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Pre-Electronic Games

C

Cryptid

Well-Known Member
Does anyone still play games that require no batteries? Specifically, Table-Top Role-Playing Games (a special interest of mine). Here is a list of the TTRPGs I have accumulated:

• AD&D 1st Ed. (Arneson/Gygax/TSR)
• BESM (MacKinnon/GOA)
• Cepheus Engine (SPP)
• Firefly/Serenity (Whedon/Weis)
• Freefall (Stanley/Frisbee)
• Gamma World (Gygax/TSR)
• GURPS (Jackson/SJG)
• Metamorphosis Alpha (Gygax/TSR)
• Pathfinder/Starfinder (Paizo)
• Paranoia (WEG)
• Star Trek (FASA)
• Star Wars (WEG)
• Stargate (Alderac)
• Traveller (GDW)

Anyone?
 
I play board games, if that at all counts, it's one of my main hobbies & special interests.

Specifically I play solo. Which is a thing with modern board games, it turns out. What a deep rabbit hole that ended up being. I've got a lot of these and a giant table set up on the other side of the room for this.

TTRPGs though, those are one of those things where they LOOK potentially interesting, but I'd never have a chance to try them. They all look like they absolutely require a group of people to play, and for me that's a big nope. Either I'm able to play it fully by myself, or it aint happening, is usually my rule.
 
Cryptid said:
I am posting this in Off Topic because there seems to be no current forum to address the topic.

Does anyone still play games that require no batteries? Specifically, Table-Top Role-Playing Games (a special interest of mine). Here is a list of the TTRPGs I have accumulated:

• AD&D 1st Ed. (Arneson/Gygax/TSR)
• BESM (MacKinnon/GOA)
• Cepheus Engine (SPP)
• Firefly/Serenity (Whedon/Weis)
• Freefall (Stanley/Frisbee)
• Gamma World (Gygax/TSR)
• GURPS (Jackson/SJG)
• Metamorphosis Alpha (Gygax/TSR)
• Pathfinder/Starfinder (Paizo)
• Paranoia (WEG)
• Star Trek (FASA)
• Star Wars (WEG)
• Stargate (Alderac)
• Traveller (GDW)

Anyone?
Click to expand...

I used to play the FASA Star Trek games, but I preferred Star Fleet Battles.

Also Car Wars!
 
Misery said:
I play board games, if that at all counts, it's one of my main hobbies & special interests.

Specifically I play solo. Which is a thing with modern board games, it turns out. What a deep rabbit hole that ended up being. I've got a lot of these and a giant table set up on the other side of the room for this.

TTRPGs though, those are one of those things where they LOOK potentially interesting, but I'd never have a chance to try them. They all look like they absolutely require a group of people to play, and for me that's a big nope. Either I'm able to play it fully by myself, or it aint happening, is usually my rule.
Click to expand...
Board games are fun, but I never got the hang of playing them solo.

TTRPGs do require from 2 to 5 players and 1 referee/facilitator/master to play effectively. Funny thing is that I could spend a couple of hours preparing an adventure, only to have the players run through it in 30 minutes. This didn't happen often, which is when the board games came into play.
 
Star Fleet Battles was fun for me until it became too "crunchy" -- too many rules to memorize, and challenging even one rule could grind a battle to a screeching halt. I liked playing the Romulans -- not for the cloaking device, but for their "mysterious" reputation. Plus, they had the Mauler, which was often dismissed as a novelty until I towed one into battle as a Q-ship -- what looked like a battered, disabled merchant vessel from the outside, but was almost completely a power plant built around the Mauler device on the inside. It could get off only a couple of shots before being destroyed, but I always made those one or two shots count.
 
Cryptid said:
Board games are fun, but I never got the hang of playing them solo.

TTRPGs do require from 2 to 5 players and 1 referee/facilitator/master to play effectively. Funny thing is that I could spend a couple of hours preparing an adventure, only to have the players run through it in 30 minutes. This didn't happen often, which is when the board games came into play.
Click to expand...

