Systems You Left after One Bad Experience

Li Shenron · May 28, 2019

Well for us it only happened with D&D 4e... we tried one short adventure, but the system didn't really work for us for multiple reasons: the combat phase of the game was the worst, with too much emphasis on the grid, too slow, too rigid, and with an overall wrong feeling. We forced ourselves into a second evening to see if maybe the first session was a false alarm, but at the end we just had to drop it.

CapnZapp · May 28, 2019

Li Shenron said:
Well for us it only happened with D&D 4e... we tried one short adventure, but the system didn't really work for us for multiple reasons: the combat phase of the game was the worst, with too much emphasis on the grid, too slow, too rigid, and with an overall wrong feeling. We forced ourselves into a second evening to see if maybe the first session was a false alarm, but at the end we just had to drop it.

We tried for maybe a dozen sessions. The game part of combat was fun but the role-playing part suffered.

We like to play optimally, and not just wing it. 4E is hell on players with a tendency for analysis paralysis. Plus, the combat experience felt entirely disassociated from playing a character.

And perhaps most importantly, we want challenge. Setting up a battleboard and spending three quarters of an hour on a battle that is definitely won even before we begin feels like a waste. So our battles were exciting, difficult and rewarding.

But they took three or four hours.

A session felt like a few minutes of story, four hours of boardgaming, and then a few minutes of story at the end.

So we just had to stop, exhausted. Session after session, the storyline just crawled forward.

End conclusion: 4E is ultimately broken in that you need to make combats easy enough to be short enough, but that makes the activity pointless.

3E and 5E doesn't have this issue to nearly the same extent and works MUCH better for us.

Aldarc · May 28, 2019

Retreater said:
Numenera
A nano with literally one usable power and one skill? Damage mechanics that unfairly punish other classes? No wonder this lasted one session.

You build your character. If that's what the player chose, then that's what they get. Numenera 2 does expand things a bit. But skills aren't as important for Numenera IME.

Gradine said:
FATE Accelerated. Ran as a one-shot at work; thought the system would be open and fun, ended up with players trying to come up with increasingly ludicrous reasons to apply their favored approach, an ultimately annoying metagame that the rules seemed to encourage. I might still try FATE itself at some point, but I'm a hard pass on FAE.

Have your players describe what they are doing, and then say, "It sounds like you are trying X approach." Or even raise the difficulty if they are trying to use certain approaches for a task.

CapnZapp said:
End conclusion: 4E is ultimately broken in that you need to make combats easy enough to be short enough, but that makes the activity pointless.

That's an unsubstantiated leap.

Maxperson · May 28, 2019

Umbran said:
Because the world needs yet another port of Bunnies and Burrows?

Hey, you gotta counter Killer Bunnies somehow.

zztong · May 28, 2019

Tony Vargas said:
Space Opera: I really tried, but ultimately it seemed unplayable as written. Never could actually get a group through character generation & start playing.

I've played that one several times back in the 1980's. I recall having had a good time, but that could have been the DM despite the system. Today, I couldn't tell you anything about the system. It wouldn't surprise me if it were a complex system.

zztong · May 28, 2019

> Systems You Left after One Bad Experience

D&D 4e, Savage Worlds, Deadlands and Exhaulted -- I knew I would never run those games after I played them. In each case I played them for an entire campaign, not just one session. While the adventures were cool, I didn't care for the systems.

Firefly RPG -- I knew I would never run it after reading the rules. They were too similar to Savage Worlds.

PF2 and Starfinder -- It is perhaps too early to say, but if it turns out like the PF2 Playtest, I won't be running it. It might be mathematically balanced but I loath character generation. Its not too complex; its uninspired and the choices are often pointless. Because the PF2 rules were apparently based on Starfinder, I don't even want to try Starfinder.

HERO Fuzion -- I had forgotten all about this system. When it came out my local crowd was firmly hooked on the Hero System and didn't see a reason for HERO Fuzion. We participated in some of the early testing and had a sort-of "meh" reaction.

Call of Cthulhu and World of Darkness -- These are passable systems, but not genres that I like. I've played both, but wouldn't run them.

7th Sea -- I sat in on a game and watched folks play it. I was hoping for historical; I saw ludicrous.

Len · May 28, 2019

zztong said:
Because the PF2 rules were apparently based on Starfinder, I don't even want to try Starfinder.

Really? I've played Starfinder, and it's a modification of PF1. It seems very different from what I've seen of PF2.

zztong · May 28, 2019

Len said:
Really? I've played Starfinder, and it's a modification of PF1. It seems very different from what I've seen of PF2.

Good to know. If the opportunity presents itself, I'll probably try it. I still might not be into it since I like more Science in my science fiction, but that isn't a deal-breaker.