My Game Inventory, Shelf 2 (Behind Enemy Lines – Call of Cthulhu)

The second shelf in my “non-D&D RPGs” section is all “B” and “C”s. Here’s a link to the Google sheet I’m using for the inventory, it’ll fill in as I go.

I have two editions of Behind Enemy Lines, a WWII RPG. You know, for how much RPGs are about blowing things up, there’s a startling lack of actual military RPGs. Like, what from this decade except the Warhammer 40K games? I mean, a lot of games let a player choose “a Soldier” as their class but aren’t military in any real sense. This irritated me so much I went on a military RPG buying spree. Sadly the older version is incomplete, the newer one is 1982 newer and it’s table-riffic, kinda like Squad Leader with RPG elements.

Next is Palladium’s Beyond the Supernatural. Hobbled by the mad science experiment that is the Palladium gaming system, it is otherwise a fun psychics vs monsters romp. And I like the random scenario generation tables. Oh no, it’s a… Tibetan supernatural threat… in a Prosperous Urban Condominium and Shopping Area… Precipitated by a PC suddenly remembering an obscure event from their childhood… And in the equipment list you can choose a black and white, green, or amber monitor for your top of the line IBM computer! Probably best used nowadays for a retro Stranger Things type game, and maybe with another game system.

I have two editions (1e/2e) and several splatbooks of Big Eyes, Small Mouth, the Guardians of Order anime RPG. A 4e got kickstarted some years ago it looks like. I liked this game and the Tri-Stat system was pretty nice – just Body, Mind, and Soul stats and rolling 2d6 versus them. Then you had attributes and skills giving bonuses for specific things. Simple but elegant, good for emulating the array of 1990s anime.

Next is a little indie RPG called Blowback that is basically “Burn Notice” (the TV show) the RPG. Written by Elizabeth Shoemaker Sampat, this is a spy game with several unique mechanics for the genre – analysis, operations – and the big innovation, the “push pyramid,” that details the escalation path as you start to mess with a conspiracy or whatnot, how much they come back at you based on how deep you’re getting into them. This mechanic was taken and incorporated into Night’s Black Agents (with credit given) by Kenneth Hite. A very light game but one meant more for the long haul so the consequences can operate. Still available for pay-what-you-want on her site.

Then we have a challenge for my alphabetization skills – is it The World of Bloodshadows? Is it Masterbook because that’s the generic rules book that powers it? Screw it, it’s in the B’s and it’s Bloodshadows. Masterbook was a generic system by West End Games, because their beloved d6 system was too simple I guess, and in the ’90’s we were all “Crunch: Ride or Die!”. I have no reason to want to learn Masterbook but the Bloodshadows line is basically “Cast a Deadly Spell” the RPG – modern fantasy noir. Be a hard boiled detective in a magical setting, but before the Dresden Files came around. And it has several adventures and sourcebooks, which makes it actually runnable (the bane of my existence is “here’s my cool new trad game, no adventures of course.” If I want to make up my own setting and adventures why would I use your shitty system? I’ll buy any trad game that has a setting book and 2 adventure books, that’s my minimum viable.)

Blue Planet is pretty high concept. It’s an environmentalist science fiction RPG, set on an ocean planet named Poseidon with humans along with uplifted dolphins and orcas fleeing an eco-burned Earth and wanting the sweet resources of this place. A very cool setting, and a basic tension very much like the movie Avatar. There’s “first gen” colonist natives and alien aborigines and newer megacorp arrivals… But it’s a little unclear exactly what to do with it story and adventure-wise.

And now… One from the vaults… Boot Hill. I think it’s the oldest Wild West roleplaying game, it’s part of the initial wad of stuff TSR put out with D&D back in the day, like Gangbusters and Gamma World. I have the 1979 printing, the first was in 1975!!! Only 34 pages long and 6 of them are a “Fastest Guns That Ever Lived” chart with stats for everyone from Sam Bass (a local favorite) to the James brothers to the Earps.

Bubblegum Crisis is a cyberpunk anime from the 1990s in which power suited young ladies fight replicant type bad guys made by an evil megacorp; this R. Talsorian game was the first to use their fairly long lived Fuzion system they used for many anime games.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a licensed-property Eden Studios game using Unisystem released back when the Buffy series was still red hot! Unfortunately for something with so much presence at the time it hasn’t had much staying power so not sure anyone will ever want to play this.

And finally, one of the granddaddies – Call of Cthulhu. The classic Lovecraftian RPG, I have several versions of the corebook (5th edition still the best) and a lot, lot, lot of the adventures and splatbooks – I love the 1920s setting best but I’ve got a pretty good swath of the OG content. I paid a pretty penny for that Spawn of Azathoth boxed set on eBay, I’ll tell you! I’ve played lots of Cthulhu, including the Cthulhu Master’s Tournament at Gen Con. It’s a great system that someone can pick up in 30 seconds – here’s a pregen, oh look a crap ton of skills you roll percentile against, ok let’s go. (I also have the d20 version, which is best left forgotten). Not indie hippie dippy but still one of the best most playable games around. Narrative control? YOU GET EATEN, how’s that for your narrative control?

OK, that’s shelf 2 of 22 (not counting 3 shelves of Dungeon and Dragon and other magazines). Chime in below, have you played any of these? What should be stolen from them to use in gaming nowadays?