The 80s, The Golden Age of RPG Design

I loved the 80s, the music and games at least.

Most 80s RPGs were driven by a simple goal- to be less abstract and more true to the source materials than D&D. In short, to be more realistic and/or faithful. A movement in game design that actually started earlier than 80s with games like RuneQuest (78) and Traveller (77) but reached its apex with systems like Champions (81) and GURPS (86).

Along the way there were dozens of games- Twilight 2000, Morrow Project, Aftermath, etc.

While RuneQuest was mostly just different from D&D, as the 80s progressed the style grew to embrace more complex and detailed rules (if with far fewer exceptions and special cases than D&D). A growth D&D mirrored, but the key difference was still realism and/or faithfulness.

What was interesting about these games, is what the designer thought was realistic or faithful. Aftermath had an very detailed hit location system for example. Champions a very dynamic Superhero Combat System, and Morrow Project highly detailed equipment rules. It seemed that like the blind men with the elephant, each designer was fixated on their own interest and it was those interests that would be modeled in their rules.

And that was a pure joy, never since have we seen such vast differences in game design or such a wealth of materal to pick and choose from. To me, it was truly the Golden Age of game design.

80s Game Characteristics:

• High Page Count
• Rules with little fluff or background in comparison
• Focus on wargame like conflict resolution, story and the larger world were left to be creations of the GM and players
• The search for realism or faithful recreation of source materials
• Extreme variety in subsystems depending upon the designer's goals
• Wide Ranging Experimentation