Fun to Read... Boring/Bad to Play

[GuJiaXian]

I've never played Wraith, but I did play the "sequel" game: Orpheus. Orpheus was, without a doubt, the absolute best campaign I've ever played for any system. I'm not a huge fan of the Storyteller system, but between a solid Storyteller and a hands-down awesome gaming group, that Orpheus campaign was a blast.

I think that Orpheus addressed some of the roleplaying issues that others have described in this thread by moving the setting away from the "classic haunting" to a more "Ghostbusters"-style enterprise. That allowed the players to operate in the real world while still having the supernatural setting.

As for the actual on-topic question, I'd like to shy away from Rifts (which is fun to read--never actually played it) and suggest Mechwarrior. I've always been a huge BattleTech fan, and the opportunity to roleplay in that world/universe was very appealing. There's solid fluff for the game, with a highly realized world and history. It's not even that the game mechanics are bad so much as the game concept. Basically it boiled down to this: Why run around with needler pistols and armor when you can just climb into a 'mech and blow things up? And if you're going to stomp around in a 'mech, why even bother playing Mechwarrior? Just play BattleTech instead.

Great game concept, terrible game execution.

 

[ProtoClone]

Throwing my votes in for Rfits.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The Arcanum.

This thing seemed so cool at the time with so many different options, different flavors for spellcasters, etc.

It played much like D&D with worse rules.

 

[Ghostwind]

Blue Planet.

Beautiful reading and setting. Makes me want to play it every time I read it. The game mechanics are a bit wonky sadly.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

But going back to the OP's point, I remember Torg as falling into the "fun to read, but not so much fun to play" category.

Oh, I had a ton of fun playing TORG. Yes, you had to consult a chart every time you rolled, but thankfully it was the same chart every time (makes it easier to handle). The Drama Deck was something that no other RPG had, so it took a little getting used to, but it was a BLAST.

My biggest problem was the spell creation system in the Aysle sourcebook. Firstly, the system was needlessly complex, involving paths to determine what you wanted the spell to do, add up the length of the path, and that's the spell's difficulty factor for design. You had to roll based on your skills to design a spell, so ultimately, though, they weren't balanced at all. Normally, you'd want a system by which an apprentice would be able to make, learn, and cast simple, low-power spells safely, but fry his brain if he tried casting a high-power spell. A master should be able to handle those high-power spells. However, because of the rolls, the apprentice could only make spells that did little and fried the caster's brain--even the master's. The master, though, could design a perfectly safe tac-nuke for the apprentice to cast.

That was broken, broken, broken.

 

[tenkar]

Oh, I had a ton of fun playing TORG. Yes, you had to consult a chart every time you rolled, but thankfully it was the same chart every time (makes it easier to handle). The Drama Deck was something that no other RPG had, so it took a little getting used to, but it was a BLAST.

My biggest problem was the spell creation system in the Aysle sourcebook. Firstly, the system was needlessly complex, involving paths to determine what you wanted the spell to do, add up the length of the path, and that's the spell's difficulty factor for design. You had to roll based on your skills to design a spell, so ultimately, though, they weren't balanced at all. Normally, you'd want a system by which an apprentice would be able to make, learn, and cast simple, low-power spells safely, but fry his brain if he tried casting a high-power spell. A master should be able to handle those high-power spells. However, because of the rolls, the apprentice could only make spells that did little and fried the caster's brain--even the master's. The master, though, could design a perfectly safe tac-nuke for the apprentice to cast.

That was broken, broken, broken.

My God but I forgot Torg! That read well and played like wet paper. Might have been the players tho. same group pushed thru a few mini-campaigns in Rifts.

Now that I think about it, Battlelords of the 23rd Century is up there too. Fun to read, rules in play were a mess.

 

[rgard]

The Arcanum.

This thing seemed so cool at the time with so many different options, different flavors for spellcasters, etc.

It played much like D&D with worse rules.

Agreed. I mentioned the Arcanum in another thread tonight. It's a fun read, but we ended up adapting some of it to 1e AD&D instead of attempting to play the game straight up. This was back in the day when we would take any new PC or NPC class from The Dragon, White Dwarf and D&D clone-like games and try it out in our D&D sessions.