General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
More on topic, I won't play a game where you are genre-baised incapable of obtaining a Disney ending. Also! I don't play games where you as a player suck.
Escapism and such.
Similarly, I don't play high mortality rate games.
I got a strong preference to fantasy, often high fantasy. Ero and the like games might not suck so bad for me if they weren't, in my experience, all pretending to be a different genre and then degrading to really bad crosses between Days of our Lifes and creepy fetishes.
Also, I hate games that rely on randomly killing/maiming/rapeing your friends on bad dice rolls. I'M LOOKING AT YOU WEREWOLF. Similary, I dislike games that rely on out-thinking your friends, like political ones and mysterys.
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.
It's dull, too. It has now joined Monopoly as the only 2 board games in the "games I refuse to play ever again" catagory. I just wish all my friends didn't like it. A buddy asked me if I wanted to play it tonight, in fact. I talked him into A Game of Thrones instead. Great game.
Rolemaster
Gurps
old D&D editions (BECMI being the only exception)
d20 games with lots of 3e artifacts
Hero system
Warhammer FRP/Dark Heresy
Palladium
Shadowrun
Riddle of Steel
old World of Darkness
There aren't many genres I refuse to play, and there aren't many types of character I refuse to play. What I won't play is any game where I'm expected to be amoral or immoral. If it's an option that's fine, I probably won't take it but having it there doesn't bother me. But there's enough nastiness around that I don't want to be compelled to bring it into my fun time.
I'd also be very reluctant to play any game set in a time period which I or people I know lived through, which effectively means no 20th century or later unless it's quite explicitly an alternate reality version.
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.
Yeah, I'm not a bif Carcassonne fan either. I don't understand the draw to that game.
The other game is called Cranium. It's more of a party game, which is better with lots of people that have imbibed a bit.
To be clear, I don't have a problem with people not liking a thing - not all games are for all people, by a long shot. So, I wouldn't say it is you. I'd say there's a mismatch between you and LARPs, just like there can be a mismatch between you and a particular tabletop GM's way of doing things. Neither one of you is wrong, you just aren't for each other.
Hurm...Most of these aren't 100% refusal, I could probably be induced with proper motivation.
LARPing of any sort.
The darker WoD games, Wraith being the top of the list. It's not really that I dislike dark so much as how emo they come across to me. GM is probably a huge factor here.
Anything where you have to check more than one chart on a regular basis, and I only make exception for the one chart because I'm fond of the old Marvel Supers game. I really just don't like charts.
Anything with a tedious focus on relatively unimportant minutia, especially if there is math involved.
Anything where you have to spend a lot of time figuring out what happened. If I have to do anything resembling homework to figure out how far back someone has been knocked I'd just rather not know.
One shots. I like to craft interesting characters, and I like them to stick around, hard to get invested in a one shot game.
Games I haven't played before and I'm not already interested in. Not really a no go, but I have to be sold a little to be convinced it's worth it to learn a new mechanic for a game that'll only be played a couple of times in all likelyhood.
Sci-fi, certain subgenres. Star Wars, sure I'm there, something more in the vein of Star Trek, not so much.
Any system where dying to one poor die roll is relatively common.
Any system where there is a really large failure chance on common die rolls. Repeatedly failing over and over again gets old quick.
I'm curious about the people that like certain genres in other venues like supers or anime (Not sure I'd really call this a genre, but whatever) but don't like them as games. Is it a failure to capture the spirit of the thing or what?
__________________ Oni
"Each man, one way.
Each horse, one stance.
Each church, one buddha.
Each master to his own technique."
Over the years, I've become more discriminating about games I'm willing to run, but I'm willing to play a much broader range, and to give something a shot (especially if it's only a few sessions).
Of course, there are still games, styles, and genres that I'm less enthusiastic about. Off the top of my head, those include:
Blue Rose
"furries"
White Wolf style vampires
Anything heavily scripted
Anime based/inspired
Anything with Japanese school girls
LARP
If we're including non-RPGs, I'd throw in:
Phase 10
Any card or boardgame where luck is a primary factor, outweighing skillful play
Runescape
Any computer game that involves long hours of mindless repetition (e.g. chopping wood to bring up skill)
__________________ "You want to play "Semantics and Lawyers"? Go ahead. We'll be busy kickin' ass and chewing Stygian Black Lotus- the best!" - Predavolk
__________________ "You want to play "Semantics and Lawyers"? Go ahead. We'll be busy kickin' ass and chewing Stygian Black Lotus- the best!" - Predavolk
There are few RPGs I categorically won't play, with the right group of players/GMs/etc. I much prefer 3e to 2e AD&D, but I'd play a 2nd Ed game with the right set of people.