Yeah, board games played solo can be kinda odd at first. It highly depends on which ones they are. A lot of people who hear about it tend to think that it's like, a competitive game where you're playing both sides (since "classic" board games are always competitive") but it's usually either a pure co-op game where you're playing multiple characters, like a party of adventurers or whatever, or a co-op game where the rules have a mode for playing just a single character (which is more and more common as solo board gaming has gotten drastically more popular), or just games that are meant to be played solo right out of the box.

The rules are also definitely a factor... some games are just more complicated than others. Particularly Eurogames, they tend to have overly complicated rules. I usually suggest that anyone interested in the hobby start with something much simpler. And maybe try out the game in question in digital form first if possible (most can be played on Tabletop Simulator, certain ones also have their own dedicated programs). The one that got me started was Sentinels of the Multiverse, on Steam, and then Aeon's End, also on Steam. After playing those on there, I just immediately went all-in on the physical version of Aeon's End, which has like 5 bazillion expansions, because I have zero impulse control.

The other thing is the price. Some of these are just horrifically expensive. Particularly any game that uses miniatures... costly AND they take up a lot of space, especially for ones that have expansions.

And others can be just irritating to find. Sentinels took me quite a while to find a physical copy of, as I wanted ALL of it, and it has a LOT of expansions. Got lucky, found someone selling their entire collection of it, conveniently boxed and sorted, on BoardGameGeek. Still missing a couple of things but I have most of it. Currently I've been trying (and failing) to get my hands on a copy of Anachrony (or not... in the middle of typing this I abruptly decided to check and see if I could find one, immediately found it... amazing how that works sometimes).

Honestly this is one of those hobbies that I wish I could get people around me interested in... most of the games I have are co-op stuff instead of pure solo (so, I multihand them) and would be great with friends or family who were into the hobby, but none of them are. Goes for all of my hobbies, really.
 
If I'm in the right mood, I'll play board games like Monopoly and Scrabble, and card games like Canesta, poker and Rook. I also like jigsaw puzzles when the weather is not conducive for being outdoors, but I don't think of them as games. I have never learned how to play chess but I'd like to.
 
What follows is a typical character sheet for the Traveller role-playing game ("Science-Fiction Adventure In The Far Future"). The Character Summary was generated using Classic Traveller rules. The remaining embellishments were made "off the top of my head".

•••

CHARACTER SUMMARY

Name: Ariana Asegura ("The Doctor")
UPP: 7A78A5
Home World: Nasemin (SW3003 B98A422-B S Ni Wa -612 Im K2-V)
Age: 38 years
Terms: 5
Career 1: Rogue - Criminal element familiar with the rougher or more illegal methods of accomplishing tasks.
Career 2: Medic - Trained individual conducting medical practice.
Rank: None / Not Applicable
Skills: Intrusion-3, Medical-3, Handgun-2, Small Blade-2, Streetwise-2, Swimming-2, Computer-1, Leader-1, Small Watercraft-1, Tactics-1, Grav Vehicle-0.
Cash: Cr60,000
Pension: None
Skills/Experience: 18 / 18
Benefits: Low Passage (Cr1,000), High Passage (Cr10,000)

PERSONAL

STR: 7 (-2)
DEX: A (+0)
END: 7 (-2)
INT: 8 (-1)
EDU: A (+0)
SOC: 5 (-2)

H/P: 22/15/7

The Doctor was born on Nasemin, and enjoyed a largely idyllic childhood among the islands of her homeworld. She grew up as a "beach urchin" in this tropical environment, surviving through burglary and petty thievery while still receiving basic education. The local "Mob" took notice of her, and offered medical training in exchange for her services. She would hear of off-world arrivals from her partner at the downport, and would then meet them, befriend them, and offer medical treatment while assessing their wealth and vulnerability. Later, she would break into their quarters and steal valuables (especially high-tech items to build up her own savings). The Doctor has never been tested for psionics, and has no known psionic ability.

