novels, movies, video games, or comic books. I’ll generally restrict myself to official licenses. My comments offer a mix of context, commentary, description, and review. If you see something I’ve missed from 1993 to 1995, please tell me in the comments.
PREVIOUS LISTS
History of Licensed RPGs (Part I 1977-1983)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part II 1984-1985)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part III 1986-1989)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part IV 1990-1992)
History of Universal RPGs
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs
History of Steampunk & Victoriana RPGs
History of Cyberpunk RPGs
History of Superhero RPGs
History of Horror RPGs
History of Wild West RPGs
Samurai RPGs
1. Bram Stoker's Dracula Role Playing Game (1993)
Sometimes games arrive and then vanish without a sound. Dracula was like that, sitting on our FLGS shelves for years. As mentioned before Leading Edge Games had a strange run of licensed products-none of which really took off. I've mentioned the ALIENS Adventure Game; they also released an Army of Darkness board game and mini line. Leading Edge never became a big player. By the time Dracula came out they established an image of overwhelming crunch with Living Steel and Phoenix Command. Detail and mechanics took precedence over fun. Reviews of BSDTRPG suggest it has some interesting ideas and a variety of sharp stills from the movie, but it fails in many ways. For example the mystery solving and clue hunting sections seem to be entirely mechanical-with players accumulating solution points. It simulates the whole vampire hunting process as a board game, dispensing with role-playing and generating horror.
2. GURPS (1993-1995)
Steve Jackson had a half dozen releases in this period, including one of my favorites: GURPS War Against the Chtorr. Based on David Gerrold's still unfinished sci-fi series, the book had tons of interesting ideas. It had one of the best distillations of a setting, without bogging down into mechanics. It's one of the few things I regret not being able to replace after the fire. I keep meaning to re-read the series, but I am absolutely certain that they will not stand the test of time.
The biggest move that SJG made in this era was licensing the World of Darkness from White Wolf. It didn't seem like a great fit, the increasingly grognardy simulationism of GURPS clashing with the story focus of Storyteller. But GURPS had begun the trend of game company cross-system pollination with Bunnies & Burrows. Steve Jackson released adaptations of the three biggest WoD properties: Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and Mage the Ascension. The first released, Vampire did well enough to generate a Companion volume which added in lots of the non-corebook material. GURPS Werewolf was less polished and didn't generate the same enthusiasm.
The last of the set, Mage the Ascension, was kind of a mess. GURPS has always had problems with higher-powered characters. Their take on supers went through multiple iterations and required more accounting than Champions. GURPS Mage's unclear rules here didn't do the system any favors. I heard second-hand that G: MtA went through several major rewrites requested by White Wolf. That likely contributed to the final product feeling a little half baked.
The final GURPS license offers a whiplash turn away from the edginess of World of Darkness. GURPS Lensman adapts the popular Golden Age sci-fi series. Your reaction to that will depend a little on if you dig psychic uber heroes and breeding programs in your fiction. Lensman seems like an odd choice from the present view, but at the time it still had popularity among a segment of sci-fi Space Opera fans. It did well enough to generate a second edition in 2001.
Sometimes games arrive and then vanish without a sound. Dracula was like that, sitting on our FLGS shelves for years. As mentioned before Leading Edge Games had a strange run of licensed products-none of which really took off. I've mentioned the ALIENS Adventure Game; they also released an Army of Darkness board game and mini line. Leading Edge never became a big player. By the time Dracula came out they established an image of overwhelming crunch with Living Steel and Phoenix Command. Detail and mechanics took precedence over fun. Reviews of BSDTRPG suggest it has some interesting ideas and a variety of sharp stills from the movie, but it fails in many ways. For example the mystery solving and clue hunting sections seem to be entirely mechanical-with players accumulating solution points. It simulates the whole vampire hunting process as a board game, dispensing with role-playing and generating horror.
2. GURPS (1993-1995)
Steve Jackson had a half dozen releases in this period, including one of my favorites: GURPS War Against the Chtorr. Based on David Gerrold's still unfinished sci-fi series, the book had tons of interesting ideas. It had one of the best distillations of a setting, without bogging down into mechanics. It's one of the few things I regret not being able to replace after the fire. I keep meaning to re-read the series, but I am absolutely certain that they will not stand the test of time.
The biggest move that SJG made in this era was licensing the World of Darkness from White Wolf. It didn't seem like a great fit, the increasingly grognardy simulationism of GURPS clashing with the story focus of Storyteller. But GURPS had begun the trend of game company cross-system pollination with Bunnies & Burrows. Steve Jackson released adaptations of the three biggest WoD properties: Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and Mage the Ascension. The first released, Vampire did well enough to generate a Companion volume which added in lots of the non-corebook material. GURPS Werewolf was less polished and didn't generate the same enthusiasm.
