What pen & paper RPGs would be want to see being turned into CRPGs?

There are many great pen & paper RPGs out there, many with systems that would actually work on a computer, and even more with amazing settings that would be playable with a few modifications to the rule system.

Here are a few picks from me
Fading suns
Fading suns would probably work best as a CRPG/Adventure game hybrid, focusing a lot on dialogues and puzzle solving. It would probably be best to focus the CRPG around court intrigues and house politics.
For you who don't know, Fading suns is a Sci-fantasy RPG in a setting similar to Dune. There are several large house, all trying to position themselves so that they can get the most out of any given situation. There is a powerful church, that plays an important part of the day to day life of the common citizen. And there are trading guilds, who rule the star lanes. There are also aliens, some (relatively) friendly to humans, some more or less indifferent to humans, and one particular type is more interested in eating us than anything else.
It is a very deep setting, with a lot of room for different types of CRPGs, but most people seem to view fading suns as a mix between a court intrigue and a space adventure game.

Eon
Sweden's most popular RPG at the moment. It is a game that has a very complex rule system, leaning heavily on the simulation side of things. It also has a very open ended world, so they could probably do almost anything fantasy-related. One thing that probably would have to be changed is the systems lethality and the permanent injuries that characters tends to suffer if they fight too much.

Dark heresy
Would probably work best as a party based investigation/horror game. Dark heresy takes place in the 40k setting, but is focused on the every day life of the imperial citizens more than on large battlefields.

Paranoia
As a multiplayer dungeon crawler, where you root out commie mutants (my avatar is by the way from Paranoia). The pen & paper RPG is the only pen & paper RPG that I have played that openly encourages the players to shoot each other in the back as soon as they have the opportunity to do so. In a CRPG the different players could all be given one main objective, and each players could also be given several sub-objectives, that technically speaking would be treason. The game should reward players who are able to complete their sub-objectives, and also players who kills other players who they see are trying to complete their sub-objectives.

Mutant
Another Swedish game, this one taking place in a post apocalyptic setting (and we are not talking about Mutant Chronicles, okay?) . Taking place in a post apocalyptic Sweden, where the animals have mutated into humanoid intelligent beings, some humans have been given psychic powers (and some others have just been mutated), mutant would make for an interesting survival focused game. Think Fallout, but less grim & dark (while still being a bit Grim & Dark), where being mutated does not mean that you look like you've been exposed to a fire recently. Paradox currently owns the rights to this setting, but they don't really seem to be interested in doing anything with it

TDE Myranor/Güldenland (this is the name given to the continent by the Aventurians, "Myranor" is the name the inhabitants of this continent give it) - weird creatures, lots of strange playable races, a feline major race, weird creatures, high fantasy.

Spelljammer - just sounds too good, imho.

Plüsch, Power & Plunder - a setting where you play a stuffed toy animal - humans are not allowed to learn about them actually being alive.

Engel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engel_(role-playing_game) - sounds interesting to me as well.

Castle Falkenstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Falkenstein_(role-playing_game) - kind of a steampunk setting

Midgard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midgard_(role-playing_game) - it's simply time for it !

Tunnels & Trolls http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnels_&_Trolls - same !

Tékumel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tékumel - because it is the one with the far deepest heritage …

... And then there is some kind of fairy RPG of which I just don't remember anymore the title ...


What I don't think I'd like to play is this one : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macho_Women_with_Guns

Ars Magica

Middle-Earth Role Play

Shadowrun, Shadowrun, and...probably Shadowrun.

/yes I played the Sega Genesis version, loved it, would like more

kalniel said:

Ars Magica

Click to expand...

Oh this one, definitely.

I'd also like to Legend of the Five Rings.

Engel sounds like a really cool game. I love the overall setting that is described on Wikipedia. Not so fond of D20 though, so if it ever gets a CRPG release, lets hope that it uses that other system.

Ars Magica would also be interesting. I love the pen & paper RPG, but much like Nephilim, I can't figure out what the heck to do with it. A good CRPG might give some inspiration.

Oh, and Shadowrun, a good shadowrun CRPG would just be amazing. I still don't see why the Mega Drive version is so popular though, I thought the SNES version was far superior.

Traveller. Yes, I know the old Traveller computer games back then, but I'd love to see one tying in to the Spinward Marches Campaign, then one in the Megatraveller setting, and finally one in the TNE setting with Virus and all, just for the thrill of it.
I haven't followed Traveller after the 4th editition, however.

Oh, and Justifiers, of course . Preferrably the new, 2010 game instead of the old one, so I can meet my own characters … would love that .

I'm with Fnord here, liked the SNES Shadowrun a lot better than the Genesis Shadowrun game. Kitsune was cute.

Gregz said:

Shadowrun, Shadowrun, and…probably Shadowrun.

Click to expand...

