What is, in your opinion, the single WORST RPG ever made, and why is it so bad?

[Umbran]

The game was about resource management, not exactly deep player choice.

1) There are loads of gamers out there who swear by resource management as central to their enjoyment of gameplay.

2) Choice is choice. Since what qualifies as "deep" is subjective, I'm not going to argue it.

 

[Kannik]

The first game that I can find (with 5 minutes of googling) that advertises by using the word "grognard" as selling point was published on DriveThruRPG on 2004 (which is also the year that site went online).

North Africa Theater by Dream Pod 9:

DriveThruRPG

preview.drivethrurpg.com

I don't know if that counts as rhetoric, but it shows that the old-vs-new debate was crossing into the marketing for indie stuff 20 years ago.

Do you mean the blurb on the back cover? If so, Grognard is only the name of a tank unit in the game (fielded by alternate history France) and I'm not sure that they were trying to use it as much of a selling point other than as a pun/one-liner type joke/nod towards the term long used in the wargaming/tactical game space.

If it was something other than the back cover, then I missed it.

 

[Dire Bare]

It is hard sometimes to know when this stuff is tongue in cheek. OG, which is still one of my favorite novelty RPGs ever because it turned out to be a very gameable concept, had a whole unlike certain other role-playing games tone (which if I recall was directed at D&D). But it was OG and I suspect there was an edge of irony to it

Eh. It's the reason why, as a kid, I never bothered to check out Talislanta. The tagline "No elves!" was a turnoff for me then, and it still is for me now. Not because I need elves in my fantasy tabletop RPG, but because of the negativity. I don't care what your RPG DOESN'T have, sell me on what your RPG DOES have.

Especially if there are very elf-like races in your fantasy game.

 

[pogre]

I cannot think of an RPG I have run or played that would fall into the worst rpg ever made.

I do know my group bounced HARD off of WFRP 3e. It did not match expectations more than being a "bad" or poorly designed game. It was a forerunner of the highly successful StarWars game - so it clearly had some design chops.

My group also bounced off of D&D 4e. That disappointed me, because I thought it was a great game.

 

[Mannahnin]

Eh. It's the reason why, as a kid, I never bothered to check out Talislanta. The tagline "No elves!" was a turnoff for me then, and it still is for me now. Not because I need elves in my fantasy tabletop RPG, but because of the negativity. I don't care what your RPG DOESN'T have, sell me on what your RPG DOES have.

Elf-lover that I am, that line still intrigued me. Though the wonderful P.D. Breeding-Black art in the ads was the main draw. And their ads almost exclusively focused on what they DID have, IME. Even the ones which used that tagline generally did sell you what the game did have.

Especially if there are very elf-like races in your fantasy game.

My recollection is that several races had pointed ears, but only a few of those were elfy. And the usual elf tropes were split among several different species.

 

[Aldarc]

I would probably be more impressed by a fantasy TTRPG that said "no humans!" than I would that said "no elves!"

 

[GuardianLurker]

I would probably be more impressed by a fantasy TTRPG that said "no humans!" than I would that said "no elves!"

Eh, that seems to happen more times than not at character creation. <heh>

 

[niklinna]

Eh, that seems to happen more times than not at character creation. <heh>

Oh I dunno, my general list of character race choices tends to be:

1. Half-Elf
2. Human
3. There is no step 3

 

[Lanefan]

Oh I dunno, my general list of character race choices tends to be:

1. Half-Elf
2. Human
3. There is no step 3

I go a bit beyond that to include Elf, Dwarf, and Hobbit...but that's pretty much it.

 

[aramis erak]

In Re Talislanta... I recommend the 4th ed core, which is available free in PDF from http://talislanta.com/talislanta-library ...
Rather than discussing it blind, check it out. They've got 1E to 5E up for free downloads...