The last of the set, Mage the Ascension, was kind of a mess. GURPS has always had problems with higher-powered characters. Their take on supers went through multiple iterations and required more accounting than Champions. GURPS Mage's unclear rules here didn't do the system any favors. I heard second-hand that G: MtA went through several major rewrites requested by White Wolf. That likely contributed to the final product feeling a little half baked.
The final GURPS license offers a whiplash turn away from the edginess of World of Darkness. GURPS Lensman adapts the popular Golden Age sci-fi series. Your reaction to that will depend a little on if you dig psychic uber heroes and breeding programs in your fiction. Lensman seems like an odd choice from the present view, but at the time it still had popularity among a segment of sci-fi Space Opera fans. It did well enough to generate a second edition in 2001.
3. Heroes and Heroines (1993-1995)
True heartbreaker games appear as a meteor burning through the atmosphere-a phosphorescent display of poor design choices, incandescent creator rage, and a brilliant ignorance of other games. They crash into the gaming landscape with an explosion of wtf. But Heroes & Heroines simply fell leaden to the ground. It isn't very good, but in the most conventional way possible.
And as weird as it sounds, it feels like a cash grab. The back cover and interior advert pages make a big deal about H&H being the first superhero game with licenses not shackled to a single comic publisher (ignoring things like The Justice Machine and DNAgents Sourcebook). They name several properties - some of which they actually followed through on.
The biggest of these would be Image's The Maxx. That's notable less for the 35 issue series than for the short-lived MTV animated series which came out a couple years later. The Maxx book isn't a sourcebook but instead a 64 page adventure. The also did an adventure for DeathWatch 2000, Continuity Comics' big crisis/relaunch event. Finally Comic's Greatest World is the first of what was intended to be an encyclopedia of the superhero worlds from Dark Horse, the only one of which I recognize is the busty ghost nun with a pair of guns.
4. The Lawnmower Man (1993)
I skipped this movie at a time when I watched just about every piece of horror and spec-fic released. I later caught bits of it on cable, but then tried my best to avoid it. Like Leading Edge's Dracula game, I put The Lawnmower Man RPG on the store's shelf and it sat there, unloved, before finally drifting into the bargain bin. It was still there when I quit the shop.
The Lawnmower Man movie is “based” on a Stephen King short story. But it literally has nothing to do with that story, save that both feature a lawnmower. New Line Cinema had rights to the name and slapped it on a sci-fi film. You can hear more about this on an episode of How Did This Get Made podcast. The movie features a mentally retarded gardener - Jobe - who is given a brain-altering VR treatment and becomes god of the internet. Or something.
The RPG tries to be cyberpunk in that it heavily features VR, hence the subtitle "Virtual Reality Role Playing Game." The Lawnmower Man RPG has a world where CyberJobe(tm) has taken over the net to start a war for virtual reality and control of the global network. Players can take the fight to Jobe, though apparently there's only a 10% chance in character creation that you'll be able to use VR.
TLMM wants to be a techno-military game, combining LEG's penchant for war rpgs with the new hotness of cyberpunk. The few comments on this I've seen stress the pages and pages of guns in the game, as well as bizarre character creation. I'll point you to this extensive review from the Non-Playable Characters blog. Surprisingly this never got any expansions, despite the existence of a sequel film: Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace.
True heartbreaker games appear as a meteor burning through the atmosphere-a phosphorescent display of poor design choices, incandescent creator rage, and a brilliant ignorance of other games. They crash into the gaming landscape with an explosion of wtf. But Heroes & Heroines simply fell leaden to the ground. It isn't very good, but in the most conventional way possible.
And as weird as it sounds, it feels like a cash grab. The back cover and interior advert pages make a big deal about H&H being the first superhero game with licenses not shackled to a single comic publisher (ignoring things like The Justice Machine and DNAgents Sourcebook). They name several properties - some of which they actually followed through on.
The biggest of these would be Image's The Maxx. That's notable less for the 35 issue series than for the short-lived MTV animated series which came out a couple years later. The Maxx book isn't a sourcebook but instead a 64 page adventure. The also did an adventure for DeathWatch 2000, Continuity Comics' big crisis/relaunch event. Finally Comic's Greatest World is the first of what was intended to be an encyclopedia of the superhero worlds from Dark Horse, the only one of which I recognize is the busty ghost nun with a pair of guns.
4. The Lawnmower Man (1993)
I skipped this movie at a time when I watched just about every piece of horror and spec-fic released. I later caught bits of it on cable, but then tried my best to avoid it. Like Leading Edge's Dracula game, I put The Lawnmower Man RPG on the store's shelf and it sat there, unloved, before finally drifting into the bargain bin. It was still there when I quit the shop.
The Lawnmower Man movie is “based” on a Stephen King short story. But it literally has nothing to do with that story, save that both feature a lawnmower. New Line Cinema had rights to the name and slapped it on a sci-fi film. You can hear more about this on an episode of How Did This Get Made podcast. The movie features a mentally retarded gardener - Jobe - who is given a brain-altering VR treatment and becomes god of the internet. Or something.
