Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Fifty-One RPGs and Counting

So yesterday, when I should have been error-proofing some Java code, I found myself in Google Docs compiling a list of all the RPGs I own. I decided to only count RPGs that I've got in hard copy and at least bound in some fashion - either in a binder, bound at Staples, or put into a presentation folder of some sort (sitting in a manila folder on the floor of my home office didn't cut it).

Here's the list as it now stands:
  1. Barbarians of Lemuria
  2. Barbarians of Lemuria - Revised
  3. Basic Role Playing
  4. Broadsword RPG
  5. Call of Cthulhu
  6. Castles & Crusades
  7. Chivalry & Sorcery
  8. Conan the RPG (d20)
  9. CORPS RPG
  10. Cthulhu Dark Ages
  11. Dice & Glory RPG
  12. Dungeons & Dragons - Advanced 1st
  13. Dungeons & Dragons - Advanced 2nd
  14. Dungeons & Dragons - Basic Black Box
  15. Dungeons & Dragons - Basic Red Box
  16. Dungeons & Dragons - Rules Cyclopedia
  17. Dungeons & Dragons - Third Edition
  18. Dungeonslayers 3.0
  19. Extreme Vengeance
  20. Feng Shui
  21. Gear Krieg
  22. GORE - Generic Old School Role Playing Engine
  23. GURPS - Third Edition
  24. Hackmaster
  25. Harnmaster 3rd Edition
  26. HARP - High Adventure Role Playing
  27. Heavy Gear - The Role Playing Game
  28. Hercules & Xena RPG
  29. Infinite Domains
  30. Labyrinth Lord
  31. Mazes & Minotaurs
  32. Mazes & Minotaurs - Revised Edition
  33. Mechwarrior - The RPG
  34. Midgard
  35. Millennium's End 2nd Edition
  36. Morrow Project, The
  37. Open Core Quick RPG
  38. Palladium RPG
  39. PDQ Sharp!
  40. Rolemaster Standard Rules (RMSR)
  41. Savage World of Solomon Kane
  42. Simple Sixes RPG
  43. Sorcerer RPG
  44. Star Trek (FASA)
  45. Star Wars (WEG)
  46. Top Secret S.I.
  47. Traveller - Mark Miller's T4
  48. VIOLENCE - The RPG
  49. Weird Wars
  50. World of Darkness
  51. ZeFRS RPG
There might be some quibbling about the D&D products being divided up too finely, but by and large I'm separating them not by "system" so much as by "role-playing game"; thus, Red Box D&D on my list has a different entry than the RC or Big Black Box D&D. Also note that GURPS only has one entry when I've easily got two dozen or so GURPS books, so I think it's somewhat balanced out.

In my mind, it's a pretty substantial list, and I think it says something about my personal gaming philosophies as well as the attitude I like to maintain here - no one rule or system or RPG gets special treatment because "it's what the blog is about". T&B isn't an "old school gaming" blog, and it's not an indie gaming blog, and it's not an apple box for talking about how kewl 4E is (note that it's not on the above list). I'm an RPG junkie and more than anything else I collect RPGs because each and every one of them has at least one little nugget of something cool that can be mined and used later on, either in campaigning or in designing my own home-brew systems.

For example, Infinite Domains might have been a non-starter system (anyone else out there even own this game?), but I actually thought their rules for magic were really cool - they involved "weaving" threads of different kinds of magic into an effect, and the more skill you had in various magical abilities, the more "threads" you could weave in of that ability. It's a little like the way Mage: The Ascension handles building magical effects, but much more structured.

Anyhow, I'm sure this list will grow - this of course doesn't count at least a dozen or more PDF files I have yet to print out and bind, as well as a few systems that I still want to get my hands on (like TLG's StarSIEGE). I might have to write up a couple of mini-reviews of some of the more "lost in the pile" RPGs or other particular favorites of mine, when time permits.

Comments and questions are, as always, welcome.

6 comments:

Scott Malthouse said...

That's quite a collection and I'm glad to see Barbarians of Lemuria on there, possibly the best low fantasy sword and sorcery game around.

Tony Reyes said...

You mentioned you had a couple of books "binded at Staples." I was wondering if you also got them printed there? I've read that Kinkos and the UPS store won't print RPGnow pdf's because they are afraid of breaking some law.

Jack Badelaire said...

I've got free reign with multiple high-speed color laser printers and good quality paper stock at work, so I print PDFs myself and just have Staples do the binding work. It's roughly $3-4 for a coil binding, although I did have one RPG bound in hardcover for $20. So far they've done good work and no one has ever questioned whether it was a "legal" document at the three different places I've been to.

Anonymous said...

Boot Hill & Gangbusters from TSR

Unknown said...

I do in fact own Infinite Domains, and have taken part in quite a few campaigns in a world my GM designed using ID. It is by far the best magic system I have ever used. I have played various RPGs for over 10 years, and the ID system is one of my very favourites. I think it is one of the best designed/poorly known RPGs to date.

Jack Badelaire said...

@Frank:

Awesome - great to hear that ID actually got use. Care to elaborate any on the campaigns and your feelings about the system? I'd like to hear more if you've got the time.