True, except for some of the gazateers. Though I hate the digital price for mentzer. both red books, 5 each. When you can spend 10 and get the RC.

Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes is interesting in that the cRPG Wasteland uses a similar ruleset.

One flaw in the ruleset involves automatic weapons. When you shoot full auto, you get a bonus to hit equal to the number of bullets shot. (In Wasteland, this could be 30 or more bullets.) Hence, you get +30 to hit from this rule. Meanwhile, having a skill of 8 gives you only +8. The result is that, assuming ammo is as plentiful in Wasteland (not necessarily a safe assumption in the Pencil and Paper game!), you really don't need to invest in SMG or Assault Rifle skill; you can fight well enough without it!

Incidentally, what do *you* think is the best way to handle automatic and semi-automatic weapons in a TRPG? (Making each bullet a separate attack roll, while viable in a cRPG, is not viable when you have to physically roll dice each time.)

(As a result of this, Wasteland's mechanics have some quirks you don't generally see in cRPGs, like the use of open-ended rolls that do not have an even distribution.)

Just got this beta test version of this pro wrestling pen and paper RPG, sounds like it would be fun.

Yes, that's the only reason I bought MSPE :)!

FWIW I checked my notes from many years ago and I had jotted down an idea for a house rule for MSPE:
"Burst: roll attack as normal, if hit then damage=normal+1d6
Full Auto: add +5 to attack roll, but attack roll is now treated as a Trap Rating (DX or Acrobatics or LK to overcome). Damage = difference between rolls x2 (or /2 if target has bulletproof armour). All targets in firing area must make SR."
Seems I was somewhat influenced by d20 Modern (which I believe I was playing at the time).
Never was interested the the GAZ series, I was usually not interested in other people's worlds.

Well it's not really other peoples worlds, and they offer classes, new optional stuff to the system, etc. It's technicaly apart of the "known world" from the classic line but you don't even have to use it.

I've never actually used the "known world" as a setting either. My personal preference these days is for rulesets which are fairly brief, I don't use extra classes and optional stuff. Which is why I prefer BX over Mentzer/RC.

Well Mentzer/RC without using the optional stuff pretty much is b/x up to level 12 anyway. Slightly different thief progression but pretty much exactly same game.

13th Age

BX thief progression (and cleric for that matter) is clearly superior to RC in every way :P!

Not for the level progression to 36. :P


Speaking of Mentzer, Frank is a pretty cool guy, he's let me watch a few of his sessions.

If I ever need to go above level 14 (and I can't see that happening TBH, by name level heroes should be thinking about retirement) I'd likely use the unofficial "B/X Companion" by Jonathan Becker.

I agree about Frank, I've never met him in person but he hangs around the Dragonsfoot forums and seems like a really nice guy.

The SAGA system was amazing. Card based.

Free form spells and Commanding vast armies.

It was absolutely wonderous to play.

I'm so glad someone else remembers it.

I'll raise you an obscurity level..
Do you remember Dragon Dice?

Of course, it was the final nail in the coffin of Lorraine Williams led TSR. They didn't learn with the failure of Spellfire cards so they unwisely tried collectible dice instead of cards...

Dragon dice was a good but outside what TSR's core audience wanted.

Okay, now I'm not sure if I mis-remembered this, but can anyone else remember TSR trying to raise money for an VR/AR Dungeons and Dragons theme park? It was in the mid 90's during the first attempt at VR.

That sounds kind of like the movies & [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futureworld]Futureworld or 3001 AD, but I don't think anything ever came of it. There's also one called The Void.