The RPG tries to be cyberpunk in that it heavily features VR, hence the subtitle "Virtual Reality Role Playing Game." The Lawnmower Man RPG has a world where CyberJobe(tm) has taken over the net to start a war for virtual reality and control of the global network. Players can take the fight to Jobe, though apparently there's only a 10% chance in character creation that you'll be able to use VR.
TLMM wants to be a techno-military game, combining LEG's penchant for war rpgs with the new hotness of cyberpunk. The few comments on this I've seen stress the pages and pages of guns in the game, as well as bizarre character creation. I'll point you to this extensive review from the Non-Playable Characters blog. Surprisingly this never got any expansions, despite the existence of a sequel film: Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace.
5. Macross II (1993)
When I mentioned the Robotech series earlier on these lists, I vowed not to go into the complicated history of that licence. That way lies madness. But here we are back with Palladium and a Macross game. I literally assumed Macross was just a thing in the Robotech universe. But it appears they're another "squint to see the difference" anime mecha property. Let's go to Wikipedia. (heads for rabbit hole).
OK, so Macross is where we get the idea of the "Super Dimensional Fortress." And the first Macross TV series was one of three different series boiled together to form the first season of Robotech. But all the Macross after that is Macross...and this rpg is Macross II, but there's no Macross I book, presumably because that's actually a part of the Robotech books.
Palladium generated significantly less content for this Macross II line than for their bread & butter Robotech games. Besides this core volume, they released only one sourcebook and three volumes of deck plans. As part of their consolidation of the line in 2008 the company released Robotech: The Macross Saga Sourcebook as part of the Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles RPG. Now the license seems to have changed hands. This year (2019) saw the release of another Macross game, Robotech: A Macross Saga Role Playing Game using Savage Worlds. Wait...is that Macross or Robotech?
6. Perry Rhodan: Das SF-Rollenspiel (1993)
While I'd heard of Perry Rhodan and had even seen board games based on the property, I didn't have any sense how huge this IP is. He's the main character of a German science fiction series, not exactly Golden Age like the Lensman mentioned above, but close. The books started in the early 1960s and as of today has hundred of volumes. In the US, Ace translated the first 126 volumes in the late 70s and early 80s. I remember seeing them on the used shelves, but their aesthetic never appealed to me.
This particular rpg only received a core book and two setting supplements. It's unclear what the system was like, save that it was d10 based. In 2004 another version would come out, this time based on the popular German rpg Midgard. That had several more releases. However Pegasus' license for the property expired in 2010.
When I mentioned the Robotech series earlier on these lists, I vowed not to go into the complicated history of that licence. That way lies madness. But here we are back with Palladium and a Macross game. I literally assumed Macross was just a thing in the Robotech universe. But it appears they're another "squint to see the difference" anime mecha property. Let's go to Wikipedia. (heads for rabbit hole).
OK, so Macross is where we get the idea of the "Super Dimensional Fortress." And the first Macross TV series was one of three different series boiled together to form the first season of Robotech. But all the Macross after that is Macross...and this rpg is Macross II, but there's no Macross I book, presumably because that's actually a part of the Robotech books.
Palladium generated significantly less content for this Macross II line than for their bread & butter Robotech games. Besides this core volume, they released only one sourcebook and three volumes of deck plans. As part of their consolidation of the line in 2008 the company released Robotech: The Macross Saga Sourcebook as part of the Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles RPG. Now the license seems to have changed hands. This year (2019) saw the release of another Macross game, Robotech: A Macross Saga Role Playing Game using Savage Worlds. Wait...is that Macross or Robotech?
6. Perry Rhodan: Das SF-Rollenspiel (1993)
While I'd heard of Perry Rhodan and had even seen board games based on the property, I didn't have any sense how huge this IP is. He's the main character of a German science fiction series, not exactly Golden Age like the Lensman mentioned above, but close. The books started in the early 1960s and as of today has hundred of volumes. In the US, Ace translated the first 126 volumes in the late 70s and early 80s. I remember seeing them on the used shelves, but their aesthetic never appealed to me.
This particular rpg only received a core book and two setting supplements. It's unclear what the system was like, save that it was d10 based. In 2004 another version would come out, this time based on the popular German rpg Midgard. That had several more releases. However Pegasus' license for the property expired in 2010.
7. Prime Directive: The Star Fleet Universe Role-Playing Game (1993)
One of the great, unbearably crunchy games of my childhood was Star Fleet Battles. SFB began as a trade-sized pocket folio, offering the chance for detailed Star Trek ship-to-ship battles. Over time it grew and expanded - by the time I quit, SFB had accumulated a massive several hundred page rulebook and one of the most unpleasant grognard communities I'd encountered. YRMV.
Star Fleet Battles didn't build on the full ST universe - instead it drew from the original series, the animated series, and especially the Star Fleet Technical Manual. Amarillo Design Bureau's license came not from the full owners, but from an agreement with Franz Joseph Schnaubelt who wrote that manual. Eventually they'd get a license to continue to develop with this alternate, niche universe. It meant however that anything from ST:TNG on would be out of bounds.
