Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game Review

Jul 26, 2023

Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game Review

Join me as I check out Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game, a thing which actually exists for some reason which is beyond my comprehension. If nothing else, it is an interesting relic of the early days of role-playing games, when someone could think this would be a good idea.

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Intro 00:00
Mechanics 01:14
Writing 05:03
Presentation \u0026 Content 05:30
Summary 06:54

Content

0.26 -> why hello there and welcome back to

3.8 -> Some Weirdo on the Internet Reviews Obscure Role-Playing Games

7.76 -> Now, let me set the scene for you the year: 1980

12.96 -> this newfangled "role-playing game" hobby was taking off

16.46 -> and someone was bound to wonder if it could have appeal beyond

20.16 -> its dedicated base of science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts

24.56 -> and as you are watching this about 40 years after that

28.44 -> you can probably guess how well that worked out

39.68 -> Dallas: the television role-playing game was released in 1980

43.18 -> by Simulations Publications Incorporated

45.74 -> and as you may have gathered is based on the popular television program Dallas

51.02 -> which was only in its third out of 14 seasons at the time

55.3 -> now as a member of aforementioned dedicated base of science fiction and

59.96 -> fantasy enthusiasts I know a thing or two about role-playing games

63.74 -> and almost nothing about Dallas

67.52 -> so hopefully that's not gonna cause any problems

77.9 -> Dallas is a lot more structured than a lot of other role-playing games

82.42 -> possibly in an attempt to be more appealing to a mainstream audience

86.8 -> who's used to games that have more structure to their play

90.6 -> and well-defined win conditions

93.64 -> each player takes on the role of one of the major characters from Dallas

98.34 -> like J.R. or...

101.04 -> other characters who I had actually never heard of prior to reading this game

107.1 -> because as previously mentioned I've never actually watched Dallas

112.62 -> Dallas takes place in "episodes" each of which have an overall story

117.26 -> and specified win conditions for each of the characters

121.64 -> which is generally having control of a certain number of minor characters

126.6 -> or plot devices at the end of the episode

129.86 -> episodes are then further broken down into "scenes" which is where like

134.72 -> the actual gameplay stuff happens so let's get into that a little more in depth

141.98 -> scenes start with a director phase where the scene is set up

145.16 -> and any new minor characters or plot devices are introduced

148.46 -> and as I am unfamiliar with Dallas let's just say that J.R. and Cliff Barnes

154.44 -> are vying for control of some kind of Texas thing...

160.08 -> a rattlesnake with a cowboy hat

162.32 -> next is the negotiation phase

164.4 -> where players can trade resources form alliances and such

167.96 -> but that's boring so let's just move on to the conflict phase

172.92 -> now let's say that J.R. wants control of that rattlesnake with a cowboy hat

177.68 -> but Cliff currently has control of it

180.18 -> when a character wants to get something from another there are three options they have to do so

184.66 -> well in this case technically two

187.64 -> but honestly they can't actually do anything to stop you from using the third

193.02 -> each ability has an affect and resists value, and by comparing all these values

197.98 -> it seems that coercion has the best chance of success here

201.32 -> J.R.'s coercion affect value is 24 and Cliff's resist is 15

206.34 -> the resist value is subtracted from the affect value to determine the "spread"

211.02 -> then 2d6 are rolled and if the result is equal to or less than the spread

215.64 -> the attempt as a success which it is here

218.76 -> however the defending character has one last chance to negate the success

222.34 -> by rolling against their luck value which is a miss

225.58 -> and J.R. has taken control of the coveted rattlesnake with a cowboy hat

230.8 -> and that's pretty much it it's mostly just that one mechanic

236.3 -> in the abstract it's kind of neat I like the idea of

240.14 -> subtracting the defense from the attack

243.86 -> basically I'm abstracting it into general game terms

247.47 -> to get your target number which is kind of an interesting way to deal with

252.84 -> some of the inflexibility which is inherent to roll-under systems

256.68 -> but honestly I think what it comes down to here is

259.86 -> the mechanics do what they're supposed to

264.32 -> and they let do the things you can do in the game

267.48 -> but there's just not a lot of stuff you can do in the game

273.34 -> other than investigation which has some more depth to it and take several steps

277.96 -> pretty much every roll you make is either to get information

281.54 -> or control of a minor character or a plot device

285.38 -> I mean there aren't even rules for shooting J.R.

289.86 -> so a 2 out of 5

292.78 -> like the mechanics themselves aren't bad, but

296.64 -> there's pretty much like three things you can do in entire game

306.28 -> so the writing in this game is very 1980s role-playing game

312.94 -> it's very straightforward, somewhat technical, very dry, very just... bleh

319.84 -> honestly there's just not a lot to say about it other than

324.12 -> three out of five let's just move on to the next part

332.98 -> so normally I review presentation and content separately

338.48 -> but in this game they're kind of inseparable so I'm just gonna have to do them together

346.16 -> Dallas was distributed in a box set including

349.06 -> a rule book containing the game rules and 3 episode scripts

353.06 -> a script writers guide containing advice for running games and writing scripts

357.74 -> as well as information on the various characters, plot devices, and just general Texas stuff

363.86 -> character sheets for all of the major characters

366.58 -> which also include a full rules summary on the backs

369.46 -> cards for all of the minor characters and plot devices used in the provided scripts

374.6 -> and some dice

376.76 -> the layout in the booklets is sufficient it's just text in columns with no illustrations

384.52 -> like everything else in this game it's just kind of there

389.14 -> so 3 out of 5 for presentation

392.54 -> it is incredibly bland, but convenient to have everything included in the box

398.32 -> also 3 out of 5 for content they give you

401.15 -> literally everything you need to play three full episodes and I honestly

406.19 -> cannot imagine anyone ever wanting to play more than three episodes of this

413.96 -> and there we have it Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game

418.24 -> a role-playing game based on the television show Dallas

423.74 -> and honestly aside from its source material it is completely unremarkable

430.22 -> just a dry white toast of a role-playing game

434.22 -> like maybe if you're really into Dallas there might be some value there

440.58 -> but other than that it's just an obscure little footnote in role-playing game history

447.62 -> alright thanks for watching if you have enjoyed this video

451.48 -> then don't forget to hit all the lovely buttons

454.18 -> and if you know of any other extremely unlikely licensed role-playing games

459.92 -> let me know about them in the comments and I'll probably check them out

463.34 -> I don't have anything better to do

467.28 -> well, until next time

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-NG6M3Pj5I