Games you won't play

[Piratecat]

I'm a big gaming slut I have an expansive and inclusive love of games. Other than sexually explicit games, I can't think of anything I wouldn't even play a one-shot of -- although I have much less love for highly simulationist games. Not my thing.

[Truth Seeker]

Ya know, you are the second guy I know, who has admitted that...

Originally Posted by Piratecat

I'm a big gaming slut I have an expansive and inclusive love of games. Other than sexually explicit games, I can't think of anything I wouldn't even play a one-shot of -- although I have much less love for highly simulationist games. Not my thing.

[Darrin Drader]

Originally Posted by Mallus

You mean like Batman?

Batman isn't a superhero. He's jut a guy with too much time, money, and training on his hands. Batman gets my seal of approval.

[rkwoodard]

Originally Posted by Umbran

Okay, honest question, going beyond the OP's question somewhat.

How do those statements above go together? Why is it that the tools of LARP are disqualified, but pretty much any other set of tools is okay?

By extension, why exclude any genre, style, or rule set that you've never tried before from consideration?

I have LARPed and it was as fun. It is like Tabletop, finding a good group may be difficult. But the years in which I played, I remember very fondly.

I shy away from CoC type games. I love the lit, but the hopless struggle with a ordinary guy character does not hold my interest.

RK

[kitsune9]

Originally Posted by Bullgrit

Is there a game, genre, setting, or character type that you will not play, at all? Is there a deal breaker game element (like the previously mentioned) that will make you consider walking away from the table if the DM was absolutely intent on playing it? (I am not talking about a DM/personal characteristic.)

Bullgrit

Before I post my response, let's all get one thing straight--I don't think there is any such thing as a "bad" or "stupid" game. If you play it and you like it, that's great. If your favorite game makes my list, don't dish out the crap on me that I don't like your favorite game that's given you all your happy childhood memories, saved your marriage, got you your big promotion, and has made your children the well-rounded upstanding citizens they are today. Good for you and I wish you the best of success (really!) so here's my list of games that I won't play:

1. Anything White Wolf. My own experience is that is that I played Vampire and Werewolf with goths who were more concerned being goths than gamers and it didn't jive well with me. I want Underworld, not a reminensce of a depressing state of being as a vampire/werewolf/whatever. Not a fan of the system either, but who knows, I may change my feelings on that.

2. 4e. Read it. Didn't like it. No interest.

3. Palladium stuff. I played TMNT and got tired that a simple battle took 3 hours to resolve.

4. Anything "anime-ish". I like some anime, but I'm not some Japanophile.

Genres:

I'll play just about any genre except the anime one. I'm more into PG-13 kind of games so I don't dig games that are into gratuitous sex or violence and I certainly don't roleplay that. I try to be the kind of player that people from all walks of life (within normality) can game with.

Characters:

I typically play just about any character but I like to define my own personality. If I run into a GM that wants to assert control of my character's development and personality, that's crossing the line with me. I won't give an example as that I think it's a violation of TOS here. I try to make my characters also individuals that players wouldn't find offensive. I don't create chaotic evil assassins if the campaign is going to be about heroics.

[Corathon]

Specific games I wouldn't play:

Shadowrun: I tried it, but hated the setting and the rules.

Tunnels and Trolls: Tried it, too simple and jokey for me.

Runequest: After a long process of character generation my PC stabbed himself in the gut with his two-handed spear in his first combat (possibly on his first attack roll) due to a fumble. Kind of left a bad taste in my mouth...

Warhammer: The nihilism inherent in the setting repulsed me. I will play Call of Cthulhu, though, so I guess that it's more than that. I suppose that determining my "character class" by a die roll, with "rat catcher" as a possible result, repels me also.

3E or 4E: I prefer older versions of D&D.

FATAL: I know of this game only by rumor, but its sounds repugnant.


Genres I wouldn't play:

Anything totally mundane. Frex, I'd play Deadlands but not Boot Hill, Call of Cthulhu but not Gangbusters. Actually, I guess that I would play such games, but only as one-offs.

Role Assumption type games. I.e., I loved Star Trek, but I wouldn't want to play Kirk, Spock, or McCoy. I want to create my own PC.

Anything sexually explicit.

Anything that's saturated with real-world stuff that I find repellent. Frex, racism will be a fact of life in some game worlds, but if the game itself was racist I wouldn't play it.

[Particle_Man]

Originally Posted by Wulf Ratbane

I could not sit down to enjoy Axis and Allies if I were forced to play the Axis; nor would I particularly enjoy playing the game against anyone who wasn't similarly resistant to playing the Axis.

I am somewhat of the same mindset. I could not Play Axis and Allies if I were forced to play the Axis. On the other hand, I am willing to play (though it is not one of my favorite games by a long shot) if I am on the side of the Allies. Heck, I will happily play the poor, doomed, Russians if only because their strategy is fairly simple (more troops! more troops!!!!). Though I do notice that I pretty much ignore Japan and spend my energy attacking Germany.

It probably has to do with my grandfather living in a Nazi death camp, and my great-grandparents dying in another one. I just can't abstract away from that in Axis and Allies.

[Invisible Stalker]

Originally Posted by billd91

The proportionate powers of the gecko. That would be so awesome! I'd love to be able to cling to things, have rubbery fingers, and be able to lick my own eyes. I may have my next superhero character for M&M.

At DC there is a Venezuelan super hero that has various reptile powers including the gecko, Bushmaster.