Prime Directive is Task Force Games' attempt to expand their license into rpgs. As a product of its era and company PD has crunchy and clunky mechanics, with detailed combat. Interestingly the core book strictly focused on "Prime Teams," specialty landing parties sent in to deal with problems. Eventually they expanded that, but the complexity and narrow scope put many players off. In 2002 they partnered with Steve Jackson to create a GURPS edition. Later they would jump late onto the d20 bandwagon. Except for the GURPs editions, you can find all of these on DTRPG.
8. Superbabes: The Femforce Role-Playing Game (1993-1995)
I swear to god I thought this was a joke. For the longest time I thought Superbabes was an imaginary parody RPG title (like Accountants & Actuaries or Whinging of the Lame Princeless). Nope. Real game from a real series of comics, with a decent number of supplements. I don't know what to make of it.
The game isn't subtle, with phrases like comics with "an eye for what men like to see," the use of Bimbo Points, a random event table with a 20% chance of body image issues, and lots of poses straight out of Escher Girls. I'm sure this is awesome for some, but it comes off a little creepy. It reminds me of the comic connoisseurs who hung around the margins of the gaming crowd. They would argue about the sophistication of modern comics and then pay an artist to draw erotic bondage sketches of teen heroes. It's subjective - one person's harmless fun is another person’s indictment of the problem of the male gaze.
The game falls between Champions and V&V for difficulty. It has endurance tracking, but a more flexible action system. There's some elements that seem exploitable (especially Moves as a key stat). Combat requires a look up of level vs. Hittability. The powers fall closer to V&V, with more abstract mechanics. Superbabes breaks skills into general areas and then specific types a little arbitrarily. Despite that I appreciate the simplicity to the names. The layout obscures some of what might be good here. I'll point to sdonohue's aptly titled review of the game here: "The Short Version? You only need this if you love Femforce, Superhero games, Sexism, or some combination of those three."
Though I never saw the game in our FLGS (and they carried Macho Women with Guns), the game apparently did well enough to spawn nearly a dozen supplements. So there must have been a loyal audience for it.
One of the great, unbearably crunchy games of my childhood was Star Fleet Battles. SFB began as a trade-sized pocket folio, offering the chance for detailed Star Trek ship-to-ship battles. Over time it grew and expanded - by the time I quit, SFB had accumulated a massive several hundred page rulebook and one of the most unpleasant grognard communities I'd encountered. YRMV.
Star Fleet Battles didn't build on the full ST universe - instead it drew from the original series, the animated series, and especially the Star Fleet Technical Manual. Amarillo Design Bureau's license came not from the full owners, but from an agreement with Franz Joseph Schnaubelt who wrote that manual. Eventually they'd get a license to continue to develop with this alternate, niche universe. It meant however that anything from ST:TNG on would be out of bounds.
Prime Directive is Task Force Games' attempt to expand their license into rpgs. As a product of its era and company PD has crunchy and clunky mechanics, with detailed combat. Interestingly the core book strictly focused on "Prime Teams," specialty landing parties sent in to deal with problems. Eventually they expanded that, but the complexity and narrow scope put many players off. In 2002 they partnered with Steve Jackson to create a GURPS edition. Later they would jump late onto the d20 bandwagon. Except for the GURPs editions, you can find all of these on DTRPG.
8. Superbabes: The Femforce Role-Playing Game (1993-1995)
I swear to god I thought this was a joke. For the longest time I thought Superbabes was an imaginary parody RPG title (like Accountants & Actuaries or Whinging of the Lame Princeless). Nope. Real game from a real series of comics, with a decent number of supplements. I don't know what to make of it.
The game isn't subtle, with phrases like comics with "an eye for what men like to see," the use of Bimbo Points, a random event table with a 20% chance of body image issues, and lots of poses straight out of Escher Girls. I'm sure this is awesome for some, but it comes off a little creepy. It reminds me of the comic connoisseurs who hung around the margins of the gaming crowd. They would argue about the sophistication of modern comics and then pay an artist to draw erotic bondage sketches of teen heroes. It's subjective - one person's harmless fun is another person’s indictment of the problem of the male gaze.
The game falls between Champions and V&V for difficulty. It has endurance tracking, but a more flexible action system. There's some elements that seem exploitable (especially Moves as a key stat). Combat requires a look up of level vs. Hittability. The powers fall closer to V&V, with more abstract mechanics. Superbabes breaks skills into general areas and then specific types a little arbitrarily. Despite that I appreciate the simplicity to the names. The layout obscures some of what might be good here. I'll point to sdonohue's aptly titled review of the game here: "The Short Version? You only need this if you love Femforce, Superhero games, Sexism, or some combination of those three."
Though I never saw the game in our FLGS (and they carried Macho Women with Guns), the game apparently did well enough to spawn nearly a dozen supplements. So there must have been a loyal audience for it.
