Drifting off the character orientation of RPGaDay this year for day 14’s prompt of regard. Here I’m going to go with the transitive verb form of “to show respect or consideration for; to hold in high esteem”. There’s a plethora of games out there, and much more so now that Backerkit/Kickstarter is a thing. So, here’s a few game systems or settings that I hold in high regard.

The first and oldest of the bunch is a game that we played the hell out of from its introduction in 1983 up until about 2008. I suspect I lost the taste for it after my former career: James Bond: 007 by Victory Games. Gerard Klug and tam developed a game that was unlike anything else at the time. You had d20 (in this case Top Secret), you had a few oddballs like Traveller and Universe, but JB:007 was different — d100 with difficulty levels on a 1/2 to 10 scale that tied into the combo of your attributes and skill. It had a unique quality result system that meant when you rolled well, you saw it in terms of escaping in a chase, damage in a fight. The gear was different in stats in a way that would probably seem overly specific to folks these days, but really leaned into the product placement flavor of the movies. It was a huge success, only killed off by the licensing fights that happened after License to Kill. 

It was flexible enough I was able to tack on cybernetic rules for cyberpunk campaigns, aliens for a Stargate campaign, and it was the intro game for several gamers I played with in the ‘90s. By far, the game I still think the most fondly of, even though I think a few do it better, now.

A good example of doing it better is Outgunned!, the “sequel” game, if you will, to Broken Compass. Very rules-lite, it works on a Yahtzee like system where to do matches, with the number of dice based on your attribute and skill. Gear is a bit less generic than it was in Broken Compass, with some attempt to get some of the uniqueness to weapons and vehicles that JB:007 had. I did an expansion on some of those rules here. Very quick and easy to play, it’s an excellent pick-up system, and works fine for longer campaigns. I used it to teach a bunch of students at high school this past year roleplaying games. It is easily customizable for any genre, and they do “Action Flick” books that let you do just that. There’s Outgunned Adventure, which returns to the Broken Compass pulp-action. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Another oldie that has just as fond memories is Space: 1889 by GDW. I got this on a whim back at its launch in 1989 and was hooked. It’s probably the reason I took a degree in history (with a specialty in British and Italian Imperialism). The setting was innovative and fun, and spawned a host of copycats like Castle Falkenstein, and keeps being resurrected by different companies. (There was/is a recent Kickstarter that added unnecessary fantasy races — pass!) The rules system, however, was a hot mess — essentially bolted onto the wargame companion Cloudships & Gunboats.

The era is perfect for all sorts of play: Westerns, Meija Japanese samurai, space travel on Mars, zeppelins, dinosaurs on Venus. We played the hell out of this one for over a decade, and even ported it over to Castle Falkenstein (with heavily modified combat rules.) It got displaced for a while by Hollow Earth Expedition, but I ran a short campaign using Broken Compass rules for the daughter and hooked her on the steampunk. There’s a reason this one is held in high regard by many; it’s the grand-daddy of Victorian sci-fi games.

One of the game systems that knocked off my old favorites was Margaret Weiss Productions’ Cortex. Original crafted for an RPG based on her novels, it caught me when it came out after the release of Serenity. I liked the system — just enough crunch to be interesting, just lite enough to learn and play quickly. The next iteration for Battlestar Galactica is still one of the best pay and GM experiences I’ve had for a system. They also used it for Supernatural, then it got “Fate-ified” by folks for Leverage and the tragically short-lived Marvel Superheroes. I hated the way it worked for the former; loved the way it worked for the latter…but it still wasn’t Cortex. Later attempts to revive the game leaned into the last version of the game system. I’m still considering it for the engine of my white elephant camapign — the one that continues to elude me — Jovian Chronicles, by Dream Pod 9: an absolutely rich universe that reminds me of the Expanse, before The Expanse was a thing.

My latest acquisition that has made an impression is Legend in the Mist. From the excellent artwork, to the innovative craft-your-own-story comic to teach the rules, to the very rules-lite system, LitM is very easy to run, quick to play for, and is extremely flexible. You could use it, with almost no work, to run any time of fantasy game. They even did a small booklet showing how to port D&D 5e characters and creatures over. I’m using this for our current 800s Viking campaign, and so far the flexibility has made the way-too-rules-heavy magic system of D&D look positively antiquated. It’s a simple system: 2d6, plus however many relevant tag you or the scene have add or subtract 1 from the roll. Success and the number of positive tags give you the “power” of your action, attack, spell, whatever… you can succeed with a complication on 7-9, so you do what you wanted, but something that wasn’t positive happens.

It just works. I’m looking forward to seeing how City in Mist, Son of Oak’s noir detective/mythic heroes/superhero-ish game runs. I’ve an idea for a Streets of Fire-like 50s meets the 80s setting in “the City”. Maybe we’ll get a sledgehammer fight.