The purpose of this thread is to collect examples of systems that have particularly strong design in a certain area, or are exemplars of their design lineage, or are otherwise interesting and compelling in a way worth becoming familiar with.
This is not a complete or authoritative list! That’s why I’m making this a thread here, so we can all contribute based on our own experiences and priorities.
(Creating this thread required a burst of energy and inspiration that wasn’t quite enough to extend to explaining why everything on my lists made the lists, but I plan to edit and add further explanations later)
Sword’s Path: Glory, by Leading Edge Games, 1982 and 1983.
Notable features: involved tick system for action ordering; damage by placement and severity leading to effects such as KO or death (no hp).
Indiana Jones and Marvel Super Heroes, 1984; ConanRole-Playing Game, 1985; Gamma World 3rd edition, 1986; all by TSR.
This is where Cook’s ACT system appeared. These three games each use it, with different levels of complexity, from a very simple version in Indy to the most complex version in GW3.
Chivalry & Sorcery made a splash upon release, working toward greater verisimilitude than D&D. Fantasy Games Unlimited, 1977, 1983 (both years listed in my copy).
Ars Magica, Lion Rampant Games, 1987. The troupe style play promoted was new. The magic system made a large impression. I was lucky in that I went to GenCon that year and had signed up for an AM session run ny Jonathon Tweet.
Imho every OSR hacker should read Traveller, RuneQuest, and Tunnels and Trolls, as 90% or more of “innovations” in the space end up just reimplementing one of the above.
Everyone should read Prince Valiant and Pendragon, to get an approach of similar concepts by the same author done very differently.
