Many games that had coolness are dead and gone (but often aavailable on e-Bay). Let's talk about some of the ones close to our hearts, and tell those who never played them what gems they contain. I'll start:

DC Heroes (Mayfair Games, 2nd Edition is best IMHO)
If you're talking about task resolution, this system is, IMHO, the shiznit. Everything can be assigned a numeric value (I mean everything--from information to mass to speed) which plugs easily into the universal charts which tell you with a single roll whether you succeed and how much effect is generated. Words don't do it justice, it just plain rocks!
There are problems that kept it from surviving. Being a licensed game probably didn't help. Also, it does not scale well as written to non-superheroic characters (though it could easily be modified). Finally, there are quite a few gaps in the rules (some of which were plugged by sourcebooks).
The system got a rebirth as Blood of Heroes, but that game fell flat somehow. DC Heroes remains one of my favorite games. It shows how a clear, universal mechanic can be used to make playing the game eaiser.


Anybody else have one?

I *hate* the concept of a "dead game," simply because a lot of "dead games" are among the games that see the most actual play. But that aside, here are some old and no-longer-publishing games that I adore:

Tunnels and Trolls
Boot Hill
Star Frontiers
Marvel Super Heroes (big chart version)
Teenagers from Outer Space
Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0
Basic D&D (the ones with the five multicolored boxed sets.)

All of these games, with the exceptions of Boot Hill and Star Frontiers (I lost the books), still see a fair amount of play in my groups.

yrs--
--Ben

Schwertmeister: expansion for Das Schwarze Auge for advanced players. Featured combat system for highly skilled warriors, and most of all a creative magic system based on runes arranged on a triangle of essence-path-target, interpreted among player and GM. They never made is past the second box of four planned ones. Too bad. I loved the setting--the inside of the earth, with an artificial sun in the core, island kingdoms and rebels, gigantic creatures and cool demonology.

I assume no one in the English speaking world ever even heard of it.

Gamma World, 4th Ed.

I bought this game from a friend long about the same time I got into V:tM for $7. I never played it with more than two other persons, and my longest running, most successful game involved 6 characters played out between myself and my one player.

But dear LORD do I still love this game. Even it's basic D&D-ness has never managed to turn me off.

By "dead", I mean no longer in print or supported by the creators. No implication of playability (or current fanbase) is intended.

I have a soft spot in my heart for the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG. Not the 'After the Bomb' setting, but the original book. I still think TMNT is as cool as hell, the original comic book series just kicked ass. I can't tell you how excited I was when they announced that John Woo was going to direct a TMNT CG-movie, and then how dispointed I was when they announced that he wasn't.

...

Oh yeah, RPGs. Though TMNT wasn't the first RPG I ever played, it definitely was the game that got me 'into' role-playing. I haven't played it in years, though. I'm afraid that if I go back it won't be as fun and ruin my nostalgia.

coxcomb wrote: By "dead", I mean no longer in print or supported by the creators.

First ed. Gamma World, baby. Monsters with bizarre names and no pictures, the illustration of badass rabbits carrying hunting rifles and just daring you not to take them seriously. The sheer fun absurdity of the game, wandering from one surreal encounter to another with your spiked, feathered, death-ray projecting mutant ant characacter.

...and the mutant plant characters in 2nd. ed. were pretty fucking cool, too.

Mike Holmes wrote:

coxcomb wrote: By "dead", I mean no longer in print or supported by the creators.

So, 98% of RPGs, then? By that definition, the whole original WOD is dead. I agree with Ben that it's a pretty worthless term.

How about just old games or something? How about editions from before '85?

I'm lost without limits. ;-)

Mike

Gangbusters! by TSR.

I don't actually count it as dead, since you can get the entire collection for @ $20 in pdf at drivethrurpgs.

This was the first rpg I bought, and the second one I played. I still love it after all these years.

GB is a great example of how the page count of rules can influence playstyle. GB Has classes: PI, Reporter, FBI Agent, Prohibition Agent, Local Cop, and Criminal. The first five classes get an average rules write up of about a page and a half. Criminals get nearly twenty pages of rules describing crime-for-profit.

Wanna guess what most of our games were like?

k-Bob

My favorites among the truly dead would be James Bond 007 and RuneQuest, I think.

P.S. Tunnels & Trolls isn't dead. As far as I know, it has been more or less continuously in print since it was first published.

You all have already mentioned several which I think are terrific...

James Bond 007
D&D (BECMI)
and
TMNT



One I'm "shocked" that no one has mentioned is "Dinky Dungeons". I haven't played it in years -- I think I threw away my copy in a fit of Fundamentalist paranoia (btw a VERY fun game! -- Paranoia that is).

Anyway, if anyone has a copy they don't want PM me, and I'd love to take it off your hands. ;)

I also enjoyed playing Morpheus. Does Car Wars count as a Role Playing Game?