Playing Games Part 7: Games I Wanted to Play (But Never Did)

How cool is the artwork in this ad?

At my most geekiest, most gamiest, there wasn't a game I wouldn't try at least once. And I did, too: BattleTech, Dr. Who, Star Trek, Space: 1889 (the birth of SteamPunk gaming, kids),  Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes, Rolemaster (AKA "Chartmaster") and so many others got a afternoon's delight from me and then I was off in search of new thrills. And like any thrill-seeker, I had targets in mind. Oh, yes, there were games I wanted to play so very badly. But that was the problem with RPGs back in the day: they were a team sport. I personally think it's a big part of the reason why computer gaming was able to compete for the tabletop gaming dollar so successfully: you play by yourself, and go online to find others like you.

Not back then, of course. Computer games used to suck. And if you wanted to play them, well, you'd better learn the rudiments of how to make friends, or you'd be at home, cheating your way through a stack of Choose Your Own Adventure books. Thankfully, I had players, and occasionally, got to play. Here are a few games I wanted to play and never got to.

One of the most compelling
and effective box design
in the history of RPGs.
Fight me!

Traveller

I have never wanted to rescue Free Trader Beowulf so badly in my life. Growing up in a world of Star Trek reruns, I recognized what Traveller was all about early on. And even though it was emphatically not Star Wars, it was still interesting to me. I remember seeing ads for supplements that introduced new planets and aliens and ship-to-ship combat and I was in awe of it all.

And that was the problem. Have you looked at how many Traveller supplements there were? It was a lot; an overwhelming 48+ books in first edition Traveller. I got the boxed set which came with three of them, and it still wasn’t enough to play. And anyway, no one wanted to try their luck at the character generation system, the only one I know of where death is a possibility before you even start the game.

Still, the game has a lot going for it; despite the huge number of things to invest in, the game system itself is very simple, and because of it’s “hard SF” nature, you are not obligated to know everything about the universe; merely the asteroid belt that all of your campaign is set in. I didn’t appreciate it then, but I sure do appreciate it now.

The interior art sold the game.

Paranoia

I was a cynical kid; it was our thing, us Gen-Xers. We invented ironic detachment. And I took one look at Paranoia and knew I’d found my muse. However, I was the only person I knew that felt that way. Paranoia was meant to be played by Generation X and despite its popularity and cult-classic status, the game never caught on with my friends. I wish that I’d had the fortitude to play the game in my twenties, when I was at maximum ironic detachment with the world. I still think it’s a great game, made much greater by the copious amount of artwork by Jim Holloway. This was the game he was born to illustrate and the tone (and the captions) fit perfectly with his hyper-kinetic exaggerated facial expressions. Holloway did a lot of serious art for other games, but he was at his best coming up with interesting ways to destroy clones in Alpha Complex.

Most Palladium fans are
cult-like in their devotion

Palladium

I always admired Kevin Siembieda, from a distance, like how you watch a Komodo Dragon eat a flamingo from behind the protective enclosure. He really seemed sincere in his belief that his version of Dungeons and Dragons, retooled with a skill system, was the greatest thing ever since sliced bread. He figured out, earlier than most, that the levels and character classes and all of that stuff could be applied to other genres, and he spun his game off into a number of interesting directions, such as Beyond the Supernatural, Ninjas and Superspies, Heroes Unlimited, and the ever-popular Rifts. His conviction kinda sorta got him in trouble, but he stuck to his guns. It's like he had one great idea and has been riding that horse into the ground ever since.

I tried to get my friends interested in several of Palladium’s offerings, but it amounted to re-learning an entirely new system from scratch that was 70-80% similar to stuff we already knew. Ultimately, I wound up using research and reference material from the Palladium books in my other games. Say what you will, but his games and his reference books are always well-researched.

Willingham's art for the box.

Psi World

I don’t have any residual love for Fantasy Games Unlimited, especially after what they pulled on V&V creators Jeff Dee and Jack Herman, but back in the day, their ads were consistently the most interesting in Dragon Magazine. Like the above ad for Psi World. I recognized the artist right away; if you were a comic book nerd like me, you probably did, as well. So, Matt Wagner was drawing artwork for this game? And it’s all about psionic powers? Like the movie Scanners? I’m in, dammit. Take my money.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the game was really thin on background material. It’s modern day, so, you know, cars are cars. As a teenager, I didn’t know how to make this work. I needed stats, dammit. And rules. The psionic stuff was great, and the game was intended to be a way to role-play Scanners, The Dead Zone, and Firestarter. It almost worked. Thank god for the great art inside.

"We. Are Going. To Die."

Thieves World

My favorite character class has always been the thief. Conan, Gray Mouser, the Stainless Steel Rat, Robin Hood, etc. And while I was just as keenly interested in the Thieves Guild supplements from GameLords, my hobby shop (and Waldonbooks) never had any of that stuff for me to peruse, much less buy. But they did have the Thieves World boxed set, with that great cover art by Walter Velez reproduced—the same artwork that got me interested in reading the shared world anthology in the first place.

Thieves World was awesome, with huge maps, detailed personalities, the works. You could get lost in Sanctuary, literally. And why wouldn’t you want to? I don’t know, but my groups did NOT want to. Stick with Greyhawk, they said. We like your stuff better, they said. It was flattering, but not really. I did eventually convince my players to move over to TSR’s Lankhmar, and we had a ball, but it was a long, hard-fought battle and Thieves World was the first casualty.