I guess technically the first edition is out of print, so Vaults of Vaarn, an OSR adjacent hack of Knave set in a world that's basically Dune but weirder.
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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Look up Bureau 13 Stalking the Night Fantastic. It's from the early 90's. It's got a lot of X-files vibes, but doesn't take itself particularly seriously, and it predates x-files. It's built on the all conspiracies are true trope, so it's quite gonzo. There's all sorts of gadgets the agents have access to that are prosaic today, so you probably want to run it in the era it was written in.
Unknown Armies will live on forever in my head. It was such a cool setting and the book had such great writing. There's a third edition, but I only really read 2nd.
Sadly, I could never get anyone to play it. I've been cursed with "everyone only wants to play D&D" most of my life. I still remember trying to sell Mage to a college friend and he was like "You can just cast spells whenever? That sounds totally broken"
I was very fond of Albedo. Still am! Empire Of The Petal Throne was also one helluva great setting. Complicate rules, but that's not always bad.
...advanced marvel superheroes, the full FASERIP system...
Star Wars RPG by West End Games
Most of the books can be acquired here -> http://www.d6holocron.com/
Fan made updated core rule book of super high quality -> http://www.d6holocron.com/downloads/books/REUP.pdf
The Open D6 system remains my favorite system. I've run my homebrew fantasy games as well as Star Wars games in the system, and have plans for others when the opportunity arises.
Contact. Unfortunately, it's in German so probably not very useful to you.
It's basically a pen-and-paper adaption of the old MS-DOS XCOM games with a d100-based Shadowrun-esque combat system, a stat/skill system that feels like Fallout 1/2's SPECIAL, and an experience system that feels like Morrowind's. It's well-written, most of the rules are sensible, the world is fun, some of the aliens are very creative, and the artworks are great.
Despite being well-received, it never made it out of Germany. Right as they were gearing up to launch the English version, the publisher suddenly went bankrupt and the bankruptcy manager forced them to to cancel all games except the biggest one. And that was it for a really fun game that wasn't even done picking up steam yet.
Old school marvel rpg. Has a d100 chart on the back. Successes were white green yellow or red. Had an ultimate powers book and you didn’t gain experience you gained karma which could be used for adjusting dice rolls or character improvements. Great game.
Oh man, that is one of my favorites. Still play it when I can.