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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Complete List of Retro Clones

Hey everyone. I've been updating my pages, particularly Game III. It will have a complte list of available retro clones with links to where you can download or purchase them. I will also include some minimal commentary on the editions and their variations. Hopefully this will fulfill the need for a centralized location where anyone can find all the clones and their parentage in one place.

My biggest concern is that I don't want to leave anyone out or make anyone feel slighted. My current list looks something like this:

0e
  • Swords & Wizardry
  • Microlite 74/75
  • Delving Deeper
Basic/Expert/BECMI
  • Meep's Companion
  • Labyrinth Lord
  • Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game
  • Dark Dungeons
AD&D 1e
  • OSRIC
  • Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion
AD&D 2e
  • Adventures Dark & Deep
D&D Rules variants include
  • Hackmaster 4e
  • Mazes & Minotaurs
  • Castles & Crusades
  • Hackmaster Basic
  • Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG
While there are other excellent old school type games, some put out my TSR, I have focused mainly on Fantasy Role Playing Games designed to give a D&D type play experience. Games that don't fit the genre, but that I consider old school like:
  • Boot Hill
  • XPlorers
  • Mutant Futures
  • Gamma World
  • Star Frontiers
  • Traveler
  • TimeMaster
  • Top Secret
  • Starships & Spacemen
  • Call of Cthulhu
  • Star Without Number
  • ... ...
Are admirable games, I love 'em, and I have played 'em. But are beyond my focus here. I sincerely hope I or someone else gets the time to pull them into the cataloguing fold as well. Other games that are curently supported and old school in tone, feel or age that are outside of the D&D model, such as:
  • BRP
  • GURPS
  • Savage Worlds
  • Lejendary Adventures
  • Tunnels & Trolls
  • Dangerous Journeys
And a host of others simply aren't designed to replicate D&D enough to be part of our purview. With the possible exception of DJ by Gygax. But he dropped that pertty quick when smashed by TSR's Dragon Lady, so it never went very far and has little current support.

There have been others mentioned, but I can find them nowhere on the web now beyond a mention or two. Games like Warriors, Wyzards and Wyrms simply aren't available for perusal anywhere I can find. But if you know of any I have left out please let me know. Game III should be up and ready by tomorrow at least. I'll be scouring the net for updates and news for systems on the horizon every so often, but I'd appreciate any help you can give.

Oh, and some have wondered about a list of supplements, modules, settings and the like for these games. I'll be forging a list of those asap. That will be reorganized soon in my links section by edition and game. So keep checking back.

Also, the site is growing in size and hopefully utility, so I'll be adding a kind of Table of Contents on the side soon. It should give people new to the site an easier time figuring out what we are about here and navigating around. So look for that to appear soon.

Until then, May All Your Hits Be Crits!!

2 comments:

  1. Tunnels & Trolls isn't a version of D&D exactly. Obviously all fantasy RPGs are versions of D&D in a sense, but it was designed from scratch and isn't compatible with D&D.

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  2. Was it really designed from scratch? Thanks for the clarification Anarchist. I can't say I'm too familiar with the game. I recently listened to an interview with Ken St. Andres and the way he talked it made it seem like he designed it while reading the 3LBBs. So I just assumed ... Well, you know what they say about assuming. So, I've removed it from the D&D variations as of today. Thanks again!

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