SERVICE

The Doctor has lived a double life since the age of 18. By day, an ordinary medic with a good hand for simple surgery. By night, a burglar with a good hand for picking locks and palming valuable objects. The Doctor has made a decent living stitching people back together, and augmented that income with selling stolen items to her sponsors in the "Mob". She would then fence the more valuable objects through her partner at Oberlindes and his off-world contacts.

But holding out on the "Mob" is risky business. Her partner's Oberlindes service jacket was recently found wrapped around a swiftfish -- a clear message from the local "Mob" that her partner now "sleeps with the fishes" for his double-dealings.

The Doctor rapidly departed from Nasemin, and is looking for the anonymity of working the Spinward Main on a merchant vessel. She is well-educated in medicine, but is somewhat unfamiliar with the manners and customs of finer Imperial society.

FAMILY

The doctor's parents were lost at sea when she was very young. Her childhood was dominated by relatives whose ethics were somewhat flexible. While she has many "cousins" back on Nasemin, she never grew close to any of them.

HOMEWORLD

Nasemin (Spimward Marches 3003) B98A422-B S Ni Wa -612 Im K2-V

Nasemin is an Imperial non-industrial water world located within the Towers Cluster in the Aramis Subsector of the Spinward Marches. Nasemin has a "Good" quality starport, with refined fuel, facilities for annual starship maintenance overhauls, and a shipyard capable of constructing non-starships. A Scout base is present, capable of handling IISS starships and personnel, with a contingent of vessels and personel known for their tenacity in fending off Vargr coursairs.

A large, close moon, a high axial tilt, and an energetic sun combine to produce giant tides and extreme weather effects on Nasemin. The world's stormy seas are the home of a very large and nasty predator which is the source of an anti-inflammation drug that has so far defied economical synthesis. Nasemin's population is primarily occupied with chasing down these predators (called byssals) and excising the gland in which the drug is concentrated. Each yields about 5 kilograms of raw drug. The byssal (a 40,000 kilogram swimming carnivore/killer) regenerates the gland in about a year and can be harvested many times.

The byssal hunters operate in small crews aboard specially constructed submersibles. Much skill is involved in searching for the predator in the ocean depths; the actual capture process is short but dangerous.

Nasemin's gravity is 1.12 "Gees" (~10.98 m/s^2). It has a dense Nitrogen-Oxygen atmosphere and liquid water oceans.

From the Travellers' News Service:

NASEMIN (TNS) The Oberlindes Lines trading station on Nasemin was burned to the ground in a fire of suspicious origins. The facilities were a total loss, including approximately Cr400,000 in cash and negotiable instruments and Cr650,000 in goods in storage, according to an Oberlindes spokesman. There were no casualties.

•••

I never had the opportunity to play this character, despite it being one of the more detailed characters in my files. Traveller makes no distinction between male and female characters, so neither do I.
 
Chess is also fun. 2D or 3D, it does not matter to me. Right now, there are almost no chess players near where I live.

High school Chess Club was a disaster. After a few victories against him, the club president started "forgetting" to inform me of the times and locations of the matches. After being reprimanded, he placed me at the bottom of the match rotation -- I could attend the matches, but my 'reserve' status kept me out of any games. Our school lost the Chessmaster's Trophy that year, and it was my senior year.

I still like the game, but I am more particular about choosing my opponents -- egos not allowed.
 
Has anyone else tried to develop their own RPG system? If so, what attributes do you use and how are they determined? Is the combat system structured or free-flowing? Do you prefer magic, psionics, neither, or both? Do you encourage players to develop character backstories? Did you have your RPG system published?

Thank you.
 
Personal observation: When these RPGs frist became popular, back around 1980, the rules could all fit into a few, small, and easily affordable books. Now just the core rule books can set a person back by $160.00 (USD) or more.
The rules themselves have become "crunchier" in an effort to cover every possible action, situation, and development for each character.

So I tend to rely on the first or second editions -- they're cheaper, with fewer rules, more freedom, and less-intense headaches.
 