9. Masterbook (1994-1995)
West End Games is another company which took on odd licensed properties in the 1990's. Like Leading Edge and Steve Jackson, some made sense but others felt incredibly niche. To bring all these games together, WEG created Masterbook, a universal system. This followed TSR's approach with Alternity: a smallish core book followed by larger setting books. Rather than use the d6 mechanics from the Star Wars RPG, Masterbook followed TORG’s mechanics: d10 resolution but with card-based modifications (called the MasterDeck here). The game is caught between a lighter, more accessible approach and the desire for complete mechanics. Masterbook tried to split the difference but didn't succeed.
And frankly, they chose weird properties to invest in. The smartest of those was The World of Indiana Jones. They released it as a boxed set with cards, the Masterbook rules, and the Indiana Jones supplement. As mentioned earlier, TSR had mixed success with the property, trying to appeal to the mass market instead of core gamers, but satisfying neither. WEG supported the game with a half-dozen supplements over the course of two years. However in 1996 they gave up on the Masterbook system and switched the game over to something akin to Star Wars' d6.
But then, as if to fill out the line WEG released three other licensed adaptations. One of these, The World of Necroscope, got the same deluxe treatment as WoIJ. This was based on the book series by Brian Lumley, a horror author who built his career on Lovecraft pastiche and lifts before finally finding a series that got him more serious attention. When this came out, about nine books of the series had been published. Necroscope has modern horror investigators with psychic powers battling ancient conspiracies. Like the books, the rpg has a heavy dose of espionage. Necroscope generated four supplements over the three years of publication.
WEG released the other two supplements as stand alone books. The World of Species follows the horror movie series - which at this point only had a single installment. It has the hook of letting you play as a hunter or one of the invasive-species aliens. I haven't looked to see how tastefully they handle the lethal sexy-times. On the other hand, The World of Tank Girl's more interesting - drawing from both the comic series and the movie. However neither did well in the market.
10. The Pirates of Dark Water World Book (1994)
Pirates of Dark Water is one of the more fondly remembered flash-in-the-pan toy/cartoon series from the 80s & 90s. Toy Galaxy has a quick video history of the property. (Side note: there's a weird connection between the TV show and Chucky from Child's Play). Pirates started as a TV mini-series which then turned into a short-lived TV series. Hanna Barbera tried to push the line, but it went nowhere. It also had a video game spin-off, a Marvel comics series, and of course a bunch of toys.
This "rpg" is more of a sourcebook for the setting. It includes stats and pregenerated characters, but not really any system. Designer Lee Acosta doesn't seem to have any other rpg credits and the company, MindGames, Inc, didn't release any other gaming products as far as I can tell. An interesting oddity in the world of rpgs.
West End Games is another company which took on odd licensed properties in the 1990's. Like Leading Edge and Steve Jackson, some made sense but others felt incredibly niche. To bring all these games together, WEG created Masterbook, a universal system. This followed TSR's approach with Alternity: a smallish core book followed by larger setting books. Rather than use the d6 mechanics from the Star Wars RPG, Masterbook followed TORG’s mechanics: d10 resolution but with card-based modifications (called the MasterDeck here). The game is caught between a lighter, more accessible approach and the desire for complete mechanics. Masterbook tried to split the difference but didn't succeed.
And frankly, they chose weird properties to invest in. The smartest of those was The World of Indiana Jones. They released it as a boxed set with cards, the Masterbook rules, and the Indiana Jones supplement. As mentioned earlier, TSR had mixed success with the property, trying to appeal to the mass market instead of core gamers, but satisfying neither. WEG supported the game with a half-dozen supplements over the course of two years. However in 1996 they gave up on the Masterbook system and switched the game over to something akin to Star Wars' d6.
But then, as if to fill out the line WEG released three other licensed adaptations. One of these, The World of Necroscope, got the same deluxe treatment as WoIJ. This was based on the book series by Brian Lumley, a horror author who built his career on Lovecraft pastiche and lifts before finally finding a series that got him more serious attention. When this came out, about nine books of the series had been published. Necroscope has modern horror investigators with psychic powers battling ancient conspiracies. Like the books, the rpg has a heavy dose of espionage. Necroscope generated four supplements over the three years of publication.
WEG released the other two supplements as stand alone books. The World of Species follows the horror movie series - which at this point only had a single installment. It has the hook of letting you play as a hunter or one of the invasive-species aliens. I haven't looked to see how tastefully they handle the lethal sexy-times. On the other hand, The World of Tank Girl's more interesting - drawing from both the comic series and the movie. However neither did well in the market.
10. The Pirates of Dark Water World Book (1994)
Pirates of Dark Water is one of the more fondly remembered flash-in-the-pan toy/cartoon series from the 80s & 90s. Toy Galaxy has a quick video history of the property. (Side note: there's a weird connection between the TV show and Chucky from Child's Play). Pirates started as a TV mini-series which then turned into a short-lived TV series. Hanna Barbera tried to push the line, but it went nowhere. It also had a video game spin-off, a Marvel comics series, and of course a bunch of toys.