[Invisible Stalker]

Originally Posted by Darrin Drader

Superheroes. I understand that there's at least one very well constructed supers game out there that is one of the flagship products of a publisher I like. I'm glad someone is doing it well and I wish them all the success in the world, but I've always thought the entire superhero concept is lame. I think superheroes is some sort of cultural outgrowth from Greek Mythology. The problem is that it was cool when it was Greek but not so cool once they started wearing tights. In my opinion, the superhero genre strips the accomplishments of these characters because they always had some special power that nobody else has to fall back on.

I wish Gary Gygax had created a super hero game in the 1970s instead of D&D.


Frankly, I find the "street level" wing of super heroes to be far more boring on average than their super powered cousins.

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Originally Posted by Wulf Ratbane

There are lots of categories of games on my list similar to other folks here-- the extremely obscene, the extremely goofy-- but only one that I can think of off the top of my head that I've ever specifically and consciously refused to play:

Axis and Allies.

I just find it ghoulish.

If we are expanding this beyond RPGs you can add me to the no Axis and Allies list. Never found it ghoulish, just extremely tedious. I might play if I was suffering from insomnia.

There aren't any other board games I can think of that I wouldn't play. I'm a huge boardgame whore I have extensive experience with a multitude of board and card games.

[neuronphaser]

Originally Posted by Falstaff

I'll play most anything, EXCEPT Rifts!

I was gonna say that!

Honestly, then I realized that I'd totally play just about anything. The question is whether I'd take it seriously as a player or not.

For Rifts, that'd be a "not."

[Umbran]

Originally Posted by Mallus

Because I'd personally feel too self-conscious and embarrassed to LARP. It has nothing to do with that specific tool and everything to do with how comfortable I feel doing certain things in public.

Interesting. You do not know that many (perhaps most) live-action games take place in private venues, in which the only witnesses are themselves players?

One game I played was about a dozen people (all of whom I knew personally), in one conference room with closed doors - we were the US President and his cabinet, dealing with a crisis (akin to the Cuban Missile Crisis). Everyone was in suits, speaking in normal to outright hushed tones. There were no elves, magic, mock violence, or outlandish things in evidence (or in the game - it was an entirely mundane political scenario). If any non-players had looked in, they'd have seen a meeting, nothing more. You could, in fact, play the thing in a large dining room if you wanted to.

So, would you play a LARP in your own home, or that of a friend?

This is not intended to sell LARP, specifically - it is merely a convenient example. My point is more to explore preconceptions, and why people give fairly absolute, "I would not do X," answers.

In a thing so thoroughly flexible as a role-playing game, why do we have inflexible views about what a game might entail?

[coyote6]

Originally Posted by Umbran

In a thing so thoroughly flexible as a role-playing game, why do we have inflexible views about what a game might entail?

We're human? And that's kind of one of our schticks, as a species.

[Fifth Element]

Originally Posted by Vyvyan Basterd

There aren't any other board games I can think of that I wouldn't play. I'm a huge boardgame whore I have extensive experience with a multitude of board and card games.

Settlers of Cataan for me. I find it absolutely tedious. I find Monopoly more engaging.

[Hobo]

Originally Posted by kolikeos

I'd play any system and probably any genre, but keep your sex out of my roleplaying.

Here's a great recent quote from my game, from one PC to another. "For the last time, Shautha, I'M NOT HAVING SEX WITH YOU WHILE I DON'T HAVE MY OWN GENITALS!"

[Particle_Man]

If we are going for board games, I would try valiantly to avoid Caracassonne. And Monopoly with some people, as it has this magical ability to bring out the very worst in some people.

There was a popular game out a few years back, can't remember it, had the word Brain in it, was sorta trivial pursuit except you did little puzzles as sub games, had clay, charades, etc., and was imho badly designed. It really doesn't click for me and when I played it I decided I didn't want to play it again.

[Festivus]

As a player... any horror game. I get freaked out a bit easily with those things. I don't mind running a scary game, but I mind playing in one.

[Corinth]

I do not deal in misery tourism or nihilism; Man is awesome and the sole thing adding value to all Creation- without Man, Creation is meaningless.

[Bumbles]

I refuse to play Global Thermonuclear War.

It's the only way to win.

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Originally Posted by Umbran

Interesting. You do not know that many (perhaps most) live-action games take place in private venues, in which the only witnesses are themselves players?

So, would you play a LARP in your own home, or that of a friend?

This is not intended to sell LARP, specifically - it is merely a convenient example. My point is more to explore preconceptions, and why people give fairly absolute, "I would not do X," answers.

In a thing so thoroughly flexible as a role-playing game, why do we have inflexible views about what a game might entail?

I'm not the person you asked, but since my view was similar I'll give you my response.

I did not realize LARPs usually took place in private venues. I still would not play a LARP privately. I feel uncomfortable acting directly as my character. If I were to go into an actiong career it could only be as a voice actor.

I am not entirely inflexible. I tried a murder-mystery dinner at a hotel down in Orlando and I felt totally out of place. I did not enjoy myself at all. And it had nothing to do with the quality (or lack thereof). My wife liked it. My discomfort ruined my own experience.

So in my case, it's Me not LARPs.

(A side issue is LARPs with non-modern costumes. I find it difficult to come up with a costume. I become a perfectionist. I want my costume to be perfect or I don't want to wear one at all. This is why I've never dressed for the Ren Faire or Rocky Horror Picture Show even though I thouroughly enjoy both. I also finally comlpeted my first Halloween costume in roughly 20 years.)