What is your biggest RPG heartbreak?

[kenada]

Unfortunately, I downsized my gaming collection during that era. Basically I got rid of all my 3.0 and 3.5 stuff, switched everything to PF.
So I've kept all my TSR era stuff, Pathfinder, 4th edition, and 5e (along with pretty complete collections of other systems that we'll probably never touch unfortunately - SWADE, WFRPG, Forbidden Lands).

I’ve still got my old 3e books, but they’re old. I’d just … hmm. Looks like DM’s Guild is missing a lot of 3e stuff. That complicates things.

 

[Reynard]

If you prefer older systems I would probably go with Gamma World to do Numenera.

I feel like Numenera would be better played with something like Fate, since it is intended to have some narrative elements baked in.

 

[Emerikol]

I feel like Numenera would be better played with something like Fate, since it is intended to have some narrative elements baked in.

I'm probably wanting to escape the narrative elements if I'm right about what you mean by that term.

I love Fate except for the Fate Points which are deal breakers and are essential to Fate.

 

[innerdude]

Savage Worlds, but probably not for the reason you'd think.

I've owned three different editions of Savage Worlds --- Explorer's, Deluxe, and Adventure.

From 2013 until 2021, it was the only system I GM'd. I GM'd 4 different settings/campaigns, 2 of which lasted at least 14 months.

I loved Savage Worlds. Still do in many ways. It's the first system that I ever truly made "my own." Savage Worlds was my system. The core of the rules and the freeform, skill-based character creation was a dream.

But by the end, my heart was broken, because somewhere along the way I fell out of love with Savage Worlds combat.

I don't know if something just got lost in translation moving from Deluxe edition to Adventure edition, or what, but where I'd never minded or cared about the swinginess of combat, suddenly it began to feel . . . not forced, exactly, but random. It no longer felt like player skill and tactics were making the difference, so much as just players waiting around for the dice to explode. My players knew all the min-maxing tricks, so it was getting harder to challenge them in combat without "over-tuning" the encounters.

And so at the start of this year, I began to feel my prior ardor just slipping away.

Early in 2020 we tried Edge of the Empire, and we really liked it. It was fun, and new, and fresh again, and the narrative dice really added something new, but when Covid hit, it threw everything into a loop. I ended up having to reorganize our gaming group.

Earlier this year, I convinced the group to try out Ironsworn, and it's gone so much better than I could have imagined or hoped. Our group is stoked to play Ironsworn now.

It's just been time to try new stuff. For sure Ironsworn will continue. We're going to play some Tiny D6 / Tiny Frontiers Sci-Fi. We're definitely going to jump back into FFG Star Wars / Genesys at some point. The combat model in Spellbound Kingdoms sounds different and intriguing enough that I'm definitely going to give it a shot, even though I think the setting is kind of whack. My kids love the Dragon Prince cartoon, and I've been intrigued by the Cortex+ system for a long time. And if Swords of the Serpentine ever makes it out of "beta preview", I'll probably buy a copy of that too.

Savage Worlds will always hold a fond place in my heart, but at the end, in 2021, it was just time to move on and try something new.

 

[Sithlord]

Savage Worlds, but probably not for the reason you'd think.

I've owned three different editions of Savage Worlds --- Explorer's, Deluxe, and Adventure.

From 2013 until 2021, it was the only system I GM'd. I GM'd 4 different settings/campaigns, 2 of which lasted at least 14 months.

I loved Savage Worlds. Still do in many ways. It's the first system that I ever truly made "my own." Savage Worlds was my system. The core of the rules and the freeform, skill-based character creation was a dream.

But by the end, my heart was broken, because somewhere along the way I fell out of love with Savage Worlds combat.

I don't know if something just got lost in translation moving from Deluxe edition to Adventure edition, or what, but where I'd never minded or cared about the swinginess of combat, suddenly it began to feel . . . not forced, exactly, but random. It no longer felt like player skill and tactics were making the difference, so much as just players waiting around for the dice to explode. My players knew all the min-maxing tricks, so it was getting harder to challenge them in combat without "over-tuning" the encounters.

And so at the start of this year, I began to feel my prior ardor just slipping away.