This "rpg" is more of a sourcebook for the setting. It includes stats and pregenerated characters, but not really any system. Designer Lee Acosta doesn't seem to have any other rpg credits and the company, MindGames, Inc, didn't release any other gaming products as far as I can tell. An interesting oddity in the world of rpgs.
11. Rifts Manhunter (1994)
Not a stand-alone game, but a sourcebook which brings the Manhunter sci-fi universe over to the Rifts Megaverse. Manhunter offers a game of bounty-hunters in a rough and tumble universe. Originally released by Kingslayer Productions (1987), it moved to Myrmidon Press in 1993. Myrmidon is interesting in that two of its properties (Witchcraft and Armageddon) shifted to Eden Studios, becoming cornerstones of their early Unisystem line. This Rifts version seems better known than its source. Interestingly this product isn't a case of Myrmidon licensing Manhunter, but Palladium licensing Rifts. Given Palladium's approach to identity and copyright I'm surprised.
12. Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game (1994)
For an rpg I never saw anyone buy or play, Street Fighter has an amazing reputation. The release came out of left field. At the time White Wolf still banked almost exclusively on World of Darkness. Gothic, emo violence was their brand. They’d dropped Ars Magica that same year. On the other hand, the CCG boom had encouraged experiments with more accessible properties.
White Wolf’s Street Fighter, for all of its four-color imagery took itself seriously as an rpg. The books provide a ton of background material. They also establish a decent campaign framework: players become international heroes battling conspiracies. The big brawl duels come in the course of those investigations. The company supported the line with multiple releases.
Street Fighter took Storyteller's massive dice pool approach and paired it with a system of detailed maneuvers and powers. We’d seen other martial arts games take this approach (Ninja Hero, GURPS Martial Arts). But Street Fighter had several advantages. It had detail without getting insanely bogged down in mechanics. GURPS Martial Arts had some maneuvers that required multiple steps of rolls and resolution. More importantly Street Fighter took the rails off the ride. It wasn’t intended to be a realistic approach.
That more fantastic and open design drew many players. In the end Street Fighter was a hybrid espionage/superhero game. The system used cards for maneuvers which had a tactile appeal. It looked cartoony, but had enough rolling to make simulationists happy. White Wolf later adapted many of these elements into the World of Darkness: Combat book.
Not a stand-alone game, but a sourcebook which brings the Manhunter sci-fi universe over to the Rifts Megaverse. Manhunter offers a game of bounty-hunters in a rough and tumble universe. Originally released by Kingslayer Productions (1987), it moved to Myrmidon Press in 1993. Myrmidon is interesting in that two of its properties (Witchcraft and Armageddon) shifted to Eden Studios, becoming cornerstones of their early Unisystem line. This Rifts version seems better known than its source. Interestingly this product isn't a case of Myrmidon licensing Manhunter, but Palladium licensing Rifts. Given Palladium's approach to identity and copyright I'm surprised.
12. Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game (1994)
For an rpg I never saw anyone buy or play, Street Fighter has an amazing reputation. The release came out of left field. At the time White Wolf still banked almost exclusively on World of Darkness. Gothic, emo violence was their brand. They’d dropped Ars Magica that same year. On the other hand, the CCG boom had encouraged experiments with more accessible properties.
White Wolf’s Street Fighter, for all of its four-color imagery took itself seriously as an rpg. The books provide a ton of background material. They also establish a decent campaign framework: players become international heroes battling conspiracies. The big brawl duels come in the course of those investigations. The company supported the line with multiple releases.
Street Fighter took Storyteller's massive dice pool approach and paired it with a system of detailed maneuvers and powers. We’d seen other martial arts games take this approach (Ninja Hero, GURPS Martial Arts). But Street Fighter had several advantages. It had detail without getting insanely bogged down in mechanics. GURPS Martial Arts had some maneuvers that required multiple steps of rolls and resolution. More importantly Street Fighter took the rails off the ride. It wasn’t intended to be a realistic approach.
That more fantastic and open design drew many players. In the end Street Fighter was a hybrid espionage/superhero game. The system used cards for maneuvers which had a tactile appeal. It looked cartoony, but had enough rolling to make simulationists happy. White Wolf later adapted many of these elements into the World of Darkness: Combat book.
13. Ironwood (1994)
An obscure license for an obscure rpg, Theatrix. I remember flipping through the rpg and being turned off by the references to dramatics, directing, and staging. I read that as pretentious rather than innovative. The classic gaming culture had a firm grip on me. Our local gaming community had begun to pull in several directions: Old Grognards, Standard Trad Gamers, Storygame LARPers, and an incoming generation just picking shiny things off the shelf. In particular LARP and anything that smacked of LARPing got a bad rep from the older gamers. I assumed Theatrix was just another Mind's Eye Theatre thing, which it wasn't.