There are a couple that come close, though, because I find that even with a group of players I really like, I don't end up having much fun because of the play style the game encourages. Feng Shui stands out as the unusual game that I dislike that many people like; lots of people I know love the game, and I've played it with people who I think are in general awesome gamers who I really like playing with, but I just haven't had fun. It ends up feeling like empty narration to me-- not interesting as a game, and not interesting in terms of character or story, just empty descriptions of fights over boring combat mechanics. (As I said, many people I respect a whole lot disagree, but that's my experience with it.)
Primetime Adventures or other games where there is a frame of a TV show or some other remove also don't work well for me. I want to pretend to be a character in a fantasy world, not pretend to be a character in a TV show-- the second level of indirection kills too much of the excitement. I note that I can have lots of fun playing a game like Buffy or Star Wars or whatever, but when I play those games, I don't think of myself as playing a character in a TV show or movie-- I imagine the events really happening, in the same way as when you immerse yourself in a movie instead of thinking about it as "oh, nice acting, and that's a very pretty camera angle."
All that said, I'll play a really wide range of games, at least as sometimes things.
1. 4E. I tried to like it. I really did. I got all psyched about it when it came out. Then we played it for four months. I wish I could have those four months back.
2. White Wolf New WoD. I hate the system and the new setting. I'd play old WoD, but only if it's Larp.
__________________ Enemies are the price of Honor. ~Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander, Wizard of the First Order
Fear. Fear attracts the fearful. The strong. The weak. The innocent. The corrupt. Fear. Fear is my ally. ~Darth Maul
No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try. ~Yoda
I don't want the Tyranny of Fun to become one of PF RPG's design principles. That's 4e's province, and I'd happily leave it that way.
I'll play any edition of D&D, but I refuse to DM 3.x or 4th Edition. I won't DM 3.x Edition because its just too much work to ask any human being to perform in the name of fun. I don't want to DM 4th Edition because the world necessitated by the rules is too far away from the type of campaign world I like. I also hate to DM with miniatures. I can enjoy both 3.x and 4th as a player, however, and I currently play in a 4th Edition campaign. I'm DMing Rules Cyclopedia right now, however.
I do not like like Magic: The Gathering at all. Basically, any game where my ability to succeed is directly proportional to how much money I spend rubs me the wrong way.
Last edited by Clavis; 30th May 2009 at 03:47 PM..
Quick anecdote: A few years ago I ran a 3.5 game (using the 'basic set') for my wife and nephews (aged 11 & 13)---D&D newbies all. Despite their enthusiasm for the genre, the system's complexity and minutiae proved too great an obstacle for them to overcome.
Someone on these boards suggested I give BECMI a try instead, so I fished out my old (scotch taped and scribbled on) Moldvay Basic ran them through the Keep on the Borderlands.
It rocked. I had just enough rules to adjudicate the game but not so much that the players felt constrained. The game played faster than any non-indie RPG I've seen in 20 years.
Everyone had a fantastic time---especially the kids. When the kids moved to Texas later that summer, I gave them my entire Basic D&D collection as a farewell gift.
My whole group hates Tunnels & Trolls. The system is just terrible. If you've not played it stay away save your self a wasted games night.
I dislike 4e D&D, its not yet got to the point of refusing to play but its getting close to it.
__________________ "There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever".
Ah, okay. That's what I'd call the B/X sets. To me, BECMI means the Mentzer versions (including the Companion/Masters/Immortals) sets.
Quote:
It rocked. I had just enough rules to adjudicate the game but not so much that the players felt constrained. The game played faster than any non-indie RPG I've seen in 20 years.
Yeah, I could see that. I think of the B/X sets as the no-nonsense "sit yer ass down and just play" edition of D&D.
Quote:
Everyone had a fantastic time---especially the kids. When the kids moved to Texas later that summer, I gave them my entire Basic D&D collection as a farewell gift.
That was a nice gift! At this point, I prefer the toolkit/roll-your-own-D&D approach of original D&D for my game, but when my eldest son wanted to learn to run his own game, I gave him a copy of the Basic set. He loved it and used it a lot, but was pretty hard on the aging books. When it came time for him to move beyond level 3, I gave him a hardcover copy of Labyrinth Lord; he's been using that ever since.
__________________ "You want to play "Semantics and Lawyers"? Go ahead. We'll be busy kickin' ass and chewing Stygian Black Lotus- the best!" - Predavolk
I would play pretty much ANYTHING as long as the people I am playing with are fun to be around.
The only thing I really don't like to play is any game (usually family boardgames) that either requires absolutely no thought on my part or so little thought I could jot down a flowchart in one minute to play the game for me.
Unfortunately those are the only kinds of games my wife and daughter are willing to play!
I also have strong dislike for "your character is so useless and poor you are lucky to survive the night without dying of cholera" RPG settings. I can be useless and poor in real life, I want to play an RPG to be something other than useless and poor.
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