the longest playtest run ever

[Chris Rice]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

Tunnels and Trolls play mechanics have changed only slightly in that time. (The advancement mechanics took a major turn around 1997.) Old modules play nice with new characters and vice versa.

I ran into a guy today who is still playing Star Frontiers from the original rules (1981), and doing a mixed happy-dance/sad-mope about Star Frontiers Now and Forever having to shut-down; the current edition is just the originals reprinted POD in a single volume, which he got.

Call of Cthulhu 7 is still close enough to 1E that you can't tell the characters apart without the actual sheets.

Until the GURPS 4e revision, telling the difference between 1E, 2E, 3E, 3ER, 3E+C1+C2 was a matter of knowing the skills list differences. Until 3R, it was pretty much errata only.

Monsters Monsters is still the edition that Steve Jackson did in about 1980. For 7th ed T&T and later, most of the unique content of MM was migrated into the core, so no revision was/is needed. About 2 pages worth. (MM was playing the monsters, using the T&T engine.)

A number of other smaller games have had reprint editions, too, with nought but better layout and maybe new art. Greg Stafford's Prince Valiant, for example. Not quite as old as TFT, but the reprint was just a facelift.

Good points Aramis, and I can't comment on the edition changes of these games as I haven't been through them, but the TFT situation really is pretty unique as the game has been completely untouched for 35 years.