Sorry, Cryptid. I think years of letting the computer do all the work on stats and saving throws, etc. has permanently left me unable to keep track of complicated rulesets.
I own the Gloomhaven PC adapation, but I'm honestly so intimidated by the thought of starting to learn how to play, even though my PC will be doing most of the work...
 
Misery said:
board games played solo
Click to expand...
I did not know this was a thing. I will definitely look into this. More suggestions for games that have good solo play would be appreciated.

I used to create board games and RPGs all the time when I was a teenager. I had another period in my late 20s where I spent a lot of time on it. I return to it every now and then when an idea hits me. But I have to be a little careful as I tend to get hyperfocused and it can impact on my life - quite severely one time which worried me and since then I've been more careful.
 
Cryptid said:
Does anyone still play games that require no batteries? Specifically, Table-Top Role-Playing Games (a special interest of mine). Here is a list of the TTRPGs I have accumulated:

• AD&D 1st Ed. (Arneson/Gygax/TSR)
• BESM (MacKinnon/GOA)
• Cepheus Engine (SPP)
• Firefly/Serenity (Whedon/Weis)
• Freefall (Stanley/Frisbee)
• Gamma World (Gygax/TSR)
• GURPS (Jackson/SJG)
• Metamorphosis Alpha (Gygax/TSR)
• Pathfinder/Starfinder (Paizo)
• Paranoia (WEG)
• Star Trek (FASA)
• Star Wars (WEG)
• Stargate (Alderac)
• Traveller (GDW)

Anyone?
Click to expand...
Did you ever try Shadowrun - that was one of my favorites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun
 
tazz said:
I did not know this was a thing. I will definitely look into this. More suggestions for games that have good solo play would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Honestly, it's hard to make suggestions without knowing what you're looking for in a game. The idea of solo-playable games isnt like this rare niche thing at this point... there are so, so freaking many of these. Just to give an idea how big it has gotten, there are entire Youtube channels that are JUST solo playthroughs of different games, kinda like "let's play" videos, except for board games instead of video games. And there are some games, such as Marvel Champions (which is really good) that just keep going with the content (seriously there is so much of that game).

I can give you this though:

https://www.autismforums.com/blogs/...-of-2-because-herp-derp-character-limit.3110/
https://www.autismforums.com/blogs/part-two-of-that-first-one-that-didnt-fit.3111/
I made those a couple of years ago, it was sorta an attempt to explain how solo board games even work. I show some examples and talk about the mechanics of each one a bit to give an understanding of what makes these tick, and what the player experience is like. There are other similar posts on my blog here, but those are the ones that do the best job, I think.

Though, that's also outdated, my collection has grown significantly since I wrote those, and some ideas have changed (for instance I say in the post that my favorite is Aeon's End, but that's been outdone by Final Girl, which currently holds the crown in my collection). But those two posts are really just about showcasing mechanics.

The best way to get good suggestions, I think, is to learn about some different mechanics and game types that appear in this hobby, and determine which concepts you think might sound fun. And get a sense of just how much complexity you're after. And then go from there.

Otherwise me trying to seriously recommend stuff is like throwing darts. These games are costly, I dont want to recommend something you'd actually end up hating.

If you wanna know more or get more detailed ideas from me, feel free to just message me directly, so I'm not just clogging this thread with that (since this thread seems more meant to be about TTRPGs).

If you want to just watch some gameplay directly in videos that are well done and to the point, look up a Youtube channel called "One Stop Co-op Shop". That channel is one of the main ways I find out about new games I might want, and also how I determine if I think I'll actually like said game. Best to see it in action, after all, and they keep the pace quick while also explaining the rules super well.
 
Traditional Board Games I enjoyed or still enjoy playing:

Life
Stratego
Sequence
Chess
Go
Monopoly

Card games: I also like to play Cribbage, Crazy Eights and Kings in the Corner.

Dice games:

Yatzee
Roll For It
Farkel
 
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