RPG Books that Surprised You (For Good or Ill)

[MGibster]

Once in a while we come across an RPG that surprises us. Maybe we had low expectations and were surprised by how much we loved it. Or maybe we had high expectations and it disappointed us on every level. I'm curous about what RPG release surprised you and in what way? It can be a base game, a setting book, an adventure, a supplement of some kind or whatever. I'll go first.

Underseas for Rifts. This came out in 1994 when I was pretty close to the tail end of my interest in all things Palladium, and being that this was a book all about stuff happening underwater I had about zero interest in this. For some reason I picked it up anyway and I loved it. A big floating city called Tritonia, the descendants of the U.S. Navy still making splash, a giant squid bent on devouring the world but promising his minions 20 years of power before being eaten, and a few other factions meant this was actually a very interesting setting. It did suffer from Palladium's habit of promising to publish more details in the future (how's Mechanoids coming along?), but it was a fun bit of fluff.

The Merchant's Guide to Rokugan was released in 1999 and I bought it as soon as I saw it at the game store. Reading the blurb on the back cover, this book was supposed to be all about, well, the economy. The book was to detail the class of half-people (merchants) who wielded a lot more power than anyone recognized, tell us all about the Unicorn caravans moving goods from outside the Empire, and even campaigns revolving around economic activities that were the lifeblood of the empire. It was only when I got home and started reading that I realized I had purchased a pig in a poke. This book wasn't about the economy, it was all about a secret organization called the Kolat who had been spending the last thousand years plotting to destroy the Hantei dynasty. Boy, was I ever disappointed.

 

[jdrakeh]

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea first edition. I like AD&D a lot, but I've never seen a better purpose-built implementation of AD&D that immediately made me want to play it. Like, by comparison, actual AD&D (and OSRIC) are very vanilla fantasy in their respective core book implementations. AS&SoH presented a world in its core rules that felt like a real place that I wanted to visit.

 

[Divine2021]

The Players and GM Guides for Star Trek Adventures blew me away with their quality.

 

[MGibster]

The Players and GM Guides for Star Trek Adventures blew me away with their quality.

I've been thinking of picking this game up. I played a one shot a few months ago and was impressed by it.

 

[Autumnal]

The Cerulean Seas line for D&D and Pathfinder. I spent most of forty years someone would do undersea fantasy adventuring right and fearing I’d have to do it myself. They met and thoroughly exceeded my expectations.

 

[aramis erak]

Once in a while we come across an RPG that surprises us. Maybe we had low expectations and were surprised by how much we loved it. Or maybe we had high expectations and it disappointed us on every level. I'm curous about what RPG release surprised you and in what way? It can be a base game, a setting book, an adventure, a supplement of some kind or whatever. I'll go first.

For me, there have been a few

The Merchant's Guide to Rokugan was released in 1999 and I bought it as soon as I saw it at the game store. Reading the blurb on the back cover, this book was supposed to be all about, well, the economy. The book was to detail the class of half-people (merchants) who wielded a lot more power than anyone recognized, tell us all about the Unicorn caravans moving goods from outside the Empire, and even campaigns revolving around economic activities that were the lifeblood of the empire. It was only when I got home and started reading that I realized I had purchased a pig in a poke. This book wasn't about the economy, it was all about a secret organization called the Kolat who had been spending the last thousand years plotting to destroy the Hantei dynasty. Boy, was I ever disappointed.

I didn't buy MGtR until after I found out it WASN'T merchants - I knew going in it was a storyline book unreleated to the cover blurb. I was annoyed by that... I didn't want to overlap Traveller and L5R at the time. Once I got to reading it... well, it wasn't until 2020 that I actually used it. with the FFG version of L5R...

Marvel Heroic Role-Playing
I had had very bad reactions to Serenity and to the prototype of Cortex Classic, Sovereign Stone. And here it was using the same brand labeling.
I had been talking with Cam Banks on G+, along with Brad of VSCA (author of Diaspora and Hollowpoint), and basically, Cam dared me to try it. I tried it, and he was right about the odds, and was very right about the feel. I'm glad he did.

Buck Rogers XXV C
I was hoping/expecting the 79-81 series to be the baseline - I'd not read the old comics, tho' I'd seen the Buster Crab serial movies. Buster didn't seem any different as Flash than as Buck....
What it was was a loosely adapted not-quite-the-comics, definitely not the Nowlan novels, definitely not the 1978/1979-1981 Movie/TV Series
the surprise? I like the setting.

Tasha's Guide to Everything
Ditching the fixed att mods was a surprise to me. One I dislike. Not that I'm a fan of 5E anyway, but man, that just sucked from my point of view.

Dragonbane
I was surprised by the lack of kin mods. Annoyed, too. I may hit DT for 3rd ed DoD and grab the stats from there for future use..

 

[Divine2021]

Tasha’s Guide to Everything and Monsters of the Multiverse are two of the worst RPG supplements I’ve ever had the misfortune to buy.

 

[cbwjm]

I think I've got quite a lot out of Tasha's, monsters of the multiverse though I never felt the need to buy.

I did think that MCDM's Kingdoms and Warfare would be better than was, I guess I had high expectations for it after strongholds and followers but it just didn't quite hit the mark for me.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Phoenix Command

Millennium's End

Riddle of steel

Zweihander

Three of four died without being fully developed, but still brought me and my group hundreds of hours of happy gaming each. Zwei remains my go-to game for fantasy.

 

[MGibster]

I didn't buy MGtR until after I found out it WASN'T merchants - I knew going in it was a storyline book unreleated to the cover blurb. I was annoyed by that... I didn't want to overlap Traveller and L5R at the time. Once I got to reading it... well, it wasn't until 2020 that I actually used it. with the FFG version of L5R...

I didn't really expect to be Traveller. i.e. I didn't really expect to play a game where the PCs were merchants moving from province to province in order to make a living. What I expeted it to be was a way to have a campaign where PCs had to deal with the realities of a world were koku was important even if everyone pretended it wasn't. Having to figure out how to keep the soldiers and peasants fed during a bad year, and, oh yeah, one of the emperor's cousins is staying with you for winter court, so you're going to have to figure out how to pay for that too.

Phoenix Command

Oh, boy. Phoenix Command was less of an RPG and more of a complex combat simulator. I thought Leading Edge's Aliens game was complex enough and ever tried to run anything using PC.