In February 2020 we presented the Classic Hits Bundle. As foreshadowed in the Beyond the Bundle blog post “2019: The Bundle year in review,” we started reviving many past offers from the site’s entire seven-year history. Originally we’d planned to rerun the earliest offers intact. But many games in those primordial lineups later became the nuclei of entire bundles themselves; others are sold in new editions now, or are given away free, or are unavailable. Hence this Classic Hits collection that gathered many top-quality indie RPGs originally presented in half a dozen Bundle offers in 2013 and 2014:
- The original Bundle of Holding +2 (May 2013)
- The Bundle +4 (July 2013)
- Nightmare Alley (October 2013)
- Fantastic Valor (March 2014)
- The Indie Treasure Trove 2 (September 2014)
- The Indie Cornucopia 2 (November 2014)
For those who missed those early offers, this compilation gave a new chance to roleplay dungeon-crawling torchbearers, hypercompetent gangsters, the supernaturally gifted Touched, or wizardly familiars, and to visit medieval England, wartorn Warsaw, and seven swashbuckling skies.
There were five titles in this compilation’s Starter Collection (retail value $43) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
-
- Honor + Intrigue (Basic Action Games): Inspired by both Hollywood and history, this game of an alternate 17th-Century Europe adapts the Barbarians of Lemuria rules to model cinematic gameplay, nine duelling styles, and the power of Fortune to beat overwhelming odds. (From our Fantastic Valor offer, March 2014.)
- Grey Ranks (Bully Pulpit Games): An early masterwork by Jason (Fiasco) Morningstar about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, when young Polish soldiers fought the Third Reich. (From the original Bundle of Holding +2, May 2013.)
- In Dark Alleys (Vajra Enterprises): You’re one of the supernatural Touched in this modern-day RPG of cosmological horror, yet your powers leave you with more questions than answers about the nature of the universe. Includes seven MP3 tracks of music and ambient sound. (Nightmare Alley, October 2013.)
- Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne (Pompey Crew Design): A one-shot storytelling game of medieval Church captors delivering a young woman to her fate. (Bundle of Holding +4, July 2013.)
- Another Fine Mess (Grey Ghost Games): A missing wizard’s animal companions go to his rescue in this adventure for Fudge, the progenitor of Fate. (Indie Treasure Trove 2, September 2014.)
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got our entire Bonus Collection with four more complete games worth an additional $56:
- Torchbearer (Burning Wheel): Thor Olavsrud and Burning Wheel designer Luke Crane recast old-school dungeon crawls to emphasize careful resource management, endurance, and a relentless struggle for survival. (Indie Cornucopia 2, November 2014.)
- Hollowpoint (VSCA Publishing): One-shot (actually many-shot) tales of ultraviolent Agents doing bad things to bad people for bad reasons. (Bundle +2.)
- Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple (Smart Play): High-flying slapstick fantasy about young travelers with good intentions, the ability to fly, and not much else. (Bundle +4.)
- Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies (Evil Hat Productions): Skyships ply the Mysterious Blue for conquest, espionage, and piracy using the lightweight PDQ system. (Fantastic Valor.)
Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went to this offer’s designated charity, the Mines Advisory Group.