But I missed a lot of amazing stuff in Theatrix. It offered a diceless system (with optional diced mechanics), collaborative creation, aspect-like approaches, a focus on improvisation, and highly scalable mechanics. However for all it wanted to be easy to play, Theatrix obscured the rules with overwriting and over-explanation. The game straps a ton of junk onto quite basic mechanics. Much of the opacity comes from using dramatic, theatrical, and cinematic terms and ideas for everything. The whole thing feels like it could be cut down by at least two-thirds. Still it's daring for the time and a strong precursor for games like Primetime Adventures.
More relevant for our discussion is the first setting supplement: Ironwood. The company didn't do itself any favors with this. Ironwood is a soft-core fantasy sex comic from Bill Willingham. He would go on to success with Fables, Shadowpact, and other comics. Ironwood was a sword & sorcery sex romp. The first issue featured main character, Dirk Dragovon receiving fellatio from a centaur princess to free him from a magical trap.
We had to pull that off the shelf. The distributors hadn't made clear it was a mature title and the cover made it look like a cartoony fantasy game. The mid-90s was the first time game stores had to really deal with "mature" content (i.e. more sex than violence). White Wolf's Black Dog Game Factory and Phil Foglio's XXXenophile CCG changed the industry. Ironwood came out before many stores, like ours, had figured out how to handle that.
14. Ken il Guerriero: Il gioco di ruolo (1995)
If you don't know what Fist of the North Star is, I encourage you to look that up and then come back. I'm not even going to try to explain. It's not my favorite anime, though the recent video game adaptation (built on the Yakuza engine) is wonderful and insane. On the other hand I gifted a copy of it to someone in my group and they literally handed it back to me the next week.
Short version: Post-apocalyptic martial arts with toxic masculinity and people blowing up from being punched.
In any case this is an Italian rpg adaptation of that. It won a Lucca Games Best of Show award the year it came out. Interestingly it's built on the French universal system SimulacreS. The original did well enough to be reprinted and packaged with VHS copies of the series. It received one supplement, an adventure collection with a number of additional martial arts elements. There remains some serious fan love for it; you can see more about that at the "Hokuto No Ken" blog.
An obscure license for an obscure rpg, Theatrix. I remember flipping through the rpg and being turned off by the references to dramatics, directing, and staging. I read that as pretentious rather than innovative. The classic gaming culture had a firm grip on me. Our local gaming community had begun to pull in several directions: Old Grognards, Standard Trad Gamers, Storygame LARPers, and an incoming generation just picking shiny things off the shelf. In particular LARP and anything that smacked of LARPing got a bad rep from the older gamers. I assumed Theatrix was just another Mind's Eye Theatre thing, which it wasn't.
But I missed a lot of amazing stuff in Theatrix. It offered a diceless system (with optional diced mechanics), collaborative creation, aspect-like approaches, a focus on improvisation, and highly scalable mechanics. However for all it wanted to be easy to play, Theatrix obscured the rules with overwriting and over-explanation. The game straps a ton of junk onto quite basic mechanics. Much of the opacity comes from using dramatic, theatrical, and cinematic terms and ideas for everything. The whole thing feels like it could be cut down by at least two-thirds. Still it's daring for the time and a strong precursor for games like Primetime Adventures.
More relevant for our discussion is the first setting supplement: Ironwood. The company didn't do itself any favors with this. Ironwood is a soft-core fantasy sex comic from Bill Willingham. He would go on to success with Fables, Shadowpact, and other comics. Ironwood was a sword & sorcery sex romp. The first issue featured main character, Dirk Dragovon receiving fellatio from a centaur princess to free him from a magical trap.
We had to pull that off the shelf. The distributors hadn't made clear it was a mature title and the cover made it look like a cartoony fantasy game. The mid-90s was the first time game stores had to really deal with "mature" content (i.e. more sex than violence). White Wolf's Black Dog Game Factory and Phil Foglio's XXXenophile CCG changed the industry. Ironwood came out before many stores, like ours, had figured out how to handle that.
14. Ken il Guerriero: Il gioco di ruolo (1995)
If you don't know what Fist of the North Star is, I encourage you to look that up and then come back. I'm not even going to try to explain. It's not my favorite anime, though the recent video game adaptation (built on the Yakuza engine) is wonderful and insane. On the other hand I gifted a copy of it to someone in my group and they literally handed it back to me the next week.
Short version: Post-apocalyptic martial arts with toxic masculinity and people blowing up from being punched.
In any case this is an Italian rpg adaptation of that. It won a Lucca Games Best of Show award the year it came out. Interestingly it's built on the French universal system SimulacreS. The original did well enough to be reprinted and packaged with VHS copies of the series. It received one supplement, an adventure collection with a number of additional martial arts elements. There remains some serious fan love for it; you can see more about that at the "Hokuto No Ken" blog.