And maybe also Shadowrun.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. A single-player cRPG, not an RTS (which we already have several), in the Warhammer fantasy world (AKA the Old World) would be grand. I'm not familiar with the current WFRP 3rd edition rules, they look like a hybrid between a card game and an RPG, but the 2nd edition rules would do just fine (even if it would be impossible, as the game would surely be made using the current rules edition). No matter the rules system, give me a Warhammer cRPG!! (And yes, I know there is an MMO in the Warhammer fantasy world, but I'm not that interested in MMOs so they don't count.)

Jaz said:

Traveller. Yes, I know the old Traveller computer games back then, but I'd love to see one tying in to the Spinward Marches Campaign, then one in the Megatraveller setting, and finally one in the TNE setting with Virus and all, just for the thrill of it.

Click to expand...

Yes, this would be sweet! I'd like a pure cRPG without any starship flying, but most Traveller fans would probably be disappointed if they wouldn't be able to have a starship to fly around (space sim style, a la Elite etc.). IMO, travel between star systems could be glossed over in game with just a loading screen saying "you jump to system X" and then you'd continue your adventuring planetside. At most space flight should be something like it was in Star Contol II.

I wouldn't mind a game in the AD2300 (aka Traveller:2300) universe either, but maybe it would work better as a shooter.

Not really into the pen & paper, But i would love to see a fully 3D rendered World based on Planescape with a new story of course. I understand there is a mod expansion based on Planescape for NWN2, but i'm just not a fan of that games mechanics.

Sigil would be a sight.

Werewolf might be quite good as a party based RPG, of the old school format where all your party is with you all the time. The pack structure lends itself well to that IMO.

+1 for MUTANT.

MUTANT was one of the first RPG's from the Swedish producer Äventyrsspel, later Target Games. To confuse things, there were no less than three different RPG's called "MUTANT" but I believe me and Fnord refer to the first. The second was a regular Cyberpunk world and the third MUTANT CHRONICLES became famous worldwide and even became a movie, but that one have nothing to do with the first game except for the name.

The first MUTANT was later picked up by another company who made a long and successful series that is still going. The remake is known as MUTANT Undergångens Arvtagare (Ancestors of the Apocalypse).

To describe MUTANT, think post-apocalypse (like fallout) in the cold north, subtract 100-200 years to the 17-1800 and add humanoid animals like Wind of the Willows.

Aye, that is the one. While Järnringen did make quite a few changes that old school fans might have disliked, I feel that their version of the setting probably would make for a better modern game. It is not as stuck in the cold war/doomsday type scenario that was popular during the 70's & 80's.
Sadly Järnringen has discontinued Mutant UA. From what I've been able to gather, they did not find it worth it to pay a licence fee for their products, but instead made their own game & setting (Coriolis). Also, it would seem like Järnringen are closing down. The Swedish RPG market is not exactly thriving, with only NeoGames still retaining a large market share (there are a few smaller companies about, but they seem to be more like hobby projects than anything else. Some of their games are good though).

My most prized geek possession is a first printing of the core rulebook for mutant undergångens arvtagare, signed by almost all the people who made the game (only the illustrator was not there), specifically to me.

Can it still be bought ?

Mutant UA has sadly been out of print of a few years now. The game often pops up on auctioning sites, but it will usually set you back ~40€ (that is nearly twice its original price!). I really do regret not buying more supplements for it while they still were in print, now that they all are super expensive. Also, the game was only released on Swedish. The only mutant game that was translated to English (and possibly other languages) was Mutant Chronicles, and that is a game that most swedes prefer to not speak about.

It'd be nice to see a new, good Shadowrun game, but I doubt we'll see that anytime soon.

But I think a game based on the most rule of cool heavy RPGs around (that nobody actually plays) could kick some serious ass. Mutants, giant stompy robots, demons, dragons, wizards, and post-apocalpytic action of all kinds! Of course I'm talking about Rifts. The rules are a complete cluster, though, and someone would have to convince old Siembieda to let someone else make them playable first. Aaaand it would probably take a hell of a lot of work to do the setting justice, since it's got just about everything in it somewhere.

GURPS!
Fallout would have been much better with GURPS at its core.

Menigal said:

Aaaand it would probably take a hell of a lot of work to do the setting justice, since it's got just about everything in it somewhere.

Click to expand...

The Mechanoids, for example . Yes, I like that.

Paranoia. Mostly because I don't think it can possibly be done. It depends so much on the GM ignoring what few rules there are in order to have as much fun as possible that I don't think a computer will ever be able to handle it.

The setting, however, could work very well. An RPG set in Alpha Complex could be an incredibly fun (and funny) game!

Elf Quest - Most of you probably have never heard of it. IT was a comic in the 80's that I became obsessed with. They made a Pen & Paper RPG that I bought (along with the three expansions). It was based on some open game rules license, IIRC. Only ever played it a few times as my friends weren't that into playing Pen & Paper games, but I really loved it. Always wanted to see a PC version of it.