#RPGaDay2024 - Day 15 - RPGs with Great Character Gear

 Day 15 of #RPGaDay2024 makes us break out the games with swag, "RPGs with Great Character Gear."  

I have ranted and raved for years that my favorite convention of all time was the second one I ever attended, Lehicon IV, 1991.  It was simply a combination of a number factors, each individually would make a great con, but together made things the gold standard I strive in vain to find today.  

One of those factors was Battlelords of the 23rd Century.  

Hiding in a back room off of the massive ballrooms, I was a passive plyer in an adventure run by the game's designer, Larry Sims, letting the combat machines do their awesome combat things, only revealing at the end of the mission that my Zen Rigeln healer was, in fact, a Tza Zen Rigeln anti-healer, as I kneeled beside a dying Ram Python, and promptly high-fived him in the face with my mystical anti-healing powers.  

I was hooked, and while Battlelords always popped up to play in home mini-campaigns and conventions, I always enjoyed getting and reading the books.  

Years ago, someone kindly broke it to me that Battlelords is the best example of D&D in space. All the tropes were there, plain as day, except for the addition of starships and pulse weapons.  Magic is replaced by some psychic abilities, but in reality, it's accomplished through gear.  

For a better perspective think combat runs in Shadowrun, but those are the equivalent of no-contact scouting missions.  

Playing Battlelords without worrying about gear is like playing Car Wars without paging through an Uncle Al's catalog.    There's always something bigger, something your character dreams about saving enough credits to buy.  

Nowadays, Battleords of the 23rd Century is under the care of 23rd Century Productions, and they've even got a Savage World version, for heathens who don't want that much crunch and simplified gear modifiers.