15. MAGIUS (1995)
aka Multiple Assignable Game Interface for Universal System. MAGIUS is a Japanese universal rpg. The system was used as the basis for various manga and anime adaptations (not unlike BESM). On RPGGeek a user mentions that while MAGIUS looked like a lighter version of GURPS, "the different modules of MAGIUS weren't inter-compatible. What you used was just the MAGIUS start book and one module of your selection. So it wasn't a system that you could gradually expand with each module. In fact, it was the supplements that were the main book, the start book was just an extra. Once you knew the basic rules of the start book, you could actually do well with just a supplement."
They released several licensed supplements alongside the base game including books for the anime Tenchi Miyo and The Slayers. They also covered Saber Marionette J, an early "harem" anime with the lucky boy being defended and fought over by three robot women. Other licenses included Neon Genesis Evangelion, Magician Orphen, Silent Moebius, Monster Maker Gakuen, Takeshi ! Space Battleship Yamamoto Yoko Yoko, Mobile Battleship Nadesico, Lost Universe, MAZE, Magical Academy LUNAR!, and Rocket Girl.
16. Project A-Ko (1995)
Project A-ko was the first anime I rented and I didn't get it. When I watched it I knew almost nothing about anime conventions. Still I liked it's cartoony fun and it offered an antidote to the other, darker anime available for rent. At the time the industry hadn't produced many "high school" games, Teenagers from Outer Space being the only one I recall.
Dream Pod 9/Ianus did a brilliant job consolidating the tone of the anime without going over-the-top silly. It offers a great sourcebook and takes 'seriously' the rules of the universe presented. But the game is straightforward and simple. The skill list is fluid and descriptive - with examples like Shoot Really Big Guns, Speeding with Inline Skates, and Forge Parents' Signatures. Aspect-like mechanics help players define their character further. Powers are handled through a list of Talents, written fairly broadly. These are complemented by Crosses (aka disadvantages) equally open-ended. The mechanics take up only the first third of the book, with the rest given over to setting material, scenarios, example NPCs, and a card game.
PREVIOUS LISTS
History of Licensed RPGs (Part I 1977-1983)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part II 1984-1985)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part III 1986-1989)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part IV 1990-1992)
History of Universal RPGs
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs
History of Steampunk & Victoriana RPGs
History of Cyberpunk RPGs
History of Superhero RPGs
History of Horror RPGs
History of Wild West RPGs
Samurai RPGs
For the full backlog of Age of Ravens posts on Blogger see here.
aka Multiple Assignable Game Interface for Universal System. MAGIUS is a Japanese universal rpg. The system was used as the basis for various manga and anime adaptations (not unlike BESM). On RPGGeek a user mentions that while MAGIUS looked like a lighter version of GURPS, "the different modules of MAGIUS weren't inter-compatible. What you used was just the MAGIUS start book and one module of your selection. So it wasn't a system that you could gradually expand with each module. In fact, it was the supplements that were the main book, the start book was just an extra. Once you knew the basic rules of the start book, you could actually do well with just a supplement."
They released several licensed supplements alongside the base game including books for the anime Tenchi Miyo and The Slayers. They also covered Saber Marionette J, an early "harem" anime with the lucky boy being defended and fought over by three robot women. Other licenses included Neon Genesis Evangelion, Magician Orphen, Silent Moebius, Monster Maker Gakuen, Takeshi ! Space Battleship Yamamoto Yoko Yoko, Mobile Battleship Nadesico, Lost Universe, MAZE, Magical Academy LUNAR!, and Rocket Girl.
16. Project A-Ko (1995)
Project A-ko was the first anime I rented and I didn't get it. When I watched it I knew almost nothing about anime conventions. Still I liked it's cartoony fun and it offered an antidote to the other, darker anime available for rent. At the time the industry hadn't produced many "high school" games, Teenagers from Outer Space being the only one I recall.
Dream Pod 9/Ianus did a brilliant job consolidating the tone of the anime without going over-the-top silly. It offers a great sourcebook and takes 'seriously' the rules of the universe presented. But the game is straightforward and simple. The skill list is fluid and descriptive - with examples like Shoot Really Big Guns, Speeding with Inline Skates, and Forge Parents' Signatures. Aspect-like mechanics help players define their character further. Powers are handled through a list of Talents, written fairly broadly. These are complemented by Crosses (aka disadvantages) equally open-ended. The mechanics take up only the first third of the book, with the rest given over to setting material, scenarios, example NPCs, and a card game.
PREVIOUS LISTS
History of Licensed RPGs (Part I 1977-1983)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part II 1984-1985)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part III 1986-1989)
History of Licensed RPGs (Part IV 1990-1992)
History of Universal RPGs
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs
History of Steampunk & Victoriana RPGs
History of Cyberpunk RPGs
History of Superhero RPGs
History of Horror RPGs
History of Wild West RPGs
Samurai RPGs
For the full backlog of Age of Ravens posts on Blogger see here.
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