Early in 2020 we tried Edge of the Empire, and we really liked it. It was fun, and new, and fresh again, and the narrative dice really added something new, but when Covid hit, it threw everything into a loop. I ended up having to reorganize our gaming group.

Earlier this year, I convinced the group to try out Ironsworn, and it's gone so much better than I could have imagined or hoped. Our group is stoked to play Ironsworn now.

It's just been time to try new stuff. For sure Ironsworn will continue. We're going to play some Tiny D6 / Tiny Frontiers Sci-Fi. We're definitely going to jump back into FFG Star Wars / Genesys at some point. The combat model in Spellbound Kingdoms sounds different and intriguing enough that I'm definitely going to give it a shot, even though I think the setting is kind of whack. My kids love the Dragon Prince cartoon, and I've been intrigued by the Cortex+ system for a long time. And if Swords of the Serpentine ever makes it out of "beta preview", I'll probably buy a copy of that too.

Savage Worlds will always hold a fond place in my heart, but at the end, in 2021, it was just time to move on and try something new.

I love savage worlds but boy do i agree with you about the swinginess of combat. I adored the settings, especially hellfrost and slipstream. If you ever want more cool setting and you can convert to 5E then get some savage world books and just convert to whatever system you want. I loved 2E because Of the settings. I steal settings from savage worlds for my high technology planescape game.

 

[Marc_C]

Savage Worlds, but probably not for the reason you'd think.

I've owned three different editions of Savage Worlds --- Explorer's, Deluxe, and Adventure.

From 2013 until 2021, it was the only system I GM'd. I GM'd 4 different settings/campaigns, 2 of which lasted at least 14 months.

I loved Savage Worlds. Still do in many ways. It's the first system that I ever truly made "my own." Savage Worlds was my system. The core of the rules and the freeform, skill-based character creation was a dream.

But by the end, my heart was broken, because somewhere along the way I fell out of love with Savage Worlds combat.

I don't know if something just got lost in translation moving from Deluxe edition to Adventure edition, or what, but where I'd never minded or cared about the swinginess of combat, suddenly it began to feel . . . not forced, exactly, but random. It no longer felt like player skill and tactics were making the difference, so much as just players waiting around for the dice to explode. My players knew all the min-maxing tricks, so it was getting harder to challenge them in combat without "over-tuning" the encounters.

Savage Worlds will always hold a fond place in my heart, but at the end, in 2021, it was just time to move on and try something new.

Same for me. We played Interface Zero with SW 2e but combat was too swingy. TPK without any reason for it. PCs didn't do anything wrong. I was turned off.

 

[bulletmeat]

I love savage worlds but boy do i agree with you about the swinginess of combat. I adored the settings, especially hellfrost and slipstream. If you ever want more cool setting and you can convert to 5E then get some savage world books and just convert to whatever system you want. I loved 2E because Of the settings. I steal settings from savage worlds for my high technology planescape game.

Ditto that. I ran Hellfrost SW and just kept thinking this would make a great 5e setting. And not 'to' hard to convert.

 

[pogre]

For me it was third edition warhammer fantasy roleplay. I actually liked a lot of the game mechanics, but my group absolutely hated it and we only played one session. I still don't think it is that bad of a system, but I will admit it failed to capture the atmosphere of the warhammer world.

 

[Reynard]

I'm probably wanting to escape the narrative elements if I'm right about what you mean by that term.

I love Fate except for the Fate Points which are deal breakers and are essential to Fate.

My problem with Fate is that as I get older I am sort of returning to want a little more immersion and negotiating Aspects and other meta-currencies pulls me out of the game. For some reason I recently find that unacceptable (whereas it was a draw for a while).

That's something I feel like we don't talk a lot about: how our own changing tastes impact how we feel about games over time.

 

[Retreater]

For me it was third edition warhammer fantasy roleplay. I actually liked a lot of the game mechanics, but my group absolutely hated it and we only played one session. I still don't think it is that bad of a system, but I will admit it failed to capture the atmosphere of the warhammer world.

I tried WFRPG 3 and wasn't immediately turned off by the components and changes to the game. What did it in for me was trying out a combat with a dwarf slayer, and I was able to solo kill a dragon. Then I tried a solo fight with a rat catcher and got killed by a goblin. Any system with that level of disparity with 1st level characters wouldn't fly in my group, so I boxed it up and resold it that week.