15 Games in a Distracted Troll's Chest! Yo-ho-ho...

Ok, hoppin’ on the meme. I believe it’s something like the 15 most meaningful games, scribbled out in a quick 15 minutes:

1.  D&D ‘cause, yeah…
2. Dark Tower: I still want to build an RPG campaign off that game board.
3. Joust: more for what I thought it should be than what it was.
4. Warhammer 40k: more for what it wanted to be than what it was.
5. Shadowrun: elves and cyberpunk and the end of the world as we know it
6. Star Frontiers: H. Beam Piper, the RPG!
7. Revolt on Antares: so many cool little pieces.
8. Trust and Betrayal: the Legacy of Siboot: rock, scissors, paper for world domination!
9. Blue Rose: never played, but the fever-dreams it inspired still get to me.
10. StarSiege
11. LotFP: elegance and focus. Maybe I can do that too!
12. Ultima series: World-building is about culture, not just where the orcs live.
13. Space Rogue: Elite with focus.
14. Elite: huge universe, small ship.
15. M.U.L.E.: Unfairness can be a feature, games can be different, and people play for different reasons.

These are not in any real order. So why these games? Because they fired off my imagination and led it in interesting directions. I mean, Settlers of Catan is a fun game and all, but it does make me go, “ooo, ooo, what about a world in which sorcerers can transform bricks into sheep?!?”

Joust is the most interesting one to my mind. My first encounter with the game is seeing classmates in 5th grade draw pictures of it. They just reproduced what was on the screen, but my mind invented a game in which noble aerial knights rescued and safeguarded eggs from ravening bandits. My conception of the game was a lot more fun than the real game turned out to be.

Games like Dark Tower and Revolt on Antares had similar effects, even though I did play them. These games were vague and handwavey in their details, with just enough art and detail to ignite sparks I could nurture into full-blown daydreams. Who were those named mercenaries at Anatares? What exactly did those keys open in the frontiers of the Dark Tower map? Cool banners and futuristic wargear still simmer in my imagination.

Art by Bob Pepper.